Let's go!
Individual System
Had it been finished, the building would have been well over fifty stories tall.
Compared to the CCT Tower in Atlas, fifty stories wasn't much. Many buildings over there were taller than that, and not just those in the upper districts but in the lower ones as well. However, unlike those buildings, nothing surrounded the half-finished structure that, had things played out differently, would have become the local headquarters of Merlot Industries. The building stood alone, surrounded by nothing but cold and snow.
Somehow, that made it seem more imposing than any building in Atlas.
Jaune stood in the main lobby with Winter, his body protected from the cold by IXA. Bright light from his visor revealed the room to them. There was not a single piece of furniture to be found, and the walls had never been painted. Snow had drifted in over time, carried by the wind. The floor was covered by it. Jaune could see the imprints left behind by the Grimm, a clear sign they had come into this building.
Yet the building wasn't completely ruined.
Sure, Jaune knew this place had seen better days. However, its sorry state was largely due to the construction stopping and it being left abandoned for years. There was no sign the Grimm had done anything to the building. No broken columns or torn down walls. It confused Jaune who had often heard Grimm would destroy anything created by humans.
If that was the case, why hadn't they started wrecking this place the moment they came in?
Unsurprisingly, it was Winter who provided the answer.
As it turned out, Grimm behavior followed a certain set of priorities. First and foremost was their attraction to negativity. Grimm would always be drawn to negative emotions. If they had to choose between two humans, they would attack the one experiencing a higher amount of negativity first. Of course, what exactly constituted as negativity was a subject of much debate with no clear cut answers, or so Winter said.
Grimm would also attack humans even if they weren't feeling any negative emotions. Such was their nature. Exceptions applied in the case of humans strong enough to defend themselves, and Grimm smart enough to recognize that. Self-preservation tended to win in such occasions. It was the reason why many Grimm steered clear of well-defended settlements.
Beyond humans and faunus, Grimm would rarely attack other living creatures. If it happened, it was usually the result of territorial disputes. Rather than attacking other living beings, a Grimm's second priority was destroying all things created by humans and faunus. Houses. Cars. Ships. The list went on.
How exactly could a Grimm tell when something had been made by humans was a mystery no one had solved yet, but it was certain they had some way of knowing. According to Winter, many attempts to protect CCT support towers by disguising them as part of their surroundings had ended in failure. Grimm could always tell somehow, and that wasn't even the weirdest part.
Not only could Grimm detect man-made constructions, but they also prioritized communication and transportation equipment. There were forts and castles out in the wilderness that were still standing even though they had been abandoned for decades. Meanwhile, CCT support towers located outside the kingdoms tended not to last long unless considerable resources were used for their protection.
It almost seemed like the more modern something was, the more likely Grimm were to attack it. It was why travel across kingdoms could be so dangerous. It was also the reason why most kingdoms relied on trains even though Gravity Dust allowed ships to carry as much weight as any train and make the trip in less time. Grimm would usually leave train tracks alone for months, but travel by air was always a risk.
It was something no one had taught Jaune at school. At least, not with so many details, and he could understand why.
It was creepy.
It also explained why the Grimm hadn't bothered to do any damage to the building left behind by Merlot Industries. There was nothing about this place that would attract them. The small mining settlement a few miles away and Fort Grey would both make far more tempting targets for the Grimm. The pack they were tracking seemed more interested in using this place as a lair rather than destroying it.
A big, dark lair with way too many floors and way too many rooms for the Grimm to hide in.
Good thing Winter was here.
Jaune glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, careful not to let the light coming from his visor hit her. Even though they were in a hostile zone, the Specialist had one eye closed. Her sword was in her hands, but she was not holding it in her usual way. It softly moved through the air with small, almost delicate movements. Rather than a combat stance, Jaune was reminded of a musical director leading an orchestra.
After making sure there were no Grimm in the first floor, Winter had summoned a flock of tiny Nevermore and sent them to explore the building. After all, why waste time physically doing something your summoned creatures could do in half the time and with zero risks? Winter could apparently see through her summons, which made using them the safest choice by far.
The more Jaune saw of Winter's Semblance, the more convinced he became of his initial assessment of it.
While Winter was busy guiding her summons, Jaune was keeping watch. He stood about three yards away from Winter, his gaze continually darting around the room. His hands opened and closed every now and then, and he shifted his weight from one foot to another every ten seconds.
Jaune might be feeling a little nervous.
It was silly, of course. He could fight. Jaune knew he could fight. He had been doing that for the past couple of months. He was even wearing IXA which meant a couple of Ursa shouldn't be a threat. If they came, Jaune would see them and warn Winter. He would fight the Grimm, and Winter would intervene if he somehow got in over his head. There was no need to worry.
Yet, there was a lump in his throat that refused to go down no matter how many times he swallowed his own spit.
Jaune tried to tell himself it was just like waiting for the fish to bite. Whenever his family went to Shion village during the summer, his father would take him fishing. It was important for them to have some guy time, he'd say. Jaune agreed. He loved his sisters dearly, but it was nice to have some time away from them every now and then. He and his father would head for the lake early in the morning, rent a boat, and stay there until midday.
Other kids would have found fishing boring, but Jaune liked it. He didn't mind the wait for the fish to bite. Feeling the soft wind against his face and the gentle rocking of the boat—which for some reason never once triggered his motion sickness—as he and his dad talked about everything and nothing was downright soothing.
It was nothing at all like this.
How many minutes had passed already? Twenty? Less? More? Was that why he was so restless? Unlike in the lab, he didn't know when the combat would begin. There was no convenient signal or voice telling him what to expect next. There was just uncertainty, just the wait until Winter's summons were done searching the building. He almost wished the Grimm would attack already because at least then he'd have something to do.
"How odd."
Jaune almost jumped at the sound of Winter's voice. The sudden end to the silence caused his heart to skip a beat.
"Ma'am? Is something wrong?"
Both her eyes were open, indicating her summons had either done their job or had been defeated by something. Her sword was now held in the more familiar way he recognized from their spars.
"The upper floors are empty," Winter said, frowning as she tapped her earpiece to contact the base.
"Does that mean the Grimm are in the basement?" Jaune furrowed his brow. If the Grimm were in the basement levels, Winter would have seen them, wouldn't she? She wouldn't be frowning if that were the case.
What had she seen?
"Maybe they left?" Jaune tried when Winter didn't answer his first question.
"Impossible, we've had eyes on this building for days now. We wouldn't have missed them leaving unless..."
"Ma'am?"
Again, she didn't answer. This time because she was speaking with someone back at the base. "Fort Grey, this is Specialist Schnee," she said. "I request a reinforcement of the perimeter around my location. My authorization code is…"
There was a lot of protocol after that which Jaune didn't pay much attention to. He merely kept an eye on their surroundings, his gaze somehow more wary than before. The seeming absence of enemies set his teeth on edge. The shadows inside the building now seemed to loom over them, waiting for the chance to swallow them whole.
"We're moving," Winter said once she was done talking.
"We're going in?" Jaune asked, noticing her quick, purposeful stride was heading deeper into the building rather than away from it. Nevertheless, he followed after her.
"I suspect there is more to this place than meets the eye," Winter said. "I don't think it's prudent to waste time."
She was leading him towards the basement, Jaune noticed. Even though their pace was quick, they made sure not to rush, always keeping their guard up in case Grimm attacked.
"Is there something wrong?"
"The tracks lead to an elevator downstairs," Winter explained. As they reached a corner, Winter leaned in to look, then motioned him to follow once she confirmed it was safe.
"And that's bad because?"
"According to the blueprints that's supposed to be the lowest level. However, the Grimm are nowhere to be found."
"So the Grimm are trapped in the elevator?" Winter shot him a look that had Jaune quickly scrambling for another possibility, "Ooor there's another basement?"
"Those were my thoughts. It would hardly be the first time a multi-million lien company tried to keep a few things hidden from the government." Once they reached the elevator Winter had spoken of, she pointed to him then to the doors. "Open it."
Nodding, Jaune stood in front of the elevator and pushed his fingers against the crack between the two doors. He need not have bothered. Aura granted him great strength. IXA magnified it. The metal caved under his fingers, and the doors went flying out a moment later.
"That looks very deep," Jaune said as he leaned in. The elevator was on another floor, so all that was behind the doors was a black abyss. The light coming from his visor let him see the thick wires meant to make the elevator go up and down, yet the light wasn't strong enough to reach all the way down.
"A hidden basement," Winter said, frowning. "That's where the Grimm must be, but how could they get there without forcing their way in?"
It wasn't like Grimm could push buttons. Even if they could, this place was supposed to be out of power.
"I'll go first," Winter said. "You keep that light aimed at me."
"Wait, Winter!" Jaune tried to reach her, but she had already jumped. Glyph after glyph appeared under her feet as she used them as platforms to reach the bottom. Jaune counted ten glyphs before her form grew too small for him to see. He was about to shout into the depths when a beep came from his helmet, call from Winter.
"Ma'am!" He said, glad she was okay. "Is everything okay?"
"Contact, Professor Polendina," came her reply. "This is something that will require his expertise."
xXx
"Amazing. Absolutely astounding."
Reaching all the way down had been a hassle for Jaune. He didn't have super convenient glyphs like Winter, so he had to shove his hands and feet into the wall to climb down. Doing that in such a dark, confined space had been nerve-wracking.
Once he got close enough to the bottom, Winter had been able to make a few glyphs for him to jump on, but the first eighty feet or so had not been a pleasant experience.
"Professor Polendina, please refrain from voicing your admiration for something so obviously illegal."
"I am afraid that's not possible, my dear."
Polendina's voice was coming from Jaune's helmet, and it was through the cameras installed on IXA's head and shoulders that the scientist was taking in every detail around them.
"Not when faced with something of this magnitude. Why, I think those installations might be better than what we have available here at Fort Grey."
By "something of this magnitude," Professor Polendina meant the place Winter and Jaune were now exploring. While the construction above was worn-down and half-finished, what lied in the deepest level was impossibly modern. Steel walls and floors with well-illuminated hallways and rooms with computers and other modern equipment.
This was an underground lab.
Jaune could tell because he had spent the better part of two months in an underground lab under Atlas Academy.
There were dents on more than a few walls. Some doors had been torn down, and all the security turrets they had passed by had been crushed long before they got there. Broken droids littered the floor.
The Grimm were here. Of that, there was no doubt.
"This makes no sense," Winter said, leading the way. Any thoughts of her staying behind to let IXA handle the fighting had been long forgotten. "How could Merlot Industries build something like this right under our noses?! How is this place even operating?"
Frustration was not an emotion Jaune associated with Winter. In fact, Jaune didn't really associate any emotion with Winter. She was usually so in control of herself Jaune only occasionally caught glimpses of her emotions. Mild disapproval. Mild approval. Mild annoyance. Mild amusement. That was just the way Winter was.
Not today, apparently. The stern frown she wore and the tightness of her voice spoke volumes. There was nothing mild about this. Winter was frustrated. Very frustrated.
"Common sense points towards an internal power source," Polendina replied. "Of course, the amount of Dust required to power up a place like this for over a decade would be…"
Jaune and Winter frowned as Polendina's words became muddled by static. "What was that, doctor?" Jaune asked as both he and Winter stopped walking. "We couldn't hear that last part."
"I was afraid that would... You two are… deep for the transmi… effectively…"
"Can you fix it?" Winter asked.
"N… from my end. You'd have to… terminal… boost the signal. IXA should be capable…"
Jaune frowned. Even though he hadn't heard everything, he understood the gist of it. Find a big enough computer and use its signal to boost theirs. However, even assuming any of the equipment here was meant to connect to the outside, doing that would mean heading deeper into the lab. Before, it had just been the Grimm they had to fight. Now, it could be anything.
Superior and subordinate stared at each other for a moment. Well, Winter stared at Jaune's helmet, and Jaune tried to meet her gaze before his eyes quickly dropped to the floor. Winter was intimidating when normal. Serious Winter was even more intimidating. Something Jaune hadn't thought possible.
"I mean, we did come here for the Grimm, and they're down here," Jaune said, motioning to the broken pile of scrap that had been a combat droid once. Curiously, it looked larger than an Atlesian Knight.
Winter did not reply immediately. She merely stared at him with unblinking eyes. It felt like those blue eyes were picking him apart, dissecting him and peering into his very soul.
"I can fight," Jaune found himself saying. "You know I can fight, ma'am."
Jaune didn't know why he was being so insistent on this. It wasn't like they were on a schedule. There was no countdown here. They could easily climb up and come back with reinforcements. IXA's test would have to wait another day
Would that really be okay, though? Was it alright to back out now? Were they absolutely sure nothing terrible was going to happen if they did? Those were questions Jaune didn't have answers for. Not knowing things was far from a new experience for Jaune, but that didn't mean he liked it.
"Are there any irregularities in IXA?" Winter asked at last.
"No, ma'am," Jaune said, shaking his head from side to side. His visor projected IXA's current status to him. "Everything's working fine. No problems here."
Another beat. Another silence.
"You will follow my orders to the letter," Winter declared. There was a tacit 'or else' there that Jaune heard loud and clear. "I will take point. The goal of testing IXA's abilities is now secondary. If the suit starts showing even the slightest sign of malfunctioning, you will remove it, and we will return to the surface immediately."
"Yes, ma'am!" The sheer command in her words was enough for Jaune to salute.
"I am not joking," Winter affirmed. "If IXA malfunctions, you will become dead weight even in the best case scenario. I will have to divide my attention between carrying you to safety and fighting the Grimm. That could end with both of us dead. Understood?"
Jaune gulped and nodded several times.
Winter held his gaze for a moment. "Good enough," she said, turning away. "Oh, and we will be working on your saluting etiquette when we return to the base. You may not officially be a soldier yet, but I will not have you embarrassing yourself in the future."
Jaune followed after Winter, feeling slightly reassured by her asserting they would return to the base. He wondered if she had done that on purpose.
Many minutes passed in silence as the two explored the lab. Little more than the occasional command from Winter and Jaune's short replies passing between them. Their task was a slow one as there was lots of ground to cover. The corridors were long and seemed to go on forever. In fact, Jaune was pretty sure, they were no longer directly below Merlot Industries. And was it his imagination or was the hallway slightly slanted?
"Hey," Jaune said as an idea struck him. "I mean, ma'am, wouldn't it be easier if you used your summons like before?"
"It would be easier," Winter replied, "but I don't want to waste my Aura. Summoning is a useful skill, but it is not cost effective. The difference would not have mattered against a pack of Ursa, but we do not know what we will encounter here. It is better if I let my Aura passively recover for now."
Jaune wondered if that meant he should deactivate IXA. The Aura reactor did drain his Aura. However, if Winter had wanted him to do that, she would have already given the order. While IXA drained his Aura, it was doing so at an acceptable rate for now. The drain would only become noticeable once he started fighting. That was one of the things Polendina and Ironwood had made sure to test. They had made him transform and had him stand in place until the suit drained over 50% of his Aura.
That had been the most boring of the tests. It had been six hours of standing around doing nothing.
It had sucked because he had really wanted to pee. Despite Polendina's assurances that it was okay to pee inside the suit, Jaune absolutely refused to even contemplate such a thing. He had already gone through many embarrassing situations in his life, most of them thanks to his sisters. Jaune was not about to add peeing while dozens of scientist and one Altesian general watched to the list.
A low beep took Jaune's attention momentarily. His helmet was displaying a notification.
"Eh, ma'am?" Jaune said, raising his hand. "I think the suit found something?"
"Where?"
"Up ahead." Jaune squinted to see the tiny letters. While it was good they were small enough to avoid impairing his vision, why bother showing him notifications he couldn't read clearly? "It says... fifty feet northeast from here?"
"Let's move then." Winter quickened her face.
The two reached a large door. It didn't look like the Grimm had passed through this place. In fact, somewhere along the way, the signs of the Grimm's path of destruction seemed to have stopped. Whether it was because the security droids had managed to kill them or something else, they had no idea.
Winter motioned to Jaune. He nodded, moving to remove the metal door from its hinges.
Behind the door, there was a large room with a high ceiling and a large computer at its center. There were several monitors on the walls, showing different parts of the facility.
"Are those…Are those Grimm?" Jaune asked, pointing at one of the monitors. It showed Grimm being kept in cages. One of the creatures furiously banged its head against the bars, trying to break free.
"What is this place?" Winter said, looking around. Her eyes examined each of the rooms displayed by the security monitors. "A Grimm research facility?" She tried to access the computer but found it password protected. Frowning, she turned to Jaune. "Arc, access this computer. As I recall, IXA should be capable of it."
Jaune nodded, remembering the manual had said something about that. While IXA was not meant to fight against other kingdoms, it was well-equipped to deal with cyber attacks. He approached the computer and lifted his hand. If he remembered right, it was supposed to be in his pinky. Sure enough, the tip of the gauntlet opened to reveal a small cable that Jaune connected to the nearest port. The contact lasted only for an instant, but that was all Jaune needed to upload a virus of Dr. Polendina's design into the computer.
"That should do it, I think," Jaune said, stepping back. In a few minutes, the virus should give him access to the system.
"How long will it take for the virus to take effect?"
Jaune never got the chance to answer. At that moment, alarms blared. Metal bars fell over the entrance, blocking their way out. The ceiling opened up.
Grimm dropped in.
Ursa, Beowolves, and small two-legged Grimm Jaune did not know the name of. However, it wasn't just Grimm. Dozens of security droids also dropped down. This time they were not broken but fully functional.
The droids were humanoid in design, more so than the Atlesian Knights Jaune was used to fighting. They were tall, bulky, and came in two types. The red ones had glowing green lights for eyes and wielded spears. The white ones carried around large miniguns.
And they were shooting at them.
"Why are they attacking us instead of the Grimm?" Jaune shouted as he dove for cover.
"It doesn't matter!" Winter summoned a glyph underneath the white droids and used it to bounce them around. "Eliminate all opposition! Don't let the computer be destroyed!"
The battle was on.
xXx
A Beowolf leaped at him, the instinct to destroy overcoming self-preservation. Jaune met its charge with a fist to the face, the monster's jaw cracking under IXA's strength. He then grabbed it by the throat and threw it at a group of charging Grimm.
Was this it?
The red droids moved with speed and strength that far surpassed any Atlesian Knight Jaune had ever fought. Yet their spears could not damage IXA, and their armor cracked under IXA's strength just as easily as that of any other droid. Jaune tore them down one after another. The remains of Grimm faded away, but the oil that poured out of the droids stained his suit.
Was this how strong people felt?
A white droid opened fire on him. An Ursa raised its claw to strike. It didn't matter. The Ursa might as well not be moving from his perspective. Jaune had been wary of the miniguns at first, but now he understood he didn't need to be. Jaune could see. He could see the bullets as they flew through the air. He could move before they reached them. He could dodge, and he could block. IXA was a flash of death as it tore through its foes. How many had he destroyed already? Thirty? Forty? How many minutes had passed since the fight began? Had it even been one?
Was this how strong people saw the world?
If so, Jaune understood all their pitying looks now. Every time he failed to measure up and showed his inferiority. From his parents. From his sisters. He understood now. To not be able to see the world like this. To be denied this.
How could it be anything less than tragedy?
When Jaune turned thirteen, his father had taken him aside for a talk. He had told him there was no shame in not being a huntsman. Other professions mattered just as much. The farmer may not fight monsters, but if not for him, the people wouldn't have food to eat. Doctors did not train their muscles, but if not for them, how many would die to sickness?
There are no small roles in life, his father had told him.
Jaune agreed. He had read too many Mistralian comic books with that same message to be ignorant of it. There were many ways to help people. Saphron had chosen against being a huntress. So had Bleu, and Bleu was the smartest out of all his sisters. Jaune respected the two a lot.
And yet, as Jaune's fist reduced an Ursa to black mist, he couldn't help but think that his sisters had made the wrong choice.
Being able to move so fast bullets couldn't touch him. Being so strong mental dented and broke under his blows. The vibrations on his fists on impact. The adrenaline flowing through his body. This was a feeling he would have never known otherwise. This was a world that would have remained hidden from him were it not for General Ironwood.
To go his entire life without knowing this. How could it be anything other than sad?
For a moment, Jaune wondered how the wind would feel against his face. The helmet kept him from that sensation, yet it was only thanks to IXA that he was able to experience this much to begin with. Without IXA, he wouldn't be this fast, wouldn't be this strong. Not like Winter who didn't need the suit to be a whirlwind of death, the last of the Grimm about to fall to her blade.
He wasn't like that. Not yet.
But maybe one day…
One day Jaune wanted to be able to do this using his own strength. He wanted to experience what his parents, his sisters, and his ancestors had.
"-der Jaune! Rider Jaune do you copy?"
It was like a bucket of cold water had been dropped on him. The familiar voice shook him out of his trance, his blue eyes widening in shock.
"Penny?" He blurted out for it was Penny's voice that came from his helmet. "How?"
"I will explain later, Rider Jaune. We need to act now."
"Wait, Penny. What's going on?"
"Rider Jaune, if we do not act soon, the Grimm will be released on civilians!"
AN:
According to WoR: Grimm, the Grimm are supposed to attack humans and their creations. Other WoR support this. Yet, the actual show has a bunch of abandoned towns in Mistral that are in fairly good condition, and train tracks are clearly left alone most of the time considering how many people travel by train. Hell, Mountain Glenn is still standing in spite of the many Grimm around and in it. This chapter was my attempt to breach the gap between the two portrayals.
Anyway, not much else to say.
Till next time!