Chapter 10
Eric van Genus' Audio Journal #10: My Old Earth Life, Part 2
Where was I? Oh yes. *clears throat* When I was a child back on my original Earth, I had saved a lot of money after doing some toiling in the stock market with the laptop. I had enough to get a proper, and I mean a proper non-religious, education to anywhere I want. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Texas A&M, Virginia Polytechnic, Columbia! By the time I hit sixteen and got my driver's license, I used my money to buy myself a nice blue car with jet black flames and got out of that town. I lied to my parents about going to the grocery store as I got in and never looked back. I attended a public high school in Miami, Florida while living in a very nice apartment. When I graduated, I graduated with top honors and had the highest GPA out of the whole school.
But when I was on my way to Massachusetts, my parents found me. I told them quite clearly that I want nothing to do with them and I want to live life the way I want to. It got heated and I drove away and never saw them again. I attended MIT and learned about molecules and robotics as majors with other fields on the side. Biology, quantum physics, and a few other things. The reason; I want to change mankind. Evolve it, morph it and have it finally take its place among the stars. That is when I try to make my nanomachines. During the prototype stages, an Asian man walked up and wanted to learn about my nanites. However, I did noticed something about him that seemed off. I found out that the man is a member of the Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China. When I confront him, he had a gun aimed at me and tried to take me to China. I gave the agent the slip and realized that my work is dangerous for any one nation to control.
So, I purchased an island and continued my work far from any public eye. It wasn't easy living on an island in the Atlantic. I had to cut off all ties with the world and set-up dummies to hide myself. I had to donate almost all of my money to leave no digital money trail and the rest was used for a variety of purchases to survive and keep my sanity. For food, I grew my own, fish by myself, and try to preserve whatever land-based food I had. I had enough food and supplies to last me for ten years and even more when I grow them. Luckily I saw those self-sufficient videos on the net to learn to farm and how to survive on an island. For eight years, I was perfecting my nanomacines until I had finally done it. Before I get to share the world my first gift, agents from various nations came and want my nanomachines. I don't know how they found me, but I had to purge all of my work and died in a humiliating way. A piece of debris landed on the self-destruct app on my phone and died in an explosion. That was when I get to experience my first reincarnation.
More on that later.
Xiao Long-Rose House, After the Session...
Taiyang is sitting on the couch with Zwei resting beside him on the left. He is looking down and is contemplating about something with a gloomy look on his face. He looks at Zwei and pet his head. He smirks a little as Zwei smiles and wag his stumpy tail while still sleeping.
Yet the door opens with Yang singing, "We're hoo-oome~!"
Zwei wakes up and yipes as he runs up to meet Ruby and Yang. Ruby and Yang are visiting their father for a little while before heading back to Beacon.
"Hey, Zwei!" Ruby snuggles her little corgi, "So good to see you!"
Taiyang stands up, "Welcome home, girls."
"Hey dad." Yang says as she drops her luggage. "You doin' alright?"
"A bit."
Ruby holds Zwei as she asks, "You okay?"
"Girls. There is something I have to tell you. But after you girls unpack, okay?" Taiyang smiles seem shallow and his eyes says that he is worried.
Yang notices it and looks a little worried.
Ruby is a bit more oblivious as she heads up stairs, "Wish you were there dad. The beach was a lot of fun!" with Zwei following her.
"Is there something wrong, dad?" Yang asks her father.
"We'll talk once you settle down and unpack."
"O...kay?" Yang heads upstairs and unpacks.
After Ruby and Yang unpack, they headed over to the living room as they have a word with their father.
"So what is it!?" Ruby seems excited, "Are we gonna do something awesome!?"
Yang puts her hand on Ruby's shoulder and has a serious look on her face. Ruby calms down and sits still.
"Girls, listen and listen carefully." Taiyang seems a bit nervous about telling her daughters something. "I was gonna tell you girls this when you are older, but after everything that is happening, seems now's the right time. Remember that night when the news came on with the wanted posters? The one that showed the leader of the Grimm?"
"Yeah." Ruby says. "And you were acting weird."
"So you do know something." Yang says. "Do you know her?"
Taiyang explains who Salem is and tells them who she really is. He told them that Salem was part of the first wave of humanity that used magic and lived aside gods. Ozpin was one of the first wave of humans too. Taiyang spared no detail about her and Ozpin along with the relics. Then he told them something important. Salem killed Summer Rose, Ruby's mother. This was a shock to them when he told them that part.
Ruby is in disbelief, "I can't believe this."
"Mom was killed by this...Salem person." Yang finds it a bit hard to swallow.
Taiyang looks a little gloomy, "Yeah. I was afraid of telling you girls because I was afraid of losing both of you, too. Afraid that you would get mad and try to avenge your mother."
Yang completely understands Taiyang. Since she was little, she tried to find out about what happened to her mother, Raven, and what Taiyang had to go through. "Does anyone else know about this?" Yang asks.
"Other than Ozpin? There's Prof. Goodwitch."
Yang rolls her eyes, "Not surprising."
"There's General Ironwood, Prof. Lionheart and Prof. Theodore."
"The headmasters?" Ruby asks.
"The vault to the relics are under the schools. And lastly, Qrow."
"Uncle Qrow knows?!" Ruby is shocked to hear that part.
"I'm afraid so, Ruby. And...I'm sorry."
Yang gets off the seat and gives her father a hug. Ruby does the same. Zwei gets in the middle of the hug and rest his head on Taiyang's left shoulder next to Yang's face.
"Thanks girls." Taiyang feels a huge weight off his shoulders. "Thank you for understanding."
The girls stop hugging before Yang says, "You've already been through a lot, dad."
"Just promise me you won't go after Salem. She's too dangerous to fight against." Taiyang warns them.
"Don't worry, dad, we won't." Ruby promises.
"I'm glad to hear that." Taiyang smiles at his daughters. He gets up, "Now then. Who want chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tonight?"
"We do!" Ruby and Yang say in unison and are excited.
But Yang states, "I'll take six...dozen."
Everyone laugh and Zwei runs around and barks happily.
Enlighten Valley, Rocket Launch Site #4, One Hour Later...
In one of the mountain peaks close to Enlighten Valley, there is a large launch facility where most of the rockets are sent to space and deliver satellites as the rockets are being delivered piece by piece on some conveyor belts and a few cranes. Right now, they are delivering parts for the construction of a space station for the final stages of Eric's plan. Many of the parts are being transferred via the shuttles attached to the rockets, although some flying Transformers can deliver the parts necessary but some people love working on them.
In this facility, one of the most important parts for The Culling was finished. However, Açaí Mitsuhide, disguised as one of the workers, sneaked inside in order to put his own plans into motion. He looks for some of the parts that he would try to sabotage to get rid of Eric so he can take over after dealing with the council once he is rubbed out. Açaí looks over at some blueprints in the office to see which of the parts should he tamper with but not to make it look obvious that there has been tampering.
"Hmm..." he takes a closer examination of the blueprints until he found something.
He leaves and looks for one of the parts that he plans to sabotage. Açaí head towards some sort of clean room where he is required to have a hazmat suit on so no dust or any sort of contaminants to ensure that the electronics are assembled safely in a vacuum environment. Açaí checks one of the lockers to find a suit as well as using his scroll to make him invisible to the security cameras before heading in as he wears a white hazmat suit with an oxygen tank on his back. Once he makes it pass the clean room, he heads on over to some computer as he use his scroll to hack in to mess with some of the coding of one of the micro chips by changing only one or two digits right before swapping out the colored wires of this one piece of machine that looks like half a white cylinder to something.
Once he is done, he exits out before people start to get suspicious and headed towards the exit. After that, Açaí headed to his house that looks like one of those camping cabins that he lives to be a bachelor. Although it is a nice neighborhood with other tiny houses with their own styles like a hobbit house, cargo containers, and other such for single people. Açaí headed down stairs to his secret basement where he kept his lab as he plugs in his VR headset. Then he press a button on his keyboard that erase his memory of everything that he did to fool any sort of lie detectors, mind readers and other things.
Açaí takes his VR headset off and goes, "Woo!" But goes, "Wait. What did I just do? Was I planning on getting even with Prof. van Genus?"
Yet he looks at a sticky note on his computer that reads, 'Already got revenge!'
"Oh yeah!" he realizes along with grinning. "Hope he enjoys it."
Eric's Apartment, Three Minutes Later...
Eric is living in an apartment building for the time being since his actual bedroom is being fumigated for bugs. He is living in a very snazy noir-style, art deco apartment with some five-star accommodations. Eric is just sitting at his dining room table while drinking some hot chocolate and reading his newspaper.
Eric giggles, "I really do love the funny pages. But lets see how are things going on in Atlas." But his reading is interrupted by a knock at the door. "Who is it?!"
"Delivery!" says the delivery woman.
"I don't remember ordering anything." Eric says to himself. "Must be a gift from one of my students or my friends." He smiles, "Must be a surprise."
Eric puts everything on the table and opens the door. He looks down and sees a present with blue wrapping paper and purple ribbons. He looks at the label to see who sent it and it says it is from Açaí.
"Huh..." Eric went as he picks up the package. "Wonder what it is." He opens it and gets a face full of pie in his face that has a spring on the bottom. Eric spits out the cream in his mouth, "I hate coconut cream. He probably did this out of revenge. Pretty weak for a revenge though." But receives a call from Gris, "Yeah?"
"Ya ready for the trip to Mantle as John Gulch?"
"Give me a moment. Someone gave me a coconut cream pie present to my face."
Gris laughs, "Now that's a classic!"
Mantle, Underground Generator Room...
Down in the new generator room where the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum Generator is, or EESG, where General Ironwood get to see the machine along with Councilman Sleet and Councilwoman Camilla. Ironwood looks like he has a five-o'clock shadow on his face and hasn't been sleeping well. The three are amazed by the new machine that is built right underneath Mantle as it is able to detect emotions of all kinds that it can use an energy.
Daisy Taggart explains, "This is the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum Generator, or EESG or short. This new generator is able to use the emotions of humans and Faunus alike and use those emotions as an energy source. It can detect love, avarice, anger, hope and many more. With this machine, it can replace the original Dust generators that we've been using for centuries. As you know, the Dust supplies are starting to run low as the Schnee Dust Company is losing all of its mines. In the even that Dust start to run out, we still have enough energy to power Mantle and Atlas as long as people keep up with more positive emotions. The negative emotions are used for powering the defensive shields and turrets in case of a crisis such as a Grimm attack."
The three of them have taken an interest in the new machine although Ironwood has some suspicions about Daisy Taggart and this new technology. The Evolutionaries use anti-Dust technology to power everything and this machine might be evidence.
Sleet congratulates Daisy, "This machine is a revolutionary idea! With it, we may not need Dust to keep our heaters going and provide electricity for everyone!"
Camilla also congratulates, "Indeed. With it, we can cut down the cost of using Dust as an energy source."
"Why thank you." Daisy thanks the two council members. "Its so sad that the Schnee Dust Company is getting, how you say, getting snuffed out by the enemies it has created? Or something like that? Oh well. That's what happens if you focus more on avarice than compassion."
Ironwood gives a more shallow congratulations, "This technology is very...intriguing. I hope to see more like this in the future."
"Why thank you, General."
Ironwood pulls a smile, "Hope you will be successful in the upcoming election where we all hope we can do more."
"I hope so too."
The three council members leave as Sleet say, "I sure hope she wins this election. That woman may hold the future we need to have in the event we cannot get any Dust."
Camilla agrees, "I agree as well. Even though the smaller companies are selling us Dust, it is only a matter of time before the Schnee Dust Company goes under."
Sleet says, "Although I have heard rumors about a new metal in Menagerie that the Faunus are monopolizing right now."
Ironwood confesses, "I also read the same report."
Camilla asks, "But how goes the hunt for this new group that your soldiers been fighting?"
The three made it to the elevator.
Ironwood answers, "My soldiers checked every habitable square inch of Ferus but found no sign of the Evolutionaries. The intel we got turned out to be false. As of now, I do have scouts searching Sanus, Anima and even here in Solitas."
"What about Menagerie?" Camilla asks.
"Menagerie is home to the White Fang. Sending scouts there would be seen as an act of war. However, I did send a few Faunus agents in to investigate and to see more about the new metal."
"That's excellent news."
The three are now out of the elevator and approaching the bullhead.
Sleet asks, "By the way, are you going to attend the celebrations of our new council member?"
"Considering I have to head towards Beacon Academy for the Vytal Festival and then come back, which takes a few days, I might depending on the situation."
Sleet states, "Yet with you at the celebration, it might show some great support."
"I'll try."
Yet when they board, the slide door closes to reveal a Cybertronian symbol as it takes off.
Back underground, Daisy changes her voice as she makes a call.
"How did it go, Aerial?" John Gulch asks.
"Hook, line and sinker." Aerial smiles.
"Excellent. I'll be over soon to make the last preparations."
"Do you lack faith in my abilities?"
Somewhere in Mantle, John Gulch is walking down the sidewalk and noticing a lot has changed in Mantle. Buildings are looking more clean and rejuvenated, people are a lot more friendlier, and there is no trace of litter or poverty anywhere. Yet looking up at Atlas, much of the white is going off and looking a bit dull.
John Gulch is wearing his trench coat and hat, "It's not that. I'm just taking the necessary precautions in case something were to go wrong. And I'm also bringing some friends to take care of the Ace Ops and Happy Huntresses assuming they make it to the party."
"Just be careful, John. Tyrian is out on the prowl for new victims."
"Not to worry, one of the Mint siblings is watching every move those two make. But I'm almost there. See you sooner than later." and he hangs up.
In one of the buildings that John is passing, Arthur Watts is doing some research on what Ironwood and the Atlesian Army have on the group that has taken one of the relics. He studies and found out that the new group are called, the Evolutionaries.
"Evolutionaries." he says to himself, "An interesting group."
He research all the activities the Evolutionaries have done before now and learned more about a device that has a ten percent chance of turning Grimm into Wesen and can turn Dust into new energy sources, the Transformers from the mine attack, the disappearance of the Winter Maiden and some other activities. Yet he browse through the list of names of the children that disappeared. However, while searching, he notices one particular name that popped up among the rest. The reason being is because there is no picture and one particular part of the description caught his eye. It reads: 'Eyes: Silver' and the name, 'Cobbel Stone'.
"So we have a silver-eyed warrior leading the charge. Hmm. But where are you hiding, Cobbel Stone?"
In the elevator, John Gulch sneeze and looks around.
"Guess someone on Salem's side finally know who I am." He smiles, "But good luck finding me and my infinite disguises assholes."
