Chapter 22

Eric van Genus' Audio Journal #22: Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Life

Okay now, let's talk about my last two reincarnations. In my twenty-first reincarnation, I was reborn into an ancient version of Earth where so-called "gods" exist in many parts of the world. I was unfortunately a "demi-god" with my father being one of the worst gods of them all, Zeus. The biggest hypocrite, annoying asshole that has ever plagued Greece. And I was born in Sparta of all places and went through the barbaric rituals and rights that all kids were forced to go through. So, I was living a life similar to Kratos from God of War. However, I decided to take things into my own hands. First, I left Sparta in order to find the one thing that can give me an edge against, not only the Olympians, but other hyper evolved beings as well: Pandora's Box. For two years, I searched for it until I made it to the Realm of the Dead, the realm of Hades. I managed to play a melody to Cerberus and paid the ferry man at the River of Styx before I finally found it. Once I did, I opened it and absorbed everything that the box had. Both the evils and hope. With my increased power charge, I then slaughtered all the highly evolved beings and drain them of everything. Unlike God of War 3, nothing disastrous happened like floods, tormented souls escaping, pestilence, or anything. To everyone who wasn't a highly evolved being, everything was normal. Then I launched my own campaign against all higher beings across the entire world and drain them of everything.

Like Prometheus giving fire to humans, I gave all humans wisdom and knowledge that surpass the era they were living in. I taught them proper sciences, the importance of being clean (and believe me that a lot of them needed a bath), created new inventions that weren't supposed to exist for centuries, and evolution. But the most important thing that I taught is not to be prejudice, just like I did in my ninth life on the world, Esperos. And just like in my ninth life, I died on a colony in space. Not the moon, but on Mars.

Now in my twenty-second life gets interesting. I was in some distorted universe of some sort that had everything mankind has ever made. Arts, anime, video games, novels, a whole bunch of shit. Like the human mind, it was a chaotic mess. But there was a beauty to it that made it all perfect. The human mind maybe chaotic with all of its faults, emotions and imaginations, but that's what makes human humans. Chaos is needed in order for humanity to learn and grow. To become better. Which I can say the same for humanity back in my first life, oh boy. But anyway, I took time to explore, made friends, and became quite the adventurer as I drained whatever raw energy sources I can get until I found a way for me to keep my powers without the need of recharging. It wasn't easy, but alas, I have finally obtained the evolution I needed.

Now? Now I will help the people of Remnant to reach their own evolution without monsters or the old dragging them down and finally reach to the next level. And that time is coming soon.

End of recording.


Where We Left Off...

Team RWBY managed to escape from the under-village of Mountain Glenn after encountering some Ferals that were lurking about. They later followed the train tracks through Forever Fall Forest and made their way towards some sort of temple along with a few more Ferals that seem to come out of the ground. Afterwards, they came across some sort of boat and smuggle themselves on-board before losing all radio contact with Oobleck. Hector and Butch are still tracking them down as they made it to the temple.

Hector sniffs around, "Those Huntresses were here." then he headed over to the harbor, "But the scent trails off at the coast."

Butch looks out at the sea, "Then they're on their way towards the research island. Fuck! This ain't good!" Butch worries that they failed.

Hector shakes his head slowly, "Not good indeed."


Classified Research Island, Chapter 7 of RWBY: Grimm Eclipse...

Team RWBY finally made it to some sort of island that is like Merlot Island, but there are some changes. Instead of wooden fences at the coasts, there are guard railings made of metal and a proper harbor with cement docks, two cranes and three warehouses. The place is crawling with Evolutionaries of all races that are working hard in preparations for The Culling. A day when the world they see now falls and a new one will rise from the ashes. But they are researching new technologies away from the public, as in the people of Vale and Atlesian soldiers, to prevent prying eyes for what they are making. The team remain hidden as some of the cargo are being loaded off the ship. Yet there are also cages full of Ferals being transported somewhere else.

Ruby pops her head from behind the barrels, "Are we on some kind of island?"

Weiss pulls on Ruby's cape as she whispers, "Stay down, you dolt!"

Yang takes a peek, "Well this has turned into quite the field trip."

Blake also peek out and asks, "Umm. Where are we?"

Ruby and Weiss peek around as they see some of the people getting off the ship.

"Looks like we're on the right track." Ruby whispers, "This must be their headquarters."

"Are you sure?" Weiss asks and is unsure about what they see, "I highly doubt we can find everyone that was taken in one place."

One of the soldiers say, "Dr. Angelos! Dr. Tawny Angelos!" and heads up to this Dr. Angelos.

Team RWBY look at the female scientist that is wearing a lab coat, have wavy brown hair, hazel colored eyes, fair complexion and have a white shirt under her lab coat.

Weiss recognize her, "That's Dr. Angelos. One of the scientist that went missing back at Atlas."

"Aha!" Ruby says in a quiet tone, "I was right."

"Ssshh!" Blake hushes her teammates, "I'm trying to listen." Blake uses her ears hidden in her bow to ear the conversation.

They see the scientist talking to the soldier and she seems happy about something.

Yang asks, "Anything?"

"She says that she is happy to be working on some of the scientific projects on this island. One of them include some of her own projects that was rejected by the Atlas government."

Ruby asks Weiss, "What did she do?"

"From what I've read, it involves cultivating algae and to be use as a fuel source for cars and aircraft. But the government had her do research in robotics instead. I believe my father may have a hand in that to ensure his Dust business is still going."

"That's terrible!"

"Sssh!" Blake shushes them again. "Apparently, she says that a... Prof. Eric van Genus got her out of Atlas in order to pursue her research."

"Who's that?" Yang asks.

Weiss response is, "He might be the lead scientist in-charge of this operation."

Ruby asks, "If this is where they keep the scientists, where are the other people that disappear? You know? Artists, people against Atlas, and other such guys."

Blake overhears more, "But the soldier is complaining about the jamming towers interfering with his web connection."

"Jamming towers?" Yang looks at the tower not too far from the harbor, "You mean that radio tower over there?"

"So we have a plan." Ruby says, "We sneak our way through the island and take out as many of the jammers as possible."

"Then let's roll!" Yang tries to hop over the barrels but gets pulled down by Blake.

"Not until the coast is clear!" Blake scolds Yang.

Once no one is looking at their direction, they sneak past all the guards and dock workers as they make their way to one of the tunnels. Yet at the entrance, Blake sees something coming.

"Take cover!" Blake says to her team.

The team takes cover in one of the bushes as five tanks start rolling out. These five tanks are red that look similar to Warpath's tank form from War for/Fall of Cybertron yet have Cybertronian logos on them instead of Autobot.

"Tanks?" Ruby pops her head-up once the coast is clear, "They have tanks here?"

Yang then pops her head out, "Must be some serious research they're working on here."

Weiss then pops out, "And I thought Atlas was serious on keeping people out."

Blake pops out, "Then we must be on the right track."

Team RWBY sneak past many of the guards with more questions going through their heads as they make their way towards the jamming tower. They are seeing creatures that look like more animalistic forms of Faunus in the same uniforms as the guards. They pass by many more warehouses filled with crates that have the Evolutionary symbol on them and many of the old Vale Kingdom symbols were painted over with the same Evolutionary symbol. As they made their way to the tower, they stop and hid in one of the warehouses and check one of the crates while they hid. The crate has the Evolutionary symbol on it yet also have some sort of circuit symbol on the upper right. Yang carefully rips off the lid and they all get to see what's inside. Inside the crate is full of computer parts, some circuit boards, motherboards, etc.

"Looks like computer junk." Ruby says while looking at the computer parts.

Weiss suggests, "Let's look in another crate."

Blake says, "Hold on! I think we're about to be discovered."

Some of the Bludbaden having their noses in the air and have a whiff of something. Same with Hundjagers, Manticores and many other with a strong sense of smell.

"What's that smell?" one of the female Bludbaden asks.

One male Hundjager says, "There are four of them. A team. Maybe more."

"WE HAVE INTRUDERS!"

Yang goes, "Not good."

And one of the Manticores slams the alarm button and sirens and alarms started blaring throughout the entire island.

One of the human soldiers say, "PACK EVERYTHING UP! WE HAVE A CODE RED!"

Yet one sheep Faunus soldier asks, "What about the Rainbow Dragon Vault!?"

"Forget it! The gemstone keycards are gone anyway!"

"Gemstone keycards?" Blake overheard. She is probably wondering if the soldier is referring to the cards she and her team found.

The PA system is working with a female voice saying, "Attention. Attention all faculty. We have a code red. Huntsmen are on the island and we must evacuate immediately. Save all research data and demolish all projects before exiting the work areas. All soldiers must safeguard the research teams and civilian workers as evacuation is in process. Self-destruct protocols will initiate in thirty minutes. Thank you, and have a safe and good day."

"Wait, self-destruct!?" Yang says out loud.

Ruby comes up with a plan, "Okay! We have to split-up! Three of us will take care of the towers while one of us will take care of the self-destruct!"

Weiss says, "Thank you for doing that, Ruby, since you are the fastest with your semblance!"

Ruby uses her semblance and gets out of the warehouse and head straight towards the heart of the facility. The rest of her team then runs out and try to avoid getting caught as they head over to the towers. Blake manages to make her way up the first one and uses her sword to slice-up the wiring. Weiss uses her glyph to catapult herself up to the second tower and slice the wiring of the jammer. Yang on the other hand, just punch the supports down and cause it to collapse.


Ruby headed deep in the facility and tries to find the control station or something like that. She goes through tunnel to tunnel until she found it, right in front of a massive door with a carving of the Rainbow Dragon on it that has all seven gems. Ruby now has three minutes to figure out on how to turn it off. There are no letters or anything on the keyboard or labels on the buttons and the screen shows some weird text. She panics and just smash a bunch of buttons together by slamming them with her fists, palms, or her forehead until she bruises her head and the countdown stopped.

The PA goes, "Self-destruct canceled. All non-archaeological data have been deleted. All missiles have detonated. All research projects that aren't in the vault have been destroyed. All personal files have been deleted. All GPS and map coordinates have been deleted. Back-up data have been initiated. All ice cream machines have been destroyed. Dr. [File Missing] is now promoted to head researcher of biological research. Warning: Sewage breach in the barracks and mess hall. Warning: There is a clown with a dildo roaming in the women's bathrooms."

Ruby sits with her head lying on the side on the console, "Ah great."


Not too long after, Dr. Oobleck shows up and congratulates the girls on finding a top secret research base as all four are at the harbor. Ruby has a band-aid on her forehead as they line-up to meet their teacher.

"Excellent work, students! We may have found a research base, but the enemy has retreated to an unknown location. Possibly their main headquarters. For that, we still don't know."

Ruby then raises her hand.

"Yes, Ms. Rose! You have a question?!"

"Actually, I found a vault and the cards we found are keys to it. It's at the control center deep below."

"Outstanding! Luckily I brought the cards in case we found anything we have to unlock. Let's get to it!"


They all travel down to a massive door that Ruby found with the carving of the Rainbow Dragon and it's seven colored gems. The door stands twenty-five feet high and twelve feet wide. In front of it are seven control panels that correspond to the cards Team RWBY have discovered.

Yang says, "Haven't I seen that thing before?"

"I think we saw it a card with an image of this dragon at a shop before." Blake states.

Oobleck then insert the cards in order as each of the gems started glowing. After all the gems glow, the doors open to reveal the greatest secrets this research facility has. They all marvel at what they see inside. Inside, they see glass cases that have fossils in them. Strange fossils that no one on Remnant has ever seen. The first is a fossil of a creature that looks similar to an ankylosaurus yet has an insect-like exoskeleton and compound eyes. The second fossil looks like a velociraptor yet has wings instead of arms. Another fossil is vaguely humanoid in shape that stands ten feet tall with a simian-like head, large claws, hook-like toes, and an intertwining rib cage. There are all sort of fossils yet some are being kept in wooden crates for further examination else where. Ruby and Oobleck dash together as they have taken an interest and filled with child-like delight and wonder.

"These have to be fake." Weiss says.

Blake looks at a clipboard, "I don't think so. According to this, these were excavated from many different parts of the world from old Schnee mines after digging deeper." She points at the ankylosaurus-like fossil, "That creature is over a hundred million years old." Then points at the winged velociraptor, "That creature is over a hundred and fifty million years old."

"Soooo... There were fossils in some of the Schnee mines and they haven't noticed?" Yang tries to process, "Guess they never thought of digging deeper."

Blake looks at the clipboard, "Apparently, these things are supposed to be in transit to other sites for further research and to be on display at a museum."

Ruby dashes over, "Museums are awesome now!"

Yang tries to make a pun, "I don't know about you but... Darn it! I had something there for a moment."

Oobleck thinks to himself, 'I wonder if Ozpin knows anything about these. As someone who-" His thought gets interrupted by a ring tone of his scroll. "Hello!" he says.

And speak of the devil, Ozpin is on the line and sounds serious. "Dr. Oobleck, bring Team RWBY back to Beacon. The City of Atlas...is in shambles."


Atlesian Airspace...

In an airship, Eric is in transit from Atlas. He makes a call on his scroll about the situation.

"I heard that Site-9 have been compromised. ... I knew those four would be- No. There will be no need to take just drastic measures. ... Just wanted to know if the phony back-up is working. ... That's good to hear. And the origin of the Ferals. ... So they were leftovers from the earlier experiments that escaped. ... Make sure that every last one of them has been exterminated before the Culling. ..." Eric smirks, "Glad to hear it. And- Yes? ... Don't worry, that time is almost upon us. Once we have all the relics, we can finally go after Salem. ... And as for Acai, please get him before he ruins all our hardwork. ... Goodbye." He hangs up and looks out the window, "It will all be over soon...and Remnant will be free for good and progress to the next level."

The airship passes by with Atlas Academy now a smoking ruin along with the Schnee manor, Atlas Command Center, and the CCT Tower.