AN: So, I was evidently wrong about Ironwood giving Penny the self-terminate order, as that actually was Watts. However, Ironwood is still an irredeemable monster after what happened in this most recent episode.

So, things are going to finally get interesting with this Grimm Eclipse adaptation.

Enjoy!

Chapter 55

Aqua was starting to wonder if Yang had a point about this being like a video game. There were several locked stone gates on their way through the forest. Not for the first time, she was thankful for the Keyblade.

She couldn't imagine how much of a pain in the butt this would have been otherwise.

The team walked through what felt like the sixth locked gate, only to be greeted by an ancient stone veranda with a view of a body of water.

The view would be breathtaking if it weren't for the suspicious ship coming in to dock on the opposite shore. Emblazoned on the side was the same symbol from the Merlot building.

"I'm assuming that there's not supposed to be a cargo port in Forever Fall?" Emerald said.

"No, Miss Sustrai," Bart said. "No there isn't. This discovery is a bit unexpected and is worse than I feared. That appears to be an active Merlot Industries ship. But Dr. Merlot hasn't been seen or heard from in ages. I must inform Ozpin at once. Meanwhile, I want you to investigate that ship, but please keep a safe distance."

Yet another locked door led them to the inside of an ancient temple, the only discernable path they could see. However, inside, they saw more of those crates, these ones actively filled with Grimm.

"Doctor Oobleck, do you see this?" Ruby asked.

"This temple looks like it's being used as a temporary storage," he said. "For Grimm of all things! Quite the discovery!"

"How is this even possible?" Weiss asked. "Grimm die in captivity."

"I'm not sure, but the possibilities are fascinating. Concerning, but fascinating all the same."

"Hang on," Cinder said, creating twin scimitars. "We've got more mutants incoming." Sure enough, the hallway was filled with more of those mutants Creeps.

The students all drew their weapons and charged at the horde.

"Man I hate those things," Yang said as they exited the back end of the temple, trying her best to clean some green goop off her clothes. Thankfully none of it had gotten into her hair, or else there might not have been a temple left. As the group kept moving, they eventually noticed some shipping crates lying around.

Huh. This temple led directly to the dock. Neat. They could see the ship from before still sitting in the dock, a crane automatically picking them up and loading them onto the deck.

"Great job!" Oobleck said through the scroll. "You've made it to the ship. I may need you to get a closer look to see what kind of cargo they're carrying. But, be careful not to be spotted. Who knows what kind of security they have?"

"We got this," Yang said. "Stealth is my middle name."

"…We're so gonna get caught," Blake said, smacking her forehead.

"Oh, whatever, just come on."

The group made their way through the labyrinth of shipping crates, but they didn't see a single camera, guard, or even a robot anywhere. Finally, they came across one lone shipping crate, opened up near the ship. Other crates were around it, almost like the lone crate was acting like a doorway. The team stepped into the crate to get a closer look at the ship, only for the doors to slam shut, plunging them into darkness.

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed, only to stumble when the crate started moving.

"Hold on to something!" Mom said, but Ruby was unable to, falling backwards. A pair of hands caught her, and pulled her close. After a few seconds of shaking, they felt the crate lurch one last time. Ruby figured this meant that the crate they were trapped in had been loaded onto the ship and was now moving.

"You okay?" Cinder asked, and Ruby realized that she was the on who had caught her and was now holding onto her tightly. She could feel the blood rush to her face.

"U-um, I'm fine," Ruby said, and Cinder let go. For some reason, Ruby almost felt sad that Cinder let go of her. "So, uh, what now?" Ruby asked.

"We can always bust the walls down," Mercury said.

"We could," Mom said. "Or we can wait and see where this ship is taking us."

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Well, we wanted to know who this ship belongs to," Mom clarified. "Well, now it's taking us right to them."

"I agree," Cinder said. "Let's wait and see."

"…Fine," Mercury said, sounding a little disappointed. "Might as well get comfortable."

Yang was leaning up against Mercury, the couple sitting against the wall of the shipping container in total darkness. It felt like they had been stuck in here for a half an hour, and she was starting to get bored. She felt Mercury's arm around her shoulder tighten, and smirked when she got an idea.

"Hey, Merc," she whispered, leaning right up against his ear. "I think I know how we can…pass the time."

"Oh?" he whispered back mischievously. "I'm all ears."

"Oh, you're not going to need your ears for this," she whispered, before positioning herself in his lap and cupping his face in her hands.

She dove in for a fierce, hungry kiss, her tongue immediately trying to pry open his lips. He got the memo, and opened up his mouth, allowing her tongue entry. Within seconds, the appendages were fighting for dominance. Before she was able to stop herself, she let out a soft moan.

"What was that noise?" Weiss asked. Yang and Merc's makeout stopped suddenly, the couple freezing and Yang's eyes widening.

"I didn't hear anything," Ruby said.

"…It's probably Yang and Mercury making out in the corner," Blake said.

Damn it! Yang had forgotten about Blake's cat ears! She probably heard the whole thing! Yang felt her face heat up, embarrassment replacing her desire for her boyfriend. Sheepishly, she removed herself from his lap and reclaimed her spot next to him.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled. "That's gross!"

After what felt like an eternity, the ship finally stopped moving. Mercury wasted no time kicking the crate open, allowing the group to leave. Mynt practically skipped out of the crate, clearly enjoying being back in the sunlight.

Speaking of sunlight, they realized that the crate had been removed from the ship and just deposited on a small beach. Behind a hill, they could see a tall radio tower.

"Um," Blake said. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Yang answered. "But this is turning into quite the field trip."

"Bart, are you reading us?" Mom asked. She only received static in response. "Bart!" More static. "It's no good. I can't get a signal."

"Maybe we can get a better reception from that tower?" Emerald suggested, pointing up at the tower.

"It's worth a shot," Weiss said.

"Heads up!" Ruby said, summoning her Keyblade. "We've got…Robots?" The group saw two tall, red robots running towards them, each one carrying a double-bladed glaive.

"Guess this is the right place," Yang said, cocking her gauntlets. Mynt charged ahead, ducking under the swing of one of the robot's glaives, kicking her legs up and wrapping them around the weapon, and wrenching it from its grasp. Yang and Mercury charged at that same robot, firing blasts at its chest. Ruby jumped up and slashed at it, knocking its head clean off. Just to be thorough, Mynt stabbed the robot with its own stolen glaive in the chest, giving the weapon a few experimental swings before shrugging and strapping it to her back. The others had already finished off the other android.

"Alright, security in this place is a lot tighter," Emerald said. "Clearly we found the base."

"Through there," Mom said, pointing at a closed door. "That looks like it leads to the tower." The group approached the door, but of course it was locked. Mom shook her head in annoyance, and summoned her Keyblade. She pointed it at the door and unlocked it.

"That thing's pretty handy," Mercury commented.

"Well, it's not called a Keyblade for nothing," Yang said as the group walked through the gate and approached the tower.

"So, uh, anybody know what to do?" Ruby asked. Mynt sauntered past her, turning around to wink at them before hopping up to a higher platform.

"Huh?" Yang asked.

"Mynt is a bit of a tech wiz," Cinder explained.

"Well, that's convenient," Weiss said. The group followed her up to the platform, and saw her typing away at a computer terminal. They could hear Doctor Oobleck trying to reach them, but it was still too scrambled to come through clearly. With a dramatic flourish, Mynt pressed a final key, and gave the group a thumbs-up.

"Whatever you did…Just keep doing that!" Doctor Oobleck's voice finally came through. "The radio seems to be giving me some feedback so I'm not sure how much *BZZZZZT*," the signal began cutting out again. "Somewhere else on the island. You must make sure at all costs that you *BZZZZZT*. Understood?"

"Not in the slightest," Weiss said.

"He said 'Keep doing that', so maybe we need to find more towers?" Yang suggested. Mynt crossed her arms in frustration, a pout in her face.

"Hey, it's okay," Ruby said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We didn't know there were more towers. You still did a great job." Mynt looked up at her in surprise, and then gave her a little smile.

"Alright, everyone," Mom said. "Let's find the next tower."

The path took them to what appeared to be a courtyard filled with scrap. They could see the second communication tower in the distance. Yang pointed it out, and the group moved towards it before several black orbs appeared in front of them. Small creatures jumped out of them.

Creatures none of them had ever seen before.

They were short, wearing dark blue bodysuits. Their fingers ended in sharp red claws, and they wore metal helmets on their heads. Underneath the helmets were a black void, with yellow beady eyes inside of them. Their movements were erratic and jerky, and they had an emblem on their chests. It was black with a red outline, shaped like a heart with w flourish on the bottom.

"What the hell are these things?" Yang asked, cocking her gauntlets.

"I'm not sure, but they don't look that tough," Ruby said, summoning Crescent Rose.

To her surprise, the creatures all stopped moving and stared directly at her when she summoned her Keyblade.

"Wait a minute," Mom said, summoning her Keyblade as well. The creatures' attention was divided between the two of them. "They're looking right at our Keyblades. There's no way…"

One of the creatures jumped forward, swinging its leg at Ruby. The girl sidestepped, and swiped it with her Keyblade, making it disappear. Except, they could clearly see a bright pink, heart-shaped object float away when the creature died.

"That was a Heart!" Ruby said in shock.

"That means… These things are Heartless?!" Mom realized.

"They don't look like any Heartless I've ever seen," Yang said.

"It doesn't matter," Cinder said, creating twin scimitars. "Let's kill them."

The group charged, meeting the mysterious new Heartless head-on. One of them started spinning in place, its leg extended in a hurricane kick. Ruby blocked it with her Keyblade, but before she could attack it, another one kicked her away. The original Heartless moved to kick her, but a pistol shot from Blake stunned it, allowing Ruby to slash it. The creature disappeared, releasing another Heart. She backflipped away from another Heartless's attack, pointing her Keyblade at it.

"Thorn!" she shouted, impaling the Heartless with roses, killing it. She saw Mynt stab a Heartless with the glaive she stole from the robot, but unlike when Ruby killed one, no Heart appeared.

Within minutes, all of the weird Heartless were dead. The team sheathed their weapons.

"Okay, so where are these new Heartless coming from?" Blake asked.

"I'm not sure," Mom said. "Mutated Grimm are bad enough, but if whoever's responsible for this managed to create new Heartless, too, then we need to stop him."

"Alright, there's the other tower," Yang said. "Mynt, you wanna do your thing?" The black-haired girl in question winked at her, taking her place in front of the computer terminal. Mercury had to admit that recruiting her turned out to be a better idea than he had initially thought. After several seconds of typing away, she give a thumbs-up. Aqua picked up her scroll.

"Bart, come in," she said. "We got the next tower fixed. How's the signal looking?"

"Ah, that's better," an unknown, deep voice said. The group looked at each other in confusion. "Sorry, but the reception is always so bad all the way out here. I hope you're enjoying your stay on the island. You're the first visitors I've had in, well, ever."

"Um, that's not Doctor Oobleck," Ruby said uneasily.

"Who is this?!" Cinder demanded.

"Oh, where are my manners?" the man asked. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Doctor Merlot. You don't know me, but I most certainly know you. Well, some of you, at least."

"Doctor Merlot?" Mercury asked. "Isn't he supposed to be dead?"

"Well, as they say, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Doctor Merlot said. "Nevertheless, I'm thrilled you're here. You might be exactly what I need for a very important…experiment."

"Whatever this experiment is, you can count us out," Aqua said.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. Besides, this test should be easy."

Portals appeared around them again, and more new Heartless appeared. In addition to more of the creatures they fought earlier, Several small bell-shaped Heartless, in a variety of colors. One red, one blue, and one yellow.

In the center of the group was a large Heartless, dressed similarly to the ones from earlier, only this one had an almost entirely round body that jiggled slightly as it walked.

Neo charged at the big one, swinging her stole glaive at it, but surprisingly, her attack bounced off it completely, making the girl stumbled back slightly. The large Heartless swung a fist at her, sending the girl flying. Aqua dove to catch her, throwing her Keyblade in the process the intercept a fireball fired by the red bell.

"Look out for the little one!" she shouted. "And I think you have to hit the big one from the back!"

"Emerald, Mercury, take care of the big one," Cinder said, firing an arrow at the red bell. Emerald fired shots from her guns at the big one's body, but had to stop when the one of the skinny ones attacked her. Mercury jumped over the big one, landing behind it. He smirked, and swung his leg, but the Heartless spun on its heal, blocking the attack with its body.

"What the hell?!" he asked, quickly backflipping away from its retaliatory punch. "How can something that fat move so quickly?" Yang appeared next to him, firing a blast from her gauntlet to block an ice attack from the blue bell. Another blast from Yang, and the Heartless was dead.

"We need to get in in a pincer attack," Yang said. "Keep the front distracted. I'll swing around back."

"Got it," he said, firing shots from him boots. Yang swung around to get the creature's back, and it turned around to block her like it did for Mercury. He moved closer to hit it while it was focused on his girlfriend, but then it jumped. When it landed, it released a shockwave all around it, sending them both flying.

Yang rolled to a stop, only to be scream when she was hit with a sudden bolt of lightning from the yellow bell.

"Yang!" he yelled, shooting the bell and killing it. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," she said. "Get closer. I'll shoot it when it's back is turned."

"Got it," he said, charging at the Heartless. "It turned around to look at him, and the second it did, Yang shot it in the back, making it stumble.

"That did something!" Mercury said. A red aura suddenly exploded around the Heartless and it ran forward, its stomach extended like a battering ram Mercury backed up as quick as he could, but it kept moving towards it. "I think we made it mad!"

A wall of ice suddenly appeared in front of the creature, stopping it in its tracks. Mercury looked to the side, and saw Weiss with her sword stabbed into the ground. Ruby pointed her weapon at the Heartless.

"Vine-ra!" she shouted. Vines grew below the Heartless, trapping it place. "Yang, now!" she shouted. Yang shouted, punching her fists together. Her hair burst into flames, and her eyes changed from lilac to red.

Mercury had to admit, it was kinda hot.

She roared embedding her fist into the Heartless's back, and fired off a shot, making the Heartless disappear.

"Bravo!" Merlot said from the scroll. "Bravo!"

"Merlot!" Aqua yelled. "Were these Heartless your doing?"

"So that's what they're called," Merlot answered. "Heartless. I knew they weren't ordinary Grimm, but it's nice to finally have a name."

"You always were depraved, Dr. Merlot," Ozpin's voice suddenly said.

"Ozpin?" Merlot asked. "Or should I call you Oz like old times, chum?"

"You know him, Professor?" Ruby asked.

"I did once," the headmaster answered. "I thought he had perished in the Mountain Glenn disaster, a tragedy he played no small part in."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Weiss asked.

"'Twas a mere speed bump on the superhighway of scientific progress. You couldn't possible imagine the ramifications of my latest research."

"A speed bump?!" Aqua yelled. "Thousands of people died in Mountain Glenn!"

"The world was a much safer place without you, Merlot," Ozpin said, his voice full of venom.

"What, you're calling me the reckless one? Sending your students out on an excursion like this?"

"I'm not worried about them," Ozpin said. "They are more than a match for your creations. What you're doing here is wrong, Merlot."

"Trying to make the world a better place is wrong?" Merlot asked. "Say what you will about me. It won't change the fact the fact that you're powerless to stop me."

"You'll botch this somehow. You always do."

"Well, let's agree to disagree," Merlot said. "I tell you Oz, it has truly been a pleasure catching up, but unfortunately it's time for me to run. Farewell, old chum." The line went dead, indicating that Merlot really was done talking.

"Why didn't you tell us that you knew Merlot?" Aqua asked Ozpin, who was still on the line.

"I thought he was dead," Ozpin said. "Regardless, we've been attempting to locate his island, but have been unable to obtain its coordinates. I need you all to continue exploring and contact me when you have idea where you are. I promise, I'll answer any questions you have when you return."

"…Fine," Aqua said. "Let's go, everyone. We've got a mad scientist to hunt down."

AN: And now we've come to the entire reason I wanted to adapt Grimm Eclipse. Merlot has moved on from experimenting on Grimm, and has created Emblem Heartless. I'm really looking forward to getting to use these, since there's a much larger variety to choose from, and a lot more boss-level Heartless to pick from.

So next time, we've got more exploring Merlot's island. Not much longer now before we can move on!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!