{Justin/Achilles' perspective}
Well things definitely could have gone worse, I mean Merlot set his robots to target me specifically.
It may have had something to do with the fact that I pissed him off, but I don't entirely know.
What I do know is that it was easier for my team to pick them off as I was reenacting Benny Hill.
There would be times I would say "Feel free to jump in any time!" and most of the time my team helped me, but sometimes they told me it was part of their strategy since they were focusing on me. Those four can be so cruel sometimes.
Even Aaron barely helped, his reason for this was "You deserved this, you know what you did."
So yeah, throughout the time we were heading to the entrance of Merlot's Lab, I was the live bait for some reason. Oh and did I forget to mention he took all of my weapons? Because Aaron did that.
"Dude please let me have my weapons!" I yelled out of desperation.
He shook his head and said "My ass deserved better. And besides that, this is also for mordhau-ing me."
"Screw you!" I yelled as the white ones lobbed grenades at me.
While the red ones tried to murder me with their ineffective weaponry.
Eventually we got to the boss area, I will not go into detail in between, so for the sake of time I'll explain it like this: 1) Steam hurts, 2) I'm very dumb at times, 3) Aaron can be cruel sometimes, and 4) lots of robots and grimm. So are we good at that?
Good, anyway so we got to the boss area before the main doors with the robots and the Ursa Major.
Aaron was kind enough to hand me back my sword and guns before the boss battle started.
I looked at my team as I drew my blade, and they drew their weapons, JNPR, Rose, Keoth, and Aaron all drawing theirs.
We all fought our hardest between the robots, the grimm, and the mutated grimm that suddenly started appearing.
One by one we whittled down the defenses.
Weiss and I doing our combo to distract the robots.
Ruby cutting them down with her scythe.
Yang and Aaron doing their thing.
And JNPR doing their own thing.
Eventually we made it inside and were greeted by the man himself.
"Perhaps your students could be of some use to me after all Ozpin, how serendipitous." He said once his ugly face appeared on screen.
I reeled myself back and said "Yikes the years really haven't been too kind on ya there. You look like an expired raisin."
He looked angrily at me "How dare you mock me in such a manner!" He bellowed.
I then smirked and said "Well how would you like to be mocked? I take requests."
Pyrrha put her hand on my shoulder and suggested "Perhaps we shouldn't be mocking him at all?"
"Pfft" I said as I took her hand off my shoulder "Where's the fun in that?"
"Anyway…" Merlot started as he cleared his throat. "Welcome to Merlot Industries, where we're building a better tomorrow today!"
I've watched enough of these science fiction shows and movies to know that will only end in disaster. But for the sake of the show: "Yeah no, that's not gonna happen with us here."
"Everyone," Ozpin started, "If I am to be of any help, I need to know the layout of the laboratory. Keep your eyes peeled for any maps or terminals you can and download them to your scrolls. Then send them to me."
"Got it Oz" I replied as we made our way to an elevator.
Blake then spoke up "This place… I'm getting a strange feeling about it…"
Keoth then put a hand on her shoulder "Whatever this place has we can handle it." He comforted.
"Yeah… about that…" I said as I backed up.
"What the hell is that!?" Aaron yelped.
In front of us was a robot, but not any of the red or white robots. No, this one looked more akin to something like an assaultron from Fallout 4. But with twice as much firepower as it had rocket launchers on its shoulders and guns that looked like miniature Browning M1919s underneath the arms. So they shouldn't be accurate. But at the same time, machine guns don't need to be.
"Ah you must have come across my latest experiment! Wonderful." Merlot stated as his face appeared once more. "Protectionbot, execute order 626!" he demanded.
The robot's eyes lit up as it said Initializing combat protocols, Protect Dr Merlot for a better tomorrow.
It then began to fire which everyone dodged out of the way as I deflected the bullets with my blade. After I got into cover I paused for a moment and asked out loud "Wait… did I just do that?" mostly to myself.
Aaron was very quick to point out "This is no time to be wondering if you're overpowered or not! We have a murderbot 3000 or whatever on the other side of this cover that is advancing!"
Neo then tapped his shoulder and signed something to him.
"No, I won't allow it." He replied.
She signed more.
"NO I WILL NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO BECOME SWISS CHEESE!" he bellowed.
"Whatever you two are on about, mind sharing with the rest of the class?" I asked sarcastically.
Aaron sighed "Neo says I should distract it while she uses her semblance on us to sneak around it."
I nodded "Great idea, one problem, that thing might have heat vision. Meaning an illusion semblance might be useless against it."
Aaron gestured to me as he turned back to Neo "Exactly, there's no guarantee if that thing can just aim at the others. And with how fast those bullets are firing it could drain all of our auras in a matter of seconds."
I looked back at it, and immediately ducked behind the corner when a stray bullet passed me.
Though what I did earlier did give me an idea. I turned to our shield users and told them "I've got an idea, but I need both of you for it. We'll need a shield wall. Jaune's offers the most protection since it's a heater shield, and Pyrrha can defend the right flank."
They both nodded as if they knew what I was getting at. "Gotcha," Arkos said in unison.
Aaron looked at me with intrigue "What is the plan then Achilles?" He asked.
I smirked at him "Here's the rundown, RWBY, you, and I will go on the right along with Jaune. While Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, Neo, and Keoth go on the left, It can't target two at once, it's impossible even to an AI."
Aaron looked skeptical, before he could ask I quietly said "Do you have a better plan other than run straight at it like those lunatics at Area 51?"
He was about to protest but then sighed and said "Fine, we'll go for your plan, it's sound logic."
I smirked at him "First time you followed my strats." I snarked.
"Hey don't forget that time in Sea of Thieves where you sunk our ship." he retorted.
"We were sandwiched between two ghost galleons, What were we supposed to do?" I asked.
He sighed annoyed. "Fair."
I looked back at everyone and said "Alright aside from that, everyone, assume our positions!"
And so Me, Aaron and RWBY hid behind Jaune as we advanced. The bot started firing at us again but not Pyrrha and the others, good. Now then to advance. "Pyrrha!" I yelled "See if you can bend the barrels and disable them!"
She nodded and used her semblance, Sure enough the barrels bent then no more bullets came out. The bot looked at them and said Damages were assessed. Switching to Rockets. It then disconnected the guns on the underside of its arms. And aimed its rocket launchers at us.
"Oh no you don't!" I yelled as I jumped over Jaune much to RWBY and Aaron's protests.
Keoth knew what I was thinking and jumped over Pyrrha as well. He slammed his weapon against its 'eyes' as I sliced off one of the launchers.
Error, unable to target hostiles. It said.
"Now!" I yelled as we all charged at the bot. Each of us took a part, I took an arm, the others took the legs and the other arm. With Yang dealing the finishing blow knocking the head off with a clean blow.
We then nodded at each other for a job well done and moved on.
With grimm, and robots waves just suicide charging us. We eventually came to another terminal that allowed me to download the map to the lab. It downloaded pretty quickly reaching Oz within minutes. And yet, on Earth that would take the course of three hours and several waves of enemies.
But regardless, we gave him a map and went on our way with Ozpin saying I need time to go through these schematics to get a better picture of where to go. For now head for the door ahead of you.
And so we did. With heavy resistance.
Red and blue bots as well as the mutated grimm with the regular gimm all trying to block our path.
And we hacked and slashed our way through.
Several hours of hacking and slashing our way through the multiple enemies later and eventually we came to a vast room with tanks that had some form of goo in them.
Ruby called out "The tanks of goo! They're attracting more of the mutants!"
I looked at her and nodded "Then we destroy them. Moon," I said as I turned my attention to Aaron and Keoth.
Aaron raised an eyebrow "Yeah?"
I smiled at him "Feel like doing some target practice?"
He nodded and transformed his weapons into their revolver form "Yes sir"
Keoth took out his weapon and leveled it at the tank "Just tell us when."
I then pulled my pistols out and took aim at the first tank in front of us. "Fire!"
The three of us fired our guns at the same time at the tank while the others watched.
Eventually from the hailfire of bullets, cracks formed and then shattered.
I sighed, "So oddly satisfying." I then spun my guns and holstered them. "Well everyone, whatcha waiting for?" I said as I turned to everyone. I then gestured behind me, "Go break shit. Property damage fines be damned."
Everyone battle cried as they charged in.
I took a moment to bring in the scenery with a small chuckle.
"What?" Aaron asked.
"Well it's funny y'know, we've watched these kids grow up from the other side of the screen. Now seeing them grow in person, I feel like a parent watching their child grow into a fine young adult. I don't know, it's hard to describe." I said as I rubbed the back of my head.
Aaron patted my back and said "I know what you mean, in a way I feel the same. Now come on, let's go break shit."
I nodded with a smile as I drew my sword "Of course my dude." We then charged in.
I started by helping Yang out with her tank as grimm were swarming her. All-be-it small fry grimm, so it wasn't too big of a hassle. Soon we all converged onto the final tank and destroyed it along with a fuck-ton of grimm.
We then moved on after all of the grimm stopped spawning. There were also like four mutated beowolfs but they were basically our bitches, by which I mean we did the same strategy as before, Split up, and when one died reinforce the others.
Merlot showed his fugly cyborg mug again.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't break my things." He sighed disappointingly, "Alas my androids will repair it in no time. This way please." A door then opened on the other side of the room and we all ran to it with our weapons drawn. We then ran into an elevator which took us down and to what Merlot called the Engineering wing.
"... The so-called 'brains' of the operation. If you don't count my intellect." He then chuckled to himself.
"Boo…" I said as I stabbed through a robot with a machine gun and grenade launcher.
"Oh like you can come up with a better joke." Merlot retorted.
I smirked at the screen "Is that a challenge?" I taunted.
Merlot sighed in an agitated way before stating "No, it was not. I'll just let the grimm and my androids finish you off. Oh and don't worry, there are no traps… yet."
I then pushed off said robot and connected my scroll onto a terminal "Hey Oz, got some more data for you!" I said into our comms.
"Ah excellent, send it to me. I'll need time to decrypt them, in the meantime hold off any incoming enemies." Ozpin ordered.
I nodded and turned to where my team was fighting. "Sounds like a plan." I said as I charged back into the fray helping Ruby out with a mutated beowolf. Eventually making it incapacitated and then killing it.
After that the door opened for us as Ruby shouted "Go team RWBY! Oh and Achilles."
I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "It's alright, it's hard coming up with a team name when there's more than four individuals."
"According to the data that I had acquired there should be some sensitive data just ahead of you" Ozpin said "be warned though, it might be heavily guarded."
I then proudly proclaimed "Let's go team!" Followed by the immediate sound of pain when I ran into steam.
Aaron sighed disappointingly "Why are you like this?"
I groaned as I sat back up and rubbed my head "What form of bullshit is this?"
"It's steam" Ruby deadpanned.
"I know it is, why did it knock me back?!" I said agitatedly.
"Because you're a lightweight." Weiss said.
I dropped my head with a mock look of sadness "You guys are cruel."
"Hey a vent." Yang said as she punched through it. "Let's see where it leads."
One question I've always had about the vents in this game, why are they human sized? Like surely the air doesn't need to have that much room. But I guess it was just the way they had to design it. Oh well, I can't complain too much. Considering we're now in the mainframe. I
turned to Aaron and gestured to the terminal "I did it the last two times your turn."
He sighed annoyed and pulled his scroll out "yeah yeah I got it." He then connected it to the terminal much to Merlot's surprise "Did you just-? Oh no… How could I be so stupid?"
I shrugged "Maybe don't keep all of your sensitive data in one place?"
"Moon, can you proxy your scroll over to me?" Oz said over our comms.
"I'm trying, but I'm not much of a hacker." Aaron replied
I nodded and turned to everyone else. "We'll have to defend him while he and Neo does that."
"Neopolitan is there?" Oz asked
"Long story Oz that Moon will be happy to explain once we get back." I said with a cruel smile.
"Go fuck yourself!" Yelled Aaron.
I simply shrugged at him. I then heard several mechanical stomps behind me. I turned around and saw that those robot fuckers are back again. Just the red and white ones, not the murderbot from earlier.
{Indestructible- Disturbed 0:23}
Keoth then stepped up. "Everyone, watch and learn." he said as he drew Justice. He then took aim at the robot in front of him. That bot hesitated for a moment, then it charged at him with its two bladed polearm. He then fired three consecutive shots to the chest and then slammed its head clean off causing it to fall to the floor.
I nodded with a smirk "Well then, we'll follow your lead." I said as he slammed his weapon against more and more while Aaron typed away. He then slid underneath a white bot and slammed his weapon against the back of the bot's leg making it kneel. "Achilles! Now!" he yelled.
"On it!" I replied as I sliced its head off.. He then went back to wreaking havoc upon the bots.
As we fought, the sounds of metal crunching echoed throughout the lab, which hurt my ears not gonna lie. With all the crunching, scratching, and general unpleasant noises.
But seeing him go into his badass montage with a smile on his face, it warms my heart knowing he's happy.
"Achilles!" Yelled Ruby
"I know." I said as I held my hand out.
She used her semblance and catapulted me to another bot to stab while Keoth crunched his probably 50th bot.
"Moon!" I yelled.
"What?" He replied.
"How we lookin'?" I asked.
"We're about 50% Should be another couple of minutes." He replied.
I always hated this level.
With Jaune it was cake because of his ability to amplify damage.
But we're not in a game right now so the next best thing would be to have Jaune amplify someone's aura with combat capabilities…
Hold on a moment these robots are made of metal… "Jaune! Amplify your girlfriend's aura!" I yelled.
He dragged his blade out of a robot then looked back at me "Are you sure it's a good idea to test it now?" He asked.
I intercepted a blade from a red bot as I heard Keoth crunch another bot "Just do it! They're all made of metal, Pyrrha I want you to use your semblance to throw them all around like the ragdolls they are!"
I couldn't tell but I think she nodded.
I looked back to see Jaune put his hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. She then used her semblance which not only picked up the bots, but also somehow managed to grab my gauntlets and boots too.
Note to self, get away when Pyrrha's semblance is amped. "Hey! I'm stuck!" I yelled for it to fall on deaf ears. She then crushed them all with me on the outside into a metal ball. She then noticed I was in there with them and stopped her semblance.
And lucky for her none of the robots managed to fall on me. Well one almost did but I rolled out of the way with seconds to spare. I then stood up and dusted my jacket.
"I'm sorry!" I heard her yell.
I waved back "I'm ok, but I now know to avoid you when your semblance is amped up."
We then continued our fight on as some managed to get near Aaron.
With Neo protecting him it almost felt unfair that he had that advantage. But she is a trained assassin, so I don't think she'll fall so easily. I then heard Aaron call out "95%!"
Which means that we're almost done here.
I gave a quick nod "Alright everyone, let's go all out!" I yelled as I slashed through the bot I was dealing with.
"Rip them apart already!" Merlot said aggressively. Suddenly more of the green exploding grimm appeared and I shot three or four as the rest of the team shot the ones I couldn't get.
Soon there were no more enemies. I looked back at Aaron "almost done?"
He nodded as he took out his scroll "Yep. 100 percent." he proudly proclaimed.
"Great job mr Shadow, looking at this full diagram it seems like I need you all to go further down into the manufacturing area if we are to stop Merlot in his tracks. Onward team!"
I shrugged "I guess we're about to have a final showdown." I said sheathing my sword. "Like a final boss of some sort."
Ruby looked on in glee "I hope it's a grimm! It's been a while since I hit something like a grimm. Crescent Rose's blade looks like it's bent a little." she said as she inspected her weapon.
"I'll take it to the smith to have it repaired once this mission is over. For now it'll have to suffice." I said with another shrug.
We then walked back to the elevator with Weiss commenting "Isn't it strange how convenient it's all been?"
I then gestured to Weiss "Thank you! Finally someone is pointing something out here!"
She joined my side and said "Like these elevators, some of the convenient caves we found ourselves in. A lot of it seems like it's too easy."
I nodded "So whatever is in manufacturing we should keep our weapons ready at all times correct?"
She nodded "Exactly!"
"I have to agree with her here." Yang said with her arms crossed "Things should never be this easy."
Blake nodded.
JNPR agreed with our statement.
As did Aaron, Keoth, and Rose.
"So we're all in agreement then, we're not letting ourselves be blindsided." I said to the group.
"Agreed" They all said at the same time.
We then got on the elevator and I hit the button for the Manufacturing wing. The door then shut and we were on our way down.
