Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Mansion of Frozen Blood Ch 2
Lan sat in his chair, staring down at the ground as the people around him ran around in a flurry, feeling more worthless than he had in ages. After returning to the inn, he had reported his findings to everyone else, altering some details so that Momonga and Sammy wouldn't have to get around Lan talking to ghosts. He had instead told them that he'd followed a lead he'd bribed from a city guardsman and then the stench of decay to find the cave. After Byakko and Momonga had confirmed the location, they began investigating further. With the exception of Byakko, who began digging his way through the concrete wall at the end of the cave, the rest of the team began looking into this ' '.
"Hey, cheer up kid" said Suzanna as she set a large bowl of hot soup in front of him "You did all you could, and from what you said the girl seemed to be really grateful that you tried…Sometimes that's all we can do."
Lan nodded despondently as he shoved a spoonful of beet and fish into his mouth. A short time later, everyone reconvened in a private back room that Suzanna had prepared for them. Momonga had initially asked her to stay out of it in case trouble was brought to her establishment, but in response she said: "Oh screw that, this is the most exciting that that's happened around here is a while. I gotta get some blood pumping in this old body or I'll end up a wrinkly old prune. "
Making a half circle around the fire pit they began to share information.
"Luckily, it seems as though there is only 1 doctor Celsus in town" started Momonga "Dr. Pellis J. Celsus, Director and Head researcher of a Biomedical Science subsidiary of the Schnee Dust company. He owns the largest mansion complex at the back of uptown and he's known for his philanthropy and cutting-edge research…as well as being in Jacques Schnee's back pocket."
"It always comes back to him" said Sammy, who shook his head in disappointment.
"And based on the state of the corpses we found; the individuals were subjected to horrible experimental procedures. Dr. Celsus would have access to the necessary facilities and resources to do so…" Momonga closed his eyes for a moment and sighed before turning his attention to Byakko
"Byakko, what have you found on your end?" asked Momonga "Getting through a wall of concrete of unspecified thickness without collapsing the caverns must have been—"
"Dug through it in 3 minutes" said Byakko who brushed some rubble off his shoulder. As Momonga stared at him with his mouth still open "Woulda been done in 3 seconds if we didn't need to keep the cavern intact. Anyways, it led to a snowy plain where there was small path that someone had covered up really well. But I was able to follow it no problem, had to go through a few collapsed tunnels and buried caves, but I finally ended up in Uptown at the end of it. Looks like the bodies came from there."
"And from what I've found on social media by cross-referencing instances of Faunus labor being solicited by local businesses for more than the usual pittance with the companies that own the businesses using an algorithm I wrote, I found that there are dozens of subsidiaries of Celsus's company doing so. " said Sammy. "I'm currently uncertain if this is linked to the recent disappearances, but from what evidence we've found I'd say it's highly likely that Celsus is our man."
"Right, so now we bust into his place and wreck his shit while getting all the people out." said Byakko who stood up while punching his fist into his palm.
"No, we have no idea if Dr. Celsus still has more of the workers hidden away somewhere" said Momonga "Even someone of your great capabilities couldn't search through that entire complex, and find every last hiding spot, hidden room, or hidden terminal before Celsus became aware. And at that point he may terminate the people he's holding to hide the evidence. Besides, we'll need more evidence if we want him taken down for good. If we cause havoc in there and find nothing, it'll just generate a platform for the Schnee company to use against the Faunus community."
"Besides, you've been too active these last few years" said Chiyo who took Byakko's hand in hers. "Meng's planetwide wards can only do so much to prevent you from becoming known to the public, or even worse to those two."
Byakko grunted, then let out a sigh as Momonga and Sammy gave him quizzical stares. "All those ancient convents are well and good till shit like this happens. Take note of that if you ever want to join our side boy…Boy?"
He turned to look down had Lan who hadn't said a single word during the entire conversation. The boy was just sitting there limply as he stared down at the ground.
"Hey, Lan" Byakko grabbed Lan by the shoulder and gave the boy a shake. The boy looked up weakly at his grandpa.
"Uh yeah?" he said, as if half in a daze. "Oh, uh right the discussion...uh…do you think he'll be bringing in more people? Would be bad if we got caught having to split up our forces between a new arrival and those being held there."
Despite the good point the boy brought up, everyone could tell from the edges of his scrunched-up face that he didn't have his heart in the conversation. Byakko looked at the boy, then slapped his own leg and stood up.
"Okay, you guys start planning without us" said Byakko, who grabbed Lan and lifted the boy up under his arm "The boy and I will go see if we can dig up some more useful information."
"Uh, no grandpa I'm—" started Lan.
"Can you really look me in the eye and tell me that you can focus on this stuff right now? That you're okay?" Byakko sharply looked down at the boy with a gaze that could stop a bull in its tracks.
"…No" said Lan who sighed and looked down, "No…I'm not."
Byakko grunted and nodded his head "We'll call Sammy's scroll when we're done, and if you need us you can call Lan's."
"Now don't worry boy" said Byakko as he carried Lan out the door "It's not that I don't have any faith in you. I know that you'll bounce back from this as you've done before, and be stronger than you were before. Especially after you think about all the little things you could have differently, found ways to fix what you would able to change, and accepted what you couldn't. But at present time you'll just bog everyone down with your moodiness. Best just to get some work done, and then think about it when you got time."
"Yeah, I guess you're right grandpa" said Lan as he was carried outside into the snow. The boy took a deep breath and closed his eyes, pushing down the growing gloom in his breast as much as he could before opening his eyes and jumping onto the ground. "But where are we going to search? Haven't you already finished your investigations so far?"
"Oh, I finished with all parts that didn't involve me interacting with anyone." Said Byakko with a smile "But one thing I've learned in my long life is that there's always a local weasel in any town or city that usually keeps all the information about the comings and goings of everything in town. And I think we'd benefit from a little conversation with them."
"Oh, do you know who it is?" asked Lan
"Nope!" said Byakko with a confident smile "I mean me and Suzanna knew the one 50 years ago, but I hear he got eaten by a shark a few years ago…or was it an aquatic Grimm…Grimm shark? Well anyways we gotta find the new one from scratch."
"…Bar?" asked Lan who raised an eyebrow.
"Bar" responded Byakko, who nodded his head.
5 destroyed bars, 10 annihilated gangs, and 2 dissolved syndicates later, Lan and Byakko found themselves standing in front of a rundown wooden warehouse.
"Okay, according to the guy you forced a mechanical fish into, this is where the best informant in town is" said Lan as he rubbed his face with a moist towel to remove the ash and bloodstains. As he was doing so however he felt his feet lift off the ground as a huge gust of a wind blew around him along with the sound of various things being broken and the occasional scream of pain. When he finally nervously removed the towel from his face, he found that he was no longer standing in front of the ware house in town, but was standing at the top of the glacier wall that surrounded the whole town. And standing in front of him, with one hand in a fist and placed on his hip and the other hand holding a man in a suit by the ankle dangling over the edge, was his Grandfather.
"This is highly unnecessary" said the man who was doing a good job of hiding his fear and alarm as he kept his hand on his black bowler hat to prevent it from falling off. "My men already told me you would be coming to see me, and after I heard about your capabilities, I was prepared to meet all your demands. Now especially since I have seen you in action."
The man looked down and made a dry swallow.
"Good to hear" said Byakko, who then pulled the man back and chucked him on the ground.
Slowly getting up while being careful not to slip on the ice, the man brushed himself off and looked up at the two in front of him, then looked around to finally take stock of where they were.
"Well, I wouldn't be against divulging the information you seek right here, but I assembled a very nice reception back at my office. Good food, fine drink, and I'd have direct access to all my files so I could report the information to you with more certainty." Said the man.
Byakko looked over at Lan, who shrugged his shoulders.
"Alright" said Byakko who grabbed them both by the shoulder "Close your eyes and hold your breath."
"Wha—" started the man.
"Trust me just do it" said Lan who had already closed his eyes. A few torrential moments later Lan found himself with a soft a cushion beneath his now sitting tush. He opened his eyes and found himself in a lavishly decorated office. Byakko was sitting next to him and downing a whole bottle of whiskey, and across from them on the other side of the desk was the informant man who was looking quite winded and disheveled as he sprawled across his armchair.
"Why wasn't there a sonic boom?" asked Lan.
"A secret technique of mine" said Byakko
"Boss!" cried a muscular woman as she barreled into the room with several others through the door that Byakko had most likely…no, definitely broken. "Are you—"
"STOP!" shouted the informant as he stood up and eyed Byakko warily. "Just…please leave for now. My associates and I will call you if we need anything else."
"But—" started the woman.
"No buts, I already told you what to do earlier. Follow. Your. Orders."
The woman paused, gave Lan and Byakko a questioning look, then nodded and walked out the door with the rest of the guards, setting the broken door back into its frame as best she could after the last person left.
"Well then, I believe introductions are in order" said the man as he straightened out his suit. "My name is Marrone Donnola, I am the head of Dark Weasel intel gathering services."
"Byakko" said Byakko as he finished his third bottle of whiskey.
"Lan" said Lan as he dropped some of the h'ordourves into his poison testing kit as he contemplated the irony of the organization being name after a weasel.
"Ah, careful huh kid? I respect that." Said Marrone "So, what can I do for you two today?"
"We would like any information regarding the missing Faunus workers in the area as well as any possible connection they might have to Doctor Pellis J. Celsus." Said Lan, who finally popped one of the snacks into his mouth.
"Ah! Him, well, you've come to the right place" said Marrone who readjusted his hat before leaning down and pulling some files out of his drawer. "He's the richest man in town, unless his boss Jacques is visiting, and there's always money to be made peddling information to and on people like that. But to my surprise, after the first couple inquiries from interested parties the market for dirt on the man completely dried up. Now, as expected this only stoked my curiosity on the matter, so I devoted more of my resources to uncovering any intel that may prove lucrative."
He pushed some documents over to Lan.
"He tried to keep all his underground deals secret, but I know how to find the dirt no matter how much he tries to keep his shoes clean."
Lan began looking through the documents as Marrone began explaining their contents.
"In the early days, Celsus brought a lot of medical equipment to his estate under the pretext of personally tuning them before being shipped to one of the medical facilities he runs, however some of my men noticed that the trucks that were supposedly carrying medical equipment out of his manor were sitting lower than they were before. So, I had an ops team covertly check out the contents, and low and behold all they found was a bunch of dirt and rubble. Ever since then I've had my operatives check the contents whenever they could. And we've found that there's been a large number of construction and medical supplies going in, and a massive amount of rubble coming out. You ask me, he did some huge secret construction under his manor complex. And where there's a huge secret." Marrone leaned back in his chair and placed his hands behind his head "There's money to be made, so I have my people keep regular tabs, and from the looks of it my investment will be paying out soon enough."
"That's probably where he's holding any people he's abducted" said Lan, "But that manor is huge and the entrance is likely to be hidden, we'd need a large number of people searching the whole area in order to find it."
"Or I could just tunnel my way in" said Byakko as he finished the last bottle of whiskey, to the amazement of Marrone.
"No, there's a chance you could set off whatever security system they put in place or even collapse the whole area" said Lan "And I'm not sure how much more attention you can draw to yourself."
"Well, I might have an in for ya" said Marrone as he lit up and puffed a cigar "Long as you two do something for me in return."
"Right then" said Byakko who menacingly got up as Lan pit out the cigar with an ice dust tipped throwing needle "Any last words before I reach my hand up your ass and tear out your anal sphincter?"
"W-Wait wait" said Marrone who held up both his hands as he scooted back in his chair "N-now it's nothing that you'll have to go out of your way to do. I just want you to bring me any files or private hard drives that you find. It could benefit you in the long run too! A large-scale Faunus trafficking ring like this must have operations all over, and they may just try to find different buyers if you shut down your employer. I can use that info to help you find them, and of course pocket a pretty penny on my end while doing it. Come on! No harm in working together right?"
"We've got a great hacker on our side" said Lan.
"I'm sure you do, but do they have experience dealing with underworld information and picking out the smallest clues and discrepancies in order to find new leads? Not to mention having to deal with information brokers in other regions and make the kind of dirty deals that this kind of operation needs?" Said Marrone.
Lan narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, then said "We'll consider it."
"That's all I ask" said Marrone as he let out a relieve sigh and leaned back while holding up his hands. "Now getting into the manor complex is actually going to be pretty easy in the coming week."
He pulled out a remote and turned on a screen behind him showing an image of Jacquess Schnee shaking hands with a scruffy bespectacled man that Lan believed to be Celsus.
"Celsus, always the ass kisser he is, has convinced Jacquess Schnee to hold his daughter's birthday party at the Celsus mansion complex." Said Marrone, who began flipping through slides. "Apparently the rich asshole was too busy with a business deal to acquire some new dust mines, so Celsus stepped forwards to offer his time and more importantly his money to host the party. Spared no expense to make sure that every news station in Atlas is there to make Weiss look adorable and as a result make the company look better. And it just so happens that they hired one of the best eccentric theater troupes in all of Atlas to perform for and with her during the party. And luckily for us, this troupe insisted on traveling by land to perform at every town along the way before arriving here. If someone were to say, oh I don't know, switch themselves with the troupe, they could get a whole bunch of people past the outer security walls."
He stopped to drink a glass of water, since Byakko had already drunk all the alcohol in the room, then asked if they had any questions so far.
"When did you prepare this?" asked Lan, who pointed to the presentation.
"While we were talking in the beginning" said Marrone "I can multitask, that's why I make the big bucks. But moving on, if we can intercept the theater troupe en route and subdue them before they can call for help, we can sneak people from both our sides in for the search. And you will be wanting my people, since I'm sure none of yours have been practicing the orchestral ensembles needed to fool the party goers."
"Okay, sounds good so far" said Lan "Anything else we need to know?"
"Yes, now the people we sneak in will be able to search the more general areas, but for the more secure areas we'll be needing someone with VIP access…and thankfully."
"You have an in" said Lan
"Bingo! Give the boy a prize" said Marrone as he whipped out a letter and chucked it onto the table.
"That there is an invitation to Gentianna Wald, heiress to the Wald construction company who was supposed to make her first public appearance at the party. However, due to a family problem, she won't be attending…too bad that the cancellation they sent was intercepted beforehand, which just so happened to have the invitation they had received tucked inside. Now, as one of the prestigious guests, someone posing as the young Gentianna could probably enter almost any room in the main building. But since there would only be one person, we'd need to pick someone extremely competent to fill the role. Sadly, none of the competent people under my employ can take on the role of a young prepubescent girl, so we'll have to leave that role to you."
"Uh, well we might have trouble on that end to" said Lan "How old is Gentianna?"
"She turned 11 two months ago" said Marrone.
"Well, I don't think we can help you there" said Lan "Fuji's too young, and Grandma looks too old…wow that feels weird saying since she actually looks so…young."
Lan had just noticed his grandfather staring at him, his mouth stretched ear to ear in a toothy horrifying smile.
"Say, Lan, why don't the two of go…A-CLOTHES SHOPPING~~~~?" said the old man with unnerving exuberance. "OH! Or better yet, why don't we have Chiyo make something NICE for you?"
Quickly realizing his grandfather's intentions, Lan scooted back into his chair so hard that he and it fell backwards onto the floor.
"No…No grandpa, please" said Lan with a trembling voice, as he began crawling away in panic "I barely have any confidence in my masculinity already!"
"Oh, don't worry boy" said Byakko as he slowly got up and began to slowly and menacingly walk towards Lan who scrambling away from him, "Dressing in drag can actually bring out a guy's manliness if done right. Oh! But you'll be needing a drag name…How's Gentianna sound?"
"no" choked Lan as his fear reached its peak "NOOOOOOOOO!"
The boy bolted out of the room as fast as his four limbs could carry him, and was out dashing down the street seconds later.
"Uhh" started Marrone.
"We'll be in touch" said Byakko who then turned to the door. "But really boy? Hehehehe, You're trying to run from me?"
The same thought crossed Lan's mind at almost the same time as he ran down the street.
"Wait, is there really a chance that I can actually esc—"
"Don't be scared, I'm sure you'll look great in a dress!" came Byakko's booming voice from far behind him.
Freaked out, Lan instinctively put on an extra burst of speed as he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the voice. Sadly, for him, in his panic he didn't notice a sheet of black ice. Stepping on it, he lost his balance but was quickly able to catch himself by swinging his other foot to the other end of the ice…landing in a pothole and tripping himself even further, spiraling into the air. Carried forwards by his own momentum, the boy found himself sailing over the safety railing of the cliffside and plummeting down towards the fjord below.
But no sooner did Lan prepare to break his fall, then did a dark shadow fall over him. Nervously looking over his shoulder he saw his grandfather right above him, the old man's arms and legs spread wide and his face twisted into a horrifying open mouth smile of exuberance. The boy was then was seized in an unbreakable grip by an enormous set of hairy hands, pinning his arms to his sides and immobilizing him.
"Ah, falling together towards icy water possibly filled with shard rocks below. It's been a whole month since we've done something like this!" said Byakko with a cheery smile as he pulled Lan to his hairy chest "But what say we mix things up today?"
A clanking sound similar to a metallic shuttle hanger door opening filled the air as Byakko's butt cheeks slowly spread apart and a strange glow slowly began to appear in…the area between.
"Noooooo" whispered Lan in a weak, resigned sigh.
"YEEESSSSSS!" said Byakko as his face split into an enormous smile as the sound of what sounded like a particle cannon charging began to emanate from the glow in the back of his pants. The two fell through the air as the charging sound gradually grew louder and louder. Then, the moment they two were about to hit water.
'BOOOM' 'PLLLLLBBBBBBBTTTTTTTT'
"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed Byakko as the two of them were propelled across the surface of the fjord by the compressed air of his fart gas, leaving a yellowish-brown cloud in their wake.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Lan who wasn't sure what he was scared of, but was terrified nonetheless.
On the other side of the fjord, near the lower end, an old man on a small fishing boat slowed pulled in his net and sighed as he viewed his meager catch.
"Guess I won't be eating ton—" he paused as he noticed something approaching him "what the heck is—"
'PLBBBTTTT'
Before he could finish the sentence, the boy and grandfather shot past him, covering him and his boat in a foul odor.
"AGGHHUUUGHHH" choked the man as he recoiled from the foul odor, tears streaming down his face. "WHYYY! 'sobbing' ugh, this day just gets—"
At that moment, dozens of incapacitated fish floated to the top of the water. The man stared at them for a moment, then grabbed his net
"Better and Better" he said with a grin, his eyes still watering from the odor.
As the two approached the shoreline, the intensity of Byakko's fart gas slowly began to taper off, sometimes pausing here and there causing his but to skim water, then beach, and finally pavement as the last of the gas sputtered out. The two of them then skidded through the door of Suzanna's in, Byakko still hold Lan to his chest as his as slid across the floor on his ass and coming to a stop in front of Chiyo.
"Honey! Prepare your finest dress for this young man!" shouted Byakko as he stood Lan up and placed the shaking boy in front of her. "We must turn him into a belle of the ball!"
"Ooooh, fun!" said Chiyo as she smiled and playfully clapped her hands. "I can try some new designs!"
"I'll go get the corsets!" said Suzanna who giddily skipped to the storage room.
"Grandma, please" said Lan who smiled awkwardly "You don't really want to go to the trouble of making me a dress from scratch right?"
"Oh of course not dear" said Chiyo, causing Lan to let out a relieved sigh, which soon caught in his throat as she continued "I've already got one mostly made."
"Give it up boy" said Byakko, who patted him on the back. "Submit! And dress in drag for the greater good!"
"Right, the greater good" said Lan, who closed his eyes and began crying as Chiyo pulled out a measuring tape.
At the same time in a dark room
A man was strapped to what appeared to be a surgical table, and had countless different instruments stuck into his body. Surrounding him were countless machines and surgical tools. This was the only area lit up by a large spotlight above the setup, while the rest of the area was bathed in shadow, with only a few lights here and there indicating machines in the distance.
"Commencing test for drug combination DR84" came a voice from the dark area surrounding the table.
The man on the table struggled futilely against his bonds as multiple mechanical arms connected to syringes extended from the machines near him and proceeded to puncture him in several areas all over his body. A white cloudy liquid was then fed through the tubes and injected into him as tears of fear and desperation streamed down his face.
"Subject appears to be stable" came the voice again as the syringes retracted. "Preparing for extended observation."
Things stayed quiet for several minutes after that, but then the man on the table suddenly began convulsing. His skin turned a bright red color as white liquid began to leak out of his eyes, ears and nose.
"Beginning collection of data on bodily rejection" came the voice again. A few minutes later the man on the table stopped moving. "Cardiac arrest observed, termination of subject acknowledged, activate corpse removal protocol."
The man the voice originated from, then let out a sigh as several figures appeared from the dark and removed the corpse from the table.
"Another failure huh J?" came a different gruffer voice. "I think we had to go through like Fifty of those Faunus before we got that drug ready for human testing."
"We were closer this time though" responded the first voice "The data indicates that the DNA alteration procedure managed to progress up to 83.256% completion before the body rejected the serum. I just need more time to reduce the rejection of the vectors."
"But we're running short on time" said the second voice "It's gotta be ready by next week. No telling when we'll get another opportunity, especially since we've started experimenting on humans too. People will actually notice them going missing."
"I know, I know Hide" said the first voice "If we get caught before we complete the project everything, we've worked for up till now will be for nothing. All the resources we've used, all the time we spent, all the lives sacrificed…this needs to succeed."
"You sure we shouldn't have waited a bit more?" came the second voice in response. "Perfected the drug on them Faunus before starting the human testing?"
"You know as well as I do this is a once in a lifetime chance" said the first voice "If not for that bastard being wrapped up in some other business, he would never have given me this chance…You know how he keeps everything on a short leash."
The first voice then let out a tired sigh "How about things on your end. Have you managed to establish any kind of deal with General Ironwood?"
"Afraid it's still in the beta stage" said the second voice "They wanna see actual results before they'll let us talk to the big man himself."
"Well, at least we're doing well on that end" said the first voice. A button was pressed and another area of the darkness was lit up, revealing row after row of incubation pods, each containing the silhouette of some kind of humanoid creature. "They should be ready for their field test within the week."
"Then we'll finally get what we've always wanted" said the second voice.
"No, not unless we get the DNA serum to work" said the first voice "No matter how much power or money we get, it'll all be meaningless if we can't get it to work...Bring in the next subject, so we can test the next drug formula."
The man hidden in the shadows reached forwards and picked up a picture on his desk.
"Don't worry sweetheart, daddy's coming to save you" said the man as he stroked a picture of Weiss Schnee.
Sorry that took so long, but I'm really losing my fire these days. Currently waiting on the graduate school applications I sent to start a more useful life. I know I won't be happy, but I'm not happy anyways so I'll at least be useful.
But if I do finally run out of the vigor needed to write these, I'll post a summary of everything that would have happened so you'll know the rest of Lan's story.
I really don't have hope that anyone from CRWBY will read this anymore, even less that they might adopt it for canon. I guess it really would be insolent of me to think that.
