Chapter 14: The Crimes of Kristopher
At Schnee Dust Company headquarters, Ironwood was currently looking at the newest recruits training with rifles on the shooting range, and looked over at the training fields where Jaune was teaching sword fighting. It brought a smile to his face seeing that, a much better sight than his betrayal of Mantle many years ago. He was very lucky to have been pardoned after his mistakes, but he took his mistakes and turned them around to making Atlas loved again. He walked down the hall to his office when he heard someone calling him. He pulled out his scroll and opened it. "Hello?" "Ironwood, it's Winter." "Winter? What's going on? I thought the tournament was still going on." "Have you not been watching the news, sir? The tournament was attacked by Hybrids." "What?!" he yelled. "Our checkpoint soldiers were also killed, and our technology was taken down, but not with any kind of devices we could discover. I need you to look in the database and see if any employees have had any bad history with Atlas or with anyone at all." "You got it." he hung up with Winter, walked into his office and started searching through the database on his computer. Winter put her scroll away, and growled, almost crushing her scroll in her grip. "Miss Schnee, please don't stress out!" Penny said. "We'll figure this out, I promise you." Winter sighed, and nods. "Thank you." "And besides that, these enemies will be scared of you. You're the Winter Maiden. Even some of the worst gangs here are scared of you." "Yes, i know that, Penny. It's just that i've been constantly tricked. My armies and soldiers are some of the best, and these Black Riders are making a mockery of me. Even more than the White Fang." "Well, I think we'll be able to….how i've heard some people say, get back in the saddle, Miss Schnee. Just as soon as Ironwood gives us some information." At that moment, Winter's scroll started ringing again, and she answered. "Yes, Ironwood?" "You were right. One of our scientists from the same department of Penny's father went missing a long time ago, about a year or 2, and stole a lot of information on Penny's designs. His name is Kristopher Render. He's…...my god, he's a distant cousin of Arthur Watts." Ironwood said. "That would make sense. What else?" "Well, listen to this list. Illegal weapons manufacturing, slave labor with both humans and Faunus, theft of science equipment and secret information from all kingdoms, and…" Penny and Winter looked at each other in concern. "And what, General?" "...over 500 counts of murder." the two girls gasped. "That's even more than Cinder's count." Winter said. "Yes, and here's the kicker. Apparently, he took the name of one of our former employees that died during the Fall of Beacon, and used it to purchase an old science laboratory in Argus. I'll take a team with me to check the lab out. You two continue helping out in Vale." "Yes sir." Penny said. Ironwood rounded up a group of warriors, Jaune included, and took an airship, heading towards the location of the laboratory in Argus. They flew over the city, landing in the middle of the forest. "Alright men. The laboratory should be somewhere around here. We need to find it and figure out what Dr. Kristopher was working on for the Black Riders." the soldiers nodded. "Yes sir!" they yelled. "Jaune, you take your team around the back. We'll take the front." "Yes sir." Jaune said. The teams split up and covered the building, breaking into the laboratory. Jaune and his group looked around the back, the room appearing to be a storage room that was full science equipment, notes, and broken computers. "What?" Jaune said, walking over to the main computer, and tried turning it on, but as soon as it did, Kristopher's face appeared on the screen, a hand waving his finger at the screen. "Ah ah ah. You didn't say the magic work." "Damn….he hacked into the computers so we couldn't figure out what he was planning or doing." "Sir, you're gonna want to come take a look at this!" Jaune heard one of his soldiers say. He walked down a stairwell, walking up to a giant glass tank filled with a green liquid. "What is that?" he said. "No idea. But i think i can make the glass more see through. Let me see." the soldier got on a computer, and the liquid started becoming more clear, revealing something inside. It looked like a person, but the skin was all black. "Who is….oh my gods…"
Ironwood was investigating the front with his team, hoping to find more evidence of what was going on. But just like the back, the whole place was abandoned, nothing but files and broken equipment around. "This cannot be happening…..we've been set on a wild goose chase. Nothing here but a bunch of god damn broken equipment!" he kicked a computer that was broken on the floor. He sits on the desk, sighing, putting his hands on his face in frustration. "Uh, sir…..you might wanna take a look at this." one of his soldiers said, who handed him a file with a bunch of notes and pictures full of information on the Arachnids. "This….doesn't make sense. Why destroy all the information here except for what we need?" Ironwood said. Jaune walked up from the basement with his team, wiping his eyes. "Because he's been doing more than just simple experiments with Grimm." "What do you mean? And why were you crying?" Jaune cleared his throat. "It's….because of this." he moved out of the way, someone walking up the stairs, standing in the middle of the room. "Hello!" Ironwood dropped the file, papers spreading all around the floor, looking at the person in shock. "Oh my god….."