RWBY: Book of Thieves
The Menace in the Machine – Lab Cat
With sunset quickly approaching, the building and alleyways cast larger shade, making it easier for Blake to move around the town than she had that morning with Ruby. With trained camouflage and silent footsteps, she slipped past the henchmen patrolling the streets like a living shadow. One could argue that she could have worn the uniform she had swiped from Watts's elite guard, but Blake didn't know if Watts's special forces were usually seen on the street, or even in town in general. So instead of risking suspicion, she decided to get around town the old-fashioned way.
Besides, It's much more satisfying sneaking past clueless guards.
Blake crouched next to a dumpster in the middle of a narrow alleyway that was, for some reason, filled with rotting fish, much to her displeasure – what kind of a monster wastes a good fish? On her back, she carried a large duffel bag hiding the elite guard uniform. From her hiding spot, the cat Faunus narrowed her focus on the entrance to Laboratory 6.
Unlike the security station, which had been hidden underneath a rotting café, the entrance to the lab looked to have once been an old pharmacy that had only recently been refurbished. The wooden paneling looked now and the windows appeared to have been recently washed, providing a small look of the few stocked shelves within. It seemed rather strange that Watts would spare the money to only renovate this building while leaving the rest of the town to rot, but Blake supposed that since this was the main base for his experiments that he wanted it to seems as important as he believes himself to be.
"Weiss, I'm outside the pharmacy building," said Blake, touching the communicator in her ear. "Looks like Watts spared no effort in sprucing the place up a bit. Definitely stands out compared to the rest of the town."
"Figures that egomaniac would only bother spend anything on himself," said Weiss with a disgusted scoff. "At least his egotism makes it easy for us to find. With that guard uniform you stole from Watts's goons, you should be able to slip inside without much resistance; that's considering whether or not Watts has found out that one of his guards is missing yet. Once you're inside, your communicator should still work, but you'll be walking in blind. I can't help you until navigate the lab until you establish a wireless connection.
"And all I need to do is find the server room without letting one know who I am," said Blake.
"Once I'm inside the lab's mainframe, I can download the layout of the building," said Weiss. "From there, I can direct you around the laboratory to where Watts is probably hiding all the good stuff."
"It's funny how similar this is to the day when we first met," said Blake with an amusing smile.
"When you impersonated my father's secretary without him realizing it until Xiao Long tugged your bow off," said Weiss humorously; Blake nearly laughed when she heard the hacker snort. "How we ever managed to escape an army of armed soldiers, I will never figure out. But let's focus on the current issue: getting inside Watts's laboratory and finding out what he's hiding. With any luck, we'll find something highly illegal that will give my sister a good reason to throw this monster behind bars."
"And find a way to get up to that ship," said Blake, tilting her head back to the airship floating above town. "I just need to change and then I'll head inside."
"Remember, there's no guarantee that your current disguise will get you clearance into everything," Weiss reminded her. "If need be, you'll need to switch places with someone on the inside, likely one of the scientists. Tell me once you've inserted the wireless uplink to the server room's main terminal and I can start digging for anything incriminating. Shouldn't be too hard."
Blake cut off the communicator, pulled the duffel bag around up front, unzipped it, and pulled out the special forces uniform. The disguise was still loose around her arms and legs – the previous owner had a lot more muscle mass – but was very tight around "bella-booty" as Yang insistently calls it. She tucked her long hair into the neck hole before jamming the helmet on her head, feeling around to make sure that none of them were exposed. Satisfied with her appearance, Blake pulled out the laser rifle that came with the uniform, squared her shoulders, and marched purposely across the street toward the pharmacy.
A small bell jingled above her head when she opened the door and stepped inside. Blake had to admit that Watts did a good job disguising the place; it looked just like a regular old-fashioned pharmacy. Plain-colored painted walls, six to eight shelves stocked with pain relievers, bandages, antibiotics – all things you would see at a regular drugs store. Blake absently wondered how many of these shelves would be empty after Yang was finished with her mission at the Salty Dog.
A burly-looking Englishman was sitting at the counter, looking largely out of place with his gigantic stature and colorful array of skull-themed and risqué tattoos covering both arms. He had been reading what looked to be a very inappropriate magazine when he glanced at Blake out of the corner of her eye. The man immediately sat up straight, throwing the magazine out of sight, and sputtered, "Uh – uh – 'ello there, chap. What can I do you for?"
"A surprise inspection," Blake responded, lowering her voice to sound more masculine. "After the alarm scare earlier today, Dr. Watts wants to make sure that everything is up to code and that everyone is doing their job right. And I do mean everyone," she added menacingly, leaning closer to the shopkeeper for emphasis.
"B-B-But no one said anything 'bout an inspection," the shopkeeper stammered. "If we 'ad known – "
"It's called a 'surprise inspection' for a reason," Blake spoke harshly. "Now, are you going to let me in, or should I call the doctor and explain why I'm being delayed? What was your name again? I wanna know who to blame when he starts snarling."
"No, no, anything but that!" the burly man cried. What did Watts do to make them so terrified, Blake wondered. "'ere, let me get that for you – "
The shopkeeper scampered to the back of the store – Blake walked around the counter to follow at an even pace – and stopped in front of what appeared to be a blank wall. The shopkeeper then pushed a section of the wall up to reveal a set of elevator call button. As he pushed the down button, the blank wall next to them opened from the middle and slid sideways, unveiling a sleek-looking futuristic elevator behind it. Blake resisted the urge to say how cliché the whole thing was and stepped inside quietly. She turned around and looked at the panel on the side; there was only one button, so Blake obviously pressed that one. The elevator doors closed in the nervous shopkeeper's face and Blake felt the elevator move beneath her feet. The cat Faunus let out a relieved sigh.
"Thank Oum he didn't call my bluff," said Blake. "He was really afraid of Watts. Is the guy really that terrifying?"
"Based on his profile, he doesn't seem like a physical threat, especially compared to the numbskulled goons he's hired," said Weiss. "But the types of human experiments he's done over the years is enough to make even Xiao Long flinch. I would definitely recommend not getting caught."
"Thanks for pointing out the obviously, captain," said Blake sarcastically.
"No one likes a sassy cat – well, maybe Xiao Long, but not me," said Weiss; Blake could imagine her rolling her eyes. "Are you still wearing those computerized contact lens?"
"The gold ones that Yang likes," said Blake, smirking.
The feline Faunus blinked three times in rapid succession. Several computer windows suddenly appeared within her vision that only she could see; a heartbeat monitor in the upper left corner, visual communication wavelength in the upper right, a steady stream of data on the lower left, and a motion sensing radar in the lower right. Blake's gaze immediately fell on the radar, taking note that more than dozen blips flashed on the sonar, getting steadily larger as she rode the elevator down.
"I can never get over how amazing these things are," said Blake, sounding almost excited. "It feels like I'm in a Batman video game."
"Just make sure not to break them or get them wet," said Weiss warningly; the wavelength in Blake's vision fluctuated with each word. "Do you know how much those things cost?"
"We didn't pay for them," Blake retorted, raising a brow underneath her helmet. "You and Ruby stole them from an Atlas Research and Development base is Saskatchewan."
"I know, but do you know how much they cost?" Weiss hissed, making Blake's ears twitch. "I can see everything you see through the lenses' camera and supply you with information to blend in, but I still need you to get to the server room to upload the information." The elevator shuddered to a stop and they heard a soft ding! "Put on your best acting face, cause it's showtime."
The elevator doors opened and Blake stepped out into what looked like the lobby of an office building. There was a waiting area with chrome chairs and a glass table, a front desk with a bored-looking woman – which was a surprise in and of itself – tapping away listlessly on a computer, and the wall behind her had a giant, stylized "W" nailed to it; as if Watts's ego wasn't big enough, Blake thought. The feline Faunus stiffened her back and marched across the lobby until she stood at the front desk. The secretary didn't seem to notice her – or maybe she just didn't care, to be honest – so Blake let out a loud coughing noise that finally dragged the woman's lifeless eyes away from the computer screen.
"Can I help you?" she asked in a slow, drawling voice. How dead inside was this woman, Blake wondered.
"Surprise inspection," said Blake, using her deep voice again. "Need to make sure the place is up to code after the false alarm earlier."
"Do you have an appointment?" asked the secretary, and Blake actually did a double-take.
"Um…this is a surprise inspection," Blake said with emphasis. "The whole point of a surprise inspection is so that the people on the job don't know we're coming."
"So you don't have an appointment?" asked the secretary again.
"No, I – " Blake sputtered incoherently, facepalming herself and dragging the hand down her visor. "Look, Dr. Watts personally sent me to check the place out and make sure it's running properly. Now unless you want to call him up and explain to him why the inspection is being delayed, I would kindly ask that you tell me the way to the central terminal."
"One moment, please," said the secretary blandly. She picked up the phone and quickly dialed a number, waiting until the other side picked up. "Yes, this is laboratory 6. Could you please connect me to Dr. Watts?"
Panic began to rise in Blake's stomach; she thought her bluff would have held up a second time. Dozens of plans began swirling inside Blake's head, most of them involved incapacitating of the secretary and wrenching the phone out of her hand. Before Blake could decide which technique would be most useful, one of the side doors opened up and a portly man with a thick, graying beard wearing a lab coat walked into the lobby. He was heavily scrutinizing something on his electronic pad when he looked up and spotted Blake in her elite uniform twitching nervously at the front desk.
The portly man gave a surprised yelp, shuffled up to Blake, and said, "Good lord, what is one of Dr. Watts's personal guard doing down here? Is everything all right? Is there trouble? Is this about the alarm earlier? We're still investigating the cause of it, if the doctor is wondering."
Blake computerized contact lenses scanned the newcomer's facial pattern, transmitting a steady flow of data back to Weiss's personal computer back at the base. A moment later, the window in the bottom left corner popped up and presented an image of the man along with list of personal information under the name of "Dr. Abner Taupe".
"Blake, that's Dr. Taupe, one of the leading experts in bioengineering," Weiss informed her over the communicator. "He went missing two years ago after conference in Germany where he presented the idea of replacing failing organs with electronic prosthesis, which, incidentally, was part of the same field of research that Dr. Watts was working on. You know, before he snapped his twig and started mutilating people into cyborgs."
"Says he's here for a surprise inspection," the bored-looking secretary droned, cupping a hand over the phone's receiver. "I was just calling the doctor to confirm – "
"Miss Marsh, if one of Dr. Watts's personal guards has shown up, then obviously he would have been the one to send them," said Dr. Taupe. He reached over the desk, pried the phone from Miss Marsh's hand, and slammed it back on the base. "You shouldn't go bothering the doctor like this – he's a very busy man."
"Whatever," Miss Marsh groaned, rolling her eyes. "Don't blame me if it turns out to be a spy under that helmet."
"Such an active imagination, that one," said Dr. Taupe amusingly, turning back to Blake. "So…what can I do you for?"
"Oh, uh, I need to inspect the lab and make sure everything is working how it's supposed to," Blake said quickly, snapping to attention. "After the alarm scare earlier, Dr. Watts wants to make sure that there aren't anymore…issues."
"Right, right, of course, of course," said Dr. Taupe, waving his hand dismissively. "I suppose that word of those vile, villainous thieves mucking about the town – " Blake felt the corners of her lips curve upwards at the irony " – the good doctor would justifiably be a little paranoid. But I assure you, there is nothing to be concerned with. Everything is in tip-top shape."
"I'll be the judge of that," said Blake with a bit of an authoritarian tone. "Show me."
"As you wish," Dr. Taupe agreed.
The rotund man turned on his heel and walked back through the door he came from, Blake nipping at his heels, leaving the bored secretary to roll her eyes and went back to work.
They stepped into a long hallway that was so blindly white that Blake was grateful for the helmet's darkened visor. It gave a sterile feeling to the place, like there would be major repercussions if there was so much as a little dot on the wall. There were several open doorways were on each side of the hall, filling the corridor with an orchestra of noises from the clattering of test tubes and hum of machines to the skull-rattling screeches of drills and the unnecessary pounding of hammers on metal. Blake flattened her secondary ears against her head, but it did very little to block out the noise. She quickly shook it off and followed Dr. Taupe as the portly scientists walked along the corridor with his hands folded behind his back.
"A few of our researchers were…'alarmed' – "Dr. Taupe snickered at his own joke. Blake rolled her eyes, sorely thankful Yang wasn't here to contribute " – when the intruder alert went off. Their panic was understandable; this is the most secure facility on the entire island, next to Dr. Watts's personal airship. Of course, you already know that; the only entrance is guarded every second of the day. Some of them wanted to flee, but is sat them down and said," he coughed into his fist and put on an air of importance, "'Anyone who walks out that door will be reported to Dr. Watts immediately – no exceptions'. And just like that, things calmed down and everyone resumed their work until you and the other personal guards turned up."
"Is everyone really that afraid of the doctor?" asked Blake curiously, briefly looking through the doorway on her left; a couple of scientists looked to be working with volatile chemicals. "He doesn't seem like that big of a threat."
"You must be new on the job," said Dr. Taupe, shaking his head with a thin smile. "Dr. Watts is always sorely underestimated, and those who attempt to go against him tend to learn this the hard way."
"Is that why you work for him?" said Blake, making a mental note of several caged animals in the room on the right. "Because you're afraid of him?"
"Oh no, I would for Arthur Watts because the man is a genius," Dr. Taupe said admirably. "His work is groundbreaking. It could revolutionize humanity itself. But the poor man is constantly hindered by the simple-minded Neanderthals who think his research is 'immoral' and 'unethical'. True science cannot be bound by trivial notions like morals and ethics! True science requires sacrifice for the greater good, even at the cost of one's life! Dr. Watts understands this! He will guide the world into a better future!"
Oh great, Watts has a groupie, Blake thought disdainfully. The feline Faunus tunes Dr. Taupe out after that and starts looking at the various lab rooms, tilting the helmet from one side to the other only slightly so that it isn't obvious to anyone looking at her. Laboratory 6 didn't appear to have one single project and instead seemed to have several rooms for different pursuits. One chamber had a pair of scientists working with sonic wavelengths, another room was devoted to developing animal translators, and one of the labs at the end of the corridor seemed to be developing a process to increase the growth in crops with negative side effects.
"All of these experiments…," Weiss muttered over the communicator. "Dr. Taupe was right about one thing – any one of these projects could benefit humanity. From curing deafness to ending world hunger."
"Too bad it's all in the hands of a psychopathic murderer," Blake muttered.
"Did you say something?" asked Dr. Taupe, looking over his shoulder curiously.
"Nothing!" Blake said quickly.
The end of the corridor split off into two opposite directions. To their right, there was another hallway with half a dozen laboratory testing chambers, though they had steel doors blocking off the entrances, each of them plastered with a different hazard warning like radiation, high voltage, biological hazard, and even a laser hazard warning. And at the very end of the corridor was a bolted, high-security door with a sign pinned to the wall labeled "Server Room".
Bingo, Blake thought, smiling under her helmet.
Curious, Blake turned her head to the other hallway. There was only one door at the very end of the corridor, and it was more heavily reinforced than the server room. According to the computerized lenses, the entryway was an adamantium-enforced blast door surrounded by a reinforced vibranium wall estimated to be four-feet thick. The small nodes on the door's edge were an indication to a laser grid that would activate if someone tried to break in without access. And, of course, what would a high-security chamber be without an entire hallway covered by a full dozen swerving security cameras, covering every inch of the hall. Even Fort Knox didn't have this level of security – Blake knew; she broke in during one of her ventures before joining the Rose Gang.
"So, what do you think?" Blake snapped out of her reverie when Dr. Taupe turned around and addressed her. "Are there any questions?"
"Yeah, what's that down there?" Blake asked, gesturing her rifle to the security door.
"Oh, that's Dr. Watts's private laboratory," said Dr. Taupe, sounding surprised by the question. "That's where all of his most important research happens. Of course, I can't let you in. Only personnel with Level 5 access are allowed in there, and the only people with that kind of clearance is Dr. Watts and myself."
"So…you can get in there?" Blake said slowly, thoughtfully.
"Yes, with this access badge," said Dr. Taupe proudly, actually whipping out the laminated card from his pocket, to Blake's disbelief. "But don't get any ideas. I'm not going to let you in just because you're Watts's personal guard. The man would flog me if he knew I let anyone it's his personal workshop."
"You need to get that access card from him," said Weiss as Dr. Taupe pocketed the key. "Find some way to get him alone, knock him unconscious, and steal his badge and coat. Hopefully, by the time anyone finds him, we'll already be making our escape."
"Is there anything else I can do you for?" asked Dr. Taupe.
"Uh, right, I still need to see the server room," said Blake, suddenly remembering where she was. "Dr. Watts was very insistent on it being given a thorough inspection. To make sure that someone didn't try hacking the system when the alarms went off."
"Of course, I should have thought of that," said Dr. Taupe. "I heard those nasty thieves have a hacker among them. Though, when compared to a man of great intelligence like Dr. Watts, those thieves may have a better chance with a drooling monkey slamming its face against the keyboard."
"…Blake, be sure to make it extra painful for him," Weiss hissed in a venomously low voice.
Blake ignored the hacker's snarls and followed Dr. Taupe down the down the hallway, jumping only slightly when a muffled explosion sounded from the door on her right. When reaching the bolted door, she noticed a card reader on the wall underneath the sign. Dr. Taupe stopped in front of the reader and turned back to Blake. The doctor looked expectantly at Blake, which she quickly realized was his way of saying she should be the one to open the door, as if he was topo good to do it himself. Blake bit back a snarky remark, stepped up to the card reader, whipped out the laminated keycard she had taken from the original wearer of this armor, and swiped it. The reader beeped, flashed a green light, and door split open with a sharp hiss.
She felt the sharp chill of the server room's air conditioning system through the exposed parts of her arm; Blake bit her tongue to stop herself from hissing like a frightened cat. Inside were at least two dozen towers of computer banks lined in neat rows two feet apart from one another arranged in a diamond pattern. In the center of the miniature forest of servers was a lonely computer screen raised on top of a steel table, which was attached to thick cables connecting to each of the towers.
Blake didn't wait for Dr. Taupe; she broke out into a brisk walk, slithering her way in between the computer towards, and marched up to the computer screen. The computer was already booted up, but it needed a password to access. Not an issue, Blake thought confidently. The feline Faunus withdrew the white flash drive from her pocket and inserted it into one of the terminal's dozen USB ports. She waited patiently until the red light at the end of the stick turned green and the monitor was replaced by a blue screen emblazoned by the Snowpea's snow flake emblem.
"Wireless feed coming in…," Weiss muttered slowly; Blake could hear the rapid keystrokes over the communicator. "Bypassing firewalls one…two…three…wow, four and five different types of firewalls. I'm almost impressed. Interfacing with wireless route…connecting to server access…aaaand…. Knick-knack, you've been hacked," she added with a sing-song tone of victory. The blue screen flickered back to the log-in screen, which was quickly filled out despite Blake not touching a single key. "Let me just take care of this pesky password…. Grimmgenius41, really?"
The window opened to the main screen and, to Blake and Weiss's mutual disgust, a wallpaper of Dr. Watts with the smarmiest grin possible. Thank Oum Weiss quickly went to work, opening more than a dozen windows that completely covered the monitor. Various complicated schematics and endless flow of data popped up everywhere Blake looked, but quickly disappeared before the Feline Faunus had a chance to get a good look. Not like it would have done much; Blake didn't understand a single iota of this technobabble. It was times like this that Blake truly appreciated Weiss's computer genius.
"I'm decrypting as many of Watts's files as I can," Weiss announced. "Unfortunately, nothing too incriminating so far. I found a few of designs for his airship," a detailed blueprint of said airship appeared on the monitor, "and it definitely confirms that the ship has a storm machine on-board that affects the surrounding atmosphere through temperature change. But since Watts hasn't done anything other than use it to defend his own private island, Winter can't arrest him for it. Buuuut, I think I might have found something we can use for the heist."
"What's that?" said Blake curiously.
"Apparently, Dr. Watts is developing a long-ranged cannon for his airship," answer Weiss. "It's designed to shoot weather modifying chemicals into clouds with pinpoint accuracy to control the amount and type of precipitation without going through the painstaking effort of chasing them. Watts could probably spin this as something beneficial to the public, but his obvious aim is to spread his storm generator. The cannon has just finished development on another sight and is awaiting transfer."
"And how is this going to help with the heist?" asked Blake.
"Well…according to the schematics, the cannon should be large enough…to fit a full-grown person…," Weiss said slowly.
"Are you seriously consider we should shoot Ruby out of a cannon?" Blake said incredulously. "Are insane?"
"It worked in the Cirque du Soleil job!" Weiss cried.
"That was for a stage performance!" snapped Blake.
"Look, I don't like it either, but it's possibly our best shot!" Weiss argued. "Watts is on to us, and thanks all the ruckus we've been causing around town, we don't have long before we're caught! We're not getting into the airship through regular means, so the cannon is the only route I can see within our limited time frame! Look, I understand you're concerned – I am, too – but according to the schematics, the cannon pressure can be adjusted when necessary. I can make it safe enough to shoot Ruby up to Watts's airship without splattering her all over the wall."
"Ugh…I don't like it…but I see your point," Blake conceded. "We'll worry about the details back at base. But we still need incriminating evidence against Watts. Did you check his messages? Maybe he wrote something to the other Grimm that we can use."
"Let me check," Weiss hummed.
"Um, excuse me," Blake nearly jumped out of her armor. She had completely forgotten about Dr. Taupe, who was having a rough time squeezing through the computer towers because of his potbelly. "Don't mean to be rude, but…how did you get into the server? I wasn't under the impression that Dr. Watts gave out his password to his guards. And what is that thing?" he gestured to the white flash drive sticking out of the base.
Blake stayed silent, knowing that she could probably come up with some kind of excuse that would seem semi-believable. But she didn't need to convince him. It was just the two of them – alone – in a room that possibly only a few people had access to. There was no better opportunity, Blake thought.
She turned around slowly on her heels to face the doctor, knowing she must appear rather menacing, especially with her darkened visor reflecting his increasingly nervous expression. Dr. Taupe took one step back…then two…then turned around and sprinted between the servers. Unfortunately for him, his plump body hinder the process as there was not a whole lot of room to maneuver for someone of his size. Blake all but casually paced up to the doctor, grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat, and pulled him back. The feline Faunus flipped him around to face her, then grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled him down to connect his forehead with her armor-plated knee. Dr. Taupe flopped on his back, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, but still very much alive – at least, Blake knew when she checked his pulse.
"Still playing Batman?" Weiss asked teasingly.
"It's very fun," said Blake amusingly. She grabbed the helmet with both hands and pried it off her head, letting out a relieved sigh when the cold air touched her face. "Oum, I didn't realize how sweaty underneath that thing. My hair is probably a disaster." She reached crouched beside Dr. Taupe, digging around his coat pocket until she found the Level 5 keycard. "But at least we found a way into Watts's private lab. And I even have a disguise to go with it," she added, tugging at the doctor's coat.
"Let's just hope no one notices that Dr. Taupe suddenly turned into a Faunus woman," said Weiss. "As for his messages, it doesn't seem like Watts keeps regular contact with the other Grimm. The most recent one was dated three weeks ago from Tyrian Callows. Nothing too important – just that he wants Watts to stop by his base in Arizona to fix a malfunction in his stinger."
"Well, at least we have a better clue about where one of them is hiding," said Blake as she tried on Dr. Taupe's coat. It was very loose; at least three times too big. "And that he has a tail that needs repaired, so he's probably a Faunus, or at least posing as a Faunus."
"That's about all I can glean from this," said Weiss with an exasperated sigh. "Gotta hand it to Watts; he's the cautious type. Doesn't leave anything that could incriminate him inside his own server room. You might have better luck in his private lab. But first…."
When Blake looked back at the computer monitor, a bar labeled "File upload" appeared on the screen. Millions of files flew across the monitor in milliseconds as the bar filled out fast than anything Blake had ever seen before. By the time she had blinked, the upload had completed with a happy chime.
"What did you just do?" asked Blake curiously.
"I just released all his projects into the internet," said Weiss; Blake could practically hear the smug grin. "A little insult to injury. At the very least, we can make sure all of his experiments can be found by the right people. Now, hurry over to Watts's lab before the good doctor finds out an goes on a rampage."
She cut off the communicator and Blake looked down at Dr. Taupe's unconscious body. It should be safe to leave him here for a little while, Blake figured. Only a few people have access to the server room, and by the time he woke up, they would be long gone. So Blake climbed over his body, leaving behind the elite guard uniform, and quickly made her way out into the hallway. She tried not too walk too fast so as not to seem suspicious, burying her hands in her pockets to appear nonchalant if someone walked out and saw her. Thankfully, no one did and she crossed the corridor unnoticed. However, as she approached the door to Watts's private laboratory, she suddenly remembered the camera array swerving overhead.
"Weiss, the cameras – " Blake hissed.
"Already ahead of you," said Weiss quickly.
Blake paused for a moment in the middle of the corridor, stopping short of the camera's range of vision. After a few seconds waiting, the cameras stopped moving all together, indicating that they were offline. The feline Faunus quickly paced down the corridor and stepped up to the electronic card reader bolted into the wall next to the armored door. Blake took a cautious glance back over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, whipped out Dr. Taupe's keycard, and swiped it. The light on the reader turned green and the doors split open with a soft hiss. Blake ducked inside before the blast doors opened completely and slammed the button on the wall next to it, shutting the doors behind her. Without having to worry about anyone peeking in on her, Blake took a look around the laboratory…and immediately slammed her hands over her mouth and nose in revulsion.
Her sharp Faunus nose was overwhelmed with the thick stench of oil and iron – and iron smell was coming from the half dozen autopsy tables on the far right of the room, which were covered in blood splattered, many of them which looked fresh. Small jars of strange green liquid rested on the metal benches next to the tables with various objects floating inside them, but Blake didn't dare get close enough to investigate them in fear for her gag reflex. On the left side of the chamber was where the stench of oil came from; a long workbench of various tools – several of the bladed instruments sprayed in blackened-red on the edges – and mechanical parts that appeared to be in the process of forming a metal arm. The wall behind the workbench had several racks holding up many different types of mechanical body parts ranging from legs, to eyeballs, to something that resembled internal organs.
Needless to say, Blake did not feel comfortable.
"Weiss, are you seeing all this?" Blake grimaced.
"Seeing and recording," answered Weiss. A flickered red circle appeared in the corner of Blake's vision. "Make sure you get a good look of everything. This is undeniable proof that Watts hasn't stopped his human experiments. Once I send this video to Winter, she'll have no choice to arrest the psychopath."
"Ugh…and I thought Adam was a monster…," Blake muttered to herself as she approached the autopsy tables, getting an eyeful of the dried blood on the chrome.
"Who?" asked Weiss curiously.
"No one you should worry about," Blake said quickly. She picked up one of the green jars and made a disgusted noise when she found herself staring at a large intestine. "My Oum, I can't believe how far Watts has gone. He used to be a brilliant scientist, and then he went completely insane and started…mutilating people. For what? The betterment of humanity? How is any of this supposed to make humanity better?"
"Humans are born flaws, but narcissists like Watts can't accept that," Weiss responded, her voice tinged with a sense of familiarity. "They have this distorted view of perfection and they'll do whatever it takes to achieve it, regardless of the people they hurt along the way…. My father was similar in that regard…my mother…."
"You don't have to talk about it, Weiss," Blake interrupted swiftly. The rest of the team was familiar with Weiss's story, the reason behind her becoming a hacker. "Let's just focus on taking this psychopath down. Do you have everything you need to nail him?"
"Almost," said Weiss; Blake heard her take a clam, collective breath over the comms. "I still need a shot of that workbench."
Blake set the jar down and wordlessly crossed the laboratory. She made sure to look over the wall of mechanized body parts before she looked down over the bench, focusing especially on the bloodied tools. Her gaze wandered over the half-finished arm when she noticed a roll of blue paper tucked away in the corner behind a jar of nuts and bolts. Blake pulled out the paper, unrolled it, and stared at what looked like a complicated schematic for some sort of machine. Blake wasn't a genius per se, but from the details she could gather, this looked to be a blueprint for creating a fully mechanized humanoid. She glanced at the name in the upper right of the page:
"Project: P.E.N.N.Y…." Blake murmured thoughtfully. "What is he - ?"
"Uh-oh, problem, Blake," Weiss alerted her, snapping Blake out of her thoughts. "Watts is on his way down."
"What? Why?" Blake sputtered in surprise.
"He just noticed all his files being scattered all over the internet," said Weiss. "From the sound of his communications, he's furious. He's coming down to investigate the lab with his personal guard, and you can bet he'll notice that one of them is missing. You need to get out of there – fast!"
"But if Watts finds Dr. Taupe in the server room – " Blake said, but Weiss cut her off.
"Watts already knew we were on the island, but now he knows what we've been up to," said Weiss. "We don't have a choice. We have to pull off the heist immediately before Watts has time to plan a counterattack. Yang is on her way and Ruby's finishing up with the last of the alarms. Come on back to the hideout so we can get this operation underway."
Blake looked over the blueprints for Project: P.E.N.N.Y. one last time, rolled it back up and stowed it back where it was before. The cat Faunus tore her way back through the long corridors, ignoring the strange stares she was getting from the scientist and the secretary as she passed by, almost smashing the button as the elevator doors closed behind her.
Miss Marsh barely looked up from her keyboard and said, "I'm not getting blamed for this."
I have two important announcements to make.
Number one: for all of those who are fans of my Akko Kagari series, I am proud to announce that it now has its own Tvtropes page! It's pretty awesome and you should definitely check it out, and maybe even contribute to the page if you wish. I would also like to give a special thanks to my loyal reader, Pvt-Winters for making the page. You're awesome, buddy.
Number two: As of July, I am taking an extended vacation away from writing for a while to rest my weary mind and take care of some personal things that I have been putting off for a while. I don't know when I will be back to writing, but I guarantee that I will have the next chapter ready by August 1st at the latest.
So, go check out tvtropes and I will see you all in the near future.