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The Jaune Archive
The Phantom Grimm-ace
Editorial Note:
Normally, standalone entries like these are to be assigned to the Extras section as they are considered to be too trivial or too disconnected from other entries to be a part of a larger coherent volume, but I believe this particular record holds too much relevant information for later entries and is proven to be worthy of our attention that I have decided to use it as a bridge for the next volume after the previous one.
This was written three weeks following Team JNPR's first mission, detailing his second Huntsman mission as he was preparing for the Vytal Festival, accompanied by none other than my team, Team RWBY. As usual, I will continue to provide relevant additional information and commentary on certain details that Jaune might have neglected.
Weiss Schnee
Chief Executive Officer, Schnee Dust Company
It's been a while since the disaster that was my first mission, a mission that any other freshman would have died from. Following that nightmare, the news began to report that Torchwick was incarcerated; an attempted breach was prevented from reaching the city, and an entire White Fang base was raided by the military. Then someone spat out some rumors that I was the one behind all of it. It wouldn't be so bad had not the Great Powerful Ozpin decided to add fuel to the fire once again and confirm that my team and I were indeed responsible for all of those things, making my popularity go from ridiculous to ludicrous.
Word started spreading like a wildfire around the kingdom that it would have burnt down the entirety of this part of the continent if it was an actual fire. I'm now hailed as a modern national hero, being the partner of the Invisible Girl of Mistral made it more or less worse that I wouldn't be surprised if they would make us Couple of the Year even though we haven't even officially dated yet.
Swarms of journalists and fangirls were all over me when showing myself to the public that I took a page from Pyrrha's book by going incognito every time I had to go to the city just so I could prevent the godsdamn paparazzi from getting anything out of me. [1] I always hated those professional stalkers; journalists were always detective-wannabe pricks who make easy money by spouting their slanderous bullshit context be damned, but the paparazzi are an exceptional breed of them. My private life is called 'private' for a reason, you fucking degenerates. I mean, who the hell cares about the color of some famous person's underwear? A wise man once told me that there were no people on this planet that were more annoying than those who work in the media, and he couldn't have been more right about that.
I'm serious, my fame is getting out of control. I lost count of how many autographs I had to sign and how many girls fainted because I simply touched their hands. I had no choice but to accept this. The only thing I could do was be humble about it and try accrediting Ren and Nora for their roles while not freaking out. Sadly, they'll only be known as the duo who just happened to be teammates with Mr. Podunk and Ms. Mistral. The worst part was despite all this, I haven't gotten laid yet. Where's my father's seductive charm when you need it?
I found out that Valish White Fang's recruitment rate dropped significantly after that incident, thanks to fleeting morale, military raids on their bases, and the fact that they had become terrified of me as if I turned into their boogeyman. Hopefully, the remnants would be taken down quickly so I don't have to cross paths with them anymore, I've had enough of those racist hypocrite terrorist dickheads.
My family called and they told me that I was all over the news recently. They were pretty much proud that I was making the next steps as I carried the Arc family torch that I was too scared to let go of. Noire and Blanche said that they were even working on a tribute song about me for their concert this festival. Not really something I asked for, but they assured me that they are not including my embarrassing childhood moments in it, because as much as they like to playfully bully me as much as my other sisters, they wouldn't want that to ruin my dignity and image. That's the only good thing I could say about this.
At this point, I'm convinced that the Gods truly exist and they just love to toy with me. Some people would beg to differ and say that gods only exist if good things happen to you and bad things happen to people you don't like because they feel like the gods owe us everything. Now, I've personally never been one to have strong feelings over whether they're real or not despite my rather religious upbringing but the fact that I'm still not dead yet despite what I had to go through proves that there are bored higher beings that want to suck some fun out of me while making sure I live to see the next adventure they'll set me up with.
To be fair, I kinda deserve all of this aside from giving me my unearned reputation, but then again it could be just another punishment knowing how much I don't want this kind of attention and that they see it as a way to spice things up.
Anyway, I was having such a nice day to the point that I'd almost forgotten the things that had been bothering me for the past months, my only remaining concern was helping prepare for the Vytal Festival which was coming within less than a week.
Culture clubs have opened for freshmen who are interested in certain hobbies and for additional festival activities. None of the clubs interested me so I didn't join any of them. I had nothing to do but train for the tournament while helping with the decorations once again. Indeed, even if we were done with community service, there was still some work for us to do. Some things just never change.
It wasn't much of a sweat, all we did was make props out of paper or cardboard, place decorations and arrange some tables. I honestly wouldn't mind doing this until the preparations were complete, and I would have certainly chosen this over the mission that I was going to if only I had any idea that it was going to be another one that happened to be more trouble than it was worth.
It all started when Team JNPR and RWBY were taking our lunch breaks after a morning of training and organizing, [2] when suddenly, The Great Powerful Ozpin announced in the P.A. that he wants all eight of us in his office. We had no idea why he specifically called us so we finished our lunch and then headed to his office at the Beacon Tower.
"Ah, good. You're all finally here." Ozpin turned away from the office's window as he faced all of us coming from the entrance, Miss Goodwitch was beside his desk, still carrying her tablet per the norm.
"Is there something you need from us, Professor Ozpin?" Ruby asked. Under that curious expression, I could also feel that she was very excited to get involved in another daring adventure that would ruin the perfectly adequate peace we were having.
I was hoping that Ozpin had a good reason for why he was calling for both of our teams because otherwise, he was better off only sending Team RWBY or getting someone else to help them. "I do, Ruby, and I very seldom call students to my office for a special assignment. Consider yourselves to be the fortunate few who had the privilege of being in one."
He can word it whatever he liked but there was no changing the fact that it was bad news for me. I've just barely recovered from my misadventures in Mountain Glenn. Not half a minute in and I was already shuddering with what Ozpin's been trying to allocate me with. I've been glancing at the office's door, thinking about bailing and launching myself out of the kingdom and never be seen or heard from again.
Everyone looked at each other, befuddled in disbelief that Ozpin had just abruptly sent us here for an unexpected task. Ruby meanwhile, squealed excitedly as her eyes sparkled. "A special assignment?!"
"This is a bit sudden. Why choose us for this particular task, Professor?" Pyrrha questioned.
"I'm glad you asked, Miss Nikos. Both of your teams have proven to be quite remarkable, not only among the freshmen but to the entirety of the school as well, surpassing even some of the most prodigious of your upperclassmen, that I noticed some of them being envious of you."
"It's what we do best, professor," Weiss proudly boasted.
"And we couldn't have done it without our fearless leader!" Nora chirped, making some of them look at me with satisfied expressions as Yang bumped my shoulder.
I grinned back at them in modest satisfaction when in actuality I was doing my best to hide my embarrassment and the slight grimace on my face. Attention like this was what I was trying to avoid as my increasing fame was becoming more turbulent with my every move.
Stepping forward, I made my inquiry so we could get this over with and sway everyone's attention away from my reputation for the moment. "What do you have for us, professor?"
"Before I brief you on this special task. I would like to inform you that this is of utmost importance and I am trusting both of your teams with it." Ozpin stated bluntly. "If you manage to handle it well, you will be exempted from this semester's exams as you have already proven to be suited for another year at Beacon, a written examination won't be necessary for your grades."
"Oh yeah! Now we're talkin'! This will be a piece of cake." Yang pumped. One of these days, she is going to be the first to get herself killed or at the very least seriously wounded, I could feel it. Thank The Brothers she has a semblance that makes her a nightmare every time she's hit (and also gives her the ability to utter real swear words too.) Meanwhile, I still had to wait for Nora to get electrified or find a way to cast electric dust on her without being caught so she could use hers. Because even if it's quite clear that she idolizes me, I still don't want to take the chance of pissing her off that she'll break my bones without thinking.
"Sounds like I don't need to tutor you three anymore" Weiss commented with a smirk. "Whatever this is, I'm up for it."
"You can count on us, Professor!" Ruby chirped.
"Good to hear, Team RWBY." Ozpin nodded to them before turning to me. "What about you, Jaune? What do you and your team have to say about this?"
All eyes moved toward me as they waited for my answer. While finishing a mission so I could automatically pass this semester's exam and finish this year without much of a hassle sounded like a win-win—something told me that I should go to the trouble of studying for the exams instead. But I could not afford to refuse the offer in front of my own team and Team RWBY, it would have left a bad impression.
So my only choice was to accept this, I just hoped that whatever I was about to go through would be worth it to pass the semester. On the bright side, I no longer needed to cram for nonsensical dust sciences that make algebra and geometry look like a kindergarten class and I get to rub it on everyone's faces. I could always rely on my team to carry me out of unwanted situations.
"We're up for it," I said confidently in a faux-asserting tone. "Whatever we need to do, I'm sure we can handle it. We didn't get here for nothing." I glanced at my teammates and saw Pyrrha and Ren expressing approval while Nora was squealing excitedly.
"That's the spirit," Ozpin beamed, looking glad that he made me say something he wants to hear from me again. "Now, do you acknowledge that the information I'm about to provide you is confidential and that whatever is said in this room, stays in this room?"
We all silently nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, I was increasingly getting nervous when he made it clear that this won't be an ordinary walk in the park. Not a minute in I was already questioning if it was a good idea to accept this so I didn't have to study.
"Splendid," he said before turning to Miss Goodwitch. "Glynda, if you will."
Miss Goodwitch tapped a few prompts on her tablet that folded the tower's window blinds, making the office almost completely dark until a blue light source came from a holographic screen on a wall, which all of our attention turned to.
Ozpin got up from his chair and stood next to the hologram as it displayed an area map of the Emerald Forest with some landmarks crossed. "A few days ago, the security network at the Emerald Forests had mysteriously shut down."
Though, considering that it failed to stop a Nevermore and a Deathstalker from entering, I doubt it would have made much of a difference.
"I sent Professor Port along with a few senior teams to investigate what was causing the disturbance. While they were able to successfully repair the security control centers back to working condition, they also made an interesting discovery." The hologram then displayed a photo of crates with a symbol of a hexagon with three bond lines at its angles and a stylized 'M' inside of it. The clearer image of the logo was displayed in a separate image. "This insignia was the logo of Merlot Industries; a once proud research company before it collapsed after the tragedy in Mountain Glenn."
"I heard of that company before." Weiss uttered, "I remember my father going on meetings with them."
"Aren't they the ones who conducted experiments that were so unethical they made your family's company look tame in comparison?" Blake snidely asked.
Weiss narrowed her eyes at her. "Hey, I was young and naïve then! I didn't know much about Merlot Industries but I do recall my father being infuriated by them for whatever reason."
"Now settle down, we'll discuss the company's ethics or lack thereof at another time. But right now, this is very important and I need you all to stay focused," Ozpin intervened, calming down the monochrome duo. "The devices that were used to disable the control centers and lure the Grimm bore this symbol, along with the crates, as you can see here. Now, it begs to ask, why are these objects carrying the logo of a now-defunct company? One would say that they were taken from their headquarters in Mountain Glenn. So I have requested General Ironwood to send some men there to investigate. Alas, this is what they found."
The holoscreen started playing video footage of an Atlesian Soldier somewhere under the tunnels of Mountain Glenn. It was a little hard to watch as the camera was constantly shaking and there were static everywhere. "This is Sergeant Wilhelm of Epsilon-7. We're witnessing a type of Grimm that we've never seen before. We need backup as soon as—Oh Gods, help me!"
It was then followed by screaming with the camera turning to give us a very brief look at the creature that attacked them. The camera shook, falling to the ground while it was tilted with some blood splattered on its lens. The soldier's screaming continued as the Grimm growled. Once the growling stopped, the hind legs of the mysterious Grimm trudged through the camera as it lay there.
Ruby and Pyrrha covered their mouths at the footage while the others looked no less shocked. Miss Goodwitch halted the footage and rewind it before pausing to a blurry frame of the Grimm that attacked them. It was blurry enough that we couldn't make out what the Grimm was and what it exactly looked like. Its shape resembled that of an Alpha Beowolf and we would have left to that conclusion if we didn't notice something green glowing on its back. If this was an Alpha Beowolf, it was no ordinary one, and this was very worrying since Alpha Grimm was already terrifying in their own right. The fact that it managed to wipe out a squad of technologically advanced trained soldiers made it more concerning.
"What is that?!" Blake questioned with her eyes widened.
"I don't know…" Ruby leaned in and squinted her eyes. "It looks like an Alpha Beowolf—except there are green things on it."
"While it's very likely to be a Beowolf, we cannot fully verify. It could possibly be mutated as no normal Grimm bears any green skeletons on its biology," Ozpin responded. "Two-thirds of the forces sent were later wiped out by an explosion from a bomb that was planted on the premises. Unless one of the soldiers were behind it, this tells us there was someone that was orchestrating all of this. We went to the conclusion that the person responsible for this was also behind the mysterious Grimm and the security breach at Emerald Forest. Someone has been tampering with Merlot Industries resources and whoever this is must be stopped before they can cause further chaos."
Perfect, another kingdom-wide case, I muttered to myself. How the hell do I keep getting myself into these? "What do you think we'll have to do then?" I asked.
"Both of your teams will be deployed on Forever Falls. Grimm Activity has increased above the norm, and there have been sightings of anomalous Grimm in the area. We presume these to be the same mutated Grimm on Mountain Glenn. Your mission is to scout the area, eliminate any opposition and find anything that could be used to track down the perpetrator behind this."
"We won't let you down, Headmaster." Ruby nodded followed by her teammates.
"You will be conducting this mission on your own. However, Doctor Oobleck will assist you via the school's communication network. He will watch over you as you carry out your task." Ozpin finished his mug of coffee and remotely unfolded the blinds, putting the light back in the office. "Good luck, students, and may the Gods watch over you." Ozpin turned off the screen and returned to his chair.
I'm sure they'll be watching, just don't expect them to make things easier for us, I thought.
"A Bullhead will be waiting for you within ten minutes, use this time to prepare and arm yourselves. Stay safe and fight well. This is a moment you have all been training for." Miss Goodwitch said as she went in front of the eight of us.
Without another word, we exited the tower and went to our respective dorms and lockers to gear up for the special assignment given to us.
"And I thought today will be relaxing." I heard Weiss murmur, sharing my thoughts exactly.
I guess I'll just have to do what I usually do then. Stay behind everyone, let them do most of the fighting, don't do anything stupid and I'll be fine. It's pretty much why I was even breathing today.
=o=
1. A fairly common practice used by high-profile individuals such as politicians and celebrities to avoid public recognition. Success usually varies depending on how well the user handles the disguise and how recognizable the person is. I can confirm that I also use this method myself when traveling alone without bodyguards.
2. During the week before the festival, all regular lessons were temporarily put to a halt so students may spend time preparing for the festival, whether it be training, organizing, maintaining their equipment, or preparing activities with their respective clubs.
Ah, the woods of Forever Falls, the magical place where I had been chased by rapier wasps and an Ursa Major, and also the place where I had begun my relationship with the White Fang.
We were dropped off somewhere north of the forest after another nauseating flight that made one of the paper bags I brought come in handy. We split away from Team RWBY as we went around the area, searching for anything out of the ordinary while killing the Grimm along the way while Doctor Oobleck acted as Mission Control. They were right when they said that there were more Grimm in the forest than usual, and there was something that has been causing the sudden increase, and it was our mission to find out why.
With my rural upbringing, I should have little trouble trekking through the grassy greenlands—eer—redlands of Forever Falls, but the increased number of Grimm attacks prevented this from becoming an ordinary stroll. However, it wasn't really that bad since most of the packs were Creeps, which are one of the weaker Grimm, and the holes they leave help you prepare for them. They're still pretty infuriating to handle on large packs especially when Creeps were known for constantly digging to the ground and making holes everywhere. I have to constantly check my feet to see if they might come out of it. At least Beowolves and Scavers know how to stand still even for a few seconds and make my life easier.
We kept searching for anything anomalous in the forest, while Nora whistled the tune of 'The Valish Grenadiers', which slightly lightened the mood but wasn't enough to make the Grimm any less aggressive.
Believe it or not, I was at a point where I hoped that something interesting happens because walking around, killing the same pack of Grimm over and over got annoyingly tedious real fast.
I pulled my sword from the Creep I slew from the last Grimm horde we dispatched when Ren found a pavement leading to somewhere, it was tempting enough not to follow. After noticing the pattern, it was unlikely that these things lead to nothing.
"Let's follow this path. Maybe it could take us to wherever our culprit is hiding." I said to my teammates who agreed without a question.
"Did you guys find something?" Ruby's voice asked on our scroll's channel.
"Just a path that could lead us to our target. You?" I replied.
"Nothing yet. We're still trying to look for the train tracks from Mountain Glenn, it might give us any leads."
"Well, whatever you're doing. I wish you luck," I replied. They were going to need it, the train tracks in Mountain Glenn weren't exactly a very pleasant place from my experience in it. My mission there was still fresh in my mind.
"You too," she said before suddenly singing after a big pause. "I've been working on the railroad. All the livelong day~ Wait, is this thing still on?"
I chuckled and put the scroll back in my pocket. It sounds like Nora isn't the only one singing a tune during a mission.
We found ourselves going uphill as we followed the path, we started noticing ruined stone columns appearing as we passed through them, indicating to us that this was more or less the right path. "We're heading somewhere, that's for sure," Ren commented. It should be, otherwise, it would be silly if they just paved the way for something that led to nowhere.
Once we finally went to the top, we saw that it stopped at the cliff, however, the road continued below the edge while there was a tall and large tree standing on a black square pedestal in the middle of it. We dropped ourselves down and decided to spend a quick break and take time to appreciate the large tree as we rest below the shade. A person with a dirty mind would say that whoever planted that tree is compensating for something.
"Wow..." Pyrrha stared at the tree, awestricken by its enormous size. "That tree is magnificent."
"It's so pretty!" Nora said before she took out her scroll. "Do we have time to take a picture?"
I looked around and took the time to admire the red forest. The scenery was admittedly nice to look at. It would have been a nice place for a picnic if it weren't for the Grimm lurking almost everywhere. Case in point, the peace was short-lived as we saw another Beowolf pack approaching us just a minute in.
"Pyrrha!" I turned to my team and issued the order. She nodded as she tossed her javelin around the Beowolves while using her semblance to swing them around midair. Nora took care of hammering the others while Ren and I stayed back and opened fire.
Creeps started popping from the ground, ruining what was otherwise a beautiful scenery with their burrows. I swung my sword towards them, slicing them off one by one as I blasted the others. Ren spun around the area, dispatching the other creeps by both shooting and stabbing at them.
Pyrrha was blocking a strike from an Alpha Beowolf's claw before swiftly rolling to its back. She grabbed the claw and stabbed the Alpha's torso until it fell dead and vanished away.
The area was cleared for a few minutes before Pyrhha spotted more Grimm hurtling toward us. "More Creeps!"
Could these things just give up? I irritably thought I turned around and pointed my gun at them. To my surprise and horror, I saw that these Creeps were larger in every aspect and they glowed green while having spikes of the same color on their back. "Wait a minute. Those aren't ordinary Creeps."
"Green spikes! It's those mutated Grimm we were told about." Ren reloaded both of his pistols and aimed at them.
"Ho-hoo sounds fun." Nora gave a slasher smile and gripped her hammer. "Let's crush 'em into paste!"
Being Grimm that we never have seen before, they were rather unpredictable unlike most of the mindless Grimm we fought, along with the mutations that could make them do something who knows what regular Grimm can't do. "Be careful, we don't know what these could do!" I warned them.
Pyrrha changed Milo to its rifle form and fired at one of them. With only two shots, the mutated Grimm exploded into a green substance. Ren only took fewer bullets than usual to dispatch one and it exploded just like the ones Pyrrha killed.
"They die quicker than regular Creeps, but they blow up once they're dying." The coin dropped as I figured out what to do with these mutants. "Everyone, switch to range weapons and keep your distance!"
We fired our weapons at the mutated Grimm, all of them erupting into green sludges almost effortlessly. A few more of them came out of their burrows as we rolled ourselves away from them before they exploded. I took out the last one with a single blast from my laser pistol. Afterward, the area was finally clear, with a few green liquids spluttered around the concrete pathway.
"I've seen plenty of Grimm in my life with varying shapes and sizes, but I've never seen anything like that," Ren remarked, and we could all say the same. We may be able to study different types of Grimm, regardless of they are common or rare, little or large, but these Grimm are different, as a result, we almost know nothing about them, it was fortunate that we managed to find out that Mutant Creeps explode by will or upon death, otherwise someone would have been seriously hurt if not dead.
I took some time to celebrate that we might be the first group to encounter these types of Grimm and live, which was relieving, if haunting, but otherwise I don't know how to feel about that.
"I know they look like Creeps but what kind of speshimen was that?" Nora asked, mispronouncing the word 'specimen'.
"I think it's pronounced 'spi-see-men', Nora," I replied except I think I was also wrong because I put too much emphasis on the second syllable.
"'Spe-seh-men', actually." Ren corrected.
"Potato-Tomato, what exactly are those things?" Nora inquired.
"We don't exactly know for sure, let's just say they're mutated Grimm like the ones we saw in the video during the briefing," I answered. "We need to notify Doctor Oobleck about this."
I took out my scroll and immediately heard the good doctor's voice. "Team JNPR! Are you alright?! Grimm activity was detected around your area and your aura levels were on alert status."
"Yeah, we handled them, doc. We even came across some mutated Creeps which could be the ones from Mountain Glenn. We were lucky enough to have them dispatched almost unscathed."
"You did? Could you describe them for me then?"
"They're like the regular ones, only that they're bigger and they glow green. They die quicker but they also explode on impact; they'll also do the same if they're too close to you." I explained.
"This is indeed concerning. Those mutated Grimm the poor soldiers found on Mountain Glenn were no fluke. This will require further study. It's fascinating... but very, very troubling. Excellent work, Team JNPR. Keep following those tracks, your encounter with them proves that you are going in the right direction. Be quick now, the longer we pursue who is behind all of this, the more mutated Grimm that will spawn."
I shuddered at that last statement; I was hoping I'd never meet these green exploding assholes again, but unfortunately, this was only the beginning. By the way, I have yet to meet that mutated Beowolf-looking Grimm back at the briefing that managed to kill a whole squad of soldiers. If these are mutated Creeps, I cannot imagine what other mutated Grimm would be like, aside from the obvious details like the green, glowing spikes.
"You guys found the Grimm with those green thingies?" Ruby said on the other side of the channel.
"Yep. When you find them, whatever you do, don't get too close to them. Those things blow up when they die or when you get too close," I warned them.
"That's a bummer, I wanted to punch whatever those things are head-on." Yang made an aside.
"We'll remember that," Ruby responded. "We found the tunnels to Mountain Glenn; we're going in, wish us luck."
"Ditto," I muttered before putting my scroll down and turning back to my team. "Looks like this is the way, guys, if this it's not, then who knows where these things are coming from."
"We should be careful, I'm sure there will be plenty more mutated Grimm we'll come across," Pyrrha added.
"Just remember what to do if you see it glow green," Ren stated.
"Don't worry, guys, we'll be poppin' those things before they could ever lay a claw on us." Nora bragged.
I sure hope so, I thought. "Right let's get back on track," I lead them into following the path uphill, with all our guns ready in case more mutated Grimm come. I felt like this was going to be a long journey.
And I had no idea how right I was.
We spent another few minutes treading the path uphill and there was a structure that was getting increasingly visible the more we got close to it. We later found an ancient stone building—a temple, if you will.
I made a subtle groan as I'm starting to get reminded of the initiation. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised if we found chess pieces inside that building and got chased by a Deathstalker or a Nevermore again. That got me thinking; if Creeps can get mutated, does that mean Deathstalkers and Nevermores could too? I hoped not and said to myself that I have to stop that maniac before he'll be able to make it possible.
"This must be the place," I said, momentarily gazing at its admittedly impressive architecture before pulling out my scroll to update the Doc. "Doctor Oobleck, we have arrived at the point of interest."
"Excellent. You know what to do now. I'm sure we are one step away from solving this mystery. Remember to remain cautious; we don't know what our mysterious adversary has in store for us, so expect the worst. Good luck, team."
"We shall take over this stronghold and I will declare myself the queen of this castle!" Nora said before cheerfully bouncing towards it as she sang her signature song.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" I glanced at my teammates as I checked my ammo, in case more mutated Creeps came.
"Ready," Pyrrha readied her rifle while Ren nodded with both of his machine pistols raised.
Pyrrha and I faced the front of the large temple doors while Ren and Nora pushed them open. I stood behind Pyrrha while pointing my pistol as she crouched and aimed her rifle toward the door with her shield raised. Once the doors were opened, it was clear of any hostiles but there were some transparent cages of different Grimm—mostly Creeps and Scavers.
On the bright side, it didn't take that much trouble getting here; imagine the door being locked that we would need to search the entire area, smashing pots like madmen to find a key, that would have been tedious and annoying.
"Dr. Oobleck, this is no ordinary temple," Pyrrha said on her scroll as we carefully walked through the temple's hall while glancing at the trapped Grimm. One of them almost startled me when it tackled its cage right beside me that I almost would have shot the cage out of shock and accidentally freed it. Hell, I noticed that most of them are staring at me, likely because I had the most negativity among the four.
"Look those wittle cweeps trying to break out of their cages." Nora gestures to one of them. "Isn't it adorable?"
Please don't point at them, Nora. They hate it when you do that, I nervously thought.
"Someone's been busy collecting Grimm," Ren said.
"Which reminds me, I would have got one if you'd let me!" Nora yelled at him. "Now I'll never get my own Ursa and name it Fuzzy Wuzzy!"
"For the last time, Nora. Grimm cannot be domesticated." [1] He replied with slight irritation while maintaining his usual composure.
I never understood why some people want to tame Grimm and keep them as pets. I'm already having trouble with real animals, so why should I even bother handling Grimm that doesn't involve shooting or running away from them or both?
"You're just worried that you think I'm going to replace you with something. Don't worry, you'll always be my one and only Ren, but just let me have a pet for once! I promise you'll still be my number one!" she pleaded, to which Ren just rolled his eyes and kept on moving.
"It appears that this temple looks like it's being used as a temporary storage facility—for Grimm of all things!" Doctor Oobleck said through the scroll's channel. "This is quite the discovery. Keep searching, students. I'm positive that we are getting close to one of our objectives. Keep me notified if you find something particularly noteworthy."
I noticed there were a few supply crates scattered around the area, I quickly dashed toward them and took everything I could use. Most of them were useless junk, but there were some worth taking such as dust and tools that were used to capture Grimm, both of which could be sold for a valuable price at the pawnshop while coming in handy for a rainy day.
One of the random things I found was a black bishop chess piece that resembled one of the 'artifacts' we took during the initiation. I groaned for a bit. I was only joking when I thought that we might find chess pieces in the temple then it made me worried that a Nevermore is going to come over.
While I was aware that not all chess pieces are automatically tied to Ozpin, I couldn't help but ask just to be sure.
"Uh, doc? This doesn't belong to the headmaster now is it?" I queried, showing the piece on the scroll's video feed.
The doctor answered with faint amusement. "Oh, fear not, Jaune, it's just a mere chess piece; nothing more, nothing less. Your days of searching for those types of 'artifacts' are over. I'm not going to make you collect chess pieces throughout the mission, don't you worry."
"If you say so, Doc." I put my scroll down. I don't know why I even brought it up, it's not like I wanted to go hunt for more stupid so-called 'artifacts' for a useless bonus.
I went around looking for more items to scavenge. Unfortunately, I got too caught up in looting the place that I did not notice a loose Grimm nearby. I thought the growling was just my stomach since I had a feeling that I didn't eat enough and it wasn't until I heard it roar loud enough that I turned around and saw it charging toward me that my reflexes got me to dive away from there just in time as I almost panicked. I got a good look and saw that the Beowolf was larger and mutated, resembling an Alpha, but like the mutated Creeps, they were glowing green and had green spikes on their back.
I screamed while making sure I made it sound more like a distress call instead of a pathetic shriek. Please tell me that you go down quicker like your smaller cousins, I silently begged as I took out my pistol and blasted it without thinking.
While there were some noticeable damages, I only managed to anger it further and it pounced right toward me. I dodged to my left and collapsed my shield as it swung its claws to clobber me. I was able to deflect it but it was strong enough that it managed to push me back, which was something even Alpha Beos and Ursa Majors couldn't do even with their full strengths. The mutant Beo was no pushover and was proven to be stronger and quicker than its normal brethren, not to mention, their claws appear to be sharper than normal.
"Guys!" I yelled for help as I did my best to avoid the Mutant Beo's attacks. I decided to run away from it while pointing my gun at it, looking like I'm still trying to fight it when I was actually trying to make a retreat.
"Angry mutt! Angry mutt!" Nora shouted as she and the other two came out with ANOTHER mutated Beowolf, with Ren and Pyrrha trying to shoot it down while they were at it.
"This one's worse than an Alpha Beo!" Pyrrha stated.
Two of them? Great. My problems just got needlessly doubled, I cursed to myself before turning back to the mutated Beo I previously fought. While these abominations were tougher than any other Alpha-Grimm we had to face that I considered ditching this temple, they were still shown to be just as vulnerable as I could see them getting damaged after my teammates used their weapons against them. This meant that just like any other being, we could still kill them if we hit them a lot enough, thankfully.
"Ren, Nora, you take care of that one, Pyrrha and I will handle this one!" I ordered.
"What are we supposed to do, then?" Ren inquired before backflipping away from the other mutant Beo's claw.
"Don't let it hit you, their attacks are much stronger than the regular ones that you die in a hit or two," I instructed, dodging one of its attacks before I went close to it to bash its face. I slashed it a few times before it roared that it was about to pounce on me. It was distracted by Pyrrha's gunshots on its back, making it turn. I gave her additional fire support by shooting on its back until it was stunned by the gunshots from both directions.
Pyrrha leaped toward it, kicking it as she flipped back, and then throwing her javelin towards its head before pulling it back to her as she changed to its xiphos form. The two of us charged in and slashed the mutant Beowolf back and forth until it was finally finished off. Unlike the Mutated Creeps, this one didn't explode, it just vanished like any other Grimm, except that the same green substances dropped away from its corpse. I'd say that's a good thing, those things were already enough trouble as they were.
Meanwhile, the other mutant Beo was trying to get near Nora who was pushing it back by firing grenades at it, not aware of a tranquil Ren rushing towards its back before proceeding to stab it and slash its hind legs. It cried out in agony as it shoved away Ren, throwing him to a wall and Nora wasn't happy about that. It then proceeded to smash the ground, summoning a line of crystals coming to Nora for her to leap off and changing to her hammer as she smashed the mutant Beowolf's head with it.
She went to Ren and helped him up, the mutant Beo charged toward them only for Ren to hold one of Nora's hands and use his semblance to mask them both, making it lose sight of the two's negative energy. Ren proceeded to grab Nora's arm and threw her at the mutant Beo, she swung her hammer and smacked it at impact, sending it crashing to the other. Nora got out unharmed and finished it off with another thump.
"Holy moly, I just killed a Grimm that's big and glowy!" Nora remarked with a mix of surprise and joy.
"Did you guys notice it brought spikes after it smashed the ground?" Ren turned to us and asked while panting for air. "That's not something a Grimm could normally do. Who and what's causing all these mutations?"
"No idea, but I'm very sure that anyone who would modify a Grimm to be stronger must have some pretty loose screws," I told them before bringing out my scroll to contact Oobleck about the latest discovery. "Doctor Oobleck? We may have found the mutated spi-see-men—"
"Spe-seh-men," Ren corrected. At this point, he might as well be our walking pronunciation guide.
I guess I'm going to get that a lot until I manage to pronounce that correctly, am I not? "Whatever. We're here to confirm that the creature that attacked the soldiers on Mountain Glenn really were Mutant Beowolves. We've encountered a couple of them just recently."
"Mutated Beowolves, hm?" The doc pondered. "What can you tell me that makes these Mutated Beowolves deviate from their normal cousins?"
"Unlike mutant creeps, these things don't explode. They're like Alpha Beowolves—only worse and they have this ability where they bring in green crystals after smashing the ground."
"I see. It appears that our fugitive seems to be making different experiments on each kind of Grimm. I'll inform Team RWBY of this. Keep searching—there must be some sort of lab somewhere if we are truly this close to uncovering the mystery."
"Roger." I nodded before putting the scroll back in my pocket.
We went around the temple looking for a lab or some sort of testing ground. So far, we managed to find nothing save for more storages of caged Grimm and some items which I took, of course, but we were able to find an exit somewhere at the back of the temple.
"Maybe we should head out there," Pyrrha suggested, pointing at the exit. "Might lead us somewhere."
"I guess we already searched every nook and cranny of this place," I said. "Alright let's go."
We headed out and followed the path from the exit. Shortly we found what seems to be a port, albeit abandoned judging by the rusty textures of the containers if you look at them closely enough, along with a stationary crane. There was also a ship parked there that doesn't appear dilapidated but it possesses the logo of Merlot Industries despite the company being no more. Not only that, but a few of the containers carry the insignia as well.
We stayed behind a rock that was overlooking the port on a slope. We can't risk going in there without being sure yet.
"A shipping port in Forever Fall?" Pyrrha asked in a puzzled tone. "Who else knows about this?"
"I see the ship with the same symbol as the cargo containers." Ren pointed out. "Someone was indeed using Merlot Industries's assets despite the company now being defunct."
"Doctor Oobleck…" I said at the scroll's channel after sending him some visual references, "Are you seeing this?"
"Is that a port?" He paused for a bit, undoubtedly taking time to study the photo I sent to him. "Judging by the condition of that ship, it doesn't appear to be abandoned from something belonging to a company that hasn't operated for a decade—meaning that somebody has been using it recently."
"Whoever this baddie is, just say the word and I'll give Torchwick a fellow cripple in prison!" Nora said to me.
"Remember whoever is behind all of this managed to break into Emerald Forest's security network and successfully mutated Grimm that killed several well-armed and well-trained soldiers, so you'll have to take some extra precautions." Doctor Oobleck advised. "Furthermore, Team RWBY is done investigating the subway tunnels and will rendezvous at your location within half an hour. I want you to stay put and watch over the port in the meantime. You might need some extra manpower for this task. Call me if you see something suspicious or if the ship is about to depart."
Staring at some cargo. Oh boy, here we go again. If I'm right about a pattern here, I could see what's going to come and that better not be the case. Luckily I'll have the joint forces of RWBY-JNPR should things go wrong, we might be even able to win without me doing anything.
=o=
1. Grimm can be collected for research, or in some cases, use them as live test subjects during training such as Professor Port's classes.
For around thirty minutes or so, we waited while watching over the docks. Nora was getting impatient with her trigger finger twitching; Ren was keeping watch of the docks for anything anomalous, and Pyrrha was blowing off steam and meditating, probably to maintain the right amount of aura for this mission. Meanwhile, I was checking my inventory, examining what I'd looted as I decided which to use and which to sell. I could feel my skin shudder as I sense that something perilous is afoot.
Team RWBY arrived, aside from looking ragged and somewhat sweaty, for the most part, they looked fine for people that had to explore a train tunnel and had likely encountered their fair share of mutated Grimm.
"We're here. What's this all about?" Ruby was the first to ask as the four of them approached us.
"There's cargo belonging to Merlot Industries. We suspect that whoever we are going after is using the defunct company's assets and they are likely to be very close." Pyrrha got up and answered, cocking the handle of her rifle.
"Notice that the ship bears the same logo." Ren pointed out. "If someone has been using the ship, then it must be the same person responsible for the security breach and the mutated Grimm."
Yang smirked. "Alright, let's go pay that guy a visit. Whoever that chump is, they're going to pay for making the mutant Beo that sliced up my hair."
"Your hair looks the same as it ever was." Nora of all people pointed out. Her hair was unkempt indeed, but it was always that way. Then again, this was Yang we are talking about.
"It's still a golden rule not to touch my totally gorgeous and perfect hair!" Her eyes briefly turned red before immediately cheering up and chucking. "Geddit?! Golden! Cause my…" Everyone turned to glare at her, even Ren who was focused on watching the docks. "I think you all caught my drift."
"As much as I want this person to pay for the abominations they created, I'd prefer to have them arrested. They'll have to answer for what they've caused." Weiss chimed in.
"Can I still punch them in the face?" Yang asked, followed by a grinning Nora.
"Or break their legs?
"Just make sure they'll still be able to talk," she sighed. "I'm curious about someone who has the audacity to strengthen a Grimm when they're already enough of a threat."
Because they're freaking insane, that's what. "That's one of the things we're trying to find out," I said.
The doctor once again spoke through everyone's scrolls. "Alright, everyone. Now that you're all there, I'm going to 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."
"Doesn't look hard," Yang remarked. "At least after having to deal with exploding Creeps and things that I would like to call Double-Alpha Beowolves."
Checking the view again, I got the impression that the port was too suspiciously empty. If it does provide something significant on this mission, then it was too convenient to find it unoccupied. "Why do I get the feeling that it only looks that way so they could catch us off-guard?"
"So this is the port," Blake gazed at it. "Didn't know the Forever Falls had one."
Ruby used her sniper's scope to survey the area. "Looks abandoned."
"Probably because it is," Ren replied. "It looked like it hadn't been used since the company shut down."
Weiss scanned the crates. Some containers were green and had the emblem of the Kingdom of Vale, others were Orange and had the Merlot Industries logo, but what got her attention was the blue crates with a very familiar logo. "Wait a minute, are those SDC crates?"
"Old SDC crates, I think," Blake replied. "They're about as rusty as the other crates on the pier, and I'm very certain that the SDC likes to pride themselves on their pristine containers."
Weiss glared at her, looking irritated by that statement, but ended up more or admitting it. "Well, you're not wrong."
"What's the plan?" Pyrrha turned to me and asked.
They all stared at me as they waited for the word of their resident hero. I made a brief glance at the dock, thinking of a plan within less than a couple of seconds before sharing it with everyone, "Alright, Blake and Ren will go in first and scout the area to see if it's fully clear. Ruby and Pyrrha will stay here and provide overwatch and fire support, seeing as you're both marksmen. Everyone else including me will position ourselves before the entrance to the port until Ren and Blake say it's clear then we go in and find everything we need. Did you guys get all that?"
They all nodded and proceeded to cock their respective weapons. I was a little anxious that some unwanted repercussions might happen and that this might not work out right, but I was confident that it'll get the job done while keeping me out of harm's way. I gave them a smile as I ordered them to move out.
Ren and Blake entered the docks while everyone save for Ruby and Pyrrha followed and went behind cover near the dock's entrance, all weapons—pistols, hammers, rapiers, and gauntlets— were ready, while occasionally peeking out.
Blake reported the status of the area a couple of minutes later, "The place is clear. We checked the ship too, it seems that no one is on board. We haven't checked the containers yet, but so far, there's no sight of anything hostile."
"We found nothing on our sights either." Ruby added, "I guess you could say it's safe. We'll keep a lookout just in case."
"Alright then," I responded before glancing back to my other teammates, "Move out and check the cargo."
And so went in and spread out, opening every cargo to find something that could be the key to solving this mystery. Some containers contained cages, empty or otherwise. Others contain barrels of what appears to contain the serum that was probably used to mutate Grimm; we took some samples of it to bring back to Beacon for study. Most other containers just contain mundane things such as crates full of tools and parts, medical equipment, some minerals, and a few crates of dusts—which were particularly stored in the SDC crates. I could make a fortune selling these as well as getting a significant supply of dust for us to use, so I took all that I could carry.
A few more containers opened, aside from the aforementioned barrels of green liquid, we haven't been able to find anything until we heard Nora's sudden screamings and the crashing of metal. "DIE, CLANKERS!"
We quickly rushed toward Nora's position, only to see her crushing what appears to be an inactive robot next to a crate filled with red humanoid robots with rather oversized torsos. They were all inactive and sitting in a tucked position save for the one that Nora was breaking. "Nora, what are you doing?!" I asked her.
"What's it look like?!" She responded as she continued to hammer the dead robot like the psychopath she was while it was already in pieces.
"Nora, calm down!" Ren yelled, speaking at a volume three times higher than his usual tone. I don't know how he did it, but it was enough to get her to stop. "We need to examine these first before destroying them, I don't think I have ever seen this model of a machine before."
"Sheesh," Yang grimaced as she looked at the shattered robot all while making sure she'd distanced herself from Nora. Say what you want about Nora, but it's quite an achievement for her to somehow manage to frighten a fearless thrill-seeker that was Yang.
"It looks Atlesian. But at the same time, it doesn't feel like it." Blake pondered as she scrutinized the robots that were still standing.
Ren looked closer at the machines. "By the looks of it, these robots appear to be brand new and they must have been delivered here recently."
"If that's the case, then this person we're after, must have ties to Merlot Industries or at least had worked there before it collapsed, seeing as how they were capable of mutating Grimm and possessing these robots," Weiss chimed in.
The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to question who we're after. We're either after a lone evil genius or a group of people planning something not good. If it's the latter, one could guess that they were ex-employees of the company, or maybe the company never actually shut down. "I don't know, guys, but maybe we're after more than one person here. I couldn't grasp that only one guy could do all of this."
"You might be right," Blake replied. "We're very likely witnessing a scheme of an unethical organization that was able to gain access to resources for an unknown yet undoubtedly vile purpose."
"Well, that, or one person was determined enough to do all of this," Weiss remarked.
"Either way, the question is—where is all of this coming from?" Ren pondered.
"We'll be sure to find out. If we could get into the ship's system, we could trace the route back to where it came from." Blake proposed.
"I have experience with such technology, I'll be sure to examine once we're done checking every cargo," he assured.
"Speaking of which, we need to get back to securing this place," I said, I would have been more surprised if Nora didn't trigger some sort of alarm after destroying one of them. We should be more grateful that this place wasn't properly guarded. "Someone will have to keep an eye on the 'bots though."
Blake nodded and went back to survey the docks while everyone else stayed to examine the robots for another minute. Yang suddenly stepped in and went in front of the dormant robots and waved at them. "Ohayou, Mr. Roboto! Aren't you guys going to wake up and avenge your friend over here?"
Weiss glared at her. "Are you trying to provoke them just so you could satisfy your need for adrenaline?"
"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood," Yang responded. "Besides, I doubt these tin cans could stand a chance against me."
"Can I break more of them now?" Nora asked.
"Just watch over them in the meantime. There might be something worth salvaging inside them. You can destroy these unholy abominations later," Ren answered before leaving, reminding me that he's not above hating robots as well. After all, these two were part of some sort of weird technocratic (yet robophobic) cult that I would choose to worry about another time so I could focus on my current task that was at hand.
"Whatever, I'll have my EMPs ready." Nora rotated her launcher's chamber. Good to know she brought those just in case, I've been worried about eventually fighting robots. I knew Nora's fear of robots would end up becoming useful at some point.
Everyone returned to their respective activities. I went back to whatever I was doing—taking all of the dust I could get. Unfortunately, I wasn't being considerate nor conspicuous when doing it around the others, so Weiss found me looting from an SDC container.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked suspiciously.
I looked back at her and answered somewhat nervously. "Uh, scavenging for supplies."
"Are you? Because it looks to me that you are stealing property—belonging to my family's company no less!"
Great, here comes Lady Nags-a-lot, I thought. This is what I get for not being careful when collecting dust in front of the dust princess. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure your family lost this by the time this port was abandoned. The SDC must have already replaced this cargo a long time ago." I calmly defended myself.
"It does not change the fact that they're still Schnee Dust Company assets, and by stealing them, you are stealing from the company, and by extension—ME!" She was becoming increasingly infuriating to deal with that I dropped the nice guy charade. I admit, I found her aggravation of me to be quite refreshing after receiving a whole lot of blind praise these past months, but I've been enduring her attitude since day one I'm still wondering how her teammates were able to put up with her crap for an entire semester.
I pretty much had it with her being stuck-up and spoiled-rotten that I decided to respond to her in her own dialect—'Entitled Atlesian'. Being from an Atlesian-Gallican family, I'm somewhat of a rich snowman myself so I was rather fluent in this type of speech and it felt cathartic expressing myself this way after having to spend two months acting like a lovable nerd toward everyone for the sake of gaining everyone's trust.
"We're in a fairly capitalist society, princess. Someone bought this cargo a long time ago, and once someone buys it, it's no longer yours, simple as that. I thought you already knew this, seeing as you're the company's heiress. Now I see why the headmaster never chose you as leader of your team." I sardonically replied, going back to taking all the dust I could get my hands on.
Yang passed through and patted her short teammate's head. "Woah-woah, what did you do to tick off Vomit-Boy so much for him to burn you that hard, Ice Queen?"
"Don't worry, he does this sometimes," Nora said to Weiss as she passed through her.
"And you're okay with this?!" Weiss exclaimed at her before turning back and stomped toward me. "Desperately taking someone's bike to get somewhere quickly was one thing but this is just outright thievery!"
For Brothers' sake, I always knew rich girls like her were entitled, but she's being unreasonably zealous over dust that was abandoned for a while now. "Weiss, you practically live in dust, this should be nothing to you. This doesn't belong to the SDC anymore. Finders, keepers. Now, please go bother someone else." I finished gathering the dusts and went inside the next container.
I sliced the crates open and took everything I could carry while being careful enough not to trigger any of them. Unsurprisingly enough, Weiss followed me, still being as stubborn as ever. "I'm not stopping!"
I sighed in annoyance. "Seriously?"
"I demand you to hand me over the dusts you've taken, and take back what you've said, or else I would never forgive you for this!"
I rolled my eyes. At that point, I decided that this was not worth the trouble I would be facing. "If I follow your first request, then would you shut up?"
"Just give them to me and maybe I'll be a little forgiving!"
"As little as what? Your temper or your bust size?" I snidely replied.
Her face turned red in anger as she growled. "Now you're just being insufferable! Since when were you like this? Don't tell me you're not actually a goof with a thick skull, are you?!"
Well, she's starting to see through the cracks, that's the side-effect of acting out of my known persona. I still wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of acting meek and letting her have what she wanted. It's not like anyone would believe her if she try to tell anyone about it anyway. "Trust me, I'm still there. There are just a lot of things you don't know about me, Weiss-Queen," I answered. "Now can I at least keep a third of the dust I took or am I going to keep being stingy? I promise I'll even give you my crappy apology if I have to."
She tried making one step closer. "You're not getting a single—!"
"AHHHHHHH!" Nora suddenly screamed, interrupting our heated moment.
We both tried to rush out of the container, only for an android to block the exit and suddenly shut the doors, trapping us both inside. We suddenly found ourselves collapsing to the ground as the container began to be lifted. I tried to aim at the door to shoot it open with a laser blast but Weiss grabbed my pistol down before I was able to do so.
"Don't! Trying to fire an inside of an SDC container with your laser would only make it ricochet back to us and kill us both! You can't cut this container down without special equipment!" Weiss chided, her voice echoing inside the container, and the same thing happened to me.
"Was it really necessary to make your containers extra tough?!"
"Yes! So it could prevent thefts!" [1]
"Great, now it's preventing us from getting ourselves stolen!" I yelled now that we were trapped in there.
The ground and walls rumbled as we felt the container drop. I could hear gunshots, destruction, and screaming outside, telling me there was a fight going on. We got up and took out our scrolls to contact our teammates to get us out.
"Ruby! Are you there?" Weiss called.
"Pyrrha! Ren! Nora! I'm in a container that's in the ship—I think!" I reported them to my scroll.
Sadly, all we got was static. We did hear some transmissions from Doctor Oobleck from the others but they were all undecipherable; I was sure that they couldn't hear us either. We kept trying to contact them to no avail until we were forced to accept that our network was disrupted.
"They've somehow jammed our communications!" Weiss exclaimed.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no!" I went to the side of the container and began banging the wall and screaming as loud as I could. "Guys! Help! We're trapped in here! Can you hear me?!"
"This can't be happening. This cannot be happening!" Weiss panicked back and forth and joined me in banging the container for distress.
But because of how loud the excitement was outside and they seemed to be too occupied fighting those robots, I don't think they heard us nor were they aware that we were trapped in a container.
To make this nightmare worse, we could feel the ship set sail as the sounds of fighting became more distant the farther we got. We were officially screwed.
Needless to say, neither of us was very happy about that. "No! No! No! NO!" I began panicking as I kicked the wall of the container.
"I can't believe I'm getting involuntarily smuggled—with you of all people!" Weiss squawked.
I held the wall and panted heavily. I noticed that I was already sweating and that I need to calm down and conserve my oxygen if I'm going to stay here for who knows how long.
"So…" I turned back to her and saw that she was folding her arms and scowling at me. I winced at her for a moment before attempting to smile and extenuate the situation…rather pathetically. "Maybe you can have the dusts now."
She winked at me before growling and punching my gut, something which my aura decided not to protect me from. I saw it coming and I still made no effort to dodge it, probably because I felt too guilty for being partly responsible for putting both of us in this mess that I allowed her to take it out on me.
I fell to the ground and groaned in pain. "I deserve that…"
"This is all your fault! If you just decided not to be greedy or just listen for once, neither of us would be even trapped in here!" She accused.
"And we wouldn't be if you just left me alone," I got up and retorted, suppressing the urge to slap an annoying heiress of a multibillion-lien company on the face, something I wanted to do for a long time. But I suppose the situation I was in was already heated enough—literally; it was pretty hot inside the box, with only a little ventilation to barely provide enough air inside. "But does it matter whose fault it is? I'd say save your breath because you'll need it while we're both stuck in here. So let's not freak out and hope that this will be a short trip!"
Her narrowed eyes stared at me for a few seconds before she groaned and went to the other side of the container and faced the wall. I decided to lean back at the side and sit down. I stared at her back before looking up to the vent above me.
The worst part about this was I could sense my motion sickness acting out again. I did my best to hold it back so I could avoid making a puddle inside this claustrophobic hellhole and being stuck with it for minutes if not hours. This was not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to go sailing the other day.
If only I took a hint and not gone overboard with looting. I would have even preferred fighting those robots with a broken stick if it meant avoiding this.
I'm on a boat… and I hate it. Where the hell is this ship heading to, anyway? I thought.
=o=
1. And to keep slave laborers—particularly faunus—loaded inside, admittedly. Prior to the establishment of the Vytal Treaty, companies would occasionally transport faunus prisoners and some laborers by putting them inside containers. Thanks to faunus receiving equal rights among several other social reformations, this practice has been banned and discontinued but the resilient build of containers remains in the SDC even after this.