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The Phantom Grimm-ace
When we entered Merlot's facility, we found ourselves in a dark, almost pitch-black room. I turned on my scroll's flashlight and saw that we were in some sort of storage room where barrels of the serum were shelved. If I didn't know any better I would have smashed everything here to lessen Merlot's supply of mutagen, but I was warned that the serum attracts Grimm just like negative emotion, and I wouldn't want to do that if we were to avoid the Grimm as much as we could.
I called Ozpin for our status update, "Headmaster, we're finally in the building."
"Good. I want you to locate Dr. Merlot and put him in custody while you wait for rescue and reinforcements which should arrive shortly. Search for a map or anything that would provide us insights into the facility's layout to make the navigation of that building less troubling. Destroy anything that progresses Merlot's experiment if necessary, but be careful, while we are now aware of what the mutagens could do, we don't know everything about them. Above all, be wary of the security. Take care," he responded.
We proceeded to skip this room since there wasn't much to do, and we still had some things to do first before blindly destroying every piece of equipment we saw. When we exited the storage room, lights suddenly turned on by themselves, revealing a corridor filled with white walls with screens while the floor was black and tiled hexagonally.
The screens show Doctor Merlot's face. This was the first time we saw what he looked like since his profile icon on the communications channel was blank. He is revealed to have medium-gray hair with a mustache and beard, with eyebrows that were no less thick. What was the most disturbing part about him was his left cybernetic eye which was glowing red. Apart from that, he appears to be wearing a scientist's gown, overall, giving in the appearance of the evil scientist he was.
"Greetings, and welcome to Merlot Industries, where we're building a better tomorrow—today!" Merlot on the screen spoke, proving that he has no originality when it comes to quotes. We assumed the screens were playing pre-recorded footage that was played every time someone visited, so we ignored them for now and wandered around the facility until we found something. "Here at Merlot Industries, we take pride in innovation. Together, with your help... and a little of your special spark, we will build a better tomorrow!"
"For you, Merlot, there won't be any tomorrow to 'restore'." Ozpin sternly responded to the messages from our scroll's speakers.
We later would find ourselves in the atrium, according to the label on the wall. There were a few boxes scattered around inside the facility, most of them were empty though, however, some of them contained a few dust shards and some sellable items that could fill my pockets with lien after taking them to the pawnshop.
After walking through the hall for a couple of minutes, we can't help but notice that the facility was empty, containing almost nothing but the same screens on every wall. All we could do was keep moving forward.
"This place looks abandoned, where is everyone?" Weiss asked. I guess that it was only Merlot, his metal slaves and some Grimm are everything we're up against. Not a single soul appeared to be working for him, probably because he didn't need them and no one was insane enough to be under his wing. I wouldn't be surprised if he did purge his employees.
"Making yourselves at home, I see?" Merlot said on a screen, except this one wasn't pre-recorded. He was looking directly at us, startling me for a second. "I want my guests to feel welcome, but unfortunately, my security team rarely feels the same. Still, there's a good reason why they behave that way to you."
There was a security camera placed near the screen. I wasted no time and replied by firing at the security camera, detaching it from the wall, and then shattering it to the floor. "I would have preferred if you refrain from vandalizing the security cameras so we would be able to properly monitor our visitors and employees for the sake of their security and safety," he remarked.
"Sorry, I get pretty shy in front of the camera!" I shot the screen as well, that would be enough of a message for him. For the sake of our security and safety, my ass.
Turning away from the broken screen that now has a hole in it, a turret came out from the ceiling. I quickly expanded my shield and blocked the gunfire as Weiss ducked behind and cast ice shards toward the turret until it was frozen. It then fell to the ground before shattering into pieces.
More of the red robots appeared. We fell back as I threw some ice dusts on the floor, creating a puddle of ice. A few of the robots slipped and fell to the ground as I finished them off by stabbing them as they slid. Weiss dealt with the others by overloading their systems with electric dusts before pushing them away to a wall where they shatter, one of the screens even falling to one of them for an added insult.
We noticed a nearby elevator opened and we noticed after dispatching the androids. We quickly rushed to it and activated it before more security androids arrived to make our day harder.
The elevator's doors closed and it descended to the lower levels. It's probably the worst elevator I ever took because of how fast and shaky it was that one could easily mistake that it was crashing. It was a miracle that neither of us lost balance and fell, not even Weiss who was wearing heels. Thankfully, it was very brief but I wonder how many lawsuits this company used to receive from visitors and employees for their uncomfortable elevators. [1]
When it finally opened, we were greeted with a sight of a large room filled with tanks containing and harvesting the serum from the island's soil. "Here before you are Stage 2 processing tanks," Merlot announced on the laboratory's P.A.
The room was leaking of Scavers and some Creeps that appeared to have dug out from the earth, a few of them were even mutated. They were trying to scratch the tanks of the serum that they were so attracted to, but their attention turned to us once we arrived.
It was pretty tempting to destroy the tanks, but until I was sure that the Grimm would stop leaking in the area, it wouldn't be practical, it would only just give them free mutations. This wouldn't be so bad if all of them were just Creeps since we would only just stand back and let the fireworks happen, but there were also Scavers in the room, and we weren't sure what a large mutated Grimm rat exactly does, so it would be better to study them with one of the two Mutated Scavers present there. If I recall correctly, the military was going to blow up this island once we were out of here anyway, besides I didn't want to become an even worse Grimm magnet by having the serum spilled on my clothes, my shoes have already stepped on enough of them.
The regular Creeps dug near to us, Weiss and I did the pleasure of slashing and stabbing them to oblivion. The mutated ones followed—Weiss and I sprung back and used our respective range attacks, creating green explosions between us.
The Scavers charged toward us, I fired my laser pistol at those overgrown rodents because I was not taking the chance of them poisoning me. They were still one of the weakest common Grimm so it wasn't much trouble getting rid of them, what worried me was the Mutated Scavers since this was our first encounter with them. They were only two and they didn't seem to be more threatening than a Mutated Creep but we didn't know what mutations they were given aside from their new appearance and slightly increased size.
"Ugh, why do these rats have to mutate when I already loathe their normal forms?" Weiss grimaced, repulsed at the sight of her least favorite Grimm specimen and the animal it was based on.
"Probably because regular Scavs' weren't bad enough for him. Whatever these things would bring, it obviously won't be good," I said, readying my gun. "Get ready. We wouldn't know until we see what happens after I damage them."
I fired at one of them. Much like the regular Scavers, they are just as fragile, going down in one or two hits. But it turned out, it actually wasn't a good move because killing a single Mutated Scaver caused it to collapse and multiply into a swarm of miniature glowing rodents that raced toward me.
"Oh, rats!" I panicked. I hastily holstered my gun and grabbed Weiss's hand before making a run from them.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Weiss asked, blushing at me abruptly holding her hand as we were both chased by the swarm.
"Saving our butts from being poisoned! Don't worry, this isn't going to mean anything; we're not in some crappy rom-com!" I quipped in hopes of coping with this madness.
Once we were far enough, yet the swarm was quickly catching up to us, Weiss made a proposal. "Let me go, I have an idea." I looked at her for a moment as I did so, hoping that she knew what she was doing. "You might want to hold on."
Weiss then summoned a glyph for us each to launch us into the air before the swarm of Scavers managed to reach us. Weiss summoned another couple of glyphs to keep us elevated in midair, I kept myself balanced, holding onto the glyph below me as Weiss casted a fireball to the ground, burning the swarm and the three-feet radius around it, even igniting the other Mutated Scaver which eventually burned down along the swarm that spawned from it.
She then casted ice dust to extinguish the fire below us, making it safe to put us down. "Gods, I hate those things."
I pushed myself up and saw that the area was clear of Grimm, for the moment at least. One of the screens flickered on with another announcement from Merlot. "Thank you for getting rid of those pests. I would have sent my androids to dispatch them, but this saves me trouble. This way please." He said, opening another elevator.
"Is it just me, or is he a little too welcoming?" Weiss asked suspiciously.
I can sense that there was something sinister that he had stored for us, but we had nowhere else to go so there was nothing else we could do but move forward and prepare for the worst. "Oh, he is definitely not sending us to a trap," I sarcastically remarked.
"It's either that or facing an endless horde of robots upstairs," she said as we both headed to the elevators.
"Might want to warn the others about the mutant Scavers." I took out my scroll. There would have been huge trouble if it weren't for Weiss fire dusts, and I have to make sure the others were prepared to handle them, otherwise, it might take them longer to get here. "Professor, you might want to tell the others to watch out for Mutant Scavers. They multiply into a swarm of small rodents when killed. Tell them to have some fire dusts ready."
"Duly noted. Thank you for the warning, Mr. Arc. The mutated Grimm is a rather new adversary for us that we appreciate every piece of new information. Continue your expedition and notify us if you find a new threat. Your team should be arriving any minute now." Ozpin responded. The others better get here shortly, I thought, because this mission was getting worse by the minute.
I braced myself for another bumpy elevator ride and boy was I right. I swear, if it didn't last for less than five seconds I would be puking on the floor and Weiss would nag me as long as we're stuck with each other. I know that Merlot hasn't gotten any visitors until we came along, but couldn't he fix this crap in his spare time?
The door opened to a hallway to the next section. We were greeted by more screens of Merlot. "Here we have the Engineering Wing—the so-called 'brains' of the operation if you're not counting my own intellect," he said before laughing at himself. I doubt that's the case as I was convinced that he lost his mind a while now. "Don't be so timid. There aren't any traps here… yet," he continued before the screen transitioned back to showing just his company's logo.
"Thanks for the heads-up," I said dryly.
"Showing gratitude to the man that's trying to kill us now, huh?" Weiss snidely remarked.
"Old geezer needed some compliments after being alone on this dumpster fire for so long. Your parents told you to respect the elderly, didn't he?" I replied.
"How thoughtful of you," she glared at me. "And yes, in fact, I've shown more respect toward the elderly than what my father expected from me."
"Good to know you sympathize with your fellow white-hairs," I teased.
She raised a brow. "I take it you don't do the same, judging on that remark."
"Oh, I didn't mean any offense in that, it's just that you act like a grumpy old lady sometimes," I shrugged.
She remained defensive as always. "That only shows how I'm too mature for the likes of you."
"Right then, grandma," I said, making her roll her eyes out of annoyance.
We pressed forth, there was time for bantering later anyway, and I wasn't going to make this trip longer by stalling, although it did assure me the others are going to arrive any moment now.
The engineering wing was full of computer terminals and workbenches. Aside from that, there wasn't much to make out for it other than I took some parts that may find to be useful—particularly dust and weapon upgrades.
It didn't take long for us to find a row of computers with a terminal in the middle of it. We concluded that this is where they store their data and information.
"That's a lot of computers," I remarked. I felt like I was in a room of a space station that needed several supercomputers and a lot of processors and bandwidth to get its operations working. [2]
"We appear to be in some sort of data processing center," Weiss uttered. "We should be able to gain access to every info we need for this mission."
She headed to the terminal and booted it on, only to be greeted with a screen asking for a password to gain access to it. "Ugh, of course, it's password protected."
Remembering the password I used on the communications tower, it could work here but it was also just as likely that it might now work because not every computer in the facility uses the same password, but the one I got apparently was an admin code so it was worth a try.
"Let me see if this could work," I said. Weiss moved aside before I typed in 'Lusus Naturae'. I was prepared to receive a text saying that it was the wrong password however it managed to work again. "Would you look at that?"
Weiss breathes out. "Thank The Brothers for your compulsive scavenging then and whoever wrote that convenient note." [3]
I know, right? It feels like I'm at their mercy at the moment, I thought.
Browsing through the terminal's contents, I navigated through an index containing records of the company and the facility itself. I've managed to find a document containing a map that not only covers the very laboratory we were at but the rest of the island as well. It has everything we needed to navigate the area and it could help the others when they arrived. I quickly sent it to our CCT server, the computer estimates the upload to be completed after five minutes. Well, it did contain legends, blueprints, and additional information about the island rather than just showing you the layout, so the file itself was bigger than expected.
While waiting for the computer to upload the map, in the meantime, I decided to check out other things on the computer for anything else that could be of some help to us. What got my attention was a folder named 'Projects,' I checked it to see if there was anything that could tell me about his current experiments on the mutating Grimm and what the evil plan he has used for them.
Entering the folder, I saw several more folders containing projects that were either labeled as 'Cancelled', 'Failed', and 'On Hold', but what stood out that wasn't labeled as any of those was the most recent folder on the very top called 'Project: Grimm Eclipse'.
Aside from sounding like a title for a mediocre video game, it was without a doubt that it concerns the Grimm mutations, so I was about to enter the folder the moment I realized what it was. But before I was able to go further, Merlot was able to catch up with what we were doing.
"Ugh, I should have expected this. The moment I found out that you somehow managed to gain access to my network, I feared that you might be able to leak information critical to my experiment." Merlot grumbled, "Since you children are so curious about my works, allow me to introduce one of my finest creations."
Weiss and I readied our weapons for our next adversary. Loud metallic stomps were heard from the nearby manufacturing room. We quickly turned toward it and saw a silhouette leaping toward us. It revealed itself to be a silver, twelve-foot robot clad in armor that appeared to be thicker than the ones carried by the android gunners, it was wielding a war hammer in its right hand and a tower shield in the other.
This is going to be one tough nut to crack, I said to myself.
"Behold, the 'Dust-Immune Prototype Securidroid & Hostile-Intercepting Terminator' or simply called 'The Terminator' in short. Now, I would have changed the name because it was apparently trademarked, but that's not relevant now, is it? As its name suggests, this machine is immune to all sorts of dust attacks, so forget about ever trying your clever abilities, Miss Schnee." [4]
"This is not good..." Weiss winced. I was about as terrified as her, this robot already appeared threatening enough and it was made worse when we heard that it was resistant to any form of dusts. I know I don't over-rely on dust in the first place, but it was still useful in making fights easier. I just needed to find a way to bring this down and I didn't expect it to be a walk in the park, seeing how this was one of Merlot's finer creations.
"I've managed to create the design before that fool Polendina could copy it. The Kingdoms would have done everything they could get their hands on if I had revealed it to them, but I thought it was better to get rid of pests who attempt to ruin my vision. I've always wanted to use it against Huntsmen, now it's my chance!" Merlot finished, now prompting the Terminator to swing its hammer to the floor.
Weiss and I leaped back as the floor shook from the thud. I tried to fire a few laser blasts at it but it was able to deflect them with its shield. Weiss bolted towards its torso and spun around as she tried to damage it, only to make a scratch out of it at best. The Terminator darted back and tried to swing the hammer at her vertically as she was still in midair, but Weiss quickly managed to quickly elevate herself to the ceiling and push herself back to the ground again.
The Terminator raised its hammer to swing it, Weiss summoned a large glyph and attempted to block it and maybe even knock it back, only for it to be broken by the hammer. Weiss made a slight painful grunt and dashed back to avoid the hammer. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"
It looked like we needed to find a weak spot or this robot wasn't going anywhere because it had more protection than a sacred cow with overzealous worshippers. If Professor Peach was able to see this stupid thing, she is going to roll on the floor so hard, that it would break her goggles.
The Terminator began swinging its large hammer around vertically, I barely managed to duck it while Weiss used a glyph to jump from it, she summoned another glyph to launch herself towards it, only for her to stop when it starts facing its shield at her, causing her to land it on her feet and flip back to the ground.
With the Terminator facing Weiss, it was now open on the other side. I aimed at its head and fired a shot. While it did make some damage, it appears that it has head protection as well. The shot managed to anger it which made it shove its shield toward me before it tried to hammer Weiss with its weapon, I had to roll back and keep a distance just to be safe.
While it was tougher than any robot we face, it was so noticeably slow that Weiss managed to dash near below it as she dodged the strike from the hammer. It appears as if she doesn't want to believe that it was fully dust-resistant, so after scraping its leg a few times, she tries to plant an ice puddle below it to see if it might slip. It didn't work, a single stomp from the robot's foot was enough to shatter and break the solid puddle on the floor. Well, that's a way to demonstrate its anti-dust features. He really did think of everything, I'll give that evil old coot credit for actually managing to counter dust and I really hated it.
The robot kicked Weiss back, throwing her to the wall of computers, slightly damaging it and causing the upload (which was almost complete) to be put on a halt for a second before continuing. That was close, it almost gave me a heart attack and it would have been problematic for us to lose that map. I was sure that Merlot didn't want to destroy his own data unless he had a backup somewhere.
Weiss appeared to be fine, unfortunately, the damage absorbed a lot of her aura that she wouldn't be able to use her semblance as much. This robot's anti-dust features were really getting the best of her. She'll be okay, she'll just have to suppress her reliance on glyphs during combat.
What's taking the others so long? I wondered. If there was a situation where we need both of our team's combined strengths, now was a perfect time. Since they should arrive within a few minutes by then, I was thinking that we stall this thing for long enough until they came to our rescue, but Merlot was determined to destroy us with this 'fuck you dust users machine' and we'd be dead or out of aura within less than a minute, so I wasn't going to risk it.
"Stupid anti-dust. I fought a foe like this before, this is not supposed to be as hard as it is!" [5] Weiss bellowed, moving at my distance which was several feet away from the Terminator's range at the moment. "Any ideas?"
I looked at the Terminator to study its design but it was also when it began to charge at us with its shield on the front and we had to quickly dodge to the side away from each other.
Now that it was on the other side of the room and was facing backward, I had a brief moment to discover that—like a knight's plate armor—it didn't fully cover the wearer's body. Some parts of its arms and especially its thighs were the most noticeable, with the latter being the least protected. Reinforced armor plating aside, it's pretty obvious that it's vulnerable to normal attacks.
"We hit it where it hurts!" I declared, giving my sword a twirl. "The robot has some gaps in its armor, we just need to get near them!"
The Terminator then began to leap with its hammers raised. Weiss and I hastily spread out to get away from its attack radius. The second it smashed the ground, we both leaped to avoid the shockwave caused by the impact, Weiss mounts the hammer and runs up to the Terminators right arm and slices its open elbow pit then slashed through the next, meanwhile, I ran towards below it and slashed the back of its thigh. Sparks were coming out, telling us that we were able to damage it.
It then slammed its tower shield on the ground, causing me to fall to my bottom. I quickly crawled back to keep a distance away from one of its upcoming attacks. Weiss jumped to a wall and grabbed it as she summoned a glyph that launched her toward The Terminator's neck in an attempt to slice it. However, it swung its hammer and managed to hit her to the ground, with her aura almost shattering.
"Weiss!" I was so alarmed by her getting hit, that I didn't realize that the Terminator shoved its shield and knocked me back for a few feet until it was too late.
Weiss was struggling to push herself from the ground, having only a few of her aura left that one more successful strike would mean the end of her, but I still had plenty of mine left so I was able to recover and ran toward her as the Terminator was about to deliver another blow in an attempt to finally kill her.
I hurriedly expanded my shield and ran to Weiss's front; I infused my shield with as much of my own aura as I could as I blocked off the robot's hammer. I was slightly pushed by its strength, but I did my best to stubbornly push back to give Weiss enough time to recover and get her rich heiress butt out of there. I groaned as my arms continued to wrestle the Terminator's weapon, struggling even with the aid of my own aura. At that moment, I knew I shouldn't have half-assed my workout and lifted more weights.
Weiss saw me pushing back the robot to save her from getting crushed. Instead of moving away as I expected her to, she abruptly took my laser pistol from my holster after getting up—much to my shock and bewilderment. I was about to ask her what the hell was she doing, that is until I saw her aim towards its unarmored gaps in what would be its thighs and fired a couple of blasts, making the robot flinch back and pull away its hammer.
It was now my chance to strike back. Taking a few breaths, I folded my shield and put it on my belt and stormed toward the Terminator, and leaped to its upper body. I held its shoulder with my left hand as I thrust my sword to its neck repeatedly. The Terminator tried to shake me off and swing its hammer repeatedly, but I was out of its range and held on tight.
To finally top it off, I finally sliced off the neck and jumped away as it fell on its back, making a loud thud across the room with its metal body.
I panted as I went to the computer's monitor and saw that the upload was complete. That's another android down and another objective completed. Good freaking riddance, I thought.
Weiss walked toward me, she was holding her side and was somewhat stumbling. She tossed me my gun as I caught its warm barrel that was currently cooling down. "Not a fan of firearms myself, but I'd say this one is pretty neat. Atlesian tech, is it not?"
"Thanks, I'm proud of it too. Atlas makes the best stuff, not gonna lie." I gave it a few twirls before holstering it. Got to thinking, I used my gun too many times in this mission that I was running short of laser ammo. Better prepare myself into selling my loot so I could have money to buy more then.
I took my scroll and notified Ozpin. After dealing with this specialized elite robot, it was best to get out of this as soon as possible. This mission was getting too ridiculous and our supplies are being exhausted; I have lost count of how many robots I killed since arriving on this island. "Professor Ozpin, I got you your map."
"Yes, I know. I have now begun scrutinizing it. Excellent job, students." Ozpin answered, "I also heard that Merlot sent an advanced anti-dust android. You haven't encountered it, haven't you?"
"We did. It wasn't easy, but let's just say that Weiss is free to use most of her spells again." I looked at Weiss, who just rolled her eyes at that quip but didn't seem to be offended. Understandable, there were worse things to worry about.
"How? Just how?" Merlot's voice bellowed on the scroll channel. "I worked years on that machine to protect my work from puny Huntsmen such as yourself. To see it defeated by a couple of schoolchildren while my information is getting leaked. How are you so determined to get this far? I have clearly underestimated you rascals, you turn out to be more trouble than you're worth."
Yeah, well, I'm not enjoying this either. Maybe you shouldn't have trapped us in that crate and sent us here, we wouldn't have been determined to screw up your facility in an effort to leave, I muttered.
"We have the location of your island and evidence of your experiments. Your safe haven will be bombarded once my students have reached safety. You've already lost, Merlot. Let my students go and surrender yourself, maybe you'll find yourself at the mercy of the authorities." Ozpin responded to him. Listening closely I could hear him take a sip from his mug—like he always does.
"Absolutely not! I refuse to let myself get captured after watching years of hard work simply get wasted by children! If this ought to be my downfall, then I am taking your two precious prodigies with me! Bring me your worst, I will be waiting."
Of course, being absolutely insane, he still chooses not to give up, abandoning all reason and logic when he was inevitably screwed. I really can't wait to finally meet this guy face to face for all the trouble he put me through. He has been giving me the motivation to capture him when all I wanted was to finish the job so I could take the reward, leave and prepare my vacation plans when the school year is over.
"Still as stubborn as always. This path has led to your undoing before, it will lead you to it again." Ozpin sighed before shifting his attention to us. "Mister Arc, Miss Schnee. You'll be happy to know that your teammates are now deployed on the island and are heading to your position. Judging by your aura levels, I advise that you take a short break as you wait for them to arrive. You're doing quite well, keep it up. You're guaranteed to pass this year."
I took a huge breath and sat at the wall of computers, with Weiss following beside me. If the next room is going to be as exciting as this, then we need to be in better condition and let our auras regenerate first. We just need to keep a lookout for another wave of Securidroids unless Merlot is saving them for later instead of using them to attack us while one of us has wavered.
=o=
1. None. From what I could gather, the laboratory's elevators were stable when the company was still active. The lack of maintenance over the years may probably be the reason why the elevator performed that way.
2. Jaune was, of course, referring to fictional space stations from sci-fi media. As of this writing, space travel is still impossible as there is still yet a solution to maintain the powers of dust after they leave the planet's atmosphere.
3. According to a recovered log by Merlot's chief engineer, 'Lusus Naturae' was the master password of anything connected to the island's main network. Said programmer planted the note on the ship, hoping that someone who opposes Merlot would use it against him before was killed by his androids.
4. While anti-dust technology wasn't exactly new at the time—in fact, it has been around years prior—it was rare, expensive, and barely reliable. Over the years, it would become increasingly common, albeit slowly due to nobody being able to salvage Merlot's anti-dust tech and reverse-engineer them to have a breakthrough. If things have gone differently, Merlot's invention would have pioneered anti-dust tech and it would have been mastered years earlier.
5. I was referring to my battle with an Arma Gigas prior to attending Beacon, it was the one where I received the scar on my left eye. While that battle was indeed challenging at the time, the major difference was that the Arma Gigas lacked anti-dust technology that would have made it more difficult to defeat, especially for a dust specialist such as myself.
A few minutes after we defeated the anti-dust droid, we stared at the wall, and occasionally the ceiling, rarely making eye contact with each other. I decided to break the silence and compliment her for helping me kill the robot—the same time when she decided to also open her mouth.
"Hey, you did pretty great back—"
"You know, I really should thank—"
We both flushed and looked away at each other, still contemplating the fact that we are getting comfortable with each other when this series of events was the cause of arguments over dust ownership.
After a moment of awkward silence, I turned my head back to her. "You were saying?"
"I want to thank you for defending me when I faltered. I barely had enough aura left to protect me from another strike from that machine," she said to me rather warmly, contrasting her usually cold demeanor since she was in a good mood.
"I didn't expect that you'd actually show some gratitude." I smugly replied.
She pouted at me over the remark. "Of course, I would. Imagine almost dying and not thanking your lifesaver at least once. I admit, I know I'm not exactly the most pleasant person around but at least I know how to be grateful.
I still don't believe I deserved to be thanked for doing something that I was supposed to do as a Huntsman. I mean, we'll be saving each other a lot in this line of work. "Aren't our lives always in danger ever since we chose to become Huntsmen?"
"Brothers above, you really are an idiot. Put yourself in a near-death experience and maybe you'll understand," she said.
Been there way too many times, I'm afraid. "Well, I have a reputation to uphold. It's not like I'm being selfless or anything." I said in a rather insincere tone to mask despite the volume of truth behind hat statement, that way she wouldn't believe it.
"Sure, you keep telling yourself that," she sneered.
Trust me, I definitely will. "So, what do you want me to say? Tall, blond, and scraggly is at your service?"
"That's still better than your shallow attempts at denying the fact that you just saved me, even if it sounds stupidly cheesy."
I made a faint chuckle. "You know, Weiss, with that smart mouth of yours, you'd fit right into my family."
"What's that supposed to mean? I can't exactly imagine myself sharing your last name," she remarked. That I could agree with. While she sorta has the attitude, I couldn't imagine her being in the same family as mine either. "Can you tell me about them though? I'm rather curious, I've heard about them before, I even read about some of your ancestors."
"Well, everyone knows my father, Caiaphas, a Huntsman that was so renowned for his skills that the Atlesian council made him a Commissar, and my mother was some country girl that became some sort of paladin. After they met, they went on adventures saving the world one baddie at a time. Then they decided to marry, have eight kids and go was their work so they could keep raising and looking after us. Not to mention, both of them are where all of our sarcasm came from, we like to think that their quipping is what got them married in the first place." I chuckled, "Anyway, they left me some pretty big shoes to fill."
"I can relate to that, upholding a family's legacy is never easy," she remarked in an understanding tone. "What about your siblings? I have a couple of siblings myself, but I can't imagine living with seven of them while they all apparently inherit their parents' sarcasm".
"I guess you know who to blame for all the quips I threw at you," I sneered. "To put it simply, my eldest sister is a sapphic egghead who does all of our homework, my other elder sister is a seamstress who once murdered a Beringel over fabric; [1] then there's tree-hugging hippie; a gun-obsessed bounty hunter; a grunge fan who bullies me but is also my best friend and lastly; twins that are pop-stars that also has my parents' training. I'm the youngest and the only son. Do the math."
"Sounds like a wild household, and I thought the three of us were complicated."
I took my turn to ask. "What can you tell me about yours then?"
"To start, there's Winter, my elder sister who I have looked up to since I was little. She is brave, strong, and wise; she would have made a better heiress than I did."
I was rather surprised by Weiss displaying humility when I have known her to be a usually pompous, cold, and arrogant brat, but now I find myself becoming sympathizing with her.
Her tone noticeably becomes more downtrodden. "But she refused the position—even if it did suit her, preferring to work for the military instead, much to my father's disappointment. Now I'm trying my best to be something like her, but thankfully she's willing to help me, even mentoring me a few times," she said, cheering up.
It's nice to see that Weiss has a role model of her own, seeing older brothers and sisters guide their younger siblings always puts a smile on my face. "Then there's my brother, Whitley. In all honesty, I can't talk much about him since we aren't that close. I don't believe that he's even fond of me. Nonetheless, he's still my brother, and whatever he is up to, it was my duty to look after him, and sometimes he may even help me out in return."
"That's siblings for you; sometimes they help you, sometimes they don't," I said.
"That's true."
We sat there for another couple of minutes when suddenly, a distinct voice belonging to a hammer-wielding teammate of mine was heard across the room, making both of us stand. They were finally here.
"Ugh, those elevators make me want to barf!"
"I wonder what Jaune must have felt when riding those."
Yang, I can hear you, but yeah, those elevators suck; can't really blame Nora.
"Weiss! Jaune! Are you there?" A high-pitched voice called, undoubtedly Ruby's.
"Might want to tone it down, the androids and Grimm might be able to sense us." Another voice said, which sounded like Blake.
"The area seems clear to me," Ren replied.
"The professor said that they were last seen on this floor, they should be around here," Pyrrha stated.
Shortly after, the six of them stepped into the data-processing room and found us. "Weiss! Jaune!" Ruby promptly dashed in with her semblance and within a flash, she was now hugging both of us.
"Not too hard! I'm still trying to recover." Weiss told her.
"Oh, sorry!" Ruby apologized as she let go of us and stepped back. "I'm glad to know that both of my besties are still okay!"
Pyrrha walked up to me and smiled. "Glad to see that you're okay, Jaune. I knew he wouldn't be able to break you that easily."
"The journey here took some sweat, but I wasn't going to let him get to me that easily." I boasted, putting my hero face on.
"Of course, you wouldn't. You're not going to let that evil scientist get what he wants, now would you?" Nora inquired.
"Yeah, foiling the bad guy's plan is all in a day's work for me," I said, slightly giving an impression of some sort of superhero. And so was making sure I look good when getting out of a hairy situation.
"That's our leader!" she chirped up.
"Good to see you that the ice-queen and the bike-stealer are alive and well," Yang said.
I faintly narrowed my eyes at her. "I thought we were over that, pie-face."
"Hey, I'm sorry, but your indiscriminate yoinking is what got you here. Not that I'm complaining, you two are still alive and you're able to lead us to find Doctor Badguy's lair," she defended.
"Excuse me, I do not steal indiscriminately! I only take from our enemies and stuff that no one owns anymore!" I agitatedly corrected her.
"Sure, whatever," she dismissed. I was getting called out by someone who has a record of several offenses and enough misdemeanors to get the worst punishment last month, making me wonder what has my life become.
Pyrrha held my shoulder. "Jaune, maybe you should start being more careful the next time you go scavenging. I was really worried about what might have happened when you were abducted."
"Trust me, I think I've already learned my lesson." I hesitantly nodded.
"I hope it's worth the wait, Fearless Leader! I'm really sorry that we weren't able to save you before, we knew we could have done something." Nora shamefully apologized.
"Hey, it's okay, Nora, don't worry about it. What matters now is that you're here and I can't be any happier than that," I reassured them as I gave her the encouraging words like the good leader they thought of me as, as always. "Now, we can finish this mission together."
"So, I heard that you two fought a large anti-dust robot," Yang said, "Are there any more of them?"
"I think he only has one model for it… hopefully," Weiss answered.
"That sucks. I would have loved to fight it, should have waited for me," she disappointedly muttered.
Weiss shook her head over this. "Trust me, if we expected something like that, I would have left it to you. That thing almost killed me, you know!"
"…And it should have!" Merlot suddenly said as a screen suddenly flashed open in the room, revealing a live camera of his portrait.
"Would you mind? The grownups are talking," I sneered at him. At that point, I was so tired of him that just hearing his voice alone made me sick.
"Hey! I thought I was the one who's supposed to make the wisecracks here." Yang remarked.
You're not the only smart-mouthed blonde here, Yang, I thought. "Mind if we share the role then?"
Merlot then started speaking, "How precocious of you. I just want to let you know that my ambitions aren't the only thing that is going to be destroyed today! Now that your whole team is here, you can all die toge—!" His feed abruptly ended after Pyrrha fired a single round at the screen.
"Good job, Pyrrha," I said as she gave me a nodding smile.
Ozpin began speaking through our scrolls. "Students, I'm glad to see that you've finally reunited, but let's not waste any time now. According to the map that was sent to me, it appears that the facility contains a self-destruct sequence that Merlot would be able to trigger as a last-resort option."
Self-Destruct?! Please, tell me you're joking, Ozpin! I thought as I panicked.
"You can use the map yourself in this channel. Merlot's workplace is up ahead. I suggest you advance immediately." he said before ending his call.
"I think I got all the aura I need. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Weiss said.
"Alright, everybody, let's move out! Let's give this evil doctor the taste of his own medicine!" Ruby said.
"Please don't tell me you're planning on mutating him." I quipped.
"Don't worry, the mutagens will probably just kill him," Weiss assured, keeping her face straight. "And yes, I'm aware of the joke."
Well, fair enough.
=o=
1. For context, a caravan containing supplies Viola Arc bought due to a shortage of fabric was blocked by a Beringel that was terrorizing the trade route to Acadia. There were multiple attempts to dispatch the Beringel but they all failed, leading her to successfully take down the Beringel herself after becoming too impatient. She declined the reward and simply took the supplies. She would later find her business has an increase in customers within the following day. It should be noted that unlike Jaune or half of her sisters, Viola Arc never attended any Huntsman academy.
We then all proceeded to the Manufacturing Wing. I had my sword prepared for the worst of Merlot since I got the impression that this was the final stage of the mission, or at least I hoped it was. We didn't know what type of mutant Grimm we had to face next.
"Team, be warned that there's also an android assembly and a confinement of Grimm on the way there! Do not forget that we need Merlot alive so that he can be questioned for his crimes. A Bullhead will be waiting for you at the landing pad near his workshop. Remember that prudence is of the essence!" Doctor Oobleck said.
Just what I was afraid of.
As we went further into the manufacturing wing, we began to wonder where all the robots and Grimm were when Merlot was preparing to destroy us. We arrived at a three-way junction, with the left path leading to the android assembly being guarded by an army of robots, with expendable red androids on the front and four heavy gunners on the back; The other path leading to the biological lab which was blocked by Mutated Grimm—mostly consisting of Mutated Creeps with a couple of Mutated Beos and for the first time—a single Mutant Ursa.
Oh, crap, this is going to be one hell of a party. This place is going to be a mess once we're done, I told myself.
"Oh-ho! This is going to be a whole lot of fun!" Yang said, readying her weapons, along with everybody. Team RWBY was facing the Grimm while my team was focusing on the robots on the other side. I took a deep breath and thought of a way to defeat both of them without any casualties from our side.
"You still have the EMPs, don't you, Ren?" Nora asked.
"Of course," he said,
"Thank the Brother Gods for that," I puffed, I wouldn't know what to do without them. "Give 'em some blue screens."
Ren threw the EMP grenades and disabled the red androids, the gunners were stunned for a few seconds or so but it appeared as if their circuits were also protected so they were able to recover quickly from the EMPs. Nora charged and smashed away all the overloaded androids, some of them being thrown to the heavies as they attempted to fire their weapons at us.
Ren, Pyrrha, and I helped clear the path from the red androids. The gunners began to fire their weapons at us, prompting me and Pyrrha to raise our shields and for Ren and Nora to take cover behind us.
"Nora, smoke!" I ordered.
"That won't work! The androids are equipped with sensors that allow them to target us even when hidden behind smoke," Ren told me, and Nora was pretty aware of this too, judging that she didn't comply immediately like she always would.
With that, I had to look for another way to get close to them while being able to avoid their fire. I realized that while they were resistant to EMPs, they were not fully immune to them. It would at least buy us some time. And also there's this other thing. Gulp. Here goes nothing. "Ren, throw more EMPs at it; Pyrrha, cover me; and Nora…" I faced her, and she was more eager and prepared for my orders than ever. "Get me closer, I want to hit them with my sword."
Nora smirked and gave me a two-finger salute. I know this sounds like something too crazy for something for me to do but I refused to waste ammo and I thought this was the best way to get in close range to them.
Ren threw a handful of EMP grenades at the gunners that were still firing their weapons. The grenades ignited, briefly stunning them, giving me a window of fewer than three seconds to get close to them. I collapsed my shield and put it back on my belt before Nora grabbed my left hand and flung me toward the heavies. I raised my sword before grabbing one of them in the chest and thrusting my weapon through its head, making it fall back into the floor.
The other robots recovered from the EMPs and faced me. I expanded my shield and used it to shove away one of its guns and sliced off its arm. They were so preoccupied with me that the next thing they knew, Nora jumped in and completely crushed another one of them with a single strike of a hammer. Pyrrha's spear was thrown into one of the heavies' necks—the one which I sliced the arm off from. She then leaped in and grabbed it and pulled it out as she bounced off its chest. Ren remained at the back, providing cover with clips of armor-piercing bullets.
Meanwhile, on Team RWBY's side of things while they were fighting the mutated Grimm. Ruby was zooming around one of the Mutant Beos while trying to slice it down with her scythe; Weiss was gathering Mutant Creeps and contained them with glyphs suppressing their explosion as they blow each other to smithereens; Yang was giving jabs to the Mutant Ursa's stomach before dodging right from its claw; Blake was handling the other Mutant Beo, which smashed the floor, only for its green crystals to go through to one of her shadow clones as she stabbed its back a few times and then got out. One Mutant Creep tried to sneak behind her but she was able to notice and used her weapon's whip to hurl it at the last Heavy android standing before exploding along with it.
Now that the robots were no longer a problem, we were able to give our sister team a helping hand. Pyrrha fired her rifle at Ruby's Mutant Beo, distracting it away from Ruby as she was able to cut it down in half. Pyrrha then shot the remaining Mutant Creeps who were a distance away from Team RWBY and tried to storm at us. I put away my shield and held hands with Ren, masking my emotions with his semblance as I help Blake slay the other Mutant Beowolf by slashing it with my sword. Ren proceeded to shoot it with his gun in his free hand while the Beo was not able to sense the two of us. Nora shot some grenades at the Mutant Ursa before Yang climbed on its back and pinned it down just before Nora stepped in and smashed its head into nothing.
"Woo! Alright, who's next?!" Yang stood away from the Mutant's Ursa's corpse. It's a good thing I have adrenaline junkies like her and Nora to leave the more suicidal stuff to. I'm glad I don't have to engage another angry bear.
"Is everyone alright?" I asked, checking everyone's status.
"We're all good!" Ruby gleefully reported, giving a thumbs up. She looks pretty cheerful for someone who just fought a more advanced version of an Alpha Grimm.
"We should keep moving. Ren, Nora, go to the robot assembly and make sure there will be no more robots to slow us down. You guys still have EMPs and there shouldn't be too many robots waiting since we wrecked most of them here."
"Roger that! You can always leave the purge of the corrupted machine spirits to us!" Nora said. Ren silently nods as they both make their way into the other path.
I faced the others and continued. "The rest of us will have to go to the biolabs, it should be where all his experiments are. The map says that Merlot's workshop and the airship landing are through there. The sooner we catch Merlot, the better. So, let's get moving."
The girls agreed and accompanied me to the biolabs. We entered with our weapons drawn, in case another hostile showed up. It was just as bad as I expected, only that the room was brighter than what I pictured it thanks to the lights and the white walls. It contained a room full of glass tanks filled with the serum with unconscious Grimm floating inside—it was something straight out of a horror film, a zombie film, to be exact, except it has jars of Grimm instead of humans or faunus.
Aside from the Grimm contained in test tubes, there were also some computers that are calculating the Grimm's stats and biology, and a few workbenches containing some chemist's lab, some dust, and vials of mutagen.
I grabbed one of the tablets hanging on the bench to check what was inscribed on it. The title confirmed that this was Project: Grimm Eclipse. The tablet contained stats comparison of the Grimm before and after mutation, as well as a list of specimens and their augmentations.
It stated that only Creeps, Scavers, Beowolves, and recently Ursas were the only specimen deemed to be successfully compatible with the mutagen as the tests with other specimen either failed or were in early stages of development, explaining why those were the only mutated Grimm we were able to encounter. Though, what caught me the most that really disturbed me was that there was an update saying that he managed to get a hold of an unspecified Large-Class Grimm and its test was near-complete.
Despite all of this information, I was still in the dark about Merlot's motivation. What did he exactly plan to do with this? Destroy a kingdom that he loathes so much? I wondered
"I don't like this place, can we go now?" Ruby suggested, gripping both handles of her Crescent Rose.
"Looks like there's nothing else of use for us here, apart from files we could give to the Professor. We just have to find Merlot and we'll be out of here." Pyrrha stated.
I took out my scroll and reviewed the map. "Merlot's workplace is right around the corner. If he's not hiding there, then I don't know where."
Suddenly one of the blast doors opened. Curious, we all walked toward it. It led to a huge open space with several screens on the walls with some of the serum spilled on the floor, and there was a large door on the side. We all went through the door for a closer look.
Upon closer inspection and some quick thinking, I knew that this was a trap. I rushed back to the previous room when the door abruptly shut with everyone but me inside.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha yelled out my name and began to slam at the door. I even noticed some black outlines surrounding the door, suggesting that Pyrrha tried opening it with her magnetism but it was too strong that it remained closed tightly.
"Pyrrha!" I said, also slamming the door. Worried at what might happen to her and the others now that they were trapped there.
One of the screens behind flashed open and Merlot made another announcement. "Welcome to the testing grounds, students. Since you are so curious about my research on the Grimm, then you will be thrilled to know that I have synthesized the perfect combination of the serum. So why don't you go and get acquainted with my latest experiment? It may still be in a testing phase but I know you love challenges and this one could use the exercise."
The screen cut to one of the cameras in the testing ground where the girls were trapped at. Merlot dropped a large Mutated Grimm in the middle of the chamber. The worst part was that it was a DEATHSTALKER.
A Deathstalker… it had to be a freaking Deathstalker, didn't it? As if regular Deathstalkers weren't horrifying enough.
"Don't be shy, students. You could learn a lot from this enhanced specimen. They don't teach lessons like this in Beacon." Merlot said before cutting his feed into simply showing his logo.
Thank Brothers for their standards then. I realize that even the academy's more brutal tests aren't as bad as this. With that, I am never going to take their tests for granted ever again.
Well, that made me almost glad that I bailed out when I had the chance, but I still needed to get my friends and partner out of there. As much as I just want to rush to the exit and get in the airship early, it would only warrant unwanted questions about that decision and deny me of the reward. Besides, all I had to do was find and capture Merlot and find a way to open the test chamber's door so that the others could escape; that doesn't sound hard on paper, but given how stubborn this guy was, I expected it to be anything but easy.
I found out that I don't have a lot of options, so I had to go to Merlot's workplace myself. The map also indicated that it was also near the exit where the landing pad will be waiting, so I'll be able to escape quickly in any case. Apparently, it was designed that way so that the most important personnel was able to leave the facility within a short period of time in case of disasters.
I went to the door of Merlot's personal workplace only to find out it was locked. There was some sort of handprint scanner that could be used to unlock the door, but I don't have anything to bypass it. Luckily, the lock allows you to conveniently use the master password instead, in case the scanner was unusable due to malfunctions.
I typed in the same password I used to gain access to the island's communications and the laboratory's files—and much to my joy, it worked. I readied my pistol as the door opened, and I saw him facing me on his back. He was watching Team RWBY and Pyrrha fighting the Mutant Deathstalker on multiple different screens, each providing different camera angles on the testing grounds.
He heard his door slide open and turned back to see me step in with my pistol pointed at him. He quickly grabbed his pistol on his desk with his right hand (which turned out to be robotic, just like one of his eyes) and turned to me as he began hovering his index on a red button while his robot hand aimed his pistol at his own head.
"Hold it right there, Arc! Another move and I will either pull the trigger or initiate the lab's self-destruct that would detonate within less than a minute which won't be enough for you to get everyone evacuated. I'll even do both if I have to! Regardless, I'm not allowing you to take me alive."
Normally, I wouldn't care much if he killed himself; it's not like I wanted him alive. But Ozpin made it clear that he prefers Merlot to be captured and breathing cause he still had a lot to answer for. "You wouldn't, you sure you don't want to see the result of your latest experiment first?"
He smiled sinisterly. "You know, I admit, I kind of like you, Arc. You and your family have some sort of determination that has always intrigued me. I was wondering where you were since I thought you'd be in the test chambers with your teammates. I've been curious about the moment you gain access to my communications network. How are you able to bypass the network's security? I don't go around telling everybody my password."
"Maybe it's because one of your employees left a piece of paper containing your super-secret master password on your ship?" I replied in a mocking tone.
"How inconvenient, one of my former employees might have hacked to get my password. I had the suspicion they would try to access my files after the company's decline."
Yeah, well, I should also thank you for not programming your robots into finding and destroying papers that could be vital to those who are hunting you down.
"Look, just give it up. If you want to make the world a better place like what you'd claim, you're going to answer for threatening Remnant with your experiments. You already know that I'm not going anywhere without you in my custody." I continued to aim my gun at him.
"You're berating me for threatening the world? Tell me, how many people did you kill to get your status, both directly and indirectly? How many widows and orphans have you made because someone's family member in the White Fang wasn't able to get home?"
I think about that sometimes, and they would occasionally even haunt me, but I have probably killed plenty enough that I have reached the point where I really couldn't care less about it anymore. The people I killed would have eventually died because of their pathetic life choices anyway. It's not the best justification but it does help me sleep at night. "Does it matter? Even if I did kill some people, it was only so that fewer innocents would die. Can you even say the same with what you're doing?"
Merlot chuckled. "Perhaps not, but as a matter of fact, my original plan for this research was far more altruistic, little did you know."
"Huh?" I uttered, widening my eyes in bewilderment.
"It should be no surprise that I have a deep fascination with Grimm, but it wasn't my initial intention to strengthen them into becoming more terrifying monsters everyone already perceives them as. The original purpose of this research was to find a possible solution to the Grimm's hostile nature. The substance that I'm currently using was said to be scientifically possible to remedy the Grimm's perpetual hunger for souls, and perhaps uplift them into something more."
"I take it that it didn't go so well?" I remarked, keeping my gun pointed at him.
"The substance was dangerous by default as it accelerates a specimen's development to the point that they are able to reach beyond their established evolution, thus giving them forms that were never before seen. But with a little science, it can be modified into only enhancing the Grimm's intelligence and even removing its blind thirst for negative emotions once and for all. Thus, pacifying them that they're no longer a threat."
He took a breath and continued, "We once thought that the project was a success since all tests and experiments that took years have passed and were proven to be successful. It was a revolutionary discovery that could have solved the biggest problem in Remnant since the dawn of the Grimm. After the completion of the project, we gained the approval of The United Councils Committee to begin taming the Grimm with the modified serum, starting on Mountain Glenn. It worked, The Grimm did not attack a single living being after being stuck with the serum, not even the animals. The road that linked Vale and Mountain Glenn became one of the safest routes in all of Remnant and it was reopened to the public. The Committee was very impressed by my work, news around the globe began to circulate about my innovation, and the company was growing bigger than ever my name has become something to be reckoned with. The Committee considered giving me an award; the project was a scientific breakthrough that was changing the world…or so we thought."
Call me pessimistic, but although pacifying the Grimm was a great, if an overly-ambitious idea, that I could finally roam around the woods without much worry—it was doomed to fail from the start. I don't know about you, but nature is very persistent when it comes to change
"And then what happened?" I asked, being compelled by this information that I almost drew my gun down. Speaking of which, there were a couple of times when he kept his pistol away from his head and his robotic hand away from the button. In those instances, I would have normally taken the opportunity to put him down if not for the fact that I was engrossed in what he had to say.
"We were then supposed to carry out another operation to pacify Grimm on another region, it was when I got urgent reports that the test subjects we spent ages experimenting on were not only reverting back to its savage aggressive state but were becoming stronger too, and so was the Grimm that we injected on. We realized that the serum was far from perfect and the effects were only temporal, and it was far too late to pull the plug. The Grimm went back to their feral state and attacked settlements around Mountain Glenn the least everyone expected it. The military and Huntsmen were having difficulties handling them due to the serum making them more powerful and everyone kept helplessly asking me what to do. The military pinned the blame on me and tried to have me in custody, but I refuse to have any of it. I went into hiding in a safe place where no one would find me. Days later, I would find Mountain Glenn to be obliterated into oblivion, Vale being on temporal lockdown, and me being presumed as dead."
I almost pitied him, I can't imagine how difficult it was being held responsible for an entire disaster. I feel kind of sorry for this guy but I have to focus on the task at hand and I still remember what he intends to do with his creations and that he told me all of this while still pointing a freaking gun at his own head.
"When I heard about this, I expected everyone to pay their respects for everything I did to give the world a brighter future despite my shortcomings, but instead I found everyone spitting on my name and blaming the whole incident on me. They shut down my whole company and took everything away from me. They called me a madman, a failure, and a fool who thought he changed the nature of Grimm. I could never show my face to the public ever again and I allowed them to believe that I was dead. I've chosen to embrace the image they gave me and carried on my project with a different goal. I always liked the Grimm, there is potential inside them that they cannot unlock for themselves that makes them more than just mindless beasts, so I believe it is my calling to help them receive it. If they chose to see me that way, then so be it."
Well, that was a rather interesting tale of someone's fall from grace and descent to madness that explains some things but it sure did leave some questions. "Why all this? Couldn't you have apologized and proven them wrong by doing better?"
"That is what I am exactly trying to do, except that I have nothing to apologize for. Humans and Faunus are both weak and pathetic excuses for species. As I continue to watch them, I can understand why they cannot dominate their own world despite their so-called intelligence. They are destined to live in fear, because they are full of it, whereas the Grimm knows nothing about fear and I'm only trying to put them in a place they deserve."
I carefully stepped into the room closer. "You really lost it. What about making the world a better place? Are you letting yourself be remembered as a monster forever?"
"I am making the world a better place. Salem was right about the world being better off ruled by chaos."
That one left me puzzled. I would have passed it off as another name that was simply mentioned, but I had a feeling that there was more to that name. It felt like it wasn't the first time I heard of it. "Salem? Who's Salem?"
"I see that neither Oz nor your own father told you, maybe you could ask them." He sneered. "Assuming you'll be able to leave this place alive."
There were a lot of things going on and more questions just popped up in my head while I did my best to repress this thought and focus on finding a way to capture him without getting himself or everyone killed.
I glanced at one of the screens behind Merlot and found Yang getting thrown into a wall. Merlot kept standing there, smirking, not entirely aware of what was going to happen, I could even see her hair glowing on the screen.
"Your efforts to rid the world of Grimm as Huntsmen will be a pointless failure. Grimm will continue to slowly but surely consume every space of Remnant, with or without my gifts to them. If there is anyone who should give up, it would be—" His taunting was interrupted when a cylinder-shaped object was tossed inside the room, and it turned out to be an EMP grenade. "Is that—?"
Once it detonated, his robotic right arm began to malfunction and he dropped his pistol. I took this opportunity to jolt myself toward him and have him pinned on the ground to keep him away from pressing the button. Merlot tried to resist and pushed me away. I whipped my pistol on his forehead, knocking him unconscious so that his cybernetic arm stopped shaking.
"It appears that would be still you then." I quipped, rising from the floor. Looks like he wasn't enough of a genius to outsmart us dumb kids. Better luck next time, Doc.
I stepped away from his unconscious body and saw Ren appear in the doorway with both of his weapons drawn. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I thought his brains would have splattered on my face. Anyway, good job. Wouldn't know what to do without you."
"My pleasure." Ren nodded before going to Merlot's body and having his hands cuffed.
I went to the screens and watched the girls struggle with the Mutant Deathstalker while an enraged Yang pushes it back. "Guys, we got him!" I told them on the scroll's channel.
"Wonderful news, Jaune, but we still have a Mutant Deathstalker in our hands," Pyrrha responded.
"Hang on tight. I'll have the door unlocked for you." I put my scroll down and looked around and noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where's Nora?"
"She's waiting for you to open the test chamber's door so she can help. And by the way, she's been electrified."
"So does that mean…" I looked at the screens and saw one of the cameras showing Nora waiting outside the testing ground's door as she was visibly engulfed with electric bolts.
"Let me in, Fearless Leader! Imma 'bout to give this giant bug some good ole' squashing!"
I smirked and then I went to the controls and pressed the button that opened the door when I found it. "Knock em' dead, Sparky."
She smiled devilishly at the camera before swiftly flashing inside the room and then hitting the Mutant Deathstalker hard enough that it was sent crashing into the other side of the room, giving the wall a huge crater.
It got up rather angrily, but before it was able to do anything else than screech, it was then hit by a flurry of powerful punches thanks to her semblance being active. Yang went over to the Mutant Deathstalker's body and grabbed its stinger then violently pulled it with almost all of her strength that it was torn off from its body with green liquid squeezing out like blood.
The Mutant Deathstalker could now barely stand, with its legs failing and its body falling to the floor. Yang bolted away from it when Nora finished it off by bouncing into the air and using one last strike to slam it into nothing but green liquid and a crater on the ground.
Not really a good day to be an enhanced scorpion Grimm, now, was it? Merlot should be thankful that he did not witness another one of his precious babies meet their demise, I bet he would have even dropped tears from the cybernetic eye of his.
With the last hostile dead and the target captured, it was safe to say the mission was complete. The only thing left to do was get off there, and I was getting sick of being in the facility for much longer.
"Good work, everyone. We've done everything we need to do. Let's go home." I announced it to everyone after taking a deep breath. Afterward, I contacted Ozpin to tell him that we'd finished our mission, "Professor, the deed is finally done."
"Excellent work, students. I knew that you were able to handle this. You truly are worthy of being Huntsmen. Now make your way to the landing pad not far from your location. The Bullhead will take you back to Beacon. I'm very proud of you."
"Right ahead of you." I put my scroll down and helped Ren carry an unconscious Merlot out to the landing pad nearby.
It didn't take long for the Bullhead to arrive, it's because it was waiting somewhere about the island when they dropped off the rest of our teams. Ren and I got into the Bullhead and we put Merlot on a stretcher with his hands cuffed. The girls then caught up and hopped on in. The Bullhead then departed, taking us away from the island.
I finally sighed and sat down, still not believing that I was able to see the end of this mess. I'm finally able to relax now that I don't have to worry about this anymore.
"That was... awesome!" Ruby suddenly chirped up, surprising those who were trying to unwind after a long, arduous mission. "We get to fight Grimm that nobody has seen before and we don't have to study to pass the semester anymore!"
"Heck, yeah, sis! Nothing says 'best day ever' like fighting killer robots, evil scientists, and super-Grimm!" Yang pumped with her sister.
"At least you two had fun," Weiss wiped the dirt off her dress, probably grumbling about my journey with her, which I couldn't blame her for.
I'd say the reward was worth it, but this is something I would rather not go through again. Studying might have been less trouble than what I have just recently experienced.
"So, this is the infamous Doctor Merlot. I never thought I would meet him in the flesh like this." Blake examined him on the stretcher in the middle of the Bullhead.
"What does he need the robot arm for? Looks to me that he just wasted a perfectly good arm." Yang said.
"Either he lost it at one point or he willingly replaced it in favor of cybernetics," Ren explained.
Cybernetic implants are cool and all, but if I learned something today then I found out that they're not always better than normal limbs as a single EMP can screw them up. Now, I could be wrong but even if you use cybernetics to restore an amputated body part, I'm pretty will still feel like there's something missing from your body. I don't think I'm going to saw off my own arm anytime soon, I'm content being a pure meatbag.
A holographic screen emerged on the Bullhead's interiors, it shows Ozpin commending us for our efforts on the mission. "Students, I am glad you are able to make it with no casualties with Doctor Merlot captured alive. It speaks volumes about what you are capable of. Don't worry about the island, we'll handle the rest. Rest assured that you have completed your mission and that you have earned the extra credit that we promised you."
That's good to hear. I would have hated being denied my reward just because I missed something. Now I'll be able to spend my days on the final exam taking a comfy, relaxing vacation away from Huntsmen responsibilities.
The holo-screen then withdrew, and we went back to unwind ourselves from the adrenaline rush of confronting Merlot and his pets on green steroids. Weiss suddenly approached and reminded me of an offer I made earlier, "So, are you still up for cake and tea?"
To be honest, I wasn't being serious when I said that and neither was I expecting her to accept it, but it worked for me so I might as well take it. "Can't see why not."
We may not be the best of friends, but we still try to give each other a chance since we have proven that we were able to get along when we want to. Our teammates just need to get used to seeing us doing anything that doesn't involve annoying or ignoring each other.
"Did a handsome knight in shining armor melt that cold heart of yours, Ice Queen?" Yang teased as she grinned at us, with Ruby being just as amused while Blake didn't know what to think of it.
Weiss rolled her eyes and turned to them. "Oh, don't you dare go there."
I giggled for a bit before looking at my teammates. Ren was just as disinterested as he always was and was too busy lying on his seat; Nora was glaring at me as she didn't seem to like the idea of Weiss and I getting too close, and Pyrrha looked like she was trying to keep a straight face beneath her slightly reddening cheeks.
"Easy, now. It's all just friendly stuff. Just relax." I said to Nora to quell any negative thoughts and prevent her from starting unwanted fights with the Bullhead.
"It better be," Nora growled before turning to Pyrrha. "Right, Pyrrha?"
"Uh, yeah! Right..." she attempts to respond as she stammers.
I shrugged off everyone's antics and lied down as I waited for this ship to take me back to school. There were a lot of things I had to clear from my mind that it just forgot to make me feel nauseated during the flight. I just had to make a trip to Forever Fall to investigate some strange stuff and then find myself shipped into an island filled with super-powered Grimm and killer robots that were led by an insane scientist with a fixation on evolving the Grimm evolution. I hope whoever is in charge of keeping watch on Merlot is doing their best of making sure he doesn't try anything clever again.
One thing that continued to bother me about that journey was Merlot mentioning someone by the name of 'Salem' who once stated that Remnant was better off living in chaos, and Ozpin and Dad seemingly know about her and that I should ask him if I want to know more. I'll ask about it sometime, but not today. It might rub Ozpin the wrong way and I've already been through enough trouble that I just wanted some R&R. Maybe I should ask Dad instead, I obviously trust him far more than Ozpin. I'll bring it up once I'm ready.
This started as a simple mission, just scout out and investigate sightings of mutated Grimm and how Merlot industries are related to it, and it ended as a demented escapade that resulted in me capturing a mad scientist who was presumed dead. All I could do was be grateful that we'd managed to win in the end and get some extra benefits on top of that.
Thank goodness it's all over. I can't believe I spent five hours on this crap.
[And thus conclude this extract from the archive as we move on to the next volume of Jaune's memoir in Beacon.]