4-1: Familiarity

"So."

Sienna's voice was clear as she turned to her Captain, her posture a bit more lax now as she slowly began to lean backwards. Perhaps she was being a bit informal, but honestly, she wasn't too sure how else to behave. Or, more accurately, she wasn't too sure why she had behaved any differently up until now. She was never really that reserved, which made the grizzly-faunus realize how odd she must've looked to her peers.

After all, she was the supposed to be the headstrong one of their group; Her usual behaviour bordered on reckless, something that often got her into troublesome messes. And yet, she had not really felt like anything more than subtle observation. Maybe that was why the Captain had seemed a bit off these past few days? Either way, it didn't matter anymore, and all it had taken her was a massive melee with a bunch of robotic grimm to remind her of this fact.

So she embraced her self-reflection.

No longer content with simply standing around, Sienna began stretching her legs, letting out a strained groan as she drew her arms back. The sudden noise earned her a curious gaze from the rest of her friends, the logical result of a sudden word followed by an unexplained drawl. For her part, she just waved off their concerns, a familiar gesture as she threw a toothy grin at them.

The grizzly-faunus did not miss the tired expressions that formed on her associates' faces, nor the sweat on their brow as they tried to settle down. She didn't even miss the... red light in the corner. What?

Sienna's eyes narrowed, looking passed her friends as her gaze settled on some weird metallic blub that was attached to the ceiling. Her first instinct was to call it a camera, but the item itself didn't seem to have any wires leading out from it. Instead, it was merely attached to one of the many gears that littered the ceiling, a simple oddity that had this weird light at the center of it. And, besides glowing ominously, the strange fixture did nothing, remaining completely still as she tried to appraise it from the distance.

Something that she often tried to do, even if her senses weren't the best for stuff like that. But that didn't stop her from examining the distant item.

Perhaps it was because of their earlier fight, where adrenaline and survival instinct had awoken her from her stupor, but the grizzly-faunus had found herself taking in her surroundings with remarkable clarity. From the exhausted pants of herself and her peers, to the fragments of metal that lay strewn about the room, all the way to that mysterious ball of metal in the ceiling, the Lieutenant had managed to observe it all. The change was noticeable, as if a switch had been flicked inside her, reminding the rest of her body that she was, in fact, a lieutenant of the White Fang.

But not even this clarity was enough for her to identify that thing in the corner. Rather than try, Sienna quickly turned her attention elsewhere, her gaze shifting away to the rest of the room. And, more specifically, to the three others within the room.

"So," Sienna repeated herself, paying no attention to the disparity in time between her first and second words. She still held her peers' attention, so she merely shrugged off the confused glance that her friends threw her way, instead turning her attention towards the Captain. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?"

"You know? To escape? Unless you like the idea of tall, dark, and ominous treating you to dinner." Sienna threw a glance behind her, gaze settling on the tray of food for a moment longer than she had intended. Sure, she teased her Captain about it, but something that fancy was rare at the best of days... And the wildlands had no such thing as a good day.

"Right! Right, a plan." Owen's expression gradually shifted from realization to resolution as he spoke those words, ignoring the joke from his lieutenent as his eyes turned to face her. The tiger-faunus gave a quick nod, standing himself at attention this time, the air changing drastically as he shifted from being a simple White Fang member to his well-earned role of Captain. This action caught the attention of the other two White Fang soldiers, and all stood in rapt attention as they focused on their superior.

"Well... we know that he's keeping our weapons locked away somewhere. And we know that he's got a pile of grimm just lying around. Still, it's not like we can't fight those things, so there's no reason to behave like good little prisoners. We just need to find a way out of here, first... Something like a crack in his walls."

"... or an open entryway." The Sentry spoke out, Lyra's hand pointing to the distant wall. The ferret faunus was much better at noticing details than her, so Sienna mentally blamed herself for missing something so important. She threw a quick glance at the other side of the room, and confirmed that, yes, the robot left a door open.

That meant only one thing.

"C'mon, then! Let's go!" Sienna's voice blared out as she walked forward, moving passed the table with delicious food as she stepped over to the other side of the room. The rest of the White Fang followed, content on leaving the role of leading to her. The four faunus quickly slipped out of the large room, only to find themselves in an unfamiliar hallway. The ground, much like the rest of this structure, had a smooth metallic surface that had replaced most other physical features. And unfortunately, Sienna had no clue how to make heads or tales of where in the armoury they were.

If they were even in the armoury anymore.

A thought for later, when things actually seem like they're going to end poorly.

Sienna frowned, her eyes looking up to the ceiling as she spotted more of those metal bulbs of light. Just as before, she had no clue what they were, no sound or movements coming from the tiny objects. Perhaps they were just decoration? After all, their jailer seemed to have an odd sense of aesthetics, judging by the whole clock theme he had going on.

"Why are there coloured lines on the floor?" Speaking of aesthetics, Lyra noticed another odd visual choice, as the Sentry's voice broke the silence. Her arm was outstretched as she pointed at the metallic floor, as uniform lines stretched over the surface. And Lyra wasn't wrong; these lines were coloured, etched in red, purple and blue as it continued down the hallway.

Sienna was curious, and being the defacto group leader, she had decided to follow the lines. It wasn't like they had any other options, as they still needed to find their weapons, so the entire group simply accepted the grizzly-faunus and her decision.

She led her peers deeper into the mysterious halls.

There were so many things wrong with the situation right now.

Sure, Qrow could've complained about the abnormal amount of grimm; their numbers far higher than usual, growing more and more the deeper he drew into the forest. Or, he could've cursed at the fact that there was a completely new player that no one had heard of before, throwing out robots that seemed to rival Atlas in their sheer absurdity. Hell, he could've even complained about the fact that Winter had decided to show up and join in on his little scouting expedition, no doubt at the order of some Atlesian bigwig.

But Qrow Branwen chose not to do any of the above.

The reason for that? He had just received a little text from Ozpin that told him why Winter was moving.

For all of their threats and pitfalls, the dangers you found in the wilds often paled in comparison to anything you'd encounter in people... barring certain cases, of course. But the reason why people tend to be worse than grimm-infested wildlands was simple: people enjoyed being driven around by power or greed. And the huntsman was familiar enough with companies like Rhinestone Industries to have a clear estimate of their power and greed.

Qrow certainly didn't miss the sight of the company's quarry when he had initially entered the wildlands, after all. Who could? There was enough tech set up in that mining camp to supply a small army, and he could only imagine how much more had arrived since then. Heck, their security personnel alone was what most Kingdoms used as an expeditionary in the wildlands, and he saw far more robots at that base than security officers.

Just as worrying were the wings of modified Bullheads that had landed at the Quarry; there were enough planes to shoot up a Nevermore nest, and that place wasn't even an airfield. And then, past all the mechanized infantry and support vehicles, he had spotted a few artillery platforms inside the camp, somehow acquiring weapons that hadn't seen use since the Great War. No doubt, they'd been refitted since then, modified through very illegal channels, barely recognizing them from a distance.

What's worse than having all that tech, though, was they hadn't chose to sit idly on it, as much as he'd hope. Instead, Qrow got word from Ozpin and his little insider that the company had planned on attacking the White Fang encampment tomorrow morning.

Honestly, the huntsman had no idea why they were accelerating things so quickly, even in light of his earlier reflection on greed and power. As far as he knew, Rhinestone was the only group set up in the region, with the second-closest company being a token branch of SDC. So, unless there was some weird political influence in play, they had no reason to move so early.

Rather than try to figure it out, Qrow decided to set those worries aside. After all, his current job was to scout the area, not play some economic guesswork based on vague power grabs. So the huntsman shook those thoughts from his head, settling himself back down to the task at hand as he sped off into the forest.

And yes, sped was the appropriate term to use. He had just watched Winter change her tactics from simple scouting movements to a full-on semblance-fueled sprint, and he had a rough idea of why. Unfortunately, Qrow did not have the same glyph advantage as Winter had, nor did he have any intention of potentially drawing her attention by activating his own.

So he had no choice but to follow her through physical exertion alone, hopping from tree to tree as he began closing in on their destination. He only hoped that the young woman stayed out of trouble, since he had absolutely no intention of trying to bail her out this time.

He wasn't quite sure... but the Captain could swear that he recognized these halls.

Granted, all of their surroundings looked the same, uniform pathways of an unknown alloy leading them through a winding path. The metal itself seems to have a few familiar sensation, having long since replaced the old structure of the armoury. Coupled with the fact that this change had happened over the course of a few days at most, and the Captain wasn't sure why he thought these halls were familiar; Just that they were.

There was little point in trying to figure that detail out, however. Instead, his eyes settled back to the leader of their little squad, smiling as he watched Sienna take charge. Honestly, he had been worried about her ever since they found themselves in this mess. Sure, part of it was because of his duties as Captain, but most of his concern came from the fact that she had stayed relatively quiet.

Well, quiet after her first escape attempt, at any rate. But that was still out of character for her, as Owen had expected his subordinate to be more motivated upon failing. Sienna was rarely the type to do otherwise, so it had been worrying to see her more subdued these past few days.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter now. At the moment, he was simply glad to see that her mood had improved, easily taking charge as she led them down the halls.

At the moment, they were following a single blue line, the other two having split off in different directions back when they encountered a four-way corridor. And, rather than splitting off themselves, every member of the group suggested that they remained together. A smart decision overall, especially if they run into any grimm during their little exploration.

... The Captain blinked in confusion the moment he had that thought.

They hadn't run into any grimm yet. Despite the halls being completely filled with Beowolves and Ursa, they four White Fang members had not encountered a single beast of destruction. To say that it didn't make sense would be an understatement, and the man frowned at the revelation. After all, if there was no grimm anywhere, and the Mummy had gone through the trouble of painting the floor with colours...

"... I don't think he left the door open by accident." Owen's voice was solemn as he turned to the rest of the group. Judging by the nods he had received, everyone else came to a similar conclusion. It was hard not to notice otherwise, as the halls themselves were cleaned and devoid of... anything. Just the metallic floors etched with colour, slowly winding through this hallway.

Almost absently, the Captain turned his head to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of the outside courtyard, only to pause at that sudden thought. After all, they had no view of the outside world, so Owen was left wondering why he had thought otherwise.

"Hey, Captain, get over here!" His lieutenant's voice pulled him from his thoughts as the tiger-faunus turned away, his eyes falling on the group leader in question as he gaze Sienna a curious stair. Rather than answer him, though, the grizzly-faunus pointed towards the blue line that was etched in the floor.

Owen's gaze followed Sienna's outstretched arm, resting the blue line that had led them to this place. The Captain could clearly see the marking as it turned away from the center of the hall, making a rigid turn as it pointed straight at... the first door they had seen in this hallway, truth be told. At least, he thought it was a door, as the barrier held the same gear and cog motif that the rest of the building had. There was a handle on the barrier, and he could see traces of some kind of groove in the space beneath the massive metallic gear, both of which lent credence to the idea that this was not a wall.

"Wanna do the honours, Iris?" Sienna's voice was lax as she turned to her friend, flashing her a playful smile as she gestured to the massive door. This earned her a slight frown from the ferret-faunus, as both women noticed the sheer size of the door.

"If it's all the same to you, no." Unlike the grizzly-faunus's behaviour, her counterpart was a bit more professional, though not by much. The second lieutenant often kept her voice clear and concise, at least whenever she needed to talk with the White Fang recruits. "In fact, aren't you more suited to the task due to your heritage?"

"And just what are you supposed to mean by that?"

"Nothing. I was merely stating that you may want to ask the Captain to assist you instead.

"Fiiiine. Let's ask the Captain, th-."

While he enjoyed the playful barbs between his subordinates as much as the next person, observation was not his only task, and the Captain had used the brief conversation between his two lieutenants to open the barrier.

And now the Captain found himself completely frozen. After all, he finally realized why this hallway had seemed so familiar to him. How could he not? The White Fang Captain would've truly failed as a Captain if he was incapable of recognizing a washroom.

Owen couldn't help but let out an exasperated groan.

Nox mentally shrugged at one of the Noxines. It seemed that his test subjects had finally gotten around to exploring their environment.

Honestly, it was about time. He had far more important things to do than to escort the locals whenever they needed to relieve themselves, which was why he adopted a more... open-ended policy. Sure, it might've been wasteful to convert one of the older buildings to an oversized experimental storage facility, especially one that encompassed half of whatever this old building used to be.

However, his Subjects had been very useful. Not only did his observations inform him of the more subtle nuances associated with their mysterious energy, the Xelor had managed to gain a rough understanding of how the locals fought physically.

Insignificant in some contexts, to be sure, but that particular bit of data was extremely useful to Nox. After all, his area of expertise was in Wakfu and related machines, not anatomy or efficient organic locomotion. Yet, those fields of knowledge was what he needed the most at the moment, and the Xelor couldn't help but give a chuckle, his subjects having provided him with the necessary knowledge.

Still, it was time he returned to his work. If he spent his time chuckling at every little thing he had learned from his subjects, the Xelor would be laughing for quite a while. Instead, he began to utilize his armatures and innate powers, welding together more pieces of scrap as he gradually began hammering out a basic skeletal frame. Yes, a skeletal frame, rather than one a more utilitarian one that he had grown used to.

After all, he had to start from the bottom and work his way up if he was planning on replicating the shadow beasts. And now that he understood the range of motions in the locals, he applied those observations to this support frame, a paradigm completely different from his previous works... Well, different in the sense of design method; the end result would have similarities to his last great project, as he still needed a creation that could match Razortime's size and strength.

And what better model for size and strength than those shadow bears?

Four armatures quickly entered the workshop, running along the ceiling rails as the metallic graspers carried a struggling bear in its hold. Nox was a bit surprised to see that it had dented one of the clockwork arms, considering how sturdy his armatures were supposed to be, but the Xelor shrugged that thought away. He had a project to work on, after all.

He activated his workbenches, the robotic limbs reaching for piles of scrap as it began improving on the skeletal frame, as Nox began replicating the size and strength of the shadow bear.

"Yes... this will be quite useful... Don't you agree Igole?" Nox turned away from the workbench, ignoring the confused roar of the newly arrived bear monster. Instead, Nox shifted his gaze to his eternal companion, a Shadow Wolf that had two metallic rings fixed onto its wrists.

At first, he attempted to leash the creature the same way he had with his old pet. Unfortunately, it did not take kindly to that attempt, clawing and slashing at the construct the moment the Xelor left it alone; either the wolf hated the feeling of metal around its neck, or it liked the feeling of metal around its arms. Not really something the armoured mummy considered, honestly, but it was still useful information. The wrists were an odd choice, admittedly, but they were also something that Nox could work around.

Not that that was relevant to his current project. After all, the project related to shadow beast marking had been finalized earlier, and his remaining armatures were currently busy at work, forcing the newly crafted marking bands onto wolf and bear and boar.

Which was why he had now shifted his active project to the mechanical skeleton... Or would it be more apt to call it a mechanical bear?

It's a shame he had already tested his Subjects today. As much as he'd like to test his newest creation's durability and power, Nox knew that his prisoners had exerted themselves extensively. To test them again would lead to potentially inaccurate results, and that was the last thing he needed. He needed a better control variable.

... Maybe he should use this shadow bear as a test subject. These clockwork creations are meant to replace them, after all.

Or, perhaps he could worry about testing later, and focus on improving the design a bit more. A bit of the powder fuel here, perhaps changing the weight and balance there... After all, his next Subject seems a tad more competent than the ones currently under custody, and if she's going to be the one to test his systems, then he'd probably need a higher standard.

Both concerns were valid... So why not choose both? He sent a single thought to his workbench, his armatures quickly setting off to work on a second copy of his clockwork creation.