It had been well over an hour since Jaune and the others along with team CRDL arrived in Vale. Once there, they wasted no time activating the locator and marching towards Cardin's location. Even though Russel was their guide, Jaune's fixation made him go to the front and leave the rest behind, making Weiss or Tomas go and get him whenever he was heading the wrong way.
Although annoying at first, the rest of team CRDL was now growing concerned about Jaune. They actually feared what he would do once they found Cardin. Dove then got close to Yang with the intent of finding out what was going on. "So… I know we should have asked this before leaving, but what is up with Arc?" he then remembered Weiss' new outfit and asked a follow-up. "And what is it with Schnee?".
"Shhh!" she told the other boy before looking around to see if anyone heard him. When everything seemed calm, she then looked at him. On one hand, Yang didn't want to talk with one of the students who was the bane of many others at school; on the other hand, they were being good companions for once. "Remember when paparazzi entered the school to get pictures?" she asked the boy.
Dove then nodded. "Ooooh…" he then said, figuring the rest on his head.
"Not only that, but her father apparently vomited on an ice sculpture, so… you know. As for Jaune…". The last thing Yang wanted was to make more people know about his situation. They hadn't even told Tomas, so why would Dove, Russel, or Sky have any special treatment? "Look… I can't say, but we have a hunch that your dear leader has something to do with something that happened".
"You mean Nikos leaving?". He then saw Yang's face morph into a look of panic and then quickly looking at Jaune to see if he listened. "Chill, Xiao Long. I heard you from back in the dorm and I can assure you, Cardin has never told me, or any of us, anything about having something on Nikos".
That calmed Yang, but then she thought about the fallout CRDL seemed to be in since KHTE's fighting exam. "By the way, what happened to you guys? You might have been a bunch of jerks, but at least you were a team of jerks".
Sky, who had been listening to their conversation, decided to then answer. "Oh, it was all fun and games in the beginning, but we did come here to become huntsmen. Once our grades went down, we decided to buckle up, but Cardin just had to keep it up! Couldn't find a middle ground or take a few seconds to do his job. It had to be his way or the highway!" he said, ventilating his frustrations. "And where did that land him in? a path straight to-".
"Sky! Shut up!" Russel yelled making everyone stop and look at him.
"Oh, come on!" Nora complained. "He was getting to the good part!".
"Hey, Xiao Long didn't answer Dove's question about Arc and Nikos, why should we tell you about Cardin's problems?".
That outburst then made Jaune turn around. "You were doing what, Yang!?".
Everyone seemed ready to start fighting but were stopped by Tomas. "Silence!" he yelled at them, and everyone did while also looking at him. He then turned around and looked at some buildings carefully. "This is wrong…".
"What is?" asked Weiss.
"Have any of you noticed the sector we are in?" he then asked.
At first, they were unsure, but then they noticed that the streets were completely empty and cracked. They then looked closely and saw that every building was empty, and half demolished. It was a dump, for the lack of a better word.
"You said Elsa worked part-time and went to a school, right?" Tomas asked Russel.
"Yeah. So?" he answered back.
"The closest university is an hour away by car, there is no public transportation or grocery stores in this sector, every building is a crumbling mess and you are telling me a student and part-timer is happily living here?".
No one liked where Tomas was going with this. He then looked at Russel. "How long before we reach Cardin?".
The boy looked at his scroll again. "Just two more blocks… that way!" he said while pointing left.
Tomas looked in that direction and ran with everyone behind him. They then arrived at a building that had the main doors blocked by planks of wood nailed to the door frame. "Russel can your scroll tell for how long Cardin has been in there?".
The teen then frantically looked at the application and went pale. "It can't. Because this is the last place he went to before the scroll went offline yesterday!".
Everyone then went on to tear the boards with their weapons, but Nora turned her hammer into rocket-launcher mode first. "Everyone, back off!" she yelled before firing and blowing the boards away. Before the smoke cleared, everyone was already in and looked around.
There seemed to be four apartments by floor with the doors standing but already rotting. "Listen up everyone!" Tomas said calling for everyone's attention. "We don't know what could be inside, so get your weapons out and we'll split into teams of two to search each apartment. Jaune, you are with me; everyone else, figure it out!" he told them before kicking a door open and going in immediately followed by Jaune.
Weiss went with Yang, Russel with Dove and Sky with Nora. The apartments on the first two floors were empty, but when Nora and Sky checked their apartment on the third floor, they found Cardin's unmoving pale body resting on its right side, with his right arm and leg extended while his left arm served as a pillow and his leg contracted close towards his chest. "We found him, but there is something wrong!" Nora yelled.
All the other people ran into the apartment and were shocked when they saw Cardin's static body. Tomas entered last but immediately ran and kneeled next to the body. He checked the blood pressure on Cardin's wrist and then placed his ear next to the heart. "He has a pulse, but it's faint!" he told everyone.
"What is wrong with him!?" asked a panicking Sky.
Tomas noticed that Cardin must have fallen to the ground on his way to the toilet; he then felt a small shiver coming from the boy. Tomas then opened Cardin's mouth, his breath smelled horrible, but there was one clear smell: alcohol. "He is intoxicated! Sky, Russel! Help me carry him to the toilet! Someone else, call an ambulance!" Tomas then ordered.
Once the three teens arrived at the toilet, Tomas handed the arm he was carrying to Sky and got in front of Cardin, he then pulled the unconscious teen's hair making him open his mouth and then placed two fingers inside Cardin's mouth. Before Russel could question what Tomas was doing, Cardin's body came back to life for a moment to puke large amounts of pure liquid into the bowl.
When Cardin went limp again. Russel and Sky looked at Tomas who wasted no time explaining. "He was poisoned. My guess is that he drank it yesterday, but his aura seemed to have slowed down the effectiveness of the poison. Judging by the amount he drank; I'd say that he would have died by sunrise". After a moment, they heard Yang asking for medical help.
While all the students were next to Cardin and waiting for the ambulance, Smoke then looked around the apartment. He noticed faint details that told him furniture had been on the living room and kitchen, but the coverup was of such exquisite detail that it seemed like the apartment had been abandoned for years. On his tour, he then found bottles of various alcoholic beverages in many empty states. Whoever left wanted the place to look like a hideout for people to drink. Smoke then grabbed a small empty bottle of spirit and returned to the bathroom to grab a sample of Cardin's stomach contents.
A couple of minutes later, the ambulance arrived and took Cardin and everyone else back to Beacon where the unconscious teen would be treated. Thankfully, Goodwitch and Ozpin accepted the explanation that they just wanted to look for Cardin and then found him like that without asking any further questions.
The rest of CRDL then left and the other five students were going to return to RWBY's room until Smoke took a detour. "Didn't you say we should stick together?" Jaune asked.
Smoke stopped but did not turn around to face them. "I trust you. I need to check something on my own".
Before he left, he was then stopped by Weiss. "What happened to Cardin… does it have to do with you and your team?".
"… I believe so" Smoke answered her.
"Why did they do that to him?". Nora then asked.
Smoke thought about his answer carefully. "My theory is that they were cutting loose ends. That is all you are getting form me" he said before walking away once again. None of the others said anything else and left as well.
Unknown to everyone, however, was that Cardin's vomit had a smell familiar to Smoke, a beverage impossible to make in this universe.
Currently, Ermac and his four companions were hiding behind some crates next to what he told the others was the entrance to the prison complex. To them, however, the glowing blue symbols over the door meant nothing. "How are you so sure this will take us to the holding cells?" asked Neptune.
"We already told you, it says so," Ermac said pointing at the sign. "Trust us, we know seidan. Many of their warriors reside within us".
There… 'he' was talking like that again. "What ARE the seidan anyway?" Blake asked. "It's not just a fancy name that the company came up for their employees, is it?". She and the others had decided not to ask why Ermac referred to himself in plural form, that was a question for another time.
Knowing the questions would only increase, Ermac conceded and began to explain. "Seido is also known as the Realm of Order, dedicated to preserving law and order above anything else. Most of the human-like beings you see are from that realm, most likely".
The explanation did not have the desired result. "Realm? If you mean a 'kingdom', then sorry, but there is no such kingdom named 'Seido' or 'Order', buddy" Neptune told him.
Ermac sighed. "We do not mean a kingdom; we mean a realm of reality".
That finally made everyone quiet; but not because it cleared all doubt, quite the opposite. 'Another reality?' was now the question in everyone's mind. What were they, dimensional police?
"Silence!" Ermac then ordered with whispering voices. "Someone is coming!". From their hiding spot, they were now able to see a man in his early twenties using the turquoise uniform with a small cape and black gloves from before. When he was getting close to the door, Ermac turned around to face the others. "Thorn, when the guard goes through the door, follow him and get his access card. Everyone else, run towards the open door when we give the signal and hide anywhere you can!".
When Ermac was done giving orders, the man was now placing the card on the reader. Soon after, Ruby used her semblance and went through the door when it started to close; and just as it was ready to shut, Ermac used his powers to keep it open. "Now!" he told the other three, and when they reached the doorframe, Ermac opened it just enough to allow them to get in. They all then hid behind crates and Ermac allowed the door to close without making any discernible noise.
Ruby, in the meanwhile, followed the man until he reached what seemed to be the entrance to a lounge room. Before the guard could open the unlocked door, she took the card. Unfortunately, he felt the light pull from her hands, but Ruby was quicker and hid behind a beam. To her dismay, however, the man was on his way to inspect the beam, and just as he was ready to see behind it, another person came out of the room. "Hey! Ineko! You better start warming your food now, dinner time is about to start!" an older burlier man with a groomed beard said.
"Sorry, Ga! I thought I heard something…" Ineko said while looking behind the beam and finding nothing.
"I warned you kid; an empty stomach makes you hallucinate".
"Yeah… I guess…". Ineko said as he made his way towards the room again.
When the door closed, Ruby was then able to drop from the ventilation duct she was hiding behind, thankful that that brief distraction gave her enough time to jump and that her size allowed her to get through the tubes. Now, however, she had to return; so, she used her semblance again to go down the halls and towards her team.
They finally reached the entrance to the holding cells according to Ermac. The red ninja then went on to use the card and the security doors began to unlock.
Neptune and Ren were covering the back with their weapons ready. "Ok… we've come this far, and now we just need to find Sun!" Neptune told the other boy.
"You seem very confident we are going to find him so easily" Ren responded.
"Please, how many people could they have in here?".
They finally heard the door open and then Ruby called for Neptune's attention. "Typhoon… you might want to look at this…".
Confused, he turned around and now felt troubled. Not only was the prison four floors high, but it also had to be well over half a mile deep. It was of square design with cells on the outer walls and an underground room in the middle filled with various items they must use for the inmates. Each floor had its platform-floors connected by stairs and one grid-elevator shaft in the middle of the wall which had the stairs. Finally, on the final floor, there seemed to be a control room with a big window facing the empty space.
"That is our objective" Ermac proclaimed while pointing at the control room. Before they could lay out a plan, they then heard the voices of men in their early thirties coming from the storage in the middle of the room.
"-refuses to believe men in this world can also have cute cat ears! She still thinks only the women can have them!".
"Hey, I still can't believe faunus in this universe are treated like they are. Elder Gods know they would be deities in Earthrealm!". The first voice came from a blond man with a ponytail and a goatee, and the second from a man with black straight hair that had a bang going over his right eye.
"Speaking of which, I am going to start a petition to further develop the splicing project. I know for a fact my wife would love to have cat ears and for a big bad wolf to chase her each night if you catch my drift". The blond said humorously.
"Yes, you've told me many times that you would like a wolf tail," said the other man with a hint of annoyance.
"Hey, who are you to judge? You started it when you asked me if it was weird that your wife makes you use a wig that looks like the commander's hair when you do it!".
"No! … I asked if it was weird that my wife was the one who liked using it the most…".
"Anyway… I alssso know, for a fact, that sssomeone would like a forked tongue! Like a sssnake!".
"… Ok… I'll sign your petition…" The second guard said with a hint of shame as both grabbed a cart that seemed to hold trays of food.
Blake, Ruby, Neptune, and Ren were horrified by the seidans' conversation but were quickly taken out of their distraction by Ermac. "Thorn, Lotus! You are with us! Typhon, Shadow! You will remain behind and wait for further instructions". He then pulled out one of the medallions and gave it to Blake. He once again looked towards the guards and gave signals to Ren and Ruby to get close to him. "As soon as the camera is not looking in our way, I want you to use your semblance and knock them out with a hit on their heads. We will then use our powers to hold them and make the cart move while you follow; make sure your head is never going over the cart! Once you are through, Lotus and we will run and hide from the camera".
Wasting no time, Ruby waited for the device to be in place. Once the camera was not facing their way anymore, she used her semblance and rammed into the blond guy who hit his head against the cart and fell to the ground. His friend, who was delivering a tray in one of the doors, heard the commotion; and just as he was turning around, he received a smack on the head courtesy of crescent-rose.
"Wha…?" she heard the first guy moan as he seemed to be recovering, but another smack from Ruby's scythe knocked him out. She then got into place just as Ermac levitated the men and placed their arms on the handles of the cart and the camera was now looking at their direction once again.
The silence felt eternal and it was as if the camera was looking at their very souls, but then it moved away and allowed Ruby and to move along with the cart. Once she got to the other side, Ren and Ermac sprinted as fast as they could getting the middle of the hall before the camera reached their angle. They hid behind some beams and waited for the device to look away before reaching the other side, all three of them then started to go up the floors.
On their way, Ermac made a mental note of how many other guards were active on each floor until finally arriving at the office.
Before they went in, Ermac listened carefully to the two men who seemed to control the systems. After a while, he finally gave the signal for Ren and Ruby to storm in and knock them out. Ermac forced the door open and allowed Ren to roll in and deliver a kick to one the guys' chin and then to slam his head against the wall with a roundhouse. Before the other could react, Ruby rammed against him, denting the other door but knocking him out.
Both men were then tied up, gagged, and left on a storage closet. "Have to admit, that was fun!" Ruby proclaimed. "You do this on every mission?" She asked Ermac who was now focusing on the digital panels in front of him.
"No". He answered.
"What should we do if they wake up?" Ren asked.
"If they wake up before we leave, we'll take care of them".
Ruby and Ren then exchanged concerned looks fearing he meant what they were thinking. "You mean… you will… kill them?" Ruby managed to ask.
"If we must, then yes" he answered nonchalantly and not even looking at them when he said it.
Ruby gulped, but then again, she remembered who the people they were working with were and what Hanzo almost did to Yang.
"We are in!" Ermac's many voices said excitedly before turning towards his companions. "What is Helios' real name?".
"Sun Wukong" Ren whispered on Ermac's ear. Even though they had expressed their doubts about all the strange symbols that Ermac claimed to be able to read, they were now impressed with how the red ninja was able to type on the strange keyboard as if it was a native language. Soon after, though, Sun's picture and what Ruby and Ren thought was his information popped up.
Ermac then grabbed his medallion; and a few seconds later, it began to shine green and all three were now able to see a transparent green Blake. "Shadow, Typhon! Can you hear us?".
"We do" they heard Neptune's voice say somewhere in the background.
"Helios is already here. He is in a cell on the third level, so head for the stairs. There are still guards delivering food, so take down the ones we tell you to".
"Understood!" Blake said as the other three could now see them running towards the stairs.
On their way up, Ruby stopped them. "Careful! Guards on level two just switched their route".
Ermac considered the situation and came up with a plan. "Whenwe tell you, we want Typhon to shoot at them with a shock strong enough to stun them".
"Copy that!" they heard Neptune say, and just as the guards were ready to arrive next to the stairs by the right, Ermac used telekinesis to make the cart drop some of the trays.
"What in the Netherrealm did you do!?".
"I didn't do anything" they heard the guards argue.
"Now! On your left" Ermac instructed.
Neptune placed the goggles over his eyes and then shot at the guards, effectively knocking them out.
Their victory was short-lived, however, when Ren noticed the elevator had activated. "Two guards are going down!" he managed to warn in time as Neptune hid behind the cart. The guards, none the less, saw their allies down.
"What the-".
"Sound the ala-UGH!". The guard could not finish as Blake got through the elevator's grid and knocked them out.
Once the fight seemed over, Ermac then gave more instructions. "There is an empty room to your left. Look for a room marked with a vertical line with two dots on its left and a rounded triangle". Once all guards were stored, Ermac proceeded to reveal Sun's location. "On level three look for a room marked with symbols resembling a seven, a triangle missing the right side and one that looks like a letter F".
It took Blake and Neptune a few minutes, but eventually, they found it. "We are here!" Neptune told the others. Ermac immediately pressed a button and opened the cell. A cold air current went over Blake and Neptune, but shortly after, they found the pale body of Sun trembling on the corner with his back facing them. Out of pure shock, both Neptune and Blake ran towards the blond ignoring the medallion.
Upstairs, Ruby Ren and Ermac left the office a short time after the ninja made a metallic closet fall over the console to destroy it. It didn't take long for the other three to reach Suns' cell and they were now able to see Blake and Neptune kneeling while Sun's head laid on top of Blake's knees and she was stroking his hair.
"He is still breathing, but we can't take this thing off". She told them with worry as now they saw Neptune trying to remove the metallic contraption around the monkey faunus' neck.
"And you will not!" Ermac instructed. "Knowing Sektor as we do, that collar is set to kill the user if taken off". As Ermac said that, Neptune stopped trying to pull the thing off.
That, however, seemed to wake Sun as he looked with heavy eyes at his surroundings. "Nep… Blakey…" he then looked at the others. "Creepy red guy…" he managed to say and giggle before he fell unconscious again.
Everyone then looked at Ermac expecting an explanation. "A concoction of relaxers with hallucinogens… strange… Sektor has never carried the process like this…".
"Who is this Sektor guy!?" Blake demanded to know.
"He is not of your concern. We found Helios, now it's time to go!".
"Go!?" Ruby asked surprised. "I may not know that… 'sedan' language of yours, but I was able to see pictures of other faunus trapped in here!".
For the first time in the night, Ermac now seemed to be losing his patience. "We only came here for Helios. That is all!".
"Oh yeah?" Neptune asked in a cocky manner. "Give just ONE good reason as to why we should leave all of these people to their doom!?". Not long after he ended that question, an alarm went off.
'Intruder alert! Intruder Alert! Non-authorized personnel found on the Tekunin workshop. Prepare for total lockdown!'.
Ermac then looked at his companions. Neptune and Ruby hung their heads in defeat and just went on to carry Sun out before the prison shut down or the unconscious bodies of the other guards were discovered.
Sub Zero didn't know if it was due to Sektor's robotic mind insisting all facilities looked the same or if it was what remained of his human brain that kept doing the same out of laziness, but he was thankful that most of his factories had the same or a similar layout.
Hanzo, on the other hand, had to admit that the scrolls from this world were incredibly useful. The way they got ridiculously small to carry on small pouches on his belt, yet being able to carry a powerful camera? It was amazing for him.
They had passed the main sections of the factory on all floors, but then they realized there was a problem. There were no more rooms. Moreover, the machines were turned off. "This is wrong…" Sub Zeros said expressing his feelings. "This is not even half the size of his smallest factory in Earthrealm…"
They reached the last room, which according to experience, should have been storage; but instead, it was filled with small cubicles were people seemed asleep while laying on inclined beds. Knowing the next guard would not arrive for at least a couple of minutes and knowing there were plenty of places to hide, both ninjas decided to see what was happening.
Their understanding of computers might have been basic, but they had learned how to use Tekunin technology. Scorpion went on to look for the information while Kuai Liang checked the people. It was then that he noticed that everyone seemed to have a recurring feature. "Scorpion! Can you check the information on the prisoners?".
"Why?" the other asked. He did so anyway, but he then saw what the other meant. "They are faunus…". Scorpion then noticed older files of former patients and went to investigate them. "It has been months since they have only taken faunus patients".
"This is a factory… but not one on large scale… why…?" Wondered Sub Zero. On further inspection, they now saw different percentages; random at first, but once organized by repeating numbers, it showed that people with the same animal trait had similar percentages.
Their thoughts were interrupted, however, when they saw with horror as one of the patients, a rabbit faunus girl of about ten with big black ears, placed her hands and face against the glass. She then gasped when the ninjas looked at her back and they now saw the stats on the screen over her cell showing that her heart rate was increasing.
Scorpion grabbed his spear preparing for the worst-case scenario, but Sub Zero slowly approached the girl and then created an ice teddy bear. That, in turn, seemed to calm the girl down and she laughed and clapped. Everything seemed ok, but then they saw the cell next to the girl's crack but not break, and its occupant, a chubby cow faunus, trying to open the door with her horns. Her eyes went red, and with a mechanical voice, she repeated the same message. "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Level 5 Room XF-20!". Whatever information they gathered, it had to do. Scorpion and Sub Zero left the room and got ready to face whatever Sektor meant to throw their way.
Before they could leave that floor, however, they were intercepted by a red robot with glowing blue parts falling from the ceiling. "Sektor!" Scorpion proclaimed. But then, energy gathered next to the robot and a blue version appeared next to it.
"Not quite…" Sub Zero corrected him. "Triborg".