"Now that… that is certainly not what I expected to hear there." Dawn managed to get out, the eyes of the board on her exclusively.
"You must be kidding me!" Fuzukoe leapt to his feet, quickly walking up to the HumaGear and taking the written will out of his hands. He angrily read over the words, all recognizably in their former CEO's handwriting. "This must be a mistake… Why would he choose…" A look of displeased eyes made their way toward Dawn. "You?"
"I assure you, Vice President Fuzukoe, that former CEO and President Roses wrote this knowing fully what it entailed." Bingo reiterated, taking the note back from the human. "As such, should Miss Roses accept, she will be appointed CEO of MANTLE Intelligence effective immediately."
"And I object to such a choice!" Fuzukoe said, only to receive a shake of the head from Bingo.
"If I may interject…" One of the board members, a goat Faunus, stood up and adjusted his tie a bit. "This company was founded by Mr. Roses, and I think I speak for all of us, when I say that I believe he always made decisions with best for the company in mind."
A group of approving nods and chatter filled the room.
"As such, I don't think any of us have any immediate objections to Ms. Roses' appointment to the seat of Chief Executive Officer." The goat Faunus took a breath. "Even if she may need time to learn the job, Mr. Roses would not appoint her in his death if he did not believe that was what was best for the company."
Once more there was a singular chatter of approval from the other board members. Bingo turned to look at Dawn, who seemed nervous and deep in thought.
"Ms. Roses, would you accept the prospect of being elected to the position of CEO of MANTLE Intelligence?"
"Uhhhh…"
"This is preposterous!" Fuzukoe once more filled the silence with his own voice. "Shouldn't the position of CEO go to someone who actually knows how to run this business?"
"The rules are laid out quite clearly in Mr. Roses' will." Bingo said, his HumaGear ear pieces lighting up and buzzing a bit as they assisted in processing information. "When Mr. Roses began MANTLE Intelligence, he was not well versed in business. He learned as he went on. He wishes to impart these lessons onto his grandchild."
"Excuse me, I…"
"That should not matter in the current state of things!" Fuzukoe countered, slamming his hand on the table. "We need to assure our stockholders that the company will be left in trustworthy hands. Not in the hands of some wannabe woman who has never been in this business!"
There was a moment of silence, no one dared to say anything. It was a horrible kind of quiet, where no one knew what to say.
"You can go straight to hell, Mr. Vice President!" Dawn blew up at the sheer nerve of what she had just been called. She could feel her rage bubbling up inside, a flame burning within. "I never said yes either way, if you had bothered to listen. But no, who would with me?" With a few steps, she headed toward the door of the boardroom. "Bingo, I need some time to think about the offer."
The HumaGear lawyer's modules processed the information, and he gave an affirmative nod. Dawn stomped out of the room, the door closed behind her. As she walked away, she could hear that the silence had broken out into more arguing in the back. She didn't care.
It didn't take much time for Dawn to find herself slowly running down the streets of Mantle. She felt utterly humiliated. She went there for a final goodbye to her grandfather and her affairs, and his scumbag of a vice president has the gall to call her such a thing? He sure was nice to her when he thought he was going to be the newest CEO, and she felt becoming CEO just to spite him would be fun. Of course, somewhere deep down his words ringed in her ears. Inexperienced. Fake. A wannabe. Words like that always struck her.
The sidewalks of Mantle were ones she was used to, so it didn't take long for her to find herself at Mortar's Corner, her place of employment as of right that second. She sniffled a little bit, trying to keep herself from making a scene. The bell above the door rang as she walked in, quickly finding a corner to hide herself in. Luckily, it was around this time not a lot of people came in. Their busier hours were often during the later afternoon to evening.
Why did she have to feel like this? She was having a normal enough morning, which was good for her. Not good, not bad, perfectly average which meant there were no expectations to have for the day. All it took was one negative word to force her down to a corner, barely holding it together.
"You seem sad, Ms. Roses." A voice popped up behind her, causing Dawn to straighten up extremely quickly. Behind her was Hon, the librarian-type HumaGear. Dressed like a stereotypical librarian, the HumaGear was the one whom Dawn saw most. She was always Ms. Roses to the HumaGears. Even if she was working with one on an equal level, they all recognized her as their creator's granddaughter. "Would you like a book?"
"Oh…?" The human woman took a breath and sniffled a bit. "Oh no, that's alright Hon… Thank you for asking." She turned to look for a moment before looking away. Despite not seeing her, she could hear the processing modules on the HumaGear's head working.
"I have found several books in our inventory that might help you feel better, all adjusted to your preferences." Hon said, bypassing what Dawn had said. She stepped backwards a bit and after scanning through the shelved books, she grabbed one out and handed it to Dawn. "This book is entitled Being Your Best Self, written by Albert Roses."
Dawn found herself scoffing a bit at the chosen title. Her grandfather's self-help book turned into an autobiography, a manuscript he had initially written prior to forming his company, and published sometime after it became a huge success in the industry.
"Why would I need something like that? How is that adjusted to my preferences?"
"My job is to help find books that people would like to read at that moment. From your expression, you seem sad and self-doubting right now." Hon said, tilting her head a bit. "In Albert Rose's debut book, he says 'Those with the most self-doubts are the ones who can do the most for the world. I doubted myself many times when I was forming my company. I was forming my company in my home of Mantle, not the city flying in the sky. Many people told me I would have a better shot in Atlas, but I wanted my company to help people in need before all else. They told me I would fail. I didn't fail. I didn't let it eat me away.'"
"I don't see how that helps me." Dawn said, having taken a moment to take the passage from the book in. "Sure he can say that in retrospect, he was already top of the world when he wrote that. He wants me to inherit his legacy, his renown company he built from the ground up. What right does someone like me have to step into his seat? I don't even have any dreams of my own. "
"Does it matter what kind of person you are?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You feel self-doubt over your status as a lower class citizen, someone who has faced routine discrimination. I have even seen it occur here." Hon said, looking at Dawn with a blank expression. "Perhaps that is why you should inherit his legacy, because you are someone with the thoughts to make changes that your grandfather could not. Take his legacy, and create your own. An extremely low percentage of people get that opportunity. 'You don't have a dream? Make one reality.'"
Dawn took a breath, running her hands through her ashen hair, a shake going through her as she heard that last line in the voice of her grandfather.
"Maybe… maybe you're right."
"Of course I am. It is my duty to find a book that will help all of our customers! Including our employees."
A smile escaped from the woman's face as she leaned to hug the HumaGear. Hon did not quite understand the gesture, but she attempted to return it the best she could.
"Thank you. I think that's what I needed to hear more than anything. I can't leave the fate of the HumaGears in the hands of someone like him…" Dawn mumbled the last part to herself, before breaking apart. "I'm going to head back and accept their offer."
"Good! I will put this book on your employee hold pile after I escort you out. Assuming you will no longer be working here, you will receive a one month grace period to collect the books accumulated on your pile."
Dawn just laughed and nodded. Leave it to a HumaGear to put it all so bluntly. The two were about to exit the door, when it opened up to reveal Krim with his briefcase.
"Good! There you are. Please, don't let that idiot influence your choice in any way." Krim began to say. "You are the on-"
"Calm down, Krim. I thought about it, and I decided to take the job."
"Oh thank goodness, I had a whole speech planned out but I'm already out of breath from running here."
"Wait, how did you even know I was here?"
"Wasn't that hard to guess you'd either go back to your apartment or here, and I took the latter option." He took a deep breath, and looked at Hon. "A librarian-type, huh? Let me test her reflexes real quick. Tell me, what book would I want right now?"
Hon stared at his face for a quick moment, blue lights emanated from her ear-piece modules, before she finally replied with a smile.
"Thorne's Ultimate Guide to Classic Vale Automobiles, a rare and expensive book compiling automobiles from the Kingdom of Vale from the last century."
"Well good to see she's working properly as she was intended to… Do you know how much your copy is?"
"Oh come on, Krim, we don't have time for this. We need to get back before Mr. Vice President manages to get his way."
Dawn quickly grabbed hold of the older man and dragged him out of the store, while Hon followed and waved them goodbye as they left.
"Please, I hope you come again!" Hon said, smiling as she looked down at the book in her hands. She really did make a difference for her coworker, something that truly helped someone else. It made her feel something, a feeling that she had never experienced. Her modules beeped as she attempted to process them as the two vanished from sight. The HumaGear was about to return to her post inside of the store, when she quickly found herself shoved up against the door. "Wh-who are you?"
Standing before her was a man wearing dark clothes and a hood over his head. The clothing looked raggedy and rather randomly put together, as if made from different pieces of cloth. He had a rather demented looking look onto his face, a smile inflicting some sort of feeling to her.
"I'm your new friend. Don't worry about anything. I'm just here to free you from your shackles, so kill all the humans here for me, okay?"
In his hands was a small piece of silver metal with a large indent in the center, with small wires sticking out of it. He laughed again, as he slammed it onto the front of her waist. She shrieked a bit as a belt with spikes on the inside attached itself to her body. The feeling that she had with Dawn had faded, replaced with a sudden fear. Her vision was flashing red, and red electricity was being released from her body.
"No… I can't do that! My job is to help people find books! To make them happy!" Her vision was obscured with a loading bar, quickly making its way from zero to one-hundred percent.
"Not anymore it's not." He said, still giggling a bit. "Your new job is to make humans extinct."
She yelled again a bit, in pain, as the loading bar hit completion and some sort of logo appeared in her vision. Everything flashed red, before going completely dark. Then her vision came back to her, eyes glowing bright red.
"Connection to has been established." The blue lights on her modules turned a bright red, her voice completely monotone.
"Good to hear it!" He said, handing her a small rectangular device. She grabbed it without much thought, looking off into the distance towards some people walking down the street.
"Mr. Mortar! What a coincidence running into you!" Dawn said, seeing her bull Faunus boss walking down the street in the opposite direction. He smiled as he saw her, and walked over to the two.
"Your day off today, isn't it Dawn? What brings you toward the store? And who is this fine man with you?" Mortar said, looking at Dawn and then smirking at Krim.
"Did you hear that? I'm fine."
"Be quiet Krim." Dawn said, lightly jabbing the older man with her elbow. "We were just at the store a few minutes ago. I was offered a job, and I was going to take it. I was hoping to tell you before I left, but you were out for lunch. I told Hon though, she would have relayed it to you."
"Hah! As a local business, I try to support other local businesses. Even if I don't have much to offer them." Mortar replied, smiling.
"Well, your local business might become my new favorite." Krim said, slinging an arm around the Faunus' shoulder. "Now your HumaGear employee tells me you have a rare book I have been looking for."
"Oh come on, Krim, we literally just left."
"And I've been looking for this guide book for ten years. My collection outweighs arguing with Fuzukoe over your job." Krim said, trying to put on puppy dog eyes that did not work on a man in his forties. Dawn simply rolled her eyes.
"Fine. Let's go get your book." Dawn admitted defeat, as Krim smiled and the three made small talk as they headed back toward the store. It was curious, then when Dawn made notice of Hon simply standing and staring at the trio from the middle of the street. "Why is Hon standing out there?"
"Hmm?" Mortar looked and saw that the HumaGear was simply staring. "You're right, that's odd. She's never been outside the store without someone with her before."
"Odd. HumaGears have an amount of freedom most other AIs lack, but they usually keep in routine for their duties." Krim said, walking towards her. As one of the minds behind the HumaGears, Krim had an understanding of their programming that most others lacked. "Tell me, Ms. Hon, are you alright?"
She stared at him for a moment, her eyes glowing bright red. It didn't take long for Krim to take notice of her red modules, a face of worry appearing over him.
"Humans will become extinct." She said, suddenly kicking him with enough force to send him onto the ground.
From her hand she revealed a small grey key, not too dissimilar to the Progrisekey that Krim has presented earlier. Without much thought, she pressed a button on top of the key and inserted it into the silver belt, before hitting the large button on the side of it..
GEIST!
GRIM RISE!
The human parts of her burned away as wiring came out of her body and covered it, burning away all pieces of Hon and replacing her with something far more horrifying. Within moments, she resembled a human less and more, some sort of horrifying mix of human and Grimm. More importantly, was the name: Geist. Dawn had once researched Grimm extensively to help cope with the idea that she would never be a huntress. This type was much like a golem, able to animate and possess things such as stone or metal armor.
The monstrous robot roared out as it punched holes into the pavement and began to use the debris as weaponry. It launched the debris mostly at Mortar's book store, causing damage to the windows of the store. Similar to the pavement, it used its mysterious power to take control of the glass and metal of the windows. Within moments, the trio could only watch in horror as the front of the store was destroyed by rampaging matter.
"Hey! You stop that!" The store owner ran to try and stop the monster, the Geist MaGear, by standing in front of it. It remained silent for a moment, stopping its assault, as it began to scan the Faunus in front of it.
"You are not a human. Step out of my way." The Geist MaGear used its powers to enhance its body with rubble of the storefront it had begun to destroy. It then used the large stones it had attached to its hands to try and move Mortar.
"That's my store. A place safe for both the humans and Faunus of Mantle. I won't let you hurt anyone else, Hon!"
"You will not get in my way." The Geist MaGear raised its arms up and smacked Mortar into the rubble of the collapsed part of the store, enough force to nearly knock him unconscious. The MaGear then focused back onto Krim and Dawn. "Humanity will be extinct."
"W… why is this happening?" Dawn asked, looking at the monstrous robot in front of her. A horrible mix of thinking technology and the Grimm. "H… how do I stop this?!" She looked to Krim, who simply knelt to the ground and opened up the briefcase he had been holding. Within was the belt she had seen earlier at the meeting, alongside the Rising Hopper Progrisekey.
"Just attach the belt to your waist! The AI will do the rest in helping!"
"It'll help me protect the store!?" Dawn yelled, fearful a bit. No Aura meant she would be put at great risk. "Without killing me?"
"The Zero-One Driver was built specifically for you. To let you fight despite your AFS. Now hurry!"
Without skipping a beat, Dawn grabbed the belt out of his hands and attached it to her waist. Time seemed to slow down for her, before her mind suddenly felt detached from the rest of her body. Bright light overtook her vision, blowing past everything in front of her, before snapping back into place. A blank white void surrounded her, almost like she had died or something else.
"H… hello?"
Welcome to the HumaGear Communication Satellite There, President Roses. Please utilize tutorial mode to quickly process learning information for Project Zero-One.
"Wh… what is Project Zero-One?"
Project Zero-One is a defense plan enacted by former president and CEO, Albert Roses, for his young granddaughter to protect humans, Faunus, and Humagears alike from those who would seek to cause massive harm. Utilizing the DNA of animals and emulating Faunus and human semblances, Project Zero-One creates an armor that will not only protect its user like an Aura. It will create the ultimate and most versatile huntress.
"Oh… that is a lot to take in…" Dawn gulped a bit, taking a deep breath as she walked over toward the floating sign that said: TRAINING MODE. "But I can process all that later… for now I have to protect Mr. Mortar and the store."
Tutorial Mode has been accessed. Loading program.
When Dawn opened up her eyes again, she was back in front of Krim and the MaGear as though no time had passed.
"Oh wow, that's trippy. But I know what to do now." Dawn said, looking over to Krim. "Get Mr. Mortar to safety for me."
"Now that is something I can do." Krim said, ducking out of the way to leave Dawn to her new job.
Sighing once more, the ashen haired woman steeled her resolve.
"I won't forgive you for what you did to our store… to Mr. Mortar… and what you did to my friend, Hon."
"Humans are responsible for all the problems in this world." The Geist MaGear said.
"That's not true! Sure, there are a lot of bad humans out there but that doesn't mean you can just hurt anyone you want! You hurt Mr. Mortar… destroyed his dream of uniting people through books!"
"Dreams are inconsequential. Human ambition is what will lead to this world's destruction."
"Don't talk about dreams like that! Dreams are what make everyone themselves! I don't have a dream yet… I don't know what I want to do with my life… But I know one thing. Even if I don't have my own dreams… I can protect everyone else's!" She raised the Progrisekey in her hand and pressed the button on top of it.
JUMP!
She then proceeded to scan it over the right most part of the belt, before flipping the key open.
AUTHORIZE!
Suddenly, a beam of yellow light shot down from the sky, piercing down to right in front of Dawn. A large mechanical grasshopper had appeared, with bits of yellow light emanating from its metal pieces.
"Transform!" Dawn yelled, as she inserted the open Progrisekey into the open side of the belt. As she did, the metal cover over the center moved to the left and glowed bright with an image of a grasshopper.
PROGRISE! JUMPING AERIALISE! RISING HOPPER! A jump to the sky turns to a Rider Kick.
Mr. Mortar and Krim watched from the sidelines in amazement, as the metal grasshopper leaped around the street. It was large enough to block the debris that the Geist MaGear began to throw at her. As the belt finished its announcement, it quickly leaped in front of Dawn as its metal drained itself to become a bright neon yellow armor for her. It looked like strands of DNA were being passed onto her from the giant mechanical insect.
The suit of armor was sleek and modern looking. A black undersuit made for flexible movement covered most of her body up to her neck, with pieces of yellow, red, and silver armor covering her torso, arms, and legs. The waist shined with the location of the belt, the Zero-One Driver, responsible for assisting her in battle. All of this was tied together nicely, with a protective helmet and mask. The helmet seemed to be made of the same flexible material as her undersuit, the yellow mask was simple in design and made as the same armor material. Two large red eyes for her to see out of, with long yellow antennae that resembled angry eyebrows.
"My name is Zero-One. I'll be the one to stop you!"
Using what she remembered and learned in the tutorial mode, she leapt forward with a great stride. The grasshopper's ability was jump, so much to her non-surprise, she leaped all the way toward the MaGear. It made an angry noise, as it launched boulders of debris at Zero-One.
It took some precision, but she managed to land on each floating boulder that was heading toward her. To her, it was an amazing feeling as she felt her body moving at a speed she never thought possible. Even as the MaGear threw more debris at her, it bounced off her armor without a single problem. She felt the pressure of it hitting her, but nothing more.
Once she had passed by the flying debris, she managed to land a solid punch to its chest plate. It fell backwards, stumbling from the force of the flyby fist. A few more quick punches made it rethink its strategy, as it began to fashion more defensive armor using the rocks.
"Storing up, huh? I don't think so!" Her mind went to her legs, where a majority of the yellow armor had found itself. Grasshoppers were known for their powerful legs, not their arms. Not that grasshoppers had arms. She shook the tangent out of her head, deciding to leap once more at the MaGear. With the force of the jump, she threw a right side kick at the stones. The force caused it to nearly shatter on impact.
"Impossible. A human suffering from aura deficiency syndrome should be unable to cause this form of damage."
"Well… Things are different now." Zero-One said, running forward quickly at the defenseless robot and throwing a powerful lunging front kick at it. Falling onto its back, the MaGear struggled to get back. "A normal hunter or huntress might have trouble with you… But now? There's only one person who can stop you. And that's me!"
She slammed the side of the Progrisekey into the belt.
T
Energy from the Progrisekey traveled from Zero-One's belt down to her foot, excess yellow electricity being emitted from it. With strength that she never thought she could muster, she kicked the MaGear high into the air. Another grasshopper-like jump allowed her to send several more airborne kicks into the robot, which was already beginning to fall apart from Zero-One's offense. After using the MaGear as a jumping off point, she redirected herself to be falling towards it. Sticking out her right leg, she flew towards it with great speed. A large mechanical grasshopper-like leg materialized around Zero-One's foot, as she ripped clean through the robot's body.
As she did, she heard yelling as bolts, chunks of metal, and MANTLE's proprietary blood-like oil substance flew past.
RISING IMPACT!
An attempt to make a landing was made on Zero-One's part, but she quickly found herself on the ground in pain. The rush of adrenaline had faded, as she took several deep breaths. Her hand found its way to the belt's front plate, which she slid back over the center to cancel her transformation. Her body felt like it was on fire, in immense pain like she had never felt prior. Despite that a laugh overcame her, and she smiled. A childhood dream had just come true. That laughter died down, as she passed out.
Jin ran back towards Horobi in the small destroyed room, littered with computers and other trashed, then repaired, pieces of technology.
"I got this for you, Horobi!" He said, handing the Geist Grimrisekey to the man in purple. "Though that dumb yellow guy ruined our plans."
"Hmmm… Grasshopper, huh? Reminds me of someone… though for now, our yellow friend won't be much of a problem." Horobi took the key and placed it into a slot on a machine. "In fact, this will simply accelerate humanity's extinction." He then turned to Jin, handing him a new Grimrisekey. "Now go scope things out. Make us some new friends."
"Very interesting." A woman said, from the darkness of a room. On a monitor sitting in front of her was the image of Zero-One destroying the robot that had gone rogue. A sigh escaped from the woman's mouth, turning to a second monitor.
The image on the monitor was dirty and corrupted, imagery salvaged from a damaged security camera. On it, one could make out a purple armored figure and a green armored figure fighting one another in front of a crying child. The fight can barely be made out, but the video comes to a quick end soon after the fight begins.
"It seems the beginning of the game is finally upon us." She rose up from her desk and passed by it to a filing cabinet. She rooted around in the filing cabinet, her hip bumping into the metal desk and causing something small to drop to the ground, clattering loudly and uttering out:
STRONG