'Okay, Six. Activate autopilot, climb to cruising altitude and head along the coast to the last known position,' Smoky said after guiding them through Vale's airspace.
'Acknowledged,' A tinny voice announced from the controls.
Smokey let go of the controls which started to move like a ghost was flying. Then he turned around to look at them.
'Sorry for the brief intro. Bosses wanted me and Six here ASAP,' He said with a shrug.
'No hard feelings. We're just happy for the ride. Though if you don't mind me asking, what's with the small army hanging in the hold?' Qrow asked with a nod towards the rear.
'This is a combat search and rescue loadout. The DeeBees are designated as paramedics.
'Do you command them from up here?' Winter asked, looking at the monitors in front of them.
Smokey nodded, 'Yep. Speaking of which. Six, update all embarked units. Designate Huntsman Branwen Qrow and Specialist Winter Schnee for temporary command authority for this operation.
'Acknowledged,' The Vultures on-board AI replied.
'That will help if we get jammed again or I have to leave before things are sorted.'
'So what now?' Qrow asked as Smoky got up and walked past them.
'Now? Now we wait. They're not going to be around where their tracks were. But I bet someone is going to call and when they do we'll know where to go,' Smokey said before rubbing his hands together,'Now who wants something to eat? I skipped lunch.'
Jaune awoke suddenly, he'd been about to open his eyes when he recalled to keep them closed. Their captors might not know he was awake yet.
'Mmm. Interesting, your first reaction was to pretend to still be unconscious. Tell me, did you think of it yourself or was it some sort of training?' A voice asked, muffled somewhat.
Disregarding the deception he opened his eyes and looked around. He was inside one of the clear cages the androids had been trapping Grimm in. To each side were the
others in their own prisons. All of their equipment was missing, the odd feeling of being unarmored crept up on him.
In front of them between two of the red androids was a monitor set on a cart. A man stared out at him. His hair was wild grey hair that gave him a mad look. In place of his left eye he had a prominent red cybernetic optic with a series of claw marks around it.
'Well young man? Don't they teach you to answer questions when someone is talking to you?' The man asked, folding his arms.
'Dr Merlot I presume,' Jaune asked, rechecking the others out of the corner of his eye. They were one short…
'Indeed and you are Jaune Arc student of both the Lodge Combat School and Beacon Academy. You're as normal as they come, which is a shame. Here I hoped this little incident would at least let me analyse a Seran altered or otherwise.'
'I'm sure someone is looking for us. You could ask them?'
'Hmm. I take it you think your little homing beacon is still working. I took the liberty of having it removed and disassembled. This is private property and I don't like trespassers.'
'So it would seem,' Jaune replied, noting the others waking up, 'Is anyone injured?'
'Some light bruising and scrapes mostly. Ex-'
'I wasn't speaking to you,' Jaune snapped, cutting Dr. Merlot off, 'You guys alright?'
'Yeah. Hell of a headache but alive,' Nora said, shaking her head to dispel the cobwebs in her mind.
'Likewise. I'll be fine,' Ren said, sitting up and inspecting his equipment.
'Uhh. I feel like I just had a cliff dropped on me,' Yang groaned.
'I share the sentiment,' Blake muttered.
'Great. Our first mission and we've been captured by a mad scientist,' Wiess whined.
'Now listen here young lady! I am not m-' Dr. Merlot began.
'Ahh. I can't find Rose! Where is my precious Crescent Rose you monster!?' Ruby demanded banging her fists against the clear wall.
Dr Merlot sighed, 'This is why I don't miss working with others.'
'Perhaps if you were less evil you'd get along with people and be happier,' Ruby said with a haughty tone.
'No I think I'll be happier once I test my latest Serum on you. Once I thought altering the Grimm would be my greatest work. But now the Serans have offered a new perspective. Now I've seen that humanity and the faunus can also be improved. Your little intrusion was a blessing in disguise. Human subjects are so hard to find. Then again it's a shame there's only one Faunus amongst you. The results will be rather skewed.'
'Great he's blind as well as crazy. There are eight of us and we're all human,' Wiess said, folding her arms.
'Oh I'm you do have a Faunus with you. The results of the blood tests and a physical inspection confirmed it. Perhaps if humanity were more welcoming they wouldn't feel a need to hide. Isn't that righ-'
'Pyrrha?' Jaune called out, 'Pyrrha are you alright?'
The others turned to see the redhead was curled up in her cell still unresponsive.
'Oh she's alive, don't worry. She just put up more of a fight. My assistants had to be rougher than they were with the rest of you. She'll be a prim-,' Dr. Merlot said with a dismissive wave.
'You'll pay for this… all of this,' Jaune said glaring at the monitor.
'No I won't. And now I've had quite enough inter-'
The power cut off suddenly plunging the room into darkness. The two androids looked around for a moment then one started walking towards the door. Its movement shown
by the light of its eyes and other components.
Weiss sighed, 'Great. Just great. This is getting better and better.'
'Do you think he forgot to pay his bills?' Yang offered.
'Quiet. Something's happening,' Blake hissed as she gazed into the dark.
A sudden bolt of lightning struck it, illuminating the room for a split second. An after image of the scene was left in their eyes. A second bolt struck the other android this time from another angle. For a few moments after a quick series of bolts seemed to strike the corners of the room and the monitor on the cart.
'What is happening?' Ruby asked.
'They missed one of us,' Jaune replied with a grin, 'About time Rex.'
A cheery tone played as the power came back on and Rex shimmered into view. He floated over to Jaune's cell and opened his internal fabricator. Reaching inside he withdrew a small object that was lit by his eyes. It looked like half a sphere with a flat top.
Holding it out the curved section split into eight legs with sticky feet. Rex pressed it against the cell and then moved on to the next one. Behind him the Ripper scuttled up the surface before starting to cut.
The miniaturised Hammer beam was focused at short range, one of the few uses of the technology that wasn't totally restricted. But nearly nothing could withstand it. It moved around cutting a hole for Jaune to knock out. Once it was finished the machine folded up and waited to be collected for recycling.
Jaune headed straight for Pyrrha. Crouching at her side he checked her pulse and breathing. Weak but steady.
'I'm declaring this is no longer a field trip. Any objections?' Jaune asked not looking back
'No. I agree. This is well beyond anything less than a full response,' Ren replied, shaking his head.
'I'm still not calling you 2nd Lieutenant Arc,' Nora remarked walking over to one of the fallen androids.
'That's fine. But arm up. I think we're about to have company. Rex, get over here. I need a Stim beam.'
Rex bleeped in affirmation as he scooped up the last Ripper and returned it to his internal fabricator for recycling. As he floated over he folded away his grasping hand and changed the tool to his combo Shocker/Stim beam. The newer hardware allowed the JACK to support troops as well as defend himself.
Aiming at Pyrrha Rex fired the beam. A low power laser cleared a passage through the air. Right behind it a steam of light flowed from the JACK to Pyrrha. The particle stream carried a fast acting Stim intended for treatment during combat.
Near instantly Pyrrha's breathing got better and after a few seconds she let out a gasp as she sat upright.
'Pyrrha, it's okay. We're right here,' Jaune said, waiting to put a hand on her shoulder. More than one person had made Pyrrha reflexably throw them by startling her.
'Jaune,' Pyrrha sighed, giving a weak smile, 'Sorry I wasn't able to beat them.'
'Don't worry. Round two has already started. Can you stand?'
'I think so.'
As Jaune helped Pyrrha stand, something that seemed to involve a great deal of her leaning against him. Confused as to if the Stim hadn't worked Rex was about to move closer to check her vitals when Nora waved to get his attention. She held up one of the Androids' glaves.
'Think you can get this down to size for us?' She asked.
In response the JACK changed tools to a plasma cutter. Aside from an elevated temperature and altered tone of voice nothing was outwardly wrong with Pyrrha. Though it made a sub-process to keep an eye on her so it could focus on its work.
'Shouldn;'t we be you know up to our necks in robots?' Yang asked.
'Not likely. If there were enough here to spare we'd have been guarded by more then two,' Ren replied, 'Best guess is they're getting ready to catch us as we leave the room.'
'Okay but what's the plan? Fight through the hordes of metalheads and then what?'
'We find a way to call for help. Someone will be looking for us. All we need to do is let them know where to find us,' Jaune said as he and Pyrrha walked over to the others.
'He he,' Ruby snickered softly.
'What is it?' Weiss sighed.
'Oh nothing, I just realised this is just like Killbots 2: Blood and oil,' Ruby said.
'Wait… that movie is from a Seran pirate studio. It's illegal and for over 18s only,' Ren pointed out.
'Ruby! You watched an illegal film whilst you were under age!' Wiess snapped.
'Ah! Yang made me watch it!' Ruby shouted pointing the finger.
'Traitor! You begged me to watch it with you!' Yang shouted back.
'Guys please can we focus on the very real androids trying to kill us?!' Jaune shouted.
'How are we going to fight them? We don't have our weapons.' Blake asked.
'We've got these,' Nora said, holding up what she'd had Rex work on.
It was one of the glaves blades with part of the shaft acting as a handle. Whilst the balance of improvised swords wasn't great it was still better than nothing. One of them had been cut into two swords and a staff whilst the other only had one blade removed.
'Why did you have him do that?,' Weiss asked.
'Easy. Only Pyrrha knows how to use a weapon like that. So if she gets hurt we'd be out of luck,' Nora replied, throwing the now single bladed glaive to the girl in question, 'Meanwhile we have a few people who can use swords.'
She lightly tossed the other three blades to Jaune, Blake and Weiss.
'What? But I use a rapier. Not… whatever this is,' Weiss protested.
Nora pointed around the group as she spoke, 'I use a hammer, Yang punches stuff, Ruby uses a scythe bigger then she is-'
'Hey!' Ruby interjected.
'And Ren has small daggers on his pistols. So yeah you're the closest we've got. Besides, it's just till we get our actual stuff back. Speaking of which. Rex, where are we going?'
The JACK hovered over and started up a holo-projector. A layout of the building appeared. It wasn't a full blueprint with only the sections the JACK had mapped out forming an odd puzzle of paths and rooms with tentative names. A solid icon pulsed in an area marked storage/processing.
'Bingo,' Nora said in a sing-song voice.
'Okay then are we ready for some payback yet?' Yang asked.
'One more thing,' Jaune said, walking over to the cart and grabbing the handle, 'Rex I think I have an idea.'
Outside the holding area a loose ring of Androids had formed. Six were reds with their glaves whilst two whites with their combined minigun-launchers stood at the back. Much like before the forward line were Reds whilst the back were Whites. Their orders were to re-capture the prisoners if possible, terminate if necessary.
They might have marched right in but it was possible the escapees would ambush them. Teenagers with unlocked aura would be more than enough to beat a few androids. So they waited for the reinforcements from the cargo ship to reach them. With their numbers build up again they'd be able to overw-
The doors to the holding area snapped open. A shape shot out from the shadows towards the androids. No two shapes close together under a red cloak. Two whites at the back fired their nets.
A second later they concluded they'd been tricked. The two nets wrapped around the shapes revealing them to be the reds from the room. Their wreckage was propped up on the cart as a decoy. The reds stepped to the side letting the cart wheel along past them forgotten as the nets constricted around their inert targets.
Right after the shots had been fired the students charged out. The two at the front were holding shields made from the cart handles and the cut out cage wall. Behind them the others followed, keeping behind their shield wall.
The first set of reds stepped forward to block their advance. With a deft motion of her weapon Pyrrah disarmed one, literally with its arm falling to the side, before plunging her blade into another chest.
Jaune bashed with his shield before following up with a quick thrust of his sword. The blade punched through the android's armour and into its chest. Another two stabs and it dropped to the ground.
The reds tried to back up seeing the odds change. Behind them the whites braced and tried to aim. A sharp beep was all the warning they had as Rex burst from the cart Ruby's cloak waving as he exited his hiding spot and fired his Shocker into the first one.
It went rigid for a moment as smoke burst from its inner workings before flopping over. The second tried to adjust its aim but Rex had already closed the distance and was inside its guard. The second bolt of artificial lighting fried its head.
The three remaining reds were now surrounded and boxed in. In a twist of irony they'd been beaten the same way the prisoners had been caught in the first place. The last thing one of them broadcast back was a frame of the blonde haired girl with her fist approaching the camera.
Dr. Merlot sighed. Why did he have to deal with such barbarism? Any time people became involved it hampered his work.
He watched the cameras as they tracked the students movements. Ordering the other androids to let them pass had been the right move. They were armed and unless he could get them fixed in-place far too strong to stop.
Their destination was clear enough. They were going towards their equipment. He'd considered having it moved or destroyed. But that would mean they'd likely switch to another course of action. Provided he knew where they'd be he could try and experiment he'd been looking forward to.
'Have one of the Alpha Lycans moved to the storage area. I believe a test is in order,' Dr. Merlot instructed.
Things were going well… that wasn't a good sign. Either they were going the wrong way or Merlot was planning something. Nora was angry she hadn't been allowed to try out the minigun-launcher she'd grabbed. The rest were armed with a mix of improvised swords and glaves.
Entering the storage area it was clearly a trap. Their equipment was all sat on a set of crates like a display, even from here he could see the cut section of plating that showed Merlot had been telling the truth about his locator. The only thing missing was a large box being held up by a stick.
The room was longer than it was wide. Stacked around the space were shipping containers with company logos on the side. Many must have been the Merlot industries logo of an M inside a hexagon. But others had the SDC snowflake or other markings.
'Okay. Ruby, Yang you two go arm up. The rest of us stay here and cover them,' Jaune whispered.
'Are you sure tha-' Weiss started to ask, pausing as Ruby shot past into the space,' -ts wise… Nevermind.'
Ruby was hugging Crescent Rose even as Yang dashed over and donned Ember Celica. She gave a few test punches before banging the knuckles together to pump herself up. The two sisters were grabbing their ammo from the table when a loading door at the far end started opening.
The rolling door slid upwards into its frame letting in a stream of sunlight that dimmed as another clear cage was pushed through it. What was inside had been a Beowolf… It wasn't one any more.
Standing a head taller than most Alphas the thing snarled and gnashed its now split jaw at them. A tongue that didn't seem to fit into its maw anymore flailed around as it did. The eyes once sharp and red with bloodlust were now a pus like yellow and cloudy. There were also more than two with an uneven amount of eyes poking from its sockets.
Its body wasn't much better. Patches of its body were warped and bludged with sacs of the same fluid that had overtaken its eyes. The quill-like growths on its back had veins of the stuff running through them now.
'Uhhh guys?' Yang asked, taking up a stance as the cage came to a stop.
'It looks… sick… Can Grimm get sick?' Ruby asked, aiming at the mutant.
Jaune's eyes widened at the sight, 'It's Lambent. Keep your distance, don't let it touch you! Everyone else grab your weapons!'
He and the others ran over and started pulling on their armour and readying their weapons.
'What why?!' Yang called over her shoulder without looking away from the thing.
"It's infected with a parasite!,' Jaune shouted, pulling his helmet on, 'If you catch it you'll wind up like that!'
'Got it. Ruby you're up.'
'Awwww yeahhh,' Ruby cheered, unfolding Crescent Rose to her full glory and driving the blade into the ground.
The mutant bashed on the wall of its cage making guttural noises as it tried to attack. Then without warning the door slid upwards. Ruby fired the round, stuck the arm of the Grimm and tore it off.
A spray of the yellowish fluid sprayed outwards and the beast roared once more. Ruby cycled the bolt and aimed again then froze. The body of the Grimm was writhing like worms under its skin towards its arm socket.
They watched transfixed by the horror as the smoke leaking from the wound stopped and a long black skeletal arm erupted from the wound. Pulsing yellow fibres began to weave themselves around the newly wrought limb. The abomination jerked before reaching back with its new arm and grabbing one of the quills on its back.
It snapped the spine off with a bone like crack. Keeping its arm back it tilted it and aimed. Then its limb snapped forward and it hurled the improvised missile at them.
'Down!' Jaune cried diving to the side.
The projectile shot over their heads embedding into the side of a container. The bone line Grimm matter started to crack as it started to fade before exploding. Whizzing shards of half dissipating fragments glanced off auras and surroundings alike.
'How does shooting it make it worse!?' Ruby cried.
'It's going to keep mutating until it reaches its limit,'Jaune called back leaning out to fire at the monster.
'So how do we stop it?!' Blake shouted.
'Keep shooting aim for those blisters!'
That plan was harder than normal. Whatever the Grimm were made of it seems to keep being changed by the Imulsion. Weiss managed to hit its other arm with a flurry of ice dust that froze it solid. The mutant smashed its own limb causing it to be replaced by a flailing set of tendrils.
'Hey Blake isn't this somethi-' Yang started.
'NOT. THE. TIME!' Blake hissed.
One of its legs became a root of some sort steadying the Grimm. It kept throwing quills at them forcing them to move constantly. But gradually each one of the bloated cysts was destroyed.
As the last one popped and its contents splashed out the Grimm started to shake. A deep gurgling sound came from within its body and it started to swell. Whole parts of its body seemed to become like a balloon expanding.
They hid behind whatever they could as the gas build up reached its auto ignition point. The Grimm exploded like it had swallowed a demolition charge. chunks of Grimm matter splattered outwards leaving a trail of yellowish gristle behind as it faded away. Faint vapour started to rise from the splashes as it evaporated.
'Everyone get back from that stuff. It's not something you want to breathe in,' Jaune shouted.
'What would you recommend? We need to get out of here?' Weiss said, holding her sleeve to her face as she spoke.
'Rex, think you can make some helmets with filters?'
The JACK gave a quick bleep and darted back into the hallway they'd entered through. They followed just behind him as he returned to the fallen androids. With a few quick cuts their internals were opened up.
Rex sorted through the components inside adding things like filters, circuits and other parts to his fabricator. After a few moments he paused and pulled out a helmet with red trim and held it out to Ruby. She took it and turned it over in her hands.
'Cool,' She said, pulling the helmet on, 'It's a little dark…'
Jaune reached over and clicked the helmet on. The lens lights activated showing they were set to a white colour rather than default blue.
'Woohh.' Remarked looking around and seeing the HUD, 'You guys had this stuff the whole time? Awesome.'
A few more salvaged components and Rex was handing helmets out to the others. Yellow trim with purple optics for Yang, Blake got black with yellow, Weiss white and blue with Phyrra getting red with green.
'Uh. How am I meant to… Urrr…' Weiss grunted trying to get her hair to fit under the helmet.
'Let me help,' Yang said, reaching over and deftly adjusting Weiss's hair, 'Better?'
'Much. I guess you riding that bike of yours did pay off for us.'
'I am going to let that slide for now,' Yang said, donning her own helm, 'But you owe "that bike" a solemn apology.'
Blake was off to the side alone, looking at the helmet she'd been given. The issue wasn't the colour or trouble with getting her hair into it. Much like Pyerra and Yang she'd learned how to put on headgear without issue. it was the ear protectors poking out from the top.
She looked up at Rex who tilted his head confused. Of course he'd know she was a Faunus. How he did wasn't important. Dr. Merlot had nearly outed her in the cells. Now she was about to go running around with a helmet that screamed "I'm not human" around Weiss Schnee of all people… Unless.
With a few quick motions she pulled off the bow hiding her ears and slipped the helmet on. Then with ease of practice she tied the bow over the top of the protectors. After pausing a moment and testing it was in place firmly she turned back to the others. Nothing to see here, just another regular girl.
Protected from any further contamination they returned to the storage area and stepped outside. They clearly weren't on the mainland. Off ahead of them was a landscape best described as alien or at worst a nightmare.
What might have been trees or other plants were either withered and grey or pulsed with the same corpse light as the mutant Grimm. More of which were visible in the distance loping along with mismatched gaits.
Around them was some kind of compound with networks of pipes, cables and tracks connecting low set buildings. All enclosed by a tall fence that was topped with coils of wire. A short way off was a tower with a series of transmitters set at its top. Others like it were set at intervals around the island. And coming to a stop directly ahead of them was some sort of small train loaded with more Androids and caged mutants.
'Well poop,' Ruby announced.