Sins of the Forefathers
Act the First: A Beacon of Hope
Author's Note: Well, finally, we hit Merlot Industries. Don't worry, this won't be a five chapter saga of Jaune and the Criminal Crew going through the entirety of Grimm Eclipse.
Jaune is way too professional for that.
They're getting in, grabbing shit, and getting out.
Also, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Whatever Else you Celebrate. Happy New Years too while I'm at it, because I definitely won't have the next chapter up in just a few days lmao.
Chapter 9: In the Shadow of the Valley
"So, you kids all ready to head out?" Roman asked cheerfully.
It was early in the morning - so early, the sun hadn't risen yet. It was an unfortunate necessity for an unsanctioned Bullhead flight out of Vale into the wildlands. Sure, Roman could grease palms and get us the freedom to fly out and back in without getting shot down by the anti-air security, but that didn't mean we could just brazenly fly out in bright daylight, when people would ask questions.
Neo, Emerald, and Mercury didn't share Roman's enthusiasm, however. They all leaned against the Bullhead, eyes half-lidded, barely conscious. They were all outfitted, and even came equipped with extra materiel today - at my recommendations.
Mercury had upgraded his gauntlets so the forearm guards had three blades sticking out along their length. He also wore an Atlesian styled combat vest with pockets for miscellaneous equipment - in his case, he'd chosen to outfit himself with an assortment of grenades. Flashbangs, fragmentation grenades, and even a few Dust ones - apparently he'd come to appreciate the extra firepower that my homemade grenades had given me in my fight against him and Cinder.
The vests themselves also naturally came with armored plating, Type V according to the Atlesian Ranking system. They cost a pretty penny, and were a bit heavy, but I stressed the importance of having insurance for anything ready while briefing them all on the plan. The plates were rated to protect against most forms of firearms and melee weapons, as well as the attacks of some small Grimm, like Creeps.
Past that, there were very few things capable of physically guarding against Grimm, and certainly no materials that could reasonably be worn.
Emerald had filled her vest's pockets with extra ammo - different kinds of Dust crystals carved down to fit in her revolvers. At the moment, she was filling one with Lightning Dust, and another with Ice Dust. A good combination - ice doesn't conduct electricity as well as plain water, but the combination of restrictive movement and electric shocks is always good. She had also "acquired" more Fire, Wind, plain Water, and even a bit of the more exotic Gravity Dust. She also had small hip bags wrapped around her legs and a few attachments to her belt. When I asked, she just tiredly replied "Burglar's tools" and left it at that.
Neo, on the other hand, hadn't listened to any of my critiques or suggestions. In stark contrast to Emerald and Mercury, she wore her regular clothes and was equipped with nothing but her regular weapon, at least as far as I could see. Though there did seem to be a little bulge in the pocket of her waistcoat, where a small pistol might be.
Regardless, we were in fact not ready to head out.
"Not yet, I'm still waiting for my stuff from Junior."
"Oh? What did you order?"
"A few things. I used a few K from the advance pay you gave me."
"Atlesian tech?"
"Of course it is. It's not like any of the other nations mass produce combat equipment."
"Heh, true. So what'd you buy?"
I pointed out across the runway to an approaching car. "You'll find out."
A thin sports car approached us, and unmistakably belonging to Junior's goons - the girls, I was certain. His apprentices and pseudo-daughters if I understood their connection correctly.
The coloration of the paint job was split right down the middle - the driver's side on the left was white with light blue flecks and trimmings, and the other half of the car was red with black trimmings. Tracing across the car from front to back were two light green lines - malachite, fitting their name.
The car swerved as they turned, drifting and spitting up dirt and dust at us before skidding to a stop. The doors opened, lifting upwards rather than outwards - the car had gull-wing doors.
Two girls stepped out of the car - yep, it was the Malachites.
Miltia Malachite stepped out of the red and black side, and fittingly, was adorned by a red and black short dress with odd extensions and red high heels. She'd look more appropriate at a fashion show than on an airport runway, but here we were. She carried a briefcase as well as a large duffel bag hanging off her shoulder.
Out of the driver's side Melanie stepped out, wearing a white dress with light-green trimmings. Much like her sister, her outfit was designed for fashion rather than function. Since she'd been driving, she didn't carry anything.
"Jaune Arc," Melanie said, appraising me, her eyes scanning me up and down. Miltia did the same as she moved to stand beside her sister, placing the bags onto the ground in front of them.
They turned to each other and Miltia spoke. "He doesn't seem like much, Melanie."
"No, not at all, Miltia," Melanie replied.
They turned back to me, and small, smug smiles appeared on their faces as they continued to appraise me. "How did someone like you beat Junior?"
I smirked back and walked forward to retrieve what I'd purchased. "That's between me and Junior. There's more to me than what you can see."
"So you say…" Melanie replied. The sisters looked at each other again and then shrugged together.
Looking back at me, in unison they said "Consider us intrigued, Jaune Arc."
"Very intrigued," Miltia added.
"We'll have to fight sometime," Melanie continued.
"And see how we compare," they finished together.
"I don't mind that. So long as it's a… private affair."
They smirked and nodded, before returning to their car and driving away.
Roman whistled. "Jeez kid, control your hormones."
I scoffed. "Hardly the issue. I'll never turn down an opportunity to train with someone. You never know what you might learn. Besides, free access to the back areas of Junior's club? Might find something to steal."
Roman chuckled. "Fair enough, Jaune. So what's in the bag?"
I leaned down and unzipped it, pulling out what I'd ordered. For brevity's sake:
-A Type V Atlesian Combat Vest
-A Thor Model Thrymja, a 10 Gauge Pistol-Gripped Semi-Automatic Shotgun.
-50 Shells: 25 Slugs, 25 Buckshot
-(For the Shotgun): Dot sight, underbarrel flashlight, 5 shell carrier pouch to go on the receiver
-Extra Magazines for the Thor Model 122
-Four pairs of Night-Vision Goggles, a portable paper scanner, and GPS tracker
Roman nodded approvingly, and even Emerald and Mercury looked over at the haul, shaking some tiredness out of their eyes.
"Obviously, we're going to avoid Grimm," I explained, "but like you taught me Roman, it pays to be prepared for the worst possible scenario."
"And the briefcase?" he asked.
I brought it over and opened it up. Thankfully, it was exactly what I had ordered.
A Thor Model Blitzschlag. A bolt action rifle chambered in .50 BMG. It used five-round clips, and I'd purchased fifty rounds for it as well - twenty regular, twenty armor piercing, and ten Dust tipped incendiaries. It was split into pieces in the briefcase, but easily assembled. It also came with a scope I'd purchased, which, if it worked properly, would allow sighting up to fifteen-hundred yards.
At that, Roman whistled again. "Damn, Jaune, you sure you're not planning on fighting Grimm?"
"I hope we don't have to, but if anything we come across has their armor plating, it's going to take something this powerful to break through it."
"True enough. Is that everything?"
"Yep, we can get going now."
"Alright then. Load up boys!"
Emerald checked her weapons for the fifth time since they'd gotten on the Bullhead. In between checks, she had looked over the city map, the building's schematics - in particular designs for the doors, locks, and security systems, since dealing with those would be her job.
The Merlot Industries Tower was the tallest building in Mountain Glenn, standing about sixty floors above ground, and ten below, five of which were a parking garage - with the lowest level connected to the Mountain Glenn Metro - and five underneath those. The basement floors were where some "dangerous" research had been conducted. Supposedly, it was weapons testing, but regardless of what was actually going on, there was a server room down there too, one of four, with three more for twenty of each of the above ground floors.
They had probably shut off and run out years ago, but if we could grab a hard drive from each, that would probably be enough to satisfy Watts, according to Jaune - "And if the customer's not happy with that, he can send someone else on this stupidity."
The above ground floors were separated into two sets of different research sections. The first twenty floors were devoted to the business side of Merlot Industries. Probably wouldn't be any research there, but it would still be worth it to grab a drive. Above that, the next twenty floors were devoted to computer science, robotics, and AI research. After the fall of Mountain Glenn, much of Doctor Polendina's work in robotics and cybernetics for Atlas had actually been derived from Merlot - his mentor. He'd left Glenn for Atlas to try and settle a business deal with the Schnee, but then the fall happened.
Above that, eighteen of the top twenty floors were devoted to biology and chemistry - basically, medicinal research. The top two floors were reserved for Merlot's private laboratory, as well as his living quarters, complete with a full bathroom and kitchen. Apparently, he was the type who truly lived for his work.
Jaune's plan was this: they would head down the stairs through the parking garage and work through the five basement floors as fast as we could, beelining for the server room and taking a drive with us. There was no point in investigating every single room and floor - that would take much too long.
After that, they'd go up to the tenth, thirtieth, and fiftieth floors for those server rooms, and then Merlot's private quarters, which would be inspected in detail.
It made sense, all things considered - they could hardly devote multiple days to exploring every floor of the tower, not in a Grimm infested city. Cinder and Roman had approved it, which brought her here, on her way out to the fallen city.
Idly, she adjusted the straps on her new body armor.
Stupid thing never does seem to fit right… how do Atlesians fight in these? And how did Jaune convince me to get one, anyway?
She glanced over at him, sprawled out over a length on the Bullhead's bench. After performing his own quick check, he'd opted to rest up for the mission, falling asleep rather fast for someone who'd been so awake when they'd blearlily watched him get the damn equipment.
As for Emerald, once they'd gotten up in the air, all tiredness had left her. Now she was awake - too awake, too aware, tensed like a coiled wire. She couldn't rest, but neither could she sit still and do nothing - so she read the maps, schematics, and checked her equipment.
There were no two ways about it - she was feeling nervous. Afraid, even. She thought that she could be forgiven for that, though - this would be her first time going into the Outside.
She looked out the Bullhead's window to see a sea of green beneath her, the grass covered plains of Southern Sanus rolling out beneath them as they flew overhead. Occasionally she spotted a small forest or smaller village, but for the most part it was just miles and miles of grassland. They were up high, at cruising altitude. She hadn't enjoyed the air pressure coming from Mistral, and she enjoyed it even less in the cramped Bullhead.
The Outside, the Wildlands, the Grimmlands - there were a dozen different names for the parts of the world untouched by man or faunus. But they all gave off the same feeling, that the place in question was Other, something wild, untamed, dangerous.
She wasn't dangerous.
She was stealthy, quick, good with her hands - that was her skillset. She hadn't even had custom weapons until Cinder had taken her under her wing. Up to that point, she had wielded nothing but whatever she could scrounge up.
But she wasn't trained to fight, to kill, not like the others. Neo had been working as Roman's enforcer for years, and was probably no stranger to killing. Jaune and Mercury were the sons of Assassins, and Mercury had even killed his father. Jaune had proven his worth by beating Cinder, Mercury, and herself - though apparently Cinder and Mercury had been holding back in that fight.
Emerald hadn't been. She had been fighting with all she had, because Aura or no, she didn't have the combat skill to take him on while holding back. Sure, Cinder had gotten her custom weapons and trained her a bit, but she'd read the dossier, the same as Mercury. Jaune had been trained extensively, and assuming he started young - as you would have to, to get his large skill set - then he had been training for a long time.
Her street fighting skills wouldn't match up to that. They hadn't, and he'd proved it.
Although, maybe I would have fared better if I had been trying to kill him.
She shook her head and pulled out her new book - she'd finished The Third Crusade, slog though it was - Making Sense of the Senses: Sensation and Perception in the Psychological Model.
Something she'd been forced to understand in her short time with Jaune (and, though she'd loathe to admit it, Roman) was that her lack of a proper education was holding her back, to a degree. Sure, she could pick up all sorts of useful skills like Jaune, but a jack of all trades can only get so far - Junior was a good example. He was an okay fighter, a good businessman and a good leader to his men, but he didn't have anything "special" about him, nothing that made him stand out. Even his high worth as an information broker was thanks to his wealth being used to buy information, rather than any particular skill in acquiring it himself.
On the other hand, people who were really powerful, like Raven, Cinder, or even (dare she say it?) Watts or Roman, specialized in a few areas. They had general knowledge, but chose to dedicate themselves to something and master it. For Raven, that was martial arts of any form; for Cinder, it was Dust Weaving; for Watts, technology of some sort she couldn't comprehend; and for Roman, it was manipulating and strategizing his way around people, and into their wallets.
So she had to find something to specialize in. As far as her thieving skills, they were good - very good - but not something that could carry her far.
Her Semblance, on the other hand…
As Mercury yawned, shuffling down the Bullhead's walkway, he idly noted that Jaune had clearly trained with the Atlesian Military - or at least someone who knew about the way they operated. As he observed Jaune lead them out, shotgun up, head sweeping left and right to check his surroundings, he remembered Cinder's extra mission for him.
Observe him. Study his tactics, techniques, skills, methodologies. We already have a list of these things, of course, but you have the opportunity to watch him in action. Take note of the weaknesses in particular. I had thought about giving this assignment to Emerald… but she lacks the experience necessary to discern such things through cursory observations alone. I expect better from you.
Mercury thought that Cinder was being needlessly obsessed with preparing for what he assumed would be Jaune's almost inevitable betrayal. Yeah, he was skilled in all sorts of ways that made even Mercury impressed, but his two weaknesses were pretty simple, all things considered.
Jaune didn't know how to "fight", and he was new to Aura.
Sure, Jaune could brawl as well as anyone who'd ever been in real combat, but he had been without Aura for too long. And when you're stuck like that for years, it tends to shape your fighting style. And Jaune? Jaune was a - what did his old man call it? - a technician. The way his old man said it, there were two types of Assassin - those who could fight, and those who couldn't. Those who could fight would usually kill through battle, either sneaking into locations for one on one duels or laying waste to entire bases or estates, a la Jack the Ripper. Those who couldn't fight tended to rely on tricks to take down their targets - poison, timed explosives, "accidents", long range sniping, or other methods.
The latter was scarier to deal with - if you didn't have a hold of them. But they had a hold of Jaune. And when you had a hold of someone who couldn't fight?
There was nothing to fear.
As far as Aura went, he'd had it for like what, two weeks, a month now? Even if he supposedly had more than the average person, he was sorely lacking in the experience needed to utilize it properly. Boosting your physical abilities, expanding the range of your senses, focusing it for defense, channeling it into a weapon, and whatnot. There was no way he'd be able to do any of that. Hell, it took him months just to figure out how to accelerate healing with it, focusing it to specific areas of damage…
His father never held back. Never.
In any case, Jaune was lacking in combat ability and Aura control. Which means that all he had to rely on was "technique".
Mercury sighed as they all began the short march to the Merlot Industries Tower. Keeping an eye on his intricacies, and on the environment, to make sure they all got out of this alive?
Cinder needed to pay him more.
Neo creeped along the street as she followed behind Jaune. Emerald and Mercury walked behind her.
Ahead of them, three Beowolves sniffed the ground, pawing at some hole lodged in the corner of a building - perhaps some rat's den. The Grimm were small, around three feet tall at the shoulder, and solid black in color - they hadn't grown enough to develop the white bony spikes of older Grimm.
Neo looked up to Jaune and motioned with her hands.
"Think we can take them?" she signed.
Jaune shook his head and whispered, "Physically? Maybe, but we're still a mile out from the Tower and I don't want to attract too much attention. If they start howling, we might get a whole pack on our backs."
Mercury shrugged. "Alright then, what next? You're in charge here."
"No need to remind me…" he motioned to Emerald and pointed down the side street, mouthing 'scout'. She nodded and crept by, moving slowly and scanning the area.
Mercury followed her ten feet behind, then Jaune, then Neo. It was a simple military movement order, but it was effective. Jaune had decided on it earlier.
Neo mused on the fact that Jaune had been placed in charge of this. Mercury had proven to be the strongest - though she had no doubt that Jaune and Mercury had both been holding back a trump card, the same as her - and the short mission planning session they'd had revealed Mercury's past experience with the Grimmlands.
On top of that, both Cinder and Roman had predicted that Jaune would likely betray them.
She could tell why. It wasn't hard to see - sure, he might have had some powerful dad or something, but when you got right down to it, he'd been press ganged into the group. Even if they couldn't kill him without risking his dad's anger, there were still plenty of things they could have done - threatening his supposed sisters at the least, and kidnapping at the most.
He apparently knew everything, after all, so it was the least they could do to keep him in line.
Still, she couldn't help but think that allowing the liability to lead the mission was a bad idea. Which meant that it was probably Cinder's suggestion.
Neo sighed inwardly as they trekked along, following after Emerald. The Merlot Industries Tower loomed ahead in the distance, dark steel and equidistant windows for about fifty floors before transitioning into an all glass exterior. It was easily the tallest building in the city - and it was a miracle of engineering that it hadn't collapsed after, what, twenty, thirty years of Grimm infestation? Especially considering that, according to Jaune's briefing, the Grimm that caused the city's downfall had come from there, or at least the area around there. Maybe the old scientist had some experiments designed to repel Grimm, and they'd kept working after the fall.
Or maybe it was dumb luck and she shouldn't waste time thinking about it. Though she had a lot of time to dwell on things, during their long and mostly boring trek through the city. She still wasn't sure why they had to touch down three miles away from the Tower - Jaune had said it was to avoid attracting Grimm to the tower with their sudden presence, but surely two miles would have worked just as well!
Still, despite her complaints, she couldn't help but recognize the wisdom of the plan. After their weeks of working together, the thing that had surprised her most about Jaune was that he knew sign language- "It's an effective method of nonverbal communication," he explained, and if that was the reasoning then he'd probably learned from Roman - but the second most surprising thing was his intellect.
She'd expected some intelligence, considering that Roman had apparently been one of his teachers, but he'd proven knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects, outside of killing and crime.
Although, his knowledge of combat - of killing - was his most impressive wellspring. Even more so than her own, and Roman had taken care to teach her to be more than a fighter. Jaune had a varied education backed by real experience, which made him dangerous.
More dangerous than Mercury, by her count. Sure, Mercury was a better fighter, but she had no doubt that Jaune was already thinking about countermeasures for him, especially after their weeks of working together.
And knowing Jacob- well, knowing Jacob through Roman's stories, he was a much bigger threat than Raven Branwen. Sure, Raven could kill anyone at any time, but she didn't, and not just because she was afraid of retaliation. She and the Branwen tribe had a reputation, a code, and they stuck to it. They were bandits, ostensibly, but their methods fell more in line with an organized crime family than the mental idea of a 'rape, pillage, and burn' kind of bandit. Their raids used to be so, according to Roman, but ever since Raven had taken over, that had stopped. Violence was now a method of last resort, and usually whenever they 'raided' a place, it was more like Raven was coming by to get protection money.
The point being, Raven had rules.
Jacob didn't.
As they walked along, Neo musing on the situation, she couldn't help but think that Roman had fallen prey to a con himself - and bought whatever Cinder was selling.
She loved him, teacher and father that he was to her, but he'd taught her too well.
If push came to shove?
She'd side with Jaune.
We approached the building as quickly as we could without drawing a sound, walking briskly across the pavement towards the doors- or rather, the hole where they once were.. Emerald was in front, and we paused at the entrance as she quickly glanced around, checking for anything that would prove disadvantageous, whether it be some trap-type Grimm or old security systems running on reserve power.
After a moment, she gave us the go ahead and we moved in, all of us sweeping the entryway as I had taught them - and you'd better believe we all made sure to look up - before regrouping in a corner of the hall, near the main staircase.
We headed down the stairs. I was in the lead, with my shotgun pointing out and down. We all wore the night vision goggles, uncomfortable as they were, as we didn't want to alert anything down there to our presence. The flashlight on the end of the shotgun was a last resort more than anything else.
We moved slowly through the darkness, always checking every floor and keeping our eyes out for any Grimm. Considering this was possible ground zero, it would make sense for Grimm to have nested up here.
For whatever reason, we didn't see anything down through the parking garage. Maybe there had been something before, and they'd moved out through the Metro.
Whatever. No time to speculate.
We headed down to basement level three, and beelined for the server room. I was truly grateful for the night vision goggles now, as we were well beyond any natural light source, pushing their utility to its limits. We stopped at the corner to turn down the hall, only for me to have everyone pause.
There were three Grimm sniffing around the hall. Just Creeps, small bipedal creatures with no arms, a short pointed tail, and a sort of reptilian shaped head. Sharp teeth jutted out from their jaws, bone white, and they were grown enough to have some small bone plates covering their skin in a sort of pockmarked pattern. Not as armored as full adults, however.
I held my fist up to hold my team in place as I scanned the area, trying to spot where they may have nested or come from, but Mercury, apparently tired with my caution, rushed out.
I hissed at him to stop, but he ran on, unheeded. The Creeps turned to him, but he was already too close for them to do anything about it. He swung his legs around, performing a whirlwind combo that eviscerated the three Creeps, leaving them to disintegrate into wisps of smoke.
He took a deep, calming breath as he turned back towards us and held his hands out.
"See? Nothing to be scared of-"
A glowing green shape burst from the door across the hall, grabbed Mercury in its jaws, and slammed him through the doors to the server room.
I looked back to Neo and Emerald, nodded, and we all ran in to save him.
Author's Note: I can't believe Mercury is fucking dead. Yeah no, but here's to show that Leeroy Jenkins-ing is never the best way to go about exploring a dangerous zone.
And yes, the chapter title is a reference to the song by the Lost Weekend Western Swing Band.
Review Replies:
Guest: You have touched on something with your idea of Salem having a larger goal. I will give you that much.
ZenithTempest: You have a point in saying that power dynamics are confusing and not set in stone. This is because for the most part, aside from situations where a character would obviously stomp another (Case in point, Adam vs. the Guardians), strength is contextual. Jaune was able to beat Cinder because A: She was holding back and B: he used tricks she hadn't encountered before. That shit wouldn't work a second time.
In the case of Adam vs. the Guardians, I'd like to point out that their strength was never explicitly stated. Blake simply mentioned that if they weren't up to a certain rank (3 if I remember correctly) that they wouldn't match up to Adam. And that's true - Adam is much stronger than most Guardians.
Eventually I'll get around to making a generalized power level list or something, but for now, suffice it to say that Adam is Qrow-tier: stronger than Winter, weaker than Glynda.
As for Blake killing, it's for some specific character development I have in mind down the line.
Guest: You make a good point there. However, there is, of course, more to the White Fang than meets the eye, and more to the Faunus as a whole. We'll get there eventually.