Ermessia woke up sore that night, which could not be considered a blessing for her. In the previous hour, she set out with her team in a mission at Old Glenn. The objective, uncover the nefarious plan of the Fang and Matchlight, which already been solved thanks to the distress call from the Fang's main team. Surely, since the objective was technically completed, she should have the rights to issue immediate withdrawal from the ruin. No, sadly. Since the enemy plan was to ram a train and brought Grimm to the middle of the city, she actually has the obligation to stop it.
At least the team was competent; oh, they were competent all right. Big Steel, the semi-tank with various weapons packing tremendous firepower and the tracker. Ruby, the all-rounders with weapons for all sort of bizarre encounter they certainly would find themselves in. Johnathan, the absolute tank of a guy with enough Aura to survive a Goliath's trample. Lastly herself, the leader, the head, the one that kept the team together. Then the Grimm happened, and now they're underground.
At least they were together, right? A quick survey proved to be the opposite. Big Steel, who was desperately digging through the rubbles, was there with her. Ruby and Johnathan, her juniors—in which one of them literally just signed up yesterday—were not in her immediate vicinity. That actually made Big Steel's action the more worrying.
"Oi, Big Steel, report," and she was ignored. The big robot was still busy digging through the rubbles to notice the leader's inquiry.
"Fookin' hell," she was that irritated. Obviously, nothing productive could be done in her prone state; she chose to rectify that by standing up. She noticed another thing; her hair was undone, flowing freely down to her back. She could use bandage for a makeshift hair tie but decided against that. Instead, she materialized a pair of chopsticks she always carried around and rearranged her hair into a bun.
One problem done, many more to go.
"Big Steel," still being ignored. Getting physical it is.
A delicate looking arm rested upon the shoulder of the big robot, which should have notified the robot. Since Big Steel was not responding, he was yanked away from the rubbles and violently flung to the soil. In his downed state, Big Steel registered Leader Ermesia's effort in grabbing his attention, and then he recognized a scowl marred the objectively beautiful face of his leader.
His voice module was about to appease her, but her burnt up patience was having none of it. "Report."
He did deliver a report, having no possible way to appease the clearly irritated leader, "The mysterious Grimm ambushed us before plunging us down to the tunnel networks with a boulder."
Her face gradually becoming neutral, "And our juniors?"
He glanced to the rubbles, "Alive. Unclear if they are under the rubbles or not."
All right, that made his previous action logical in a humane way. Ermessia would be intrigued honestly, since in front of her was an A.I. that based it's action on feelings rather than logic. Alas, they didn't have time for a philosophical debate regarding an artificial life gaining humanity, as such she decided on asking something that may benefit them in this predicament.
"Suggestion?"
"Big blast."
She blinked. And then blinked again. Eyeing the rubbles, she considered the suggestion before throwing it into the abyss, "Let me repeat that again, just to confirm we're on the same page here. You okay with that?"
The robot gave her a nod.
"You want to blast these rubbles." A nod. "With the objective of potentially rescuing our downed juniors." A nod. "An admirable course of action, Big Steel. But, there's something of concern that I must inquire." A nod. "Have you consider the ramification that might entails with such action?" ...a nod. "And you still want to proceed with it?" Another hesitant nod followed. That was a rare sight to herself, a hesitant Big Steel, yes quite rare indeed.
Big Steel was an A.I. designed to house the soul of another human being and used that soul as if it was his own. So far, his effectiveness stayed around 90% success rate in both leading and being a subordinate as expected of an A.I. It was only when Ruby was not part of the equation, however.
"You know what, switch to Georgie, please. I need some unbiased opinion on this."
"Proposal: A leader must assert their dominance regardless of their underling—"
"Georgie. Now."
The robot stilled for a second before the lights from his head changed into red, "You mad boss?"
A sigh escaped Ermessia, "Hardly, more like irritated. Big Steel is too focused on Ruby," she lamented. "I know progressive A.I. is the rage these days but at least give a battle focused software for a battle robot. I do understand Ruby's importance to Big Steel, but please, do get your head in the mission at all time." The robot, now controlled by Georgie, stood up and dusted himself. After the notion was done, she remembered to add something, "I do like his company though, quite the pleasant chat we usually have."
"You do know we both can perceive things even we're not in control, right?"
"I know; the feeling is just different with each of you. Now, what do you suggest we—"
"FIRSTLY!" he cut her mid-sentence, "Don't diss BigBig when I'm in control. Secondly, what do you expect? Aura, soul, emotion, they go hand in hand together. It is perfectly logical he will develops one sooner or later. Thirdly, my suggestion! We blast these rubbles, save Ruby, and BigBig can be happy!"
Ernessia had to make conscious effort to not strangle the big robot to death. Firstly, that won't work. Oxygen was never part of what keeping the robot functioning anyway. Secondly, that would be a waste of their precious time. It didn't stop her from berating him, however.
"Listen here you bucket head," her hand was atop the robot's shoulder again, "If you, say, cause a Dust explosion here, there is a good chance it will results in another cave in." Her other hand was grabbing his head now, "Not to mention, this place house tons of Dust. I don't need to explain that last part, no?"
Georgie Steel felt like sweating, which should be impossible due to the restriction of his body, "I uh... have an argument?"
Her grip tightened, which was somewhat useless, but it got the point across, "I'm listening."
"SO! Ruby is a Bearer of Silver, right? Same as the Boss. It would be quite unfortunate if another one of his kin fell into ill omen. Wouldn't you say so Third Ring Candidate Ermessia?" Her smothering glare did not subside, "Hey hey! That's a good argument! I explain my reason, have a definite goal, and put the Boss priority up high!"
The glare finally subsided and replaced with her neutral face, the hands were still in place unfortunately, "I can recall how you acted this morning, which should invalidates your current argument."
An indignant cry escaped him, "HEY! That was then, this is now! And besides, we were inside the safety of the City. Here, we are deep in enemy territory. So do pardon me for trying to stay positive."
"By trying to get us killed?"
"No, but—" something on his sensor caught his attention. With some struggle, his head was free form Ermessia's snare and he focused on the bleeping sign of life beyond the rubbles. There were two of them—the same from before—definitely Ruby and Johnathan, and they began moving.
He relayed that to the team leader who produced a sigh of relief and letting go of his shoulder. "Good. That means they are in good condition." She eyed the sole path available to them, "We should make a move as well; better accomplish something than to rot here."
She was only making the first step when Georgie decided on doing another interruption, "You know... we won't be this stressed if you actually gave them ear comms."
She froze, and then resumed walking, "That was on me okay! My schedule should be free today! But then we have this, so do forgive me for my lack of focus in our preparation, and none of you reminds me!"
"Ruby and Johnathan are our juniors; I think they will follow your lead no matter how weird it is. As for BigBig... he actually considered on reminding you about it, but he believed a leader such as you, with all your reputation tagging along, would know what is best for us, thus making his input on the matter far inferior when compared to yours."
She was silent for a while, face as if she had just eaten a lemon together with its peel, "You know what, I'll treat the team to HamHam PangPang if we return alive."
"We are a robot though."
"You both get a new module."
Georgie Steel and Big Steel digitally high five each other.
Their exploration was pretty dull according to their definitely subjective assessment. It was to be expected since the mission was more of a search and affirm rather than search and destroy by nature. In the past minutes, winding paths and small time Grimm were the only sign of them progressing with the mission, which was quite generous since they didn't even know where were they going in the first place. They did encounter some Fang and Thumb, but their state of being was the same as the first hollowed man they found.
There was a positive aspect to their problem thankfully. When met with winding paths, Georgie made use of his robotic body's built in sensor to determine the flow of energy that seemed to course through the underground. With his information, Ermessia made the wise decision of following to where the energy most gather, thus they reached a peculiar path.
The walls were lined with green Dust crystals, which should be wind, but Georgie's sensor indicated they weren't. In fact, the Dust had traces of being artificially altered. The danger level immediately skyrocketed. An altered Dust in a lab wasn't a concern due to how stable it was, natural Dust on the other hand, especially an artificially altered one, spoke volume of the skill of whoever working with them. Ermessia won't get into detail, but this kind of experiment was very dangerous and costly. Yes, dangerous, as in the kind that Atlesian hesitateed experimenting on at one point, keyword being at one point.
Sadly, all rationality from the world ceased to exist once the curtain calls for the Great War. Then the Emerald Order fell, the rest went spiraling down from there.
"I would say we backup a bit and go up, but this is a hot trail we can't ignore."
Georgie nodded soundlessly.
"Oh you're giving me the silent treatment?"
"No, woman, these Dust give me a sense of familiarity, and I don't know why."
She made a confused sound but kept her eyes down the path, "Recent memory?"
"Nah, I believe it's from before I ended up inside BigBig... I think I can narrow it down to a few..."
Ermessia let out her comment, "It's either 'The Shining Road of Black' or 'MountainD' Distortion... Merlot... or straight up Watts. Alright, I bet 100 Lien on Watts."
Georgie's gaze still lingered on the Dust, "A hundred Lien on Merlot. I am so killing that guy if we meet."
"We'll see big guy, we'll see." Done with their betting pool, the Index duo fell into another silence as they walked forward with renewed caution. Fortunately, their obstacles only consisted of the Dust, which were easy to maneuver around. Fortunately again, they happened to come across another big finding in the form of a large chamber.
Crates filled to the brim with the altered Dust stacked on one side of the chamber. She counted thirty of those crates. On the other side was a large pool of green liquid, presumably the green Dust. That should be it, but there was more, oh there was always more in her line of work. Not far from the green pool was a pile of corpses. Human, faunus, robot, and Grimm—even though it shouldn't be possible. However, a single aspect put those corpses in a unity, that aspect being Dust crystal growing from them.
"Ah... I see. I remember now."
"Should I be concerned?" she asked.
Hoarse voice came with an answer, "You should. You see that box over there, the one with a visible logo?" there was indeed a box with visible insignia on the corner, a brain ingrown with crystals, "That's Merlot's personal insignia only known to his closest confidant or those he put under his care. I don't need to explain what that entails right?"
She shook her head, "I've read enough report on him. Georgie, please, let Big Steel assume control for now. I am afraid your rationality might leave us the moment Merlot step into our vicinity."
With a heavy nod, the red lights changed back into blue, "Big Steel assuming control. Proposal: eliminate Merlot on sight if he makes appearance."
The team leader shook her head while moving forward, "Denied. If he makes appearance, we are eavesdropping him. He has a habit of rambling whatever on his mind according to his profile."
"Affirmative."
The next room—Ermessia was fairly certain that the Gods gave them their blessing today—contained an assortment of digital data storing device—computers, in another word—and tables full of reports and unfinished tests. Other items of note were the corpses, "We do see a lot of them today," sprawled humans on the floor, sprawled robots on the floor, some robots unmoving yet still standing—some even the size of Big Steel.
They ignored all of that in favor of the computer, "Can you access this?"
A metallic finger was jabbed into a port, "In progress." A full minute of waiting and the screen finally lit up, "Too much data. Scanning for relevant items." They waited for another minute. Ermessia urged him to be faster as her eyes darted between the path they came from and another one leading to place unknown, "Possible items of interest: 'The Nature of Grimm and Soul' and 'Augmentation of Imps'. The latter contains relevant data regarding the empowered Imps we encountered. Permission to proceed?"
"Huh, so those were Imps... Permission granted, continue looking for other things while you're at it."
"Proceed to download," his caught his sensor, "My sensor caught two life signatures approaching from the East, ETA 3 minutes 14 seconds. Enough time to download the relevant items and some more. Inquiring next course of action."
Her eyes darted around the room and an idea brew, "We role play as dead body."
"Pardon?"
"It's a good idea. I ditch my cloak and lay among that pile over there. You ditch your cloak, minigun standby, and stand right there together with the bulky Atlesian Knight holding a gun. Also, look at me while playing dead. When I make a finger gun, shoot liberally."
"Affirmative." As soon as the download was done, Ermessia stored her cloak in her glove and laid face down together with the dead. Big Steel stationed himself on the side of his unanimated kin with the Big Minigun loaded and ready to fire. Powering down until the only functioning part of himself were the optics, Big Steel was ready to role play as an offline Atelsian Knight.
Cue the echoing footsteps and came two humans.
From her position amongst the dead, Ermessia identified one of them as Doctor Prajit Merlot—wild mane of graying hair complete with beard, mustache, and brows thick as a bush they almost covered his entire face. Having a prosthetic right arm and wearing the typical white coat of a doctor, this man was no doubt the mentally unsound and disgraced doctor from Atlas. Then Ermessia put 'cackling in an aggressive manner' as another part of Merlot that wasn't written on the report, because he was doing that when he entered the room.
For the other human, Ermessia wasn't really sure with their identity. Their body—the curves, the boobs, and the booty—belonged to a woman, a mature woman. There was no way a child could have those, but she was short, roughly one and a half meter in height. Her attire and hair; too colorful. White, pink, and brown, making her a walking neapolitan ice cream that could and will commit murder. Then came her face, it was a literal blank surface. No nose, no eyes, no mouth, just a smooth blank surface with the same tone as her skin, and she was damn sure it wasn't a mask. A possible Distortion then.
"I must thank you for accompanying me here Miss Politan." He began as the computer screen came back to life once more, "I am confident in my ability, but Mister Roman sure loves giving out insurance to his business partner."
The woman, now identified as Miss Politan, put a hand on her face where a mouth supposed to be and shook a little, giving off the impression of a small laugh.
"Yes indeed, Mister Roman is quite the gentleman," a snort, "to his business partners of course, unlike those animals, who in their folly are being herd to their meaningless end." Like before, Miss Politan responded with her silent laugh, "Speaking of those animals, Miss Politan, why did Mister Roman agree with my proposal of releasing my beloved Imps? Wouldn't they impede his venture with the Dust and train?"
The faceless woman stopped her silent laugh, and rested her head onto her palm, as if thinking for an answer. Her reply then came in the form of her moving hands, sign language. Ermessia understood the language, yet her vision was partially obstructed by Merlot from her position. As such she couldn't have a look at the woman's hands. It was of no concern thankfully, since Merlot's answer was enough to give context.
"My recruitment to your cause is more important than the breach? Hoho, I'm flattered, Miss Politan. Although, that brings me to the question as to why he chose this day to breach Vale. Perhaps the idea came not from himself, but a third party?"
Miss Politan nodded; her leg began tapping the dirt.
"Ah, are they—"
A left hand made a sharp movement and Merlot flinched backward a bit, "Ah yes, my data. I'll finish this soon and we can discuss more of our circumstances."
That was the end of the conversation and they settled into an awkward silence.
"Welp, time for my finger gun."
The Big Steel came online and followed by the Big Minigun preparing for an onslaught. Politan clearly realized something was wrong when her head snapped to her right and saw a bulky Atlesian Knight with a weird head aiming a weapon of mass destruction at them. She reacted too late to protect her companion.
A torrent of hot lead crashed into Merlot's abdomen, shredding it without mercy until the top half and lower half physically disconnected themselves. The rampage didn't stop there the torrent continued to the computers which met the same fate as the insane doctor before continuing towards the tri-colored woman. It happened within the timeframe of a second and she only survived with her reflex of grabbing the parasol on her belt and deploying it. Surprisingly, the pink parasol withstood the storm.
That fact would change very soon.
Casting a side glance to Merlot's corpse, who for some reasons bled black blood, Ermessia leaped with her sword high, intending to end the woman in a single chop. Politan recognized the threat faster this time, and responded immediately by pulling out a Dust crystal—
"SHIT!"
—that erupted in a bright light, blinding Ermessia in the process. Her blade came crashing down and hit nothing but the solid ground. Still blinded, she immediately execute a circular slash around herself, just to make sure the little woman doesn't get the idea of attacking while she was blinded. Turned out, she didn't need to worry.
The Big Minigun roared once more accompanied by hurried and frantic footsteps. "As long as she doesn't chuck a flashbang, this temporary blindness is nothing." The steps seemed to get closer. A horizontal slash swept the space in front of her, and she heard and felt the woman backing away. Immediately another volley of hot lead came at her.
This back and forth dance between the three of them continued for more seconds. It was only when her vision returned that something occurred to her, "She holds her ground, for what purpose? To kill at least one of us? She is outmatch. If she got closer, my blade shall rectify it. If she retreats, a volley will damage her. So why? Retreating is the most valid option... unless..."
"SYSTEM DOWN. SYSTEM DOWN!"
"What?!" Her neck turned so fast that it was a miracle it didn't snap right there. Apparently, the top half of Merlot was still very much alive, and looking at his extended hand, he must have done something that resulted in Big Steel being covered in the black ooze of the Grimm.
She didn't think of her next action, she just swung. Merlot's Grimm blood solidified and then pushed his remaining body away from certain death, but it wasn't quick enough, and his left arm paid the price.
"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"
The scream of agony did not distract her as she already entered her pre swing motion, intending to end the abomination in the next swing. Suddenly, a flying object entered her field of vision, an object she was familiar with and already recognized. It was a proper flashbang.
"Oh fuc—"
The offending object went off before she finished her sentence. She was blinded, again, and now with an added effect of bells ringing from anywhere around her. She grunted, not that she could hear it, and put her big sword in front as a makeshift shield. She was too close to Big Steel for a swing, so a shield should make do for the circumstances. Body somewhat protected, she scooted backward until she made contact with Big Steel.
They stayed like that—Big Steel due to the Grimm ooze and Ermessia due to temporary blindness and deafness—for several seconds until her senses return to normal. As she expected, the two enemies were nowhere to be found and a trail of black blood led to the narrow path where those two originally came from.
Looking at Big Steel, the big robot was covered with the Grimm ooze, although his internal mechanisms were working on removing them, albeit a bit slowly.
"Think you can handle yourself?"
"The probability of another enemy encounter is low. Any Grimm can be avoided by powering down. Conclusion, I will be fine by myself. Go and chase them, leader."
"Good. Don't die on me okay. Ruby will be sad if you were to go."
"Do not worry, I will survive."
She nodded, satisfied, and sprinted away. She had preys to hunt.
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK THAT BITCH! FUCK THAT ROBOT! I'LL KILL THEM NEXT TIME!"
Neopolitan wasn't expecting her day to go this way. It should be simple, bring the Doctor to his old data bank, get the data, and scurried away. SIMPLE. But no, two bodies in that room weren't exactly of the dead kind, specifically they were renowned Index Operators who were stronger than her—individually—yet still weaker compared to her beloved, but still, the Doctor got injured badly from that encounter. She honestly regretted not bringing more flash.
"HEY! GRIMM! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"
Normally, whoever was together with her would leave with an inverted mouth when they stupidly attract Grimm in a hostile area. The Doctor was just a special case since he could control the Grimm to some degree. But then she remembered some details regarding the Doctor's soul sucking Imps, they could attract other Grimm and command them like an army. Factoring that, it explained the low number of Grimm underground, as they were being gathered by the Imps to be expendable meat shield or extra essence to be consumed by the Imp Lord. Neopolitan bet her fridge of ice cream for the latter.
Fortunately, two worms emerged from the wall. Neopolitan handed the Doctor to the Grimm and watched as they skittered to the darkness ahead with the Doctor in tow. Now she was free of burden. With a blink of her non-existent eyes, she was gone. In actuality, she was still there, just invisible to the naked eyes.
Running steps approached from behind and she pivoted to greet it. The running steps, now revealed to be the woman Index Operator complete with her cloak, stopped just a few meters from her. Eyes opened and roaming around with her body ready to move, vigilant, as expected of her reputation. She earned many monikers in her time of service to the Index, but the one most infamous in the criminal underworld:
The Black Sun
Earned when she singlehandedly ended the Anor Londo Incident. But enough of her rambling, she needed every focus for a sliver of chance to kill her.
As if sensing an opponent directly in front of her, the Black Sun stood straight and brought out a dagger with her left hand. The dagger was stationed in a straight line with her shoulder, high enough to protect both torso and head. Her right hand, probably preparing something under the cloak. Her giant sword, not enough room to swing.
A plan instantly formed. Lunge—right thigh (poke, distraction)—left thigh (poke, distraction)—lunge, THE EYE.
Pulling a thin blade from her parasol, which sound earned the attention of the Black Sun as she prepared in anticipation for an attack, she entered her stance. Thinking no further, Neopolitan lunged. Her target—right thigh—just a small poke for distraction.
Then something unexpected happened.
Her lunge went straight into the Black Sun's thigh. There was no Aura resisting it!
Then in that split second, she had the urge to look up, and she saw Death. A figure shrouded in blackness towered over her... two orbs of redness that shone with the intensity of the sun leered at her... a fist descending down to her will be the judged of her life... only her timely reflex saved her from impending fate.
Yet the fist still descended and delivered judgment upon the ground. The ensuing shockwave sent Neopolitan barreling backwards. She managed to righted herself into a crouch and marveled at the damage. The ground was cracked and caved with the cracks even extending to the wall. Neopolitan shuddered, if she was late even for a millisecond, her innards would become a piece of art on the ground.
She watched as the Black Sun stood back up, not even a single bead of sweat after that stunt, no indication of pain even with a blade still lodged in her thigh. Speaking of the blade—her blade—the Black Sun grabbed it and casually pulled it out without even changing her facial expression. Then her Aura began mending the wound.
Neopolitan soundlessly gasped, her blade burst into black flame and disappeared, definitely stored within the Black Sun's glove.
Outclassed and out of option, Neopolitan made one of the wisest decision in her life. She ran, not bothering to put up an illusion, she just ran like a mad woman. There was no shame in running away from that monster.
Ermessia must admitted that her prey was nimbler than she expected. "A minor wound to my thigh, not even impeding my movement, but still a nuisance. I can chase her, but she can disappear easily in this dwindling tunnel with her ability. Hmmm... was that her natural Semblance or a byproduct of being a Distortion? Eh, no conclusion, but still good info. We can add murderous ice cream into the list of Matchlight's underling."
Steps came from behind and she glanced at it. Big Steel was there, dirty but functional, and with his Big Gun ready. Perfect timing, her wound was already healed too.
"Wanna hunt some preys? That Grimm blood should lead us straight to Matchlight."
Big Steel replied by cocking his gun.
"Good! Wherever you are Ruby, we're bringing Matchlight's skull straight to you!"
Author Note.
Alright now I'm putting that label for every author notes onward since there will be parts of the story that primary use bold.
And yeah, not have many opportunity to write since my grandma is sick, so the family tree just gather in my house... so yeah it's pretty hectic here.
P.S. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, I recommend that anime to whoever loves a very laid back anime. The scenery details are very good too.