AN: Sorry if this took long. But I hope you guys enjoy it.
Poisons, Grimm and Tours
The gang had explored the island for so long that it was getting dark and they still had yet to find anything. However, when they finally did, most of them wished they hadn't.
"I really don't want to go in there," Dahlia said as she stared into the rocky pathway they had found in terror.
"Neither do I, but what choice do we have?" Roze said, also fighting the instinct to run away from where they were now heading.
"For once I'd have to agree that we really need to exercise caution," Dragunov admitted in shame. Even the mighty fire Blade was spooked by whatever is in there.
"We must go, no matter how much we all fear." Nox showed on his scroll, with the text turning into glowing blue in the increasingly little amount of light.
"I'm not sure if you guys are overreacting or if we should be legitimately worried," Weiss said, seeing that the four Blades had stopped after walking for a while in this direction.
"That entire area is pure evil," Dahlia said, hugging herself as she looked on in terror of the area they have yet to enter. Sad thing is, she wasn't alone with those feelings. Roze was barely stopping himself from hugging Ruby for comfort. Dragunov was just about ready to either bolt it or burn the whole place down, or both if that's even possible. As for Nox, only his sense of duty for Blake was keeping him from disappearing on them.
Ruby then decided to wrap her hand over her Blade's, "Roze, does this make you feel better?"
"A little," Roze said, because while even though having Ruby's hand wrapped around his own had a calming effect, it wasn't much. "We should get going now," the reaper Blade was able to say, steeling himself as much as he possibly could.
Weiss looked at the exchange before sighing, and doing the same for her own Blade. "Dahlia, come on. We need to keep going," Weiss said, trying to sound stern, but failing miserably. She just couldn't bring herself to use her harsh tone against the ice bunny right now.
"Okay," Dahlia said, looking defeated, but none the less allowed Weiss to guide her.
Blake had also placed a hand on Nox's. The two seemed to have a silent exchange before the dark Blade steeled himself and walked.
With Yang, the situation had one tiny difference. "No." Dragunov said sternly while glaring at Yang's offered hand like it had just insulted him.
"Everyone else is doing it," Yang argued with a smile, not affected by the glare.
"I said, no," Dragunov said with bit more heat before walking past his blonde Driver.
"Men and their pride," Yang mused.
"What was that?" Dragunov growled, looking over his shoulder.
"Nothing," Yang said with a teasing smile as she moved along with the others. This would be funny if it wouldn't affect their performance in battle.
After a short walk, the four Drivers found out what their Blades were so scared of.
"What is all this?" Ruby exclaimed, before covering her nose, "Ughh! It stinks!"
"Smells like death and decay," Roze added in, holding his own nose.
But it wasn't the reapers who had the hardest time, or even Blake. "If smells could kill, this would do the job in half a second," Dragunov said, holding his hand over his more sensitive nostrils.
"Feeling like…running?" Yang said suggestively. Dragunov didn't answer, but the cracks in his body glowed with heat for an instant. That was a sign of Dragunov having less than stellar comments which he decided to bottle up.
"Students, have you found anything?" Ozpin's voice sounded from their earpieces.
"Yes, professor," Blake answered, before looking around, "There are pools of that green liquid we found and it's being pumped somewhere through a pipeline." Indeed, there were large puddles of that goo that the gang had seen on the mutated Grimm. Although the shade was a little different.
"I see. Listen, we have been trying to pinpoint the location of Merlot's island, but we haven't had any success. See if you could use the pipelines to find Merlot's laboratory." The headmaster explained.
"We're on it, professor," Ruby said enthusiastically. Although it was somewhat diminished by how Roze looked ready to get startled by his own cape.
"I can hear everything you're saying, you know." Merlot chimed in.
"Shut up, you!" Weiss snapped, before sighing, "Urgh, this is not going well."
"Sorry, Weiss," Dahlia said in an unusually subdued demeanor which Weiss recognized as being out of character for her Blade.
Moving on, the gang walked forwards before seeing something that barred their entrance. One of the pipelines seemed to be leaking steam blocking their only route forward.
"There's a valve over there," Blake said, following where Nox was pointing with a trembling hand. But that wasn't the only thing that caught Blake's attention, Nox's pupil kept shifting between a cross and an X. It was like he wanted to kill something, but there was nothing around for him to kill except for his Driver and her team.
"Let's shut it off, quickly," Dragunov growled as he yanked the valve, spinning it easily.
"Hey now. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Merlot's voice sounded out again, this time sounding mildly scolding.
"Really? And why not?" Yang asked into her earpiece with a shit-eating grin. But Merlot didn't answer. "Aw, what's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Yang felt like a winner. That is, until Dragunov grumbled something. "What?"
But the draconic Blade refused to answer and moved on, avoiding a small pool of the green stuff.
"What did he say?" Weiss was also curious about Dragunov's incomprehensible mumbling.
"You don't want to know," Blake said with a mildly disturbed look. Her cat ears barely catching the fire Blade's threats of what he would do to Merlot. Now she wished they didn't find him.
"Let's just go," Ruby said as she moved forward, while practically dragging Roze by his arm now.
The other huntresses in training, except Yang, doing the same with their Blades.
After walking a bit, it seemed as though the Blades were able to become more tolerant of their current surroundings. That is, if by "tolerant" you mean less compelled to escape and more paranoid of the land itself feeling like it wants to destroy all life. Or that's how they describe the feeling.
Despite this, they found another valve which they quickly shut down resulting in them being ambushed by several of Merlot's robots and a few Grimm. Fortunately, they were dealt with relative ease.
"Are you guys sure that these pipes will lead to whatever hole Merlot is hiding in?" Dragunov asked as he felt extremely twitchy, with the other three not faring much better.
"Where else would they lead?" Weiss retorted easily, no longer having to hold Dahlia's hand.
"What if they just go in a circle?" Dragunov then asked, earning a sigh from the white-haired girl.
"Assuming that this green substance is what Merlot uses to mutate the Grimm, he would need to store it in a facility to probably process it, and equipment to infuse it into the Grimm. Not to mention robots that sophisticated aren't built in a-" "Okay, I get it," Dragunov snapped, interrupting Weiss' explanation. "I just want to get this over with," the draconic Blade said with a sigh.
"We all do," Roze added in, "But whining about it isn't going to make it end any sooner…no matter how much we want it to." No one was sure if that last part was directed at everyone else, or at Roze himself.
"Truly fascinating…I didn't think that the raw substance would cause Blades to feel such terror." Merlot mused into everyone's earpieces.
"Do you think it's funny that our friends are suffering?" Ruby asked, sounding angry.
"Oh, it's not their fear that amuses me, rather these new discoveries I'm making all the time." Merlot explained, until a certain fire Blade snatched Yang's earpiece.
"Now listen here you f**** piece of shit, when I get my hands on you, your charred bones will be littered across whatever dump you're hiding in and your ashes will cake the walls! YOU HEAR ME!?" Dragunov practically roared into the earpiece, forcing the other girls to remove theirs until the dragon was finished.
After the girls were able to put their earpieces back on, Merlot didn't seem to get the hint, "My…such anger. I wonder if it's the fear, or if the vapors are affecting his mind." That last one earned concerned looks.
"Don't humor him," Dragunov said, letting out two pants.
"Drag…you do know that threatening him isn't going to help right now, right?" Yang asked her Blade in worry.
"Yeah…but it makes me feel better," Dragunov said, chuckling at the last part.
With that, the gang was able to move on again, and after turning one more valve, they came across a large rocky area, with a door at the end where the pipes led.
"We made it!" Ruby shouted happily, before Roze covers her mouth.
"Ruby! We don't know if there are enemies in hiding," Roze hissed at his Driver.
"Hey! Don't talk to my sister like that," Yang said angrily, ready to punch Roze's face in. And this time, she would've succeeded if her partner hadn't intervened.
"Yang, he's not wrong," Blake butted in, placing a calming hand on Yang's shoulder. The black-haired girl couldn't even bring herself to chastise him about shutting Ruby up the way he did.
Before Yang could even think about retorting, Roze let go of Ruby with a look of remorse, "Sorry, Ruby. I shouldn't have done that."
"It's okay," Ruby said with a smile, before fixing a determined look at the doors in the distance. "Let's go team." With that the team started approaching the doors. Except, lots of robots and Grimm appeared from behind haphazardly placed crates and a couple large rocks.
"I hate being right," Roze said as he took out his weapon.
"Sweet, stress relief," Dragunov said with a predatory grin as he prepared his talons. The gang didn't exchanged anymore words, because they wanted to get this over with and get inside where they won't have to deal with this stench. At least, that's what they're assuming is lacking inside.
So, with that, Dragunov dashed at the nearest robot, blocking its first attack by back-handing the polearm with his talons before grabbing the said pole and pried it off of the bot with a swift kick in its torso which tore the robot's arms off. Then, using the polearm, Dragunov impaled a nearby Beowolf on one end and a pouncing Creep on the other, before discarding it and giving a regular Alpha Beowolf an uppercut that dug the claws of his talons into its head from beneath the monster's jaw. As this happened, Yang dodged a lunge from another android before punching it's head off. Then the blonde bombshell fired an explosive shot on a mutated Creep, which promptly exploded and took several Grimm and robots with it.
"Out with a Yang," Yang couldn't help punning.
Fortunately, for her team mates, they were too busy to hear that. What with Ruby and Roze working in tandem to slice both Beowolves and robots that tried to get too close to them. Except Roze stumbled, which allowed a Beowolf to get a hit on the Blade, sending him skidding across the ground.
"Roze!" Ruby cried out, before taking the Beowolf out with a headshot. Which happened to be fired at an angle that made the bullet go through one eye, and out the other.
It wasn't just Roze who had stumbled, Nox's movements seemed far more sluggish than usual. Which would have made him more vulnerable to attacks if Blake hadn't moved in to cover for him.
Even Dahlia seemed to be doing far less damage with her bitball than she normally did.
"Dahlia what's wrong?" Weiss asked in worry as she stabbed the robot that managed to block the ice Blade's latest attack.
"I-I can't throw as hard as I want," Dahlia said, breathing heavily. Actually, her legs were trembling like they had trouble supporting her weight and she seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open. "I…can't…" And then Dahlia collapsed.
"Dahlia!" Weiss cried out as she used several Dust projectiles to take out several Grimm.
"Roze! Get up!" Ruby also cried out, having moved to her Blade's side. But the reaper Blade had fallen unconscious and wouldn't wake up no matter how much Ruby shook him.
"Nox! What's going on!?" Blake shouted out while firing at the robots. After the last one of them fell, she had a moment to glance at her Blade who had also collapsed on his side, his visible eye struggling to hold the light that indicated he was conscious.
"Drag?" Yang sounded out in worry, glancing at her Blade who looked like he would keel over any second.
"I feel weak," Dragunov admitted, seeing as the other three were unconscious.
Just as Yang was about to shout, she took note of something on the draconic Blade. His Core Crystal's glow had grown dimmer. Which made her realize something, "Everyone! Check their Cores!" With that shout, Ruby, Blake and Weiss checked their partner's Cores, and sure enough, they almost stopped glowing. Thinking fast, the girls took a vial of Dust from their respective Blades' pouches and poured them into their mouths. Except, when Blake tried to remove Nox's face mask, the dark Blade caught the hand and shook his head. Before Blake could protest, Nox removed the outer mask and pointed the area where his mouth should be at. Despite her worry and fear seeing her Blade like this, Blake was able to decipher what he wanted and brought the gravity Dust near Nox's mouth while propping him into a sitting position. With that, the Dust was downed into the dark one's mouth although Blake could swear she saw a blue glow at the edge of the inner mask's opening.
As RWB were feeding their Blades Dust, Yang and Dragunov were fending off the remaining few robots and Grimm. Dragunov having taken a fire Dust Crystal to keep himself going. Even when a mutated Beowolf joined the fray, Yang was able to punch its head at just the right spot to make it disoriented. Which in turn allowed Dragunov to quickly snap its neck. In short, even with just them it was hardly a challenge anymore.
Just as Yang and Dragunov finished off the rest of the enemies, Nox, Dahlia and Roze were revived.
"We need to get inside," Weiss then said with determination.
"Weiss, I know I was weakened, but now I'm-" "Not that," Weiss interrupted Dahlia, "We need to get inside before your ether is sapped again."
"Weiss, do you know what caused it?" Ruby asked, wanting to know what happened.
"Yes, but we need to get inside first," Weiss said, before getting up and practically dragging Dahlia to what they assume is the entrance to doctor Merlot's lab.
Ruby decided to trust Weiss and got up alongside Roze and follow her team mate. Blake doing the same with Nox.
"I'm out of Dust Crystals," Dragunov said, feeling his pouch as he and Yang also moved to the entrance.
"Then use the powdered one," Yang said, thinking her Blade needed a refill.
"I'm saying this, because I only have one vial left," Dragunov said in annoyance. The Blades had packed three vials of purified Dust in case they needed a quick refill. They had already used one back in the caves, and one was used up to treat Dragunov. And now the other three Blades had one vial each used on them. Meaning that they all now had only one vial.
"Right," Was the only thing Yang could say, seeing as she realized what Dragunov was getting at.
As soon as the gang reached the door, it opened. As much as they thought this was a trap, they knew that they were in no to stay where they were. So, they entered, and the door slid right back into place.
"Dahlia, how are you feeling now?" Weiss asked immediately.
"Much better than I was outside. Why?" the busty Blade answered with a curious look.
"I think the vapors of that substance sapped your ether," Weiss then said, earning shocked looks and/or gasps out of the others, "Think about it. We already know that whatever mutates the Grimm destroys ether. So maybe the vapors of the stuff that Merlot pumps can also do that." the white-haired Driver explained.
"An accurate assumption." Merlot chimed in, sounding a little condescending, "Although there is some measure of…processing involved. Still it's quite interesting to see how the raw substance works on a Blade."
"You always did have strange obsessions, Merlot." Ozpin joined the conversation.
"Obsessions? Like what, Oz?" Merlot asked, sounding offended and ignoring the "strange" part.
"As I recall, it was your obsession of Grimm that caused the fall of Mountain Glenn. What made you believe it was a good idea to keep them inside the city?" Ozpin asked with just a hint of accusation in his tone.
The team heard a sigh from Merlot, "I admit, Mountain Glenn is a bit of a sore spot for me. The loss of the tech, the specimen and most of my research."
"Let me get this straight, you consider the loss of your research the tragedy?" Ozpin's disbelief was shared by team RWBY who was listening in as they looked around what must be a lobby of Merlot's facility.
"What else could I consider a loss? But enough about that, I believe tending to my guests is long overdue." Merlot then said.
"Remind me again why we didn't get those things," Dragunov asked, referring to the earpieces.
"They couldn't fit them in you and Dahlia's ears, and we can use our Resonance to find our Drivers if we get separated," Roze explained.
Dragunov grumbled at the reminder as he rubbed the stone spikes at the side of his head that form the vague shape of a pointy ear. As for Dahlia, no one was even sure how those huge braid-like ears work. Not even the ice Blade herself could give a proper answer.
Anyway, the group didn't get to move forward into the facility before a screen lit up. The screen showed an old man with gray disheveled hair, moustache and beard. He also had one red robotic eye and a menacing look about him. "Welcome to Merlot industries. A place where we build a better future today," The person said, revealing himself to be doctor Merlot.
"So that's doctor Merlot," Ruby said, finding the man's appearance something she would expect a stereotypical mad scientist to look like.
"Now I know what face to break," Dragunov growled as he cracked his knuckles. And since the said knuckles were covered in stone, the cracks were loud. Which made everyone else cringe at the sound.
"Geez, chill out," Yang said, even though she hasn't forgotten what the mad doctor's creation did to her Blade.
"You do know what element I am right?" Dragunov grumbled while giving his blonde Driver a disapproving look.
"Should we not move?" Nox showed on his scroll.
"Yeah, we should." Blake answered, glancing at everyone else. All of them nodding in agreement. Except Yang and Dragunov who sounded like they were having some kind of argument.
Regardless, the team were able to get a move on. But as they started walking, Ozpin spoke up, "Team, in order for me to help you, I need to know the facility's layout. Keep an eye out for any schematics, blueprints or better yet any access terminal that could be used to tap into Merlot's network."
"Understood, professor," Ruby said with a determined look.
With that, the team of Drivers and Blades kept a look out on any of the things the headmaster mentioned. Of course, they had to relay that information to their Blades so they would also keep a look out.
So far, they saw many things, rooms where they assumed the robots were being built at seeing as there were incomplete pieces of the robots they had faced, several containers and several terminals, but not the kind of terminals they could access.
As the group used an elevator to get down, Yang decided to speak up, "Hasn't this been a little convenient for us so far?"
"What do you mean, Yang," Ruby asked, getting curious.
"Well…couldn't Merlot have locked us outside until our Blades shut down permanently or something?" Yang said finding some difficulty in speaking out the last part.
"I know what you mean," Blake also said feeling a little worried about what could have been, "If he wanted us dead, he would've done it."
"Oh, come now. That would be such a waste." Said Merlot from another screen right above them, "While the fact that the substance, even in its unprocessed form, is harmful, potentially even fatal to Blades is intriguing, I would be a fool to not see what else their kind are capable of."
"We are not your lab rats," Dahlia said in annoyance, being very tempted to bust that screen with a well-placed throw of her weapon.
Merlot scoffed on the screen, "Call it what you want, your lives only extend as far as my curiosity. Might as well do the what you can to keep it going." With those words, the elevator had arrived down and the screen shut off.
"He wants to see what we can do," Dahlia said with an conspirational smile.
"He'll get more than he bargained for," Weiss finished for her Blade in a haughty tone, while her team mates rolled their eyes a little. Not that they didn't agree with the frosty heiress.
"Yeah, let's get him," Ruby said happily, ready to kick Merlot's butt.
With that, the gang moved on, scrapping any robots or Grimm that got in their way. Although one of the gunners actually manage to get an energy net on Dragunov. And as it turned out, the net prevented Dragunov from using ether, thankfully the others were able to get it off of him.
Just as the net dissipated, another screen lit up, showing Merlot with an interested look. "I see that the ether net works as intended," the scientist mused.
"Where did you get something like that?" Dragunov demanded.
"Unfortunately, that is a question I do not know the answer to. But if I had to guess, wherever the blueprints came from, is where your kind hailed from as well," Merlot said with a small smile, "In the beginning, their purpose eluded me, but when news started spreading about living weapons called 'Blades', the same beings referenced within the notes, everything began to finally make sense."
"But how were you able to build them? There is NO way you could have simply copied them," Weiss added her disbelief into the mix.
Merlot chuckled at Weiss' question, "Well it's true that I could not just build them from scratch. Truth be told, I only recently managed to manufacture ether nets stable enough to hold a Blade."
"So, you weren't even sure if they worked?" Yang questioned with a dumbfounded look.
"I did say I needed you for my experiments," Merlot chuckled, before taking slightly more serious look, "But enough about that, we should move on." And the screen shut down.
"He got blue-prints from Alrest!?" Ruby squealed in delight, "Waahh! That's so cool!"
"Ruby!" Weiss shouted, causing the excited red reaper to flinch, "It. Is. Not. Cool! It's terrible!"
"Sorry," Ruby said with a downcast look.
Which earned a sigh from Weiss as Dragunov was lightly holding back a "displeased" Yang from punching the white clad girl. "It's fine. It's just…we don't know what kind of technology Alrest has. For all we know they have weapons capable of wiping out continents," Weiss explained, earning weirded out looks from others.
"And you scold us for watching too much sci-fi," Yang piped up with a grin.
"I blame all of you for how weird my life has become," Weiss retorted almost weakly, before continuing her walk. With everyone else following with a knowing look on their faces.
On their way, the gang came across another pipe that blew hot steam, blocking their path. They would have searched for a valve to shut it, but Dahlia decided to create a thick layer of ice on it instead. Which sealed the pipe and allowed them to pass it safely.
It didn't take them long before they reached an interesting room.
"Here are the stage two processing tanks." Merlot's voice echoed just as they passed through another door.
However, the students tuned him out as they took in the sights. The floor was cavernous and it had lots of Creeps around it. Some mutated, some normal.
"How are there so many Grimm here," Ruby asked, marveling at the sight a little.
"Could that green substance be attracting Grimm here?" Weiss pondered aloud, glancing at the Blades. They looked nervous but not as much as when they were outside.
"Given that Grimm supposedly hate life, I wouldn't be surprised," Dahlia said in annoyance.
"Guys…I think the Blades should sit this one out," Blake said, earning everyone's attention.
"My lady, why?" Nox showed on his scroll with a widened eye.
"Because we can't afford any of you being infected by that stuff again," Blake said with a sigh.
"You can't expect us to sit here and do nothing while you fight," Roze protested defiantly.
"Then use ranged attacks," Ruby suggested. She had already gotten used to Roze always being with her in fights, but Blake was right, they can't afford having them being infected by that green goo, "That way, you can at least back us up."
As much as Ruby made sense, Roze turned towards the most hot-headed Blade among them. "Dragunov, say something." the reaper blade practically begged.
"Girls've got a point," Dragunov said with a sigh as he took a seat on the floor. There was a ledge separating them from the beasties so there was no real worry about being attacked right now. Although his answer earned slacked jaws, especially from Yang who thought her Blade would never back out from a fight. "I've been fighting with restraint ever since we got here, because unlike you three I didn't down a Dust vial," Dragunov explained, "Besides, it's only Creeps, or are you perhaps saying that our Drivers are utterly helpless against them?" That last one was added with a grin.
Roze looked torn by the fire Blade's words, but he looked at Ruby with a determined look, "Dahlia and I can provide ranged back up." With those words Roze and Dahlia prepared their weapons. Nox didn't have ranged options other than his Special Arts so he had to sit out too. And Dragunov wasn't going to waste energy using his flames when the girls are more than capable of taking these beasts down.
"We'll be fine, guys. This isn't our first fight without you," Yang added in cheerfully.
"Let's go, Team!" Ruby said happily and they charged.
As the girls said, it would take a lot more than a swarm of mere Creeps to take them out. Whether it be from Yang's fists, shotgun powered or not, Blake slashing or stabbing with Gambol Shroud, Weiss stabbing with Myrtenaster in an effort to conserve Dust, or Ruby reaping away at the Grimm. Occasionally, Roze and Dahlia used their respective ranged attacks to thin the horde by attacking the mutant Creeps. Although Dahlia had to stop, because after enough hits, the blades of her bitball began to corrode.
"Weiss! Iceflower!" Ruby called out and the two performed the combo move creating several ice blocks out of multiple Creeps. "Yang, get the tank!" the red leader then shouted out.
With that, Yang used a shot from her gauntlets to gain enough altitude to use the frozen Grimm as stepping stones, before firing an explosive shot into one tank. Which made it explode and make the system unable to pump more of that stuff into the ground. "One down, four to go," Yang said before jumping as high as she could and brought down her fist. Creating a shockwave that sent most of the Creeps flying.
Then another vat was shattered by well-placed shots from Blake. "Make it two down," the ninja kitty called out with tiniest of smirks.
After that, it didn't take too long until the team destroyed the remaining tanks, with the number of Grimm thinning with each tank. Once the last tank was blown up, the Blades deemed it safe to come down to finish the job. Not that there were many more to kill.
"...A+ I would say," Weiss commented as she had a small smile.
"I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't break all of my things." Merlot's voice echoed from somewhere in the room, "But alas, my androids will have it repaired in no time. This way now, please."
At those words, a door at one end of the cavernous room opened.
"Soooo, we break his things, and he's not even mad," Ruby said with a weirded-out look, as she moved towards the door alongside everyone else.
"He does sound a little too welcoming," Weiss admitted.
"That is not good," Blake said, not sure what to think of this, before feeling a tap on her shoulder.
"Either he is overconfident, or simply insane." Was the text that greeted Blake. Which was attached to the hand of a dead-pan looking Nox.
"I wish it was the former," Blake sighed, but she didn't dare to get too complacent even if it was true.
As the team walked through the new hallway, they stumbled upon a new discovery.
"Here we have the engineering wing, the so-called brains of the operation. If you don't count my own intellect." The gang heard Merlot's explanation, including the small laugh at his own joke.
"Ugh. And I thought Yang was bad," Weiss found the time to say before taking in the sights. Tuning out Yang's protests as their earpieces came to life.
"Team, have you found anything yet?" Ozpin's voice sounded out through all the earpieces.
"We found some kind of data processing center," Weiss explained as she looked around for any kind of terminal they could use.
"Do you see any terminal you could use," Ozpin then asked.
"Nope," Yang answered, popping the p. Even though she was still mildly annoyed at Weiss.
"A motherload of motherboards and we can't use them," Dragunov growled, earning several groans at the pun.
"Hey! I was supposed to say that!" And a protest from Yang.
"Fast eat the slow," Dragunov said with a victorious grin before looking towards the door before having a devious idea, "Should I trash the place?" The fire Dragon sounded a little too eager despite claiming not being at full power.
"And risk who knows what kind of damage that could destroy us," Dahlia spoke in annoyance.
"I hate it when you make sense," Dragunov grumbled, abandoning the plan. Earning a sigh of relief from everyone else who worried that he might accidentally trigger a self-destruct sequence or something.
The gang moved on, finding another faulty pipe that blew hot steam out. Dahlia was about to freeze it again, but Weiss stopped the ice Blade. Telling her that they should check if there was a way around first.
It didn't take long for them to find a vent large enough for even Dragunov to stand up straight in. And it even led them around the faulty pipe.
As the team exited the vent, Dragunov gave the vent a look, "Is it just me, or does Merlot actually want people to get around through vents?"
"Maybe he does," Yang quipped, "Or maybe he doesn't get enough ventilation to his brain."
"Urgh," Weiss groaned at Yang's terrible joke, before glancing at the faulty pipe, "And how come he leaves something like this unattended?"
"Maybe he's too busy to notice," Roze shrugged, not really caring. All talk was interrupted by metal clanging against metal.
Turning to the culprit, they saw Nox had moved to the end of the hallway and was pointing at a terminal almost frantically.
The team moved towards the dark Blade, having increasingly satisfied looks as they noticed that this terminal had a slot for a Scroll.
Weiss took out her own Scroll and inserted it into the slot.
"What did you-? Oh no… How could I have been so stupid!?" Merlot exclaimed, nearby screens showing his distressed look.
"Aaand, uploading," Ruby said with a grin as the Scroll was now uploading schematics, plans and whatever else was inside the network it was connected to.
"Great work, team." Ozpin was heard again, "But I need you to protect this terminal until the upload is complete."
"Don't think it'll be easy!" Was the only warning the team got before several robots and a mutated Beowolf barged in from a previously closed door.
"I'll stop them from getting to the terminal, the rest of you just let loose," Dragunov quickly said, despite wanting to go in and tear them a new one.
"Sounds like a plan," Ruby said as she pointed Crescent Rose at the approaching enemies, "Everyone, chaaarge!"
And with that, the team started wrecking the robots and the single Beowolf with relative ease. Although one robot decided to ignore the fighters and go straight for the terminal. Only to get its torso torn off by a single punch from Dragunov who true to his word stood guard. Even when the gunners shot explosives at the terminal, Blake shot them all out of the air. And what few she couldn't were grabbed by the fire Blade and thrown back. Although they exploded before they reached the robots.
"Crush them!" Merlot shouted out as more robots poured out with a mutated Ursa in tow.
Dragunov clenched his fists, seriously regretting his decision that stops him from seeking vengeance on the beast that poisoned him. Of course, this isn't the same one, but it's the principle of the matter.
"This thing again," Yang complained as she gave the thing a quick punch in the face. Which barely phased it. "The heck!?"
"Yang, that thing was able to take punches from Dragunov," Roze pointed out.
"Right," Yang said in annoyance as she ducked under a swipe before delivering a bullet enhanced punch. This time it had more of an effect.
"Yang!" Dragunov called out as he threw his talons to his Driver.
"You're supposed to guard the terminal," Yang pointed out, even as she caught the weapons over Ember Celica.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't support you from here," Dragunov retorted as he created a barrier to block gunfire from the gunner bots. Fortunately, the bots were soon being mowed down by Nox and Blake.
Yang decided not to argue and used Dragunov's precious talons to deliver significantly stronger punches as her team was dealing with other opposition. As for the beast, it kept trying to swipe at Yang, but the blonde brawler kept avoiding them. She did not want to risk getting hit by claws that drip substance that's poisonous to at least Blades.
"Why are they still alive!? Do your job or I'll have you sold for parts!" Merlot's impatient voice shouted as nearby screens showed him practically tearing his hair out.
Unfortunately, it looked like the Drivers and Blades had just about destroyed them. But then Yang decided to try something funny. "Rising..." She winded up one fist, "...Dragon!" And then she jumped as high as she could, uppercutting the mutated Ursa and staggering it.
"Yang!" Dragunov called out as he ran towards his Driver. Thinking that the terminal couldn't be attacked anymore. Yang passed the talons back to her Blade who had a small smirk. "Payback time," the draconic Blade said as both talons were emitting flames. "Wrath of the Dragon!" And then he unleashed a barrage of explosive punches on the mutated bear Grimm. Until with one last explosion, Dragunov kneeled down to wind up for the finale. Which came in the form of the cracks in one leg releasing what looked like volcanic flames, before the said leg was swiped across the Ursa's torso in a powerful kick. The monster's torso was torn off partly by the kick's strength, partly from incineration caused by the flaming leg.
"Wow!" Ruby awed at the raw power Dragunov displayed even as his leg stopped producing flames. "That was so cool!" And she had stars in her eyes.
"That Ursa got destroyed by explosive punches, before being finished by a flaming kick," Dahlia pointed out with a small smile, "So I'd say that's not 'cool'."
Before anyone could react to Dahlia making a joke, a series of gunshots was heard before they stopped. Turned out that Blake had finished one more gunner bot they had missed. Unfortunately, Blake had a horrified look on her face as she stared at something past the others.
"Phew. That was far too close." Merlot's comment made everyone stiff as they turned around to see the terminal had been shot. Rendering it useless.
Weiss' look of horror soon morphed into one of anger, "Dragunov... you had ONE JOB!"
"Sh-SHUT UP!" Dragunov stammered for once, mentally beating himself up over making a stupid mistake.
"Oh, you're so-" "Team, I have what I need." Ozpin's words cut through Weiss' incoming rant.
"What?" Was the universal reaction everyone had, before Weiss moved in to check on her Scroll which had miraculously survived. Sure enough, the screen displayed the following words, "Upload Complete" which earned a sigh of relief from the heiress.
"What?! NO!" Merlot shouted in rage as he realized that all the data he had was now in Ozpin's hands.
"I now know the layout of Merlot's laboratory. So, I can guide you to the refinery to fully shut down Merlot's operations," Ozpin explained, earning more relieved looks out of the other members of team RWBY.
"I'll be waiting." Merlot said threateningly before the screens shut down.
With that, Weiss started glaring at their resident fire Blade, "You almost cost us our whole mission. You're lucky we have better things to do right now. But mark my words, this isn't over."
"Noted," Dragunov said, not caring enough to argue right now.
"And you," Weiss then said while giving a frosty look to Yang.
"Me?" Yang pointed at herself in confusion.
"Why didn't you stop him?" Weiss all but demanded.
"I…uhhh…," Yang stammered, due to actually not having a clue as to why she didn't stop her Blade from getting petty vengeance. Petty vengeance that nearly cost them their mission might she add. "I don't know?" If even she could sound sure of her answer.
Weiss looked just about ready to explode on the blonde, before feeling a fuzzy hand on her shoulder. "Weiss, as much as I agree that Dragunov is in the wrong here, I think we have better things to do." Said the calming voice of Dahlia, which thankfully had the desired effect. With a series of deep breaths, Weiss was able to let go of her anger…for now.
"Let's just…move on so we can get this over with," Weiss said, having calmed down.
With that, the team moved on, guided by Ozpin to the area where they can stop Merlot's nefarious plans.
AN: And there. Merlot had blueprints for ether net and who knows what else from Alrest. Which now may or may not be in Ozpin's hands.
Next time, we get to see what how team RWBY survives that.