After the door opened, Ruby stepped through into a barren, metal hallway. She cautiously walked through it until she reached what seemed to be a door, though she had to use some kind of control panel to open it.
Once opened, Ruby was greeted by what she could assume was some kind of bunker complex, everything either made out of metal or concrete, with hues of blue and orange lightning strewn around; it looked like something Atlas would build.
She walked through the complex, unnerved at how silent it was, until she started hearing music playing. She was of course drawn to said music since it was the only noise outside of her walking, and thus she followed it until she arrived at a door.
Though unlike the first door, she didn't know how she would open it since it seemed like one that would slide open, but there was nothing to grab; it was just metal. She pressed her ear on it and listened closely to see if she could recognize the music.
The door opened vertically and caused Ruby to fall face first into a room that sort of looked like the room in the Vale Police Station where she was accepted into Beacon, though this time there was seemingly a gun turret on the ceiling.
"Uhmmm...Hello?" Ruby said as she slowly walked into the room, looking around frantically until she saw a note that said to sit down, so she did that while waiting for something to happen.
'I'm starting to...' She didn't finish that thought when two people entered the room: a girl and a body. The girl was in the club's uniform, and the boy was in some form of armor that covered the entire body and face, with the helmet unnerving her.
"I take it that you are Miss Rose?" The girl asked, and Ruby nervously nodded. She then took out a clipboard and spoke, "Now, why did you join this club?" Ruby tilted her head in confusion; she had already answered this question when she first joined.
"I wanted to be a better person and a better huntress..." Ruby responded, and the girl said, "Now, I will ask you a series of questions, and I want you to respond truthfully, understand?" She asked, and Ruby nodded.
"Very well." The girl said and asked the first question, "Would you kill one person, even if they were your closest friend or family, to save many more?" Ruby thought about the question for a bit before replying.
"Ye-yes, the many outweigh the few, right?" Ruby said, and the girl nodded before asking another question: "Would you give your life to save others?" Ruby spoke immediately: "Yes, I would." The girl nodded before asking the next question.
"Would you question orders, no matter what said orders are?" The girl asked, and Ruby was confused before speaking, "Umm...I guess?" The question was weird, but Ruby guessed that it was a question since Beacon did have a system for someone to take the leadership position.
It was simple: the leader of a team and another person in said team would have a duel, and whoever won the duel won, pretty simple, and it was one of the things that kept Ruby up at night—that Weiss may ask for a duel.
"What are your thoughts on the Faunus?" The girl asked, and Ruby replied, "They're like anyone else; I mean, sure, they may have some animal features, but they're practically human, and hey, did that boy just turn invisible?" Ruby said the last part incredibly fast as the girl stood up.
"Our meeting is done." The girl said, and Ruby got up and spoke, "So that means I'm in, right?" The girl replied, "Sort of." Ruby celebrated while speaking, "I guess I am going to make some new friends, but I'm not...wait, what do you mean by'sort of?'"
Ruby then felt something crash against her skull, causing her to go down. She looked up only to see the stock of a weapon crash against her face, knocking her unconscious almost immediately, with the last thing she heard being the boy saying, "Let's see what is so special about you..."
Ruby then awoke as she heard two voices speaking. Looking around, she found herself in some sort of laboratory. "Are her genetics useful?" She heard one of the voices say, and the other replied, "Outside of the possibility that the legend about the eyes is true and making a synth, no."
"Then take the eyes along with building a synth, and then you can do whatever you want with the sympathizer." The voice said as a door opened to reveal a man in some sort of hazmat suit walking in alongside a humanoid robot that was strangely feminine.
"What's going on!? Why am I here!?" Ruby yelled, and the man spoke as he gestured for the robot to do something: "Can you quiet down? You'll wake up the Deathclaws and Cazzaclaws, and I really don't want to have to feed you to them."
"What are those?" Ruby asked as the man walked around the lab and spoke, "Nothing that you should be concerned about; now just sit still so I can get your genetics, and then I'll let you go."
"Really?" The man laughed in response, "No, that was a lie. I'm really just going to test out some of the new gas-based weaponry that the Chemical Corps sent over." Ruby tried to resist as the man then injected her with a syringe.
"Unlike my fellow scientists, I do not take pleasure in hurting fellow humans that just so happen to love the mutant, thus why I am putting you under some heavy drugs." The man said this as Ruby started to feel woozy.
She started to see things after only a couple seconds and hear things that were there after a few minutes, and while all of this happened, she kept on wondering if this was all a dream and if she would wake up from it...
"We're scanning the scene in the city tonight!"
"Closing in other WF bases, lock and load." The pilot of the vertibird said while music blasted over the speakers, all the while Echo Team loaded their weapons, clad in APA MKIII instead of HERMES due to the fact they were most likely going to be under heavy fire.
"We're looking for you to start up the fight."
"We're right above them, boys; good luck." The pilot said as Echo-1 spoke, "Prepare to jump!" Echo-1 pressed a button that lowered the XVB-02's ramp before speaking, "Jump!"
Echo-2 through 5 proceeded to jump out of the vertibird, quickly followed by Echo-1 as they all fell to the floor, the music still blasting within their helmets as they slammed right into the pavement of the Mutie base.
"There's an evil feeling in our brains."
"Open fire!" Echo-1 yelled over comms as Echo-2 and 4 opened fire with vindicator miniguns while Echo-3 and 5 lit up the night with Gatling lasers, all the while Echo-1 was using a proton axe and Glock 86 combo.
"But it's nothing new; you know it drives us insane."
Rounds blinked off their armor as the mutants tried to put up a fruitless defense. "Die Atlas scum!" A mutant yelled, and Echo-1 backhanded the mutant before turning another into a goo pile.
"Running, on our way, hiding."
"This is bad comedy; these mutants can't even scratch our armor, and they dare to call themselves the superior species?" Echo-1 said, and Echo-3 responded, "Maybe if the humans on this world didn't lose, then we wouldn't have to clean up their mess."
"You will pay, dying one thousand deaths."
Echo-4 kicked down the door of a barracks before chucking a curling grenade into the room, the mutants not even being able to scream as they melted due to the modified FEV. "Barracks cleared." Echo-4 reported.
As the song repeated, the squad continued to clear through buildings until they arrived at the largest one, though most wouldn't be able to tell it was the largest due to the fact that most of the building was underground.
"There is no escape, that's for sure."
Echo-2 scanned the building before speaking, "AT gun aimed directly at the door; unknown if it can pierce our armor; recommend breaching through the wall on the side." Echo-1 nodded and gestured for Echo-3 and 5 to the side of the building.
"This is the end we won't take anymore."
Echo-3 and 5 moved before placing an explosive charge on the wall. After five seconds, it detonated, and the two immediately opened fire before the dust settled. The crew of the AT gun didn't have time to turn it before they were reduced to ash.
"Say goodbye to the world you live in."
Echo-3 and 5 moved forward while the other members of Echo Team moved in, shredding any surviving mutants along with destroying any dangerous equipment.
"You've always been taking, but now you're giving."
The team then found the entrance to the underground complex and kicked down the door, rounds impacting on their armor as mutants fled down the halls, "Light em up." Echo-1 said, and the four unleashed hell on the fleeing mutants.
The team moved forward, eating lead and spitting out both lead and laser as they caused terror amongst the ranks of the mutants. Some tried rallying their brethren, but due to how they dressed, they were easily identified and eliminated.
"Bastards don't even have the honor to at least stand their ground." Echo-2 said as the squad then came to an intersection, "Echo-2 and 4, you take left, 3 and 5, you take right; once both are secured, you are to regroup with me before we push up."
"Understood." The rest of the squad said and continued on their hunt, mowing down any mutants that tried to stop them, with the music changing from 'Seek and Destroy,' to 'Paint it black.'
"AT unit up ahead." Echo-5 said, and before they turned a corner, Echo-3 chucked a plasma grenade down the hall after holding it for a few seconds. "Grenade!" The mutants said this before the grenade detonated.
"I see a red door, and I want it painted black."
The two turned the corner and saw that the AT crew were reduced to nothing but goo piles, with any mutants that survived the blast trying to crawl away or slowly dying next to their brethren. Echo-3 and 5 ignored them, not willing to give them the mercy of a quick death.
"No colours anymore; I want them to turn black."
"Infirmary up ahead." Echo-5 said, and Echo-3 responded, "If they're wounded, then don't waste ammo." The two stepped into the infirmary, and there were quite a few wounded. The doctors cuddled up in the corner, and Echo-3 let out a quick burst of lead while Echo-5 dealt with the wounded.
"I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes!"
Some punches and strangling later, the infirmary was cleared out, and the squad got reports that Echo-2 and 4 had cleared out the left wing, alerting Echo-3 and 5 to hurry up. The two sprinted through the right wing, mowing down any survivors along with setting off the power.
"I have to turn my head until my darkness goes."
"Lights out." Echo-5 said, and once they regrouped with the rest of their team, they moved up to the control center, where the remaining mutant forces were going to make their last stand. Now they knew the mutants could see in the dark so it was mostly to lower moral.
"I see a line of cars, and they're all painted black."
Though their last stand wasn't going to be that glorious, Echo-1 opened the door and chucked a FEV grenade before closing the door. The team waited outside the door, and after the screams died down, they entered the command room, passing by the piles of filth that used to be mutants.
Echo-1 kneeled down, reached out from his back, and pulled out an explosive device. "This should destroy not only the facility but the base above." After the device was planted, Echo Team booked out of the base and back onto the vertibird.
As they flew away, Echo-3 was able to see the detonation of the device; it shouldn't alert any of the bigger factions in the new world, and if it did, then they would find nothing but a large crater,
making sure that the Enclave remained hidden
Ozpin sighed as he looked at the report that Qrow had sent him, trying to keep his composure due to what the report contained. See, Ozpin always kept a good eye on Menagerie, mostly due to the fact that it's the place with most of the Faunus race.
It was also practically the main base for the White Fang. Though the White Fang had so many sub-factions that he really wasn't sure which one had claimed the Faunus homeland as their base, he just knew that a main White Fang base was there.
Now not only was there no White Fang base, but there were quite literally no settlements on Menagerie, all of them having been razed to the ground by some unknown force. Now the whole Grimm and, of course, Salem were the most likely culprits; there were just details that didn't fit her MO.
Firstly, there were little ruins of the settlements, like they were meticulously torn down to leave little evidence that something had happened. It also made sure that the people who did this weren't traced since, while Grimm did destroy buildings, they weren't the ones to clean up after their attacks.
Ozpin had contacted the rest of the headmasters about the report, and they all unanimously agreed that the destruction of all settlements on Menagerie must be hidden unless they wanted to start a panic.
So Ozpin and Ironwood devised the lie that both air and sea Grimm are more active around Menagerie. This should make it so that no one would want to head towards Menagerie since they will think it is completely surrounded by Grimm.
And if anybody did make it close to Menagerie, Ironwood would have huntsmen on standby to arrest them and bring them back to whatever kingdom they came from, stating that they had control over the situation.
It was the best option they had for the time, though one thing that Ozpin had to address alone was Vale's council, which had seemingly begun acting out of character, that being when they started to restrict Faunus rights.
Now, the restrictions weren't anything big, mostly just segregating areas of the city into human and Faunus zones, but it still didn't feel right to Ozpin, especially given the fact that they were pushing him to implement some of the restrictions on his students, with him having to segregate the reservation where all the school's clubs were.
Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as Qrow sent in another report to him. He opened it and was shocked to see what had seemingly been a pyre, a pyre in which tons of Faunus bodies were stacked upon.
They weren't dealing with Salem; they were dealing with a human supremacist group, and a religious one at that...