Howdy again folks!
Wow this is the longest I've gone without publishing a chapter since before I came back into writing fanfic last year. Sorry about that guys, life gets in the way and my interest in RWBY had declined quite a bit for awhile. I still love RWBY, but I just didn't feel that motivated to write. That has since changed, and I'm going to try to post at least more frequently than I have been lately. If any of you wish to get in touch with me, send me a PM! I'll try to respond if I can, though I admit that I forget it quite often if I don't see it right away, I do try.
As if things couldn't get any more complicated for Violet.
It wasn't enough that she had to get cool powers, no, now she has an actual job to do, and beyond that? Well, apparently she had to go hunt down a specific girl that Oz kept under his wing who'd sort of wandered off (this apparently being a running theme for people under Oz's care).
And she was going to have to beat some sense into her.
Well…
"Jeez, how much more walking do we have to do?"
"Shouldn't you be happier about this? We're on an actual mission."
At least she wasn't alone.
With her was Team RWBY, and she honestly kind of felt that having five people on this mission might be overkill, but then again, she'd only been on one mission before, so who was she to talk?
At least the conversation was less tiring, as Penny had the ability to make her tired just from being… well, Penny. At least she was already used to the excitement that Ruby and Yang displayed.
Yang, hands behind her head as they walked through Forever Fall towards the cave system that awaited them, smirked. "Yeah, I guess. Still, the least we could get would be some Grimm to beat up."
Weiss rubbed her forehead. "Don't say that, please. You're going to—" Distant howls interrupted her words and the annoyance in her voice grew as she finished, "...Jinx it."
Violet rolled her shoulders and grabbed Suncutter off of her back, pulling it free from the sheath. "So much for a nice and easy walk in the woods before we've gotta track down that girl…"
The sound of battle rang out through the forest as RWBY and Violet met the Grimm that attacked them with force. To say they were nothing special would be an understatement, they all fell easily. Violet had to restrain herself from using her magic; she was under specific direction to keep it secret unless it was absolutely necessary to use it, after all.
Still, they made progress, the Grimm couldn't stop them from making their way towards their ultimate goal: the cave that led to the tunnel system that would take them under Mountain Glenn, where the pylon they needed to secure was.
When they arrived at the cave, Blake used her night vision to see deeper into the darkness. "...I don't see any Grimm in the way. Wait, is that…?" She squinted and leaned in somewhat to get a clearer look. "Grimm smoke." The smoke produced when a Grimm fell. "A lot of it."
Violet hummed and did much the same as Blake, looking into the cave. "Yeah. I guess this is where Ozpin's agent went. We just need to follow the trail." At least, she figured that's what it was. She could have been entirely wrong, but there wasn't any way to find out until they'd actually gotten there.
Ruby nodded, grabbing Crescent Rose and unfolding it, prompting the rest of the team to follow her lead and ready their weapons. Violet contemplated just punching things, but she drew Suncutter nonetheless, because she knew it'd be a waste not to use it. They all proceeded deeper into the cave.
If they thought that the sight of Grimm corpses, cut to pieces in various ways as they were, would stop when they got deeper into the cave, they were wrong. The Grimm were strewn out like a trail, leading them more and more towards their target.
Though if the Grimm corpses hadn't been enough, the slashes and scrapes along the cave walls would have been. As they all glanced around, keeping their eyes open, Yang asked, "Man… who is this girl?"
"Ebony Marzenie." Violet responded with a grunt. "Apparently she's a kind of free agent for Ozpin, emphasis on free. She goes off and does her own thing a lot. He doesn't seem too bothered by it, but if we've gotta fight her just to get her to help us, I'm gonna have some serious questions for him when we get back." Oz had told her that she'd have to do that, but she was kind of hoping he was just exaggerating. She wasn't one to ask questions about things like this, normally, but just how fast and loose did Oz play? It seemed… careless. 'Or maybe he's got some kinda plan.'
The cave started to widen as they got deeper into it, eventually opening up into a large cavern. That was where they saw her, perhaps the exact opposite of what anyone there would have expected. A diminutive girl that seemed the same age as most of them (minus Ruby), standing around a few dead Grimm. She looked at them and smirked. "I've been waiting."
Ruby went to speak, but Violet stepped forward with a furrowed brow, her gaze sweeping around the cave as she spoke, "Was this your idea of a red carpet? A trail of Grimm and scratches on the walls? I'd call it cool if it wasn't so creepy."
"It worked, didn't it?" Ebony scoffed. "I knew Oz was going to send people after me, he sent me to scout out Merlot's shit, but he must have known I was going to want to do more than just scout. Past this cavern is Mountain Glenn's subterranean system, one of Oz's security pylons will be deeper in, I'll take you to it, but first…" She lifted one of her hands, which wielded a sickle in its hand. She pointed it squarely at Violet. "You. Fight me. You're her aren't you? The new one. Show me what you can do."
Team RWBY looked uneasy, with Blake whispering to Violet, "Do you think you can take her on without magic?"
"I don't know." Violet responded. "But I'll find some way to weave it in. It doesn't all have to be obvious…" She loved her big explosions and bombastic magical attacks, but it seemed she was going to need to exercise a bit more control here. She raised her voice, "Alright, fine." She looked at Team RWBY. "Can you guys make sure we don't get any Grimm on us?"
"This is so ridiculous!" Weiss exclaimed, a look of annoyance clear on her face. "We should be working together, not fighting! What're you getting out of this?" She glared at Ebony.
"It's just something I need to do, pendejo." Ebony retorted. "The more time you spend bitching is more time wasted!"
Ruby frowned, but she sighed. "Fine… Yang, Weiss, Blake, let's keep an eye out for Grimm. If this is what it's going to take, then we don't really have a choice." She hated that, she wanted to protest it, but Ebony had a point, the more time spent arguing was more time that could be spent getting it over with.
Violet stepped forward as the others fanned out. "Man…" She grumbled under her breath. "I'm starting to wish I hadn't gotten out of bed today. Whatever…" She raised Suncutter, entering into a combat ready stance. "Let's get this over with."
Ebony grinned before wasting no time in surging forward in a low stance, both her sickles ready to strike. Violet glared at her as she approached, and she heard what Ozpin had told her in the back of her mind. 'Ebony fights in a rapid and unrelenting way, there's no rhyme or reason to her attacks.'
Violet backpeddled as Ebony began rapidly swinging her sickles, Yuvi quickly separating from her and shoulder-checking Ebony, causing her to stagger just as Violet closed in on her. Violet swung Suncutter, the other girl ducking just as it was about to connect, but Violet finished the swing.
She heard Ozpin's voice once again. "If she asks to fight you, you need to be as unrelenting as she is. A second's hesitation will let her get the advantage on you."
As she did, the blade came loose and began to spin through the air, forming into its chakram form as it came back around. Ebony popped back up and delivered a slash to Violet, causing her to grimace in pain, though she held her ground and kept her focus. Yet another slash, two in rapid succession, more strikes from Ebony, though they were interpreted as she went for a third by the chakram slamming into her side and sending her off balance.
Not intent on giving her a moment's rest, Yuvi took this opportunity to extend her arms out, stretching them towards her enemy and snatching her before she got that moment she needed to recover, her arms raising into the air and throwing Ebony into the air.
Violet, now holding her rifle, fired several rounds at the airborne girl, watching as they connected with her and caused clouds of smoke to blur the girl's form. It was then that she remembered something else Ozpin told her. "If you think she's beaten, don't. Ebony didn't earn her reputation by going down easily. Be ready for a counter attack."
Ebony burst through the dust, having set off a dust explosion behind her just to give her the moment she needed to rocket forward. Violet's eyes widened, and Ebony connected with her like a missile, causing her to be launched backward, only catching herself and skidding across the ground after flying several feet. She remembered, then, that she had magic, and channeled a gust of wind and gravity to anchor her to the ground.
Her opponent was already charging at her again, but Violet wasn't intent on letting her get close again. Yuvi raced forward to meet Ebony, the two meeting each other and beginning to trade blows. Ebony's swipes didn't bother Yuvi, while Yuvi's punches disoriented Ebony just enough to give Violet time to think up a way to deal with this. She couldn't afford to let this drag on too long, they had their own problems to deal with!
For a final time, she remembered Ozpin's advice. "Don't be afraid to use everything you have to your advantage. If you need to use magic to prove yourself to her, then make sure you do it in a way that isn't obvious to Team RWBY. Aura and Dust can explain more subtle uses, and those who only believe magic is a fairytale will go through every mental hurdle possible before accepting that something truly is magic without being outright told so."
Not wanting to even give Ebony a chance to react, being quite finished with this whole engagement, Violet focused and caused the ground to open up directly beneath Ebony. Ebony at first started to leap into the air to avoid it, but Yuvi delivered a wind-magic infused punch that was just fast enough to connect and send her back down. As she fell into the open pit, it closed around her legs and waist, leaving her trapped. Ebony struggled, swiping at the ground and growling, but it was clear that she wasn't going to get out of this.
Ebony stopped struggling, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before chuckling. "Ay yai yai… You got me. As much as I want to keep fighting you, we need to get moving." Violet subtly commanded the ground to open, giving Ebony a chance to get out in time for the ground to close behind her.
Team RWBY, hearing the fight come to its conclusion, turned from their posts and hurried over. Ruby's eyes were wide as she exclaimed, "Violet! You're okay!" She came to a stop not too far from Violet and sighed in relief. "I wish I could have seen that, it sounded crazy! But I had to keep an eye out for Grimm…"
Weiss shook her head. "We're not here to be spectators, Ruby. We've got to keep our eyes open for Grimm. You never know when they'll show up."
Blake, for her part, smiled slightly at Violet. "Still, good work. Now…" She looked at Ebony and said, "Are you satisfied? Can we get going? We've got to get to that pylon and figure out what's going on with this whole Merlot Industries business."
Ebony nodded and turned her attention past them, towards the as yet untravelled path beyond them. "Should be this way. This path leads right underneath Mountain Glenn. It shouldn't be too hard to get there, but who knows what we're gonna see after?" She smirked. "It's kind of exciting."
"I wouldn't call this exciting," Violet responded with a shake of her head as she pushed past, starting towards the path deeper into the cave. "I just wanna get this over with so I can go back to doing nothing in my room all day." This was really eating into her very busy 'playing games for 24 hours straight then sleeping for just as long' schedule.
Granted, she didn't actually live up to that joke as much as she used to. Now her days were often filled with training and/or lectures about the complicated nature of magic and its intricacies. Knowing about it what she knew now, she honestly felt kind of glad that there weren't magic users running around slinging city-shattering spells, or summoning spirits from beyond the rift, or causing powerful storms.
…She had a lot of time to think about cool things she imagined she might be able to do eventually with magic. She didn't know for sure on the whole 'summoning ghosts' thing, but the rest seemed feasible. Not that she wanted to shatter cities; she just wanted to level armies of Grimm with a snap of her fingers! Was that too much to ask?
As she was walking and thinking, the others followed. Weiss rubbed her chin and pondered, "On that line of questioning, why did Ozpin want you to take this mission? It seems odd that he'd send you out when he could have just sent a team of students with a teacher."
"Yeah that's what I told him." Violet responded in a half-truth, as she had really wondered why she was here as well, but she knew it was because of both Ebony and the fact that she was the, as she would put it, 'Fucking Fall Maiden'. "But I guess it was to try and get this girl here." She gestured to Ebony. "And to try and get some field experience or something."
Ruby shrugged, a smile ever-present on her face. "I'm just happy that you're here! It's fun doing Huntress stuff with you around. I mean, it's not like we get to do that otherwise! I'm still not sure why you're not a student, but, I guess Oz is mentoring you or something?"
Blake jumped in this time to say, "Yeah. It's not uncommon for Huntsmen to take on apprentices like that. Maybe Oz wanted something a bit more one-on-one than just the student-body. We can only guess, or ask him, but that's probably what it is."
Violet was glad to have Blake on her side here; having someone else able to lend credence to her excuses was a massive relief. "Yeah, although I doubt you'd get a straight answer out of him," she responded with a roll of her eyes. "He's annoyingly tight-lipped when he wants to be. But maybe that's just how he likes to run things." What truly lay behind the curtain? She knew not. "But anyway," she said, wanting to move away from this topic now that the opportunity had presented itself. "We should focus, there might be more Grimm ahead."
Thankfully, this worked, and the group focused ahead of them. Luckily, there were no more questions nor any Grimm (yet), which in Violet's mind were both equally dangerous possibilities. "Man, where's all the Grimm?" Yang complained after about an hour of walking. "I wanna punch something."
"You should be grateful," Weiss chastised, "It means that we have a clear path forward, and besides, who knows what could possibly be waiting for us at the pylon? This Merlot person, he's smart, right? We should expect the unexpected."
"And then expect the unexpected after expecting the old unexpected," Violet added before squinting ahead and saying, "I think the tunnel widens up ahead, we might be getting close."
Indeed, as they closed in on the opening, they came into a large cavern, wide and laden with very much so manmade creations. Containers, crates, various scattered things that probably once had a use but didn't anymore, and above all, they could see the train tracks, which ran through a tunnel opposite of the one they came in and disappeared around a twisted turn in the cavern.
But that wasn't quite what they were focused on yet. Instead, they focused on the large metallic pylon, much the same as the one Violet had seen before with Penny, right up to the Merlot Industries device attached to it. "There's our pylon!" Ruby declared. "Let's go take that thing off of it and turn it on again."
"Hm." Ebony grunted, her eyes flicking around as if she could sense something the others couldn't. "Something's coming. Get there fast before it does or else they might not stop coming."
'Must be her semblance,' Violet figured before joining the others in hurrying over to hit the reactivation protocol on the machine. As they did, they heard an unfamiliar voice over their earpieces that Ozpin had given them to keep them informed. "Oh, finally. I was beginning to get impatient! They don't make Huntsmen like they used to. But I think all of you will prove an exceptional battery for my creations…"
Ozpin came on over the comm as well, his voice remaining even in the face of this threat. "Doctor Melot, whatever it is you're doing, can't you see the harm it caused? It was you that caused the fall of Mountain Glenn."
"Ozpin! Now it really is a function." He chuckled. "No matter. Mountain Glenn was but a small price to pay! My creations are the pinnacle of science! What's a few dead if it means that we can weaponize Grimm against themselves and master our own worst enemy?"
"Even just one lost life isn't worth it!" Ruby retorted while everyone prepared to fight. "Life is precious no matter who it is! We fight people because we have to, even if we'd rather be fighting Grimm! Can't you see that we all want the same thing?"
"Hm!" Merlot chuckled, unmoved. "You're the picture-perfect Huntress aren't you, Ruby Rose? And yes, I know your names, it was trivial to discover them. Well, Ruby Rose, you and your friends—"
"Alright enough of your shit!" Violet retorted, raising Suncutter. "I don't give a fuck about your 'evil monologue' or your 'ends justify the means'. The bottom line is, we're going to destroy your stupid experiments, and then we'll stomp you into the ground like the damn roach you are!"
Merlot was silent for a moment, as if taken aback, before he chuckled. "You, you're the anomaly. Blacked out record in every database I looked through. Are you Ozpin's little secret weapon? It'll be interesting to see how you perform."
The Grimm howled from either tunnel, both the one they came from and the one they had yet to enter. "How?!" Weiss exclaimed as she looked back. "We didn't find any Grimm back there, why are there…"
"I have my ways!" Doctor Merlot chuckled maliciously before cutting off his feed.
Ozpin sighed in frustration. "This is worse than I expected. Prepare yourselves girls; now that you've activated the machine, it will take a few minutes for it to turn on, and in the meantime you're going to have a fight on your hands."
"Duh." Yang grinned, punching her fists together before facing the tunnel they'd come from.
"Ready for anything!" Ruby exclaimed, gripping Crescent Rose tighter and glaring down the tunnel they'd yet to enter.
"This is so annoying." Weiss swiped the air with her rapier and entered a fencing stance while facing the same direction as Ruby.
"I'm ready." Blake simply said, her weapon aiming down the tunnel they just came from.
Ebony grinned a wicked, almost blood crazed grin while facing the same direction as Blake and Yang. "I'm always ready!"
Violet positioned herself facing the way they hadn't entered yet while separating herself from Yuvi, her literal other half taking the opposite position with the others. "When I find this Merlot guy's hideout, I'm going to burn it to the ground." She already knew the smell of this game, and she smelled ash.
The first wave of Grimm finally appeared, charging through the tunnels and howling with malicious intent. They all notably had strange mutations to their bodies, and Violet could tell that these were some of Merlot's "pets". There were also all the variant known as Creeps, though the normally rather diminutive dino-Grimm was much larger this time. They had glowing green stripes along their bodies and they were much more armored than normal, almost being covered in it, though Violet felt there had to be weak points still.
The two sides burst forward to meet their opposition, with Violet opening the fight by bringing down the full force of her weapon on a Creep, enhancing her strike with gravity in order to deliver a blow stronger than normal and break right through the thing's arm, slicing it vertically in two before she turned to swing at several more approaching Grimm, and without even really thinking about it Violet sent out a vertical slash of wind to collide sharply with them, causing them all to tumble and fall over, leaving their underbellies exposed. 'Good thing I can blame Dust on that one,' she thought.
Ruby took advantage of the opening Violet had created, racing forward and striking at each of their upturned weak spots, dispelling them with a single blow. As she landed, she slammed Crescent Rose into the ground before starting to fire several rounds at Grimm as they charged at her, each shot cracking bone, though it took several shots to bring even one down this way. Yet she was also knocking several over, exposing them like Violet had. She was eventually forced to stop when a Grimm slammed into her side in the middle of the chaos, flitting away with her semblance to create some distance before she engaged again.
Weiss created several smaller glyphs above her, sending several large icicles to greet not just the Grimm Ruby staggered, but also some more Grimm that Violet had knocked over. As a Grimm closed in on her, she created a glyph in front of herself that repulsed it, sending it careening into a pack of other Grimm, knocking them over and scattering them. "Goal!" Weiss exclaimed with a smirk.
"It's called a strike!" Blake corrected her by calling out across the cave. She and Yang had hit a good pattern, with Yang punching the Creeps hard enough to overturn them and giving Blake the opportunity to put them down while Yang moved on to the next.
"Whatever!" Weiss responded, her momentary distraction causing her to get body checked by a creep. She staggered, jumping back and swiping it, taking a cue from Violet and using wind to knock it over.
"Blake, don't be a Melvin!" Violet exclaimed as she brought her sword down on the Grimm that had attacked her comrade, killing it.
"More killing, less talk!" Ebony exclaimed, herself dealing with the Grimm a different way, that being a constant barrage of endless strikes and swipes until she eventually hit an uncovered spot, dispersing the Grimm as she did. She fought like a cornered animal, and based on the murderous expression on her face, maybe 'untamed animal' was the right descriptor for her.
Meanwhile, Yuvi was going about things in a somehow even more brute-force kind of way, stretching her arms out and grabbing Grimm by the legs before lifting them up and slamming them down again, dispelling them and several others at once.
After several minutes of a seemingly endless stream of Grimm, they began thinning out, much to the relief of the group, but then they figured out why. Merlot hadn't been sending his best; rather, he'd been saving it, coming over comms again just to declare, "Now for the final part of this battery!"
The ground shook, and the group reconverged at the Pylon, surrounding it while facing outward, preparing for whatever was to come.
What came was the shaking of the ground, the falling of some loose pebbles from the cave ceiling, before the ground burst open, revealing a giant Deathstalker that was glowing green just like the rest, although worryingly its stinger was dripping the same green energy that it was coated in.
"Oh boy, just like old times!" Yang exclaimed with a smirk. "So what's the game plan? Hit it till it stops moving?"
"I like that plan!" Ebony exclaimed with a bit too much enthusiasm.
'This thing'd be a fight even if I was using my Maiden powers up front.' Violet thought with a grimace as Yuvi returned to her. "I'm not much of a planner either." She admitted. "So whatever we do is good with me."
"We need to get it on its back!" Ruby squinted at it. "It's got armor all over its top half, so if we knock it over, we might find a weak spot like the other Grimm we fought."
"Leave it to me," Violet said with a nod. The beast was approaching, so they didn't have much more time to plan. "Let's go!" It was slap-dash, but they would have time to think of an endgame while they were fighting it.
The group charged, with the Deathstalker shooting acid out of its tail at them. Weiss responded by gracefully jumping out of the way before bringing up her rapier and creating a rune under Violet, who had jumped out of the way and now stood ready to fight.
She felt a surge of speed, which she used to bolt forward. It was easy to dodge the Deathstalker as it raised a giant claw and brought it down on where she had been just before.
Meanwhile, Yang was quick to punch the thing's claw before it had a chance to raise it up, grabbing onto it and holding it in place for just long enough so Ruby could strike it with Crescent Rose, cracking the carapace, although this move was met with anger, as the creature screeched and battered Yang away with a forceful shake of its claw, sending her flying before she collided against the rock of the cave wall with a grunt of pain.
Ebony wildly slashed at any possible weakness there could be, a sixth sense seemingly guiding her to strike true. Her blades chipped away at the thing's weaker armor points, revealing weak points that she drove her target over and over again, right up until she was forced to roll out of the way when it went to strike her with a claw as well.
Ruby got into a habit of rapidly striking its sides then flitting away before it could strike her, keeping at least part of its attention off the others, even if her strikes weren't necessarily doing as much damage as they would to a normal Deathstalker due to the lack of weak spots. Eventually, though, she was just a second too late and got struck in the side by the beast's other claw, sending her skidding against the ground, though she dug her scythe into the ground to wrench herself upright.
Blake was doing much the same, although after the Deathstalker struck Ruby, she changed tactics and threw her ribbon out, wrapping it around the mutated monster's claw so tightly that it was clamped shut. The beast once again screeched in anger and raised its claw before beginning to slam it on the ground wildly and repeatedly.
Violet began to glow with Auric energy. She positioned herself underneath its claw and caught it as it was brought down just above her. After a few moments of struggle, she used her enhanced strength to push it upward with such force that the Deathstalker practically stood upright. It flailed, but it clearly hadn't been knocked over yet. "Hit it!"
The others unloaded round after round into the beast's stomach, or in Ebony's case, she joined her sickles together and threw them at the beast in a form that resembled a boomerang, the force of which caused it to fall backwards. For a brief moment, they thought they had beaten it, but then it began to twitch. It started rolling onto its side, ready to fight yet again.
Violet swore under her breath and moved directly under it, glaring at the beast and holding up her hands, bracing to catch it. Ruby exclaimed worriedly, "Violet! That's too much! You're gonna get—"
As the thing fell, it seemingly fell on top of her, and yet, as quickly as it had, it began to lift off the ground. The thing flailed as Violet raised it higher, but she was clearly struggling. "Yang!" she called out in a strained voice.
Yang raced over to join her, sliding underneath it and then reinforcing herself with her own aura as she punched the thing on its underside, sending it flying into the air before she and Violet both clenched a fist. As it came back down, they both reeled back and let out a yell of fury as it reached them, punching it just so that it was launched to the side rather than up, the force of the punches being so strong that clear holes could be seen in its underside as it flew onto and subsequently crashed on the tracks, unmoving and emitting smoke.
The group stood there for a moment, panting and gathering themselves from the fight. Until eventually there were several celebratory cheers from Ruby and Yang. Violet sighed, 'Didn't take as much out of me, granted, it wasn't for long.' She could only feasibly hold that form for a few minutes before she was too tired to continue. "That's one done…." she muttered.
As if on cue, the pylon began to hum with energy, having finished its activation cycle. Doctor Merlot came on over the comms, saying, "Such data… extraordinary! I really must thank you heroes, now I can make an even stronger Grimm!"
"You'll never get the chance!" Ruby exclaimed. "We're gonna find you and we're gonna put a stop to you and your plans!" She sounded like a Saturday morning cartoon hero, but Violet figured that was in line with Ruby's moral code.
Merlot merely chuckled before cutting the connection, causing Ruby to growl in anger. "That guy…" She sounded like she had more that she wanted to say, but her sensibilities prevented her from saying it.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to, because Ebony said it plainly, "He's a fucking shithead." She rolled her shoulders, cracking them as she put her weapons at her sides. "Can't wait to kill him."
"Neither can I," Violet grumbled. "Nothing I hate more than people like him, thinking they're better than everyone else." They were right up there with people who thought they deserved everything without having earned it somehow. She sheathed her weapon and said, "We technically only came here to fix this pylon, but if we don't do something now…"
"We can't give him time to prepare even stronger Grimm." Weiss nodded in agreement. "As much as I wish we could ask for backup, it'd take too long for anyone to get here." Alas, for she wouldn't have minded the idea of slaying hordes of mutated Grimm alongside Pyrrha.
Ozpin, still on the comms, sighed and said, "I normally would ask for all of you to await reinforcements, but… you're right, there really is no time for such things right now. By the time I get a Huntsman over there to assist, Merlot might already have something else ready. Show caution, and Violet…" There was a brief pause before he said, "I will let you trust your instincts."
There was an unspoken part of that sentence, but Violet understood it well enough. If things got bad, Ozpin was giving her permission to unleash the full power of Fall in order to preserve herself and the others. Violet chuckled and said, "Oz, I'd have done that in that situation anyway. We'll be fine."
Ozpin didn't say anything in response to that, but she felt he understood. Instead he said, "If you keep going through the tunnel you'll eventually emerge at a waterway in a grand cavern that once acted as a dockyard. If my instincts are to be trusted, I have reason to believe you'll find a way to Merlot there."
"He would, wouldn't he?" Ebony grumbled under her breath, earning an aside glance from Violet. Ebony sighed as she looked towards the route they'd yet to take. "Weird as hell that there's a fucking dock down here, but whatever, Mountain Glenn was pretty weird."
Ozpin went silent, so Violet turned her attention forward as well. "Well, let's get moving, not like we've got time to waste." She sighed. "And I really wanted to be back in time for dinner, too."
Together, the group proceeded forward. Little conversation was shared between them; it wouldn't do, they knew, to get ambushed because they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Luckily, it seemed Doctor Merlot's tricks in the cave system were spent, and their trip to the mysterious dockyard that held just a single ship was uneventful. Unsurprisingly, the ship had a Merlot Industries marking on it, and Ruby noted, "I bet this is how he got those weird Grimm here."
Weiss nodded as the group continued towards the ship, saying, "If it's got some kind of premade route to take, then it should lead us right to wherever Merlot is hiding."
Violet wanted to point out how odd it was that this supposedly genius man would leave such an obvious way to his island, she might almost call it a plot hole, but she knew that the smartest people tended to make the stupidest mistakes due to simple oversight or overconfidence. All the same, they boarded the vessel, and when they arrived at the controls, they indeed found a preset route for it to take.
All they had to do was switch it on, and the boat was off, leading them towards their destination.
/-/
"So you're telling me Weiss has never even heard of anime?"
"Nope! Not a one!"
"I don't see what the big deal is, it's not that important, is it?"
"Ah, Weiss, we're going to have to show you true culture! Not the Atlesian fancy-pants shit, real culture!"
"Fancy pants… stuff? Rude!"
The conversation was idle, but at least it filled the time. Mercifully, no seabound Grimm tried to waylay them, and the approach to the island didn't take more than a couple hours. Though they did end up far enough out to be out of comm range with Ozpin until they found some way to reestablish communication. 'Not that he'd be able to do anything to help us anyway,' Violet mused, 'he doesn't know anything more about this place than we do.'
His words did hang on her mind, however, giving permission for something that, up to this point, Violet had never had. Sure, she'd used her power in flashy ways sometimes, but it was always restrained by the knowledge that she needed to keep it secret. Now? Well, she still had to keep it a secret, but if there was no alternative, she could at least do what she would have done anyway but without the nagging feeling of an impending lecture.
Once the ship had come to a stop, they all jumped off and onto the dock, this one similarly made of metal, although seeming much more well used than the one at Mountain Glenn. Weiss hummed as she looked at it before shaking her head and saying, "He keeps things clean here, but I bet that the dock we just left was much sturdier than we might've thought otherwise."
"Wouldn't do to use old shit," Ebony remarked, "I'm sure this asshole's head is stuck so far up his own ass that he couldn't possibly allow using worn out equipment, even if it might've kept him hidden a bit better." Violet couldn't tell if Ebony was more annoyed at the fact that Doctor Merlot actively maintained his equipment, or the fact that he was stupid enough to leave such an obvious clue.
Maybe it was a bit of both. Either way, Violet didn't really want to follow up on it. Instead, she looked around and said, "Well, I guess we should find wherever this guy's base is; can't be too hard to find, could it?"
"Well," Ruby began, taking Crescent Rose off her back and keeping her guard up in his strange and hostile territory, "I doubt he ever expected anyone to actually get here—"
"Or he was cocky enough to think he could kill us all!" Weiss interjected.
"-Or that, yeah. It should be easy to find, but we should be careful. Who knows what kind of freaky stuff we'll find out here," Ruby concluded. "Let's just keep going, we can probably find something!"
It was a hell of a bet to make, but at this point they didn't have much of a choice, Violet felt. Sure, this place could have some place they can break in through, or maybe it will be so well guarded they have to break down a wall. She supposed they'd deal with it either way, but one would sure be easier.
There was little conversation as they continued onward. The island had so many man made structures across it, heavy machinery long abandoned or towers without guards, that it almost seemed to be a natural part of the landscape. In a way, it was kind of like pictures of Mountain Glenn after it fell, except instead of nature breaking through concrete, it was steel through foliage.
'This place would be cool if we didn't have to worry about mutated Grimm,' Violet mused, seemingly jinxing herself as the sound of Grimm howling in the distance drew all of their attention. Violet raised her blade and looked around.
"Let's try and stick together," Ruby suggested, "If we stay bunched up then they won't be able to single any one of us out."
"Nah, I think I'd rather run off and die," Ebony dryly remarked as she entered a wide and low stance, her sickles ready to strike.
"You know, snarkiness is supposed to be my thing," Weiss grumbled as she swiped the air and entered her fencing posture.
"Mine too," Ebony remarked before hurrying forward, timing it just as a Beowolf with strange green veins running through it appeared, a quick swipe of one of her sickles dug into its neck and tore it open, causing the beast to poof into Grimm smoke.
The others rushed forward and joined the melee, swiftly taking down what ended up being just a small pack of Beowolves this time, but as they stumbled upon a path forward, one of dirt winding ahead and out of sight, Violet couldn't help but muse, "Kinda feels like a dungeon in a game or tabletop session."
"I'd say we should start crawling," Yang began with a grin, "But that'd slow us down way too much. Let's go!"
They followed the path, through disparate packs of Grimm roaming the island, and as they got deeper in, Grimm seemingly intentionally placed to roadblock their path forward through various installations. None of them proved to be an extraordinary encounter, hardly worth remembering; at this point killing Grimm was becoming as natural as eating lunch!
'And it's not even technically my job to do it all the time.'
Granted, her job wasn't exactly 'easy' either, but she'd take what she could get.
After they put down yet another pack of Grimm outside of what appeared to be a large installation meant to act as the entrance to Doctor Merlot's lab, a pneumatic gate blocked their path forward. Violet and the others stared at it for a moment before Violet pondered, "How are we gonna get past this…"
That question didn't need an answer, it seemed, as over a loudspeaker came the voice of Doctor Merlot saying, "Ah, the yet-to-become-Huntresses! Come in, there are a number of experiments we will conduct together…"
"The only experiment I want to conduct is putting my boot up your ass!" Violet retorted as the group hurried forth, although they were quickly halted when a flash of a black form reached their vision before Violet felt a stinging pain in her side.
She stumbled while groaning in pain, Ruby exclaimed, "Violet, are you okay?!" before she abruptly turned to Petal form and quickly flitted over towards that same mass, reforming and swinging her Scythe. She connected with the beast, and when it was sent back across the ground, it finally stood still just long enough for them to see what it was.
It looked like a… monkey? A large, almost human sized Chimpanzee with a Grimm bone mask where its mouth would be, its eyes glowing yellow with hate. The bone armor was spread across its body rather than being a solid mass, which allowed its quick reaction as it seemingly blinked out of reality before reappearing mere inches above Yang's head, just about to bring its boned foot down like a steel-toed boot when Blake appeared right in its path, catching its boot with her kama and pushing back, leading to both of them backflipping away.
Ebony, who had been watching for a few moments before eventually deciding to join in, charged over and joined the fray, busying herself attacking the monkey Grimm with reckless abandon.
As Blake landed, she rose from her landing position and said, "I've never seen a Grimm like this before, but Merlot's been busy with it." She squinted her own yellow eyes at it and said, "Yang, Violet, you two go on, the rest of us will deal with this."
Yang was quick to retort, "What?! No way!" She was already in her battle stance, but even she could admit that all she could do at the moment was watch as it blinked out and met her sister's rose-petal form, before another blink and it met with Weiss imbued with a hyper speed Glyph.
She looked back at them and said, "Look, we can't keep getting stopped like this! We'll stay here and finish this thing, you and Violet go on ahead, you're the bruisers, so go bruise something!"
Before Yang could respond, Violet started to run towards the compound, saying, "Don't gotta tell me twice! Come on Yang!" She had a bone to pick with this Doctor Merlot for making her waste so much of her time on a mission when she could be back in her room.
Yang could only sigh in resignation before hurrying after.
The two girls raced ahead while the Monkey Grimm remained locked in combat with the three quicker members of the team. Yang complained, yelling to Violet as they ran, "They do know we're not slow, right?! We could keep up!"
"Sure, whatever!" Violet waved her hand dismissively as they closed in on the gates. Violet cocked her fist back as it became enshrouded with Yuvi's power and Gravity Magic. "Let's break this fucking thing open!"
That, at least, Yang could be happy about. She grinned and raised her own fist, with both girls letting out a yell of exertion at the same time as they punched the door, their fists crashed against it with a loud screeching of metal as they punched straight through the gate with their combined enhanced might.
They raced in, taking little time to note the sterile decor of the place as they hurried forth. There were several rooms and paths, each one seemed to have something different in it, but the problem was, there were only two of them. Violet swore under her breath and said, "We need to find a path and stick to it. Getting split up could get us killed."
The two came to a stop at a hall leading in four different directions, with Yang looking around then pointing at one way, saying, "How about the way that says 'Experiment Chambers'?" Indeed, there was a rather conveniently helpful sign; in fact, each path had a sign, as if this place had once played host to more people than just Merlot himself. "Do you think he's got accomplices?" Yang pondered.
"With a building this size? Abso-fucking-lutely, but it doesn't seem like anyone else is home anymore. Maybe they all bailed when Merlot turned crazy, or maybe he killed 'em or something."
The rather off-handed way that Violet said that made Yang look at her and quizzically state, "You don't seem all that bothered by it."
"I'm not." Violet shrugged with a nonchalant tone. "These people were collaborating with this fucker to make more powerful Grimm, and if they played a part in the fall of Mountain Glenn? Yeah, fuck em! People like that don't deserve to live." She was getting worked up by this line of topic, and it just made her want to get moving even more. "But anyway, come on, let's get going, no time to waste and all that."
Yang wanted to say more, but she decided that ethical debates weren't exactly her forte. Maybe it was something Weiss could deal with at some point if it ever came up again, sure as hell not her! She quickly followed behind her companion.
The end of the hallway greeted them with two double doors, which they probably body-checked and forced open without even breaking their pace. They slowed as they took in the sight of what they saw, however.
Vats of green liquid hooked up to some kind of scientific machinery, with Grimm floating inside—experimental projects. Beowolves and Boarabatusks it seemed, and a great number of them. "Was this fucker planning to take over the world?" Violet scoffed and cracked her knuckles. "What a played out trope."
Yang laughed and, similarly, cracked her knuckles. "So true though! I mean, what's this guy, a real life Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain? Pssh." Their joking, however, was interrupted as the vats began to blare red alarms, and Yang remarked in a deadpan tone, "Well, guess that's what we get."
As the Grimm were freed from their pods and charged at them, Violet and Yang shared a look before nodding to one another, mutual grins spreading across their faces.
This was gonna be fun.
Yang kicked it off by grabbing the first Boarbatusk to reach her by its tusks, she then proceeded to spin it in a circle, hitting several more Grimm as they charged her, she laughed all the while.
Violet, not to be outdone, saw a Beowolf leap at her and used Yuvi's aura to extend her arm's reach with her aetherical form. She grabbed it by the leg, and one could almost believe the Grimm looked surprised for a second before she promptly swung it the other direction and slammed into yet another of its kin, crushing both of them before repeating the process several times, a devious grin on her face.
The two girls then swapped tactics, abruptly switching spots with one another as Violet grabbed a boarbatusk by its horns as well, except unlike Yang, she yanked hard and pulled its horns right off. She then began bringing them down on each Boarbatusk as they came, slamming them down so hard at one point that they stuck into the beast she had just killed and she had to rip off its tusks before starting the stabbing process all over again, seemingly so taken in this moment that she forgot she actually had a weapon she should be using.
The horde thinned as these lesser Grimm were being picked apart, until two bigger Grimm, a giant Boarbatusk and an Alpha Beowolf were released from containment. Immediately, the Boarbatusk began to spin in place, preparing to strike Violet, while the Beowolf bounded towards Yang. Violet shouted, "You thinkin' what I'm thinking Yang?"
Yang shrugged and coyly remarked, "Probably," before both of them stepped out of the way just at the right time, causing the two Grimm to crash into one another. The result was the Beowolf being bowled over and being thrown against the wall while the Boarbatusk fell out of its ball form shortly after, crashing hard onto the ground with a snort of bestial anger.
Violet and Yang then strided past one another. Yang grabbed the Boarbatusk by its hindlegs with both hands and began to spin in place, slowly speeding up as Violet grabbed the Boarbatusk and reeled it back, preparing to throw it with all the force both Yuvi and her magic could give.
They released at the same time, with the beasts flying into one another at blinding speed. There was the loud cracking of several bones and the sound of two Grimm exploding into their base matter, which simply floated in the air, dissipating.
Both girls were panting heavily, simply collecting their breath for a few moments before Yang shouted, "Woo!" while punching her right fist into the air victoriously, keeping it there for a few moments.
"Man…" Violet let out a sigh of relief. "I needed that stress relief! I guess I have one thing to thank Merlot for before I break his skull open." She looked forward towards the other end of the room, where a doorway led to a place they hadn't been yet. "But we should probably wait for the others before we go any further."
And just in the nick of time, the doors they'd entered through earlier burst open, with the other three running in. "There you are!" Ruby exclaimed happily before noticing all the Grimm corpses dissipating on the ground and nothing, "Oh wow, you were busy."
"Yup!" Yang responded, with a Poppin' P and a grin across her face once more. "You guys missed the fun part!" She looked around and asked, "Hey, where'd Ebony go?"
Weiss hummed as she kicked one of the dead Beowolves. "Clearly," she remarked dryly, before following up to the question with an answer, saying, "Ebony thinks Merlot's actual office is somewhere else, she's gone looking for him while we take care of the Grimm experiments, she said she promises not to kill him until we get there, and I'm not sure it was a joke."
"Eh, we'll catch up to her then." Violet responded with a wave of her hand. "If she thinks she can make it then sure, whatever. How about the Grimm you guys fought?"
"That Grimm didn't take too long for us to beat; it took us more time to find you and not some random pointless room that led nowhere," Blake explained their quick appearance with a shrug. "But clearly you guys coming out this way was a good idea regardless."
"Yeah, I guess so," Yang acquiesced. That fight was infinitely more fun than trying to deal with the Monkey Grimm anyway, probably. "Anyway, come on!" She gestured towards the next door, and together once again, the group forged ahead.
The path ahead was, thankfully, more straightforward than the others. It seemed that this was just the entrance to the main part of the laboratory, although eventually they reached an elevator. Seeing no other real options, they got inside and started their descent further down.
Violet had been prepared to use Gravity Magic to slow the elevator if it suddenly began a free fall, but mercifully it seemed nobody was waiting to cut the elevator cables up above, so they reached the bottom floor uninterrupted.
They were greeted with a massive room rather than a hallway, a room which seemed covered in patches of… ice? layered over the metal floor that was much the same as the rest of the facility. 'Kinda like a repeated video game asset…' Violet remarked to herself, 'kinda lazy. Or cheap. Or both.'
Doctor Merlot's voice came on over the earpieces again as he said, "At last, you've arrived! I would say you kept me waiting, but all things considered, you arrived much swifter than I had expected you to. Your data is going to be most helpful, and for that I must give my thanks, but…" He chuckled maliciously. "We're not quite finished yet! I have one final experiment, and I think you'll find this challenge quite chilling."
Ebony must not have gotten to him yet, but Violet sure as hell hope she got there quickly, wherever he was hiding.
One of the lifts that disappeared into the floor rose up, opening the ground as it came, and revealing a giant Grimm, shaped like a giant humanoid ape, with black fur covered in white snow. It carried a club in its hand made of bone that glowed green, and it beat it on the ground and roared loudly before putting the club on its shoulder.
"A fucking Yeti." Violet squinted as the group headed onto their slick field of battle. "At least it's not just another giant Deathstalker." This time, she did grab Suncutter off her back, drawing it and with a quick swing she sent the blade part flying off the hilt. Mid-air it transformed into its Chakram form and slammed into the Yeti, causing it to stumble back, all the while Violet began firing at it with her Mini-14, though even as each shot hit, it didn't seem to do too much to the beast. The thing was durable, but maybe she expected that. The ice would present a problem for the others more than her, but she could already see Weiss creating gravity Glyphs beneath each of them, and while Violet didn't need it, she appreciated the effort anyway.
"I'm so tired of this guy," Weiss complained with a roll of her eyes. "But Yetis are a notoriously difficult race of Grimm to fight! I read all about them as part of my pre-academy training and tutoring sessions; that being said, I've got no idea what that club is capable of now that it's been experimented on."
Blake switched Gambol Shroud into its kama form once again. "Whatever it can do, we need to get it away from him. He'll be much easier to handle without it."
"Then I say, Team RUBVE, go!" Ruby exclaimed with a determined glint in her eye as she flourished Crescent Rose, unfolding it and assuming her standard combat posture before bursting forward in a cloud of roses.
Violet sent Yuvi forward while she continued laying suppressing fire on it, trying to keep it on its toes and dodging, though eventually it seemed the Yeti gave up on the idea of dodging bullets and simply bore the brunt of them.
Weiss created a Glyph beneath Yang, she placed her hands on the ground as if preparing to run a minute mile, before promptly bolting off the yellow glyph. She raced forward and slammed her fist into the Yeti's leg, to which the monster responded by trying to bring its club down Yang.
An act which was interrupted by Yuvi arriving in time to intercept it. She tried to pull it from the Yeti's hands, but this time, even Yuvi was struggling. Violet thought to imbue her with magic, but before she acted on that thought, the Yeti yanked its club away, swinging just as Blake appeared in its path.
She was slammed by the club and sent flying into the wall, or so it seemed, as she turned to ash and reappeared behind it. She dug her weapon into its back and dragged down the monster, though even as it screamed in rage and pain, it didn't seem like it was any closer to falling over.
Ruby fitted around it like an excited pixie, except much more deadly. Each move would be met with a brief transformation back to her normal self to deliver a strike before returning to rose form.
Violet's chakram, as well, joined Ruby and Blake in rapidly spinning and striking around the monster as it began to flail around, wildly swinging its club before finally roaring at a supernaturally loud decibel that caused everyone to wince, and Violet and Blake to grimace in pain. This pause in attack was enough to give the Yeti a chance to retaliate as it began wildly and rapidly smashing its flail on the ground in the direction of its assailants.
It managed to connect with Yuvi first, who flickered before returning to Violet, who herself swore, then it crashed into where Ruby had been just moments ago.
Finally, their luck changed in what would have been a very strange manner were it not for the fact that the monster had just slammed its club down at full force on top of Yang.
"Oh you've done it now…" Violet muttered, a smirk crossing her features.
Barely a moment later and the club shuddered before being forcefully lifted, even as the Yeti tried to keep it down. Yang growled as her eyes burned red, her hair igniting. She let out a yell of exertion as she finally managed to pull the thing hard enough that it was ripped out of the Yeti's hand. The Grimm stumbled forward and began to fall, but Yang closed the distance by firing her gauntlets behind her, rocketing her to the beast where she delivered a devastating punch that sent it catapulting backward.
It crashed right into the wall, and Yang, not wanting to lose her advantage, ran ahead. The others hurried after, not far behind, but none of them were prepared for what happened next.
As the Grimm reoriented itself, it looked behind itself, seeing a pipe exposed due to the damage it had caused. It grabbed it and pulled on it, but this short-sighted instinctual act resulted in a massive and abrupt explosion as the gas inside the pipe immediately met with the sulfur and flame still present from Yang's semblance right as she closed in.
Everyone was blown back, with Violet almost falling down, only being caught and lifted by Yuvi, who also returned her Chakram and Mini-14 to her, which she joined together. The others were struggling more, Violet had been the furthest back due to the luxury of having Yuvi to deal with melee. She saw them groaning and struggling, but noticeably of all, she saw Yang looking incredibly weak, struggling as she even tried to crawl away from the explosion's source to reorient herself.
The worst part?
The Yeti wasn't dead yet.
It was only just, but it had enough left in it to use the pipe it still held in its hand. It raised it above itself and stumbled over to Yang, preparing to bring it down on her while everyone else was disoriented and distracted, not to mention the smoke and debris that made it that much harder to see.
Everyone but Violet.
She acted without even really thinking about it, raising her blade high into the air and channeling it full of magical energy that made it glitter a rainbow of colors before she slammed it into the ground with such force that it dented the steel floor.
The end result was one of the first tricks Ozpin had taught her, but one she never used herself due to it being way too obviously magical. A shimmering bubble of rainbow covered Yang just as the club slammed down. It crashed against the shield, which was when Yang noticed it with wide eyes and a surprised, confused, gasp.
The shield reacted to the Yeti's assault with an explosive blowback that targeted it and only it, sending a powerful burst of magical energy roaring into the monster that caused it to fly back and slam onto the ground, unmoving.
None of the others had seen it, not even Blake, but now Yang was looking at Violent with a mixture of wonder, confusion, and bafflement.
Violet tried not to let her linger on it though as she hurried over to help Yang up, as the others were already rising to their feet. Violet's hands took hold of Yang's shoulders as she raised her up before letting go and saying, "Hey hey, easy. Are you okay? That was way too fucking close…"
Yang blinked a few times, shaking herself out of her stupor as best she could and saying, "F-Forget about me, what was that? That wasn't your semblance and I don't know any Dust that does tha…" She suddenly paused, grabbing her head and starting to sway.
Violet steadied her once again. "Look," She whispered, "We can talk about it later. It's really really not important right now. Just a cool little trick I learned from Ozpin." She could lie her way out of this, right? Lying was always a good trick, all she knew though was…
She really REALLY regretted missing that unarchived karaoke for this.
