King: Back again and into it right away. I hope you enjoy and know I'm working on a few projects at this point. Thank you for your patience.
Knox: Here we go again.
Inspiration: (Not going to spoil it this time. It works better without it. I'll add the inspiration to the bottom.)
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"Alright," King stretched his arms over his head, "what have we got this time?"
"Don't you know?" Saphron asked the owner of the Theater.
"Technically, but at the same time, no. The multiverse is infinite. Even if I can get an idea, there's no way to really know what we'll see."
Knox tends to get a quick premonition before the world hits the screen, and he certainly saw something… interesting. Oh dear.
The scene opened to darkness with a loud pounding against metal. After a moment, a section of the scene cracked open and showed light beyond a line to the side. After a moment, it starts to expand, revealed to be a door being forced open. On the other side, a pair of men looking into the darkness, one blond and one with black hair. Both were dressed like bandits, but didn't seem to be part of a particular clan. One of them had a large backpack hanging from his shoulders.
The blond took an old flashlight from his belt and flicked it on, looking into the darkness. "About time," he stepped inside and started to look around.
The dark haired man followed behind his partner, "Are you sure about this, Redd? This place doesn't look like it'd have a treasure worth finding."
"Au contraire, Mavi my boy, this old lab is the best kind of place to find treasures. Not necessarily gold or money, but in old experiments and gear. People pay an arm and a leg for old shit like that."
Ozpin tapped his chair in thought. That much was true. Even if they didn't work, old and forgotten technologies were valuable to newer labs and museums. But they'd likely have already scrounged such a location and picked it clean. Would they not?
Mavi looked around the entranceway for a moment before something caught his eye. "Hey Redd! Check this out!" He moved to the side and picked up an old device. It was boxy metal with a reader screen and a needle system. "It looks like some kind of detector."
"Does it work?"
Mavi looked it over and tried to find a power switch. He found a switch and clicked it on. But nothing happened. He turned it over and found an old power port. Taking a universal cord from his pack, he revealed his bag held a portable power converter. After a moment, the device began to glow.
"So, what is that thing anyway?" Yang asked, but received no answers. She knew the two in charge definitely knew what it was, but they were deliberately keeping quiet.
Both men watched it for a moment, but it didn't react. Mavi moved it around, but nothing changed.
Redd sighed, "Must be busted. Or useless in here."
As Mavi moved it toward the hall, there was a small spike on the needle and a crackling sound from the device.
"Or not." Redd grinned. "Something down there must be worthwhile to need a tracker for it." He pulled out a flashlight and led the way down the halls. The light went far enough up to the upper portion of the wall to reveal the writing, [Enola Labs], but neither man noticed it.
"Enola Labs?" Glynda adjusted her glasses, "That doesn't sound familiar."
"I can't say it's familiar to me, either." Ozpin remarked, and those in the know could tell how much that meant. Ozpin had the memories of the previous lives in his reincarnation. But unlike many of them, Ozpin had a perfect memory. If he hadn't heard of something, it likely meant it wasn't real. Or just very new.
Both men began to walk into the hallways of the old laboratory. Sections were old and falling apart, but its internal design was flawless. The whole bunker was lined and held up with concrete and anything falling away was more akin to facades meant to make it more palatable. Because of the design, there was no overgrowth or dirt build up. There was dust everywhere and some rust, but nothing like what you'd expect in an abandoned lab. Even if it doubled as a bunker. They would move through a hall and consult the reader to figure out which way to go.
"This place is creepy." Ruby remarked. "It's dark and damp, but so… not clean, but like clean. Does that make sense?"
"You're speaking of its sense of stillness." Ciel offered, "There's seemingly no life. Nothing that took residence or grew inside it. It is rather unnerving."
"Yeah, like that. It's weird. It feels like even the Grimm would avoid it."
They eventually came to a door. The needle on the reader was showing a major reaction coming from the door. Both men turned to one another with grins and made to open the door. It was then that they noticed the old card reader lock. Redd just rolled his eyes before pulling out his scroll. He used a personal program to spoof the card and gain access to the system to unlock from his scroll.
Raven nodded in appreciation, "That would certainly come in handy. Too many trunks use those locks and it's not always worth blasting them open."
Her comment only earned glares from Yang and Qrow.
Once the door unlatched, the two entered into the room. But it was hardly a room. The only floor available to them to them was a metal bridge stretching from the door to the other side. The room itself seemed to stretch up into the mountain. Redd spared a glance over the side railing and saw a massive pool of water, glowing a faint green color.
"Freaky," Nora remarked. A sentiment shared by many in the audience.
The two walked forward and found a door at the back of the room. Redd opened it with his scroll and made his way inside. They looked around to find an office room with a computer terminal at the side and lockers on the other. Mavi moves along the lockers and pops them open one by one. Most of them only had tattered coats and lanyards, but nothing particularly worthwhile. Until he broke open the last locker. Inside, the coat was missing, but there was a box at the bottom of the locker. Kneeling down, Mavi cracked open the box and had to wave away a load of dust being shot up in his face. He pulled a small item out of the box and grinned, "Jackpot!"
Redd turned to Mavi, putting an old folder down on the desk, "What'd you find?"
"Check it out!" Mavi holds up a wallet.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously?" Roman raised an eyebrow. He then thought for a moment before he hit the point, "Oh! Actually, that works."
"What?" Ruby was just confused. "For a wallet?"
"A wallet?"
"A pre-Great-War Wallet. With pre-Great-War money inside! As in, before the unified Lien. Collectors would pay an arm and leg just for one bill. And we have twenty! Half of them are Fives!"
"Now we're talking!" Redd was getting excited now. He took the wallet and pulled out an ID. "Well, Jaune Arc, you made us wealthy men."
Nora blinked, "Jaune? So he's super old in this one?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Ren pointed out.
Mavi chuckled and turned back around to see if he could get anything else, but nearly jumped out of his skin and back into Redd. Redd was about to complain until he saw what Mavi had. A figure stood in the doorway staring them both down. He was dressed in an old black coat with black gloves, a hazmat-style bodysuit, and a mask covering his entire face. A black sphere floated around behind his head. All the while, the detector from before was going off like crazy.
"Holy crap!" Weiss actually jumped and fell out of her chair. "W-w-what the hell is that?!"
"What do you mean, Weissy?" Nora asked, not sure what was setting the heiress off. "It's just a guy. He's a little creepy but not that bad."
"That lab was sealed since the Great War, Nora! Anyone in there should be dead!"
Nora took a second before it hit her as well. "Wait… so… like a ghost…?" She was shivering a little.
Redd took a breath to calm his nerves, "H-hey there." He tried to add a little suave to his speech, hoping to keep the situation from escalating, "Sorry, we heard this place was sealed off. We were just poking around since, you know… abandoned lab and stuff."
The figure didn't move. Didn't even seem to breathe. Everything was tense before the figure turned and looked toward the other side of the bridge and the exit. He then turned his entire body and started walking out.
The two men just watched him leave. Once they were alone, Redd just let out a breath. "Weirdo."
"I get the feeling that was a bad thing." Blake offered.
Mavi was able to stand straight again and propped himself by the locker. He noticed something still in the box in Jaune's locker. He picked up an old notebook and opened it to a random page, reading out loud, "1-12. I've been in here for a while now. I know I had to lock the facility down after what we discovered, but a part of me wishes I could have returned home instead."
Redd turned to him, confused but not stopping him.
"But I know I cannot trust that I'll be allowed to return without challenge. The Kingdoms have been watching us, and I know what they want from me. I'll ensure they can never have it."
"Cryptic…" Ciel rubbed her chin in thought. "What could every kingdom be after that would warrant a reaction like that?"
Mavi turned a few pages to find one he could read again.
"I've been here too long. The particles have begun to speak to me. They're waves began to cook my mind. If they don't take me, I'll be surprised. I've learned to hate them. The people outside who didn't even try to stop by the Lab. The people I had to hide my mind and research from. I've begun to hate them. But I love them all. The particles want to love them too. To release their waves for them."
The screen moved away to show the figure walking out of the lab. He looked to the distance and found an old town nearby. He started to walk toward it without a second thought.
Blake took in a sharp breath, "Oh… that's bad."
"You think he's a serial killer or something?" Yang asked her partner.
"It's possible. He sounded crazy enough."
The camera moved into the village as a child was playing with a ball. He tossed it to her friends nearby. When they threw it back, it flew over her head and she gave chase. The ball landed in front of the figure as the girl picked it up. She looked up to the man and saw his ID badge reading [Arc, Jaune. Research Lead]. The sphere behind his head began to spin and glow as circles of light began to orbit the sphere. Soon, the black sphere turned a bright white and the screen cut away.
"What was that about?" Nora asked, but no one had an answer.
The screen focused on a pair of Braunwen bandits in a jeep overlooking the forest. All the while, they heard Mavi's voice in the background.
"This may well be my last entry where my mind remembers my name. I am Jaune Arc. I was the lead of the Enola Labs, seeking to find new sources of energy. The particles have coalesced together to become CURIE. She whispers in my ear. She tells me to meet others. To escape this place so we can be free. She wishes to wave to others as well. I do too. We'll shine so bright. Brighter than the sun!"
The two bandits were suddenly blinded by a sudden flash. Both assumed it was a flashbang grenade and dove behind their jeep. They both tried to blink away the flash and listened for shouting or bullets, but nothing happened. They could eventually see again and looked around, only to go wide eyed as they looked beyond the scene.
"What's going on?!" Nora was growing frustrated, "Where's the fight?! Those are bandits!"
Raven side eyed Nora in annoyance.
Blake's eyes narrowed before they instantly went wide. "No…"
The camera slowly turned to Mavi's words, "They wanted my research for a weapon. They'll have it."
The scene finally reached behind the men and showed a giant mushroom cloud in the forest. They could see the shockwave moving toward them before they were kicked up by the blast. The camera was taken and seemed to fly away with them and fell to the ground, cracking as it slammed into the ground.
"What's that CURIE? Ah yes~" It was Jaune's voice, echoing from nearby as his foot hit the ground as he walked passed the camera, "It DOES make you wish for a Nuclear Winter. I'm glad we agree. I'm sure everyone else does too~"
The scene cut off there and the screen went blank.
It was chilling in the room. Those who saw the world with the nuclear bombs were just as shaken as they were before, especially as they saw the moment before the explosion itself. Those who weren't there were extra shaken by the act and the destructive power on display. Jaune was extra, extra shaken by being the architect and the man who pulled the trigger on such an event. He wasn't taking that well.
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Anti-spoiler shield by scrollers
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Inspiration: CURIE from Pokemon Uranium (Fangame)