Breathe Chapter 57: Merlot Mishaps

Hiking through the woods alongside Team RWBY on a weekday, looking for signs of anything related to Dr. Merlot’s Mutant Deathstalker, wasn’t exactly what I’d expected to be doing on my first mission with the team.

It was unfortunate, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it right now. As much as I’d like to call for reinforcements, namely Pyrrha and Winter, the time it’d take for them to get here could mean all the difference between catching Merlot or letting him escape.

From the brief conversation I’d had with Ozpin, he’d seemed extremely interested in capturing Merlot... Something that I could understand. Outside of Salem, Dr. Merlot was the only one to successfully modify Grimm.

The largest and most dangerous Grimm he’d been able to mutate was the Deathstalker we’d just killed... Which, admittedly, wasn't that big of a threat, but if Merlot was given time to perfect his research, he might be able to do the same to far more problematic Grimm, maybe even Leviathan class Grimm.

“I think I see something,” Ruby announced from her spot high up in one of the trees, “It’s tall and it’s made of metal… I think it’s a crane… Yeah, definitely a crane.”

That was quick.

“Which direction?” I called out.

Humming, she pointed into the forest. “That way.”

It seemed to be in the same direction we’d been heading… Maybe a little to the side of the Deathstalkers tracks, but the Grimm could have been wandering around before locking on to Ruby after she used her eyes.

Hopping down from the tree tops, Ruby landed a little awkwardly. Shaking her arms to regain her balance, she took a step to steady herself and struck a small pose. “I’m ready to go,” She announced only for her sister to let out a soft snort. “Yang, don’t ruin my moment.”

“Sorry,” Yang grinned. “Go on.”

Crossing her arms, Ruby let out a small huff. “No, you ruined it.”

Right…

Stepping into the forest, I cut through a few of the lower hanging branches while keeping an eye out for the Grimm. It was a little odd though. Outside of a few stragglers, there just weren’t that many Grimm here.

Outside of Merlot abducting a few Grimm for his experiments, the only thing I could think of that might have thinned the horde was the Mutant Deathstalker. It was a little more intelligent than the other Grimm, so it wasn’t entirely out of the question.

Spotting the crane Ruby mentioned, we took a few more steps before we were greeted to a loading dock that appeared to be built into one of the various ruins that littered the Forests of Vale.

There was also a small cargo ship, but it was split in half with part of it having crashed into the bay, destroying several large cargo containers while the other half was partially submerged in the river below with the back end being completely submerged.

“Damn,” Maria whistled. “Something sure did a number on this place.”

“Yeah,” I muttered.

It really didn’t make sense though. This place was supposed to be up and running… Merlot’s Deathstalker was supposed to be on his Island, not here. Something was going on… Whatever it was… It was putting me on edge.

“Wait, is that the Schnee Dust Company logo,” Weiss said, noticing the cargo containers. “They look pretty old… Why would they be here?”

Narrowing her eyes, Blake glanced between her teammates before settling on Weiss. “It’s not uncommon for less reputable sources to… Acquire things that the Schnee Dust Company has no further use for.”

“You mean stolen,” Weiss replied. “These containers have been stolen from my family’s company.”

“As your family has stolen from others,” Blake muttered under her breath, going unheard by her teammates.

Coughing lightly, I stepped forward. “Yes, well, we should probably go see if there’s anything we can pull from the cargo ship. It was transporting those containers somewhere. If we can find out where, we’ll find the one responsible for all of this.”

“Heh, not a bad plan,” Maria noted. “But if I could make a suggestion. Why don’t we split up? I’ll search the containers with Ruby and Yang while you take the other two.”

“The other two?” Weiss muttered, sounding a little insulted.

Well… Even though she was retired, Maria was still more than capable of fending off anything that headed our way… And we would be able to cover more ground this way.

“What do you four think?” I asked. “Would you mind splitting up?”

“Um… I think…” Ruby began, glancing between her teammates.

“Hey, I’m down with whatever,” Yang shrugged.

Turning her gaze towards Weiss, the Schnee heiress sighed and nodded. “Sure, why not.”

“Whatever gets us out of this forest quicker,” Blake added.

“Then it’s settled,” Maria announced, clapping her hands. “Come along Ruby, Yang. We’ve got some containers to crack open. Who knows, we might even get to crack some heads while we’re at it.”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Yang grinned, eagerly following after Maria while Ruby trailed behind a little more hesitantly.

I guess that left me with the cargo ship.

“I don’t suppose either of you know how to hack a terminal?” I asked, glancing between the duo.

“Maybe,” Weiss replied. “It depends on what kind of equipment we’re dealing with.”

At least there was a chance, I turned towards Blake who stared back at me with a deadpan. Right… I guess that was a no on her part.

“Let’s get going then.”

Heading towards the ship, I sighed, palming my face when I saw the back end of the ship… The place where the terminal would likely be located, was flooded with the murky river water. Maria had specifically chosen to search the containers in order to avoid this.

“This is going to be fun,” I muttered sarcastically.

Climbing onto the outer deck, I squared my shoulders and began to make my way down with Weiss and Blake following a little further behind.

“We don’t have to make our way into the water… Do we?” Weiss asked.

“If that’s where the terminal is, then… Yeah,” I replied. Glancing back, it seemed that neither of them wanted to be here… Not that I could fault them. “The water doesn’t seem too deep. If you want, I could carry one of you while the other waits out here.”

“That would be me,” Blake said, giving the barest hint of a smile. “I’ll stand guard out here while you go on ahead.”

“What, but… Fine,” Weiss relented. “Just… Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“You, Yang and Ruby are literally the only people I talk to back in Beacon,” Blake deadpanned.

“…Okay then,” Weiss replied. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Nodding, I helped Weiss onto my back, before stepping into the murky water that flooded the passageway. Taking several more steps, I was almost waist deep in the water, just barely keeping Weiss out of it.

Traveling down one of the flooded hallways, Weiss used her Scroll to light the way. In a way, it reminded me of how we’d gotten trapped in that underground cave, except this time there was a whole lot more water and Raven wasn’t going to randomly show up.

“I think that’s it,” Weiss announced, gesturing towards one of the rooms.

“If you’re sure,” I hummed.

Stepping into the room, I waded my way through the water, before coming to a stop in front of what appeared to be a control panel. The majority of the thing was under water, but, judging by how it lit up, it was still active.

Leaning over my shoulder, Weiss’ eyes lit up with interest as she took in the machinery. “I know this. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be able to copy everything to my Scroll.”

“You’re the expert here,” I shrugged.

Leaning in closer so Weiss could work, a few moments passed by as she wirelessly connected her Scroll to the terminal. Tapping a few buttons on her Scroll, she hummed, satisfied with herself.

“There, once this is finished downloading, we’ll know exactly where this ship came from,” Weiss announced.

That was nice, but there was one small problem with all of that. Something slimy had wrapped itself around my ankles and was tugging on them experimentally.

“Hey Weiss, I need you to do me a favor,” I said. “Shine your Scroll’s light downward… Oh, and whatever you do, don’t freak out.”

“Why would I fre–“ Weiss froze as she shone the light down.

Although the water was extremely murky, we were both able to see a pair of long hooked tendrils under the water, wrapped around both of my legs. While it was a little creepy, it was nowhere near as bad as what I’d been imagining.

“Oh, so that’s what that was,” I idly commented. “How far is the download?”

“A little over half way,” Weiss replied. Shifting awkwardly, she attempted to reach for her weapon, stopping when she nearly dropped her Scroll. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

I nodded. “Once the download is done.”

With the awkward position I’d been put in, there was a very good chance that once I freed myself from the Grimm, it’d attack and while I could evade it, it might damage the terminal.

Waiting for a few tense moments, Weiss’ Scroll pinged, letting her know it was done.

Wasting no time, I summed several swords and had them go to work. Two sliced through the water, cutting the Grimms tendrils while the rest fired off into the room, stabbing through all the obvious spots the Grimm could be hiding.

Hearing a drowned hiss, the water began to splash about violently.

“Time to leave,” I muttered softly.

Tensing my legs, I launched myself through the room in one single leap. Darting out of the hatch, I bounded through the hallway, kicking off the walls in an attempt to avoid as much water as physically possible.

Landing on the dry deck only a few feet from Blake, I set Weiss down and turned towards the flooded passageway.

“What’s going on?” Blake asked cautiously, her hand on her blade.

“Grimm–” Weiss began.

“Fishing,” I responded.

Summoning a handful of blades, I waited until I saw a black, bulbous Grimm float down the passageway. Pointing towards it, the blades shot off one after the other, tearing through the Grimms body.

Watching its body dissolve, I recognized it as one of the weaker aquatic Grimm that were often found in lakes and rivers. They didn’t really have any ability to attack. No. What they did do was tire their Prey out by wrapping them in their hooked tendrils and letting them try to escape

They weren’t a threat to anyone with Aura, but to the average person, they would be able to tear into them quite viciously.

“…Did you get what you were looking for?” Blake asked, choosing to ignore what she just saw.

“We did,” Weiss replied. Holding her Scroll up. “And all that without a single drop of wate–“

“Heads up!” Yang called out as she bounded off the side of the ship.

Turning towards her teammate, a wave of mud splattered across Weiss as a spinning Boarbatusk slammed into the hull.

“What?!” Weiss shrieked.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Blake hummed. “It turns out that those containers are filled with Grimm. Ruby, Yang and Maria have been taking turns killing them.”

“But… But the mud?!”

“We are on a river bank, it’s bound to get muddy out there,” Blake replied.

Angrily splashing the mud off her, Weiss looked down at her dress mournfully. “Why always me? This is never going to come out.”

Sighing, I opened my inventory and began to look for clothes. While I doubt I had anything in Weiss’ style, I had to have something she could wear in the meanwhile.

…Breathe…

Traveling towards the last known coordinates from the cargo ship barely took an hour. From the log that Weiss managed to download, the trip would have taken several more if we’d gone by ship.

Upon nearing the Island, it was painfully clear that something had happened here. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said that it was hit by a natural disaster… Something like a hurricane or an earthquake.

Unfortunately that didn’t seem to be the case here. The only thing that appeared to be damaged were man made objects, specifically the radio towers that were stationed around the island alongside dozens of Androids that had been torn apart.

“I’m getting the distinct feeling that we weren’t the first to arrive here,” Maria commented. Flipping a few switches on the Airship, she brought it down lower so that we could get a closer look. “Whoever they were, they certainly did a number on this place.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, glancing at the trail of scrapped Androids. “Let’s see where it goes.”

“As if you needed to ask,” Maria smirked.

Increasing the speed of the Airship, she followed the trail of destruction. Taking us over the island, we passed over what appeared to be an industrial area that contained large, inactive pumps that were connected to large pits filled with a glowing green fluid.

In a strange sort of way, it kind of resembled a Grimm spawning pool.

The facility felt eerily abandoned… Even by the Grimm. There was quite literally nothing moving on the island. Only a strange sense of emptiness remained. I almost wanted to suggest turning back, but decided against it. We’d come too far to stop now… And, I needed to know what happened to Merlot.

“Well, that’s where the path ends,” Maria commented. “It’s not a bad place to land either. What do you say?”

“May as well,” I shrugged.

Smirking, Maria brought the Airship into a nosedive, drawing a startled shriek from the passengers cabin. Pulling back on the wheel, she hit a few switches, stalling the Airship only a few feet off the ground.

“Heh, still got it,” Maria muttered proudly.

“Sure,” I hummed, rolling my eyes in amusement.

Heading into the passenger cabin, I was greeted to the sight of a disgruntled Team RWBY… Well, mostly disgruntled. Yang seemed to enjoy Maria’s sudden descent. Ruby didn’t look too bothered by it either.

Weiss on the other hand looked downright angry, but seeing as she was currently drowning in one of my white hoodies, it didn’t look all that intimidating.

Blake on the other hand…

“Was that completely necessary?” Blake asked, appearing disgruntled.

“Just making sure you four were awake,” Maria grinned. “Trust me, I’ve had far worse wakeup calls than a little bit of turbulence.”

“That’s…” Blake began, growing visibly frustrated before sighing. “Never mind.”

“Right, well, let’s get going,” I announced, opening the hatch. “There’s something seriously off about this Island, so stick together and be on the lookout for anything suspicious.”

“Off how?” Yang asked, appearing a little concerned. “Like a bottle of milk left in the sun for too long or a rotten egg that just popped?”

That… I wasn’t exactly sure what to say to that. “Probably something in between,” I replied, scratching the back of my head.

“So a five on a scale of ten,” Yang nodded, smirking.

“…Sure,” I answered. “Just… Watch each other’s backs out there and everything will be fine.”

“We’ll do our best,” Ruby said, cocking her gun.

“Okay,” I hummed.

Stepping off the Airship, I was immediately greeted by a potent chemical smell that burned my nose. Taking a slow breath, I walked through a large set of broken mechanical doors.

Heading into a long set of hallways, I was relieved to find the chemical smell growing progressively weaker.

“Is anyone else getting horror movie vibes?” Yang asked, glancing around the abandoned facility.

“Pshaw,” Ruby answered confidently, only to let out a startled eep when she accidentally kicked a stray piece of metal. “This… This is nothing.”

“Right,” Yang drawled. “Guess it’s just me then.”

“There is something vaguely unsettling about this place,” Weiss commented.

They weren’t wrong to feel a little unsettled. There was just something about this place that put me on edge. “We should probably look for a control room,” I said, looking at one of the few camera’s that hadn’t been ripped from the wall.

“Like back on the cargo ship,” Weiss nodded.

“Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but this place is a lot larger than that ship,” Maria commented. “I’d suggest splitting up like we did back at the loading dock, but that might be a bad idea. Who knows what might be in here with us.”

I nodded slowly. “Then I guess we’re just going to have to keep following the trail of broken Androids until we find what we’re looking for.”

With that said, we descended further into the lab. It didn’t take long before we came across an elevator that took us deeper into the lab.

Coming to a stop, I stepped off the elevator and was immediately hit with several different scents… The smell of blood being the one that stood out the most.

Following it as best as I could, I gestured for everyone to stick close. Walking down several more hallways, I finally came across a mostly dry pool of blood that led off into what appeared to be a dead end. However, one with a blood stained control panel built into the wall on the side.

“What’re you thinking?” Maria asked, standing by my side.

“I’m thinking that there’s a room behind this wall,” I replied.

Grabbing my sword, I took a hissed breath and slashed through the wall several times. Pulling back to deliver the final cut, Yang sped past me, delivering a heavy punch that shook the surrounding area and shattered the wall.

Turning around, Yang grinned boisterously. “What? I thought you wanted to bring the wall down?”

Chuckling softly as I shook my head, I suddenly froze when a new scent hit me. One of decay.

“Ugh, what’s that smell?” Weiss complained, blocking her nose.

“Death,” Blake muttered.

“You four might want to avoid this next part,” I said.

Patting Yang on the shoulder, I stepped past her, into the hidden room. Looking around, it didn’t take long at all to discover the source of the smell.

Sitting in a chair positioned in front of several monitors was Merlot’s body… Well, everything save for an arm. He also appeared to have a substantial wound just below his ribcage, but it didn’t look immediately fatal.

“What happened to him?” Ruby asked softly.

“That’s what I’m hoping to find out,” I replied.

Wheeling Merlot’s chair to the side, I approached the terminal and began paging through it. Finding the video feed, I jumped to an earlier one where Merlot was still alive and fast forwarded my way through it.

For the most part, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Merlot went about his day experimenting on Grimm, killing most of them in the process… At least until a week ago when he was visited by two extremely familiar men… Hazel Rainart and Arthur Watts.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

That wasn’t good… Although, on the bright side, Merlot didn’t join Salem, so there was that.

The rest of the video was fairly straight forward. Merlot sent wave after wave of his Grimm and Androids to kill Salem’s agents, only to have them effortlessly torn apart. The duo continued into his lab where Watts began hacking into his servers.

Merlot on the other hand… He left the safety of this room and unlocked one of his labs. The next time we saw Merlot, he was making his way back here, clutching his chest with his remaining hand.

From there, the video feed began to cut out with camera after camera was destroyed by something that was just out of sight. The final video was of Hazel, amped up on dust escaping while carrying Watts’ wounded form.

“Well that’s not good,” I said once the final screen faded to black.

“Oh, you think?” Maria asked sarcastically. “Whatever that was that he let out could still be down here and, unless you’re planning on hunting the thing, we should leave immediately.”

“…But before that,” I began, drawing a groan from Maria. “We should copy Merlot’s research. It shouldn’t be too difficult from here, right?”

I mean, this was his main control room… I think.

Giving me a pointed look, Maria sighed. “Fine, go ahead.”

“Great,” I hummed. “Weiss, could I ask you to help me out with this?”

“…Alright,” She muttered, shooting a wary look towards Merlot’s corpse. “The sooner it can get us out of this place, the better.”

Connecting her Scroll to the terminal, the screens lit up for a moment, showing that it’d been accepted, only to suddenly turn black.

“What, did we blow a fuse?” Yang asked, only for the screens to light up once more.

“Greetings Arthur… Hazel,” Merlot announced, his wounded image appearing on the screens. “I feel the need to congratulate you… Making it this far. Fighting off the Grimm I unleashed is no easy task… Especially with the modifications I’ve made to it. I’d applaud you, but unfortunately… I find myself incapable of doing so at this moment.”

“This has to be about the weirdest dying message I’ve ever seen,” Maria idly commented.

“It is a pity that it’s come to this,” Merlot grimaced. “I would have liked to linger on a while longer, but I only have a handful of minutes left at best. I do hope that I’ve taken down one of you… That’d prove a point to that vindictive little brat. The Grimm are not solely Salems. Why should I have to bow my head to her if I want to experiment on them?”

Falling into a coughing fit, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Wow, this guy really knows how to draw out his death,” Yang said.

“I imagine that you’re wondering what the point of all this is,” Merlot noted. “But trust me, there is one. For you see, the naturally occurring chemicals on this island are fairly volatile… Especially when unrefined. As it so happens, I’ve found a Grimm pool on this island… Not too far off from a major deposit of these chemicals.”

Shit!

“Forget the message, we’re leaving now!” I announced, stepping out into the hallway.

“The moment you activated this message is the moment in which you’ve sealed your fate!” Merlot laughed maniacally as the bunker began to rumble.

Rushing through the hallways, we made it to the elevator and began making our ascent. Reaching the first floor, we left Merlot’s laboratory behind and boarded the Airship.

“Let’s get this thing in the air,” I said to Maria. “I’ll keep an eye out for the–“

Hearing a feral shriek come from inside the Airship, an extremely dense body smashed into mine, tackling me out the back door.

-100AP

Landing on the ground outside, I rolled to my feet and drew my blade just in time to block the Grimm’s slash.

Taking a brief moment to examine the Grimm’s features, I raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t exactly what I’d expected it to be.

Possessing an almost humanoid body, The Grimm had two of its limbs replaced by blades. It’s head… If you could call it that, it was more of an extended mouth than anything else. It did appear to have a few eyes, but they appeared to be switched out with cybernetic implants.

It kind of resembled a praying mantis… Minus the bottom half.

Separating from the modified Grimm, I lashed out with a kick, sending it tumbling backwards. “Go… Get the Airship started… I’ll follow once you’re in the air,” I called out, not taking my eyes off the Grimm.

“You better not take too long. We don’t exactly have a lot of time,” Maria called out.

Almost as if to prove her point, the ground began to rumble as a large slope of land cracked in half.

“I’ll be right with you,” I replied. Taking a hissed breath, I launched myself forward and slammed my sword against the Grimms bladed arms. “This shouldn’t take too long.”

It was a pity too. I really would have liked to take my time with this Grimm. It wasn’t too often that I faced one that was able to block my attacks.

Breathing easily, I gripped my blade and pressed forward, forcing the Grimm to take a step backwards. Breaking free from the lock, I swung my sword down with enough force to completely overwhelm the Grimm, cracking its blades.

“Sun Breathing: Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance”
-800 AP

Stepping past it, my blade cut through its body, spraying a mist of cyan blood out onto the ground below.

Flicking my blade clean of the chemical, I sheathed it and glanced at the Grimm’s crumbling body one last time. “Sorry, I really would have liked to take my time, but I do need to leave.”

Turning towards the Airship, I kicked off the ground and landed in the passenger cabin alongside Team RWBY who’d been waiting.

Maria, seeing that we were all on board, took off, causing the Airship to shudder violently.

“You know, you could have let us take a crack at that thing first,” Yang commented.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Pyrrha or Winter could have handled that thing on their own, but Team RWBY just wasn’t ready for a Grimm of that nature. Especially not when we were escaping.

“We just didn’t have ti–“

A massive explosion rocked the island with the shockwave smashing into the back of the Airship, threatening to knock it out of the sky.

Steadying myself, I looked out of a broken window only to see that a portion of the island was now missing.

“You know what, I take it back,” Yang chuckled weakly. Looking at the damage, she whistled. “This is gonna make for one hell of a story though. You think the other teams back at Beacon will be impressed?”

Sighing, I slapped my palm to my face. “Yeah… Probably.”

At least the island was uninhabited. If this went down in Patch, there'd be hell to pay.