9 Merlot Industries Part 2
POV Taiyang Xiao Long
In addition to notifying Ozpin of their discoveries in Mountain Glenn, Qrow had also informed Taiyang, leading to him joining the team to come see his wife. With little Ruby nestled in one arm, and Yang walking alongside him, he arrived at the hotel where Summer was staying and headed up to her room there.
His goal wasn't just to cheer up his wife, though. He'd also heard about Summer finding a mysterious three-year-old boy and planning to bring him home with her after this job. As a dutiful father, he wanted to meet this little boy and see what he was like. Qrow hadn't gone into any details, only saying that he was a bit weird, and really strong in spite of being only three-years old.
Tai knocked on Summers door, and was surprised when the little boy answered it. Fist off, he looked like he was at least four or five years old, not three, as Qrow had said he was, and second was his odd grey skin color, though his body seemed quite a bit sculpted for one so little as well. It was indeed quite mysterious.
Of course, if he thought Death was muscular, how shocked would Taiyang be if he were to meet War, who was even more muscular already by a considerable degree.
"Birdie!" Little Yang pointed to the crow that was standing on the boys head excitedly.
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POV Death
Though he hadn't recognized Taiyang at first glance, but once he took note of baby Ruby and three-year old Yang, he knew who they were "Hello, you're Yang, right? My name is Death. It's a pleasure to meet you." he then looked at Taiyang "You must be Miss Summer's husband. She's in the bathroom, showering, I'm sure it'll be okay for you to enter" he stepped back to let them enter.
"How old are you, young man?" Tai asked as he brought the girls into the room, though Yang looked flustered and embarrassed.
"Three years old, I think." Death answered plainly "Physically I am, at least. But at one point I jumped into something called the Well of Souls, but I'm not sure how long I was in there, nor how long I hovered unagingly in the void between universes. If you want to know my physical age, then three, if you want to know my mental age, then my species, the Nephilim, emotionally develop faster then humans, so maybe ten to twelve. If you want to know how many years ago I came into existence, including all the time I slumbered in the Well of Souls and in the void between universes, then the number is probably at least in the billions."
Tai had been told that the boy was a bit odd, but had not thought that he'd say something like that "Do you have a mother? A father? Older siblings?"
"I had an older brother once, his name was Absalom, but he envied humanity and wanted to destroy them, so the Charred Council gave me and the three of my younger siblings willing to follow me great strength, which we used to kill the rest of our evil siblings, to prevent them from following Absalom to wipe out humanity. I had to personally kill Absalom when he prepared an army to attack humanity and then a second time when he resurrected as an Avatar of Corruption. As for a mother, my entire species was created by a demoness named Lilith, using the mingled dust of angels and demons. Our creator could be considered the closest thing to a mother we have, but if she is still alive, I've no plan of ever meeting her again. She only ever saw us all as pawns or tools, and never had any sort of motherly affection for us." Death explained to Taiyang "I guess...you could say I've already been through a lot. Also, my memories are a bit of a mess after my time in the Well of Souls followed by the void between universes. I'm not even sure how I got out of it. I explain this to you since Miss Summer wants to help me, so you will need to know too, right? She can tell you the rest later, I think." he wisely left out the future stuff for now. "Maybe I should make a pamphlet in case I need to tell someone else in the future." Death seriously considered this option, since it would get boring if he had to re-explain his origin all the time "Oh, I have three living younger siblings that may have followed me to this world. In order of when they were born after me, they are Strife, Fury, and War. Our original purpose was to protect humanity from Angels, Demons and other Nephilim like us, so wherever my younger siblings are, I'm sure they'll be trying to do good now that this world is our new home."
Of course, retelling it more times, seemingly adding in new details, added to the believability of his claim that his memory was a fragmented mess, so he actually was happy to have many excuses to retell it, but decided that as a kid he should probably lose patience with retelling it over and over again, hence the pamphlet idea.
Even if he hadn't really lost patience for it yet, he probably would in the near future, so he did not actually think it was a bad idea to make that pamphlet.
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POV Taiyang Xiao Long
Taiyang found himself quite disturbed by what Death had said, and a part of him didn't want this boy who had experienced so much death in spite of being so young anywhere near his daughters, but there was another part of him that pitied the little guy, who it sounded like was created and had never experienced the love of a mother or a father.
"If you are three, then why are you so large? Taiyang asked.
"Because I am Nephilim. We were designed by Lilith to be great warriors and to have violent natures." Death shrugged "My surviving brothers and I are the ones who have surpassed those negative tendencies, while my sister Fury embraces her violent heritage, but harnesses it to do good."
Taiyang naturally wanted to protect his daughters, but after hearing about this boys past, he couldn't really hate him. After all, it seemed like he was a victim and made the most of his circumstances, in Taiyang's mind, and he thought he could understand why Summer wanted to take care of him.
As he was thinking of Summer, she emerged from the bathroom and spotted Taiyang and the girls, seeming surprised, yet very happy, as she ran over to embrace her husband, of course careful not to harm little Ruby in her excitement.
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Summer and Taiyang talked a bit, and Summer properly introduced Yang and little Ruby to Death. Summer did briefly take Taiyang aside and told him the bits that Death had left out, about descending to this world because in he'd seen Ruby at 15 years old wielding a scythe and thought she was cute.
'Damnit Qrow' Taiyang thought when he first heard that, but when he heard that since descending Death had by coincidence prevented Salem from discovering her silver eyes trait, and that she would have been assassinated in the next three years if they had been discovered, he no longer cursed Qrow.
He was further impressed to hear about the Luck Nullification ability, which would make it easier for Qrow to be around the girls in the future. In short, she convinced him of the benefits to them of taking in little Death, but also stressed that she wanted to give him a home with a loving family.
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POV Death
Time passed and afternoon arrived, with Qrow spending much of the morning investigating matters solo. When Qrow returned, he had Summer and Death come to his room, not wanting to have the girls overhear what he learned.
Only once they were behind closed doors did he say that he had infiltrated Merlot Industries and found that they had captured Grimm at a hidden base and were experimenting on them to make them even more deadly, and to make them controllable.
After reporting this to Summer and Death, they reported to Ozpin, and then to the Vale Council.. By morning the original twelve huntsmen/huntresses that the council had planned to send had become thirty-two.
Qrow and Summer had wanted to keep Death away from the raid, but he said that he needed to see the job through to the end, so with reluctance they allowed him to come along.
Of course, the other huntsmen and huntresses gave him looks, but he could tell that for most of them they didn't like the idea of a kid tagging along, but Summer was the commander of this raid so they couldn't complain.
Rather then going to the Headquarters of Merlot Industries, Summer led the group to the secret research facility and Qrow brought them inside. As they entered, though, a huge monitor lit up, revealing the scene of Dr. Merlot looking smug in an advanced looking workspace "Huntsman and Huntresses, what are you doing at this facility?" he asked them.
"the Vale Council knows what you've been up too, Merlot. Surrender now and end this madness." Summer demanded.
"Oh please." Merlot rolled his eyes in annoyance and showed them all a remote he held "I wont let anyone get in the way of my dreams, not even the Vale Council. Turn around and leave. If you do not do so, I will only need to push a single button to release every Grimm I have already captured from all eight of my facilities. Destroying Mountain Glenn may slow down my research for a time, but it may be a necessary sacrifice in the name of science if you force my hand."
The whole time they were talking, Death came up with a plan. He did not know if this would work, but figured it was with a try.
Death disappeared from beside Summer, reappearing behind Dr Merlot in the video, already swinging 'Harvester at the Doctor's neck and separating it from the rest of his body before catching the remote, careful not to press any buttons on it. Teleport Slash worked to teleport himself behind anyone he could see, and attack that person, but to think it could be used in this way, he was quite thrilled, though he kept a straight face.
Doctor Merlot never had a chance to understand what had happened to him, but the other huntsmen and huntresses that had looked down on Death before because he was a kid did not do so anymore. Death could tell that because there was also a monitor in the laboratory where he had just arrived show the entry he had just left.
Death then used teleport slash a second time, without the attack portion of the maneuver, and reappeared behind Summer while receiving two notifications.
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Hidden Quest Complete : Kill Dr. Malcolm Merlot
Reward : Other World Roulette Spin (Value 1,000,000 Shop Points), Orange Feather, 2,000 exp, 2,000 Shop Points
Failure : Dr. Merlot eventually joins up with Salem
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Quest Complete : Prove that Merlot Industries is responsible for luring Creatures of Grimm into Mountain Glenn
Reward : Other World Roulette Spin x3 (Value 1,000,000 Shop Points each), 2,000 exp, 2,000 Shop Points
Failure : Mountain Glenn is Destroyed by the Creatures of Grimm.
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"Bad Doctor wont destroy Mountain Glenn anymore." Death said to the others while putting Merlot's remote into his storage space, causing it to seemingly cease to exist. Following that statement, Harvester disappeared from his hand and they safely searched the facility they were at, discovered the location of the other seven facilities, and systematically raided them all.
While the huntsmen and huntresses were killing the Grimm at each site, Death had wanted to participate and collect some experience, but he was stuck hanging back with Summer and Qrow who were ready to step in if anyone need help, but it never became necessary to do so.
Unfortunately, the system did not recognize these other Huntsmen and Huntresses as allies, so he did not get any experience from their kills, nor did he get experience when he killed Dr. Merlot, though he did get experience for completing the Hidden quest to kill him.
It seemed like the system did not award experience for killing humans, and likely the same was true for killing faunus, not that he would have done so to begin with. It surprised Death how easily he had killed Merlot, and how little it affected him emotionally, leaving him to only guess that a bit of the real Death had rubbed off on him as well. All he knew was that at that time, Merlot had to die.
It was pretty late when the last site was raided, the last of the evidence was collected, and the last of the Grimm were exterminated, but they finally made it back to the hotel room.
The next morning, Qrow said that he wanted to bring Death to meet Ozpin, but that he should have a few days to recover first. As a result he headed back to Patch bright and early with Taiyang, Summer, Ruby, and Yang. While on the Bullhead to Patch, Death decided to roll all of the roulette spins that he acquired the past few days, beginning with the Other World Roulette Spins.
Around and around it went before finally stopping on 'Seto Kaiba's Duel Disk, which was pretty useless to him unless he somehow went into the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, which seemed unlikely. The second Other World Roulette Spin gave him something called a 'Green Lantern Central Power Battery', but he had no clue what that even was, so he decided to investigate it later. The third spin was another item, a 'Mantle of the Force' Kyber Crystal, which he recalled from a video game called Knights of the Old Republic. The fourth and final spin was finally a skill, called 'Create ID'
Next, Death did two Premium Roulette Spins, with the first spin landing on something called a V7 Scroll, and the final spin landing on something completely unexpected, followed by a notification.
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Mutation : St. John Allerdyce
X-gene/Quirk gene detected.
Installation Complete
X-gene/Quick gene status is dormant.
Please activate your X-gene/Quirk gene to use : Mutation : St. John Allerdyce
Mutation/Quirk Skill Trees sealed while X-gene/Quirk gene remains dormant.
Notices : One mutation can be used at a time, and if you acquire multiple mutations you can freely swap between them. Only by completing the skill tree associated with the mutation can it be completely fused into hosts body and be used along with other mutations Gene Awakener can be purchased from the Shop for 1,000,000,000 Shop Points.
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Death was stunned by the notification, and wanted to check out the new skill tree, but he couldn't view it. All he could see was the name of the Skill Tree, which was Pyromancer. There wasn't much he could do about it for the moment, though, so he decided to relax and enjoy the flight to his new home, the Island of Patch.
He hardly had time to think about that, though, when a black portal appeared near them, and a young girl was thrown through it right at Taiyang. Though surprised, Taiyang had good reaction time and managed to catch the girl just fine. Summer and Taiyang looked at each other knowingly as the black portal vanished, and both sighed.
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POV Cinder Fall
After playing dead for a long while, the bandits had finally left her alone, though Cinder did not dare to more, waiting for a rescue to come from Mistral. The next person to arrive was a woman, but she wore a frightening mask, and gave Cinder a bad feeling, so she continued playing dead.
She started panicking when the frightening woman checked her pulse, but felt powerless to do anything. The next moment, she was thrown, and somehow caught by a man, but she was already passing out from fear and shock at that time.
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Name : Death
Age : 3
Race : Nephilim
Transformation : Reaper Form (Cooldown : Approximately 39 days)
Summon : Despair, Dust
Semblance : Divine Regeneration (100% of all energies and heath regenerates every five seconds)
Other World Abilities : Kurama's Negative Emotion Sense, Create ID
Level : 22
Experience : 960/3900
Health : 520/520
Wrath : 320/320
Aura : 1320/1320
Strength : 32
Defense : 32
Arcane : 32
Resistance : 32
Allocate Points : 88
Primary Weapon : Desolation Twin Scythes
- Damage (Fast) : 241-277
- Crit Chance : +30%
- Crit Damage : +32%
- Strength : +79
- Health Steal : +30%
Secondary Weapon : Decimating Hammer
- Damage (Slow) : 673-775
- Defense : +194
- Strength : +79
- Resistance : +195
- Wrath Steal : +30%
Tertiary Weapos : Ebony and Ivory
- Damage (Very Fast) : 172-228
- Crit Chance : +40%
- Crit Damage : +58%
- Arcane: +112
- Wrath Steal : +20%
Shop Points : 5072
Inventory : Torchwick's Lighter (Infinite Lighter Fluid), Yellow Feather, Yellow Feather, Orange Feather, Merlot's Remote, Seto Kaiba's Dual Disk, Green Lantern Central Power Battery, Mantle of the Force Kyber Crystal, V7 Scroll
