Chapter 123 - The Grand Tour (1)

As they started walking further into the facility they across a speaker where they could hear Dr. Merlot's voice but more chipper and not like before.

Merlot: [Speaker] "Greetings, and welcome to Merlot Industries, where we're building a better tomorrow... today!"

Weiss: "This place is a bit creepy."

Shallot: "Really? This place is creepy? You do know that we just walked through what was the equivalent of the slums for the Grimms right? I think spiders are more creepy, to be honest."

Yang: "Wow, Merlot keeps this place sparkling. I guess his robots are good for something."

Shallot: "Doesn't Ironwood keep the robots doing something like this also?"

Weiss: "Not really. From what my sister has told me they are only using them for combat and protection of supplies from our family."

Shallot: "Seems like a waste to me... wait didn't you say they use robots for Atlas?"

Weiss: "They don't use androids for maintenance they use robots."

Yang: "And what the difference?"

Weiss: "Androids are like the ones that Pyrrha crumpled up while the robots in charge of cleaning and maintaining Atlas and the area around the general are cleaning bots and other machines."

Fox: "That seems... wasteful."

Yatsuhashi: "I agree with that. It seems that if they made a larger number of androids and gave them commands like keep certain area cleans and work in areas that may be too dangerous for people they can limit the danger for others."

Coco: "He probably has his reasons for why he doesn't use them for that."

They continued walking down the hallway. They looked through some glass and could see a machine-building the androids that Pyrrha had crumpled. The floors had hexagon tiles leading forward, while the inside color scheme was mostly red and gray.

They didn't know which way to go but seeing that there was only one way forward they continued walking while Ozpin started talking.

Ozpin: "Team, in order for me to help you, I'll need to know the layout of the lab. Keep your eyes peeled for any maps, schematics, or better yet - any access terminals that would allow us to tap into Merlot's network."

They continued walking forward until they came across a panel like the one that was connected to the signal jammers. They pressed the screen and space they were in moved taking them down.

Jaune: "Oh, it's an elevator and not a trap."

Shallot: "Do you think I would willingly walk into a trap."

Blake looked at Shallot.

Shallot: "What?"

Blake: "You would willingly walk into a trap if you know that they can't do anything to you just so you could see their reaction when it doesn't work."

Coco: "Really? Most people would avoid traps."

The pathway opened to another area as they continued walking forward.

Shallot: "It depends on if I'm bored or not."

Ruby: "I'm surprised the elevator didn't break considering you've been increasing the gravity on yourself."

Shallot: "I stopped using it when we were walking across the catwalk earlier since I didn't want to have the chance of making it collapse and we fall into the green goop."

They walked through the pathway coming across a mutated Beowulf. Ruby petal burst at the Grimm swinging with the attack hitting its arm sending it flying into the air. She spun like a top in the air taking its head then split the body in half after rotating to the side. They all continued forward when they could see a man's face appear on a tv above the door they need to go through.

Merlot: "Making yourselves at home, I see? I want my guests to feel welcome, but my security team rarely feels the same way."

The door opened and they continued walking through. In front of them, their path was blocked by hot steam from a pipe that had a hole in it.

Shallot: "Good thing we have a handy dandy Pyrrha whose a professional builder who can take care of this busted pipe."

Pyrrha walked forward and bent the burst part of the pipe back towards its place from before with only a small amount of steam coming from it.

Coco: "We could have just walked through that. Our aura would have made it that we would have been fine."

Blake: "He knows that, he just like doing unnecessary things."

Shallot: "I consider it flair."

Shallot appeared right next to them will looking forward down the walkway. They continued walking before they came across another area that was like a walkthrough exhibition.

Merlot: [Speaker] "Here at Merlot Industries, we take pride in innovation. Together, with your help... and a little of your special spark, we will build a better tomorrow!"

Ozpin: [Comms] "For you, Merlot, there won't be any tomorrow to 'restore'."

They saw a wall that said Atrium and was going to walk through there when they saw a hole open in the ceiling. Two Beowolves dropped down with them being finished before they even reached the ground. They continued forward on the path and took an elevator.

They took the elevator down

Merlot: [Speakers] "Here before you are the stage two processing tanks!"

They could see tanks filled with the same blue liquid that was outside across the ground that was responsible for mutating the Grimm. Every time a Grimm walked through the liquid it started mutating. While everyone was looking at the tanks Shallot was thinking about what he was going to make for food when he got back.

They could see that there were five containers with the blue liquid.

Yang: "Those tanks must be filled with catnip for Grimm."

Coco: "We should take care of the vats before leaving the area since this seems to be what's mutating the Grimm."

Ruby used her Crescent Rose to fire at the containers. It took 3 shots to each one to break them.

Ruby: "It seems that it had seemed really strong glass."

They then took care of the Grimm that was there while avoiding stepping in whatever the liquid was. They weren't sure how it would react to aura and since they were covering themselves with aura they didn't want to find it.

They continued walking when Dr. Merlot could be heard breathing out a sigh. Shallot activated the program on his scroll so that he could hear what Dr. Merlot was saying but he couldn't get any information from his device.

Merlot: [Comms] "I would appreciate it if you didn't break all my things, but alas, my Androids will rebuild it in no time. This way please."

Weiss: "Is it just me, or is he a little too welcoming?"

Shallot: "Well, obviously he has set a trap which should be able to stop us seeing that his droids are useless thanks to Pyrrha, his Grimms are nothing more than time buyers, while the layout keeps us moving in a certain direction."

They walked until they got to another elevator taking it down further down.

Ruby: "Going... down!"

They stepped off of the elevator and walked down the corridor that had some droids waiting for them.

Merlot: [Comms] "Here we have the Engineering wing, the so called 'brains' of the operation if you're not counting my intellect

He laughs to himself then continued.

Merlot: [Comms] "Don't be timid, there aren't any traps here... yet."

Pyrrha tried crushing the droids with her semblance seeing that it wasn't working like before but she could still destroy the weapons. She destroyed the weapon and Yang rushed forward throwing a single punch to both of the droids destroying them.

After they destroyed the droids they looked around seeing that they could see that the room was filled with computers.

Blake: "There are computers everywhere in here."

Yang: "Professor Ozpin, we found the mother lode of motherboards."

Coco: "We appear to be in some sort of data processing center. We will try to gather information from here before continuing."

~~~

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