48 Merlot’s Island Final

The tense situation of alarms blaring all around the facility was contradicted by the presence of relaxing elevator music.

Neo tapped her foot to the beat while waiting for the elevator to go up the entire height of the central tower.

The elevator rang out its chimes as the levels kept going up in the display. With nothing to do while waiting, Neo spots the camera keeping watch. Its black lens staring back at Neo.

She smiles at the camera and waves.

As the elevator dings a final time, the doors open to reveal the topmost floor the elevator is allowed to arrive at. She peeks out, using her semblance to its fullest by being invisible.

She glances to the right and left, her heterochromatic eyes switching places as she spots a pair of panicked employees bickering over something.

She gets out of the elevator and stalks the pair of researchers. The clack of her heels was muffled by the sound of machinery still being kept powered on.

A scientist with a concerned look spoke out. "What of the others?!" He says, pleading for them to try to evacuate the remnants of Merlot's employees.

"Are you mad?! They're gone! Those that can still get here are welcome to come aboard but we won't mount any kind of rescue for that."

He turns around and pulls out his ID card. He slots it in an opening on the table in front of him and taps away at the display. The speakers all over the destroyed facility turn on.

He taps the hologram and static could be heard before dying down. He prepares to speak before being interrupted by the other researcher behind him.

"There should still be an effort-" He reaches for the other person only for his hand to get hit away aggressively.

"No, I'm calling it in. We might be the same rank but I will not delay our escape any longer."

He announces a final warning to whoever could still walk and fight their way toward the central tower. It was hopeless, however, a normal human, much less one with no aura couldn't hope to stand against hordes of grimm overrunning the facility.

The security robots that were meant to combat an outbreak were the same ones that Hanns had destroyed. The lack of a security system made it possible for the grimm to overrun the well-defended facility in the first place.

After the pair of scientists were done with the announcement they rushed towards the upper floors. Unknowingly leading Neo there as she kept silently following them around.

They went through dozens of staircases but finally reached what looked like the second-highest floor. It was only one more floor and they would reach the top where presumably Merlot was located.

A security door was blocking their way to the topmost floor. Two terminals are present on either side. The scientist goes to each one as the one on the right pulls out his ID card.

"You good? In case of mine doesn't work you'll use your ID instead." the man on the right says.

A loud thud sounded just as he looked down to his terminal. His hand was inches away from pressing the button to start the scan. He looks towards his partner who was now bleeding to death, hunched over.

"What the!"

He felt something bad going to happen, he instinctively ducks down and avoids Neo's surprise attack by chance.

The scientist falls to the ground and tries to take out his gun underneath his coat. He points towards the attacker only to see the mirror image of himself staring back at him.

'Shit it's the illusionist! I thought she was supposed to be controlling that vehicle of theirs!'

He fires towards the mirror image of himself. The illusion breaks and was replaced by empty space. He feels a kick impact his ribs and he gets sent to the nearby doors. He grabs his chest in pain but lifts his gun to fight back.

His tenacity doesn't go unnoticed. Neo was entertained by the scientist desperately fighting her despite being outmatched in every way.

He tries shooting her but keeps dodging and playfully flipping around while smiling at the frightened and shaken scientist. Neo closes in, slowly making her way to him while flourishing her hidden blade.

The researcher goes for the terminal but trips. As soon as he turns around, Neo was already stabbing his leg to immobilize him.

"Gah! You bitch!"

Neo approaches him even more, her face only a few inches from his own. He raises his gun and points it straight at her head. Neo smiles, taunting him from even trying to shoot her.

Angry at the deaths of his many friends he pulls the trigger.

*Click*

He widens his eyes and tries pulling the trigger again and again. Neo mimics a laugh and raises her hand to count. It reaches her 9th finger and she wags her head. 'You didn't count.' The man translates her pantomiming.

Neo raises her blade, ready to plunge it deep into the man's skull.

"A-"

His screams were silenced by Neo's blade burying itself inside his head. Neo makes the limp body fall as she flicks her blade to remove the blood splattering all over her hidden blade.

Neo walks to the terminal and makes her face an illusion to match the scientist's. She places her hand on the terminal and tries to activate the scan.

"Error: Failed Attempt Requires Second Synchronous Scan"

Neo clicks her tongue and looks towards the other terminal.

In a final attempt to stop Neo, the other scientist barely lived long enough during the fight and activated the scan, purposefully making it fail. He died before he could make it lockdown completely.

Neo walked towards the other body and pulled on the head. The scientist's body was still intact enough for Neo's next move. Which was to prop him up to try and simultaneously scan.

At first, she drags him up to make the lifeless body stand up but the body crumples to the floor. Neo then tries to use her umbrella to make the body lean against the wall. Her umbrella slips and the body smacks right into the wall.

Finally, she takes out her blade and forcefully stabs it through the entire body, and digs it into the wall. It starts slipping downwards as she quickly uses her parasol part of the umbrella to prop the body up even more.

Neo rushes to the terminals and inserts the IDs again and starts the scan. The body is propped up crudely by Hush and falls to the ground as the weight couldn't be held up anymore.

"Successful Scan: Proceed. Welcome Head Researchers."

She smiles and enters, heading towards the final floor.

Merlot was currently pacing back and forth.

'Where are those idiots?! I swear I need new people heading my departments. Failures on both fronts, grimm and robots didn't even make a difference!'

A hiss from the hallway grabs his attention. He looks toward the noise with suspicion. He wasn't able to check the cameras anymore since it was a distance away. He was impatient that he was making sure it was only a few walks away from his escape bullhead.

Merlot grabs his pistol and readies his cybernetic arm.

Suddenly the electricity finally dies down but a moment later the red lights of the emergency backup lit the hallway in a dark red.

Merlot turns the corner to see the silhouette of one of his head researchers. It was sitting down, seemingly waiting for Merlot to call him out. He smirks at the silhouette and prepares to fire.

'I've figured you out, little lady.'

He fires from his cybernetic arm and it incinerates the upper layer of flesh from the silhouette. He chuckles before approaching the dead body of his head researcher with multiple stab wounds already present.

"What?!"

The body falls to the ground and a moment later, a blade is pressed near his neck.

Merlot tries turning around but gets his arms locked and gets flipped over. Merlot feels the various kicks and twists that Neo unleashed. He crashes to the floor as he finally sees Neo's true form smirking.

He scrambles on the floor but gets his hand stabbed through by Hush's blade. She twists it as Merlot grunts in pain from the injury.

Without letting any more time waste, Neo drags him over toward the room where Merlot's office was located. After a few moments of walking had passed, the detonation was going to happen with only a minute left.

She snaps off the ID Merlot had clipped on his chest and she inserts it into the door. She needed another scan and she quickly smacks Merlot's head towards the floor and raises him to face the camera.

"Welcome Master."

The door opens and it reveals the personal computer of Merlot still being lit up. The room itself was covered in the emergency lights, presumably directing most of the emergency power to necessary appliances.

Neo quickly heads for the computer while securing Merlot by threatening to stab him. She throws him to the floor and places her foot on top of his hands of Merlot to keep him from trying to try and escape.

Neo opens the holographic computer and sees the option to cancel it.

"Password:___"

Merlot from below laughs.

"Ha! Don't even try getting it out of me. If I'm going to die anyways I might as well take everyone down here with me."

Neo rolls her eyes and stabs his back. Merlot grunts and screams, Neo kept doing it for a few seconds pass but he won't tell. Realizing that it was a futile attempt, Neo tried to guess the password.

'What would a man that monologues about his creation set his password as?'

"Password: Grimm"

"Try Again."

"Password: Supreme Grimm"

"Try Again."

"Password: Grimm Creator"

"Try Again. Final Try Before Lockdown."

"Password: God of The Grimm"

"…"

"Self-Destruct Sequence Cancelled."

Neo lets out a sigh of relief while Merlot was starting to flail around from Neo guessing his password.

"No! Impossible I-"

Neo kicks him in the head as hard as she could, shutting Merlot up as she drags him towards the lower floors. Intending on bringing him to Hanns himself. She looks through the room Merlot was pacing around in and sees that a bullhead was parked vertically.

She takes note of the bullhead and heads towards the lower floors. Neo reaches the elevator but is devastated to know that the elevator doesn't work. She stares at the stairs next to it and groans.

A few long and torturous half an hour later…

Hanns was relieved to hear the deactivation, he was clearing out a runway just in case all hell went loose. It was a desperate attempt since it would take too long for Neo to come back down but he held high hopes that Neo would do the job.

Hanns turned as he saw in his peripherals someone waving at him. It was Neo dragging around a defeated-looking Merlot. He had not only failed in his experiments but also failed to escape and destroy any evidence of his work.

"Well, it looks like Merlot himself decided to personally greet us. Neo? If you may."

Neo nods and throws him to the floor, Merlot looks up face to face to see the vehicle that defeated the entire Island's defenses and killed his grimm in no time.

"Hey Merlot, how'd you build these things anyways?"

Merlot looks up and tries to get up, the multiple stab wounds making him have a hard time standing up.

"My genius let me build this, what else?"

Neo takes the chance to kick him in the shin to take the interrogation seriously.

"Can't you people be patient for one second?! Fine, a certain associate I respect made the foundation while I and my team designed the rest. It was perfect, a combination of a perfect defense of offense! Until of course, you had destroyed them all without a second thought."

"Who?"

"Pah! Wouldn't you all like to know?"

Neo stabs his thighs even more and twists.

"Arghh! You… really think… this is going to make me… Arghh!… talk?!"

Hanns lets out an inner sigh. 'This madman has moments where he is answering perfectly about his creations but the moment it concerns anything else he shuts up.'

"Neo, let's just take him to the ice cream shop with the others."

Merlot struggles as the blade get pulled out from his thigh. He grabs it in excruciating pain before scowling at Hanns.

"Who do you all work for?! How did you make this- this machine! Was it Atlas again?!" Merlot shouted.

Hanns chuckles, his huffs being heard in a radio voice.

"It's not 'they' Merlot."

Hanns pauses.

"It's me"

He forms into his other tank forms before going back to his Tiger II (P). He opened all the hatches and moves the gun all at the same time.

Merlot went silent, not even clutching his injuries anymore. He stands up seemingly not minding the pain from before.

"Ha- Ha- HaHaHahahHahHahaaaa!" He lifts his arms and bows before Hanns which made both Neo and Hanns creeped out by the new fanaticism he was showing.

'Ok this man is going places' Hanns was definitely concerned now.

"So I was wrong about where the future of Remnant lies. Perhaps my friend's rival was right after all this time."

'Oh no.'

"It's not the humans, Faunus, or even the grimm."

'I see where this is going.'

"I was ignorant enough to not realize this while we fought. You, my esteemed guest, are actually the true answer! You are the superior rac-"

Neo knocks him out, through Hanns' request.

"That was leading to dangerous territory. Anyways, what'd you find in the tower?"

Neo looks at him and does a few gestures at Hanns. Trying to sign to him that she found a bullhead. Due to how long they were already together, Hanns somehow translated everything and pieced it together.

"Get that bullhead and land it here, you're going to pick Merlot up while I clear out more of the area for me to take off. We'll get a bullhead for the rest of the team and head back to Vale."

Neo nods and heads toward the central tower, only to look even more frustrated than before because she was going to climb the entire flight of stairs all over again.

She huffs a breath and starts to trek towards the tower. Making sure to give a glare at Hanns for making her go to the top again.