Chapter 23: Numbers
Tank treads met the old pavement below, and the pebbles that lined the street violently shook from the motion of steel plates meeting the stone below. Gears interlocked and let out a droning noise before stopping as the turret of a tank is left to see what remains of an old and decrepit building.
'Here it is, Merlot's Lab'
Hanns made his way up the wrecked entrance of the building; where once there were pristine glass and steel designs, now being left to the destruction that it received from the fall of the city.
His treads made contact with the stairs as he made his way up to the research lab that housed Merlot's ambitions. The weight of his Tiger H1 left trails of chipped stone as he arrived at a hallway where the light showed its company through cracks on the wall and holes in the ceiling.
Hanns shut off his engine, ending its constant machinations from within. The surrounding air only let out distant growls and movements of the mutated grimm that escaped their prison.
'There.'
From the walls further away, a dusty and worn-out symbol could be seen among the stripping layers of paint and crumbling metal. Right below it is a map, customary for the future workers and the potential guests that Merlot entertains.
Hanns turned his engine back on and trudged through the fallen debris that littered the hall. Every time the tank screeched from the jagged edges of the torn-out supports that dotted throughout the facility.
'Now where would I keep dozens of test subjects hidden?'
The map has reserved its more dubious practices for only those who were supposed to see it. Keeping it from the public eye was an important step for Merlot to continue his experiments. Hanns would need to kill every single one to ensure his relative safety in the confines of Mountain Glenn.
'This one looks a bit suspicious.'
A large area of the map was missing, and hallways ended where hallways shouldn't, almost as if an entire room was removed leaving the connected pieces out of place or incomplete.
Hanns took in the basic outline of what the map had. Hanns needed to remember the route he would need to take, the last thing he wanted to happen was for a mishap to occur and not be able to know what direction to the nearest exit.
Hanns progressed further into the lab as the multitude of ruined screens and furniture was scattered among the already destroyed rooms that he went past during his travel time.
Mutant creeps were roaming around the halls as they heard something approaching them, they cautiously peered into the preceding hall before getting shot through with a machine gun that flashed its muzzle in the darkened building.
Hanns raced to the corner where he was greeted by even more mutant grimm who was now growling at their perceived threat. He retreats back into position and readies an APCBC round to fire at the mutant beowolves that were going around the corner.
He camped in the corner until the time was right, the beowolves dug their claws on the floor as they were engulfed in a frenzy to destroy the machine. Hanns let out a single shell before suppressing the others.
A beowolves sends out its green glowing spike towards the front of the tank but is shattered on impact as the steel that made up the body of Hanns effortlessly halts the projectile. He finishes a reload and dispatches the others in quick succession.
He repeated this over and over, killing the mutated grimm that stood in his way to gain more RP and SL as he went further and further down where he assumed was their habitat.
SL = 1,112,365 → 1,162,865 SL
VEHICLE RP = 185,438 → 212,328 RP
CONVERTIBLE RP = 260,489 → 298,153 RP
'Only been here for a few minutes and I've gained this much RP. Not so much SL though."
One final pained screech was heard before Hanns ran down the mutated beowolf, using the weight and speed of the tank to crush its body. The body decays moments later as Hanns went around to stare in surprise at what came into his view moments later
'The lights are on in this place?'
It was a curious development, the rest of the facility had been submerged in darkness with lights from the surface illuminating it barely above being able to see. Based on the map he had memorized he knows this is where the suspicious spot on the map should be.
He eyed the wall that the hallway led to, thinking there was some secret and special way to enter. He tried to deduce what it would be; before he ignored that thought and decided to shoot an APCBC straight through the wall.
A sizable hole was made, with the metal jutting inwards before flaring out the end of the impact. Hanns used his various viewports to look at where he had just shot into.
It was the remaining lab still operating underground despite being abandoned for a long time. Hanns couldn't see much more than the machinery in the place so he decides to do something reckless.
Hanns goes as far back as he can before loading more APCBC rounds through the wall until a dotted pattern is made. He prepared his engine as he felt his sprockets pulling the treads of his tank faster and faster.
The entire structurally weakened wall burst as Hanns ran his 54-ton vehicle into the wall as the wall bent with an ear-piercing noise emanating and the entire building shook from its foundations.
Hanns could now fully take in the entered laboratory that was still standing. It was massive, rooms were filled with broken chambers, and holding cages were broken open, presumably when the staff and Merlot needed to evacuate or even died.
'So that's how they got out.'
A massive opening was seen through the middle half of the wall being split open. Large enough for mutant grimm to escape but small enough for very large grimm from exiting.
'How'd that deathstalker escape though?'
Hanns drove throughout the lab and saw every holding pod being either broken into or still intact with nothing in them. He finally saw the holograms that were still displaying text on them.
It was just numbers, numbers that Hanns didn't know what they meant. A series of numbers that were arranged with 3 digits followed by another one with 2 digits and the last one with 3 digits.
'I don't know what these are used for and I don't even have access to a scroll or something. Unless…'
Hanns had an idea.
"Hey, Blake? I've got no time to explain but you've gotta take this down. 124, 75, 256"
He would repeat the numbers through his one-way telepathic communication given to him. Hanns would forget this information quickly so he kept telling the numbers to Blake who he hoped would take it down for him.
'Well, that was interesting. I should head back to kill the mutants, eliminate the things that could actually stand a chance against me rather than delay it till later.'
Hanns had a simple plan of action, clear the majority of the mutant grimm, head back to the surface and kill even more grimm until he would empty out the upper layer of Mountain Glenn before heading to the underground part of Mountain Glenn and clearing everything there too.
Back at Beacon Academy…
"Blake? Blake? BLAKE!"
Yang's voice rang out from the room. Blake glanced upwards, her amber eyes locking with the lilac eyes of her teammate and partner.
"Huh?" Blake snapped out from her daze, she shook her head from the sudden calling of her name.
"You've been staring at that piece of paper for a long time now." Yang points at the piece of paper where numbers were scrawled on it.
Blake had struck another base the White Fang had who were colluding with Torchwick to steal dust. She had spent the majority of her time researching their whereabouts and stalking the streets for info.
Hanns' sudden telepathic communication made her scramble for a paper and write down what he was saying before cutting off an hour later.
Her sleep schedule had improved but her quality of rest wasn't increasing so there were times when Blake acted odd and one of those days happened to be today.
"I was?"
Yang crossed her arms at the comment. She had noticed her partner's slowly degrading mood over the weeks that they were in Beacon. So Yang decided to press on for more information.
"You didn't even notice?"
Weiss suddenly interjects her own observations on the seemingly nervous Blake who has now shuffled her fingers around at her teammates' attention to her.
"Now that I think about it, haven't you been acting like this more lately?"
Yang connected some dots on her head, another of their friends at the table had been acting the same way she did. Blake showed an awkwardness, but an awkwardness to what? Yang feared the worst.
"No, are you getting bullied too?
"What no! I'm not!" Blake immediately rejects the idea. She was a faunus, she knew how to fight back and she was never going to allow herself to get bullied.
Weiss had to agree with Yang, she joined Yang at her side and put her hands on her hips in an attempt to interrogate the increasingly jumpy Blake.
"You are undoubtedly acting suspicious right now."
"Jaune is already getting harassed by Cardin, we don't need another of our friends being all weird and such." Yang adds.
"So tell us Blake Belladonna, what's on your mind?" Weiss made a point by climbing on to a chair and balancing it majestically while pointing at the surprised Blake. Weiss returns the chair to its place before rejoining Yang at her side.
"It's nothing." Blake said, waving her hands in denial.
"That's what Jaune tells everyone too." Weiss points out.
Not confident she could try and get out of being interrogated, Blake once again races for the window to jump out off, same way like before. She rushes past in a blur before feeling a bear hug created by Yang.
"Nuh-uh Blakey you ain't getting out of this one." The squirming Blake was now tightly under the hold of Yang who had to fight hard to keep their gloomy teammate from getting away.
"Woah what's that?!" As a last attempt to escape, Blake had pointed to the door behind Yang. Nothing was there of course, Weiss had seen through her attempt of deception.
"Do you honestly think that we-"
Yang didn't think the same way.
"What where?!" Yang loosens her grip which Blake uses to escape her hold and leap out of the window. Weiss turns to Yang who had just realized she was bamboozled.
"You can't be serious." Weiss said in disappointment.
"Uhhh, What now?" Yang looked around the room as she asked Weiss how to deal with the runaway teammate. Noticing the lack of her sister in the room.
"Hey, have you seen Ruby anywhere?"
Weiss took a look around the room. She'd notice her team leader's lacking presence but she was good at remembering what they usually do after classes.
"Well, no doesn't she usually go to the workshop with Blake…"
She put her pale hand towards her equally marble-like chin. Thinking hard on a way to deal with Blake, she was hiding something. Weiss was sure she needed to figure it out or else their team might fall apart.
"Do you think Ruby's part of it too?"
Yang's lilac eyes turned red as heat started leaking from her golden locks as she put together her open palm to a fist.
"Nobody better be bullying my sister!"
"Relax Yang, I'm just saying that we could find Ruby to find out what Blake is up to." Weiss tried to calm down her teammates' sudden spark of anger. Yang blinks a few times before relaxing at Weiss' suggestion.
"Alright Ice Queen, we look for lil sis and see where Blakey went to."
"Could you stop calling me that?" Weiss' annoyed tone leaked through the air.
"Nope." Yang playfully answers.
"C'mon let's go, we still got time to burn." Yang gestures to Weiss. Weiss follows Yang to walk towards the workshop where Ruby should be.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone