I don't know whether to hug RT for the brilliance that was the volume 3 season finale, or strangle each and every one of them for killing one of my favorite ships just as they were getting some action, and split another up just as things were looking up for them. Not to worry, that last one has become a submarine. Given time, it will resurface to claim it's rightful place among the ships.
In other news, We've only got two more chapters to go after this one folks! Then TBH book 1 will be finished, and you all will have to wait until book 2 is to the point where I feel it's time to release it. Sorry that I have to deliver this news right after the season finale, but that's just how things worked out.
But enough about the behind the scenes stuff, let's get to the story! Will Professor Glas be defeated? Can Daniel be saved in time? Will I ever get to read a quality RWBY Full Metal Alchemist crossover? We'll just have to wait and see! Enjoy!
Velvet and Dakota hurried through the corridors, blindly searching for Glas, Daniel, and Dakota's pants. So far, they were having little if any luck. Without a map of wherever they were, the two were hopelessly lost.
"Dakota, we have got to stop," Velvet panted. She leaned against a wall, trying to catch her breath. Dakota looked at her in sympathy. Whatever Professor Glas had used to knock her out and capture her was evidently still in her system, slowing her down. If they got into a fight, she was going to be worse than useless, she was going to be a hindrance.
"There's no time," Dakota replied. "I get that you're still a little out of it from being kidnapped and all, but Glas could be about to dissect Daniel right now, and I'll be dammed if I let him."
Velvet wanted nothing more than to continue leaning against the wall, but wearily pushed away from it and continued following Dakota. They rounded another corner and came face to face with a solid metal wall; A dead end. Dakota looked back at Velvet. "You're certain you didn't see anything?" he asked.
Velvet shook her head and asked, "What do we do now?"
Dakota groaned and selected a Dust scalpel from his collection. Gingerly, he pressed it into his palm, drawing blood. Immediately, the air around him dropped several degrees. Velvet shivered and clutched her arms. Hospital gowns offered very little in the way of warmth.
Dakota raised the faucet head he had acquired, wound up, and slammed it into the wall. Frost spread quickly from the point of contact, quickly covering the surface with a pale shiny sheen. With the wall sufficiently frozen, Dakota took several steps back, then charged at the wall, baring his shoulder. The supercooled metal shattered like glass and Dakota tumbled into the room behind the wall. He slammed into a desk laden with papers and stumbled, grasping for purchase as he flung the scalpel to the side. "We go through," he said; answering Velvet's question at last. He then coughed a cloud of cold air and shook his head. "God that burns." he said, making a face.
Careful to avoid the freezing cold edges, Velvet followed Dakota through the hole he'd just made. She gave him a brief glance to make certain he was okay, then directed her attention around the room they had just barged into. As she did, she noticed a doorway leading out to another corridor. Deciding to venture out and see where they were, Velvet made her way around the table and towards the doorway. Before she could make it to the door however, her bare feet ran into a prone object lying on the ground near the doorway. Irritably, she wondered how her night vision had failed to warn her of the obstacle. Then as she crumpled over the object and it became apparent what it was, those thoughts were immediately driven from her mind. With a muffled scream, she pushed off from the corpse and scrambled away as fast as she could. "There is a dead body on the floor!" she whispered furiously!"
Dakota slid from the table, still not fully recovered from using Dust once more, and began dragging himself around the table. "Is it Glas?" he asked with a hint of excitement.
"I, I don't think so," Velvet said.
"Shame," Dakota muttered. "And here I was hoping all our problems would be-" he stopped as he came across a familiar gunstaff. In the dim light, he could see that some modifications had been made since he'd last seen it, but Lunare had been saying he wanted to make some changes to Nieh Mehr.
"Ah hell," Dakota muttered. "God, Goddammit." He pounded the carpet, crystallizing the fibers around his fist.
"Dakota?" Velvet asked cautiously.
"It's Lunare," Dakota murmured. He pushed Nieh Mehr aside and drug himself over to the body of his fallen friend. "He was on another team. Mine and his must've figured something out and came to rescue us." Dakota reached Lunare's body and felt his back. Stone cold. With this confirmation, Dakota lowered his head and shook it slowly.
Cough
"Gesundheit," Dakota said automatically, looking up at Velvet.
"Very kind of you," Lunare replied.
Nothing but a faint echo of those four words could be heard for a full minute. Velvet was staring at the corpse that had just talked, her hands covering her mouth, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Dakota's head slowly lowered again, looking at the carpet.
"Lunare?"
"Yes Dakota san?"
"You're not dead, are you?"
"Fortunately not," Lunare replied. "Although there is a significant amount of bruising, and I fear several ribs might possibly be cracked. The question you should be asking is, why did you think I was dead?"
Dakota reached up and grabbed a chair. Groaning, he pulled himself into a kneeling position. "Well, you were lying motionless, and I can only pray that you weren't stupid enough to come here alone. And if you were wounded, they would've left someone with you, or at least rolled you over."
"An excellent deduction Dakota. Now, if you would be so kind as to roll me over like you said, I can explain why I am still alive after taking direct fire from five automatic turrets firing six hundred thirty-caliber bullets a minute. I would do it myself, but the armor lock seems to be a tad excessive in that I cannot turn it off."
"Armor lock? What are you talking about Lunare?" Dakota asked as he carefully leaned over and turned Lunare onto his back. It was only then that Dakota saw what Lunare meant.
The front of Lunare's long black coat was absolutely shredded, bits of fabric held together by mere threads in some cases. Underneath, however, was a layer of shiny metal, unmarked by the bullets they had stopped to save Lunare's life. His arms were tucked underneath his body, the fabric of the sleeves horribly ripped. Like the rest of his body, Lunare's arms were protected by the armor underneath, this time by several sharp rib-like appendages protruding limply from the ruined fabric.
"Corabellum armor," Lunare answered as he slowly moved his hand to a point under his right arm. He depressed a flush button there, and a noticeable hiss was released. Lunare's form loosened up instantly, and he began inspecting the shredded remains of his once great coat. "My parents were working on it before they-"
Lunare abruptly paused his inspection, preventing himself from saying something he didn't want to. "Well anyways, after it came into my possession, I took over designing the armor and refining its capabilities. It is my final defense against attacks. Even without an aura, and without Nieh Mehr, I am still capable of attacking and defending myself."
"Damn, I bet Daniel would get a kick out of that," Dakota murmured quietly.
"Because he lacks an Aura, and therefor is unable to access many key abilities that huntsmen rely upon on a daily basis?" Lunare asked, overhearing Dakota's comment. "Nick told us everything," he added when he noticed Dakota go ridged and his face display a look of shock and horror. "There is no need to worry, I can assure you that all of LSTR will protect Daniels secret as long as he wishes for it to be kept.
"They'd better," Dakota said gruffly, although there was a noticeable loosening of his form. "Speaking of LSTR, get up. We need to meet up with them."
"And yet we have an interesting opportunity in our grasp," Lunare countered, grabbing Nieh Mehr as he stood up. "Schatten knew about my armor, and was instructed on what to do should I be injured and presumed dead by the rest of the group. Providing I was in no immediate danger, he was to move on without me, effectively creating two separate forces that our opponents were not aware of. In a situation such as this, he was to engage the primary opposition, and I was to find an alternate route to the target. Although I don't believe I saw any other route to on the map that lead to Daniel other than; is that a hole in the wall?" he asked, pointing towards the hole that Dakota had made, the edges still smoking from the extreme cold. Without waiting for further confirmation, Lunare strode over to the table, where several papers still lay upon its surface. He grabbed one and studied it for a brief moment, before looking back at Dakota. "You are aware that you walked past the room that Daniel is most likely being held, are you not?"
Dakota swore briefly, then pointed at Velvet. "Find a way out, and go get some help. If Glas kills us, Make certain that bastard goes to jail."
Velvet nodded and took off. She peered through the doorway at the corridor, and ran towards the right, her bare footsteps hitting the ground with slowly distancing slaps.
"She seemed nice," Lunare commented as Velvet's footsteps faded into the distance. "Who was she?"
"The third candidate," Dakota answered shortly. "You said you knew where Daniel was, right? Let's go."
Lunare raised an eyebrow, but saw Dakota was concerned for his friend and did not pursue the matter. Instead, he stepped through the hole in the wall and moved several doors down the hallway, stopping at a door right before the corridor turned off to the right. Two shots from Nieh Mehr sent the lock clattering into the depths of the room.
With the door now forcibly unlocked, Lunare grasped the door handle and pulled the door wide open to reveal a dark room with several indistinct features within. With the door opened, they could hear a long drawn out electronic beep coming from a machine.
Dakota stepped up next to Lunare and groaned. "Lun, please tell me that's not what I think it is."
"There is only one way to find out for certain," Lunare answered as he took a step into the room and fumbled on the wall for a light switch. Finding one, he flicked it on, igniting a half-dozen bulbs screwed into the ceiling. It was the brightest light in they had seen in the warehouse.
The light from the bulbs revealed a room not unlike the one that held Daniel, Dakota, and Velvet as Professor Glas got prepared. The only difference was that this one was smaller, and was crammed full of medical equipment. The source of the noise was revealed to be a heart rate monitor sitting on top of a gurney next to an examination table.
An empty examination table.
Daniel was nowhere to be seen.
"Daniel?!" Dakota shouted, in hopes that his friend was still in earshot.
Lunare moved over to the examination table and began examining it. The torn remains of an arm restraint were hanging limply off of the right side. The left restraint was simply missing altogether. The area of the table around both restraints were covered in droplets of bright red blood.
"The blood surrounding these restraints are still relatively fresh," Lunare commented. "Daniel freed himself from here no more than ten minutes ago.
"So he's close then?" Dakota asked as he carefully unwrapped the bandage around his burnt wrist in preparation to swap out the wrappings for fresh ones in a cabinet.
"I doubt he has left the building if that is what you are asking," Lunare replied. "However the floor-plan of this building is in itself a maze. It is highly likely Professor Glas designed it this way to increase the difficulty of moving around for any attacking for-"
"Can you follow him?" Dakota asked impatiently. This wasn't a moment for one Lunare's tangents.
Lunare frowned and studied the ground beneath their feet. "It appears that Daniel neglected to cover whatever wounds he received during his escape. The ensuing drops of blood should make it possible for us to find Daniel."
Dakota peered out from the doorway at the corridor, making certain no one had snuck up on them. "Lead the way," he said once he was certain the coast was clear. Lunare activated the flashlight on Nieh Mehr, and together, the two teens ventured into the dark corridor, following the trail of blood.
So, was anyone actually surprised about Lunare not being dead? Someone? Anyone? Please let me know in a review?
Well anyways, there never was any reason to kill him off last chapter. Why waste a perfectly good character in a completely meaningless death that does nothing to advance the plot? And besides, I've got plans for Lunare later. Plus, my friend who created Lunare and team LSTR sent me the design for Corabellum armor, and I loved it so much I simply had to put it in the story. And what better way to introduce it than to shoot Lunare full of lead and leave him for dead?
Anyways, I got to get back to writing TBH book 2 and Space Dust. Both are coming along pretty good so far, and I hope you all enjoy them when they come out. Don't forget to like and bookmark, and please don't hesitate to drop a review. I'll see you all in two weeks!
-Wrench
ns 15.158.61.8da2
