Episode Ty: Chapter 3: Two Pieces

Chapter 2 of Ty's Adventure

            “Okay, let me see if I’ve got this right” Ty said as he pulled out a pair of binoculars from his coat, “You think that Adam Taurus, one of the biggest members of the terrorist branch of the White Fang is coming here today to meet with Dr. Merlot, who is actually alive and is creating these crazy mutant Grimm, and somehow this is connected to some bigger conspiracy related to an impending attack on Beacon Academy?”

            “And you’re here because you were investigating a town that was attacked by said mutant Grimm” the stranger said as he looked over the ridge along with Ty.  “Not because you were chasing after Adam Taurus?”

            “The guy has bounties on him from here to Vacuo, but we had intelligence that he was set up in the Forest of Forever Fall close to Vale.”

            “He was.  But he keeps moving from place to place like a bandit village to avoid getting caught by anybody.  Since officially the White Fang headquarters in Menagerie don’t associate themselves with him on the world stage, he can’t hide there like some of his other cronies who need to hide somewhere where humans won’t exactly be welcomed warmly.”

            “And how does this come back around to Dr. Merlot here?”

            “It has something to do with the mutant Grimm he’s creating.  Recently some strange woman has shown up on the board, and is making moves for some kind of attack.”

            “You know, strange woman isn’t exactly a great descriptor.”

            “Fair enough, but in tandem, it stands to reason that she’s looking for a way to control Grimm for her plan.  Dr. Merlot seems to have found a way to do so, and I’m sure that interests her, so she’s sending Adam to do some more research on this discovery.”

            “How do you get all that intel?  From the looks of your clothes you’ve spent more time sleeping on leaves than a mattress.”

            “The Golden Cougars were nothing if not good at descrambling encrypted signals and messages.”

            “You work for that group?”

            “Used to.  We would occasionally run missions with your group, I think I even met your old man once.”

            “Wait, you recognize me?”

            “Who wouldn’t?  Ty Boyer, the son of the famous Demon Slayer Vergil, constantly on missions with his old man.”

            “Tell that to pretty much everybody else” Ty said with a groan.

            “Regardless, I have info.  Adam will likely be here soon; we should make sure we are in a good position to ensure we can catch him and Dr. Merlot.  Two birds one stone.”

            “Fair enough.”  The two of them got up but before they took their first step, Ty looked over and asked, “So you know my name, but I don’t think I know yours.”

            “Name’s Miles.  I’m the last son of Aequo.”

            “Dramatic.  But I’m actually from Aequo too.”

            “Wait, what?”

            “Yeah, I was born there and spent a few years before the family got back into the travelling Huntsman business.  It broke my family’s hearts to hear about what happened. to it.”

“Well, consider yourself lucky you weren’t actually there” Miles said with a sigh.  “But enough talk.  Best we make sure we’re inside before eyes that are attached to creatures that can speak spot us.”

“What a huh now?” Ty said tilting his head in confusion.  “You talk like a cartoon character.”

“Whatever,” Miles said trying to hide his embarrassment, “let’s just move before we get seen.”  The two of them then slid down the slope towards the factory, and crept through patches of overgrown grass past the hordes of mutated Grimm just waiting for orders.  It was bizarre, they sat there as still as deactivated Atlas machines.  They didn’t even breathe, they just remained motionless statues.  That made things easier as they reached the wall of the factory and started sneaking alongside it.  As they made their way along the wall of the factory, they heard the roar of engines from an airship, but they couldn’t see it from where they were.

            “Let’s speed this up” Miles said clenching his fist.  He then suddenly started walking along the wall as if it were the ground.

            “Neat trick but I don’t have a Semblance that allows me to do that” Ty said with an annoyed tone.

            “There’s a service door just down the way” Miles said pointing to a door just beyond Ty’s vision due to Miles being higher up, “I’ll scout ahead inside, you can sneak in and meet up with me.”  Ty sighed and watched as Miles disappeared inside the factory while he made his way to the side door.  He peeked inside and saw that he could sneak in without issue, and let himself in.  All the while scratching his head as to why an evil scientist who was trying to hide and keep his work safe would just leave his doors unlocked even if he was on a deserted island.  Ty started making his way through the factory, which on the inside was built very similar to an aircraft hangar leading towards an assembly line section in the far back that was filled with old machines that had started to fall apart due to no use and others that were whirring with life and glowing that sickly green that was infusing the strange liquid that was creating the mutant Grimm.  Ty decided to move a bit closer and saw that there were Grimm that were either knocked out cold or restrained on slabs that each went through this machine full of green liquid as if they were pieces of a car going through an assembly machine.  One Grimm that was struggling to break free went inside the machine, and after a few moments and a lot of growling and screaming of seeming pain, the creature emerged looking at first not all that different but with puncture wounds oozing green fluid, like a bullet wound or perhaps an overzealous vaccination attempt.  But then within moment, the green seemed to begin taking over the creature, flooding its veins, and expanding the bone spurs that protruded out of its back, until it finally took over its eyes and glowed that sickly green that Ty saw in the village.  As soon as the eyes were reached, the creature made its way towards the rest of the growing pack of statues.  Ty then heard a few mumbling words above him, and he looked up and saw a small balcony that overlooked the hangar.  He was below this platform when he walked in, so there was no real chance anyone who was up there could have seen him.  Ty found a staircase leading upwards, and slowly made his way up.  Peeking over the edge of the upper floor, he saw two figures walking towards a small office.  He recognized one of them as Adam Taurus due to his signature black coat and Grimm mask he sported whenever he made an appearance.  The other was an older man with a white coat emblazoned with the same sigil as the one Ty found on the camera back in the village.  He was bald on the top but had hair spewing out like uncut grass around the rest of his head.  Ty assumed this was Dr. Merlot, and he was waving his arms explaining excitedly to Adam about his experiments.

            “…..only in the halls of history and religion have people been able to control the Grimm” Dr. Merlot said with excitement in his voice.  “Some real, some not so much, but I have found my answer.  Science always is the dominant force in the world.  Soon, I shall amass an army without end!”

            “Impressive doctor” Adam said in a slightly disinterested voice.  “How may I ask did you accomplish such a feat?”

            “Science is the key.  When Mountain Glenn fell, I was attempting to evacuate like everybody else, but then a Goliath sent a tremor that caused the earth to open up and drop me into one of the many caves that were littered around the region.  I fell into a pile of Grimm substance, and assumed that like the stories, I would be consumed like quicksand.  But then, something interesting happened.  My head fell through and for a brief moment, I saw a world beyond this one.  I saw something…..godlike.  But that moment passed when I returned, and saw that the substance was attempting to bond with me.  As curious as I was, I had no desire to watch myself die in order to see this reaction of chemistry play out, so I scraped the fluid off of my body.  But an interesting side effect, for a brief while, it seemed to turn my blood green.  I had a few injuries from the fall, so that is how I was able to observe that particular reaction.  I retreated to this island, and found myself a few ‘volunteers’ from around the region and began experimenting.  I found that due to some strange chemical reaction, Grimm and humans, being the opposites that they are, when they come together form this strange green substance I have dubbed Power Blood.  For humans, this Power Blood can provide increased strength and stamina, but due to the unstable nature of it, it consumes humans rather easily like acid.  And even then, it must be injected straight into the bloodstream for any form of boost, otherwise it simply consumes flesh.  Ah, but the Grimm, they are creatures that are built for constant evolution overtime.  For humans, we are built to grow and change over centuries of time.  But Grimm, they will grow and change an appendage in one month what would take humans one century.  So, I have taken my volunteers and blend them with whatever Grimm ooze I could find, and then proceeded to install nano-machines into the Power Blood.  Grimm are not the brightest creatures, but provide them with data in the brain, and they can be controlled.”

            “So in summation, you found a great power source, and using technology that is how you created these ultra-powerful mutant Grimm and can control them.”

            “Oh yes, but I am still working out some of the bugs in the system.  You see, the Grimm’s strength comes from their feral nature.  Their desire to completely and absolutely destroy their prey.  While they retain some of that desire in this current state, the machines dull their actions because now they have two directives going at once in their brains, and I am not yet sure how to cancel them out.”

            “Well, that is interesting” Adam said with a smile.  “My current employer is looking for ways to control the Grimm en masse.”

            “Bold of you to assume you would get the chance” Miles yelled as he dropped down from the ceiling with his two swords drawn.  Dr. Merlot jumped back in surprise while Adam simply smiled and turned around to look at Miles.

            “You still pursue me after all these years?” Adam said mockingly.

            “Well you did burn down my village, so yeah, call it a purpose.”  Ty rolled his eyes at the brief conversation between Miles and Adam and quickly ran up to join him drawing his own sword as well.

            “Ah, some more volunteers” Dr. Merlot said with a cackle.  “Good, I was starting to run out of Power Blood. Perhaps you could bring them to me to help me make more and make your boss happy.”

            “Yes, I shall make my boss happy” Adam said drawing his red sword.  Ty and Miles prepared for Adam to attack, but then all of a sudden, Adam took his blade and ran it right through Dr. Merlot.  The doctor screamed in pain, and tried to reach into his pocket for his controller to call for his mutant Grimm to come to his aide, but Adam simply threw the body of the doctor out the window and to the ground below.

            “Your work would have been detrimental to my plans if it fell into Cinder’s hands” Adam said cleaning the blood off his blade.  “Can’t have you creating a man-made solution when we need her to find the ancient one.”

            “And what might that ancient solution be?” Ty asked inching closer towards Adam.

            “I’ve honestly said too much as it is” Adam said putting his sword away.  “I’ll leave you to the chaos.”

            “Chaos?” Miles asked tilting his head in confusion.  As soon as he said that, there were several explosions around the factory.  Several airships appeared and started opening fire on the facility, resulting in a fire breaking out.  And still the mutated Grimm stood there motionless, unable to move due to the machines keeping them in place.  Adam tried to sneak away in the chaos, but Miles had run up and started slashing away at him.  Adam deflected the attack and Miles fell into the wall and stumbled, trying to get back up too quickly.  Before Adam had a chance to try anything, Ty jumped in front of Adam and brought down his sword at full power, forcing Adam to block it.

            “Wait!” Miles yelled, but in that moment, Ty’s blade made contact with Adam’s, and the energy went straight into the blade, causing Adam to laugh.  Adam pushed back and leapt backwards away from Ty and began preparing to use Moonslice.  His hair and coat started to glow red, and he took his sword and attacked Ty with a powerful energy sword strike.  The force of the blow was so powerful, that the roof of the factory was cut off and disintegrated in moments.  Adam smiled as he put his blade away, still looking down at the ground.

            “How many more people shall I make a memory before you stop pursuing me child?”  Adam said tauntingly as he slowly raised his head to look at Miles.  “How many more……”

            “Hi” Ty said once Adam’s eyes reached his face.  Adam was stunned.  Despite the results of the attack on the building itself, Ty didn’t seem to have a scratch on him.  And before Adam could get his sword back out to do anything, Ty struck him across the chest sending him flying through a door into what looked like the main control room of Merlot’s entire factory.  Adam crashed into one of the nearby computers and slowly got up as Ty walked towards him.

            “Enough of this” Adam said as he turned towards the central computer.  He flipped a switch which caused a few generators to hum to life resulting in the hard-light Dust bridge being activated, then he took his sheath, and fired several rounds into the central computer, causing the console to blow up.

            “You can’t beat me so you take your anger out on a computer?” Ty said as he prepared to attack Adam.  “So dumb.”

            “It will not be that way once those creatures Merlot created find their way to that town he was using to test his monsters.”  Ty looked back over his shoulder and saw that all the mutated Grimm were now making their way out of the burning hangar and out across the hard-light bridge towards the mainland.  Ty quickly looked back over at the destroyed console to see if there was anything that he could do in order to stop their advance, but Adam had seen to it that nothing survived.  He then turned to try and take down Adam to at the very least arrest him and maybe even let him burn in the building as punishment for his crimes, but Adam had already jumped up through the open hole in the ceiling and was being lifted out by an airship floating overhead and was carrying him away towards the south.  Ty morphed his sword to bazooka form and initially thought about firing it, but then turned around and fired a salvo at the slowly advancing horde of Mutant Grimm.  The explosion took out a large portion of them, but there was still enough Grimm marching over the bridge to potentially overthrow a Kingdom.

            “Great” Ty said as he morphed his weapon back into sword form.  “This isn’t going to be tricky at all.”

Author's Note

Please read/review/enjoy!