Chapter 11: Owning an Island

~Zack POV~

*Burrr*

Leaving the Atlas Kingdom territory I smiled brightly at the scene seeing the nice getaway from all of this.

Here I have the best odds of being by myself and have a place to hide for the time being without many issues in the world of RWBY.

Reason why is simple.

Because this is a dying world and was abandoned by their Gods which makes it an ideal place for me create a home for the time being.

While the series continues, both the main show and its spin-offs start portraying darker themes about the world of Remnant.

Many of these include corruption of military, corporate, and political power, abuse of workers and family, racism, criminal organizations starting gang wars, and terrorism.

This place is a literal ideal place for me to form my own place for the time being.

Currently I wish I could've done a lot of things differently but ultimately brought unwanted attention to myself but worth it getting Penny with the Winter Maiden powers on my side.

Sometimes getting a better weapon to push off the powerhouses are a insurance.

But here I can take my time with ease since I have all the time to learn about everything I need to do or research… at least till I find myself a spaceship to create a home base.

For now, though I have to start up from somewhere and in Remnant is just ideal for me to search through parallel worlds of itself to find some interesting trinkets for me to adapt and recreate.

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

And speaking of dangers…

I guess I finally got the old crazy doctor attention when I came up into his island uninvited.

Doctor Merlot.

Penny comes to my side as she asked curisouly about the place as she spoke, "Zack! It seems we have gotten the attention of the person on the island?"

Nodding at this I replied to Penny with a nod as I gave her a command while I fly the Bullhead as she goes all out, "Yeah. This will be a temporary homebase for us. Take out the scientist Doctor Merlot along with his Grimm. I'll deal with his robots. Also have fun."

Smiling at the end Penny smiles at this as she activates her own Winter Maiden powers as her eyes shined brightly as I felt the cold, "Yes siree! I'll take care of them in a jeffy Zack! Off I go!"

*Swoosh*

Like that she left.

That's a good robot fighting girl!

Doctor Merlot was the main antagonist of the video game RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. He has yet to be mentioned or appear in the show itself. He made a minor reappearance in RWBY: Combat Ready, starring in an objective titled "The Return of Dr. Merlot".

Doctor Merlot was the founder of Merlot Industries, a research and development corporation based out of the ill-fated settlement at Mountain Glenn.

At some point, Merlot gained an unhealthy obsession towards the Creatures of Grimm, believing them to be a "superior species" and that due to their "unbridled raw aggression and lack of sentience" they would make "the perfect vessel". Said fascination led to him falling out of favor with Professor Ozpin.

Merlot was personally familiar with Ozpin, whom he called "Oz". However, they were on bad terms, with Ozpin believing that the world would have been better off had Merlot died in the disaster that he had caused.

According to Ozpin, the other professors at Beacon Academy had a similarly low opinion of Merlot.

Undaunted, the corporation began performing experiments on Grimm, research which Merlot believed was vital to the future of Remnant.

However, when they began running out of specimens to experiment on, they started attracting Grimm to the city in order to acquire more, with disastrous results. After the fall of Mountain Glenn, Doctor Merlot was presumed dead.

But thanks to this crazy bastard he already lives by himself as he provided himself with his own ideas living alone.

Using that to my knowledge I knew I could already get a functioning base at the ready I just need to remove the tenant.

No need for a crazy scientist to have around here best to get rid of him.

Thankfully his research notes will be useful for me.

Doctor Merlot used an island as his base of operations during the video game RWBY: Grimm Eclipse.

The island was situated somewhere in an uncharted location and featured a large laboratory complex. The many of walls in the complex were covered with pipes, cameras and computer screens. Most of the floor tiles were hexagon shaped, with some having holes containing spikes to impale intruders.

The island had multiple radio towers, allowing those on the island to connect to the CCT. The island had many metal fences. The island also had big wooden stakes planted into the ground. The outside of the island also had a dock as well as many crates and barrels.

The island was populated by Grimm, Merlot's mutant Grimm and his security robots. The island naturally produced a mysterious radioactive substance that Merlot used for his mutating serum.

Many of these toxic pools had pipes that collected the ooze and sent it to the laboratory complex. The terrain of the island was mainly sandy with the plant life being similar to that which was found in deserts.

*SWOOSH*

Moving down towards the island at incredible speeds I can only see them as a blur really as they are too fast for me to view Penny as she quickly gets to work.

Whistle~

Damn she can work real fast with her new powers.

I made the right choice to get her early on when I have the chance.

*PEW*

Another one bites the dust from the sheer cold from Penny.

Man…

I need me some of that power for myself to not get unshined by her.

Keeping up the pace I hurried to the base as the metal doors soon began to go through corridors and tubes to finally with Penny going in and drag the man out in the open for me to see.

Viewing the old man isn't something I want to see.

Merlot is an elderly man with disheveled gray hair, a matching mustache and beard and prominent eyebrows. His left eye is robotic and glows red and around it were noticeable claw marks, likely from his Grimm experiments. His right arm was also robotic and was dark and metallic and has red inner circuits.

He wears a light gray jacket with a high collar and a red shirt underneath. On each sleeve of the jacket is a dark gray hexagon shape.

Merlot is portrayed as a smug and overly confident man who believes even Grimm, the most powerful creatures can be controlled to make the world better for humanity. He is implied to have a mild god-complex as he firmly believes that nature and evolution has failed to perfect the Grimm and that his science can fix it's failures.

His research appears to be the only motivating factor in his life. This is best shown by his reaction when Ozpin brings up the destruction of Mountain Glenn. Merlot fully admits that the events of Mountain Glenn were a regrettable tragedy for everyone involved but feels that the destruction of his research was the greatest sacrifice. This shows that Merlot has a very "ends justify the means" mentality.

However, despite his initial plans or his mentality there was one thing coursing through him at the moment seeing me…

Fear…

The fear of what the man in question would do if I found him but he quickly scoffs at this as he gets his bearings together as he talks to himself reassuring his confidence, "Tch! This is merely a set back! I will continue my research to – Gaugh!"

*Crack*

With a simple crack to the neck he was no longer in the living since Penny has been done with him.

*Click*

Ow…

Shutting down all the androids they have are annoying but at least though they are gone.

Now…

Time to get back to work making a home and see how Neo and Hei has been doing.