Chapter 70: Caverns

Chapter 70: Caverns

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Caverns

Credit where credit was due, my father had been a Hunter for decades and, in that time, had seen some shit. As such, he recovered quickly, cracking his neck once before nodding firmly and taking charge.

"Keppel, Carmine, go check what we talked about, just in case," He said. "Onyx, if you would?"

"You got it," He said, kneeling to play a hand on the ground. As he closed his eyes, my father took a step towards me, his eyes serious.

"Are you sure, Jaune?" He asked. I wasn't certain if he was asking about if I sensed the tunnels or if I was sure about the extent of them, but either way, I nodded.

"As sure as I can be without checking it out myself," I said. "You know my senses are good."

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

"I do that," He muttered. "Onyx?"

"The kid's not wrong," Onyx said, opening his eyes. "I can definitely feel tunnels and they extend all the way out of my range. There's motion, too, though I can't tell what from herebut if your son says they're Grimm, I'd believe it. Was this why I was sent along?"

"If it was, Oz forgot to mention it," My father grunted, frowning before nodding to himself. "Nothing for it, though. I trust both of you; you tell me there's Grimm, there's Grimm. The question is 'Why?' And is this recent or has this been going on all along? And if so, what drew the Grimm to attack now of all times?"

"Good questions, Jack," Onyx said. "If you're expecting an answer, though, be advised I've got no fucking clue. Kid?"

I shook my head before tilting it to the side.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

"I could figure out some of it," I mused. "I'd need some dirt samples from the tunnels, but if I had that, I could probably determine how recently the tunnels were dug."

"Yeah?" Onyx lifted an eyebrow.

"He's got good eyes," My father answered, crouching. "Okay, that should be doable. The safety of this town comes first, but if there's a massive mobilization of Grimm beneath the surfacewe need to know why, what they're doing, where they're going, and if this is a singular thing. You said the tunnel extend beyond either of your ranges? Then it's possible that this is just something small, relatively speaking; a kilometer down, they could escape a lot of notice and if they could do this here"

"They came up under Mr. Marrowy's house," Ren interjected, drawing our attention. "Could they have done that elsewhere, too? Under other houses?"

We all exchanged glances.

"Maybe," My father said honestly. "Onyx, Jaune, could you tell?"

"If I look," I nodded. "It could take a while, though; it's possible the Marrowy tunnel was just the first to be completed. To be safe, I'd want to look at least a fourth of a kilometer under each house. Should I get started?"

"In a minute," My father said, looking around. "You and Ren can check the rest of the village to make sure it's safe. Is there anything else you can tell us about the tunnels?"

I considered that for a moment, frowning slightly.

"I could draw you a map, I think," I mused. "At least of what I can sense. There are a few tunnels that stand out because of how big they are and severalchambers, I guess, large enough for a lot of Grimm to gather in. The tunnel that led to the surface was tiny in comparison, an offshoot of one of the higher passages. I can't tell which direction the tunnels are going, butthere are a few that get relatively close to the surface. And some of them are pretty huge."

"Onyx, see what else you can learn from the tunnels nearby," My father said, accepting my words. "Ren, if you could get some paper?"

Both man and boy inclined their heads and were quickly gone, leaving my father and I alone.

After a moment, my dad sighed again, shaking his head.

"What's the plan now?" I asked.

"We try not to fuck this up, mainly," He snorted before looking down at me in concern. "Situations like this are the worst. With the Grimm this close by"

"We can't evacuate, can we?" I murmured.

"No," He said. "You don't evacuate a town because something good is happening, which means people get worried when it happens and then they start getting scaredespecially when Hunters do it. It carries the notion that we can't handle the problem and if we can't, what are they supposed to do? But that fear just makes things worse; a call to evacuate might be enough to provoke the Grimm to attack. We have to make it seem like things are under control."

"Even when they totally aren't."

"Even when they totally aren't," He agreed. "Especially then. You'd be shocked how often something nearly goes catastrophically wrong while we all swear up and down that everything's okay."

"I really wouldn't be," I said, looking down. I considered my words carefully for a moment, pondering an idea before speaking. "If there are no other paths to the surface, I could set Sanctum Sanctorum up over the hole. At the very least, it should give us an edge if we need to stand our ground. I could do it with one of the bigger houses, too, butif we herded all the civilians in and locked them up, they'd probably end up drawing more and more Grimm until it was too much to handle. Might work as a last resort if we had to try and wait until help arrived, but"

He nodded.

"Don't want to do that unless we really have to," He said. "And if we have to"

He sighed slowly, looking up at the sky.

"We should call for reinforcements anyway, though," He murmured. "Something on this scalethe mere implications are terrifying. We need to make such Ozpin knows what's going on, get people on standby if things go as badly as they could, and get some help out here. If it was your mother and I"

"Yeah," I said. "You want me to make the call or?"

"No, I'll do it," He said. "Besides Ozpin, there are a few people who need to be told of something like this and theywell, they wouldn't recognize you. It's best they see my face to make sure there are no unnecessary delayswith something like this, we have to move fast and act intelligently."

"Okay," I nodded. "What should I do, then?"

He eyed me again and pursed his lips.

"Can you get an Earth Elemental?" He finally asked. "You have all of the basic four, but you also have Metal, so"

I understood and waggled a hand.

"It should definitely be possible," I said. "Shouldn't even be a problem for an Element like that, butevery time I get an Elemental, it knocks me out for about six hours for this whole dream vision thing. At first I thought it was just because the ritual was exhausting, but it happened three times and I made some pretty huge improvements in-between the first and second. InsteadI think it's really more of a part of the ritual itself then just a side effect. I can go do it right now, but I'd be worried"

I shrugged.

"I get it," He grunted. "No way of knowing what might happen in six hours when you have an army of Grimm at your doorstepor under your ass, as the case may be. I suppose it doesn't matter, since we have Onyx, it's justwell, I wouldn't mind having the earth on my side if it came to a fight underground."

"Having the forces of nature back you up is pretty awesome," I agreed, smiling when he rolled his eyes. "I can send my other Elementals down, if you need them. Maintaining them is pretty trivial now, though they'll be pushing my range; they could cause their fair share of havoc. It's just"

I looked down at the ground.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," My father said. "But I'll still come back, okay?"

"Okay," I answered quietly. "Be safe."

"Mm," He hummed as he let me go and walked away.

I watched him go in silence, Ren by my side. The other boy had been quiet as we said our goodbyes, probably out of respect, but as my father left, he muttered something low enough that only I could here.

"Your father seems like a good man."

"He is," I replied the same way. "Here."

I set a hand on his shoulder and layered all of my buffs over him, shooting his Aura through with curling bands of bright colors. He took a sudden breath and then slowly exhaled, nodding his thanks at me.

"Your mother is coming?" He asked, changing the topic. "You come from a family of Hunters, then?"

"Yup," I answered. "Mom, Dad, seven sisters, and now me. And you? Do you come from a hunting family, as well?"

He tilted his head slightly and nodded.

"I suppose I do," He mused aloud, shaking his head. "It's not something I usually think about."

I nodded, pretty sure I understood but not wanting to pry.

"My dad said Mom would be here soon, along with her team," I said. "That's eight Hunters and when my parents work together, they're a very powerful team. Depending on what my father finds and what Ozpin and the Council decide, even more might be on their way, but"

I trailed off. I wanted to promise that his village would be safe, but we both knew there was no way of really knowing if that was true. If something happened, if there were enough Grimm down there, if

But Ren just nodded, accepting the words despite how bad I was with reassurances.

"We should check the rest of the village, then," He said. "If it's just a matter of defending against single point of attack, we'd be vastly better off, but if they've been tunneling up under houses"

Then this town way well already be lost.

I didn't say that out loud, but I didn't have to.

"Yeah," I said. "Better to find out now, right?"

XxXXxX

The good news was that our search didn't turn up anything huge. A few tunnels extended high enough to make we wary, but even the nearest was a good two hundred meters below the surface. All told, it could have been a lot worse, even though it was definitely something we needed to keep an eye onbut for now, at least, it didn't seem like anything would spring up underneath one of the houses and murder everyone inside. How long it would take to change that if they had Cruach down there was anyone's guess, but there was not an immediate danger. Once this was all over, though, those tunnelssomething would need to be done about them. They led right under the village, out to some place where Grimm could obviously get into them, and there were a bunch of people on top of it all just waiting to have a bad day. Once I had more time and an Earth Elemental

But anyway, nothing was currently in the process of tearing off our faces and eating them. That was the good news.

The bad news was, Onyx and my father hadn't come back. As I said before, I could sense them and knew they were alive, but though it had taken several hours to check the whole town, they hadn't returned. Which meant they'd either found something or, worse case scenario, something had found them.

I wasn't too worried, because I knew my father's strength and could roughly keep an eye on him thanks to my ability to sense life. The way I saw it, if something was trying to kill him, he'd probably be running a hell of a lot fast then he was right now, so I chose to take his delay as good news.

But I set a Safe Haven over the hole, just in case things went wrong, and sat down to wait for their return. Ren left to check on the villagers one last time, as well as to speak to a friend, but then came to join me, bringing a pair of lawn chairs and some water bottles to make it a tad more comfortable. Then we just sat down to wait and see what crawled out.

For several hours. It wasn't very exciting but we both made doand at least it gave me a chance to keep track of my father's progress through the tunnels. Still, I was left wondering when

"Ren!" A voice suddenly called, making my attention shift. The voice was bright, energetic, lively andwell, it stood out, given the atmosphere. "There's another airship coming!"

In the Wake of the Storm

LV40

Nora Valkyrie

I looked her over onceorange hair, pale complexion, clothes that would have made her stand out even if her level hadn't, and a weapon that my Observe said would transform into either a Warhammer or grenade launcherand then looked up at the sky. Sure enough, there was an airship a ways off and quick shift in perception was all it took to know that my mother was on it.

"Nora," Ren replied, glancing at me. I gave him a small nod as I returned to watching the tunnel. "Those must be the other Hunters I told you about. Could you bring them here when they arrive?"

"Okay, Ren!" She nearly sang, looking at me with interest. "And you're the healer, right?"

"That's me," I said. "You need something healed?"

"Nope," She shook her head with a smile. "I just heard about you from Ren. Whatcha doing?"

"Waiting for my parents," I said honestly. "Dad's down in the tunnels. Mom's up on that airship. Not much to do but wait right now. You?"

"Just guarding the wall while Ren's busy," She said before pausing. "Well, not right now. But I saw the airship and wanted to tell you. Anything interesting? Watching the wall's pretty boring."

"Can't say watching a hole in the ground is much better, but someone's gotta make sure the forces of darkness stay put, right?" I answered before poking her shoulder. "Here, just in case."

She oohed as I settled my power over her, giving her strength. With a gesture, she drew and unfolded her Warhammer and then twirled it like a baton excitedly.

"Magnhild's so light," She said, pleased. "How'd you do that?"

"I'm pretty good at making people stronger," I shrugged and she tilted her head, catching her hammer and resting it against her shoulder.

"Well," She said. "I'm pretty good at being strong."

I had to smile at that answer.

"We should get along well, then," I said before glancing past her. "And it looks like my mom and her team have landed. Could you"

I paused, looking down. As all four members of my mother's team landed, I felt something shift beneath me, like a stone had been tossed into a still pond. All at once, things began to move, too sudden to have been anything but a reaction. But how? How could they possiblyand what did this mean? Had they been waiting for this, somehow? But why? What could possibly make them want this?

There was no way of knowingbut I did know what I had to do.

"Nora," I whispered. "I need you to get my mother, right now. My father's coming."

I looked up at both of them and took a breath.

"And so are all the Grimm."