Author's Note: This chapter is where the adventure REALLY begins. The first two chapters were to show that Jim has fully accepted himself. The next chapter is where the plot begins. Enjoy.

Chapter 3: Tunnel Vision

•^-^•

A faint beeping woke Jim from his sleep. Groggy, he instantly went to hit the snooze button of his clock. Except his hand hit cement. Confused he opened his eyes and remembered where he was. Jim looked out the warehouse windows and saw that dawn was approaching. He looked around to all the trolls asleep around him as well as Claire and Merlin. It was odd that the trolls were actually sleeping at night, but without a heartstone, they became tired easily and needed regular sleep.

Jim sat up and stretched. That's when he noticed the beeping sound from earlier was still going. He quickly stood, stepping over snoozing trolls while he searched for the source. He was drawn to the windows and looked outside.

"Oh no." His eyes widened as a wrecking ball and crane was being backed into the warehouse property.

Working fast, Jim began to wake the trolls. By the time he woke the last troll the sky had gotten lighter and the sun would shine over the mountains any minute.

Suddenly, a doorknob jiggled at the entrance of the warehouse. Jim quickly turned and hurled his sword at the door, jamming it. The construction worker on the other side of the door jumped back in surprise at the sound. He tried the door again.

"Hey, it won't open. I think something fell on it." The man called out to his fellow co-workers.

"Downstairs, hurry." Jim urgently whispered as he pointed to the stairs. Everyone rushed down below. Jim followed. As he reached the bottom of the stairs his sword of eclipse magically appeared in his hand.

In the basement, Blinky was walking down one of the isles in the dark, two of his six eyes saw the sudden drop in front of him. He held out his arms to stop the other trolls behind him.

"Great Gronka Morka, Master Jim you failed to mention there is a cavern here." He worriedly proclaimed.

"Well, I hoped we wouldn't have to come down here." Jim said as he quickly scanned for another way out.

Just then, the construction worker opened the door upstairs. They heard footsteps above them and voices.

"Alright, check each room. Make sure they're all clear. Hey! Don't go into the basement it's not safe." The man yelled to another construction worker. Jim let out a sigh of relief. After a few more moments of silence, the construction workers steps faded.

"Are they gone?" NotEnrique asked, voicing what everyone else was thinking.

"Even if they are gone, we can't go up, the sun-"

Claire was cut off when a loud crashing noise made the room shudder. Cracks appeared in the ceiling above them and dust rained down. The construction crew had just ran the wrecking ball through a wall in the warehouse.

"They are destroying the building!" Blinky yelled.

"We're trapped!" A troll screamed out. The other trolls cried out in fear.

Another crashing sound came from above, but this time more rubble came down on the trolls. Jim looked up in time to see part of the ceiling about to come down on Claire. His shield expanded instantly on his arm and Jim leaped to Claire. He pulled her close with one arm and held up his other blocking the rocks with his shield. Claire held tight and squinted through the dust and debris. She noticed the deep cavern a few feet away.

"What about the pit, maybe there's a way out?" She said trying not to inhale the dust filled air.

Merlin held up his staff and created a green magic shield over them and stopped the rocks from falling directly on them all.

Jim looked over and considered the pit. The crash from another hit of the wrecking ball above sounded and more of the ceiling came raining down on the Merlin's shield. There was no other option.

"Merlin, can you move everyone down there?"

"Why not ask for a roasted pheasant instead that would be easier at this moment."

"Merlin!"

"Oh alright."

Merlin concentrated and green shoots of light burst from his other hand and wrapped around three trolls. He lifted them up and then down into the hole.

Bigger chunks of rocks were coming down and with them, cracks of sunlight were starting to seep through the ceiling including through Merlin's magic shield. Merlin continued to move trolls down as the rest did their best to avoid the sunlight. Jim got hit by a ray of sunlight on his arm and quickly recoiled.

"Jim!" Claire called out.

As more light came through Claire grabbed box libs from the storage shelves and held them up to block any more light from hitting Jim.

"Gentlyyyy." Blinky said as he was quickly lowered down the dark hole with Nomura and NotEnrique. Merlin drew the coils of green magic back and wrapped them around Jim and Claire, the last to go down, and lifted them above the pit.

All of a sudden the entire ceiling collapsed on Merlin's magic force shield and broke his concentration, making him drop Jim and Claire.

They both let out a scream as they plunged into the darkness. However, Jim speedily kicked off the side of the cavern hole and collided mid air with Claire.

"Hold on!" he yelled.

Claire was already reaching up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Jim held his sword point down and stabbed it into the other side of the deep hole. They slid to a stop. They both let out a breath.

"Good catch." Claire said as she pulled back to look at Jim. Then she saw something at the top of the cavern and gasped. Jim looked up to see huge chunks of the building coming down towards them.

Jim pushed off the wall and left his sword in the side of the cavern as he fell to the opposite side of the hole. Right before he was about to hit the cavern wall his glaives came out of his suit and flew to his hands. He used the smaller blades to slow their decent and repeated to jump down, wall to wall, until they reached the bottom. Just as Jim hit the ground he pulled Claire into his arms and leaped out of the way of the falling rubble.

An eruption of dust filled the extended tunnel that led out of the bottom of the hole. After the dust settled Jim put Claire down and returned his thigh blades to their resting place. His eclipse blade reappeared in his hand in a puff of red mist and Jim held it up high as crimson flames emanated from it and illuminated the tunnel they were standing in.

Everyone looked at the pile of rock that blocked the hole.

"Jim, where is Merlin?" Blinky asked as he came over to them. In response, Jim turned back to the huge pile of building debris with a sad look.

Blinky gasped and bowed his head. A few of the other trolls did so too. Even NotEnrique.

Then, a green light started to shine through the rubble and within moments it lit up the whole tunnel. Merlin came bursting out of the rocks and floated down and stood in front of the trollhunter.

"You're alive." Jim said happily.

"Thought you could get rid of me that easily." Merlin gave a slight smile. "Now what do we have here." Merlin said referring to the big long tunnel they all stood in.

Claire took out her phone and shined her light down the tunnel. It appeared to go on forever, except an object appeared a ways down the tunnel.

"What's that?" She asked.

NotEnrique scampered down the tunnel to the object. Everyone followed. When they finally got close enough, they found that they were standing before a Gyre.

"What's a Gyre doing here? I thought the gyres' stopped working after the heartstone died." Jim asked.

"True, perhaps someone managed to sneak away from trollmarket and were traveling when its source of power was destroyed by Morgana. Sadly without the heartstone to power it. It is useless." Blinky deduced.

Meanwhile, NotEnrique had climbed into the gyre and was looking around. He noticed one of the knobs was glowing.

"Hmm" NotEnrique flipped the glowing nob.

Suddenly the gyre turned on and lurched forward colliding into the side of the tunnel.

Everyone looked in awe as NotEnrique got up dizzily.

"Uh, I meant to do that." NotEnrique said.

Blinky's jaw dropped.

"Do realize what this means! We can travel to New Jersey in mear seconds now!" Blinky exclaimed.

"But how is it being powered?" Jim asked. He was walking towards the gyre when his foot hit something. He lowered his eclipse blade and saw the stoney remains of troll's leg. Jim's eyes widened as he and Claire looked closer at the leg.

"This can't be a good sign." Jim said.

Just then the ground shook and rumbled in the tunnel.

"That was weird. It felt like something was moving under us." Claire said.

A distant roar cut through the silence. Jim knew that sound all too well. He gently ushered Claire back and looked over to Nomura. He saw the recognition on her face of what made the noise, confirming the worst.

"Start loading trolls in the gyre, NOW!" He commanded as he held his sword ready toward the source of the roar which was coming from behind the rubble that blocked off the other part of the tunnel. Blinky quickly climbed into the gyre.

"Merlin, I require your assistance in lifting the gyre onto the tracks." Blinky called.

"It appears all I'm good for is heavy lifting." Merlin said to himself but went over to the gyre and shot green coils out of his hands and they wrapped around the gyre.

Suddenly a Nyarlagroth burst through the blockade of rocks and let a roar reverberate through the tunnel.

"I hate those things." Nomura said angrily.

Jim roared back at the the creature and ran full on towards it. Nomura followed with her scimitars drawn.

Merlin finished putting the gyre back on the gyre tracks and they loaded a few of the trolls on. Blinky took off in the gyre in a flash.

Claire watched as Nomura and Jim dodged and attacked the Nyarlagroth. She decided to help gather the dispersed trolls away from the fight.

Blinky came and took more trolls in the gyre and went again, already getting more than half of the trolls to safety. After Blinky came and left another time the tunnel shook from the battle taking place. With the gargantuan serpent's body taking up most of the tunnel, Jim and Nomura had little space to avoid its attacks. As Merlin was helping load the last of the trolls into the gyre, Claire turned in time to see Nomura leap around the Nyarlagroth's head and slice one of its eyes. This caused the creature to screech out in pain and suddenly jerk left, slamming Jim into the side of the tunnel.

"Jim!" Fear struck Claire as she watched Jim unable to free himself. She ran towards the chaos, but knew there was nothing that she could do. Then, she heard Jim cry out in pain from the weight of the Nyarlagroth crushing him and panic coursed through her.

"NO!" She reflexively jutted her hand out towards Jim and something impossible occured. Ancient words came into Claire's mind as purple light glowed around her hand. Suddenly a burst of light shot out of her hand and hit the Nyarlagroth's scaly belly. This distracted the serpent just enough for Jim to free himself. Jim fell to the ground and rolled out of the way before the Nyarlagroth slammed its body into the tunnel wall again. He skidded across the stone floor and fell to his hand and knees, holding his ribs in pain.

The surprise of what Claire just did was overrun by her desire to get Jim to safety. Claire ran to Jim and helped him away from the Nyarlagroth. From behind them Merlin joined the fight and kept the beast at bay as Nomura sliced it's other eye.

A flash of light lit the tunnel as Blinky and the gyre returned.

"We have to get you out of here!"

"No." Jim weezed. "Everyone else first."

Reluctantly Claire knew he was right and she called for the rest of the trolls to board the gyre. Blinky took off again and the tunnel shook from the ongoing battle. Jim and Claire watched as Merlin was finally able to bind the Nyarlagroth down. Nomura seized her opportunity and leaped for the top of the Nyarlagroth's head and dug her blade into it. The serpent writhed in agony as it collapsed to the ground and slowly stopped moving. Nomura pulled her scimitar from the Nyarlagroth's head and sheathed it to her back.

"Disgusting." Nomura said disdainfully at the dead Nyarlagroth. Jim leaned on Claire as they went over to Nomura and Merlin.

The gyre came to a halt and powered down. Blinky hopped out and approached them.

"Good work trollhunters, the Nyarlagroth is defeated and our troll brethren are safe."

"But, how did that thing get all the way out here in the first place?" Jim took shallow breaths trying to keep the stabbing pain of what felt like broken ribs to a minimum.

"It may have been spooked away during the Eternal Night battle. I remember we left the Wigawamps with one, but we never found the remains before we left." Claire suggested.

"A fine plausibility." Blinky said. Jim remembered something and turned to Merlin.

"Thanks for helping me get loose from the Nyarlagroth, I don't know if I would have lasted much longer."

"I don't quite understand what you mean. I intervened after the fair lady Claire pulled you away from the beast, not before." Merlin said confused. Claire tensed up when she remembered what she did.

"What? But then how-"

"Are you two really going to debate about who threw what hit when the rest of the trolls are waiting for us?" Nomura said bored.

Claire let out a quiet sigh of relief. She didn't think she was ready to explain what happened because she didn't understand it entirely herself. How could she have performed magic without, well, magic? It worried her a little.

"Right, let us resume our journey and join our kindred."

Jim leaned on Claire as they all walked over and boarded the gyre. Just before Blinky started the gyre and they took off, Claire looked back and saw the scorch mark of her blast on the stomach of the dead Nyarlagroth. Her worry replaced itself with fear.