Hey guys!
It's been a decent week since the last time I uploaded a chapter. I've been watching a lot of the anime known as Fairy Tail. I've gotten to the point where I can finally watch the movie. Man, that series is pretty much an emotional roller coaster ride. Personally, though, I'm just waiting for the point when Michael Jones' character comes in.
That being said, I've also bought a smart phone so I'm finally aware of when and where traffic jams occur, which is a HUGE relief. Even more amazing, my supervisors must have noticed that I've been doing a lot of work while everyone else is slacking, so they've cracked down on the cell phone usage during work time.
Oh, and this is to answer a recent review from a guest reader named Matt, who asked if Sonic's more monstrous self will appear. If you are talking about his "Werehog" form, it won't appear in this story. Sorry, but Sonic will not transform into a Werehog, either by a Dark Gaia-like entity or through any other means. It's just not gonna work with the rest of the story.
Anyways, I don't own RWBY or Sonic. Enjoy!
Caverns below the Forest of Forever Fall, 11:30 a.m.
The existence of caves beneath the Forest of Forever Fall is a long forgotten secret. Long ago, before the Four Kingdoms were established, ancient humans and Faunus delved deep down into the hills, mining for Dust. Naturally, mining was dangerous work, like it is in the present time. However, that wasn't the reason why it was forgotten.
Simply put, there wasn't anyone left TO remember it.
Greed and a disregard for safety drove an ancient town to dig deep in order to earn prestige among the other surrounding towns. This resulted in the discovery of natural caverns- and subterranean Creatures of Grimm. The resulting massacre killed off all who mined for that precious material.
Easy pickings for the surface Grimm.
Ironically, the men sent down into the mines were probably the only ones who could have prevented the tragedy that befell their home. The sudden rise of negative emotions was too great for the Grimm to resist, and they flooded the village. The town was overrun, the buildings destroyed, and the people slaughtered. The neighboring villages just wrote it off as another lesson about not building a permanent residence in a defensible area.
The mines themselves still exist, but the entrances were closed off, preventing the Grimm from reaching the surface. Even today, those Grimm still roam the empty mineshafts, searching for blood to quench their thirst.
It is a virtual deathtrap.
"Ow…."
Sun Wukong came to first, shaking his head. "Alright, who else isn't dead? Sound off!"
A chorus of groans reached his ears. All of them were knocked unconscious by the sudden collapse into an undiscovered cave, but were recovering in their own way. Sun lit up a flare, revealing everyone.
A blue haired form was seen stumbling around. "Could you stop the room, pleeeaaase?" slurred Neptune, his eyes turned into anime spirals. "I'd like to get off now." He then crashed into a wall, and that set his senses straight.
"I think my left shoulder is dislocated," Knuckles said uncomfortably. The echidna pulled on it with his right hand, and with an audible *pop*, set it back in its socket. "Never mind, I'm good."
"I am functioning at optimum capacity," droned Omega.
Shadow helped Rouge up. "You okay?" he asked with concern.
"I think so," the bat said, wincing a bit. She tried flexing her wings, but couldn't due to a slight bend in her right wing. "Aw, man. I think I'm grounded, boys."
"Will that hinder your ability to fight, comrade Rouge?" the robot asked.
"Allow me," said Knuckles. He carefully placed his hands along the affected wing, feeling her injury. Rouge was hurting, but she trusted Knuckles. "Well, I've got good news and bad news."
"What is it?"
"The good news is that your wing isn't permanently damaged. The bad news is that you won't be able to fly out of here anytime soon. Fortunately," the echidna said, looking at their surroundings, "it doesn't look like you'd be missing much. The walls of this cave are too close to fly around in."
"I can't get a signal out to the rest of the guys, either," said Neptune.
"So, to summarize, we're trapped in here with no supplies, we can't call for help, and one of our team is injured," said Sun.
"Pretty much, but we must remember our objective- to find the Chaos Emerald," proclaimed Shadow. He reached into his quills and pulled the Chaos Emerald detector out. Miraculously, it was still working. "According to this, we only need to go about two hundred feet that way to reach it," he said, pointing down the tunnel in the appropriate direction.
"Will you be able to fight, Rouge?" Sun asked. "Caves in Remnant are always filled with Grimm, in my experience."
The white bat just smiled as she pulled out Lovacs. "Just try and stop me," she said, her pistols gleaming in the light of the flare.
"What about your wing?" wondered Neptune.
"Kid, there's one thing about Mobians you'll need to know if you want to hang with us," Knuckles responded, grinning. "Besides being able to breathe in a vacuum, we heal fast. Rouge's wing should be healed up by the time we're through here."
"Alright, then. Let's get that Emerald so we can get the heck out of here," said Shadow.
As the group walked to their quarry, Omega couldn't help but feel like they were being watched. No matter how many diagnostics he ran on himself, he couldn't shake the feeling, nor dismiss it.
"What is this place?" asked Knuckles. Looking around, he saw that the tunnel was really a mineshaft. Rotting timbers still held up the walls and ceiling, and they could feel minecart tracks on the ground.
"Beats me," said Neptune. He saw the tattered remains of clothing on the floor below a large claw mark. "But it looks like nothing good happened here."
"Quiet," said Shadow.
They walked on in silence, getting closer to their goal. As they rounded a corner, they spotted a faint glow coming from a minecart.
"That's the Emerald!" cried Rouge, rushing ahead. "Come to momma!" Her advance was stopped by Sun, who held out a hand.
"Easy there, Miss Klepto," he said. "If I'm keeping track right, you guys have the green, cyan, red, and blue Chaos Emeralds, right?"
"Correct," Omega confirmed emotionlessly, though he was secretly impressed that Sun had kept up with what they did and didn't have. "And since there are only seven Emeralds, all a different color, that leaves the yellow, purple, and white Emeralds."
"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a green glow?" the Faunus asked.
Upon closer inspection, the glowing in question was indeed caused by a jewel, just not the kind of jewel they were looking for.
"Dust crystals?" wondered Rouge. Indeed, the minecart was filled to the brim with uncut Dust crystals of all colors, not just green. "Well, don't mind if I do," she hummed to herself as she pocketed a few crystals.
"Well, that confirms that this was once a Dust mine," said Sun. "Run by the Ice Queen's ancestors, perhaps."
Neptune looked at the side of the cart, which had the symbol of the town that was mentioned earlier. "I don't know, this doesn't look like any snowflake I've seen." Indeed, the symbol looked more like an eagle instead of the Schnee Dust Company logo.
"Come on, let's move," Shadow said impatiently.
"Further research will have to be done at a later point," agreed Omega.
The group reluctantly moved on, still walking carefully among the piles of old clothes. "Hey, does anyone else smell something burning?" Sun asked.
"I do," said Knuckles uneasily. The rest of the Mobians picked up the scent, as well.
"Olfactory sensors confirm gases associated with combustion. Post-note: concentration of gases suggest recent activity," Omega said.
"What'd he say?"
"He said that the burning is new, and not related to the mines," Shadow translated for Neptune. He checked the detector again. "Okay, the Chaos Emerald is very close, but stay sharp. I don't think we're alone down here."
The group resumed walking down the halls until they got to an opening. Passing through the entrance, they all stopped in shock.
"What ARE those things?" asked Rouge, a slight tremble of fear in her voice.
In the clearing were many Creatures of Grimm known as Creeps. One of them looked up at the newcomers, then roared. Instantly, all eyes were upon the group.
"I don't like the looks of this," said Sun, readying Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang.
Shadow looked into the throng of Grimm, searching for the Chaos Emerald. "Come on, where is it?!" he shouted in frustration. "The detector says it's right here!"
"I guess we'll have to clean house first," snarled Knuckles, activating his weapons wrist blades.
"Well, at least this situation isn't going to get any worse," chuckled Neptune nervously, gripping his gun.
As if to mock him, a loud roar was heard at the back of the opening. A river of fire tore through the gathered Grimm, burning them to a crisp. The ground shook as the source of the flames walked closer to the group.
The monster in question resembled a Creep, but it was massive. Omega's automatic distance measures kicked in, and he saw that it was twenty feet high, and forty in length. It's head was covered in white plates, like all Grimm have. On it's back, there were many bone-like protrusions that doubled as armor for it's black body. Even more interesting was the presence of two extra legs. Omega quickly searched for this monster in a database of known Creatures of Grimm, but came up blank. This was a different kind of Grimm altogether.
"Why'd you have to say that it couldn't get any worse?" Sun groaned.
The monster roared again and charged at them.
I've said this before, but the design for what I've dubbed "King Creep" is pretty much a black version of King Dondongo from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Just add the white parts normally associated with Grimm.
Once again, I'm just blown away by the amount of positive feedback I've gotten from this story. At this point in time, I have 199 reviews, and almost all of them say nothing but good things about it. You guys rock!
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