GRYD Season 2 Chapter 10: Personal
Things had gotten somewhat back to normal at Beacon Academy, the students were behaving like normal, the Professors were back to their usual routines and habits as well. Though both Glyph and Macro noticed that Lochen and Vixi were being much kinder to each other and even flirting at times when they thought no one was noticing. The two didn't tease them about it though because they knew this should continue.
For Leilani and Glyph, without the fear of strikes from PRME or weird missions or studies distracting them, they really focused on growing in their relationship. Glyph felt a personal desire to try and connect more with Leilani after what happened with the Professors, though he didn't tell her what he did for them as he didn't feel it was right.
Leilani most definitely appreciated all the time she spent with Glyph, she had come much more out of her shell as they continued to grow as a couple, and Glyph was always more relaxed around her than with the others, even Macro in certain cases.
After class one day they were walking down the grounds hand in hand when an attendant approached them.
"Pardon me," said the attendant with a bow to them after they got their attention, "but you have a private video call, Ms. Kaleido."
This took her by surprise, "Oh? From whom?"
"I believe it is your father..."
At the response Leilani unintentionally jumped a few feet in the air, nearly taking Glyph with her as a result. When she landed she immediately got embarrassed, "I'm so sorry, Glyph!"
"It's ok," he said with a laugh, "just glad you didn't pull my arm out of its socket."
The attendant waited for them to finish with their conversation before gesturing to the school, "I'll take you to the call."
"Of course," she said with an appreciative bow of the head, and then looked to Glyph, "See you back at the rooms? I'm not sure how long this will take."
Glyph smiled calmingly and replied, "No worries, it's been a while since you've talked to your dad, take as long as you like."
She beamed at him before following the attendant into the school. The hallways were only partly filled as classes were basically done for the day, not that she would have talked to anyone more than likely since her head was in the clouds about talking with her father.
Leilani and Yasmine had a great relationship with their parents, but as the two liked to talk about their father was rather adamant about remaining distant from them while at school because he didn't want them to potentially worry about the shop back home.
At the thought of this Leilani couldn't help but smile and laugh. She knew her dad meant well but they were going to worry about them and the shop for as long as they ran it because of how they grew up. But she was also appreciative of the fact that her parents wanted them to grow in the way they couldn't back in their home of Minstrel.
She got out of her thoughtful state when she realized that the attendant had stopped and that they were at the private phone room. Leilani thanked the attendant before entering and all but rushing to the console to talk to her father, pressing a button to start the call the moment that she could.
The screen paused for a minute before a man appeared on screen, he took one look at her and shouted, "Leilani!"
His loud intro almost knocked her out of her chair, but Leilani caught herself before that could happen, "Hi dad, must you always do loud intros over the phone?"
"Sorry, my fatherly enthusiasm got the better of me this time."
As she looked at her father she couldn't help but smile. He was a very distinct man in terms of his appearance. While his face was clean and hair was well kept, you could tell that his clothes were a bit of a mess. His hair was brown like hers, but the eyes were more like Yasmine's, though a different color. At one point she noticed his hands had cuts and bruises on them as well.
"Still working hard, dad?" she asked already knowing the answer.
He laughed lightly and raised up one of the hands, "Yeah...we've been remodeling lately and I'm not quite as good with the finesse work like you and your sister. But as you know..."
He flexed his hand and suddenly his fingers changed shape and his nails became claws.
"...I'm quite good with the cutting of things."
He tried to do an evil laugh but ended up in a snicker.
Leilani rolled her eyes before joining him in a laugh, "Oh dad..."
"I kid, we'll be fine. Your mother is a godsend like always."
"Is she nearby?"
"No, she's at the market picking up a few things. She might be back though before we end the call so you might get to see her. If not she'll call later. She wanted me to make sure I called you though and see how you two are doing."
Leilani spent the next few minutes talking about everything, about Yasmine doing well in school, the friends that they had made, and of course, about her relationship with Glyph.
He was especially proud of this and smiled widely at her, "That's wonderful, I'm proud of you Leilei."
Leilani groaned and buried her face with her hand at the sound of the name, "Dad, seriously? That nickname?"
"What? I liked that nickname, don't you remember how I..."
He paused and looked to his left, Leilani wasn't sure what to make of this, "What's wrong?"
"Ah, it's nothing, I thought I heard something, thought it might be your mother. Anyway, I liked that nickname and...you should...get that...to..."
The signal on the screen started to break up a bit, with the picture cutting in and out, as well as the sound. Leilani tapped the computer screen and tried to figure out what was going on, "Dad? Dad, can you hear me?"
She kept trying, but eventually the signal cut off, a blinking bar on the screen going, "Transmission interrupted."
Leilani looked at the screen for a bit, then tried calling her father back, but the signal wouldn't connect.
"That's weird, maybe they're having issues with the connection again? He did say he was remodeling...I bet he played with the wires again..."
With a shrug and a sigh she got up and left the room. After a little bit of walking she made it back to her room, but instead of going in she knocked on the room of GRYD. To her delight, Glyph answered the door.
He smiled and shook his head, "I told you that you can just enter without any recourse."
"I know, but it wouldn't feel right to me. Especially if someone was...uh...indecent when I entered..." she replied with a slight blush.
"Ha, ha, ha, oh Leilani. Moving on, how was the conversation with your dad?"
"It was great, got to catch up with him. The call kind of ended weird though, the signal cut out."
"It did? What did it look like?"
"The picture phased in and out, couldn't hear him, and then it said 'transmission interrupted'.
Glyph thought about this, "Hmm...that doesn't sound right."
"Why not?" she asked, curious.
"The connection across all nations is protected by various safeguards, remember? It shouldn't get interrupted. Has it ever happened to you before?"
"Well...no. Wait, there was that one time...but that was the...Heralds..."
Her eyes went wide with fear and she suddenly pushed past Glyph to look inside the room. When she did, she saw Yasmine and rushed to her, "Sis!"
Yasmine was caught off guard by her sudden appearance, but could see the look of fear on her face, "What's wrong?"
"I just got off a call with dad, but the signal got "interrupted", is there any way that dad screwing with the wires at the shop could've caused that?"
"Not even dad is that clumsy. He listens to me and my plans, it's mom that doesn't, but even she won't touch electrics since that one time...why are you asking?"
"Remember the last time our signals got interrupted suddenly?" she asked with clear intent and fear.
Yasmine had to think, but then her eyes also went wide, "Heralds."
"What am I missing?" asked Glyph confused as to the conversation content.
"When we were first attacked by the Heralds, the clue that tipped us off to them was that our phones stopped working. They have jammers that can block the signals of phones and other devices."
"And if they used it near the shop?" put out Leilani, "That could mean they...they..."
Leilani started to hyperventilate, but was stopped by Yasmine cupping her face and getting her attention, "Take a breath, it might be fine. Listen to me carefully, it was a video call, right?"
"Yeah."
"Take me to the computer you used, I know what to do."
"What do you want me to do?" wondered Glyph.
"Come with us for now," answered Yasmine as she rose from her bed and helped Leilani up to her feet. "But be ready for some quick teleportation to the others.
"Ok."
Yasmine took the lead and headed out of the room. Glyph grabbed Leilani's hand, gave her a smile and a nod of comfort before guiding her out of the room to follow.
Once back in the private phone room Yasmine went to work. Her drones were already out and all were pointed at the computer. Yasmine's eyes were pouring over the video file of the call between her father and Leilani.
Glyph watched this with clear curiosity, "Didn't realize you were a hacker, Yasmine."
"I'm not, my drones are," she corrected, "they see code, and then they show it to me."
"Do you see anything, sis?" asked Leilani nervously.
"No, not yet, you two talked for a while. Oh, wait, here we go..."
The section where the video started to break up began to play, Yasmine watched it with focus intent.
"This isn't natural...that's for sure...something's screwing with the signal. Wait, what is that...?
Near the end of the video Yasmine looked intently at the screen. Using her drones she focused on a section and went frame by frame until the image she was looking for got more clear.
"Oh no..."
Glyph and Leilani got closer to the screen and looked at the image. Glyph bared his teeth while Leilani gasped in horror.
For on the far wall of the room where Leilani's father was laid a shadow...of a figure holding a familiarly-shaped sword.
Yasmine glared at the screen and shook in rage, "Heralds."
Not wasting another moment, Glyph grabbed onto each of their shoulders and teleported away. He then went and grabbed every other member of GRYD and MEAL and took them to one place.
Minutes later, in Headmaster Night's office, all of them had somber looks on their faces. Yasmine was comforting Leilani as best she could while the others were fearful of what this could mean. Night had his head pressed against his interlocked fingers as he thought of what he might be able to do.
Macro was the only thinking about the situation as a whole, and with each variation of an answer he was running through his head he would shake his head. Eventually he made a noise of frustration, "It doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't?" Erin asked after hearing him.
"They shouldn't have known about their parents. The school doesn't advertise who goes here, right Headmaster?"
"I would never," answered Night with a look to them all. "Too risky for numerous reasons beyond Heralds."
"Exactly. If they went after my dad? I could understand that, I'm famous more or less because of him. Same with Diana and her mother, or Reyson with his family. Maybe Glyph because of Signal, but even then. There is no way they should've known about Yasmine and Leilani's parents. They shouldn't have had access to that information."
"It is disturbing. I don't know how they could have gotten it."
Glyph looked at him unconvinced, "You sure?"
Night didn't like the insinuation and looked back at Glyph with clear intent, "I do keep things from my students, and you, but I have ALWAYS been up front about the Heralds, especially when they started targeting you for interfering. Plus, you saved my life with the Silent Step. Even if you weren't my students, I would owe you for that. I would never knowingly keep information from you that could seriously endanger you."
The two stared down for a bit, before Glyph shook his head and relented, "I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine, Glyph. This whole situation has us on edge, but Macro is right, how they got the information is...unclear."
"Maybe not," piped up Reyson.
This statement got everyone's attention, and Reyson had to stifle a laugh at their looks. Aaron was the first to speak and break the silence, "Well don't just tease us, man! Elaborate!"
"Building up the tension, Aaron, I thought you would like that. Anyway, can we all agree that the Heralds are well funded based on our previous encounters?"
"I believe that would be a fair assessment of things..."
"Exactly. They can get themselves into positions all over Remnant, hire deadly assassins to break into a school, and do kidnappings without making much noise. Who's to say they couldn't hire someone to hack into the school and get our info?"
Finished, he motioned to the others to see what they thought, and one by one they nodded acknowledged the simplicity and realism of the statement.
Yasmine couldn't help but give a scoff, "Wow, that honestly makes sense."
"I live to surprise you."
"Don't push it."
"Enough," said Glyph with a stern look to the two.
"Accepting this as a likely solution," added Night. "The question now is, what's their endgame with this?"
"My next question is are my parents still alive...?" wondered Leilani softly before breaking into tears.
"They're alive, Leilani."
This got both Leilani and Yasmine's attention, as well as the others. Yasmine's eyes narrowed, "How can you know this?"
"Past exploits. They kidnap Faunus and then...well...let's just say they do things to them. If this was just about killing, they would do it in their homes via sneak attacks, blanket fear. But no, they send messages, even if we don't realize it."
Macro nodded, "I'm with him on this. Especially since it's your parents, they'll want to keep them alive and let us know that it was them who did it. They probably don't know we're on to them. Which gives us the element of surprise..."
"...if we can find them," finished Glyph with a look to Macro.
"Right."
"No offense, but how do we do that?" asked Diana standing up. "I mean, they live in Minstrel, the biggest of the Remnant nations. Even if we assume they're near where they took them, that's still a lot of ground to cover. We'd never get to them in time."
Her logic brought them all to silence. One by one their faces melted into expressions of frustration, angry, grief, and sorrow. Yasmine was the only one though to go into a more contemplative state. Her mouth spoke wordlessly as she thought about her parents.
Suddenly her eyes went wide with revelation and she gasped at an idea, "Maybe not."
"Sis?" asked Leilani, unsure at what she was thinking.
"Leilani, do you think mom still has that necklace of hers on?"
"The...one I made her?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Uh, yeah, why?"
"Because it's made partially of Dust, remember?"
"I'm so lost," said Reyson scratching his head.
"You must be used to saying that by now."
"When I'm around you, yeah, because you don't speak plain."
Macro blocked Yasmine's view of Reyson so he could get her attention, "What are you thinking?"
"My drones scan for things, remember? I just have to input data. Leilani made mom a necklace with fragments of Dust. I know exactly what kinds, and so if I adjust their scanners..."
"You can find them!" exclaimed Leilani.
"I can try." corrected Yasmine with a serious look to her sister, "We'd have to follow the trail and I don't know how long it would take to get to them but...it's better than nothing."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news..." stated Aaron with a wave of the hand. "But aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?"
"How are we getting to your hometown in Minstrel?" answered Erin with a sad look.
A thump on Night's desk got them to snap their heads to him, "I'll take care of that. You'll have a ride in 30 minutes. 20 if my contact picks up first time. Get your things, prep for a big battle, you don't know where you're going or how many Heralds will be there. I'll make a call."
Eager to get going, Yasmine and Leilani all but flew out the door, and the others followed one by one. Night did indeed pick up his phone, and as the dial tone rang he went to the window and looked out at the grounds with clear fear and sadness in his eyes.
"Hello Cheshire, I'm calling in a solid, 'you owe me'..."
Less than a half hour later a ship landed on the grounds outside Beacon. Night and all the members of Team GRYD and MEAL watched as it did. It was a small ship, but they could tell it had power and speed, even if it didn't have any markings to distinguish itself.
As it did final landing procedures, Night turned to them all, "The pilot is good and won't ask questions. He's a friend of a friend and knows how to get to places fast and without raising alarms or tripping sensors. At top speed you'll reach Minstrel airspace in about two hours."
"You sure you don't want to come with us, sir?" wondered Macro. "We could use your help."
"I appreciate that offer, and most times I would. But if this is an opening salvo you need me here coordinating with others to let them know what's going on. I'm going to call your father, as well as Orchid and certain other people who are looped in on the Heralds to let them know the situation."
"I understand. Alright, let's not waste anymore time, let's go!"
Without another word they rushed onto the ship. Once they were all on board Macro gave the signal to the pilot to go. Night watched from the grounds as the ship rose into the air and took off.
"Good luck," he said quietly before turning around and again pulling out his phone. "Gunner? It's Night, we might have a big situation on our hands..."
On the ship, the members of GRYD and MEAL did what they could to both prepare themselves for what was coming as well as passing the time. While many of them got their weapons in peak condition, Yasmine was already programming her drones to look for the Dust signature of her mom's necklace. Leilani though just looked down at her feet, lost in thought about what her parents were going through. Glyph reached over and grabbed her hand and offered her as comforting a smile as he could. She smiled weakly at him and laid her head against his shoulder to rest.
Eventually, the ship entered Minstrel territory. The pilot alerted them to this and noted that they would land in an area a bit away from Yasmine and Leilani's home to not draw as much suspicion. A few minutes later they made their descent, it was in a clearing near a forest. As they exited the ship the pilot called out to Macro, "I'll remain with the ship in case Grimm come sniffing around. I won't leave without you, I promise."
"Thank you," said Macro with a salute.
Once off the ship closed back up. Macro went to Yasmine who was working on her drones, "This is your turf, your mission, your lead. Where do we go?"
Usually this moment would've filled Yasmine with incredible joy, but no such feelings were in her as she said, "There's a path over there that'll lead to our hometown. We start there and see if we can find a trail."
"You heard her, let's move."
Yasmine sent out her drones once they were done and she stood by them as she led the others to the trail. They all had their weapons out and were spread far enough from each other that they could monitor the forest just in case something unexpected popped out.
As they made their way through the forest via the path they remained silent, all of their eyes were laser focused on what might happen, even Reyson didn't offer any banter, he knew the importance of this.
The path opened up soon and a large road appeared. Macro took one look and could tell via the wear and tear of it that this was indeed the main path to a village and beyond, he looked to Yasmine for confirmation, "This the road we're looking for?"
She nodded and her eyes went into a frenzy of movement, "There's a few roads out of my hometown, I'm turning my scanners to monitor for the specific Dust my sister put in mom's necklace. Father said that she went to get items today, but she shouldn't have come this far down the road for any reason. So if we're lucky..."
Her eyes looked at the road up and down, and her drones did the same, her view changed to see all the different "eyes" that her drones had. Eventually, they shifted to one that detected Dust like she programmed, and she smiled when she saw a faint trail.
"...found it!"
At this Leilani rushed forward to stand beside her sister, "You sure?"
"Absolutely, and just like I theorized, they led her and likely dad out of town via the main road."
"Wouldn't that be risky?" posed Aaron.
"Yeah, they're Heralds, there's a huge risk to them just going down a main road."
Glyph thought about it for a moment before looking at them, "Vale is different from Minstrel. In Vale they would've had to use the cloaks to hide their looks, in Minstrel, especially this area, it's easier to conceal yourself in the environment."
"Exactly, plus, they probably didn't use their cloaked forms since this was more of a stealth kidnapping than anything else," added Macro grimly.
Reyson groaned, "I hate clever bad guys."
"It's only going to get worse from here no doubt," noted Diana, "but enough wallowing, where to Yasmine?"
Yasmine pointed down the path, "I'll follow the trail, see where it leads us, more than likely it'll branch off the main road not too far from this point. Come on."
She once again took the lead and the two teams walked again towards the unknown. Sure enough, not a minute or two into their walking Yasmine revealed that they did indeed branch off the main road. Taking a small path deep into a nearby forest. Though hesitant, they kept going, getting closer together though to ensure all of them had each other's back.
Minutes ticked by as they kept walking, and nothing changed but slight directions in their path based on the Dust signal.
At one point Macro stepped up to Yasmine to ask the question that was on everyone's minds, "Yasmine? Have you ever been this deep in these woods before?"
"Not personally, but I've heard stories," she replied quietly without looking at him.
"Of?"
"Places that might be out here. The kinds of ghost stories kids tell each other to dare them to try and find out which was real."
"So of course you never went because you're too smart for that."
"Naturally."
The two shared a quick look and laugh before going serious once again. As they continued to walk on the tension grew, and while they were all unified at the beginning in their composure, cracks started to show. Reyson started to get antsy and twitchy, Aaron and Erin continually looked to each other for comfort, and Leilani's fear grew with every step.
Suddenly, Yasmine held out her hand for everyone to stop. She changed her view via the drones to a new lens, and bared her teeth when she saw something.
Macro noticed this and again approached, "What's wrong?"
"There's something up ahead..." she said with clear anger.
Before anyone could ask what she stepped forward, and the others were forced to follow. The trees and bushes slowly started to clear up and eventually an image appeared before them.
"You gotta be kidding," said Reyson in disbelief.
Before them all was a rather large mansion. It was clearly one built many years before based on its size and construction. But it was also one that was very much abandoned based on how decrepit it looked in spots. With the dark colors of the architecture it gave off a very sinister vibe.
"The Heralds have a haunted house. I should've known."
"No time for jokes, Reyson," noted Glyph bluntly.
"Who's joking? They're evil! Why wouldn't they have a haunted house?"
Yasmine glared at him intensely, "Will you shut up?"
Reyson obeyed and slowly looked away. Macro stifled a chuckle before looking at the others, "What do you think? How should we handle this?"
Glyph turned to Yasmine, "You're sure she's in there?"
She nodded and pointed, "The trail I see ends at the door."
"Then we go in, simple as that."
"I doubt this will be simple," said Leliani with clear worry.
"You're right, it won't. But we have to try."
The two smiled at each other and Leilani seemed to get her strength back, "Right."
"So what is the plan, Yasmine?" wondered Aaron aloud.
"Do we go in full force? Or split up to try and explore the whole place?" pondered Erin.
"Let me scan the house in full and see what I can find..." declared Yasmine as she scanned the house.
In quick succession, Yasmine went through every vision that was within her. But to her surprise, outside of seeing certain things about the outside of the house, including access points and certain heating fixtures and electrical circuits, she couldn't see anything inside. Most importantly, she couldn't tell if there were Heralds, or her parents, were in the mansion.
Yasmine's expression went rather uncertain, and this was caught by Leilani, who leaned forward, "Sis?"
"I can't see inside the house...it's shielded somehow..."
"Has this ever happened to you before?" asked Macro.
"Military buildings at times, but they usually only do it on accident, this...feels intentional."
"They don't want to risk being caught..." noted Reyson grimly.
They all turned to look at him, Yasmine especially was gazing at him with piercing eyes, "Meaning?"
"Meaning...that Semblances are random, you never know what someone is going to get. X-Ray vision, heat vision, night vision, etc. They could detect life force or Aura for all they know. So...if this is a secret torture chamber..."
Diana sighed, "They'll work hard to keep it quiet. Sounds like something my mother would do."
"Great minds and all that."
"You have no idea..."
Macro snapped his fingers to get all of their attention, "Stop, focus. Yasmine, what do you think? How should we go in?"
Yasmine again reverted to her sight, looking for any sign of trap or indication of a good way in, she grimaced when she didn't get a lot back, "I don't like it...but we need to split up. We'll go in our teams of 4. I'll lead mine, Macro you lead yours to the back entrance and go in there. Be mindful, the Heralds might have traps, and we likely won't be able to contact each other, so be careful with whom you attack."
She finished this with a glare at Reyson, who scoffed and said, "If it'll calm you down I'll stay in the rear. I do want you to get your parents back, ok?"
Yasmine didn't respond, but turned to MEAL who had assembled, "Stay close, don't get separated, the Heralds won't hesitate to kill us in their own home."
"You stay safe too, sis," said Leilani with clear concern.
"I'll be fine. Go on, Macro. Move them out."
Macro nodded and motioned MEAL to follow him. As they left, Leilani looked once more at Glyph, who smiled in his usual calming way before nudging his head towards the rest of MEAL.
Diana noticed this and put her hand on his shoulder, "She'll be ok, partner."
"I know," he replied simply, "she's got a good team watching over her."
"We're not bad ourselves you know."
"True."
Yasmine watched Team MEAL until they were out of sight, then turned to GRYD, "Everyone ready?"
They each got their weapons at the ready in various forms to show they were ready, with Glyph giving a nod at the end to show his support.
"Stay close, and listen to what I say as we go in."
They all nodded, and then slowly crept forward as they approached the house. Yasmine swept the area constantly to ensure that she didn't miss a trap or a wire or anything else that could alert the Heralds to their presence.
As they approached the door, Yasmine sent one of her drones to examine it, unlock it with its own special tool, and then hover where the door would open so that they could see inside without revealing themselves. She slowly opened the door, and when the drone didn't detect anything she quickly flung it open and readied her weapons along with the others, but there was no one in the immediate sight line.
Yasmine looked nervously at Glyph, who shared in her concern of nothing appearing yet. But steeling themselves, they went in.
They took a staggered approach inside so that they each weren't blocking the others line of vision. Yet the more they entered the mansion the more perplexed they were. Because while the outside looked rough, decrepit, and more, the interior was spotless, refined, well furnished. The floor was well carpeted, the walls had paintings of landscapes, people, and more. Including a massive painting of a man dressed in a Herald outfit wielding his sword in a regal manner.
The entry room was large and had staircases on multiple sides leading upwards as well as hallways and doors that showed this was very intricate in its construction.
"Ok, this is worse than a haunted house," said Reyson softly as he looked around.
"How's that?" asked Diana with a look at him.
"Haunted houses are ones that make you fear what's around every corner, but this? They made this their own private residence WHILE they're likely torturing Faunus here. That shows sadism, as well as confidence that they won't get caught here."
"You're depressing when you're logical."
"Thanks, Red."
Glyph glared at the two to get them to be quiet, but soon afterward Yasmine held a hand up to stop them and turned to Reyson, "Pretend you're a Herald and you owned this house. Where would you keep the prisoners?"
"Basement. Likely one that doesn't have an obvious door."
With a nod, Yasmine turned and activated her eyes once again, but this time, things were different, there was no shielding inside the room, or the rooms that she was looking into on ground level. The only difference was when she looked down, the floor was shielded in a way that was different than how regular ground or floors would look to her vision.
Grimacing at the realization, she looked again at ground level for something to lead them downward. Eventually, she noticed something odd coming from the room over.
"Over there," she said with a point, "that room. Follow me."
Slowly, but surely, they went to the room. As they entered, they saw a small dining room, complete with refurbished tables and hand-carved chairs. A few cabinets were against the walls as well. But as the others looked around, there was no sign of something out of the ordinary.
"I thought you said the entrance to the basement was here?" said Diana aloud yet softly.
"It is, it's behind the cabinet here, I can just make out a staircase behind it. Glyph, give me a hand."
Yasmine and Glyph went to one of the cabinets and tried to move it, but to no avail.
"Must have a switch," noted Glyph as he started to look for such a mechanism.
Before Yasmine could respond, a noise got their attention. One that was coming behind the cabinet itself. Knowing what it must mean, they all raced to get out of sight. Diana remained close though and fully extended her whip.
Moments later, the cabinet slid to the side and a herald exited. Before they could look around though, Diana lashed out, wrapped her whip around their neck, and pulled. With some effort, she was able to get the Herald to the ground and choke them out until they were unconscious. Once she was sure they were down, she pulled off the whip and smiled at the others.
"And that's that," she said playfully.
"You scare me sometimes, Red, and I like that." replied Reyson jokingly.
"Enough you two," interjected Glyph sternly. "Let's keep going. Yasmine?"
Yasmine nodded and took lead once again, they carefully went into the secret passage, and slowly walked down the staircase that appeared before them. As they descended they did their best not to make a loud noise to alert others to their presence, even their breathing was long and soft to not raise suspicion. To her surprise, as they got deeper below ground, Yasmine's eyes could see everything again via her drones.
"No shielding here," she said quietly to the others.
"We're in the basement, no reason to have shielding here since everything will be in view," remarked Reyson.
As she examined the area around her Yasmine's eyes went wide with despair. This only grew as she looked around more, and she stumbled on one of the stairs as she saw various things.
Glyph put a hand on her shoulder to shake her out of her funk, "Yasmine, what's wrong?"
"There are...at least two dozen Faunus in here..." she replied shallowly.
"How could they have done that many kidnappings without anyone noticing?" asked Diana.
Reyson let out a harsh exhale as he thought about it, "I bet you they're from a certain radius around this area. Different towns and cities and such...that way they didn't draw much attention."
"Like I said before, depressing when logical."
"Can you pull it together, Yasmine?" wondered Glyph with a worried look.
Before answering, Yasmine shook her head in a way as if to reset her mindset, "I'm fine. Especially since we're about to have help. The others have somehow gotten down here, they're over there."
"Any sign of Heralds?"
"As far as I can tell, no. All I can see is Faunus, and they're not moving."
"Is that...because...you know..." Reyson dared to put out.
"No, they're alive, I'm looking at them via their heat signatures. I would bet they're sedated."
"Then let's get with the others and get them all out, right partner?" posed Diana with a smile.
"Right. Lead the way Yasmine."
With another nod, and her drones ready for any surprises, they entered the main area that the stairs led to. To their shock, they were indeed in a prison. There were cells in columns and rows, and almost all of them had at least one Faunus, sometimes more. Yasmine could tell that the cells were strengthened at times in order to counter Faunus abilities and enhanced strength.
After another reality tap from Glyph, she nodded and led them to the other side of the dungeon where they saw another door. Yasmine wasted no time in opening it up. Only to find Team MEAL pointing their weapons at them. Leilani was the most happy to see her sister.
"Sis!" she said in a muffled yet excited way.
Yasmine put a finger to her lips, "Not here, especially after you see this. Come on."
With a way she guided them into the main part of the dungeon, where MEAL got to see firsthand what was happening.
"My gosh," said Macro.
"I can't...I can't even..." sputtered out Erin on the verge of tears.
"Don't worry," said Aaron as he wrapped an arm around her in comfort, "I'm at a loss for words too."
Leilani was the most taken aback by this sight. Her claws retracted into her arms and she fell to her knees as she looked at each cage and saw the Faunus.
"Why...? Why would anyone...? How could anyone...?" she tried to get out.
Yasmine knelt down and did like Aaron by hugging and comforting her sister, "I know. I know."
For a few moments they just let the horror of the situation sit in, the only one not severely taken aback was Reyson, who consistently went from looking at the teams to the doors.
"Look, I know I'm going to sound like a jerk," he started and waited for all of them to gaze at him. "But the longer we wait here, the longer we risk the Heralds finding us, or the guy we knocked out upstairs, or however many you guys took out on your way here. We need to break the Faunus out, now."
Macro looked at Glyph, who nodded at him, to which he turned to the others, "Reyson's right, we need to move now. Break up into your pairs, break open every cell and try and get the Faunus awake."
"What about our parents?" Leilani asked.
"You and Yasmine go and find them. Reyson will be with me. Now go!"
Quickly composing themselves they went out in their pairs and raced to each cell to free the Faunus. Not fearing being heard, they weren't delicate in getting them open. Whether by blade or by blast they forced the doors open and checked on every Faunus that was there.
Macro and Reyson were one of the first inside a cell, and Macro immediately did triage on them, but to his surprise, outside of a few cuts and bruises, they were fine.
"That's not right..." he said upon examining them.
"Shouldn't we be happy that they're ok?" asked Reyson confused.
"I am...but remember what I told you before about the Heralds? They like to torture Faunus to make a point. But these two are mostly fine...and they've clearly been here a while."
"Too many prisoners to torture? Not enough manpower?"
"Maybe...we'll figure it out later. Help me wake them up."
In another cell, Diana and Glyph approached another pair of Faunus. They too were mostly fine aside from small cuts and bruises. They lightly slapped their faces or shook them by the shoulders to try and get them to wake up.
Eventually, the one Glyph was with opened her eyes, but pushed Glyph back when she saw them, "Get away from me!"
"Shhh! We're not with the Heralds!" he said as loud as he dared, "We're here to rescue you."
"Rescue? You...you're kids."
"Technically we're teens," Diana replied in a snooty way, but was silenced by a look from Glyph.
As calm as he could he said to her, "We're from Beacon Academy, two of my Faunus teammates had their parents kidnapped. We followed the trail here. We're going to get you all out, but we need to leave now. Please, trust us."
The female Faunus looked at them both, gauging whether they were being truthful. But eventually she nodded her head and helped get the male Faunus awake so that they could leave.
While the others were going cell by cell to free everyone, Yasmine and Leilani were going cell by cell to find their parents. There were dozens of cells so it took a while, but eventually, they both lit up as they found their cell.
With intensity Leilani slashed open the lock on the cage, Yasmine threw the door open and they rushed to their parents to wake them up.
"Mom, dad, get up!" Leilani exclaimed while trying to remain quiet. "Sis?"
Yasmine looked over them with her drones and quickly sighed in relief, "They're fine, just sedated. They haven't been here that long so it's likely the drugs are still fully affecting them. Wait, I have an idea."
Looking at her drones, Yasmine gave them a new command, and a drone went to both her mother and her father. They vibrated as if about to explode, but then released a bolt of electricity that shocked the two and almost immediately jarred them awake.
As they arose they immediately looked around and were stunned to see their children looking at them.
"Yasmine?" said the mother, confused.
"Leilani?" added the father perplexingly.
"Hey," replied Leilani with great relief, "I'm so glad you two are ok."
"But how are you here?"
"We saw what happened in the call," answered Yasmine with her own smile to show her joy and relief. "We got our teams here as fast as possible."
Their mother cycled through emotions before landing back on fear and grabbing Yasmine, "You don't understand! These people are dangerous! They're Faunus hunters, they-"
"We know mom, we've dealt with them before. We'll tell you all about it when you're safe, but we have to get out of here first."
"Which we should note should be post haste," came a voice outside the cell.
They all turned to see Aaron and Erin looking at them anxiously. Erin pointed down the way before saying, "We got everyone free and awake. They're groggy, but they know what's going on. Now let's move!"
Leilani gave a nervous laugh at this, "Don't have to tell me twice!"
She helped up her father while Yasmine helped up their mother. As they made it through the dungeon they eventually met up with the others.
Glyph was particularly glad to see them with their parents, "You found them, good."
Leilani's mother smiled, "You must be Glyph, heard a lot about you. Too bad we had to meet like this."
"Same. But you're safe now."
"Is that so?" came a deep voice from behind the group.
On instinct, the members of MEAL and GRYD that were nearest to the voice pointed their weapons at the source. To their dismay, a group of Heralds were blocking the doorway closest to them.
The Herald in front of the group was taller than the rest, and he lowered his hood to show a very dark and scarred head. One full of experience, and hatred. "I know not how you found this place, but if you think you are getting out of her in one piece, you are mistaken."
"The only one mistaken here is you," Glyph bit back.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, you kidnapped the parents of my girlfriend. That means you get my full unrestrained attention!"
Glyph blinked away, and in a blur of motion he took down all the Heralds that were behind their leader. Then he reappeared in front of him, pointing his shotgun right as his head as his followers all fell to the ground unconscious.
"Anything smart to say now?"
"Yes, give up, you're surrounded."
"Bull."
"Oh?"
The Herald raised his hands as if he was surrendering, then smiled and snapped his finger. An alarm went off, and footsteps slowly started to fill the room.
As the teams looked around, they watched in horror as a swarm of Heralds came from all sides via entrances they couldn't see. Within a minute they were indeed surrounded.
"Where the heck did you all come from?" cried out Diana readying her whip.
"Haunted mansion, remember, Red?" answered Reyson as he smiled at the battle to come. " Lots of secret passages."
"Indeed," acknowledged the Herald. "My brothers and sisters were merely upstairs waiting for their next mission. Which is apparently taking you all down, and killing the Faunus."
Glyph glared at the Herald for a moment before breaking down into a smile, "I doubt it."
"How cocky."
"No, I know my team. And we prepared for an ambush. Right, Macro?"
A laugh emerged from Macro, who was tossing a grenade in his hand, "I wondered if I was going to get to use this. Everyone close your eyes!"
He threw the grenade into the air, it burst and a flash of multi-color light burst all around them. MEAL, GRYD, and the Faunus were able to close their eyes in time, but the Heralds were blinded.
Glyph reformed his escrima and gave orders, "Protect the Faunus, take down the Heralds, go!"
The teams rushed out and attacked while the Heralds were still blinded. The only ones who remained with the Faunus were Leilani and Yasmine, who protected them on all sides as best they could.
Glyph was easily the most intense in his attacks, his face filled with rage at everything going on. He didn't lose control, but not unlike Reyson, he let it fuel him enough to do extra damage and ensure the Heralds didn't get up.
Macro watched his back, not that Glyph needed much help, but he knew the Heralds were tricky. He focused on long range shots via his machine gun and picked most of them off before they could get to Glyph or the others at times.
The Lovers worked in tandem as usual. Every time the Heralds tried to split them up they would go and do whatever it took to get back together, usually at the expense of a Herald getting seriously hurt. They smiled at each other as they reunited before getting back to the action.
Diana took on a rather large group on her own despite having no backup. Her whip danced as she struck them and she used her Semblance to great effect. Using her dancing projections to tie up or hurt the Heralds so she could focus on another. One by one they went down with only a few landing a blow on her.
As for Reyson, he did what he loved, charging into battle with an evil grin and mowing down everyone in sight. Between his blades and his cannon blasters he was virtually unstoppable against the Heralds. Something extra was fueling him in this fight. Not just the love of the fight, but a desire to right a wrong. He wouldn't admit it to Yasmine, but he hated what happened to her parents, and would do anything to make sure they weren't lost. Though he wouldn't say that to Yasmine else risk getting teased. At one point, he fired two shots at a Herald, one missed and hit a wall, blowing out a chunk of it while the other knocked out the person cold.
As the numbers of the Heralds fell, the teams worked together for the final push, until finally the lead Herald was all that was left. His disgust for the defeat showed on his face as Glyph again approached and pointed his shotgun at the Heralds head.
"Let me repeat what I said before, anything smart to say now?"
"This is but a battle, not a war," answered the Herald with an odd calm.
"Maybe, but it's your last."
He wrapped a finger around the trigger when a hand grabbed his wrist, it was Leilani, "No! Don't. Don't be like him, Glyph, you're better than that. We're better than that."
"Leilani, he took your parents, who knows what would've happened to them if we didn't arrive in time!"
"I know, believe me, I know. But him? What he believes? He thinks we're nothing but animals."
"And I'm right," said the Herald with distaste.
Leilani's eyes flared with anger, and she pulled out her claws and put them right up against the Herald's neck, "If I was an animal, I would kill you here and now and call it good sport. But I'm not like you. I'm more human than you'll ever be. More good than you'll ever be, and like a good being, I'm turning you into the authorities where you can rot for your crimes."
She withdrew her claws and walked away. Glyph smiled smally before focusing back on the Herald, "Ok. I can live with that. But sadly for you, that doesn't mean you get to be conscious for what comes next."
Before the Herald could react, Glyph repositioned his shotgun and blasted him square in the chest, sending him flying backwards and hitting the door. Knocking him out cold as a result.
Glyph turned to Leilani and smiled, "Was that ok?"
She laughed and nodded, "That was perfect, Glyph."
"Uh, guys?" called out Reyson. "You need to see this."
They turned to see Reyson looking at the hole in the wall that he blasted out during the fight. Glyph signaled some of them to stay with the Faunus while Macro and Yasmine checked it out with him. As they approached and looked into the whole their eyes went wide with shock.
"What is that doing down here?" asked Macro.
"I have no idea," answered Yasmine.
Glyph looked at the wall, "It's obviously a fake door, help me open this."
The two found the pressure point and opened the hidden door, as they walked inside they found themselves in a kind of studio. One used to film broadcasts. It was a rather large room, one that had spotlights, sound devices, and other equipment.
As Reyson looked at it he scratched his head in confusion, "Ok, this is not what you'd find in a haunted house for the record."
"Which begs the question of why the Heralds had it here," pondered Macro.
"Sending a message," realized Glyph.
"What?" asked Yasmine.
"Remember what Night said? He said your parents were alive because the Heralds like to use Faunus to send messages. What if this is an extension of that? What if the reason they're all here is to film them being tortured, or killed...and then the videos being sent to relevant people."
"Like the heads of the Faunus."
"Or people like dad," added Macro. "You know, trying to get them to back off, else more of this."
"Well, let's blow it and screw up that process!" exclaimed Reyson as he readied his cannons.
Glyph grabbed his arm and lowered them before he could do any damage, his mind racing, "Wait...I have a better idea. Get me that Herald that I shot through the door."
"Why?"
"Just do it! I promise, you'll like it."
He left the room confused but willing to comply. As Glyph looked around the room he focused on the equipment that was near the camera. Macro was curious as to what Glyph was planning, "What's your plan?"
"I'm tired of playing defense. We're always reacting to them, time to turn the tables. Yasmine?"
"Yes?" she said stepping forward.
"Can your drones tell how far this thing can broadcast?"
"Sure, one sec, I'll have them hack the computers and such."
She summoned her drones and had them scan all the electronics in sight to gather information, the more she did the more her jaw dropped, "Oh my gosh..."
"What is it?" wondered Macro.
"They're...they're tapped into the networks themselves! They could broadcast this all over the world if they wanted to."
"Which explains a lot. We know they have people in Vale and Atlas, now Minstrel. Probably Vacuo as well. What better way to hide yourselves than by hacking into the very thing we take for granted and use it to plot against us?"
Glyph was not amused, "Can you hack it for us? Send a message all over?"
She thought about it for a bit before nodding, "Yeah, might take a few minutes."
"Good, set it up, we're going to shine a light on some shadows..."
A few minutes later the teams were set up, and Yasmine gave Glyph a signal when the cameras were filming.
He stepped forward to address those watching, "Attention people of Remnant. My name is Glyph Masterson, head of Team GRYD from Beacon Academy."
Macro joined him, "And I am Macro Camof, son of Gunner Camof and head of Team MEAL. Also from Beacon Academy.
"We're here today to warn of a threat to our world. What threat you ask? People like him."
Glyph turned to Reyson and waved him forward. Reyson dumped the Herald leader in front of the camera for all to see and then put one of his Kopesh's against his neck, smiling as he did so.
"This is a Herald, a Herald of Purity to be exact. Long ago, when a war divided our world, the Heralds of Purity were created to do one thing, wipe out all Faunus on Remnant. When the war ended, it was believed that they were all gone. This is a lie, they've been here the whole time."
Macro motioned to the room they were in, "We're here right now coming to you from a secret base in Minstrel. Where for untold weeks, probably months, Faunus have slowly been captured, tortured, and killed in this very base. We were brought here when the parents of our teammates were kidnapped. All the Faunus are free now thanks to us."
On a signal from Glyph, Yasmine had her drones turn the camera to point to all the Faunus that were hovering outside the hidden door, each of them showing the damage done to them by the Heralds.
Glyph waited for the camera to return to him before talking again, "I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident. But it isn't. Over the course of several months we've faced the Heralds of Purity in the city of Vale, on a train transporting military-grade Dust, and they've even sent assassins to Beacon to try and kill us for interfering. We're done playing defense."
Macro pointed his E-Tool at the Herald, "This man right here is but one of dozens we stopped here today, but we need your help to stop them for good."
At Beacon, Night smiled as he listened to the broadcast.
"The time for this kind of hate is over. We're supposed to be better than this. Do not let this group ruin this world that we, both humans and Faunus, worked so hard to build."
Orchid and some of her aides all watched the video as well, and she smiled smally when Glyph spoke again, "No one is superior to anyone, and anyone who thinks that the Faunus are anything but equals is a bigot and a fool."
In his laboratory, Taupen Wizzer was glued to his screen, almost chomping at the bit as the speech continued.
"We must be better. We have to be better. Because to not be better? Makes you no better than a Herald."
"That's right, Glyph. We have many friends who are Faunus, we wouldn't be alive today without them. They're our friends, and more. We would die defending them and their families. And I hope that some of you out there feel the same way about Faunus that you know as well. Because they will need your help to stop this threat."
Glyph moved right in front of the camera so that only his head and shoulders could be seen, and his eyes burned with fire as he looked into the lens.
"I speak now to the head or heads of the Heralds of Purity. You are on notice. Your secret is out, you are known to the world now, and more are going to come for you. More are going to try and stop you besides us now. You made this personal, now we're returning the favor."
Far away, Rowan and Lilana looked at Glyph via their screen with utter rage and contempt.
"We will find you, one way or another, and we're putting down your group. I promise. We're not alone anymore, and you're exposed. We're taking your men in, we've freed the Faunus that were here, and once this place has been raided I will personally burn it to the ground. You've made a grave mistake going after my friends' parents. A mistake you will pay for dearly. You've been warned."
As Glyph joined the others again Reyson couldn't help but laugh at it all before smiling gleefully at the camera, "For those who don't speak Avenger, I have your recap here. The Heralds of Purity suck, and deserve to be put down for good. I'm Reyson Heron, and I approve of this message. Goodnight everybody!"
With a flick of his arm his sword turned into a cannon and he blasted the camera offline.
Reyson laughed heartily at this until he turned around to see the others not amused by this, "What? That was a great way to end it!"
Yasmine rolled her eyes and shook her head, "You just had to get the last word in, didn't you?"
"Uh, yeah. I couldn't have grim and grimmer stealing all the fun of sending a threatening message. Besides, did you miss the good deed I threw in at the end?"
"I doubt that destroying a camera was a good deed," mocked Aaron.
"Even if it was a Heralds' camera," noted Erin.
"Not that! I said my name!" revealed Reyson with a motion to himself. He scoffed loudly when the others didn't bite, "Hello! The Herons believe in peace! I, a Heron, just condoned what we did on live TV! Er...live news, whatever. Point is, now our family has to help whether they like it or not. The scandal would kill them otherwise."
With that he did a long bow, only rising when he heard a laugh, it was coming from Glyph.
"Well done," said Glyph with a nod of appreciation.
"Good to be appreciated."
"Speaking of which," overrode Diana with a point to the door, "I'm sure the Faunus over there would appreciate getting out of this dungeon."
"Very true," acknowledged Macro. "My dad is on the way with some transports. He'll get them all home while some of his men raid this place for information. Let's go."
Carefully, they all got out of the studio and personally escorted the Faunus out of the mansion and into the fresh air. As the Faunus stepped outside the teams couldn't help but notice the looks of relief and joy of seeing the sky again. Some of them had been in there for weeks and didn't know if they were getting out.
Leilani and Yasmine stayed with their parents throughout this, even when Gunner showed up as planned.
He approached his son with a very proud look on his son, "Very good job, Macro."
"We got lucky," admitted Macro with a wary look, "they made a mistake we could capitalize on. If circumstances were different..."
Gunner stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder, "There are many rules to being a soldier, son. You know this. But one of the most important is that you don't mock a good thing when you know it's pure. This wasn't a trap, or a setup, or a feint. You saved lives, got these Faunus their freedom. That's worth more than any worry could ever be."
"Thanks, dad."
"Not a problem. Now help me interview these people. Then let's get them home."
"Yes sir!"
The next few hours went by in a blur for everyone involved. Macro and Gunner, along with their subordinates interviewed the Faunus to get details about the Heralds and then took them home. The raid on the mansion was next, they grabbed all pieces of information they could, and as promised, when they were done, Glyph lit a match and burned it to the ground. He stayed in a single spot and watched it go to ashes until there was nothing left. Only then did he leave.
At the request of Leilani and Yasmine's parents, they were all invited to their home for a meal and to spend the night. To which they all happily agreed. When Glyph finally reached the house, Leilani was outside waiting for him.
"Glyph!" she shouted and waved as he emerged.
He smiled and went up to her, "Everyone else inside?"
"Yeah, already eating up a storm. Especially Reyson, guess he needs a lot of food to satisfy his battle habits."
"Makes sense."
The two paused with a look to the other and then laughed. Leilani looked away for a spell before playing with her ears, "Glyph, about today..."
"...yes?"
"What you did, what everyone did, it means the world to me and my sister. You saved our parents, we'll never be able to pay you back for that."
Glyph reached out to Leilani and turned her head to face him, "Leilani, even if we weren't together, I would've done this. Like Macro said, you two are our friends, and we'd do anything for you. You don't have to pay us back, you've already done enough."
Leilani welled up, she fought back the tears but failed, with a muffled wail she lunged out and hugged Glyph and let the tears flow. Glyph smiled and happily hugged her back, allowing her to get out everything she needed it.
Eventually though, she stopped, and as she wiped back the final tears she looked into Glyph's eyes she lunged again. But this time, it was to kiss him.
A kiss he more than happily accepted and held onto for as long as time and fate would allow.
*credits*