Junior was doing paperwork for the week's purchases and sales when he felt one of his tattoos started to glow. It was a signal that he had hoped he would never receive again. With a tired sigh he rose to his feet and began putting on his shoulder holster.
"Mel, Mal, come for a second!" he yelled. Snuggly fitting his concealed carry gun into the holster he put on his jacket just as his twin daughters walked in. Not waiting for them to say anything he explained the situation to them. " Girls, I need to go for a trip. It could be a few hours, it could be a few days or longer. I need you two to stay here and run the bar for me."
Melanie looked worried but not willing to argue with her father about the matter but Miltiades did not share that trait. She was too much like him in that sense. "Where are you going?" she demanded"
Junior needed a second to come up with a response but he masked that by pretending to look for his gloves. Once he "found" them he responded. "A few people from my past have called me for help. I need to check on them".
They both looked for his bat and when they saw it leaned in its usual spot they relaxed a little. If he wasn't bringing his main weapon then it wasn't anything dangerous. In truth it was extremely dangerous. The call he had gotten was from the Grimbane Brotherhood.
They had been founded countless lifetimes ago in an age that most weren't aware of. They had records from the days when men used magic and the brothers lived on Remnant.
Along with the brothers came their creations. The only one of note to the brotherhood was the dark one. He created the first Grimm. And it was him that the brotherhood first rebelled against.
It goes without saying that rebelling against a God didn't go over too well but the light brother forbade their total destruction. They chose to lick their wounds but it was of little consequence. A second rebellion had been held shortly after. And as recompense the brothers had wiped all life from earth.
In the eons that followed the old forts had been hidden from all. Until one day an Archeologist known now as the "father" discovered the former headquarters of the Grimbane Brotherhood. His whole team thought that the discovery was somehow supernatural as no knowledge of the past world had survived the brothers' purge.
In truth the majority of the brotherhood buildings had been deliberately hidden from them. A fact that many within the brotherhood originally thought impossible. After all the brothers were gods they were all-knowing. Or so it was thought, in truth the brotherhood had inadvertently disproved much of Remnants history by proving that the brothers were in fact not gods. Merely powerful beings.
When the father found this he made the same choice that every member of the Brotherhood made. The brothers, the false-gods, could never be allowed to return. As his studies of the site deepened he managed to convince his colleagues of this fact. Once he had done that they made the second choice. The Grimm were an ancient evil that needed to be battled.
In the way of the first Brotherhood they knew that open warfare with the Grimm was futile. There would always be more creatures of darkness. This war needed to be fought from the shadows.
It was for that reason that the Brotherhood has always operated in secret. None outside the Brotherhood knew of its existence. Not even their enemies.
Getting into his car Junior took a moment to remember the road to the meeting place. Once his route was planned he made his way there making sure to watch for any tails. The warehouse seemed like it was a Schnee storehouse, which it was.
Junior still remembered how he had entered the Brotherhood. He was a Vale patrol officer at the time. His fourth year on the job. He got a call about a suspicious person. Normally it would have been just another case of an older person who had forgotten to take her meds seeing the men that could dig through the ground or walk through walls.
When he reached the location he saw Jaques Du'frey. The man was most certainly lost since he was in a major Faunus ghetto. It was true that Jaques had yet to become the CEO of the SDC but he was still a well known member of the company's "production division" which was just a code word for he was good at controlling the workforce with well crafted words and well used threats.
"Sir, I think that you may be lost," he had said.
When Jaques turned to look at him and said. "I am not the lost one officer Xei '' it had surprised and scared him. That was the night that he had joined the Brotherhood. Willingly of course they never approached anyone unless they were certain about the outcome.
Since then Jaques had taken over the entire SDC and as a result many of their meetings were held in SDC facilities. The door was unlocked but that wasn't too strange. When Junior found the meeting room he opened the door to see Jaques Schnee, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck, James Ironwood, and the Brother that would have most confused any outsider who had happened to find the meeting Adam Tauras.
If Adam had met Jaques at any other time then he would have tried to kill him. After all, they hated each other. But they knew that the safety of Remnant was more important than their personal opinions.
"I was out, why the fuck did you call me back in!" Junior demanded.
It was Peter who answered. "We have information that Salem is planning to move on Ozpin. She is planning an attack on Vale and we need your help to thwart it."
When he heard that name of the queen of the Grimm Junior set aside his frustrations and took a seat. The Brotherhood had discovered the hidden war between Ozma and Salem lifetimes ago when a brother had been brought into Ozpin's employ. Ever since then at least one of the many assets on Ozma's side of the war was a Brotherhood plant. At the moment that plant was James Ironwood.
"What's the situation?" Junior asked.
"She has me and my soldiers preparing to attack Vale in conjunction with a grimm attack." Adam said.
"What's Roman's involvement?" Junior asked. He was trying to get up to speed on the situation.
"Working with her but he doesn't know who she is, at least not fully." Adam continued.
Roman was an important person in the matter. He was once considered for entry into the Brotherhood but they deemed him too self-centered. If they could sway him then it would be a powerful ally taken from their enemies.
"My army is already on its way." James offered.
"There is a plan in place to turn your army against you." Adam countered.
James nodded and went back to thinking. If he was going to have to deal with that he would need to back date some reports and quietly buy some new tech.
"An attack of this size must have a staging area?" Port added.
"Mountain Glenn," Jaques cut in speaking for the first time. He was the oldest brother and as such matters on the brotherhood were often decided by him. While it was true that there were no true rules of the brotherhood. That was due to the fact that the father had known that any rule would eventually be used by their enemies knowingly or otherwise.
Looking at the map on the table they saw the failed settlement of Mountain Glenn. A recon team from Beacon had been engaged in the area and now there was a second team being sent. Adam nodded before saying. "That explains a few things." Once he had everyone's attention he continued. " My men have been ordered to gather large amounts of digging supplies and explosives. I had assumed that it was for demolition work but that might not be the case."
Reaching out he interacted with the map. Using the radar function he showed the radar scans of the area. There was a series of underground tunnels that lead all over the place and one that lead directly into Vale.
"We can't stop them," Jaques said. "If we show our hand to them now it will be too much for them to ignore later, instead we will be ready for them. James I want you to make ready your specialists. When the attack on your army is performed I want you to let it proceed but use your men to solve the problem."
James nodded in agreement before Jaques turned to Oobleck. " Your students need to avoid the operation in Mountain Glenn. If they find their way into the mix help them but don't go looking for trouble."
"Understood" Oobleck responded.
" Junior, I need you to keep your ear to the ground for anything about the white fang and grimm you are our source to the arms trade." with the final orders given he looked around and asked. "Any other plans?"
It was an honest offer if anybody had a better plan he wanted to hear it. That being said nobody had anything to offer so they kept their silence. That is until Peter port chimed in. "I would like to offer a new addition to the Brotherhood," reaching out he placed his scroll on the link point sending a profile to the map screen.
"Jaune arc, if he is anything like Jerimiah he would be a valuable asset" Peter explained.
"Needs thought but it is worth noting" Jaques said.
Their business concluded they all rose from the table and left going their separate ways. When Junior got back he saw his daughters both running the bar with ease. He knew that if he was getting back into Brotherhood work then it may be best if he stayed away for a while. It broke his heart to admit it but his little girls had grown up and now they didn't need him to watch over them every day.
Driving back to one of his old safehouses Junior went inside. He found his old safehouse in need of a lot of dusting. That being said he hadn't been here in almost two decades to all things considered it was in great shape.
It was time to get back to work.