Chapter 10: The Weather Wizard

KRAK!

The wind howled, and the lightning crackled, as the Special Region Exploration Unit kept driving through what could be best described as a flat plane full of nothing but rocks and the occasional bush. But even then, the remaining bushes were blown away by the storm.

It had been a week since the incident at the Saltu Jungles, and it was at that point that Momo had decided to cut her losses and head back to the Collibus Hills. The good news was that the path of the Saltu Jungles was towards the direction of the gate, so all they had to do now was travel northeast for the next week to make it straight home.

The problem was that they were in foreign territory.

KRAK!

Instead of simply backtracking and heading through the Corallium Forest and Uwabami's mushroom land, they were heading to a new and unfamiliar place on their way back home. Which did make a bit of sense. Why? Go back to places you've already been, when you can head somewhere new on your way back, while also grabbing some new stuff?

Two birds and one stone, really.

Unfortunately, with every new place, came risks.

For the Uwabami's mushroom forest, it was giant scorpions, man-eating snail monsters, sentient fungus, and the medusa herself. For the Corallium Forest, it was those blind furbags, the talking wolf-hyena things, and the cursed undead. For the Saltu Jungles, it was the bunny women, the ogres, and the giant horned cobra that Bakugou and Kirishima blew up.

For this place, the risk was the high winds and lightning.

KRAK!

Snapping out of her internal monologue, Momo looked out the window once more. Thanks to the clouds overhead, not a single ray of light could break through. If it wasn't for the fact their vehicles came with some heavy-duty headlights, Momo and her entire squad could have easily been trapped wandering this perpetual darkness for who knows how long.

There were also two things that the black-haired soldier was glad weren't happening right now: One was the fact that it wasn't raining, and the other was that the lightning at least illuminated their path for a bit, even at the risk of it possibly striking their very-much metal vehicles.

KRAK!

"All right, that's it!" Awase growled. "If I see another goddamn lightning bolt, I'm gonna get out of the car, and shoot my gun straight into the sky! Maybe Zeus will get the message to stop…"

"Perhaps it is best that we stop for the day…" Momo said, as she saw something out the side of the window. "Look over there, there's a mountainside. We can camp there for the night."

"Sweet," Uraraka said. "This storm is putting me on edge."


Grabbing her radio, Momo said, "Everyone, this is Lieutenant Yaoyorozu. We're making camp for the night. Please drive towards that dark area of the nearby mountainside. Over and out."

FWEEE —

Stepping out of the car, Katsuki cringed as he heard the wind scream at him.

It almost sounded like his mother, the old hag, when she had a bad day.

"Hey, Bakubro!"

Oh, great, it's that guy again.

"Check out what's next to the mountainside! We could use it for shelter!"

Katuski looked towards where the red-haired idiot was pointing to see… a cave.

The entrance was big enough that two tall people could easily walk inside, but Katsuki didn't know anyone who would do such a thing voluntarily. The inside was completely pitch-black, and the stalagmites and stalactites at the entrance made the cave look like an open mouth.

The fact that there were also four other holes on top of the main opening of the cave that resembled nostrils and eyes did not make Katsuki feel any more comfortable.

"I'm not going in there, and you can't make me," he flatly said.

"Oh, come on, don't be such a baby," the ginger-haired ponytail lady, Kendo or something, said. "Kaibara already looked it over. Despite the fact that it looks like a face, it's a hundred percent rock. So you don't have to worry about being eaten alive by some kind of giant."

"It could be a golem pretending to be a cave," Katsuki retorted back.

"Okay, fine, I'll indulge your little fantasy for a bit," she said. "Why would a golem go through all that effort to shove itself into the side of the mountain, just to keep its mouth open in the hopes that some dumb animal would wander inside? Look how big it is! If that cave truly was its head, then the rest of its body would be even bigger, so wouldn't it make more sense for it to roam around the land actively hunting, rather than acting like some sort of ambush predator?"

Katsuki cloaked his tongue, seeing no flaw in her logic. "What do you want?"

"Lieutenant Yaoyorozu wants to see how big the cave actually is," Kendo said, handing him a flashlight. "She thinks that there's a chance we can fit all our tents, and maybe our vehicles, in there for the night. Kirishima, here's your flashlight. The two of you are buddying up again."

"AWW, YEAH! BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH BAKUBRO!"

God fucking dammit.


As the wind kept flying into Momo's face, her frustration was rising.

"Lieutenant, this is Kaibara!" her radio crackled. "Tsuburba and I are a bit deeper in the cave along with Uraraka and Komori! It's pretty roomy! We can fit all our tents in here!"

"What?!" she asked, not being able to hear her radio due to the wind.

"I SAID IT'S ROOMY!"

"I can't hear you, give me a minute!" she shouted, as she looked over towards the team's resident angel. "Melissa! Is there anything you can do to help with the noise?!"

"What?!" the blonde-haired woman shouted to Momo.

"I SAID, "IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO HELP WITH THE NOISE"?!"

"Okay, okay! I heard you! You don't have to shout at me!" she said, getting closer towards Momo. "While I can't help with the noise, I can maybe do something about the weather!"

"Like what?!"

"Didn't you forget I have magic powerful enough to change the weather?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess I did. I was so busy, it must have slipped my mind," Momo said, before realizing something. "Wait a minute! Why haven't you changed the weather already?!"

"I didn't get your permission?" the angel answered.

Momo took a deep breath to calm down before answering. "Melissa, there's something known as being "proactive." So, for future reference, here's some advice: When there's something you can do to help others, do it, even if they didn't ask for it. I'll handle the legal paperwork."

"Oh, okay! Then in that case… IMPERIUM TEMPESTAS!"

Momo stared in amazement as Melissa sent her hand up towards the sky, chanted those magical words, snapped her fingers, and then… nothing happened. Wait, what?

"Uhh, Melissa?" Momo asked. "Nothing happened."

"No, that doesn't make any sense, it should have worked unless…" Melissa's eyes widened from confusion or horror as she realized something. "This isn't a natural storm."

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"My spell allows me to alter the weather, with one exception… I can't alter someone else's created weather," the angel said. "Two weather-altering spells can't work at the same time. Which means… Someone powerful is here. Someone is causing the storm."

KRAAAAK!

Before Momo could even comprehend what Melissa said, a bolt of lightning struck the side of the mountain, and out from the impact came… falling boulders.


"ROCK SLIDE!"

The words Monoma shouted hit Katsuki's brain in an instant.

After the last lightning bolt, he could hear the creaking of something big and heavy from even inside the opening of the cave. And he knew that those sounds only meant trouble.

"SHITTY HAIR, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE, NOW!"

The redheaded guy immediately nodded and the two of them made a break for it, trying to hear back out of the cave before the rocks – "KIRISHIMA! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

GRAB!

Before Kirishima could even react, Katsuki tackled him away from the opening of the cave, and for good reason. Large boulders began to fall towards the entrance, and if the explosive blond hadn't saved Kirishima, the redhead would have been squashed trying to escape.

The last thing Kirishima saw before the darkness came in was Aoyama pointing at the sky.


"LOOK OUT, EVERYONE!" Aoyama screamed, as more boulders fell.

This was a nightmare. Several people had already gotten struck by the boulders, and Melissa worked overtime to heal the life-threatening injuries, while Kodai took care of the less serious wounds. All Momo could do was order her troops to fill her in on the details.

"Sato! Status report!"

"Well, the good news is, nobody died," the team's chef said. "Shield-san and Kodai are treating the injured, but the worst part is that a bunch of our tents got wrecked by the boulders."

"The tents are replaceable, you aren't," Momo said. "Wait… where's…?"

"This is Bakugou! Someone, come in!" Momo's radio suddenly turned on. "Fuck!"

"Bakugou, it's Yaoyorozu, what's going on?"

"Me and Shitty Hair are trapped in the cave! All those damn boulders sealed us in here! And to make matters worse, one of them got me in the leg! Can't walk… fuck, that hurts!"

"What's everyone else's status in there?"

"The other two teams just met up with us, there's a total of six of us trapped in the cave! Shitty Hair's radio and flashlight are busted. We've only got two of those flashlights left, from the other two teams. And the damn rocks aren't budging! We'll have to blow our way out."

"How? Bakugou, you're the only one who's explosives-certified here!"

"I'll walk you guys through it from here! Round Cheeks is staying with me, Shitty Hair and the other three are gonna try and scout for another way out of this cave system!"

"Alright, we'll see what we can do from here, stay safe!" Momo said. "Aoyama!"

"Yes?" the French sniper asked.

"You, Rin and Awase grab Bakugou's supplies and follow his instructions to the letter! These are delicate explosives, and one wrong move could get us into an even bigger mess! Kodai!"

"Mm?" the medic hummed.

"What are the statuses of our other patients?"

"Melissa managed to save their lives, but Kendo and Monoma still have minor fractures," she said. "Melissa said she's conserving her mana in case of an emergency."

"Good. You and Sato watch over and keep treating our injured. Melissa!"

"Yes, ma'am?" the angel asked.

"Use your wings and find the bastard who's causing the lightning with their magic," she hissed. "I don't care what you have to do, kill them for all I care, but I want this storm gone!"

"Understood, ma'am," she said, before taking off on her white wings.

As Momo looked over the damage, she realized it was going to be a long night.


"I'm not leaving you behind, Bakubro!" Eijiro shouted.

"SHUT UP! I'm not gonna be alone, Round Cheek's is gonna be with me!"

"I refuse to be addressed like that!" Uraraka protested.

The spiky blond stared daggers at her. "I kinda don't care right now –"

"Bakugou, do you read me? It's Awase, we got the explosives from the car!"

"About fucking time," Bakubro grumbled, before grabbing the radio. "Alright, listen carefully, first thing's first, do you see the box that says "M112 demolition charge" on it? Pull it out and…"

As Bakugou began explaining the instructions over the walkie-talkies, Uraraka looked to Eijiro and said, "He'll be fine, I'll be with him. Just go with the others and try to find a way out."

Eijiro wanted to protest, but Kaibara said, "Hey, don't worry, man. Bakugou's a tough bastard, he'll pull through and help us get out of here. Isn't that right Kosei?"

"Oh, yeah, totally," Tusburaba said.

"Yeah, I guess you guys are right…"

"Alright," Komori said, grabbing one of the flashlights. "Let's explore this cave…"

As Kirishima left with the other three, he took one last look back at Bakubro and Uraraka, the light of their flashlights being the last thing he saw before the darkness overtook them.


The only thing Kinoko could see with the flashlight was just how green the walls were.

There was probably some scientific explanation that Kaibara would be more than happy to explain to them, but it still didn't remove from the fact that this place was eerie as hell.

This was about as far as she went in terms of exploration with Uraraka, before everything went to shit. She really didn't notice the coloration of the walls at the time, she was more busy trying to figure out whether the squad could sleep outside of the thunder storm for the night.

That, and if there were any mushrooms in the cave. She still had her priorities.

She remained silent, as did everyone else, as they continued their little improvised spelunking trip. But the fact that they weren't talking made their ears hyper-sensetive to even the smallest thing. Their footsteps on the ground sounded like they were stepping on crackers, and she could have sworn that she heard a xylophone being stroked in the darkness.

It was probably just some weird cricket, right? Right?

As the four of them kept marching through the darkness, they saw that there were now two paths in front of them. Kirishima cleared his throat, and said, "So, the left or the right –?"

"HOW MANY, THEN?"

In an instant, Kirishima's question died in his throat, as everyone else stayed quiet.

"What the fuck was that?" Tsuburaba asked, in a whisper.

That wasn't one of their voices. It sounded like an old man's. And to top it off, it wasn't in Japanese, but Latin. Meaning there was someone else, a local, in the cave with them.

Turning around, Kinoko could see Kaibara was slowly pulling out his pistol from behind. The geologist looked at the others, and then quietly asked, "How do we respond?"

"I dunno, we tell him the truth?" Tsuburaba asked.

"Oh, that sounds like a great idea! "Hey, there's four of us! Enough for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a bonus desert!"" Even in whispers, she could hear Kaibara's sarcasm.

"Maybe we don't say anything?" Kirishima suggested.

As the other three began to quietly argue over how to proceed, Kinoko gulped. She stepped forward and away from the group, and said, in Latin, "Uhh… four?"

The other three looked towards her, only for all four of them to be silently shocked when a glowing green skeleton arm came out of the darkness, with four… tickets in hand?

What the fuck?

Kinoko quietly took the tickets and gave one to each of the group members, before the four of them decided to head towards the left tunnel. But before they could step any further, the green skeleton arm snapped its fingers at them, and then used its thumb to point them towards the other tunnel, where it was. And then, just like that, it disappeared into thin air.

"Huh…" Kirishima was the first to say anything. "I guess we're going towards the right."

The four of them proceeded on their way, only to hear… bubbles?

No, it was a bubbling sound, as Kinoko suddenly saw that on one side of the tunnel was this orange-and-brown liquid… thing… covering up the right wall, while on the left side, there were a bunch of dark green-and-black columns, each one suspiciously looking like a pile of skulls.

"Okay, no, seriously, what the fuck is going on here?" Tsuburaba asked.

"Man, I have no idea," Kaibara said. "This… orange wall thing… it's moving around like a liquid, or like a living organism, but that makes no sense in the world of physics, let alone science."

"Maybe we should ignore it, and move on?" Kirishima asked.

Everyone agreed immediately.

As they moved on from the… bubbling room… they ended up in a part of the cave system where it actually behaved like a cave. Water dripped from the ceiling, forming small puddles, and they even saw spider webs illuminated by the dim green glow of the cavern.

And then they heard a wolf howl.

Everyone was immediately on edge again, with Kaibara pointing his pistol towards the direction the wolf howl came from. "We should leave it alone," Kirishima said. "It sounds far away."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Kaibara said, lowering the pistol again.

As the wolf howls became more and more distant, and the spider cobwebs above them became more and more prominent, the group heard a new sound. It was squelching, like when a pocket of air escaped puddy, or when someone was walking through mud.

Wait, speaking of mud… my feet are getting kind of heavy…

Kinoko suddenly looked down, shining her flashlight to reveal that everyone's boots were now submerged in some sort of black-and-green sludge, which was making the sounds.

"Eww!" Tsuburaba squealed, kicking his boots around. "Ew, ew, ew, what the fuck?!"

"What is this stuff?" Kirishima asked. "Tar?"

"Actually, no," Kaibara said. "If this was a real tar pit, it would be much harder for us to move around, maybe even impossible given the right conditions. Plus, this stuff isn't as heavy as tar, since it doesn't seem to be severely impeding our ability to move around."

"IT'S STILL ON MY FUCKING BOOTS!" Tsuburaba yelled.

"We'll clean them once we're out of here!" Kinoko said. "But right now, we have more important issues than dirtying our shoes. Come on, we need to keep moving."

She could still hear the team's resident meteorologist grumbling about his boots, even as they made their way towards the next section of the cave. It was pitch black again, with the only visible things being the walls, just like back with the glowing green skeleton arm.

The only new difference now was the fact that she could hear some sort of "hoo" thing. That was the sort of thing owls said, right? Were there owls in this cave? She didn't know.

Kinoko looked over her group to see four pairs of eyes still following her. Good, she –

Hold the fuck up.

Taking a double-take, Kinoko saw that there was an extra pair of eyes. They were large, green, and certainly not human. "Uh, guys…?" she said, pointing towards them.

The three of them looked around, confused, but as soon as they saw the big green eyes, they leapt back, with Kaibara pulling out his gun once again. He was really jumpy, wasn't he?

The four of them kept their backs to the wall, as the large eyes kept getting larger, and larger… until suddenly, they began to get an electric look on them, making a rapid clicking sound –

POP!

…and then bursting.

"Huh…" Kirishima looked a bit dumbfounded. "That was weird."

"You can say that again…" Tsuburaba deadpanned.

Kaibara breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, at least it wasn't anything dangerous –"

"GET DOWN!"

"""SKREEE!"""

The instant Kirishima screamed that, a bunch of high-pitched flying critters descended upon them, making everyone panic and hitting the floor, with Kaibara unleashing a bunch of bullets.

BLAM!

BLAM!

BLAM!

"AAAAAAAA–"

"KAIBARA, STOP THAT!"

"What?! Why?!"

"They were just a bunch of bats! Calm down, man!" Kinoko said.

"Komori, come in. This is Uraraka. We heard gunshots. What the fuck is going on down there?"

Grabbing her walkie-talkie, Kinoko said, "This is Komori. Everything's fine. Kaibara just got super trigger-happy over a bunch of bats. No one is injured. Repeat, no one is injured."

"Glad to hear that. Don't scare us like that again."

"Roger that, over and out," Kinoko said, as she put away her radio. "Welp, you heard our superior. Kaibara, please don't try and make us go deaf with your bullets again."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" he shouted, as he and everyone else got back up. "That's what you're worried about? Not the fact that there could be monsters lurking in this cave, or that everything we've seen so far in this hell is making us question reality itself?!"

"Okay, one, the only "monster" that attacked us so far were those bats. Even the skeleton arm didn't hurt us. And two, have you forgotten that we're in a magical fantasy world, with dragons and shit? Literally everything here is gonna make us question reality!"

"Yeah, well… wait, do you hear that?"

Everyone calmed down a bit as Kaibara called everyone's attention to the sound of… repeated whacking? No, it was a pattern. A hit, then silence, then another hit, all within a few seconds.

The group all looked at one another and nodded, and proceeded to go past the next part of the cave, and into the darkness, only to see… the most bizarre thing yet.

Two ethereal green rackets, simply floating on their own, with no one holding them, were playing badminton. Except that the "birdie" was… a green glowing skull.

WHACK!

WHACK!

WHACK!

WHACK!

The four of them simply watched, dumbfounded, as the skull was hit from one side of the dark cavern to the other side by the floating green rackets, over and over, until…

WHACK!

PLOP!

…one of the rackets did a bad swing, and the skull fell to the floor.

"15 – 0," the glowing skull on the floor simply said.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"That's it," Kaibara deadpanned. "I've officially gone insane."

"Come on, bro, it wasn't that bad…" Kirishima tried to console him.

"Yeah, and considering that we all saw the same thing, that either means that we've all gone insane, or what we just saw was real," Tsuburaba said, trying to comfort his friend.

"Is this what Rin felt like at the coral reef? With fish flying in the sky?" Kaibrara asked.

"Dude…"

"Oh my God, what if we're actually in Hell? We died during that cave-in, and we're in Hell."

"DUDE!" Tsuburaba yelled at his best friend. "We're not dead, and we're not in Hell. If we were in Hell, we'd, you know, be judged and punished for the things we actually did, and aside from having some perverted minds, I'm pretty sure we've been both squeaky clean our entire lives."

"I…" the geologist recomposed himself, before gaining a serious expression. "You're right, you're absolutely right. There has got to be a scientific explanation for all of this."

"See? Good as new!" Tsuburaba patted Kaibara on the back.

"Look, man, I know we're all on-edge right now, but we'll be fine!" Kirishima said. "Here, instead of focusing on all the weird stuff happening to us right now… um… try and focus on something you can understand. Like, uh, hey! These glowing rocks on the walls! Since you're the local rock expert, you know what they are, right? Maybe you can give us a lecture while we walk!"

"Oh, uh, sure," Kaibara said, as he inspected the colorful stones on the right side of the wall. "They seem to be composed of calcite, fluorite, and sodalite, but those types of minerals only glow like that under ultraviolet light. They shouldn't be glowing in the dark like that…"

"Maybe they absorbed some sunlight before the storm kicked in?" Kinoko asked.

"No, while sunlight does produce ultraviolet light, the percentage of it is pretty small. To have an effect like this would take a UV light bulb, and even then it would have to remain over the rocks constantly to produce this type of glow," Kaibara said, pointing to the glowing rocks. "The only theory I have is that some super-powerful source of UV light blasted these rocks recently, hence why they're still glowing all of those colors even though the source is gone."

"So, what you're saying is that there's a good chance that the source is still in this cave?"

"Uh, I mean, maybe?" Kaibara said.

"Great! A "maybe" is good enough for me!" Kinoko said. "Let's go, shroom!"


TINK!

Deep within the bowels of the cave, someone was hard at work.

TINK!

TINK!

Picking away at the gemstones littering the cave, she sang herself a happy tune.

"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! It's home from work we go!"

TINK!

TINK!

TINK!

TINK!

"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-ho!"


Melissa flew through the skies, searching for the culprit behind this storm.

KRAAAK!

All while trying to avoid the lightning littering the sky.

As the winds blew around her, she resisted the pressure they were exuding. The wind was trying so hard to send her crashing down to the ground, but still she went against their currents, as she kept searching the dark skies.

KRAAAK!

Now that she thought of it, there seemed to be more lightning strikes around this area in particular. In fact, the wind also seemed to be even stronger around here, too.

That's when it clicked for her.

I'm getting close…


Author's Note: This cave is gonna get a lot trippier, trust me.

Before we continue, I want to make an announcement: I have come bearing a gift in the form of a new weekly series, a collaboration between myself and my good friend, Infinite the Celestian. A crossover between Re: Zero, Dark Souls, and the Elder Souls V: Skyrim, that we have dubbed… the Elder Souls. The links are here, for both ( s/14313467/1/The-Elder-Souls) and ArchiveofOurOwn ( /works/52723891/chapters/133355623)! Now, the comments!

DefultIdiot: Considering I've never heard of War Thunder until I read your comment, not until today. It was mostly Wikipedia articles on the Japanese military as my sources.

valkrus: Weird, I thought it was all spelled right. Oh, well. Fixed it. Thanks.

And now, for the last bit of shilling…

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Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!

- Ernalore