Episode Christy: Chapter 2: Unwelcome

Chapter 2 of Christy's Story

            The wind started to pick up more and more as the storm continued to roll in.  The trees above swayed more and more as Christy made her way through a small beaten path between the trees.  Her father had been working at the institute even before she was born, and there were a lot of late nights.  As such, Christy would sometimes walk through the woods that lead to right by her father’s office window.  At first, all she could do is just wave at him from the outside, but given his position as one of the lead researchers, her father had one of the programmers create a secret access code specifically for the door by the woods where Christy and her siblings emerged almost every day.  This allowed for more opportunities for the family to be together even on the late nights that her father had to work.  Christy had several memories of the entire family going to the institute and having an impromptu picnic dinner with their father.  Or moments where if he forgot something but had already started decompressing for the night, one of the family members would make a quick late night run in order to make sure he was in good shape for the following day.  Christy always thought of those memories whenever she took this trail, but she made herself take a brisker pace as she was wanting to make sure she got home before the storm hit.  Finally, she reached the small clearing that was just before the institute, and she started running, as the wind was really picking up now.  She looked up at the window that housed her father’s office, and was surprised to see the shades drawn.  Normally her father had the window open at all times, just taking in the outside air, especially during the warm summer evenings.  She got up to the door, punched in the private code, and the door swung open.  She stepped inside, and as if on cue, the rain began to pour down.  It looked like a tropical storm given the amount of rain that was falling.  Christy chuckled and did a joking ‘phew’ having dodged the elements and ventured up to her father’s office.  She climbed up the stairs and reached the fifth floor where her father’s office was.  The hallway lights were turned off for the night save for the emergency lights, but her father’s office was so close to the stairwell Christy was convinced she could be blind and still find the office.  She reached the door and grabbed the door handle expecting to open it without a second thought like normal, but was met with a locked door this time instead.  Not sure if she did it right, she fumbled with the handle a bit more trying to see if it would open.  It wouldn’t.  She then knocked on the door, expecting to hear her father leap up and quickly unlock it.  No answer.  She knocked again, but this time she put her ear up to the door and listened to the inside.  The knock reverberated as if the room was empty.  Christy started to grow concerned, and quickly pulled out one of her axes and cut the handle off the door and forced it open.  While her father was admittedly not one to keep his office super organized, this was beyond anything normal.  His desk had been split in half, there were papers everywhere, everything was turned upside down.  Christy started rummaging through the wreckage, trying to see if there was anything that could give more information about what happened.  But all she could find was more of the same.  Scattered papers, debris everywhere, some small dried blood stains, and a broken photo frame with her entire family in the picture.  She looked it over for a brief moment, but then her eyes caught two small flashing lights inside one of the ransacked cabinets where her father kept several files.  One of them flashed blue, the other red.  Beneath the blue light, it said “family”.  The red one listed “Other Boss”.   Christy wasn’t sure what to make of that, but then heard a helicopter just outside the institute.  Looking back out into the hallway, Christy saw a bunch of guide lights activate in the middle of the green space that made up the center of the institute.  The helicopter took a few moments hovering in the air, then landed safely on the grass.  Christy slowly exited her father’s office and ducked down below one of the windows that looked out into the lawn area.  She peeked up and was horrified to see two soldiers wearing black ponchos dragging her father out into the field by the helicopter.  She then became even more horrified when she saw a man exit the helicopter and proceed to punch him in the face.  She quickly pulled out her Scroll and a small multitool that Ozpin had given to the staff of Beacon for missions.  She then pulled out a glass cutting tool, cut a hole in the glass, then put her Scroll up to the hole and activated the microphone tool on her device.  Atlas tech had been working on new stealth equipment that they had given to her and other Stealth teachers in the four Kingdoms for situations like this one.  The rain made it difficult, but Christy was able to listen in to the conversation.

            “……way behind schedule” a deep voice exclaimed.  Christy couldn’t quite make it out but it sounded hauntingly familiar.

            “We are trying our best not to draw attention to ourselves” Christy’s father said with a slight cough.  “We have long held ourselves as allies of the Four Kingdoms, imagine how they would react if they found we were helping the Order of the Four Seasons under the table, even if we released the blackmail you’re holding against us.”

            “You live in a backwater town miles away from civilization.  Nobody has noticed your actions previously, they won’t now!  We’ve delayed long enough!  The excavation of the materials in this facility are vital to the Order.  I’m done with your excuses.  You will take me to the Depths this instant.”

            “We can’t.  Not right now.”

            “Why not?”

            “You see, it’s the chamber.  The chamber gets very chaotic during storms of this nature.  Even if you are only here for the Dust, it doesn’t matter.  We usually have to seal off that entire subterranean level during storms of this nature and even then, we’re lucky if we only get a single tremor around the institute.”

            “Nice try.  If the tremors are so bad as you claim, then this place should either be warped beyond recognition, or have already sunk into the ground.  I’m done with this.  Take him to the Depths.”

            “At once Lord Hibernis” the soldiers said grabbing Christy’s father.  Christy had to hold back a slight gasp of terror as soon as she heard that name.  And to add insult to injury, her back started to flare up.  She quickly healed herself, but despite trying to remain focused on the task at hand, all she could remember was that moment at the Battle of Beacon where Hibernis initially broke her back leading to her current predicament.  She kept moving forward while trying to push those thoughts out of her head.  She started sneaking around the institute to keep an eye on her father and Hiberins.  As they entered the building, she figured out they would most likely be heading for the elevators.  She quickly made her way to the nearest elevator doors, and pried them open.  There were two elevators in this particular section of the building.  She then looked up and down and saw one elevator was above her, and the other was below her.  She leapt forward and grabbed onto the wires that connected to the lower elevator and quietly slid down until she reached the elevator itself.  She then waited, then the elevator above her started going down past her, so she made a quick leap onto the passing elevator and pulled back one of the panels to peek inside.  As soon as the cabin made a stop, the doors opened, and Hibernis pushed Christy’s father into the elevator as a handful of soldiers followed suit.  Christy remained quiet as she watched her father push a series of buttons that caused the elevator to start descending even deeper underground.  As they continued to go down, they suddenly appeared in a giant cavern.  The elevator was only held in place by the wires and crude mining shaft framework that held it in place.  Christy looked around at the gigantic cavern she was descending into.  It was a dust mine.  Similar to the ones in Atlas.  But given the climate of the region, this was much warmer.  The unrefined crystals lit up the room more than the construction lights scattered through the cavern floor.  And just in front of where the elevator was going to stop was an open space with a high top that led to a smaller tunnel further in that shrank in height to the size of about a normal apartment that curved deeper into the ground.   Finally, they came to a stop, and everybody inside exited the elevator.  Christy laid down flat on top of the elevator and watched as everybody quietly filed out of the elevator.  She then waited for a few moments as the sounds of Hibernis chastising her father going down into the depths of the cavern began to subside, she slowly got up and quickly drew her axes.  As soon as she could no longer hear Hibernis talking, she leapt right in front of the very surprised guards who were posted outside the elevator doors.  As soon as she landed, she fired two suppressor shots from the gun portion of her weapons, which released silenced rounds that caused her opponents to flinch.  She then charged forward and attacked the guard on her right.  The guard, still stunned did not put up any form of defense against her, and took two quick strikes to the head and fell unconscious.  The other guard was not as easily incapacitated however.  As Christy went in to knock out the initial guard, the other guard quickly gathered himself.  As his comrade was going down, he took the butt of his rifle and landed a solid blow across Christy’s jaw.  Her aura took the hit, but the force of the attack caused Christy to fall back a short way.  She quickly regained her bearings and threw one of her axes at the guard knocking away the radio he was about to use to report what was happening.  As the radio flew out of the guard’s hand, she charged forward and used the other axe to knock his legs out from under him, then used the flat side of the axe to hit him in the head knocking him out as well.  Christy then picked up the axe she threw initially and positioned herself against the elevator door anticipating somebody heard her, but when she didn’t hear any sounds of shouting and running guards, she exhaled and put her weapons away.  Christy then took the two guards and hid them off to the side of the elevator where it wasn’t super obvious, and then removed the uniform of one that was closest to her size. 

            “A bit short for a storm trooper, but it’ll do” she said as she adjusted the hem of the pants.  She then took a deep breath and ran down into the caverns after her father.  As she continued to run, it seemed that the path seemed to narrow almost.  And the amount of concentrated Dust crystals grew in number.  Finally, she emerged inside a gigantic cavern that was even bigger than the elevator shaft, and was filled to the brim with ripe deposits of Dust.  She then saw several soldiers filling mine carts and sending them down a path that seemed to lead back up to the surface.  The cavern itself was big, and there were no signs of massive digging or expansion outside of the machines boring into the wall currently.  This cavern was naturally formed to be this massive.  Which stood to reason once the Order soldiers began digging deeper into the walls, they would find even more Dust beyond what was already visible.  Christy was shocked.  The institute was known for mining, but Dust was usually off-limits in fear of the Schnee Dust Company swooping in and either buying out the institute or forcing them off their land.  But the thing that was most curious was the giant door at the far end of the cavern.  The door itself was almost as large as the cavern itself.  It was covered in old runes, and had several strings of caution tape running across it saying, “DANGER DO NOT ENTER”.  Christy’s curiosity was growing in regards to that door, but she took a deep breath and tried to blend in with the rest of the soldiers as she saw her father still being yelled at by Hibernis.

            “Your failure to deliver means that we may have no choice but to begin the process of your organizations removal from this facility” Hbernis said with a growl.

            “We had a deal” Christy’s father said with a whimper.  “We give you the dust off the books here, and you don’t reveal this secret to the world.”

            “I am altering the deal.  Be grateful the alteration doesn’t come with your life as the price.”

            “You have no power left!  My daughter and her friends fractured you!  Even when you boasted to me that your armies were greater than the four Kingdoms combined and would eventually consume the entire world, you failed!  And then again when you tried to worm your way into the SDC itself you failed!  Your agent couldn’t even get an audience with Weiss Schnee to try and marry into the company!”

            “We have been around for more than a mere attack on Vale and Atlas old man.  What makes you think we don’t have members of our Order working for the SDC as we speak?  Or the Kingdom of Atlas for that matter?  Our roots run deep.  You can’t hope to stop us.”

            “I don’t believe you” Christy’s father said trying to sound defiant.  But all this did was cause Lord Hibernis to laugh.

            “Save your breath” he said grabbing him by the collar.  “I think it’s high time you reflected on your failures.”

            “No, please not during this storm!”

            “If it’s as bad as you say it is, then it will provide further motivation for you not to fail me again.”  Hibernis then took Christy’s father, walked over to the giant door, and pulled a lever to a giant machine.  That machine caused the giant door to open, and from where Christy was standing, it was pitch black inside.  She couldn’t see anything in there.  But her father kept screaming and pleading, but it fell on deaf ears.  After the door finally opened, Hibernis threw him inside and turned to walk away.  Christy wasn’t sure how, but instead of attempting to run back out, her father seemed to disappear almost instantly.  She started sliding across the wall trying to avoid being noticed, and managed to sneak past everybody.  Hibernis didn’t even notice her at all.  He just turned away from the door while continued to bark out orders and telling everybody to hurry up.  Christy finally broke past the line, and ran through the massive maw of the door that her father was thrown into.  She glanced at the markings on the wall surrounding the door, noting a strange lamp and several people with light seeming to protrude from their heads.  But before she could really get a good look, the darkness of the room seemed to envelop her.  Even to the point of the light from the cavern seemed to be enveloped by this darkness.  Soon there was nothing but darkness all around her.  She couldn’t even see her hands in front of her.  She pulled out her Scroll and turned on the flashlight to try and find her father, but before she even reached her pocket, a bolt of lightning struck her forehead.

Author's Note

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