73 Ch 72: Hail Hydra...

"Oh boy, is it really here?" After over an hour of scouring the same mountainside, Roman was starting to have doubts about the validity of the information he had received. Just when he was about to throw in the towel and head back to Vale to ask the gambling-addicted councilman's secretary that had provided him with the map some very impolite and unpleasant questions...

"Sir, over here." one of the masked men he had borrowed from his new business partner shouted that he had found what they were looking for.

"Hah! I see. So, the emergency exit was placed on a cliff to keep it concealed. It can't be seen from above." Roman hurried over to confirm the goon's findings. "Nice spotting, Spot. I guess that schnauze is good for something after all." Roman cheered as he slapped the masked Faunus with the muzzle of a dog sticking out beneath his mask on the back.

"Will this lead to the subway?" An androgynous voice called out to them from behind.

"Yep." Roman replied as he half turned to look over his shoulder at the two people pushing through the thick brush as they easily climbed up the rocky mountain towards them. The two were almost identical with pale white androgynous faces, shoulder-length jet black hair, blood-red eyes with slit pupils like a snake, slim bodies without any signs of curves or muscles, and scattered patches of snake scales on their skin. The only differences between the two were that the one on the scales of the one on the right was white and they wore a white gakuran schoolboys uniform, and the one on the scales of the one on the right was black and they wore a black sailor schoolgirls uniform. Behind them snaked long serpentine tails the same color as their patches of scales.

"Well? Open it then!" the black scaled one ordered as they placed their hands on their hips. "Show us what the brawny men of the White Fang can do!" the white scaled one followed up as they gestured at the weathered steel door set into the mountainside and covered by overgrown vegetation and blocked by fallen boulders with their pointed chin.

"We're through, Boss." One of the White Fang members called a few minutes later after they used a liberal amount of sweat and elbow grease to clear the rubble in front and force the jammed old door open to reveal a yawning pit of darkness leading into the belly of the earth.

"Okay~" Roman drawled as he made his way towards the entrance to peer down into it. "Good, good, good. Doesn't look like the passage down is blocked. If it's clear all the way to Mountain Glenn, that'd be per- Hmm?" Roman's evaluation of the passage down cut off as he spotted something moving in the darkness.

Roman raised his cane-gun, Melodic Cudgel, defensively in front of him as he squinted his eyes and tried to pierce the shadows lurking blow.

*SLTHR* Suddenly, a pair of tentacles shot out of the gloom towards him. "A Grimm!" Roman shouted as he ducked under one grasping appendage and batted the other away with his weapon as he flipped the end cap up and snapped off a shot at his assailant. The explosive round briefly illuminating the six-eyed and eight tentacled crustacean-like Grimm below.

"Shoot it!" he cried as he dodged backward away from more grasping appendages. The White Fang members instinctively raised their weapons, but before any of them could get a shot off.

*grrrwwwlll* Their actions were brought up short by the low warning growl from the serpent-tailed twins next to them. "Umm, that is with your lordships' permission, of course." Roman quickly corrected himself as he skipped farther away from the entrance to the maintenance tunnel and the Grimm that was exiting it.

The black sailor uniformed Grimm Lord stepped forward and hissed at the Grimm, which stopped its pursuit of Roman but didn't appear to lower its guard as it responded to the hissing with a series of wet pops.

"Do you think you're brother will be able to control it?" Roman whispered to the white gakuran uniformed Grimm Lord as he carefully made his way to stand next to her.

"Doubtful." She replied with a shrug. "Possession-type Grimm are especially stubborn. Syndra-nee-san, who has a talent for controlling Grimm and weak-minded Humans and Faunus, or Swain-nii-sama, who is the strongest among us and has an especially commanding presence, might be able to. But the rest of us can only control the same type of Grimm as ourselves. It was hard enough for Onii-chan and me just to gather all those King Taijitus together in the valley and make them stay together in one place peacefully when they usually wouldn't be willing to get anywhere near each other.

Her assumption was soon proved correct as the tentacle Grimm gave one last exceptionally loud, long, and wet *pppppppppppp* and slinked off into the forest.

"Is it ok to let it go?" Roman asked. The tone of that last pop hadn't seemed too respectful to Roman, and he was hoping that the young Grimm Lords might be prideful and temperamental enough to allow them to kill it.

"It's fine." the black scaled Grimm Lord replied even as he shot a stink eye after the retreating Grimm. "He's a disrespectful little pest, but there's no reason not to let him have a bit of fun before he dies if he isn't willing to join us."

"Besides, we are done here. We've confirmed the location of the entrance and secured the area for heavy digging equipment to be brought in later. There's no reason to stick around here." His sister continued for him.

"We can just let those ignorant huntsmen do our dirty work for us." He concluded with a nod.

As they all followed the two Grimm Lords down the mountain back to their bullhead, the canine muzzled Faunus that had found the entrance slowed to walk beside Roman, who was bringing up the rear.

"What was that thing?" he asked Roman. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I think I've read about it." Roman replied. "Any loose Grimm is unsafe, but this one you especially don't want just roaming around."

"Then are you sure about this?" the Faunus asked in a hushed voice. "Letting that thing run around-"

"What's the big deal?" Roman cut him off as he pointed purposefully with his eyes at the two Grimm Lords walking in front of them with the tips of their tails intertwined. "Soon, the city will be overrun with Grimm anyway."

Roman then lowered his head and tipped his bowler hat down to cover his eyes as he continued, "Besides, it's not like we really have a choice in the matter. For guys like us, this is the only path for survival." Roman's quiet voice was grim, but under the brim of his hat, his eyes were bright as he evaluated the White Fang member walking beside him. He was trying to gauge if the canine Faunus had the spine to stand against these monstrous Grimm Lords and the moral fiber to choose to turn against them after seeing what they were capable of, or if he was just a dog, loyal to his master to the bitter end.

He had indeed found the only path for survival, but it wasn't with Grimm Lords, Cinder, or their master. If this man was willing to be useful, well, Roman's job as Ray's double agent consisted of more than just passing on important information. The more eyes, ears, and hands he had on his side, the easier his job would be and the safer he and his partner would be with scapegoats available to take the fall if anyone ever started to suspect them.