Mine Emergency! [M]

[Steely-Eyed, Compadre-Kun]

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Mine emergency!
Rank: C
IIC Length: 2 days
Difficulty: Medium
Description: Approximately at 3 pm a mine located in the outskirt of Mo Village has collapsed trapping 5 miners inside and injuring 13 miners who got away. It is unknown whether the trapped miners are injured but the priority is to get them out of there. The village would be forever in debt to those who help rescue their workers.
Objective: Rescue 5 trapped miners and bring them to the hospital.
Reward: 400 ryo per rescued miner + 10 Honor points (Points can be claimed for better prices.)

COAL MINE EMERGENCY!



も

Escorted by the two guards he had overheard at the mission compound, Zel arrived to the site of the unfortunate event soon enough. The entrance to the coal mine in question, blocked off due to a rock slide, was at the base of a tall mountain face, one of Mt. Duron's many natural defenses. A gathering of medics and laborers were gathered at its base, scuffling about to heal the injured and save those that were still trapped inside. All forms of machinery were being used to attempt to open up the entrance, but none of them were seeing any form of success as of yet. They needed to begin the rescue effort soon, as the miners trapped inside were on limited amount of time. Zel thanked the guards that had led him to the disaster site and ran down a rocky hill towards one of the laborer's. This mission was of the utmost importance, and he made it his goal to prevent the death of any of the workers within the mine.

"Hey, there. I'm here to help with the rescue effort." Zel would start, tapping on the head laborer's shoulder. He would cut straight through the chase next, not seeing the point in telling them he was a shinobi from Kumogakure. "Is this the only entrance into the mine? There must be another elsewhere." He knew mines tended to have several entrances and exits, but he was a little concerned that Mt. Duron did things differently, to be honest. After all, this was only his first time here. How was he supposed to know the natural layout of the place?

"This is the main entrance." The old laborer would reply amongst the loud clutter of chaotic noise that surrounded them. "But there have been others in the past- smaller ones, up in the mountainside. But it is too dangerous to venture up there and search for them. So we're focusing our efforts here!" He would then turn his back to Zel, and continue what he had been doing before- ordering a squadron of laborer's with jackhammers to chip away at the rock slide that was getting in their way.

Zel nodded, and looked up at the rocky mountain face that towered over them. It was, indeed, going to be a dangerous climb. But he had to find those entrances the man had mentioned. Chipping away at the rock slide here, he knew, would not get him anywhere. And he was far too anxious to leave the miner's in their dire situation for any length of extended time. So he got to it without hesitation. He would stride through the crowd of gathered medics and laborers until he reached the base of the mountain face. Once there, he would take a few steps backwards and sprint towards the craggy wall, utilizing his chakra to run up along its surface and up towards the edge of the mountain meters and meters away. Ignoring the startled shouts and cries of the people below, he would continue until his foot slipped on a jagged rock mid-run, forcing him to lose his balance. Before he would plummet to what would have been certain death, however, the Cloud ninja managed to swing a single arm and grab onto a jutting rock protruding out of the side of the mountain.

He would climb the rest of the way, nearly falling off the side of the mountain several times but always hanging in there. Once he reached the mountain's grassy edge, he would pull himself up and over, already exhausted and panting. It was only when he managed to catch a much needed breath, that he noticed he had still to reach the summit of the mountain, but was instead halfway there. And hidden against the side of the mountain he had yet to fully climb, was a deep and dark crevice. A secret entrance of sorts, one that would most likely lead to the mine he sought to enter. He got up on both weary feet and stumbled into this entrance, ignoring the cold touch of ice on the rocks and a light snow at his feet. This could definitely be it.

[Steely-Eyed, Compadre-Kun]

COAL MINE EMERGENCY!



も

As he entered the small crevice he had discovered, the first thing that hit him was the stink of mold and the dampness that supported a deep cool within the cave. It was dark, so dark he couldn't even see his hands, but he continued forward nonetheless. Like a blind man without a cane, he would touch the walls with his digits and cautiously take each step. It wasn't long before he began to feel a difference in the texture and quality of the cave as he advanced. The air was becoming much warmer, the rocks were breaking away much easier, and he couldn't escape the dank smell of sulfur and coal, a heavy stench that obscured the previous scent of mold entirely. It was then that he knew he was getting closer to the site of the mine, closer to the five miner's trapped within. And that his rescue was truly about to begin.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Zel tripped on a metal bar embedded within the rocky ground. Falling forward, into what seemed like eternal darkness, the Cloud ninja was surprised when he fell right into a mining cart, half-filled with coal, and pushed it along its way unintentionally. With his face dug deep into the black powder, and his feet jutting out of the cart like sails, he was taken for a dark and exhilarating ride through the mine. He couldn't help but yell in his surprise and fright as the cart zoomed on rails that had been put in the cave long ago. It would have been fun, if he had been expecting it, but all that was going through his mind as he rode it was that he was going to fall into a never-ending abyss and die. Suddenly, a light appeared in the near distance. Flickering on and off as the cart continued to surge towards it.

He only had enough time to wonder whether that light was artificial or not before he felt the metal cart going down a steep slope, like the slope in a roller-coaster. His stomach dropped and he yelled out in what could be categorized in a shout of fear and excitement. The light was growing increasingly closer by the second, increasingly brighter as well. It wouldn't be long before the slope his cart had been rolling down would come to level, but what he hadn't been expecting was to go airborne. His cart dove right into the light ahead but was suspended in mid-air, off of the tracks, in conclusion. Yelling out like he had never yelled out before, Zel jumped out of the free-falling cart and swung his hands at anything he could grab. To his gleeful surprise, however, the fall wasn't as long as he had expected. He heard the cart hit the ground first, with a very loud clank, then he knew that he himself wasn't far from hitting the ground. And he did so, landing painfully on his side with a loud wail.

"OUCH! DAMN IT!" He would curse, rolling around on the coal covered ground in pain. He would blink his eyes at the light above- it was artificial. A light bulb, connected to a wire that ran along the wall. He had made it to the center of the mining facility within the mountain. As he struggled to get on both feet, he heard a chorus of voices.

"Is somebody there?" "Mackerow! Is that you?" "Who's there?!

He would see several silhouettes in the distance, emerging from a dark corridor. The miners... four of them, if he was correct. He had found them at last, or rather, they had found him. But where was the fifth? He would ask them after they helped him up and, of course, after he introduced himself.

[Steely-Eyed, Compadre-Kun]

COAL MINE EMERGENCY!



も

They carried mining equipment and wore helmets with light bulbs on them. Four able-bodied, young miners. Four of the five he was looking for, all of them looking haggard with thirst, hunger and heat. It was only when he noticed their struggle, that he realized his problems weren't that big of a deal. He wiped away the streaks of black coal that criss-crossed across his face as they told him what had happened. Apparently, during their duties as coal miners, one of them had chipped away into a gas pocket in the mountain. Before that person could alert his companions, someone had lit a lantern, and the resulting explosion caused the cave to tremor and ensue rock slides. That was the manner in which they ended up trapped within the mine. The injured ones who had escaped before the rock slide consumed the cave entrance were lucky. But the ones who hadn't escaped, the five Zel was looking to rescue, were forced to stay inside this heater of a cave and simply wait. Unfortunately, the four that Zel was speaking to now had no idea where their fifth partner had disappeared to. They feared the worst, but could not stop looking for him in case he was still alive.

"Do you guys know how to get to the entrance from here?" Zel would ask, nodding when one of the workers pointed to an opposite corridor on the other side of the room. "Okay then. Wait for me there while I search for your other friend, alright?"

"We've searched nearly everywhere!" One of the miners spoke up. "It's like a maze back there! And very dark! If you try to go in there by yourself, you'll get lost I tell you!"

Zel would smile, trying to make light of the precarious situation they were in. "Don't worry about me. I can make light... and I won't stop searching until I find 'em. Best believe that! Now go!" Reluctantly, the miners would comply, disappearing into the opposite corridor and towards the blocked cave entrance. With their departure, Zel would commence down the corridor they had arrived from and entered what they had mentioned it would be like. A confusing and dark maze of corridors and empty clearings. In order to bring some light into the place, Zel would perform a swift string of hand seals and form his Sakurai petals. They swirled around him gently, lightning blue petals that would illuminate his way beautifully as he searched for the fifth miner.

"SIR!" He would exclaim, echoing his voice throughout the core of the mine. "Mackerow!" He would continue, remembering the name which the others had mistaken him for. "Are you there? Can you hear me?" The electric petals that swirled around him provided him great illumination as he continued down a pile of rocks and into a narrow alley within the cave. There were no answers from Mackerow, but he would venture on deeper until he got one. Or until he found a body.

After several minutes of venturing and searching aimlessly, Zel would reach a dead end soon enough- a clearing within the cave, water dripping from the ceiling above. Had he reached his breaking point? Then suddenly, a whimper somewhere nearby. But where? He searched frantically, looking at every nook and cranny he could find to discover the source of the whimper in the dark. "MACKEROW! Are you there? Speak up!" Then he spotted something. A pile of rocks stacked so high it seemed to blend in with the cave wall. He didn't take a second wondering before he made a bee-line for the rock slide and began to pull everything he could off. Determined to get to the other side of this rock slide, Zel would dissipate his sakurai petals and focus on all of his heavy labor. Soon enough, he would form a hole, and peek his head inside. "Mackerow?" The man on the other side coughed in reply, strewn about the ground with a head injury very present. Zel would continue to dig away at the rockslide frantically as the man replied.

"H-Help... me."

"I'm on it." Zel answered, trying to calm the man down before he went into shock. "I'm gonna get you outta here, don't worry."

[Steely-Eyed, Compadre-Kun]

COAL MINE EMERGENCY!



も

He flung Mackerow's arm around his shoulder and lifted the old man up from the ground carefully, aware of the miner's injuries and head trauma. Stepping cautiously over what was left of the rock slide with his fellow escapee, Zel would find the sudden urge to wipe a bead of sweat from his forehead. But he was preoccupied, holding Mackerow up, so he choked down that urge and continued forward. As they moved through into the clearing and towards the corridor, however, a strange growling sound began to echo throughout the cave. At first, Zel thought it was an animal. But then, as the sound grew into what became a cacophony of chaotic and frightening noise, he figured out exactly what it was. The cave's ceiling was collapsing, and its fragile presence would not withstand for much longer. Suddenly, in the heat of this chaotic event, rocks the size of beach balls began to fall from above. "Crap!" Zel would curse, wrapping his right hand fully around Mackerow to join up with his left. That jutsu he'd learned days ago was his only hope now.

Swiftly issuing a short string of hand seals, the Suiton no Tate (Shield of Water) would manifest just in time to protect him and Mackerow from the perils of falling rock matter. After the worst of it had passed, Zel kept the Suiton no Tate activated around the two of them and continued forward, into the dark corridors he had been venturing through beforehand. Their struggle was hard, and even more difficult in the dark, but Zel would push through with the fifth miner, gritting his teeth when he thought his knees would buckle under the pressure. They kept moving forward against all odds, when the world around them was literally crumbling to pieces. "I'm getting you through this! Just hang on!" Zel would yell out. The Suiton no Tate protected them from several pitfalls and dangerous falling rocks before they reached the light, the light that hummed over the fallen cart he had rode in on. They were almost there, almost to the corridor that would lead them to the cave's blocked entrance. Their hope for survival was becoming brighter.

They entered the corridor as the cave continued to ache and growl, and followed the dark path until they reached the clearing located in front of the cave entrance. It was there where they regrouped with the other four miners, who were currently chipping away at the entrance with their picks. They turned to Zel and Mackerow when they saw the two emerge from the dark corridor with a veil of water surrounding them. Zel deactivated the Suiton no Tate upon arrival.

"You're back! And you found him! You actually found him!"

Zel glanced at the rocks that denied him and the miners passage to the outside, as the other miners helped him take Mackerow off of his hands. "Yeah, I found Mackerow... but that's only half of this problem solved. We need to break our way out of here, and get him some medical attention. Quick."

"I agree." Replied one of the able-bodied miners. "But we've tried as hard as we could with our pick-axes, with no success. We're going to be stuck here! And soon enough we're going to-"

"That's it." Zel interrupted, striding towards the rocks that blocked the way. "Enough of you being a downer, okay? I said I'm going to get you guys out of here. And that's just what I'm going to do." He cracked his knuckles and began to come up with a game plan. "Now step back. Cause here... I... GO!"

Swiftly issuing a series of hand seals, he gathered a torrent of chakra around his arms and pointed them, side by side, at his target. Immediately afterwards, his chakra would gather a vortex of wind at shoot it at the rock slide in the form of a roaring tunnel, blasting through the wreckage and creating a loud ruckus. At first, it seemed that Zel's powerful wind tunnel was not having an effect on the wreckage, but as he focused on its destruction, and clenched the fists of his outstretched arms, his wind torrent amplified in power and surge through. Before long, it managed to make some progress and a sliver of sunlight passed through the cracks. "HEY, GUYS!" Zel would exclaim to the workers outside of the mining cave entrance. "IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, BACK AWAY! BACK AWAYYY!" With the warning issued, he mentally pummeled another fistful of chakra into his torrent and forced the wind tunnel to break through all of the rocks. They shattered and blew outwards, flooding the mine with blinding sunlight and fresh air. Freed at last, the five miners and Zel exited that hell hole in victory. Quickly, the medics at the site would converge on Mackerow and the others and provide them with aid. They had finally done it. They had survived the perils of the mining disaster, and Zel would be lying if he said he didn't feel a little bit proud to have helped.

✖ Exit!