ummm, hey. not gonna lie to you guy's, iv'e not done anything like this before, so i wouldn't be surprised if people regarded it as utter rubbish. But in the words of that guy from the start of farcry 3, 'there is a first time for everything'. so! sit back, relax, and stare at a screen for the next few minutes! or not... i mean, its your choice, not like i can command you to do anything. i put this down as an M rating because it's gonna feature some coarse language, and hopefully a bit of violent imagery in later chapters, when i get around to them. feel free to leave any suggestions or comments however it is people do that. like I said, i'm knew. cheers!
Nothing but a mercenary
Chapter one
The cargo hold of the ship creaked with every passing second. Moaning with every wave it stormed through. And it had stormed through many, so much in fact that the concealed passenger hiding in one of the ships many containers started to feel woozy, sick with every second of weightlessness before the vessel would inevitably crash back down onto the water's surface.
"Just my luck" a gruff voice spoke, shattering the silence that had been sustained for the past few days of his voyage. His legs ached from being bent in the cramped space, his spine screamed in discomfort from being hunched for far too long, and his stomach felt like he'd lost a drinking contest with a Vacuo smuggler. Not to mention the crippling cold that chilled his body down to the bone and terrible headache. That settled it, next time; he was travelling first class, no matter how much it would cost him. Or how likely it would be to get noticed for that matter.
With a resounding sigh, the man decided to risk going to the top deck and getting some fresh air, or aka his daily smoke. God knows he could use it; the cargo hold had grown stale from a mixture of the ocean air, strange smell of bananas, and what smelled for some reason like livestock despite being void of life. He should know, he did check to make sure he was alone after all; in his particular line of work you could never be too cautious.
Upon standing up with considerable outcry from his knees, he made his way over to the access stairs, his thick combat boots making a resounding thud on the cold metal floor with every step. Scaling the stairs and another few wrong turns later, he was greeted by the overwhelming freshness of vale's coastal air. He took a few seconds to take it all in, relaxing at the sound of the waves gently lapping, miraculously curing him of any previous encumbrances. With the gloominess of the cargo hold gone, and the sunlight lighting his face, the man's appearance became clear for all to sea. His hard, stone features carved into his face and pale grey eyes gave the illusion of being far older than the grand age of 20, despite his full head of dark blonde hair which suggested otherwise. due to the last few days crammed inside a storage container, he hadn't had time to shave, giving his face a rugged unshaven look that he hoped said 'don't fuck with me', which in reality probably said 'spare any change?'.
"Gotta love that fresh, vale sea air smell" he spoke with a slight smirk, before proceeding to pull a cigarette packet out of the pocket of his form fitting brown leather jacket, and a lighter from his tan cargo pants. Placing a stick of the finest atlas tobacco between his lips, he proceeded to bring his lighter to its end. Thumbing the device, it sparked a few times before seemingly dying on him, leaving him without his daily fix of sweet nicotine.
"Fuck…" he mumbled before tossing the lighter off the bow into the calm waters below. He was gonna be grouchy for the rest of the trip now, however long it would be.
He started pacing backwards and forwards like a caged Beowulf. "I don't care who invented that damn thing, I'm gonna kill the son of a-"
"Need a light?" spoke a smug voice to his right. The man quickly jumped back and got ready to strike the sneaky bastard, raising his fists in a manner similar to a trained soldier, but with a lackluster technique.
The Faunus' reaction was just as instantaneous, but instead of mirroring the man's aggressive stance; he instead raised his hands in a surrender motion. "Whoa! cool it buddy, i ain't gonna hurt you!" the primate Faunus explained before taking a more relaxed pose and letting the smirk back onto his face.
The Faunus wore a white unbuttoned shirt with red gauntlets, showing off his well-defined torso muscles. In addition to this, his shaggy blonde hair and mischievous glint in his eyes spoke volumes about his character. This guy sure has a high opinion of himself thought the man briefly, before focusing on the task at hand.
"We got off to a bad start, how about i introduce myself? That sit alright with you, tough guy?" the Faunus said politely, before holding his tail out offering a handshake. The man reluctantly relaxed his pose and dropped his arms roughly to his sides. He thinks I'm shaking hands with that thing, he's got another thing coming.
"Cool, the names sun. You know, like the big yellow thing in the sky? It's a pretty easy name to remember." he stated cockily. "You?"
The man sighed for seemingly the thousandth time that day, before leaning against the ship's railing and introducing himself. "Springfield. The names Springfield. Don't ask for my first name. And if you think I'm shaking that thing, you'd better think again, 'buddy'." he replied in kind, using the mock name given to him earlier.
Sun grinned at Springfield's standoffish nature, before retracting his tail out of sight once again. "Hey, i wash! Well, maybe not lately, the life of a stowaway isn't exactly glamorous. Heh"
"Yeah, tell me about it. Wait, what do you mean stowaway?! I checked that damn cargo hold twice!" Springfield exclaimed, radiating disbelief.
As expected, sun smirked once again and tapped his nose with his tail "i have my ways. So! What brings you to vale? The pride of remnant! Known across the land for its beautiful vistas, Faunus terrorist groups, and upcoming vital festival, hmm?" he suddenly slid closer to Springfield, placing an arm around his shoulder and looking around as if being listened in on "Or is it because of the sightseeing if you know what i mean? Eh? Eh?"
Springfield face palmed and sighed simultaneously. "Yes, i get what you mean-"
"I'm talking about girls! Get it!" sun suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the tired man whose headache had coincidently returned. For the love of god, this guy's annoying! He inwardly screamed to himself.
With seemingly little effort, Springfield placed a quick jab to the ape's bare stomach, forcing the Faunus to do a double take and remove his arm from Springfield's shoulder, coughing for a few seconds before regaining his cool composure.
"Ouch, looks like somebody's a bit touchy today" sun examined, coming to the conclusion that it probably wasn't wise to tick this guy off any more than he already had.
Springfield glared at sun for a second, before turning back to the ocean and taking in the city of vale as the ship came into dock. "Yeah well, i haven't had my morning cigarette yet. Speaking of which, you got a lighter or what?" Springfield gruffly remarked before holding his palm out to sun expectantly.
Sun suddenly looked nervous "oh! Well, um i don't actually have one; it was just a snappy conversation starter i came up with. Oops?" he squeaked out quickly, before scratching the back of his head and looking to the floor like there was suddenly something incredibly interesting there. After a few seconds, he glanced back up at Springfield to test the waters, and instantly wished he hadn't. He had a look in his eyes that said 'keep talking monkey boy. See what happens'
After a few more seconds of silence, sun heard a soft snigger, which soon turned into a chuckle, which in turn evolved into a genuine laugh. This continued on for a good 10 seconds, all the while sun was wondering whether he should laugh along like an old drinking buddy, or start backing away very, very slowly. He chose the third option of giving an unenthusiastic chuckle until Springfield seemed to have calmed down from his seemingly insane laughter fit.
"Yeah, ha ha! So, umm, what's so funny?" sun said unsurely, nervousness radiating from him at a slightly alarming rate.
"It's nothing really. I was just wondering" said Springfield with a knowing glint in his eyes, barely containing his laughter.
"Wondering what?" sun said with dread as the ship came to a stop.
"I was wondering whether those two gentlemen behind you shared your sense of humour" Springfield explained, giving a slight head nod behind sun before chuckling to himself again.
Expecting what was coming, sun turned around, being greeted by the sight of two crewmen wearing grey jackets. One of them smiled to his friend before proceeding to crack his knuckles. Sun looked back at Springfield, who was still leaning against the railing, wearing a grin which looked brutally out of place and terrifying on his face. "Pleasure to meet you, sun. Maybe I'll see you around." and with that, he simply sauntered off, but not before yelling back to the crewmen "theirs your stowaway lads!"
I think hate that guy. Sun thought to himself with a small, perhaps unnoticeable smile, before turning his attention back to the sadistically grinning crewmen. Who seemed to have closed the distance.
Yep, i definitely hate him!
Springfield watched for a few minutes from the safety of a local cafe whilst sun evaded not only the ships crewmen, but also two officers of the vale PD. sun was like a blur as he sped off the docks and onto the promenade, executing his elaborate escape. He even had time to wink at a pretty black haired girl, before vanishing from sight. Springfield inwardly approved of suns actions. Good kid, if not a bit cocky. Springfield thought to himself, then realised he wasn't exactly one to talk.
Springfield shrugged to himself, threw a couple lien on the table, despite his coffee not arriving yet, and left the dockside restaurant to move deeper into vale. Personally, he'd never liked the place. It was always too…
Clean.
That was it. Everywhere had a problem, everywhere had something they wanted to sweep under the rug, a dirty little secret they tried to hide. Well, everywhere except for Vacuo, they had everything out on the table already, and because of that it was known as a 'wretched hive of scum and villainy'. Great place to throw a party though, as long as you didn't mind finding sand in all the wrong places for the next few weeks.
The gruff man spotted a few officers walking in his direction, and decided to take another route, down a back alley which came out next to a store covered in police tape. Guess that's the problem they're trying to hide. He thought to himself, pleased at his intuition. It was no secret that vale had been… 'Struggling' for the past few years. Grimm attacks had increased threefold since last year, and the white fang were growing ever more violent with their protests, capturing entire dust shipments, recruiting more members, and even robbing military transports. If Springfield was right, which he usually was, that sounded less like protesting and more like gearing up for war. But of course, that was swept under the rug. Just like always. to make matters worse, or better, depending on whose side you were on, the notorious criminal mastermind roman torchwick was apparently on a crime spree so big that the vale PD were asking for help from hunters. These guys are a joke. Thought the leather clad nihilist. I've done a couple jobs for roman before, but he's isn't THAT good. Smart money is he's getting outside help… but from whom?
Springfield was about to reach for a cigarette in order to aid him in his pondering; before he realised he was down a lighter. Wonderful, now i gotta buy another. He thought with a considerable amount of absence of his smokes, he opted to place his agitated hands in his pockets instead, idly walking in no real direction whilst searching for a general store. He desperately needed a smoke. He'd been hooked on the stuff since Christmas when he was 14. His father grabbed him and then shoved a carton of cigarettes into his hands, screaming 'smoke up Johnny!' this had always confused Springfield though, because his name wasn't Johnny, but he just put it down to one of his father's violent 'episodes'.
He wouldn't be missed.
After another 20 minutes of wandering, Springfield finally found what he was looking for. After a quickly purchasing the last lighter in the stores stock, he stepped outside into the sunny streets of vale, pulling out a stick of his favourite brand and placing it between his lips. "Say what you will about vale" he muttered, smirking and twirling his lighter in his nimble fingers, as he brought it to the end of his cigarette. "But they sure do have some good weather".
'BUZZZZZZZZ'
Shocked by the sudden strange buzzing feeling in the pocket of his cargo pants, Springfield proceeded to fumble with the lighter in his hands, before it fell from his grip. Time seemed to dilate and move agonisingly slowly as he watched the lighter edge ever closer to the solid pavement, before it smashed against the ground with a resounding crack, shattering into a million pieces, much like his soul. He simply stood there in silence for a minute, possibly more as his mind slowly came to grips with the events that just unfolded.
His scroll continued to buzz every few seconds, indicating he had a call. With slow and graceful movements, he gently took the scroll out of his pocket, before accepting the call and holding it up to his ear. He cleared his throat with a small cough, before speaking with enough venom in his words that it would make a Grimm death stalker sting look like an ant bite.
"This had better be important"