Hello everyone and welcome to The Many Adventures of Layton and Ascot. I am so excited to finally be doing a fanfiction on my favorite videogame series. Professor Layton for life! I realized that there aren't really the many fanfics concerning Hershel and Randall so I thought why not make one myself? So, I bet you want to stop hearing me babble so I'll just start the story. I'll put the rest of the information at the bottom.

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy chapter one of The Many Adventures of Layton and Ascot.

Spoilers: No

Disclaimer: I do not own Professor Layton. This wonderful game belongs to Level 5.

Hershel thought going to a new high school wouldn't be too difficult. All he really had to do was remember where his classes were. His old high school had burned down so him and the other students were going to the other one Stansbury had. The only part he thought was a tad hard was finding all the books and supplies he needed. Even then it wasn't too bad. When he had walked through the gates of the new school he thought it would be easy from there.

He never expected to be jumping off a cliff though.

Let's just say, Hershel was reading at the wrong place at the wrong time. It started like this.

Hershel was sitting in the lunch room by himself. There were people bustling around him to find a seat but no one bothered to sit with him. That's not saying nobody liked him. People would give him a nod or wave and he would politely return it. Hershel just wasn't a social person and almost everybody knew that.

At the moment, Hershel as munching on a sandwich his mother had made him and was reading a book that was leaned against his lunch bag. The book title was Europe's Archaeology Mysteries. It wasn't an uncommon book. Most people had it for classes yet most didn't read it for fun.

Now that's not to say that Hershel was interested in becoming an archaeologist. He could care less about becoming one. He simply found all the theories and legends fascinating.

Maybe if Hershel was paying attention he would have seen a red haired boy walk past him. He would have seen him stop and backtrack towards Hershel. Maybe he could have avoided the life threatening situations he was going to endure with the boy. But he hadn't noticed, and maybe that was a good thing because if he did notice he might not have met his best friend.

"Hey!"

"Gah!" Startled by the boy suddenly in his face, Hershel fell backwards onto the ground. The boy frowned and held out a hand to help him up. Hershel graciously grabbed the offered hand and pulled himself up. "Thank you," Hershel said politely. He tried to sit down but the boy was back in his face again.

"So, I see you're reading Europe's Archaeology Mysteries. I find that book fascinating! I mean, it's not every day you find a book that goes into so much of Europe's myths and legends." Intrigued, Hershel, now able to sit, sat down and the boy soon followed. "I must have read it at least seven times. Although, you could say eight if you count that time in the library but I only skimmed over the pages to see what it was about." He pushed his glasses higher onto his nose, changing the subject. "What is your favorite part?"

"I haven't gotten too far but I like all the Greek myths the book explained."

"Really, I thought that the Roman myths were better detailed." The conversation kept going on and on but Hershel didn't seem to mind. It was actually one of the most interesting conversations he had in a long time. They talked about their favorite legends in the book and the conversation eventually led to the best finds the archaeologists made.

"Hey, speaking of finding treasure," the boy's smiled widened, "I discovered a place here in Stansbury where an ancient artifact might have been buried.

Hershel cocked his head. "Really?"

"Yeah, and since you seem so interested in archaeology like me, why don't you come along?" Hershel tried to protest that he really didn't have any interest in archaeology, but he saw the look on the boy's face and decided not to mention it.

He let out a sigh. "I don't see why not…er, I don't seem to have gotten your name."

"My name's Randall Ascot." Randall stood up and held out his hand. "And what's your name if I might ask?"

Hershel reached out and grabbed the Randall's hand. "Hershel, Hershel Layton."

"Well it's great to meet you Hershel. I'll meet you back here at the school at five tonight. Don't be late." Randall let go of his hand and walked away. Hershel stared at the direction Randall went then shrugged. What harm is there in a little digging?

"Uh, Randall? When you said that we would be finding an artifact, I didn't know you meant down there!" Hershel pointed at the ground a hundred feet below them. They were currently standing on one of Stansbury three cliffs and it looked like Randall was preparing to jump.

"Relax Hershel; I know what I'm doing. I am, after all, an archaeologist." Randall straightened his backpack then walked to the edge of the cliff. "See you at the bottom." He waved goodbye to Hershel then jumped off.

"Randall!" Hershel ran to the cliff's edge to see Randall falling to his doom. He swallowed the lump in his throat then took a couple steps back. He prayed for both of their lives and jumped down after him.

Hershel felt his hair going all over the place. It was in his face, then all behind him, then half and half. He closed his eyes so he didn't have to look when he hit the ground. He knew he was going to die so he didn't bother letting out a scream for help. This was the end!

Then the strangest thing happened.

Something broke his fall. He felt it go down but bring him back up in the air. He opened his eyes in confusion and looked down. Both he and Randall kept falling onto a net below them tied to the rocks.

Hershel saw a purple blur go by him and turned to see Randall also jumping on the net, laughing his heart out. Hershel soon joined in, enjoying himself for the first time since he saw where they were.

When they had finally gotten off the net Randall turned to Hershel and smiled. "Didn't I tell you this was going to be fun?"

"You did indeed Randall." Hershel put his hand to his chin in deep thought. "But I can't fathom how a net managed to get there."

"It's quite simple Hershel, I put it there." Hershel turned to Randall his eyes as wide as saucers. Randall shrugged. "Just walking through the woods would have been boring. I find jumping off a cliff more of an adventure!"

Randall took the map out of his bag and began to study it carefully. His brow furrowed on confusion. "It says it should be right here," he mumbled to himself, "so where is it?" He placed the map on a nearby rock. There were many surrounding them. In fact, the whole entire place was just rock and dirt.

When he began to tap the ground around him, Hershel went over to the map and looked at it. As he scanned over it he realized something wasn't quite right. "Randall?!" Hershel called over. Randall looked up and walked to where Hershel was standing, wiping the dirt from his hands onto his pants.

"What is it Hershel?"

"Well, I believe we are in the wrong place." Hershel pointed at an area where a lake was placed. "The riddle the passage gave us, one of the lines said to follow the way of nature. Well if a line was thrown onto a lake, it would be reflected up, not down."

Randall's eyes widened. "You're right Hershel. How could I have made a mistake?!" Hershel put a comforting hand on his back.

"It's okay Randall, it happens to all of us."

"Thanks Hershel. We would have been here all day if it wasn't for you." Randall grabbed the map out of Hershel's hands a stuffed it into his bag. "That won't stop us though! We'll head out first thing tomorrow and find that artifact!" He began his march towards home and Hershel stumbled to catch up.

"But Randall," he protested, "don't we have school tomorrow?"

"That means we have to wake up all the earlier. Archaeology waits for no one Hershel. We'll discuss a time and place once we get back home."

Hershel sighed over his friend's passion about archaeology. He would never understand why he liked it so much. It was fun though Hershel thought, having a bit of an adventure and all, even if we didn't get anything in the end. He let out a smile and continued to walk beside Randall.

Eventually Randall spoke. "Hey Hershel? How did you figure out what the passage really meant?"

Hershel turned to face his friend and shrugged. "I've always been good at riddles." He returned his attention back to the path in front of them. They were silent again for another few moments.

"Hershel?" He turned and saw that Randall had a small smirk on his face. "Do you like puzzles?"

Hello everyone! I am GamerFan369 and welcome to The Many Adventures of Layton and Ascot. I am so excited to write this because like I said up top, I LOVE Professor Layton. It is both my favorite game series and my favorite movie.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. All the chapters are going to be one-shots of adventures Hershel and Randall go on. They may be short (like this one) or they could go up to five thousand words. There may be some adventures that go on for a couple chapters, but theses will mostly just be one-shots.

I would love it if you would leave a review. I would like to hear what you think about the story and what you think I should improve on. I would also like it if you left your idea for an adventure Hershel and Randall will go on. If I use it I will give you created though so don't worry. I will also take questions if you have any for me.

As for updating, the updates will be random. I will mostly just update when I have an idea for an adventure the two should go on. It could be as short as one day, or it could be a month. I'm guessing it will only be around one or two updates a week though. But if it doesn't happen, don't hate me. I am warning you now.

Anyways please leave a review, favorite, follow, and I will see you all in the next chapter. Until then…

Peace! GamerFan369