The pale light of the shattered moon gazed forlornly upon a midnight conversation between a false maiden and the Grimm hive mind in a fortress located in the one uninhabited place on remnant, save for the Grimm and the two of them.
"You wished to speak to me my child? If you are having doubts about your upcoming mission there is nothing to fret over, our associates have every variable covered."
"It's not that Mistress, it's the voices again," Cinder feebly corrected.
"Ah, so that is what troubles you. My advice is that you ignore them and they will eventually either give up or give in. Just keep the stronger ones under watch for even with my influence the prison of your mind is far from unescapable," Salem suggested.
"Thank you Mistress, I will take my leave now," Cinder hastily went back to her quarters trying to ignore the angry voices berating her from within the whole way.
Salem now alone on the crystal balcony above her domain smiles for reasons unknown to all but her.
Halfway across the world and much farther north in an undisclosed Atlesian experimental facility team ANCT is getting preparing for a surprise inspection that Tiphany had only narrowly detected while snooping around in General Ironwoods personal schedule.
"Tiphany I've already told you put a damn shirt on, Carla stow that fire dust quick before you're almost courtmartialed for attempted sabotage again, Nadia keep up the good work, and I'd better fucking make my bunk!" The team leader Alton scrambled to assemble the sheets on his unusually messy bunk, Nadia his partner was calmly sipping her morning coffee on an immaculate bunk beneath him while all around her it was chaos.
Somehow everyone was in presentable shape within the next two minutes by the time General Ironwood, the lead scientists at the facility, and a few of their VIP investors arrived for today's inspection and subsequent display of the teams abilities.
"Team ANCT, it's good to see you're all prepared for today's display, let's hope you put on a good show for these ladies and gentlemen today," Ironwood said in his own way of being excited which consisted of a slight grin sneaking onto his face and a almost unnoticeable increase in speed of his voice, Alton however noticed the change in the man who was like a father to him and could tell today would be good.
Alton took the lead as his team walked to the test chamber in single file as had been instructed during their first inspection exactly 12 years ago and during the past twelve years a lot has changed.
"Hopefully this is the year we finally get out of this frigid icebox they call a bunker," Carla whispered to her partner, Tiphany.
"Beginning test. Subject One, you will be faced with an unspecified number of Grimm when those doors open and you must eliminate all of them within a single minute. Ready? Go!"
The intercom shut off when the General had given Alton his instructions and the massive steel doors at the end of the huge padded room slid open with a clang revealing a small pack of Beowolves and a few Ursa. The monsters spilled out of the cage they had been held in and eager to sink their fangs into something charged Alton. Alton leveled his custom twin smg/katars which he had named Abyssus Ignis and mowed down the first few with a short burst of gunfire before cutting down the others and skewering the final Ursa with a thrust of his weapons double glaive form after shifting it quickly and in stride. When the Grimm faded the smoke they left behind rather than dissolve into the air as it normally did was pulled toward and absorbed into Alton which left his copper aura pulsing faintly. The young hunter glanced over at the one way glass where he assumed Ironwood was explaining to the newer investorshow Alton and his teams augmentations functioned, a speech he had heard at least a hundred times during the weeks after their procedure on the same day of their first inspection. The next team member for a demonstration was Nadia Cobalt who made short work of the assembled Grimm with her kanabo/rocket pod Sanguis Fons. The fight ended with a dramatic display of Nadia spitting a stream of acidic venom from her fangs into the remaining Beowolf's eyes and watching as it writhed in pain before fading away and being sucked into her deep blue aura.
The third team member, Carla Tan took to the chamber with her massive greatsword/greatshield combo, Fidellis Bellator. More so smashing than slicing Carla destroyed the weak Grimm with glee having not been on a mission or killed any Grimm period for almost a month now. Carla had a look of pure euphoria on her face when the misty remains of the Grimm were pulled into her dull gold aura. The final team member to fight was Tiphany Green using her experimental single projectile railgun/magnetic mace weapon, Fulgur Mortem to lobotomize the majority of the Grimm with her weapons single returning slug and then the few remaining beasts she slaughtered using the mace form to bash holes in their skulls which left her standard cadet uniform stained in dark blood that would fade away quickly leaving not a single stain. Tiphany's bright green aura flared slightly as she gained strength from the defeated Grimm.
The demonstration now complete Ironwood said his praise to the team before leading the VIPs to the meeting room where he would no doubt show footage of their most recent mission to clear out a Grimm infestations deep within one of the SDCs most profitable dust mines. Team ANCT headed back to their quarters to rest until their free time which they would spend either honing their skills and bodies or honing their weapons. About and hour and a half after they had gotten back to their bunks there was a rapid series of knocks on the door.
"Hey Tiph, I bet it's that chick from maintenance with child support charges," Carla chided.
"That's not cool Car, it's not my fault you can't even get laid when I've been with just about every person in this entire facility, not to mention that's not even physically possible," Tiphany teased back.
"Alton could you get the door before one of them pulls a 'your momma' joke and we all end up bitter," Nadia called from beneath her blanket where she had curled up to conserve heat in the cold atmosphere of the bunker.
"Sure, anything to get those two to stop bickering," Alton said as he hopped down from the top of his and Nadia's shared bunk bed.
Alton opened the door to see a young woman with white hair in a ponytail waiting patiently with an obviously forced smile on her face.
"Excuse me Miss, but I think you have the wrong room, see visitors aren't allowed around here unattended," Alton said recognizing the girl as one of the VIPs from earlier.
"Actually I'm exactly where I want to be, if you four are team ANCT that is," the VIP said craning her neck to see past Altons tall frame.
"Well we are team ANCT but why did you want to see us?" Tiphany asked from just behind Alton.
"Let me in and I'll explain everything but introductions come first, I know who you four are but you don't know who I am. My name is Weiss Schnee and I believe you and your team are my key to getting out of this country.
Authors notes:
The rewrite begins and it does so much better than the original because this new chapter one is more than four times the length of the original chapter one because the original fucking sucked.
I'm currently comparing my words per minute of writing first person to writing third and honestly I write a lot faster like this.
Also proper introductions this chapter and actual plot rather than just throwing some shit together like before.
Thanks to those of you who decided they still wanted to read this despite my decision to rewrite all 27 chapters and more in third person, I'll make sure you don't regret it.
As always favorites, follows, and reviews are greatly appreciated and a good way to show you like the story or to tell me specifically what you liked about this chapter or what you think should change.