Chapter one: From unusual beginnings.
A/N: Just a heads up for those coming back to this story, I've changed the perspective from first to third person, and changed the structure to present tense. Hope that isn't a problem, it was just annoying me a lot.
In price academy, on a sunny June's afternoon a bell rang loudly throughout the corridors, shattering the silence as it told the school's children that classes were finally over. Some cheered, some laughed out loud, and hell some even kissed!
Except for Lucas Tanner. He instead just went straight to his locker and grabbed all the essentials, getting ready to walk home without making a big deal of it. They were only getting one week off from school anyway so he wasn't letting himself become too excited. And it wasn't like he had anything planned in the meantime; no holidays, no road trips and no going to the seaside. He figured it would be one long boring week of sitting alone at home.
He sighed heavily as other students continued to rush past him, itching to get home to their flatscreens and play more video games. That again wasn't the case for him though. Lucas dreaded going home, more than he ever did with leaving for school. It wasn't his home specifically that the teen hated, but what was guaranteed to be waiting for him should he try and get there. The local bullies usually prepared for him on the way back, making his journey home a living hell. Then again it wasn't exactly unusual to get bullied at school, at least not for him anyway.
It was almost like a routine at that point; every week the same day in day out. Like clockwork. Monday's math class' were a constant barrage of spitwads, Tuesday's lunch got thrown in the trash (or sometimes thrown in the rain if the weather was bad). The Wednesday's and Thursday's usually went ok, partly because his tormentors ended up skiving school on those days. But the Friday's were easily the worst. Much worse than any of the rest.
It always went the same: a long walk home after English class, being forced into some back alley halfway there, and having his body treated like a punching bag. And sometimes, like a pinata. He still sported bruises from the last time they'd brought a bat. He also had an unusual way of coping. Simply by watching anime, specifically one called 'attack on Titan'. If after a bad day at school, a rough beating or hell even when he was just feeling that little bit down, he could just watch attack on Titan and it cheered him up. It had continued to crack a smile for two years running.
The teen could always imagine it. Soaring through the air, ODM gear strapped to his waist, slicing the nape of every Titan that dared cross his path along with the survey corps. Though the character he ended up fantasizing the most about was easily Sasha, it was no secret amongst his friends that he held a huge cyber crush over her. Almost everyone knew it at that point, which was partly why the teen never made any friends. They saw him as different. So they keep him different.
That being said he did have friends. Mind you only two, but two was all he needed. Coincidently, he began to hear a very fast, and very familiar, set of feet coming his way. Lucas glanced up to look in the direction of the sounds and saw that Alex was dashing through the corridors at top speed! The skinny young woman dashed forward as her long red hair flowed behind.
Behind her was, no surprise, their mutual friend Harry who was struggling to keep up as his asthma continued to hold him back. Until eventually they arrived at Lucas' side, Alex coming to a sudden stop while her companion looked ready to drop into a coma.
"Hey Lucas, we've gotta hang out tonight. I wanna celebrate our freedom!"
Alex very nearly shouted, obviously thrilled that school was finally out. Since the group had first met she'd always been very excitable and became jumpy at the idea of them all hanging out together over the half-term break. Harry had decided, of course, to side with her. He'd gained a massive crush on Alex over the years, but so far had failed to say anything of it. Because of this, and the fact he did actually want to spend time with the two, he said:
"It would be a good idea to get together sometime. It has been a while since we hung out, just us three."
He lightly panted out, as his lungs were still wheezing heavily due to his asthma. Somehow, they'd always been different in that regard; asthmatic rejects who watched anime. Then again, why would they care? To them, the schools' opinion was about as encouraging as a white flag on a battlefield.
As Lucas thought back to the issue at hand, he continued to feel more and more conflicted. Secretly, the teen had always agreed with his friends about getting together again. Though was still very unsure about how the whole thing would go. Knowing Alex it would have to be that night, her patience being a centimeter long.
"You've convinced me, we'll hang out"
He said, hoping it sounded more confident than he actually feel. The response to that is a massive cheer of triumph from Alex, loud enough for the whole school to hear. Causing a few eyes to glance over towards the strange group.
"I'll-see-you-later-at-your-house-at-around-about-seven-i'll-bring-my-playlist-round-see-yah!"
She shouted, with large volume and an unrecognisable speed as she ran to try and catch her bus. The teen had guessed right about when she'd want to hang out, after all the time they'd been together she could still never wait for anything.
"Well, I guess I'll see you then. Bye Lucas!"
Harry said as he began to follow a still sprinting Alex. He tried to run, but could only manage a tired jog.
Several minutes later Lucas left the school grounds, now exposed to the burning sunlight coming down hard thought it made little difference to him; with both headphones on and only a short distance between him and home the weather soon became the least of his concerns.
Said headphones soon become clamped around his ears, just as he passed the 15 meter stone Shakespeare statue on the way out. He still couldn't work out why the school had ever bought that, as the establishement itself was very small holding only two hundered or so students and ten teachers. Not to mention when it came to creative thinking, 95% of them were as useful as chocolate fireguards.
Sometimes Lucas thought a statue of the armored titan would be much better. 'It would be infinitly cooler and a hundered times more accurate in describing the schools population.' The teen thought to himself, a small smirk forming before falling away as quickly as it had appeared.
He stopped focusing on that, and instead, started to think about the coming night. The decision about agreeing to a get-together was quite unusual for Lucas, but he'd decided that during his week off the teen would try and change a bit. For the better. At that point almost three months had passed since his dad had died, and his widow mother sent into permanent therapy. He'd grieved for them, cried a river of tears almost every night, but now he thought that grieving had gone on long enough. Not only that, but he'd started to miss hanging out with his friends. He could instantly tell that Alex was worried about him from the fact that she'd waited so long to ask about hanging out. She'd been patient the last few months, which was really far from normal! Harry had been especially worried, evident from the amount of calls and texts Lucas had mostly elected to ignore.
'I can tell they've made an effort to wait, so I owe it to them to try and be my old self for once.' Lucas thought to himself, before he started playing his music at random. Walking home as imagine dragons blasted into his ears.
He keep going for about twenty minutes, letting his imagination run wild to the music. And after a while of walking home, his legs starting to feel heavy, the teen realized that he was only about two blocks away from where his brains were bashed in. An alleyway, though it was often the site of his scheduled beat down, was the quickest way home. Cutting the journey down by 10 minutes. So he took off his headphones and stopped listening to music. That day, he'd decided on trying to fight back. It had taken him long enough to stop trading blow for blow with his guilt, and it was about time he threw a few punches of his own. He thrust himself straight into the back-alley, braced for a fight.
But after hearing a strange high-tech noise, the dime a dozen sound you'd hear on star trek, he felt himself run straight into something, or rather, someone. As he started picking himself back up from the hard ground, the dazed student started to see exactly who he'd just collided with. A young teen, around about the same age as him, with brown hair and emerald eyes. He was wearing a plain brown shirt and brown trousers, with belts all across his body. But what stood out the most was his jacket, or rather, the symbol on it. Two white swords on a grey shield, he immediately recognised it as the symbol of the cadet corps.
"Why don't you watch where you're going, moron!"
The stranger shouted at Lucas, yet the voice and the tone it carried sounded so... familiar.
"Eren, you need to stay calm. We don't know what's going on right now, so we need to try and keep a clear head."
'Wait, Eren? Who just called him Eren?' Lucas wondered, the voice itself had sounded like a young woman's, judging from its pitch and volume, but a lot more calm than the guy he'd collided with.
Lucas stood up and started to see more of the full picture. Standing next to the teen he ran into, there were two others beside him, another boy and a girl. The boy has curled blond hair and blue eyes, while the girl has short black hair and grey eyes. All three wore the same clothes; straps covering their shirts and pants with a cadet corps jacket each. Except for the girl, who was wearing a bright red scarf across her shoulders.
The brown-haired guy reached his feet and started to walk over, bearing a less serious and annoyed look on his face then after Lucas had first run into him.
"Sorry about that, I can see it was an accident now. I didn't mean to freak out like that. Could you do us a favour and tell us whereabouts we are?"
The boy he'd started to presume was Eren said, in a much calmer tone than beforehand.
Not a word escaped his lips, as the metaphorical penny dropped with a deafening clang. The only thing he was able to do was stare, wide-eyed and confused. All the while his mind kept running in circles wondering one almost chilling thought. 'How the hell did the main characters of attack on titan end up in our world? And what the hell am I supposed to do now?