Chapter 1: Team LIRL, The Team Whose Name Makes No Sense
Remnant is a world fraught with danger. With the creatures of Grimm on humanities proverbial doorstep, a group of terrorists attempting to cause chaos, and many, MANY secret organizations vying for control over Remnant and its people through immoral means, you would expect the average person to be afraid for their life on a day to day basis. Thankfully we have Hunters and Huntresses, protectors of the people.
These shining lights of heroism beat back these groups of personified impending doom on a day to day basis. Their missions range from the extermination of small packs of Beowulves to tearing down entire crime organizations. Naturally, the feats of these heroes have warranted appreciation from the public, whether it be in the form of parades on national "Hunter Appreciation Day", articles in newspapers, or the biggest honor of all: a statue.
Getting a statue is obviously a tremendous honor. Hunter Appreciation Day only comes once a year, and newspapers don't exactly do much to stroke a Hunters ego. A statue however is a literal landmark placed in your very own residential district. These statues come in many sizes and styles, ranging from generically heroic to brutally realistic, but one comes to mind for most people who live in Vale.
This statue in particular was of a young man with his sword held high, his shield blocking an Ursa's attack on a group of innocent people. The statue, found in the City of Vales downtown square, practically emanates the virtues a hunter lives by. Heroism, Honor, Valor. Such traits usually guaranteed that the Hunter who displayed them had their stories told for generations.
Unfortunately, this story is not his, but of a team of Hunters who are much less deserving. At this moment a muscular, bald young man with a slab of steel attached to his arm crashes through the statue, smashing the top half of the statue to pieces, leaving the scene as a pair of legs being the innocent citizens only hope against the creatures of Grimm.
A young man with a gray hat and gray hair sprints towards his fallen comrade, taking quick note of how Glynda was not going to be happy at the mess later. "Ivan!" he yells. He reaches his comrade and crouches for a better look. "Ivan? You alright big guy?" he asks. Ivan sticks his hand through the rubble that is on top of him in the sign of a thumbs up. "Oh good." the gray wearing man says in a relieved tone. "Think you've got enough in ya for another round?" Ivan's hand remains in the thumbs up position. "Alright, get that stuff off you." The man in gray activates his earpiece. "Hey guys, Ivan's good. We're heading back over now. Hows the situation going?" The sound of a building collapsing can be heard in the distance. "Not great." the voice of another young man responds. "Lilith is having the time of her life though." As sounds of a chainsaw and a fight are heard through the earpiece."Wait, shes fighting it!?" The gray man questions in disbelief. "The teams strength is effectively halved right now! Lilith fall back until we get there!" A woman turns on her earpiece to respond. "No way! This thing is WAY too much fun!"
The gray man pinches the bridge of his nose. "Lilith, Ivan crashed through a statue and blew part of it to pieces, if that thing can send HIM flying that hard, then we need to come up with a plan." The other mans voice responds. "Leon, I don't think shes listening anymore. She's got her semblance going again." Leon groans. "Oh god, not the horse thing... Rekka can you at least try to keep her from getting herself hurt? Ivan and I should be there soon." Ivan begins to get up, the rubble falling off as if they were cardboard to him. Rekka can be heard audibly sighing over the earpiece. "I'll do my best, but you know the way she gets when the horse shows up." Leon looks at Ivan. "Ready to go?" he asks. Ivan nods. "Ivan is ready." he responds in a heavy Russian accent. "Alright, let's get moving." Leon replies. They begin to run towards the sounds of chaos and destruction.
Rekka finishes using his earpiece as Lilith fires another shot at the Giant Nevermore that had gotten past the cities defenses with her chainsaw shotgun. "Lilith! We need to back off!" the red and yellow clad man yells. The woman in black and red fires another shot, not listening. "Lilith if you don't back off I'm not buying pizza tonight!" Rekka yells in desperation. The woman stops firing immediately. "You're serious?" She looks over eyes wide with an expression of fear. "Dead serious!" Rekka says. "Ok, I'll follow the plan." Lilith says in a mixture of disappointment and defeat as another Nevermore feather almost hits her. Rekka wincing at the close call activates two speakers on his fists and punches the wall to a nearby building. The bass of these speakers are so deep that it breaks the wall down with little trouble. "Through here!" he yells as he runs through, Lilith following behind.
Leon and Ivan arrive in a park nearby. "I just hope they don't cause any more damage..." Leon dreams hopelessly. At this moment Rekka has blown down the last wall between him and the park area. Leon is visibly distressed. "Oh god no, Glynda is going to have our hides for this one..." he whines. "Ok, look Leon, I know things are bad." Rekka attempts to rationalize. "But we got all the civilians out before the Nevermore attacked!" he smiles in triumph. "What's a Giant Nevermore doing this far into Vale territory anyways!?" Leon screams angrily. "I thought we had contingency plans for this!" The Nevermore screeches in the distance focusing the team back on the main issue at hand.
Leon immediately begins to form a plan. "Ok... it has height advantage due to it being able to fly and Nevermore feathers are dense enough to deflect bullets. Even if we shoot it directly in the mouth or eyes, the most that'll do is piss it off..." Leon looks over at the wall that Rekka broke down. "Hey Rekka... how charged were those punches to make those holes...?" Rekka brandishes his gauntlets proudly. "About a quarter way charged. Why?" A glint is seen in Leon's eye. "I've got a dumb idea..."
A few minutes later...
Leon watches the Nevermore circle the area where it was fighting Rekka and Lilith. Most likely in an attempt to find them after their fight. Rekka's voice plays from Leons earpiece. "Alright, "boss" whats the plan?" Leon is out in the open with Lilith, who at the moment is anxious for the fight that's about to start. "You'll catch on when it starts." Rekka is taking shelter inside the building whose wall has a hole in it with Ivan on the opposite side of the field. "Wait, what do you mean I'll catch on!?" He says incredulously. "Are you sure you aren't winging it?" Leon grins to himself. "Don't worry man, this is gonna be great. Just charge you're gauntlets and let us know when you're ready. Then we'll get its attentio-" Suddenly the teams ears are assaulted by the sound Hunters had compared to death if he were to scratch his bone hands across a chalkboard. The Nevermore saw them already. The raven had just gotten tired of searching that area and has found its prey again. "Oh no... Rekka start charging!" Leon yells in terror. "Already on it!" Rekka responds, his gauntlets whirring to life. "Ivan! I need to to dig in as much as you can with your shield!" Leon yells. Ivan stoically smashes the slab of steel into the ground. An energy field surrounds his shield as he digs his feet into the dirt. He grunts in confirmation. "Alright, Lilith, you and I are bait." Lilith loads some shotgun shells. "Oooh cat and mouse... I like it!" Leon draws his revolver. "We need to keep it's attention until Rekka is done charging."
The Nevermore draws closer. Leon begins firing his revolver to annoy it. The bullets pang off the Nevermore's feathers as if they were rubber. The raven fires its first salvos of feathers as it makes its first pass. He dodges the feathers as best he can, a few feathers miss him by inches, a bit too close for his tastes. Lilith begins to open fire now that the nevermore is in her range. Her weapon fairs just as badly to its feathers. The giant bird begins to circle the area and fires its second volley of feathers at Lilith. She revs her chainsaw and cuts them before they can hit her. "Lilith!" Leon yells. "We need to bring it down to earth!" Lilith grins and her eyes begin to glow. The image of a blue horse can be seen in her eyes as her quad barreled shotgun glows the same color. She fires at the Nevermore's wings, her semblance imbuing the bullets with the element of ice, freezing the raven's wings. The bird comes crashing to the ground in the middle of the park.
"He's in our turf now. Our rules." Leon says narrowing his eyes. The Nevermore's wings are frozen enough to where it can't fly, but it can still fire its feathers. It primes a few for Leon and Lilith. Leon holsters his revolver and concentrates. Nothing but him and the Nevermore are on his mind. Time slows to a crawl. He waits for the perfect moment. The Nevermore fires it's feathers. In a flash Leon draws his revolver and shoots the first six, ruining their trajectory. The feathers pin themselves into the building behind Leon. "Jesus! Careful out there!" Rekka yells from inside. Leon's revolver, being in single fire mode can fire six more shots. The Nevermore fires more feathers. Leon shoots these as well. More feathers riddle the walls of the building. Leon turns to Lilith. "Firework rounds!" Lilith smiles in glee. "I thought you said these things were "dangerous and tactically useless"! Goes to show what you know!" She says as she loads shotgun shells that have scribbles of skull and crossbones and smiley faces on them.
Lilith aims at the Nevermore happy to finally show off her creation. She fires a shot, and the Nevermore is hit with the shotgun equivalent of the entire stock of a Fourth of July sale. She fires another shot, and another shot, and another shot into the bird, every shot enraging it more and more. She pulls the trigger one last time to hear the gun click, all out of Firework Rounds. She pouts, denied of her fun. A sudden screech assaults the teams ears. The Nevermore has had enough of the teams games. It shrugged off the ice on its wings, took to the sky again, and began to circle the area again.
"Rekka!" Leon yells. "How much longer til you're at full charge!?" Rekka, inside the building yells back. "98 percent!" The Nevermore begins to dive towards Leon and Lilith. "Lilith! Inside quick!" Leon yells. They both make a mad dash towards the hole in the wall. "99 percent!" Rekka yells. The two make it inside and get behind Rekka. The Nevermore just about there. "100 percent! Fully charged! Now what!?" Rekka screams. The Nevermore crashes into the wall, its head poking through the hole just in front of Rekka. The Nevermore hadn't made enough speed to topple the building. It attempts to bite at Rekka a few times, but is just out of reach. Everyone in the room, including Leon, is amazed to the fact that his "Plan" has worked up until this point.
"Well." Leon adjusts his hat. "I believe there's only one thing to do here Rekka." He gives Rekka a cocky grin.
"Drop the bass."
Rekka smiles evilly, winds up his punch in an overly dramatic matter, and punches the Nevermore with the collective bass of several dub step remixes.
The impact alone stuns the Nevermore, shattering its beak, and sends it flying towards Ivan, who has been ready for his moment since the beginning. He digs his heels into the dirt further and braces for the impact he was going to put up with. He activates his semblance. The Nevermore hits his shield at full force, but he doesn't give an inch. The velocity that the Nevermore hits the shield at breaks more bones in its body, and feeds the kinetic energy into Ivan's shield. The shield begins to make a whirring noise. "Hear that?" Ivan says quietly to the bird. "Is sound of pain." He whispers. The shield fires all its kinetic energy it was given into the Nevermore, causing it to fly into the middle of the park, dazed, confused, and tired. "Lilith!" Leon signals. She gives a slasher smile as she sprints at the winged beast, revving her chainsaw the entire way. She reachers her target, still on the floor, and starts hacking it to pieces.
The Nevermore's head rolls away from the carnage. Sawed off and forgotten by the carnage that was Lilith. The head, still not quite as dead can't do much more than watch as Leon walks up to it, revolver drawn. "Good job guys!" He says as he brings the hammer back. "I love it when a plan comes together..." As he aims at the Nevermore's head and fires.
The Next Day...
"And that's how we beat a Giant Nevermore!" Rekka brags to a group of girls. The lunchroom at Beacon Academy filled with Hunters and Huntresses in training is bustling with the hip talk of the now. "Yeah, we know. We saw it happen on TV a few hours ago." One of them says unimpressed. Rekka, slightly deterred due to his game plan falling apart attempts again. "Well... we do that kind of stuff often, no big deal." Another of the girls, equally if not more unimpressed scoffs. "Yeah, it really isn't. You killed it sure, but it still wrecked most of downtown. Do you have any idea how angry Glynda is at you?" Rekka begins to sweat a bit. "And also wasn't the fact you guys fought it alone in the first place was because you guys shot at it before reinforcements arrived, against direct orders?" Rekka is now sweating profusely. He attempts to regain his composure. "Y- yeah that is the case... But we still got it!" He says with a flourish. "And more creatures of Grimm are to come! Anybody who wants to get in our way is gonna get crushed! Because Team LIRL is just THAT BADASS!" He ends loudly. A moment of silence follows due to the outburst. Somebody on the other side of the lunchroom yells at him. "That name sucks!" Rekka flies into a fit of rage. "WHO SAID THAT!? YOU WANNA GO BRO!?"
Back at the dorm. Leon finishes ordering Pizza. "Ugh... still sore from yesterday..." He lies on his bed. Lilith is sitting at her desk doing homework, pouting. "I can't believe Goodbitch got that angry at us for the property damage... I mean it wasn't that bad, she can just magic it back to normal right? There's no issue..." Leon pulls his hat over his face. "Well that just goes to show we need to show restraint in populated areas... unfortunately I don't see us getting any better at that anytime soon..." Ivan, on his bed stoically shrugs. Rekka enters the room with the Pizza. "Hey I picked up the pizza. Also I got detention again." Leon groans. "Please don't tell me it was because of the team name again..." Rekka stays silent for a moment.
"It was exactly that."
Leon groans again.