Theme:
AoT - Attack On Titan Instrumental Theme
Where there is smoke,
There will soon be a fire!
(Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire) X4
Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire,
Play with fire and you will be burned.
Hidden behind dark blue gauntlets,
Guardian of the innocent.
Even his great Aura may fade,
Grimm attack and darkness closes.
Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire,
Play with fire and you will be burned.
Beware, he will take you down,
With a punch,
Or a kick,
Or a thrown shuriken!
Even although he holds himself back,
He is a force to be reckoned with!
(skip to 02:32)
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He strikes as hard as a
COMET!
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He strikes as hard as a
COMET!
Where there is smoke there will soon be a fire,
Play with the flames and you will be burned,
Go all out or you're,
All far too easy,
He will take you all down!
(Where there's smoke there'll soon be fire) X7
(Play with it, you'll burn!)
—
Charlie's first act as the leader of team Colossal was to declare that neither of them would be sleeping until they had both finished unpacking, since their schedule was relatively tight in the morning. Sol, after a glance over the timetable, quickly agreed and began to unpack his three suitcases. Charlie used his Force Dust tattoos on the absolute minimum setting to hammer nails into a kit-set hanging desk, before nailing it onto the wall after testing to see where the support beams were. Sol, on the opposite side, unfolded a workbench which occupied one of his suitcases, and laid out a set of Runestone blanks and the tools required to make them into runestones from another suitcase. His final suitcase was full of clothing, which went into his half of the dresser. On Charlie's side, the boy had finished wiring up a charging port on the wall, which he placed a rather strange-looking Scroll into. Immediately, the Scroll activated, a slowly rotating cyan-and-blue sphere appearing on-screen.
"Good evening, Sir," the Scroll spoke with a refined (english) accent. Sol's eyebrows rose.
"Evening, TAI," Charlie responded, hanging his sword on a rack which took up half of his wall and beginning to set up a large flatscreen next to it. As soon as he plugged it in, the television turned on, displaying a pair of files which Sol was certain were not meant to be seen by him - at least until Charlie called him over.
"Take a look at these dossiers," Charlie instructed. Sol did as he was asked. On the left was a dossier entitled "Nemesis"
—
Name:
UNKNOWN (Goes by Nemesis)
Race:
UNKNOWN (Believed to be human)
Family:
UNKNOWN
Affiliation:
The Black Queen
Occupation:
Shock trooper; Assassin.
Combatant Type:
Shieldsman; Manoeuvrist; Transporter.
Threat Level:
OMEGA Ω (Ability and Drive based, POTENTIAL Motivation)
Known Crimes:
87 counts class 1 MURDER (and a further 180 suspected), 54 counts class 2 MURDER, 2 counts class 3 MURDER, 62 counts THEFT (DUST), 768 counts class 1 ASSAULT, 65 counts class 2 ASSAULT, 8 counts class 3 ASSAULT, 1 count HIGH TREASON.
Notable Crimes:
Murder of Huntresses Summer Rose and Denise Valkyrie (class 3 MURDER); Sabotage of the defensive wall around Valean expansion Mountain Glenn and assassination of high-ranking officials within Mountain Glenn defense corps, leading to the fall of the expansion to the creatures of Grimm (HIGH TREASON).
Standing Orders:
Upon sighting, DO NOT ENGAGE. Report location and heading to the nearest station and REMAIN HIDDEN. Suspect is WELL ARMED and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Engagements with Suspect typically result in NO SURVIVORS. Suspect is capable of teleportation, so running is not an option. If engaged, FIGHT TO YOUR LAST BREATH, Suspect is not the kind of person to let you flee.
Dossier Classification:
TOP SECRET (Released to [REDACTED] under Valean Intelligence Act article 35 subsection D on request of clan leader [REDACTED].)
Motivations and Abilities:
Nemesis is an enigma.
Based on what few recordings the VPD has been able to recover, we believe him to be driven by a "survival of the fittest" mentality. Throughout the recordings, his most common quote is:
"I destroy that which offends me. Weakness offends me. You are weak. And now, you will die."
-Nemesis
Nemesis's Semblance appears to be Teleportation, which, when coupled with his omni-directional manoeuvring gear and unorthodox Dual Bladed Retractable Shields (DBRS's), make him an extremely unpredictable fighter. The blades of his DBRS's are infused with Black Dust, a rare Dust type which disrupts Aura, allowing a weapon containing it to ignore the target's Aura completely. Wounds inflicted by a Black Dust weapon usually take two to three times as long to heal as other wounds would without the assistance of Aura.
—
"Why would such a dossier be classified so highly?" Sol asked. Charlie stared at him, a deadpan expression on his face.
"He's an Omega level threat. Only a few individuals are identified as such, and all are identified as such because they possess any two of the following: the ability, drive, and or motivation to destroy an entire kingdom alone. Nemesis was the individual responsible for the destruction of Mountain Glenn, for Oum's sake."
"Oh," Sol responded, shocked. "I can see why the police want his existence out of the public eye." Charlie nodded.
"There's more, though. This is the other file." the file on the right expanded, filling the screen.
—
Name:
Charles "Charlie" Xiao Long
Race:
Human
Family:
Taiyang Xiao Long (adoptive father); Yang Xiao Long (adoptive sister); Ruby Rose (adoptive sister)
Biological family UNKNOWN
Affiliation:
Beacon Academy
Occupation:
Huntsman-in-training; Protector of Ruby Rose
Combatant Type:
Swordsman; Brawler; Marksman; Shurikenist; Strategist.
Threat Level:
OMEGA Ω (Ability and drive based)
Known Crimes:
None (Suspected of 35 counts of class 1 ASSAULT, and 1 count of class 2 ASSAULT) [ALL CLEARED - BEACON AUTHORITY]
Notable Crimes:
None
Standing Orders:
Not a Suspect; no need to engage, detain, or arrest.
NOTE: Subject is a student of Beacon Academy, having been advanced one year to enrol. Has slain a Burrower-type Apocalypse-class creature of Grimm; is unlikely to be detainable even without diplomatic immunity granted by Beacon.
Dossier Classification:
TOP SECRET (Released to [REDACTED] under Valean Intelligence Act article 35 subsection D on request of VPD Chief Mendez.)
Motivations and Abilities:
Unlike OMEGA-1 (Nemesis), OMEGA-2 (Charles Xiao Long) is easy to understand based both on interviews and on observations.
Xiao Long is driven by an immovable desire to protect his adoptive younger sister, Ruby Rose. This goal drives him to accompany her almost anywhere away from their home island, Patch. He can be seen as overbearing, even stifling, but Miss Rose appears to be grateful for his company. This drive appears to have been initiated on the day of the murder of SUMMER ROSE, his adoptive mother. According to Xiao Long, she extracted an oath from him with her dying breaths, an oath he chose to make on his very soul, devoting his life to the task of protecting his adoptive sister.
Despite his subtly powerful Semblance and ability to defeat almost any enemy, he was originally only considered Omega-level because of his Overcharge ability. For those who do not know, many Semblances are Overchargeable, the most notable being the Xiao Long family Semblance of Kinetic Absorption, which can be charged directly by the user's Aura, causing an explosive detonation and amplifying the ability beyond its standard limit. Charles Xiao Long, however, has an Overcharge ability seemingly unrelated to his Semblance. By reaffirming the oath made to SUMMER ROSE, he drains his own, Blue Smoke Aura and gains a new, White Rose Aura - apparently the Aura of SUMMER ROSE herself. This Aura alters the Dust in the tattoos inlaid into his forearms and calves thusly:
Force Dust:
Gravity Dust (Alters Gravity's effect on the user, allowing flight)
Burn Dust:
Inferno Dust (Powerful variant of Burn, creates a massive, uncontrollable explosion of fire)
Freeze Dust:
Blizzard Dust (Powerful variant of Freeze Dust, detonates on use to freeze anything closer than 30 metres in any direction.
Shock Dust:
Smite Dust (Also called "The Wrath of Oum", instantly vaporizes creatures of Grimm and purges an Aura of negative effects; causes no harm to beings with Aura.)
Petrification Dust:
Quake Dust (Does virtually what it says on the tin, creates a massive earthquake, knocking everything except the user off their feet.)
Experts have speculated that in this form, Xiao Long may also gain the ability to use SUMMER ROSE's Semblance: the Holy Detonation, which causes the user's Aura to detonate, destroying Grimm within a massive radius while empowering Light Auras and crippling Dark Auras.
Outside of his Overcharge, Xiao Long's Semblance is the subtly powerful Bullet Time, or when used to its fullest extent, Tactical Pause. It is a mental ability which allows Xiao Long to overdrive his brain, granting him effectively situational omnipotence and allowing him to plan out an entire encounter in the blink of an eye. According to Xiao Long himself, "I see how they will react, and I plan to counteract them." It is this which makes him so impossible to defeat.
—
"Wait," Sol began, "you're classified as an Omega level threat?"
"Yeah," Charlie shrugged, "It's not that much higher than your average Huntsman or Huntress. The threat classification goes from zero to ten, with Alpha being the level an individual with an unlocked Aura is classed at, then Theta, which is a dangerous, Aura-empowered criminal, then Omega."
Before Sol could argue, the scroll on the wall spoke up, the television deactivating at the same time.
"Sir," the scroll began, "it is getting late. I would suggest that you and your partner get your rest." Charlie nodded.
"Thanks, TAI. set the alarm for eight o'clock please."
"Understood, sir. Alarm set. Monitoring program active. I will warn you if something occurs."
"Knowing Ruby like I do, it will," Charlie muttered, switching off the lights as the two of them got into their beds.
—
Sirens wailing, growls filling the air, the smell of smoke in his nose, the tug of his sister's hand as he dragged her down the street. She was crying, letting the world know her pain, but the world was cold, and cared not for the child who had lost her mother. He hoped she wouldn't remember this day, though the chances were that she would.
Mountain Glenn had fallen.
Grimm filled the street behind them, drawing ever nearer as he hoisted her onto his back, clenching his fist. The mark still glowed on his palm.
—
Nemesis closed his black-and-red Scroll, disconnecting it from Beacon's security network.
"You grow ever more interesting, don't you, Charles?" he murmured to himself. The flutter of large wings caught his attention, and he turned to face the massive man with flame-red wings.
"I should have known I would find you here, Nemesis," the man spoke, alighting on the rooftop without a sound. "Whose life have you taken it upon yourself to ruin this time?"
Nemesis sighed.
"Ashwood, you know that though our methods differ, our goals are the same! Humanity deserves its evolution, but nothing evolves alone! place a cell in an isolated petri dish and it devolves for lack of competition. Then reintroduce it to its original environment, and it goes extinct! Humanity needs a struggle - and the Grimm are not the right kind. Nor were the Titans, or the Forerunners, or even the Flood. That is why I fought those things. That is why I fight the Grimm! But even so, solving this problem for them would serve no purpose! spoon feed them and they will never feed themselves! Evolution is an arms race. And I?" He removed his golden sunglasses, revealing irises of flickering flames. "I am the competition."
—
Despite the Artificial Intelligence's advice, Sol was not asleep. Instead he was recalling the runes he had cast not two hours before.
The first runes he had cast were Sol and Úr, both connected by Naudr. Sol, his own runemark, and Úr, the Mighty Ox, which signified strength. He could only interpret this as symbolic of his partnership with Charlie. He needed better information than this. He drew the shapes of Ós crossed with Bjarkán, then Madr crossed with Yr, broken. He held his question in his mind.
"Who is it that seeks to break the protectors of Humanity and Faunus-kind?" The answer was as cryptic as one could get.
Ós crossed with Sol, Ós crossed with Isa, Ós crossed with Ár, broken Ós crossed with Naudr, and both of these crossed with Madr. Ós was only used like this to refer to those related to divine beings, likely priests or priestesses. The runes nudged his mind here. All four were definitely female. Priestess of the sun, priestess of ice, priestess of plentiful food and a broken priestess of death? He cast Bjarkán over the runes. Unlike usual, however, the runes took this opportunity to rearrange themselves. Only the broken Ós crossed with Naudr, and both of these crossed with Madr, remained.
"The one who broke the priestess of the season of death…" he murmured. Then they rearranged a second time. This raised all sorts of alarms to Sol. The runes only rearranged when dangerous information had to be known. To rearrange twice? Unthinkable. Until now.
Iar, Madr, both touching Aesk, near to a rune which had formed from a combination of Perth and Hagall. The builder and mankind linked by the ash tree, fast approaching a risk of destruction. He quickly wrote all of this down.
Sol snapped his fingers, calling a marble of light in the form of Sol, which allowed him to read the note which had somehow managed to write itself using calligraphy.
The Sun and the Ox, united till Death.
The Holy Sun, the Holy Ice, the Holy Plenty, the broken Holy Death.
The being who broke the Holy Death seeks to break the protectors of Humanity and Faunus-kind.
The builder and mankind across the Ash Tree, approach a high risk of destruction.
Of course, he could only interpret the first two lines properly. The remainder was beyond him. All he knew from this prophecy was that either he or Charlie would die. And Sol's power was not that strong - whatever would happen, would happen this year.
