Hey there and welcome back I hope the last chapter was able to catch your guys attention a bit. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
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The smell of daisies ran through the young Tilian senses as he ran through the field. Laughing and giggling all the while a woman in a blue sundress was chasing after him while laughing herself. A pair of strong arms wrapped around Tilians small torso and he and the arms fell to the ground. He giggled even harder as he fell to the ground.
The arms let go and he turned around to see a blurred face on a man's body. He turned around still smiling as the woman with no face caught up with them too. The faceless woman picked him and began to run away from the man. He could hear her laughing and the man yelling after them.
Tilians blue and red opened and he stared at the dark blue sky. He could still barely see the stars in the night sky as the sun was starting to come up. The smell of food caught his attention. Over to the right of him there was a bowl of oatmeal.
"Good morning sleeping beauty. Sleep well?" Looking over he saw Alex was kicking some snow into the fire. "I already made you some breakfast. It's sitting next to you, and do be careful. I don't intend on burning your mouth. It'll be a real shame if we can't have your wonderful conversation inputs." Pushing himself up he grabbed the hot bowl and began eating.
He thanked his partner as he finished eating, Alex just waved him off and kept on taking the camp down. He got up and began to help his partner take down the camp.
Reflecting back on his dream, Tilian knew it was fake. Atlus inputs fake memories in your head to make you feel as if you had a childhood with a loving family. Tilian and the other protos can't remember anything before they turned nine. From what he had heard once General Ironwood took over he ordered the stop of the prototypes.
Tilian couldn't care though. It was in the past; he knew he couldn't change it so reason to dwell on what can't be fixed. He has heard from the older generation of protos that if they ever find the man behind it there would be blood. Even if he cared to go after him, Tilian doesn't remember his name or what he looks like. All that he has is just those implanted memories they gave him to have an easier life.
The process of taking down the camp was short and quick as they only each had a tarp and sleeping bag and few eating utensils. The partners tightly rolled their sleeping bag and put it inside their bags. It was the last of the camp that they took down.
"The contact should be here any minute. Anything you wanna go over?" Tilian asked as he clipped on his backpack.
"I'm good as far as what I need to know. His name is Gustovo Murphy. A prototype one; first gen, now those are a rare find these days." Alex said as he was looking over his scroll. "He's wanted to for multiple counts of murder, theft, assault, even some human trafficing." His eyes bugged a bit as the list went on. "This guy is a piece of work I'll give him that. He's also evaded the authorities on multiple occasions. Even killed a few of them too, same thing with some scavengers."
"Do you know how we got the tip that he was here?"
"From what I know there's a guy who owns a cabin not too far from here and he said he was out hiking when he saw him. He asked to remain anonymous for well… you can guess why." He took a deep breath and his hand over his face. "This guy's gonna be a hossle." Tilian couldn't help but silently agree.
"Anyways." Alex said, diverting the topic. "When what's her face gonna be here? Isn't it about that time for her to be here?"
"I have a name."
The sudden name voice made Alex jump out of his skin.
The sudden noise made Tilian turn around.
The new person came into view and removed her mask. Long whit hair came out of the mask and her "Specialist Schnee at your service. Are you two the scavengers I was supposed to meet?"
"We are. Though." Tilian looked towards the sky and saw the faint glow of stars. "You're a bit early."
"Always better to be early than to be late." Her posture was serious and straight. She wore heels even in the snow. The all white outfit she was wearing made her fit into the environment very well.
"Wait, wait, wait! THE! Winter Schee?! As in Ironwood's right hand man, Winter Schnee?! The oldest of Jacques Schnee?! The-"
"Are you done yet Alex? We do have a mission here." Alex raised his finger in protest but gave up.
"Yeah I'm done." He said slumped over and defeated.
"Good now that's out of the way. I was told to work with you under the direct order of General Ironwood. He said it was important that a figure of Atlus was here to show that we still care about these matters." She began to walk over to the cliff edge and peer down at the cabin. "Is that where the target is staying?"
"We are and that's not all." Tilian said, walking up next to her.
"Explain."
"Last night I saw him leave the cabin with someone; and before you ask no I didn't get a good look at him. He was all covered up in winter clothing, I was barely able to tell that he was even a male." Tilian explained. "There's even more." The Schnee looked at him. "He left in an unconventional manner."
The woman beside looked confused and he explained further. "Before he left, a smaller figure in a pink jacket appeared out of nowhere. Our target freaked out but was calmed down. A few moments later the new figure was next to our mystery man and then… they shattered and disappeared."
"They shattered and disappeared?" He nodded at her question. "Did you see anything?" She asked Alex.
"No. I was back here making dinner." She looked back to the cabin and had a look of contemplation on her face. "Interesting."
"I was the only one who saw what happened. After that our target went back inside and that was the last we saw of him. Once Alex took over he said the lights went out and that was it for the rest of the night." Once Tilian finished his explanation he walked from the cliff edge and began to walk past the camp. "Come on. I think it'll be better if we catch him off guard. Don't you? But first." He stopped at the edge of the camp. "We need our weapons. I assume you brought them. Only Atlus personnel and hunters are allowed to have weapons in parks like this." He looked over to the Schnee.
The Specialist pulled her bag off and reached inside. First she pulled out a red and black metal axe. She handed that off to Alex and he reached for his weapon.
He checked over the sharp blade before he slid up the handle. Various clicks came from the weapon and began to change shape into a bow. Polyester string came from both ends of the weapon and connected in the middle. The part that was the handle opened up and revealed dust laced arrows. As he had the arrows in his hand he kissed his bow.
After she gave Alex his bow she reached inside and pulled out a black handle and handed it to Tilian. He grabbed the handle and pushed the small button and flipped the handle in the air. As the piece of equipment was flipping the handle split open and out came a blade getting longer and blue glow came for the edge of the blade. He grabbed the weapon to reveal it was a ninjato sword with a super heated edge.
"Thanks." He said as he looked over his weapon. He flipped the weapon again and it was back to just being a handle. Clipping it to his pants he began walking back towards the woods.
"Don't worry if he doesn't say much to you. He's not much of a talker." Alex explained as he began walking after his partner. "He has an icy cold exterior but inside I bet it's all nice and snuggly. I'm sure of it."
Winter was a tad baffled by the interaction but she kept her professional composure and walked in after them.
No one else said a word as they all just silently began walking down towards the target's location. The whole time was silent as they wanted to make as little noise as possible to keep themselves from being found out. They even went as far as to avoid stepping on sticks and avoiding the small puddles of frozen water as to make sure not to make it crack.
As they were about near the target they stopped. Winter looked at the two young men in front of her. "Alright let's form a plan of attack." The two partners looked at each other and Alex just shrugged while Tilian looked back at Winter. "I believe with the group that we have, we should have Alex get up into a tree and keep us covered. While he does that, Tilian you and I will head up to the cabin and take a look."
"Yes Miss Specialist lady Sir!" Alex stood as straight as he could and gave a salute. Tilian just sighed and agreed to her plan before he took point in the group. Winter on the other hand was slightly irritated when it came to his response. If this was with one of her subordinates she would have just chewed them out and had them on cleaning duty for the rest of the month. But this wasn't that. These were completely different people.
These Scavengers were bounty hunters. The only people they were in control of were the police chief; the reason why that was because their location was in their HQ.
Winter let it slip by as she knew she couldn't do anything. It wouldn't look good if the mission was a scrub because she got angry and popped her top at them. She took a deep breath and began to flow after Tilian.
It wasn't a long walk to the cabin before they was quiet. The snow they were walking on was the only thing making noise in the area.
Winter looked at Alex and nodded at the tree that was next to her. He didn't say anything as he quietly walked past her and climbed up the tree. She looked over to Tilian and he gave her a nod.
Winter took up the lead and walked up the steps to the door; she held out her hand for him. With her other hand she reached into her jacket and pulled out a vial of blue dust. She sprinkled the contents of the vial on the steps and he watched the blue dust solidified and hardened; covering the steps in ice.
The both of them carefully climbed up the step making sure not to slip. They pulled out their weapons as they neared the door. "Is this the only entrance and exit?" Winter whispered as she pressed the back of body against the wall next to the door.
"It is. We made sure of it." He whispered.
She nodded in response. Looking back over to Alex, she saw him giving her the thumbs up before he knocked an arrow and had it aiming at the door. Tilian was posted on the door and gave her a nod. He held three fingers out and began to mouth silently as he counted down with them.
"Three" His mouth moved silently. Alex zeroed in the door and stilled his breathing.
"Two." Winter's hand tightens her grip on her fencing sword.
"Three." Tilian brought down his final finger.
"SHATTER"
The window behind summer broke and a hand came out grabbing her throat. Another hand came breaking through the door: grabbing Tilian by the head and pulling his head into the door.
Tilian used one trying to free himself from the grasp while his other hand was stabbing the door with his weapon hoping to hit his target on the other side. Tilian arrows embedding themselves into the door while winter pulled out her parrying knife out and stabbed the arm that was choking her.
Winter fell to her knees grasping her neck as her slightly purple face was turning pale color. While winter was recovering, Tilian pushed away from the door regaining his balance. Has he straightened himself out the target burst threw the door and tackled Tilian off the porch into the snow.
An arrow whistled through the air towards them as the target was getting up. It hit the proto's arm; causing the target to stumble back. Alex took this opportunity to shoot his next shot at the target, carefully lining up the shot.
The target looked down at his arm then looked to where Alex was hiding in the tree. The look in the Proto's eyes made him pause for a second before he took back up sights; he released and he stopped and stared at the target.
Before the arrow had hit its mark it was caught. The arrow was an inch away from his eye. He took his eye off it and eyed the tree. He snapped the arrow in his hand and threw it off to the side. Alex cursed under his breath as he drew back another arrow and fired.
Without taking his eyes off of Alex, dodging each arrow that was flying at him. Left, right, left; he moved his head out of the way of each shot. Alex knocked back three arrows and his string began to glow a bright white as he charged up the shot. The heads of the arrows were bright red as he let go of the shot. Three arrows flee together at blinding speed towards the proto. The target just merely moved his head to the left as the arrows cut into his cheek.
They landed in the ground behind and after a short delay all three exploded. The proto paid no attention and kept walking towards the tree. Alex began to panic, he was running out of options and didn't know what to do. He began reaching for more arrows when the tree started to move. Looking down he saw the target pulling the tree up from the ground.
Thinking quickly he transformed his bow back into his axe and jumped off the tree. Once he landed he swung for his target. He swung the axe for the head only for it to slice through the tree. He swung behind narrowly missing the proto as he leaned backwards. Bringing the axe around for another swing the proto grabbed his wrist and back handed Alex.
Alex's vision blurred and the ring in his right ear toned out everything, he felt dizzy and weak. He let go of the weapon and fell to the ground. Unsure of what was happening he slowly got back up, looking around seeing Winter and Tilian running towards them. Looking in front of him he saw the proto towering over him. A heavy and forceful punch to the chest rocketed him backwards into the air. He ragdolled into the snow and back. The Ringing in his ears was gone and the only thing he heard was his breathing.
Breathing hurts. That was his thought. Rolling over to his hands and knees caused everything to hurt. Once he was looking down at the snow he saw blood dripping onto the snow and melting. Reached to touch his ear and he felt the warm liquid on his hand. "Fuck." He cursed to himself quietly as pushed himself up on his knees facing the rising sun. "He closed his eyes and a cold shadow hid the sun from him.
Opening his eyes he saw the proto with his weapon in his hands. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again. "Just so you." He looked behind him and saw Tilian was almost there. "I think you're a bitch."
"That's all you got?" Raising the axe he swung downwards.
Alex tightly closed his eyes.
A loud metal clunk made him flinch. He popped open one eye and saw the axe had cut into his eyebrow. The red liquid dripped onto his cheek as he opened his other eye and saw Tilian's sword stopping the axe. He breathed a sigh of relief and before he knew it he was out.
Tilian caught a quick glimpse of Alex as his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell backwards into the snow. He focused on his target and pushed back against him. His feet dug deeper into the snow as he exerted the force onto him. The proto pushed back against him pushing Tilian deeper.
Tilian kicked the proto's knee which caused the target to stumble a bit. Taking advantage of this Tilian headbutts the target in the nose causing him to release his pressure against Tilian.
He opened his eyes as a thin blade rushed at his face. Narrowly the blade missed causing his other cheek to be cut. The sudden attack kept him off balance as more came along. He kept stumbling backwards as he could barely dodge attacks as each one made a deep cut into his arms, chest, and face. Just as he regained his balance, Winter gave him a swift kick to the bottom of his chin. She tumbled backwards onto her feet and planted her then blade into the ground.
A large white glyph formed on the ground below and two more the same size appeared behind her. She grunted as she released dozens of snow white doves towards the proto. He brought his arms to cover his head as the doves raced all around him; each one cutting into him like razor blades. His arms got more cut up as blood began to cover and pour down them.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Tilian ran forwards into the storm of doves; seeing this Winter began to stop her attack. He watched as the doves slowly disappeared around the dangerous man and he quickened his pace towards him.
He lunged the final few feet at the target, digging his blade into his stomach. He pushed the blade as deep as he could into the man only for his target to grab his sword while it was halfway through him.
Blood steadily dropped from his hand as he stopped the scorching hot blade from going any deeper. Tilian gritted his teeth as he pushed the sword even deeper into the man. The man grunted as he tried with all his might to stop the blade from going even deeper into him. Raising his hand delivered a powerful blow to Tilians face.
Tilian held the blade in but the blow caused him to stop pushing the sword in. He took another deep breath and pushed even harder. This time the target used his other hand to help stop the sword. Even with all his force he couldn't keep the man from slowly pulling the blade out.
A scream came from behind Tilian as a long thin blade pierced the heart of his target. Both hands let go of Tilian sword as the target fell to his knees. Winter rolled as she landed behind him. With her parrying nice in her hand she sank the blade into the target's neck.
With both of his hands he reached for his neck. His breath was heavy and ragged as blood and spit dribbled out of mouth. Blood was coming out of hands around the blade.
Tilian and Winter both pulled out their swords and pointed them at him. Tilian looked over at Winter and she looked back at him. They were both tired and exhausted. They knew this.
Winter was the first to speak. "Let's end thi-" Her parrying knife embedded into her shoulder. She dropped her weapon and stumbled back. Tilian looked back over and saw the proto was back on his feet with one hand still covering the hole in his neck.
"I'm going to kill one of you scav's at least damn it!" He gurgled out as the blue blood spilled out onto the snow. He reached for Tilian and fell back onto his knees. "I cannot die! I have killed so many of you! And I'll be damned if I let my own kind kill me!" He glared at the other proto in front of him.
"They got you wrapped around their fingers, you know that!" Coughing up more blue blood he wiped his mouth. "You have no idea what doing." He sat back and laughed to himself. "I'm important. You'll see." He laughed some more. "I-" An arrow pierced his head dead center in the forehead. The proto's head fell backwards as his hand slowly fell away from his head.
Tilian looked backwards and saw Alex barely standing holding his bow. "I got him!" He yelled at Tilian. "That's a hundred lien you owe me you bastard!" He dropped his bow and sat down in the snow. "Though I doubt I'll ever see the day you'll give it to me." He muttered to himself as his green aura surrounded his body.
Winter pushed herself out of the snow with her good arm. She looked at the arrow in the head and looked back at Alex sitting in the snow. Pulling her own knife out her shoulder she grunted as the weapon left. She focused her own aura around the wound and tried to get up.
"Save your strength." She looked at Tilian who had knelt down beside her. He reached inside of her bag and pulled out some bandages. He began to wrap her shoulder up. She looked at the young man and saw that his left eye was stained blue as the hit caused a blood vessel in his eye to burst. A large area around his eye was bruised.
"You should heal yourself too." He didn't say anything as he finished wrapping up her shoulder.
"I'll be fine. My aura should start healing me soon." He stood back up and grunted. He reached for his midsection as it was very tender to the touch. He flinched as he put his hand over it. "Will you be alright right here?" He asked Winter, while looking at Alex. "I need to go check on him." She nodded her head. She pulled out her scroll and contacted Atlus for a pick and some medics.
The walk to Alex was not a good one for Tilian, every step hurt. Once he reached his partner he sat down next to his partner. They both stared at the dead proto in the distance. Neither of them said a word to each other as they just enjoyed the moment of peace they have before Atlus shows up.
Tilian took a deep breath and reached for his belt in the back and pulled off a knife and handed it to Alex. "You're kill, you're skin." Alex just simply laughed as he grabbed the knife.
"Aren't you sweet." He groaned as he reached for his ribs. "Just give me a few minutes okay. I'm kinda beat to all shit here." Tilian just agreed and fell back onto the snow. Some slight pain relief kicked in when his aura started to slowly heal his body.
"You know I'm surprised your semblance didn't come into play." Alex said as he readjusted himself.
"Like I said before. I can't control it." Tilian replied as he closed his eyes. "It only comes around when I'm in dire situations. "I haven't had an outburst in a few years so I'll consider myself lucky it didn't happen today." He flinched as he rested his hands on stomach. "Besides, I don't think it would've been good for anybody if that happened." Screams and blood flashed in his mind as he thought about his semblance.
"Yeah, I think I can agree to that." Grunted Alex as he began to lay next to his partner. The only thing that could be heard around them was the birds chirping as the morning sun began to wash over the snow covered trees.
"It's peaceful here, no?" Alex asked no one. "Think I might retire out here when I'm older. Have my grandkids run around, have a young smokin 'hot wife." He nudged his partner. "What about you? Any thoughts about what you wanna do when you get older?"
"Let's just focus on making sure we get to that age first, ok?" Tilian replied. Alex just chuckled at his response.
"Fair enough." Silence then passed the two of them as they both rested there worn and tired bodies.
Soon enough they both heard the sound of Atlus airships coming in the distance. Alex and Tilian both groaned as they picked themselves up in time for the airships to land. "Well time to get to skinnin'." Alex said as he flipped the knife as he began walking to the body.
While Alex took care of the proto, Tilian walked over to Winter who was sitting on the porch. "Are you doing any better?" He asked as he approached Winter.
"The bleeding stopped a while ago." She said as she got up. " I want to thank you." She walked up to him. "You didn't have to help me with my wound and I-"
Tilian raised his hand and stopped her. "Stop. You don't have to thank me. I was just doing what I should have done. I'm sure you would've done the same." Looking over at Alex he saw him slip the piece of skin into a small bag and put it into his bag. "Besides." He looked back at her. "I'm pretty sure this whole thing is gonna be scrubbed clean." Winter looked a bit back. "I know what he did. He was a monster, wanted for just about anything. Plus, we have an unknown mystery man. And from the way you reacted when we told you about how he just disappeared, you gave a thoughtful look. Atlus knows something that we don't. That reason I just gave is enough for this whole operation to be covered up."
Winter took a step back. "How do yo-"
"Just do me and Alex, a favour and pretend that his whole thing was just a hunt." The look in his eyes made Winter want to reach for her weapon in defense. "Me and him will pretend that you were never here." He began walking back over to Alex. "There's no need for us to be briefed about anything. Our captain will do that for us when we get back." Stopped and looked at her. "And you can take your hand off your weapon Specialist Schnee."
She looked down at her weapon and let go of the hilt. She didn't even realize that she was holding onto her weapon. What Tilian had said to her had taken her off guard.
"The way I looked?" She muttered to herself as thought about when she first saw the young scavenger.
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Hey guys how are ya, I hope y'all are good. Well here's the latest chapter of Real like you. I hope all of you guys enjoyed it. And please leave a comment on it telling me how you guys are feeling about it. Anyways till next time guys.