AN: Sorry for not posting lately. Read the author's notes down if you want an explanation. Enjoy reading
Search and Rescue.
Team ACES' first official mission.
The team was excited about having this mission except for Ace who wasn't as excited as before while at the same time, it became boring after sitting for an hour inside the bullhead.
They tried to fill their time with talking or doing their things like Carl playing with Nevan, Violet thinking about weapons and upgrades, and Skyler writing what might be the mission's details. On the other hand, Ace was sitting, crossing his arms, and deep thinking. Ace still had problems and memories from the house they found in the mission and despite the crying and sadness, Ace had more to release. It would be worrying if the team saw him like that but that could be good in a way. While Ace was thinking, the team tried to grab his attention, given how he was like a sitting duck but it wasn't so bothersome anyway.
Ace stopped his deep thinking and checked his scroll to see anything and closed it a minute later. He looked around and the only thing that was happening in front of him was Carl playing a song. It was low yet Ace recognized it.
It was 'Chaos Unraveled' by Brandon Yates and Therewolf Media.
Ace smirked as he knew that this was a moment that helped to make 'the Mentally Unstable Hosts'. And like the first time, he will follow Carl by singing, catching them off guard as Carl was about to enter the chorus section.
Angels singing, immaculately, as the threads you're pulling, unraveling all of me,
I saw that moment, still frozen in time!
A shadow leading the blind
Ace sang where his team could hear him. His voice wasn't so bad. He sounded like a famous singer.
A small smirk came to Ace's face before he snapped his fingers, pointing at Carl before he returned to sing.
I've paid in blood, paved the way for the changes I thought I should,
all for the greater good,
but I'll fight like the fucking devil wishes he could
Carl rubbed his eyes to check if what he was seeing was real and it was indeed real. The blonde guitarist grabbed his guitar and played the parts where Ace was singing.
Hail to the king of the misery
Go on and lose your way, let's just see where it leads!
It's always back to me
The girls next to them were as surprised as Carl. They didn't expect Ace to sing or even that good. They heard the song before because they were living under the same roof as the boys and began to memorize the song's lyrics. Heck, from their looks, Ace and Carl looked to have good chemistry and having fun in this like they know each other for a long time.
Ace and Carl knew it was the chorus part as Ace stopped to take a small breath and stayed silent for 4 seconds before delivering the chorus part.
Angels singing, immaculately, as the threads you're pulling, unraveling all of me,
I saw that moment, still frozen in time!
A shadow leading the blind
Angels singing, immaculately, as the threads you're pulling, unraveling all of me,
I saw that moment, still frozen in time!
A shadow leading the blind
Now, the last part was close. Ace took his breath and stayed silent like how the song played while Carl played his guitar part. They looked very into it and are about to deliver the last part and-
SCREECH
"Sorry for interrupting this music session, but we arrived at our location. Don't forget to grab your stuff before leaving."
And in the last second, the pilot interrupted it.
Ace blinked as it was like the first time they sang in the bullhead, resulting in him a small chuckle, "Maybe next time." Ace put his hat on his head and grabbed his stuff followed by his team as they exited the bullhead before it flew away.
After that, the team started to move to their location. While moving, Carl was moving closer to Ace with a smile on his face.
"Nice singing there, bro. I had fun with having this sudden session we had." Carl greeted in a low sound.
"No problem, bro. I just needed to confirm 'The Mentally Unstable Hosts'." Ace offered a fist bump which Carl bumped back as Ace picked his speed.
At the same moment, Carl realized something. The Mentally Unstable Hosts? What was that? Did Ace think of a band name?
"Wait for a second, what did you say?"
…
A few minutes of walking later, the team arrived at the town. They noticed that most buildings were at least 2 stories high, the different types of shops that sell food, clothes, and other supplies. There was also a weaponsmith to make, fix, and sell weapons. Another one where it sells ammo and dust. However, not all shops were filled with their offerings. Some were even closed due to not being able to sell anything.
The people were both human and Faunus, making Violet more comfortable walking between them. It was nice overall. More walking later, they arrived at the mayor's hall and had a meeting with him and discussed the problems.
The problem was that the supply order that comes to fill the town on a specific schedule had been through a lot of problems in the last few months as it got hijacked multiple times by some unusual individuals wearing black outfits and it affected the town as they depend on it to fill their daily bases which could result in a huge issue in the Winter. They tried multiple methods to move them but it didn't work every time.
After the meeting, the team headed to the direction where the supply direction and wasted more time moving in the forest.
"This is so boring! Why didn't you get the Demon Rider to move faster?" Carl groaned loudly.
"Because we might miss it. There's supposed to be a coming supply today and besides, you should get used to moving in the forest. After all, none of you traveled around Patch alone and had to survive."
"Don't say anything, Ace!" Carl nudged Ace's arm. "I don't want to hear any stories from you until next year. I want an explosion to reveal where that damn thing is."
"No problem…I think –BOOM– speaking of," Ace climbed the tree quickly to search for the source of the explosion and didn't look so far. "It's close! Pick up your speed!" Ace ordered before he started maneuvering between the trees as his team nodded and followed him at the same speed.
…
Do you know what is the worst feeling for any huntsmen and huntresses? Having a bad day when you don't expect it a supposed to be an easy mission.
That was the feeling for our 3 fellas.
2 males and one female had signed up to protect supply trucks from getting stolen or destroyed by Grimm. It was supposed to be the easiest thing ever unless you had to protect precious/dangerous stuff from the wrong hands. But, if you were unlucky to encounter Grimm/thieves, it would be easy depending on your location, but what they fought wasn't.
Consisted of four mysterious individuals that wore mostly black outfits and hid their faces except one.
The first was the only Faunus in the group and had wolf ears. He wore a black shirt, black leather pants, a white mask that had red lines across the middle, and spiky red hair. He had a sword on his back.
The second was a human girl with short green hair, wearing a similar outfit to her Faunus companion, and a white mask but with green lines coming out of her eye holes like tears.
The third one was a human wearing a sleeveless shirt showing his muscular arms, a red and black chest plate, black pants, boots, and a red and black full-face helmet to hide his face.
The last one was a human girl who a black coat and had sunglasses unlike her other companions and bright red hair. From her looks and the confident smile on her face, she looked like the leader of the group.
The four of them knew what to do and easily beat 3 hired hunters.
"Well, guys. I admire that you try to do your jobs, but you just embarrassing yourself more." The leader taunted.
The huntsman groaned while trying to register his situation. He was badly beaten, his clothes were dirty and had a few cuts, and his teammates were also beaten. He looked around and saw his gun lying next to him. He tried to grab it but a boot stomped on his hands before that. He looked at the person to be sleeveless looking down at him
"Nice try, but we will take this, too." A deep voice came out of sleeveless as he knelt to grab the gun and threw it next to a small pile of weapons from the other two hunters.
"Y-You…will never get away from this." The huntsman gritted his teeth in anger.
"Aww, sorry sweetheart, but you lost anyway." The leader cooed before she turned to them. "Come on, boys. The boss might give us some good cash after another successful mission."
The three nodded with Sleeveless stepping away from the huntsman's hand and the other two grabbed the weapons and threw them on the top of the supply truck.
As Sleeveless was walking, he felt a hand on his leg that tried to stop him. He turned to see the huntsman trying to stop him. Sleeveless cracked his knuckles in response as he was about to-THUMP-Just before he was about to punch the huntsman, a giant hammer got thrown at him, making him fly towards a tree from the powerful impact.
The leader and the duo looked to the source of the hammer and saw a blue-haired girl waving at them. "Hi,"
"A backup? You're just delaying- FWOSSH Woah!" The wolf Faunus and the short-haired girl got pushed by a sudden wind gush. They looked at the source to see a turtle Faunus with some sort of gauntlets and a blonde boy with an ax standing next to her.
"What's the matter?" Another boy landed above the truck and pointed his gun at the leader. "Got surprised?"
"Surprised from children that came here to risk their lives." The leader responded while narrowing her eyes behind the sunglasses.
"Yeah, but we're not any ordinary children." The boy jumped out of the roof while still pointing his gun. "Before we do anything, I'm just asking nicely to surrender and tell us where is your boss."
"And who do you thi –BANG –nk you GUUH!" The leader got interrupted by the boy's head hitting her using a gunshot momentum and flying away from the others, leaving her and him alone for the fight.
The trio of both sides looked at their leaders going away to have their fight alone before they prepared their weapons and stances.
The turtle Faunus used Wind dust to push the short-haired girl and the male Faunus away before she and the blonde guitarist go after them, leaving Sleeveless with the hammer-wielding girl.
…
Skyler was getting more excited about this mission.
She had been writing the events of the mission before she returns to Beacon to save them for the future. Now, she had seen a weird music session Ace did in the bullhead with Carl, went to a new town she hadn't visited before and saw how different it could be from other places, traveled on foot like the good old way, and now, she would have the first fight against a bad guy.
How exciting!
The guy could be described as Sleeveless. Because looking at him, he was covering all of his body except his arms, exposing them to the wild, which was a bad thing to show all of this skin unless you know what are you doing. She noted that his muscular arms looks bigger than Ace's, but Ace's arm couldn't show how powerful he was with carrying the giant Grimm in the Emerald Forest. Besides, that was her crush, anyway.
Anyways, Sleeveless was pissed off while standing up due to her throwing the Meta Cavalierly at him and sending him to the tree. It wasn't that threatening, especially that the time she spent in training and those demonic red eyes made her better and not scared.
Sleeveless growled and pulled a hidden gun from his back to kill Skyler. After he shot, Skyler dodged the bullet easily with quick movement before she grabbed the Meta and headed towards Sleeveless. She swung the hammer at Sleeveless but he barely dodged it, making the hammer break the trees behind him easily. Skyler took the chance of Sleeveless not looking at her and hit him from his back, sending him away from the supply trucks before she followed him.
Skyler jumped high and raised her hammer to attack Sleeveless. Sleeveless noticed Skyler's attack and barely dodged the head of the hammer from making contact with his body. Before Skyler could react, Sleeveless' head-butted her with the helmet and kicked her stomach before he threw her away.
Sleeveless took the chance and grabbed the hammer to use it on the blue-haired girl. He charged forward and attacked with the hammer. Skyler was able to see it coming and grabbed the head of the hammer while getting pushed from the force of the attack before she lifted the hammer and Sleeveless with it and slammed him to the other side.
Sleeveless groaned and pulled another gun from his pockets and tried to shoot her but she tackled him only for the helmet-wearing man to kick her away from him. Skyler returned to her feet and approached Sleeveless. He also returned to his feet and start shooting Skyler. The teenager dodged the bullets easily and punched his hands to push them away as the bullet came out of it at the same time. The punch didn't affect him and instead, tried to shoot her again but she was faster and pushed the gun down with her fist before she did a rapid-fire punch on his chest ending it with a hook and a kick to his face, stunning him in the process.
Sleeveless coughed inside his helmet. He was sure that he felt those hits despite having armor on his chest. That girl didn't fuck around with him or she just played with him, which in both cases was humiliating compared to strong foes he fought before. He looked around and saw that his teammates were busy, given how some lights appeared and birds flew from both sides and nobody would help him at the moment. He also that the blue-haired girl was getting closer to him and ready to put him down. So, he thought to rely on a trick to beat her. He sneakily grabbed a pocket knife he hid and waited for the girl to get closer.
"Phew, not bad testing my skills on the battlefield. First mission and a rocky start we go. You should have surrendered instead of having us kicking your butts." Skyler pushed his shoulder to see the looks on his face behind the helmet.
Sleeveless smirked and took the chance of Skyler putting her guard down and trying to stab her with the knife. Fortunately, Skyler saw that coming and grabbed his wrists before she kneed his hands and jumped to warp her legs on his neck before she slammed him on the ground and put him to an Arm-Bar submission.
Sleeveless tried to break free but Skyler was shockingly stronger than him and struggled to keep his hands from getting broken. Skyler saw Sleeveless' attempt to prevent her from the attack, so, she kicked his face, pushing him slightly before she continued her submission move until-
CRACK
"GGGHH!" Sleeveless had a mix of grunts and cries from having his arm broken. The pain he had to endure was unbearable and it was getting worse with Skyler pushing more. He thrashed the grip and looked around to see the knife he tried to use. He grabbed it and tried to use it on Skyler. Skyler saw the coming attack and quickly removed her grip and kicked him away with both of her legs before he touched her.
Skyler observed her situation and saw that Sleeveless needed one last punch given how much pain she gave to him. He could barely defend himself with the knife, so it was easy to beat him on the spot. She approached him and saw that Sleeveless tried to attack her with the knife he had. She kicked his hands and stomach, making him loosen the grip of the knife. He didn't surrender and used his right hand to punch her. Skyler grabbed his fist with her left palm without so much effort and tightened her grip on her.
"Nope, bad move." Skyler twisted his hand slowly, making him grunt loud in pain.
She decided to finish him and started to channel her aura to her fist before she raised it and punched Sleeveless to his face through his helmet. Sleeveless knew what was coming and closed his eyes.
The three hunters who were recovering from the battle saw Skyler punching Sleeveless' face through his helmet and got shocked by the scene.
Skyler was able to punch Sleeveless' face with a force enough that it broke the visor of the helmet and went straight to his face. The punch was so strong it didn't just knock him down, but it made the helmet slowly slide out of his head, revealing the bruise of the punch and his bald head. Luckily, it didn't break his neck in the process.
"Ow," Skyler waved her hand in the air in a whine. "I think I gave more than what I should have used."
…
Carl and Violet were kinda nervous lately after the dance. It was awkward after some confessions in the night despite not making any moves. But now, they needed to focus on their objective.
Standing in the field, Carl and Violet in their stances and their opponents would be called Wolfe for the Faunus and Greenie for the short girl with both standing in their stances.
"So, Vi. You take Greenie there while I handle Wolfe." Carl said.
"Sure," Violet changed the dust in Torbjorn Gauntlets to Earth dust and shot Greenie as she jumped and dodged it before Violet followed her, leaving Wolfe and Carl alone to fight.
Carl and Wolfe were standing still and looking at each other. The wolf Faunus narrowed his eyes and raised his right hand near his sword while Carl was carrying Nevan with his hand making a small riff. A few seconds later of standing, Wolfe charged at Carl as he pulled his sword at high speed.
Carl removed his hands from the strings and grabbed Nevan in the fighting stance before he swung it to block his opponent's attack. Carl pushed him and made a guitar riff to shoot a bullet which Wolfe blocked with his sword. Carl didn't stop as he charged at the wolf Faunus. The wolf Faunus barely dodged the attack and saw that Carl's ax was able to cut the tree behind him easily.
The Faunus checked himself to see any damage happened to him and saw his helmet getting cracked and falling on the ground revealing his face. His face had red eyes, a scar on his cheek, and had a small beard. He quickly became angry as Carl turned to face him.
"Can you stand still, Wolfe? I want to finish this quickly." Carl asked.
"Do not call me, Wolfe, human!" The wolf Faunus pointed his sword at Carl. "I will make you pay for this."
"Sheesh, you have temper issues," Carl commented sarcastically before he charged forward.
Wolfe put his hands in his pockets and grabbed small white balls before he threw them on the ground, releasing a white fog. At the same time, Carl got closer to his target and swung his ax at his body but when the ax made contact, the body faded like an illusion. Carl looked around and saw nothing but white fog. Carl raised his guard for any surprise attacks and began to be suspicious about the deadly quietness of the scenery.
THUD
Suddenly, he got kicked on his back, pushing him slightly forward. He fixed himself and looked around and saw nothing but trees. Carl started to get annoyed by the ninja tricks he saw in action films. He knew that if Ace was standing, he wouldn't have any problems. Suddenly, another attack landed, this time on the left side of his face. He tried to see the source of the attacks but the attacks didn't wait and he got hit more across his body. Carl growled and shot a bullet to nowhere which wasn't useful.
SLASH
"Gah!" Carl cried lightly out of pain from the slash that hit his back and stood on his knee.
"You see, child!" SLASH Carl heard the source of the sound and barely blocked a coming slash with Nevan. "I'm no easy task!" THUD In another sudden attack, the wolf Faunus kicked the back of Carl's knee and raised his sword near his neck with Carl struggling to push it with Nevan. "You were stupid to pick a fight against me."
Carl started to get angry from the embarrassment. He was getting beaten by some sort of special criminals and this day wouldn't take any more bad stuff. Carl analyzed his situation and saw that the top of Nevan was pointing at Wolfe. Carl smirked and made his trick to make a bullet come out of it, making the Faunus loosen his grip before Carl quickly elbowed his stomach, punched his face with the back of his fist, and ended it with a spinning kick. The Faunus got back on his feet and dodged another bullet quickly before he disappeared.
Carl closed his eyes and focused. He needed to use Ace's lessons to good use this time. Carl started to build up his semblance in a way that added an unintentional thrill to the scene. The blonde took a deep breath and scanned the place for the coming attack while continuing to build his semblance.
Behind him, Wolfe was confused at that sudden guitar play but didn't care as he charged at Carl in the same ways as before.
Carl continued to scan the place and sensed the coming attack from behind him. Carl didn't think twice and moved Nevan behind him to block the attack while at the same time, he made a guitar riff. The red-haired Faunus jumped backward from any coming attacks and tried to use the same trick from another spot. Carl continued to use the same technique and ducked from a deadly swing from his back and kicked the Faunus while making another guitar riff before the latter stepped backward.
"What are you supposed to do?" Carl narrowed his eyes at his opponent's voice. "Are you trying to buy some time with this or something?"
"Nope," Carl paced up his play while dodging another attack.
Following after was a series of dodging and blocking by the blonde guitarist. Carl looked rocking in it and had fun doing it. Wolfe, on the other hand, wasn't having any. He was getting frustrated with the teenager's showing off his guitar skills and those guitar riffs weren't making it any better.
"Stop. It. You. Human!" The red-haired Faunus said between his swings.
Carl chuckled as he needed him right on the spot. Carl stood and parried one of his attacks and released some of the soundwaves he built.
"GAHHHHH! MY EARS!" The wolf Faunus covered his wolf ears out of pain.
Carl took the chance and used the remaining with a swing combo. He grabbed Nevan with both of his hands and roared to deliver the attack. At the same time, Wolfe was enduring pain from the sound due to his better hearing. He looked around and saw Carl coming at him with his ax ready to make the impact, to which he responded by closing his eyes.
This would be painful.
…
Violet was happy and nervous about her relationship status with Carl, lately.
She and Him were happy to have that dance the day before, but it left some questions unanswered. She was unsure yet if Carl loved her back. She thought that he might be given how their conversation went awkwardly and some talking with Skyler on the same night in their dorm. She had to admit that Skyler helped her a lot in the last couple of weeks. She helped her with some stuff like the dancing lessons, the bits of advice to help her situation with Carl, and the positive energy she can give to her teammates. After all, she was the one that had Ace putting them on the test of hell they had to do this semester.
Anyways, back to the fight.
Greenie seemed like an interesting opponent for her first challenge. She looked good enough as the first opponent in her first official mission.
"Hehe! A turtle Faunus is picking a fight? It's not something you find every day." Greenie giggled and commented in a playful tone.
"Correct," Violet responded by shooting Earth dust at her opponent which she dodged easily.
Greenie charged forward while dodging more shots and got closer to her opponent. Violet dodged a coming kick from Greenie and processed to punch her. Unfortunately, Greenie was so quick and dodged the punch before she countered her with a series of light attacks to her face. Violet jumped backward to recover but Greenie didn't let her have a second to breathe as she continued her assaults.
Violet was taking a lot of hits to her face and legs because it was the easiest and most exposed part of her until she had enough and grabbed Greenie's hand and threw her to a tree. Greenie, despite being caught off guard, was able to land her legs on the tree and bounced back to Violet. However, as she was about to return to the turtle Faunus, she got hit with a strong clothesline, flipping her 180 degrees and landing on her face.
As Greenie was trying to stand up, she looked behind her and saw Violet grabbing her leg. Then, Violet processed to lift the short-haired girl and slam her on her back while continuing to keep her grip as Greenie grunted from the pain. She didn't stop as Violet slammed Greenie back and forth, back and forth, before she slammed her on a tree and throw her in the air to finally shoot her with Earth dust, making her fly away.
Violet started to walk slowly towards her opponent until she saw her figure trying to stand up.
"Ouch…why are you this mean?!" Greenie exclaimed in anger. "I'll make you pay, you- ZAPP EKKK!" Greenie barely dodged an electricity blast to her face that interrupted her near cursing.
"Just zip that thoughtless mouth. I can't handle that voice of yours."
The short girl growled and put her hands on her back to pull 2 short swords before she charged forward like a blur. Violet dodged the coming slashes and pushed her with her fists. Greenie didn't stop and continued her attacks.
Even though Violet looked big and heavy with her shell, she dodged, parried, and countered her opponent's attacks. It wasn't all perfect because she needed more work and barely got hit, but it was all good. Violet thought about how to stop her opponent's series of attacks. She changed the dust in her gauntlets to Ice dust and shoot at the left sword with a very cold temperature, making Greenie stop and look at her opponent.
Violet took the chance and punched her rapidly before she finished it with a punch to her face, breaking her mask as a result of losing her grip on the frozen sword.
Greenie recovered from the attack she had from Violet and noticed that her mask wasn't covering her face as she saw it was broken in half, making her angry. "You little-"
CRACK
Violet, on the other hand, grabbed the frozen sword and broke it like a cookie after slamming it on the tree. "Yeah, no need to waste your breath, Greenie."
It made the green-haired girl angrier before she charged at Violet- "AAAHHH!" In the middle of charging forward, a coming red-headed figure was sent flying at her before it impacted her, sending both to a tree.
Violet blinked at the moment of the sudden entry. She looked to the source and saw Carl moving slowly while charging his semblance slowly.
"Excuse me if I interrupted anything. Need any help?" Carl blinked at Violet.
Violet smiled in response and put her hands on her waist. "Nope, I had things under control with Greenie…But, I might use some help to finish both."
"Gotcha,"
On the other side, Greenie and Wolfe groaned after the impact. Wolfe looked like he was about to get beaten easily, especially since the soundwaves still affected his hearing while Greenie seemed to have more gas left.
"Get off me!" Greenie pushed his body before she stood up. "You couldn't beat a child?!"
"What? I can't hear you."
Greenie sighed in frustration and pulled her colleague up. "Be thankful that boss isn't here to see you."
"What did you say, again? I was thinking about if the boss was here and see us." The wolf Faunus shook his head lightly, making the short girl groan.
On the other side, Carl and Violet looked at each other and shrugged before they start moving toward their opponents.
Without paying attention, Violet froze their legs, making their attention back to their opponents. Carl got closer and did his combo, this time on both of them, making them fly in the air.
"NOT AGAIN!" Wolfe exclaimed in the air while he and Greenie shouted in the air.
Carl crouched and put Nevan on top of him as Violet jumped and landed on the guitar before Carl launched her in the air with the shockwaves he built to their opponents' level of height. Wolfe and Greenie saw Violet getting closer to them before she got slightly higher with electric glowing coming out of her hands.
Realizing the coming attack, they closed their eyes for the coming attack. Violet charged electricity in her hands before she released them all at once.
ZZZZZAAAAPPPPPPP
"GAHHHHH!"
Both of them cried out of pain while heading to the tree they were standing near it very quickly which resulted in vaporizing the tree and losing their entire aura upon landing with Violet landing a few seconds later.
"Phew, that was wonderful." Violet stood in a victory stance before Carl stood next to her and fist-bumped.
"N-Nice thing you did." The blonde guitarist complemented.
"Thank you," Violet warped her hand on his neck and smiled. "You did your thing, too."
Carl blushed at this sudden move from his friend but smiled in response.
"I guess."
…
"What's the matter? Got surprised?" Ace asked cockily while standing in his fighting stance.
The leader sure got surprised by the sudden approach the blue-haired boy gave to her earlier. It gave a slow message that he wouldn't be that easy to beat.
The redhead stood up and dusted herself. "Don't get cocky, boy! I hadn't been done yet."
Ace smiled lightly and bumped his fist before he attacked the leader. Ace jumped and raised his fist before landing the attack quickly. The leader dodged the attack and dodged another kick that came after before she blocked a hook that pushed her slightly.
The leader pulled a long dagger from her pocket. The dagger was a mix of pink and red showed on the handle and most of the blade.
"You sure are an interesting guy. This could be fun." The leader smiled devilishly before she ran towards Ace like a blur.
Ace didn't get fazed and stepped back from the dagger's swing at him without trying. She started to throw some swings with her dagger very quickly and in a different direction but Ace dodged them before he parried a swing and countered with a jab to her chest. The leader didn't stop and continued her attacks.
Ace grabbed her arm and elbowed her forward. The leader didn't seem that affected and continued quickly as Ace dodged her follow-up swings and tried throwing another hook, but she blocked it and pushed him forward with a kick before following it with a dagger swing to Ace's chest. She continued comboing Ace with a combination of dagger attacks and kicks, but Ace was able to dodge a coming kick and countered with a spinning kick on her head to push the redhead back.
The leader growled and charged like a blur at Ace to deliver more blows, but Ace grabbed her hand that grabbed the dagger and kneed it out of her hands before delivering another on her guts and face and ended it with a spinning kick, making her turn to her back before a punch landed on her back with a force that launched her to the tree face-first.
The leader looked irritated after that punch. Her opponent looked like it didn't faze a lot from the attacks she gave him. She needed to use better strategies and attack Ace.
"What's the matter, honey? Got enough?" Ace asked mockingly.
"Oh, I'm not finished yet, boy." She smirked from behind in response.
"Good enough." Ace charged quickly at her before he raised his fist and punch her back.
CRACKLE
The fist landed but instead of hitting her back, it went through her before it disappeared, showing his fist on the broken part of the tree. Ace got caught off guard before a double-kick landed on the left side of his face and body, launching him in the process. Then, Ace flipped and landed on his feet to see his opponent walking toward him slowly while flipping her weapon in the air.
"What's the matter? Got surprised?" She imitated Ace's line from before.
Ace wasn't sure what happened as it was a new thing to him, unlike their first fight. A new change in the timeline?
Ace shook his head mentally and focused back on his fight. "I gotta admit that you sure caught me off guard, honey." Ace replied.
"Oh, don't worry, boy. There's more." The red-haired woman threw her dagger at him.
Ace moved his head lightly to dodge the dagger easily while continuing to look at her. While things looked in a slow-motion to him, he saw that her figure started glitching out before it disappeared. Ace blinked before he turned around and saw the same dagger slashing his face.
"OWW!" Ace stumbled backward while covering his face. He looked back at his opponent and saw her smirking at him.
"Don't tell me you're giving up, boy." The leader taunted.
"I'm too stubborn to die, girl." Ace moved like a blur to his left.
The leader looked around for his location and saw nothing but green and brown scenery. "Is this supposed to be a trick or something?"
He didn't respond and instead, he appeared behind her and landed an ax kick from above her. But like last time, she glitched out and disappeared. Ace saw that coming and quickly dodged her attack from his side before he countered her with a kick, which she blocked with her legs.
Ace used jabs and low kicks against her quick swings and weird glitching out. He noticed that she was getting faster and using stronger, yet risker attacks. So, he started to constantly parry all of her attacks with his left hand. In a split second, Ace took the chance and pushed her with his fists before he went for a jumping kick. After being struck, she stumbled backward Ace didn't leave a second to breathe for her and went for quick spinning kicks. Fortunately, Ace knew that she would use her trick to dodge the coming attack, but it went through the glitch and hit her to her face multiple times before he ended with a heavy punch to her guts.
The female figure gasped for a breath after that punch. It was sure that it hurt her but didn't stop her from continuing the fight as she charged forward. The leader jumped upward to strike her opponent. Ace sidestepped and blocked coming kicks before he countered it with a knee, but as he expected she used the same trick and attacked behind him. Ace leaned forward and countered with a left hook and a head butt.
It glitched again and this time, she wasn't anywhere around. Ace chuckled lightly as he decided to use his trick this time while waiting for her.
"Ya know, honey. I started to figure out your semblance, isn't it?" Ace looked around for her and her coming attack while waiting for her response which she didn't. "Nothing to say, honey? Are you too shy to ask for a date or something?"
This time he tried mockery to grab her attention and attack but it didn't happen as she didn't appear yet. Ace was expecting that and waited before a yellow glowing caught his attention from far. "Huh…Seems like Vi did something there."
Ace continued his waiting before he turned around and saw her coming at him like a blur before she stabbed him in his guts with her dagger that used dust with it.
"Ngh," Ace groaned in pain.
"Don't worry. I will finish you and your friends for your interfering." The leader said as she entered the dagger more into his stomach. That was it for her, she won. Her victory smirk showed it to anyone nearby.
"Ha, good enough."
Shockingly, Ace winked at her with a playful tone before he vanished. The leader got shocked at that surprise and looked around-
POW
Just when she turned her head to her left, a fist came straight to her, stunning her before another stronger punch landed on her face, launching her slightly.
"You're not the only one who can do tricks." Ace cracked his knuckles.
The redhead groaned and checked her face to notice something. She didn't feel her sunglasses and saw that it was broken in half, making her more irritated.
"You bastard! You're getting this far as humiliating me? I'm not accepting this humiliation from someone like you."
"Can you shut up? You're not the only one who said that before. Besides, they would have done the same for yours." Ace pulled Ivy and shot a bullet. She barely dodged it, but unfortunately, it was an explosive round, making her fly towards Ace. Ace grabbed Ivy with both of his hands and swung it like a hammer or a stick with having the grip as a head and landed the attack on her face, sending her away before he followed her.
So far, she was a bit challenging for the red-eyed male. He didn't have so many problems with beating someone like her. However, instead of having them go back to the town and interrogate them for the information, Ace could pretend he got the information and move on from the day.
Now, he thought to surprise her with a thing he was able to pick up the last time.
"You think you will win easily? There's more that will put you and your stupid friends down!" The redhead panted heavily after the blows she had.
"Oh, Liz. I'm so sure that I will." Ace made his victory smile.
The leader opened her eyes wide after hearing that. The name that came out of her opponent's mouth was her name!
"W-Wha- POOOWWW" She didn't complete her sentence before a fist came directly towards her face.
The force of the punch was strong it made her fly towards the nearest tree while having a glowing blue scratch, having her back head hitting it, almost making her to being unconscious. She was dazed and beaten by a first-year huntsman. A FIRST-YEAR! That was a huge humiliation for her and her pride. She tried to stand up on her knees but without noticing it, another fist landed on her face, making her officially unconscious.
…
Liz woke up and groaned croakily. The sheer force of Ace's punch made Sleeveless look weak. She blinked rapidly and felt something on her body. She tried to move her hands and wasn't able to. She looked at herself and realized that her hands were tied with rope behind her back with more ropes on her legs and chest to prevent her from moving.
"Hi, there. So, you finally woke up?" She turned to the voice to see Ace kneeling in front of her and smiling cockily. "Don't worry, you just gonna go to prison before they put you in a very stable prison for people like you."
"You son of a bitch! How dare you?" Liz gritted her teeth in anger.
"I generally not afraid of hitting women. More importantly, you aren't compared to the stronger ones I faced." Ace patted her head like a child.
"When I get my hands on you-"
"Yeah, I don't think it will be possible anytime soon, Liz." Ace interrupted while mentioning her name. Liz remembered him mentioning her name before he knocked her out. "Don't ask how I know your name, girl. All I could say is that's a being secret." Ace winked at the last part.
Liz got angrier and tried to thrash the rope, but to no avail. She looked around and saw that her team was tied like her and had their faces revealed while being unconscious.
It felt like a big humiliation at how a team of first years was beating them easily like that. She was supposed to be professional, strong, deadly, and all of this stuff, but instead, she and her teammates got beaten by a fucking first-year hunters while on any other day, they could kick them easily. (Except that they wouldn't be able to beat them.)
It didn't help that it wouldn't be pleasing for her boss as she figured that he would ask her where was their location.
"I won't say anything." The redhead growled in anger.
Ace chuckled and patted her head again, "Don't worry about that, Liz. You don't need to say anything." Ace stood up and whispered to the hunters they beat earlier to come before he looked at her again. "Say my greetings to Wesker if you met him in the prison."
Liz got shocked from hearing her boss' name or rather nickname from him. It got worse than she thought. Getting beaten, going to jail, having a random huntsman in training messing with you, and having him mention the boss' name?!
She wanted to punch him and that smile on his face but she couldn't. The way things ended for her was worse than what she could her thought. The only good thing about this was that her boss or his second to the leader wasn't here to watch the humiliation. While she was lost in her thoughts, she got knocked out by Ace after pinching her shoulders in a sensitive spot, making her entirely harmless for the entire road.
On the other side, Ace was waving a heartwarming goodbye for her before the supply truck moved to the town.
"Don't worry, I will visit ya every once and while once I know your prison." Ace joked because he mostly wouldn't be able to know where would be unless he searched deeply.
"So, now what? Is that it?" Carl asked as he put Nevan on his back.
"Nope, it's not that easy." Ace turned to Carl. "They are related to a group of criminals and we have to deal with them before it gets complicated."
"I knew it." Carl sighed. "So, where we could find the head of the table."
"I checked their communication devices and the location of their calls headed in the North-West," Violet replied as she was checking her scroll. "We need a more walking, lazy butt."
Carl and Skyler looked at the turtle Faunus in surprise, they didn't think it would be this quick. "That's it?" Carl asked.
"Yep!" Violet nodded while turning off her scroll.
"Why does everything needs walking?" Carl asked in frustration.
"Because it's life." Ace bluntly answered before he offered, "I could carry you if you want."
"No thanks." Carl stood up immediately and walked in that direction.
The girl chuckled as they followed Carl. They knew he didn't want any embarrassment after the other times they saw him.
Thus it began the uncomforted for Ace. He knew that they would arrive at the house. Ace mentally slapped himself and started walking.
Stress, memories, and a lot of things were stored in the mind of the old soul.
…
More walking later, it was getting closer for Ace and the team to arrive at the location of the house.
It felt way too stressful for Ace than it should be despite not needing all of that stress. His mind was storming with memories and thoughts and didn't need all of that, especially for the mission they had at the moment. It didn't appear on his face, but looking carefully would show his thoughts. His team didn't see him and instead, talked with each other about what they did at the battle. It was better to have them not focused on him and his many thoughts.
"After that, I punched him through his helmet." Skyler retold her fight with Sleeveless while imitating the moves. "Those hunters were surprised, to say the least. They were like 'How?' and 'She's too strong' while we're a team of first-year hunters."
"Yeesh, girl. You are discovering yourself quickly." Violet commented. "The training is giving some good results given how you beat that guy with your hands."
"All thanks to master Storm, right there." Skyler pointed proudly. "He had all of the credits for what I became."
"Damn, I became a master? I was too young to be called mister but master. Yeah, right." Ace said sarcastically but sounded dry as he paced forward.
The trio was surprised at the dry sarcasm that came out of him. He wasn't that dry in his tone before nor in the fight he had.
"Um, Ace, you okay, bro?" Carl asked.
"I'm good." Ace replied quickly.
They looked at each other for a few seconds before looking back at their leader. It became a little concerning with his quick steps and quick reply.
"A-Are you-"
"I'm fine. There's nothing to be concerned about." Ace cut Skyler's question.
Skyler frowned and picked up her speed to be with Ace's level. "You don't look like that."
"I'm telling you that I'm fine, guys." Ace got quicker to move past Skyler before the blue-haired girl followed him and stopped him in his tracks.
"You should tell us what's wrong, Ace." Skyler put her hands on her hips as she made her tone serious like a leader. "I'm worried that it might affect you in this mission."
Ace was a bit surprised at Skyler being confident in talking with him. The duo behind him was also surprised.
"Listen, I know that you're worried but it's not for your own business." Ace sighed before he continued walking with Skyler looking at his back. "We should continue before we settle down."
"Just move on, girl." Carl patted her shoulders with Violet doing the same. "He's probably had something private or some sort of demon he's concerned about he has to deal with later." That comment made both girls take it back. "What? After what I saw from him, I won't be surprised to see him have a past problem with demons or some sort to make their revenge."
"Do you think that's a bit crazy?" Violet asked.
"I'm aware but at the same time not being weird about something like that happening." Carl nodded as he and the girls continued walking.
The walking continued and the day was becoming noon until Ace stopped at a certain point, looking down at something far with his teammates stopped next to him.
"Huh? What does a house doing in the middle of nowhere?" Carl scratched his head.
"We aren't that far from civilization." Violet was checking her scroll's map. "There's a city in a five minutes-walk if you needed. However, this house looks abandoned from its looks, let's check it out." Violet closed her scroll and walked towards the house, followed by Carl and Skyler.
As they walked, they noticed Ace was standing still. They looked at each other in concern before they looked back at Ace. "Hey, Ace! What are you doing there? Come on!" Carl exclaimed.
Ace, despite hearing it, stood still. The memories hit him again and flashbacks of the red sky, dark atmosphere, and danger all over the place painted the view in front of him.
On the other side, the trio was waiting for Ace as they watched his figure standing there, unmoving at all. Carl thought of an idea to bring his attention. "Shoot him."
"WHAT?!" The girls turned at the blonde boy in shock.
"It's the best way to draw his attention. It will either block it or land on his body." Carl explained.
"What? No! We won't shoot him like that, Carl. Are you insane?" Skyler objected.
"He said to do something like that if he was in that state. I'm sure he won't mind." Carl aimed Nevan at Ace with Violet and Skyler looking in the direction. Before Carl shot, Ace punched himself in his face, making them surprised at their leader's move.
"It's okay. No need to shoot me." Ace informed after recovering before he start moving.
It was getting concerning how Ace's behavior turned one-eighty after their first fight. They didn't understand how or why that happened but they were sure that it would be problematic if Ace continued.
Skyler was the most out of her companions. She was afraid if Ace may or may not be hurt from his battle or if something she said affected him somehow. She needed to talk with him when she has a chance later. But first, she would discover that house they found first.
If only they knew.
AN: All done.
FINALLY! Shit, man! This chapter felt like it didn't want to end. I know that you're sad and angry because I didn't post this but I had my usual lazy syndrome taking me as well as losing the original writing which thankfully it didn't go very far, only 3000+ words, but I lost a part of myself again before I wrote this shit again. There's also not having the laptop's battery not working recently delayed this too as I wrote the last part yesterday when the battery returned.
Again, so sorry.
I want to say that I had some fun writing the fights. I'm by no means a professional in this but I tried something in this and I hope you enjoy it. Writing Ace and Skyler was the most fun and the quickest out of the other 2. Carl was good but Violet's was like I hate it and I expect you to not like it.
I want to say something else. Remember when I mentioned the CAF cup of nations when mentioned the match between Egypt and Ivory Coast? We passed it and passed Morocco in R8, Cameroon in Semi-Final, and lost to Senegal by penalties. It makes me die every time I remember it and how far we fought only to lose in the final. I'm mostly nervous about the match against Senegal in late March in both Egypt and Senegal to qualify for World Cup and it would be good to redeem the sadness that we had after the final.
I also feel like I want to die again because of Russia's stupid action against Ukraine. I'm not in the mood for a war for the love of God and having a WW3 would be disastrous given how the weapons have reached and none of us are in that mood just because of some idiot that wants to have the Soviet Union back.
I'm sorry for ranting about war but it's suck and very disgusting for poor people.
Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review to know your opinions.
Sincerely, Eslam.