Mash, Lance, Daut, and the Grimm Tales

Lance felt the lightest of touches as he laid on the clouds. Comfort surrounded him like an all-encompassing blanket of warmth.

He needed to get out.

His movements were sluggish, his muscles felt atrophied to the point of uselessness, and his head was a slush of pure instinct as he clawed his way out of the warmth and made it to the surface.

The realm he came to was a heavenly wasteland, nothing but sun and pure white clouds on the surface.

"What…? Where am I?"

His voice sounded submerged and slurred, already ready to quit and lay down. The energy was being drained from his body faster than he could even think.

Every step was sluggish, Lance's will being the only thing keeping him walking. Why was he walking? Lance didn't know, but his instincts were making him move so he followed.

Vision blurring the closer he got to wherever the hell he was going, Lance knew something didn't want him near. It only made him walk the slightest bit faster, straining his legs and breath even more.

The air was getting thinner and thinner, all he could see was a mob of blue hair. What little oxygen in his throat caught as he saw her.

"A… Ann-!" He coughed his lungs out, unable to reach her. Thankfully she turned around anyway.

When their eyes met Lance lit up, but as he searched for the familiar kindness and unconditional love her eyes were always filled with, he saw nothing.

Nothing but contempt and betrayal permeated within her soul, making Lance sick at the sheer sight of it.

"Why?" She asked him, he had no answer, confused beyond belief.

"Why did you leave me?" Her chilling and empty voice froze him to the core, despite all the warmth of their surroundings.

"You promised you'd stay with me, you promised you wouldn't leave me like mom and dad!" Her once sweet voice drove up in volume, rage consuming her vocals.

Lance tried to speak up, to reassure her that he was still here, that he still loved her. But every word he wanted to say was stuck in his head, the thin air not allowing him to voice those thoughts.

"I waited for you to save me, why did you leave!? I loved you, why didn't you love me!? Why didn't you SAVE ME!?" Her voice could no longer be considered human, her face contorting into vitriolic hate.

'No! I'm still trying!' That is what he wanted to say. No sound escaped him.

Eventually, she stopped with her hate, returning to utter emptiness. Her features were blank as she turned away. Away from her brother, forever.

'Anna, I'll make this right! Please! I can't live without you!' Sluggishly moving his legs, he struggled to meet her. To hug her and show her everything's okay.

Every single step was a mountainous effort against whatever divine influence forcing him away. Slowly reaching out towards her, Lance gave a desperate plea as he watched her walk away.

Edges of his vision darkened, steps slowed, and his heartbeat got louder and louder. Drowning out his begs and pleads for her to come back.

He could only watch as his sister disappeared into the distance before his heart gave out. Turning her back on him, the only family he had left.

MSHL

Lance woke up screaming.

Sparks emitted around him as Daut was startled awake and instinctually started blasting away.

Mash punched the nearest thing to him which ended up being the ground and caused a miniature earthquake. Lifting their campsite and themselves a few feet off of the ground.

Lance felt sick, resisting the urge to throw up the emptiness in his stomach he made to stand up after being launched into the air by Mash's accidental tremor-causing fist. "Never do that again."

"Ah! That's rich coming from ya, Crown!" Daut made his displeasure at Lance known, he didn't have to, he already knew about Daut's volatile emotions. "What the hell was that anyway?"

"N-Nothing. Just had a bad dream."

"Bullcrap! That was a nightmare and you know it!"

"What does it matter? It's over now anyway, I don't even remember what it was about."

Daut narrowed his eyes, his jagged line wrinkling with his skin. "Oh really…?"

Lance narrowed his eyes back, "I'm not sure I appreciate your interest in my silly little dreams."

Looking around, Daut made sure Mash wasn't listening in. Sure enough, Mash was beginning his morning workout.

The sun was just starting to peek through the horizon, orange light shining from behind the trees. A particularly large ray of light centered on a motivated Mash stripped of his school tie and cloak. Now donning his signature tight workout shirt and white sports shorts.

Lance raised an eyebrow at the dramatic showing of Mash's muscles but he could respect keeping to a disciplined regimen. Now, what was Barret doing?

Daut was rummaging in his cloak, dirtied and wrinkled due to him using it as a pillow the night before. The tip of his tongue poked out of his upturned lips as he concentrated on his digging for gold.

Finally, Lance couldn't help but ask, "What in the world has gotten into you?"

"I'm lookin' for something that'll help ya out!" With his actions explained he went back to his rummaging. He pulled out his wand-cleaning kit before stuffing it back into his cloak, grumbling all the while. His face lit up as he thought he had found what he was looking for, but it only turned out to be his emergency supply of violin strings.

This went on for some time with Daut pulling out what he thought was the item but then turning out to be something else entirely. He pulled out his violin, one of his month-long supplies of herbal tea, private journals, magazines of handsome men with their faces crossed out with red ink, and even cans of various goods. Enough to last them for weeks if rationed carefully.

Lance saw this display of random and increasingly ridiculous rummaging and had about enough of it! "Does this comedic episode have a point to it!? Mash is almost done with his workout!" Seriously, it's only been two minutes but he's already almost done with his 5000 10-ton squats.

Daut ignored him as he eventually emerged triumphant in his search and popped the item out in a victorious flourish. "I've got it! You can praise me now!"

Daut held up the thing he'd been looking for, a solid three minutes were spent to find it. Lance leaned in to get a closer look at the item, which looked to be a…

"My patented, one of a kind, 'Dreamcatcher'! Capable of catching and preventing even the worst nightmares from entering that blueberry head of yours. Leaving only the dreams you could stay in forever."

"For your information, my head is a light blue, not even close to the dark shade of blueberry. And second of all, why would I need a homemade chandelier?"

Daut scowled, he worked hard on this damnit! It did not look like a chandelier! "I guarantee this will help ya with your little night terrors."

"I could just go to a therapist with memory magic, they could remove the memory of the dream. Problem solved."

"Those hacks wouldn't know what a brain is even if I ripped it from their scalps!"

Lance leaned back in surprise at the intimate hate brewing from the hotheaded boy in front of him, he's never seen such stewing anger rise off of him.

He's seen Daut explode plenty of times, but never with such subtlety and emotion buried deep.

Daut aggressively shoved his finger in Lance's face, "I went to a place like that once, ya wanna know what they told me?"

"That you're beyond help?"

Barking a bitter laugh, Daut continued. "I wish! That would've been better than what they actually did! They looked me in the eye and told me that I'd be better off forgetting 'such a useless deadweight'."

"...wow."

"I know right!"

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but are they still alive?"

Daut shrugged, "Probably."

Lance raised a rigid eyebrow, "That doesn't fill me with confidence."

"It just so happened that their workplaces spontaneously combusted due to mysterious circumstances."

"And were they still in those buildings when they, for some reason, blew up?"

Daut checked his nails, "We may never know, it's one of life's greatest mysteries."

"You disturb me."

Daut only gave a sharp-toothed grin, looking proud of himself for some reason.

Shaking his head, Lance looked at the strange contraption gifted to him. This 'dreamcatcher' was a wooden craft resembling a flat chandelier. Little bobs and trinkets decorated the ends and sides of the wooden strings. It looked handmade all right, but if this thing is supposed to catch his nightmares then he can't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Lance nodded in thanks to the dumbly smiling redhead right in front of him, no words were needed.

Daut preened, "Yer welcome, I made it for myself after sis went away. The thing worked like a charm! I've had no nightmares for months now!"

"I see," Lance said as he tucked the contraption in his cloak.

"Hey guys, are we comparing what we have in our cloaks?"

The duo startled in surprise when they heard the curious yet apathetic voice of Mash behind them. Seems like he finished with his workout.

When Mash came up to them, they could see his muscular body was once again hidden by his school cloak and tie. The Golden Adler proudly displayed on his back. Currently, Mash was digging into his cloak not dissimilar to how Daut did so a while ago. His face was of perfect neutrality, betraying none of the complete concentration used by the mushroom head.

In reality, it took Mash only zero-point-two seconds to locate and get out all of his items stuffed in the deep reaches of his somehow still intact cloak. Setting the sparingly few items down the trio looked down at what Mash keeps in his pockets.

They saw the solid black pipe he got from the Wand Shop and the creampuff charm Lemon made for him before their whole scramble with the Magia Lupus. Appropriately named 'Creamy'.

"That's it?"

"I suppose it fits Mash to a T."

The aforementioned Mash slumped over, "I'm sorry."

Shaking his head so fast he almost got whiplash, Daut apologized to the slumped-over fungus hair right in front of him. "Oh no no no, Mash! Lance, the bastard, didn't mean to insult you. We just see you like a simple guy!"

Lance, the bastard, nodded. "It only makes sense, Daut has an absolute explosion of random hogwash in his rumpled old cloak. While you only have what's important. Simple."

Daut frowned at his emergency cloak supplies being called 'hogwash', "And what the hell do you keep in your pockets? Eh, Crown?"

Lance placed a hand in front of his heart, staring haughtily at the loudmouthed Daut. "Me? Only the bare essentials of course." He then reached into his smooth cloak and pulled out a few pocket textbooks, an ink and quill box, and a poem book. "As you can see, only what I need to go on with my day."

The two spectators nodded along, with Daut being the one to speak up. "Okay the textbooks I understand, but what's with the ink and poem book?"

"How else am I going to deal with my thoughts and feelings?"

"Wait… don't tell me! Is that where you keep your poems about your little sister!?"

"Who else would I be writing about!? Who else is my inspiration? My reason for being?"

"Do you have any idea how weird you sound right now?"

"And you don't feel similar about your sister?"

"I love her more than anything in the world! But I'm not obsessed with her!"

"My little sister is the most precious person in this whole realm! If she was your sister you'd be doing the same!"

"Well, obviously you're wrong because my sister is the best."

"You dare speak your heresy against me?"

"I'll show you heresy!"

As the two bickered back and forth once again, Mash heard the slightest sounds of grass parting around them. Drowning out the white noise of the duo alongside him, Mash focused on where the sounds were coming from.

Multiple sources of sounds, grass lightly being stepped on, countless steps being made all around them. Mash realized it, "We're surrounded."

Mash's calm and straightforward delivery put a stop to the unknowing rivals' argument about who has the best sister and instead on the stillness of the woods around them. "We are not alone."

Ever so slowly Lance got out his polished wand, steadying it near his chest. Keeping it ready for action. Daut scowled at the now silent forest, raising his hands up with his palms outstretched. "I dare some unlucky punk to come at us! I'll kill you thrice!"

Mash rolled his shoulders, letting out some tension in them as he relaxed his whole body. He could deny it all he wanted, but nothing gets his blood pumping like a good punch out. Ever since magical society had discovered his status as a Lack-magic he's been in scrap after scrap. Curb-stomping everyone who dared to stand in his way towards peace.

The experiences helped in awakening a new side of him, the ruthless beast who punched first and asked questions while his fist was caving someone's skull in. With the promise of many combatants before them, Mash squared up. His fight with Raven was a great one, barring her weird psychopathic ways, but he was just getting started.

The trio had their backs to each other, every single one of them believing in the other's ability to defend themselves.

The first growl sounded out, followed by an unholy cacophony of growls, snarls, and howls. They were treated to the grim sight of dozens and dozens of creatures surrounding them. With fur as black as the night, in ivory armor as white as snow. The beasts made their presence known.

Lance broke the silence, "What form of Dark Magic is this?"

Daut rolled his wrists, "The kind we can kill!"

Mash cracked his neck, "Let's enroll them into the dirt."

The dark creature took offense to their pray's nonchalance and roared! Wolves, bears, scorpions, and giant two-headed snakes joined in the earthshaking cry of primal instinct, charging into a bloodbath.

Only the blood will be their own.

The trio shouted a battle cry of their own, leaping into the fray!

Muscles and magic met the Grimm.

MSHL

The Alpha Beowolf snarled at its prey, its sheer bulk, and skin-rending claws causing anyone with half a mind to pray for a savior. The only problem was that it was facing Mash.

One lazy backhand later, and the mighty Alpha Beowolf disintegrated from the might of his muscles. Multiple of the fallen's pack rushed forward to avenge their leader, only for Mash to stomp the earth.

The entire pack of beowolves floated in mid-air for a brief moment, their eyes wide in fear and confusion. A shadow covered them, looking up only revealed a meteoric Mash blazing down onto one poor Grimm.

The beowolf's bone mask shattered under the fist, caving in its skull. His fist continued through the beowolf until Mash shifted in the air, aiming his unstoppable fist into another falling Grimm.

Another monster extinguished, Mash moved onto the next ones. He spotted the highest floating Grimm and stepped on the other falling Grimm without a second thought. Using their bodies as a platform to reach the top of the beowolf storm. The uppermost Grimm snarled at the approaching Mash, ripping its jaw wide open primed to rend the enemy's flesh. The beowolf chomped down, expecting to taste the prime meat and blood of its dead morsel. Only to feel immeasurable pain, its teeth didn't even pierce the unbreakable skin of Mash, only shattering.

He grabbed the pitiful creature by its throat, facing the ground below. The wolf whined in his unshakable grip, clawing for purchase but it was all for naught. Mash chucked it as hard as he could to the still falling pack below him. Causing a chain reaction as the broken bodies of the beowolves collided with one another. Howls of pain ensued, dark corpses exploding into black dust. Leaving a large section of the forest cracked and darkened.

In only five seconds Mash had extinguished almost every single beowolf in the battle. Reducing the forces of the Grimm by a substantial amount.

Lance scoffed at the unnecessarily flashy display of Mash and focused on his own battle. Large bears greeted him, roaring their bloodlust for his feeble human body.

"Harumph." With that being said, Lance removed his gravity causing him to float into the air. The Ursa Major's scrambled to reach the smug human glaring down at them. Claws digging into their own kin to fill the emptiness inside themselves with his delicious flesh.

"Pathetic. Graviole." With his wand pointed down Lance increased the gravity below him. The crushing pressure caused the tower of Ursa to crumble back down into the cold dirt. The creatures screaming in pain as he effortlessly crushed their large but useless bodies.

Lance crushed more Grimm as he roamed around the battlefield. He barely dodged in time before he was skewered by the giant feathers of a nevermore.

Narrowing his eyes up at the sky, Lance grumbled at the aerial support. He could only keep his magic up as he maneuvered over and around the razor-sharp attacks aimed right for him. "Since when are feathers so dangerous!?"

One particular feather found itself aimed right at his core, and Lance braced for impact. When he thought he would die, it turned out to only ruin his flight path. He padded his chest, amazed at the fact there was no blood or death. The faint light blue glow surrounding his core answered his unasked questions about his survival. He gasped in surprise, "How in the nine hells…?"

A loud squawk ripped him from his distraction. Causing the annoyed teen to float higher into the air. Directly in the way of a divebombing nevermore with a giant beak ready to swallow him whole. Lance pointed to the large bird of prey, then down at the ground. "Graviole."

Like a large weight settled on the nevermore's back, the giant bird slammed to the earth at high speeds. The bird could only look at the tree it was furiously approaching before getting impaled by the pointy pine. Dying in a shower of black.

Lance celebrated his victory for a few moments before countless more squawks echoed behind him. There they were, an entire murder of crows. Giant, bloodthirsty crows with infinite projectiles.

Cursing under his breath, Lance prepared for another hard-fought battle.

"Hmph!"

Pausing, he looked around for the strange noise before being knocked back by the air pressure of one black blur, a mushroom-headed blur.

Mash tore through one of the nevermore's like paper, before jumping to another one and grabbing its head. Lance could only spectate as Mash threatened the nevermore with words he couldn't make out. Whatever he said must've worked as Mash then proceeded to pilot the murderous bird. Firing its feathers at its own kin, bringing pleasure to Lance as he got to see something else suffer under the constant barrage of sword-like writing supplies.

Daut whistled as another big bird got shredded by Mash's new commandeered friend, internally cheering at the pure genius of it all. Hisses and shrieks reminded him of where he was and so he shouted, "Bring it ya buncha red-eyed cowards!"

They all rushed him, expiring under the constant barrage of flying explosions from the overactive teen's outstretched palms. He hissed at the heat but powered on as his enemies died around him. Ducking around a scorpion tail (the tip was the size of his head!) Daut punched forward with all of his strength into the gaping maw of the screeching Grimm. "Explomb!" Daut roared in triumph as its head caved in and imploded around his smoking red fist. Coated in the red glow of his weird new magic and the Explomb he attached. This improvising thing was pretty cool!

Daut raised his fists up similar to the way he's seen Mash do and started jabbing at the giant two-headed snake slithering its way into his personal space. It shrieked as it unhinged its jaws, showing off the two oversized fangs it had in there. Daut shrieked, jumping away from the terrifying sight.

On instinct, Daut clapped his hand together in a flash. The resounding bang of light and sound blinded and disoriented the two-headed monster, giving Daut the opportunity to deliver a vicious uppercut to one of the heads.

The lifetime he had to get accustomed to his explosions finally paid off!

The resounding boom shot up and through the unsuspecting head, leaving a trail of combusted red, white, and black.

"Hah! I'm the king of the world, baby!" Daut's victory was short-lived however when he forgot about the other head. He opened his eyes to see a large shadow descend upon him, barely able to scream as the gooey insides of the snakehead engulfed him. "Ah, shi-

It swallowed him whole, leaving him to suffocate in the stomach. Or at least he thought it was the stomach, snakes weren't really his area of expertise. But if there was one thing he did know, it was how to blow stuff up!

Remembering how he blew through the first head, Daut willed a Machinegun Explomb to cover his entire body, using his passive protection to shield him from the upcoming explosion.

"I really hope I survive this," Daut mumbled, voice muffled by the insides of the large snake.

"Machinegun Explomb!"

MSHL

"You look ridiculous."

"I don't see you blowing your way through the belly of a giant snake!"

"That's because that would never happen."

"We'll see about that."

"I'm hungry."

"Ya know, Mash is right. I haven't eaten in a while now."

"Well then, you can make yourself useful and give us some of the canned goods you have in that glorified sack of yours."

"What d'ya just say to me?"

"...please?"

"..."

"Hey Daut, got any creampuffs?"

"..."

"Daut!?"

"When did I become the responsible one of the group?"

And so they ate, surrounded by the broken remains of a red forest. The signs of a battle hard fought scar the earth deep, but there were no corpses to be found. No dark beasts of pure malice and bloodlust. For that is the nature of Grimm, to disappear in a show of black smoke. Leaving no evidence of their gruesome tales.

Mash radiated depression as he was forced to eat peaches out of the can, he didn't even like peaches!

Daut groaned happily as he finally had a bite to eat for what feels like forever.

Lance gave no comment of the grub he gulped down, it was better than nothing.

"I want creampuffs."

"Will you be quiet about that!?"

"Decent people are enjoying their meals here!"

"Sorry…"