A/N: So, this is a new tale I'm spinning, which was inspired by a pet peeve of mine in the fandom, of all things.
Said pet peeve has to do with the Ikaris, and the constant reducing of Ralf and Clark to incompetent jobbers. I don't know what possessed people to take two guys, who in SNK lore are two of the more checkered fighters with long careers, who Heidern trusts(Ralf being freakin' SECOND IN COMMAND to him in terms of his rank), who have gone on successful mission after mission, and turning them into laughingstocks who somehow end up losing, usually of course having Leona handle everything. I've seen her turned into the leader, despite her being like eighteen and Not a Colonel. She's a prodigy, yes, and she's a great soldier(and she's also one of my favorite characters!) But despite being raised in the base for...eight? Nine? Years since the incident, she's still young. She's going to make mistakes, and she doesn't need to be turned into a plot device, which is usually what happens(at the expense of like, the entire damn team's characterization, including hers.) They're all great characters. They all kick a lot of ass and are hella elite. They all have their ups and downs, and their strengths and weaknesses. SNK has, to give them credit, done a really good job with this bunch.
They're funny guys, yes! Teasing is fine(I do that!)-I mean jokes at Ralf's expense are done in the canon, even. But there's a difference between 'they're funny' and 'they're incompetent.' They're BOTH funny AND Competent! All the Ikaris are competent! Ralf, Clark, Leona, Heidern, Whip-the whole gang! Ralf might be a bit muscleheaded when it comes to some things, but do you think Heidern would delegate someone actually stupid with as many missions as he does? If he jobbed as much as he does? Could he have become a colonel? God no.
Now we all bend canon a little, it's our job. I'm not a 100% canon stickler. But there's 'bending canon' and 'why do people do this?' (Hell, half the time poor Whip just gets forgotten.)
So yeah, after my frustration reached a tipping point I decided, well, right now in the current 'verse, I wanted to show what Ralf and Clark are actually like. Ralf isn't called the One-Man Army for no reason. Clark isn't called Tough and Cool-ehm okay maybe he lost a bet on that one, but I basically wanted to show that this pair can indeed be a couple of funny, joking, lighthearted guys but still as competent as SNK history has made them out to be(they're two of SNK's oldest protagonists, after all.)
In the current 'verse, the Bernsteins have many old enemies, and some of them sprung up in such a way in the city that involved hostages and very sketchy, dangerous situations; after the events of Nocturne, Adel feared more innocents getting killed, and while he's more than physically capable of plowing through enemies, for the safety of everyone involved, he decided to go to his friends for help; friends that knew how to plan such delicate missions accordingly.
So yeah, that's the idea going into this. The Ikaris are all a bunch of kick ass and competent soldiers. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. They're all awesome. You can make them ALL LOOK AWESOME at once! Trust me, it's possible!
Anyway, after this entire page of author's notes, I hope you enjoy this tale!
Adel's phone had been ringing for what may have been ten minutes as he continued to sleep.
He had Whip had been up late the night before, basically enjoying their time together before she had left back to her hotel in the middle of the night; he had gotten her a private car and everything. She had a little work to do with the unit and some meetings the next day, but she said she'd either be back the next night or the one after.
He had his own business, anyhow. The two were perfectly fine spending time away from each other. It was something they appreciated about the relationship very much.
But as he checked his phone, he noticed she was calling. Blinking, he pressed the receive button and held it to his ear, rubbing his hair.
"Seirah?" he muttered, his voice still groggy.
"Adel? We have trouble," she said, sounding wide awake for only having had a few hours of sleep.
Snapping awake, he sat up in bed, repositioning the phone. "What? What's wrong?"
"Better come to the hotel. You're not going to like this."
Arriving as quickly as he could-having pulled his clothes on and gotten into his car as quickly as possible, he went up to where Whip had told him they would be, which turned out to be Ralf's hotel room. Before he had left, he had left Henrik with instructions to take care of any business he had today. Rose seemed to be doing fine, and would be taking care of some business of her own; he was satisfied that her and Henrik would handle anything else for him.
Knocking, Whip let him in, giving his hand a squeeze as Ralf and Clark sat around the table; it was only those four for now. Heidern was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey guys," he said, rubbing his head and sipping the cup of coffee he had grabbed on the way there. "What's wrong? And...where's Heidern?"
Ralf rubbed his neck, grabbing a few pieces of paper that he had and placing them on the table in front of him. He was only half-dressed himself, in his fatigues and boots, not even having put on his bandana yet.
"Heidern's on some business right now-so he passed everything onto me, as he usually does," Ralf replied. This was usual for the commander, as Ralf was basically Heidern's second in command. "Wanted you to be here for this, since it's pretty sensitive. Do you remember by any chance a man by the name of Alden Furze?"
"I...no, the name isn't familiar," he said, though sighed angrily. "Let me guess. It's one of my goddamn father's wonderful enemies, isn't it?"
"Well...more like a previous…"
"Ally, yes. I'm all too familiar with that type, too," Adel said, his eyes darkening. "Tell me where they're at. I'll go take care of them all. My family's mess, I'll clean it up. Again. As always."
"That's the problem. We haven't found him, yet...but we do know he's made a few other allies in the process."
"Are they acquaintances of Rugal, as well?" he spat, not even calling the man 'father' this time.
"Not that we can see. Simply other people from the underworld, working for money and power. Some of them may have been involved in one of the other groups from the previous purge...but we haven't found out everything quite yet."
"Not that it's important. Tell me where they're at and I'll do to them what I did to the others." His usually gentle, red eyes were positively furious. Whip could feel the stress radiating off of him; she went behind him to touch his shoulders gently, rubbing them until she felt him settle somewhat. Her hand passed over one of the scars that he had gotten from one of his many tangles with enemies just like this.
Ralf saw the look on his face, sitting next to him for a moment. He put a hand on the younger man's shoulder sympathetically. "I...more than anyone know what it's like to just wish I could dive in," he started.
Clark nodded, adding a small smirk to lighten the mood some. "He's right, you know."
The longer-haired man chuckled at him knowingly, nodding. "He knows. He knows all too well. But...look, Adel. This time they're playing hardball. They got setups around the city. Near civilian areas...which can turn into potential hostage situations. The underworld talks to each other."
"Yeah, I know. They're supposed to. I know from experience."
"Yes. Show of force. There's no doubt why they decided to try to play dirty, like the last ones," he said.
"The docks…" Adel said, looking down. That incident still rubbed him raw.
"Hey. That wasn't your fault," Whip started up. "Don't think that."
"I...I know," he said, his usually commanding presence somewhat more subdued, as the harrowing memories returned. "What do we have to do?" he asked Ralf.
"We'll scout out everything and come up with a plan. Like we always do."
Clark nodded. "We've run these operations before. We can do it again."
"We'll scout out the place. Find out where they're holed up...and importantly, what they're planning...which we don't know, but the bits we've heard...it's not good. They're making sure they're holed up in areas that can end up with a lot of casualties if we were to strike."
"Do they want anything?"
"Probably to try to extort you or something, I'd imagine."
"I'd rather not pay them off."
"We know. We'd rather you not, either. They'll just come back stronger with the resources."
Clark flipped through the folder, rubbing his chin. His sunglasses and hat were off; the scar that he had gotten from Ralf's little knife-throwing incident was visible, though it wasn't as bad as he made it out to be. "Can you get your friend?" he asked.
"Duo Lon? If he's not busy…"
Whip smiled softly. "I know he'll be here unless he's dealing with clan business."
"Yeah, you're right. He hasn't let me down yet."
"Great. We may need someone like him."
"What do you want me to do?"
Ralf folded his arms. "For now? Nothing. We'll do what we can. In fact, it's best if you lay low. Make sure the Sky Noah is secure."
"Definitely." He did not want an incident like last time to happen, when Elias-a longtime member of his household-was killed doing his night rounds.
"We'll let you know what we find as soon as possible."
Adel nodded. "Thanks, guys."
"Hey," Ralf said, clapping him on the shoulder again as he stood. "We've done this shit before. Trust me. City, jungle, or forest. We'll find out what's going on, and we'll get a plan for it."
Clark nodded in agreement. "Leave it to us. If the commander gets back in time, he'll be in too, of course."
"Great!" Ralf said, putting on his usual cheerful face. "I'll get to relax more, then, instead of trying to lead this damn thing." He went over to pour himself another cup of coffee, stretching.
"Don't drink it all yet," his friend replied.
"Make your own, then."
Adel smiled, feeling suddenly like things were going to be okay. Turning toward Whip, she waved goodbye to the other two as they walked out.
"Come up to my room," she said.
"Yeah."
The two made their way up; hers was on the floor above. It had been freshly made up, so Adel wandered over to the bed, collapsing on it with his legs off the edge as he put his hands over his face.
"You alright?" she said, walking over to the distraught-looking young man as she sat next to him, smoothing back his hair.
"God fucking damnit," he muttered, rubbing his face and folding his arms before laughing bitterly. "I suppose over half a year without too many issues was too much to ask. There was the thing in Frankfurt, but Duo Lon wiped that out quickly, and it was only a few."
"It's in our blood, I think," she said, crossing her legs as she stroked his thick hair.
"Yeah, I guess," he said, looking up at her, one arm reaching around to touch her side. "At least it didn't pop up during vacation, I guess?"
"Small favors." Whip bent low, nuzzling his hair and kissing his forehead, before moving to his lips. He repositioned so she could lay next to him; wrapping around her right now seemed to be just what he needed.
The assassin was sitting in the rather loud pub, his friend-already a little past tipsy, and heading quickly toward inebriation-next to him, pushing another shotglass of baijiu in front of him.
"You might slow down," he said, taking the drink anyway and knocking back half of it, his usual high alcohol tolerance well outstripping that of his friend. It was a bit early to be drinking this much, he thought, but Shen was feeling like it.
"Bah, I'll be fine," Shen replied, clapping his friend on the shoulder before going to nose around a mahjong table.
His phone buzzing, Duo Lon grabbed it, seeing the message was from Adel. Having just chatted with him a few days before, he wondered if he had forgotten something.
He frowned when he read the single line that was written; it was not in Adel's usual laid-back tone, but one of more of a friend in need:
We need you for something important...can you please help us? The sooner the better.
"Shen?" he asked.
"Yeah? You alright?" he cocked his head to the side; headstrong as he was, he was pretty good at reading if the assassin was distressed.
"I'm fine. They need me. I'm going to book a flight for tonight."
Walking around the meeting room, Leona was sifting through the folders; she knew what was going on, of course, and was considering how to approach them about something. Seeing Ralf and Clark off to the side with Seirah, she overheard some of their discussion. They weren't talking in secret at all, but simply among themselves.
"So do you have an idea of how you want to run this?" she heard Clark ask.
"I do. We can take the front and deal with any of the heavier things they might have. I'm sure Seirah and Adel will be fine together."
"We've dealt with these types plenty of times," she said.
"Duo Lon will be fine taking care of anything behind the scenes, I'm sure," Ralf said. "That should be everyone. I'll get Leona to man the communications."
"Sounds good."
Hearing this, Leona sighed. She couldn't blame them, though. She was still considered a danger on the field. Only moving slowly into the investigations surrounding everything else going on, there was still too much uncertainty surrounding the seal, and anything else going on there. While she knew they were okay with things, and that they trusted her, they were probably unsure about what Heidern would say...and they probably didn't want to risk the mission, since as much as they trusted her, they didn't trust the other side of her.
Not that she trusted that side of herself, either.
Tucking the rest of the papers away, she grabbed her jacket and started to head back to her hotel room, so she could dress down again-she was not as fond of the dressier outfit she wore in meetings as she was her more comfortable fatigues-and simply lounge around, trying to stave off the general disappointment...as well as the longing she had to get back on the field.
A/N: If you're following this, you're hopefully familiar enough with the 'verse to know how Duo Lon is involved with this crew and Leona by now. Suffice it to say they've been a kinda-sorta item since Summer Party; a very close bond while not really having a...name for what they are. Duo Lon became friends with Adel and Whip in Nocturne. Can check the profile for a rundown of some of the stories. But at this point Duo Lon has been involved with the group for over half a year now, with he and Leona being that strange pair for about four months or so now of verse-time.