Cole shot up from his side of the bed sweating and breathing raggedly with dread in his eyes next to a half nude Ilia hugging her pillow muttering about a beach or something, climbing out of bed and made his way to the bathroom.
Stepping towards the toilet, he felt his stomach had lurched before vomit flew from his mouth in a stream of brown, red, green, and yellow. It went on for a good ten minutes, he'd puke, cough and spit up everything.
after he was done Cole washed out his mouth brushed his teeth and tongue, then used the whole mouthwash bottle and groaned after he was done.
leaving the bathroom he stopped when his ears caught the sound of a gruff voice, possibly a middle-aged man say "of course they here, the woman told us they were in here, let's just capture them and get paid, easy right?"
"i get that but…" a young boy said with hesitation, "I heard the girl can disappear and the guy she's with controls the very skies above and stuff"
"Just pick the lock and let me do my job; those stories are embellished anyway" the gruff voice said just as Cole reacted and grabbed Ilia, dragged her to the floor behind the bed covering her mouth, she struggled in his arms but stopped when she saw his eyes and where he was looking,
"shut up and listen" he said peeking above the bed and let her go, "we've got company and i need you to stay here while i take care of them" she was about to tell him that she was going to help but was interrupted by the door slamming open followed by six armed men with rifles firing lightning rounds into Cole for ten whole seconds before stopping to see if he was taken down but when they entered the room, they saw Cole standing there glowing a vibrant orange gold and smiling before he burst out laughing until one of the thugs dropped his gun. His laughter grew louder until it became full-blown pathological just thinking about how dumb they were using lightning dust crystals against him, thinking they had him out gunned, and worst of all thinking he was going to be that easy to take down that easily.
"Man, you guys just never learn, do you? You don't research your targets, no real plan of attack, and not a single contingency plan was sprung in case that didn't work…ah, man you guys really are brainless idiots playing with fire" he said before he sent the first two guys to the ground with a few strong bolts of lightning to the face knocking them out, a hard haymaker to the third, grabbed the arms of two guys on his sides and smashed their faces into each other caving their noses in and threw them aside, then grabbed the last guy pinning him to the wall by his face and growled angrily "either tell me who put you up to this or I'll blow your head up like a watermelon."
The man scoffed and tried to stab him only to start feeling the inside of his skull burn and made him scream out louder than what sounded natural.
"No? You've got nothing to say?, if you do, you should hurry before I just kill you right here"
"Ok…ok, I'll tell you just, don't kill me...I got a family y'know." Cole grabbed his shirt and threw him into the bathroom counter smashing his teeth down his throat before catching a glimpse of Ilia as Cole grabbed him again and snarled "who sent you!" eyes flashed for a brief moment illuminating the blue and green like bulbs of malice and deep rage.
"shome guy with…red enershey, he shaid if we cashured you he'd pay ush handshomely; im jush a bouny huner tryig to shuppor hish family man, haff mershey" the guy said shaking in fear.
He looked at Ilia and the guy smirked arrogantly and spit blood in Cole's face making him recoil and took her hostage using a shard of glass to keep Cole back.
"tat beig shaid, the counshil of rebmand will pay more for you two unlesh you gibe yourshelf up"
Cole held up his hands and said looking at Ilia "stay completely still okay?" she nodded before Cole looked at the man and asked "who the hell is the man who hired you idiots, answer, and you can live" he stopped and looked at the two of them and said with a shrug, "he's our bosh, and he wants you two for twendy million lien, though he will pay lesh for you mishy"
'Yeah, not happening' he thought before holding up his hand and let out a deep breath "you have two seconds to let her go or you're never waking again" he said motioning to the bed.
"What makes you-" he asked before a thin bolt the size of a straw shot from his finger and hit him in the forehead caught ilia and grabbed the man and true to his word he disrobed the man and tied him to the bed with a slipknot and looked at Ilia "are you okay?" He inquired before handing her clothes to her.
"Im fine" she muttered quietly.
Kneeling down he asked calmly "could you help me out here, we'll need the money and whatnot in case we run into more trouble."
She was about to argue when a seventh guy tried to sneak out but quickly received a clawed Grimm hand shoved through the back of his head exiting his face, fingers, and claws protruding from his cheeks, right nostril, forehead and left eye after ripping it out tossing him to the ground without any hesitation or mercy for the man he'd killed (mostly because of the adrenaline rush he'd reacted too ruthlessly).
"Like I said, we should get going"
"g-got it" she said grabbing the lien, ammo, a couple of their guns and left the room behind Cole. 'He's insane!' she shrieked in her head.
On their way out the door they noticed everyone was in the lobby making a fuss over different problems and Cole saw it as the perfect opportunity to escape the place.
Just then he saw the angelic woman from the woods strapped a sword on her back staring at him, right at him and with her cat green eyes he felt her freeze, the man (likely her father) followed her gaze and smirked but did nothing past patting her shoulder and walked away.
Cole tried to rationalize her presence, but it was like it practically called to him like a longing pull; a need to be with or near her, and yet, he needed to run, so he ran.
"I believe she knows me" he muttered before tearing himself from her ironclad gaze and sprinted out the door as fast as he could.
Finding ilia outside, he turned to face her and frowned as she crossed her arms. "What now Cole?"
"We're going to have to split up from here; I'm uncertain if it's best for people to be near a walking calamity, least of all you" he said before turning to the curbside, got on a motorcycle and turned the key turning on the ignition only to startle everyone when he revved the engine a few times. "You can't just leave me here, I have an assignment to keep an eye on you, and I'm going to do my job"
Cole growled angrily "I don't care Ilia, there's something I need to do, and I can't take a stranger from the white fang with me without alerting the authorities; I'm kind of wanted too" he said expecting her to throw in the towel and leave, but instead she walked over to him and got on wrapping her slender arms around his midriff, "just drive to haven and follow my directions."
His grip tightened around the handle bars and revved the bike's engine, "fine, but don't blame me if you fall off!" he yelled as they sped down the street toward the highway leading to the school.
Geralt and ciri were paying for their room when they heard the bike screech away with a cloud of white smoke and the smell of exhaust.
"Seems either he can regrow limbs, that or that bull faunas you left him with gave him one" geralt snarked, pulling the straps on his bag down.
"I think we should track him from a distance; one meeting was coincidence, but three times and I believe fate needs us near him." Ciri whispered as she called a taxi and worked on tracking the bike that took off down the road. Normally, she'd ignore such odd things, but Cole was a special man and her deepest depths in her very soul screamed to her that he needed help.
Speeding past all types of vehicles, Cole only went faster every time a light turned yellow "for the love of gods big and small, please slow down you psycho!" she exclaimed burying her face in his back holding on for her life.
Cole just shook his head and sped up, forcing the bike to do a wheelie as he drove toward a fallen sign over a fence leading to the highway, "hang on to something tight!" He hollered just before the jump flung them through the air toward the other side of the highway's bridge way and drifted to recover and simultaneously slip past two cars in a near miss pass all while ilia screamed in terror clutching onto Cole for dear life.
"I HATE YOU HOOHOO"
Cole had a smile so wide it threatened to split his face in half as he celebrated the successful jump with a 'woo-hoo'.
"Please don't that again!" Ilia begged as she tightened her arms around him almost terrified to look up, Cole simply just laughed at the exhilaration and excitement of driving a motorcycle and drove so quickly past and around the cars running a few red lights.
Nearing the road leading to a garage marked 'student parking'.
He jumped another ramp and skidded to a halt near an elevator door, possibly leading to haven academy.
"im sure as hell glad I know how to drive hoo boy, that was amazing" he said getting off the bike and stepped into the elevator with a shaken expression on her face and self-evident to her fear was the purple shade her skin adopted.
She quickly turned to Cole and backhand slapped him across the face and yelled just as the doors opened to a bunch of other students, "don't you ever do that again, you got me you adrenaline junkie freak?!"
Smirking wider and snickering, Cole rubbed his cheek as they walked past the students, whom all gave Cole varying looks ranging from confusion to mockery, but most were terrified of him when his spider like lightning tattoos faintly glowing and briefly flickered orange gold with a bit of blue.
Ilia was understandably pissed, he drove a bike like he stole it, sped through traffic, and jumped ramps just to get to haven faster. She stopped at the doors to the main building and turned around to face Cole who kept his gaze anywhere but on her.
"We could've been killed back there, you know! Are all humans this reckless" she said crossing her arms and frowned at him.
"Don't be such a baby, it's not like I hit anything" Cole said moving past her and glared at everyone who looked at their little moment and even when she tried to stop him she ended up getting dragged down the halls trying to get an explanation but was met with silence.
The entire walk through the halls Ilia saw pictures of humans and Faunas young and old, dead and alive they all looked the same: happy and graduating students to become hunters, but to her, it was just old memories and fantasies of what couldn't be.
She bumped into Cole's back when he'd apparently stopped in front of someone.
"I pity those men and women" a man said, turning to face Cole and Ilia with remorse. With a heavy heart, he stood up straight and opened his mouth to ask something but was interrupted.
"It isn't your problem old man, you aren't the one that ends their lives" Ilia said pointing at the pictures.
The old lion let out a sigh, almost like he was deeply troubled, but who wasn't these days.
Cole walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry for the sudden intrusion, but we need to speak with you…preferably alone…headmaster" he visibly froze at the chilling nature of his words behind such a warm voice, and it disturbed him even more so with his demeanor.
"O-oh, uh I see, c-come with me" Cole didn't know what flipped the switch in his head to go from Stoic headmaster to scared kitten but right now, he didn't care, Cole had intended to be quick, so he could avoid authorities but in this place that was impossible.
"As long as I get what I want I really don't care" he muttered when they eventually got to a pair of double doors Cole stopped and turned to Ilia with a glare that only a Beowulf
could give, "guard these doors; no one in, no one out."
She simply nodded hurriedly and let them close the doors without another word and had her under extra guard duty "I think I should just leave, Adam is terrifying but Cole? Shit, he's on a whole other level." Cole and Leo stared at one another for what felt like hours before Leo handed him a cup of tea and watched Cole gently grasp the handle and sipped it, like a beast watching his prey, Cole looked into the man's eyes and sighed at the pleasant taste of sweet tea with lemons.
"I'll get right to it lionheart, I need access to everything remnant has on me; I promise i won't tell the council that you've been involved in some…shady dealings about missing hunters, I just want to prove I'm innocent"
Cole's cold expression made Leo's skin crawl as he went for a knife on his desk, but Cole saw it coming and quickly grabbed him with his Grimm hand, crushing his forearm in his grip pinned to the table and lost the knife.
With a disappointed scowl, he broke the man's arm "or I could just kill you and take the files claiming you attacked me after I discovered that you slaughtered those people as well as your own staff"
lionheart wailed in agony when both bones snapped like twigs thanks to Cole, "you are a wanted man, it's my job as headmaster to subdue you; footage will show me as the-"
"I took out your surveillance as soon as I stepped foot in here, you're blinded in here; to get help from out there is slim to none sir" Cole interrupted slamming his boot down on his arm.
"All I asked is for a few terabytes of information remnant has on me. Hell I'll even provide you the information I have on you and I disappear" he let Leo go and grabbed his phone "whaddya say professor, show me how trustworthy you can be to a poor misguided student" Leo shakily typed on his phone with his good hand and tapped Cole's phone, notification going off proving that the message was sent. "y-yes of course. f-follow me, I'll show you around" Cole opened the doors for Leo to lead the way and with a high level of snark.
"After you sir" Ilia followed close behind while Cole and Leo discussed the CCT tower and noticed Cole bring up her but only because she was watching over him.
"So she's assigned to you by a merc?" Leo asked, opening a tab and plugged in a thumb drive.
"Just get me what I asked about, I don't have much time"
After a few minutes, Leo shakily took out the thumb drive and held it out to Cole shaking from terror and the agony in his other arm wasn't helping much either.
"Here, I got you everything you wanted, please just leave me be and go" Cole snatched the small zipper bag with thumb drives, hard drives, and a few films of photos and sighed. "Thanks Leo, but if this turns out to be forged information I'll come back and have your teeth fed to you"
Leo watched him walk halfway from him and yelled not even hiding his dread, "you may have forgotten something Cole"
He stopped and turned to the coward of a professor looking for a reason not to hurt him, "oh? What would that be" he marched right up to Leo and jabbed him in the chest with his Grimm finger.
"Cause as far as I'm concerned you've just helped a kingdom wide wanted man get classified information and multiple sources stating that you were aiding and abetting cinder, Roman, and some guy named 'the red baron' to stage a full front assault on beacon, whom I'd add helped them get me out of beacon. Among other crimes against all of remnant that could send you to prison for life so if you're smart, you'll delete what you gave me, pretend I wasn't here, continuing to live your traitorous life"
Ilia stared at the two men and ran off down the halls, not caring what happens next, as long as she got out of there she was fine with it. Of course half of what Cole said was a bluff, he stood tall and looked Leo straight in the eye not breaking contact with him.
When Cole noticed Ilia was already gone he smirked walking out the doors, sarcastically bowed just as they closed and said, "it's been a pleasure professor"
Lionheart let out a breath of relief before noticing a holographic W hovering over his desk and heard "oh Leo, I knew your cowardice was vast but letting a mere child threaten you is just disappointing, comical doesn't describe it anymore"
"bu-but watts, please listen, he's extremely dangerous and- ACK….*cough….cough* wh-what!?" he looked down and protruding from various places in his chest were spikes and claws.
"You knew the consequences of that Leo, and you still let him have it; Salem sends her condolences"
With that done the seer flew off leaving Leo to die in a pool of his own blood.
"I'm sorry oz…" he choked watching his life play out in disjointed patches of memories that he'd regretted most and the people he'd led to ruin and all he could do in that moment was cry in self-pity "this wasn't how-" he sighed as his hand went still and his body cold.
not gonna lie, I'm running on fumes with this story so I'm gonna need a few weeks to recharge and get my mind back on track and by doing so imma rest for a while and come back with a clearer head.
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated
