Hey guys it's TimoremCordeNostro with my forced best friend inside my head, L, or his head. And today we bring you a chapter the day before my birthday, or his birthday...that's confusing...depending on when I finish editing and he finishes writing, anyway, we wanted to get this out before we have to go through our no writing zone for that stupid, stupid month because some lazy stupid people can't do their jobs that we can do in an hour that they do in a week, and they get paid more than us! It's BULLSHIT I TELL YOU!
So they're sending us out on Ryan Air (Because I'm worth shit apparently.) to fix the problem, come back and be myself.
Reader review responses:
N7 Recruit - That's one bid on Weiss Schnee, any other bidders?
Billmastergamin115 - Thank you for the feedback! Hopefully We've improved with this chapter, be sure to let us know! And long time no see, eh?
AK74FU2 - We've looked it over and we agree, neither of us knows if that's because neither of us had slept for a couple days whilst we were writing it and our brain has unconsciously used it as a template or something else, either way, thank you for pointing that out, hopefully we can re-write it before a miss-understanding occurs.
That's the end of that and we want to tell you now, L is pronounced EL ...yeah ik he's picky but roll with it, trust me, I live with the guy. This is more a build up towards where everything starts, that might sound cryptic but we believe this chapter should give off a few hints, which means more drama and L living and learning like I know he doesn't want to, live I mean, he loves learning, I'm kidding, anyway, we hope you enjoy aaaaaaand let's begin!
Well, just over ten years have passed and let's just say that it's been...eventful. L 'accidentally' turned Ruby into a gun nut at a young age and he swiftly learned that dyeing Yang's hair whilst she's asleep isn't, I quote, 'a suitable way to pass the time when you're bored, especially considering you now have a broken nose and Yang has a few broken bones in her hand.' Those were Summers words, not L's.
But it got them out of Signal for a couple of weeks so I guess that was worth a mini-fist-bump and a few terrible tasting painkillers. Anyway, during the years of living on this planet, idiotically named 'Remnant' making it sound like a nuclear wasteland rather than a lush Garden world with lots of killer wildlife, he learned of the kingdoms; Vale, Atlas, Vacuo and Mistral.
Vale is community run and is the closest kingdom to Patch as far as he is aware, the kingdom is almost like a garden city, it's very clean the further you get into the kingdom, it's surrounded by forestry, very, very green and a fairly average city on the inside as far as he is aware, zoo's, cafe's an industrial district etc etc. It's home to Beacon Academy, likely the most prestigious of the 'upper hunter/huntress' academies, though the academies are the equivalent of college.
Atlas sounds like it's run by a military dictatorship rather than its actual civilian council and looks like a seriously clean future dystopia, skyscrapers and all, it's in a very snowy region to so these people had to have adapted to harsher conditions, obviously the most militaristic of the kingdoms. Originally the kingdom was named Mantle, after The Great War the Atlas academy eventually took over and the kingdom was renamed Atlas, due to Mantle itself collapsing for 'unknown reasons.' As you can probably tell, Atlas is home to Atlas Academy.
Vacuo is a sandy version of Vale, literally, it's almost identical besides the academies being opposites and the grass and dirt being replaced by sand and desert stone, since Vacuo is in a completely desert region. Shade Academy is apparently not the best of academies, if you catch my drift, but either way it isn't his place to comment on this.
Mistral admittedly, he knows very little about, besides the fact that to the west of it, it's said to be a very marshland like area with swamps and is home to the more than unsavoury people, besides that he's heard little to nothing about it, so a fairly quiet kingdom if he had to guess? This kingdom is home to Haven Academy.
It was the history that concerned him most yet didn't exactly surprise him, humanity was always distrustful of the things it didn't understand and couldn't control or was different in general, no matter where you put humanity or what situation you put them in, they would stay the same it seems. The largest of known wars on Remnant occurred around seventy three years ago and was dubbed 'The Great War.' It included all four kingdoms, whoever threw the first punch was unknown but the reason was clear, individuality and expression verses people who hated individualism and destroyed art. Fair enough.
Ultimately the former won over the latter, the kingdoms met on the island of Vytal to discuss a peace treaty, which succeeded and now the kingdoms live in peace by 'unity through diversity.' This diversity is celebrated through cultural events, the most well known being the Vytal Festival, named after the location the peace treaties took place. There is also the tradition that the children be named after colours and other bright and expressionist things not only as a reminder of the war but also to continue the defiance of those that liked freedom and individuality. After the Great War the creation of the Huntsman and Huntress academies took place, Hunters and Huntresses essentially being freelance mercenaries trained to kill Grimm, only they have a more 'respectable' title.
Then you've got the Faunus War which was short, about three years in total. It was a war which was more understandable than The Great War, in his opinion anyway. It was for civil rights, something L could partially relate to. If you got down to the specifics it fully sparked when humanity tried to contain the Faunus to an area called 'Menagerie' this wasn't well received among the Faunus population, then war started and it worked! Sort of, parts of humanity are still racist towards them which is very unsurprising. Though in his own opinion it appeared as if it stopped from being a full war and is becoming more of a Cold War instead and then back to a full war.
His reason? The White Fang, at first it was an organization that he respected, a symbol of peace and unity between two species, but after continued discrimination from humanity and failure from Faunus and Human leaders to do anything about it, The White Fang is starting to pull away from its original roots, they're slowly getting more and more violent and as a result of this L took action, it wouldn't prevent what he knew was inevitability but it would hopefully delay it until the world was ready, or at the very least combat it in the shadows before the war starts again but for different reasons and ideology.
He'd been building a special project from the ground up, an emergency button for when he needed it. The Network, as he named it, is complicated to explain, it functions almost as a shadow organisation behind the scenes with almost the equivalent power of a government. Its primary uses are for military operations and information obtaining, but it has influence in much, much more than that. Each agent is specifically picked and thoroughly tested, no one knows who they were working for, just the one they received orders from and he made sure it stayed that way, also throwing in a few bits of advanced technology here and there for when it's needed, obviously there are huge risks to something like this but it isn't something new to him, he's had to do this several times before and knows when to use it and when not to use it as well as keeping it contained.
Aura, was another thing that L could partially comprehend, a physical manifestation of ones soul that could be shaped and used in various different applications? Yeah, can totally see where that comes from, Spiritual Energy and Psionics work on almost the same principal, Spiritual Energy more so. Semblances however...well, the basic definition of a Semblance, a manifestation of ones innate and personal power as an ability(s) unique to each individual, with effects varying greatly from user to user.
While normally Semblances differ from parents to child, they can share similarities or in very rare cases, exact same. Though Semblances by nature appear to be based of the characteristics of the person. It was slightly difficult to comprehend at first but as time went on, which was around 10 seconds, he slowly learned that it was entirely as it should be despite the abilities seem impossible, there are very few, so he made research into Aura and Semblances, how they worked and what he could do to counter them without using blades, bullets or Psionics, as they could be potentially a method of defeating L in combat.
Dust was another thing, its physical properties are so useful on this planet it has become the primary source of power and energy, used in weapons, reactors, 'airships', boats, everything. Every single type of Dust there is has a property to manipulate, be it; Wind/Air, Fire, Water, Lightning, Ice, Steam, Gravity or Earth. Now at first L was extremely hesitant, it sounded a lot like Element Zero but without the cancerous effects, then he realized that Dust on this world exists elsewhere except for the fact that Dust only works the way he's seen it work because it's under certain atmospheric conditions or more specifically, this one and it isn't an impossible element like Element Zero, it works brilliantly without breaking the laws of physics, how? Well if you have several years to spare on a lecture about particle physics and advanced molecular chemistry then I will gladly tell you, but you don't.
Speaking of Aura, whilst attending Signal Academy L's Aura was unlocked but seemed to be incredibly weak or seemed like it almost wasn't fully unlocked or fully shown, like part of it was hidden away. His Semblance was thought to be his usage of Shift energy or Spiritual energy, but he kept his mouth closed since he didn't want to face any hassle from anyone, so he just named it Shift and moved on.
Since the night he was taken into his family he'd learned to at least be himself again, showing himself to be a very reserved yet honest person, disliking socialization yet excelling at it when the need arises, sarcasm and crude jokes? Yup, but only around family and friends, but since he didn't really have the latter, it normally happened around family. He obviously excelled in classes with pretty much everything and was quickly put at the top of the class and wouldn't budge for anyone despite who they were, however it only took three weeks for his parents to be called due to four injured students, from his perspective it was a clear case. They attempted to get physical after he completely demolished their morale when they attempted to name call him, so he put three of them on the floor and left the last one to run to a teacher. Yang's reaction was "Damn." Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, not Jaune.
Luckily enough Taiyang and Summer both explained to the headmaster that he was severely bullied in his time at orphanages and as a result he snapped under emotional strain when it was starting again. This situation was let slide since he was under the age limit of receiving a criminal record and had a valid psychological reason for the reaction, so long as he went to see a professional psychiatrist for treatment. That didn't sit well with him, he didn't fancy telling a false story to cover up his non-existent orphanage life, sure when he was First a child things were pretty rough, but he survived until 327 years old which was good enough for a first time in his opinion, considering the inter-dimensional war going on at the time.
He regularly saw the psychiatrist who told his parents at the end of all of the sessions, that working hard was apparently a coping method for his past issues, he had to stop himself from laughing, sure he probably has PTSD from the amount of shit he's seen and done but it never truly bothered him so long as he has something to do, wait, isn't that exactly what the psychiatrist said? eh. Something the psychiatrist also noticed was his social and speech skills are above and beyond what they should be for someone who does not like to talk to people, noting down that if he wanted something, he could easily manipulate someone to get it, which, thankfully, they took as a good sign, except the fact that he has no friends, besides that apparently he's a child genius with an odd accent. No surprises there.
It took a few months for him to come out of the psychiatrists hands with a conclusion that he didn't listen to, he had to continue with his work.
Signal Academy said that his weapons were too deadly unless he toned them down so he made a modification for Vengeance that enabled him to switch on and off the high frequency setting, it was very difficult believe it or not since his sword isn't mechanical in nature, thankfully having a mind that can solve quadratic equations in 0.6 seconds combined with a super computer that enhanced most of his cognitive functions, all in all, around 12 seconds to come up with the first design, his sword could still cut through other swords in a few strikes, it's just forged that well. And Pantheon? He made sure he used bullets that wouldn't destroy Aura quiet as quickly, just to give them a chance.
Though he was also often asked if he took steroids because he hit like a freight train with rocket boosters apparently, he'd never punched himself before, obviously, but at the same time he never really needed to demonstrate his very, very, gargantuan, large, humongous, amounts of knowledge in hand to hand combat since most of students fell without a word in a single punch, he wanted to breeze through the easy stuff and move on to the harder things, such as: distinguished students, but he wouldn't get that until Beacon.
During his time at Signal Academy very few people would speak to him besides his sisters after the first incident, he would defend those that were being bullied giving him a reputation of being the protector of the weak, whispers being spoken that people thought he couldn't hear, when he definitely could, he had the mutual respect of everyone around him, however, when he was asked whether or not he is a Faunus, since that's officially what he is, some people obviously had a very, very negative opinion from just that information alone, luckily not a lot of them and was partially negated from the way he acted, good guy sarcasm that tears your head off if you harm another person without good reason, unfortunately, the frequency of whispers pushed his anger issues to heights. What helped though was when he sparred with Qrow.
Qrow was always someone he could talk to, best teacher he could ask for, good taste in whiskey to, though he knew that Qrow holds a large amount of secrets on the inside, he was always willing to spar when L felt angry or whenever he needed it at any other time, every so often Taiyang tried to join in, emphasis on try. Enough about school and learning stuff, let's talk about things around family, he was mostly stuck setting up The Network but he always spared time for his family.
Yang in his opinion, is to say the least an adrenaline junkie and her anger issues went far above his, he taught her Jeet Kune Do with more emphasis on the Wing Chun and Boxing elements, her hair, that's still off limits, still not sorry for dyeing her hair blue. Yang also once asked him to help her with a motorbike which she named Bumblebee, and it was a mouth watering masterpiece which is why L made his own motorbike. They would often race each other, L stating that traffic laws are more guidelines for new drivers than laws, luckily they weren't arrested once due to the cameras being conveniently 'under maintenance' at that moment, definitely not miss-using The Network, at all, which Yang...also found out about...sort of...she followed L out one night and got caught up in the whole situation when he was actually scouting someone for recruitment, so she knows a bit about the whole 'secret organisation stuff' but she's content so long as it didn't affect family, which he assured her it wouldn't, might come in handy in the future.
She still couldn't beat him in a sparring match or in rock paper scissors either, much to her annoyance and L's infinite amusement. He also learned that it's incredibly entertaining to watch Yang try to pick up L one moment to find herself struggling and not being able to move him an inch then the next moment he felt light as a feather. Science is great when used for your own amusement. (It's a real thing and I used to freak out my friends when my dad taught me how to do it, little insight there.)
Ruby is a hyperactive little one and has her mothers puppy eyes, but her weakness is cookies, which is why when he found out that her Semblance is speed, he wasn't really surprised. Her metabolism is not even anywhere near the chart, it's in space. She became a little obsessed with being a Huntress or a hero of some kind, always asking Qrow or Summer and Taiyang for stories of their missions or reading comics, he could remember Yang and Summer reading to her many different bed time stories about different heroic adventures as well, so he wasn't surprised she would chose the path of a Huntress in the slightest, but what did surprise him however is her natural knack for weapons, it really didn't help that he further encouraged this by giving her puzzles to solve which are improving her problem solving skills dramatically along with weapon blueprinting. She also trains with Qrow, he was impressed with what she could do with a war scythe at such a young age, so much potential in someone so young, almost reminds L of himself.
He's been living in Patch, quiet a cosy little island south east of Vale, and it's tiny, literally, on the world map, the island is one of if not the smallest habitable island there is on Remnant, it's also one of the few places where you can see the wildlife 95% of of the time without being torn to pieces by a man eating-honey loving demonic care bear that are Grimm, considering L wiped out a shit ton of them when he first arrived.
Anyway, Patch has two villages and one large town that acts as the capital on Patch, it's where all the stuff from other islands gets imported and exported. The other two villages are places L has never been to though apparently they're quiet nice with their giant spiky wooden walls which make them arguably sound like medieval forts.
That's most of what's happened, so let's focus on what's happening right now, that looks painful.
L's back made popping and cracking sounds under the iron hold of his mothers bone crushing hug. "Mum...can't...breathe..." He managed to struggle out, his face slowly starting to turn blue from oxygen starvation, his legs attempting to wiggle free.
"I'm just so proud of you both!" Summer squealed excitedly.
"Yang...save...yourself...run!" Was all L could manage before Yang was also enveloped in a loving embrace of arms that felt like they were made of adamantium, leaving a breathless L to fall to the floor with a thud, audibly catching his breath. Ruby and Taiyang snickering in the background whilst taking photographs to put in the family album.
It's graduation day at Signal Academy, both L and Yang came out with flying colours, Yang had become a master of punching all the things with gauntlet shotguns that made opening doors incredibly difficult if you were trying to use the door handle and L had become an even more efficient killing part-machine-thingy than before, well done humanity, you've successfully given L the amount of time he needed to perform ballistics tests on Aura and taught him how to summon his Aura and from that point learned to incorporate it into his fighting style, both in hand to hand and melee combat, but also defense, making him nearly un-killable, unless you dropped the tsar-bomba on his face, in which case it'll take him about a month to develop the skin and repair what's left of the muscle on his body, don't even get him started about repairing the nerves system.
Yang was still being crushed in her mothers arms and L was slowly getting up whilst recovering, Taiyang spoke up. "You two have done extremely well, hell you beat me!" He smiled as he attempted to rough up L's hair only for his hand to be slapped away in a flash. "No." L said seriously. That's another thing that had become a game between the family, whenever L did up his hair all formally and neatly he didn't want anyone touching it, which proved to be entertaining for everyone. Besides him.
"Also baring in mind dad that I beat you when I was six going on seven and all the times you attempted to join me and Qrow in tag matches and one on ones..." He smirked and listed off every time Taiyang lost a fight to L, Taiyang gave a slight forced chuckle at the memories. "Yeah, you did." He muttered, pride still wounded, Ruby patting his back whilst holding back her laughter.
"Mom...please..." Yang desperately struggled to breathe whilst wiggling like a caterpillar for dear life. "Oh, sorry." Summer said as she released Yang, blushing slightly in embarrassment, letting Yang breath in a large amount of air. "Sweet air I never thought I'd miss you so much! What do you hug with the force of a freight train or something?" Yang asked rhetorically whilst recovering eliciting everyone to laugh and Summers blush to further travel across her face, Taiyang giving Summer a peck on the lips which she gladly returned with her own purr.
All three of the children shivered. "Get a room please, or if you're really that worked up, a Motel." L covered his eyes in a facepalm as Yang started laughing hysterically and Ruby giggled even though she only half got the joke, Yang then fist-bumping L. Summer now looked like a tomato as the parents rolled their eyes at their sons antics. "Can we go to Golden Archers and bowling?" Ruby asked with her usual cheery tone that always put a smile on L's face. "I thought that's what we were doing anyway?" L half asked leading everyone to look at Taiyang who looked at everyone else. "Don't look at me! I ain't paying for it!"
At this they each went to their own version of puppy eyes, shattering Taiyangs will power into a billion tiny pieces and using the glass to make a statue for their glory. "Okay, we'll go to Golden Archers and then we'll go bowling as a celebration." Taiyang smiled to himself shaking his head."YAY!" The sisters cried as L just had a smile on his face. "How do you counter those faces?" He asked himself with a happy sigh. "You won't, because we won't let you." L said with a smirk on his face whilst walking past.
After Yang and Ruby said see you later to their friends they made their way to the car where L had to fend off Yang and Ruby trying to touch his hair and he succeeded for the most part, Summer won whilst he was distracted, nearly melting the seat he was in because of how grumpy he was afterwards, pulling his hood up to stop all other attempts.
When they arrived they were having a laugh, L's scroll started to ring whilst they were in line to order, he picked it up and looked at the callers ID, making him growl slightly. "Excuse me." He said in a now joyless tone, everyone besides Ruby who was already munching on cookies that she got from somewhere, nobody knows where, looked at him as he stepped outside. "Didn't think he had people to call, let alone call him." Taiyang said. "Yeah..." Yang said distantly as she stared at him, attempting and failing to lip read her brother.
"Fade speaking." He knew his voice is automatically being changed through a voice changer on his phone whilst on these numbers, Scrolls are just as versatile as his HUD but nowhere near as useful. "Fade, it's Blizzard, I bring good news." He could hear the positivity in the voice despite it sounding demonic.
"Speak." L said, his voice conveying his impatience at the moment. "We will be able to have spec-ops teams aboard cargo shipments for the Schnee Dust Company very soon, around a week from now we will be able to be aboard every train, airship, truck or boat in the system." Blizzard said. He smiled in such a way that it almost took the form of a grin. This was good news, L was glad he picked up Blizzard, it secured a high up position and point of contact within the Schnee Dust Company and Atlas, since his/her recruitment things had been going much, much smoother for him, this was well worth the interruption in his opinion.
"Well done, get in contact with Bain and tell him to begin the plan." His voice confirmed that this was indeed good news.
"Understood."
Blizzard hung up and L put his scroll away chuckling at the small victory achieved today, it seemed like it would be a good day today, he could only hope that from here on it would only get better, though he knew that was a fat chance. He went back inside and sat with his family who had already ordered and sat down, he started eating his half a pounder that's as always bad for your health, but this place was a fast food place so he didn't expect any different. "What was that about?" Summer asked, in her usual 'motherly curiosity' mode.
"A friend needed to tell me good news." His smirk returned. "Very good news." Summer smiled warmly at this and seeing her son happy. "What good news is that then?" L froze up slightly oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck, she's going to keep bothering me if I don't tell her, quick, say something smart! He looked into Summers eyes and said. "She graduated from Sanctuary?" It sounded too much like a question and as a result every brain cell he had facepalmed and let out an audible 'doh'.
"She?" Summer asked in her 'protective motherly voice', Yang grinned. Great, the two worst things that could ever happen to you have happened. "Yes." L managed to squeak out with a nervous and unsure expression on his face.
"L's got a girlfriend, L's got a girlfriend!" Yang sang teasingly, L crossed his arms with an unimpressed look on his face. "Awwwwww my baby boys all grown up!" Summer said with a smile on her face. "Glad I remembered to wear a condom..." He muttered enough for everyone on the table to hear. At this Summer nearly spat out her drink along with Taiyang making L and Yang laugh very hard, holding their chests as the pain in their lungs started to burn, but they didn't care, the reactions proved to be way too entertaining, Taiyang covering Ruby's ears. Summer's eyes now looked like they were on fire. "That's not funny Leanardo! I know you're seventeen in a few days but don't be crude...you're grounded." L and Yang were still laughing, uncaring of the current situation.
"Come on, you gotta admit, that was quick even for him." Taiyang said with an amused smirk leading Summer to take a deep breathe closing her eyes. "Family meeting." The laughter eventually stopped to be replaced by groans of pain in chests and Taiyang removed his hands from Ruby's ears who was too busy eating cookies to care anyway. "Leanardo do you or do you not have a girlfriend?" Summer asked seriously. "L has a girlfriend?" Ruby asked with a slight smile. "No, I don't, I'm happily single." L said with slight amusement in his voice that was still remaining from the laughter.
"And why not?" Taiyang asked. At this L sighed and facepalmed. "It's not like I want or need a girlfriend, Yang's single to so I shouldn't be the only one getting the flak here." He crossed his arms, his voice slowly slipping into a German accent as he gets more defensive. "This isn't about Yang, this is about you." Summer said seriously."Yeah!" Yang said with a devilish smirk sticking her tongue out at him which he returned. "Look, Leanardo, myself and your mother have been having concerns about your social life, as far as we know the only friends you have are your sisters." Taiyang said. "I second this." Yang raised her hand. "Third." Ruby waved a hand holding a cookie, he looked both his parents in the eyes.
"The fact you have friends elsewhere is a good thing L but you need friends that you can talk to physically and not through a phone call, since I know you don't use social media." Summer said, L just sat there, really disliking this conversation. After a while, he sighed deeply and replied. "Maybe I'll get friends at Beacon, maybe I won't, but I'm not someone who has anything in his life that's interesting to talk about. I don't watch the news, I don't listen to 'mainstream' music and I sure as hell don't like shopping, I don't look for men or women and fashion is linear, though I can be picky." "You can say that again." Yang said emphatically. "Yang!" He listed off the reasons why he didn't socialise with other people. "I'm pretty sure any video game enthusiast wouldn't become a Hunter besides Yang and Ruby and I'm very sure I won't find someone who likes weapons as much as Ruby and even then Ruby struggles to keep up with how technical I can go." At this he pointed at Ruby who paused at the mention of her name in the midst of licking her Areo before continuing to lick after a few seconds of silence.
At this Summer and Taiyang looked at each other with a slight look of parental concern. "Next thing I know you'll attempt to get me a girlfriend or boyfriend on my birthday." He muttered, both the parents had a lightbulb instantly appear above their heads and developed mirroring smirks, knowing that they now had an idea they dropped the subject and finished their meal before going bowling, both parents sharing a telepathic agreement that even L's Psionics can't read.
"I swear you're cheating..." Ruby said with her arms crossed, eyes narrowing in a accusatory tone. "QUADRUPLE STRIKE!" The computer sounded. "He must be...somehow..." Yang sounded her agreement with the same look on her face and tone of voice. "Nope, skillz." L said whilst picking up his bowling ball again and spinning it on his finger, smirking. The sisters rolled their eyes as Yang proceeded to drag L to the side and leaving the others to have their go. "What was phone call about?" She asked. "I'm an undercover dentist." L said in deadpan sarcasm. "Why do you want to know?" He asked seriously.
"Because you only ever make that face when your 'friends' call you." Yang had a serious look on her face that was one of concern for her brother. "Please, I only want to help." She said with further concern. They made eye contact for a few seconds before L sighed, hoping he wouldn't regret this. "Heard of the White Fang?" She nodded. "Recently they've been stepping up their game and becoming an organised force and the number of members is increasing rapidly." He paused as he looked at the others. "They're starting to look like terrorists now, no doubt about that but they've been hitting Dust shipments, no one really knows why but the only reason you'd need that amount of dust would be because you're trying to raise an army." Yang's look of concern grew slightly.
"Was there actually good news or was that acting again?" She asked. "Yes, there was, within the next week we'll have people on every shipment for the Schnee Dust Company which seems to be the most common hit whilst in transit, hopefully we can figure out strike patterns and send it out to the governments or something." L said with a small smile on his face, he put a hand on Yang's shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Don't worry 'bout it, we've got things in hand, just need to line up the shot." Yang's smile came back at the reassurance. "Let me know if I can help with anything, I mean anything, okay?" She said in an almost motherly tone eliciting L's smile to grow and nod. "It's your turn." He nodded to the bowling alley making her roll her eyes and go to take her turn. "Not like I'm going to beat you." She said in an amused and slightly accusatory tone. "I'm not cheating." He responded with equal amusement.
He trusted Yang, she's almost cut out for this sort of thing, but her anger and family makes her emotionally vulnerable which meant he couldn't fully let her in to this sort of work. You can't have emotional weakness, which is why Orphans were preferable, no family to kidnap or threaten, less emotional weakness, sometimes due to the position of the Agent or their skill level this can be overlooked. Though considering the level of secrecy on every Agents identity, it didn't seem necessary, but if anything the way that everyone was trained could be considered...well...brutal, but that doesn't matter for now, what matters is that he enjoy his time here, worry about the world later.
5 days later.
A man walks through the grey walls of an unknown area, as if it were a giant maze of concrete or a crumbling ruin, ignoring the debris and orange sky above him, a hot and dry wind makes his skin sting, reminding him that he is alive, he's hidden by a tattered and dirty cowl covering most of his face and body as he tread onwards through to the centre of these crumbling ruins where he see's a large pool of shallow water, he steps inside, uncaring of the cold he now feels inside. He can hear the roars of an old enemy challenge him in the distance behind him, he ignored their call for the moment as he takes his sword and jams it into the ground where he stands. "Terminus, huh?" His voice made him sound younger than he is, deep, but not enough to make him sound his true age.
He turns as the call of his eternal enemy sounds again, this time closer. He smirked as he removed the cowl, revealing a man, he looked like he was in his mid twenties, if you removed the dirt and roughness of his normally smooth skin, his right arm missing bits of skin, revealing burnt bits of steel grey metal, his clothing is torn and bloody, burns on most of it, his shirt is barely holding together, it should be white, but instead it is grey, the blue jeans with large holes on them and bits of metal strapped on for extra protection, no shoes or socks to speak of, just dirty and bruised feet.
A third time the call sounds and he can see a sea of black and orange rush towards him in the distance. "Too slow." He said as he and the water he stands in starts to turn white, he closes his eyes as he feels all that he is slowly fade away, be taken and spread throughout the ether of everything, he can hear his heart slow, as the hot and cold of the air leave his nerves baron, he can feel nothing but the welcoming arms of death as worlds, star systems, galaxies and universes alike are shrouded in a cleansing ray of white. As everything is adsorbed and condensed into one tiny ball, it starts all over again, as a silent explosion releases what remains of the energy of existence creating basic elements, the beginning of everything all over again.
His eyes snap open as his ears are assaulted by a loud noise originating from an air horn, which was promptly crushed by his right hand. "Get out of beeeeeeeed!" Sounded Ruby as she started jumping on his bed making a whole range of different poses whilst doing so. "Ruby...go away..." L said groggily as he slammed his face into his pillow, not liking the fact he was interrupted by one of the best feelings in existence which could only be described in his opinion as Heavenly, even if it was a dream, people like him have the unfortunate gift of remembering nearly everything, comes with having to memorize what you did in God knows how many previous lives ago.
"But I'm boooooooooorrrrrreeeeeed." Ruby said with an obviously bored tone and a minor pout. He pulled a pillow over his face at which Ruby narrowed her eyes and grumbled as she went into Yang's room to grab one of her shotgun rounds and place it on top of the pillow before sitting down at the other side of the corridor holding Crescent Rose in rifle form, taking careful aim whilst smirking at her plan.
What's she up to?... L thought to himself, he knew Ruby was bored, kind of obvious, but she never went quiet unless she was- BANG and suddenly he could see the ceiling, the innards of his pillow looked burnt to a crisp, he slowly sat up and turned to Ruby who has hiding Crescent Rose behind her back with an innocent smile on her face. "I regret teaching you that." "Teaching me what?" Ruby asked with an even more innocent look on her face. "What do you want?" He asked, suddenly awake sounding due to having an explosive bullet almost burning his face off.
Step one complete! Ruby internally smirked to herself. "Get dressed, I want you to see if I've done this correctly." She said in a perfectly normal voice, he narrowed his eyes at her for half a second. "Done what?..." He asked suspiciously whilst he closed the door and put on the rest of his clothing. "The puzzle you gave me yesterday, Ruberx Cube? After that I want you to teach me a combo on Alive or Dead!" She said excitedly and tapping the floor with her left foot rapidly, a couple seconds afterwards, L steps out putting on a pair of finger-less gloves whilst still wearing the same outfit as he ever did. "Alright, show me." He said with a warm smile on his face, she giggled and ran downstairs where he couldn't see her, she gave someone the thumbs up as L started to walk to the top of the staircase.
He stepped down the staircase to have "SURPRISE!" Assault his ears making him cover them as he fell to the floor like a plank of wood. "ow." He squeaked out as everyone in the room laughed. Ruby dragged him to his feet before Zwei could jump at him. At which point L looked at everyone in the room; Yang, Ruby, Tai, Summer, Qrow...zwei...a few of Yang and Ruby's friends he'd guess and a few other people he didn't recognise, he never really payed them any mind, he only had to have a word with one of them for trying to flirt with Yang much to Yang's amusement, what amused her further though was the pale face of the boy who tried to flirt with Yang after L had a word with him, definitely not threatening him in any way shape or form. (WARNING: No, really, descriptive threat ahead.)
Okay maybe he threatened them a bit, but he's a very protective brother. 'If you are not careful on what your next ten words are, I will use my claws to cut out your testicles and replace your eyes with them so you can watch as I strip the skin off your manhood and set it on fire whilst the rest of your body calcinates like a fucking piece of rotten bacon.' (- L Stason 2016, Don't say I didn't warn you.) The boys reaction to his protectiveness and sadistic grin that nearly reached his forehead was to be scared, very scared and he was careful with the next ten words which turned into 'uhhumderr' so he wasn't going to die, yet, luckily enough he only remained traumatized for six months.
"Happy birthday!" Ruby giggled at which point he roughed her hair. Even though he saw birthdays as pointless it was a time where everyone was happy so why not let it slide? He smiled at everyone. "You didn't have to, no, really, you didn't." He said with an amused smile. "Yeah well, you guys do it to me so I figured I'd do it to you." Qrow said with a smirk and punched his arm only to shake his hand a bit, realising a little too late that the arm he just punched was the arm that felt like it was made of metal, Qrow learned very quickly that you needed to dodge NOT block the right arm and hand since it could probably give people even with the highest amounts of Aura a concussion in his opinion, though alcohol does cause a little memory loss for him, which proved to be unfortunate for him in some sparring matches.
"Sit down! Sit down!" Summer said excitedly. He walked slowly to his seat, still suspicious that something was different this year, Ruby showed her usual excitement but it was much more evident than usual and had amusement behind it, Yang radiated it as much as everyone else, Yang was like a beacon with her emotions, thankfully in some scenarios. "I made that Victoria Sponge you showed me how to make." Summer said and suddenly all suspicions left his mind as he sat down waiting patiently like a cat sitting next to their food bowl, only this would be more heavenly.
His eyes widened to dinner plates and he struggled not to have his mouth water as a massive Victoria sponge cake was placed in front of him with 17 candles on it in a neat line, each of them were lit. As those around him sang happy birthday, he decided he would show off today. As they finished he closed his eyes for three seconds, counting them in his mind and opened them, his eyes in their purple slits but this time they seemed to radiate heat as the flames on the candles started to hover without their wicks, everyone watched in awe as the flames combined and slowly drifted towards L who held out a hand, the flame traveled to his hand and as it landed, the flame flickered on his hand and slowly shaped itself into almost exact carvings of everyone in the room besides L.
"Woah..." Was the only thing Yang could say and that pretty much summed up everyone's thoughts as the flames went back to the candles and then flickered out as L puffed a little towards the flames, his eyes slowly turning to their usual brown. "Is that what you wished for or did you do that with your Semblance?" One of Yangs friends asked. "Honestly..." L smirked. "That would be telling." His voice carried his amusement as he held his favourite knife that came from seemingly nothing (Imagine the Jokers knife.) and started cutting slices for everyone, no one else questioned what just transpired but silently wondered at what just happened.
He gave each of them a slice and stepped over to the MP3 dock, then stuck his scroll on it which started playing music from his dimension, music that no one had heard of yet he knew they would like before removing it, leaving the dock to play the downloaded music. (I'll leave the music up to you.) And so the party began, people eating cake and laughing, making him smile warmly to himself as he leaned into the dark where he knew he'd be invisible, pulling up his hood so his hair wouldn't be a beacon. Today will be a good day. He thought to himself as he silently waffled down his favourite cake combined with Summer's natural talent for making confectionery, it was God's gift to Earth...Remnant...whatever, the spongy pastry could be considered gold as its soft top is covered in a light layer of sugar and a couple of succulent strawberry's, with the perfect split between cream and jam in the centre that lit up your taste buds. (*mouth waters* Whhhhhhyyyyy)
Soon enough he found his moment of euphoria interrupted by his scroll which rang and vibrated in as annoying way as seemingly possible, he answered it immediately. "Who are ya and waddaya want?" He asked. "Don't 'who are ya' me it's your mother." He chuckled. "Don't laugh, it's not funny, now come into the garden from wherever you are." He could hear her smile and automatically replied. "Love you to." She hung up as he exited the house and into the garden, he was about halfway across when he saw his parents having a conversation with another pair of adults and a...girl around...his...age...uh oh.
He attempted to look for an exit only to be slowly dragged over to the area by the ear by Summer. He could see Qrow leaning against the house giving L a half sympathetic and half a 'go get em tiger!' look. As he took a bite out of his cake, and frowned, his face turned into a smile however as he poured whiskey on the cake making L roll his eyes at him before he was placed in front of an incredibly cute bunny Faunus, her hair and Bunny ears are dark brown and her eyes are a deep ocean blue, with a smooth pale complexion.
"Okay, now I know it's your day today, but you're going to do something called 'socialising' where you speak to another person because you can, someone like this little cutie here, now have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't." Taiyang said in with clear amusement and sarcasm making the girl in front of him blush, he raised an eyebrow at him as they each walked away leaving him with the kawaii bunny Faunus. "There isn't alot he wouldn't do anyway..." L muttered with amusement hidden in his voice. "...I heard that!" Taiyang exclaimed from a distance.
He turned his head back to the lady in front of him. "Let me guess, you were forced to come here without warning because our parents had a conversation about us meeting which was muffled slightly because you were in your bedroom." She nodded an affirmative, still blushing. "Right, I understand, please, sit." He offered her a seat which she took gracefully, leading him to sit down also. "So, what's your name?" L asked with a warm smile. "S-sophia, Sophia Scarlatina." She spoke nervously, almost timid in a way but it only added to the cute factor. "W-what's yours?" She asks with an adorable smile. "Leanardo Stason, call me L, everyone I know does."
"All of your friends?" She asks, she notices his almost sad smile as he replies. "I don't have friends, believe it or not." She gestures to everyone in the garden. "Aren't these your friends?" He lets out a short and sad chuckle. "No, they're all my sisters friends, both of them, everyone here knows my name though nobody would want to become a friend of mine." She raises her eyebrow. "Why not? I do!" She says with a warm smile that makes his heart go a little faster, leading his eyes to light up their trademark purple as a reaction, she rubs the back of her neck blushing in embarrassment as she realises what she said and that she said it out loud, but as she saw his eyes she almost seemed lost in them.
"Wow." She whispers as she gazes into his eyes in wonder. "You're...a Faunus?" She asked questioning her own question. "Yeah, not obvious, but word got around in my school and since I'm a perfect student people think I'm above their league, in combat, true, socially, not so much, I'm a person to, with feelings and weaknesses, though they aren't obvious." He said with a light smile on his face. "I used to be bullied at school, you can guess why." she said as she looked down sadly her ears flopping downwards slightly. "Never fought back?" She looked into his eyes. "No, not until I kicked one of my bullies in the head, he didn't get back up for a few hours." She looked down sadly again, seemingly regretting the action.
But her eyes widened when she felt a hand place itself on her shoulder. "You did the right thing." She looked into his eyes in surprise. "Three weeks in my parents were called in because I floored four older kids that were trying to pick on me, at first it was name calling but I used it against them so they tried to get physical, emphasis on try." He said with a light smile. "I believe that if you have enemies, that's good, it means you've stood for what you believe in whether it be right or wrong atleast once in your life and that alone is something to be commended." She looked thoughtful at this and nodded to herself.
"That's true, but what about violence?" She asks. "One sword keeps another in its sheath, sometimes the threat of violence alone is a deterrent, sometimes by taking a life, others can be preserved. It's the code an ancient order of warriors known as Samurai lived by, and it is one I to believe in, it is the same thing with torture, it is not actual torture that gets someone to speak, but rather the threat of torture or death, the only time it is necessary is when everything else has been expended." He explained, leading Sophia to nod in understanding.
"If you don't mind my asking, if you're a Faunus then what about your family?" She asks shyly. "Ah, I'm adopted, my mother and father found me in the forest where a couple hordes or three were attacking me. I was six going on seven at the time." He explained, she nodded, interested in this line of conversation so he continued. "By the time they arrived I killed most of the first horde by myself, when they asked me whether or not I was okay they miss-took me for a short adult, considering I could hold my own against a horde of Grimm I'm not surprised, I didn't answer and just charged at another horde that was emerging from one end of the clearing." She smiled a little.
"You held off the horde on your own when you were a child? When the next two came along they saved you didn't they?" She asked with a skeptical tone, he chuckled. "Nope, the third horde came from behind and surrounded us, I got seperated from them as my now Mother was critically injured, I destroyed both hordes and brought them to a hospital and as a thank you and because I had no one else, they took me in and here we are." He said with a smile on his face, she raised an eyebrow. "You saved them?" She was still skeptical which he could understand, he would be to. "Ask, my parents if you don't believe me." He said with a smirk, she shook her head with a smile on her face.
"Would you like me to teach you a few things?" She tilts her head. "Self-defence." She looks hesitant for a minute but he patiently awaits her answer. "Okay." She shrugs slightly with a smile, her ears perking back up, he blinks at that. "Wait...you just went from hesitant to completely fine." L said slightly confused, she giggled nervously. "Well, I am nervous, but I know you won't hurt me, besides, I already know a little from my older sister." And there's the shy tone at the end that makes her so cute. "You're cute when you're shy." He says as he chuckles, proceeding to make her turn into a Faunus version of a tomato.
He offers her a hand which she gratefully accepts as they walk to a more open area. "Soooo, what martial arts do you know?" She asks with that shy voice again. "All of them, I think." She raises an eyebrow at him. "No, really, even have favourites for showing off and favourites for combat." He says with a smile, completely honest. "Favourites for showing off?" He nods with a small chuckle. "What's you favourite for that then?" He smirks as he leans back a little, stumbling like drunkard holding his fists up, she raises her eyebrows at him. "Zui Quan, Drunken Fist, it has the most unique bodily movement in the ones I know." She crosses her arms at him. "I find it very hard to believe that's a martial art at all..." She says whilst unimpressed until he starts showing her different techniques that honestly make him look like he's drunk, but she could see how the movements could enhance the chance of dodging or blocking.
They spent the next hour or so practicing a mixture Muay Thai and Capoeira, because he figured why not, she'd adapted very well so far, but the practice was interrupted by Yang who literally appeared out of nowhere, standing next to L as he watched Sophia perform every form he'd taught her for any mistakes. "Never seen this before." Both of them jumped out of their skins leading Yang to laugh. "Yang...never do that again." He said in a un-amused voice. "Sure, sure, what are you two lover birds doing out here by yourselves?" At this L turns to a now incredibly shy Sophia. "Sophia this is Yang, Yang this is Sophia, Yang is my sister and I'm teaching Sophia to use her legs like I taught you to use your fists." Yang smirks. "Teaching her to use her legs huh?" She smirked wider at the innuendo.
"Yang, don't you da-" ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...His scroll was going off, he sighed audibly at the caller ID. "Excuse me..." He says as he walks into the forest to answer the phone. "Fade." "Fade, it's Blizzard, we have a development, sleepers have passed information to us that we find...interesting..." Blizzard says. "Speak." "A very well known horned member of the White Fang has plans to heist a train in a few days, he is only bringing one other member with him." L's eyes widened a little. "Are we sure this is accurate?" L asked seriously. "One hundred percent sure, this information comes from his diary and plans for a train were found alongside them." Blizzard confirmed this half good news. "Excellent, have the pair be fully armed and operational, I want to see him dead or captured, I don't want to intervene myself if I don't have to." "Understood." He/she hung up at which point L put his scroll away with a thoughtful smile on his face and walked back to the others.
"Oooooooh so you do like him?" He could hear Yang saying in a teasing tone and Sophia stuttering. "Yang don't be mean, she's known me for an hour and a half." Yang half pouted, crossing her arms. "Mom wants you two back, she says it's time to open your presents." She says in a casual tone. "Whaaaat? The only presents I need are more Victoria sponge and Sophia here." he points at a now tomato Faunus standing next to him. Yang was giggling and cracking jokes all the way back to the house with the two friends. L thinking more about what HE would be doing on his own...unless he's going with his girlfriend...that, that's an idea. Time to go Hunting.
Psionics - Psionics, are the inherent ability to alter reality itself with the mind. Most abilities being boiled down to Telekinesis or Telepathy, advanced training with Psionic users focuses more on the manipulation of organic and non-organic minds, including complete control of ones body or subtle manipulation such as; inflicting pain on small scale or a Psionic worm that switches on and off and allows you control of that person whenever you need to on a large scale. Another ability is relating more to extra sensory perception is to sense the electromagnetic signals the brain gives off as a passive ability, allowing them to sense organics nearby, read their thoughts based on the electronic pattern and search their memories as well as add and edit memories as they please, though adding and editing memories is a very advanced and almost masterful concept, also allowing them to show memories or complex thoughts through short distances or direct skin contact, most advanced users can transfer memories and complex thoughts through skin contact whilst others deem it not useful. Psionics are much more draining however when used on non-organic matter as they require more effort to focus on, and as a result take up more energy on an already taxing ability. Master users include: D Stason. Advanced users include: L Stason A Stason and Someone on Remnant. (No spoilers!)
Red Shift: Psychological and physical effects - When Red Shift energy piles up in the user, the user starts to loose a hold on their sanity until their physical body is completely obliterated from an overwhelming amount of energy that their atoms simply cannot hold, those who have used Red Shift energy in high loads frequently, become more adapted to it and are able to hold more energy without having their atomic structure be completely obliterated, but the slowly draining sanity is still present as a psychological issue as well as glowing red and white eyes, anger, mania, strength, and sometimes the skin burns away by Red Shift energy in shavings as the users body becomes more unstable and a deeper or demonic sounding voice.
Nice one Mr. Smooth, anyway we hope you guys have enjoyed, please give us feedback on what we can do better and when we're back, we'll read everything, or if you generally want to suggest a pairing which we Need right now or if you just want banter that's fine to, L is pretty much an older version of Yang when he isn't in the H war, acts like it to.
May have to re-write the Introduction as well, along with that tell me what you think of the writing stile, blocky paragraphs or streamlined sentences? Because this is over10,000 words on a 7-8,000 page length.
We hope you guys and gals have enjoyed and we'll see yooooouuuuu in the next chapter, BYE BYE!
Commence outro: CanCan by Offenbach.