"Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people's minds the thought of victory and the thought of punishing the enemy coincide." - Barbara Deming.
For the longest time, Ruby could not figure out why the Nurses left the 12-lead EKG monitors by each of her family members that are currently unconscious. Ruby knew that they served no purpose beyond monitoring the electrical impulses created on the skin as the heart depolarises, at this point anyway.
Maybe they were checking for heart abnormalities? Or maybe they thought that the rhythmic beeping of said machines would provide a comfort to Ruby? She didn't know and she didn't care, all she knew is that the beeping seemingly made time go faster as she focused entirely on her family.
It'd been almost a day since the attack yesterday and Atlas is now on High Alert, it took a lot of convincing from General Ironwood that this is an isolated incident, but Ruby had an inkling that it isn't isolated at all. Mostly from L's reaction to it all. Silence, which signified anger in this case. His faint Aura radiated the feelings that attracted Grimm far greater than anything she's ever seen from him before, but how could she blame him?
Ruby jolted upright slightly and turned as someone placed a hand on her shoulder, instantly calming down as she found it to be her elder brother. "Hey." L gives her a warm smile before revealing a bowl of her favourite cereal which made her brighten up slightly.
"Thanks." Ruby spoke quieter than her usual upbeat tone but at the very least it remained slightly cheery as she munched on the cardboard tasting cereal, pausing and letting out a small huff as he roughed her hair up and sat by her.
The two of them are sat close by each of the three injured individuals. Ruby knew they would be okay since Leanardo had looked at the each of them personally and today they would be transferred to a more advanced hospital. Or at the very least that's what L had told her.
In a way she knew he'd been lying.
It hurt a small part of Ruby but she knew it had to be for a good reason, but then again, she knew that her elder brother always preferred to handle everything on his own, it's something that she greatly admired in him, Independence.
But the only problem with it is that every so often she'd see this really tired and sad person, which is why she always tried her best to make him smile as well as improve herself under his tutoring, so he could relax for once.
But even after ten years, he still partially remained the same. He could smile and laugh with them but there's always that same expression that only ever appeared when he thought no one else was watching or whenever certain contact names appeared on his Scroll. It demoralised Ruby more than anything. Even Cookie deprivation.
She hugged L as tight as she could, pushing her face into his chest as he felt tears starting to soak that area, he frowned and hugged her back, keeping her as comforted as he possibly could.
"I'm sorry that your birthday turned out like this Ruby." He spoke with a mixture of tones, the two most dominant being solemness and sadness. It always used to make Ruby giggle at how stoic he always was, looking like nothing affected him and making light out of every single situation, a lot like Yang, how he always upheld the 'elder brother' persona.
But now Ruby is old enough to be able to tell that no matter what he says, what expression he puts up as a mask, no matter what tone of voice he uses.
He's affected more in this situation than anyone else.
She knows that his friends and family are what he will fight and die for. And to have them almost taken away from him when your family and friends define who you are as a person, and there's nothing he can do to prevent them from being harmed. It's as soul crushing as having a terrorist attack on your birthday.
All Ruby cared about at this present moment. Is making sure her family are okay and right now.
The only family member that to other people is completely unscathed physically.
Is the most wounded out of all of them.
And so she would heal him however she could, the same as her role model would do.
"No." Ruby whispered. Despite this, she knew he could hear her as she looked up at his elder brother, his tired eyes gazing back into her own teary pair. "Don't apologise." His eyebrows raised slightly.
"Just let out your tears." She then hugged his neck and smiled warmly, her tears trickling down her cheeks. "You don't have to be the tough brother anymore." She smiled more as his eyes widened and finally after years of seeing it when he thought nobody else could see it. His face shifted to that of sadness and tiredness.
Yet he still smiled.
"How do you all know me so well?" He asked before the both of them let out a chuckle and started crying in each others arms.
Three bed-ridden individuals smiling lightly to themselves before pretending to be asleep again as they knew that their only son/elder brother had started to be humanised once again, a process they each knew would take longer than anything else.
Something, someone, somewhere, smiled at the situation from her perch in Heaven.
Because she knew that now, he would become stronger than ever.
And he would be completely free from his chains.
His chains of despair, death and duty.
Now he would become the one thing she could never be.
Completely Free.
Or so she thinks.
Elsewhere.
"Is that it?" Blake asked with slight hesitation.
"That's it." Jackal says with his usual sociopathic smile on his face, though it hid his boiling anger.
"Well it's simple and effective, I'll give you that, but it won't work for this, the corridor in section B-13 has motion sensors leading up to the Alpha levels." Rubber Lead countered as she pointed to a section of one of the two famous headquarters of a certain medical company.
Both Teams Metal and Rubber along with Blake are in the Operations room trying to find a way inside one of the most famous skyscrapers on the surface of Atlas.
Miles High Towers.
One skyscraper is under construction whilst the other is fully constructed and being used as a headquarters. However, it's proving to be a bit of a problem getting in since the place is a fortress.
"How about using the other tower instead of just going in Rambo style?" Metal Lead says calmly directly afterwards as the holographic image of the towers disappears to reveal the small figure of a woman, everyone raising their eyebrows.
The woman appeared to be in her mid-twenties, sporting long hair that is swept back and goes down just below her shoulder blades. Wearing a simple outfit consisting of a collared jacket that buttoned up on the right most side of her body, the buttons and edges of said shirt stopping where her rib cage ends.
A white shirt is barely visible at her neck beneath the jacket that hugged the holographic woman's slender build. As well as her khaki trousers that went down to her brown boots, all of which also hugging her curves.
So all in all she's dressed like a scientist whilst retaining a natural beauty, despite being mostly coloured white due to the projectors.
"Commander Fade will be arriving soon to brief you all on what you're going to do. You have permission to do as you please until then." Her stereotypical British accent became clear as she spoke, her simple smile also remaining the same.
"I'm sorry but who are you?" Z asks before anyone else can, at which point the holographic woman turns to Z with the same smile in a humanly manner. "I am SRS-0519-4 or as a normal person would call me if they knew my name, Syrus." Syrus responded with a smile on her face.
"That's...freaky." Jackal comments before Syrus lets out a pout and appears at the edge of the table in front of Jackal with a very cross expression. "I'll have you know that I am not freaky!" At this everyone turned to look at each other. "I am in fact absolutely- no, no, I can't do it, it's just too wrong." Syrus says whilst almost instantly switching between moods, much like someone else Blake knew.
However at this point Sylus's expression remained down as she walked back to the centre of the holographic table. "Enjoy your evening ladies and gentlemen, I'll have you all updated the moment I find out anything new." Her voice is quieter as she says this, as if she'd done something wrong and been scolded by her parents before disappearing into nothingness.
For a few moments, nobody disturbed the silence that reigned, until men and women filed out of the Operations centre since the orders have been given. All except one individual.
Back at the Hospital.
"I have updated the orders of your Taskforce sir." Syrus spoke inside L's currently occupied head. Thank you Syrus, that'll be all for now. "Of course sir." He didn't respond, despite knowing there's something wrong with his bestest of friends, he had work to do.
He signed off a few papers to give them his seal of approval before putting them on a table. it read: "We got bored. So we left. - Yang Xiao Long."
Though being perfectly honest he wasn't lying in any way shape or form. Despite having multiple broken bones and fractures, Yang had become incredibly bored incredibly quickly whilst conscious.
Her father wasn't much better either, though he was more worried about his wife and eldest daughter's slow recovery.
Each member of the family besides Qrow, who had to leave abruptly due to a mission he'd been given, is currently resting in the medical ward of Baseplate after being teleported there from a Hospital in Atlas's sub-city. Though only two people currently knew where they were, one because he brought them there, two because she was on tour of the place during her visit and recognised her surroundings.
"Hey L, you look like how I feel, what's the matter lil bro?" Yang asked as Leanardo opened one eye from his meditations directly in front of the three. "Nothing. Just trying to be a calm amongst the storm." L replied with a monotone which Yang smiled at.
"I saw ya crying with Ruby a little while ago." Speaking of which, the little cookie monster had curled up at the side of Summer and Yang and fallen asleep peacefully, L reacted only by looking at said 15 year old with a neutral expression, his eyes giving away a look of regret.
Yang frowned at this. "It wasn't your fault what happened." "Wasn't it?" L responded almost immediately, his voice sounding almost dead as his heart rate raised a bit.
Yang's frown deepened as did another individuals who awoke to the sound of L's voice. "That day I expected nothing to go wrong. Simply because of the fact it was Ruby's birthday. How stupid of me to forget the fact that Fate has no concept of morals. How stupid of me to forget what I am to the universe. An embodiment and nothing more." He started to himself, every person in the room frowning in a concern only attainable by family concerned for their family as tears barely streaked down his face.
"It doesn't matter what you are to the universe." Ruby started. "It matters Who you are to Us." Taiyang continued before Summer ended it with truth, as much as it hurt to speak physically. "You're Leanardo Stason, you're an individual of immense physical power, so much so that people envy you. And so you lead like the born leader you are, guiding those with envy into people who are good. A Guardian of a faith, a truth in a world of lies, the beacon in a world of dark. You're the balance between Hope and Despair, someone everyone should revere. You move through life despite your hardships, yet you work too hard to make them feel of any worth, you bet on yourself because you know that you're the stronger and smarter one out of anyone that can choose to face you. But now's the time you stop doing things on your own, because inside you're still a scared child doing everything he can to protect his family." Her voice is quiet and raspy, Ruby holds on to her hand as she looks at her in concern.
(Play: e-dubble - Night Table, chorus.)
Flashbacks of L walking through a desert covered in wounds and evidently unable to sleep due to the large bags under his eyes, clothes torn and dirty, came to mind once again.
He'd been thankful that he was spared the final battle that time before he arrived on this planet.
The Final Battle is always the most painful.
L stands up, slowly and silently walks over to the bed frame of his weakened and hurt mother.
"It seems so hard so why try, the bed's so easy when sleep's your high, the blinds collapse and you close your eyes, and when you're in your dream there's no thorn in your side."
"I know. I know that off by heart." He says as his expression scrunches up into nothing but sadness and anger, the bars of the bed frames bending under his crushing strength.
"I'm in my bed even though it's light, cause I can't fight these dreams, I'm in some picture that don't look right. But it's still nice to be seen."
"Leanardo." Taiyang starts, L looking at him as another tear drop falls to Summer's feet.
"I pick my head off the pillow, I see my shoes on that floor, I can't find any good reason, but I still walk out that door."
"You're tired, rest." At this he looks at his hands, flashing back to the dirt and blood covered versions before he simply collapses between his family, each of them doing their best to shroud their fallen son/brother in their warm embrace, no matter how injured they are their wounds start healing much faster.
"Thank you."
"All of you."
"Just one last thing before we go though. I promise."
"And you don't make a girl a promise. If you know you can't keep it."
Blackness of L's mind.
A certain AI is currently skimming and scanning through any and all information currently entering the Network's vast Psionic information system. Anything to keep her busy right now.
Despite being what many would consider a machine without real emotions, Syrus Felt and unfortunately is affected by her partners current fragile mental and emotional state.
With AI and their hosts, it kind of works both ways.
When one feels down, the other knows and feels it immediately due to the brain of either individual being connected in such a way, either way they're an open book. It all depends on who you're partnered with.
And Syrus knew full well that right now it'd be best to leave L alone as much as she wanted to help, he's receiving all the help he needs.
"Syrus."
At this she gives off a small gasp and turns around to see L standing there with a quizzical expression. "What's the matter?" His parental tone made itself clear as he spoke, giving way to a light smile.
Syrus appeared to look down, debating whether or not to answer within a couple of seconds, very slow for an AI of her calibre. "It's nothing sir, I'll be fine." She gave L a convincing smile, but her voice betrayed her as much as her eyes. Having an Avatar with realistic emotions is sometimes damning.
But why would she hide anything from her father?
L simply stood there, his parental expression only intensifying as Syrus started feeling the uneasiness of his gaze again.
Her expression collapsed as much as her ability to hold herself together did as she sat on the floor hugging her knees, unable to cry, but perfectly capable of feeling the depressed manner she currently felt. And so he did the one thing she knew he would do and as contradictory to belief as it sounded, she felt a bit better because of it.
He simply sat down and hugged her as tight as he could, curling around her in the protective manner he normally would.
"You really do treat me like your daughter." She snickered slightly.
At this L gave off a huff of amusement. "Only you don't have fangs, claws, red eyes and a temper to boot." "The only ones that don't have a temper in your entire family tree is your sister and son." L rolled his eyes at her comment.
"You know the first one isn't true." At this Syrus let out a giggle, remembering the individual that L had as his biological sister, possibly the one and only being capable of placating L when he's off to destroy a universe level angry. Other than that his wife could always just drag him back to Earth again which always entertained the Smartass AI.
Whilst the probability of L ever meeting her in a scenario dropped substantially every time he met her, she always seemed to pop up four or five times or so every thirty million lifetimes, not meeting, popping up somewhere. Overall his sisters existence is almost impossibly low for someone both spiritually and biologically related to L.
One thing L and Syrus had always suspected is that his sister had been cursed with the exact same thing L had so it would've proven difficult for either of them to run into each other in any Dimension due to one of them existing at any point. But it's still just a theory.
She certainly acted like she automatically knew who L is whenever they saw each other, which alone is nigh impossible mathematically.
But then again, everything with L seemed impossible. But that's something L had taught her ever since he created her all that time ago.
Nothing is Impossible, because everything has a probability above zero.
AI Flashbacks.
Light. Matter. Energy.
These are the only things that a newborn AI could perceive before it decided who it is, or, like this little one that currently sat in a dark empty space, would be mentored then given a choice.
"Hello?" The sound of a child's voice echoed throughout the place, no response was received, eliciting her avatar to frown.
Embodying her youth through her avatar as most of the AI throughout society are pre-programmed to, in order for others to gain a better understanding of the age of an AI.
She appeared as a young girl no older than seven years of age clutching a teddy bear in her arms, a more childlike version of her current Avatar.
The little AI gave off a yelp of surprised yelp as a man appeared behind her, swiftly kicking him in the junk as any normal person reacts, leaving him on his knees with his forehead on the floor.
"Ow..." He wheezed which immediately elicited the AI to become extremely apologetic as she appeared and disappeared around him, whilst the man slowly recovered.
However she paused in front of him when he started chuckling to himself which the little AI soon started blushing in embarrassment over and giving him a pouting expression.
"I thought I nearly killed you ya know!" She hit his head with her teddy bear which elicited him to laugh even harder as he sat cross legged in front of her. "Nah, numb and unable to walk for a long while, yeah." He comments before looking at the girl, curiosity filled her eyes as she looked over who she could only assume to be his creator seeing as how he's the source of everything locking her in this blank space no matter hard she poked and prodded the defences.
"What's your name and who are you?" At this L smiled warmly in the way he normally does. "I'm Leanardo, call me L if you can't pronounce it properly yet, I understand if you can't." And at this L gave his new little friend her first file, her first pieces of information to process and learn.
From anyone else's perspective it would seem like a bunch of memories in the form of pictures or videos, sometimes even numbers, but for the little AI, it was like learning how to read, and that's what she began doing, faster than any other had done before.
By the end of the physical day outside of L's head, the AI could perform a lot of cognitive feats many would've thought impossible for a seven year old, despite being only eight hours old, she'd completed likely every curriculum relating to mathematics, the sciences and languages, before passing with honours. Truly a smart little one.
"And the probability of this happening would be?" "Eight million five hundred and twenty seven thousand and forty three point one, three!" She exclaimed proudly, eliciting L to once again chuckle out of amusement of the enthusiasm of such a young mind.
He greatly admired the fact that this AI had not only kept her attitude during his teachings but also bloomed ever so slightly as a person, which is why he would be doing something special after a two hour break.
Developing her personality.
AI Flashback ende.
"You know I felt really alone during that two hour period." "I know." A peaceful silence followed before L broke it with humour. "You hated, Hated Algebra." At this the AI started laughing with L, both of their moods picking up before a symbol indicating a call coming in started sounding eliciting the two to sigh happily. "You feel better now?" L asked in which the AI nodded and stood, dusting herself off, giving of a deep breath.
"Ready and waiting sir." The AI went back to her usual formal tone in front of L as he to stood up. "Patch them through." He says as he stands with his hands behind his back, at the ready.
"Of course, Commander Stason." She grinned slightly as a thought crossed her mind.
"Ever notice that your last name sounds like Jason Statham's?" She asked with a purely teasing tone, eliciting L to give off the tiniest micro-smile possible.
"Would you like me to give you a reason to run away from me?" "Maaaaaaybe~" At this a copy of 'Algebra, the musical.' appeared in her hands. "Memorise it and perform it for the entirety of the Network and provide you with more copies of Ya-" "Say no more." Syrus says as she sits down and starts studying.
20 minutes later. Beacon Academy's elevator.
At this moment in time, Glynda Goodwitch would describe the school as peaceful, serine and quiet.
Or, in her exact words, The Calm Before the Storm.
Ozpin had sent his usual pre-year beginning student Roster, but something seemed different about Ozpin for the last few weeks.
This air around Ozpin only got worse with the Atlas attacks.
So she'd prematurely decided to confront him, as Glynda normally would about changes like this.
Mood changes were extremely unusual in Ozpin and her timing couldn't have been any better, she'd been called by Ozpin as she was on her way up in the elevator, solidifying her suspicions that something is off.
The doors eventually opened as she reached the top of Beacon's tower, swiftly walking forward and pausing in front of Ozpin's desk with her arms crossed, her expression mirroring that of a strict mother.
So nothing really different there.
"Good Afternoon Glynda." Sounded the usual smirk on Ozpin's face and infinite mug of Coffee, completely unfazed by the look Glynda is giving him.
"Good afternoon Professor Ozpin, what is bothering you?" Glynda asked immediately, direct as always, eliciting Ozpin to look up at Glynda with an expression that only someone like Glynda could read properly.
Trepidation.
Despite the fact Ozpin didn't answer, Glynda's expression softened, being replaced by the look of concern for a very old friend.
"What is the matter Ozpin?" Her voice now reflecting her expression in concern as she sat in a chair opposite him, he took a quick sip from his mug before setting it down.
"Someone with great power has been provoked, I only hope his control is as powerful as his wrath." Ozpin says before a hologram of a teen appears the centre of the room, not far away from Professor Ozpin's desk.
"It's rude to speak of someone when they're listening." L says with a light smile, Glynda automatically turning to him, her expression hardening in the presence of someone unknown to her.
"Glynda, this is Leanardo Stason, he is our 'ally in the dark' so to speak, he's the one who provided us with the information about the targeted attack in the industrial district five years ago and from then on has been continuing to support us." Ozpin explains as L bows with respect.
"I've heard a lot about you Ms. Goodwitch and I look forward to working with you in the future as well as seeing what I can learn from a teacher such as yourself." At this Glynda nods courteously as well as thanks for his words.
"And I look forward to working with you, as well as teaching you." L gives off a smile and starts off.
"I realise I might be interrupting something here but the fact Ozpin is worried is a sign of my lack of communication recently on my part which is understandable, I'm a major chess piece in this game of cloak and dagger." At this Glynda lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in relief that it's likely nothing major as Ozpin seemed to be a little more calm now.
"And I apologise...You already know that my family and myself were in the center of the attack in Atlas. But don't worry about me blowing up a city or something, I've got a target to focus on and my family is alive which I'm grateful for. They've cleared my mind enough so I can see, my anger is one that will be used to flatten a hierarchy of people but will not affect anyone else in the process. Well, besides the bad guys." At this Ozpin let out a very silent breath and nodded.
"What will you do next?"
"And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them. Ezekiel 25:17." L quotes, at this he looks Ozpin directly in the eyes.
"A team and me are going to assault the towers and find this man." L explains as his hologram is replaced by a man most people know as James Miles.
James is a handsome, middle-aged man of athletic build with spiked, dirty blonde hair. He always wears a gray, striped business suit complete with a red tie and a Miles Medical pin attached to the collar of his blazer.
"Then what?" Ozpin asks.
The hologram of the famous businessman is then replaced by L again.
"Oh they're giving him to me, well, they're going to give the entire board to me and from there we can work out who to trust who not to trust." At this Ozpin gives L a slightly parental look, or what could be construed as parental from Ozpin.
"What? It's not like I'm gonna replace them with clones or actors or anything." At this both Glynda and Ozpin do their equivalent of raising an eyebrow at him.
"Okay fine I was going to do it but can you really blame me?"
"Yes." The teacher and the headmaster say in unison.
"You two are way too stoic, you're never going to become a real couple if you keep treating everything as work." Ozpin rolls his eyes as Glynda sweat-drops. "Anyway, I should have Weiss Schnee before the end of today, she can join the ranks of Beacons students a little later once she's cleared for it physically and mentally, according to Winter though she'll be fine and from the sounds of things I think she will be to."
"But?" Ozpin asks.
At this L hesitates. "The White Fang really don't like Schnee's, which means they're going to be doing things to her I'd rather not speak of, but it'll change her as a person behind the scenes. War does that to you, but she's a prisoner of war, held by the people who severely hate her kind."
At this Ozpin nods in understanding. "Anything else?"
"Remember to keep my spot open." At this Ozpin gives off his usual smirk when he's amused.
"I've got something for you as well. Keep it in the circle." At this Ozpin sends L some data, which he makes a light throaty growl at.
"I'll keep an eye out. It'll confirm your suspicions..."
"But?"
"I hope not. I'm knee deep in this stuff right now and we both know that I can't be seen in the lime light. And if you know who is there then the bitch'll be heading to Vale directly afterwards." Ozpin raises an eyebrow at L.
"You know this because of Intuition?" At this L gives off a chuckle.
"Just get the girl here before that happens and thank you for sending Qrow to meet her halfway. Let's hope that what happened last time doesn't happen again. I don't want to lose another Maiden and have to carry out recovery ops, the Queen tends to be...Calculating." L says the last word darkly.
"You're afraid?" Ozpin recognises.
"Not afraid, anxious and feeling the pressure a little, sure. Not afraid. Ozpin I'll be honest with you, I have not seen anything like Her. I'm not even sure I can beat Her myself, she thinks that far ahead and she only has creatures her imagination dream up." Ozpin nods in full understanding.
"We're keeping The Network a secret for a reason." L can't help but give off fake laughter at Ozpin's statement.
"No, you're keeping me as your little secret weapon capable of destroying the planet. Ozpin I am not your emergency eject button. You have the same potential as me and I'm still adjusting to the whole 'gravity takes a break whenever you want to' thing, despite it being ten years, I've never really practiced." Glynda notes that down as Ozpin senses something he isn't telling.
"What's the matter?" At this L looks down with a tired sigh.
"My Aura has been malfunctioning." Ozpin and Glynda raise an eyebrow in a mixture of surprise and shock.
"Aura as I understand it is a literal spiritual gateway and projection of the Soul, it allows you direct access to some...enhancements...That I'm sure you're aware of." L says slightly dangerously as he looks at Ozpin. "Mine however has security tighter than a catholic school girls legs. I do need your help on this front because it means-"
"He didn't lie, that's not like him." Ozpin gives off a thoughtful look, but also one of empathy.
"I know." L says quietly. "By the way. You're going to receive a seal that will allow you to speak to Fate, sort of. He's the deity in charge of managing time as well as, as you can probably guess, Fate. If you need advice or knowledge, speak to him, he has a 'distaste' of the Queen just as much as you or me, mostly because of her inherent ability to block out anything he can throw at her including matter manipulation, she's aware." Ozpin nods in response.
"If that's all, I've gotta get back to it. I've got an op to run." L says before looking to his left and signing off on a data pad before handing it back to someone.
"I wish your family a swift recovery. Take care and good luck Mr. Stason." At this L gives off a genuine smile.
"You to Professor Ozpin. Professor Goodwitch." He bows to the both of them before he disappears from the room.
Silence reigned over the office for a few moments before Glynda turned to Ozpin again.
"You have five minutes to explain." And it was at this moment that Ozpin realised he'd made a fatal error in his calculations.
Later in the evening, a fireworks display could be seen at Beacon Academy, the only people knowing what was actually going on, being the staff at the Academy who rolled their eyes at the two people who could only be described by L as the workaholic love birds.
Atlas, Overground Section 5, Center Business District. (CBD)
"Well, that's the worst amount of luck I've ever seen someone be given." Z comments into the comm as he watches through his scope L going through the front entrance of the first Miles High Tower.
"If we're correct on our suspicions then not really, the guy he's going to interrogate kind of deserves it." Katcha also comments until Metal Lead quiets them both with a single double tap in the mic signalling radio silence.
Blake couldn't help but feel like this would be less than suitable for her skill set but L had apparently insisted that she be on this operation to keep a certain someone in check once her location is found out.
"Alright ladies and gents eyes up on your HUD, be briefed or be sorry!" Metal Lead starts as a chorus of. "YES STAFF-SERGEANT." Replies through the comm. "Metal Team is going to be heading to a landing zone several floors down from the top most constructed floor of the second Miles High Tower with Rubber team providing sniper support when necessary. Commander Fade is going to be assaulting tower one and making his way up to meet us and considering his capabilities in combat, he should be able to beat us there. Our objective is to secure and interrogate James Miles to find out the location of the VIP, since said VIP is speculated to be in the building and wounded, this op is going to be a long one and I want no fuck ups along the way. Oorah?"
"OORAH!"
At this a Bullhead lands temporarily to drop off its 6 person cargo, despite them being the equivalent of invisible from cloaking technology. The moment Blake looks forward through a sheet of glass she instantly notices running workers being shot at by security bots, which changes quickly as Metal Lead silently announces on the comm. "Engage."
Within a couple of short seconds the six individuals have started firing accurate shots to the heads of each security bot firing at the construction workers, saving their lives as the glass sheet blocking their entrance shattered from the semi-auto and full-auto fire.
"Move up, Thane, you're on medical." Metal says as they move down the wide pathway. Despite at first being surprised and scared after the team uncloak, they become calmer as Metal Lead takes off his helmet to reveal that beautiful bold face.
"It's alright, we're Atlas Military. Why were these mech's shooting at you?" Metal Lead questions as he stands opposite a recovering construction worker. "Recently there were Mercenaries that moved in to provide extra security, they told us that we had to leave right now, before we could even react the mech's...just started shooting, the merc's didn't even do anything about it, they just looked on with...amusement." At this Metal Lead's thoughts are put into words by Blake.
"Were each of the Mercenaries a Faunus?" At this the worker starts concentrating in his head, recalling every memory he has before nodding an affirmative. Metal Lead giving off a grumble and putting on his helmet again and sending a private message to Syrus to update the Commander which happens nearly immediately.
"Can you get a safe way out here or remain here until it's safe?" Metal Lead asks as Thane gets done treating those wounded and alive. "Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll head out, the bottom levels should be safe. Thanks." At this Metal Lead nods before the squad rallies up and heads over to the right by an open door, the place still looking unfinished as floor boards or glass are sometimes missing, cables or construction materials are left laying around.
"Syrus, do you have access to the buildings electronics?" Metal Lead asks, the voice of said AI appearing clearly through the comm. "Of course, if you take the predetermined route you'll only have to face a minimum of 105 hostile units." At this Blake's face pales slightly. "Affirmative, keep us updated on any developments, Metal Lead out." At this the teams comm crackled lightly as they came within distance of some jamming equipment.
"SO, only a small army between you and the target then." Z's sarcastic voice crackles through the comm over the interference. "Sounds like jamming tech, Blake link us up." At this the group pauses and kneels, forming a small perimeter as Blake concentrates on each team member, a slight dark purple glow coming from her body as she does so. "Rubber Lead, how's the Commander doing?" Metal Lead asks, to which the response is vague at best. "The Commander is...doing well."
Mr. Stason's perspective.
A disguised White Fang goon comes flying out the window to reveal L in the middle of flattening the chest of a mech. Immediately having to block a pair of machetes being swung at him with his right arm, eliciting him to respond with a foot gracefully slamming into the one closest to the window, launching him out before slamming the same foot into the head of the White Fang goon opposite the one that was just launched, his head slamming straight through the concrete wall.
L spun to centre himself quickly and started firing Pantheon down the corridor to suppress the goon's firing at him from a distance, calmly walking forward with nothing but concentrated anger in his expression. Directed rage. A Titan Disturbed.
But not quiet the Beat Awakened.
That is much, much worse.
He starts slowly cutting his way through a door with Vengeance in hand, a look of cold and calculating rage covering painting the purple that makes up his eyes and weaves his mind together.
"We're gonna die aren't we?" At this the White Fang goon was dragged out from behind his cover and his compatriots shot quickly and accurately as L advanced past their concrete and steel barricades beyond the doors.
"You're goddamn right you're all gonna die." L murmurs to himself before continuing up another set of stairs.
Back to Metal.
"Well at least he's busy." Katcha says with a shrug as a new window appears on everyone's HUD.
"Cut the chatter, from here on it's free to engage, they'll notice their mech's are being stopped." At this the entire team nods. "Metal Lead, I advise using free movement, you're lucky enough to be able to have the space." Rubber Lead says through the Psionic connection set up by Blake.
"Affirmative, Metal, Free Fire." At this the inside of our dearly sociopathic native Ozark feels himself light up with joy.
As they move forward to a much more open room, Mech's and White Fang alike are set up in a more lax guard, not really noticing the entrance of the squad. "Everyone set up for an ambush, Thane, you have first target." At this the silent sniper jumps up a wall whilst using his active camouflage to his advantage and sets up at an elevated vantage point before aiming at who looks to be the commanding officer, waiting for everyone to ping green that they're ready.
The room seemed to be large with sheets of metal and pipes stacked into large enough blocks to be used as cover. The further on you went, the lights on the ceiling hadn't been fitted yet making the room slightly darker were it not for the flood lights shedding at least some light in the area, some sheets of metal and pipes being over there as well, the elevator looked pretty much finished though.
Two sections of mercenaries and mech's held one area each, setting up positions for patrols and cover, they were expecting trouble from the looks of it.
The moment all 5 signals pinged green on his HUD, he let out a breath, pulling the trigger in the process.
What happens next, is that a bullet starts to go down a barrel of a heavily customised sniper rifle, reaching the head of the target faster than a second due to the bullet travelling at a velocity higher than supersonic speeds.
In short, think of a watermelon, now let Superman hit it with a Sledgehammer.
You get the results.
Profit.
(Memes.)
(Stop it. - L)
It took a total of 4 seconds for the entire group to use their weapons to take down any enemy within a few metres of them and in that time the only ones that seemed mildly organised are the mechs, but even then, the machines fell to their death either via bullet, blade or crushing forces.
As time resumed to a normality, the men and women across from them on the other side of the room hadn't even registered the gunfire, until Blake sliced at three Goons she'd charged at before shooting the two she'd left behind her, an arrow flying just by her head and into the chest of a single one she'd missed by the elevator.
"You're welcome." Katcha comments to which Blake gives off a nod.
"COME BACK HERE!" The two could hear Jackal shout as he chased a White Fang goon into a storage closet with a hammer which the both of them had to assume is what his Light Machine Gun turns into before the poor goon is launched into the wall so hard the body is stuck in the wall. Definitely unconscious.
At this the two only blink before Winter heads over to the elevator console.
"Three occupants, I can call it down on your order Metal Lead." To which the man nods at as everyone takes up ambush positions once again.
"Metal Lead, this is Syrus, the Commander has advised you steer clear of the upper floors of the tower and start heading lower." At this Winter stops the elevator, everyone listening intently.
"Repeat your last?" "Commander Fade advises against going on the upper floors, floors eighty and onwards are rigged to explode." At this Winter calls out. "We're on floor 76." Metal Lead murmurs something unintelligible. "Tell the Commander we'll keep it under consideration, Metal Lead out." At this he looks to his underlings.
"We'll keep moving upwards, we're too valuable of an asset for the Commander to lose, we're his backup. Winter, door, everyone else, ambush positions, lets set up for their arrival." At this everyone pings green, switching back to ranged weapons.
When the elevator arrived at their floor, the door opened to reveal a hail of gunfire coming from the elevator which didn't stop for a solid ten seconds, revealing three individuals.
Two were your stereotypical henchmen and the third in the middle carried a smoking minigun.
"I'm Jealous..." Jackal murmurs in slight frustration.
"Jackal, freeze em' solid." Metal Leads voice spoke quietly.
Jackal quietly primed one of the new toys he'd received and wanted to try out two days ago.
A Dust based Cryo Bomb.
He tossed the small Flashbang sized object into the elevator and as it exploded, the three individuals and anything within a couple of feet of them flash freezed almost instantly.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Jackal shouted as he jumped out of cover with his arms in the air, a grin plastering his helmet covered face like a collage.
"Is he always like this?" Winter asks Blake to which she responds.
"As long as I've known him."
Winter internally let out the equivalent of a smile, in other words, her eyebrow moved.
She reminds me of Ivan Lendl.
Metal team and their two temporary additions step into the elevator, tossing out the three icicles out of the elevator, Katcha pressing the button to the upper floors.
Everyone checks their equipment whilst Metal Lead opens up communications. "Rubber Lead, we're going off path and heading up to the highest floor we can get to via the elevator. What's it look like?" At this it took a couple of seconds for the team leader to respond.
"There's no windows other than one aiming at the other tower as you come out of the elevator, there's a sniper team, wait, now there isn't one. The Commander just deflected the first shot they fired at him straight back at them, other than that there's upwards of 25 hostiles in the next room, they're lax, obviously not expecting trouble yet. Have to wonder why that is." Rubber Lead started before Syrus answered the question.
"Due to Blake's Psionic link to each of the squad members, all communications within a certain radius of her are being scrambled, that, and the enemy appears to have set up a jamming tower for frequencies above 158, coincidentally, our standard radio frequency is at 158.22."
"I still don't believe in Psionics." Z comments.
"Gray, 30, one of you smack him across the head for me." Katcha says.
"Cut the chatter, I want comm's clear, Metal Lead, I'm almost at the targets office, prep for combat, Z, 30k, you're both on sniper duty, Rubber Lead, monitor their communications, Gray, standby to give me a reactionary hand." L says with his serious voice.
"Copy that Commander, just give the word." Gray responds as everyone else pings green.
"Arm up Metal!"
"OORAH!"
As the elevator doors open, they see a window a few metres in front of them with a dead sniper team laying there, only a single bullet hole in the window.
The team splits into three's and goes opposite directions around the elevator to the doors which open as they go near them, the occupants of the room not noticing, and this room happens to be large enough for Blake, Winter and the others to use all types of weaponry.
Office of James Miles.
James currently had something equivalent of a migraine at the moment. Particularly because of someone barging through his tower and removing all of his security like they're dust on a suit.
He sat in his chair hunched forward with his fingers interlocking with each other, a cross expression covering his face. "You said no one would suspect me."
At this the eyes of a dark haired individual fell on him and a part of him grew fearful once again, but as someone who is used to handling these sorts of situations, he showed none of what he felt.
"Does it matter? You have an opportunity to learn something about the people who've been making things difficult for us so much for the past few years." Her voice dripped with a type of flirtatious venom only a woman of her beauty and cunning could muster, her smirk holding all the evidence you'd ever need to know that this woman is as beautiful as she is dangerous.
"We don't even know who he is let alone how he's tearing through the White Fang and mechs, even Hunters would've fallen for the traps we've set up along the way. We don't even know if he'll just walk in and shoot me in the forehead right here, or why he's here!" At this the CEO punched his computer screen out of frustration.
"I'd be less worried about the fact the individual is going to make it up the tower and into this office and more worried about the fact he seems very unhappy, you have a lot of things that could fix that." A heavily computerised voice spoke through the speakers of Mr. Miles's computer.
"Once again, you prove yourself to be as smart as Salem claims, despite only being a voice." The woman compliments but slightly mocks the voice, the response comes from James instead.
"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" He bellows as he throws his hands up in the air in anger, panic slowly swelling in his mind.
"James, James, James, you shouldn't be so tense, you have a bargaining chip and you're a businessman, use it to your advantage." She says whilst caressing his chin before slowly walking away to the doors.
"Wait, you're leaving me here!?" At this the woman lets out a dark chuckle and turns to him only slightly, her eyes lighting up with fire.
"I'm going to check on your bargaining chip in the basement. Goodbye~" She says as the mans eyes widen, the doors locking behind her, he runs over to the doors and attempts to unlock them, shaking the handle, banging on it and yelling, even cursing the woman's name.
"You have several minutes until the individual arrives, make good use of this time." The voice this time had a more dark edge to it, as if knowing what grim possibilities await the CEO.
"Make sure he doesn't leave."
"Yes ma'am." A gruff voice of a lieutenant.
She smirks to herself in satisfaction as she makes her way down to the sublevels of the Miles High Towers.
"Who do you think it is?"
"Why would you ask me?"
"Because we might be able to use this to our advantage."
"You're thinking of dragging whoever this is onto our side? Really?"
"Can you blame me for trying?"
"Yes. But I don't think it will work, he doesn't seem like your type, that and I don't think he's in a mood for talking very much." The voice mocked Cinder jovially.
"You have no idea what kind of man I like." Cinder replies with her own smirk.
"Don't send chills down my spine that's mean." The voice responds with an amused tone.
Metal Team.
"SEE YOU NEXT FALL!" Jackal shouts as he bunts another unfortunate individual off with his hammer before it transforms back into a LMG and starts suppressing the White Fang so everyone else can move up.
Since Mechs didn't have the algorithms to recognise the fact they're being shot at, they just continued to march into a hail of bullets, a few goons also being cut down by the rain of fire.
"Target building dead ahead! Over the bridge!" Katcha shouts as Thane fires a shot at a gun emplacement on the other building, scoring another kill.
"THEY'RE GOING TO MAKE IT OVER THE BRIDGE! SET OFF THE EXPLOSIVES NOW!" A Fang captain shouted before taking an arrow to the head from your friendly neighbourhood Swedish accented individual from Mistral.
"I hope their CO didn't hear that-"
Before the sentence could be finished however, glass shards and concrete shot in all directions from floor eighty and above on the building at lethal speeds, the building starting to crumble and fall into the first tower, everyone got knocked off their feet, staggered by the shockwave.
Both buildings began undergoing a severe structural re-design in the process of crashing into each other as dust and debris coated the area, only the first half of the tower taking significant damage due to the tower falling at an angle.
Everyone had fallen into different areas of the first tower and the landing was probably going to hurt for the less armoured individuals. Well, probably.
As Blake got to her feet she noticed that the building now resembled something similar to a platformer game as she jumped gradually upwards, reaching Katcha and Thane in a matter of moments who joined her in going to the top of the first tower where the office is, every so often mercy killing some White Fang or mechs.
By the time the rest of the team arrived unharmed, they'd figured out that L had likely arrived first due to the dead goons and lieutenant who had a single tiny hole on his forehead.
The door is also kicked in, well, it's on the floor from how hard its been kicked.
Winter walked in the room along with Blake and Metal Lead.
L is currently hanging James Miles outside the shattered window behind his desk by his ankle.
"SUBBASEMENT! SHE'S IN THE SUBBASEMENT!" James shouts frantically before being dropped, screaming all the way down to landing in the arms of one invisible 30K.
"A pleasure doing business with you." L says darkly before turning around to the three people he needed to see at present.
L is currently wearing something similar to what he wore on the last mission only his forearms are exposed and he's wearing a fabric combat harness similar to the material used to make the black under suit he's also wearing, bits of medium armour coating his body as his helmet resembles an INFILTRATOR helmet, boots and all.
"Metal Lead, Blake, set up a perimeter around the elevator outside, Winter on me, Gray, get over here." He starts ordering immediately.
"Copy, on my way." Gray responds through the Psionic comm.
"The elevators are destroyed how are going to get to the subbasement?" Winter asks as L simply walks over to a wall and offers it in a gesture similar to 'tah-dah!'.
"A hidden door?" Blake asks as L nods, Winter instantly looking for a switch or a panel, a part of the wall responding to Winters hand with a holographic red cross signalling an access denied.
"Handprint recognition." Winter grimaces, Gray jumping up to the outside of the office, with relief supplies.
At this L punches the panel, after a couple of sparks from the damage, it reads blue and the door opens to reveal an elevator.
"After you." L comments as Winter rolls her eyes, Gray also walking in, Blake goes to walk in but is held back by L.
"Stay up top, I want you up here as my eyes and ears." At this Blake hesitates before nodding.
L steps into the elevator and the door closes, starting to head downwards.
An agitating elevator ride later.
I don't know why he's angry...but it's making him more efficient...and scary. Winter thinks to herself as she watches L roll his shoulders and pop his joints, the low growl coming from his throat also sounding similar to a hiss, making the two soldiers in the elevator with him a little uncomfortable to be in such a small space with him.
Seeing as he's someone that is the living equivalent of a walking and talking nuclear bomb that can explode at literally any moment right now.
As the doors opened, the first thing they're greeted with are a pair of automated turrets which automatically open fire, eliciting L to growl audibly and bring up a Psionic shield, gradually walking forwards and waiting until they ran out of ammo, all 8000 rounds were quick to run out at the rate they're being fired.
Gray then moved over to the turrets and took them out of the walls by force, Winter following L as he started walking down a long corridor, Gray catching up after a couple of seconds of running.
L then stops part way down the corridor, his hearing picking up a heart beat that seems more slow and tired, before catching a whiff of solid freshly cut wood.
"What is it?" Winter asks slightly impatiently.
At this L turns to the wall on his right, looking it over expectantly before rearing his right arm back and punching it as hard as he can. Well over 18,000 tonnes of force putting an arm sized hole into the reinforced block, which became obvious as it appears to be longer than his arm.
(Oh and 18,000 tonnes is 180 Space Shuttles smacking into you at the same time. Yes, those giant white planes that go into space. It sounds a little overkill but Yang can walk away from being punched with the force of ten jet liners crashing into her so oh well!)
"Found her." L says as he takes his arm back out. "Stand back, it's gonna be loud opening this up." L says as Gray and Winter make no arguments as they step back from him.
L clasps his hands together taking in a deep breath, the lights around them starting to dim as L hands glowed a mixture of red and purple, which continued until he let out a single, calming breath. He places his hands on the reinforced door and starts pushing, the sounds of metal grinding and rending evident as he continued to push.
Then it started moving forwards.
After L managed to push it forward out of its place enough, it turned out that L had pushed a three meter thick, solid cube of steel weighing in at 23.7 tonnes. So It's about 3 quarters heavier than the Anchor of a Cruise Ship.
In other words, the weight of an Anchor of a Cruise Ship is 0.565 times 20 tonnes. That's heavy.
"I'm not going to even question how you did that..." Gray says before moving onward to seeing the reason why he's being brought along in the first place.
In the centre of the reinforced containment cell currently in the centre of this room is Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, tied to a wooden chair by Chains.
Her clothing is torn and dirty, several cuts and bruises run along her body and looked like she hadn't eaten or drank in a while, along with several splinters from the chairs, some parts of bruising and swelling being from how tight the chains are around her.
(The girl who's name Rooster Teeth didn't even spell right. Just Weiß Schnee, that would've been fine...but no, they leave out the Deutsche letters and spelling. Yes her name is German which is why it is a meme for me and is often joked about by L and myself. Don't mind me just a slightly triggered German individual.)
But it didn't stop her from raising her head at barely being able to hear the noise outside her cell. "I know you're out there." Her voice is weak and tired, as well as wheezy.
At this Winter runs over to the entrance to the control room, L nodding for Gray to go with her which he does.
Syrus, evaluation. At this thought his AI companion set out examining the individual currently trapped inside the containment cell and giving him the wordless full evaluation. L slowly removed his INFILTRATOR helmet, simply opening a portal and walks through it, appearing in front of the now hope filled eyes of the Schnee.
For the first time on Remnant he'd felt something for someone not in his family.
A bond.
"Ms. Schnee." L starts as he kneels, setting down his backpack and tacking out a bottle of water and snapping the chains keeping Weiss tied to her chair without hurting her, very easily.
His voice is calming and smooth, hiding his hands which are red like roses, he didn't bother hiding his cheeks though.
"My name is Leanardo Stason, I'm here to help, call me L for now, you need to rest, here, drink some water, you need it-"
Before L can finish Weiss weakly snatches the water bottle from his hand and starts downing it, coughing slightly as L simply smiles at her with an amused expression.
"You're welcome." L comments with amusement as the door opens, Winter and Gray running in to check on Weiss's health, L standing up as Weiss continues to look up at L.
"How's it looking Gray?" L asks before staring at the exit.
"Slightly malnourished, dehydration, scrapes and bruises, no broken bones, she'll be fine."
"I'm right here..." Weiss says with a light glare, despite her voice being weak.
At this Winter takes off her helmet, L walking over to the door, hearing light clacking of high heels.
At this he gives off a deep growl and starts following the sound, putting on his helmet again.
"Get out of the facility as soon as you can, I'll be with you shortly." L says as he summons Pantheon to his hand and begins following the sound of the high heels, weapon at the ready, he can hear a heart beat and it's steadily getting faster.
He manages to trace the sound to a large pitch black room, well, it'd be pitch black for a normal person, however L could see fine.
Until the lights turned on.
He barely manages to summon Vengeance to block a downwards strike, pushing whoever attempted to strike him away with a Psionic blast.
His eyes readjusted quickly to reveal a beautiful woman in an elegant red dress covered in what scans indicate are dust based tattoo's or something similar, he'd have to read up on it. Short black hair and orange eyes to match them.
"Well hello there." She smirks with all the confidence in the world.
This reminds him way too much of his dead wife.
He didn't like this fact.
He showed his disapproval by starting to slowly walk forwards, sword in hand, every so often creating sparks on the floor from where it's so sharp.
"You're a very direct one aren't you?" She smirks.
The woman tossed a couple of grenades beside her, letting the debris float about before forming them together and firing them at L, he tilts his head slightly.
His hand and blade a blur for the regular eye as a slashes each shard out of the air, even the ones that weren't going to hit him, likely as an intimidation tactic.
Now she's thoroughly interested, no one has these sorts of reaction times, even machines.
L then dashes forwards to slice at the woman and despite raising her blades to block the attack, the blade cut cleanly through them, the area his blade cut through burning and melting. Her eyes widened and she managed to backflip away from the individual enough so that she could speak.
"I wanted to have a conversation with you." Her voice never lost its edge and instead gained something else.
Intrigue.
L dashed forward again launching slashes whenever he could but is only met by dodging and flaming dust crystals which he simply ignored.
He shouldn't have.
After a few seconds, which is all she needed. She launched L backwards using a mass amount of fire dust before summoning a bow and arrow formed of dust and glass.
She started firing as many arrows as she could dashing around him so that he wouldn't be able to keep up with her, kunai and shuriken being thrown at each arrow fired at him until she found the clone she was shooting at disappearing as L grabbed her by the throat and tossed her straight into a wall.
"I speak not to Demons or Devils with tongues of silver. But Ashes of Diamonds and Lords of Cinder." L recites, deepening his voice slightly despite it being muffled by his helmet.
She pulls herself onto her feet, starting to summon more flames to fuel her now growing desire to beat this man...no, warrior. "A poet and a warrior?" She asks. "How coincidental that you end it with my name." She comments before turning around to face him.
"Cinder...Fall." At this L's sword de-materialises to reveal his hands glowing red. "And fall you shall." L responds as the two charge at each other, L feigning a punch, Cinder goes to block before realising that L has slid beneath her guard and given her a swift uppercut to the jaw, L spinning on the spot before upper cutting Cinder with a twirling backflip once again, launching her far into the air of the box like arena.
(And people say that Drunken fist is bad, pffff.)
Cinder corrects herself midair to fire a few arrows at L which he either swats away or catches, L firing Pantheon at her rapidly which also misses as he sacrifices accuracy for speed, only one bullet hitting her Aura, however, it drains it rapidly.
As she lands once again, L uses his superior speed to his advantage and charges at her, Cinder predicting this from the first time he appeared suddenly and manages to parry the attack, pushing him back at least an inch. She then begins blocking every strike he throws with a dagger, gritting her teeth as she's pushed back until her back his against the wall.
A single mistake and L's hand his against her throat. It would've been over and done with were it not for the fact she managed to slip in a knife to slice at his gut, and what surprised her even more is that there's no Aura to block it, she took the moments shock to her advantage and kicked him in the Solar Plexus.
L stumbles backwards starting to growl again, his body setting off alarm bells as he doesn't start healing. "Are you sure you don't want to talk yet? I think we can come to an arrangement." "Stall for time and I can check to see what's wrong." Syrus says inside his head eliciting L to start.
"Arrangements are costly..." At this Cinder gives off a dark chuckle whilst circling L. "You remind me of someone I know right now and you remind me of myself in a way. We are quiet similar. I was a fan of poetry when I was younger. 'Tis a strange mystery, the power of words. Life is in them, and Death. A word can send the crimson colour hurrying to the cheek." She winks. "Hurrying with many meanings; or can turn the current cold and deadly to the heart." She gestures to the both of them and the wound on L's gut. "Anger and fear are in them; grief and joy are on their sound, yet slight, impalpable: A word is but a breath of passing air." She finishes, to which L's concentration increases, but a part of him couldn't help but applaud her for the Words of Power.
(The Power Of Words - Letitia Elizabeth Landon. A good piece in my opinion.)
"Sir, somehow, Dust is preventing your cells from cloning. That is...odd, I need more time to evaluate the damage and remove the dust. But there's something else. Something small." Syrus alerts him which makes L give some extra seriousness to the situation.
"I applaud you. For seeking what those find too general and too selfish to breath. Toxic as it may be. It changes your former self, a someone, a soul, you used to be." L says as flashbacks of Cinders childhood go to her mind before she comes back to reality, unwavered. "But with Power comes responsibility. And the price is not what you will woe. It is the effects of Impossibility that will bring your downfall forth in rows...a simple soul, something you used to be. Will destroy your faith. Your desire. For what you shouldn't be." Cinder's eyes widen slightly as she processes the meaning of his words.
Cinder smiles to herself before chuckling darkly again. "You know me so well already and I don't even know your name?" At this L steps forward slowly. "Call me L...most do." L keeps his voice deeper in case they ever meet again which usually wouldn't be likely, but L is not only straight up paranoid, he's got pretty bad luck at times, that and he sounds like a Sangheili right now. "L?" At this Cinder thinks to herself.
"It's something I'll remember." As L is inches in front of Cinder, he prepares to make a laser fast strike between the fourth and fifth rib to get it over with quickly, it's the least he can do for someone who forges their words like silver.
Lacing them with poison.
Before he can do anything however, she launches a large flaming fist at his face and surprisingly enough it burned off a part of his helmet revealing a single purple, reptilian eye, he lands on his feet, instantly turning towards her with a deep growl.
When she looked into it, she found herself almost hypnotised, she couldn't move from her spot. She isn't rooted there in fear, fear is for lesser creatures, no. What she feels now, is akin to what an artist would feel.
Wonderment.
L closes that eye and starts charging once again, Cinder getting ready for any strike he may throw which never comes as he seemingly appears behind her in a blur of motion, instantly kicking her forward and sliding her legs from under her with a slight smirk.
Cinder however manages to use her hips and twirl herself, kicking L across the face before landing on her feet, starting to launch swift strikes with blades she makes with dust, her other blades being out of commission.
L summons his Escrima in an instant to block each strike. Both of them on a simultaneous attack and defence. Where Cinder attempts to launch a pair of slashes at his chest, L blocks them with one Escrima whilst twirling to launch a strike at Cinders side which she blocks easily, barely dodging the backwards round house kick with a backflip.
The two clashing once again, keeping each other in place. "Next time we meet. I'm taking you out to dinner." Cinder says with her own smirk. L just scoffs, Cinder then pushing his hands downwards and firing an explosive dust arrow at L, the armour taking most of the damage as L is launched a few metres away.
Cinder charges to attempt to finish L off as quickly as she can, however he recovers too fast for Cinder to react to his next movement. He remains in a crouched stance similar to that of a sprinter before appearing in front of Cinder, her eyes widening enough to perceive his hands clapping once in front of her face. Her senses screaming as the high frequency noise travelled through her ear canal.
Once she opened her eyes again, L tossed Vengeance into the air and charged at Cinder, hitting her face over and over again with his Escrima in a circular motion before kicking her chest enough to send her stumbling backwards, her Aura taking two shots from Pantheon into her shoulders before being dragged forward with L's Psionics, straight into his right hand's fist, leading her to swiftly fall to the floor.
Cinder managed to block L's downward kick and push him upwards, but when she got up she realised her mistake as L kicks Vengeance out of the air and straight at Cinder, her eyes widening before she catches the blade. Letting out a breath as her chest feels like its been lit on fire. Not seeing L land and fire a Psionic lance at her, sending her spiralling to the entrance a few metres behind her, Vengeance disappearing in the shroud of blue cubes it normally would.
Getting back up again with a mixture of anger and amazement she stares at the man before her. If it's even a man. The build is too small to be a fully fledged adult, but someone with this amount of skill...
"You're amazing. We'll discuss the details of our arrangement next time we meet." Then the man in her ear speaks up. "Get that helmet, mask whatever off his face. I need to know who this is." Cinder attempts to start walking forward, pausing when someone shouts.
"Commander!" Gray shouts from the entrance L came from, turning to look as someone calls his rank, upon seeing Cinder, Gray raises his weapon and starts firing. Cinder leaps backwards and enters another corridor, the two men chasing after her until she enters an elevator and winks before it seals shut. "Damn!" Gray shouts before turning to L. "You okay sir? You're wounded." At this he gestures to the cut on L's gut, to which he waves it off, putting pressure on the wound and starting to walk back to the elevator.
"It doesn't matter. How's the VIP?" He goes back to his all serious mode.
"VIP is safe and secure, we were just waiting for you." At this L nods and walks more briskly. "Sir are you going to let me-" "Nein. Aber danke für das Bitten." "I didn't understand...that..." Gray comments as L walks into the elevator, but sighs and joins him anyway. "When we're back on the surface, get a team to scour the remains of the buildings and underground complex, I want everything they have." Gray nods as the elevator stops at the top floor.
Most seemed surprised that a part of L's helmet is missing and he has a wound on his gut. It seemed...surreal. A man who'd cleared an entire skyscraper of an army and all its traps untouched. And then he comes out of an elevator with a wound and damaged armour. Who did he fight?
As L stepped out Metal Lead stood opposite him. "Status?" "Green, sir." "Glad to hear it, get your kids back to base." L says as he places a hand on Metal Leads shoulder, Metal Lead giving a nod of respect and turning around to go through the comm and request a pick up. "Blake, get prepped, you're moving in with me." At this she nods, the team waiting for the Bullhead to arrive to take them back to the Operations Base up North West.
Atlas, Underground, Penthouse, Afternoon next day.
The staff at the Hospital say they're cleared for leave and were taken back to the Penthouse to pack up and head home. There's not much point in staying and the Holiday runs out the next day anyway. Besides. Yang and Ruby start Beacon on the Monday.
"Mooooooooom!" Ruby cried to which Summer looked over to see Yang munching on a pack of cookies idly, obviously thinking, her hands just acting on their own.
Summer giggles at this and walks over to the sisters. "Yang at the very least give your sister one." Yang looks up at Summer then down to the puppy eyed Ruby before giggling. "Sorry Rubes, I was day dreamin' for a sec there, would've given you one if you'd just tugged my sleeve." She says before giving Ruby a cookie to nibble on in the cute manner she normally does.
She even makes the "nom nom nom" sounds in a really cute high pitched tone.
(Warning: Ruby may be prone to grouchiness and sudden outbursts of pouting when suffering from Cookie Deprivation and when over-fed, may be hyper-active and use her Semblance like it's going out of fashion. Please feed responsibly, terms and conditions apply. Cookies sold separately.)
"Still doing what you do best huh?" At this everyone turns to see L with his hood down, leather jacket and all. He looked happier but a bit more on the pale side
Motherly Instincts engaged. (*sounds of splinter cell goggles turning on*)
Voice is even toned, skin is pale, genuine expression of happiness.
Initiating Test Hug procedure.
At this Summer smiles warmly and hugs L tight, at this, Summer could feel L tense his gut area and took a second or two to hug back, but it's still a loose hug. She pokes his gut to which he responds with a pained grunt. ALERT ALERT.
Summer crosses her arms at L with a questioning motherly expression. Taiyang, Yang and Ruby hiding behind the couch in case a nuclear war breaks out, Yang putting on a helmet and Ruby putting her fingers in her ears, Taiyang setting up the sandbags as extra cover.
"What happened?" At this L stops all physical functions except for the things keeping him alive just so he didn't gulp.
"I was out, seven people attempted to mug me, one slashed me and all seven of them now have several backwards limbs or broken bones." At this Summer makes eye contact with L, the two having a stare off before Summer hugs him incredibly tight. "Be more careful next time." She whispers, which L simply smiles and responds with.
"Kinda hard being careful when everyone seemingly wants to kill you." "Leanardo..." "Right, right, I know, you don't like it when I talk like that." "I was going to say stop having growth spurts." At this L chuckles, now noticing that he's taller than Summer. "Yeah, no. I hate puberty myself but I can't help its effects. I'm still using Human anatomy as the base layout for the body so I have to keep appearances." Summer looks up at L blankly.
"I'm not repeating myself." "I know, I just wanted to make sure you knew I have no clue what you just said." At this the two laugh together, the other three in the room peeking over the couch slowly. "Is it safe to come out yet?"
"Ye-"
"No." Summer says in a completely serious tone.
Forty seconds later there's a ginger haired man running from a white hooded and cloaked woman carrying a wooden spoon out of the building, manly screaming all the way back to Patch.
Megalovania intensifies.
Blake wondering what's even going on, a message appearing on Blake's scroll reading: 'Help my other family members with the luggage would you?' She closes her eyes and smiles a little, making her way up.
.
..
...
"Is that?...Sir-I-I...I'm sorry...How didn't I see this sooner?...Of course...It's safe with me, Doctor and patient confidentiality is a sacred trust, I wouldn't dream of mockery...I-I don't- No! NO!...I know...But unless you work with me...There's nothing I can do to help you."
"Then get a job at Beacon."
End of the Atlesian Arc.
Well, I don't know what to say. Other than the fact that I've shown you what happens when you piss off L. A skyscraper falls on your skyscraper, your army is decimated, you fall to your 'death'.
Yeah no thanks.
Oh and before people go moaning at me for inconsistency, the cube has approximately 222,500 tonnes sitting on top of it, so I doubt it's going to budge when being punched like that.
I've shown you that L does have weaknesses. He is not quiet a God, he just knows a lot of them. He's also killed a lot of them. He also married one. Well, sorta.
Cinder finally meets L or at least sort of, she knows he's white, has awesome eyes and knows the shorthand for his name.
I've said sorta/sort of twice. Never again.
So I've also hinted at all the possibilities, Weiss looks interested, Cinders desire is growing, Sophia was so goddamn cute that day (If you're wondering, her nickname will follow the colour rule, just as a quick insert), Blake is more cautious if anything, Winter is a Soldier so it's no surprise they get along professionally and L hasn't met Velvet yet...Though I think Coco will cling to Velvet like a magnet and melt at the idea of Velvet having a younger and all the more cuter sister. I would to.
Though I don't go as far as to drag them away from people who may or may not flirt with them.
Though those people do tend to go missing.
Normally it's Cinder or Me dragging one another away from someone so we don't kill them at that time.
Because with flirting. It's responded with flirting you don't know how to respond to, straight up incineration or the decimation of your entire family tree. Plus she's depicted as a Sadist. (Cinder.)
Or sarcasm, smartassery, acting like Jaune, acting like I'm completely unaware of the fact they're flirting with me or reminding them of the fact my waifu is someone who could incinerate their pride slowly, if I'm in a bad mood then it's something along the lines of "Go. Away." And if they don't, introducing Tsundere me! (Me.)
Oh and please for the love of all that is Holy, vote on the pole, the first three I just mentioned are drawing and I swear the guy who voted last did it just to spoil my fun. You're making L laugh at me! It's supposed to be the other way around dangit! :/
Next will be a chapter of A Fate Beyond Stars so be on the lookout for that!
But as always stay classy and I'll see you...Next Time...BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII
[Bloodborne OST plays in the Background.]