Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

One Day Before the Events of 3D Land

BGM: Nobody Like U (4 Town from Turning Red)

Laura walked around Vale, humming along to her song that she was listening to on her scroll while wearing wireless earbuds as she was walking to her school.

"You're never not on my mind, oh my, oh my~ I'm never not by your side, your side, your side~" She sang as she looked off into the distance, seeing Beacon Academy far into the distance. She reached out toward it and closed her fist. "Soon, I'm gonna make my way into that academy just like my big bro!"

She put her arm down and skipped before she reached her destination. With a hum, she turned off the song from her scroll.

End BGM

She looked up at the sign hanging above the school. "Hathaway School of Performing Arts" She smiled and hummed, walking into campus where she would see various students of all ages chatting.

She turned her head and saw Blanche, Sayo and Ieyasu chatting amongst themselves. Ieyasu spotted Laura and gave her a friendly wave to which she waved back. Sayo and Blanche did the same, though Blanche did more of a shy wave.

"Hmhmhmhm~" She hummed as she walked through the doors.

BGM: Respite and Sunlight (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Laura hummed as she walked through the hallways to her classroom, seeing the walls decorated with billboards and signs throughout, several lockers and what not as she casually ignored them all.

However, she turned her head to the wall and saw something that made her smile disappear. "Student of the month 2nd Grade: Laura Winchester".

She let out a sigh. She's not surprised she'd be up there… again. It doesn't help that from an IQ test that happened several months ago, she had a whopping IQ of 175. She was smart, yet grew tired of getting every question right or being the subject of endless "Hey, how do you do this?" from her fellow peers since she was the one to figure it out. Not to mention she was a constant straight A student to the point where she got sick of it and tried to flunk tests and purposely miss questions just so everyone would get off her back.

To her dismay, everyone writes it off as "Ah, she's just having an off day. She'll come back swinging the next day no problem!" and it bugged her. A lot.

It gets to the point where she goes home and screams into a pillow and vents to her mother, to which she gets consoled all the time.

Stupid IQ test, why did I have to be born with a smart as heck brain… it's a blessing AND a curse! She thought to herself, sneering at her "Student of the Month" picture and turned her head and marched away with a "hmph!"

She slapped her cheeks right after. No time to get herself upset and have her day ruined just by reminiscing about that horrid day. She was in her A game today, big hearty breakfast and everything. Nothing will ruin her day!

Laura walked into her homeroom, humming as she would see her fellow classmates sitting in the back. Albedo, Magnolia and Nicholas were chatting amongst themselves until Magnolia spotted Laura. "Laura!" She called out.

"Al, Maggie, Nicky, what's up!" Laura smiled as she walked over and sat down with a smile, then next thing she knew, her other classmates crowded around her. "Mmph!" She flinched.

"Is it true that you took part in the war with that blue stuff?"

"Did you help kill that mean blue lady and that space pterodactyl?"

"How many planets did you go to?"

"Were you able to breathe in space?"

"How many aliens did you see?"

"Did you see lots and lots of stars?"

"Did you give that mean blue lady the ultimate wedgie of a lifetime because she deserved it!"

Crap, who told these boneheads that I took part in the Phazon War? Laura sweatdropped.

"Hey hey, one at a time, one at a time!" Magnolia scolded. "You're crowding her!"

Laura sighed. "Thanks, Maggie. Anyway, yes, I did take part in the Phazon War with my big bro. Sure, we got dragged into it because the big mean blue lady kidnapped us, but Ruby Rose and her friends busted me out of there, and we partook in their major butt whooping."

"Cool! I heard the last planet they were on was K2L, where were you?"

"Uh… where was I…?"

"Do you have any threes?"

Wall-E let out a few curious whistles.

"Ugh, I can't understand you!"

"Um… I was… doing recon and seeing what kind of cards the big mean space pterodactyl was playing and reported back to the team. Once that was revealed, they won the battle." She lied.

"Cooooool!" Her classmates said.

THEY BOUGHT THAT?! Laura thought in surprise. Come on, I thought you were less gullible than that.

"Now now, students. Let's not crowd miss Winchester." A voice said as they saw their homeroom teacher walk in.

"Ah, good morning, Mr. Run!" The class smiled.

Mr. Run? He thought. "No no, see, my surname's not "Run", it's-... ah, never mind." Run sighed as the class sat in their respective seats.

"You were held back because it was too dangerous, so you had to sit in the main spaceship, right?" Nick asked.

"Got it in one, Nicky." Laura mumbled. "It's not fair, they were talking about a weird brain monster too… something about Samus's mother? I dunno."

"Oh wow, they're lucky." Magnolia said.

"Tell me about it…"

Later, at lunch…

"Alright, here's what I think…" Laura said. "The four of us aren't huntsmen, but we are striving to be. So, how about we get a little taste of what it's like?"

"Laura, are you kidding? That's dangerous." Magnolia said.

"Oh, don't worry about it! We won't be in any real danger. We could easily fake it just to see if we have what it takes."

"Faking being a huntsman? How is that even possible?" Nick wondered.

"Ever heard of pretending?" Albedo snarked, causing Nick to sweatdrop.

"Besides, the huntsmen and huntresses make it look easy. If those adults can do it, then by golly, we second graders can do it too!" Laura smiled. "Yeah, Team L-A-F-F is gonna rock and roll!"

"Laura, I've told you plenty of times… L-A-F-F isn't legally official." Magnolia said.

"It's a concept."

"Even so…"

Laura giggled. "Trust me, we'll figure this out."

"Wait, wait, wait… Team L-A-F-F? So our team name is pronounced as "Laugh"?" Nick pointed out.

Laura sweatdropped. "It's pronounced Lakefront."

"Lakefront doesn't have two F's!"

"Alright, let's see you come up with something with L-A-M-N!" Laura said, causing Nick to freeze.

"Un…"

"I thought so." Laura said, casually biting into her sandwich.

Later…

The bell rang as the younger kids excitedly ran out the doors while the teens casually walked out, hands in their pockets, looking through their scrolls, or some of them just casually hung around and talked amongst themselves.

As for Laura and her friends, they walked home together all excited to head home. "Maaaaaan, why do we have to do homework, I'd rather play games…" Nick complained.

"What, that dumb game that you always play, what was it… Mastro Kart or something?" Magnolia asked.

"That's Mario Kart, thank you very much! Plus, you're one to talk, miss I-play-Faunus-Crossing."

"Animal! How many times do I have to tell you that?" Magnolia rolled her eyes.

Albedo rolled his eyes. "Siblings…"

"Tell me about it." Laura giggled.

"Heeeeey!" A voice called out as they turned to see a young girl approaching them while waving.

Laura smiled. "Hey Logue!"

"Oh, right, the transfer student… uh… shoot, where did she come from again?" Albedo wondered.

Pause BGM

Several weeks earlier…

Laura wandered around the Atlas military base, where her mother and Willow had visited Atlas to claim Seryu's innocence with all the evidence they had.

BGM: Omega's Theme (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

She turned the corner and then spotted the Winter Ops, all of them talking to themselves while Leone and Kurome were comforting a saddened Sheele.

"I dunno if we can claim Seryu's innocence here…" Najenda said.

"Can't they do something about it though? Like… perhaps they let her go on account of insanity." Emerald pointed out.

"Well, they could… but that'd probably have her end up in another mental hospital, and I don't think Seryu wants that." Lubbock said.

"Well, we gotta think of something!" Wave said.

"Excuse me!" A voice got their attention as they all turned to see Laura. "Hello!" She waved cheerfully.

Lubbock was the first one to kneel down to her eye level. "Huh…? Who's the kid?"

Just where did this girl come from? Kurome wondered.

Oh my Oum, she's so adorable! Leone and Sheele thought.

Laura smiled. "I'm Laura Winchester! I knew that I would find you guys here!"

Najenda raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "You know who we are?"

"Mhm!" She giggled and then pointed at all of them. "Najenda, Winter, Lubbock, Bulat, Sheele, Kurome, Wave, Bols, Leone and Emerald! You guys are the Winter Ops!" Except there's one member missing… speaking of which, where is she?

Winter approached her, kneeling down and smiling lightly. "What brings you into the Atlas military, little one?"

Laura put her hands behind her back. "Well, my mom and I came here with Miss Willow so that we could deliver a bunch of important documents to-"

"Hmm? What seems to be the commotion here?" Esdeath approached them.

Laura turned around and her eyes sparkled. "Esdeath!" She exclaimed happily and ran to her.

"Oh! Hello there, Laura!" Esdeath smiled, kneeling down and catching her in a hug. "It's nice to see you again."

"I can say the same to you, cousin~!"

"C-Cousin?!" Emerald said in surprise, taken aback. In fact, the other Winter Ops looked surprised.

"Whoa, general. You two are related?" Wave asked.

Esdeath nodded. "Not by blood, but as you know, James Ironwood is my adoptive father and he is the descendent of Gajeel Redfox. The Winchesters are descendents of Levy McGarden." She explained. "So with that in mind, I'm technically related to this little doofus." She playfully ruffled Laura's hair, causing the latter to giggle.

"Does this make Gray and Juvia related to Gajeel and Levy by a technicality?" Bols wondered.

Esdeath rubbed her chin in thought. "Hmm… I never gave that much thought."

"Oh honey~!" A voice said, causing Bols to perk up.

"I know that melodious voice anywhere!" Bols said as Esdeath turned to see a woman and a small girl approaching them. "Kije! Logue!"

Kije smiled, as the two embraced. "Hello sweetheart."

"Oh, darling… forgive me for skipping out on lunch. We had just captured Seryu Ubiquitous and-"

"Oh, don't fret, my sweet~" Kije smiled. "I figured with all the commotion and the chaos that's been happening the past few days, you'd be very busy. That's why I packed some lunches for the three of us~!"

"You, my friend, have picked a good one." Leone playfully elbowed Bols.

"Oh, stop it!" Bols blushed as Laura looked at Bols' daughter.

She looks around my height and age… She thought. Actually, she might be a bit younger than I am.

"Hmm? Oh hi!" She cheerfully waved.

"Heya!"

"My name's Logue Lang, what's your name?"

"Laura Winchester!"

End BGM

End flashback…

Resume Respite and Sunlight BGM

"Oh, that's right, you met her during that Seryu crisis." Albedo said after Laura reminded him.

Is that what we're calling it? Magnolia and Nick both thought as Logue caught up with them.

"Sorry about that, I was right behind a group of teenagers and I couldn't find a way to get past 'em…" Logue sweatdropped.

"Oh yeah, that sucks." Laura shook her head.

Logue looked back at the school. "It's amazing… I was about to transfer to this school last year but that Phazon crisis happened." She said. "It took months to repair it…"

"Yeah, and thanks to that dumb blueberry, our homework is through the roof." Albedo complained. "Remind me when the first day of spring is again?"

"Three days from now." Laura said.

"Uuuugh, if we spend spring break catching up on homework, then i'm gonna lose it!" Albedo said.

"Same on that front." Nick agreed.

Laura leaned over to Magnolia. "You'd think they would have caught up by now during the weekend." She whispered.

"I know, I'm still amazed I'm related to Nick…" Magnolia mumbled.

"Soooo, what are we gonna do?" Logue asked. "I've only a few hours before daddy picks me up." She turned her eyes at the park. "Oh! We can go play there!"

"Eh, why not? Give us some time to tire ourselves out." Laura shrugged as they looked both ways as some cars drove by before it was safe to cross the street, then they headed over to a playground area.

End BGM

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Wy! Wynaut Wy Wy!"

"Num… Num…"

"Hmm?" The kids turned their heads to see a group of bullies harassing a male Wynaut protecting an injured female Numel.

"Pokemon are stupid! They don't have feelings!"

"We can do whatever we want with these dumb animals!"

"Yeah, because they're dumber than Faunus! Hahahaha!"

"...Dumber than Faunus?" Logue asked in annoyance.

Laura growled. "Like I'm going to let this slide. Come on!" She said as they charged ahead.

"Ah, here's a boulder! Nnngh! Rrrrgh! …A little heavy."

"Nah, let's not do a boulder. The rocks will do!"

"Yeah, that'll work! Hahaha!"

"HEY!" Laura yelled as LAFF and Logue got between them. "What do you think you're doing to these poor creatures?"

"What does it look like? They invaded our turf, so we're giving them what happens when they intrude upon us!"

"They're innocent creatures!" Magnolia said.

"They're dumb!"

"Compared to you? They're geniuses unlike you ugly cretins!" Laura spat.

A cross vein appeared on the leader's forehead. "Oh, so we're ugly are we? Well, we'll see who's ugly once we rearrange your faces! GET 'EM BOYS!"

Nearby, Sun and Neptune walked by when the latter spotted the group of bullies fighting LAFF and Logue. "What the…? Why are they fighting those kids?"

"Hmm… by the looks of it, it seems as if they're protecting that Wynaut and Numel." Sun said.

Neptune let out a growl. "I'm gonna put a stop to them. There's no way they-"

"No, wait." Sun stopped him. "It looks like they've got it under control." He said, observing that Laura and her friends were fighting them off, and by fighting them off, they were blocking, countering and redirecting the bullies' attacks into one another.

"Hmm…" Neptune folded his arms, tapping his foot. He had to admit, Sun had a point, and yet, he wanted to stop it before things got uglier.

"Hyah!" Laura yelled, knocking the last bully down. "Phew… that takes care of that."

Logue immediately turned to the Pokemon. "Are you cuties okay?" She asked as the others turned around.

"Wy Wy!" Wynaut smiled as Numel gently nodded at them.

However, one of the bullies got back up, growling as he glared at Laura. "You little brat." He growled as he lunged at her. "YOU'LL PAY FOR HUMILIATING ME!" He yelled, pulling back his fist and was ready to punch her.

…However, Neptune slid between them and blocked the attack with his hand with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Go home, kid." He said sternly.

"Oh yeah?! Says who!"

"A pair of huntsman-in-training who can easily kick your butts if you keep this up." Sun warned as he approached.

The second bully paled. "O-oh! Uh… oh crud…"

All of them looked at each other. "Bolt!" They yelled as they took off running.

"Yeah, you better run!" Nick taunted.

"Don't antagonize them!" Magnolia scolded.

"Oh… this poor thing's leg is hurt…" Laura said, looking at the Numel.

"Hmm…" Neptune knelt down. "Judging by the injury on it's leg, I'd say this Numel has been left untreated for the past few days." He gently picked up the Numel. "Come on, we're taking you to a clinic."

"We'll come with!" Albedo said as they took off to a nearby vet clinic.

Once at a clinic…

"There, now we wait for it to heal up." Neptune said.

"So, who are you guys?" Sun asked.

"I'm Laura Winchester!"

"Albedo Sniegowski, the little brother of Blanche Sniegowski."

"Magnolia Foxtrot!"

"Nick Foxtrot."

"Logue Lang! Nice to meet ya!"

"And together, aside from Logue, we make Team L-A-F-F!" Laura smiled.

"...Team Laugh?" Neptune asked.

"Lakefront." Laura corrected.

"But Lakefront doesn't have two Fs." Neptune pointed out.

"Thank you!" Nick raised his hands up.

"My offer is still on the table." Laura shot back, causing Nick to stiffen. "Thought so."

"Wait a sec, I know you." Sun said, looking at Laura. "You're Cardin's sister, right? You helped us out with the Phazon War. You hung out in the Observatory!"

"That's me." Laura giggled before she pulled out a notebook titled "Huntsman Analysis for the Future" as she had a big smile while also pulling out a polaroid camera. "I… couldn't ask you this earlier but… would you mind if I took pictures and get autographs from you two?"

"Of course!" Sun smiled.

"Make sure to get my good side! Spoiler alert, all my sides are good!" Neptune said, causing Sun to facepalm.

Some pictures and autographs later…

"So, I'm taking it you five are all in the same class together at… uh… where you from?" Sun asked.

"Hathaway School of Performing Arts." Laura explained.

Logue let out a giggle. "I'm actually a grade below them."

"Adding to that, she's a first grader who just recently transferred to Hathaway a week after the… Seryu crisis." Magnolia said, hiding a groan. Come on, we're eight years old and THIS is the best we can call it?

Nick grinned. "Which also means she's also a year younger than the four of us!" He said, patting Logue's head.

Thank you captain obvious. Albedo thought.

While they were talking and waiting for the Numel to be healed up, Laura reached inside of her beanie and pulled out a cup of seafood flavored instant ramen noodles, where she opened it up that had contained a small fork. "Love how they included these in." She said as she walked over to the receptionist. "Um, excuse me, miss."

"Hmm?"

"May I please use the water cooler next to your desk to heat up my ramen noodles?"

The receptionist smiled sweetly. "Go right ahead!"

"Thank you!" She smiled and walked off, with Logue curiously looking at her.

A hat can hide food? Cool! She thought as Laura came back and happily ate her snack.

"Aaah, delicious." She smiled.

A few minutes later…

The doctor walked into the waiting room with the Numel walking normally again, although it had a cast around her leg. "She's going to be okay. It happened to be a bad sprain. Nothing broken, but she needs to take it easy on her leg for a while."

"Sounds good." Sun nodded as they watched the Wynaut happily bounce up in Laura's arms and nuzzled against her while the Numel nuzzled against Magnolia's leg.

"I guess they're affectionate that we saved them." Laura smiled.

"You want to come with me?" Magnolia asked.

"Num!"

"Wanna tag along?" Laura asked.

"Wy! Wy!"

"Oh man, big bro's gonna be happy for me!" Laura smiled as Sun dug in his pocket and pulled out two Pokeballs, tossing it over to them.

"You might want to use these." He said with a smile as the two nodded, and gently poked them in the foreheads with the Pokeballs, both of them catching them after a few shakes.

"I'm gonna name you… Bobby!" Laura smiled.

"I'll name you Alayta!" Magnolia smiled as they all walked out and headed home.

Later that night, at the Winchester home…

So, what are we going to call ourselves? We can't name ourselves LAFFL, that sounds ridiculous. No offense to Logue and all. Magnolia texted.

Lakefront doesn't have two Ls either! Nick texted back.

It's your call, Laura. Albedo texted next.

Hmm, i'll think of something. Just hang on. Laura texted and then put her scroll away. "With Logue hanging with us… oh… what should we call ourselves? Potential Huntsman group… no… ah, I'm sure we'll think of something." She laid her head on her pillow. "I wonder how Logue's holding up…"

In Atlas…

"My word!" Bols exclaimed. "What is this?" He asked, seeing Logue having a bruise on her arm.

"Oh, this? Uh…"

"Tell me who did this to you…"

Logue sweatdropped. "Dodgeball! We were playing dodgeball during recess and I blocked, but it hit me really hard…"

"Oh! Dodgeball? Well, that can leave a few bruises. I'm sure we can fix that up with some ice!" Bols said and walked off.

Kije knelt down next to Logue. "Honey, that's not like you to lie. What happened?"

"How did you know I was lying?"

"You hesitate when you try to think of something."

"Oh… well, I didn't want daddy freaking out but-" She whispered in Kije's ears.

"Bullies?!" Kije said, picturing a scenario in her head.

"YOU ARE ON THE HIIIIIIGHWAY TO HELL~!" Bols sang while burning alive the bullies.

"AIYEEEEEE!"

Kije stiffened. "Oh goodness…"

"You know how overprotective he is over us."

Kije nodded. "Dodgeball it is."

"What was that about bullies?" Bols asked.

"Nothing! She was just saying how the dodgeball bullied her by hurting her too hard." Kije lied, secretly winking at Logue.

"Ah, of course! I'm sure you'll get back at that bully of a ball in no time!" Bols smiled. "Now then, let's ice away this bruise." He said, putting an ice pack on her wrist as Logue smiled, planting a kiss on his cheek.

Ibuki: Yup, that sounds about right for Bols-chan.

Yup! Anywho, this Gaiden idea was inspired by DarkRebellion! Though, I think Log helped him out too.