Update time!
There's been quite a bit of troubles with the site lately, hasn't there?
Anyway, here's the chapter.
Being a bullhead pilot working for the Atlas military meant a lot of things.
It meant following a strict schedule devised by the worst of the worst devil spawns, that Atlesian soldiers called drill sergeants, every single day, in order to stay in shape and disciplined.
It also meant, accompanying a lot of politicians on missions, as their only means of transportation.
However, it usually didn't mean, going on missions of world safety importance and getting access to information so classified, he and his partner were now concerned about their safety from merely knowing about it.
A sigh escaped him as he leaned forward in his bullhead cabin.
Although, considering how Remnant had turned on its head in the last few weeks, he was starting to doubt the usual matter of things was going to return to the world at any point in the future.
At least he wasn't forced to work in Vale, yet.
Brother Gods knew, how dangerous that would be with all the mess that's going on there, at the moment.
Nope, instead, he got to calmly sit down, hidden in the middle of Grimmlands, while two of his highest superiors duke it out with the Queen of Grimm herself. It was so much better.
He groaned a little as a little bit of the cold from outside entered their bullhead.
Of course, being in the middle of the literal Land of Darkness wasn't enough to screw him over, and it had to be unbearably cold on top of that, as well. Brothers forbid, he was going to go through a single mission without risking his health in any way, nowadays.
"I know, they said, they were going to fight the Queen of Grimm, but at this point I'm slowly starting to think they might just be dying of cold out there." His partner pilot, Jude, said with a shiver. "I don't think, I've seen any thermal gear on them while they were leaving, have you?"
A quiet hum escaped him as he thought about it.
The only equipment he saw general Ironwood and specialist Schnee take, were their standard Atlesian uniforms and their personal weapons. With the temperature as cold as it was, he wouldn't be surprised if they really began to freeze to death there.
Just as he began delving further into that line of thinking, another thought entered his mind.
"They might be the reason for the cold in the first place." He remarked.
"What, like a semblance?" Jude asked while raising her eyebrows at him in confusion. "Isn't general Ironwood famous for his mettle? I don't think becoming emotionally impaired could change the weather, Ed."
"No, not semblances." He rolled his eyes. "I meant the new weird stuff they learned how to do in the year of their absence."
Jude hummed in contemplation.
"The so called unnatural and otherworldly abilities, general Ironwood told all of his specialist to watch out for in Vale?" Jude asked before slightly tilting her head to the side. "Yeah, I guess, I could see that."
"How do you even know that? You aren't a specialist. You're not even close to being one." He couldn't help but ask.
Jude grinned at him.
"I've got friends in high places, buddy." A sigh escaped his co-pilot. "Although, with how much the world is being shaken around right now, I don't think they will remain in their positions for long."
He grunted in agreement before leaning back.
If there was one thing the return of their hard-ass general brought to Atlas, it was certainly change and instability. One could last a day without finding out some new technology being introduced to the military or someone higher in the Atlesian hierarchy getting forcibly demoted.
Frankly, he wouldn't be surprised, if by the time everything stabilises and the whole fiasco with the Other World is over, the whole military of Atlas would become unrecognisable to anyone still currently in it.
A yawn escaped him.
Whatever, it didn't matter to him, he was just a simple bullhead pilot, the whole world would really have to end for his job to be truly affected.
"After the whole mess is over, and we get our free time, you've got to introduce me to them." He said. "It's been some time since I've partied with people with money to spare."
Jude chuckled.
"Ha! You wish!" She playfully punched his shoulder.
He was about to reciprocate, but before he could even shift his arm a little, he was immediately startled by a large explosion of snow and ice coming out of the castle in the distance.
It was the castle they've dropped the general Ironwood and specialist Schnee in, and the place where currently they were supposedly fighting against the Queen of Grimm herself.
A stupefied smile appeared on his face.
"Well, it looks like we've got our answer as to where that blizzard comes from."
(...)
General James Ironwood was sent flying through the air as the Salem's Castle crumbled from the blizzard explosion Winter thrown at him.
He was glad he always kept his plasma shields on, or else he could have been seriously hurt by the attack's cold alone, let alone when the entire avalanche of snow collided with him.
Of course, the fact he was currently flying through the air didn't mean he could allow himself to rest for even a second, as he was certain Winter would follow up her attack with another any second now.
Almost, as if just prophesied by him, he quickly noticed four lengthy dragons made out of moving ice flying towards him from the remains of the castle.
He scoffed.
If Winter thought such petty tricks were going to impress him, then she must have really underestimated him.
With a quick, yet at the same time incredibly stiff, movement, he extended his arm forward, carefully aimed his gun at the closest dragon, and pulled the trigger.
Just like the last time, a deafening explosion of sound echoed throughout the lands as his weapon fired its bullets.
Unlike the last time, however, he instantly moved his hand a little bit to the side, and fired another bullet, before the first one could even reach its target.
Then the very same second, he fired another bullet again, and again.
Though there was a clear difference between the times the bullets hit their targets to someone like him, and probably Winter as well, from an outside perspective it must have undoubtedly looked like all the dragons shattered under his projectiles at the same time.
It was just the speeds they were dealing with here.
A couple more ice spikes flown at him from the crumbled castle, but, trusting his shields to survive their assault, he opted to not bother destroying them.
Instead, as he was finally reaching the ground, he subtly flicked a single tiny switch on his gun, gabbed it with both of his hands, and aimed it directly at the destroyed castle ahead of him.
The next shot he fired was strong enough to launch him a good dozen, or so, meters behind from the recoil it generated.
It was a firing mode meant for fighting against grand devils, he doubted that a human being, even a magically power one, could shrug it off without defending themselves from it.
Expectedly, Winter decided against taking his projectile head on, and in the instant she heard his bullet being fired she sprung a thick wall made out of blue coloured ice in front of her.
Ironwood scoffed as he saw his bullet miss.
Although, the ice wall couldn't stop his projectile at all, it did slow it down for a fraction of a second, which gave Winter more than enough time to slide out of his bullet's trajectory.
"Is throwing ice around really the height of your abilities, Winter?!" He taunted loudly as he hit the ground.
His words had little to no effect on Winter, who simply walked out of the castle ruins in a leisure pace.
"You would be surprised just how much a little bit of ice can manage." Winter answered before raising one of her hands and making three magic circles, each one larger than the last, appear right in front of her.
A frown appear on his face, James was already well aware just what those circles could mean to him.
"Spear of Frozen Ocean!" Winter shouted the name of her spell.
The very same moment, a gust of freezing wind was launched from the first magical circle in front of her, becoming greatly amplified by the second, and finally forming into an impossibly cold spear by the third.
Ironwood scowled as he saw the speed at which the spear was flying towards him.
It was barely faster than the average modern bullet, something ordinary huntsmen would have been able to dodge with a bit of practice, and nothing compared to the countless attacks he had faced back in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Winter was really making light of him.
He dodged the attack with a practiced dodge roll to the side, and just as he was outside the spear's range, he unloaded another bullet at Winter. This time, however, he fired with the ordinary firing mode, as the stronger one required the gun to cool down a little before being fired again.
In response to the projectile flying her way, Winter merely waved her arm a little, creating a single magic circle, and making an unnatural shroud of snow and ice to protect herself by doing so.
The shroud, to his no small surprise, easily stopped his projectile in place and protected Winter from any harm.
"If you have the audacity to mock my frost, then you really should have a stronger arsenal than that." Winter said coolly as she began walking forward. "Besides, from what I can see, the ice I throw around seems to be doing quite a decent job at dealing with you."
Ironwood shivered a little, almost as if he had been cold.
It wouldn't make any sense though, not only was he both mechanically and genetically conditioned to effortlessly survive in drastic temperatures, but he also had his plasma shields to keep him from the cold. The heat from precisely controlled impenetrable plasma was more than strong enough to counteract any form of cryogenic attacks imaginable, let alone some ice being thrown at him.
He hadn't even been hit by any of these attacks, yet!
Winter chuckled at his confusion before pointing her finger to his side, where the spear she had launched earlier had landed.
"It looks like you are still in the range of my attack's freezing field, General." Winter smiled. "I must imagine, it's quite cold for you right now, is it not? The physics principles all your tech follows aren't going to stop the coldness of my magic."
He looked at the spear of freezing wind with narrowed eyes, magic or not, it had to follow some sort of rules to work, otherwise Winter would have just magicked him out of existence already.
An annoyed grumble escaped him as he heard another projectile of ice soaring towards him.
It looked like, he would have to figure it out on the go.
With a little bit of effort, Ironwood quickly turned towards Winter, and sprung himself forward to close the distance, easily evading the ice projectile flying towards him.
Although, he didn't know the exact mechanics behind his opponent's attacks, or if all of those attacks worked on the same principles, in the end, all he had to do was to avoid them at all cost.
A bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face as he closed in on Winter, situations like these were far from foreign to him.
Just as he was only about four steps away from Winter, and she began to forming her multiple magic circles in defence, James launched himself high into the air, directly above his opponent.
As he flew higher and higher, a portal to hell slowly formed right next to him.
He immediately reached for it to grab a hold of a different weapon. If the gun was too underpowered most of the time, and the sword already exposed, then he would just have to use something new.
The weapon he pulled out was a melting hot projectile firing shotgun of an absurd calibre, that was commonly referred to in the militaries of United Human Worlds as Super Shotgun.
It was truly a beautiful weapon.
With a shotgun in hand, he swiftly spun around so that his firing hand would be just above Winter's head, loaded the gigantic shells into it, and pulled the trigger.
Super Shotgun was a weapon strong enough to the rip majority of demons in half with a single shoot, it would have turned an average Atlesian Paladin into scraps without any issues, so it was no surprise to him that the recoil from this one shot was strong enough to lift him further into the air.
As he was flying through the air, he saw his slugs connect, and he instantly became ensured in his victory.
With no clear way to dodge, and the necessity to take the hit head on, he saw no way for Winter to survive his attack this time.
The very next moment, just as he expected, he saw Winter crumble from the force of the shotgun's blast, the ground beneath her erupting from the excessive power it was put under, as well.
What he didn't expect, however, was for Winter to not die in a cloud of blood, and instead shatter into hundreds of ice fragment flying all over the place from the blast.
"Impressive." Winter's voice remarked from afar.
Ironwood's head snapped towards the direction he heard the voice originate from, and the first thing he noticed upon doing that was the ruins of Salem's Castle.
Had Winter not moved from there since the start of their battle?
In a burst of annoyance, he promptly reached for his standard gun, pointed it roughly in the direction of the ruined castle, and fired a short salvo of three shots towards it. He didn't care whether they hit or not, as long as they would inconvenience his foe at all, he was fine with that.
Winter's giggles echoed from the castle as all of his shots either missed the mark or were stopped by her.
"Come out and fight me like a soldier, Specialist!" He shouted while falling towards the ground. "Hiding away from combat is only going to bring you bigger shame upon your defeat. At least, if you fight with honour, you will be remembered fondly by the person who kills you."
The giggling stopped for a second in response to his words.
"I am only using the minimal required effort to win the fight, General." Winter said. "Surely, you must see the importance of that in a war as grand as this one."
James landed on the ground with a grunt, and upon doing so he rushed forward towards Winter with his normal pistol in one hand and the Super Shotgun in another. If Winter's wanted to keep the distance then it was his job, to make that distance as short as it possibly could.
"Alright, I see how it is." A sigh escaped Winter at the sight of her general charging at her with both of his weapons ready. "I suppose, I could show you the respect of facing my full strength."
An enormous tower of seven magic circles stacked on top of each other formed right in the place the Salem's Tower used to be, with Winter standing directly underneath it and with the centres of all the circles concentrated right on her.
The magic circles drastically varied in size, with some of them so small they were barely noticeable from below and others so large they reached past James, despite him not being yet inside the castle's territory.
James couldn't help but gulp a little as he witnessed all the magic circles before him.
Until now the highest number of circles, he saw Winter use, was five, and it easily destroyed an entire castle with an avalanche.
Who knew how devastating a spell of seven circles was going to be?
He gritted his teeth, and charged forward.
The spell seemed to have slower casting time the all the usual magic Winter threw around so he should have enough time to interrupt it. At the very least, he should be able to significantly close the distance in this time.
As he ran forward, he quickly fired a bullet from his pistol.
However, just like before, it was stopped by Winter's spell. Only this time, it appeared to have frozen over by the cold currently being gathered by the seven magic circles above them, instead of a separate spell.
He had to actively stop himself from shivering.
The first magic circle of Winter's spell was collecting all the coldness from below them and sending it towards the sky, and he could clearly feel it moving past him.
Curiously, the cold being sent upwards didn't feel nearly as harmful to him as the one exuded from the ice spear had before, despite everything pointing towards this one being way more intense.
Were the inner-workings of those two spells different?
There was no time to ponder about that, as he practically reached Winter already, and was preparing to fire his Super Shotgun with a quick dash forward.
Before he could pull the trigger, and end the fight, however, an enormous blast of snow-white energy of coldness itself, sent him flying high into the air, as Winter had finally finished her spell.
"The Eternal Rain of Frozen Hell!"
By the time James regained his bearing, and was able to see what was happening, he noticed the entire sky above them had changed.
When before the weather looked as if a heavy storm could arrive at any time, now, after Winter's spell had gone off, the sky appeared completely snow-white, unnaturally so. It looked as if Winter had frozen the entire heaven.
"W-What?" Ironwood grunted out as he was falling down, the white energy he had been hit with somehow managed to get past all of his defences and actually damage his insides.
Soon after, an uncountable number of icicles the size of an average human began slowly falling from above. Each of them fell slowly, like a particularly large feather, and left behind a trail of blizzard-like shroud, freezing any object moving through it.
He glanced at the blizzard, left behind by the icicles, easily turning numerous flying grimm into shattered and frozen remains upon the slightest of touches, and he shook his head.
Well, it looked like this spell was really a big deal this time.
Depending on how those freezing effects worked, he might not have that much time to finish this fight left. One simply couldn't win a fight in an arena they weren't even able to move in, after all.
With a rushed swing of his arm, he hastily discarded his ordinary gun, before opening another pocket portal to hell and reaching for another weapon inside there.
It was time to bring out the heavy weaponry.
As he already had the projectile part of his combat kit covered with his Super Shotgun, he reached out for his stronger melee weapons. Since he was going to go on the offensive, they were a necessity now.
With a tired grunt and some effort, he pulled out his weapon from hell.
It was an unreasonably heavy spear created through the mixture of advanced technology, logic defying materials from hell, and good old prayers. It was custom-made by him, and just holding it made one feel as if they were capable of facing the immortal demons.
"Let me show you the resolve of humanity, Specialist!" He shouted with a grin as he used his shotgun to launch himself towards Winter.
Winter merely began raising her ice defences in response.
As he soared through the air and towards the ground, all the ice barriers and freezing clouds, Winter was setting up to stop him, shattered and dispersed under the assault from his heavy spear.
From the outside, Ironwood looked like a rapidly falling meteorite of melting metal and anger, which couldn't be stopped by anything thrown at it, no matter how grand or elegant the defences were.
Yet, as he fell down, James couldn't help but wince in pain over and over again, as all the passing icicles, and the freezing clouds he dispersed, visibly took their toll on him.
Somehow, they all were capable of getting past all his defences meant specifically to deal with cold.
He still had no idea why.
The ground erupted in a huge explosion of dirt, rocks, and solid ice, as he hit the ground, forcing Winter to use her spells to shield herself from it.
"I've got you!" James growled as he charged toward Winter with his heavy spear raised.
"So you do." Winter remarked quickly, before dashing back in a cloud of ice and snow.
As Ironwood's first attack just barely missed Winter, causing even more destruction to the ruins of Salem's Castle, she swiftly shifted her body to the side to prepare for another evasion.
Like that, they became stuck in a tiring exchange of vicious attacks and graceful dodges. In which James's spear strikes and shotgun blasts would always be just shy of hitting the target, and Winter's freezing dodges would slowly put more and more pressure on Ironwood.
It wasn't until the icicles began hitting the ground near them, and put Ironwood under the influence of their freezing effects, that this cycle of dodges and attacks started to change.
"Argh!" James shouted as his spear hit the ground.
The moment he saw the first icicle crash into the ground next to him, he knew that he wouldn't be able to continue for much longer.
Unlike Winter, for whom those icicles meant only more obstacles to use in blocking him, he was becoming significantly weaker with each icicle's freezing effect that could reach him. Not only were they slowing him down, but also he could feel his body begin to crack under pressure.
If this battle continued like that, he was certain, he was going to die.
"Damn it!" He cursed as he swung his spear widely.
His grip on spear and Super Shotgun tightened as he gritted his teeth in anger.
It didn't mean, however, that he was going to give in just yet.
"Have you decided to give up, General?" Winter asked with genuine concern in her voice. "If you do, I can make your death truly painless."
He scoffed, as if the offer to surrender made by Winter was the biggest mockery to him.
"Tell me, Specialist, was the world you've visited cruel?" He asked.
Winter tilted her head to the side.
"I wouldn't say so." She said. "While it certainly had its evils and cruel people, I wouldn't exactly call Terravia cruel. It certainly wasn't much more evil or dangerous than Remnant currently is."
A deep chuckle escaped him.
"Then I guess you haven't got the chance to witness the true strength of humanity then." He shook his head slowly.
"What?" Winter asked.
He charged forward in a mad attack, as if it was his last chance at survival.
"Let me tell you something, Specialist!" He swung his spear with more force than ever before, barely missing Winter's neck by a literal hair length. "Let me tell you what I've seen back in the worlds I've visited!"
Winter took a shaky step back at the sudden attack, and tried to push him back with a blizzard.
It didn't work.
"I've seen countless worlds getting destroyed!" He swung his spear downwards with so much power it shattered the ground it hit.
Winter yelped in surprise as she barely dodged the stronger attack.
He thrust his shotgun forward.
"I've seen billions of people die in vain!" He pulled the trigger, unloading a salvo of projectiles directly into Winter's face.
The only reason the Schnee specialist survived, was because she was already dodging out of the way of his attack beforehand. Had she not been, she would have already been turned to shreds.
"But, you know what?" He stopped for a second with a huff. "Despite all the death and suffering I've seen there, I also witnessed the strength humanity gathered to combat all of that."
Winter's eyes widened in surprise as she saw him charge at her faster than ever before.
"I saw people build stronger armours to withstand the threats their galaxy threw at them!" He delivered a straight punch with his heavy prosthetic arm, knocking the wind out of Winter, and pushing her a good couple meters back.
"Ugh!" Winter coughed as she felt some of her bones break.
"I saw them make deadlier weapons!" He began to swing his spear in a wide arc, aiming it directly at Winter's neck. "To strike back against the despair their universe sent towards them!"
Winter hastily raised her left arm, and formed a single magic circle over it, in panic to block his attack.
The moment his weapon met that arm, Winter lost a limb, and he found his weapon shatter into countless tiny ice crystals.
He gritted his teeth in anger.
"Beyond all of that!" He shouted as he let go of the remainders of his spear. "I saw humanity push themselves far past any imaginary limits or boundaries people like you can even imagine!"
He slammed the barrel of his shotgun directly into Winter's stomach.
Winter gasped in pain.
"That's why I know." He huffed in tiredness. "The indomitable will of humanity is truly boundless."
With heavy regrets at having to kill one of his closest subordinates, he pulled the trigger of his shotgun.
It didn't fire.
"It won't work." Winter rasped out through the pain of losing her arm.
A cough or two escaped Ironwood as he stood in place before letting out a raspy and hollow chuckle.
"I figured." He said with a dejected tone. "I suppose even the sheer unstoppable stubbornness of humanity couldn't hope to conquer your godly magic, could it?"
Two relatively small magic circles appeared, one in front of him and the other right behind him.
Normally, he would have been offended at the low effort Winter was putting into killing him at the moment, but with how weakened he was from the ice, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Right now, he probably would have died from a spell utilising a single magic circle, let alone one that used two of them.
Ironwood pushed himself to slowly closed his eyes through the half-frozen state of his body, awaiting his execution.
"You are wrong." Winter whispered.
"Hm?" James hummed questioningly while slightly opening one of his eyes.
"My magic isn't godly." Winter huffed as she took a step back. "All the spells, techniques, and knowledge I acquired were devised by humans, or mortal species at least. Disgruntled magic gods were only one of the many evils that plagued Terravia."
A manic grin slowly formed on Ironwood's frostbitten face.
"Then, I guess, I can die happy." He laughed. "Before you kill me, however, please, tell me, your ice magic doesn't really work based on temperature, or its lack of, does it?"
Winter sighed as she extended her remaining arm forward.
"No, it does not."
The two magic circles released their magical energy into James Ironwood, forming a miniature avalanche of snow with him in the middle, and turning him directly into a dead statue of ice.
(...)
Usually, Jude enjoyed being a bullhead pilot for Atlas military quite a bit.
It allowed her to meet interesting people, explore different kingdoms, and made her feel important enough to brag about it to her friends.
There were, however, moments, when she really hated her job. Moments which made her genuinely reconsider whether she shouldn't have perhaps changed her career path a couple of years back.
Normally, they weren't such a big issue for her. Every type of job and work would have certain aspects that she would end up absolutely despising sooner or later, after all.
Moments like the current situation, however, were probably the place she should draw the line.
She didn't mind boring days at work, sometimes she even embraced them.
Missions into grimm infested territories weren't impossible for her either, those were still manageable.
Hell, in the worst case scenario, she could even live with escorting some politicians into foreign kingdoms. At least, if the pay she would receive was increased, and the job wasn't unbearably long, that was.
Having the safety of the entire Remnant on her head, though?
Yeah, it was probably far beyond anything she was willing to take.
A sigh escaped her as she made herself more comfortable in her seat.
At the very least, neither her nor her partner pilot were required to be anywhere near the action. They probably wouldn't have survived even a minute, if they were, though, not with the weather as screwed as it was here.
Seriously, she couldn't help but to actually feel pity for some of those poor grimm when she glanced at the sky above her.
She hadn't seen, nor felt, such cold blizzards even during the worst winters back in Atlas, and her kingdom was supposedly the coldest one out there!
A shiver went down her spine as she read the temperature on the electronic thermometer of her bullhead. It wasn't something any human was meant to survive, and if it wasn't for the protection of the bullhead, she probably would have frozen to death by now.
"Are we sure that both of them are still alive?" A tired groan left her. "I know we talked about their supposedly otherworldly abilities already, but I'm pretty sure the temperature outside will be approaching the absolute zero in a couple dozens minutes. None of them have contacted us at any point during this mission either, I'm pretty sure we are safe to consider them dead by now."
Eddy, her copilot, quietly groaned in annoyance, as well.
"Unfortunately, even if they are already dead, according to the protocols, we are still required to wait for another one and a half hour before we can fly back home." Ed said, after a moment.
She couldn't help but raise one of her eyebrows at her partner.
"You actually remember those protocols?" She asked.
"They are protocols." Ed said with an annoyed groan, as if it was supposed to explain everything. "You are supposed to know them by heart so that you can execute them automatically when necessary."
Her mouth opened in absolute befuddlement.
"Wait, you're serious!?"
"Of course, I am." Ed said before turning towards her. "How did you even become a bullhead pilot without knowing it?"
A cheeky grin appeared on her face.
"Friends in high places."
Ed sighed.
"Why did I even expect a different answer from y-" Before Ed could finish his sentence, he stopped himself with a slight shudder. "We've got one contact! It appears to be specialist Schnee!"
"What!?" She asked before looking out the window.
There right in front of them, and way closer than she had anticipated upon hearing Ed's shout, stood the bloodied and clearly wounded specialist, holding the stub of one of her arms with her still remaining hand.
After a second, or two, of panic, they moved to open the doors for her.
"Miss Specialist!" They saluted as one the moment they saw Winter Schnee enter the bullhead.
"At ease, pilots." Winter said with a tired tone. "The mission was a success."
Relieved smiles started to form on their faces for a moment, before they noticed the lack of another highly important individual.
"U-Uhm, Miss Specialist." Ed raised his hand as if he were some young student wanting to ask their teacher a question.
"Yes, pilot?"
"What happened to general Ironwood?"
A pained, and clearly sad, sigh escaped the specialist Schnee in response to the question. She then looked down for a second, no doubt to contemplate what to say, before looking up and giving them an answer.
"General Iroonwood had sacrificed his life in order to kill the Queen of Grimm." Winter said with a solemn tone. "His noble sacrifice allowed us to deal with the leader of all grimm for good."
Both her and Ed looked at each other before gulping in shock.
"I-In that case, what now?" She asked, probably a bit too casually, than she ought to.
Winter merely smiled at her encouragingly for a second before answering.
"Now, we are moving to Vale." Winter looked towards the bullhead's controls with a determined look on her face. "With the previous leading general dead, I will be taking over the anti-terrorist operation there."
And the second hero's dead.
Honestly, we are going through them faster than I thought we would before I started writing this story.
Eh, there's still like ten of them left, so I'm not worried about running out of characters, yet.
That's it for now, see ya!