Disclaimer: English is not my first language. I'm using Grammarly to check the Grammar and using Word to write it. Also, it's my first history.
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My father was a man who looked at every situation with a positive mindset, with his favorite saying being "If life gives you lemons, make a lemonade". Well, what if life throws you into an unknown forest with nothing but the clothes you're wearing?
In said forest also had, for some reason, some kind of bear-thing with bones growing off its back, that was very dedicated to turning you into his next meal.
Life can take those lemons and shove where the sun doesn't shine.
I was lucky of running into a team of huntsmen in training, ended up colliding with one of them, they made short work of the bear-thing. They took me to the Kingdom of Vale where-
"You are Daydreaming again." Said a young woman with blue eyes and silver hair that reached her back which had Wolf ears on top of it. She is driving an old pickup truck."We're almost arriving" Siva said.
Spencer is brought back to the present by the voice of his friend."Sorry, Siva. Just lost in the memories a little." Scratches his head in embarrassment. Looking from the passenger seat, I could already see the walls approaching. This place was the first and last attempt of Vale to expand.
Mountain Glenn.
Seeing this I started to mentally review the plan: we are here to gather resources so I can finish the raid suits and try to bring some back to the village. It's a risky plan as if anything goes wrong we won't be able to call for help but honestly, this place is just a treasure trove of resources that is just too good to pass.
Humming I took a glance at the back seat where a mechanical dog was 'sleeping'. His original name was recicly-wan but we are calling him Pochi on Siva's insistence. He is a marvel of engineering that is capable of recycling anything he eats and building him was only possible with the boon I have.
I have the entire tech tree of One Piece in my head. It's a strange feeling to know how to build mighty cyborgs that can take on armies, strong ships made to withstand the harshest of weather, and all the other whacky inventions that appear in the anime.
Now I just need the resources to take full advantage of it.
Grabbing my scroll as we passed the walls through a hole in it and putting an old map of Mount Glenn, I started to give Siva directions towards the commercial district. Passing by dilapidated buildings makes me Wonder how the city must have looked in its glory days.
Siva parks the car at our first stop before going to the CCT tower. Getting out I started to look around for which store we should plunder first and realized couldn't tell what the store sold from the outside. Even the map is of little help as it didn't show the names of the stores.
Siva goes to the back seat to 'wake' Pochi and grab her rifle. "Come on Pochi, we're gonna have a busy day," Siva said while opening the door for him to get out. Pochi responded with an electronic "woof" as he got down from the car and started to walk alongside her.
'When did this start again?' Spencer looked at the scene and tried to remember at what point recycle-wan/Pochi was adopted by Siva. Shrugging my shoulders and grabbed two of the three duffel bags from the truck bed. I handed one to Siva and we started going to each store to see if anything on the inside was worth taking.
"Did you notice how stressed Melinda looked?" Siva exits a ruined mini-market with a riffle strapped across her back.
"She overworked fixing the militia weapons and being low on supplies certainly doesn't help," Spencer said while looking through some rubble. "More Grimm are appearing every day but that's to be expected with the village growing. How many people is it again?"
"Almost four hundred."
Spencer nods at the answer."When we return I'm going to land a hand. She should look for an apprentice."
"You're the only one that was able to deal with her." She said while deciding which store to enter next. Siva hears Pochi barking to grab her attention and goes towards him."Pochi found something."
Spencer heads toward them "She's not a difficult person, just wants her weapons to be made right". Entering a hardware store, what's left of it at least, I see Siva picking from the ground and putting on the duffel bag miscellaneous items that could be useful.
"I saw her threatening Jade with a hammer the other day." She is grabbing an old wrench that is offered by Pochi.
"In her defense, Jade does break her spear a lot but I get your point." I grab a few old tools. Spencer remembers when Melinda was skeptical of his claim to be able to use the forge, and it was only after proving his skill that she would lend her forge from time to time.
That's how I build my armor and gun. Well, I say 'armor' but is just pieces of metal hammered in the shape of my torso, arms, and legs that are under my clothes. The gun on the other hand is a modified revolver that has incredible penetration Power called Walker. 'The Charlotte family certainly knew how to make a gun.' I mused while putting my right hand on the revolver that was resting on my hip.
Siva on the other hand doesn't need armor as she has aura, crazy bastards weaponized their souls, and most recently a semblace.
I reach for my scroll to look at the time. "Let's wrap up here and go to the CCT tower. Hopefully, it will still be there."
"You think Val-"Siva's ears start to twitch and she snaps her head towards the door. "Grimm." She hisses.
I drew the Walker and slowly approached the door. Taking a peek outside I saw a trio of bewolfs on the other side of the block mindless walking around. 'They have the entire city to walk around and still end up so close to us' Spencer tries to keep his frustration down as Grimm can sense negative emotions.
I look at Siva holding tightly her rifle and put a hand on her shoulder, she relaxes a little but not by much. After a few tense minutes, the beowolfs started to go deeper into the city, we didn't move until they disappeared from our sight.
We ran towards the truck with a sense of urgency. I put both duffel bags in the truck bed next to the third duffel bag that was already full with something special and opened the back seat door for Pochi to get in. Siva becomes intangible to enter the driver seat faster and throws her weapons on the back almost hitting Pochi.
This city has been abandoned for ten years and I was hoping that would mean that the Grimm had moved on. Well, apparently they don't care that there is no one here.
"We still need to go to the CCT tower." Siva looked incredulous at me."I can finally finish the raid suits with all the electronic parts that are there and this is going to benefit us so much ." Spencer says trying to convince Siva.
"If it's still there, for all we know it could be just rubble now. Ten years it's a long time." Siva says while glaring at me."Are these suits even that good?"
"Yes," Spencer answers resolutely.
She gave me a look like she couldn't decide whether to throttle me or scream in anger. "Five minutes," Siva said through gritted teeth as she started the car.
I felt guilty for putting her in this situation but it was already difficult to convince Gram to lend his truck. He is so close to finishing the raid suits and Siva Will get one too! This is going to be good for both of them.
We both stayed silent the entire drive. I looked in the mirror to see the same shoulder-length dirty blond hair, skin that was a little more tanned for working more in the Sun, and brown eyes that were tired.
'Maybe I should just go to Atlas.' Spencer thought tiredly. He learned in the village that the kingdom of Atlas is always looking for talented scientists to work for their military. While that would solve all my problems, I'm afraid of only being allowed to make weapons and nothing else.
Siva stops in front of the CCT tower and I sigh in relief for not finding it destroyed. It is a cylindrical building with four floors, all Windows are broken, the paint is still peeling off and on top, there are a few satellite dishes. Honestly, it kind of looks like a lighthouse without the top tower.
We exited the truck and I grabbed the duffel bag with the raid suit and a toolbox from the truck bed. Siva opens the door for Pochi and we begin to walk towards the tower. Passing the front entrance, the door is on the floor broken, my eyes light with excitement at all the computers in front of us, all of their screens are cracked and covered in dust.
"How long do You need?" Siva asks.
"One hour at least," Spencer says after doing some quick math in his head.
"Spencer!" Siva hiss.
"I know how selfish this is and I'm sorry for putting you in danger like this but they are going to change everything." Spencer is feeling like crap for putting Siva through this.
Siva fidges a little but then sighs and takes Pochi to the front entrance to keep an eye out for any Grimm that might appear. 'My impatience might get us both killed. Great going, Spencer.' I thought guilty while looking at her.
I put down the duffle bag and started to work on breaking apart the computers as fast as possible. I didn't bother being careful in disassembling them, had more than enough spare pieces if necessary, and started to finish the raid suits after the sixth computer was taken apart.
"I'm done," Spencer says holding a blue and Green canister in his hands.
Siva and Pochi turn to me and she looks at the canisters in confusion. "Why did you put them in canisters?"
"It's easier to transport and to change into them," Spencer said.
Siva looked doubtful at the second part of my answer, so I decided to simply show why I wanted to make them so much. I put the Green canister in front of my waist and started to rapidly spin while smoke came out of it. It quickly takes the shape of a Green jumpsuit with a Black cloak around my shoulders, lime gauntlets, Black and White round elbow pads, lime and Green Jet-propelled boots, and an Orange ascot.
I basked in the feeling for a few moments, my inner geek was screaming in joy, and turned to see Siva looking at me with wide eyes. "How do I look?" Spencer puts his hands on the waist and puffs out his chest.
Siva started to fumble with her words, being too shocked to know what to ask first. She takes a deep breath and says with eyes sparkling"Where's mine?"
I gave a joyous laugh and handed the blue canister. Siva puts it in front of her hip and starts to change into her raid suit. She is wearing a long blue and yellow double-breasted shirt and pants with lightning décor, a black cloak appears around her shoulders, yellow gauntlets, yellow and blue Jet-propelled boots, and an aqua ascot.
"With everything you said about them, I didn't expect it to feel so...normal," Siva said while expecting the raid suit.
"I guess so, but let's focus on the important and pla-test them right now." Spencer pointed his gauntlet hand away from Siva and pressed the button on the inside. As the fist soared forward toward a wall I remembered that we were still inside the building, the collision made the building shake a little and cracks started to appear on the ceiling.
We looked at the hole for a moment, Siva started to slowly turn to me with a deadpan face. "On second thought it would be safer outside. So...yeah." Spencer said in a weak attempt to save face. Siva stomped outside with Pochi, and I followed after grabbing the toolbox and duffel bag. On the street we saw three beowolves and a fucking ursa coming towards us, most likely to investigate the noise, I clenched my fists as this time Will be different.
I pulled Siva behind me and activated the shield generator from my cloak, the ursa ran head-first into it as he tried to tackle me. He didn't seem to care about it and with a furious roar started to attack my shield, while that was happening the beowolfs ran past me.
Before I could even turn my head a sound of tearing followed by an impact rang in the street and the beowolves flew above my head, they were dissipating before even hitting the ground. I looked at Siva holding a piece of wall double her size, from the CCT tower as there was a new hole, and breathing heavily from the adrenaline.
Spencer returned his focus to the ursa, that is still attacking furiously, and pushed his cloak forward to stagger his attacker. Seeing the ursa stop for a moment, Spencer uses the winch in the gauntlets to wrap around his throat and with a roar throws him into the CCT tower further damaging it.
A moment of silence followed the end of the fight, we looked at each other with wide eyes at what just happened. The sound of groaning metal startled us, looking at the CCT tower cracks started to rapidly spread all over it. Spencer rushes forward to grab Siva and Pochi, the moment both of them are in his grasp the boots are activated to fly away from the falling building.
In the air we watched as the building hit the ground and shattered into pieces, the sound echoed through Mountain Glenn. "You okay?" Spencer asked. Siva nods numbly, still looking at the destruction around them.
I told Siva how to use the boots, she started to float next to me. Our silence was broken by Pochi barking at us, we shared a look and started to laugh uncontrollably. We spent a few good minutes doing that as at the end I was out of breath.
"I'm sorry," Spencer said after recovering his breath. "I really thought that there wouldn't be any Grimm around. It's been ten years! What are they still doing here!?"
"Gram told me it was dangerous but I didn't listen, it was just stupid only the two of us coming to he-OW" Spencer yelped as Siva hit his arm.
"Yes, it was a reckless idea. You always get in your head that there's only one solution and rushes head first." Spencer winces as his parents used to say the same thing. "ButI can see why you were so eager to finish this. These raid suits are something else."
"They are just the beginning, there is so much more I want to build but that's for later. Let's go home and we can just fly the way back." Spencer said.
"What about Gram's car?" Siva says as she takes Pochi from my arms.
"...right, we can't forget his car," Spencer said.
