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sapphire-writes · 1 year

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Hey, if your requests are still open and you accept... How about Aemond being inevitably soft towards jace's twin (who he claims to hate)? Maybe they were close as children but they drifted apart due to family division. During her family stay at kings landing, not a day goes by without them engaging in some good old fashioned arguing/battle of wits. One day he finds her all alone and in distress and before he can say something mean, she bursts out crying and hugs him tightly (almost like he's the only solid thing around her). Cue Aemond being out of sorts and unable to get out a scathing remark out while innerly: "No, stop! I'm supposed to be mean and scary. I'm not soft 🥺🥺"

A/N: Oooo nonnie I loved this request. I love some banter, I definitely ran with them really taunting one another. I hope you like this! I made them pretty feisty towards one another 😂💚

Dragon's Bane ~ Aemond x Velaryon(Strong)!reader

word count: 1.8k

warning: reader is Jace's twin, some violence

masterlist

EDIT: PART 2 is live 💚

Your stomach twisted with nerves as you arrived at the Red Keep. Your mother squeezed your hand, to comfort you and you offered her a small smile. You glanced at your twin Jacaerys who stood tall, looking towards the red towers. Luke, however, paled at the sight before him. You placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It shall be alright,” you told him, causing him to smile weakly. Driftmark’s succession had been challenged, the reason for your return to the capital. You pushed your fear down, deep inside of you. You needed to be there for your brother, focused on nothing else.

As your mother and Daemon made their way into the castle, you followed your brothers towards the training yard. The sound of clashing steel in the early morning rang out across the yard as a crowd gathered to watch. Jace nudged your elbow, beckoning you.

Finding a window between several heads you saw your uncle, Aemond Targaryen, was the source of all the clamor. He twirled expertly away from Ser Criston’s attack, silver hair fanning out behind him. He looked rather graceful, as though he was engaged in a dance rather than a fight.

Aemond and you had been close as children, friends even. The two of you bonded over not having dragons of your own. Aemond was not awarded a dragon in cradle, and yours had failed to hatch. It wasn’t until later in your adolescent you had claimed a dragon of your own.

With the loss of his eye came the end of your friendship. Luke was your brother after all, it was your duty to protect him from the Queen’s justice. Though you empathized with Aemond, for the wrong done against him.

“Nephews,” Aemond called, “niece.” His sword was pointed, his violet eye locked onto you. He was handsome, you had to admit, even with the scar and the eyepatch that hid half his face.

“Come to train?” he asked, a challenge more than a question. Your twin stood eerily still next to you. You snort out a laugh as his remark. Aemond’s eye narrowed.

“Something funny, niece?” he asked, as you crossed your arms in front of you.

“I just found it rather unappealing, tis all. Need your ego fluffed up a bit more, uncle?” you told him, raising your brows. Aemond’s mouth formed a tight line. Jace’s head snapped towards you.

“Sister,” he warned. Aemond’s lip curled.

“Careful, niece,” he says, voice smooth, “you begin to tug free from your brother’s leash.” Aemond makes a tsk sound with his tongue. Your cheeks fill with fire. You open your mouth to say something else when Jace wraps his hand around your arm.

“Come on,” he orders, pulling you from the scene, “he’s not worth it.”

The incident in the training yard was hardly the last quarrel you got into with your uncle during your time at King’s Landing. It was as though your mere existences annoyed one another and yet you could not see to stay away from each other.

Everywhere you went, he appeared. The library, the gardens, the sept. There was no escaping his torment.

“I didn’t know you could read, niece,” Aemond had said, snatching a book you tried to reach, walking past you. You huff in frustration, trailing after him, deeper into the library.

“Give it back.”

“Ivestragon issa isse valyrīha,” he says (Tell me in Valyrian).

Your face scrunches. Your mother tongue has been difficult for you and your twin to learn. You and Jace spent ages in the halls of Dragonstone practicing the language of Old Valyria.

“What?” you ask, causing Aemond to smile at your defeat.

“Nykeā zaldrīzes qilōni daor ȳzaldrīzes,” he says chuckling (A dragon who cannot speak).

You curl your hands into fists. You can feel the humiliation in your bones.

“Say it in the common tongue, if you’re so brave,” you taunt him, reaching for the book. He moves out of the way effortlessly.

“Kostilus tolī.” (Perhaps later)

“It must be exhausting, being this insufferable all the time,” you tell him.

“You’re very cruel when you are feeling inferior,” Aemond tells you, a smirk on his face.

“Inferior? To you?” you bark out a laugh, “you wish.”

“I already know it to be true,” he says, leaning against a desk, “in knowledge, in name.”

You sigh dramatically, tipping your head back to expose the skin of your neck. Your dark curls fall down your back, bouncing at the action, nearly mesmerizing your uncle.

“You speak so poetically uncle, it almost feels like you’re trying to make a point.”

Aemond merely hums in response. He eyes your neck as though he wishes to sink his teeth into your flesh and tear out your jugular.

“You always were a spiteful little creature,” he murmurs, eye narrowing.

You hold his gaze for a moment.

“Give me my book.”

“No, it is mine.”

Your mouth forms a smirk then, eyes gleaming with mischief.

“Cannot part with it for an afternoon?” you tease, pouting, “very sweet uncle, like a child with a toy.”

This causes him to throw the book across the room.

Dinner is a nightmarish event. A fight is likely to start once your grandsire is removed from the room. Aemond stands to make a final toast.

“Final tribute, to my nephews, and niece,” he drolls, holding his cup out. Your ears ring as he continues, you watch his smug mouth move the words lost to you. All you see is red.

“I dare you say that again,” Jace says, from his spot with Helaena. You stand from your chair and move away from the table.

“Twas only a compliment,” Aemond insists, “do you not think yourself strong?”

Jace is on him, punching him in the jaw. Aemond barely moves, pushing Jace to the floor. You walk over to him, slapping his cup from his hand. It clatters to the floor, the wine pooling like blood. Aemond’s smirk only grows.

“Do you not tire of being your brother’s lapdog?” he says. You slap him before thinking of the consequences. He turns back to you, cheek an angry red. He twists his hand in your curls, pulling you close to him. You can feel his breath on your face. There is only Aemond in the room, the noises around drown out. You hold his gaze, both of your faces masked in rage.

“I hate you,” you hiss. A growl rumbles low in his chest.

“I hate you right back.”

Daemon has to drag you from the room, at the instruction of your mother. You sit within their chambers trying to cool your head.

“You are too quick to anger,” Daemon scolds, as you fix your hair. The roots sit painfully from being manhandled by your uncle.

“He vexes me,” you snarl and Daemon chuckles.

“He will not bother you long.”

You look towards your mother who rests her hand on her stomach. Her lilac eyes are sad. You wish you looked like her, especially when you were young. You often dreamt of waking with lavender eyes and silver hair.

“What do you mean?”

Daemon glances at Rhaenyra for permission. Though Daemon has been your father figure for most of your life, he still looks to Rhaenyra for guidance when it comes to you. She nods.

“When we return to Dragonstone, you shall journey to Winterfell,” he begins, “to wed Lord Cregan Stark.”

Your blood turns to ice in your veins. It was only a matter of time, you supposed, but you had hoped your mother would delay it.

“What?” you say through your teeth.

“My love,” Rhaenyra says beckoning you to come sit with her, but you back away.

“No, no! Mother please,” you beg, tears filling your eyes. Your voice is strained and panicked.

You have sat in your mother’s lap and listened to her cry over being forced to marry. You have seen her tears and listened to her sobs in the night when she believed you to be sleeping. You have seen her unhappy, heard her thoughts on the matter. And yet she puts you in the same position.

“I will not go!” you insist, though you are afraid you sound like a petulant child with your demands.

“You shall do your duty,” Daemon says, a warning look in his eye. You do not meet your mother’s gaze as you flee from the room.

Aemond finds you in the gardens. He had come to get some air after the event of dinner. When he spots you sitting on a bench his whole body tenses. He feels a throbbing where his sapphire eye sits as though your very presence is enough to bring on one of his painful fits.

Aemond struts towards you, tongue ready to release a cruel remark. A twig snaps beneath his foot in his haste and you turn towards him, tears streaming down your face. Aemond feels as though he has been kicked in the gut as all the air in his lungs leaves him.

Your face is red, dark eyes glassy with fresh tears as you stand. Your lower lip wobbles as the streams on your cheeks glisten in the moonlight as fresh tears wet your face. Aemond’s lips part as he readies to speak, to throw an insult your way.

A sob slips through your lips and suddenly your arms are around him, and her nearly topples over as you throw your weight onto him. His chest muffles your sobs as you hide your face from him. Aemond froze, his hands held out to his side, as you anchored yourself to him. It is as though you cannot leave King’s Landing as long as you are tethered to him.

Your hands claw his back, holding on as though someone intends to tear you from him. You are in the palm of his hand, how easily he could humiliate you now. But he does not. Aemond’s arms relax against you as he holds you to him. He brings a hand to stroke your dark hair from your face.

He finds himself unable to speak, the words fizzling from his mind as he feels the heat from your body melt into him. All he can do is stroke your hair, rub soothing circles in your arm as his tongue fails him.

It unsettles something within him and disturbs him. His bastard niece, this is wrong, he thinks to himself. Aemond does not believe himself to be a comforting man. The kindness he displays to his niece is foreign to him.

You hate her.

You despise her.

She is everything you loathe in this world.

You look up at him with those big brown eyes, and Aemond believes you must think the same about him. Neither of you speaks. This is not a language either of you knows. But as your cries lull, you stay in his arms in the gardens bathed in moonlight, exploring this unknown territory together.

#aemond one eye #aemond targaryen #aemond drabble #aemond fic #aemond x fem!reader #aemond x y/n #aemond x reader #aemond targaryen fanfic #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x you #aemond x you #aemond targaryen imagine #aemond imagine #hotd aemond #sapphire answers #house of the dragon fic #aemond targaryen fic

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androxys · 5 months

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Task Force What? An Incomplete (Yet Still Very Long) Guide to Some of the DCU’s Government Groups [Part 1]

So, you’re reading DC comics and a government agency pops up that you’re reasonably sure doesn’t exist in the real world. Who are they? What’s their deal? Here’s a quick primer on some of the groups that you may encounter.

A few notes and disclaimers: This writeup is primarily based on post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint/New 52 comic canon. I’ve tried to note every exception to that general rule. Also, several of these groups and comics use historical markers tied to the real world, which makes less and less sense as we-as-readers get farther away in time from when these comics were originally published. DC eventually stopped using real people and events so frequently in comics to help with their timelessness, but I’m going to include the historical figures and times as depicted in the source material, even if that means the same Batman is supposed to have been active in the 70s and also in 2011. Just don’t worry about it.

This writeup is split into three parts, described below. This section is the most dense, dealing with the history of 13 agencies, some of their key players, and the organizations' general missions. Special thanks to my editors and beta readers for helping me shape this up.

Part 1: Organization Descriptions and Histories

Task Force X

Argent

The Suicide Squad

Checkmate

Central Bureau of Investigation

The Agency

Project: Peacemaker

Department of Extranormal Operations

All Purpose Enforcement Squad

Project Cadmus / The DNA Project

Human Defense Corps

A.R.G.U.S.

Spyral

Part 2: Timeline

Part 3: Reading Suggestions

Task Force X

One of the most famous of DC’s government groups, Task Force X is sometimes used interchangeably with “The Suicide Squad.” However, that’s (at least originally) not quite accurate! Task Force X was a government program that housed two clandestine programs: Argent and The Suicide Squad. Task Force X was originally started in the 50s by President Truman to make up for the disappearance of the Justice Society of America after Senator McCarthy summoned them before his House of Un-American Activities Committee and tried to force them to unmask. Task Force X was designed to deal with the “extraordinary” (read: metahuman and alien) threats that might face the U.S. government. Argent was the domestic program, while the Suicide Squad was international. The leader of Argent took his team and disappeared in the 60s, while the Suicide Squad disbanded soon after due to budget cuts.

Task Force X would be revived in the 80s when then-congressional aide Amanda Waller would present to President Reagan a plan to revitalize The Suicide Squad, this time utilizing supervillains for high risk, clandestine missions in exchange for reduced prison time. Waller also envisioned the reorganization of intelligence group The Agency, which would become the intelligence-focused division of Task Force X. The Agency would be led by former Doom Patrol member Valentina Vostok until its reorganization into Checkmate, at which point Harry Stein was named Checkmate’s King. Although Central Bureau of Intelligence leader Sarge Steel had significant reservations about Task Force X, the President ultimately approved the project.

After an inter-departmental war known as the Janus Directive, Task Force X was dissolved as an umbrella organization. The Suicide Squad and Checkmate were made fully independent of one another, with Sarge Steele assuming direct control of Checkmate from Waller, who stayed on as the director of the Suicide Squad.

Argent

Argent was the U.S. based division of the original, 50’s Task Force X that dealt with domestic and civilian “extraordinary” encounters. Originally led by a man named only as “Control,” Argent went underground after Control killed a man connected with the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Control’s vision for this new, even more secretive Argent was an internationally focused spy agency for justice, though little is known about how effective he was. Presumed defunct, Argent was not revived when Amanda Waller proposed her new Suicide Squad. Eventually, the new Suicide Squad made contact with the remenants of Argent, and were witness to the ultimate end of the program.

The Suicide Squad

Originally, the Suicide Squad was the self-given name of WWII platoon with a depressingly high fatality rate. Over the course of the war, the squadron found themselves on Dinosaur Island, which certainly didn’t help those numbers. Richard Montgomery Flag Sr. was brought in to help lead the group, turning the squadron around into a highly decorated division of the Army.

In 1951, after the Justice Society was driven underground, President Truman created Task Force X to be able to combat “extraordinary” threats now that there were no costumed heroes to rely on. Truman requested that Flag Sr. lead The Suicide Squad, which focused on international threats. This group was largely composed of veterans of the WWII Squadron S. This version of the Suicde Squad was disbanded after the death of Flag Sr.

A third version of the Squad was created by General Stuart, tapping Rick Flag Jr. to be its leader. This team continued to deal with extranormal threats, but disbanded after a mission in Cambodia that saw the loss of half the squad. It was also revealed that regardless of the fatalities, budget cuts demanded the end of the program.

The most famous version of the Suicide Squad was proposed by congressional aide Amanda Waller to President Reagan in the 1980s, following the Legends event. Waller envisioned a revival of Task Force X as an umbrella program, with the new Suicide Squad being staffed by incarcerated supervillains. These villains would undertake high-risk, clandestine operations in return for reduced prison sentences. Part of the appeal of this model was the deniability: in the event that an operation went poorly, the government could simply blame it on the supervillain. President Reagan approved the program–Waller was the leader of Task Force X, which included both the Suicide Squad and The Agency, which was soon remade into Checkmate.

This Suicide Squad operated out of Belle Reve penitentiary, which was a maximum security prison specializing in holding supervillains. The initial administration of the Suicide Squad consisted of Amanda Waller as its director, Belle Reve’s warden John Economos, psychologist Simon LaGrieve, bureaucratic assistant Flo Crawley, and pilot Briscoe. Waller brought in Rick Flag Jr. to serve as her field leader and Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, as second in command. While the Squad certainly lived up to its name and reputed high mortality rate, notable team members include Eve Eden, Nightshade; Floyd Lawton, Deadshot; June Moone, Enchantress; and George Harkness, Captain Boomerang. I’m not going to spoil the whole Oracle plot for you, but know that Barbara Gordon actually debuted as Oracle in the pages of Suicide Squad, so consider this your sign to go read Suicide Squad (1987).

After the events of The Janus Directive, Task Force X was dissolved as an umbrella organization. While Waller was left as the director of the Suicide Squad, she no longer had any leadership in Checkmate, which had passed into the control of Sarge Steel, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

After a number of missions, Waller eventually disbanded the Suicide Squad, finding herself disillusioned with the Squad’s goals. However, because this is comics, the Suicide Squad would not stay dead for long. Waller would periodically create new incarnations of the Squad to address spontaneous issues that would arise, often crossing over with other superheroes' adventures. During Lex Luthor’s presidency, Waller would be appointed Secretary of Metahuman Affairs, taking Sarge Steel’s place.

After Checkmate was rechartered as an United Nations organization, Amanda Waller took a position as the White Queen. To limit conflicts of interest, this effectively meant that the Suicide Squad was permanently disbanded, as Waller was prohibited from operations and could not be involved in the leadership of both organizations. This didn’t stop her, however, and Waller formed a new incarnation of the Suicide Squad that began Operation: Salvation Run. This project involved rounding up all supervillains and deporting them to a prison planet via Boom Tube (yes, really) where they were supposed to stay indefinitely. Waller was eventually ousted from Checkmate, but not before she and her Squad managed to deport the majority of Earth’s villains. The Suicide Squad would have to confront its ghosts during the Blackest Night event, when zombified fallen members of the Squad came after living members, but further adventures were cut off by Flashpoint.

Checkmate

Checkmate started from The Agency, a quasi-independent intelligence focused division of Task Force X led by former Doom Patrol member Valentina Vostok. Vostok brought in former NYPD lieutenant Harry Stein, who soon reorganized the group into Checkmate. Borrowing from chess’ hierarchy, Stein was King, working with his Queen counterpart to coordinate various agents. Bishops oversaw Rooks, who planned missions for support agents–Pawns–and special agents–Knights. Checkmate operated out of Konig Industries in Shelby, Virginia until the events of the Janus Directive. During that event, Checkmate lost roughly 40 Knights and its Konig cover was blown. With only a third of its agents, Checkmate was subsequently forced to relocate to a NORAD base in Colorado.

Harry Stein resigned as head of Checkmate after his son was shot, leading Sarge Steel to promote Phil Kramer to King and Kalia Cambell to Queen. They would lead Checkmate against Jade Nguyen, the assassin known as Chesire, during the time she took control of several nuclear warheads and bombed the nation of Qurac. At some point Checkmate would establish their division between black side, which ran operations, and white side, which was primarily intelligence.

Bishop Jessica Midnight recruited Sasha Bordeaux, Bruce Wayne’s former bodyguard, into Checkmate. Bordeaux had been imprisoned due to suspicion that she was an accomplice to Bruce Wayne's alleged killing of Vesper Fairchild. Checkmate faked Bordeaux’s death in prison and provided her with plastic surgery to assume a completely new life as a Checkmate operative.

After Kramer, former Knight David Said would become the new King of Checkmate. He would lead Checkmate against Batman in Gotham City, a campaign that saw them abduct Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, and install her as Queen in an attempt to have her share secrets from Batman. This arrangement was actually a plan between Batman and Huntress, however, and Bertinelli ended up serving as a mole for Batman on Checkmate.

For this next section, I choose to believe that Checkmate was a victim of Superboy-Prime’s altering of reality in the leadup to Infinite Crisis. Checkmate is suddenly headed by Maxwell Lord, Said and Bertinelli are nowhere to be seen, and Lord’s motivations are massively different from any of his previous appearances. Regardless, under Lord, Checkmate amassed information on every metahuman on Earth with plans to eliminate them. To do this, Lord was given access to the Brother Eye satellite, and together they controlled over one million OMACs–civilians that had been injected with nanotechnology to make them unwitting cyborg sleeper agents. When Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, discovered what Lord had been up to, Lord killed him and instructed Bordeaux to dispose of the body.

Sasha sent Blue Beetle’s goggles to Batman, alerting him of Kord’s death. Once Lord knew that Batman was on his tail, he accelerated his plans, using his mental manipulation powers to take control of Superman and send him on a rampage to keep other heroes occupied. When Wonder Woman caught up with Lord, she bound him in her Lasso of Truth and commanded him to tell her how to set Superman free. The only option he gave her was for him to die, so Wonder Woman snapped his neck. Upon Lord’s death, Brother Eye immediately activated all OMACs and began the King_Is_Dead protocol, which involved killing every current Checkmate agent. Bordeaux, who had been imprisoned by Lord after he discovered her subterfuge, escaped, though not before her own unique OMAC programming activated. Lord had intended for her, as his Knight, to be a special type of OMAC, leaving her somewhere between human and machine. Later, Bordeaux would team up with Batman and other heroes to take down Brother Eye.

After Infinite Crisis, Checkmate was recharted by the United Nations to be an international group with a stronger system of checks and balances. Checkmate operated under a system of twos: two Kings and two Queens, with a Knight and Bishop for all four royals. Most specifically, the U.N. charter set out a Rule of Two: each position had to be balanced with meta and non-metahumans. As before, Black side was operations while White was intelligence. Bishops advised their royals, while Knights were special agents. Rooks were an elite Black Ops unit, while numerous Pawns were standard agents.

At the time of its chartering, the new Checkmate had the OMAC enhanced Bordeaux as its Black Queen, Taleb Beni Khalid as its unpowered Black King, JSA Green Lantern Alan Scott as White King, and Amanda Waller as White Queen. After Scott resigned as White King his Bishop, fellow JSA member Michael Holt–Mister Terrific, took his place.

This Checkmate frequently clashed with Kobra, the international cult intent on bringing a new age of chaos to the world. However, they also had a non-insignificant amount of infighting. Significantly, Waller was forced out as White Queen after she tried to preemptively remove Bordeaux and Holt, knowing that they were getting close to uncovering her illicit Suicide Squad and their Operation: Salvation Run.

After the events of Brightest Day, Maxwell Lord returns from the dead and uses his power to make nearly everyone on Earth forget about him. He immediately begins to try to regain control of Checkmate, beginning a misinformation and discrediting campaign against Checkmate’s leadership.

Central Bureau of Intelligence (C.B.I.)

The Central Bureau of Intelligence is a sort of corollary to the Federal Bureau of Investigation within the DC Universe. The organization primarily focuses on information gathering from domestic and international sources, then utilizing that information for operations. However, while other groups are focused on “extranormal” threats, the CBI is primarily concerned with “normal” missions. When special assignments do come up, special agents are dispatched.

The CBI was known to be active when Task Force X was being revived by Amanda Waller. While Sarge Steel was both known to be involved in the CBI and important enough to sit in on Waller’s meeting with the President of the United States, it is not clearly stated that he was the director of the CBI at that time. However, Sarge Steel would officially be the director of the CBI by the time of the Janus Initiative. Despite the massive reorganization at the time, the CBI was left largely alone. Steel would be promoted to the Director of Metahuman Affairs, a Cabinet level position wherein he would oversee all metahuman related operations for the federal government.

Among the most notable CBI agents are the aforementioned Sarge Steel, King Faraday, and former Teen Titan Roy Harper. After leaving the Titans, Harper would work for the CBI as a special agent–it was during this period he met Jade Nguyen, the assassin known as Chesire, and conceived their daughter Lian.

Eventually, the CBI would be incorporated into the Department of Extranormal Operations.

The Agency

The Agency was a group led by former Doom Patrol member Valentina Vostok that aimed to monitor superheroes. When Amanda Waller presented her plan to reform Task Force X, the Agency was reorganized into Checkmate. Among its divisions was Project: Peacemaker.

Project: Peacemaker

Project Peacemaker was the program that created and maintained Christopher Smith’s activities as Peacemaker. Originally, Project Peacemaker was a division of the Agency. When Task Force X was revived under Amanda Waller’s proposal, the Agency was reorganized into Checkmate, and Project Peacemaker is implied to have been made its own entity. However, when Task Force X was dissolved after The Janus Directive, Project Peacemaker became folded into Checkmate under the supervision of Sarge Steel.

The Department of Extranormal Affairs (D.E.O.)

In terms of real-world publication, the DEO began in 1998 as DC’s effort to begin consolidating all of the various federal metahuman organizations under one umbrella. In this author’s opinion, this was for the better.

The Department of Extranormal Operations is the U.S. government’s most modern and comprehensive agency to assess and combat metahuman threats through intelligence gathering, field operatives, and their own research.

The DEO conducts extensive research on metahumans and extranormal entities, with various degrees of transparency or consent. The DEO has been depicted to hold individuals against their will in order to study them, to the point of sending either their own agents or other affiliated groups to hunt down subjects that escape. This research seemed to be, in its early depictions, its primary focus. However, the DEO would take broader forays into intelligence, using that information for good… and sometimes to blackmail heroes into working for them.

In most depictions, the DEO is led by Director Bones, a former member of Infinity Inc, who reports to the federal Director of Metahuman Affairs. Bones is the direct supervisor of operative Cameron Chase, who has proved herself an exceptional agent. Through Chase, Kate Spencer–the Manhunter–was brought in to work for the DEO for some time.

The DEO is expansive enough to have several subdivisions within it. One such group was the Department of Metahuman Affairs, where Wonder Woman would work after Infinite Crisis. This subdivision would focus specifically on gathering and preparing intelligence on active metahumans, should the government need it. This subdivision would be led by Sarge Steel, who had left the White House upon the election of Lex Luthor and Luthor’s subsequent appointment of Amanda Waller to Secretary for Metahuman Affairs.

Another group known to be active during Luthor’s presidency was Knightwatch, a more militaristic division that responded to possible metahuman attacks on federal personnel and buildings.

The DEO’s research facilities are detailed in various comics across the 90s. It is gradually revealed that the DEO either maintains or sponsors a variety of training camps and research facilities, sometimes called “orphanages,” that hold metahumans under various states of duress. One example is Secret, the Young Justice member who is shown escaping from a DEO orphanage, and later gets Young Justice’s help shutting down similar experimentation programs. A group of metahumans who escape from the DEO collectively get taken in by the Titans. Conversely, some of the individuals who go on to be the Relative Heroes are depicted to be in a more traditional fostering environment, though it is still connected to the DEO.

Within the continuity of the Supergirl TV show, as part of the Arrowverse, the DEO is a governmental organization that specifically deals with extraterrestrial threats and encounters.

All Purpose Enforcement Squad (A.P.E.S.)

The All Purpose Enforcement Squad is an international, interdepartmental group of highly trained special agents. APES features most prominently in the Young Justice series, represented by Donald Fite and Ishido Maad.

While APES has connections to international organizations such as Interpol and Scotland Yard, they seem primarily U.S. based, as APES was the primary group trying to recover Secret, a metahuman who escaped from a DEO research facility.

Project Cadmus

Project Cadmus, sometimes also known as the DNA Project, is a government supported genetic research lab. Cadmus is involved with cloning and gene sequencing for the purpose of creating new life, with their most famous creation being Superboy.

Originally led by Director Paul Westfield, Cadmus employed various scientists engaged with genetic manipulation. The most notorious of these scientists was Dabney Donovan, who created “DNAliens” with inhuman powers. These DNAliens include Dubbilex, the grey skinned, horned telepath who would serve as a mentor to Superboy. Cadmus also employed the adult members of the original Newsboy Legion. These adults cloned themselves to create a new Newsboy Legion, and additionally cloned former NYPD officer Jim Harper–the original Guardian. This new cloned Guardian would serve as head of security of Cadmus.

Donovan was eventually fired from Cadmus due to the extremity of his experiments. Donovan would go on to align himself with The Agenda, another genetic lab responsible for their own Superboy clone: Match. Cadmus would also have an enemy in the form of the Evil Factory, led by Mokkari and Simyan, servants of Darkseid.

After a virus affecting clones and DNAliens breaks out, Cadmus began to receive intense scrutiny. A purification by fire was attempted, with missiles aimed to destroy sections of Metropolis and stop the virus. After the missiles were stopped, Donovan revealed himself to be the mastermind of the virus and killed Westfield, leading Mickey Cannon to be named the new administrative director of Cadmus. This scrutiny forced Cadmus to withdraw from the public eye, going deeper underground.

Under Cannon, Dabney would be kept imprisoned in Cadmus to serve as a scientific advisor under armed guard. Cannon also brought in Serling Roquette to be the new head of genetics–Roquette would eventually be responsible for curing Superboy of the genetic quirk that kept him from aging. Cadmus would continue to withdraw from attention, especially under the presidency of Lex Luthor.

Human Defense Corps

The Human Defense Corps was a group started under President Luthor’s administration with the goal of having an entirely non-metahuman taskforce that could respond to meta-level threats. This was in line with Luthor’s goal of reducing dependency on superheroes, and as such only recruited from decorated military veterans.

A specific subgroup within the Human Defense Corps was Squad K, a division specifically armed and trained to take on Kryptonian targets.

A.R.G.U.S.

You may have noticed that I didn’t put what A.R.G.U.S. stands for up above. That’s because sources disagree. According to the wiki, A.R.G.U.S. stands for Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-humans. A.R.G.U.S. was created post-Flashpoint to be a governmental organization associated with the Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, A.R.G.U.S. aims to support super- and meta-human endeavors, rather than having an antagonistic relationship with the superhuman community.

A.R.G.U.S. took on a life of its own within the TV Arrowverse shows, where it’s called the Advanced Research Group United Support. There, A.R.G.U.S. is the de facto government agency for dealing with metahuman threats. It was formerly led by Amanda Waller before leadership passed to Lyla Michaels.

Spyral

Before I start to give the details on Spyral, I have to disclaim a few things about it. Spyral was first mentioned in the New Earth timeline, during Grant Morrison’s time with Batman Incorporated (2011). This was immediately before Flashpoint and the New 52 reboot. However, this run of Batman Incorporated kept going within the New Earth continuity past when Flashpoint happened, meaning that the comics had to disclaim that they were still the old continuity, even though the reboot happened. But then! Batman Incorporated (2012) was a direct sequel to the New Earth run, even though this Volume 2 explicitly happens in the post-reboot continuity.

All of this to say, Spyral is an organization that has roots in the New Earth continuity, but was largely fleshed out in the post-Flashpoint universe. Because of the relative lack of information in the pre-Flashpoint continuity, however, we can assume a lot of the later established details can be retroactively applied.

Technically, Spyral is not a U.S. agency. Originally, Spyral was founded during the Cold War to be a United Nations affiliated spy group. The U.N. made former Nazi spy Otto Netz, under the pseudonym Agent Zero, the head of the organization. He was subsequently tasked with recruiting Spyral’s agents and building the organization for the U.N.

Spyral continued into the 80s, at which point Netz was revealed to be a double agent and imprisoned in a lighthouse. Though the organization seemingly collapsed at that point, Spyral’s operations continued. At some point before his imprisonment, Netz recruited Gotham City socialite Kathy Webb Kane into Spyral and tasked her with discovering the identity of the Batman. Kathy developed the Batwoman persona to get close to Batman, though the revelation that Netz was her father caused her to break off contact with both Batman and retreat from Spyral. Kathy Webb Kane was believed to have been killed by Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, during his period of being controlled by the League of Assassins.

Netz would be broken out of his imprisonment by the Leviathan Organization, which is a militaristic group led by Talia al Ghul, after her estrangement from her father Ra’s al Ghul. Leviathan seeks to undo much of modern society in order to rebuild the world in a “better” way. Talia set Netz up as Doctor Dedalus to combat Batman and his Batman Incorporated initiative, designing elaborate traps across the globe to keep Bruce Wayne and his operatives occupied. Netz was eventually killed within one of his traps by Damian Wayne, who was attempting to save his father.

It was revealed after Netz’s death that Kathy Webb Kane was still alive, and had faked her own demise in order to become the secret headmistress of Spyral. After Netz’s death, the U.N. officially reactivated Spyral in order to combat Leviathan’s continued growth.

Spyral operates out of St. Hadrian’s Finishing School for Girls. Initially in the New Earth continuity, the school had been a Leviathan facility, training young women as infiltrators and assassins. It was the site of Stephanie Brown’s mission as Batgirl on behalf of Batman Incorporated, and she and Batman managed to stop the Leviathan plot. In the post-Flashpoint continuity, St. Hadrian’s is Spyral’s base, where elite students are trained as spies. It’s assumed that Spyral just took control after ousting Leviathan.

After Dick Grayson was publically unmasked as Nightwing, he joined Spyral to investigate the organization. During this period, he worked with Helena Bertinelli, who was working as the Matron of Spyral. Grayson would continue as Agent 37 of Spyral for some time, until his identity was restored. At that point, he and Bertinelli both returned to Gotham to take up the mantles of Nightwing and Huntress, respectively. With Bertinelli’s departure, directorship of Spyral and the title of Patron passed to Agent-1, the operative known as Tiger.

#dc comics #amanda waller #suicide squad #sasha bordeaux #checkmate #meta #my writing

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livfastdieyoung69 · 1 year

Note

Jeff Hardy x reader where he finds someone who is extreme just like him

2 EXTREME 4 the EXTREME

The crowd was silent, buzzing with anticipation. Y/N could hear a scream of their name over the barricade, a hand coming out in front of them from the spot on the cold, concrete floor. Their opponent was laid out on the flattened announcers’ table, a referee screaming out to the count of ten from all the way inside the ring. Y/N squeezed their eyes shut, the taste of blood filling their mouth, the thick liquid dripping down from a forehead wound in reminder of the injuries they faced from the past actions of throwing the other person and themselves through the now broken table placed inside one of the ring's corners. The ref was at 7 now. Their eyes shut again, lids crinkling in force.

“Come on. Gotta get up, come on.” Y/N whispered to themselves but their body still refused to move. The plush, red barricade behind them rattled as fans hit against it in a way to show their love. It seemed to be even brighter when they opened their eyes once again, the stadium cheering a little louder while they stumbled to their feet. They looked down at their opponent as the ref counted to 8 before turning to face the ring and lazily diving under the bottom rope and coming back out again, forcing the ref to restart his count.

“ONE!” Y/N fell onto their knees, pulling the fabric on the sides of the ring up, pulling out the only table remaining. The crowd yelled, Y/N’s own adrenaline meshing with theirs.

“TWO!” The ref moved to face the announcers table, now only speaking to one instead of both wrestlers. They pushed the table into the ring, looking back over to their rival who seemed to finally be waking. A sigh left their mouth, moving quickly to set up the flimsy piece of wood, before finally taking a few lung-filling breaths.

“THREE!” They continued in simply breathing, before becoming sick of waiting and turned to their combatant, watching as JR tried bad mouthing them back into the ring.

“Come on!” Their opponents attention was ripped away from JR and now moved to the form standing in the ring. “You fuckin scared now? Come on, get in the goddamn ring!” The ref only reached five before they jumped back into the ring and ran right into a suplex, Y/N throwing their body through the second table.

“ONE, TWO, THREE!” The crowd counted along with the ref and erupted into cheers as Y/N jumped up, celebrating their victory before limping over to the ramp trying not to look too injured. The curtain into the gorilla was pulled back, revealing whoevers match was next and plenty of staff, along with Lita who had been waiting for Y/N’s match to finish. Lita rushed over to the exhausted superstar with an icepack, much more concerned for their well being than they seemed to be.

“Oh my god, I love you so much, Lita.” Y/N let their gratitude be known as they took the ice pack and sat in an uncomfortable steel chair in order to hold it against their back.

“I really don’t know how you do all of this stuff, like I get that its fun to jump around every once in a while, but every single second of every single match? Really, Y/N, I don’t think you’ll be able to bend over by the time you’re thirty!” It was nice to have someone worried, but Y/N wasn’t really listening to Lita as their frustration grew, the chair causing the ice pack to keep sliding down their back. Instead of holding it up, they flopped onto the ground, the icepack perfectly on their lower back.

“Get off the goddamn floor! God, I love you but no wonder why Matt’s always so stressed all the time,” Y/N was new to WWE, recently coming from Big Japan Wrestling, known for their extreme antics that even stuck out in a very extreme company. Now, in a much bigger company with fewer high-flyers and risk takers, it was easy to gain attention from the fans and the love of the only other person in the women's division with a somewhat similar style.

“That boyfriend of yours? What the hells he got to do with me?” Although they got along very well with Lita, Y/N didn’t really talk to very many other people so they weren’t too familiar with the Hardyz.

“You totally act like Jeff! And don’t say you don’t know who that is cause I see you staring at him all the time.”

“That's definitely not true at all.” Before Lita could argue back to the obvious lie, Y/N made her concentrate on something else. “Speaking of, here comes your boy.” Lita rolled her eyes but turned around.

“Lita, I would really appreciate it if you would tell Jeff that there is no need for him to do a Swanton tonight and then another one off a goddamn ladder on Heat.” Matt spoke with a tension filled tone in his voice while he pointed back to the younger man behind him who scoffed at the accusation.

“Jeff, you should not do that.” Lita repeated what he had definitely already heard, Matt turning to face him with an “i-told-you-so” expression.

“Personally, I think that’d be pretty sick.” Y/N spoke, looking up at the brothers from their spot on the floor. Lita looked down with the look a scolding mother would give, Jeff breaking out into a grin at their agreement.

“Why are you on the floor, Y/N?” Matt asked in confusion.

“Cause my back hurts.” They spoke as if it were obvious with a shrug.

“I told you it works.” Jeff spoke from his brother's side, earning a very hard side-eye. “I’m Jeff by the way. I watched your match, it was really great! Y’know, I was thinking, um, we’ve got a pretty similar style, would you maybe wanna bounce some ideas off of each other or something?” Jeff’s grin widened at the sight of Y/N’s as they bashfully took his praise.

“Well, I think I’ve got a concussion right now, but in the future, I think that would be very nice.”

“You weren’t looking at him, huh?” Lita interrupted the pair moment, her eyebrows raised in amusement.

“Shut up, Lita!”

put in the work, put in the hours and take whats ours 💪💪 this took way too long but I’m actually pretty happy with this😁 Jeff’s return def gave me some hope 🙏 mostly gender-neutral but I did make a refrence to Y/N being on the womens roster

in my mind Lita and Matt are extreme but Y/N and Jeff are just battshit crazy also i couldn’t help but make lita and matt in love I just watched the episode where he first kisses her i love them so much

#jeff hardy imagine #jeff hardy x reader #jeff hardy‼️‼️#put in that little heat refrence for rita love u <3 #wwe #wwf #lita #i love her #so much #jeff hardy #wwe smackdown #LIV writes;*!

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brothermoth · 12 days

Text

1890s America and Red Dead Redemption

Part One: Violent Delights and Violent Ends

-----

The latter half of the 1800s was a time characterized by struggle. Off the back of the Civil War, a country divided in not two but four by the rising industry to the east and the stubborn pastoralism of the west. The southern portion of the country beaten down, burned and disgraced, and the northern portion rolling in gold and prosperity. Whether they knew it or not, the common American had their life ultimately shaped by these divisions.

As the opening lines of Red Dead Redemption 2 state: "The age of outlaws and gunslingers was at its end" (Rockstar, 2018). Yet contrary to the following text, America was far from becoming a "land of laws". Laws for the poor, perhaps, but the wealthy still thrived and skirted just beyond the boundaries of human decency.

From the 1870s to the 1920s, miners and railroad workers unionized and carried out often violent protests in the hopes of gaining better working conditions. The poor had little but their fists, and they had no qualms about using them. It is in this turmoil we find Dutch Van Der Linde with his Robin Hood-esque visions of a crumbling elite and prospering poor. The struggle between workers and their iron-fisted overseers was bloody, and Dutch would not have it any other way. Those he took under his wing were the beaten down lowest tiers of society. How could they not see him as a shining idol of American idealism? What he wants, what he fights for, it is for them. Outcasts with nowhere else to turn, given a cause and a home and something that perhaps felt real to them for the first time in a long time.

Race is a topic not wholly explored, but touched on certainly within the game. Tensions rose as racial divisions were made even clearer, black Americans fighting for their own foothold in a world that has just opened up to them and their children. Lenny Summers is the first in generations to be born free of slavery. Javier comes from a country that has been terrorized by colonialism and corruption, yet he still dreams of returning. 1890s Mexico (and what we see in RDR1) is a topic of its own, though the spirit of people downtrodden by colonialism is echoed throughout both games. Sean, who was chased from the country his father fought for. Whose father was killed in his own bed, likely in the same room as his son. Violence in this world is inescapable, a swirling vortex that consumes everything in its path.

Dutch embraced this, as many leaders of the past and future have. If you cannot fight with peace, then sticks and stones make for much better conversation. I can't say I disagree with him, in all honesty, and that is what makes him so fascinating. He's right. He has a point, a cause. What went so wrong? Do heroes not get a happy ending?

In 1892, railroad employees of Carnegie Steel in Pennsylvania's Homestead plant went on strike when chairman Henry Frick cut their pay dramatically. 300 agents of the Pinkerton detective agency arrived, escalating tensions. Violence erupted, the Pennsylvania national guard was called. Sixteen men were killed.

Leviticus Cornwall is Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie is Leviticus Cornwall. The Pinkertons are rightful villains in our narrative, the gang is a thorn in their side which must be cut free. Law and order, right? Dutch was right, his killing of Cornwall was arguably deserved. Yet what makes it so wrong?

Dutch's actions are selfish, in the end. Not because he doesn't care for the people around him, as I believe he truly does. He sees things getting worse and worse and only digs in his heels. Dutch is the American Dream. The bloody messiah to the poor and disadvantaged. He guts them the same as any railroad magnate. Power corrupts, this is what we learn. Power and vitriol and paranoia. The people left struggling in his wake are the common folk who get caught in the crossfire, used and abused only to prove a point. They know nothing but violence, and who is to tell them otherwise? Even Arthur in his end of life maturation cannot pry himself free. He kills and kills and in the end he dies for it. Even John, who tried to leave it behind. Even Sadie, who was ruined by it, embraced it in the end.

The American dream is indecipherable from the American nightmare. They are lovers and companions. There is nothing to do but fight, and even then you have no hope of winning. It's a beautiful tragedy, is it not? All these people who never had a chance, yet who tried anyway. Workers who gained little and lost everything still took their signs and marched for what was right. Black Americans who were beaten down again and again still got up each and every day and did whatever it was they had to do. Native Americans, who were nearly erased. Who still cling to their heritage and claw back what has been stolen. Red Dead Redemption is about the small people. The forgotten in the annals of American history.

#red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption #dutch van der linde #arthur morgan

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sapper-in-the-wire-old · 2 years

Text

METI’S SWORD MANUAL

Argument

1. Glory to the Divine Corpse, o breaker of infinities.

2. I am Meti, of no house but myself. In my 108th year I am surrounded by fools. My compatriots cling obsessively to their destiny, and my only apprentice is an idiot speck of a girl with more talent for eating than skill with the blade. Therefore I have decided to die drowning in the boiling gore of my enemies, of which there are many.

3. My master was the greatest lord general to the king Au Vam, Ryo-ten-Ryam, who first coaxed me into learning the ways of turning men into ghosts. As his interest quickly turned to the wholly uninteresting and most useless parts of my body, I returned the favor and relieved him of his.

4. It is my personal opinion the straight sword is best if you can obtain one, but I also favor the sabre. The spear, stave, or club are peasant's weapons of which I am wholly unfamiliar and so will not speak on them.

5. Upon meeting me, you might find that my appearance is quite dreadful and unkempt. I have been spat upon by priest, king, and merchant alike. I have no retainers, and possess nothing except a straight sword six hand spans (five and a half kret) long (this is the proper length). This is because I am Royalty and the undisputed master of the principal art of Cutting. I will fight naked with ten-thousand men.

6. From the age of thirteen I practiced every day with the straight sword. I followed a strict vegetarian regimen, and harsh training of barefoot sprints (five) between cities, squats and breathing exercises (two bells), and sword drills and resistance training (three bells).

7. By the age of sixteen, my body was a steel edifice. I was so often mistaken for a man I began to wear my hair long with no pins and unbind my breasts. I could break stone with my hands with no effort, I could sprint between the Yellow City and the Lunar dominions in a day or less and barely strain my breath. My mastery of the sword complete, I enlisted in the Middle Army's third legion, where I was widely respected as a swordswoman of incredible power.

8. When it came time to face my first real opponent, the Colossus of Pardos, in my youthful pride and immense skill, I brought all my training and mastery to bear. Scarcely half a day passed before my sword was shattered into thirty pieces, my right leg was almost torn from its socket, and my honed body was broken pathetically in a hundred and forty places. I defeated him by gouging his brains out through his breathing valves. My thumbs, in this case, proved far more useful.

9. At that moment, with my thumbs in his brains, I had a revelation. I had trained far too broadly. Existence and the act of combat are absolutely no different, and the essence of both, the purity of both, is a singular action, which is Cutting Down Your Opponent. You must resolve to train this action. You must become this action. Truly, there is very little else that will serve you as well in this entire cursed world.

10. I hope that by reading this manual, you will be thoroughly encouraged to become a farmer.

Mastering the Sword

1. YISUN's glory is great, and you may know this by two paths, the sanctioned words, and the sanctioned action.

2. The sanctioned words are YS ATN VARAMA PRESH. The meaning of these words is YISUN and their attainment is Royalty.

3. The sanctioned action is to Cut.

4. To Cut means division by the blade of Want, that parer of potentials that excises infinities.

5. To train with the sword, first master sweeping. When you have mastered sweeping, you must master the way of drawing water. Once you have learned how to draw water, you must split wood. Once you have split wood, you must learn the arts of finding the fine herbs in the forest, the arts of writing, the arts of paper making, and poetry writing. You must become familiar with the awl and the pen in equal measure. When you have mastered all these things you must master building a house. Once your house is built, you have no further need for a sword, since it is an ugly piece of metal and its adherents idiots.

The 18 Precepts

1. Consider: there is no such thing as a sword.

2. Your stance must be wide. You must not be spare with the fluidity of your wrists or shoulders. You must have grip on the handle that is loose and unstrained. I heard it said you must be tender with your sword grip, as though with a lover. This is patently false. A sword is not your lover. It is a hideous tool for separating men from their vital fluids.

3. Going onwards, you must adjust hands as needed, do not keep the blade close to your body, keep your breathing steady. This is the life cut. You must watch your footwork. Your feet must be controlled whether planted on fire, air, water, or earth in equal measure.

4. Breathing is very important! Is the violent breath of life in you not hot? Exhale! Exult!

5. You must strive for attachment-non-attachment when cutting. Your cut must be sticky and resolute. A weak, listless cut is a despicable thing. But you must also not cling to your action, or its result. Clinging is the great error of men. A man who strikes without thought of his action can cut God.

6. To cut properly, you must continually self-annihilate when cutting. Your hand must become a hand that is cutting, your body a body that is cutting, your mind, a mind that is cutting. You must instantaneously destroy your fake pre-present self. It is a useless hanger on.

7. A brain is useful only up until the point when you are faced with your enemy. Then it is useless. The only truly useful thing in this cursed world is will. You must suffuse your worthless body with its terrible heat. You must be so hot that even if your enemy should strike your head off, you shall continue to decapitate ten more men. Your boiling blood must spring forth from your neck and mutilate the survivors!

8. You must never make 'multiple' cuts. Each must be singular in its beauty, no matter how many precede it. You must make your enemies weep with admiration, and likewise should your head be shorn off by such an object of beauty, you must do your best to shed tears of respect.

9. When decapitating an enemy, it is severe impoliteness to use more than one blow.

10. A man who finds pleasure in the result of cutting is the most hateful, crawling creature there is. A man who finds pleasure in the act of cutting is an artisan.

11. Man always strives to cut man. Therefore he who draws his sword the fastest is the survivor. To pre-empt this, you must live, eat, and shit as a person who has their sword drawn. It doesn't matter whether your blade, in actuality, is always out of its sheathe, though you will look like an idiot if it is.

12. Consider: The undefeated swordsman must be exceptionally poor.

13. The weak swordsman reserves his sword strokes. He clings excessively to his blade. His footwork is unsteady. His grip is too hard and he is afraid to crack the earth with his step. He has a shallow and wandering gaze, his tongue is sluggish and pale. He refuses to exhale the hot breath of the Flame Immortal.

14. The weak swordsman clings to victory. He thinks of his life, his obligations, the outcome of the battle, his hatred for his opponent, his training, his pride in his mastery. By doing so, he is an imperfect vessel for the terrible fires of Will. He will surely crack. He will not laugh uproariously if he is cleft in two by his opponent’s blade. When his sword is shattered, his hands will be too reserved to tear his enemies’ flesh.

15. The weak swordsman strikes his enemy down and thinks his task done. He relishes in victory. He casts away his sword and returns to his lover. Little does he know his single cut will encircle the world five times and strike him down fifty-fold.

16. The weak swordsman clings to his instrument. It is better you have a sword, but death must lie under your fingernails, if need be. Learn death with your elbows, death with your knees, and death with your thumbs and fingertips. It is said death with the tongue is useful, but I find words too soft an instrument to smash a man’s skull.

17. In manners of terrain, you must learn to cut yourself from it. You must cut even your footprints from it, if need be. Have complete awareness of each crawling thing and each precious flower, each blade of sweet grass and each clod of bitter earth, each beating heart and each being that thrums with love, hope, and admiration. Only then are you qualified to be their annihilator.

18. Excess heat and excess coldness are undesirable. Learn to read the weather.

Closing

1. It is said the greatest warrior-kings may sublime violence and forget all they learn about the sword. This is true. But the only true path to kingship lies through regicide.

2. Moreover, only the worst kind of idiot strives to be king.

3. My extreme hope is that some measure of wisdom will penetrate the thick skull of my apprentice. If not, may reading this manual demonstrate your powerful disinterest in it, and may its true value die with me.

4. Reach heaven by violence.

#k6bd #kill six billion demons

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just-here-with-my-thoughts · 3 months

Text

Day 11: Time Loop / Cabin Fever

@febuwhump prompt: Time Loop @badthingshappenbingo prompt: Cabin Fever

Fandom: The Bad Batch Characters: Hunter, Wrecker Set after Season 2 Word Count: ~770 Click here to read on AO3

Synopsis: Hunter feels trapped in an endless loop after losing Omega.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wake up. Breakfast. Dress. Follow another lead. Evening meal. Check in with Rex and Echo. Bed. Listen to Wrecker snore.

Nothing was bringing them closer to finding Omega. For all he vaunted his resistance network, Rex’s operation was in its infancy and even with Echo’s assistance the Advanced Science Division was beyond their reach. The tid-bits of information they were able to provide Hunter and Wrecker with were no more than rumours, ghost-stories.

The two clones spent days in each hyperspace jump, travelling to remote locales to chase down any clue that might lead to some concrete bit of evidence they could use. Anywhere the ephemeral ASD was rumoured to have been, Imperial presence was heavy. Every day demanded the utmost caution.

Even trained as they were, it was hard. Tempers frayed.

Evening meal, eaten in sullen silence. Check in with Rex and Echo. Bed; together, crammed into the same bunk, the only comfort in the day. Listen to Wrecker snore.

Wake up. Breakfast. Dress. Follow another lead. Evening meal. Check in with Rex and Echo. Bed. Listen to Wrecker snore.

“I don’t want to sleep on the Marauder,” snarled Hunter, physically digging in his heels and bringing them up short. “I just… I can’t.”

Another day of fruitless searching. Exhausted, bone-weary, lashed by inclement weather. The Marauder, their only home, haunted by the ghosts of their missing vode. Hunter couldn’t bear the thought of lying awake another night, listening to the echoing silence, staring at walls so familiar he wanted to tear them down.

“Give it up, Hunter,” growled Wrecker wearily. “We got nowhere else to stay.”

The big clone shouldered past his brother, heading up the ramp to the ship. Hunter dropped to his haunches, twisting his fingertips into the damp grass and swishing them back and forth.

“Sleep out here,” he called, an uncertain waver of command in his voice. “Wrecker. Come sleep out here with me.”

Wrecker stopped and peered back down at Hunter in the gathering darkness. “It’s rainin’.”

“It’s dry under the belly of the ship.”

For a moment they locked gazes, mutual stubbornness at war. Then Wrecker rolled his eyes.

“I’ll grab blankets from the bunk.”

Hunter whooshed out a sigh of relief and got back to his feet. Steeling himself, he followed Wrecker into the Marauder.

“I’ll fix dinner,” he offered, sounding guilty.

The way Wrecker bumped their shoulders together let him know he needn’t have worried. Hunter made sure to clasp a grateful hand to his brother’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze as he gathered their meagre rations and carried them back outside.

Wrecker had laid out a groundsheet and chucked the blankets and pillows haphazardly on it, as far as he could from the rain that gusted in under the Marauder’s protecting canopy. Hunter settled at his side, offering the larger portion of food without comment. Wrecker accepted. They ate, as usual, in silence.

“Thanks for this,” muttered Hunter after a bit.

“’S okay, vod,” was Wrecker’s reply.

“I just…” Hunter trailed off in thought, pulling his bandana off and running a hand through his hair, then scrubbing it over his face. “I need a break. Just for one night.”

Wrecker wiped up every morsel of food with his fingertips before discarding his bowl. He leaned his weight against Hunter, swaying them both to the side.

“Go to sleep. I’ll take watch.”

Sleeping outside. Not as safe as in the Marauder. Hunter felt a pang of responsibility.

“No. It’s okay, I can take first–”

“Hunter.” Wrecker’s voice was low and serious, but when Hunter looked up at him he was smiling. “I know yer sleep better planet-side. Get some rest. I’ll sleep tomorrow, whils’ you get us in the air again.”

Hunter rubbed a hand over his face again – because of tiredness, surely, not the sudden stinging in his eyes.

“Thanks, Wrecker.”

He settled onto the ground, letting his senses stretch out to sample the sounds and smells of the sodden night. Wind rustled plants, damp earth, the faint aroma of crushed grass. Storm-warmed air tickling over his skin in erratic gusts. The solid, reassuring bulk of his brother.

Hunter looped an arm round Wrecker’s middle, burrowing close into his side. One giant hand settled tenderly on his head, stroking his rain-damp hair.

“Night, Hunter.”

“Night, Wrecker.”

And whispered into the empty chasm of his heart:

“Night, Omega.”

#febuwhump #febuwhumpday11 #time loop #badthingshappenbingo #cabin fever #the bad batch #tbb fanfic #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker

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scary-grace · 6 months

Text

Love Like Ghosts (Chapter 8) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

You knew the empty house in a quiet neighborhood was too good to be true, but you were so desperate to get out of your tiny apartment that you didn't care, and now you find yourself sharing space with something inhuman and immensely powerful. As you struggle to coexist with a ghost whose intentions you're unsure of, you find yourself drawn unwillingly into the upside world of spirits and conjurers, and becoming part of a neighborhood whose existence depends on your house staying exactly as it is, forever. But ghosts can change, just like people can. And as your feelings and your ghost's become more complex and intertwined, everything else begins to crumble. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13

Chapter 8

There’s something wrong with your house, but you knew that when you bought it, and looking at your neighborhood right now, you’d never guess the secrets it holds. The block party looks perfectly normal. Food cooking, kids running around, adults congregating with drinks and setting up chairs. The kids are laughing and chasing each other. Himiko and Shinsou are sitting on the curb, texting – presumably texting other people, although they could just be deadly serious about avoiding eavesdroppers. Phantom is bouncing eagerly at the end of her leash, pulling to get to the party. To get to normal.

For a moment you feel the difference acutely. The world of your house, Tomura’s world, feels a million miles away from the party you’ve just stepped into, even if the only real division is the property line. It’s a distance you can cross easily, that you cross every day, but Tomura can’t. Not unless –

You’re not thinking about that. You’re going to pretend that what he said as you were leaving didn’t happen. You said you wished he could come with you, he said you were stupid, and you left. That’s all. You steel yourself and step down from the sidewalk into the street.

Hizashi notices you first, of course. And he heads directly towards you, of course. You try not to quail before him. He speaks first, which helps. “My husband, my son, and my daughter have all informed me that I was ‘a bit of a dick’ during our conversation earlier. What do you think?”

“What do you think?” If he didn’t buy it from his family, there’s no way you’re piling on.

“I think you care more about protecting this neighborhood than you do about protecting yourself,” Hizashi says. “Which is admirable, if somewhat ill-considered. As far as I can tell, you’re the only human on this street without a tragic backstory. How did you get here?”

“Do you really want to talk about my backstory right now?” you ask. “Does it matter?”

“Less than your commitment to the neighborhood,” Hizashi says. “We have a common goal, and Hitoshi has suggested that “beefing” with a human girl isn’t the best look for me. With that in mind – truce?”

You can’t afford to fight with Hizashi. You also can’t afford to be scared of him. “Truce.”

“Good,” Hizashi says. He smiles. You’re pretty sure he knows you find his smile scary, but you hold it together. “Come on, then. Atsuhiro bought drinks.”

Atsuhiro did buy drinks. Atsuhiro bought a lot of drinks, if the pile of six-packs and assorted bottles of hard liquor and wine are anything to go by. You have a hard time believing Atsuhiro could afford this, and you’re not the only one. Aizawa’s hovering nearby, a disapproving look on his face. “I paid for it this time,” Atsuhiro is saying as you approach with Hizashi. “Look. I have a receipt.”

He holds it out for Aizawa to inspect, and Aizawa’s expression relaxes – for about two seconds. “This is for one case of beer and one bottle of wine. You stole the rest of it.”

“Hizashi never said I had to stop stealing. He said I had to stop getting caught.” Atsuhiro gestures proudly at the alcohol. “Based on the rumored nature of the conversation we’re about to have, we’ll need every last drop.”

“Let’s get started, then.” Hizashi raises his voice. “Everybody who needs to know, get over here.”

‘Needs to know’ is apparently a self-determined category – Himiko and Shinsou both come over, while Jin pointedly chooses not to in favor of supervising the kids. Jin’s mom is here, and so is Magne, and Spinner. Keigo hurries out of his house, and he’s not alone. Dabi’s trailing behind him, wearing a hoodie and a surgical mask. He beelines for the alcohol as soon as he spots it and Keigo yanks him back. “No.”

“You’re no fun.”

“No, I just remember the last time you drank. It went down your throat and spilled everywhere, because you don’t have a stomach.” Keigo rolls his eyes. “That’s my last decent hoodie and you don’t get to ruin it.”

“Sorry, but it’s true. Alcohol privileges are reserved for people who can appreciate them,” Hizashi says. “That means not you, Hitoshi.”

“Or you, Himiko,” Jin’s mom says, and Himiko pouts. “I’ll take some white wine if you have it.”

You end up sitting in a folding chair between Magne and Keigo, holding a beer you’re not planning to drink. The box with the documents sits at your feet. You’re waiting for Hizashi to say something, or maybe Aizawa, and after a few minutes of awkward silence punctuated by everyone slurping their drink of choice, Spinner makes eye contact with you from across the circle. “Well?” he asks.

“Well what?”

“You’re the one who called the meeting,” Spinner says. You were, weren’t you? You forgot about that, maybe on purpose. “Why are we here?”

“And while you’re explaining that, honey,” Magne says from next to you, “you might want to explain that little wrestling match in front of your house this afternoon. Don’t tell me the boys were fighting over you.”

“No!” You and Keigo recoil from the thought in unison. Keigo keeps talking. “That’s – something else. Nothing to do with this.”

“This has to do with Aizawa calling me yesterday afternoon, giving me a list of names, and telling me to look them up in the public records database,” you say. You tap the box of documents with your foot. “I did it, but I wanted to know why I was doing it, so me and Keigo decided to withhold the documents until Hizashi and Aizawa tell us what they need them for.”

“Which is what you’re all here for. Witnesses, since our two remaining ghosts don’t trust me not to put a whole world of hurt on their humans,” Hizashi says.

“And because the point was made that everyone in the neighborhood deserves the truth,” Aizawa says. “This has the potential to affect us all.”

“What does?” Jin’s mom asks. She’s starting to look worried. “What’s going on?”

“You talk first,” you say to Hizashi. Phantom is snoring underneath your chair. “Then I’ll explain.”

“At least someone in that house has a brain,” Hizashi remarks to no one in particular. He drains his glass of vodka, pours another, drains that, too, and sits forward. “One of my contacts from the old days – another unconfined ghost, like myself before Shou locked it down – reported that she’d sensed significant amounts of ghostly power emanating from someone who was assuredly not a ghost. This individual has been visiting old haunts, or the sites of old haunts if the building’s been knocked down, and asking questions of everyone they can find. As far as we can tell, they’re trying to figure out what circumstances led to the complete lack of ghosts where ghosts are supposed to be.”

“It would be coincidental if they’d visited only one or two sites. I keep a log of former haunts, and every site in the country has had a visit,” Aizawa says. A chill goes down your spine. “In some cases, the person visiting the site was forced to leave a name and contact information in order to receive all the information they requested. I was able to collect seven names, which I provided to someone who could access the public records database without drawing attention to themselves.”

Everyone looks at you. You pop the tab on your beer, drink some, and open the box. “Your list had seven names, but only four people,” you tell Aizawa. “Two of those people are deceased. Akaguro Chizome –”

You pull that file out and hand it to Magne, who scrutinizes it briefly before handing it off to Atsuhiro. “And Chisaki Kai,” you continue. You hand that file to Aizawa directly. “He died very recently.”

Aizawa’s expression didn’t change when you said the name, but his eyes widen when he starts reading the file. He touches Hizashi’s shoulder and beckons him to look. “It’s him,” Hizashi says, surprised. “Magne, Atsuhiro, get over here. Get a load of this asshole. Is this the guy who summoned you?”

Magne chugs her wine, steals your beer and chugs the rest of it, and goes to investigate. Meanwhile, Akaguro’s file has found its way into Himiko’s possession. She’s clutching it so hard the paper is crumpling. “Himiko, what is it?” Jin’s mom asks. You really need to stop calling her Jin’s mom. She’s Himiko’s mom too. “Are you all right?”

“He’s dead,” Himiko whispers. She doesn’t blink back tears, exactly. She closes and opens her eyelids, but her pupils have completely vanished. “My conjurer. He’s gone –”

Akaguro was her conjurer? You and Spinner and Keigo trade startled looks while Shinsou tries awkwardly to comfort Himiko. Himiko’s mom is comforting her rather than trying to figure out why she’s crying, but you have to wonder. Way back when you were first learning about ghosts, Jin said that he thought Himiko had been summoned unwillingly, but he wasn’t sure. Is she’s crying because she’s happy her conjurer is gone? Or because she’s not?

“Hold on a second,” Dabi says loudly. Himiko’s mom and Aizawa both shush him. “You’re telling me two conjurers are dead, and that’s half the people on this street safe for good? What kind of bullshit is that? Let me see that thing.”

He snatches the file from Himiko, then chucks it back at her a second later. “I’ve seen him. He wasn’t mine.” He goes for Chisaki’s file next. “Not mine either. One of these –”

You yank the box out of sight. “Sit down.”

“Watch it,” Dabi warns. His mask obscures his mouth, but it’s not hard to imagine the sneer. “You’re all alone out in the street. He can’t protect you here. Mouthing off to me might not be your smartest move.”

“It’s not mouthing off. Everything that’s in this box is going to come out of it, but I’m only explaining it once.” It’s been too long of a day. Your patience for Dabi’s nonsense is approximately zero. “We’ll pick up once everybody’s settled. Sit down.”

Dabi glares at you, but he doesn’t threaten you again, and you move to deescalate even further. “Besides, your conjurer is in here. Didn’t Keigo tell you?”

Dabi’s eyes widen, and next to you, Keigo makes an exasperated noise. “Thanks a bunch,” he says to you, then faces the group at large. “Two of the remaining five names on Aizawa’s list refer to the same guy, who’s still out there as far as we know. Ujiko Daruma and Garaki Kyudai. Same dude. Do either of those names mean anything to anybody else?”

‘Anybody else’ can only be referring to Hizashi. “No,” Hizashi says. “Neither of those were mine. What?”

Aizawa is staring at him. He doesn’t say anything. Hizashi gets frustrated in approximately two seconds. “Don’t hit me with those doe eyes, Shou. I don’t know what you want.”

“Be honest,” Aizawa says. “You don’t remember your conjurer’s name.”

You’re not sure why Hizashi would hide that – Tomura doesn’t seem embarrassed about not remembering who his conjurer is – but Dabi starts cackling a second later and gives you a demonstration. “Shut up,” Hizashi snaps at him. “It was two hundred years ago. You’d forget things, too!”

“The name of the guy who put me here? No way.” Dabi’s laughing so hard he’s crying – and he’s crying blood. “What, were you just that desperate to get out of there?”

There? “You remember what it’s like in there. I had a chance and I took it.” Hizashi is scowling. You didn’t think it was possible for anything to be scarier than his smile, but his scowl is even worse. “The name of the guy who gave me my ticket out didn’t matter that much.”

“You’re sure it was a guy?” Shinsou asks. “Aren’t there any girl conjurers?”

“Not on that list. Pass out the files on Garaki. That might help.”

You pass the Garaki files to the right, towards Hizashi. The Ujiko files go left to Keigo. “As far as who’s visiting those sites, there’s at least one live conjurer, and they’re using the names of dead conjurers to hide their trail,” you say. You look to Aizawa. “Is that what you’re thinking, too?”

Aizawa nods. “The use of the dead conjurers’ names is especially concerning, as it indicates a community of sorts between conjurers, as well as a desire to go undetected. They might not know we’re here, but they’re at least aware of the possibility that someone might be watching.”

“Now we are, too,” Magne says. She doesn’t look all that worried about it, but then again, her conjurer is dead. “There’s only one conjurer on that list who might be interested in us. We’ll deal with him if he shows.”

“We can’t just kill people,” Aizawa says. His daughter’s conjurer is dead, too. “It’ll draw attention. If there is a community of conjurers, they’ll know where he was last seen, and they’ll know where we are.”

“Besides, it’s not clear that we could kill him.” Atsuhiro is frowning. “In order to bind Dabi against his will, this Garaki must be uncomfortably strong.”

“We’ve got Tomura,” Spinner points out.

“Tomura can’t leave the property,” you say. “Does it take a ghost to kill a conjurer?”

“No,” Himiko says. It’s the first time she’s spoken up in a while. Her voice is watery. “People can do it. I’ve seen.”

“You have?” Keigo leans forward, intrigued. “Where?”

It’s quiet for a moment. Himiko glances at her mother. Her mother, whose face has gone white. “I thought it was your conjurer,” she says. “If I’d known –”

Jin and Himiko’s mom killed someone? You can’t help but stare, and you’re not the only one. “You did the right thing,” Aizawa says at once. “Any conjurer who approaches a former ghost is a threat. You protected your daughter and your family. I would have done the same.”

“Any of us would,” Keigo says.

Dabi makes a disparaging noise. “To return the favor.”

“No,” Shinsou says shortly. “If you wouldn’t kill for your family, what’s the point of having one?”

“Now that’s twisted,” Spinner says. He leans over for a fist-bump, and Shinsou obliges. “He’s right. That’s what family is for.”

“That is not what family is for. Who raised you?” Magne jokes. Spinner cracks up. “I believe my human. Dabi, sweetie, you should believe yours. He certainly puts up with enough from you.”

Dabi protests, and Atsuhiro joins in on the ribbing. Shinsou rises from his seat and crosses the circle to sit with his dads, and Himiko leans against her mom, looking drained. Even Keigo is focused on his ghost – mainly to make sure Dabi doesn’t set his hoodie on fire. You’re the only one here who’s alone. You scoop Phantom out from under your seat and cuddle her in y our lap, trying to stifle that stupid, lonely feeling. There’s nothing to be lonely about, because there’s nobody to miss, nobody who should be here with you. What Tomura said wasn’t something he meant. It’s not anything that could ever be true.

Everyone’s losing focus, and you’ve still got one set of files left in the box. “Hey,” you say, your voice too quiet and too shaky. You hug Phantom a little closer for courage and try again. “Hey! We’re not done. There’s one more in here.”

The neighborhood turns back to you, semi-reluctantly. “So?” Himiko says. “Tomura’s conjurer doesn’t matter because Tomura’s still a ghost, and Hizashi’s conjurer probably has so many ghosts he doesn’t care. Why do we need this other guy?”

“Tomura’s conjurer and Hizashi’s conjurer could be the same person,” Aizawa says, which shuts everybody else up in a hurry. “A conjurer capable of summoning either of them would be wielding an almost unbeatable amount of power. Garaki could be handled –”

“Are you saying I’m weak?”

Aizawa ignores Dabi. “But the only person capable of handling Tomura’s conjurer would likely be Tomura himself. And Tomura’s bound to the house.”

That’s not the only problem with Tomura dealing with his own conjurer. There’s the legend Spinner told you about, the one where ghosts who kill their conjurers get sucked back into the world between. You couldn’t admit how you felt before, but you can’t hide from it now – the idea of losing Tomura that way throws you into a panic, strong enough that Phantom starts whining and nuzzling into your armpit, trying to calm you down. You don’t want to lose Tomura. You might not want him to embody himself permanently, but you don’t want to lose him, either.

Nobody else is thinking along the same lines as you are. “So we knock down the house,” Magne says with a shrug. “Then he’s loose. Problem solved.”

“In favor of causing an even bigger problem,” Aizawa snaps, appalled. “Do you have any idea of the kind of havoc he could wreak unchecked?”

“Hey, maybe that was true two years ago,” Hizashi says, slinging an arm around Aizawa’s shoulders. “Right now he looks pretty checked to me.”

He nods at you, and you feel your face flush. Everybody else is nodding – knowingly, in the case of everybody but Shinsou and Spinner. They all seem to think the problem’s solved, but Aizawa doesn’t. “That lasts exactly as long as she’s alive,” he says flatly. “And no longer.”

Hizashi is rolling his eyes, calling Aizawa out for being gloomy, but Aizawa isn’t wrong. Tomura would never embody himself, and he’s already made it clear that you leaving him is something he’s not prepared to tolerate – leaving him by dying included. He can’t make you a ghost like him, no matter how much he wants to, and when he realizes he can’t follow you wherever you’ve gone, he’ll be furious. Probably with you, since you left him, but you won’t be around to hear about it. You’ll be wherever humans go, hopefully with Phantom and however many dogs you’ll have had who died before you. Tomura will be someone else’s problem then, and unfortunately, you think Aizawa’s right – he won’t be a problem anyone’s equipped to handle.

“Knocking down her house can’t be our Plan A,” Keigo says, and you breathe a way-too-shaky sigh of relief. “It shouldn’t even be our Plan D. Worst-case scenario, that house is our fallback position. For that to work we need it to be standing.”

“Agreed,” Jin and Himiko’s mom says. You really need to learn her name. “But I don’t want us to need a fallback position at all. There has to be a way to deal with this before we’re found out.”

“There’s an idea,” Magne muses. “Why don’t we just kill Garaki before he finds us?”

“Killing him away from the neighborhood would mean our location won’t be revealed,” Atsuhiro says. He’s holding Garaki’s file and he flips through it. “There’s a lot of information here. We can find what we need to find him first.”

“He’ll see you coming,” you say. You didn’t have a strong opinion at first, but now you’re firmly in the camp of nobody doing anything other than trying to stay hidden. “They can sense ghostly energy, can’t they? If you two and Hizashi come down on him –”

“I’ll do it,” Spinner says at once. You stare at him and he shrugs. “I did say I’d kill for my ghost.”

“Technically, you’d be killing for his ghost.” You point at Keigo, who rolls his eyes. “Still up for it?”

“It would be for the whole neighborhood,” Jin’s mom says. She throws down the rest of her wine. “I’ll do it, too.”

“Not you. You’ve got kids,” Hizashi says. He turns on Aizawa as Aizawa’s opening his mouth. “Not you either, babe. You’ve got kids, too. So that leaves –”

You know exactly who it leaves. You and Keigo and Spinner and maybe Jin, once Jin finds out that anybody might be interested in hurting the neighborhood. Keigo rolls his shoulders, cracks his neck. “I’m up for some conjurer-hunting,” he says. “What about you all?”

You open your mouth to argue, but Aizawa renders it unnecessary a second later. “Not her.”

“Why? Because she’s a girl?” Himiko frowns. “That’s sexist.”

“It’s not about that. If anything happens to her, we lose control of her ghost.” Aizawa glances behind you, at your house. You wonder if Tomura’s visible, or if he’s staying just out of sight, listening. You wonder what he thinks of it all. “We need his cooperation. She stays.”

“What about my cooperation?” Dabi snaps. “You’re think I’m just going to let my human go after my conjurer? Have you lost your shit?”

“We’re in a bind,” Hizashi admits. “The ghosts would be better suited to deal with this, but if we advertise our presence –”

“Do it on purpose.”

So Tomura was listening after all. Everyone jumps at the sound of his voice. “Do it on purpose,” he repeats. “Get away from here. Use one of you to draw the conjurer’s attention, wait for it to close in, and help the humans do the rest.”

“One of us should be bait?” Magne shakes her head. “No.”

“If you won’t do it, I will,” Hizashi says shortly. “He won’t be able to resist me. I’ll hold his attention –”

“You have kids.” Aizawa cuts him off, then turns to Atsuhiro. “You’re able to cloak yourself better than the others. You can avoid revealing yourself until the trap is set. Will you do it?”

“You’re going to do it.” Tomura’s voice rasps out again. “I know how you feel about this place. It’s not just for them. It’s for you, too.”

You nearly fall out of your chair. Tomura sounds like he cares. He told you before you left that he didn’t care about anyone but you and Phantom, and Touya’s conjurer has nothing to do with you. Why is he involving himself at all? Why is he coming up with what seems to be a pretty good plan, and why is he trying to convince Atsuhiro to buy in? Why does it look like it’s working?

Atsuhiro rises to his feet. “I’ll go,” he says. “If Spinner, Takami, and Bubaigawara accompany me.”

“Heard my name!” Jin pops out of nowhere, trailing all his younger siblings plus Eri. “What do you want?”

“You to come with us on a mission to off Dabi’s conjurer,” Spinner says without blinking. “You in?”

“I guess,” Jin says doubtfully. Then his mood switches. “Fuck yeah!”

“Jin!” Himiko and her mother both protest, but it’s way too late. Jin grabs Keigo’s arm, hauls him out of his chair, and tows him over to Spinner and Atsuhiro to start planning their hit.

Dabi’s not happy about the plan, and he’s pissed at Hizashi and Aizawa. “You’re protecting his human but not mine?”

“Your human volunteered,” Hizashi says. He looks sort of pissed that he can’t go. “Tough luck.”

“Are we done here?” Jin’s mom asks. Her youngest kid has climbed into her lap, and they’re already snoring. “It’s getting late.”

“We’re done,” Aizawa says, ignoring you when you protest that you’ve got one file left. “Thank you for coming out, everyone. We’ll update you as more information becomes available.”

The block party breaks up fairly quickly after that. You say goodnight to Magne, Spinner, Atsuhiro, the Bubaigawaras, and Keigo. You and Dabi spend an awkward few seconds staring at each other, trying to figure out if you owe each other a goodnight, before Dabi turns and slinks into Keigo’s house. The Aizawas are the last to leave, and as they’re leaving, you call out to them. “Aizawa, wait. I need to talk to you.”

Aizawa and Hizashi trade a glance. Hizashi continues up the street to their house with the kids while Aizawa limps back to you. “What is it?”

“The second conjurer,” you say. His expression darkens. “We can’t ignore him. He’s got at least three identities – maybe more – but he’s at least two hundred years old, which makes him –”

“Old enough to have summoned both Hizashi and Tomura,” Aizawa says. “He and Garaki almost certainly know each other. Either they’re working together to hunt embodied ghosts or one of them is using the other’s name. Killing Garaki could draw the other conjurer’s attention.”

“Then we shouldn’t do it.”

“It’s better to do it,” Tomura says. You glance over your shoulder and find him flickering in and out of view just past your front gate. “He needs to die. Far away from here.”

“Keep looking into the other conjurer,” Aizawa tells you. “Track his locations over the years, and I’ll compare them to my map of old haunts. The more we learn, the more prepared we’ll be when he becomes a factor.”

When, not if. Aizawa’s not buying everyone else’s assertion that dealing with Garaki will solve the problem, and neither are you. It makes you feel a little better, just like Mr. Yagi’s reminder that the world you’re part of is a dangerous one. You’d always rather know what to be scared of than be told there’s nothing to be scared of at all.

You promise Aizawa that you’ll update him on what you find, say goodnight, and make your way back into your yard through the gate, pointedly ignoring the holes in the fence. Tomura’s standing there, in the way, and when he doesn’t move, you walk straight through him, hoping the shock of cold will jolt you out of your mood. It doesn’t, not even when the cold spot clings to you, fitting like a second skin as you let Phantom tow you up the front steps and into the house. You shut and lock the door behind you before you ask the question. “Tomura, what are you doing?”

“I’m not warm when I’m materialized. You’re warm all the time. Why?”

“Because I’m human, and humans are warm-blooded. And I’m alive.” You don’t really know the science behind it. You majored in sociology, not biology. “What are you doing?”

He doesn’t answer. “You can’t get involved with what they’re doing. I won’t let you.”

“They won’t let me, either.” You wait until Tomura draws away, then sit down on the couch and drop the box of documents on the coffee table. Your brain takes a second to remind you what happened on this couch earlier this evening, but your mood’s so low that it barely makes an impact beyond a twitch of heat in your lower abdomen. “You’d better set them straight. The sooner they stop thinking I can control you, the better.”

You’re phrasing it in a way you know will get a rise out of him, hoping he’ll react, hoping he’ll let you know where you both stand. “The others are useless. They let their humans do the fighting for them,” Tomura says instead. “I don’t need their help. I can protect what’s mine all by myself.”

“Tomura.” You feel yourself getting frustrated for a whole list of reasons you won’t even begin to think about. “You’re not answering me.”

“You didn’t ask a question.”

You grit your teeth. “When are you going to tell them they’ve got it wrong about us?”

Tomura gives you that dumbest-person-ever look, which is the last thing you want to see right now. “They aren’t wrong,” he says. “I’m done protecting them the second anything happens to you. I said that already. Why are you confused?”

He’s not frustrated with you – yet. It won’t take much, and part of you wants to push the point, to shove this situation back into the tense, uneasy truce the two of you held for months. The rest of you is just tired. The kind of tired where if Tomura was a real person and not a ghost, you’d make him sit next to you and fall asleep on his shoulder. If he was your boyfriend and not your ghost roommate with dubious benefits. If there was any way he could feel for you the way you’re scared you’re starting to feel for him.

“I’m not,” you say. “Never mind.”

Part of you is hoping he’ll ask you another question, try to figure out what’s wrong, but you’re not that lucky. He lets it go, and you sit on the couch, staring into empty space and wondering why you feel like you just broke your own heart.

#lovhalloweenhorror #shigaraki tomura x reader #tomura shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x reader #x reader #reader insert #shigaraki tomura #ghost story #loser nerd ghost boyfriend

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pokepollsters · 11 months

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Best Pokémon Gym Leader Tournament-

Preliminary Round-

Galar Division: Match 2

Let's get started straight away with Galar's second half!

Opal may well be our oldest contestant, but she's tricky just like the fairies she trains! At 88, she's no spring chicken, but that won't matter in a popularity contest! But she's up against some very popular folks- like Piers, the series' first Dark type leader! His punk look and outsider personality may endear him to his adoring fans, does that include our audience? What about, Raihan, the series' second double battling gym leader? He quite literally towers over the competition, and his Gigantamax Duraladon even more so! We shouldn't overlook Melony's son Gordie though- Steel type leaders can be tough nuts to crack, and he's no exception. Our last Galarian leader is Nessa, whose outfit may say swimming pro, is in fact a excellent battler too! Water type ladies tend to do well, so will that hold up here?

Remember- the top two competitors will move on to round 1, not just the winner!

#best gym leader tournament #pokemon #opal #nessa #raihan #piers #gordie #galar #polls

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genshingorlsrevengeance · 22 days

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OC Story: 916

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Newcomers

Twelve years has passed since 916 joined the mercenaries known as "Wolf Company". An upcoming mission has the PMC tense, with the client being a complete unknown to them...

Genre: Scifi (Mecha) Content Warning: General descriptions of violence, swearing, long text jumpscare after you press Keep Reading lmao Word Count: 9.1k

A/N: Coming up with titles is hard, man. Nothing too in depth to say here this time until the end, which is where of course a more in depth author's note will be. Also if you want an "opening" song to this series like how shows/anime do it, "Dream In Drive" by the Oral Cigarettes is what I chose. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you do, feedback is always appreciated!

The year is 1177.

Thirty-four years have passed since the battlefield had been introduced to the bipedal warmachines known as Soldat D’acier. Though they did not stand above twelve meters, their appearance revolutionized how war was waged.

Entire armored divisions were reduced to scrap metal, and fortresses once thought impenetrable transformed to piles of rubble.

The entire continent of Anis rushed their militaries into an arms race to have their own versions of these steel behemoths.

In the name of expansion and rightful conquest, the country of Florence had declared war on Cumbria in 1155. The invasion saw countless deployments of Soldats on both sides, and death quickly followed in their wake. Cities once populated with thousands of people were reduced to a quarter in the first year alone.

Five long and bloody years later, a peace treaty was signed by both leaders, hoping to end their peoples' suffering.

The hardships endured during the conflict had led to resentment for both sides, their grudges never truly have disappeared.

Dyson Incorporated, an engineering company that focused on electronic appliances and Soldat development, sought continued profit from the conflict. They developed a new project to keep their cold war ongoing indefinitely under the guise of new Soldat-led private security companies.

Due to their connections within the government and their monopoly on technologies in the country, Dyson Incorporated sided with Florence. Their most successful project had led the company to their greatest profits achieved, and their downfall.

This project was called the “Enhanced Human Initiative”, led by Doctor Moreau in 1160.

Kidnapping orphaned children from the war, they began experimenting on them to create the perfect super soldier. Implanting them with mind controlling chips and heavily augmented with machinery to enhance their combat prowess.

The company disguised them as adults on the battlefield, working alongside the oblivious Florence Military. The normal sluggish and heavy movements of the standard Soldat were surpassed by the Enhanced Human pilots, their machines speeding past even the fastest tank with human-like grace.

However in 1164, the Enhanced Human known as 403 suddenly went berserk alongside every child of generation one, drawing suspicion towards the companies as to the pilot's true nature. Feeling tremendous guilt for what she had done to the children, Doctor Moreau leaked her research to the Florence Government, causing a massive investigation into the company.

Thanks to their contribution with the inner works and development of the country, they were able to hold investigators back for six months before the Military Police finally discovered their pilots’ sinister origins.

Twelve years after the raid, Dyson Incorporated had been disbanded, its leading members arrested, and their Enhanced Humans were thought to be extinct, the nightmarish project seemingly over for good.

In truth, only a single generation one Enhanced Human remained, and he had been accepted into a PMC known as “Wolf Company”. Ever since then, he had fought alongside his new family, quickly skyrocketing the PMC’s infamy into new heights, unsure of what his future held in store…

…

916 slowly opened his eyes, his surroundings slowly coming into view. The R1-N0’s cockpit hatch was still open, seeing the blue skies above him illuminate the chair and the Soldat’s controls. 916’s hands rested on his stomach before he began to stretch in the small space he had put himself in. He made a small hum of acknowledgement, having accidentally fallen asleep in here yet again.

He had his own room and it was not uncomfortable by any means, yet on some days he preferred to rest in the cockpit. Whether that was due to always piloting and performing maintenance in it or he just felt safer within the Soldat due to his past with Dyson, he could not say. Before he could fully begin to wake up, he heard metallic clanging grow ever closer before seeing a short red headed girl’s shadow emerge above the hatch.

“Figured you’d be napping here, Vi,” Chloe said, a smile growing on her face. “Boss has got our next job and wants us all in the meeting room!”

“Understood,” His calm voice replied, slowly getting up from the cockpit and grabbing onto Chloe’s extended hand, pulling him out with no effort. Although he stood almost a foot taller than her now, she could easily kill him with her strength alone. A fact she constantly reminds him of, proudly at that.

His ponytail slipped from his shoulder to the end of his neck, slightly adjusting the bangs out of his violet eyes as the wires coming out his t-shirt moved with his body. Chloe energetically slid down the R1-N0’s waist, clumsily landing on the metal platform as she eyed his Soldat.

“I feel like it’s been FOREVER since we finally got to be involved in a real job that wasn’t just ‘Stand here and watch these crates move into a ship for ten friggin' hours’.” Chloe grumbled as she tapped her foot impatiently.

“Chloe, those jobs have ended with us coming under fire. I am sure that qualifies as a real-”

“Bah, anything’s a real job to you! Come on, demolition, stealing, or even busting a few heads, that’s what really gets the blood pumping!”

916 exhaled through his nose, his shoulders slumping. His expression betrayed nothing of what he thought but Chloe already knew.

“Don’t give me that condescending attitude, you little shit!” Chloe pouted, her hands resting on her waist.

“I am not little.”

“I don’t care how much taller you grow than me, you’re still a little shit! Now get your scrawny ass down here before I kick it down!”

916’s face did not change as he gracefully leapt down onto the platform his R1-N0 laid on, turning back to look at it. The original corporate colors of the white and blue accents had long disappeared, instead being replaced by a dark brown with green accents marking the armor plates. The emblem of Wolf Company proudly lay on its shoulders. Other than the aesthetics, fundamentally his R1-N0 had not changed ever since the day he had escaped.

Even the Soldat’s armaments still contained the 60mm autocannon and heat dagger, much to everyone’s confusion. 916 recalled the conversation he had with David regarding his new colors and weapons.

…

“You sure you don’t wanna change anything else, Vi? The yellow horn I can kinda understand, makes it look snazzy, but forgoing any new equipment?”

“I can procure equipment on the field and utilize it there. More than likely it will be used as a close combat weapon, so it will at least not cost you anything to replace it.”

“...Eh, fair point. Better you break their stuff than mine. Y’know, Chloe and Hayes still don’t shut up about that whenever you’re outta the room.”

…

Deciding it would be better to not anger Chloe further with that reminder, 916 simply gestured for Chloe to lead the way, which she happily did so.

They walked away from the hangars as the other engineers greeted the two on their way out, performing maintenance on the rest of the company Soldats. Their numbers had not grown too much over the past decade, with some members either departing, falling in battle, or extended family taking their place. David allowed anyone into Wolf Company, so long as they were sure it was the right decision and after an extensive background check.

What had remained constant was that David, Chloe, Hayes, and 916 were the main combatants, and the other six Soldats were used more for defensive and utility purposes. The four’s combat capabilities had grown considerably since their first battle together, with each battle giving them more experience.

916’s data relying on makeshift and faulty equipment versus the reliability of his high end corporate funding gave him a new perspective on how to improvise in the heat of battle. He could not rely solely on his onboard learning computer forever. It was not only their skills that had evolved, but the technology of Soldats as well.

Newer Soldats were fielded every single day versus their aging machines. The Guardian Types had long since been replaced in the main Florence Military with more sleek and reliable versions. The only reason David kept theirs was to use them as construction tools. The main four Soldats of Wolf Company had been updated to keep up with the times and their ever improving reaction speeds.

While 916 performed all the upgrades himself thanks to the Dyson data implanted in his head, overall his Soldat was still the most unchanged of everyones. He was not sure that was entirely a good thing, given the nature of weapons are to be constantly upgraded and replaced.

Looking back to Chloe, it gave him the reminder that everyone also changed physically. His vivid memory recalled when he barely came up to Chloe’s stomach, and now he stood exactly thirty centimeters taller. Her face had aged but it still had her fiery and youthful energy, which was unsurprising given that she was thirty-five years old. Though amusingly, only Hayes and himself had really changed. Back then, Hayes’ blonde hair was far shorter, and now the length of it reached to his shoulders, complementing his fair skin and green eyes. David and Chloe hardly looked any different.

“Lost in thought again?” Chloe asked, giving 916 a smirk and crossing her arms.

“Hm. As much as things have changed over the years, we have remained relatively the same…"

“Yeah, you’re still as stoic as ever, Vi,” She teased, giving a slight bump to his arm.

916 exhaled through his nose again, his shoulder slightly jumping up as he did so, portraying his amusement. Working with a group like this was bound to make his emotions flare up again, and while it did so, it never showed on his face. No one had ever seen him smile, cry, or even laugh. However, it was apparent when he became annoyed when his brows furrowed ever so slightly and the tone of his voice dropped lower than usual.

Incidentally, it was Chloe and Hayes who managed to find that out after their constant recommendations of how to spend his first paycheck. Chloe recommended newer weapons while Hayes recommended going out to a ‘Strip Club’. 916 had thought it was a mechanical shop and agreed to it before David and Chloe vehemently put an end to that idea.

The database in his head had nothing on what a ‘Strip Club’ was as it only contained Dyson information, his missions and other miscellaneous info pertaining to combat. It could learn and store memories or information like a file for him to review, but he’d be required to learn it first. Which was a problem, given everyone’s reluctance to tell him what it was in the first place.

That memory began to make him think of the time spent with 403 and the other Generation One children. They got scared, showed sorrow and happiness, but more importantly, everyone visibly portrayed their emotions before the chips were implanted, including himself.

He wondered if the chip had scrambled with his brain’s function of his emotions, because even now he did not feel them that intensely. Not since the day he had broken free of Dyson. But he at least understood other people's emotions on a basic level, enough to let him play along with their antics.

“It has its benefits,” 916 verbally jabbed back after returning his mind back to the present.

“Yeah, in being boring as hell,” Chloe chuckled. That could have been seen as an insult, but he knew Chloe’s vulgar and unfiltered language. She was just messing around as usual.

Strolling through the metallic catwalks, 916 and Chloe heard the rushing waves of the ocean crash upon the sand. Wolf Company had established a base on a small abandoned island far off the coast of Cumbria. The trees on the island were left relatively untouched, both to camouflage the base from potential attackers, but also keep morale high by having something pleasant to look at. While 916 did think it looked somewhat nice, that was the extent of his thoughts.

He truly had no preference on where Wolf Company was located, as long as it was safe. This island fit his requirements. The command center they were headed into was more of a bunker than anything, surrounded by metal and electronic lights, but it was not nearly as high tech as Dyson’s command center. As the door slid open, they were greeted by a guard wearing a gray ballistic vest.

“Hey Vi, Chloe. Boss just went into the room.” The guard casually gestured with his head, his hands on the rifle but not in any way that would indicate he was on alert.

916 gave a nod of acknowledgement while Chloe was far more energetic in her wave back.

“Got it, thanks!” Chloe passed the guard and turned back to 916. “Least he can’t bitch to us about being late.”

“Hm. Assuming Hayes woke up in time.”

Walking through the corridor and turning right into another sliding door, they saw David, a group of engineers and soldiers, and Hayes all inside the room. David stood up front, an electronic board behind him as the others sat in simple steel chairs.

They were not comfortable by any means, but they were there more for function than anything else. David gave a nod of acknowledgement while the others simply waved. Hayes gestured a hello with his head as he motioned the two to sit next to him.

“Just in time. Sit your butts down and we can get on with this briefing. This ain’t gonna be a normal one.” David offhandedly waved towards the seats. He held a small tablet in his hand as the light from the board illuminated the entire room in a dark blue, portraying information about the upcoming job.

Chloe rushed to the chair, almost tripping over as she caught herself and began tapping her foot rhythmically. 916 calmly sat down and remained unnaturally still, his eyes on David as he fumbled with the buttons.

“Ah, here we go.”

The board projected a screen showing a company logo, which immediately caught everyone’s attention. It simply read “Phenom Industries.” What stood out the most was that the logo had no symbol or anything fancy decorating the name. In fact, no one in the room appeared to know who they were.

“See what I mean? Already things are lookin’ shady.” David crossed his arms, frowning at the company.

916’s eyes flashed several colors for a few brief seconds. Nothing in his data matched up. Pre-existing records made no mention, nor did any past mission have any sort of reference towards the company.

“Who’re these nobodies, Boss?” Hayes raised his hand, leaning back in his seat while his foot grounded him. “We’ve been hired by big names who could barely afford us, I doubt these guys have anything we want.”

“Did as much research as I was able, they apparently ship raw materials to Florence and Cumbria, but other than that? Nothing. No history with any other PMC, no corporate squabbling, nothing. It’s just…blank.”

The room’s silence was replaced by murmurs, the uncertainty of the company had everyone on edge.

“Eh? Then why the heck are we even accepting a job from them?” Chloe leaned forward in her seat as 916 put a hand on the back of it to make sure she didn’t fall, while still trying to examine the screen.

“That, Chloe, is why I’m bringing this up. Normally a company with an empty history like this means they’re a startup, you don’t hear me mention them because I usually throw their requests in the trash and get us another company.” David pressed on the tablet’s screen with his finger, changing the board and showing the client’s words. “This time, I’m making an exception.”

“We request the services of Wolf Company to protect the transportation of valuable minerals from a rival company PMC. In exchange, we will safeguard the location of Wolf Company’s island base, and any damages incurred on equipment will be wholly covered by Phenom Industries.”

The murmurs exploded into exclamations and questions, David did not bother to silence anyone until the noise died down naturally.

“This island does not appear on any map.” 916 commented, turning from the screen to David. “How do they know we’re here?”

“Exactly why this job’s our next one, kid. Whoever these guys are, they’ve got connections, and we’re gonna find out how.”

“This has got to be a trap…” Hayes put his chin into his palm, muttering. “They say they got no beef with anyone, yet a company is supposedly hiring a PMC against them? Not even mentioning the blackmail…”

“Tch, guess I should be more careful with my wish about an exciting job. Fuckin' monkey’s paw.” Chloe sighed, leaning back into her chair and making 916 let go.

916 managed to stifle his question on what a ‘monkey’s paw’ was and focused on more important matters.

“The Den should be prepared for an attack while we are away. I doubt that we are the only ones in danger for this job.”

“Agreed.” David stated, turning back to the rest of the room. “Everyone’s to remain on high alert until we send word back. Vi, Chloe, Hayes, and I will be going to the coordinates they provided and see the mission done. Once it is, we’re gonna make sure to get a nice long talk with those punks and how they know so much about our movements.”

“I’ll be moving to the Rhino and remain on standby, then.” 916 dismissed himself and hurried back to the hangar.

Everyone began to do the same as David nodded.

“Chloe, Hayes, join Vi and switch to callsigns once we get in the Soldats. We’ll assume that this company knows our usual frequencies, so we’ll switch to emergency comms only. Let’s get this over with, folks.”

As 916 approached his Soldat, he removed his shirt and the wires on his chest began to pulsate a faint blue. The segmented visor of the R1-N0 activated and remained still until he climbed up into the cockpit. Letting the mechanisms latch onto his spine, he took a deep breath as the systems merged into his brain, data rushing in.

After the hatch closed, 916 slowly stood up and shook the metallic ground underneath him, watching everyone else enter their Soldats. In the distance, he could hear the whirring engines of the transport ship rev up, ready to depart.

On his right monitor, small windows showing his allies blinked into existence, springing the previously black screen to life. Everyone had a pilot suit of their own as they adjusted to their cockpit. Hayes’ suit was a stylish white with red stripes, Chloe’s was dark red accented with light gray and a flaming fist over her heart, and David’s was his usual well-worn military fatigues with the symbol of Wolf Company.

In contrast, 916 only had his pants and shoes on while the wires began glowing a bright blue, his spine jutting outwards as the seat’s connection wrapped around it. 916 finally put on a tactical headset, allowing him to hear his squad.

“Juggernaut’s good to go. Ammo’s full and no damage reported.” David stated, his usual levity notably missing. 916 saw the pink monoeye activate as it looked around rapidly before its gaze rested upon the other Soldats who began to stand up.

“Mantis, ready to deploy. I’m ready to smash their fuckin’ heads!” Chloe smirked, excitedly putting her fist into her palm. Her slim bright red Soldat’s head shot straight upwards and looked rigidly left to right, true to the insect it was named after as its two eyes activated, pulsing a bright yellow.

“Phantom’s rarin’ to go, Boss.” Hayes nodded, pushing his blonde hair away from his face. His Soldat had been upgraded ever since 916 first saw it, being outfitted with more armor, but not enough to hamper his movement. The goggles on its head slid down, covering the visor and shone a bright orange.

“Rhino is fully operational, awaiting orders,” 916 blankly reported. His R1-N0 turned towards the Juggernaut, as did everyone else.

“Head to the transport ship, and park your asses in the hold. It’ll be a longer trip than usual before we reach the coordinates. We’re takin’ a route we normally don’t in case anyone's tracking our movements.”

David saw everyone nod on the right monitor and their Soldats began to move towards their transport. The ship itself was quite strange as far as transport ships went. The way it held the Soldats was essentially putting them in a giant cargo crate that opened on both sides, sitting underneath and carried by what looked like a giant helicopter.

It was an obvious target for anyone to shoot, but its main job was simply to transport the Soldats or personnel inside far away from the active combat zones. Given the nature of this job, it made David worry more about the safety of the pilots than usual.

The Juggernaut entered first and parked itself on the farthest right of the crate, powering down its engines as the Mantis stood directly to its left. The Phantom and Rhino stood behind them on the opposite side, watching the crate’s hatches slowly rise up from the ground and enclose them. The ship took off within a few minutes and began to fly over the ocean and towards the coordinates.

The squad left their visual comms open, everyone able to see David cross his arms as he began to explain the mission further.

“The AO isn’t too far off from the coast, so we’ll hoof it towards the area they want us to guard for about ten minutes.”

“The waters will be trapping us should we get attacked.” 916 commented.

“It will, but at the same time we shouldn’t have to worry about us getting shot in the back by the PMC. Unless Phenom does it first.”

“If that happens, Vi and I will fuck ‘em up and make those assholes regret it!” Chloe angrily slammed her fist into her seat.

“What’s the area look like? I might be able to hide myself somewhere high and make sure nothing gets the drop on everyone, Boss.” Hayes shrugged as he made his suggestion.

David pressed something offscreen before a map of the area they would be defending appeared in front of them. The facility appeared to be some sort of dock, with ships in the waters next to a massive warehouse-like facility. The area was enclosed by a valley heavily covered by trees, which disappeared the farther it went inland. Their coordinates to meet up with the company was right in front of the facility, which was almost completely empty, giving them no cover.

“This is a goddamn kill box!” Hayes slumped into his seat as he examined the screen further. “Now I’m really convinced this entire job is a setup!”

“Screw is right. Should the PMC decide to attack from the valleys, they would have the high ground,” 916 agreed, his tone slightly deepening.

“DO THEY THINK WE’RE MORONS?!” Chloe yelled into her mic, making everyone slightly recoil from the volume before Hayes motioned for her to quiet down on the screen. For the first time today, David let out a smirk as a chuckle gave away his plans.

“Looks like they do, Flare. I bet they’re expecting us to waltz right in and play to their tune thanks to the blackmail. But when has Wolf Company ever followed a plan to the letter? We do things our way only.”

Chloe and Hayes saw his expression before being calmed down and smiling alongside him. Their anxiety was now replaced with anticipation. 916 only nodded in response with a grunt of affirmation. Whoever was attempting to make a fool out of them was going to sorely regret it.

…

David sat inside his cockpit, the Juggernaut’s monoeye slowly shifting left to right as it stood on guard, directly in front of the facility’s entrance. Hayes, Chloe, and 916 were nowhere to be found, to the surprise of his client when he arrived. His arms were crossed and his finger was slowly tapping on his arm before noticing his communication monitor was blinking. A call from Phenom Industries.

“Boss here-”

“What in the hell are you doing?!” An angry man’s voice called out. The voice sounded old, but not any more than David’s.

“My job. What’s it look like?”

“By parking your Soldat directly in front of the facility?! Where are your other mercenaries?!-”

“If your company really did its homework on Wolf Company, then you already know we do some risky shit. Oh, and my two other buddies are around. Won’t disclose the location, seeing as we’re the only security. All the better to complete the job, I say.”

“You’re completely alone! If an enemy attack came in, we would-”

“-Get hit, and explode. Which is precisely why I’m here. They’d be an idiot to hit me and detonate all the sweet cargo ya’ll are packing. So they won’t fire without making themselves known.”

“Tch, we will discuss this when it comes to your pay!”

“Sure thing, big man. I’d like to discuss the blackmail while we’re at it, too…Hey, quit your bitching for a second. Need to take a call.”

“The nerve of-!”

The voice promptly went offline as he scoffed, switching to emergency communications.

“Screw?”

“See a buncha Soldats approaching. Couple hundred meters out. Think that’s our rival for today.”

“See the logo?”

“...The Lightning Griffins. Hoo boy, I bet they’re still pissed.”

David frowned at the mention of them. The Lightning Griffins were a PMC they had shamed three times now for the unfortunate crime of being on the opposite side. Just like everyone else, he mentioned it was nothing personal, and just like everyone else, they wanted revenge.

No doubt they probably set this up, but as far as he knew, they were just a regular, albeit on the technological lower-end, PMC. How did they manage to get the information on Wolf Company’s Base?

“Hmph, questions for later. Flare, Vi?”

“Loud and clear boss, getting into position!” Chloe energetically replied.

“Following the plan as ordered. Awaiting signal.” 916 blankly reported.

David smirked and turned his frequency back to Phenom.

“Speaking of attack, your buddies just got here. I’d haul ass if I were you.”

“What?!” The old voice shouted out in surprise. “Why did you not notify us earlier?!”

“You just were.” David shut off his communication as he looked at the workers hurriedly trying to get out of the way and towards the docking area. He just shrugged seeing them. “Poor bastards probably don’t even know they’re just here to make this look legit. Guess I should move so I don’t hurt ‘em.”

The Juggernaut slowly moved forward, readying its weapons for use and David turned to his right monitor, activating his speakers to hail the Griffins. Thanks to the formation of the valley, there was only one real entrance, one that David’s Soldat could see the entirety of as it was just an open field of dirt and rocks.

Right now, he was the only one visible standing in front of the facility as he saw about twenty lower end Soldats approach. They all were construction Soldats, little more than small rectangles with arms and legs and no doubt just rigged for the bare minimum threshold to fight.

They barely stood up to the chest of a normal Soldat, but even then, their laughable specs were still nothing to completely write off, for there’s a quality in quantity after all. And they were all armed with weapons that could damage a Soldat, a mixture of rifles, machine guns and explosives.

The one in front was their leader, inside an actual combat Soldat. It was a white bipedal humanoid machine that stood about the same height as a Guardian, but was far bulkier in all respects. All of the limbs, including its head, were heavily armored and the back carried a massive makeshift sword that could cleave the Juggernaut in half. Most distinct of all, was its damaged head, where a proud antenna once stood above a cracked green visor was now split in twain, accompanied by a black mark on its formerly pristine white shoulder.

“Damn it, kid! Why’d ya beat the hell outta him like that?”

“Because you ordered me to, Boss-”

“Bah, shut the hell up! That wasn’t meant to be answered!”

“Understood, shutting up.”

Chloe and Hayes snickered, while David glared at the monitor. None of the team were currently visible, but they could feel David’s death stare as the noise suddenly died off.

“Stay right where ya are, punks.” David announced to the Lightning Griffins, adjusting his controls in his hands.

“Wolf Company. I suppose it’s fitting that we’d find you here.” A younger and angrier voice replied.

“Heh, find us? We decided to find you first, figures it beats letting you waltz up to our home.”

“This little dock is the home to Wolf Company? Tch, that’s even more insulting!”

David frowned at their response. If they were the ones blackmailing, they’d know that this is just their employer. They were either playing dumb or…

“Are we both being played?” David muttered to himself. The Juggernaut’s Monoeye looked to the side, noticing that the dockworkers were still doing their jobs, albeit at a much more panicked state. It’d probably be best if he played along for now. “Now, I’ll repeat this for the fourth god damn time so it can go through that thick skull. This. Ain’t. Personal. Neither were any of the times before!”

“Oh, it isn’t personal? Then why did one of yours almost beat me to death with my own weapon, that feels pretty fucking personal!”

“...Alright, can’t even argue that one. Just turn back around, and we’ll forget we ever saw each other-”

“Sorry, that ain’t happening! We're promised a lot of money to take that cargo!”

“You even know what’s in it?”

“Do you?”

Truthfully, David had no idea what Phenom was doing. Hayes was in the trees, looking down on the facility with a sniper in case they actually tried to betray them in the heat of combat. He had assumed it was a fifty fifty chance that it was either an ambush getting set up or actual cargo getting sent out. But that was a detail that did not need to be shared to the Griffins.

“Besides,” The leader replied. “What matters is we finally put Wolf Company down once and for all! We already know your other buddies are hiding in the trees!”

David felt like he should be bothered they knew that, but he instead felt nothing. Even without the insider knowledge Wolf Company’s blackmailers had, you’d have to be absolutely stupid to not utilize the terrain around you in a battle. Especially in an open field like this.

Knowing their voices were being broadcasted aloud, David knew the other three were adjusting their plans.

“Pretty optimistic thinking considering we kicked your ass the past three times. If you wanna throw the first punch right now, it’s about to be a fourth.”

“Bring it, old man!”

The Griffin Soldat unsheathed its sword and pointed it straight at David.

“This time, nothing’s gonna stop you from-”

A shot rang out as a blast from the trees immediately blew apart one of the construction Soldat’s arms, catching everyone off guard, including David.

“What the hell?!” David shouted. The pink monoeye suddenly moved where the flash came from, and saw the Phantom in the trees, rifle aimed straight at the Griffins.

“Uh…A-Are we not fighting?” Hayes nervously asked.

David looked like he was about to say something, but in the end he just sighed.

“...Eh, fuck it.”

The Juggernaut’s cannons lowered and opened fire at the Griffins, all of them scattering in time before the explosions sent a cloud of dirt into the air. The leader skirted around the explosions and rushed forward, before quickly sliding to the right to avoid another of Hayes’ shots, a massive round sinking into the dirt and exploding. A small number of the construction soldats flew up to the left side Hayes was on, using the trees as cover as they began their slow advance towards him.

“Screw! Watch your ass up there!” David shouted, focusing on reversing the Juggernaut and trying to shoot down the others trying to move onto the other side of the valley.

“Don’t worry, Boss! I saw ‘em!”

Aiming the Juggernaut’s machine guns at the Griffin Leader, he unleashed a torrent of gunfire to drive him back. The leader’s Soldat boosted around the shots, but was hit by a few strays, faltering the advance. The lack of cover was both a blessing and a curse, as David suddenly felt his Soldat shake. The pink monoeye looked to its right flank and saw three of them moving behind, rifles firing at his treads.

“Flare!”

The Mantis leapt out from the trees, with many of the construction Soldats sent to attack Hayes came tumbling down the hill.

“YAHOOOOO!” Chloe screamed out, reloading her shotgun as she fired at David’s attackers. Each shot tore apart the bodies of the construction soldats, making them explode. Before they could turn to retaliate, the Mantis’s legs planted itself onto the floor and jumped dozens of meters into the air, all the while spraying its shots wildly.

Landing right behind David, she sheathed her shotgun and drew out a sword instead. Catching the construction Soldat’s attention, she continued to quickly hop away from the facility and David as they gave pursuit, leaving only him and the leader.

“Drawing my men away? Fine by me, I’ll take you down myself!”

The Juggernaut moved rigidly, but its expression was clear to the leader. It was shrugging nonchalantly, taunting him.

“Much better than you have tried, kiddo.”

The cannons lowered and immediately fired, creating more craters onto the floor as the Juggernaut rushed forward.

…

“The enemy sniper is around here somewhere!” One of the mercenaries called out, their machine guns facing out as they dashed around the trees at a relatively quick speed. They could not utilize their full boost since there was the risk of collision, but they had at least seven present to rush the sniper in case it fired at them.

“It came from near the coast, so we can-”

A shot soared through the trees as it went directly through the cockpit of one, making it explode and causing the entire squad to scatter.

“Shit, did anyone see where that came from?!”

“I think it was to our right-!”

A shot came from the left, going through the cockpit again, and a small explosion setting some of the trees on fire.

“I-I can’t pinpoint it!”

Sheathing the sniper, the Phantom instead drew out a combat knife as the goggles slid back up onto its head.

“Doubt they’re stupid enough to fall for the same tactic over and over.” Hayes commented to himself, preparing for close combat. A sniper was almost useless once the enemy knew his location, so now it was time to improvise.

He knew that his armor could hold up against their shots, but not if they were all concentrated and hitting him at the same time. Deciding to take a page out of Chloe’s book, he figured the best way out of this situation was to slice his way out.

Quickly sliding around the tree and rushing an unsuspecting Soldat, he stabbed through the chest and forced it onto the floor. Several machine gun rounds began hitting his side armor, making him quickly retreat. Feeling the Phantom shake violently from their retaliation, he drove through the trees ahead, with everyone skirting around the trees to pursue.

…

Chloe sliced another of the Soldats in half, it exploded into a mess of parts and limbs, allowing her to use the smoke as cover from the shots. From what she could count, there were about six that pursued her, and four that remained. She had to stick to her hit and run tactics. Everytime she came close to attack, the shots would chip away at her armor’s durability. It was only a matter of time before they managed to damage something vital.

“For a bunch of trash cans, these fuckers are pretty resilient…!” She grumbled.

“Flare, switch places, coming up on ya, now!”

“With pleasure, just get these goons off me!”

The Mantis’s head turned to the trees and leapt towards them, sword drawn as the Phantom emerged and slid down, aiming its sniper at the Soldats chasing Chloe. It fired twice, one exploding an arm while another pierced through the cockpit. Meanwhile, the Mantis landed right in front of four that flew out the trees, managing to slice one in half before the others scattered hastily.

“Guess we’re all out in the open now, huh?” Chloe laughed, the adrenaline kicking into overdrive in her body.

“Not everyone.” Hayes cooly replied, his left monitor catching movement in the trees on the right side of the valley, overlooking the facility. Some Soldats had managed to sneak through the fight. “Though, that’s about to change.”

…

“Sir, we see the dock. Attempting to seize!”

Static.

“...Sir, do you copy?”

The one leading the squad of five turned around to face them before suddenly raising its gun to open fire. A single shot pierced through its cockpit and caused it to explode. Everyone else spun around and dashed down the hill, a massive gray Soldat leaping out after them, with a single yellow horn and a segmented blue visor.

“This is Vi, entering combat.” 916 said, taking no particular pleasure in having caught them off guard. His eyebrow slightly shifted when he realized that the Griffin Soldats could not contact their allies. As far as he knew, he had not initiated any kind of jamming program. Yet his mind felt a slight buzzing sensation, a feeling only present if his systems were active. The feeling made him suspicious, but decided to focus on the more pressing matter.

The soldats began opening fire and the Rhino slid down the hill at an accelerated pace and made them aim toward the empty coast. Though he would have preferred to attack them from behind utilizing his speed, they would hit the facility, and void any chance of getting paid.

Rushing straight at them as their stabilizers struggled to keep them upright, he smashed straight into one of them before forcing them all to collide, shoving them all away from the facility. Using the claws on his Soldat, he stabbed through the cockpit before using the machine as a shield from any incoming fire, then tossing it at another causing them both to erupt into a small inferno.

“Two more.”

The Rhino unsheathed its 60mm autocannon and aimed it at the escaping Soldats-.

<Hm…~...J-...f-...> A cheerful woman’s voice called out. 916 stopped for a moment to register the noise. It sounded like it came from the comms. The voice was too high pitched to be Chloe’s which meant-

“Screw. Please disable your videos of the naked women during a mission.” 916 requested, feeling slightly annoyed.

“The fu-?! Tch, little busy right now, Vi! I’ve learned by now, I don’t make the same mistake twice!” Hayes replied quickly, and from the tone of his voice and the lack of a flustered reaction, he was telling the truth.

“Pfft! C-Come on, don’t distract me like that!” Chloe chuckled, her voice obviously contrasting the woman’s voice he heard.

“When the hell has he been the type to make a joke in the middle of a fight?!” David’s voice came next, sounding surprised. "Kid, what're you hearing?"

The Rhino turned to the Wolf Company pilots fighting, all of them were busy fighting off the Lightning Griffins. Focusing his attention on the escaping Soldats again, he was prepared to fire before they were quickly shot down, falling backwards towards him. 916’s expression suddenly darkened. The shot came from the front, but no one was paying attention to his skirmish.

<...-tar-…-aiti-…-> Another female voice spoke out, this time much deeper than the previous one.

<...-stood-...ging pres-....> A third female voice spoke, her tone softer than the other two.

The buzzing feeling in his head was beginning to intensify, his monitor now picking up three targets approaching from the entrance of the valley.

“Boss, incoming Soldats!” 916 said louder than his usual tone, beginning to hear the voices much clearer.

<...-engaging Wolf Company.> The third voice reported, in a tone not too dissimilar to 916’s.

The Juggernaut quickly backed off from the Griffin Leader, as an overhead shot soaring past them caught their attention. David didn’t have a chance to ask who they were, as a single shot pierced straight through the Griffin Leader’s armor plates and unceremoniously annihilated the cockpit, causing it to explode and catch everyone’s attention.

The Phantom and Mantis spun around to see three black Soldats quickly closing in on their location, all sliding across the ground with a trail of dust following them. Now everyone had stopped fighting and scattered, Griffin to the right and Wolf Company to the left of the valley.

The three black Soldats sped past the Griffin ones, seemingly not paying them any mind and instead gunning it for Wolf Company.

“Back the hell off!” Chloe shouted, the Mantis aiming its shotgun at them.

The middle Soldat snapped towards her and with one well placed shot blew up her weapon. Before anyone could react, one of the Soldats quickly closed the gap and leapt up, kicking the Mantis as it came crashing down. The Soldat danced around their gunfire as it activated its thrusters, skirting around the exploding debris. The Rhino, Juggernaut, and Phantom continued their attempt to pin it down as the three quickly scattered. The Juggernaut moved in front of the Mantis, noticing it wasn’t getting back up.

“Flare, respond!” David called out her name with a tinge of panic before 916 spoke up.

“No serious damage taken, I believe she is unconscious.” He said, closely examining the movements of the unknown Soldats. Their responsiveness to dodging attacks were far too fast and natural to be just ace pilots.

The remaining Griffin Soldats moved towards the facility while everyone was occupied before being mercilessly put down by the third Soldat using some kind of burst fire rifle. The unknown Soldats quickly backed off and stood together, all pointing their weapons but none actually firing at Wolf Company.

“The hell are they-?” Hayes did not get to finish his question as one of their Soldats stepped forward.

“Wolf Company. You are ordered to stand down.” The woman’s tone was relatively friendly, unsettling David and Hayes considering the circumstances.

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” David shouted out defiantly.

“We are The Pale Riders.”

916 searched his records for any mention of this PMC or to identify their Soldats, and again failed to find any information. The Soldats were pitch black, each with a different colored stripe across their shoulder armor. It looked eerily similar to a Guardian Soldat, but the armor plates were far bulkier than its supposed predecessor and the visor was a dark pink.

It looked about the same height as the R1-N0, but the weapons it had were far more advanced than his own and he could not tell where it stored its close combat weapons, if it had any at all. The one that had attacked Chloe had what appeared to be a cannon and a gatling gun mounted on its shoulder, but it was the only one with those weapons.

“You are in possession of a Dyson R1-N0. You are to exit the suit immediately for confiscation.” The same voice announced, the head turning to the Rhino.

“We will not harm your allies if you comply. Failure to do so will result in termination.”

916 tightly gripped the controls as he tried to have the systems in his head try to connect to the Pale Rider pilot. Generation One and Two pilots all had a chip in their brain to allow them to communicate directly, forgoing the need for external communication.

If they truly were Enhanced Humans then-

A connection. 916’s heart rate began to steadily increase.

<Ah, so you really are an Enhanced Human, how interesting!~> The same friendly voice replied, though her voice was far clearer, as if they were right next to each other.

<Identify yourself.> The deeper voice cut her off coldly, every one of their Soldats now facing 916’s direction.

<No,> The softer voice answered. <We are an independent group.>

<Identify yourself.> The deeper voice repeated.

<...My name is Vi.> He finally replied, stepping forward and away from the rest of Wolf Company.

<Hm.> The friendly voice idly hummed. <Guess you’re our guy.~>

<Beginning test.> The deeper voice stated, its weapon aiming at the Rhino.

The Rhino immediately leapt towards the three, autocannon firing as it slammed onto the ground they were standing on, all of them scattering.

“Boss, Screw. Escape with Flare. You cannot handle them.” 916 said, immediately rushing the closest one to him.

“What?! We can’t just leave-”

“Run, now.” He said, each of his shots missing despite the fact they were at point blank range. “They are like me.”

It took a moment for the two of them to realize what 916 meant.

“Aw shit.” David’s voice dropped upon the realization.

“Booking it!” Hayes shouted, the Phantom grabbing the Mantis.

The three of them began to escape, and to 916’s surprise, they were left alone instead of getting gunned down. Which meant they were only here for him. 916 made no comment as he quickly dodged incoming fire.

The Rhino swerved left and right as a barrage attempted to pin him down. The open field they were in provided no cover to hide in as his armor plates were getting hit, the durability wearing down each shot.

Despite the hits taken so far, he was still able to dodge a significant amount of their attacks. If these were Dyson Enhanced Humans, he’d be dead already.

All combat data was shared between Dyson pilots, and his tactics were well documented. While his fighting had changed significantly over the years, accessing that information beforehand would have already decided the fight.

He began to notice there were subtle differences as they dodged each other’s attacks. His Soldat had almost no issue responding instantly to what his brain commanded, giving it a human-like motion whenever he moved, while these Soldats were fast, they did not have the same fluid movements.

They still moved like machines.

However, their coordination was almost the same tactics the other children of Generation One and Two performed. Focusing on blitz and rush strategies, never giving the enemy a chance to rest.

“You’re pretty good!” The friendly voice complimented 916, dodging his autocannon shots by rapidly changing directions of her movement.

“It will not save you.” The deeper voice commented.

The suppressing fire coming from one of the Soldats kept him too busy to focus on retaliating, while another kept attacking his flank. Each shot that connected rattled his brain and the Rhino. Despite the opportunities, he noticed none of their shots had aimed for his cockpit.

“...I will die if this continues.” 916 blankly told himself.

If they were Enhanced Humans, that meant they had some kind of CE-Drive system as well. But he was running low on options and ammo. He quietly exhaled through his nose as the R1-N0 shook violently, finally being knocked down to its knees. 916 hit his head as he fell, a notification appearing on his eye that he was bleeding.

The firing quickly stopped afterwards. Sparking from the monitors caught onto his skin which burned it, but he quickly dulled the pain with his inhibitors. Ignoring the bleeding, he began to collect his thoughts.

“...As long as they can escape, we can fight another day.” 916’s face had hardly changed, but his heart rate began to spike as his mind began overflowing with data.

“CE-DRIVE, ACTIVATED.”

The R1-N0’s visor turned Scarlet as it quickly launched itself, slamming into the heavily armored Soldat. The visors of all three of them turned into a bright green and charged 916. Although they were moving at a faster pace, it was nowhere near as fast as him.

One of the Soldats pulled out a knife and attempted to stab his head before he punched the arm’s joints, severing it from its body and sliding around to its back, using his attacker as a shield. The two didn’t fire from the front and instead quickly shifted to his sides, hitting him with pinpoint accuracy, making 916 let go of their comrade and leap back.

Grabbing one of the construction Soldat’s limbs from the ground, 916 rocketed towards the right Soldat and slammed it against the chest, making it fly back from the sheer force of the blow. Quickly turning around, the one with a severed arm stabbed into his left shoulder, disabling the function of his left hand and making him drop the makeshift club.

The Rhino slammed its head into the visor of the Soldat, shattering it and disabling its main camera. He grabbed one of the Griffin’s rifles and aimed right at her cockpit. He was quickly intercepted by the remaining Soldat who crashed into him, both of them falling to the ground and unsheathing knives.

“Pale Riders, stand down.” A fourth unfamiliar female voice commanded.

Suddenly the battle came to a screeching halt. The black soldats had stopped moving completely. The two standing immediately sheathed their weapons while the one on top of him didn’t move. All their visors turned back to the dark pink color, and seemed to power down significantly.

916’s red eyes blinked in confusion, before the head of the Rhino looked up and saw a massive flying ship above them. It looked like a naval carrier with massive rotors jutting out from the sides keeping it afloat. It was colored pitch black with the symbol of the Pale Riders, at least what he assumed was their symbol from the distance he saw it.

Turning back to the Soldat on top of him, he saw that it finally began sheathing its own knife, 916’s eyes turned back to his normal violet color. The Rhino’s visor reverted as well, but it was still powered on in case this supposed cease fire would resume.

“Am I currently speaking to the Dyson Enhanced-Human Pilot?” The fourth voice asked on an open channel. The quality was somewhat less than desirable, but it was coming from the machine itself rather than a brain to brain connection. Which meant she wasn’t an Enhanced Human. Hopefully.

“You can call me Commander Ava. I am the leader of the Pale Riders, and I’d like to apologize for the deception and the damages. You and your friends are in no real danger.”

“...Deception?” 916 asked.

“Red. Explain it to him.”

The friendly voice from before rang in his head.

<Our hostility was merely meant to invoke feelings of real danger in order to test you. That being said, if you weren’t an Enhanced Human, we would have killed you and taken your Soldat.> The deeper voice tactlessly added.

“Earlier you had mentioned a test...This is logical.” 916 responded. If they had actually wanted Wolf Company dead, they would have done so without announcing themselves. They had several opportunities already.

“VI! VI! THE HELL’S GOING ON!?” David’s voice suddenly interrupted.

“I’m okay, Boss. Someone wants to speak to you.”

As Commander Ava began to explain herself, 916’s attention was brought back to the front camera, watching the cockpit open and reveal the pilot.

She was wearing a mostly black uniform with white stripes on her shoulder. Her long white hair fell behind her back, revealing blue eyes and a somewhat pale skin that stared into his own cockpit. She stepped down and waited for him to open his.

916’s spine disconnected from his seat and he stepped out, the blood slowly falling against the side of his head. His wires were still pulsating a faint blue, making sure the R1-N0 was still active.

His heavily augmented appearance did not seem to faze her. In fact, there were no visible augmentations she had herself. Considering her clothes were similar to Chloe and Hayes, it was safe to assume their spines did not connect to the Soldat either.

Which meant none of the Pale Riders were from Dyson after all.

“Your skills are admirable.” She calmly stated.

“Yours as well.” 916 nodded in response. "The Pale Riders are a formidable team."

Despite the fact she wasn’t as heavily augmented, she seemed to be as aloof as he was. Was that from becoming an Enhanced Human or-?

“Aw look at that, White’s made a new friend!” Red teased.

“We are not friends. We are simply allies.” White responded.

“Allies?” 916 asked.

“The Pale Riders and Wolf Company will be working together. It is the sole purpose of why we tested you, because we need your help.”

“...Boss?” 916 called out behind him, looking at the cockpit. He could hear David’s voice respond back.

“Yeah, just confirmed it with that stone-cold bitch of a lady. She says she’ll clear up any misunderstanding, but if she tries anything else, we’re shoving a boot up her ass!”

“...Understood." 916 replied. He did not understand why they needed his help, but he at least was thankful that none of his friends were seriously injured.

“It’s like we just duplicated White. Don’t you think so, Black?” Red chuckled, which was promptly cut off by the deeper voice.

“Shut up, already.” Black ordered.

White extended her hand as a friendly greeting, but her face subtly shifted to a more positive expression.

916 glanced past her, seeing the two other Soldats remain still, as the Juggernaut, Phantom, and Mantis slowly approached them.

He turned back to White, and shook her hand firmly.

“I will reintroduce myself. I am Vi.”

…

CHAPTER 2: END

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, I think this chapter is a lot more engaging to read than the previous ones thanks to the banter and Wolf Company!

From everyone who's read the story so far among my group, that seems to be the general consensus, Chloe and Hayes especially.

It actually took me very little time to edit and write this Chapter since it came to me a lot more naturally.

As for the newest additions to the story: the Pale Riders!

...Yeah, I won't even lie to y'all, the Pale Riders are basically just Task Force DEFY. In fact, they're who directly inspired each character. You'll get to see their names mentioned in the next chapter, but:

So if you were reading this and going "Hang on, they sound familiar!" that's why. I apparently cannot make a character that isn't directly inspired by someone I like, but I guess that goes for a lot of OC's huh?

When it comes to the names, I sorta threw stuff at the wall. Morgan is named after Fire Emblem Awakening Morgan, Sofia and Ava were the first names I thought of, while Allison is a reference to a character of the same name from Red vs Blue (aka Agent Texas).

As for the "Soldats", I decided to start adding visual references of what their inspirations are to give anyone reading an image to attach names to.

Starting off with the Pale Riders:

(RGM-96X Jesta from Mobile Suit Gundam: Unicorn)

White(Softer Third Voice)/Red's(Friendlier First Voice) Soldat: