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miss-andromeda · 1 year

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All's Fair in Love and Science

Chapter 4: 'Cause When You're Fifteen

Mikey's desire for acceptance in the human world comes to light when he meets a new friend in the martial arts superstar Chris Bradford, but Bradford's friendship is not what it seems.

First off, thank you as always to @tinkabelle19 for her help and endless encouragement with this chapter 💜 And the next announcement; I just saw how much of a response this has been getting, and all I can say is thank you so much! I love writing this story and I'm so happy you seem to enjoy it. So thank you so much again! 💜💜

It was a dark and clear night, and a lone figure was kneeling obediently. It was clear that it was a man (even if he had a helmet that covered his face), and in deep thought, he clasped his hands together. A soldier was waiting behind him, holding a sword - ready to strike.

It was just a training exercise - to test the man's intuition as to when the soldier would attack.

The man now stood from his spot on the floor, hands still clasped together. The soldier took this as the perfect time to strike, stepping quietly so as not to cause a distraction - plus, the man couldn't easily discern where it was going to be. It raised the sword, about to attack, when-

The man was ready. He grabbed the sword and stepping forward once, he managed to both shake off the soldier and kick him into the wall. He regarded his success for a second before a second soldier caught his attention when it jumped, raising another sword in its wake. But the man dodged with ease. A third jumped onto his back and held what looked like a kunai to his neck, but the man didn't look phased at all. He casually threw the soldier over his shoulder and pinned it, then promptly destroyed it within seconds.

The second soldier had his sword implanted in the ground - which was a perfect opportunity for him to meet his doom. The man delivered a spinning kick to his head, making him fall to the ground with ease.

Whoever this guy was, he was both highly skilled and very dangerous.

He surveyed the damage that he caused when he was interrupted by the sound of a sliding door. Another man walked out and. unlike his associate, he wasn't wearing a helmet. He was an Afro-Latino man with an afro hairstyle, wearing a simple white shirt, a black vest, jeans, and black fingerless gloves. And it was clear that with the scowl on his face, he didn't like his associate.

Behind both of them stood Shredder, facing the window and the city.

"Master Shredder." The helmeted man kneeled immediately at the sight of his mentor. It didn't take a genius to know that he was dedicated to Shredder - possibly even his right-hand man. It made sense considering his fighting style.

Shredder didn't acknowledge him directly, instead choosing a more cold method of speaking as he faced the window still - like he was imagining his old rival burning before him. That was true revenge for both Yoshi stealing Shen from him and for her death. "I trust that my greatest pupil has been using that time wisely."

Still kneeling, the helmeted man dipped his head down as a sign of true respect. "I have assembled an army of ninjas. The Foot Clan awaits your orders."

It also didn't take a genius to know exactly what Shredder needed an army of ninjas for. But because the man didn't know, Shredder explained it to him in detail. "Excellent. Because I've discovered an old enemy in New York. Hamato Yoshi."

The Afro-Latino man tossed a picture in front of the kneeling one - one of Yoshi and Saki. Yoshi looked relaxed and pleasant, while Saki looked much more serious; his arms were crossed and he looked like he was giving the cameraperson a death glare.

The helmeted man knew about the history between the two men - well, Shredder's twisted version of it. "Hamato Yoshi? Alive?" He always perceived that Yoshi had perished long ago, so to hear that Shredder was able to get revenge was both surprising and a goal that he was willing to die for. Anything Shredder demanded of him, he did.

Shredder indirectly answered his protégé's question, filling in the rest of the blanks for him. "And he is training ninjas of his own." What Shredder didn't know what that Splinter's "army" were four mutant turtles he was raising as his sons. "Finally, I will finish what I started all those years ago. I want them all wiped out." He stared at the window with even more disdain. If Splinter had an army, he was getting one too.

Anything to destroy his enemy.

"I will not fail you, master." The helmeted man swore, which Shredder (for the most part) disregarded.

"I know, but to be certain, you will work alongside Xever."

Xever walked in front of the kneeling man as he effortlessly spun a butterfly knife, grinning evilly. It was obvious to anyone that he preferred being in control and proving just how much better he was than his associate.

But the helmeted man was not about to take it lying down - even if it was from his mentor. "I don't need any help." He asserted as he stood up, then pointed a finger at Xever. "Especially from this street rat." Low blow, but judging by Xever's response, this sort of insulting was commonplace between them.

"Are you sure, rich boy?"

The helmeted man then got in Xever's face - if he didn't block his face, it would likely be much more intimidating. "Anytime you want to test me-"

Thankfully, Shredder knew when to break up the argument. "I am not interested in your petty rivalry!" He demanded, only turning his head a few degrees to the left. But that was all he needed to look intimidating. When he turned around fully to address them, his right eye was purely red. "Xever is familiar with the dark underbelly of this city." He then turned back around, glaring distastefully at the city again. "You will work together." It was clear that he was not going to tolerate any type of argument - and if his underlings did just that, they would lose more than just the chance to appease Shredder and find Splinter's army.

The helmeted man finally backed down, willing to put Shredder's word above anything. "Don't worry, Master Shredder. We will find Splinter and his disciples-" He then crushed his fist to prove his last point. "-and destroy them."

With a little snicker from Xever, the man turned around and stormed away, already willing to set off on their mission. When a Foot soldier was starting to rise back up, he stomped on it - making it immediately fall back to the ground.

And judging by the look in his eye (if it could be interpreted), he meant the promise that he told Shredder.

In stark contrast to Shredder's lair, the boys' night was clear and crisp - and all the better for it.

They were currently running across the rooftops (and crossing buildings as they did) with ease. It was nice to let loose for a night - with the insanity of the Kraang (and their latest foe in Spider Bytez), the boys needed a break. Maybe after their parkour session, they could go to April's apartment (if her aunt wasn't home), or maybe Andi's (if her parents weren't home either) and spend some time with them.

And speaking of Donnie, he smiled to himself as he got an idea. Running faster, he leaped off the roof, yelling "Check it out!" along with a full-blown cheer as he effortlessly flipped onto the adjacent building, before giving a confident smile to the other boys - silently daring them to see if they could do better.

Mikey, wanting to join in the fun (and taking Donnie's challenge to heart), kicked off the water tower on the building and did a single flip off the building, then somersaulted onto his feet and gave a proud smile to his older brother - who applauded in earnest. He knew a moment that deserved appreciation when he saw one. Seeing Leo and Raph skid to a halt at the edge of the building, Mikey decided to taunt them. "Top that, turtle chumps!" Donnie then held his hands out to the two as a further challenge, like 'Are you gonna be a chicken or a real ninja?'

Leo's grin told them exactly what they needed to know. "All right, guys." He backed up from the edge and when he got far enough, he smirked at Raph. "Check this out." He then had a quick running start, doing effortless handsprings across the roof of the first building - before clearing the gap between the two with a more impressive flip and finishing off the show with an aerial cartwheel - easily the most impressive out of the group thus far.

When Raph broke the awestruck air Leo had created with "cute, kiddies" from the other side of the building, the boys' attention diverted to him - Mikey the most eager about what his brother was about to do.

Raph cracked both sides of his neck and then took a running start off the roof - but instead of doing anything aerial like the other boys had done, Raph charged at them like a bull and long-jumped across the gap - essentially slamming into his brothers with the full force of a speeding train.

Typical Raph to not only go against the status quo but also cause some minute damage on top of it.

The red-masked turtle chuckled to himself as his brothers groaned and began to shake off the bluntness as Donnie pointed out the obvious flaw in Raph's execution - or at least, what made his execution stand out from his brothers even more. "Hey, what was that? You didn't do any flips!"

"Oops." Raph only gave the genius a knowing grin, before his smirk turned into a look of confusion when they heard a weird sound - a crashing sound of some kind.

At that, Leo sprung into action, immediately hiding behind another water tower in preparation - unsheathing his katanas for emergencies. This made the others withdraw their weapons as well. Maybe there was a new villain for them to face - a villainous monster that the four heroes were going to face for the first time? Splinter taught them to always be prepared for a battle, and who knew? Maybe they were about to face the most dangerous foe yet!

They then leaped into action, ready to face their foe, and-

They were met with a little 'meow.'

It was a black and white kitten, with a red collar and an ID tag on her neck.

Well then.

Everyone seemed to have a different reaction; Leo was shocked (and frankly, a bit embarrassed) as he lowered his katanas, Donnie shot an annoyed look at Leo, Raph decided to rub salt in the wound with "Don't give up, Leo. You might actually win this fight," and Mikey, once he put his nunchucks away, started beaming at the little furball. He was a bit of an animal enthusiast, but it was rare that he saw an animal in the light. Sure, he had seen people walking their dogs on the sidewalk or kids bringing home plastic bags with their new pet fish inside, but a cat was a little rarer.

So naturally, he pushed his brothers out of the way to get a better look. "Aww! It's a little kitty!" He scooped up the cat in his hands (seriously, how big were their hands? Unless the cat was that small), then started to tickle its tummy, before going to read her tag to see her name and owner's information. "And it's name is-"

"Mittens!"

Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, Mikey assumed that was the cat that spoke. "Good guess." He casually commented, then remembered that cats weren't able to actually...speak. Looking to his left, he saw a man looking out his window and yelling the cat's name again. "Mittens?" Oh, he was just looking for his pet. Made sense.

"I think that's the owner," Donnie commented nonchalantly, before him, Raph and Leo started freaking out as Mikey started frantically running towards the man in the window.

"What are you doing?" Donnie.

"Whoa, hey!" Leo.

"Mikey, wait!" Raph.

Mikey gave the three of them a slightly disgruntled look. "What? I'm returning Mittens to her owner." What was their problem? He wasn't doing anything inherently stupid, he was just going to give the guy his cat back! Nothing wrong with that; if anything, that was something cool to do!

"Are you an idiot?" Raph then realized, ironically, how idiotic that question was. "Wait, let me rephrase that. You're an idiot!"

Donnie piggybacked off that immediately. "You can't show yourself to a human!"

Mikey didn't necessarily understand the logic behind that. "Why not?"

So Donnie had to spell it out for him. "Because they'll freak the heck out, that's why!"

"No, they won't. I'm not so scary!" Underneath the surface, Mikey was entirely right; he was incredibly easygoing and relaxed. A little bit of a goofball, sure, but really in touch with emotion and able to sense if someone was having an off day almost immediately. And when it came to something like returning a pet to their owner, Mikey saw nothing wrong in helping a bro (or lady) out - regardless of the whole turtle appearance thing.

But Raph popped his bubble immediately with a slightly pointed look. "You're an ugly green mutant armed with ninja weapons." Okay, the ugly thing wasn't true, but other than that, Raph did have a good point. When the man saw a turtle with nunchucks delivering his cat to him, he was going to think something was up.

Which, to be fair, who wouldn't think something was up?

But Mikey still wasn't convinced. "Look, this guy's gonna see that I'm just a regular, cat-loving dude like him. Next thing you know, we'll be best buds! This is gonna be awesome!" Was he overcompensating? A little bit. Was he assuming that something was going to happen without looking at the facts first? Yes.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

Without waiting for any response from his brothers, Mikey jumped onto the man's fire escape, Mittens carefully in his hands. He interrupted the man's yelling for his cat by jumping in front of him and greeting him politely. "Hi! Here's your-"

Instead of being thankful that Mikey had his cat safe and sound, the man started to panic. "Agh! Ugly green mutant freak!" Just like Raph had predicted was going to happen.

Now scared himself, Mikey clung to Mittens and pulled him to his shoulder. "But I got your cat!" Surely, the man would see that Mikey was just trying to be nice in returning his cat with a quick explanation-

"Help! He's got my cat!"

Or not.

Mikey tried to explain himself with a frantic explanation. "Dude, chill! I'm just-" But that attempt was thwarted again when Mittens, responding to her owner's cries for help, jumped onto Mikey's head and started clawing at him. While the man closed the window (likely to call the police,) Mikey tried to get Mittens off of him - but because his vision was blurred (the cat claws definitely weren't doing him any favors,) he ended up falling off the fire escape.

All while Leo, Raph, and Donnie watched from the rooftop - and Raph offered a facepalm to hammer in the utter humiliation of the situation.

They jumped from the roof to meet up with Mikey, who was now slumped against a graffiti-covered wall, holding his head. When the latter stood up, he offered a pitying look to his older brothers. "Someone wanna help me with this?" He hunched over (much like the Hunchback of Notre Dame), showing Mittens furiously clawing at his shell - still angry with him for scaring her owner as badly as Mikey did.

Leo, Raph, and Donnie all gave the same response: "No." In a way, Mikey made his bed by trying to return the cat (and making the man freak out by blowing his cover) - now he needed to lie in it.

With a dejected look, Mikey picked up Mittens and tossed her away (which was a potential risk for animal cruelty), making a crash sound occur. Hopefully, she was okay. He then let out a sigh as he hunched over again. Sure, he was expecting the guy to freak out, but he hated the fact that he couldn't at least give the cat back to him - and he hated that the first thing the guy said was that he was an "ugly green mutant freak." Really? A freak?

Raph only doubled down on that sentiment as he crossed his arms and leaned against an adjacent wall. "Face it. Humans will never understand you." He then decided to add another instance of Raph being rude, but at the same time, saying what was on his mind. "Heck, we don't even understand you."

Mikey only sighed again as he looked down. "Yeah..." Maybe Raph was right. He supposed Andi and April were just exceptions when it came to having human friends - or maybe it was just because they saved April's life and Donnie helped in treating Andi's concussion. It didn't make them any less cool in his eyes, but still...it bothered him to think like that.

But then he noticed something - and his dejected face melted away immediately. "But I bet that guy would!" He was looking at a red billboard and in yellow letters, the words 'St. Mark's Civic Auditorium - July 7-July 14 - Chris Bradford - Martial Arts Expo - One Week Only.' It was accompanied by a man with a near-mullet and sideburns, which connected to a thick, but neatly kept beard. He was punching at the letters as if to add a bit of flair to the announcement. It wasn't just any man though, it was-

"Chris Bradford. The martial arts superstar. With a chain of dojos across the country. He's your soulmate?" Leo pointed out. He said soulmate more sarcastically - if Mikey could barely talk to a normal person like the man with the cat without being called a freak and a mutant, what made him think that he could become friends with a celebrity like Chris Bradford?

But there was logic here. Both Mikey and Chris Bradford were trained in ninjutsu, and if Bradford was as cool as he seemed in all of the commercials and events he was a part of, then he and Mikey would likely get along well.

And that was never more obvious when Mikey swung his nunchucks and posed like Bradford was in the picture; his left hand holding his nunchuck (while it was tucked under his arm), and his right hand held out in a fist. "We've got so much in common!"

But Donnie broke his bubble almost immediately. "What if you stop standing like that?"

Mikey lost the pose at that question. "We'll have a little less in common-" But then his happiness came back. "-but still a lot! And look!" He turned around quickly, pointing at the information on the billboard. If the billboard was right, he was still in the city! "He's in town for a martial arts expo! Maybe he'll show me his secret kata, the Death Dragon! And I'll show him my secret kata, the Secret Kata!"

"Catchy," Donnie remarked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. It was true, the name was not the most original as opposed to Bradford's menacing-sounding one.

"Check it out!" Mikey then performed a series of moves - ranging from quick punches to a high kick to a...window-washing move? He then waved his hand up and down (to mimic the movement of a sound wave,) and then made a goofy face as he twisted his arm 180 degrees after smacking his fist with his open hand.

It was...incredibly unorthodox and had nothing to do with anything. But it was also very Mikey.

Once done, he put his hand to the side of his mouth, like he was whispering to his brothers. "But don't tell anyone you saw that."

Leo spoke the trio's thoughts with a sarcastic "No problem."

Having had enough of what seemed like a ridiculous assumption from Mikey, Raph shook his head and stepped forward. "Face it, Mikey. Chris Bradford is the last person on Earth that would be friends with you. Well, tied for last, with every single person on Earth."

During this little rant, however, the boys didn't notice the group of ninjas circling them on the building above them - the same ninjas that attacked the man during his training.

And then they ambushed them, climbing down from ropes, jumping from the building - the boys were surrounded.

"Ninjas? In New York?" Donnie rhetorically asked, surveying the scene. "Other than us?'

These ninjas were absolutely nothing like the Kraang, that was for sure. They wore black robes that hid their faces with red headbands, and all of them were holding different weapons. What was similar when compared to the Kraang, though...was that these ninjas looked identical. The only trait that separated them was the types of weapons they were holding. Unlike the Kraang who just used plasma guns, these ninjas used weapons like knives, chains, and spears...they definitely looked more intimidating than the Kraang, that was for sure.

Like always, the boys unsheathed their weapons and got prepared to fight.

It was only broken when a soldier threw a ninja star at Donnie's bo and made it implant, making the turtle growl and the four of them jump into battle.

Raph approached them the same way that he approached the Kraang soldiers - kicking them away (and even kicking one into a group of soldiers.) But he started to lose his ground; one kicked him in the back of the leg, then hit him directly in the plastron, then kicked him into a pile of garbage bags. It was obvious that these guys fought much differently than the Kraang - more dangerously.

And much like when they fought the Kraang the first time, they were going to need to adapt.

Thankfully, he avoided getting attacked further when Mikey delivered a hard kick to the soldier's side, then took out another with a strike from the nunchucks. Now that Raph was taken care of, he ran to the left, going to attack more soldiers. Leo and Donnie were doing the same (though eventually started incorporating blocking in as well - the two of them had caught on to these new soldiers' fighting style.)

Eventually, Leo and Raph were shell-to-shell, with the former having a huge smile on his face - which Raph noticed and called him out for with a "Why are you so happy?" Leo simply replied, "It's just nice to finally be fighting people! Instead of robots, or aliens, or weed monsters."

To each their own. But it did make Leo feel more like a ninja instead of a teenager that knew how to fight - and who happened to use his skills to fight the most bizarre enemies known to man.

But speaking of fighting people, the same man from Shredder's dojo descended from seemingly the roof, wearing his helmet and staring down the boys with white irises. Judging by the look in his eye, he was not about to play around.

He started with Leo, punching him square in the face and making him slam against the adjacent building's wall. Raph was about to attack (after shaking off the surprising amount of force this guy struck Leo), but he was met with a spinning roundhouse kick that sent him tumbling to the ground and landing on his side. He seemed to have avoided Donnie at first but grabbed his bo staff from under him and used it to swing him into the wall.

Now that left Mikey.

Using his kusarigama, Mikey swung it around his body and was about to strike this mystery attacker. But the latter grabbed the hilt and pulled it to him, so Mikey was dragged towards him so he could hit him up close and personal. But before he could strike, the mystery attacker noticed who he was fighting against. It wasn't human, that was for sure. "What are you?" He growled through the mask.

But Mikey didn't answer, he kicked himself off the attacked and backflipped, before yanking the chain away from the attacker - mostly to distract him, allowing Leo to break the chain and let Donnie and Raph get back up and join them.

The soldiers then joined the helmeted man, about to send another volley of attacks against the boys when-

The flashing lights and sirens of police cars appeared.

The helmeted man glared at the boys like 'We'll finish this later,' then gestured for the still-standing soldiers to follow him as he retreated.

And almost immediately, the boys did the same and ran into the night before any officers could catch a glimpse of them. They definitely didn't want a repeat of what happened with Vic, and at the same time, Leo needed to report what happened to Splinter - that was what happened when you were the eldest son.

And Mikey wanted to find a way to talk to Chris Bradford and ask for his hand...in friendship.

Now that they were back in the lair, Leo brought Splinter into the kitchen and began explaining the night's events - starting with Mikey trying (and failing) to return Mittens to her owner, getting attacked, and getting the "brilliant" idea to seek out a celebrity as a friend. And then he went into explaining the army of soldiers that ambushed them, especially the helmeted man that was their leader.

"Their leader was crazy good! By which I mean he was good and...seemed a little crazy." Leo rested his hands on the table, still a bit in disbelief over the night's events. "Besides, he had all these guys with him, it-it wasn't a fair fight."

Splinter was stroking his beard in acknowledgment as Leo recalled the night, but stopped at the ending - it didn't exactly make sense to him. "What do you mean, 'fair fight?'"

A bit taken aback by the question, Leo tried to explain himself as best as he could. "A...fair fight. You know, where either side could win?"

"So a fair fight is a fight you could lose."

Oh. Splinter had a point there.

But, then again, when did he not have a point?

"Well, yes, but...well, what I...what I mean is..."

"You don't want to assure your victory."

Leo was in his trap now. And that wasn't more obvious when Leo continued to stammer, frantically looking for an answer. "No, I do, but-"

Before Leo could have an answer, though, Splinter swung his son off his feet with the staff, then pinned Leo on the floor with his staff over his shoulders. "Was that fair?"

Still a bit in shock, Leo let out a "No!" with a hint of anger (and confusion) over Splinter's sudden movements.

"Did I win?"

Oh. More proving a point. And Leo knew that as he let out a defeated "I see your point..."

Satisfied with his answer, Splinter gave him one final pearl of wisdom. "Seek victory, not fairness." He then removed the staff from Leo's shoulders and let him acknowledge what he said with a resigned, "Hai, sensei." Satisfied again, Splinter offered a paw to his eldest son to help him up off the floor - before leaving him to mull over that exchange.

Meanwhile, everyone else was in the living room; Donnie was creating a blueprint on his computer, Andi and April were reading (Andi her copy of War and Peace, April one of Raph's comics), Raph was doing push-ups (and using his sais as support, which in itself was a marvel), and Mikey was reading a magazine with Bradford's face plastered all over it - only fueling his idolizing of this guy. "Whoa, rad! Aw, man, I wish me and Chris Bradford were friends!" He then literally "ate up" everything on the magazine (he nibbled at the tops of the pages,) and laughed in pure glee as he kicked his feet in the air.

Amused by the scene, April and Andi shared a look as the latter bookmarked her page and the former put the comic down. "Mikey, you already have human friends." April reminded him with a little chuckle, making Andi nod in agreement. "Yeah, us!"

Mikey shook his head and went back to the magazines. "Guys, you don't count. We saved your life, April, and Donnie helped you when you got that...head thingy, Andi. By default, you guys kinda have to like us." He clearly didn't think that the girls were friends with them because they found their company charming, but because it was a pity thing - which was the farthest thing from the truth, admittedly, but Mikey wasn't about to be easily convinced.

Which was only modeled when Raph remarked, in the middle of a push-up, "Too bad there's no place for freaks to meet people where no one can see how hideous they are." This made Mikey huff and go back to his magazine, reading angrily.

"Actually, Raph, there is," Andi remarked with a hint of sass in her voice, then glanced at Donnie with a little smile, who was still in the middle of using his laptop. "Hey, Don? Can I borrow your laptop?" She asked hopefully, closing her book and setting it next to her.

As he tried not to freak out at her using a nickname with him, Donnie grinned and closed the blueprint he was working on - showing his desktop of a Marie Curie quote: 'Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.' "S-Sure! Just a sec..." Donnie beamed to himself as he walked the laptop over to her, setting it in her lap delicately. She was about to open a tab and type in the URL of the website, but noticed the quote as his background, making her eyes light up and a smile grace her face. "Marie Curie?" She asked, meeting his eyes with genuine delight.

Donnie tried not to lose his composure (seriously, how could she look that cute?) as he smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah, yeah...she's my favorite scientist."

Andi couldn't help but to beam at him. Not only did she like Donnie even more at that moment, she always loved talking about her favorite scientist - well, next to Einstein. "Really? Why's that? Aside from her work regarding radioactivity, her contributions to both-"

"Uh, shortcake? The plan?" Raph cut her off before she could go off on a tangent and completely forget why she needed the laptop in the first place.

"Right." Andi shook off her excitement and typed in the URL - while also shooting a pointed look at Raph at the nickname. "Check it out, Mikey. It's a place called MySpot; it's a site where you can make friends with anybody online." She quickly made a profile for Mikey; his name, age, where he lived (though she kept it vague and just said Manhattan, New York), and general hobbies. She was so engrossed in the process that she didn't notice two things; Donnie admiring her concentrated face, and Raph, April, and Mikey giving each other knowing smiles at how blatant he was being in terms of his crush on her.

Mikey finally glanced back at the computer and grinned at the website. "Sweet!" He practically pushed Andi aside (making her fall into April's side) and typed in Bradford's name - hoping to see if the guy had a profile on here. He probably did, to be fair; being a celebrity meant having an official profile on social media for things like announcements, promotions, and just a general presence altogether.

Of course, Mikey didn't know that or care about that, though. He just wanted to contact Bradford and ask to be friends.

And when he found Bradford's profile, he gasped and let out a soft drawn-out 'oh.' "Chris Bradford's on here! He'll be my first friend!" He found the 'send a friend request' button on the site and eagerly pressed it, then stared longingly at the screen, waiting for a response.

Andi and Donnie gave Mikey, then each other a look like 'You know the guy isn't gonna respond, right?' while April was gentle with him in explaining that same sentiment. "Mikey, people don't always respond immed-"

Beep.

Either it was some type of automated response or Bradford just had a ton of free time on his hands.

"-but sometimes they do." April finished her sentence, mostly in surprise over how quickly Bradford responded to Mikey's request.

Almost like...he was expecting it. Weird.

Mikey tittered excitedly as his baby blue eyes went wide with glee. "No way!" He cheered, gripping the top of the laptop. "Chris Bradford has accepted my friendship! I have a friend!" He grabbed Andi and hugged her tight, making April giggle from her best friend's look of 'Please let me go.' "Thanks, Andi!" He then tossed the laptop over his shoulders and jumped from the couch, making Donnie let out a strangled gasp and ask, "Where are you going?" before following up with "Hey!" as he dove for the computer, making sure it didn't get broken thanks to Mikey's carelessness.

"To hang out with my friend, Chris Bradford." Mikey bragged, putting a strong emphasis on the word 'friend,' mostly to rub in the fact that he had a new and awesome friend like Bradford while the other guys...didn't. He then started to walk off but stopped again when April started talking.

"This guy is famous. He probably has thousands of 'friends.'" She explained to him, putting air quotations around 'friends.'

Andi nodded again. "Yeah. Chances are, he's not gonna recognize you based on your MySpot profile. He probably just assumes you're another fan of his." She admitted, trying not to burst his bubble - but at the same time, she didn't want him doing something stupid and humiliating himself in the process.

"But, once I tell him we're friends, though, he'll know!" Mikey cheered, now getting even more excited. He didn't want his glee over having a new friend destroyed because of the prospect that Andi was right and Bradford wasn't going to recognize him. How was he supposed to know if he didn't try? "And besides, guess who's friend number 5,286?"

Andi sighed and shook her head; she knew that trying to get it through Mikey's head was going to be pointless in the end. So she decided to indulge him in the question. "You?"

"Daniel Ramirez! And I'm right next to him!" Mikey cheered; so he was friend number 5,287. Oh, that made it so much better. Surely, Bradford would recognize the latest friend he accepted, right?

Before Andi could comment, Mikey turned around and jumped over the turnstiles. "Later!"

"Well, this ought to be interesting," April commented once Mikey was out of earshot.

Andi nodded a bit as she picked up her book again. "That's probably the best word I would use to describe this whole thing." She agreed, thumbing the pages to get back to where she left off.

"Should we go after him?" Donnie asked, glancing at the girls with a hint of worry in his tone. As much of a pain as Mikey was, he never wanted him to have him get himself in something dangerous - something he couldn't get himself out of. And, like Andi, he didn't want Mikey doing something and ending up feeling like a simpleton in the process.

Raph felt the same way - but he wasn't about to show it so clearly. "Eh, he's got to learn somehow." He suggested, then went back to his push-ups without much hesitation. He could see exactly what was going to happen - Bradford was going to see that Mikey was a mutant turtle, freak out, and ruin Mikey's entire day (or maybe even year, considering how excited the boy was). And while he absolutely did not want that happening, the more realistic side of him could see that entire scene being played out.

Considering Mikey was already long gone by now (and to be fair, Raph did have a point), the trio silently agreed and went back to what they were doing before.

Instead of going to read, however, Andi smiled a bit at Donnie (who went back to working on the blueprint.) "So how come Marie Curie is your favorite scientist? You strike me as a Szilard-type of guy." She remarked, making Donnie chuckle to himself and rub his neck again, a warm blush creeping back onto his cheeks.

"You think that? Well, I do like Szilard, don't get me wrong; I love his work on the Manhattan Project. But Curie..." He smiled more softly this time. "Well, I wholeheartedly respect her work regarding radioactivity, and anyone that discovers a new element, much less two, is well worth respecting as I said before. Plus, two Nobel Prizes for chemistry and physics - that's just remarkable to me."

Andi beamed at him, her eyes lighting up again. "And there's so much significance to that! The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only person in history to win two Nobels for two different fields of science - she's such an inspiration to me. And remember, all during a time when women were seen as inferior to men and when it was so much harder for women to be in positions of power like that..." She started to talk even faster, on the verge of rambling, but Donnie didn't seem to care.

He was too busy admiring her again.

Their conversation went on - discussing scientific trivia and the history surrounding the facts - and they both became so invested in this incredibly nerdy conversation that neither of them noticed Raph and April looking at each other with another set of knowing smiles.

Raph's look said, 'I've never seen Donnie get like this. He must really be into her, huh?'

And April was saying, 'Oh, totally. And I think Andi likes him too...even if she doesn't notice it. She has a habit of that.'

They both made a mental note to themselves; these two needed to get together and soon because it was clear they were practically perfect for each other.

It was 9:00 pm, which meant Chris locking up the dojo for the night. Another day of promoting the dojo to potential pupils in the hopes that they would enroll and learn the art of ninjutsu - while also signing autographs, taking pictures, and giving "inspirational" advice to said students about believing in yourself and saying such garbage like "with enough hard work, you can accomplish anything!"

Please, spare him.

He started to walk back home, remembering a shortcut through a back alley. Sure, a little shady, but he was a master ninja, trained under a great sensei. He'd be fine.

Walking through the alley, he caught a glimpse of a pair of...green? feet, with three toes. Definitely not human.

Behind him, Mikey let out an excited (but muffled) giggle as he put his fists to his chin. He was hyped to see Chris for the first time, the guy was like his idol! And now he was within 3 feet of him! How much more awesome could things get?

Hearing that, Chris turned around - his face a mix of confusion and a hint of disgust. What was this...creature, and why was he following him? Maybe it was just a weird fan in a...mutant costume. Or maybe not? He had seen weirder things in New York, that was for sure.

But now that Mikey had gotten his attention, he decided to introduce himself - without losing his mind in front of such an awesome dude like Chris Bradford. "What up? Hey! I'm, uh-" Before Mikey could introduce himself though, Chris attacked - throwing ninja stars at him left and right. He yelped in panic, turning around for a second to see what was thrown. "I'm being attacked by Chris Bradford!" He exclaimed, but the panic quickly turned to an odd sense of being starstruck as another ninja star came flying directly at his face. "This is so cool!"

But the starstruck feeling wore off quickly as Chris threw more ninja stars at him. He dodged quickly, trying to explain himself - and quickly, before he got his head taken off. "No, wait! We're-whoa! We're friends!"

At that last word, Chris lowered the ninja star and stared at him, now more confused than ever. "What?" What did this kid mean? They had never met in real life, and he had never even heard of this kid before. Was he that delusional of a fan? Was this a case where he needed to call the police because of a creepy stalker?

"We're online friends! You accepted me, remember?"

Oh, that explained it then.

But at the same time, Chris befriended fans all the time on the Internet. He was not about to recognize some fan just because he accepted their request on MySpot.

Wait...this kid...wasn't he the kid that had Hamato as his last name on his profile?

He was, wasn't he?

Suddenly, a plan came to him - along with a little smirk. "Oh, of course!" He then held a hand out, willing to tolerate a handshake - just once. "Nice to meet you." Mikey, being the starstruck teenager he was, eagerly grabbed Chris' hand and shook it - fairly violently, too. Chris, slightly frightened (seriously, this kid felt like a major stalker,) pulled his hand away and inspected it to make sure it wasn't broken. When it wasn't, he turned his shoulder towards his dojo - appearing as friendly as he possibly could. "Won't you come in?"

The next night, the four were on a rooftop - Leo and Donnie were watching over the edge like hawks, the former clearly more disgruntled than the latter. Leo was still bothered by the ambush days before, and they were watching from the spot where the miniature army must have been waiting. As Leo put it, "They must have been watching us from here. The perfect place to stage an ambush."

And it was true - but Donnie couldn't shake one detail out of his mind. "It wasn't very fair, was it?"

Fair. Splinter's speech still echoed in Leo's mind. "It's not about fairness." He chastised Donnie, an oddly biting tone in his voice. "It's about victory." He was still a bit disgruntled about what Splinter said - but Leo being Leo, repeated what Splinter said nearly verbatim. Even if he didn't understand (or frankly, agree,) Splinter was still their sensei at the end of the day - and Leo put him on a pedestal more than anyone else.

Except maybe Captain Ryan.

Donnie, not understanding where the harshness came from, held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry."

Meanwhile, Mikey was practically talking Raph's ear off about how amazing Chris was - and how cool he was to let Mikey into the dojo. "And then, and then Chris Bradford put on his hakama! Man, that guy can rock a hakama!"

Raph rested his hand on his head in an unorthodox facepalm, entirely fed up with the fact that Mikey just would not shut up about Chris. "Yeah? Maybe he'll wear it again when he takes you to the prom." Was he happy that Mikey found someone that actually seemed to accept his company? Yeah, of course, he was. But did it warrant Mikey not shutting up for five minutes about this guy? No, not at all.

When Mikey began talking about another "amazing" thing that Chris did, Raph was done - at this point, he was willing to throw Mikey off the rooftop if he didn't shut up. "Agh, enough! You've been going on about this for three hours!"

Mikey decided to brag just a little bit more to Raph about the awesomeness that was Chris Bradford; leaning in close, he gave his older brother a boastful smirk. "Ooh, someone sounds jealous!" He teased, then stood himself back up. "You just can't admit that you were the r-word!" When Raph gave him a confused look, Mikey decided to clarify for him. "'Rong?'"

In this case, his mouth worked before his brain. And that was only proven when Leo and Donnie facepalmed at Mikey's incorrect spelling.

Deciding not to correct Mikey with the spelling (he would figure it out in time,) Raph scoffed to himself - more insulted with Mikey assuming that he was wrong about Chris wanting to be his friend. "I'm not wrong."

Now Mikey was more offended than anything. Raph always thought he knew everything, didn't he? Just because he was the older brother...out of three...well, his point still stood! "Oh, yeah? If you don't want to talk about my friend-" He then effortlessly leaped into the air, landing right between Donnie and Leo. "I've got two other brothers who do!"

But neither of them looked necessarily interested in talking about Chris either.

"Actually, I'd rather talk about anything else." Leo admitted, a subtle emphasis on 'anything else.' He was just like Raph in terms of wanting Mikey to just stop talking about this guy - he was just less overt about his feelings, unlike Raph.

Still not over Mikey's blatant misspelling from before, Donnie pointed out, "Like the concept of the silent 'w', perhaps?" Only he would suggest a language concept as a shift in topic.

Now Mikey was even more upset than before. So none of his brothers wanted to talk about his new friend and indulge him in his excitement? That was fine by him. "Fine, I'll go talk to a guy who likes to talk about Chris Bradford more than anyone else-" He then leaned in slightly, putting a hand near his mouth to amplify his voice. "-Chris Bradford."

He was completely oblivious to the implications that his final sentence gave as he practically dove off the roof, making Donnie and Leo exchange a look of both confusion and a bit of concern.

Mikey really cared about this guy, didn't he?

It was just a shame that they felt the same way as Raph did - Mikey's optimism was going to end up kicking him in the shell.

Meanwhile, Chris was training in the dojo - his strikes against the poor punching bag were vicious, almost like he had some level of pent-up anger. It was likely due to having to put up with Mikey the night before - the kid was annoying, that was for sure. But it would only be for a little bit longer. Until he had him right where he wanted him.

And then, when the time was right-

"There's my best buddy in the whole world!"

Oh no.

Groaning to himself, Chris plastered a smile on his face. It would all be worth it - in the end. "Michelangelo! Mikey! The big M! How you doin', buddy?" All he had to do was humor him, and make him feel like he was welcome.

The problem was, Mikey didn't really make it easy.

"I am stupendous, Chris!" Mikey beamed at him, eager to see the guy again. He always loved spending time with new people, especially if they were as awesome as the man, the myth, the legend: Chris Bradford. And because he was that awesome, Mikey wanted to give him an awesome nickname like Chris had given him! "Chrissy B!" Actually...that one was not good compared to Chris' name for him. "I gotta work on your nickname."

And then it came to him. "Ooh, Rad-Brad!" Was it cheesy? Very. But did Mikey really care? Not really, no. He just wanted to give Chris an awesome name - after all, that was what friends did for each other, right? April called Andi - well, Andi, all the time, and it seemed to have been such a normal thing for her that he and his brothers called her that too.

But Chris didn't seem to be that phased by it. "You know, I was just thinking how we're such close friends, and yet...I know so little about you." Part 1 of the plan. Granted, his profile kind of gave him away by listing Hamato, but Chris just wanted to ensure that Mikey was really part of the same clan that Yoshi was part of.

Mikey, still as optimistic as ever, focused more on the idea that Chris considered them friends. "You think we're close friends?" He asked, his eyes lighting up. It was kind of cute, in a way. But it only emphasized the point that Leo, Donnie, and Raph were trying to hammer into his thick head - that his innocence was going to be his downfall, especially with someone that was still kind of a stranger.

"Of course!" Chris basically confirmed Mikey's biggest hopes right there - he just hoped Mikey didn't notice the fact that he was looking away when he said that. But considering that dopey smile was still on his face, he assumed he was still in the clear. "Now tell me everything about you."

"Well, where should I start?" Mikey asked himself, going into deep thought. What did he talk about? His family? No, too early for that. How much he loved pizza? Hmm, that wasn't a bad idea. Wait - he got the perfect idea.

"Ooh! I named all six of my toes!" Perfect idea. He even held up his foot to Chris to demonstrate - three toes on full display. He didn't even notice the fact that his feet smelled exactly like the sewer did.

"How interesting-" Chris was about to say, but recoiled in disgust and nearly gagged at the smell when Mikey shoved his foot directly into his face. If he didn't need this kid for the information he was harvesting about Yoshi, he would've been kicked directly into the wall.

And that feeling only intensified when Mikey started listing off the names of his grotesque toes. "There's Stubby, and Joey Nails-"

Eventually, the ridiculousness of it all was too much - now Chris just wanted to get to the point as he pushed Mikey's foot aside. "Oh, that's, that's, that's fascinating. But I was thinking more about your impressive ninjutsu skills. You must have an incredible sensei." That was the one thing that Chris could say positively about this kid. Yes, he was annoying as ever and yes, he likely had the attention span of a breadcrumb. But he had to admit; the kid could fight.

Not as well as him, of course, but still well.

"Oh, he is the best!" Mikey gushed, but then proved Chris' point entirely by doing another handstand - and shoving his other foot directly into the poor guy's face. "Now meet the stinky triplets!"

Okay, now Chris wanted to throw this kid out of a window.

"Okay!" He played off his visceral disgust and frustration with a lighthearted chuckle as he pushed Mikey's other foot away. "Who's hungry?" Maybe food would shut the kid up - and maybe it would loosen him up, so to speak - it'd make it easier for him to spill about Yoshi or the other turtles that Mikey was fighting alongside that night in the alley. His brothers, Chris assumed.

At that suggestion, Mikey's eyes lit up. "Me! I want pizza!" He then thought of a question that would really determine whether Chris was a real friend or not, the million-dollar question that would decide everything:

"Do you like pizza?"

Chris let out a half-hearted "yeah, sure," complete with a little eye roll, but Mikey didn't notice it. The confirmation that Chris liked, in his opinion, the best food that ever existed, was proof enough for him. "Whoa..." He said in awe as he bolted towards Chris, engulfing him in a hug. "We have so much in common!"

When Mikey wasn't looking, Chris stared at the far wall in the dojo - a hint of fear on his face.

What did he just get himself into by saying that?

"Isn't this great?"

Now they were on the catwalk of a billboard - facing what looked like an apocalyptic nightmare. The smoke and carbon dioxide from the small apartment chimneys in the distance were so overpowering that they ended up entirely covering the sky, giving it an ugly yellow-brown tint. Cars below them were blaring their alarms or honking horns. And to top it off, the smell of gas and smoke mixing was indescribable.

Like before, if Chris didn't need this kid for the information that he had, he would've considered pushing him off the billboard.

And probably would have.

Mikey however, was having the time of his life. Pizza and an awesome dude like Chris Bradford to hang out with? What more could he have asked for? "Blue skies, pizza, couple of dudes just hangin'." He even finished it off with a little nudge to Chris' shoulder - pizza slice still in his hand.

When he saw a rat scamper off the billboard, Chris recoiled in disgust. "Yeah, great..." This was the exact opposite of the kind of upbringing he had - wealthy, well-off, and the farthest thing from common sewer rats. But he supposed this was what the kid was used to, if this is what he ended up picking.

But since he was in what seemed like a comfort zone, why not take another chance at getting information? "Since we've gotten so close, maybe you could tell me a little more about your brothers?"

His latest mistake though? Asking Mikey when his mouth was stuffed with pepperoni pizza.

"Oh, yeah. Oh, they're good dudes. But sometimes, I don't think they respect me." He admitted. Which was entirely valid, but it was hard to take him seriously when:

A: He was talking with his mouth full.

And B: He took the biggest bite of pizza that he could muster right after saying that.

While he was in the middle of devouring the pizza, Chris muttered sarcastically, "Oh, I can't imagine why..."

He was so glad Mikey didn't hear it when he said it.

It was now a few hours later, and they were back in Chris' dojo. "Whoa, cool!" Mikey was admiring an ancient katana that was resting in its saya on the mantel. It was intricate and beautiful, and in a way, it reminded him a little bit of Splinter. Maybe when he was human, he had a similar katana to Chris? He made a note to himself to ask later.

"That looks old..." He commented, reaching up to carefully touch it and admire the details on the hilt. If Leo were here, Mikey knew that he would be as enamored with the katana as he was with Space Heroes and being a goody-two-shoes with Splinter. Maybe even more? Who was to say?

Chris, leaning against a table in the corner, was getting increasingly frustrated with Mikey not having the common sense to not touch something so sacred. "Yes, yes, it's over 400 years old." Seriously, did this kid not understand the meaning of not touching things that didn't belong to him, especially priceless artifacts that were passed down for generations?

But he had to calm himself; he just needed to put up with this kid for a little bit longer. "But..." He brushed off his frustration with a little chuckle - just like he did before. "...getting back to your sensei..."

Mikey pursed his lips as he took the katana off the stand and started to unsheathe it. "Look, Rad-Brad, I'd love to tell you, but there's just some things that I need to keep secret." Splinter was not someone that he talked about with just anyone. He was important; as a sensei and as a father. You had to be pretty darn special to get Mikey to talk to you about him.

And while Chris was pretty special, Mikey just didn't feel like the two of them were close enough to the point where he felt like he could talk about his sensei like that.

Though it was worth noting that while he was withholding talking about Splinter, he fully unsheathed the katana and started to swing it around, much like Leo often did. And for a split second, Mikey felt like his older brother - though he quickly realized that there was a reason Splinter didn't give him the katana when they were being given their weapons. It didn't feel as fun as swinging the nunchucks around. And besides, Leo was way better at being careful than he was.

But his fun was quickly stopped when Chris grabbed his wrist, wanting to make sure the katana didn't get dropped or slice anything up. Because knowing this idiot, that was bound to happen. "But we're friends." He persuaded him. He was really going the extra mile to try and extract any information he could about Yoshi.

Even if it meant manipulating Mikey and guilt-tripping him.

"And friends share their secrets, don't they?" He asked as he grabbed the katana from Mikey with relative ease.

Not catching on as to what Chris was doing to him, Mikey got curious - and excited. "Are you telling me you're going to show me your secret kata, the Death Dragon?"

As he went to put the katana back on the stand, Chris weighed his options for a moment. If he did teach him, then the worst-case scenario was that he showed it to someone else. The best-case scenario? He didn't show anyone and gave him the information about Yoshi.

If he didn't, he would very likely not shut up about wanting to know it, and Chris would never get that information.

Well, there were worse things he could sacrifice.

"Tell you what. As a show of trust and friendship, I will teach you the Death Dragon."

Mikey's cheer of "All right!" could be heard from space with how loud it was.

"But-" Chris added as he turned back around to face him. "-you have to swear not to show it to anyone."

Perfect. Right where he wanted him.

Mikey looked in awe for a moment, but put his left hand on his chest and held up his right hand - turtle's honor, he and the others called it.

"I promise I won't show a soul."

Well, that didn't last long at all.

"And then he kicks, twists, and sweeps the leg! Ha!"

Mikey was demonstrating the Death Dragon to an amazed Leo and Donnie, while Raph was leaning against the tree in the background of the dojo. He wasn't jealous or anything, but he was a bit miffed at the fact that Mikey seemed to have...proven him wrong. Maybe Bradford was a good guy after all? Granted, Raph wasn't completely sold on him yet, but if he was willing to teach Mikey such a sought-after ability like his secret kata, the ace up his sleeve...maybe there was some good to him after all.

That, or Bradford expected something from Mikey in return.

They'd probably end up finding out in time.

"That was amazing!" Leo exclaimed, a wide grin on his face. When it came to ninjutsu, he didn't consider himself a turtle that was easily impressed. Splinter was a brilliant sensei and taught them everything he knew - and he considered himself and his brothers to be powerful (albeit aspiring) ninjas. So to have Mikey learn a technique that rivaled Splinter's in terms of power and excellence was remarkable, to say the least.

Donnie was the same way. "Yeah, it's devastatingly effective and complex." He agreed. Of course, he was the one to analyze the difficulty of each move performed to perfect the kata, but that was just the way his mind worked. He wasn't impressed at the fact that Mikey knew each move - he was more impressed that Mikey was able to retain such a difficult kata in the amount of time that he spent with Chris.

And clearly, Raph felt the same way. "And yet even Mikey could learn it." He commented, still leaning against the tree.

"Thank you!" Mikey put a hand to his chest in a subtle bow - but then realized what Raph meant by that. "Hey!" He gave his brother a deadpan stare immediately after. Seriously, did his brothers not have any faith in him when it came to something as awesome as the Death Dragon - taught by someone as awesome as Chris? If anything, he was just proving his point to Chris about Leo, Raph, and Donnie having hardly any respect for him.

But then Donnie's computer beeped, indicating a new message - and all of his frustration washed away immediately.

"It's Rad-Brad!" He exclaimed, rushing to the computer - just to brag a little further, he casually added over his shoulder, "That's my little name for him." He then skimmed the contents of Chris' message:

Hey, Mikey! It's Chris! Think you can come to the dojo right now? I was thinking we could play some b-ball! Sound good? Cool, come now! Thanks, buddy!

Now he started to get more hyped than he was before. "He wants to get together for a little b-ball. Can't wait to find out what the 'b' stands for!" He told himself excitedly, quickly typing out a response - though he was dangerously close to breaking the keyboard with how aggressively he was hitting the keys.

Yoooo, Chris! 'Course, I'll come right now! By the way, uh...what does the b stand for in b-ball?

Before Chris could respond, he started to bolt out of the dojo, not wanting to keep him waiting for long. When Leo asked why he was leaving now, Mikey's simple response was: "Sorry, dudes. Human friend stuff. You know how it is." But then, to try and rub salt in the wound even further, Mikey poked his head back into the dojo. "Oh, wait, no, you don't." He added a little chuckle at the end as he dismissively waved his hand.

He blatantly forgot the fact that the girls were their friends - but none of his brothers had an awesome friend like Chris. And none of them just got invited to spend even more time with arguably the coolest guy on the face of the planet.

He had no idea that he was walking into a snare.

Meanwhile, Xever and Chris were in the latter's dojo, the former admiring and swinging the same katana that Mikey had been playing with before. He had to admit, Bradford did have a good eye when it came to weapons - it was just a shame that he was just such a gigantic as-

"The freak is on the way, and the trap is set," Chris confirmed out loud, giving his computer screen a devious smile. Finally, they were closer than ever to getting those hideous freaks. Surely Master Shredder would reward them handsomely for what they had done?

If they succeeded, of course.

Xever wasn't listening, though. He was still holding the katana in his hands, being careful not to cut his right hand on the blade. "Pretty weapon for a tough guy." He remarked - but decided to compare himself and Chris just like before. "In prison, we made our own weapons." He and Chris were not cut from the same cloth - Xever had a childhood marred by theft and poverty, and Chris grew up in a gated community with a silver spoon in his mouth - and who turned to evil merely out of boredom.

There was only one thing that they shared in common - their loyalty to Shredder.

Chris was not about to be compared to a street rat like Xever. "I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever stupid enough to end up in prison." He merely replied, making Xever scowl at him, impale the katana into the ground, and stalk off.

Once this job was over, and they won, he sincerely hoped Shredder allowed him to punch this arrogant little weasel - and give him the credit he deserved for beating those reptiles into the ground.

While Mikey was gone, Leo and Raph decided to practice the Death Dragon themselves - to varying results. They seemed to have understood the beginning of the kata, but when it got to the 'sweep the leg' part, that was when they faltered. Maybe because that was Mikey's specialty; it was definitely more impulsive and flashy, just like him.

"Not quite." Raph commented on Leo's leg sweep, to which the older brother replied, "Wait, I think I got it." He remembered the demonstration that Mikey had given them - and realized his mistake. He didn't outstretch his arms - which would've increased his flow, according to Donnie. That was it!

They vaguely noticed Splinter walking into the dojo, who admittedly, was surprised at them training without him as a teacher. Maybe they were going over the lesson they learned during training like time? Or maybe they were just doing a casual sparring session to hone their skills?

But then he saw what kind of kata they were doing.

It wasn't that it was a kata that he had never taught them before - it was the memory of the man who used that kata against him.

Saki.

And Leo was performing the sweep the same way Saki had - arms outstretched, pose forward so he looked more imposing, causing Raph (and him, Yoshi) to fall to the ground. The only difference was that Leo looked proud at doing the kata successfully, while Saki looked deviant and proud at the fact that he made his rival fail at besting him.

"Where did you learn that?!" Splinter demanded from his sons. There was no way that the boys had learned that kata from finding it out at random - it was Shredder's specialty, his ace up his sleeve. He never revealed it to anyone - unless they proved their undying loyalty and obedience to him.

As Leo helped Raph off the floor, his tone was casual and relaxed as he explained, "Mikey learned it from his new friend." Splinter was never really against the idea that they found new techniques or katas without him teaching them - in fact, he actively encouraged it. So why was this time any different?

Though to be fair, with Splinter, there was always a reason.

"The man who taught him that kata is no friend. It comes from the Shredder."

And there it was.

Oh no.

"Shredder?" Donnie echoed, now in shock himself - along with Leo. "So, Bradford is one of his students?" The blue-masked turtle asked.

When Splinter asserted, "He must be," the pieces started to come together - why Mikey's friend request was accepted immediately, why he and Chris were spending an abnormal amount of time together, and why Chris showed him his secret kata.

He wanted information out of Mikey - specifically about Splinter. And having his trust meant that he could easily manipulate Mikey into falling into a trap.

Double oh no.

"So Bradford's just pretending to be Mikey's friend to get to you." Leo figured it out, feeling slightly sick at the idea. He hated Mikey being used like this - and after he was so happy about having a friend, and someone cool like Chris Bradford on top of it...

Leo would be lying if he didn't feel at least a shred of rage at the man for using their baby brother like this.

Raph, however...seemed to feel the exact opposite for a moment. "Oh, what a relief!" He exclaimed, holding his head. "Everything makes sense again." It was almost like this entire ordeal was just a weird dream - Mikey having a human friend that actually liked him? Come on, now. But at the realization that it was just a ruse, he felt like he had just woken up.

But then it hit him. This wasn't a joke. Mikey was in real danger, and he was completely alone.

Triple oh no.

"Mikey's in trouble!"

"Rad-Brad? Hello? Helloooo? Raddie-Braddie?"

Mikey had taken up Chris' offer and was perusing the dojo, eagerly looking for him. The lights were off, the only possible light pouring in from the windows. The shadows were impossible to ignore, and it was, fittingly, cold and ominous. To anyone else, they would've run out of the dojo and not even bothered to look around.

But Mikey's innocence, as his brothers assumed, was going to be his downfall. "Did you plan me a surprise party?"

Suddenly, the helmeted figure from Shredder's dojo appeared behind him - and was waiting calmly for his chance to strike. Finally, the training that Shredder gave him, and all the time he spent preparing for this...it was all coming together.

Sensing a presence behind him, Mikey jumped around and yelped, meeting with the masked figure. The guy didn't look like Chris, and he never said anything to make Mikey recognize his voice. And besides, Chris would never do this to him!

Backing up from the helmeted man made Mikey collide with another person behind him - Xever. And judging by the evil scowl on his face, Mikey could read that he was in something bad. Oh, where was Chris when he needed him?

But then it hit him...he was in a trap, so it was super possible that Chris was also kidnapped by these dudes! "Tell me what you've done with Chris, or you guys are in serious-" Before he could finish his threat, though, the helmeted figure swung at him and Xever joined in, essentially tag-teaming in taking Mikey down. But he was quicker than they realized, dodging every one of their attacks with relative ease - even climbing into the rafters to avoid a strike.

They had to admit, he was good. An idiot, but good.

But they were better.

After dodging another attack, Mikey was struck in the head by Xever, then collided with a punching bag after another kick. But he was still able to keep on fighting. Hiding behind a belt display, the helmeted man gave him an evil chuckle as he struck again - which Mikey narrowly avoided. "Haven't you figured out who I am?"

"Should I have?" Mikey asked as he dodged another punch, still hiding behind the display. Was this guy important or something? Did it tie into why he and his friend being so aggressive with him? Was this another guy that Raph ticked off or something? And how did he know that he was going to be at Chris' dojo? Did he have a stalker or something?

Before he could figure out the answer, he came up with a plan; he grabbed the helmeted man's arms and pinned him, then swung around and delivered a high kick right to the head - so his helmet clattered against his skull. But he recovered quickly, kicking Mikey into a punching bag, then finishing him off with a high kick that sent him flying into the ceiling. And as the kid lay on the floor, the helmeted man decided to deliver the coup de grâce - the one fact that he didn't pick up on.

"We've already met face-to-face."

"No...it can't be! You're-" The surprise on Mikey's face was palpable - he knew he didn't meet this guy under the most pleasant of circumstances, but this was going a little far. Did the guy really need to go so far as to bring one of his friends to jump him?

"The guy with the cat?"

The helmeted figure rolled his eyes in exasperation. This kid really was going to be the death of him. He swore, he really needed to Shredder paid him handsomely for his work in dealing with this kid.

"You fool."

He took off the helmet, and Mikey's jaw - and heart - dropped.

"Rad-Brad? What?"

Chris and Xever took no time in hogtying Mikey up - but amazingly enough, didn't gag him with anything. They must have noticed his lack of a nose and wanted to give him some sort of a break; they weren't going to kill him, he was just going to be used as bait. Because that was so much better.

"I thought we were friends. I introduced you to all my toes." Mikey pleaded, his tone as somber as ever. He always hated feeling like an idiot, and he really thought this guy was going to be the awesome friend that he always dreamed of...turned out the guys were completely right, and now Mikey was going to pay for it in the worst way possible.

Chris, however, didn't seem to care about the prospect of friendship - or Mikey at all. "You actually thought someone like me would be friends with a freak like you?" He scoffed to himself. "Pathetic."

He didn't seem to notice (or more realistically, also care) about how crushed Mikey looked - his lips quivering and his normally bright blue eyes shining.

"I say we get rid of him." Xever suggested - it only took his gaze towards the katana that made Mikey understand exactly what he meant by that. And while that didn't make his sadness any worse, it definitely spiked his anxiety.

Chris certainly didn't help matters with "Nothing would make me happier," which ended up worsening both Mikey's fear and feeling of being crushed - but then he was left to rot in that state as they started to walk off, with Chris' reason being, "But we need him. All part of the trap."

As the lights were turned off again and Mikey was left in the dark room, he tried one more time to get through to Chris - maybe there was a shred of decency in him that he just wasn't showing.

"Rad-Brad?"

When he got no response, that settled it for him.

The others, however, were quick to save him.

They met on the rooftop of Bradford's dojo - first Raph, then Leo, then finally Donnie. And once the purple-masked turtle made it, he had a plan to get inside through the skylight window. Taking a gumball, he chewed it for a few seconds and blew it so it was pliable enough to work with, then attached it to the pencil of a small compass that he brought (what could he say? He always needed to be prepared), and then used the needle end of the compass to cut a large enough hole in the skylight.

It was so simple, and yet it actually worked.

Using the hole, Donnie searched for the latch to open the window - which was surprisingly complicated, but that was what happened when you had no light to work with. Once he found it though, Leo pushed open the skylight window - and the three caught a glimpse of Mikey, hog-tied and surrounded by Foot soldiers, which admittedly, made their anger for Bradford come back in full force.

When they got their hands on him, they would-

But they needed to focus on the mission for now. They'd get their revenge later.

Lowering three ropes, the boys descended on the building with barely a sound - and they only attracted the Foot soldiers' attention when Leo unsheathed his katanas. And being as quick and lethal as ninjas could be, they took out every last one of them.

At seeing both the last soldier fall and his brothers coming to save him, Mikey grinned at them. "Dudes! That was sporadic!" Once again, another instance of his mouth working faster than his brain. To be completely honest, he had heard Donnie say that to Andi days before and thought it sounded cool, and considering his brothers just did something awesome, he thought it sounded fitting.

But judging by Donnie's facepalm, it wasn't the right word to use. And judging by Leo and Raph's aggressive shushing, it wasn't the right time to be as loud as he was.

Ah, well. At least when Leo got him out of his bonds, he gave him a little head pat, like a 'you tried, and that's what matters.'

They booked it out of the dojo immediately, running across the rooftop and jumping off once they found a nearby manhole cover. All seemed great; Mikey was safe, and no enemies were in sight...it seemed to be going all according to plan.

However, Bradford was watching them go down the tunnel with binoculars, Xever, and a group of Foot soldiers right next to him.

"Perfect."

"We've got them."

The boys picked up on it quickly - and hid behind the entrance of the tunnels while Bradford, Xever, and the soldiers jumped down into the tunnel. As the two men started walking through the tunnel, in hunt of the boys, Raph first took out one of the soldiers trailing behind them - still not making a sound. Donnie and Leo followed suit, and Mikey finally got his chance he used a rope to lasso the soldier off the ground.

Bradford, Xever, and the lone soldier behind him finally made it to an aqueduct - which served as a type of hub for the sewers. The walkways were curved around a waterway that, from the looks of it, looked murky, dark, and all-around disgusting.

But that wasn't what mattered - and Bradford knew that. Taking a step forward, he analyzed the scene before him; the water was running freely, but that was the only noise in this place.

Every instinct in his body was telling him that something was wrong. And out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of green. And once the last Foot soldier was lassoed into the posse, that confirmed it.

Xever lit a flare for more light, and there they were. All of the soldiers dangling helplessly on the ceiling. And there were only four people that could've done it. "Show your faces!" He yelled into the darkness, backing up from the scene in front of him.

So Leo and Raph obliged him, swimming out of the murky water, while Donnie and Mikey emerged from the shadows. All four of them had their weapons at the ready, and judging by the white irises, they were furious. Especially Mikey for Bradford's traitorous behavior.

"They've trapped us!" Xever exclaimed, but the two of them were not about to be taken down so easily. If they were going down, they were at least going down swinging. Because if they didn't die with honor, what kind of loyal henchmen would they be to Shredder? Which was why Bradford responded with a "Take 'em down!"

They split up - Bradford charged for Raph and Leo, and Xever went for Mikey and Donnie.

Immediately, Bradford swung a punch at Raph, who dodged immediately - but Leo quickly jumped in, going for a strike from behind. But Bradford was crafty, catching them both before they struck and sending the both of them flying. Thankfully, they quickly recovered.

Donnie and Xever faced off however; the latter was much like Mikey in his preference for using his feet in battle; he countered every strike from Donnie with his legs, did a handspring, and used the terrapin as an easy recovery, getting back on his feet and nearly sending him to the ground. In the process, he struck Mikey in the face with Donnie's foot, then swung the purple-banded turtle into his brother.

And the cocky smirk he gave the two told them that he was not going to be taken down that easily.

But the two glanced over at what was going on with Leo and Raph. Bradford had gotten Raph onto the ground and was charging him, but Leo jumped behind him, trying to get a surprise attack in. But once again, Bradford was quick, grabbing Leo's katanas and delivering a hard kick to his plastron, sending him flying. Raph, thankfully, ran to his brother and caught him to cushion his fall into the ground.

These guys were not going to be taken down easily, huh?

But when they glanced at Donnie, he snapped his fingers - he had an idea.

Raph gave him a thumbs up as he and Leo went back to fighting Bradford, before running away, making the man chase after them. Mikey and Donnie, however, sent Xever on a chase much less briefly before switching places with Leo and Raph - now the two eldest were fighting Xever, and the two youngest were fighting Bradford.

The man went in for a punch, but missed when Mikey jumped onto the pipe he punched - when Bradford went in for another punch, Mikey caught his nunchucks on the spikes on his wrist and pulled him forward, allowing Donnie to hit his legs with his bo, and then allowed Mikey to get a cathartic punch in on Bradford and make him fall to the ground.

Meanwhile, Leo and Xever were engaged in fierce combat. But the trick was, Leo was chasing him towards the center of the aqueduct. And before Xever could use the same move against Leo and Raph that he used against Mikey and Donnie, Raph caught him off guard with a swift kick to the legs, making him fly into the air - and Leo followed it up with a kick to the abdomen that made Xever land in the middle of the aqueduct.

They had them right where they wanted them - and that was only exacerbated when the boys backed Bradford and Xever into the aqueduct. One wrong move and Shredder's henchmen were toast.

"They knew we were following them!" Bradford exclaimed. He had to give them credit where credit was due - they were smarter than he realized. It didn't excuse the fact that they were his mortal enemy and he was going to take any opportunity to beat them for Shredder, but he had to admit - he and Xever were dealing with a formidable foe.

"That's right!" Mikey told him with a furious expression. He felt utterly betrayed by Bradford, but now he knew. This guy was not to be trusted, especially considering how callously he had hurt him and his brothers. And while he was heartbroken on the inside, he knew what needed to be done to finish this guy off.

He countered Bradford's punch with his wrist, then did the same with his other wrist, then pulled him forward and countered one final punch. He then struck Bradford directly in the head, then kneed him in the stomach - and then delivered a palm slap directly to Bradford's face, dazing him. Using that confusion, Mikey punched him again in the stomach. Grabbing his head, the orange-banded turtle kneed him in the head, then delivered a few final punches and another knee to the stomach, before following it with the coup de grâce - the infamous 'sweep the leg.' He then went flying into Xever, finishing the both of them off.

Bradford had just been taken down by his own kata.

Smiling at the irony of it all, Mikey glanced at Leo and Donnie, who were now at a water valve, waiting for the command. When the youngest yelled "Hit it!", the two turned the valve, releasing a stream of sewer water to flow through the tunnel - and flushing both Bradford and Xever out of the sewer.

The most degrading way to be taken down. And in a twisted way, it felt entirely fitting.

"Well, that wasn't very fair, was it?" Raph rhetorically asked with a proud smile as he and Mikey watched them go - to which Leo replied as he and Donnie walked back to them, "No, it wasn't."

They shared a laugh before Mikey held up his hand. "High three!" They shared a group high three (like a high five, except there were only twelve fingers instead of twenty), before making their way back to the lair.

They had saved their baby brother and beat down Shredder's top henchmen without so much as a scratch.

Things could not have been better.

As they had pizza to celebrate their victory, Donnie noticed Splinter looking ahead, stroking his beard in careful thought. Wouldn't he be happy at the four of them for beating Shredder's goons? And more realistically, "Sensei, aren't you hungry?"

Splinter's eyes looked distant - and had a hint of fear in them, almost like he could see what was going to happen. "I fear we are celebrating too soon." He admitted.

"Too soon?" Raph asked, holding a half-eaten pizza slice in his hand. "The bad guys got swept away in a river of raw sewage. By my watch, that makes it the perfect time." He stated proudly. And it was true; beating their foes was always cathartic, but there was something especially sweet about taking down Xever and Bradford. Their prestige was one thing, but he also suspected it was because they messed with Mikey specifically. In Raph's mind, any baddie could mess with him. He would still take them down, but he wouldn't be too bothered by it.

If they targeted any of his brothers, especially Mikey, though...well, let's just say they had a one-way ticket to eternal suffering.

But Splinter wasn't focusing on this battle specifically. "Shredder knows I'm alive." He professed. And then his gaze turned much more stormy. "And worse...he knows about all of you. It's my worst nightmare come true." He could handle Shredder; the two had grown up together and had fought together. The boys...they didn't know what they were getting into with someone as ruthless as Saki.

And his worst nightmare was that, once they confronted him, they would never make it home alive. And the thought of losing his boys almost made Splinter wish he was another casualty in the fire that killed Shen and Miwa.

"So it's not over?" Leo's voice broke Splinter out of his thoughts - and made the latter reply with a solemn "Oh, no. It's just beginning."

All three boys put their heads down, now starting to get worried. Who knew what could happen to them now? What if Shredder found April and Andi? What would happen to them? What if Shredder somehow found out April was wanted by the Kraang? Would he turn her over to them? And what about Andi? Would Shredder kill her off? Brainwash her into becoming his resident brainiac? Use her as bait?

It was all too much to think about right now.

Thankfully, Donnie's computer made a little beep sound - snapping Raph out of his thoughts and making him focus on a heartbroken Mikey, who was staring forlornly at the screen - specifically at Bradford's profile picture. He had to admit, he felt bad for the guy. Was he right about Bradford? Yes, but that didn't mean that it invalidated Mikey's feelings. All he wanted was someone that accepted him for who he was and wanted to be his friend - and the guy used it against him.

Maybe that was why he went over to him and asked him how he was doing.

"This was all my fault. I should've never thought I could be friends with a human." Mikey admitted with a sad look. He felt awful for what he did; it was his own stupidity that got him in trouble and got him and his brothers into a battle that maybe they weren't prepared for. All because he decided to get himself into the world of human-mutant friendships and trust his own naivety instead of what his brothers said as warnings.

"Eh, don't be so hard on yourself," Raph assured him. He hated seeing his baby brother like this - sad, regretful, and just...the opposite of what he was like normally. Call it the older, protective brotherly instinct he had, but it made him just want to find Bradford and beat him into the ground for doing this to Mikey.

"So it's not my fault?" Mikey asked, a spark of hope flashing across his eyes. But it was deflated as soon as Raph said, "Of course it's your fault." There it was, the more blunt and spiteful Raph coming back again. And it made Mikey sigh in defeat and sadness again - if he had a time machine, he would go back and do it all over again. Stop himself from sending a request to Bradford, from going to see him...everything.

Seeing the sadness in his eyes brought back the more protective side in Raph again. "If you tell the others, I'll beat the green off you, but...you're an awesome guy." He admitted, patting Mikey's shoulder comfortingly. And he meant it; anyone would've been lucky to have a guy like Mikey as a friend. He was sensitive, funny, creative, awesome at ninjutsu, a kind soul, and loyal to the core.

However, Mikey wasn't about to take that compliment so easily. "Bradford didn't think so." He deflected, eyes shining again - like he was close to crying again, just like when he was tied up in Bradford's dojo.

Raph shut that sentiment down immediately. "Well, he's a psychotic killing machine. You deserve way better friends than him." He professed. It was true; Bradford had no clue what he missed out on - and if he wanted to destroy Mikey's trust in him by being a loyal henchman to Shredder, then that only proved that he was the farthest thing from worthy of Mikey's friendship and loyalty.

And he wasn't worth Mikey being depressed over - and the orange-banded turtle knew that.

"You know what? You're right! Thanks, Raph!" His demeanor became a bit more like his usual self - it wasn't perfect (anyone could tell from a mile away that Mikey was still crushed at the betrayal), but Raph's pep talk seemed to have done something.

"Anytime." Raph smiled genuinely at him as he patted his brother's head, before leaving Mikey to ponder over what they talked about.

And in his mind, Mikey knew that Raph was completely right. If he wanted to have a human friend, they needed to be someone that wasn't evil, of course, but someone who didn't care about the fact that he was a mutant or a kick-butt ninja. Someone that saw him for the awesome dude that he was. He knew that there were people like that out there, he just needed to find them.

But at the same time...a part of him wanted to get revenge on Bradford, just a little bit.

And he knew just where to start.

"Unfriend!" He proclaimed as he removed Bradford from his friends list. He wanted it to be crystal clear that Bradford was no longer a friend of his, but a sworn enemy. And what better to start than by unfriending him?

He then chuckled to himself. Even if Bradford likely didn't care, it was the catharsis of payback that satisfied Mikey. It wasn't beating his face in or humiliating him, but it was a nice slice of payback nonetheless.

"Revenge..." He mused as he stared at the screen with a confident smile.

Raph was right; he would find his human friend in the future.

But right now?

Mikey was going to enjoy this little piece of revenge while it lasted.

#tmnt 2012 #donatello #oc #all's fair in love and science

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tarnishedxknight · 2 years

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Do you have any headcanons/ideas for an au where Basch led the Avengers and was there for the first Avengers movie?

{out of dalmasca} Well, how he would handle the NY invasion would greatly depend on how long he’d been captain of the Avengers and whether or not his suggestions on how to make them more of a cohesive fighting force were taken to heart. This is an interesting topic and thank you for sending it! I’m sorry it took so long for me to answer it, I had to kindof let it marinate in my brain and ponder the possibilities before I finally felt like sitting down and writing it all out. Get ready for a meta! XD

Basch is a natural leader with regard to people management, and he’s especially good at boiling down a force of people with all different ages, skill levels, and mindsets into a cohesive fighting/defending force. As Knight Captain in Dalmasca, he not only managed highly trained and experienced knights, but he also helped train and mold new foot soldiers and chocobo cavalry recruits. Each comes with its own set of challenges. On the one hand, knights don’t need much training on how to focus, how to not lose your cool, how to use weapons, and tactics, but on the other hand, their egos need to be contended with. Knights can be a lotta one man armies if you let them. Bringing them together to actually work with each other or at least coordinate efforts is certainly a challenge. New recruits have a different set of issues entirely. The majority of them take orders well enough and are eager to work with their fellow soldiers and officers, but they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Some need more weapons training, some need mental training on how to stay calm in battle, and still others need to learn what their strengths and weaknesses are and how best they can serve their battalion. Basch spend many years working with all sorts of people at all levels of experience and skill, and he’s learned how to interface with them to get the best result.

The Avengers is a lot more like an order of knights than a battalion of soldiers. They each have their own abilities and egos and are more likely to strike out on their own if they think they should. From a simple functionality point of view, their communication needs to be improved. Not in the sense of being able to talk to each other in the field, they’ve got that covered, but more in the sense of making what they say matter and knowing what to say. The Avengers at that point had honed their strengths but paid very little attention to their weaknesses. They worked on tactics as far as what to do, but not on what not to do, or what to do when things go completely wrong. Basch would run a lot of exercises with them to cover as many scenarios as possible to avoid situations in which people are left idle, confused, stressed out, or even injured or killed because something unexpected happened to the team. There needs to be no egos, at least during training. Everyone needs to know not only the strengths but also the weaknesses (both physical and mental) of each of their teammates so that responsibility and force can be delegated and positioned quickly and fluidly in the field. If someone is going off on their own to pull some reckless stunt by him- or herself without prior discussion or without informing others, that’s not beneficial to the team.

To do this, Basch would need to learn more about the world he’s in now. He’d need to learn the technology, the potential threats, and how they’re usually handled. At that point, he can start to make improvements wherever they may be needed. He’d want to learn to fly a quinjet (they’re a wee bit different from airships, heh), he’d want to learn about known threats like Loki, and he probably would want to visit Kamar-Taj to learn about the magic that exists in the Avengers’ world, since it may or may not be like his own. He’d do a fair amount of studying all these things on his own to familiarize himself with the world and what may be expected of him and his team.

Finding out that aliens are a thing, I feel like one of the biggest things Basch would want is to develop some sort of one- or two-man aircraft, like the small fighters and cutters of Ivalice. Ones that can fly fast and can maneuver tightly, as well as have significant firepower. Knowing there are aliens that may come from space and may use the skies as a battlefront, Basch would need something smaller and more accessible than quinjets, but something a bit more than Tony’s suit. He’s very familiar with aerial battle and would see a significant lack of ability of the Avengers to hold their own in one, with the exception of Tony and possibly Thor. Developing small fighter ships would be a priority of his. Whether or not that would have been possible for the Avengers to have developed for them at that point, I don’t know, but if they had, it might have made the invasion of NY much more equally matched, rather than having some Avengers on the ground unable to act, or wasting time commandeering the aliens’ ships. If they had their own, deploying those and getting down to business could have saved time, lives, and infrastructure.

Basch would recognize that some of the Avengers do have extensive military training as soldiers (Steve, Natasha), and that others of them have enough capability to warrant a bit more autonomy (Tony, Thor), but one of the most important things is that the captain needs to be in charge. If he gives them leave to act on their own and use their best judgement, then fine, but if he orders them to do or not do something and they ignore him, argue with him, or otherwise disregard those orders, that’s a huge problem. Aside from it being a respect thing and a trust issue, the group leader needs to be properly acknowledge, otherwise there’s chaos. Otherwise, the cohesion of the group falls apart.

Basch would run a tight ship in that regard, no pun intended. He expects his orders to be followed, and if they’re not, he will let you know how unacceptable that was. If you continue to defy him, he will kick you off the team. It’s just that simple. He needs to have control over the situation as best he can, and he can’t do that if his team are acting of their own accord instead of listening to the judgement of their leader. I feel like Tony would be a repeat offender, heh. Having said that, Basch is not made of stone, nor is he perfect, and he knows this. If someone on his team dissents, he will listen, but after he hears them, if he still wants his original orders carried out, they will be. Otherwise he’ll consider the person unreliable, and like I said if it happens enough times, he will no longer want them on the team.

Communication is key during any battle. He would want to know what each of his team is doing and would be open about what he’s doing as well. It’s a bit easier in modern NY than in Ivalice, as the Bluetooth comms system makes instant communication over long distance possible. In Ivalice, Basch would issue orders and would have to trust that they’re carried out and that each of his team is holding the post he last assigned them to. With the Avengers, he would be able to issue orders in real-time, and that would make things so much easier, especially when conditions change and strategies need to be altered on the fly. While I’m on the subject of improvements over Ivalice, Basch would absolutely love the Kevlar-style armors that are available in the modern world. The idea of wearing a thinner and (by comparison) lighter material instead of heavy, bulky, stiff plate armor would be a wonderful one to him.

So yeah, being from a world where air travel and battle was a lot more similar to many of the alien styles of the modern world, Basch would have wanted some technology upgrades for the Avengers so that more of them could handle aerial war. And he would have run a much tighter ship with regard to demanding obedience, sufficient communication, and respect not only for him but the rest of the team too. But that’s for all-out battles. Other things in the first Avengers movie I can randomly comment on are...... Well he would have had a lot more security on Loki. He would have been a lot warier of Loki’s staff because that stone looks like nethicite to him and he’s not freaking messing with that nor is he underestimating it. He definitely would not have given up on Clint after he’s mind-controlled, but having said that, the general public would always come first with him. When you become an elite soldier, especially a public defender like the Avengers are supposed to be, you accept that you will run into danger, that you might die, or that you might have to do some difficult things for the sake of the greater good and the safety of civilians. If Clint couldn’t be saved in a timely fashion and he was a danger to the public, Basch would have to make some hard decisions. But he’d consider all other options before that occurred.

Something I feel he’d really have a general problem with... is Banner. His hulk form is too unpredictable, too dangerous to the public, and is not easily controlled by the rest of the team. This is pre-lullaby, but even with a lullaby, I’m not sure Basch would want Banner in the field. On the team as a tech/medical advisor, running comms, and otherwise giving backup support, sure. But I don’t think he would want someone that violent and erratically destructive in the field. Especially if he got the impression that Banner didn’t want to be on that kind of team. He would never have sent someone to coax him out of hiding, as it were. Soldiers need to be willing and have their entire heads in the game, so if Banner didn’t want to fight, Basch would tell him he doesn’t have to. He’s a liability otherwise, especially with powers he can’t fully control and that no one else can really control for him.

One more thing Basch would do a lot more of than even Steve did is talk to his team a lot. One on one. Just to get a sense of them and where their heads are at. Battles can pop up out of nowhere, so pep talks beforehand aren’t always possible, but after the fact, he would be very interested in feedback. How did you feel participating in this? How do you feel it went? What do you think we did well? What do you think we did poorly? The reason for this is two-fold: 1) he wants every team member to feel like they have a say and a voice and that their concerns are being heard and addressed, and 2) if something went on that he didn’t know about or didn’t happen to see, this is a good way to make sure he’s evaluating everything that happened, not just what he was able to see from his potentially limited vantage point.

Okay I think I’ve rambled enough on this topic, haha. But this was fun to think about and write! Basch would definitely come in with a different mindset and perspective, and I think although he’d be playing catchup with learning the world, he’d have some other very positive and useful things to offer the team.

#{ out of dalmasca } ᵒᵒᶜ #{ knightly avenger } ᵐᶜᵘ ᵛᵉʳˢᵉ #headcanons

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

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For a prompt, what if Wen Xu arrives to burn down the Cloud Recesses while everyone is studying there

Home Alone - ao3

“All right,” Wei Wuxian said, when Lan Qiren announced that the Cloud Recesses would be imminently under attack by Wen Xu and the Wen sect armies, the calm in his monotone voice belied by the wrinkle of concern in his forehead. “We’re going to make that bastard wish he’d never been born, right?”

He was speaking lightly, as he always did, trying to make those around him feel more comfortable, braver, less afraid – his was the language of confidence and arrogance, of never backing down, and he didn’t know how else to speak.

He didn’t mean anything in particular by it, or at least not more than he usually did.

He wasn’t expecting Lan Qiren to look at him and say, “If you have any ideas, now is the time to contribute them.”

“So what exactly do you do again?” Wei Wuxian asked, following the older Lan sect disciple around – at least, the man was dressed like a Lan sect disciple, and with a forehead ribbon suggesting that he shared blood with the main clan, too, but Wei Wuxian wasn’t so sure he really was one.

“I blow stuff up, usually,” Lan Yueheng said cheerfully.

That was why Wei Wuxian had doubts.

The man was practically skipping. There was no way he was a Lan.

“Shishu is an alchemist,” Lan Wangji said. His hands were folded behind his back, as always, and he looked tense as might be expected, what with an imminent attack on his home by a colossal army intent on ravaging and destroying everything in its path – but the way he looked at Lan Yueheng was unaccountably fond, as if he were someone he was close to. Wei Wuxian hadn’t known there was anyone other than Lan Qiren or Lan Xichen that Lan Wangji was close to. He was oddly jealous. “Not always successfully.”

“Hey, at blowing things up, I am the most successful!” Lan Yueheng grinned. A moment later, though, the grin faded, and he looked anxious. “Wangji, are you sure you won’t go with your brother?”

“Brother will protect the sect books,” Lan Wangji said solemnly. “I will stay here to defend the sect and the guest disciples.”

Wei Wuxian appreciated that, being one of said guest disciples.

Anyway, it made sense. Lan Qiren had seriously considered trying to send them away with Lan Xichen, saying that their lives were more important than some extra books – other Lan elders hadn’t necessarily agreed, judging by their expressions – but regretfully concluded that adding more people to Lan Xichen’s escape route would do nothing but reveal its existence, dooming all of them.

So they’d split up: Lan Xichen, heading out virtually alone with the most precious Lan sect books, and all the rest of them here to try to resist as much as they could – even Lan Wangji.

Lan Yueheng didn’t try to argue with Lan Wangji, only sighed, sounding as though he’d expected nothing less from him and had only felt the need to make a token protest before accepting it as inevitable. It seemed he really was close to Lan Wangji.

Yeah, Wei Wuxian was definitely jealous.

“All right, then,” Lan Yueheng said, shaking his head and resuming his cheer. “Blowing things up in self-defense plan it is! You’re both talented in music, right?”

“What does music have to do with explosions?” Wei Wuxian asked.

The answer, apparently, was a lot – at least when you were an experimental alchemist in a musically inclined sect and you’d developed a way to trigger explosions via certain combinations of musical notes.

“So, did you know that Teacher Lan was scary?” Wei Wuxian asked Jiang Cheng, who’d finally returned from helping get all the elderly and children and civilians to evacuate – and refusing to join them, of course, even though he was entitled to go in order to preserve his life, being the heir of a sect and all that, completely typical Jiang Cheng – and was now pacing around, eager for a fight.

“Just because he punished you a few times doesn’t make him scary,” Jiang Cheng said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “You know what does make him scary? Playing music that makes his opponents try to cut their own necks.”

“…what?”

“Apparently he gets really upset when you mess with his students,” Wei Wuxian said wisely.

Unlike Jiang Cheng, he’d had time to adjust to the concept of Lan Qiren being terrifying: they were on the fifth wave of scouts, and this set wasn’t doing any better than the first four, not even when they’d realized it would be better if they stopped their ears with wax before approaching.

That’d only made Lan Qiren shift tactics – and songs.

Some of which had an even wider area of impact.

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said, looking at him suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“I convinced Teacher Lan that guerrilla warfare that destroyed as much of the enemy as possible would be more effective than just trying to defend the sect’s territory, since that was clearly a lost cause,” Wei Wuxian said promptly. “He agreed, but said that he could only do so much since he wasn’t a very good sword fighter. And then I asked him if he knew anything else that could be used as an attack and he said ‘no’ and then he said ‘well, I suppose’ and then he listed off a few things that – according to him – aren’t meant to be used in warfare but, and this is a direct quote, ‘could be put to a destructive use if one so wished it’.”

“And we now ‘so wish it’?”

“Yup. Oh, and watch out for anything that has a Lan sect cloud with a three-looped circle carved into the side of it, and I do mean anything– those explode.”

“Of course they do.”

“Hey! For once it has nothing to do with me!”

“I thought you said he said he was bad at swordfighting,” Jiang Cheng said suspiciously.

Wei Wuxian held out his hands helplessly in a ‘don’t look at me’ gesture, trying to defend himself from a sharp and pointy elbow to the side while also not pulling his eyes away from the ongoing battlefield for even a single moment.

“Shufu considers himself to be of average skill at the sword,” Lan Wangji said in the peaceable tone of someone who had been taught the basics of swordfighting by the person in question. The basics of really awesome swordfighting. “His real strength is in music, as you’ve seen.”

“I get that, really, I do, his music is terrifying,” Wei Wuxian said, and meant it completely. Between the two, he’d rather go up against Lan Qiren with a sword, where he’d at least be able to make a decent showing of himself before getting chopped to bits by the man’s fluid and almost seemingly delicate style that was nevertheless highly effective at skewering Wen sect disciples left and right; it would be better than with music, where he might as well just cut his own throat or strangle himself with guqin strings now to save Lan Qiren’s fingers the trouble. “But Jiang Cheng’s still right, okay – why in the world does he consider that to be ‘average’? Who is he comparing himself to?”

Lan Wangji considered the question for a long moment, then finally said: “A statistical outlier.”

“I wish we had aerial attacks we could use against the Wen sect’s swords,” Wei Wuxian said wistfully, and next to him Jiang Cheng nodded with a sight of longing – it was so frustrating seeing more and more Wen sect soldiers arriving in groups, like flocks of birds that started to fill the skies because they couldn’t be so easily shot down. “But if we try anything, they’ll just shield against us.”

“Teacher Lan said we can’t use spiritual energy against them, since we’d lose,” Jiang Cheng said, and as much as they all regretted it, Lan Qiren was probably right: they might be better trained than the Wen sect soldiers, might be better cultivators and stronger in spiritual energy individually, but they were young and immature, and at a serious numerical disadvantage.

It would be far too easy for the flying cultivators to stop their flying just long enough to set up a defensive array, block whatever spiritual attack they sent out, and then keep going to find and stab them before they’d even recovered from the energy expenditure.

“I didn’t mean spiritual energy,” Wei Wuxian grumbled. “I just meant, you know, like the explosives we’ve laid in all over the ground – something like that. If we could attach those to something…”

“I don’t think we have anything that flies anyway,” Lan Yueheng said regretfully.

“You have lanterns, don’t you?” Nie Huaisang said, and everyone turned to look at him. “Fill them with something that explodes when disturbed and send them floating into the air. Better yet, write ‘peace’ on the side of them to make it look like you’re making some sort of meaningful gesture designed to shame them. The Wen sect won’t be able to resist kicking them aside as an insult, and that’ll trigger them.”

They all stared at him.

He shrugged.

“We have a lot of defenses set up against invasion, at home,” he said. “And not always the budget to pay for anything fancy, so we’ve come up with some slightly more unorthodox ideas, too.”

“It’s a really good idea,” Wei Wuxian said, suddenly focused on the hitherto ignored Nie Huaisang. Clearly he’d made a tactical error, thinking of himself as the only person who knew how to get up to tricks. “Do you have any other ideas like that?”

Nie Huaisang smiled.

“Teacher Lan, I have an idea,” Wei Wuxian said, inserting himself briefly into the clearing near the Lan sect gate where Lan Qiren was sitting to rest in preparation for the Wen sect’s next attack. “But you’re going to hate it.”

“You may proceed,” Lan Qiren said, not looking up.

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian said, blinking. “Really? You’re not even going to ask what it is? Or why you’d hate it so much?”

“There is no time for that,” Lan Qiren said, and finally spared him a glance. He looked tired. “Things will get worse very soon.”

“But we’re winning!”

“No,” Lan Qiren said, shaking out his fingers – even despite occasionally alternating to using the sword when necessary, he’d played his guqin to the point of drawing blood and breaking nails, and was continuing despite everyone pleading with him to stop and swap out for someone else for a while. He’d said that there was no one else on his level, and he was probably right, but still, surely, just for a little… “We are surviving. Do not mistake the two.”

“Okay, so,” Wei Wuxian said, rubbing his hands together. “Resentful energy –”

“No,” Lan Wangji said.

“Thanks,” Wei Wuxian said to Jin Zixuan, who’d probably just saved his life by stabbing a Wen sect cultivator in the back right before the man had been able to stop Wei Wuxian from activating another series of explosions. “I guess I owe you one?”

“Don’t mention it,” Jin Zixuan said. “How else can I help?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian said, scratching his head and thinking about Nie Huaisang as precedent. There wasn’t time for schoolyard rivalries right now. “Do you have anything really unexpected that could be used to hurt people? Be creative – they’re guarded against all the usual defenses, so the weirder the better, anything goes. I won’t judge.”

Jin Zixuan thought about it. “I’m pretty sure I have a drug that puts people to sleep?”

“…why do you have something like that?”

Jin Zixuna grimaced. “My father gave it to me along with another one that he said not to use in excess, though I don’t actually know what that one does because that was about when my mom ran in and started throwing things at him. I can’t throw it away because it was a gift from my father, but I put it as deep into my bags as I could so that I’d never have to see or touch it. Ever.”

Wei Wuxian’s nose wrinkled. He’d never before felt pity for Jin Zixuan, but having to put up with Jin Guangshan on a regular basis was pretty bad – much less owing him filial piety.

No wonder Jin Zixuan was so twitchy all the time.

“Okay, so one sleep drug and one…uh…”

“Enhancement. Presumably. Can we throw it at the other side? Maybe turn it into incense and make smoke-bombs or something?”

“You know what,” Wei Wuxian said. “Why not? If nothing else, it’d be distracting, right?”

“This doesn’t feel honorable,” Jiang Cheng said, watching the fun. They’d raided the Lan sect’s medicine cabinets and kitchens for other noxious and irritating substances that might make for good smoke-bombs – Jiang Cheng himself had even located a whole patch of something not unlike poison ivy that had been quickly repurposed for the cause. “Strictly speaking.”

“Honor’s overrated,” Wei Wuxian said. “Making the Wen bastards pay for attacking Lan Zhan’s home is what’s important.”

Lan Wangji didn’t smile, exactly, but Wei Wuxian took his expression as a win regardless.

It turned out that music could also make plants grow really fast.

According to Lan Qiren, the spell ruined the plants’ nutritional value and made them basically useless.

Well.

Useless if your goal was eating them, anyway.

(First they could grow under their enemies’ feet and attack them, roots and vines twining around them to strangle them, and then they could be used up in the smoke-bombs – two for the price of one!)

“Are you sure about not doing the whole resentful energy thing?”

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said. “No.”

“Hey, Wei-xiong, do you have or can you create any more papermen?” Jin Zixuan asked.

“Yes, sure, plenty,” Wei Wuxian said. He’d like to say that he’d known he’d one day need such a skill, and that that was why he’d learned the trick so thoroughly, but that was a complete lie. “Why?”

“Nie-xiong, Jiang-xiong and I are going to use them to make a shadow-play to lure a bunch of Wen sect cultivators into another plant-and-explosives trap.”

“…that’s amazing, Jin-xiong,” Wei Wuxian said, marveling. “How do you even think of that?”

“Even I get into trouble sometimes,” Jin Zixuan said, and was startled into an unexpected smile when Jiang Cheng punched his shoulder approvingly.

Wei Wuxian was actually having a pretty good time with it all right up until the main force of the Wen sect decided to ignore all their traps and charge straight towards the classroom they’d fallen back to using as a headquarters, and then suddenly he wasn’t having a good time at all.

“Run,” Lan Qiren said, and put down his guqin, drawing his sword once more.

“But we can fight!” Jiang Cheng argued.

“Run.”

“Shufu –”

“Run.”

They ran.

“If you don’t come out, I’m going to make him pay,” Wen Xu called.

His fingers were knotted in Lan Qiren’s hair, pulling their teacher’s head back to show how his face was covered in blood, how it was seeping out through his mouth and nose, how one of his eyes was badly bruised and swollen from having been beaten down by sheer force of numbers.

Lan Qiren had made them pay dearly for their efforts to bring him down –

But there were just so many of them.

“How dare he,” Jiang Cheng hissed. “He was once one of Teacher Lan’s students, too!”

Wei Wuxian was holding Lan Wangji back, but only barely; his fingers were starting to go numb from the sheer effort of it. If Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng weren’t there to help him hold him down, Lan Wangji would have already given away their position, rushing out to make some futile gesture in his overwhelming rage. Wei Wuxian was focusing with all his being on how much he had to stop Lan Wangji from doing something like that, because if he wasn’t, if he let himself think about anything else for even a single moment, he’d have also run out there, sword drawn, without so much as a care – he hadn’t realized he’d be so angry over it, so furious, so betrayed and horrified by Wen Xu’s cruelty.

Prior to today, he wouldn’t have said he even liked Lan Qiren!

“My students are not so foolish as to fall for so obvious a scheme as that,” Lan Qiren said, his tone as monotonous as it ever was during his lectures – for the briefest moment, Wei Wuxian felt that he was dreaming, that he had merely dreamt everything that had happened: surely it was still yesterday, with Lan Qiren standing tall, safe and healthy, at the front of the classroom, lecturing about one of the Lan sect rules…which one had it been? Shoulder the weight of morality? Have a strong will and anything can be achieved? Be mighty, and others will die for you?

Do not break faith?

Somehow, despite everything that had happened, Lan Qiren’s eyes curved ever so slightly.

“Present company excluded, of course.”

Wen Xu threw him down to the ground, mouth twisting and teeth gnashing with offended anger.

“Beat him,” he ordered his men. “Make it hurt. I want him screaming – let’s see how his precious students like that. Or maybe it’s just that they don’t care?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, eyes red with unshed tears and barely swallowed rage. “Tell me your idea about resentful energy.”

“Perhaps,” Lan Qiren said, then paused briefly to cough up some blood. His voice, when he resumed speaking, was hoarse. “Perhaps I should have reviewed your idea more closely when you first proposed it.”

“Possibly,” Wei Wuxian said, offering up some cloth to help wipe away the blood. Lan Wangji was busy bandaging his uncle’s injuries up, while Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Nie Huaisang hovered by the door, only barely pretending to be keeping a lookout the way they were supposed to. “In my defense, I didn’t quite expect…that.”

Everyone politely did not ask him to elaborate.

The effects had been…well, it turned out using resentful energy the way Wei Wuxian had thought was possible, to say the least, and also that they’d taken down an awful lot of Wen sect soldiers in their defensive efforts.

“You will all have been affected by the resentful energy you used to summon the corpses,” Lan Qiren said. “Although the method you devised appears to avoid the most immediate consequences, which – let me remind you – include qi deviation and death in some instances, there is always the possibility that it has left traces of resentful energy within your meridians. If it is allowed to build up, it will escalate into a backlash that would rip your body and soul to pieces. There are spells and songs that can help clear your spirits and ease the effects.”

“Nie Huaisang has been playing some of them for us, since he can’t fight,” Lan Wangji said. “Nie sect ones – they’re…uh, not especially calming, more of a cleanse-by-force thing, but they seem to be working.”

Jiang Cheng nodded. “We’ll listen to any others that you’d like, Teacher Lan,” he said, anxious, and the rest of them nodded. “Just say which ones. If there’s any array or anything – or if you want us to write an essay about why using resentful energy is dangerous and wrong –”

Even Wei Wuxian nodded at that – even Nie Huaisang nodded, and he hated essays more than anything.

Lan Qiren huffed lightly. “Now you’re all so obedient.”

They all bowed their heads.

“…you did a good job,” Lan Qiren finally said, and they all looked up to stare at him. “You rescued me and repelled the Wen sect, however temporarily. Even though you used demonic cultivation, which is forbidden, you did not purposefully disturb graves, and you can make recompense to the spirits later. It was well done, and I thank you for it.”

He noticed that they were gaping and frowned at them.

“What have I taught you?” he scolded, and he sounded enough like he normally did that Wei Wuxian had the sudden urge to burst into totally inexplicable tears. “The preservation of human life is the priority, always. Why is this a surprise?”

“Shufu is right,” Lan Wangji said, and there was something of peace and calm in his eyes, the foundation of his world steady and unfaltering – he was almost glowing with it, satisfied and happy, and he was so utterly beautiful in Wei Wuxian’s eyes that it was almost blinding. “We acknowledge Teacher’s words.”

“We acknowledge Teacher’s words,” everyone else quickly agreed.

Lan Qiren shook his head, nodding in appreciation. “What is your next step now?” he asked. “The Wen sect was only repulsed, not defeated. They will not be gone long – they are already regrouping outside our gate, and this time they will be prepared for the effects of your demonic cultivation. In the end, they still have the advantage of numbers.”

“I don’t think we got as far as that in our plan,” Wei Wuxian said, rubbing the back of his head.

His thinking had mostly stopped at get Teacher Lan back and make them pay. He was pretty sure the same was true for Lan Wangji, and probably all the rest of the, too.

“Maybe you didn’t,” Nie Huaisang said with a sniff, and damnit, Wei Wuxian really needed to stop underestimating him just because he was a bad cultivator and a bit empty-headed. “I, on the other hand, sent a message back to my da-ge way back when this first started, and he should be here very soon with an army of his own.”

There were those in the Jiang sect that liked to mock the Nie sect as being unduly paranoid, always preparing for war and speaking grimly of its inevitability, always training their disciples and soldiers as if each one of them would need to fight five or ten of the enemy at once.

If Wei Wuxian ever met any of those people ever again, he was going to punch them in the face.

“Just be sure to get your sect ready when you get back,” Nie Mingjue advised them all grimly when it was all done and Wen Xu’s head was stuck on a pike at the entrance to the Cloud Recesses as a warning. The Nie sect’s forces were smaller than the Wen sect’s invasion force, but their people were better trained; even after flying all the way from Qinghe, they’d come down on the remaining invasion force like a hammer. “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

“We understand. There is still war to come.”

“Not just war, but uneven and unbalanced war, and not in our favor,” Nie Mingjue said heavily. “Understand that even with this loss, the forces of all the cultivation world put together can’t match up to the armies under Wen Ruohan’s command.”

“Actually,” Lan Qiren said, and gave all of his students a pointed look, probably on account of the fact that they all still owed him the essay they'd promised to write, “I think you’ll find that there’s something more that we can add…”

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan qiren #lan wangji #jiang cheng #nie huaisang #jin zixuan #my fic #my fics #home alone

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homosexuality-at-its-finest · 3 years

Note

Thanks for answering my last ask about the requests! 🥰

If possible I'd like to request something: male reader is Steve Roger's adopted son (adopted after he came back from being frozen lmao) and the reader is secretly dating Peter Parker!

I don't know if it's too specific or too complicated, but I was imagining something like: reader is like an avenger too. He doesn't have powers but has fighting skills and is a very sneaky and swift fighter much like Black Widow. He fights occasionally but his father is always hesitant on letting him participate in highly dangerous missions, he's very protective of his son. That would all just be like background information just give the story some base, but the plot itself i was thinking was just about Steve discovering his son is dating Peter - and, with that, discovering reader is gay - and he gets protective, possibly interrogates Peter and stuff like that. Obviously very fluffy at the end with everyone happy but I guess you can just work on it how you think it's best! If it's too vague or too complex I can try to rewrite the request if you'd like ☺️

Maybe Steve discovers that during a mission! I think that would be interesting - if you like it of course!

Plot: Requested

Pairing: Steve Rogers & Son reader + Peter Parker x Male reader

Y/n: Your name

N/n: Nickname

H/c: Hair color

Warnings: Fighting, cursing, blood, protective dad TM Steve, character injury, coming out, supportive Steve, adopted reader, fluff, slight angst, kinda Steve’s POV

Word count: 1236

Being the son of Steve Rodger’s, aka Captain America had never been an easy feat. He had adopted Y/n after he got out of the ice, needing someone to have in the complete mystery the world was to him. He immediately loved the spunky boy, who was outspoken and reminded him of his younger self.

On many occasions’ Y/n came home with bruises littering his body, but a boyish smile adorned on his lips. The boy just seemed to find trouble without even trying, so Steve decided to teach his son how to fight. It was quite a surprise when Y/n was a complete natural, able to take his father down after a few weeks of training.

The teenage boy’s confidence only seemed to grow with training and fighting, and much to Steve’s displeasure his son ended up joining the avengers. It was one of the only times the father and son argued, going from screaming at each other to the silent treatment for days.

Steve had to admit, his son could kick some serious ass, even beating Clint during a spar, leaving the assassin on the mat groaning in pain and eventually tapping out. Then came in Peter parker, in all his geeky glory, immediately drawing his son’s attention. Steve was hesitant about the boy; he didn’t want Peter causing more trouble for Y/n in the long run.

The father couldn’t deny that his son seemed happier when Peter came into his life, spending most of his time with the young genius and his friends. It was like a moth to a flame, Y/n gravitated towards the boy in a way Steve couldn’t place a word to. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think his son was enamored with Parker. He promptly reminded himself that his son wasn’t gay (There was no issue if he was though) Steve just assumed his son would tell him if that was the case.

That belief was completely changed on a mission though, Y/n and Peter accompanied the team, taking down one of the last HYDRA bases that was left. He had to admit that the kids were holding up well, he could see his son flying around, adorned in all black, including the black mechanical wings on his back. Y/n had made those himself, claiming that they needed more air support than just Tony, Rhodey and Sam.

Every time Steve watched Y/n fly around he felt his heart jump out of his chest, he knew his son could handle himself, but damn it, it was a paternal instinct. “How are we looking up there?” Steve called over the comms, watching as the three flying beings fought off any air support, and diving down to help when needed.

“Well pops judging by the fact that we’re all heading towards the ground for support I’d day good.” Came his sons sarcastic reply, and Steve had to hold back a small smirk. Usually, he’d reprimand someone for talking like that, but Y/n was a special case.

“N/n could you head my way, kinda getting swamped over here.” Parker’s high pitched and young voice rang through the comms, and Steve watched as his beloved son took off once more. He could hear the two young superhero’s grunting and making banter back and forth over the comms as the fight continued.

What took the captain off guard was the sound of his son crying out in pain and the panicked sound of Peter calling out “Y/n!” It felt like someone had grabbed his heart and ripped it out of his chest as he heard Peter call “We have an agent down! Y/n’s down!” Never in Steve’s many years of life did he move as fast as he was right now. Anyone who got in his was down before they could even raise their weapon.

When he saw Peter cradling Y/n against his chest, fingers brushing through his son’s H/c hair, the panic only worsened. The mask Y/n wore was ripped off, lying on the ground beside him; and Steve could clearly see the blood leaking from his son’s side.

As the super soldier got closer, he could hear Peter rambling quietly. “It’s okay baby, I know it hurts.” The teenagers voice sounded so broken; it made his chest tighten even more. “Your dads coming and then we’ll get you to med bay, you’ll be good as new.” He reassured Y/n. Steve couldn’t even bring himself to care when Peter leaned down and pressed a kiss to Y/n’s lips, giving the other boy a tight smile.

From there everything felt like a blur, Steve carried Y/n to the jet and next thing he knew his son was in recovery, a tired smile on his face as Steve entered the room. “Hey pops.” Y/n’s voice sounded so tired and strained, it made Steve want to break down and cry.

“Hey kiddo, how’re you feeling?” He questioned, sitting in the chair beside his son’s bed, immediately holding his hand. “Like I got shot twice.” Y/n deadpanned, giving his father a cheeky grin. Steve huffed out a tired laugh, eyes running over his son’s bruised body. “Yeah, yeah that makes sense.” The soldier chuckled lightly, giving Y/n’s hand a squeeze. The two sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, the only sound in the room was the rhythmic beeps of the heart monitor. After a few moments of psyching himself up, Steve spoke.

“So, you and Parker huh?” He kept his voice light, eyebrows furrowed slightly. His son’s cheeks flushed, looking away from his father. “Oh, uh yeah.” He could hear the beeping increase slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me kiddo?” He questioned, feeling a bit hurt that his son had kept something so important from him.

“I didn’t know how you’d react, being from the 40’s and all...” Y/n trailed off, eyebrows furrowed a bit. Steve felt his stomach twist a bit. Y/n was scared he wouldn’t accept him being gay? “Oh sweetheart, I don’t care if you’re gay, I love you no matter what, you’re still my baby boy.”

The smile Y/n gave him put the sun to shame, making a smile spread across his own lips. “How long have you and Peter been together?” He questioned lightly, his thumb brushing over the teenagers’ knuckles. “6 months.” Y/n replied shyly, flush darkening under his father’s questioning. That continued for about an hour before Peter entered the room, and immediately the protective dad mode came out.

“So, Parker what are your intentions with my son?” Y/n let out an indignant sound, slapping his dads’ arm. Peter’s entire face flushed bright red, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “T-to make him happy, sir.” Came Peter’s shy reply, glancing over at his boyfriend for help.

“Pops, seriously? Leave him alone.” Y/n gave his father an annoyed look, making Steve shrink back slightly, his kid was slightly terrifying, okay? The father watched as the two boys interacted, watching them for a few moments, before excusing himself from the room. If he came back later and the two were curled up in bed together asleep, well he wasn’t going to say anything.

#marvel #avengers #mcu #Steve rogers #Peter parker #steve rogers x reader #Steve rogers x male reader #Peter Parker x reader #Peter Parker x male reader #marvel x reader #marvel x male reader #avengers x reader #avengers x male reader #mcu x reader #mcu x male reader

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levi-my-beloved · 3 years

Text

Birds of a Feather

Chapter 2

Pairings: Canon!Levi x F!Reader

Warnings: Violence, swearing, descriptions of sexual acts

Word count: 5.9K

Summary: You were the most notorious criminal in the Underground City. With your organisation of highly skilled professionals, only one man could take you down. He also happened to be Humanity’s Strongest… and your ex.

A/N: big ol’ oof i’m back again with more BoaF shenanigans. i’m having way too much fun with this, and i know i said chapters would be released every two weeks but i actually got way too excited not to post these sooner. haven’t had any issues with accidentally deleting this post yet, but i wouldn’t put it above myself. anyway, here’s chapter two of “Birds of a Feather”

𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔𖣔

You hated surprises. In all shapes and forms. You liked to be in control of the situation, able to predict every move your victims would make. The job was going smoothly, all the steps falling into place. Infiltrating the nearest MP warehouse was easy enough. Stealing medicine, ointments and food was child’s play. You wondered how any of them became members of the MP in the first place, considering how incompetent they were. Only a few throats had to be slit on the way, one of your knives now dripping in their blood. Running it through the crease of your elbow, the crimson came off on your leather suit. Various straps and holsters held knives and blades of all sorts, some were more intricately designed than others.

Crouched low behind a large, wooden crate, you remove one of the smaller daggers from your boot, now clutching it in your left hand. They seemed to have upped their security, judging by the increase of soldiers walking around the place, each with their own rifle on their backs. Shit, they were really getting fed up with you. A small, satisfied smirk sliced across your shrouded face. Even with upped security, this was easy as piss.

That was until a commotion above you had you stopping in your tracks. A strange zipping sound followed by what you could only assume was the releasing of gas filled the air, followed by shouts, some familiar, most unfamiliar. Shit, how the fuck did they know you were here?

It wasn’t long before you were scampering onto crates of weaponry, back up to the broken window in which you’d entered. Swinging up from a beam, you landed deftly on the windowsill, peering out. Dread pooled in your gut at the scene.

These soldiers had skills you’d never seen. Swooping and swivelling with expert precision, it would have been mesmerising if not for the fact that they were chasing your Shadows. Your family.

“Shit… PHANTOM AND RENDEZVOUS,” you shouted, your voice carrying across the rooftops. It was a simple command. Disappear and meet up back at the hideout. But, in doing so, you’d given away your position, and it wasn’t long before you too were racing across the rooftops.

Taking out a set of throwing knives from your waist, you leapt from the tiles onto a balcony, spinning behind you and throwing two of the steel blades at those who were in your pursuit. Both knives hit home, sending two of the three soldiers spiralling into the streets below. Dead.

But one was still on your tail, dodging the two falling bodies effortlessly. Using your momentum, you crashed through the wooden window, rolling as you landed before continuing to flee.

Shit, this really wasn’t good. But one question still circled your mind. How the fuck did they know you were there? How could you possibly have been compromised? The job was airtight. Nobody outside your trusted group knew the positions you would be in and when.

The thought had thrown off your rhythm. Not concentrating on where your feet were falling, you’d missed the staircase right in front of you, only noticing when your foot met air instead of solid ground. Throwing your hands up to somewhat protect you, you were thankful for the corner as you slammed into the wall, your front jolting in protest. Shaking your head in an attempt to free yourself from the disorientation, you swiftly stood and wasted no time skipping the rest of the stairs, shouting a quick “Sorry!” to the couple who yelped in surprise as you vaulted over their kitchen table and burst through their door, back out into the streets. You had a few seconds reprieve before the hissing of gas met your ears, and once again took off running.

The street was irritatingly busy, you having to pick your way through the crowds whilst the zipping and hissing of ODM gear threatened to swoop down from above.

“Fuck fuck fuck.” You muttered, now shoving people aside. This was not ideal. Though the crowded street gave you some cover, it had slowed your momentum significantly.

Scanning around as you sprinted, you saw the perfect opportunity to broaden the gap between you and your pursuer. It was risky as shit, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

With a burst of speed fuelled purely by adrenaline, you raced towards the broken wagon. It acted almost as a ramp up to a swinging tavern sign. ‘The Broken Casket’. You’d never been and honestly had no interest in going, but you silently thanked whoever decided to place the sign at the perfect angle for you to use as a stepping stone. The wagon creaked as you sped up the planks of wood with cat-like agility. Using your arms for momentum, your foot connected with the swinging sign as you leapt across the street. However, in your planning, you’d failed to notice the sound of ODM gear had ceased behind you. It only occurred to you after another body slammed into yours mid jump, a low grunt interrupting your thought process as the two of you crashed into the dirt.

Surprised shouts and exclamations of the crowd brought you back to your senses as you expertly kicked the soldier from your body, rolling to avoid any sort of attack coming your way. This was bad. This was really bad. Drawing two more blades from your leather suit, you flipped them in your hands, ready to face off against your attacker, who had already begun his onslaught with his own steel.

The singing of metal rang in your ears, sparks flying with every collision.

Raising your arm beside your head, you blocked a heavy kick to your face, hissing ever so slightly at the contact. Shit, this guy was good. Ducking beneath a swipe, you took advantage of the fact you were wearing a masked helmet, bringing your head up viciously. You watched as he dodged backwards, his footwork borderline perfect before sweeping for your leg. Barely having enough time to register the attack, you leapt and twisted, bringing your own leg against the side of his head. He mimicked your block, your foot connecting with his forearm instead of his skull. You’d traded blows with hundreds of people before, each fight ending in just a few seconds. You knew you were good. Really good, in fact. But the man currently shrouded by a green cape was just as good. Dare you admit, maybe better than you.

No, you wouldn’t admit that, not when you had just landed a solid hit to his stomach with the hilt of your knife, not the end you’d wanted to land but at this point you were thankful for any successful blows. Rolling deftly to the right, you lunged once again whilst you thought he was still reeling from the impact.

He wasn’t.

He had lulled you into a false sense of security and let you believe the blow had impacted him more than it actually had. A knee cracked against your jaw, throwing you to the side. Sliding against the ground, you slammed into a wall, slumping as you recovered. Your hand came up to cradle the side of your face, wincing as you gently took hold of your chin, before jerking your jaw back into place. You couldn’t deny it. That hurt. A lot.

“You done?” raising your head from the dirt, you glare into the void beneath the hood, a voice you’d sworn you’d heard before, but you pushed down the confusion of familiarity. Slowly placing your blades back into their scabbards, you raised your hands as you stood, taking a step forward away from the wall behind you.

“Shit… Yeah. I’m done.” You admitted lowly, now standing before him, arms still raised in submission. That was until he came closer. You tried not to give away your plan as he cautiously walked towards you, keeping your eyes trained on the ground until you could see the tips of his boots in your vision. You couldn’t help the feral grin that sliced across your face.

Before he had time to question it, your foot connected with the underside of his chin.

It was a move Prongs had taught you a very long time ago. If ever you were in trouble, this was your best bet of escape.

The world turned upside down as you flipped backwards, watching in satisfaction as the man staggered backward. Now it was his turn to cradle his jaw.

“Never let your guard down, Scout.” You spat, before bolting away. That was close. Too close. You just hoped the rest of your Shadows had made it back.

꧁⎈꧂

What. The FUCK. Just happened? He had never seen someone with those kinds of skills before. It would have been impressive if it wasn’t a life or death situation. Levi stood there in the middle of the street, slouched ever so slightly, eyes wide with shock.

What the fuck just happened?

His hand still cradled his chin painfully. How the fuck was he just bested? He wasn’t even thinking clearly throughout that entire chase. All that was running through his head was how the fuck this guy was able to pull of moves like that. He’d seen some daring examples of parkour in his time but leaping over an entire street? Swinging from overhead bridges? The leader of The Nest was on a whole other level. He thought back to their entire ordeal. He must have been taught by someone. There was no way he couldn’t have been.

For some reason, that voice played in his head on repeat. A teasing carousel. He wouldn’t dare assume, but it sparked something in his mind. Something he wouldn’t dwell on now, but if they managed to catch this Raven, then maybe he could figure out just where the hell he’d heard that voice. Sure it was a little muffled and distorted by the mask, but it still bothered him.

Straightening himself, he pulled the hood of his cloak lower against his face. He told Erwin this was ridiculous. He told him this was a fruitless expedition. He was getting a little sick of people not listening to him for various reasons. He suspected it was because of his background.

Levi had done half of the job he was tasked with. Keeping the leader away from the rest of the group for as long as he could. Whilst he wasn’t able to detain him, this should be enough to please the Commander. As if remembering where he was, his skin began to crawl. The filth all around him almost felt suffocating.

“Shit…” he muttered, running his hand through his dark locks, sweat making them stick to his forehead. Looking back to where he’d watched the criminal race away, he pulled the triggers on his ODM gear, the gears shooting into the brick and wood of the upper streets before engaging his gas to meet up with Erwin and Hange. If everything went to plan, they would have the leader of The Nest already detained by the time he got there.

Levi couldn’t deny this operation had been a shitshow. They had severely underestimated the skill of these Shadows. Comrades falling left and right in their pursuit.

It was strange, being back. Dragging up memories he’d tried so hard to bury. His past suddenly creeping back up behind him. Gritting his teeth, he decided to concentrate on where he was going rather on the tendrils of discomfort seeping into his mind. He would face those demons later, when he wasn’t surrounded by death and filth.

Now he thought about it, facing the underground city and facing titans were similar in many ways. Both were terrifying thoughts to most. Both seemed to be caked in dirt and grime. And both seemed to result in the inevitable high death toll. It was frustrating to no end, but it wasn’t a surprise. Everything seemed to result in death. The only constant in this cruel world. It followed him like a curse.

His thoughts twisted back to you. Wondering if you were down here, somewhere. You were always so mysterious. Even when the two of you were together you’d disappear for days on end, only leaving a cryptic message behind. You’d never told him where you went, and he’d never pried. The wind in his ears took the form of your bubbling laughter, images of you clutching your abdomen after he’d told some sorry excuse of a joke.

Shit, he needed to get out of here. The longer he stayed, the further his thoughts strayed back to you.

꧁⎈꧂

You had never run so fast in your life. Wanting to meet up with your Shadows as soon as possible, hoping they would all be there safe. It was a fool’s hope, you knew that, but it was the only hope you had left, unable to shake the unease. Had you all been compromised, or just you and your Shadows? Was the location of The Nest safe? Was Scarlett safe?

You had come to the conclusion you must have been betrayed. There was no other explanation. It seemed impossible, one of your trusted betraying you all to the MPs, but how else would they have known you would have been at the warehouse? How else would they have known to call in the Scouts? They knew MPs alone couldn’t take on you and your Shadows, so they asked for help from a more skilled regiment. That was the only conclusion you could come to as you arrived at the rendezvous point.

Only to be greeted by an eerie silence. Not a soul to be seen.

This was wrong. Everything about this felt wrong. They should be here by now. Unless…

Unless they were at the backup site...

“NOW!”

A woman’s voice had your head jerking up to see you were surrounded. You watched the Scout pull some sort of trigger and as you did, time itself seemed to slow down. A faint click to your left alerted you to whatever trap they may have set. Leaping into a forward roll, you felt a rush of air behind your head as you dodged. Your heart pumping faster than ever as you look behind you, seeing the weighted net that had missed you by less than an inch.

Returning your gaze to the rooftops, you watched as several soldiers zipped onto the ground around you. The hidden square you’d chosen as your first meetup point now riddled with green capes, rifles and blades pointed in your direction.

You were trapped.

“What the fuck do you want?” your voice sounded a lot more confident than you felt. Coming out as a threatening demand rather than a timid question. (E/C) eyes widened behind your mask as a tall, blonde haired man pulled down the hood of his dark green cape. You knew that face, you’d seen it in the papers. The Commander of the Scouts had come to pay you a visit.

How thoughtful.

“The question still stands, Erwin Smith. What the fuck do you want?” you stood a little taller, though he still towered over you. Subtly, your hand went to one of your blades on your belt. If he got close enough, you could sink it into his throat. Throwing the Scouts around you into disarray was probably the only way to escape this, though those chances seemed incredibly slim.

Erwin raised a thick eyebrow to you.

“I’m surprised you’re familiar with my name, considering your… living conditions,” though he seemed to choose his words carefully, they still fanned the flames of hatred in your gut. His perceptive eyes glanced towards your hand nearing a wicked dagger on your belt. “I’d strongly advise you against that,” he warned, his voice low as he nodded his head to something behind you. Swiftly, you turned, and immediately regretted everything. Horror and guilt pierced your heart as you beheld Una as she was dragged forwards, a blade positioned near her throat. “Her life is in your hands, Raven. Co-operate, and we’ll let her go. Fail to do so…” the blade pressed into her throat a little, a small trickle of crimson staining the pale flesh of her neck.

“R-Raven, I'm so sorry,” she rasped, finding difficulty in speaking with the steel against her jugular.

“Shh, shh Una, don’t speak. You’re okay, yeah? You’re fine, you’re going to get out of this, okay? You’ll be alright,” you tried to reassure her as much as you could, but you knew she was scared. You could tell by the way her hands shook by her sides, her eyes squeezed shut. Fuck, this had not gone to plan.

Turning back to Erwin, your voice lowered to a snarl.

“Alright. What do you want? I won’t ask again,” the arrival of another soldier briefly held your attention, faintly acknowledging him as the one you fought earlier. Your jaw tensed as he landed next to the Commander, his face still shrouded in shadow by his hood. You felt a sick satisfaction in knowing that the inevitable bruise blossoming under his chin was from your fight earlier. But he didn’t seem bothered by it.

Annoyingly.

“I’m sure you’ve guessed what we want by now, but I’ll tell you anyway. We want to take you with us, back to the surface, where you will atone for your crimes. In return, we will release this girl and allow the rest of your gang to go free,” it was an incredibly good deal for you, the only issue being…

You die.

The image of your wife danced behind your eyes as you closed them. She was right. You’d been captured.

But a strange calm settled over you. Maybe you could see him again. You’d finally be reunited and free of this world’s filth.

“Alright,” there was almost no hesitation to your answer. Something that caused Una to cry out.

“NO! Raven you can’t! They’ll kill you! Get the hell out of here, I'm not this important!” she attempted to bargain with you, only resulting in that blade pressed closer to her throat.

“DON’T!” you shouted, your voice now breaking ever so slightly. “Please… let her go.” slowly, your hands came up to your masked helmet. Removing it, you allowed the reveal to settle over the soldiers around you.

The leader of The Nest was a woman.

The shock was always something you revelled in. Of course, under normal circumstances, a venomous smile would crawl across your face.

But not this time.

Levi had completely frozen. Eyes wide, mouth parted in shock. His heart was a sick amalgamation of sheer joy and utter terror. Though your face had changed slightly with age, he’d recognise those eyes anywhere. They were harsher than before. Colder. No longer the eyes of a softer, young girl, but those of a savage, hardened killer. But it was you. You were here, in front of him. You were alive.

And he’d knee'd you in the face.

“RAVEN DON’T.” Una knew it was already too late. Your face had been revealed. There was no turning back now. Tossing your helmet to the side, you turned back to face the trio now in front of you. The woman who had pulled the trigger on whatever trap they’d set was now staring at you almost in awe. Erwin’s expression too seemed surprised, but it was the expression of the shorter man next to him that caught your attention. He seemed frozen solid, unmoving. You tried to catch a glimpse of his face beneath his hood, but that only provoked him to shadow it further.

“Let her go. Let them all go,” your voice had dropped significantly, though your eyes still held that steely determination. Staring up at Erwin, you watched as he nodded his head for Una to be released. Raising your hands to show you had nothing up your sleeves, you slowly walked over to her form sprawled out on the floor, head refusing to rise and look at you.

“Raven… I—“

“It’s alright, Una. It’s alright,” you cooed, gently lifting her chin to look at you, her hood still hanging low across her face, her features stayed hidden throughout everything. “This wasn’t your fault. None of this, was your fault, okay? We were betrayed, and I'm pretty sure that wasn’t you,” you chuckled gently, trying to lessen the tension.

Still, you could see the slivers of silver lining her eyes in the low light, tears of guilt welling up. “Hey, listen to me. You’re going to be okay. You’re all going to be okay. We prepared for this, didn’t we? We knew this might happen someday,” your voice was soft as you spoke to her, as if you were simply trying to comfort a child after a nightmare.

Helping her to her feet, you reached for your mask, lifting it from the floor and placing it in her hands. Her breath hitched in her throat as her eyes widened.

Una knew the significance of this.

“Give it to Prongs. Tell him I’m sorry it wasn’t quite the ceremony we would have wanted. Tell him to look after them for me. Look after her, for me,” taking a step back, you fisted your hands to stop yourself from tearing up, eyes trained on the ground. “I’m so sorry,” you whisper, before raising your head. “Now go. Get the fuck out of here.” your commanding tone returned, giving your last order as the leader of The Nest.

Levi’s heart clenched at the exchange unfolding before him. Though your appearance may have changed, you were still as soft as ever. He’d tilted his head down at your gaze, fearful of your reaction when you’d figure out who he was. How this would look. Him, in all his ‘Humanity’s Strongest Soldier’ glory, and you, the Underground’s most dangerous criminal. He wouldn’t be able to stand the flash of betrayal he knew he’d see in those familiar eyes.

Unable to stop your heart shattering as Una turned and ran, you took a breath. Raising your hands once again, you allowed soldiers to pull each arm out by your side as they began searching your body for weapons. You always made a habit of bringing a ridiculous amount of knives and blades with you on every job. And this was no different.

“That was honourable of you, Raven,” Erwin was the first to speak, though the title now made you scoff. You wouldn’t tell them your name, not yet anyway.

One of the soldiers patting you down was forced to gesture to a friend, her own hands now full of your various weaponry. And that was only your belt. You flicked your eyes to the three in front of you. The woman looked like she was going to burst any second.

“THAT WAS INCREDIBLE! Sorry, I couldn’t contain myself any longer. The way you dodged that trap was unlike anything I’ve ever seen! It was AMAZING! Who taught you to do that? The name’s Hange, by the way. Hange Zoë, science and titan enthusiast. I’d shake your hand but you seem to be a little tied up at the moment!”

The sudden explosion of excitement caught you off guard, your expression turning to one of sheer incredulous confusion, before realising you’d probably have to listen to her babbling throughout your entire journey back.

“I didn’t know you were going to torture me. Just kill me now,” you huffed sarcastically, expression darkening as soldiers roughly pulled your arms behind your back, clasping them in manacles after making sure all weapons were removed from your legs, your expression unchanging.

But that didn’t seem to deter the scientist. If anything, she found your attitude amusing.

“Wow! Levi, she’s just like you! Is everyone from the Underground so unapproachable?” she asked cheerily as the two soldiers holding your arms began to steer you away. But you refused to move. Levi too seemed stuck to the spot.

Everything went still, and it was as if nothing else existed but the two of you.

Ever so slowly, Levi pulled down his hood, revealing those dark bangs you remembered so clearly. Silvery blue eyes met (E/C) ones. It wasn’t quite the reunion either of you were expecting, but you were both here. Alive

“Levi…” you whispered after refinding your voice, torn between wanting to run to him and running away from him. Fear clung to your heart, knowing how much he would hate you for what you’d become.

Levi schooled his expression back to neutrality as Hange looked between the two of you.

“Do you two… know each other?!?!” Hange’s beam of excitement caused him to cringe internally. Looking you up and down, the raven haired man raised a thin eyebrow in what looked like disgust.

“Tch, no.”

Well, that wasn’t what you were expecting. You blinked in surprise, eyes narrowing to your previous lover, trying to mask your hurt. Maybe he didn’t remember you? But with the look of recognition in his stormy eyes, you swiftly ruled out that possibility. What you’d feared all these years had finally come to fruition. You’d found him again.

And he despised you.

Levi turned on his heel, stalking away from you as the two MPs tugged on your arm, finally prompting you to move. He didn’t think his heart could shatter much more. After losing his mother, his family, his home.

You.

He didn’t think he had the ability to break any further. But life clearly thrilled in proving him wrong.

꧁⎈꧂

The walk back to the surface was agonising. Both of you stealing glances at one another at every opportunity. His, masked with indifferent contempt, your’s overflowing with betrayal and rage.

How could he stand there and say the two of you didn’t know each other? As if you hadn’t been in a relationship for years. As if he didn’t know every little thing about you. As if you hadn’t shared his bed, moaning in ecstasy as he pried you thighs open, burying his tongue, his fingers or his length between your aching folds. As if you hadn’t heard every whimper and groan he could make, coercing them from his throat as you swirl your tongue around the head of his cock. As if you hadn’t been the one to finally hear those three words you never thought he could say. As if they weren’t directed at you.

Great, now you were angry and aroused.

Dragging your eyes away from him, you focussed on the long street ahead of you, now failing to notice the way his expression shifted slightly as he looked in your direction.

As you walked, more and more civilians stepped out of their homes to watch, many of them nodding their heads in respect, or removing their hats in mourning. You return their gestures, refusing to let your head bow as you dip your chin in recognition.

Levi could do nothing but observe the strange reactions from the swiftly gathering crowds. Some of them even shout to you.

“We owe you, Raven!”

“Give those fuckers hell!”

“Don’t let them take you lying down!”

You chuckled in response, both a sound and expression he’d missed so dearly. It made those long dead butterflies flutter once again in his stomach.

Even more so when a little kid approached you.

“Miss Raven… Why are there soldiers everywhere?”

Your eyes softened to the grubby little girl, crouching down where you stood, much to your escort’s dismay.

“They’re here to make sure little squirts like you listen to your mommy and daddy and go to bed on time,” the kid squealed in delight in your words. You lamented your hands not being free, the temptation to tickle the little tyke almost overwhelming, making your wrists squirm in their restraints.

“Hey, get the fuck out of here, stupid kid,” the soldier to your left delivered a harsh kick to the child’s side, sending her sprawling to the floor and out of your way. You don’t think anything could have brought you more rage. Not even your ex’s indifference to your existence.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” standing swiftly to your feet, you glowered dangerously into the MPs surprised eyes, now struggling in his grip as the kid started to cry. “She’s just a kid, you foul mouthed, pig eyed, vile piece of shit,” if it wasn’t for your circumstances and situation, Levi would have laughed at your insults. Clearly you’d broadened your vocabulary since the last time he’d seen you.

It was only when you’d managed to deliver a harsh, bone cracking kick to the soldier’s kneecap did Levi decide he should probably intervene, as much as he’d originally intended to stay away from you.

Something he subconsciously didn’t want to do.

“Oi, move along. I’ll deal with her, fucking degenerates,” his sharp voice cut through the commotion, causing the soldiers to stop in their tracks and whirl around.

“Captain Levi, sir! We were just—”

“I don’t care. Go.” he ordered. If they were Scouts, they wouldn’t have dared to hesitate, but since they weren’t a part of his regiment, it took them a moment for the order to register in their small minds, before they scurried away.

As soon as your arms were free of their grip, you immediately rushed to the little girl’s side, cooing gentle reassurance.

“Hey, come on now, you gotta be brave, yeah? You can’t cry every time a pig like that gets the better of you. Hell, then I’d never stop crying,” your little joke stopped the kid’s sobbing. Clearly your reputation extended even to the children of the Underground. “Where’re your parents, kid? Where’s your mom?” you asked, ignoring the obvious gaze burning a hole in the back of your head.

The little girl sniffled, pointing back to the head of a worried looking young woman, searching frantically for her little girl. A soft smile graced your lips, before you gently gestured for the girl to run along back to her mother, that smile growing as you watched her scamper off and giggle slightly as she was reprimanded in a giant bear hug.

“You haven’t changed, have you?” Levi’s cold voice brought you back to reality, prompting you to rise back up to your feet.

“Thought you didn’t know me,” there was none of that friendly familiarity he’d seen in your eyes earlier. There was only cold, ruthless ice. He shivered despite himself.

Softening his own gaze as you turned your head to him, he could recognise that spark of hatred. He’d seen it so many times when you faced down some sort of oaf who’d decided you were easy pickings back when the two of you were teenagers. He suddenly felt a pang of pity for all those who had suffered under this glare.

It was indeed terrifying.

“(Y/N)—”

“Don’t fucking call me that. You don’t get to call me that,” you didn’t try to tame the loathing fury in your tone. You didn’t pretend you didn’t revel in that confused look in his eye. Good, let him be confused. Though you didn’t know why. He should know well enough why you were furious.

“Okay…” —Levi took a breath— “Okay. Raven, then. That’s your alias, isn’t it. Raven?” He didn’t know why he was asking you such an obvious question, but he couldn’t help it. He had a craving just to hear your voice. The same voice that had haunted him for years, the same voice that had awoken him from the few hours he would be able to sleep.

Still, where his tone had lowered, yours refused to. How dare he show up after all these years and then claim he didn’t even know you.

“Obviously,” you spat, pure venom lacing your tone.

“So this is where you went. This is what you did. You were a part of The Nest this entire time and you didn’t think to tell me?” it was his turn to spit, clearly whatever had caused his gaze to soften previously had been replaced by something you couldn’t quite place. You weren’t as good at reading him as you used to be. His face had changed with time, and he’d clearly learned to school his expression much better than he used to.

“So what if it was? You don’t know me, remember?” you couldn’t help but use his words against him, wanting to drive home how much it had fucking hurt. Your eyes flickered to the now blackened bruise on the underside of his stupidly chiseled jaw. Something ugly twisted in your gut, whether it was satisfaction or guilt, you couldn’t decipher.

As if in retaliation, his own eyes glanced at the almost matching mark on your chin, the same mixture of emotions flashing briefly in his eyes before he took hold of your arm. It wasn’t as rough as you would have expected, but if anything, that simply annoyed you more.

“Tch, just move already,” the two of you had started to draw more attention to your conversation than either of you would have liked. So reluctantly, you placed on foot in front of the other and started walking again, returning back to acknowledging and recognising the respect those gathered were giving you. You remembered everyone you’d helped. Bringing them food, water, medical supplies.

“RAVEN!!” A loud shout of your alias had your head whirling to the right, searching for the owner of the voice. “RAVEN?!?” a small, older woman pushed her way through the people, almost falling to your feet. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she looked up at you.

You recognised her as one of your regulars. Her son had fallen ill months ago, and needed a medicine the MPs refused to hand out if not for a hefty sum of money. You’d offered your services to her after seeing her begging in the street, the sight hauntingly familiar to you. “I… I wanted to thank you. For everything you’ve done for me. For my son. He— I fear he wouldn’t be alive today without your help,” the woman hiccuped through her gratitude, drying her eyes with a worn, stained handkerchief. Your expression shifted to one of gentle indifference. You wouldn’t make the same mistake of outwardly showing your caring side like you did with the little girl.

“Make sure he stays rested,” was all you said, before continuing on without the prompting of Levi behind you, who now stood still in mild shock. Watching as many placed a hand on your shoulder as you walked, your head still held high.

“I don’t know what you men plan on doing with her, but she’s only ever helped us. She’s a good person,” the older woman’s eyes only spoke the truth as she looked to Levi, who only glanced back at you in response, watching as you climbed the stairs.

“I know. She always was.”

You stopped and turned back before you left for good, eyes lingering down the crowded street, a thousand faces peering up at you. Hats in hands, hands folded over one another in mourning. You recognized that with your leaving, a lot of people will go hungry. Many will die of diseases or viruses without the medicine you could steal and distribute. You knew Prongs was good, but he didn’t quite command that same kind of respect you did.

With a final nod of your head towards the crowd’s respect, you turned and left the Underground, leaving your past along with it.

#levi aot #levi attack on titan #captain levi #snk levi #levi x reader #levi ackerman x you #levi x you #levi ackerman x reader #aot x y/n #aot x reader #aot x you #snk fanfiction #snk #levi smut #levi ackerman smut

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astro-rain · 3 years

Text

delicate; b.barnes

chapter one - “to wakanda”

delicate masterlist

word count: 1.5k

synopsis: reader works for what used to be shield as a highly skilled neuropsychologist. after the events in vienna involving the sokovia accords and a bombing, she gets an interesting request from friend and coworker sharon carter...a request involving none other than steve rogers and james barnes.

warnings: brief and indirect mentions of abuse/trauma

pairings: bucky x fem!reader

"I don't know Sharon. Are you sure I'm really the right person for this? I'm not, like, an Avengers level tech. Are you sure they don't want a genius or someone like Stark to do it?"

"Well, Stark is pretty busy right now, and honestly, no one knows psych like you. Not who I've met anyway."

"That is so not true. I'm willing to bet there's tons of other people you guys got somewhere who are ten times what I am."

"Agent (Y/L/N), in case you missed it, SHIELD isn't what it used to be. Sure we have old agents who aren't formally 'SHIELD agents,' anymore, but we don't have the expendability we used to. You're our best bet at the moment."

"Damn. I'm your best bet. I'm sorry," she almost chuckled, but then she thought for a brief moment. "Are you sure this is completely necessary? I mean, I saw the photo on the news. The quality's poor at best, and..."

She leaned in, discretely, and whispered.

"...not to seem like a conspiracy theorist commie or anything, but it kinda seems like people are jumping to conclusions here. Are we even sure it was Barnes who set off the bomb?"

Sharon looked around them, cautiously. No one seemed to be listening, but she scanned the room like her life as she knew it was hanging in the balance. She weighed her words in her head, making sure she picked the right ones, then formulated a response appropriate.

"Regardless of if it was him or not, Barnes still escaped. and before that, Ste-we'd been looking for him for almost two years. This analysis is necessary," Sharon brought her voice down even lower. "At least that's what I keep being told. Of course I'd like there to be more solid proof, but I'm not in charge here. He's gone, and they want to be able to find him and 'sort things out.'"

"'Sort things out,'" (Y/N) repeated, questioning the genuineness of whomever told Sharon that. "Unless they have hard evidence that it was him who set off the bomb in Vienna, shouldn't they leave that to uh...Captain America?"

She wondered how Barnes was able to escape in the first place. She saw the containment module he was in; there's no way he could've gotten out without a fight. ...But maybe it wasn't a fight. Perhaps it was a trigger word induced rage. (Y/N) understood a basic layout of the "Winter Soldier." SHIELD would've kept any information they had classified. However, after the fiasco in Washington, d.c. with Hydra and the whole releasing of all files predicament, she was able, with Sharon's help, to put together a simple outline. With that being said, he couldn't have broken out without going Winter Soldier mode. But doesn't someone need the trigger words for that?

“That's what a reasonable person would think, but once again, I'm not in charge," Sharon shrugged. "Things would probably be going a lot smoother if I was, but you can't have everything."

(Y/N) cracked a smile. Sharon was a friend, and a good one too. They'd known each other since before SHIELD was shattered in 2014. In fact, Sharon helped train her.

The only thing was: Sharon was a higher ranking agent and often withheld certain information from (Y/N). It frustrated her. This was where their personal boundaries got in the way of their professional ones.

She could tell there was something Sharon wasn't telling her, but she wasn't about to compromise either of their positions by pushing for information she wasn't supposed to know. Hell, maybe even Sharon knows something she isn't supposed to. Or maybe she knows something that Everett Ross wouldn't like. What if she was keeping something from him? Defying him? What if she was working with Steve Rogers? Now that would be interesting.

(Y/N) was used to secrets around her all the time. She knew Sharon had her fair share, and trying to figure them out wouldn't really get her anywhere.

"Right. Okay. Well, I'll get on this then. Thanks, Agent Carter," she teased in late response to Sharon's 'Agent (Y/N).’

Sharon offered a quick smile before walking off to attend to other business.

- - -

Pain. That was all it was. In every sense of the word. As she strenously made her way through the densely packed file of one James Buchanan Barnes, pain was all she could see. All she could read. It leaked out of the page and seeped into her skin like poison.

It was horrific what they did to him. She knew he had his memory wiped, had someone pull him out and stick someone else in. But it was more than just that. They took his past, his memories, his thoughts; and they ripped them from his mind, leaving an empty space to mold into their own. It was after this when Hydra, in every way they could, dehumanized him, made him less than. He was striped of his freedom, his control, his choice, his humanity, of everything that made him him. They beat and bruised and broke it out this empty human shell until he was nothing but a shadow of faded morality and consciousness.

But hell, she couldn't look away. She was glued to the aftershock of this horrible wreckage. All the years of studying Psychology and Neuroscience couldn't have possibly prepared her for the absolute horror that was his past, his abuse, his torture. It was heinous. Frankly, she questioned how he was still alive. How he still had the will and the drive to be alive. How do you live after that?

"Fuck," she breathed after eons of silence.

She seemed to lose her sense of time whilst she was immersed in the harrowing nightmare of Hydra's cruelty. 'Cruelty' doesn't even come close to doing it justice. When she came to, her desk looked like a bomb went off. Papers were bursting out of manilla folders, littering the linoleum surface with classified files and secret information. She leaned back in her chair, and gave herself a minute to debrief.

(Y/N) almost felt guilty, like she things she looked at were so vile, so violating that she didn't have the right to see them. Sure, she had read and analyzed all sorts of trauma and psychological profiles. But he was different. Something about James Barnes was different. It tangled her mind the fact that a person could endure all that. She could only imagine the effect that would have on the human brain. The possibilities are endless. Suddenly bombing the UN didn't seem so far fetched.

- - -

"Jesus Christ," (Y/N) murmured, staring at her office floor as Sharon finished explaining to her what happened at the Leipzig Halle Airport.

She sat mostly in silence as she pondered over the information just fed to her. Apparently Tony Stark gathered a 'team' to try and intercept Captain America - sorry - Steve Rogers and his (supposed) fugitive friend. It was chaos.

"What is this? Fuckin' Avengers Fight Night?" she wondered aloud. "How many people did you say were there?"

"Twelve total," Sharon clarified. "Five with Stark and five with Steve."

The psychologist shook her head, dumbfounded. "How did it end?"

"Steve and Barnes got out, but everyone else with them were captured and sent to the Raft."

"The Raft?!" (Y/N) exclaimed. "That's for, like, super humans! Not people like Sam Wilson or Clint Barton!"

"You're telling me."

Sharon seemed in agreement with everything she was saying. However, there was something she couldn't quite place. Like she was holding back. But holding back what?

"So what of Rogers and Barnes?" (Y/N) pushed.

Sharon got up and closed the office door before returning to her seat, leaning in, and lowering her voice. This secretive woman, god damn it.

"Well... That's what I came to talk to you about."

Oh boy. She didn't have a semblance of a single idea of what to expect. Apparently Sharon noticed.

"We're the only ones that know this. They're fine..." the agent trailed off, "They're in Wakanda, but they need a little help."

"Are you leaving?!" (Y/N) all but yelled before quickly slapping a hand over her mouth and uncovering it only to whisper, "Do you and Rogers have a thing or something? Cause' I don't know how else you would know all of this when I'm sure that no one else does considering he's now an enemy of several governments!"

"My relations with Steve Rogers are not the focus here." She could've sworn Sharon flushed. "But we have been in contact; I'm one of the few people he can trust right now, and I don't plan on letting him down anytime soon."

They totally have a thing.

"Noted," said (Y/N) with a nod, "but why are you telling me this? Does he want the profile analysis or something? I don't see how he would need it if he's known Barnes for however long."

"Not exactly..." Sharon fidgeted with her hands. "We need you to go to Wakanda.”

[A/N:] this is a repost of chapter 1 because my masterlist is being fucky

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rawr-ily · 4 years

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A Stupidly Long Oikawa Analysis

The main issue with Oikawa is that he's not naturally gifted, which is emphasized a lot in the show. For example, the last episode of the season one match of Karasuno vs Seijoh was named "Oikawa Tooru is not a Genius". Despite that, he's still the best player on Seijoh, and is highly respected by his teammates as a setter and their captain. Due to not having any natural skill or technique, Oikawa resorted to compensating with his own tactics. He knew that, no matter how hard he tried, he would never have the same technical skill as a genius like Kageyama. Instead, he used his own skills in analysis and communication to bring out the best in his spikers.

This is why, despite being called Grand King, Oikawa is depicted as a mighty general. He leads his soldiers, and in return, they trust him with their lives and fight with him. The amazing thing about Oikawa's leadership is that his teammates trust him because they know he can lead them. They understand that Oikawa has honed their skills and improved them all as players. He's helped them all, and when a game comes, they understand that all he asks of them is to keep trusting him. Trust that he'll send them a good toss, trust the strategies he'll formulate, trust his leadership.

At the end of the day, Oikawa knows he doesn't have the technical skill of a genius, so he dedicates his focus to improving his whole team. The origin of this focus would probably come from the episode where he almost backhands Kageyama in middle school. Iwaizumi intervenes and literally knocks some sense into him. They fight and yell, but then Iwaizumi tells Oikawa, "There are six people on court! The team with the best six players is the best!" Oikawa seems to have an epiphany then. He seems to realize exactly what his best friend is saying. It seems very straightforward at first, but it clearly not all that simple. Oikawa thought that he had to improve himself as a setter so he could carry his team to victory. He was trying to be a king. Luckily, he had Iwaizumi to cut off that train of thought very early on.

I loved how the show compared what Iwaizumi said to multiplication and addition. Oikawa thought that he had to improve himself because he thought you just mushed together the strengths of each player. That's wrong. He learned that you multiply the strengths of each player instead. It took me a bit to understand that one too. The way I look at that, it means that each player will affect one another when in a team. They can't just play as individuals that happen to be on the same side of the court. By trying to add the powers of your team, you just stack them on top of each other. By multiplying, you take what you already have and make it greater by merging it with something else.

If you like visuals, think of oil and water vs baking soda and vinegar. Adding oil to water increases the overall volume of liquid, but they never combine. If there is a cup of water and a cup of oil, you get two cups of liquid. Baking soda and vinegar doesn't just stack; it explodes. If you have a cup of vinegar and a cup of baking soda, they'll make way more than two cups when they combine. The players get stronger when together.

So, Oikawa stops trying to become a king. He obviously does keep trying to improve as a player, but he starts to focus more on his spikers. He realizes that he can compensate for his lack of natural technical skill by using his own natural skill of reading people and adjusting his responses adequately. Oikawa is a versatile player, and a very flexible setter. He gives his energy to improve his team, and they respond by giving their energy to get better and win. I found it interesting how loyal his teammates were to him. It brings me back to Oikawa being a general and not a king. Kageyama is high, untouchable, and barks out orders as the king, while Oikawa is the brave general who leads the soldiers. Oikawa fights alongside his soldiers. Kageyama stays in his palace, highly revered, but alone. The difference between them is that people are forced to follow Kageyama because of his unparalleled power. People follow Oikawa because they trust him with their life.

It's actually one of my favorite pieces of symbolism in Haikyuu. Kageyama was a genius from the beginning. His skill was something he was born with, and now he's king. When the eldest prince is born they have the birthright to become king. Kageyama got his title simply because he was lucky (

I love Kageyama, and I know he worked very hard, but he was mainly able to get there because he's a natural born genius. Generals have to rise through the ranks and work for their position. Some soldiers in history were actually more loyal to their general than to their king. Generals risk their lives with their soldiers. The king commands from the palace. The analogy doesn't really work for their relationship, but it's great for their individual characters.

As for Oikawa's relationship with Kageyama? It's complicated, as most things with Oikawa are. Oikawa is Kageyama's upperclassman, and It's evident that Kageyama once looked up to him. At first, I never understood why Oikawa hated Kageyama so much. It was fairly obvious that his underclassman basically worshipped him, and I thought it would do wonders for his ego. However, it seems so much more obvious after a bit of rewatching. Middle school Kageyama was a natural from the start, and middle school Oikawa was just a mess of overworking, burning out, and crippling insecurity masked by egoism.

Oikawa hated that he worked himself to death to make the cut, then some random bright eyed prodigy first year just comes in and steals the show. Maybe it wasn't reasonable to hate him so much, but middle schoolers aren't reasonable. Some people say Oikawa was supposed act more mature and responsible, an that he should have had more self control with his feelings. They seem to forget he was a CHILD. He was a literal child; he just entered adolescence, and he was still learning. He shouldn't be expected to handle things like an adult when he isn't one. Oikawa was just SCARED. He loved volleyball and didn't want to be replaced by Kageyama. He overworked himself so he wouldn't be dispensable. I agree that he should not have tried to hit Kageyama. However, you can't say that it makes him a bad person or character.

Oikawa wasn't really in his right mind at the time. It was clear that he was in the middle of an adrenaline rush of sorts from overworking himself. He was visibly agitated and overwhelmed, but, Kageyama approached him. This isn't Kageyama's fault either. While I do think he should have been able to tell it was a bad time to ask, Kageyama was an even younger child. He was never good at reading people either, so Kageyama can't be held accountable. Imagine, though, how Oikawa felt. He was in the middle of training so he wouldn't be replaced, and who decides to interrupt? The person he's trying not to be replaced by. Again, not Kageyama's fault, but you must understand that Oikawa was afraid. He was stuck in this swarm of negative thinking, and the very source of so much of his fear and insecurity was suddenly right in front of him. It wasn't right of him to do that, but you can understand why he did it.

That's another very interesting part of Oikawa. It was his worst fear come to life when he was subbed out for Kageyama in one of their games. It was too much for him, and he just finally snapped. Thankfully, Iwaizumi's lecture struck a chord in him, and he made an apparent effort to remember it. However, I don't think it made his fear go away. In fact, I think his fear of being replaced originated much before middle school. Obviously, I have no idea when exactly, but I would have to guess it started around the middle of elementary school at the latest. This is mainly because I believe Oikawa's obnoxious personality is a sort of defense mechanism used against this fear. Oikawa is objectively very good-looking, flamboyant and charming; he's also very popular among girls.

I found it very interesting that he was portrayed to be a heartthrob by the media, but was seen to be very immature and honestly quite annoying. Around his friends he acts very childish, but switches again to his charming persona when around fans or other classmates. It was fairly clear that something wasn't right. I wanted to believe it was just inconsistent writing, but one of Furudate's greatest strengths is building characters; I also saw no clear consistency problems with other characters. I believe that Oikawa switches personas depending on what reputation he's trying to uphold. We know Oikawa is insecure at heart, and we see him trying to play it off by being prideful.

If we go back to his fear of being replaced, I find reasonable to believe that Oikawa acts the way he does so that people don't get bored of him. He wants a reputation, because that means people will know about him. Something that is consistent about his personas is that he's very sociable in both. He's childish, loud, and constantly wants attention, or he's always laughing, flirting, and joking. It's almost as if he believes that everybody will find someone new if he doesn't remind them he's still there. He thinks people will get bored of him, so he constantly tries to make sure people stay interested. A lot of people say that Oikawa is too annoying and narcissistic, but he does it because he's afraid people will get rid of him if he doesn't keep their attention.

That also leads to another major part of Oikawa's character. I actually believe this may be the biggest part of his overall character. There's something that sets Oikawa apart from every other character. Regardless of if you like him or not, you can't deny that there's an energy about him that's just different. He's the closest you'll get to an antagonist in Haikyuu, but you also get to see his soft sides. We see the love he has for volleyball and for his teammates. It's strange to see so many different sides of a character. It's also interesting how Ushijima wanted Oikawa join Shiratorizawa. It's understandable, considering Kageyama still hadn't developed and Oikawa was the best setter in the prefecture.

So, the question I always wanted to answer: Why didn't Oikawa go to Shiratorizawa? Yes, the fandom exaggerates it and loves to joke about it, but it was a real question for me at first. Oikawa wanted to go to Nationals, and joining Shiratorizawa would have guaranteed it. Best ace and best setter in the entire prefecture on one team? They would blow the competition away. It would have been much easier if Oikawa had indeed swallowed his pride and joined Shiratorizawa. However, it seems that it wasn't necessarily about all about "worthless pride". Of course it was a factor, but Oikawa wouldn't let his pride get in the way of his dreams; he's smarter than that.

It was then that I started to notice a recurring pattern with Oikawa. He's a direct opposition to the main characters. He refused to join a powerhouse team for an easy ticket to Nationals. He uses his personal strengths to improve instead of being upset over what he doesn't have. Oikawa is an incredibly unique character because of his sheer will to do things the way he wants. Oikawa is a setter; he's a control freak, but in a less direct way than Kageyama. He doesn't force everyone to adapt to him, yelling, "You better follow me!" Rather, he goes his own way and says, "Follow me if you dare."

He carves his own path, regardless of what others say. Seijoh was destined to lose from the beginning. Furudate loves symbolism in Haikyuu. Notice how every national level school is represented by an animal? The mighty eagle of Shiratorizawa, the wild crow of Karasuno, the clever cat of Nekoma, the soaring owl of Fukurodani? What does Aoba Johsai have? A castle. Aoba Johsai translates to Blue Castle. While the other teams fight, jump, and soar, Aoba Johsai is beautiful, strong, and reliable, but they will never fly. It was almost as if Oikawa went to Aoba Johsai simply to prove he didn't need Ushijima to go to Nationals. Looking at it like that, it indeed makes it look like Oikawa refuses to go to Shiratorizawa out of pride. However, I like to see it as more than that.

First of all, Oikawa's greatest wish was to defeat Shiratorizawa in order to go to Nationals. OIKAWA DOES NOT SETTLE. He refuses to settle for only half his dream. Maybe it's too prideful, but it would invalidate the years of hell he put himself through trying to accomplish it. It was like Ushijima was telling him, "Hey, you tried your best, didn't you? You can't beat me, and all your years of work are for nothing. Just join us and give it up." It was insulting to him. Oikawa's sheer perseverance was what got him where he was. He took everything the world threw at him and threw it right back. Suddenly, it all stops and he's offered an olive branch of sorts. The world doesn't offer everything he wants, but it's something. Just enough to get him to stop fighting back.

Oikawa wants all or nothing when it comes to his passions. It's risky, maybe not a very smart decision, but that's just who he is.He doesn't want the olive branch; he wants the whole damn tree. Oikawa wants to look at Ushijima, to scream from the top of the world, and tell everybody who didn't think he could make it, "I DON'T NEED YOU." He wants to show people they were wrong. No, he's not a genius, but he doesn't need to be one. He wants to follow his dreams his own way or he doesn't want it at all.

Second of all, Oikawa wanted to go to Nationals with Iwaizumi. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were together their entire lives. They played, they laughed, they cried, they won, they lost, but they were always together. Oikawa needs Iwaizumi specifically because he trusts that he'll never be dispensable to his best friend. Iwaizumi is his support, the way he grounds himself when things are too much. Oikawa and Iwaizumi want to go to Nationals together. It's not some fantasy they conjured up; it's their childhood dream. Oikawa wouldn't be willing to let go of that. Again, Oikawa refuses to settle. He wants to lead a team to Nationals with his partner, or he doesn't want it at all.

Oikawa was willing to risk everything. He wanted to go all in. Maybe it was wrong, and maybe it was just worthless pride. Regardless, it shows us his unparalleled passion for the sport. He deserved so much better than what he got, but life isn't fair. Haikyuu shows us that. It's almost discouraging to see Oikawa lose. If you look at it, between Oikawa and Kageyama, Oikawa is actually the underdog. Kageyama is the genius player and Oikawa just tries his best. Haikyuu is an underdog story, but sometimes the roles are not as we think.

(⚠️!!SPOILERS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER!!⚠️)

When Oikawa is seen as the "final boss" as the official setter of Argentina's Olympic team, it's the cherry on top to confirm what type of character he is. THIS MAN WAS SO DAMN PETTY AND DETERMINED TO FOLLOW HIS DREAMS THAT HE IMMIGRATED TO A DIFFERENT HEMISPHERE. He was so determined to make his own path that he made a name for himself on the other side of the world. He was virtually unknown, and had to start from scratch all again. What happened? He actually did it, and now he's the main focus of his team. I have such a ridiculous amount of respect for Oikawa. The determination that man has is unparalleled.

I believe Furidate also uses Oikawa as a model to teach us that, yes, it's discouraging to be surrounded by people better than you, and failure is inevitable. However, it you can use those failures as a lesson to improve yourself, and if you stick to your goals until the very end, the world will get tired and it'll work out in the end. Oikawa tells us that it's okay to be bold; he tells us to understand that it takes time to succeed, and you will succeed. He tells us to treasure those who support us, because the trust they have in you is more than you could ever know. In the end, Oikawa really accomplishes his dreams. Maybe Iwaizumi isn't with him, but Oikawa has learned by then how to live without him and vice versa. Instead, he gets to fulfill his promise of defeating him when they face each other.

Oikawa never got to go Nationals, but now he's at Internationals. Now he finally gets to beat Ushijima, Kageyama, and Iwaizumi all in one spot. We don't even get to see the result of the match, which is actually something I love. Oikawa is the only one we know in Argentina; it would be unrealistic to try to decide a winner between the two teams if we don't know the strengths and weaknesses of each player. Regardless, we finally get to see Oikawa get what he deserves. Maybe it will work out for him, and maybe it won't. Something amazing about leaving an open ending is that we get to analyze the characters as we please, and we get to imagine what happens ourselves. It's actually one of Furudate's best pieces of symbolism in the whole series.

Their stories are not over yet. Maybe Oikawa loses again, but he keeps going. Maybe he finally throws the towel. Who knows? Characters are ever changing, but I believe Oikawa will stick to it. Then again, maybe his knee injury will force him to quit. Life is unpredictable, but Oikawa's determination has been constant throughout the whole show. The way he grew as a person, a player, and leader, just enraptured me to no end. Oikawa is one of the most fascinating characters I've ever come across. I don't like picking favorite characters, but I genuinely believe Oikawa is the most well written and complex.

That concludes my 3,000+ word rant/essay about the wonderful anomaly that is Tooru Oikawa. Honestly, there's definitely more that I forgot to incorporate or have not thought of, but this is what I have!! Thank you for reading through all that?? Also, I'm not going to go through that and edit it, so feel free to comment if anything makes no sense :)

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raeynbowboi · 4 years

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The Character Forge: How to Play as Link in DnD 5e

Link is without a doubt one of the most iconic heroes in fiction, which is why I’m excited to work on this build of Link. Now, of course Link has a long history of games where he’s had a wide variety of skills and abilities. So, for this build, I wanted to focus on his most recurring skills and items, and try to find DnD items with similar effects, if possible, to fill out his arsenal. Link is a multi-talented young man who has a talent for many skills, weapons, and items. He’s extremely flexible in what he can work with, and that was a primary focus of this build: to broaden his abilities as much as I could.

The Makings of a Hero

Hylians are clearly some kind of elf. You could make Link a Human or Variant Human if you want, but if it looks like an elf and it hyaas like an elf, chances are it’s an elf. There are a lot of kinds of elf he could be. Hylians are closely connected to the gods and think highly of themselves, so High Elf is a strong possibility. But Link is also something of a wilderness expert, so he could be a Wood Elf too.

Link is clearly good, but where on the goodness scale is a little less clear. He is a champion for goodness and light, so he could be Lawful Good, but he’s also jokingly famous for breaking into random houses and smashing random pots to steal people’s hidden money, so he could fall under Chaotic Good. And that divide could also make him Neutral Good.

As for background, that also tends to differ between game. Sometimes he’s a simple villager, a rancher, a farmer, a knight, an amnesiac foreigner. He’s so inconsistent that it’s better to just give him a background that covers the skills he doesn’t pick up from his build. Top contenders for Link’s background would be Outlander, Knight of the Order, Soldier, Far Traveler, and Folk Hero.

Skills, Abilities, & Items

Weapons -Longsword -Shield -Bow and Arrows -Bombs -Slingshot -Boomerang -Greatsword -Club -Spear -Magical Rods Skills -Horse Riding -Mounted Combat -Dungeon Crawler -Puzzle-solving -Weapon proficiency -Fighting Maneuvers Famous Items -Triforce of Courage -Master Sword -Hylian Shield/Mirror Shield -Hero Bow -Ocarina of Time -Power Bracelet/Golden Gauntlets -Zora Tunic/Mermaid Suit/Zora Flippers -Roc’s Feather/Feather Cape/Hover Boots/Glider -Hookshot/Longshot -Gale Boomerang -Wind Waker -Pegasus Boots/Pegasus Seeds -Biggoron’s Sword -Fire Rod -Fire Arrow/Lightning Arrow/Ice Arrow/Light Arrow -Ball and Chain -Fierce Deity Mask

Get to Class

Fighter Arcane Archer Battle Master Cavalier/Knight Champion Monster Hunter Scout Sharpshooter

Paladin Ancients Crown Devotion Heroism

Ranger Hunter Monster Hunter

Rogue Inquisitive Scout Swashbuckler

Stats & Proficiencies

Honestly, Link was hard to stat balance at first. I figured his best stat should be Constitution to correlate with a late-game number of heart containers. Link needs to be able to take a serious hit, and he spends most of the game getting a bigger health bar for just that very reason. Aside from Constitution, nothing really stood out as more important, though Intelligence and Charisma can get the shaft a bit, as Intelligence covers mostly book-learning which Link isn’t really known for, and largely in part to being a mute, aside from dancing in the Subrosia dance hall or playing his Ocarina, Link isn’t exactly great with Charisma-based skills. That’s not to say he’s really bad at anything, though. Link is a real Renaissance Man, as he’s good pretty much everything. Which means he shouldn’t have any negative modifiers. But Link is also not the pinnacle of strength, durability, or insightfulness. He needs items to perform feats of great strength, speed, or stamina, and wouldn’t get very far without them, so he’s also not going to be the max in any of his stats either. Rather, he’s going to be competent in Intelligence and Charisma, and fairly good at everything else.

Proficiencies: Acrobatics Animal Handling Athletics Insight Investigation Nature Perception Stealth Survival

Link’s New Toys

-Bag of Holding -Triforce of Courage (Banner of the Krig Rune) -Mastersword (Dawnbringer) -Hylian Shield (Shield of the Hidden Lord, Shield +3) -Mirror Shield (Repulsion Shield) -Hero’s Bow (Oathbow) -Golden Gauntlets (Gauntlets of Ogre Power) -Zora Tunic/Mermaid Suit (Cap of Water Breathing, Cloak of the Manta Ray) -Gale Boomerang (Storm Boomerang) -Hover Boots (Boots of Levitation) -Pegasus Boots (Boots of Speed, Boots of Striding and Springing) -Fire Rod (Necklace of Fireball)* -Fierce Deity Mask (Mask of the Dragon Queen) *There are items like the Wand of Fireball and the Staff of Fire, but both items require the holder to be a magic user, which Link is not.

Name: Link Race: High Elf Background: Outlander Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Monster Slayer Ranger (6) Battle Master Fighter (10) Inquisitive Rogue (4) Base Stats: Strength: 16 (+3) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 18 (+4) Intelligence: 10 (0) Wisdom: 16 (+3) Charisma: 10 (0) Saving Throws: Strength: +9 Dexterity: +8 Constitution: +3 Intelligence: 0 Wisdom: +3 Charisma: 0 Combat Stats: HP: 200 AC: 15 Speed: 30 Initiative: +2 Number of Attacks: 2 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 19 Dark Vision: 60 feet Proficiencies and Expertise: Acrobatics (Rogue) Animal Handling (Ranger) Athletics (Outlander) Insight (Ranger) Investigation (Ranger) Perception (Elf) Survival (Outlander) Skills: Acrobatics: +8 Medicine: +3 Animal Handling: +9 Nature: +6 Arcana: 0 Perception: +9 Athletics: +15 Performance: 0 Deception: 0 Persuasion: 0 History: 0 Religion:0 Insight: +9 Sleight of Hand: +2 Intimidation: 0 Stealth: +8 Investigation: +6 Survival: +15 Condition Resistances: Charmed Immunities: Sleep Racial Feature: Elf Elven Weapon Training: Proficiency with Shortsword, Longsword, Shortbow, and Longbow. Ranger Feature: Fighting Style Archery: Add +2 to attack rolls for ranged weapons. Ranger Feature: Favored Terrain Forest Grassland Ranger Feature: Favored Enemy Monstrosity Fiend Fighter Feature: Fighting Style Dueling: Add +2 to melee damage rolls when using 1 one-handed weapon. Fighter Feature: Superiority Die 5 (1d10s) Fighter Feature: Maneuvers Disarming Attack: spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed roll, it drops 1 item of your choosing. Feinting Attack: spend a superiority die as a bonus action, and select a target. You gain advantage against that creature and add the roll of your superiority die to your attack damage if you hit the target creature. Parry: As a reaction, reduce melee damage you take by your dex modifier + the roll of a superiority die. Precision Attack: add the roll of a superiority die to the damage roll of a melee attack you made. Riposte: When an enemy’s attack misses you, you can make a counter attack, and add the roll of a superiority die. Sweeping Attack: Use a superiority die to cause your melee attack to hit a second creature within 5 feet of your first target. Add your superiority dice roll. Trip Attack: Use a superiority die to force a large or smaller creature to make a Strength saving throw. on a failed save, that creature is knocked prone. Spell Slots: 1st (4) 2nd (2) Link’s Spellbook Cantrips True Strike 1st Level Cure Wounds Hunter’s Mark Wild Cunning Protection from Good and Evil 2nd Level Find Traps Actions: Action Surge: take an extra action once per rest. Primeval Awareness: Spend a spell slot. For 1 or 2 minutes, you sense the kinds of creatures within 1 mile of you, or 6 miles in forests and grasslands. Bonus Actions: Cunning Action: Dash, Disengage, or Hide once per turn. Second Wind: Regain 1d10+10 HP once per rest. Features, Traits, and Feats: Archery Fighting Style: Gain +2 on attack rolls with ranged weapons. Dueling Fighting Style: Gain +2 on damage rolls when armed with a single one-handed melee weapon. Ear for Deceit: Any roll of 7 or lower on an Insight check against lying becomes an 8. Extra Attack: You get two Attack actions. Eye for Detail: Perform an Insight or Investigation check as a bonus action. Favored Enemy: Deal +2 bonus damage to Monstrosities and Fiends. Gain advantage on Survival checks to track Monstrosities and Fiends, and Intelligence checks to remember information about them. Fey Ancestry: Resistance to Charmed effects, immunity to magical sleep. Hunter’s Sense: As an action, choose a creature within 60 feet. You learn the creature’s damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. Can be used 3 times per long rest. Improved Combat Superiority: Your superiority die become 1d10s. Indomitable: Reroll a failed save once per long rest. Insightful Fighting: As a bonus action, make an Insight check against another creature’s Deception check. If you succeed, you can use Sneak Attack against the creature even without advantage for up to a minute. Doesn’t work if you’re disadvantaged. Wears off if you target a new creature with this feature. Know Your Enemy: If you spend at least 1 minute outside of battle observing a creature, the DM will tell you whether the creature is superior, inferior, or equal to you in any 2 of the following stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, AC, Current HP, Total Class Levels, or Fighter Class Levels. Natural Explorer: Favored Terrains are Grasslands and Forests. While in your favored terrains: double proficiency bonuses for INT and WIS checks you’re proficient in, difficult terrain doesn’t slow your party down, always alert for danger, can move stealthily at a normal pace when traveling alone, find double food when foraging, and when tracking anything, you can tell how big they were, how many there were, and how long ago they passed through. Sharpshooter: Attacking from long range doesn’t disadvantage ranged attack rolls, ranged weapon attacks ignore half and 3/4 cover, and you can -5 on a ranged weapon attack roll to add +10 to the damage roll on a successful hit. Slayer’s Prey: As a bonus action, pick a creature within 60 feet of you. Add 1d6 damage to the first attack you make against that creature. Sneak Attack: Add 2d6 to damage roll when you have advantage, or another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it. Thieves’ Cant: You can articulate covert messages in casual conversations. Trance: Trance for 4 hours instead of sleeping for 8. Wanderer: You have an excellent memory for terrain and don’t need a map. You can remember where to find settlements, foraging spots, and geographical landmarks. You can always find enough food and water to sustain yourself and up to 5 more people provided the land can provide food and drinkable water.

I’m sure there’s some who will disagree with my picks, but I optimized a build around looking for enemy weaknesses, having a ton of proficiencies, and having a wide and varied arsenal of weapons at Link’s disposal. If you’d build Link another way, tell me what you’d do different. Who do you want to see me make next? And as always, I look forward to seeing you again at the Character Forge, where heroes are made.

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cosmicjoke · 3 years

Text

Okay, so on to chapter 3 of “No Regrets”!

I’ve got a few observations, so I’ll just delve in.

First thing, and once again, I found this a huge improvement over the visual novel, but we get more insight here into the reason Erwin was so intent on recruiting Levi. During the scene in which he’s arguing with the other squad leaders about letting a group of “criminals” into their organization, Erwin pushes back against the other scouts deriding Levi and his friends. I really loved Erwin’s line here, where he says “You’re right. These people had no training. They did not earn wings from us. They grew their own, out of necessity.” This shows us that Erwin has a grasp and an appreciation for the hardship Levi and his friends faced while growing up, while most of the other SC leaders and even regular recruits can only look down on them and see them as gutter trash. This shows Erwin’s own scope of vision, his ability to look past a person’s upbringing and background and not make judgments about them based on that. More telling still is his comment about how “those wings will play a part in revolutionizing this organization.”. He wanted Levi’s skills in particular because he knew having someone like Levi around, with exceptional ability, would shift the way they all fight Titans. He was, as always, looking for ways to increase the effectiveness of the SC, and was willing to do whatever he could, and through any means necessary, to ensure it.

The next thing that caught my attention is the glare Levi and Erwin share during the trio’s introduction to the rest of the soldiers. Erwin’s right in front of Levi, standing there, reminding him of his anger and humiliation no doubt, and I think that leads directly into and impacts the next scene, when Flagon shows them their sleeping arrangements. Levi’s already no doubt irritated by having to see Erwin again, and then Flagon makes his frankly deeply disparaging remark about Levi and his friends having spent their whole lives living in a trash heap, implying that they’re filthy gutter trash, and so surely are incapable of keeping themselves and their environment clean. Levi, understandably, reacts badly to this, and gets in Flagon’s face, asking him what he just said, before Furlan intervenes. When you consider the way Erwin already made Levi feel so humiliated and Levi’s subsequent anger at it, then having to see Erwin again not long before this scene, and hearing Flagon just callously make an accusation like that must have only infuriated Levi more. I think, once again, the manga is doing an infinitely better job of portraying the tension, then, that’s starting to form between Levi and Furlan. Furlan scolds Levi after Flagon leaves, almost talking down to him when he says “Didn’t I tell you not to cause trouble?!”. Almost like he’s talking to some misbehaving little kid. Levi’s expression in the following panel says a lot, I think. Levi looks almost chastised, like he knows he’s upset Furlan, before he tries to explain himself, asking Furlan “Didn’t you hear how he talked about us? Like shit calling shit dirty.”. It’s really interesting what this says about the power dynamic in their relationship. Levi is ostensibly the leader of their group, but Furlan’s acting, in a lot of ways, like he’s the one in charge and he expects Levi to fall in line. Clearly, he’s not afraid of scolding Levi, or challenging him. All of Furlan’s insistence that they lay low and not do anything to draw attention to themselves must only be chaffing though at Levi’s already heated feelings about the kind of treatment they’re receiving, how they’re being talked down to, etc... It must be galling to him, to see Furlan not seeming to care that they’re all being so deeply disrespected. But he still continues to defer to Furlan, and agree to go along with his plan for now, though he makes his displeasure known by calling it a pain in the ass.

But seeing Erwin, and then being treated the way they were by Flagon, seems to have rekindled Levi’s desire to take his revenge, and he reminds Furlan that he’ll continue to go along with his plan, but that he’s still going to kill Erwin. Once again, we see Levi being pulled in two different directions. He’s giving priority to Furlan’s plans and wishes, but he’s still thinking about getting Erwin back. He’s annoyed that they weren’t assigned to Erwin’s squad, probably because it means it’s going to limit their contact, giving him less opportunities to kill him. Another line that I think signifies Lev’s annoyance at Furlan and how, well, dismissive he is of Levi’s own feelings, is after he tells them they have to clean the area around their beds before leaving for training, and in response to Isabel’s protests, he says “You wouldn’t want me to cause trouble, would you?”. He’s throwing Furlan’s words back in his face here, and it seems clear to me that Levi is frustrated and doesn’t appreciate the way Furlan’s been talking to him, or how little consideration for his own wishes he’s shown. There’s a lot of tension there.

Another really important scene is the one in the training yard, so I’ll got through it here.

Particularly when Isabel is talking to the Scout helping her with horse riding, and they get to talking about life in the Underground, and then Levi. What Isabel says, and the visual of the panel here, is particularly powerful. She says “It got so I thought I was gonna die. But life’s a little better since Levi saved me from that.”. And we see in the panel Levi lifting Isabels’ head up, obviously checking if she’s alive. There’s all these people, collapsed around her, and the fact that Levi is checking to see if she’s alive is interesting, because it makes me think this is something Levi would regularly do. That he would check to see if anyone was alive when he came across people collapsed in the streets. It’s probably not unusual to come across dead bodies in the Underground, and for someone like Levi, who’s lived there all his life, he’s no doubt seen plenty. The fact he checks Isabel shows a lack of callousness towards the sight, which is incredible, to not become uncaring or apathetic towards suffering, even when you’re surrounded by it your whole life. It’s a highly unusual quality to have, but of course, it makes perfect sense for Levi, who’s so full of compassion.

Nevertheless, it would have been simpler for him to just keep moving and ignore her, but instead he stopped, and when he discovered she was still alive, he took her in and gave her food and shelter and a home. She would have died otherwise. Levi had no obligation towards her, he had no, really good reason to do something so selfless, and yet, he did. And this truly is remarkable, especially when you consider the kind of cut throat world Levi grew up in, the kind of ruthless people he’d encountered, and even lived with, like Kenny, all his life.

Then there’s Furlan’s discussion with another soldier, and his story about Levi. The most interesting thing Furlan says here is how, after his own friends turned on him, he’s followed Levi ever since. And then he says “Though it might be problematic making him any kind of leader!”. It’s interesting what this reveals to us about Levi. People want to follow him because he’s so strong, but Levi himself has no desire for power, or control over others. People willingly attach themselves to him, because they think Levi can protect them, but Levi isn’t any kind of natural leader. So we know Levi was more or less forced into the role of leader by way of others seeking him out and assigning him that role. What’s interesting about this is how it, once again, reveals the kind of person Levi is. He could easily have rejected all of these people and abandoned them. One thing we know is that Levi didn’t need any help surviving on his own in the Underground. But instead Levi allows them to stay with him and willingly offers his help and protection, and though it’s probably more of a pain and a nuisance to him than anything else. It shows that Levi’s never been able to turn away from those seeking his help.

Which leads nicely into the next scene.

I’ve talked about this scene before, and how disappointed I was that they didn’t include it in the OVA. This also wasn’t included in the visual novel, which is, once more, just another way in which the manga is superior.

Flagon is once again criticizing Levi for holding his blades “wrong”, telling him he’s going to end up getting killed outside the walls. And then the training exercise begins, and we see one of the other soldiers trying to compete with Levi, and growing increasingly incensed and annoyed at Levi’s prowess. He thinks “These vagrants with no knowledge as soldiers...” and then “I trained half to death, and these criminals think they’re better?!”. What’s interesting is to see that while this soldier is fuming internally over Levi’s perceived slight of him, glaring at him angrily, Levi clearly hasn’t even taken notice of him. This isn’t a competition to Levi at all. He’s just there to do the exercises. He’s staring straight ahead, blank faced as always.

Now what happens next is once more hugely revealing as to Levi’s character. The infuriated soldier decides he’s not going to accept that Levi’s better than him, and so he intentionally pushes off of a tree and cuts Levi off mid-flight. What struck me about this is how incredibly dangerous it was. Levi’s going, presumably, full speed, through this obstacle course, and this dude, out of petty jealousy, cuts him off by flying right in front of and past him, forcing Levi to pull back and change direction. A stunt like this could have easily resulted in serious injury for Levi, or even death, if he weren’t as gifted as he is. To top it off, this soldier then brags about it, calling out to Levi “Don’t get left behind!”. Of course, his arrogance leads to immediate disaster, as the soldier that went through the course before lost one of their blades in the dummy Titan, and this dude’s flying towards it at top speed, with no way to stop himself or change direction in time. He’s about to be impaled by a blade. Considering the danger he’s just placed Levi in, then, it truly is a testament to Levi’s goodness, that he launches off the tree he’s stopped on, racing ahead and slicing the stray blade free before the other soldier can make contact, resulting in him harmlessly crashing into the pad, instead of dying. This really shows how Levi’s first instinct is always to help others. Even when others have just not only treated him badly, but even endangered his life. He doesn’t owe this soldier anything, and by all rights should be extremely pissed at him for his petty display before. But instead Levi just automatically reacts to his life being threatened by saving the man. He doesn’t even scold him afterward or express anger, just flies off and continues the course.

What makes this whole thing kind of sad is both the soldier’s and Flagon’s reaction to this. The soldier is still angry and upset over Levi’s superior ability, wondering how he can be so fast, not even sparring a thought of appreciation for him just saving his life. And then Flagon grudgingly admits to Levi’s fighting prowess, but continues to doubt him and his ability to stay disciplined. Even after saving one of his own men’s lives, he still continues to look down on Levi. That’s pretty messed up. Levi glares back at him after, as if to say “Who’s the one who’s going to get people killed out there?”. Levi saved a soldiers life, while Flagon could only sit and watch. It’s interesting too how this, tragically, foreshadows what’s to come though, with Levi not being able to save the people he cares the most about. But we’ll get into that when we get there.

Also, just gotta mention also the way Levi reacts to Isabel’s getting upset after he bonks her in the head and calls her stupid. He looks surprised when she starts crying, and it’s clear he didn’t mean to actually hurt her feelings, and it’s just really sweet, the way he rubs her head after. He obviously felt bad.

Okay, into chapter 4 next!

#attack on titan #No Regrets #Levi Ackerman #shingeki no kyojin #Furlan Church #isabel magnolia #Erwin Smith #snk analysis

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90slevi · 3 years

Text

Late-Night Talks {Levi x Reader}

TW: threats of violence, cursing (all canon-typical)

It was the middle of the night. You were supposed to be in bed and resting, ready for another day of intense training to prepare for the upcoming expedition, but you couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts littered your brain, and an unexpected fear flooded your veins. Despite being one of the best soldiers on the Squad (Levi's Squad, too), you were constantly filled with anxieties and worries. Not about yourself, though. Ever since you'd joined, you were prepared to die whenever you left Wall Rose. But... you weren't ready to watch another one of your friends be eaten at the hands of a monster.

Sitting in one of the trees outside the dorm building, you looked up at the sky to see it littered with stars, not a cloud in sight. It was also a full moon, and you hoped that it was a sign that nobody would die on this expedition, which was a stupid thought because at least ten people always died. Ever since you were a kid, you'd wanted to know the mysteries past the walls. There was so much more to life than just sitting inside Wall Sina eating bread and watching people live in boredom, so that's why you'd joined the Cadets.

You'd never been prepared for the mental and emotional trauma that came with it, though.

You were quickly shaken out of your daydream, however, when a very authoritative yet all-too-familiar voice shouted for you at the bottom of the tree.

"Oi, Soldier, get down from there," Captain Levi demanded, a hint of tiredness laced in his strict tone. You sighed and looked down, your eyebrows raised at him without saying a word. You knew Levi hated it when he was ignored, especially by someone in the inferior ranks, but you weren't too bothered.

You were close, after all. Maybe a little bit... too close.

"Hey, are you deaf?" he asked, still unable to notice who it was due to the darkness. "I said-"

"Yeah, I heard you," you responded with a sigh, spinning around on the branch you were sat on so you could properly look at him. Levi gave you a quick glare before aiming his manoeuver gear up at the tree and shooting so he was right next to you. "What's up?"

"'What's up'?" Levi repeated, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "I should be asking you that. It's 2 in the morning, get back to your dorm."

"I can't sleep," you shrugged, gesturing at your black pyjamas you were still wearing. Instead of using gear as Levi had, you'd chosen to simply climb the tree, something you'd done since you were little. "Thought I'd come out here and look at the stars or something."

Sighing, the black-haired Captain shook his head and reluctantly sat down beside you, deciding it was no use in telling you to come down. He also couldn't be bothered to drag you down by force. It was clear the both of you were tired; he was too lazy to raise his voice and you had obvious bags underneath your eyes.

Plus, he didn't really enforce the rules on you.

If it was someone like Eren Jaeger or one of the 'brats' who'd just moved up from the trainees, he would've either forced them down or booted them off the tree, but he liked you. The two of you got along incredibly well and were often seen spending time together alone by other cadets, who assumed at first that the two of you were in a relationship. Levi didn't exactly like this rumour and shut them up instantly with a swift kick in the shins, but began to realise he did feel some sort of way towards you that he didn't with other people. And it was the same for you, too.

Unlike Levi, you'd actually felt romantic attraction to people before, despite it only being once and swearing on your life you'd never do it again, so at least you knew what it felt like. After the two of you discussing a possible relationship, you'd decided to not get together in fear of what could happen if one of you were in danger or, even worse, killed. Emotional connections weren't the best thing to occur in the Survey Corps, because you could confess your love one day and then be brutally squashed the next day by a Titan. And although it was highly unlikely that Levi was dying anytime soon, you weren't as skilled as he was and had almost been killed on multiple occasions already.

This didn't exactly stop the two of you from feeling that way towards each other, however.

"You look tired," Levi said, his voice much softer now. You nodded, a small smile on your face. "You can always visit me, you know. When you can't sleep."

"I could," you chuckled, looked down at the ground as your legs hung dangerously off the side of the branch. "But others would definitely get the wrong impression. Plus, I don't think it's exactly... right for a soldier to visit their captain in the middle of the night."

"Who cares?" Levi muttered, rolling his eyes and making your smile widen at his attitude. "I can always make you tea to help you sleep."

"I think the only way I'd be able to sleep was if you knocked me out," you replied, your memories going back to the time Levi had actually made you unconscious just so you could get a wink of sleep. It was something the two of you had laughed about afterward, but at the time... it wasn't really that fun. Plagued with nightmares and waking up crying, Levi couldn't figure out anything other than booting you in the head to get you to have even an hour of sleep. Levi scoffed at your comment and cracked his knuckles.

"I can do that if you wish," he said, and you grimaced, holding your hands up.

"I'd rather not," you answered, remembering the issues you'd had. "You nearly gave me a concussion, and I had that bump on the back of my head for nearly a week!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you'd got brain damage," he mumbled off-handedly, and you playfully hit him in the shoulder. "Oi!"

"I sometimes wonder if YOU'RE the one with brain damage," you teased, and he hit you back. You pouted at him, and he gave you the classic Levi-glare you were all too used to now.

"If that's what I've got, then putting up with you is what gave it me," Levi threw back, and you gasped dramatically, falling backward. His eyes widened in surprise, one of his arms automatically reaching out to catch you, but you were fine. All you were doing was hanging upside down from the branch, using only your legs as support as you swung dangerously. It was something you'd done for years, so it was fine, but clearly, Levi wasn't used to it. "Doing that will definitely give you brain damage. Get back up here!"

"You're just using that as an excuse because you're scared, aren't you?" you giggled, pulling yourself back up to safety and adjusting your pyjama top. Even if your shirt had risen early, you didn't mind; Levi had seen your body before, so it wasn't like it was something sacred you had to hide. "Awh, is Levi scared that I'm gonna fall?"

"You just looked like a total idiot, that's all," he shrugged, rolling his eyes again as he looked away. You adored teasing him; it completely tore away that tough persona he liked to put on in front of the Cadets and other soldiers and showed a much more vulnerable, real version of the man you cared about so much. "And I don't exactly fancy having one of my best soldiers having a broken bone or two only two weeks before the expedition."

That word. Expedition.

You went silent, your heart racing as you were reminded so suddenly of the impending doom you were so close to experiencing again. Gulping, you began to sub-consciously nibble at your thumb, and Levi noticed your anxieties pretty much instantly.

Ah, so that's why you're up here.

"Maybe that was your intention," Levi said calmly, raising an eyebrow. "To break a bone supposedly by accident so you don't have to go on the expedition. Coward."

"As if I'd ever do that!" you exclaimed, a little louder than you'd intended. The Captain cocked his head with his eyebrows raised, almost judging you until you were able to tell him the truth. He may be cruel with his way of getting information out of people, but he was determined to do it. That way, he could actually help you instead of giving meaningless hope and compliments that were bound to do nothing in the long run. "I'm just... a little scared, that's all."

"It's funny that you think you're the only one," Levi scoffed, rather surprised that you were so nervous you were hiding away. Usually, you came to him with your problems, trusting him enough to share even the stupidest of things, but this was... odd. Either you were absolutely terrified or there was another thing you weren't telling him. "I bet the Cadets are absolutely shitting themselves. C'mon, there's something else, isn't there?"

"And what will you do if I don't tell you?"

"Beat the shit out of you."

You snorted before looking down at your feet. As unlikely as it was that Levi would even lay a menacing hand on you, you wouldn't be surprised if he actually did go on his word just to get the information out. He was caring... in a very strange way. But you didn't mind; the two of you were just as good as each other at hand-to-hand combat, so it'd be a challenge for him to properly harm you as he did with the Cadets and lower ranks.

"You'll laugh at me."

"Have I ever laughed at you, brat?"

"Yes."

Levi was silent, trying to recall the last time he'd ever even laughed, never mind at you. Although... there was one time where he'd made fun of you for something pretty dumb, and then there was another time when he chuckled at you when you dropped a piece of bread and flipped it off, and then-

Okay, you'd made him laugh more times than he'd like to admit. But that wasn't the point.

"That's a lie," he ironically lied, his face still as blunt as ever despite joking around. It was something you surprisingly liked about Levi; his dry sense of humour was just as dry as he acted, and it suited him well. "Now, brat, tell me."

"It's just the same old stuff, really," you shrugged, sighing as you looked up at the sky. You had no idea what time it was, only that it was between 2am and 4am just by glancing at the moon and knew you ought to get at least a bit of sleep. You yawned, and Levi noticed. "It's stupid because I know for a fact it'll happen every time I leave these walls, but I don't want people I know to die. Especially those I care about."

"Tch, everyone feels like that," Levi said, thankful it wasn't anything more serious. Just the average 'I don't want people to die' talk. "Even Eyebrows, which is shocking, I know."

"I know, but..." you trailed off, not wanting to talk about your worries about Levi. He had the most dangerous part of the whole expedition in the next two weeks and although you knew he could take it, there was still an incline of worry that spread across your body like a parasite. Sighing, you yawned again, pressing your palms into your eyes to try and rub the sleep out of your eyes. Levi raised his eyebrows and put his hand firmly on your thigh.

"Well, if you're not gonna tell me, then you're going to bed," he insisted, standing up and holding his hand out for you to take. Reluctantly, you rolled your eyes and took it, being pulled to your feet and pulled into his side. "And if that means knocking you the fuck out, then so be it."

"And what if I don't wake up in time?" you asked, watching as Levi shot into the ground with his gear and pulled you with him. He sighed, grabbing harshly onto your wrist so you didn't run away.

"Then you'll have to train even harder when you do," he said bluntly, and you groaned in disapproval, trying to ignore the slight pain in your wrist he was causing. "Because I'm not having your stupidity and exhaustion cost you your life. Got it?"

"Got it," you muttered, pouting as he dragged you up the stairs in the dorm building. It appeared that he was taking you to his room to make sure you actually slept instead of sneaking back out of your window. Although, you didn't mind spending the night with Levi. Even if the two of you didn't sleep, you still ended up having late-night talks and even at some points drinking. Luckily, he had a very high alcohol tolerance, being able to drink over a bottle without showing he had done in the morning. You, on the other hand, weren't so tolerant... "God, people would think you've been hired to look after me or something."

"It feels like that 90% of the time," he replied, and you grinned, entering his room.

Once again, it was just as spotless as last time you'd been in there. It was constantly organised, with his bed covered in crisp white sheets and a pile of papers displayed neatly on his mahogany desk. Books stood in alphabetical order on his bookcase, completely dust-free, and his curtains were closed symmetrically over his window. Two lit candles sat on his desk, presumably lit just before he went to fetch you, and his green cloak lay folded-up over the side of his sofa. It was a comfortable room, and one you really enjoyed visiting.

"So, am I knocking you out, or are you gonna sleep, Y/n?" Levi threatened, flopping down onto his sofa as he unbuckled his gear. For someone who only got two hours of sleep per night if he was lucky, it was pretty hypocritical that he was trying to get you to go to bed. It was also nice to hear him call you by your first name for once, instead of a stupid nickname like 'brat' or 'dumbass'. "Choose quickly, because I'd quite like to finish the book I was reading."

"I think I'd rather sleep without getting punched in the face," you answered with a grin, flopping down onto his bed that you'd slept in multiple times before. For some reason, it was always comfier than the bed you had in your dorm room, and despite not being a double bed, it managed to fit the two of you in easily if you both wanted to share.

Then again, you both weren't the tallest of people.

"Yeah, that's the better option," Levi sighed, sinking calmly into his sofa as he pulled off his boots and tucked them beside the door. The room was silent for a few minutes as you closed your eyes on top of his bed, not even underneath the duvet. It was still unlikely you'd sleep much, as there was a lot on your mind, but at least you were resting. Then, Levi's voice entered the room. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"

"Not really," you muttered, your eyes cracking open. You stared at the ceiling, hearing the man's footsteps walk over and eventually stop. Turning your head, you noticed he was squatting beside the bed, his face pretty much right next to yours. His expression was much softer now as he watched your eyes move, and he reached up to brush your hair from out of your face.

"I'm not an idiot, I know there's more on your mind than just the stupid expedition, Y/n," he said quietly, a stern tone to his voice despite being calmer than usual. You hesitated before looking away, rubbing your face as you tried to gather your thoughts. Unlike usual, you had no idea what had you so on-edge, and you couldn't explain it to Levi if you tried. "And if you don't want to tell me, then that's fine. But you really need to sleep, because I don't want my next dead recruit to be you."

That was it. That was what was on your mind.

You'd never really gotten over your feelings for Levi; you'd just pushed them to the back of your mind until you hopefully forgot about it, but it was impossible. Every time you were in his room, every time you even spoke to him, and every time he looked out for you just deepened your feelings, and it stressed you out. You didn't want to love someone, especially while the two of you were in the Survey Corps. And the fact he made sure you weren't at the risk of dying, more than he looked out for the other Cadets and Soldiers, showed he felt the same. A small smile appeared on your face.

The world was cruel. Too cruel.

"Well then, goodnight, Levi," you said softly, reaching your hand up as you brushed his hair out of his eyes as he'd done to you just a minute ago. You then lifted your legs up and tucked them under the duvet before closing your eyes. You knew Levi was confused, but it was better for him to be like that than to be crushed with you admitting your feelings all over again. "I'll maybe tell you soon, I dunno. But for now, I'm gonna get some sleep. Feel free to join me!"

You heard Levi 'tch' under his breath with a small sound of amusement before he walked back to the sofa. He also mumbled something inaudible to you, but you didn't really care.

Although you couldn't do anything about it, you were glad you'd finally come to terms with your worries.

If only Levi could too.

#levi ackerman #levi x reader #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #angst #fanfiction #one-shot #levi one-shot #fluff and angst

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grishasteelrpg · 3 years

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PREVIEW - THE GRISHA

Grisha are humans who have the ability to practice the Small Sciences, defined as manipulating elements at their most basic form. In Noyvi Zem, those with these powers are known as Zowa, which means “blessed.”

The varying countries in the Grisha Universe all have different views on the grisha, both positive and negative.

Fjerdans view grisha as unnatural, and witchlike. They specifically train parts of their army to hunt and kill grisha, which puts them at direct odds with Ravka, who often utilize Grisha as soldiers in their Second Army. The Shu, in turn, uses their Grisha for advancements in science and technology--through inhumane experimentation. This puts them in a much closer alignment to Fjerda. In Kerch, while slavery is outlawed, Grisha in this country are often put to work as indentured servants. Meanwhile, in the Wandering Isles, Grisha blood is believed to be a cure-all; they often take the blood from Grisha to use as medicine. Compared to all of these places, Ravka and Noyvi Zem are considered the safest places to be Grisha; in Ravka they are often taken as young children to the Little Palace, and trained from a young age in their powers to one day help serve their nation, strengthen their powers, and become members and hopefully leaders one day of the Second Army. As compared to Ravka’s militaristic approach, Noyvi Zem believes that all humans, both Grisha and non-Grisha, are equal. It is the safest place to be a Grisha, who does not wish to be a part of the Second Army.

THE SMALL SCIENCE

Everything in the world can be broken down at a molecular level, down to it’s most essential, similar parts. Grisha are humans who are born with the ability to manipulate matter at this fundamental level, giving off the idea that they, depending on the country, are either seen as an abomination, or a blessing. While it is indeed magical, it is considered more deliberately a science, as those elements being manipulated still abide by the physical laws of nature, and are studied as such.

For example, a Tidemaker cannot simply create water. Rather, they can manipulate it at it’s core level. An Inferni may be able to control fire, but they still need some sort of flint in order for the fire to exist. While they may be able to summon the material at its core, it still requires a catalyst. A Sun Summoner cannot summon light from nothing, but they can manipulate it into something greater with just a tiny glow.

The leading theory, in terms of the small science as studied in Ravka, is “like calls to like.” That is to say, there is odinakovost (“thisness”), which refers to the essences that all things share, and etovost (“thatness”), which is what makes said essences special. Grisha must learn to understand both sides in order to become effective in Small Science.

MERZOST

Whereas the notion of The Small Science is founded on the idea that all matter cannot be created, only manipulated or changed, merzost (“abomination”) is what happens when a Grisha pushes against these boundaries. Attempting to deal with merzost can have incredibly disastrous effects as it is unknown just what will happen. It is responsible for the creation of Shadow Summoners, the Shadow Fold, and all the creatures inside of it. Bloodwitches also fall into the category of being created by this, due to the nature of how their powers come about.

AMPLIFIERS

Amplifiers are objects created by grisha in order to amplify their abilities with the Small Science, and are very rare in their creation. Amplifiers cannot just be taken, they must be earned: for example, the most common way to create an amplifier is by slaying a powerful animal, and using its remains to create an amplifier.

Because of the nature of balance, a grisha may only have one amplifier. To have more than one is considered merzost.

JURDA PAREM

Jurda parem is an experimental version of the stimulant known as jurda. Jurda derives from the jurda plant, and is often used by sailors and the like to keep awake. Jurda parem however, would kill a normal person. While it does work powerfully with grisha, it is not an amplifier. Rather, it allows their ability to grow, as opposed to power. It enhances their senses, and perceptions, to the point where a Squaller might be able to use their powers to fly, or even introduce Mind Control to a Heartrender.

The side effects are incredibly extreme, as the drug is extremely addictive. Surviving the withdrawal is extremely rare, and those who survive it have their powers often changed. So far the only known survivors tend to be Heartrenders, who in turn become Bloodwitches.

GRISHA FACTIONS

THE CORPORALKI

The Order of the Living and the Dead

Subsets (Common): Healers, Heartrenders

Subsets (Rare): Tailors, Bonewitches

The Corporalki are a subset of Grisha that study areas of the Small Science focusing on the human body. Most commonly, those who show a talent for this often fall into two categories: Healers, who focus on putting the body back together, and Heartrenders, who pull them apart. They are considered the most important members of Ravka’s Second Army, and are highly ranked. They wear red kefta.

Healers focus on just that: healing. They spend years not only studying their craft but also learning how the human body works. Compared to non-Grisha doctors, they are at the top of the field, and are a valuable asset to any team. Their keftas are embroidered with gray.

Heartrenders are the most valuable soldiers in the Second Army, having spent just as much time studying the human body as healers, except unlike healers, they cause damage. Whether it be slowing down heart rates, or causing muscles to seize, they are not to be messed with. While they cannot exactly turn other humans into puppets, they can definitely make your life a living hell. Their keftas are embroidered with black.

Tailors are rare in that they can come from the Corporalki or the Materialki. More commonly, though, they often spawn from the Corporalki. These Grisha have the ability to “tailor” appearances. From changing hair colors, all the way up to entire bone structures, they often are employed by nobility to keep up their appearances. Though the Second Army prefers to use these skills for espionage. Their keftas are embroidered with gold.

Corpsewitches are extremely rare, in that they only occur when a Grisha survives the use of a rare drug known as jurda parem, which can amplify a grisha’s abilities to an extreme, almost godlike level. However, upon doing so, it will effectively change a Grisha’s natural abilities. Corpsewitches are former Heartrenders who have survived, and, in doing so, can only manipulate bones, and the dead. These grisha do not have embroidery on their keftas, so as to signify their alignment with death.

THE ETHEREALKI

The Order of the Summoners

Subsets (Common): Squallers, Inferni, Tidemakers

Subsets (Rare): Sun Summoning, Shadow Summoning

The Etherealki are a subset of Grisha that study areas of the Small Science focusing on the natural elements. Most commonly, those who show a talent for this often fall into three categories: Squallers, who control the winds, Inferni, who can control fire, and Tidemakers, who control water. Due to the nature of their powers, they train in pairs, and continue to work in pairs in the army after their training. They wear blue kefta.

Squallers are Grisha who can control the winds. They can change the atmospheric pressure around them, create strong gusts of wind, and even storms. Due to there being no water in the Shadow Fold, Squallers often work on sand skiffs to quickly and efficiently get soldiers and refugees across the Shadow Fold. Their keftas are embroidered with silver.

Inferni are Grisha who can summon combustible gases, such as methane or hydrogen. While they need something to create a spark, they are most known for their uses with fire.Their keftas are embroidered with red.

Tidemakers are Grisha who can manipulate water, often through temperature. Most importantly, so long as there's water, they can do everything from boiling water, to even stopping rivers if they are powerful enough. Their kefts are embroidered with light blue.

Shadow Summoners are extremely rare, and incredibly dangerous when well trained. They are Grisha who can manipulate Darkness, with the ability to shape it into tendrils, cast it out to create complete darkness, and even perform The Cut with a far greater ease than any other grisha, save for a Sun Summoner. They wear black kefta, embroidered with white, as they are not Grisha born of the universe but made from experimentation of the past.

Sun Summoners are, like Shadow Summoners, extremely rare and incredibly dangerous when well trained. They are Grisha who can manipulate Light, with the ability to cast it out and effectively counteract anything a Shadow Summoner can do. They also can perform the Cut far easier than any normal grisha. They, unlike Shadow Summoners, were not created by experimentation. Rather, as a way of balance, it’s thought the universe created them to counteract the darkness. They wear white kefta, embroidered with gold.

THE MATERIALKI

The Order of Fabrikators

Subsets (Common): Durasts, Alkemi

Subsets (Rare): Tailors (see Corporalki entry)

The Materialki are a subset of Grisha that study areas of the Small Science focusing on the more composite elements. Most commonly, those who show a talent for this often fall into two categories: Durasts, who deal in solids such as steel, corecloth, textiles, and glass, and the Alkemi, who deal in the likes of poisons and blasting powders. Due to the nature of their powers, they are often not on the forefront of the fighting in the Second Army, and instead focus on creating weaponry and such for the First and Second Army. They wear purple kefta.

Durasts deal in solid materials, often working with their hands to work with any material that is solid at a molecular level. They can do everything from reshape metal to make flowers bloom, or take the pigment from another object. This is where there is a level of blending that comes into how Tailors came to be. In general, they use their work to aid the First and Second Army. Predominantly, they can manipulate the following easily: glass, steel, wood, plants, and stone. Their kefta are embroidered with grey.

Alkemi deal in anything that is bound to be more chemicals, as opposed to solids, doing everything from creating poisons to blasting powders. Often, they work hand in hand with their fellow Durasts in these endeavors. If a Durast can work with a physical, solid object, them Alkemi are the answer to anything involving liquids, or gases. Like Durasts, they often work in the behind the scenes areas of the Second Army, but that does not mean their work is any less substantial. Their kefta have red embroidery.

#grishasteelrpg #previews #this is so long homg

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unbelievableholland · 4 years

Text

Love, Me: Part 3

(Moodboard/cover made by me. Pics from Pinterest.)

Pairings: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Warnings: Anxiety attacks

Words: 3,737

Summary: After the events of Endgame, and the death of the three people you cared most about, will you be able to move on?

A/N: Sorry this took so long! Our exams start tomorrow, so by next week I’ll try to be as consistent as possible with uploading fics because school would be over for me by then. As for the people who requested, they might take a while to make but don’t worry! I promise I’ll get them all done.

~Series Masterlist ~ Main Masterlist~

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When you woke up, you found yourself attached to multiple wires. You felt cold, hard metal on your back and a helmet-like thing on your head. There were thick cuffs attaching your hands, feet, and torso to the metal bed.

It was highly uncomfortable. Especially because the “bed” was slanted. You felt the wires digging into your skin and the metal structure of the “helmet” was pressed against your skull.

The scenario felt very familiar to you. It was always how Bucky had described them except, he had the luxury to sit on a chair instead of lying awkwardly on a slanted metal platform.

You’re not really sure on what they’re planning to do to you, but you had a slight idea on what it was. The obvious one would be mind control. Although, you’re not really sure because if they had kidnapped you for your tech, they wouldn’t be able to know how it worked without you.

And it wasn’t like they could turn you into some Winter Soldier, right? You were a really great fighter but your skills leaned more towards mechanical engineering. If they could somehow make you ten times better at fighting, mind control would make more sense.

But they wanted your tech. If they controlled you or if they erased your memory, they wouldn’t have the advantage of knowing how to operate what they worked incredibly hard on to steal.

Your train of thoughts were interrupted though when you heard a series of footsteps getting closer to the room you were in. They sounded like heavy boots accompanied by several weapons of some sorts. By the way they sounded, they were most likely guns.

Whoever these people were, they had been notified of your consciousness. And as much as you wanted to try and escape, you couldn't.

Not only are you tied to the metal bed, but you’re also paralyzed. It wouldn’t help if you spent a lot of your energy trying to break free when it was clear that you couldn’t.

And for some reason, everything felt different. You couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was, but there was a slight difference in the way the air felt. It was like the atmosphere was suffocating you. Like you didn’t belong there.

The only logical reason you could think of was that you were still trying to adjust to being connected to a bunch of machines; and because you didn’t actually belong there. Maybe it was your brain going insane because of the situation.

When you heard the door open, you couldn’t see who the people were. Your head was staring straight forward and the door was out of your line of sight. They had entered the room and closed the door, then stopped walking.

They were most likely trying to hide their identities or mocking your paralyzed state.

From the right side of the room, you heard a man speak. It was commanding and emotionless, a voice you didn’t recognize.

The words he spoke sent chills up your spine and dread to take over you as the first bead of sweat drips down your forehead.

“Miss Stark. I think it’s time we get acquainted, don’t you think?”

---

“What do you mean you can’t track her?!”

Saying that Bucky was angry would be the understatement of the century. They couldn’t track you. Not even with the satellite you and Tony had created to scan the world for anyone who had the tracker implanted in them.

The satellite was to be used for emergencies only and the tracker was only activated when the satellite was. And now that they were using it, they couldn’t find you. You weren’t anywhere.

Bucky couldn’t bear the thought of you being in the hands of Hydra. Especially when they didn’t even have any clue on where to start looking.

“The satellite says that she isn’t anywhere, Bucky. This isn’t my area of expertise so excuse me for not knowing how to find her.”

Bruce was rarely ever this stressed. He always tried to stay calm in these situations because he believed that panicking or fighting wouldn’t help and would only slow down whatever progress they had.

But at that moment, he was at the brink of having a breakdown. If it wasn’t obvious enough, the young Stark meant the world to them. They had loved her ever since the first time Tony introduced you to the team and they had all made a silent vow to protect you.

The guilt coursing through them now was indescribable. They couldn’t protect you from your own self-destructive behaviours and they couldn’t protect you from Hydra. They failed to be there for you when you needed them the most.

Instead, you were the one to put on a brave face to prioritize their health and safety after the blip and the war.

All of them were scared, but no one was as terrified as Bruce, Rhodey and Happy. Tony had trusted them with Y/N and they had promised to take good care of her.

They loved her to death. Being as clueless as they are now only made them think about how there’s a chance of losing the kid they practically thought of as their own.

After a few minutes of pacing, Happy had had enough. He was breathing heavily and he was trying his best not to pull his hair out. But he knew that freaking out wouldn’t be a good way of handling the situation. The priority was to find you as fast as they could.

But they weren’t really succeeding in that. All they had was a hologram, a letter for Peter and a broken fucking satellite.

“Ok, let’s think about this. Hydra could have stolen her tech. Why kidnap her? And where would they take her? They should obviously know better than to think that Y/N’s going to tell them how this dimension shit works, right?” Sam spoke. He was, by far, the calmest out of all of them. That didn’t mean he actually was though.

“If they have someone like me, it would make sense why they’d kidnap her.”

Everyone turned to look at Wanda as she responded. Her head was hung low and her eyes were glazed over with tears as she tapped her foot against the floor endlessly.

As the realization dawned on them, they all released a shaky breath of worry. If someone were to read your mind, they would know how to take control of your tech and would possibly see the future plans you have for it.

But that’s not what they were afraid of. Once Hydra’s got what they wanted, what would they do to you? After all, you’d be useless to them if that’s the case.

They needed to get to you. Fast. As long as you were an asset to them, you would surely stay alive. God knows what they’d do to you, but at least you wouldn’t be dead.

“Don’t worry too much though. I taught her how to detect and resist mind reading. I don’t know how good she is, but I hope she can at least fight them off for a while.” Wanda continued, nervously fiddling with her fingers. You were like a sister to her, and she was internally freaking out about your possible whereabouts.

Rhodey and Strange, on the other hand, were both quiet. Although Stephen hasn’t known you for a while, he has to admit that he’s grown quite fond of you. Taking care of you was his own way of thanking your father for his sacrifice, and that’s exactly why he’s around the compound a lot.

“Maybe we can trace her suit?” Rhodey suggested. “Earlier in the lab, I didn’t notice her suit, so maybe she brought it with her and—”

“And the wall was closed.” Bruce interjected in realization. None of them knew about the new suit you were building or that you had built a new dimension behind your wall up until they saw the hologram you recorded. “The suit she built— it wasn’t there when we looked for Y/N. Her lab was clean and the wall where she hid the dimension she built was closed. They must have stolen it.”

“We already established that they stole her tech. Why is this important?” Bucky sassed. He wouldn’t usually be like this. Most of the time he was quiet so they were all trying to adjust to this version of Bucky they were seeing. The team understood him though. Bucky has always been very protective of you.

“They figured out how to surpass Y/N’s coding and they figured out how to break into her system. They managed to close the wall and they even broke into Friday.” Bruce takes a deep breath, knowing that the rest of the people there might not like what he’s going to say next. “Who else do we know who’s as familiar with Y/N’s tech as much as Y/N herself?”

“No!” Wanda yelled. “It’s not a good idea if we get Peter involved. Come on Bruce, give the kid a break.”

“I agree with Wanda. I don’t think Peter’s in the right state of mind to handle something like this.” For the first time since they got in the jet, Stephen finally spoke.

“We could try Wakanda? I’m sure Shuri wouldn’t mind helping us. Especially since it’s Y/N.” Happy said as everyone stared at him in surprise. A silent agreement being between everyone being made, determination clear on their faces.

---

Peter felt tears running down his face as he knocked on their apartment. He usually didn’t like it when aunt May saw him cry, but all he could think about now was how much he wanted May to hug him.

He knew that May would be upset by the break-up. May thought of you as family and held you close to her heart so Peter didn’t know how to break the news to her.

May opened the door, the smile on her face disappearing in a matter of seconds when she saw Peter’s tear-stained face. It reminded her of when he had lost the “Stark Internship”.

Peter hadn’t even entered the apartment when he felt Mays motherly arms wrap around him. He instantly embraces May as well, his head on her shoulder as a new set of tears went down his face.

Pulling away, May held her nephew’s hand, leading him onto the couch and hugging him once more as Peter struggled to contain his sobs.

“She’s gone, May. I broke up with her.”

She hugs Peter tighter after a slight gasp, burying her head more into Peter’s neck as she shed some tears herself. If she was feeling heartbroken by the news, she could only imagine how Peter felt.

They stayed like that for a while until she had heard Peter soft snores indicating that he had fallen asleep. A part of her wanted to wake him up to tell him to go rest in his room, but as she looked at his unconscious state, she thought that she’d let him sleep.

Because she knew that when Peter was asleep, he wouldn’t feel the heartbreak. So she’d let him be, and she'd wait until he was comfortable telling her the reason for the break up.

---

Peter woke up panting. His chest was rapidly going up and down and sweat was covering his body. And despite his sweating, the hairs on his arm and on the back of his neck stood upwards.

His head frantically looked around the room, his eyes tearing up and rapidly looking at his surroundings. He didn’t know why, but his senses were heightened and his brain was going a thousand miles per hour.

Everything felt very overwhelming and he didn’t know how to handle it. It’s never been this bad for him before. He felt like he was having a panic attack and sensory overload at the same time.

It was about 5 o’clock when he woke up on the couch with a blanket covering his body. The jolt of what felt like electricity spread all over his body and he was shaking and thrashing around on the couch.

At this point he tears were streaming down his face and his clothes were soaked in sweat. He was crying, and he was sure that he would wake up May.

His theory was proven to be correct when his aunt came rushing out of her bedroom shouting his name and repeatedly asking him if he was ok.

Peter barely felt May gently cupping his face so she could see him better because to him, everything was a blur. His whole body was on fire.

Even when May started slightly shaking him to get his attention, it didn’t work and he was still in pain. He couldn’t see May’s face properly through the tears in his eyes and May was starting to panic.

She didn’t know what was happening to her nephew and she was starting to tear up at the thought of Peter in this much pain.

So, she did the only thing she could think of. She sat down next to him and held his hand, gripping it slightly to try and ground Peter.

She couldn’t do much because whenever she touched Peter’s arm or wipe his tears away, he would flinch back because of how overwhelming it was to feel a tiny bit of friction on his skin.

As May held his hand, she whispered reassuring words to Peter to try and calm him down. It was no ordinary panic attack. Peter had had anxiety attacks before but it was never like this. Whenever his senses would act up, it wasn’t ever this bad.

“Pete, everything’s okay. I’m here and you’re safe,ok? Nothing to worry about.” The tone is her voice was laced with fear as she whimpered those words and her eyes started to blur with unshed tears.

Slowly but surely though, Peter’s breathing was starting to become normal, and his loud cries were starting to diminish. Seeing him calm down put a smile on May’s face. She bit her lower lip to try and stop a sob from escaping her mouth. She had to be strong for Peter.

“Hey, Peter.” she whispered shakily as she squeezed his hand a little tighter to let him know of her presence. Warily, she inched closer to Peter to try and see if it was ok for him. When he didn’t flinch, she moved to pull him into a hug and smiling when she felt Peter’s arms around her as well.

“What happened, Pete?”

“I-I, I don’t know May. Everything just felt too much.”

“Is it your Peter-Tingle?”

He giggled at that, finally feeling his senses return to normal. “I honestly don’t know May. It felt...different.”

When he let go, May reached out to ruffle his hair, smiling at him sweetly before standing up.

“Come on. Back to bed. Looks like you need more rest than I originally thought, Peter.” She put her hand out for Peter to hold on to, and pulled him up to stand.

“I’m not sure I can get back to bed, May.”

“Well, you should. If you can’t, I won’t force you to. Just...call me if you need anything, okay? Let’s talk about what that was some other time. You need to get some sleep.” she smiled lovingly.

“Sure, May. Goodnight”

“Good night. You sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”

“I’m pretty sure I can handle myself.”

“Whatever you say, big guy.” May said before she walked over to her room, giving him one last grin and shutting the door.

Looking at the time, Peter noticed that he had a few more hours until he had to go to school. He didn’t know whether he had it in him to go back to sleep, so he decided to use his phone and mindlessly scroll through his social media until he eventually fell asleep.

It hurt to see pictures of him and Y/N together because for a moment, he had forgotten about the break up. He had forgotten about what had happened less than 24 hours ago. It hurt more to be suddenly reminded of it.

When he saw your pictures together, it brought back good memories that only made him feel pain. He didn’t like how the happy moments of your past relationship brought him heartache. It all felt too much and tears once again filled his vision.

He had ended up crying himself to sleep, hoping that he wakes up to a much better day.

---

School turned out better than Peter thought. Yes, he was still heartbroken but Ned and MJ distracted him enough to get through it. Flash didn’t seem to pay much attention to him anyway as well, which is something Peter found weird but also something he highly appreciated.

He decided to take a break from his Patrols in order to cope a little better, but if he was being honest, he missed going to the compound. He even talked about it with May and she happily agreed, thinking that her nephew should take a well-deserved break.

After about a week, he was feeling good and he found himself getting over you way quicker than he originally thought. Of course, he didn’t ignore the fact that Queens seemed to have missed their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man but he’d be back to his duties after a few more days.

For the first time in a while he was actually having a really great time at school because he didn’t need to think about any of his superhero responsibilities. He guesses that he just forgot that this was life before the spider bite.

But it was also his life before Y/N.

It was weird for him that he seemed to have gotten over you in a matter of 2 weeks and it was especially strange for Ned and May. They knew how much Peter loved you, and his recent behaviors were something they didn’t expect.

They could obviously see his sudden interest in MJ and it was driving them up the wall. They supported him, but they didn’t support how he seemed to act like he was never in a relationship with you.

For Peter though, it’s been a quiet 2 weeks. Save for Flash’s annoying remarks towards him and the… attacks?

On and off for straight two weeks he would have some sort of anxiety attack or sensory overload of some sorts. After the first one happened at their apartment, it occurred almost every day.

He had noticed a pattern to it.

He always woke up in a cold sweat every 4 or 5 in the morning, then everything would get overwhelming at 7 or 8 at night.

But those weren’t the worst parts.

What he hated the most was the pain that he would feel at any time of the day. He once thought he burned his arm during History class and at times he would feel like he got punched. Whether it be on his stomach, his face, his side it would happen randomly.

He hadn’t told May in fear of making her worry, but he had to tell someone. So naturally, he told Ned.

It was something he had been trying to figure out for the past weeks. Something was messing with his senses early in the morning and at night.

It was something he made up to be withdrawal from almost every night patrol to none at all.

But he didn’t know what to think about the body pains.

“Maybe it’s your spider powers evolving?” Ned asked.

He had invited Ned over at his apartment to originally talk about MJ but he couldn’t hide anything from Ned. It was killing him to keep it to himself.

The random aches were getting worse so it might as well actually kill him if he doesn’t figure out what’s happening.

After a few minutes of contemplation, he exploded and told Ned everything. And if Ned was being honest, he couldn’t take the MJ talk. He supported his best friend, but he didn’t think that moving on to someone else when his break up with you was still fresh was a good way to move on so he didn’t really mind the subject change.

“I thought about that, but I’m not even sure if that can happen. And if my powers are evolving, why would it make me have random body pains?” Peter argued.

“Maybe it’s part of the process.” Ned shrugged.

“No, Ned.” Peter slowly stood up from his place on his desk chair and began pacing, his hands gesturing wildly as he spoke. “It feels like… I don’t know! It doesn’t feel like my body’s changing. It feels like it’s coming from external forces. Like that time I felt like I was being electrocuted, or that time where my stomach felt like it was being punched. The worst was when… was when I would feel needles on my skin then my whole body would feel like it was on fire.”

Neds stands up and places his hands on Peter's shoulders, making Peter look up at him with tears in his eyes

“Peter, calm down.” Ned began as he slowly let go of Peter’s shoulders. “Can’t you call Bruce Banner or something? Or— what about Doctor Strange? Maybe they’ll know what to do.”

“It’s not that easy Ned. I’d have to go to the compound and—”

“And see YN?” Ned interjected.

Peter could only look away in guilt. He’d take all of the pain as long as he didn’t have to see you. He opens his mouth to say something, but quickly gets interrupted by his phone ringing.

He grabbed his phone from his desk and looked at the caller I.D and upon realizing that it was Bruce, he answered.

“Hey Mr. Banner! I actually have to tell you something—”

“You can tell me when you get here, Pete” Bruce’s voice was stern. It was demanding.

“Where? At the compound?” He answers, his voice slightly wavering at the thought of possibly seeing you again.

“No. Wakanda. We’ll send Strange and—”

“Wait, wait, wait. Wakanda?! Why??”

There was a moment of silence between the two. A worried sigh was heard through the phone after a few moments followed by two words that made Peter’s heart stop.

“Y/N's missing.”

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A strike through means I couldn’t tag you.

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