AV INPUT // Pollux + Mintha

[Doggo]

[1 Year Ago]

"This one?" a female voice pondered aloud while standing alone on the rooftops of Argus.



"Team Champagne, our mission is this: to uproot the criminal rings in the city of Argus before a Grimm attack occurs." A gruff male teacher's voice spoke. Four youth stood ready to embark with him. The man had intentionally avoided affixing the word again onto his sentence. Typical.



"Nah, not the right mood." the voice continued before tapping the side of the headphones she had on. "Maybe this one..."



"What was that?" a panicked voice sounded over the team's communication system. Screams could be heard from the city outskirts. Their teacher was still in the middle of infiltrating the criminal base. The young adults were to have been on standby to back him up but that was now out of the question.



"Too atmospheric for this." the girl stated before tapping her headphones again. "But then maybe this..."



"Grimm are pouring into the city!" the same panicked voice from earlier called.

"Calm down, we're nearly huntsmen. We can handle this." A calmer voice responded. "Mintha, we need you to cover the Nevermores. Get as high up as you can." came the order. Mintha placed her headphones over her ears with a simple affirmative response. She didn't have time to get upset at the usage of her name.

"Pollux, we need you to keep the streets leading to the town square clear for people to get away." the orders continued. Mintha had checked out the moment she received her orders and barely processed this much. Their team leader would go on instructing the others what to do. But that didn't matter. What mattered were some airborne Grimm who wanted to play with her.



"Man, I listen to that all the time. You gotta have something good for me." Mintha said again as her avian enemies drew ever nearer. She tapped her headphones one more time before a beat met her that she quickly approved of. "Now we're talking. A bit fast but nothing I can't keep up with. Not like I'll be running much anyway." she said with a smirk as the music filled her ears. A small Nevermore took the opportunity to swoop in on the conveniently high placed snack it saw before it. But the maneuver failed as Mintha had jumped and gracefully flipped up onto its back.

"Someone's eager." the girl commented while withdrawing her whip, the length of the weapon still rolled up and kept close to the handle. She let the white length fall to her side as she straightened out the portion closest to the handle with her off hand. "Hope you enjoy yourself darling." came the cold words as she lashed the thing's back. It cried out in pain as it changed its flight path erratically. Still the girl continued. She had a beat to keep up with. Lashing in time was going to be tough. Or it would have been, for an amateur. The grimm began making motions like it intended to spin through the air in hopes of removing the girl from its back but Mintha was fast to act, lashing at the thing's head, the whip securing itself tightly around the throat of the bird.

"We just started, you can't give up now." she sneered as she pulled and tightened the grip. The grimm cried in pain again but unwillingly began turning wherever the girl directed its head. The bird crashed into another of its kind and the duo came crashing down to the top of a warehouse. Mintha had already jumped off before the collision and walked calmly toward her two little birdies. The uninjured nevermore stood to face her before letting out a screech which only proved to annoy Mintha who waved her hand and somehow silenced the noise.

"I don't recall asking you to moan for me." the girl growled, an anger taking over at how uncooperative her Grimm were being. Her casual walk continued regardless. As the birds began to flap their large wings to take to the air again she lashed her whip out at the air in front of her, a literal sonic boom sounding as she did so. The shock wave traveled through the air and hit the creatures squarely in their heads, rupturing their ear drums and interrupting their ascent. It was always the same with these birds. The grounded grimm were more fun to play with because they couldn't get away from her. But these were always trying to just fly away from their problems. The girl wondered for a moment if it would even be worth taking their masks. Still disoriented from the sound, the two beasts charged across the roof on foot to kill the girl before them.

Mintha jumped straight between the two, her whip lashing chaotically in every direction, on beat of course. Both birds received a number of stripes for the affair and one quickly turned around to knock her out of the air with a wing. Just in time the girl lashed beneath her, another sonic boom sounding as she was projected quickly through the air and over the creatures. She laughed as she inserted a container of dust into the bottom of her whip, the length turning a dark blue in the process. A series of lashes let out more sonic booms, this time the waves carried a chilling air with them that caused ice to spread out from the area of impact. The bird's feet were well frozen to the roof they stood on before they could do much of anything about it. Another lash above herself this time and the girl stood on the roof to join them.

"Silly me, I forgot today's safe word." she said with another mocking laugh. All she got in return were a duo of screeches. "Well if neither of you are interested I guess I'll respect that decision." she said as her respect began lashing ice into the wounds it inflicted. The girl took her time slowly tearing apart the pair's wings from every angle. Feathers flew as the icy lashes tore into the bodies of the grimm. After literally tearing the wings apart the two grimm succumbed and keeled over. It seemed they'd reached their limit. How boring. The girl walked to the back of each head and sent a sonic boom tearing through their heads to finish the job.

"Well this is going to suck if they're all like that." she moped and scouted out her next prize. But then it appeared. Just as the bridge of her song hit too. How convenient. It was beautiful really. Amidst these birds barely larger than herself came a nevermore that easily dwarfed the two she'd just killed. This one could really hurt the city. But more importantly, it could probably take a lot more punishment. No need to go too fast the girl thought as she removed the ice dust from her weapon, it's signature white color restored. This bird's screech was more of a roar as it glided over Mintha's position. It hadn't even taken notice of her yet. How incredibly rude.

A couple of shock waves barely grazing its wings were enough to do the trick however. The bird circled about and focused entirely on Mintha. It pounced on her position, tearing its massive talons into the roof of the building. Mintha precisely backflipped several times to avoid the attack before lashing at the bird's leg. With the whip wrapped in place she carried her momentum forward and swung in a large arc to the creature's side before retracting her weapon. Now in the air with it more wild lashes came out, each releasing a sonic boom in beat with her song. The bird was clearly bothered by the impacts but not so readily crippled by them. Mintha began falling and quickly lashed behind her to project herself forward with another shock wave onto a higher roof. The bird took to the air again and went higher than ever looking to take the entirety of the building down.

The huntress in training inserted another capsule into her whip handle and the length of the weapon began glowing green. A pair of lashes aimed at each wing released with the sonic boom a large gust of wind which pushed the creature higher into the air such that it missed destroying the building. In the process the turbulent winds managed to cut at the wings themselves and enormous feathers drifted slowly to the ground.

"Sorry big boy. If we were anywhere else we'd take our time. But seeing as you have the nerve to attack my town we'll have to call it off here." Mintha spoke as if the bird could communicate with her. More screeches were her only reply but it was enough for her. The girl raised her arm overhead and began rotating the full length of the whip as fast as she could, until all that could be seen was a green circle over her head. Sonic booms began firing relentlessly, each with a a blast of wind to accompany it.

Soon a veritable tornado had formed above the girl's weapon which engulfed the large bird, the pressurized air slicing into the creature endlessly from every angle imaginable. It cried out in pain, powerless to fight the turbulent air. It's wings were in tatters, it would never fly again. And still the storm continued. Mintha stopped the spinning of her whip and the tornado exploded outward in all directions, swatting at some of the other airborn grimm. At the sight of their largest falling some of the smaller Nevermores began retreating.

Mintha meanwhile went to retrieve her prize. The large Nevermore had fallen to the ground not far from where she was. It was barely alive but she would see to that. She wrapped her whip around the thing's neck and held it tight before triggering her semblance once more, a near blade of wind decapitating the beast and freeing her whip which she wrapped back up and held at her side. She marveled over the mask she'd have to remove and carry home with them.

"Not bad at all." she concluded as her songs finished. She slowly removed her headphones to check in with her team.

"Hey, you dorks still alive? Or do I get to play with your Grimm too?"

[Jello]

The gentle din of the streets quickly evolved into echoing cries and shrieks of terror. The night sky once illuminated by the moon and stars was now blanketed by clouds. As the darkness crept over the city streets, visages of pure terror and evil soared and scoured the streets. Mothers cried and tore through for their kids, running to the gates. Fathers brandished makeshift weapons, only to find themselves burning the soles of their shoes running to safety as well. Nobody was safe in the town at this rate. But then again...

---

"Nothing that cannot be handled." A line, spoken with such grace it would be difficult not to believe it. "Let us see this through. Shall we?"

---

And the streets quieted. Something shone from far above. They looked up the rooftops to see a beacon. Light. Burning, radiant light. What was it? Was it a star? Was it...

---

"For them, there shall be no requiescat." The voice spoke solemnly. It grew closer. The crowd watched with awe in their eyes, only to be gripped again by cold fear as snarling, twisted darkness soared toward them. Sharper fangs and claws with which to rend would meet the flesh of all.

The beacon of light had disappeared from that rooftop and so despair did set in. The crowd tried to run by their feet could not carry them faster than the harbinger did with its wings of shadow. The Manticore's maw opened wide to feast on its prey.

---

Flash. A bright light blinded all, and before the crowd of people was a silhouette, wielding a shining sword. It was like those warriors that they saw in their fairy tales. A hero standing amidst a radiant dawn as it walked toward evil confidently, clashing so that the world may be at peace once again.

The twisting shadow snarled as its teeth clamped against the great hero's sword, trying to rend it from his grasp only to be met by that evergrowing radiant aura. The star... no, the sun that shone now in everyone's presence was the beacon needed to calm and even inspire the masses.

Finally, the figure managed to pull his shining instrument from the beast as it soared upward, its jaws opening to snarl at the crowd. The people looked at their savior. His head turned slightly, revealing only one thing among his silhouette — eyes of piercing blue stared back. "I will defend the way. Go now to the exit of the city." A small boy ran to the silhouetted figure, hugging his leg tightly. He cried into his leg, sobbing, "But what if y-you get hurt too, mister?"

The silhouetted man looked up to the growling Manticore, now heading toward them. Another flourish of steel and the radiant glow stretched against the street of the city, men, women and child all now watching with wide-eyes as this small, terrified youngin gripped tighter than he ever had to the hero's leg. Through grit teeth, a smile emerged. "The weight of this sword... is the hope of all of these people. I will gladly bear this burden." The boy cried harder, only turning away at the call of his mother's voice. The hero called out, holding the Manticore back only moment's longer. "Now go! Hurry!"

The crowd gathered, hands held and loved ones in tow as they hurried down the street pathway. Standing alone now, basking in the glorious light, was one man.

---

"Pollux, was that you? You really know how to make an entrance. Now, deal with that Grimm, ASAP!" The voice of Team Champagne's leader rang in their comms.

That smile on the white-and-blue cloaked figure vanished as the intensity of battle set in. He drew his blade through the teeth of the Manticore, slicing up the roof of its mouth with a flourish of the blade, kicking off its lower jaw. A short flip back put some distance between the Manticore and Pollux, leaving a trail of opalescent energy behind with each bound and step. The remnant light of his blade remained as the vigil which illuminated the darkness; the blade's echo.

The Manticore soared up again, this time knowing better than to get too close to the sword-wielding man. Instead, it drew in breath before the beginnings of embers began to swirl into his mouth like a vortex, slowly forming into a ball of fire. Pollux's eyes shot wide for a moment. "Seriously...?" He started dashing side-length towards one of the alleys, narrowly avoiding a burst of heat from behind him. Something tells him this wasn't going to be as simple an elimination as before.

Pollux dashed over trash cans, leaped over fences and onto the next street whilst blazing a trail behind him, though the fire itself was not of his own doing. Drawing up his blade horizontally in front of him, he ran an open palm against the flat of the blade til his palm reached the tip of the sword, at which he slammed the tip of the sword onto the ground very much in a golf-like stance. The blade surged with light as he ran toward one of the walls of the buildings across the street, dashing up using the crevices along the wall for footing with each dash, the light trailing behind as every echo remained. Then, as he finally reached the top edge of the building, with a helix twist, Pollux jolted himself off the wall and into the air with his blade in tow, swinging it outward.

The steel itself found no purchase. In fact, the Manticore was still only hovering some thirty or so feet away with its wings flapping in the distance. But in Pollux's eyes there was a glimmer. A shine. The light of the blade surged as from it detached off the sword and flew like a destructive wave of energy. It collided with the Manticore as its mouth opened to create another fireball, causing it to flail out of its form and start throttling toward Pollux's form. With a swift motion, Pollux jammed his sword at the perfect moment the Manticore was flying underneath the gliding Huntsman to catch purchase on the back of the beast. Pollux was surfing along the Manticore's shadowy figure, using his sword to steer the Grimm toward the evacuation site.

"On my way to resume evacuation protocal."

Silence. Then,

"Are you... are you riding on top of a Grimm?"

There was no reply, as Pollux could see the city gates in site. Swarms of Grimm were crawling on the roofs, in the alleys and along the streets. There must have been thirty, no, fifty. Packs of Beowolves were being fended by other Huntsman it seems, slowly thinning the ranks but not fast enough. They'd eat everyone alive at this rate. The soaring Manticore growled, huffing and roaring as the blade slowly diminished its remaining strength. It wasn't flying anymore. It was little more than a husk with its last remnants of negative energy within.

Pollux drew his blade up, the tip of the sword facing the sky as both of his hands gripped its hilt. His eyes shut briefly, then, as they opened, thick veins pulsed from around the eyes' edges, on his upper cheeks and near his temples. The piercing blue from before had a certain pallor to them now. He could see it. The path to victory. Time seemed to slow in his vision as the light built in his blade again. Blue, green, white, red, purple, yellow, orange. The lights shimmered in succession around the edge of the sword, glowing brighter and brighter.

The blonde-haired paladin-type watched the darkness swarm and seethe toward the gate. Mothers held their children tighter and tighter, fathers with little will held out the farthest ends of their weapons as all hope seemed to be lost once more. This was the cycle. Without a hero to protect the masses, it was fear that fed the plight. They smelled fear. The Grimm. So Pollux steeled himself, and would never be afraid again.

"Fear be vanquished, here be thine supposed borne Bravery; in a flash of light!"

Pollux drew his sword back and up, the light culminating now all gold. Then, with a kick, the Manticore's nearly lifeless corpse was sent toward the swarm of black as Keraunos Prima was swung with all the might in Pollux's body. The light of his sword expelled itself in another wave of light, this time much larger and significantly brighter. It was like that of a shooting star illuminating the night sky. The eyes of the crowd looked up to see the light beneath the clouds part the darkness in the sky as their hope emerged once more. A streaking comet of Hard Light drove through the crowd of Beowolves like a bowling ball in an alley full of pins. Ten, twelve, fifteen, nineteen, twenty-two. Nearly twenty-four Beowolves obliterated in an instant as the Huntsman descended to the ground, slicing and dancing around the remaining surplus among a small militia of other dispatched Huntsmen, likely an emergency unit of some kind.

One in an orange-vest approached him, placing a hand on Pollux's shoulder. "When did you join the force? We haven't had somebody on that level in a long time." Pollux dashed and pierced another couple of Beowolves, keeping them at the tip of his blade's length just in case. He sheathed his sword as what remaining Grimm there were had been swiftly dealt a finishing blow and returned to the query at hand. "I am not on the force. Apologies for the confusion. My name is Pollux, I am a student at Haven Academy." The man's eyes widened a bit, a brow furrowed. "A... student?"

There was no reply to his amazement as Pollux simply walked towards the group of civilians, his eyes scanning over their numbers. All accounted... but one.

He could see quickly, there was a missing figure. The boy from earlier. His breath caught. Did he mess up? Had he missed the kid per chance?

Almost as swiftly as the worry ran in his veins, he felt a tug at his leg. The boy was there, tears still flowing as usual. But now, something new was in his eyes. A glimmer of something wishful. Happy. The boy gently tapped the buckle on Pollux's belt, inscribed with a simple word.

His face broke into a smile nearly instantly, the frantic feeling now dissipating as he heard a snide remark from his communications unit.

"Afraid so, Doppler. Well and alive. The evacuation protocol is complete."

[Doggo]

One of the straggling smaller nevermores was going against the flow of its winged brethren. It flew toward the center of town and high into the air. A white cord was wrapped tightly around its neck. Mintha laughed from her vantage point at how easily she made this Grimm do her bidding. That said it was still trying to fight her so she'd have to be rid of her toy soon. But she did take a moment to appreciate the aerial view of Argus. Everything looked like ants from so high up. So far they'd managed to contain the destruction and minimize casualties. But then something came into view. A large something. It was half black and half white and it's long slender body filled the width of the street it was entering at the edge of town. There was a large snake head at either end. This was a rare grimm, and not one Mintha had been expecting to encounter here today.

"Now that's a trophy!" she called out in glee as she redirected her nevermore into a dive bomb above the town square. "Pollux!" she called out into her communication device over the rush of wind from the descent. "Heads up, we got a big one coming your way; a King Taijitu." she continued as the ground came ever closer into view. Just saying the name of the grimm was exciting her more and more. Before they would crash the girl retracted her whip and jumped from the bird's back before lashing at its neck with a sonic boom sounding. The neck snapped in the process and the now lifeless grimm crashed into the ground away from the gathering civilians. Mintha meanwhile lashed once beneath herself as she fell, lightly setting her feet onto the ground not too far from where Pollux was standing with a shockwave slowing her descent. Her whip was now neatly coiled up and held in the same hand holding the handle.

"So what do you say?" she said as she turned and walked toward her teammate. The duo could already hear the rumbling of the large serpent slithering across the town as she spoke. "Care to dance?" she asked playfully as she put her headphones over her ears again. An invitation to fight a grimm with her was not something Mintha extended lightly. But this was a rare opportunity, she couldn't risk messing it up by biting off more than she could chew.

[Jello]

Pollux whipped his sword across the air in horizontal motions, watching as the remnants of Grimm faded from its edge and dissipated in the air. The sound of panic had finally died down and with a few swift orders from the other Huntsman in the area, the evacuation procedure through the west gate seemed to go quite smoothly. Though with the streets emptied, the sound of clattering on cobble had Pollux's attention. His eyes flickered off to catch the view of an airborne teammate, one Mintha Ichos, aptly codenamed Doppler.

The calling of his name alerted to him of her presence though the scene of her riding atop the back of a Nevermore was a sight only Huntsman could claim to behold. He stood there with peered eyes as the glare of the moon shone over the speeding figure, now holding his blade at a halt just in case, but knowing his teammate she'd stick to the landing anyhow. Spectacularly as he could have expected, there she stood with her whip at a coil and awaiting his reply.

Pollux pulled the sword back to its sheath, dropping it into its respective place as he took a couple of steps forward. He glanced once more to the sky then back to Mintha with a warm smile on his face. "I would be honored." The sound of slithering and hissing grew louder as the looming figure of Grimm began to turn its corners and coil the streets toward them. Pollux stretched an arm over his chest to limber up as he asked, "I'll follow your lead." Rather than drawing his sword at the sight of the monster, he shut his eyes momentarily, only to once more open them with veins pulsing at the temple's edge, and his eyes turning that familiar shade of gold as he stared out into the streets. "On your marks, then."

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