#gunvolt au

1. Triad AU

It's the 1800s and everybody* does crimes! (*Not everyone)

Raised in the Fusion Society from an early age, Serena has always had mixed feelings about the child trafficking that her foster father's involved in. One day, she comes across a red-haired street performer that brings dazzling smiles of unbridled joy to children and decides to cut ties with her current life. As she eludes the men sent to retrieve her, she runs into who but the leader of a rival organisation, the Lancers!

This holds the distinction of being the only au that I didn't include pawn in some way or another because I can't figure out where to fit Yugo in (probably why my interest in it has somewhat fizzled out already lmao)

I wrote a short ~500 words fic of Serena announcing her departure to Dennis, Sora, and Yuri (conceptually the latter perpetually seethes about her audacity throughout the length of this au because that's funny)

2. Vampire Knight AU

Vampires and humans learning to co-exist in a boarding school is a genius set-up, thank you Hino Matsuri for giving me undying brainrot (pun intended) through creating this (albeit cursed) manga

Turned into a vampire against his will during a brutal massacre, Yugo curses his fate to be a blood-sucking monster every waking hour. And if his life didn't suck hard enough already, he's also forced to partner with (be the research subject of) a human with a set of morals worse than the most depraved vampire he's ever met. At least that lessens his guilt about drinking blood, because if anyone deserves to be a juice box, it's that smug purple-headed bastard! Life at the academy revolves around humans attending Day classes and vampires attending Night classes, but Yugo begs the headmaster to allow him some semblance of normalcy (denial) by letting him attend the Day Class, in which he dozes off often. Luckily, his roommate, Yuto, is there to poke him awake just enough times for him to pass his classes. Like his cousin Yuri, Yuto is also paired with a vampire through the latter's term in the academy. As one of the last surviving pure-bloods in the world, Yuya is uncomfortably used to his fellow vampires looking at him with undiluted reverence while fending off dubious intentions. The two quickly form a close relationship, a stark contrast to the other two boys that they share a house with.

I'm still deciding between having Yuri and Yuya being seatmates or not because both have their pros and cons (Also Yoko is a human, but is also the Night Class teacher; Yuya takes a liking to her pretty quickly)

Yuto, Shun, and Kaito are part of the school's Disciplinary Squad made out of vampire hunters-in training that patrol the grounds after dusk (to make sure their vampiric classmates aren't running around charming guileless humans into being supper) and Yuri, of course, despite being human has asked his beloved Papa for permission to attend Night Class in order to observe his research subjects in their natural habitat! (He unnerves everyone, but they don't disturb him because the last time someone tried they learnt first-hand that he has an taser whip to protect himself)

3. OCG AU

I've recently posted (how recent is recent?) a compilation post of doodles for this AU then I realised I never talked about the plot so

Childhood friends Yuto, Shun, and Ruri are training hard to join the elite ranks of the Dogmatikan Order. When Ruri doesn't return from her Ascension ceremony, the two defy sect rules to search for her. Yuto comes across a mysterious red-headed boy incarcerated within the inner confines of the Order's keep and...

I know it doesn't look like it but pawn is more of a background ship in this story, counterpart and swift take center stage (because Yuto and Rin are the main characters to me)

When I cooked this up in 2021, I was so desperate to escape from my schoolwork that I ended up making an 15+ chapter outline, here's an excerpt

(Just kidding I do have half a prologue and one chapter written out, one day I'll revisit this for sure)

Oh also, Yuri and Yuya are twins separated at birth

4. Exorcist AU

This one is the multi-series AU, because everyone has one, right!

This started as my 2022 Halloween pawn piece and then over a five-hour midnight bus ride at midnight two months later I decided to make a bad decision that led me to dozing off while queuing up in a theme park in the middle of the afternoon

(Yuto's design is so horribly outdated but I haven't digitalised his new one yet sorry, also shark and kaito heads are by @2-ennn)

In a world ravaged by demons, Yugo has spent his entire life on the tiny island he's called home learning the ropes of exorcism. His life is shaken up when he's assigned to show a visitor around, an exorcist from the mainland with a devilish smile that raises his hackles. He finally drops his suspicions and guard when Joeri sustains injuries protecting him from a demonic attack, and the two become closer... (They even have cute fluffy dates) Well, only until Joeri reveals that it was all staged and that he's a demon (and that his name is actually Yuri) before making off with the church's most prized weapon/artifact/thing/sorry I haven't really decided yet

If you saw my tweet from last year complaining about how I have to write 7 chapters first before I can write about my otp kissing I was referring to this au (joke's on my past self because I skipped ahead to write it anyway)

Yubel, Placido, and IV are the respective leaders of the three factions, but the island that Yugo (and Rin) grew up on is managed by Sherry because man am I hungry for Sherry Yugo sibling-like interactions

I love this AU, but writer's block crashes down like a brick (I've attempted to rewrite Chapter 1 more than two times and I'm still pulling my hair out because I need it to be Perfect)

5. DGS AU

What's up Ace Attorney fans, do I have a fangame in the works for you! It's based on The Great Ace Attorney/Daigyakuten Saiban, but there's no spoilers for it if you haven't played it

I can't talk too much about the plot since I do want to make a playable version one day but I will say that the first trial is defending Yugo from a murder charge (lol)

It's also one of the rare AUs where there's barely any explicit romance(?), only murder and mystery here! (you bet I'm going to write so many allusions for my favourite ships though winky face)

I started writing trial scripts for this but then I got really overwhelmed when looking for a good AA game maker so if anyone has recommendations please send them my way (Ideally they'd have the DGS UI...)

6. Casino AU

The Yuboys are dealers in a casino, and maybe it's a fun goofy little vn (it's a vn)

I have a whole thread on twitter for this one for the drawings i've made, but I'll post some on here so I can ramble a little

It started out as a concept for gacha cards, but then became its own monster (that's currently slumbering)

Originally Reiji was the owner of the casino, but I'm trying my best to include Ray and Zarc more into my aus when I can because I just want more excuses to write/draw my trophy wife (zarc)

this drawing is so old but clutches head i love u4 so much rrrrrrr

I wanted to make little acrylic standees back then (honestly still do a little)

Speaking of little acrylic standees...

7. Rune Factory AU

This one is roughly based on Rune Factory 5, but all you need to know is... nothing, actually; I can't even reference the plot because I've barely played the game myself lol but i just really wanted fantasy farming yuboys

(and then none of the characters ended up being vegetable farmers, even outside of the yuboys)

Harvest Moon/Rune Factory is a game where you live on a farm and eventually maybe marry someone, so one day when I've done all of the full body sprites (pauses and looks to the horizon) I want to make a uquiz that tells you who your destined Bachelor/ette is

It'd be one of the AUs without any 'canon' ships but Ray and Zarc's backstories are kinda tied together so... yup anyway here's a list of things that are true in this AU:

yuya zarc siblings and zarc is a mean older brother

i was going to make zarc the cool mysterious guy that you rarely see but gap moe is one hell of a drug

yuzu and her dad own the grocery store, yuya helms the local inn with yoko, who manages the baths within, zarc opens his diner for business when he feels like it (he's actually so good at cooking), yugo and rin are a blacksmith/carpenter duo, kurosakis have a bakery, though ruri spends her time playing detective, yuto runs the local clinic and sawatari is the town mascot

every monday night, a mysterious phantom thief with orange hair stalks the streets!

the squad that reiji captains serves to fix problems like monster infestations, but they usually have a lot of free time on their hands (well, not reiji) so yuri is constantly annoying yugo and yuto for fun and serena spends her time befriending the girls

ray only returns to town and opens up her flower shop when you defeat the 2nd boss and yuri can be found loitering there often, ray is the only person that makes him remotely uncomfortable

i was going to make yuto the 'protagonist' with amnesia (it's a RF thing) but then i was told he'd be funnier as a doctor (and now I can also give him glasses)

8. Gunvolt AU

Azure Striker Gunvolt is a fast-paced 2D action sidescr-- okay you know what, all you have to know is that the yuboys are villains belonging to a mega corporation that aims to control society through the power of virtual idols and music (yes, this is a real plot point from the original work) and Serena storms their hideout to kick their asses in order to truly free Yuzu (who escaped and was found unconscious in an alley by her now gf) from their clutches

Yuuri: Well, well. Maybe today won't be boring, after all. Serena: Is… Is he in a straitjacket?  Yuuri: I'd really appreciate it if you didn’t talk about me like that to my face, thank you. Serena: If I did, would you move out of the way? Yuuri: If I did, would you free me of these restraints? Rin: That doesn’t seem to be the wisest thing to do. Serena: Yeah. Dream on. Yuuri: Then we only have one choice left, don’t we?

(Yeah I put him in a straitjacket)

The grey numbers are for the design notes I wrote alongside when drawing this, here's a pastebin! (It's not required reading, but I would deeply appreciate it if you checked my rambling out)

Reiji is the final boss for some light AkaSere, but I'm still figuring out his character (and everyone elses', tbh)

The main fun of this AU for me was definitely making parodies of the skill cut-ins! (Yuri's one is due for a remake... I also really need to get around to finishing Yuto and start on Yugo's to complete the set)

Yuya's second one is for when you beat his first form and he uses his last resort to merge with the other three or something (His pose and cape is a nod to Astrograph!)

9. Obelisk Force AU

Okay, before you continue, go and get this song playing in the background first (I will give you a cookie if you read the lyrics too)

Okay, let's go! (with the energy of an excited tour guide)

It'd be an absolute understatement to say I love the concept of Obelisk Force Yugo; one time I made a 10-minute TED talk trying to pick apart why I liked it so much, but back then I still didn't have a good grasp of what my ideal ObeFo Yugo/Pawn was... Until I came across that song on Spotify and asked a friend for help on brainstorming (lost if u see this HI) and the rest, as they say, was history

Yugo is picked up (kidnapped) by Academia at an early age (think like, 5-6) after they witness his duelling skills (Leo really needs LOTS of child soldiers)

they erase his memories then for better assimilation into the academy, though he still retains a sense of stubborn individuality

he's constantly bullied by the other students for being an orphan from the Synchro Dimension, and he gets into fights often

eventually, Leo orders Yuri to take care of the matter (children will be children, but Academia MUST have order)

when Yuri approaches Yugo, he's just finished throwing hands against yet another crowd of students

Yuri attempts diplomacy, even challenging him to a duel, but Yugo is exhausted from his earlier fight and turns him down brusquely, stalking back to his room

Yuri attempts to block his way and gets shoved aside, falling to the ground and cracking his duel disk

he snaps, as the duel disk had been a gift from the professor, and how dare you?

he's beating Yugo half to death when a lightbulb goes off in his head

he proposes to Yugo to personally take charge of his education because he is so gracious and charitable and it's the least he could do for someone who shares his face

Yugo, of course, is completely dumbfounded but faints from a combination of blood loss and fatigue before he can reply no

when Yugo has recovered, Yuri pops the question again, and the two decide to settle the matter through a duel

Yugo loses (duh)

time flies as Yuri teaches Yugo how to stop students from coming back for revenge, among other things (it also helps that the other students are already creeped out by him) and significantly raises his quality of life at Academia which Yugo is thankful for

time skip! Yugo successfully joins the Obelisk Force and promptly unbuttons the jacket instantly (it's a tight fit, okay)

Yugo can feel his serpentine gaze drill into him from where Yuri sits cross-legged on a chair a distance away, his chin cradled thoughtfully in one hand. He waits for a comment, but nothing but silence comes. Finally, he mutters, "What, you're not going to scold me for desecrating the uniform?" A wide smile crinkles Yuri's face. "Not just your wardrobe, but even your vocabulary's upgraded, hm?" Before Yugo can form a retort, he goes on, "Actually, I think I like it." His chair barely makes a sound, muffled by the carpet as he stands up and makes his way across the room. The footsteps stop when teal and magenta are inches away. Lightly, he fingers the lapel of Yugo's new jacket as he rakes a half-lidded gaze from head-to-toe. "It makes you stand out from the others in the Force. And that's fitting. After all..." "You're not the Professor's. You're mine."

One day, Yuri and/or Yugo are sent to capture... Rin! Her picture gives Yugo a sense of deja vu, but he doesn't understand why...

Yugo's memories come back in a flood when he makes eye contact with his old childhood friend that he hasn't seen in almost a decade

The capture is successful, and back at Academia Yugo begs the Professor for the authority to be in charge of her incarceration (In trying to mold Yugo into his shadow, Yuri has unknowingly created a competitor for the Professor's acknowledgement)

Before the Professor can respond, a girl of Yugo's age steps into the room to report to the Professor as a fresh recruit

Leo introduces a brainwashed yandere Ruri as Rin's appointed jailer

Yeah that's right I managed to fit apple and swift in here thumbs up emoji

Anyway it's now a romantic comedy with a love triangle (it's not)

10. Hades AU

No deep thoughts nor any plans for this one it was more of a costume design exercise but I'm including it here because I still like them quite a bit

***

If you've actually made it this far, I don't know what to say... thank you!

     Click, clack. Shhwup 

     The sounds of levers being pulled and switches being flipped echoed throughout the test chamber. 

      Flip, fwip. Murmur murmur.

      Papers shifted around as scientists muttered among themselves about the test plans. They stared out into the rest of the chamber from behind a pane of glass. 

      As they stared it would be easy to see a young boy—probably around 13 or so—hooked up to some kind of machine in the center of the chamber. His head was down, his long white hair covering his face. His purple eyes seemed so… dead and exhausted. 

      “Please… no more…” He quietly said, his voice strained after yelling for so long. 

      A voice came in over the intercom “One more test Takefutsu, then you can head back to your room. We need to see if your control has gotten better, okay?” 

      The voice belonged to Dr. Kamizono. A man known well across Sumeragi for his efficient work on Adepts. He was also… a bit terrifying to work with. 

      Dr. Kamizono stared at the boy with some kind of twisted grin. “The poor monster was already at it’s limit? Hm, how pathetic.” Dr Kamizono thought to himself  “Ah well, any information is better than no information.” 

      The doctor flipped a final switch and the test began. ‘Takefutsu’ tensed as he felt more energy being poured into him. He tried to focus, tried to control it, tried to- 

      The poor child let out a blood curdling scream as the pain started. Gods above it hurt, it hurt so so so bad. Why did he have to suffer like this, why him?! He couldn’t focus like this! Why did this motherfucking doctor expect this out of him?! Why… Why… 

     The white-haired doctor leaned forward, getting as close as he could to the glass. He saw as the boy’s body lost its human shape and became one of pure electrical energy. How fascinating! This was new! 

      “Doctor, we should stop now. The energy is getting too high, it could explode on us!” Kamizono’s assistant pleaded. 

       “Nonsense! We’ve never gotten this far! We must keep going.” The doctor said, his grin getting wider. 

      As the child's hatred and pain grew, so did his power. Growing more and more until everyone’s sight was pierced with  white light as a loud boom echoed throughout the chamber. But as soon as it started, it stopped. ‘‘Takefutsu’s’’ vision faded from white into pitch black, as the power had been knocked out. 

       Unable to be seen by the boy, the scientist's bodies had been slammed against the wall and cooked alive, rendering all instantly dead. 

       And as much as the boy wanted to sit and wonder what just happened, the alarms started to blare. Luckily, because the power was out, he was unhooked from the machine. 

      Grabbing his sunglasses from the table by the entrance, he ran out of the chamber and made mad dashes through the halls. Dodging around guards and sneaking his way to the entrance. 

      He managed to burst through the exit doors and stumbled out, tripping a little on some loose rock on the gravel road. It was a cold starlit night. Running a little bit further, he ducked into an alleyway and slid down the wall. 

      Sitting and out of breath, the purple-eyed boy tried to process all that had happened… He was out… He was actually out! He could! He could… have a normal life…? No, he couldn’t just ignore what had happened to him! What if it happens to others? 

      Standing up with a grunt, he decided that he wasn’t going to just sit around and let Sumeragi do what they wanted. He, Asimov, was going to stop them and take down all non-adepts that came his way. Yeah… yeah that sounded good. 

      As he walked off, a figure stared. A ghostly and ethereal looking figure. They stood tall and looked quite strong. It’s hard to tell what exactly their specific features were, as they had a pale-blue glow around them. You’d have to squint to get a hint of their appearance. 

      They sighed and shook their head 

      “Oh child, this path is dangerous for the mind and soul. I hope you’re careful with it.” With that, they vanished. 

Several years later 

     Asimov had managed to rescue a young boy from a Sumeragi lab. The boy had long blond hair in a braid and small blue dragon wings. He sat at a table, still having broken chains around his neck and wrists. He kept his head down as Asimov walked around the room before sitting in front of him. 

     “Alright, there’s a few options I’m about to give you here boy. You can either stay with us, work with us, be under our protection, and be free like we are, or, go back out to the world and likely end up captured again. What do you choose?” 

      The boy paused for a moment and then quietly said “Do you…promise to protect the adepts that work with you…?” His voice was quiet and uncertain. He tried to look confident in what he was asking but he was still worried. Adepts being treated right was such a rarity these days…       

     Asimov nods, “Correct, though we hope to extend this to outside of QUILL. It’s why I freed you from the Sumeragi labs. No adept should be experimented on like that.” 

      The blond haired boy went silent for a minute or two before saying, “I wish to join you and your group.” 

      Asimov raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised this had worked so well so quickly, and asked, “Why if I may ask? Do you share the same goal we all have? Is it for possible revenge against those who’ve wronged you?” 

      “No, the opposite really… If I continue with only revenge in mind… at that point the only thing I’d be able to do is hate and I don’t want to end up like that.” 

      The white haired man hummed. “Very well then, you are aware you may die at any time by joining us, correct?” The boy across from him nodded. “If you say so, welcome to QUILL my boy. Do you have a name by any chance?” 

      The blue eyed boy looked down in silence, not being able to remember his name… Asimov sighed and looked at the documents he also stole from Sumeragi. At the bottom of this document was the code name “Gunvolt.” 

      “Alright,” Asimov stood and walked over to Gunvolt. He held out his hand to the boy. “Come along now, you’ve got some new people to meet.” He said with a smile. 

      Hesitantly, Gunvolt took the tallers hand and was gently pulled to a new room with two new people. 

      “Moniqa, Zeno, meet our newest QUILL member, 

      Gunvolt.”

     It’s been about four years since Gunvolt joined QUILL. He’s now a 5’3 tall 15 year old, with healthy medium-sized dark blue wings. During his time, Asimov helped Gunvolt harness the power of the Azure Striker. Granted it took a bit of convincing as the poor lad was quite terrified of his power. But that’s besides the point for now. 

     Joining QUILL also meant for the first time ever Gunvolt had a real family. Or at least what felt like a real family to him. He had Asimov as his father figure, Moniqa as the mother figure, and Zeno, the loveable and energetic older brother. 

     Zeno was also the main person that got Gunvolt into a lot of games and shows. It was fantastic bonding for the two. Though Moniqa would get on their cases if the two stayed up too late. The two boys were often trained together as well, which usually ended up being aiming contests that Zeno would start. 

      Speaking of training, let’s go look at one of those sessions, why don’t we? 

     This was one of those more Septima focused training sessions, with obstacles and objectives to better hone the flexibility of one’s Septima. 

      During one of the breaks in this session, Gunvolt looked over at Zeno as a question crossed his head. Zeno eventually caught his gaze and asked, 

     “What’s up little man? Ya got somethin on your mind?” 

     A bit startled Gunvolt answered, “Uh, sorry, I was just wondering… what is your septima exactly? I’ve seen it used but I’m not sure what it is…” 

     Zeno blinked a little and said, “After all these years I’ve never told you?! Damn, I thought I was better than that, heh. Well, basically! I can form these little energy things,” He opened his hand and a small blob of red energy formed “And I can shape it into what I need, like bullets, or grenades and it’ll act like that thing. It’s very useful!” He said with a smile as the energy dissipated. 

      Gunvolt hummed in understanding and fell silent for a bit before asking “Do you… know what Asimovs septima is? I’ve never seen him ever use it if he has one…” 

      Zeno thought for a moment before saying, “Nope I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use it either. I think the only person that might’ve seen it is Moniqa. But he’s pretty secret about that. Dude has his mysteries I guess.” He shrugged. “In any case, let’s get back to training, the scores only 2-1!” And just like that, the redhead shot up and darted towards the training grounds. 

     “Huh- w-wait Zeno!! Wait up!!” Gunvolt called out as he scrambled to his feet and raced after Zeno. 

      Now as you know, change hits us all. Sometimes rather quickly. And for our boy Gunvolt this change was going to be rather… well why don’t we just go watch? 

     Before we get started, here’s what new intel had been acquired. QUILL had found out what plans Sumeragi had when it came to using their Muse, who was a popular cyber idol as her songs could be heard across the country. Because of that they were planning on broadcasting the songs so they'd be able to locate every adept in the country. What would they use that information for? Nothing good that’s for sure. It was quite a loss for Zeno when he found out that The Muse was being used against Adepts, He was a pretty big fan after all. 

They had managed to track down a train that was rumored to be carrying The Muse to its next destination. Gunvolt was to be sent out to infiltrate the train and hopefully put a stop to the “Project Muse.” Let’s see how that’s going… 

      After a small snag with a Sumeragi officer who attempted to capture and interrogate Gunvolt—accidentally giving him some important intel in the process—the boy stood outside the door that led to the room he was just tied up in. He stretched out his wings as he stated the following. 

     “Code name GV, “Gunvolt” here. Sheeps 3, open the line.” 

     Moniqa’s voice came in through his ear piece. 

     “This is Sheeps 3! Looks like you’re still in one piece Gunvolt.” 

     “Yeah, and I got some new intel. The Muse is en route to its new location. I’m gonna bust out of here and resume the mission.” 

    “Please be careful, the chances of this still being a trap is really high.” Moniqa said in a worried tone. 

      Asimovs voice then chimed in through the earpiece 

     “This is Sheep’s Leader. Roger that. GV, resume the mission. Sheeps 3, you catch any new info and keep communication open.” He sounded as stern and confident as ever. 

     Moniqa sighed slightly, “Alright, GV, play nice out there.”

     Gunvolt hummed a little at Moniqas response. 

     “Sheeps 2, change of plans, I want you to be GV’s support.” Asimov said 

      “Hey hey, Sheeps 2 hears ya loud and clear! Sounds like the usual routine.” Zeno replied with a laugh. 

     “Sheeps 2 to Gunvolt, you only have one life dude. Take good care of it.” 

     Not entirely sure what that meant, the blonde responded, “…Roger that. I’ll take the appropriate steps.” 

     “Appropriate st… dude you aren’t picking up on my vibe are ya.” Zeno said with a mild tone of disappointment. 

     Asimov cut in, stopping the conversation from going any further, “Okay, okay, we have a Muse busting mission to restart. Good luck!” The line cut. 

     Pulling out his gun, Gunvolt started to dash through the bronze and black hallway, jumping over random scattered boxes and occasionally blasting the guard robots as they made slow attempts to fire at him. 

    Eventually he reached an elevator. Luckily! The door was open. Unluckily! It wasn’t powered. Hm. The blond stepped into the elevator and looked for any possible way to get this thing goin. He was already late as is. 

    He spotted a generator-like thing on the wall of the elevator. Perfect! With a quick tag and a zap the elevator was moving quickly up. 

    He glanced out the ceiling-length window, dang this was really high up.. was this really where a train was coming out from? He shrugged off the question, it’d be too late to question the intel at this point. 

     As the doors to the elevator opened Gunvolt could hear guards panicking over how he got to the top floor. He could see them start to gather in front of him, weapons at the ready. Well at least there was some variety. 

     With a small stretch of his wings he ran forward, tagging and zapping anything in his way, it was quite efficient really. He dodged his way through the rapidly closing doors as he ducked and weaved around the various guard robots 

     He eventually reached a large pink hexaplye, which must be the last ditch effort at security. It wasn’t really good security as Gunvolt tagged and broke it down with relative ease. 

    Rounding the corner into the hallway he spotted movement through the large windows. Shit, the train was already moving?! But he’d been so fast. Ugh, how to get there now.. Hm wait.. ah that might be a rather stupid plan.. but anything for the mission.

    He took a few steps back and Moniqas voice attempted to chime in with a quick “GV please think about what you’re doing-” but it was far too late. As he ran straight through the window—arms crossed over his face so he didn’t get glass in his eyes—and started falling towards the train. 

    Now he had activated his flashfield and had his wings spread so he was falling slowly and safely. He also couldn’t quite hear what was being said to him through the earpiece, electricity is quite loud that way, but when he landed on the tail end of the train he could just manage to catch Moniqa explaining what he just did and Zeno yelling “What?!” Uh oh.. 

     “Dude!! I literally just told you to be careful with your life and you went and jumped out of a very tall building?! Onto a moving train?! Where is your self preservation?!?” An angry yet concerned voice shouted through the ear piece. Clearly still Zeno.. whoops. 

    “…I’m on the train now so it’s fine right?” Gunvolt asked, hoping his ears weren't bleeding from the scolding. 

    “Duuudeee, whatever- be lucky it’s me yelling at you and not Moniqa, I think she’s too worried about Asimov right now.” Zeno said, followed by a loud exasperated sigh. 

    “I’ll.. count my blessings I guess. I’m continuing the mission as planned.” The blond haired boy said. He stared at the path forward and took a deep breath. He just needed to get to the head, that’s where The Muse was being held. Then he can stop the train and go home. Easy. 

     So off he ran down the train doing what he does best, zappin and blastin. And everything was going great! Well.. until Gunvolt overheard some Sumeragi soldiers yelling about sending out a ‘Mantis’. Whatever that was, it didn't sound good. 

     Luckily—or unluckily depending on how you see the situation—the teen adept didn’t have to wait long to find out! As something scooted up next to him on the tracks, then hopped up onto the train and in front of him. 

      He took a good look at whatever was in front of him and.. oh.. it’s a Sumeragi tank. How lovely. It stood tall with its freshly painted coat of olive green, it’s yellow eyes stared down at Gunvolt. Then it started firing the rockets. Quickly putting up his flashfield to destroy the oncoming rockets, the blonde sighed. Some missions were difficult but this was just getting annoying to deal with. He had never exactly dealt with one of these before either so how was he-

     His thoughts were cut off as Moniqa chimed through the ear piece 

     “Hey GV! If you heat that thing up enough it’ll go down and pop out it’s core to cool off. That should give you an opening to destroy it.” 

     Huh, well, always trust Moniqa to give you the solution to a problem. As the tank attempted to shoot down Gunvolt, he very easily tagged and brought it down. Like Moniqa had said, a yellow core popped out of its back, some steam following it. It didn’t get a chance to get back up as the core was quickly overloaded with electrical energy and broke. 

     Once again Gunvolt was moving swiftly along until he had to duck because a laser nearly burned his entire face. Was that another Mantis? Probably. Did Gunvolt have to deal with it? Probably not. The train car he was on top of did have a door to it so.. down he goes! 

     Now he was immediately greeted with a hexaplye, but that did mean he was getting close to the objective. So after quickly destroying that he went through the other door across the car and into the next one. And everything seemed normal, if not for an unnerving lack of guards. As he walked further in though he noticed something hiding behind a large white crate. 

     Peeking around the crate, Gunvolt made eye contact with.. a kid?! What the hell was a small child doing here?! They stared up at him with their red eyes, the hood of their grey hoodie covering most other facial features. They were curled up into a tight ball, trying to appear as small as possible. 

     “Uhm… Hello.” The child spoke with a quiet voice. 

    “Hi... what... what are you doing here?” Gunvolt asked softly, shaking off most of his confusion. He knelt down to be at eye level with the kid. He could faintly see the tips of their hair being a teal color peeking out from under the hood.

    “I... I don’t know. I got on from a weird building and I don’t know where it’s going and I-I’m scared..” They hugged their sides and looked down. 

    “Okay.. uhm..” Crap... personal feelings weren’t supposed to get in the way of missions but... this was a kid here! Likely no older than ten! He couldn’t just leave them here!!

    ...Screw it, he’ll risk the lecture from Asimov later

     “Alright, here’s what’s going to happen. I still have to stop the train but as soon as it does I’m going to come back and get you to safety okay?” The child nodded. “Okay, stay here until then.” He gently patted their head and stood up. 

     He gave a final wave to the child as he went through the other door to the front of the train. 

     He looked around the room. Lots of computers, a lever to stop the train, and some kind of large machinery. Hm. He wasn’t sure what the machine did but it seemed like it was meant to hold something? Weird... 

     Clicking through some of the computer's files, Gunvolt found nothing that looked like Muse data. Damn. Well... better wipe whatever was here just in case. 

     With a quick zap to the computers, he pulled the lever to stop the train. As he did that though it also cut all lights. Oops... guess that lever did more than stop the train. Eh, whatever. Using his flashfield as a light source, he headed back. 

    Dismissing the flashfield he lightly crouched down in front of the child and gently placed his hand on their head. They flinched a little and placed their small hands on his to make sure he was safe. 

    “Alright, I’m back. Let’s get you out of here now okay?” Gunvolt could feel the child nod. He turned around, kneeling down and opened up his wings. “Climb on my back.” He stated. 

    “Won’t your wings get hurt..?” The teal-haired child asked. 

     Gunvolt shook his head. “No, they’re very strong.” 

    The child hesitantly climbed onto his back, swinging their arms around his neck. He put his arms under their legs for better support. 

    “By the way. What’s your name?” 

     “Uhm... its Joule.” 

     “That’s a pretty name.” He said as he headed out the door. 

     That’s where conversation ended for now as Gunvolt quickly exited the train and made his way to the rendezvous spot, sneaking his way past Sumeragi guards. 

    When he met up with Zeno the taller adept was also confused as to why a child was on the train. But after some talking about where the child should stay for now, Gunvolt recommended the group's shared apartment. Zeno seemed a little hesitant about the idea, worried that the child might end up being a threat. 

    Though after some valid points from Gunvolt, mainly how even if the kid was a threat they’d be able to keep an eye on them constantly, Zeno eventually agreed and passed it forward to Moniqa and Asimov over transmission. 

    Moniqa was all for it and Asimov agreed surprisingly quickly. As suspicious as that was, Gunvolt couldn’t help but smile. He had a new friend! As they headed home Joule revealed that she was a girl with very little memory of any kind of parents or a proper home. The conversation on the way back helped Joule feel very comfortable yet it also made her realize how exhausted she was. 

     As the group arrived at the medium sized apartment, Moniqa greeted them and told them she had already set up a bed for Joule in her room. Joule wanted to sleep so she headed into Moniqas room for the night, falling asleep very quickly. Dinner was also ready so after getting into more casual gear the group enjoyed a lovely meal together and then went to bed. 

      Hm.. how little Gunvolt knows that taking in this small girl was going to change the course of his life. But that’s neither here nor there, as there’s still more to take down within Sumeragi. We’ll catch up on that next time. 

The Adventures of Gunvolt will continue in

Starting with the smol, Joule

And then The Muse herself, Lumen. man those wings were difficult

First up! Gv1

Next up is GV2!

And finally GV3!

First up is the fearless leader Asimov!

Next is our Gunvolt support Zeno! I'm actually really proud of this one

And finally, our communications person and mom figure, Moniqa