Alex was laying in his bed.

He twirled .44 Scratch around, spinning it in a flourish before holstering it once more. It was good to practice that sort of thing. Besides, he was bored.

When he last spoke to Yang, she was surprised that he had managed to defeat Beta, and was thunderstruck when she found out that Sigma helped him. To be honest, Alex was disappointed by the encounter, even though they had killed off Beta, Sigma was still alive. He assumed that Sigma was one of those 'if anyone is going to kill him, it has to be me' types, so he should have his chance again soon.

He was now looking over a map of Los Santos, a thumbtack over a spot in the ocean which he labeled 'EMP'. He knew he would have more missions in getting what he needed, but first, he needed to figure out what it was he needed. A nuke would be very impractical, as would a nerve agent or a chimera virus, he already had enough military equipment to decimate a small army in a matter of hours thanks to Evan.

Alex had heard of 'Atlean Paladins', large mechs made by the Kingdom of Atlas, as that the White Fang had plenty of those. He should consider robbing them for what they had for a few of those.

His cellphone buzzed, who could that be?

He pulled out the cellphone, and saw that Yang had sent him a text, the description was vague.

'Meet me at the top of the Maze Bank, bring your weapon.' it read.

He knew what this was about.

Alex put on his Scarab Mk. III Armor, his Atlean Battle Rifle, and Electric Fury, putting .44 Scratch in a safe spot.

He walked out of the apartment and into the Elevator, he was alone, as usual.

Walking out, he set his armor up for a huge leap that should get him to the top of the tower.

His jump-jets were ready, burning the concrete below as he leaped over his apartment complex. Looking out at the massive view of Los Santos, he saw the shape of a girl waving at him.

Yang.

He set his jump jets to go towards the tower and sped across the sky, skidding into the helipad with ease, putting his BR aside and pulling out Electric Fury, converting into it's sword form and facing the Huntress/Inheritor.

"You called?" Alex asked her.

"Yep! I bet you know why?" Yang beamed excitedly.

"Inheritor training. I remember our deal." Alex answered.

"Okay, then! Let's begin with a simple training exercise!"

"Which is?" Alex asked.

"I need you to go down those stairs, face a wall, and count to 500. I'll be hiding somewhere in the city. After you finish counting, I need you to find me, and if you can, beat me in city-wide combat!" Yang said.

"Wonderful. A game of 'hide and go fight'. Any other rules?" Alex asked.

"No going north of the city's outer limits, no fighting to the death, and no help. You have to beat me yourself." Yang responded.

"Do your teammates know about this?" Alex asked.

"I sent them with Vanoss's crew and Twilight's friends to go hang out or whatever, Kat and Zera are with them." Yang replied.

"Of course." Alex rolled his eyes. He could only imagine the sheer chaos the bartender must be dealing with.

"Okay, get down those stairs and start counting!" Yang ordered.

As Alex stepped down the stairs, he heard Yang clear her throat.

"Yes?" Alex asked.

"One more thing; Hair is off limits." Yang glared.

"Okay then. No hair." Alex shrugged, he honestly didn't pay much attention to his hair, it always got burned off or got snagged in his helmet. He'd respect Yang's wishes, but Alex wasn't sure where he should aim, as her golden locks drifted at least down to her back.

With Alex down the stairs, he started counting.

"One..-" Alex could barely finish before he heard what vaguely sounded like Ember Celica launching the Huntress elsewhere.

"This may take a while."

17 minutes later

"...497...498...499...500!" Alex finished counting. He leaped down from his perch and rocketed towards the ground. He landed hard on a truck, but his Aura took more damage than Alex himself.

Alex looked around. Yang could be anywhere by now!

Was there a time limit? Because this would take damn near forever. The rest of Team Unity would be back before Alex found her!

Regardless, he walked towards a young girl in her twenties.

Yang said nothing about asking for directions.

"Excuse me, miss? Have you seen a girl, long blonde hair, about in her late teens? Small brown jacket?" Alex asked.

"I saw someone like that, but I don't remember where she went exactly, I think I might need something to jog my memory." She insisted, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together.

Materialistic pricks.

Alex handed her $25 cash.

"Yeah, she was flying around in the direction of the LS Customs." She said.

No further evidence needed.

He set his jump jets in the direction of the LS Customs.

----

Alex walked inside the car shop, and waved to the proprietor.

"Hi. Have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, small brown jacket, gauntlets of death, ring any bells?" Alex asked.

"I'm not sure. I think I saw someone like that, but I'm not quite sure..." His voice trailed off, and he rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together.

This again?!

Alex grabbed a $50 out of his wallet and handed it to him.

"Yeah, I've seen her. She said something about an amusement park, wanting to ride a roller coaster or something." He said.

"Thank you for your time, sir." Alex nodded.

"Come again!" He waved.

----

"Excuse me, have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, brown jacket?" Alex asked the guy operating the roller coaster.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." He replied, rubbing his thumb and pointer together.

"Fine, god dammit!" Alex groaned, reaching into his pocket and throwing a $50 and a $20 at him.

"Okay, sheesh! I did see her! Said something about a bar afterwards. She also bought a picture we took of her on the ride and asked me to give it to you." He said, handing him a picture.

The picture consisted of Yang with her hair flowing back, middle finger extended, with the words 'Find me if you can' written on the front.

"Thank you for your time, sir." He said, trying to control his anger.

----

Alex walked into the bar, picture crumpled in his hand, and slammed it on the table.

"Has anyone seen this girl?!" Alex asked, pissed beyond belief.

"I have, but it'll cost ya." A middle-aged man with black hair stated to his right.

"Listen, you. What's your name?!" Alex grasped his collar.

"Michael!" He gasped.

"Listen here, Michael, I've been looking all damn day, with literally everyone I asked demanding a bribe! I'm completely out of money, so unless you want me to beat you on the damn sidewalk, you'll tell me where she went!" Alex seethed. Alex knew well enough that he wasn't usually like this, but Yang's 'exercise' had really gotten to him.

"She said something about a tower..." He gasped.

Alex released him, Michael gasping for breath on the seat.

"Thank you for your time." Alex nodded, but just as he was leaving, he heard a loud boom and something bounced off the back of his helmet.

Alex turned around to see Michael holding a gun up to his head.

He merely grasped his gun hand and punched him in the face.

"As much as I'd love to kick your ass for that, I really don't have time for this crap." Alex said before leaving the bar.

----

Alex landed on the tower to find the woman of the hour standing on the top of the tower, looking over the view.

"About time you showed up!" Yang smiled.

"Very funny. Ha ha HA!" Alex wasn't as amused.

"Upset because you spent the whole day looking for me? Oh well, I'm gonna split." She teased.

"Okay. THAT'S IT!!!" Alex had enough of this crap, and lashed out with Electric Fury.

Yang leaped out of the way just in time and was flying away from him.

"Gotta go fast!" She yelled.

Alex was thoroughly pissed.

"GET BACK HERE!!!" He yelled, leaping after her.

After he had landed on a construction site, he looked around for the Huntress, who was nowhere to be seen.

He peeked around steel frames cautiously, noticing piles of rebar dangling haphazardly above him.

"SURPRISE, BITCH!" Yang yelled at the top of her lungs as Alex was hit hard by Ember Celica.

Right in the face.

Alex reared up an attack and swung with all his might, knocking Yang into a pile of steel beams.

Yang got up immediately after and launched herself at him.

Alex evaded the attack just in time, Yang skidding across the floor and stopping herself with the steel beams nearby.

Alex immediately converted Electric Fury into it's gun form before she could harm him.

She launched shell after shell at Alex, who fired back into the blasts, blowing them up in midair before aiming right for her gut.

The bullet was met immediately by two shells, one to block and the other for Alex.

Alex leaped out of the way, reloaded, and repeatedly shot again and again. Yang seemed to be having a thrill with this fight, and blocked all the bullets with her gauntlets, and went up close.

Uh, oh.

Yang hit him again and again as Alex tried fruitlessly to defend against such a devastating torrent of flame and buckshot.

Once Yang ran out of ammo, Alex's armor was severely damaged, a jump-jet activated and left Alex struggling to balance.

This could work.

Alex reloaded, and leaped into the air with his good leg, the jump-jet causing him to spin and flip uncontrollably, occasionally hitting Yang and sending her backwards.

Yang was fully reloaded. This wasn't good.

She punched out his jump-jet and tossed him aside. Alex grasping his injured leg in agony.

Using his pain, he fired all six rounds at Yang as fast and as accurate as he could, supercharging his bullets with the little Aura he had left.

Yang leaped at him with a rod of rebar and swung it at his leg, she hit it pretty hard and it sent him flying across the room.

Alex had to focus his Aura. His leg was likely broken, as it was bent at an awkward angle. What could he do?

Alex focused his Aura to his bad leg, it glowed a deep red-violet and straightened up immediately with a loud crack, all pain subsided.

"What the?!" Yang asked, baffled.

Alex lunged at Yang, firing multiple shots close and reverting it back into sword form, slicing through her blasts.

Yang hit him hard in the chest, leaving Alex gasping for air.

"Come on, man. Face it, I won." Yang stared at him.

Alex lurched up, facing her.

"Not yet." He gasped, clutching his chest before focusing his Aura to it.

Alex lunged again, a series of punches, kicks, and swings flawlessly meshed together into a formidable attack, Yang could almost barely keep up with him.

And for a final attack, he focused his Aura into a blast of lightning that sent her across the room.

And disabling his temporary sedation.

Alex gasped and screamed in pain, his shattered leg and rib cage were causing him a lot of pain. So much so that he almost couldn't refocus his Aura to his injuries.

Alex remembered his hard landing, that hadn't been a temporary painkiller, it was full blown healing, and he used up most of his Aura into it, and Aura took forever to completely regenerate.

Long story short, he was in terrible pain.

He noticed Yang walking up to him, something sounding vaguely like sounds of pride and encouragement before he passed out.

He felt his Aura regenerating again, rather quickly. He could now heal his disastrous wounds.

Doing so, he staggered up. Grabbing Electric Fury and reholstering it back into it's proper spot.

"Not bad for a trainee. I didn't know your Aura could be used for a painkiller!" She beamed.

"Neither did I." Alex replied.

"Come on, man. Let's get you back to your apartment." Yang suggested.

"Yeah, why not." Alex said, emotionless due to how tired he was.

----

Alex was back in the apartment, watching TV and drinking the closest thing that LS had to offer to a slush. Yang insisted coming over, despite Alex's pleas not to. He just wanted to sleep.

"So, Alex." Yang said.

"Hmm?" He asked.

"I know Kat already talked to you about this, but what's your status, relationship-wise?" Yang asked.

"Single." Alex answered.

"Are you even thinking about getting a girlfriend?"

"Nope."

"What about that incident on the motorcycle?" She asked.

"That was an accident and you know it!" Alex retorted.

"Just teasing you, man. Relax!" She defended.

"Okay, then." Alex said apathetically.

Silence fell upon the apartment complex until Yang spoke up.

"When would be the best time for a date?" She asked.

Alex sighed, staring her in the eye.

"As soon as this mess is cleared up, and that's if I'm stable enough."

Yang seemed a little disappointed. Staring at the TV.

"Why do you ask?" Alex said after a while.

"Huh?"

"About my relationship. Why are you asking?"

"I don't know. You seem cool enough, sure you're a little young, but it's normal for couples to be a year or two apart, unless one is 18, then it's probably not okay."

"So the customs are at least a little similar." Alex notes.

"They're the same in your world?" Yang asks.

"Yeah, pretty much." Alex shrugged.

"What was it like?" Yang asked.

"Earth?" Alex asked, it seemed like a lifetime away now, his old life.

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Yang punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Well, to put it simply, nobody is special." Alex replied.

"Define special."

"Like, nobody had any sort of superpowers, that sort of thing is only in movies and comic books." Alex explained.

"Then how come you were able to activate your Aura, by yourself no less?" She asked.

"Hell if I know." Alex shrugged.

"Sounds boring enough, for you anyway." Yang smiled.

"Earth is a lot of things, peaceful is, under no circumstance, one of them. Why do you think I ran off to Ponyville?" Alex asked.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, rampant terrorist groups, corrupt governments, and hordes of people who are exactly the same." Alex frowned.

"You always felt like you wanted more out of life?" Yang asked.

"Precisely. Lemme guess, you felt the same way at one time or another."

"Not as bad as you."

"Well then." Alex scoffed.

"In all seriousness, that's why I became a huntress, I like the feeling of not knowing where I'll be tomorrow." She elaborated.

"I'd readily trade my job for yours any day of the week. I don't know what kind of jobs you did in the past, but I'm sure none of them involved leaping through universes being hunted by the same assholes 24/7." Alex said.

They continued talking for a while, it was almost one in the morning before Yang left the apartment.

"I guess you want me out of your hair, see you around." She waved goodbye and left.

Alex staggered downstairs to bed, turned off all the lights, and welcomed sleep with open arms, with one last thought.

I literally have the most ridiculous life ever.