I let out a grunt of pain as a door opened out of nowhere and hit me straight in the face. Dammit! That was amateurish, what kind of mercenary doesn't pay attention to his surroundings? One that isn't going to get paid is what.
Brushing those thoughts aside, I looked up at the culprit, a female demon with brown hair, a red scarf, and attire consisting of a ragged red shirt and grayish pants with long heels. She looked around a little, seeming a bit confused before looking down at me, sclera instantly shifting to red and I ended up getting roughly hoisted up from the ground and into a wall.
"You!" she snarled out, voice filled to the brim with hatred, "Of course it's another two-bit mercenary! You have three seconds to tell me where your partner took my charm before I skin you alive and feed you to the wildlife!"
I instantly raised my arms as best I could into a surrendering action. What the hell was this mad woman blathering on about; I lacked a partner, and my mission wasn't as petty as common thievery, I was hunting down another-wait…
"Hold on! I'm afraid you are mistaken. I was not the mercenary to rob you of your charm, but I am aware of who was, and my mission is to hunt her down for my employer."
She narrowed her eyes at my response, sclera still stained the colour of anger as she opened her mouth to ask,
"Why should I believe you? You may just be trying to pin it all on your partner!"
I held a sigh of exasperation back, now was not the time if I wanted to avoid a useless fight and conserve my energy for my goal. After I formulated the best answer in my head, I said it aloud to her in a calm voice.
"Because with me deceased, you won't ever find that pathetic thief."
She growled at that response, but her eyes returned to normal, seemingly accepting that answer. She dropped me back on the ground, which I landed on gracefully, and turned her back to me. But before I could abscond and continue tracking down the mercenary that had gotten me into that mess, she pinned me to the wall with her tail.
"I'm coming with you, to make sure you're telling the truth, and to get my charm back."
That was not what I wanted to hear.
"No! I work alone. Someone like you would just delay my progress."
She smirked at that, and moved her tail up so that it was under my masked face, then quickly shot it up so that it would have dislodged my mask if I hadn't reacted quick enough to hold it to my face, but she had managed to scratch my chin.
"Don't think you're the only one who can track." She stated as she pulled her tail back to her and put the part with the tiny pigment of blood close to her eyes and bit her finger with her sharp teeth, dropping her blood into mine.
My eyes widened as they mixed and a smug smirk planted itself on her face.
"No sizzle? So you're a demon. Let's see what else I can learn about you."
I growled at her confident tone and allowed my sclera to turn red, but then flicked them back straight after with a defeated sigh. My identity was more important than my pride.
"…Fine, you can accompany me. Just make sure to keep pace with me, demon girl, as I will not wait for unwanted guests."
She just simply rolled her eyes at my remark before jumping up and flapping her wings so that she was slightly off the ground.
"Which way? And by the way, the name's Flamegirl."
Turning my back to her, I tried to pinpoint the exact route I was taking, but that whole ordeal disorientated me, so I clicked a button at the side of my head under my hood which snapped some glasses over my eyes.
The glasses tinted everything in a shade of blue, but made parts of the ground glow a white colour where some kind of ooze was absorbed. In the corner of my vision was a blinking star with only one segment coloured, indicating that it was running low on the necessary magic to run it.
Deactivating it quickly, I started following the trail where I saw the ooze and uttered a quick "this way" to my unwanted acquaintance, who would have followed me anyways.
It was around twenty minutes in when the questions started. Maybe she was bored of following me, and maybe I was bored to, bored enough to answer.
"So why are you a mercenary?" Flamegirl asked in a very casual tone.
"Because it pays well, at least better than my old job." I answered honestly, since I didn't really see a reason not to. It wasn't a very revealing question.
"You have a mercenary name?"
"Yes, it's NeoMutant, after the storm god who used to drown all demons in his rage at being dismissed before he eventually ran out of water and was forced to only make occasional storms, or else he'll perish."
"I know my mythology."
"Well, NeoMutant is one of the more obscure ones, so forgive my rudeness."
She let out a little huff and continued to fly overhead.
Just talking to her made time go by far more quickly than I was used too, and before I knew it, she stopped abruptly hissed out,
"It's them!"
That caused me to stop in my tracks as well, and I slinked down lower, carefully crawling behind a bush to observe them, while Flamegirl just stayed were she was in the air.
Our target was a female, that much I had already known, but from where I hid, I took in some more specific details to mind.
She was a demon, with large puke-y green wings, with some kind of mucus/slime secreting from them, that was what I had been tracking in the ground, and her tail was rather short, mostly lime green skin, but I noticed few tufts of fur the same colour as her wings.
Her outfit consisted of a jacket that matched her wing colour, with four lime green dots that were slightly slanted downwards, and lime green tights with puke green boots that went up to her knees. Her mask was over her head, which retained an animalistic appearance and seemed to be attached to a helmet.
She was too busy studying her prizes, a bracelet with a crystal fireball hanging from it, obviously Flamegirl's charm, and two crystal fangs, the kind of crystal that converted blood into magic.
Making the first move, I shot a bolt of electricity right between her eyes, and jumped out right as she screamed in pain and fell over. She recovered quicker than I anticipated, blocking my lunge with her wing, which I ended up getting stuck too.
"What the fuck is your problem?!" She growled at me, holding one hand close to my face as slime streamed from her other wing into it, forming a sphere.
I closed my eyes to protect them from the inevitable attack when I heard her grunt of pain. Opening one eye, I saw some of her jacket burned off and her attention focused on Flamegirl, who had smoke rising from her hand. A look of recognition struck the slime demon's face as she uttered,
"Hey! You're the bitch I took this from!" She raised her hand that still had the charm and crystal teeth in it, causing the fire caster to growl.
She sent two more fire balls in the foul-mouthed demon's direction, only to have her shoot the slime ball she was aiming at me in the path of them, instantly extinguishing them both while note even being affected.
Flamegirl eyes widened at the ball of mucus that was now hurtling itself righting at her, and dodged quickly to the side. Landing on the ground, she flared her wings out in a threatening manner, and pointed her tail at our direction. Without her charm as a backup, it would be foolish to continue using her magic in this battle, especially with how ineffective it had been.
The slime demon just grinned evilly at the challenge she was presented, and curled her wing in front of her to reveal me, still stuck to it.
"Just try me, and see if you fair better than this jackass." She taunted, tail swishing mockingly.
Seeing an opportunity, I stomped down right on her tail as it sung under me, causing her to cry out in pain and stiffen out her wings at her side, leaving her unprotected face wide open.
"NOW!" I yelled as loud as I could, and shielded my eyes from the flurry of fireballs being sent directly at my captor. Once the entourage had ended, she staggered backwards, before a final kick from Flamegirl sent her sprawling on her back, unconscious. As she fell, I did too, which caused the victorious demon to laugh.
She strutted closer to us, and picked up her charm from the floor and tied it to her wrist, which glowed as soon as it touch her skin, and restored the magical energy she had lost from the battle. She left the fangs alone, instead turning her attention to me.
"Now how are we going to get you unstuck?" She pondered, eyes examining my situation carefully.
I let out a sigh and stood up, albeit a bit awkward since I was bringing up the entire weight of another demon with me. Luckily, that seemed to strain the slime attaching me and her and just remained by tendons.
Shaking my arm slightly did nothing, but a familiar shape passed through my vision and sliced through the remaining slime, freeing me. I looked up to see Flamegirl looking disgusted at the pieces of slime that were now sitting on her tail after she used it to cut me loose, but then quickly looked up at me and smiled.
"Seems I was wrong about you, thanks." She held up her charm in front of her face for me to see before adding, "Since I got this back, I guess I'll leave you alone now."
My heart started beating faster at her words. I realized that I didn't want her to leave, being a mercenary was rewarding, but it also was lonely. That wasn't only it, my heart yearned for her. I had managed to fall for her during our excursion, and now she was going to leave me.
"Wait!" I pleaded, causing her to turn around and give me a funny look.
"What is it…" She responded, her tone a mixture of annoyance and confusion.
"Didn't you feel it, a spark between us?" I snapped my fingers, sending a little spark flying off of them. "I wish to ask you to become my partner, mercenary work is lonely, but with you, it never will be again."
Her steady gaze transformed into a serious look and she walked right up to my face and stated,
"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested, in you, or the job."
Her refusal and blatant lack of consideration angered me, and I uttered right back, in my most offended tone,
"How can you refuse me like this? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you're tossing it away! You're tossing us away!"
She snarled and pushed me back, causing me to almost trip over the unconscious mercenary behind me.
"There never was an 'us'! Now, I'm not interested in throwing my life away to become a scumbag mercenary, now leave me alone!"
And then she flew off, not waiting to hear a response from me. Curling my hands into fists, I held back a yell of frustration and punched a nearby tree. Turning my head to look at the fangs, I picked them up and started the long journey back to my employer. The long, lonely, journey…
Flamegirl let out a cry of frustration when she saw a neatly tied up scroll on her kitchen counter. Ripping the thread binding it closed off, she unfurled it and quickly skimmed it over before throwing it into the trash.
It was another letter from NeoMutant. He had been leaving her these constantly since she had refused his offer. They mostly consisted of tales of how jobs went and how much better they would have been with her, but sometimes it was just straight up begging, and she was sick of it.
Taking out a pen and grabbing a piece of paper and wrote him a letter for whenever he decided to show up uninvited while she was out, that the basic gist of was "fuck off asshole", and she hoped he would get the message. He didn't.
Increasingly frustrated attempts included leaving the ashes of his previous letters along with it, using vermin traps, and one that included a land mine with a very controlled explosion, all of which never succeeded in telling him she wasn't interested.
One afternoon, after she had spent the entire morning renovating her bedroom, she saw him in the act of leaving another scroll and a bouquet of crimson roses. Not wanting him to get away with this shit, she lunged forward and tackled him the ground right as he turned to depart, causing a small grunt of surprise to escape his lips. Flamegirl aimed her tail hook at his exposed eyes and struck it in that direction, which would have successfully blinded him, if he had not sent a bolt of electricity into her chest, more of a reflexive action than anything, which sent her crashing into a table.
Looking at his fingers with an expression of pure shock at his actions, he didn't notice Flamegirl use this opportunity to fire a flurry of fireballs at him, which all made contact, badly burning his orange attire and causing a scream of agony from him.
Getting up, she spun her tail around and knocked of his mask with it, before he could recover, and he instantly moved his hand to shield his identity, lowering his guard once again, which Flamegirl took full advantage of and kicked him in the side, sending the electric demon toppling to the ground.
Using her hooked tail, she pinned the hand that was not covering his face to the floor, and stepped on his side, actively preventing any chance of escape.
One of his eyes was visible, and they were tainted red, revealing that he was feeling threatened or enraged. Pushing the palm of her right hand in his face, she started generating a fireball in it, which caused his eyes to widen in terror, before he closed them in order to protect them from the heat and light of it.
Moving her head so that her mouth was right beside his ear, she harshly whispered,
"Leave me the fuck alone, I'm not interested, never was, and I will spare your precious face from third degree burns."
Witnessing the nod of his head, she moved off of him and watched as he bolted out the window, not being able to resist shooting one more fireball at his back, which resulted in a satisfying yelp of pain.
Turning her head, she looked at the scroll and flowers, before instantly incinerating them, with a victorious look. He had finally gotten the message.
He didn't truly get the message though; he was just waiting for an opportunity to win her affections.
To get her back.
A/N: I realize reading this won't make much sense if you haven't read The Terrain of Magical Expertise: Freak, so, go do that. Anyways, here's another story for blackrosemimi's Heaven and Hell AU! If you haven't guessed by now, most of the hackers are mercenaries, working for others to get paid, not that much different from the actual show. I did add a new item, crystals, the one that Flamey was trying to get back stores magic and supplies you with it during a fight. Its use is for in case you get into a big fight, you have extra magic to keep you going longer, but most demons don't wear them casually since they require the wearer to input magic into them to store, and constantly doing that would get annoying. It's a really expensive item, especially since they have to be attuned to a specific element. Also, I bet you're wondering what the blood thing was about, well, since demons fight each other all the time, blood I bound to get spilled, so it mood mix like ours do, but angels are different creatures with different magical properties to their blood, so I decided that they wouldn't mesh well at all. But hey, this is getting long so let me talk about the actual story! I remember from TOME that Flamey and Neo worked on a project together before he became infatuated with her and I did my best to incorporate it here. Also, don't ask about the mythology thing, I just needed a backstory for that name since it's ridiculous.