Authors Note: Fixed a few typos, next chapter should be out today or tomorrow.
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It was a good night for this job. Not too cold, not too warm. Slight wind, clouded sky. Shen strode into the alley, long grey cloak blowing around him. Peering into the open street to make sure no one was there, he pulled on his mask. A simple mask really. The only especially remarkable thing about it was that it was fashioned out of pure silver, into the style of a plague doctor, with a long beaked nose. The edge of the right eye pointed down, the left pointed up. As he put on the mask, he was no longer Shen, average citizen of Republic city. When the mask went on, he became the Sterling Raptor. Or just the Raptor as he was better known. While the everyday citizen of Republic city had nothing to fear from him, as well as "good" guys, he was a triad member's nightmare. Not a vigilante per say, more an assassin. An assassin of the people. He was who the detectives went to when they couldn't bust a triad leader. When the triad leaders were too bad to be put in prison. They didn't know who he was, and they didn't care so long as the job got done, with the target as the only fatality. He never said a word, they never saw beneath his mask, only sapphire eyes staring back at him. If a target was acceptable, he would nod his head, and exit the room. He would do the job, and pick up payment at the pre disclosed dead drop location. Easy, simple, effective. Tonight's target would be easy enough, Tokran "the Typhoon", head of the Red Monsoon triad. Charges: murder, rape, grand larceny, unlawful use of bending, littering, and generally being the type of person who didn't deserve to live. His sentence: death, outside the law. Shen would make sure the sentence was carried out.
After having secured his mask, Shen stepped out into the empty street once more, pulling up the hood and face cover of his cloak. He brushed the inside of the cloak with a steel clad hand, greeted by the familiar feeling of the many metal feathers layered inside of it. Standing beneath one of the taller apartment complexes in the area, Shen sent a grappling cable up to the top of the service ladder leading to the roof, pulling himself up with his metal bending. Walking to the other side of the roof, he looked around for the building his target was hiding in. It wasn't hard, as Tokran wasn't exactly hiding. The red monsoons were hold up in their leaders mansion, thinking they were safe, and throwing a party no less, having paid off the police. Little did they know, the bribe money went towards Shen's pay. And Shen also wasn't the police. Stepping to the edge of the roof, Shen readied himself for the rush of what was to come. This feeling never got old. He straightened his arms, and his cloak split into two at double overlapping velcro seams each just off center, the feathers inside bristled and stiffened holding tight against his arms. With a stomp of his foot, the same happened to the feathers inside the tails of the trench coat he wore beneath the cloak, forming a shape similar to an eagle's tail feathers. Spreading his arms to either side, Shen jumped off the building. His metal wings provided enough stabilisation in the air to keep him from falling, and with his metal bending, they could be flapped a few times per flight to provide minor lift. Shen soared towards the Red Monsoon mansion on his steel wings, landing in a roll just a quarter of a block away. As he walked towards the building, he observed where the guards were stationed. One at the main gate, that was just sloppy. Other sentries stood watch on the balconies, but they didn't seem very attentive, more focussed on the party that was going on in the mansion behind them. With the astonishing lack of security, and his advantage of metal beats water, the leader of the Red Monsoons would feel the Raptor's claws without much trouble.
"Hey pal, this ain't no masquerade, Red Monsoons only. So scram." Was the greeting the gate guard gave Shen as he approached the mansion. Shen continued forward. "Buddy, I'm not warning you again, scram. Or you'll regret it." With the second warning, the triad member summoned a large shard of ice from his waterskin, ready to skewer Shen with it, but Shen continued forward still, in eery silence. "You asked for it freak"
As the triad member launched the ice, Shen rushed forward, batting the projectile aside with a steel wing. "Shit, the Falc-" was all the guard got out before Shen's steel clad fist connected with the side of his head, sending him into unmoving dreams for the night. The briefing he had been given before his first contract flashed into Shen's mind.
"No fatalities besides the target, unless absolutely necessary. Understood merc?" The director of the contract was greeted with the silent nodding of Shen's head.
Moving back into the present, Shen hurriedly dragged the guard into an alleyway, out of sight. Coming back to the gate, Shen plucked a feather out of his cloak, and bent down to examine the lock. Bending the feather into two pieces; one into a tension wrench, the other into a pick, he knelt down to observe the lock. Platinum, to be expected, which is why he had fashioned the lock picking tools. Positioning the tension wrench, he inserted the pick and felt around. Three, four pins max, no mushroom pins, maybe one security pin. This wouldn't give a skilled locksmith like Shen any trouble. After a minute or so of fiddling, the padlock popped open with a satisfying click, and Shen quietly undid the chain keeping the fence closed. Moving in the shadow of the gate and towards the main building, Shen stealthily made his way to the side of the building, where fewer sentries were posted. Grappling up to a high level balcony, Shen gave the guard posted there the same fate as his friend from the gate, and hid him behind the balcony curtains. Shen looked around and noticed that he seemed to be on the private level of the mansion. Good. Triad leaders often retreated to their bedchambers to do less... Savory things at these sorts of parties. Shen walked down the hallway, towards a door at the end. The lights in the room were on, and shadows could be seen underneath. Creeping up to the door, Shen pressed his ear to it.
"I'll show you just how big of a monsoon I can make babe" cam the sleezy voice of Tokran. The only reply was. The whimper of another voice, assumably a woman, was the only reply.
As much as Shen didn't like it, his target was occupied it seemed. He had an element stronger than earth and metal on his side: surprise. Throwing the door open, Shen was greeted by the distinct smell of strong alcohol, and cigarette smoke, and was greeted by the sight of Tokran pinning a half undressed woman against the far wall. Shen sent a feather flying into the wall next to Tokran's head. Shen always gave his main target somewhat of a chance. Before he ended them. The woman screamed in shock, and Tokran whirled around, dropping her in surprise.
"Shit! B-but I payed of the polishe!" Tokran slurred at Shen, summoning a drunken water whip from his canteen.
"I'm not the police," Shen scoffed at his target, taking care to disguise his voice, disrupting the water with a wing as he strode forward, "I am your worst nightmare, I am the Falcon." By now, Shen was at arms reach of the terrified and drunken triad leader. Slowly, Shen pulled another feather from his cloak, bending it into a point at the end. He sent it flying, aimed between the sleezy triad member's eyes. Just before it made contact,
"B-B-BRRRRRRRIIIINNG!"
Shen sat straight up in his bed, fumbling for the alarm clock on his night stand. "I hate those dreams." Shen thought, still waking up. "I gave that life up. I do things the right way now" glancing. At the clock again, he read it. 6:30, Shen was proud of himself getting up on his first alarm today. He'd have time to actually eat and groom himself before work today. And he was glad. "It's not everyday you celebrate half a year of bein' a cop", his coworkers had told him. He was looking forward to the coupon for Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, as was a customary gag gift for beat cops to receive on their half a year, for sure. What he was looking forward to more was what Beifong had told him at the end of his last shift.
"Detective branch has an opening kid, and you have a spark. Com by my office before your next shift on your half a year. Maybe we can get somethin' more than a noodle coupon, hm?"
If Shen had learned something in his half a year of being a beat cop, it was that the chief didn't joke, especially about business matters. Shen was glad. He was doing things by the book now, helping people as the law permitted. He couldn't go back his other life. Not after his final contract.
Pushing thoughts of the past out of his head, Shen hopped into his faulty shower to wash up. After drying off, he dressed in his uniform, securing his silver wrist guards. His own personal effects. He insisted, what use was being a metal bender not on the elite team otherwise? He liked to have some metal constantly on him. His supervisor was cool with it, and it helped him do his job. After remembering his apartments hot plate was busted, he looked around the long rotted cabbage and other assorted spoiled foods for some komodo chicken he brought home a few days ago. It was still good, probably. And it didn't need to be warmed up. Maybe if he got a promotion, he could afford a better apartment, and food that didn't taste so bad it's only purpose was to spoil in his refrigerator. That would be nice. Gulping down the last of his food, Shen straightened his hair, and headed out the door for the station. Things were looking up for once.
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Authors note: hello people! Hope you enjoyed that. This story by no means means that my other story, As the Hourglass Turns: Book 1, Ignition, is abandoned. I just feel like it's good to get my other ideas out as well, and space things out a bit, and it helps my creative process. Also, I've had the premise for this story for a while too. Be sure to review, and follow if you liked it. As always, have a great day people!