To Love An Angel
Disclaimer: I do not own Burst Angel. Hell, if I did, do you really think i'd be writing fanfiction?
A/N: Well, it's that time again. Time to thank all you wonderful readers for your reviews. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be writing.
renny-chan: I'm so very glad that you like this story. It's reviews like yours that really drive me to keep writing. Please review more often!
minceo: Thanks for the compliments, good to know you like my stuff. I don't know yet if Meg will get done by Maria. We will just have to see. And yes, I am going for a more sinister story. Thanks for being a dedicated reviewer!
angel prototype: Another dedicated reviewer! If you're hoping for some feline tail whooping in this chapter, then I dont think you're gonna like the ending. Thanks for being a fan.
And now, on with the story!
"Hey Linda, check this out!"
Crouching down in one of the many alleyways in the slum district of Shibuya, a young man beckoned towards something that had caught his attention. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as his companion, a blonde-haired woman, picked her way through trash and grime towards the place that was being indicated.
"Ew, what is it?" she asked, peering over her friend's shoulder to get a better look.
What the pair were looking at was a pile of dirty, bloodstained clothes. The scraps of cloth appeared to have once been a shirt and a pair of jeans, but it looked like someone had taken a knife to them. The material was torn and ragged, and any emblems or logos that were embroidered on the garments were so soaked with blood that they were unrecognizable. As Linda studied the ruined outfit in morbid fascination, the male reached out and picked up the jeans.
"Put that down Josh, that's gross!" exclaimed the blonde, pulling a disgusted face.
"I'm just checking for cash" replied her companion, stuffing his hands into the pockets. Coming up empty, he threw the pants away and proceeded to pick up the shirt. As he did so, something inside the garment fell out of one of the tears in the fabric and hit the ground with a wet thud.
Linda screamed.
Lying at the feet of her male companion, the bloodied, severed head of a dark haired youth stared lifelessly up at late afternoon sky. The face had been horribly disfigured with many cuts and lacerations. An eye hung limply from the left socket, and a portion of the skull had been carved away, allowing brain matter to ooze onto the ground. Josh recoiled in horror, hurriedly discarding the shirt and jumping several feet backwards.
"Oh my god...oh my GOD!" shrieked Linda, trembling in shock and pointing a shaking finger at the grisly sight.
"Hurry, call the police" instructed Josh, trying hard to avoid throwing up. Linda nodded, turning her back on the horrible scene and pulling a cell phone from her pocket. She began to dial the numbers, but a shout from behind momentarily caught her attention.
"What's wrong?" asked the blonde, spinning on her heel at the sound towards her friend.
What she saw petrified her with terror.
Being suspended several inches above the ground, Josh choked and gasped for breath. Holding him by the neck in the air, a gore streaked, matted haired woman grinned maniacally up at the struggling male.
"P...please...don't...k...kill...me" gurgled Josh, eyes wide with fear as he pleaded for his life. His tormentor grinned wider, exposing long canines. Before he could beg again, the woman growled in bestial triumph and sank her fangs into her victim's jugular. Josh spasmed as the woman savagely tore away a chunk of flesh, sending a spray of blood fountaining skywards. Swallowing the warm meat and dropping the twitching body on the ground, the unknown female turned her mad gaze upon Linda.
"N...no...don't...please" stammered Linda, walking backwards so as to keep her eyes upon the blood spattered killer who was slowly advancing towards her. Suddenly the blonde felt herself bump into the alley wall behind her, and she knew then that there would be no chance of escape. Throwing her hands over her head and screaming at the top of her lungs, Linda watched as the other female lunged towards her. Pain exploded in her chest as the killer plunged a clawed hand through soft flesh and brittle bone, seizing Linda's beating heart and wrenching it from her body. Then all went black.
The blonde woman was dead before she hit the ground, which meant that she didn't have to see Takane messily devour the still pumping organ.
The bedroom door burst open with a thunderous crash.
Jo sat up sharply, reaching for the guns that she kept on her bedside table. Meg squealed in shock and tumbled out of bed onto the floor.
"Morning sleepyheads," chirped an annoyingly happy Amy, "time to wake up!".
"God damn it Amy," moaned Meg, picking herself up off the ground and rubbing her head, "what have I told you about knocking?".
"This is important," stated the little girl, running to Jo's side of the bed and dragging the yawning gunfighter to her feet, "Sei wants both of you".
Jo didn't complain as she was pulled along behind her youngest companion, throwing a glance over her shoulder to make sure that Meg was following. Amy led the two out into the kitchen area of the camper truck, where Sei sat patiently at the dinner table. After depositing her sleepy cargo opposite the raven haired leader, the brown eyed little girl ran to fetch her laptop.
"What's this about?" asked Meg, sitting down beside her silver haired friend and giving Sei a quizzical look.
"I received a call from Bailan early this morning," replied the older woman, "we have a job".
"Job?," asked Jo, "what kind of job?".
"A search mission" answered Amy, scampering back to the table with her plush toy computer in tow. Sitting herself down beside Sei and opening the device, the little girl began to rapidly type on the keyboard as her older friend explained.
"Have you heard about what's been happening in the Shibuya district lately?"
"You mean those disappearances?," asked Meg, "the one's on the news?".
"Exactly," confirmed Sei, nodding her head, "people have been going missing in Shibuya over the last few weeks. Two more people disappeared yesterday. RAPT refuses to do anything about it, so Bailan wants us to do some investigating".
"Why is Bailan interested in these disappearances anyway?" asked Jo bluntly.
"Because," replied the older woman, "it's suspicious that RAPT isn't taking action, which means that something might be going on. It will be your job to find out what that something might be".
"So, where exactly in Shibuya are we meant to look?," asked Meg, perplexed, "I mean, Shibuya isn't a small place. We could be there forever!".
"I can give you that information" answered Amy, looking up from her computer and turning the device towards her friends. On the screen, a map of the Shibuya district was displayed. Here and there, little red crosses were scattered across the map, congregating in a central region.
"What do these crosses mean?" asked Jo, pointing to one of the little marks at random.
"These indicate where the missing people were last reported to have been seen, either by other people or by security cameras," replied the little girl, "most of the crosses appear to be located around some sort of abandoned factory".
"That seems as good a place as any to start looking," remarked Jo, getting up from the table and heading back towards her room, "I'm going to get changed. If we leave now, we should be able to get there late this afternoon".
Meg also rose from the table and followed the gunfighter. As Sei watched both women depart, Amy turned towards the dark haired leader.
"What do you think they'll find?"
"I don't know," answered Sei, running a hand through her hair, "but whenever we take a job, it usually turns out to be something bad".
The run-down factory stood large and ominous in the dying light of the sun.
Jo pulled her jacket tighter about herself as the air around her became chillier with the onset of evening. Meg stood beside her, shivering with the cold, her outfit not designed for warmth.
"Well, this looks like the place" stated Jo, taking in the site of the rusted building. Meg nodded in agreement, too busy rubbing her hands together to generate heat to answer. Not taking any notice of her friend's discomfort, Jo strode through the open doorway of the factory.
The interior of the building was even more foreboding than the exterior. With no light to speak of, the room in which Jo stood was swathed in darkness. Here and there, she could see overturned industrial drums and rotting cardboard boxes. The place smelled of decay, and it felt like a million pairs of eyes were watching her every movement.
"This place is creepy" muttered Meg, who had followed the gunfighter inside and was now standing off to Jo's left. The silver haired woman ignored the comment and wandered around the factory floor, her blue eyed friend keeping close so as to not get lost in the gloom.
"Eeeeeew! I stepped on something and it moved!" whined Meg, latching onto Jo's arm and burying her face in the other woman's shoulder. The crimson eyed female took a private moment to enjoy the physical closeness between herself and her friend, before a sound from above jolted her into alertness.
"What was that?" asked a visibly frightened Meg, tightening her grip on Jo's arm. The gunfighter put a finger to her lips to indicate silence and peered up into the rafters above her. She couldn't see anything, but she was sure something, or someone, was up there. The sound was made again, this time coming from off to the left. The silver haired female moved towards the sound, keeping her eyes on the ceiling and putting an arm around Meg so as to know exactly where she was. Suddenly, a blur of movement to the right caught Jo's attention, making her pivot on the spot and draw her Desert Eagles, only to find nothing there.
"Something's in here," remarked the gunfighter, glancing left and right, "and it's playing with us".
Letting her hands hang limply by her sides, Jo turned around.
And came face to face with a blood streaked, grinning monstrosity.
Instinctively, the silver haired woman brought her guns up. She wasn't fast enough, however, and she was sent flying backwards by a thunderous blow. Pain flared in Jo's abdomen, and she realized that she had been hit by a powerful right hook.
"Jo!" shouted Meg, running towards her friend and kneeling down. The gunfighter picked herself up, using the red head for support, and turned to face her attacker, ready to deal out revenge.
But shock stopped her dead in her tracks.
To her disbelieving eyes, standing in front of Jo, stood Takane.
"T...Takane?," asked Jo, completely caught off guard, "But...how...you were dead!".
Takane paid no notice to Jo, instead focusing her mad gaze upon Meg. She took several steps forward, causing Meg to whimper and move behind Jo for protection. As the sun outside began to set, light spilled in through one of the many broken windows on the factory wall, briefly illuminating the interior of the building.
Jo stared in shock, and Meg gasped.
Standing before them was not the Takane that both women used to known. This version of their friend had hair that was much longer, and matted with gore. Her once white coat was now tattered and dirty. What appeared to be patches of fur could be seen growing on her arms and legs, and her canine teeth had become longer, growing down past her bottom lip. Most shocking of all, the back of the woman's head was now replaced with a clear dome, and something within it pulsed rhythmically with a sickly, green glow.
"What the hell happened to you?" asked Jo, half raising her guns as she tried to comprehend the sight in front of her. In response, Takane hissed dangerously, leaping a full twenty feet straight up in the air to land on one of the rafters in the ceiling. Hissing again, Takane scampered along the rafter, disappearing from sight as the sun outside sank lower, once again covering the room in darkness.
"W...was that..." asked Meg, pointing at the spot where the other woman had just been standing.
"Yeah, it was," replied Jo, studying the roof again, "and I think she's the reason why people have been going missing".
The pair began to walk the factory floor again, this time knowing what they were searching for. Now and again, Jo heard Takane moving about above her, but she could never quite pinpoint exactly where the other woman was.
"Let's get out of here, Jo," stated Meg, trembling with fear and tugging on her friend's sleeve, "we can come back in the morning when it's brighter. She'll still be here".
Before Jo could reply, a heavy weight landed on her chest, sending the gunfighter sprawling to the ground. Her guns fell from her hands and clattered away into the darkness. Staring down at her, Takane grinned maniacally, baring her fangs. Jo kicked the other woman off her, buying her time to stand up. Takane fell to the floor, but sprang to her feet instantly and leapt at the silver haired female. Jo barely had time to dodge a blow from Takane's clawed hand that would surely have taken her head off had it connected, stepping back out of the way. The police woman wasted no time, she again lunged at the silver haired female, this time landing a hit on Jo's shoulder. Both fabric and skin tore as Takane's razor sharp claws found their mark, and Jo grunted in pain. A second swipe was aimed at Jo's head, but the gunfighter stepped back out of harm's way again, narrowly avoiding another deathblow.
"Damn, she's so strong and fast" muttered Jo under her breath as she fought to survive. The pair of combatants battled on, Takane launching one blistering attack after the other, Jo moving backwards to avoid danger. As the crimson eyed woman dodged yet another powerful strike, her foot connected with something hard and metallic. She glanced downwards to be greeted by the sight of one of her Desert Eagles. Briefly, Jo thought that she now stood a chance.
But that thought didn't last long.
The second Jo's eyes wavered away from her opponent, Takane struck. Catching the gunfighter by surprise, the police woman sent an almighty shot into Jo's chest. The force of the blow was so powerful that the silver haired woman was sent flying through the air, only to stop suddenly as she collided with a wall. Takane roared victoriously as she watched blood explode from Jo's mouth, the gunfighter sliding down the wall to land in a crumpled heap on the floor.
"Oh my god, Jo!" screamed Meg, sprinting towards her companion. She didn't get far as Takane interposed herself between the frantic red head and her defeated friend. Meg screamed as her former friend grabbed her around the waist. Throwing the girl over her shoulder, the brown haired woman cast a final glance at the vanquished form of her foe before loping away.
Jo could do nothing as she watched Takane escape, Meg beating her fists against her kidnapper's back and sobbing for her crimson eyed friend. Then the gunfighter's vision swam, and she sank into darkness.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait between updates everyone. I'm kinda suffering from the effects of a christmas/new years bender (oooooh, my head...). Anyway, thanks for bearing with me. So, what will happen to Meg? Is Jo alright? What the hell is going on? Hopefully some of these questions will be answered in the next installment of To Love An Angel! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Please keep 'em coming. Knowing that there are people out there reading my work really inspires me to write.
Until next time!