Chapter 25: Rebel Roxy

"Be careful, Agent Mamoru, three other exorcists were called in, and all of them have lost contact," a deep voice said from the other end of Gabriel's phone.

"Fear not, sir, I have yet to fail an assignment," Gabriel said, hanging up.

"Cept with Damona that is," Komane laughed in the seat next to him.

"I do believe she defeated you on a number of occasions," the exorcist replied with a smirk.

His familiar donned an unamused look on his face, "yur no fun."

Their car came to a stop outside a very rundown looking house. Its black paint seemed to peel off of its rotting would, most of the windows were either boarded up or smashed out right, the entire house looked like it was on the brink of collapse.

Gabriel and Komane exited the car and took a look at the place.

"Eh, figure's THIS is the kinda place ta be haunted," Komane said, "what's the situation?"

"A Rank, the owners planned to tear this place down to sell the land, that's when the spirit began attacking. Three exorcists were called to investigate however none have reported back," Gabriel answered, "we must approach with extreme caution."

"Don't do anythang reckless, got it," Komane said, igniting his flames. The exorcist pulled from his bag a holy water grenade, both vigilant, the duo entered the run down building and began to look around, "gosh dang, this place stinks."

The lion dog held his nose to prevent the putrid smell of decay from entering his nostrils. The inside of the house certainly matched the outside, decaying walls, stained carpet, holes in the ceiling, everything about this place screamed bad omen.

From another room, Komane began hearing noises, like muffled screaming. He signaled for Gabriel to follow him as they carefully crept to one of the downstairs bedrooms, the screaming continued. After sharing a nod, Gabriel kicked the door down and the source of the screaming was revealed.

Another exorcist, younger than gabriel with brown hair, was tied to a chair with a gag over his mouth.

"Welp, there's one!" Komane said leaping behind the other exorcist, beginning to untie his bonds. The younger man seemed to have seen something, then began to scream again.

Before Gabriel could tell his familiar to ungag him, he heard something at the back of his head, "Click, clack!"

"Drop the grenade," a raspy, feminine voice said as what felt like a pistol was pressed against his skull. He sighed at how they could have possibly fallen for this and dropped his weapon to the ground. The exorcist slowly raised his hands as the owner of the voice said, "turn around, if your familiar tries anything I blow your brains out."

Gabriel slowly rotated, getting a good look at his captor. She was a fiery redhead, her hair falling just below her shoulders, her pale yellow eyes were mostly hidden among her black eyeshadow, along with matching lipstick. On her right ear, an earring of a pentagram hung. Her attire was that of a black trench coat, ripped jeans and sneakers, all of it worn down.

Gabriel looked at the woman in surprise, "Roxanne?"

"Long time no see, Gabe.. and it's Roxy now," the woman said, not even moving her weapon.

"Uh…" Komane looked confused, "y'all know each other?"

"We trained together in the academy," Gabriel said to his familiar, than addressed the woman before him, "I take it the reports were about You rather than any rogue yokai?"

"Heh, you're half right," Roxy said with a snicker, taking a black and red watch pendant from her pocket, using only one hand she slid a medal into its dial.

"Summoning, TOUGH!" the watch chimed.

"Gruff, stuff! ruff, bluff! red bang, checkagstan, bling blang, TOUGH!"

"Bruff!" A lizard-like demon appeared behind the redhead. He had a large upper body, purple, scaly skin, a large yellow pompadour, and very punk looking attire, "ya called?"

Bruff: A rank

Tough

"We've got an exorcist and his mangy dog sticking their noses where they don't belong," Roxy replied, "whaddya say, big bro? Beat the hell out of em?"

"Thought you'd never ask!" the demon said, raising a wooden club covered in nails. As the two began to close in, Gabriel ducked as Komane shot a burst of holy fire over his head. seeing the on-coming flame, Roxy tackled the demon out of the way as Gabriel went for his grenade.

Pulling the pin, the small weapon burst into a cloud of tear gas and holy water which quickly filled the room. Komane took advantage to burn through the second exorcist's restraints.

The younger man leaped to his feat and ripped the gag from his mouth revealing a scowl on his face. Gabriel motioned toward the door, both his familiar and colleague nodded in agreement as the ran passed him, leaving the room. Once they were through, he followed, taking a pouch from his coat and pouring its sandy content across the doorway before taking off.

Roxy groaned as she got to her feat, she turned to the demon below her with a look of concern, "you okay, bro?"

"I'm fine, little gas never hurt nobody," Bruff replied, getting up, "but there gettin' away, we can't lose this hiding spot!"

The demon charged to the doorway, but was blocked by an unseen force. He raised a brow as she knocked on the empty air, fealing something push back against him. Bruff growled as he looked down seeing the line of salt on the doorway, it appeared as if tiny mushrooms were growing along it, "Sacred Salt!"

"Damn it all!" Roxy yelled, "that stuff is impossible to move without a potion!"

"You go on ahead, I'll catch up," Bruff said, moving from the door. Roxy nodded and ran through the door, cocking her gun and shooting at the fleeing exorcists. The brute swung his bat at a nearby wall causing it to collapse, leaving a hole large enough for him to get through.

Meanwhile, Gabriel was narrowly dodging his attacker's bullets. The woman seemed to grow more agitated with every missed shot. Eventually, the group made it out the front door, Komane used his holy fire to block off the house.

"Good work, that should keep them in the house long enough to call for reinforcements," the exorcist said.

Roxy stopped in her tracks at the sight of the flames, she'd seen this tactic before, exorcists would always use it to keep powerful demons in one place until they could get some back up. Lucky for her, she and Bruff had thought of this.

Speaking of which, the brute ran full force towards her, the woman leaped into the air, landing on her demonic partner's back. Bruff continued to charge, crashing through the barricade of flames with not a single scratch. Roxy took aim with her pistol, but was interupted.

"Eh, they can have the house," Bruff said to her, "it's more important we get outta' dodge!"

His partner in crime growled in annoyance before putting her weapon away. Bruff resumed his running, taking off onto the highway and was gone within seconds leaving the two exorcists and Komane dumbfounded.

"Why can't these cases ever be simple anymore?" the lion-dog sighed.

Gabriel turned to the other exorcist and asked, "where are the others?"

"In the basement," he replied, "from what I heard they were planning to skip town after the first of us showed up, but had too much gear in the house to simply leave, they were using it as a base of sorts, lots of shady yokai coming and going."

"I'll call headquarters, tell them to bring a small team, see what they were hiding, you go untie the others," Gabriel said. The other man nodded and re-entered the house.

"So…" Komane started, "who's this Roxy chick?"

"Her full name is Roxanne Hanran," Gabriel replied, "she trained to become an exorcist alongside me until she was expelled from the academy."

"How'd that happen?" his familiar pressed further.

"That demon is her familiar," Gabriel replied, gazing in the direction they had left, "but how did she end up like this?"