Author's Note:-
Finally! For all the people who decided to follow/favorite this fic, I would like to proudly present the 3rd chapter in 'Dead Man Rises'. I will say, despite throwing 2 chapters seeing the response it was above my expectations. You see, Spawn is underrated in general and only those who read comics have mostly heard of him. Most of the Spawn fics I came across were either, bad or mediocre, with only a couple or three doing well. So with this, all my expectations for this fic, despite what it has, were quite low.
But all that can be ignored now. The fic will continue and after a certain point will go into another 'hiatus' as I will continue "Rise of a Ranger" (my RWBY X Power Ranger fic).
With all this, lets begin this new chapter.
His original body. Gone. His original life. Gone. His friends and the only family. Gone. All he had was his soul which he exchanged to the devil to come back. Why? He didn't know.
Qrow wanted to more than just scream at this. He had nothing to come back for. No obsession, no regrets, no love life to make him do such a thing, and no pending revenge anyone may think of. Then why? Why would he sell his soul to the devil just to come back as... as this?
He needed answers. But he can't get them here, not in a cemetery. He picked up his body and placed it properly inside the coffin. It felt weird seeing his own rotten corpse looking back at him, and even more weird seeing his name to confirm it. He picks up Harbinger, his weapon, a shotgun-sword-scythe combo, a weapon which he was a master of, and took a long look at it. Made by his own hands it was something Qrow always relied on even if no one was there to help him in dangerous times. And now here he was, alone, looking at his own corpse, dead to the world and his friends, with no support, only him, this body which was not even his own, this suit, and his weapon in his hand. Making up his mind, he took Harbinger and placed it on the waistline of his back. The costume moved on its own and formed a comfortable holder for the weapon as he placed it there. Qrow mused at himself, "Robbing my own grave. Hehe... what have these days turned me into". With that, Qrow put the lid of the coffin back in and placed dirt back to where it belonged.
He stood up and left the place. There was no point lingering here anymore.
He had answers to search for.
And for that, he would need to find that old man again.
Qrow knew many faces in the underworld of Vale. Being a Branwen had him getting introduced and connected to many crime lords across Remnant. After all, Branwen are a tribe of criminals and raiders themselves. If there was someone who was sure to get him any information about any person to look for, there was only him. Hei Xiong. A man who rules the entire Vale criminal syndicate. The police know him. The Vale council knows him. Authority all over Vale knows about him. The only reason he isn't behind bars is that he keeps the crime level in the kingdom in check and were anything happen to him, a huge void will be created. And it would be incredibly ugly to fill it if that happens. He saw that happen once. Don't ask how.
Traversing throughout the city wasn't exactly difficult. The problem was to keep the stares of people away from him due to his outlandish clothing. Because even though Huntsmen and Huntresses dress like models, his clothes were just too eye-catching. He needed a way to cover his body, and for that, the costume responded to his will and expanded the cape into a cloak and covered his entire body, even his head. With this, people will see him as a poor fellow. Wondering how it all happened, he suddenly remembers that old man's words, the suit responded to his mind and actions. Qrow wondered just what else can this suit offer, and as luck would have it he saw a cat at the top of a tree, while a child stood below looking at the said cat. The kid held his hands out and called out the cat, but the cat didn't respond. Experimenting with this, the suit responded to Qrow's thought and moved its cloaked portion towards the cat, and gently grabbed it.
Qrow didn't notice it, but the cat was scared of the costume, of him. It was a fear in the cat's primal instincts that it moved away from the approaching cape, and when it grabbed it, the cat fought to escape the living costume's grasp. The cape then gently took the cat and released it in front of the child. At the given chance, the cat pounced out of the cape and landed on its owner, and clung tightly to the child with fear. So afraid that it may pass out and die.
The kid thanked Qrow and left with a smile. Caressing the cat and told it that everything will be fine as he got it now. Not noticing what the cat felt.
As for Qrow, he just looked at the cape and went forward.
Hei Xiong Jr., also known as simply 'Junior' was a well-respected man within Vale underground. Not much as his father Hei Xiong, but still enough to keep the criminal empire stable. After all, when his father died he stepped up and stopped all possible gang wars.
Right now, when he doesn't run his empire, he runs his club, "Junior's". A very creative name, but let's not dwell on that. The main thing is that during the nighttime, when he isn't running his criminal empire, he runs his club. As its manager, and a bartender sometimes.
He mixes some alcohol and pours it into a cocktail glass. With a stirring spoon, he stirs the mixture and passes it to a customer in front of him. The customer in front of him says, "Thank you", and takes the glass and drinks it. The day went well and he hoped the night followed the same. Suddenly, one of his bouncers approached him and whispered something in his ear.
Junior's eyes get widen and take a deep breath, 'I just can't get a break now can I?', he thinks and says, "I'll be there". With a nod, the bouncer goes back outside. Junior taps the shoulder of one of his employee bartenders and motions them to his earlier position. Understanding him, they give him space to get out and take over customers waiting at his place.
Junior walks towards the back entrance of the club and exits. Outside, there was a dark and empty alley. With few lights, a garbage dump, and space big enough for him to do his other business. Scanning his surroundings, he doesn't see anyone and patiently waits. Then a male voice speaks, "I'll be damned. You actually managed to prevent a gang war!". Junior turns his head to the source of the voice. Following the earlier spoken line, he could also hear a faint rattling of chains on the ground, and thus the figure reveals himself into the light.
Wearing nothing but a crimson cloak that covered its entire body the figure stood in front of Junior. Junior tried to look at the face of this figure but met with a black mask with white wing-like patterns over green eyes, giving a weird look. Junior, who knew nothing of this person tried to humor him, "Yeah. I get that a lot. People tend to underestimate me a lot". He doesn't understand who this man is and why he decided to talk about something that happened ages ago, but that was something for another day. He asks, "Who are you and what do you want?"
The figure replies, "Oh come on Junior. You surely can't forget about me", the figure approaches Junior, and when it comes close enough, it whispers, "after all. I saved your ass back at Anima"
Junior's eyes widen at this as he takes steps away from the figure. During his early days in his career, when his father ran the empire, he got into some trouble at Anima. That time he owed one person who got him out of it. The problem, the one he owed to was dead. He mutters, "Qrow", as he realizes it, "but that's, that's impossible!"
"It is me Junior", the Qrow insists.
Junior circles him and asks, "You are not Qrow. He died 15 years ago, and I was there at his funeral. I saw the body before it was buried, and I knew it was real"
Qrow replies, "I really can't explain it Junior, but... things happened"
Junior doesn't believe it. He questions, "How can I believe you?"
Qrow raises his arms to explain which reveals them to be covered in red gloves. He raises them and expresses, "Look I just told you about Anima"
"And he could have blabbed it to anyone", the two then circle each other. One gets fed up with explaining and the other is fed up with the bullshit the other spoke. Junior presents, "You can still leave before my mood changes"
But Qrow still insists, "Listen Junior, I know it is hard to explain but it is me!"
Junior grits his teeth in anger and says, "Don't complain I didn't warn you."
And then two women in party clothes came out of the shadows and attacked Qrow. One woman was in white clothing with blades on her feet while the other was in red with claws over her wrists, in looks they were exactly the same, with only their clothing and weapons being the thing to separate them.
They struck down towards Qrow and the same time and would have hit him, but the Spawn's instinct flared and he jumped out of the way to avoid the strike. Qrow rolled and got back to his feet. The cloak still covering him he took a look at the two assailants and recognized them. He exclaimed, "Malachite Twins!? When the hell did you two start working with him!?"
The two walked slowly towards him, and Junior stood behind them nearing the club's door. He mocked, "Looks like you missed a few things while staying inside that grave of yours", and went in.
The twins and the Spawn circled each other. The one scanning the other, and waiting for the other to make their move, for Qrow it would be the two in front of him. His hand hovered over Harbinger's handle, ready to take out at moments notice.
With enough waiting, the twins moved forward and went for Qrow. With the white one leading with a sweep kick while the red one following with a lunge to stab. Qrow on the other hand took the Harbinger out and in its sword mode and jumped to avoid the sweep kick. With a quick movement, he blocked the red one's attack and pushed her back. The white one went back and performed high kicks on Qrow, only for him to block/deflect them with Harbinger. The white one then drew back and gave the way to the red twin. This time Qrow took the moment between the switch and switched to offense. He swung his blade at high speeds and forced the red twin to take a defensive position. He kept it for a time but suddenly he stumbled by accidentally stepping on the cloak he was covering himself with. The red twin took notice of this and sent a powerful strike towards the Spawn. Qrow barely blocked the attack but missed the other twin as she jumped from behind her sister in red and sent a flying kick at Qrow's head.
Qrow stumbled back from the hit and started to get his bearing. The twins on the other hand were surprised that the hit didn't result in a flare glowing against their target's body. They paused their assault for a while and took it as a fluke.
Qrow on the other hand took a look at his cloak with irritation. While in his early alive days he also wore a cape, it wasn't as long or responsive as this one. With a mental command, the cloak shrunk in size a bit and gave him enough room for his legs to move. Looking forwards he sees the twins coming at him. He stretched his neck and got ready for it.
The twins moved in a rhythm attacking the Spawn without giving him any room to attack, and as for Qrow, he perfectly countered every single one of their blows by either blocking it or redirecting it. With this going for a small time, but at the same time, he was forced to go backward. Qrow was looking for a way to turn the tide. Somewhere below his arms, he felt chains dangling around him, this gave him an idea. He took the Harbinger in one hand and countered their attacks with a huge sweep which forced the twins to push back. With his other hand, Qrow grabbed one of the chains and threw it at the red twin.
Seeing the chain coming in her direction, the red Malachite flipped to avoid it. Alas, due to the suit's sentient nature, the chain changed its direction and followed her, hitting right into her face, taking a huge chunk of Aura, and sending her crashing through the wall near her. The white twin seeing the red twin getting hit continued to attack the Spawn. Qrow brought his weapon and clashed with her blades and with his skill, he clashed with her blade and placed both of their weapons into a lock. Qrow then tilted the handle and from the crossguard revealed a shotgun attached to the weapon and fired The white twin not anticipating this, alongside one of her legs being stuck in the lock, got hit by the bullets and sent her back. Qrow followed it by jumping in the air and sending a downward strike. The white twin lost a bit of Aura from those direct hits and staggered back. Qrow stood up and went to continue the attack, but unknown to him, a missile came and collided with Qrow and sent him flying away. The red twin got up and went to her other twin and went towards the new attacker.
Qrow grunted as he got up and noticed a hole in his chest. A deep hole, but not that deep that made others see what's on the other end. 'What the-?', Qrow thought noticing that there wasn't any Aura to protect him, but what perplexed him, even more, was that there was some thick green liquid over the wound. The liquid went over the wound and he saw as the wound started mending itself while absorbing the liquid. Questioning it Qrow pauses as he laid there. He stowed it away, 'I'll have to ask that old man about this when I see him.'
He got up and with Harbinger in its basic sword form he takes a defensive stance. In front of him, was Junior, returning with his rocket launcher-cum-club weapon, and the twins at either side. "Looks like you lost a little edge there Qrow", Junior taunted, and he was sorta right. Qrow wasn't used to whatever this body was supposed to be, and the giant cloak and the chains around him weren't doing any favor to him at all. Junior continued, "you took a very bad excuse to get me", and aimed at the rocket launcher at him. Seeing himself outnumbered, outgunned, and backed against the wall, Qrow commanded the chains around him and sent them to the top of the wall. As the end of the chains wrapped themselves against something to hold on at the top. Qrow jumped and landed on the rooftop, following it he placed Harbinger back to its hold and made a run to get away from there.
Unfortunately for him, the twins followed and quickly made their way to the rooftop and chased him. With no ranged option, the two ran and started closing the gap between them and Qrow. As for Qrow, the chains and the cape hindered his movement, and despite the mental command and the clothing moving on its own, it didn't help him enough. He took Harbinger out and used its shotgun to increase the gap by shooting at the twins.
It worked for a few seconds, but soon, Junior made his way to the rooftops and using his weapon he aimed and locked the target over the Spawn and sent a homing rocket flying at him. Qrow saw the homing missile and jumped into a gap between two buildings, diving into an alley, missing the rocket as it followed him into the alley but collided with the wall above Qrow. The force from the explosion sent Qrow faster into the ground than he intended and crashed into the ground. He grunted as he got up, with pain surrounding his body it became hard for him to do it. Looking around him, he saw shadows in one corner. Seeing the darkness, something inside the Spawn motioned him to go there, and after a slow crawl, he made it and found comfort as the darkness surrounded him.
Junior and the twins made their into the alley and landed near him. Seeing Qrow at the vulnerable position they smirked and lifted their weapons to finish him off.
At that moment Qrow had one thought, and it was to escape and to have some rest. He closes his eyes as the twins approach to kill him. But just as their weapons were about to graze the skin, Qrow vanished as if he melted into the shadows, leaving the trio in confusion.
For a split second, despite his eyes closed, Qrow found himself in a different environment, an environment where his body felt comfort. But just as it came, the feeling left as he felt his body getting gently thrown out and into some other surface. Qrow lifted himself and opened his eyes. He looked around himself and noticed that he indeed was in someplace else.
Suddenly a voice spoke up, "Congratulations. Not many can walk through shadows that quickly", Qrow whipped his head at the source and found the man he was looking for. In the same hobo dress as before and the same look in his eyes, the old man stared at Qrow and smirked.
Author's Note:-
I'll be honest with you all the entire chapter was waayy longer than I expected. Usually, when I write, I write till my heart pleases so it took some time to make me get this fic complete. For those questioning Qrow's teleportation here is something I would like to explain. You see in earlier comics and HBO Spawn, Spawn's teleportation was actual teleportation and was stated to hurt him till he got hang of it, but when in comics Jim Dowing rolled around it was more like dissolving into shadows passing through another realm for a split second and then going out. Don't believe me, read the comics post-issue #152, when Jim takes his gf through teleportation she doesn't feel pain but gets mentally scarred because of the things she saw during her split-second stay in that realm. So I took that route instead.
As for those that are wondering where the meter is (you know the one with 9:9:9:9 which helps in measuring how much power does a Spawn has), that isn't there because it won't matter here with what's to come. That's a twist you will see for yourself. Till then wait for the next chapter as I work on it.
My Discord server:
/cBqgWKArmR