Remnant: Angel of Death
Chapter 1: Azrael.
The silence of the night filled the streets of the City of Vale. The silence was nice for the citizens that were tired of the constant sonic contamination that the daily activity of a city used to have. The silence was occasionally interrupted by the sound of the motors of vehicles and people that liked to go out of their house to enjoy their free time before going back to work.
A motorbike stopped in front of a club, the bright yellow carcass contrasted against the dull gray and white of the streets and buildings. Everybody knew that leaving a vehicle completely alone in the street was practically an invitation for thieves but the people of the area knew that messing with the blonde's motorcycle was equal to a visit to the hospital. The blonde took her helmet off and put it on her bike, she shook her head and hair to loose this latter.
Her lilac eyes focused on the entrance of the night club, she secured her two bracelets. Ember Celica was their name, a pair of Dual Shot Ranged Gantlets, they were now on their "rest" mode since their wielder didn't need them at the moment.
The woman walked to the doors of the nightclub and opened them.
The electronic music and the changing lights welcomed her. She didn't waste time and walked towards the bar where she noticed the presence of her target, the man she was looking for was talking with someone else; she was not someone who used to judge people for their appearance but the man that was talking with her target was dressed just like a mafia boss and maybe was, considering the shady business that took place in the club.
Her target was a man that was near two meters tall and bulky built. He had short black hair and a trimmed beard and brown eyes that usually were covered by red sun glasses. His outfit consisted of a black dressing vest, white dressing shirt and black pants with equally elegant shoes. This man was named Hei Xiong but was more commonly named as Junior, the man that knew everything in Vale.
The man that had just finished talking with him had orange hair and green eyes and was not as tall. The man looked at her and lifted his hat with his cane to salute her which was reciprocated. She kept walking until she reached the counter.
The blonde leaned on the counter. "A strawberry sunrise, no ice. Oh, and one of those tiny umbrellas."
Junior had just finished talking with the man and was pleased, all he wanted at the moment was to find an abandoned warehouse that was not in any list or record whatever his employer wanted was none of his business. Junior smirked, that was going to be an easy job even if his employer alone would attract some unwanted attention. He then noticed the presence of a young-looking lady receiving a drink.
The fair-skinned woman looked pretty young almost underage. She had a beautiful bright golden hair and lilac eyes. She wore a tan jacket that exposed her toned mid-riff and a yellow crop top that almost highlighted her cleavage, some kind of black minishorts and a white translucent skirt that covered her rear, over-the-knee orange stockings and high brown boots.
Maybe if he could confirm that she had legal age to drink, he would feel safer but if that was not the case then he had to politely ask her to leave since minors couldn't enter clubs and much less drink alcohol. It was not that he cared about the law that much but people would begin to spread rumors about the club and the last thing he needed was people poking their noises in his matters. Too much attention would be dangerous for his other "business".
"Aren't you a little young to be in this club, Blondie?" Junior asked placing himself near the blonde.
"Aren't you a little old to have a name like Junior?" she replied drinking her strawberry sunrise clearly not caring about the "no alcohol for minors" policy.
"So you know who I am. You got a name, sweetheart?"
The blonde put her finger on Junior's chest. "Yes, Junior, I've got several. But instead of sweetheart you can call me..."
Her finger went all the way down to his lower abdomen and...
"Sir!"
Junior bent over in pain, her hand was grasping his groin firmly and with a lot of strength. Junior's henchmen were quick to draw their guns at the blonde who didn't care at all and just applied more pressure, the men in the vicinity mentally recoiled fully knowing the torture a fellow male was going through. The normal people evacuated the area as fast as they could.
Yang kept on ignoring the men pointing guns at her and took her Scroll out of her pocket. The device separated showing an holographic screen that had the image of a woman. The size of the screen, approximated to that of a smartphone, made difficult for the man to see the image but with what he could discern it was clear that the lady squeezing his...unmentionables was in big trouble.
Just before she could inquiry, the lights of the club ceased working. The electronic music was replaced by a voice; metallic, completely neutral yet the aggressiveness could be perceived.
"Those who wish to leave are free to do so, this matter is between your boss and I. Stay and broken bones will be the least of your concerns."
The blonde didn't release Junior, she activated the flashlight function of her Scroll and was kind of surprised. The henchmen were visibly disturbed and were divided between pointing at her or look around.
"Okay, Blondie, I will tell you everything I know but you have to let me go. You'll be welcomed in this club whenever you want."
Alright, that was weird, whoever talked through the speakers was dangerous and scared Junior to death. The girl let Junior go and he quietly told his men to not shoot her, everyone imitated the blonde's idea and used their Scrolls as flashlights.
"Come on, Reaper, we can talk about this," said Junior.
One of the windows broke startling everyone but the blonde who was not as scared as them. Another window broke then another and another.
The pale moonlight provided poor illumination and the Scrolls were not enough to illuminate a wide area.
Junior and one of the henchmen close to him got shot. The latter grabbed his shoulder and groaned in pain. Junior merely lost his balance and fell to the floor, his aura protected his body from harm but even when the bullet didn't pierce, the impact was enough to completely stun him. What were those bullets made of?
Two other henchmen fell to their knees holding their arms and vocalizing their pain. At that point, the henchmen opened fire regardless if they could see someone or not.
"Jim, did you kill him?"
"I don't think so."
"Come on, guys. Let's leave-"
The blonde opted to do the most logical thing and jumped over the counter and took cover behind it, since she was not the target of whoever was doing that, she could look around without worrying for getting her head blown. She had been in pretty dangerous situation in the past and shootouts; as anyone else, she was kind of worried for the lives of the henchmen that got shot but it was her or them at that moment.
With the loud stoner rock music concealing the sound of the shots the only way to know where they were coming from was spotting the small explosion that firearms had each time a bullet was shot but whoever the shooter was, he was good.
Junior tried to run upstairs which was a bad idea given the distance between him and the staircase, two more of his men fell to the ground groaning in pain. He jumped over the counter and used it as cover. He poked out his head a little but regretted as he watched three of his men getting shot at.
"How does someone that wants you dead manages to get into your club so easily?" the blonde questioned.
"Don't put the blame on me, Blondie, this dude is a shadow."
"Are we going to stay here all night?"
"What do you-"
Bullets shattered the bottles above them bathing the both of them with alcohol. Junior watched how the men that were left either were taking cover, bleeding out or running away.
"My hair!" complained the blonde. "Does this prick knows how hard it's to get the smell of alcohol off my hair and clothes?!"
Another henchmen got taken down by a bullet that pierced his shoulder and the last one got shot in the thigh. Junior cursed knowing that all of his men had fallen already which meant that he was the next target. Just thinking that a fate worse than death was what awaited him if he happened to be at the Reaper's mercy made him tremble.
"Blondie, if you kill him I will make you-"
Yang covered her face and closed her eyes, from a second to another Junior was hit by something and set on fire. Since she was soaked by alcohol, the flames spread faster on her, she jumped out of the counter and rolled on the floor to extinguish the fire. Suddenly, the counter that was on fire was hit by ice that fought the flames.
"With your permission, lady," said a metallic, neutral voice.
A man passed by her and jumped over the counter just to get Junior out of there. The mafia boss was still stunned and confused but his aura had kept him alive.
She knew that the man was no one ordinary and was easy to know that he was the same person that talked through the speakers earlier.
The man was about the blonde's size and she could only think of a soldier and Grimm when she looked at him. He used a military helmet and a skull-shaped armored mask. He was using a bulletproof vest that exposed his midriff; a belt that carried two pistols, one on the right and other on the rear that was...powerful-looking, a thigh bag and had a knife and another handgun on his calves. He wore a military uniform with gloves and boots but without any kind of badge or something that would reveal the manufacturer or army.
All of his clothes and gear were either black or dark gray with exception of the powerful looking pistol that was on the rear of the belt and the one on his calf, those were silver. His skull-shaped mask was black too but it had blood red lenses.
The blonde looked at the rifle he was wielding, it was as black as his outfit and was really cool, her little sister would have jumped at him just to ask about his weapons.
The music died out and the lights went back to normal.
"Do you have a name, lady?" he asked.
"Yang," she answered with her arms crossed. "You owe me an apology."
"Apologies for setting you on fire."
Well, she expected a more sincere tone but all she received was a monotonous one.
Yang was about to say something but the words died in her mouth as she saw the man shooting at Junior twice, his aura flickered dangerously and that was what told the man to let his rifle hanging and punch Junior's face with extreme violence. As someone who was trained on hand-to-hand combat and had punched people before, she could say that the man's punches were destined to destroy their target's facial structure. It only took him two powerful and well-directed punches to the nose to shatter Junior's aura.
He landed another punch and drew his pistol just to pressed it against Junior's throat.
"I am giving you the chance to explain yourself, Mister Xiong."
The light turned back on again, several men had ran towards the exit knowing that even if they were not his target antagonize him further would result in their deaths. Other men had tried to shoot at him but were hit by apparent spheres of wind that put them out of commission. A woman -Yang could tell for her figure- walked towards the man and straightened her posture. She was smaller than him for a head and was using the same outfit although with only the vest and two pistols at either side of her hips.
"Everything is clear," she announced, the same metallic and evidently synthetic voice came out of her but her tone was far from neutral and cold.
"Excellent, watch the exits."
Yang looked around in disbelief, they were acting as if she were not there!
"Hey!" she exclaimed. With her arms crossed, she glared at the man. "I am still here. Who are you two?"
The man pressed his pistol against Junior's groin, any man would cease any resistance if such a vital area was targeted.
"I am known as the Grimm Reaper. My associate is named Brigid."
Well, that was a...simple, direct, and honest answer. He shifted his attention to Junior who had not done an attempt to struggle against the hand that was grabbing his throat and forced him to stay on the ground. The Grimm Reaper pressed his pistol against Junior's eye and spoke.
"Alright, Mister Xiong, you can begin explaining."
"Okay, okay. You have to know that I had no idea about the ambush, I just told you what they told me."
Yang watched the use of violence and frowned for a second. Of course that she had planned to use some degree of violence to obtain the information she wanted but the Reaper seemed to be able to pull the trigger if he got an answer that he didn't like. To distract herself, she sniffed her hair and clothes and sighed, the scent of alcohol was not going to come off easily.
"Since we have had a good history, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Consider your injured men as a warning to improve the reliability of your information sources."
Surprisingly, the Grimm Reaper holstered his handgun and helped Junior to get back to his feet.
"I swear not to take actions against you," Junior said fixing his tie as a way to fight off his nervousness and trembling hands. He had heard histories and watched images of the fate that awaited those who wronged the Reaper but at least he was sensible enough. "Can I help you with something else?"
"The same thing, find Raven Branwen."
Yang's attention was totally drawn to the Reaper, what a lucky coincidence!
"Hey," she called. " Can I talk with you for a minute?"
"You should have left already, I guess your bravery deserves some recognition. What do you want to talk about? Be brief and concrete."
She opened her mouth but was interrupted.
"Alpha, we got problems!"
The Reaper looked at the entrance where Brigid was taking a peek outside. "What is it?"
"Ehh, a gang is coming here."
"Junior, were you expecting someone?" asked the Reaper.
The mentioned shook his head. "No, the only client I was expecting tonight was..."
"I know who was," he said. "Which gang is it, Brigid?"
"They are wearing animal masks, their clothes are rather simple and without sense of fashion but there are others that are wearing with more style, some of them got guns and I think some of them have modular weaponry."
"Huntsmen here?"
"The Vacuan Riders," Junior said clarifying the identity of the ones that was walking menacingly to his club. "They tried to rob me then bargain when that didn't result."
"Guess that didn't go well," commented Yang. "Need a hand?"
The Reaper told her to wait a second with his finger. "Junior, take as many men as you can and go upstairs. We will take care of the unexpected visitors."
"Will you?" asked Junior confused and received a nod from the Reaper. "I will not forget this."
"Me neither."
Junior did as instructed, the gang outside had began to declare what they wanted but the Reaper didn't care at all.
"Regarding your petition, Miss Yang," he said. "I would prefer for you to not get involved in this skirmish."
"Look, you are looking for my mother and I am doing the same. Let me help you now and you can help me later to find her."
He was about to refuse but an idea came to him. "Fine, you can help but make sure to either kill them or break their bones."
"What?"
"We are dealing with savage criminals not purse robbers. I know who they are, they would kidnap you and rape you if they could."
Yang made clear her disgust in her face but she had never been someone to retreat from danger. She punched the air and Ember Celica entered into their battle mode.
"I will make them eat the floor and beg to be back in their wasteland."
"That's the spirit, lady."
He gave her orders already deducing what her fighting style was. It was clear that she was a brawler, her toned arms, legs, and marked abs...Alright, that was not time for that. Her body and weapon of choice exposed that fact to him. She was going to play a simple yet important role in the defense of the club, once all of the gang was inside, she was going to strike with all of her might those without aura, Brigid would take care of the ones with was going to take a sniping position upstairs using the intermittent lights as a cover.
Brigid helped him to reach the DJ's place with a jump powered by her aura and gave him a thumbs up. The holograms, the lights, and the chaos were going to conceal his presence, the suppressor on his Designated Marksman Rifle 417 would give him an even lower profile.
The Grimm Reaper raised his thumb allowing Brigid to let hell get loose. Yang jumped and hold onto one of the lights to ambush them.
"All of you have a last chance to drop your weapons and turn yourselves in. Just death awaits you in this club."
As expected they answered negatively and even mocking as the low self-stem fools they were. They got in without checking the corners just looking at the front thinking that the place had no danger because they could not see it.
"You can't scare us, Junior!" stated the leader who wore a...wolf mask?
"We are taking those guns."
Yang turned her head to see him and smirked when the Reaper gave her a thumb up. She breathed in and exhaled, that was gonna be fun.
As soon as the music began, she dropped off the ceiling. The blonde shot her gantlets to gain more speed and then spun to land on her feet and take advantage of the acceleration to punch the floor, all of her aura went to her chest, arms and legs unconsciously to give them all the strength they needed to perform such a bold feat.
Her aura expanded in the form of a explosive fire-like wave that sent flying the gang and making a small crater on the floor.
"Wow!" she exclaimed feeling the sudden depression of the wooden floor and the concrete underneath.
Brigid jumped onto the first one she saw standing up, the man had dropped his weapon with the unexpected explosion. He was not ready to get a punch-elbow-punch-punch combo to the stomach pit and much less the uppercut that crashed him against the lights and even less the current of wind that turned him into a projectile that violently crashed against the wall breaking it. She punched the air celebrating her success before going to the next one.
The Grimm Reaper had changed magazines taking one with Dustless bullets and took aim. He shot at the ones who stood up first, those were who had aura. The bullets didn't pierce but weakened the aura enough for Brigid to finish them off. She was not taking their lives which was good.
Yang came out of the crater after using Ember Celica to impulse herself upwards and then to change her trajectory to land near Brigid.
"Sorry for making you wait."
"You didn't miss anything, there are still bad guys."
The ones who had no aura stood up ready to fight after coming back to their senses, the girls went on different directions targeting those with firearms. Yang's fist connected with the jaw of one with a shotgun, her elbow broke the nose of the one that tried to stab her from behind and a roundhouse quick broke other two jaws. Locating more threats with her peripheral vision, she propelled herself with her shotgun gantlets towards them. Her attacks had less than the half of their usual strength while in combat and that was due to the fact that her enemies had no aura and a punch of her might kill them, she learned how to control her punches in Combat School yet it was easy to lose regulation when one's survival instinct kicked in.
The Grimm Reaper was silently watching only shooting when it was needed it saving ammo and studying Yang. Besides gorgeous and strong, she was confident and faced danger head-on which was easily deducible by a passive observer with enough combat experience. The way in which she was offensive and dished as much damage as possible with a smile that told everyone that she was having fun, it was quite attractive. Her self-control was praiseworthy as well, with her fighting style and superhuman attributes it would be normal to kill someone with a wrong move.
"Should I call the police?"
The voice in his ear was feminine, artificial. He shook his head and gave a simple "no" as response.
"I'm going to investigate the girl."
The Reaper answered with a "please do" before focusing in the combat completely. Just as he expected, everyone was focused on Brigid and Yang and few had noticed that he was shooting at them. He checked his own Scroll, his allies' aura was in perfect condition and there were no signals of the aura of the enemy. That made sense, awakening and controlling aura was something incredibly hard so it was not a surprise that the gang only had few members able to use it. He got out of his cover and saw how good things were going.
He pressed his earbud. "Brigid, I need you to interrogate some of them."
"We are almost done here,"said Brigid with surprising calm.
Yang easily dodged a shotgun shot and counterattacked with an uppercut boosted by a shot of Ember Celica. Brigid side stepped a curved sword and punched the jaw of her attacker knocking him out.
"We are done."
The Reaper descended with a jump and rolling over his shoulder. Brigid's words were correct, there were no threats. He walked to her and ordered her to interrogate one of them.
Yang was dusting off her hands when the man clad in tactical gear approached.
"You told me something about your mother, I am intrigued."
He pointed at the destroyed bar with his arm and following his command, she used one of the gang members as a chair just like him. The man that woke up and looked what was the weight on his back immediately diverted his gaze and remained motionless, his jaw was broken and teeth were missing so it was better to not anger her. The one that was serving as a chair for the Reaper freaked out when the first thing he saw was a skull with blood red eyes staring at him and pleaded for his life when a powerful-looking handgun was pressed against his head, the person menacing to kill him just gave him a command and since his survival depended on it then better he followed it to the letter.
The Grimm Reaper nodded after the man obeyed and remained motionless. "So, Goldilocks."
"That's not my name."
"I know but it is better for you to keep it a secret. Can you tell me more about this important woman in your life?"
Yang took the hint, he was being cryptic on purpose to protect her identity.
"She has...been missing for a long, long time and I would like to find her and get some answers."
"Is that all?"
"Yep."
"Alright, I can do it, she needs to see you anyways."
"Wow, really?" she asked not believing what she had just heard. "No money or anything else?"
"No, I am not that kind of person and besides, I have enough money to live without problems so asking for a payment will not be necessary."
A neutral, metallic, and synthetic voice with zero movement of his body while speaking, she felt like talking to an android or a zombie.
"Let's leave then."
Both of them warned the men they used as chairs and forced them to run for their lives. In the dance floor, Brigid was manipulating the air to create a vacuum on the man on that was tied by vines that came out of the ground. They watched the torture, Yang felt bad but didn't say anything, finally the man broke and gave them the information they wanted.
After five minutes, Junior and his men went downstairs to meet them. As a sign of good faith, the Grimm Reaper provided information about the gang and tasked Junior to find information about Raven Branwen or the Branwen Tribe for a payment of course. He let Junior do whatever he wanted with the gang members since he really didn't care at all.
"Hmm, sir?" Brigid called his attention once they were out of the club. "What happened to the Malachite twins?"
"I poisoned their food, they went to the hospital to get their stomachs cleaned."
"Wh-What did you poison them with?" questioned Yang surprised.
He took a second to think. "Something you use to clean your house, be not worried, they will be fine by tomorrow."
After they got away from the club -Yang dragged her bike- the trio stopped in a really dark alleyway. Brigid and the Reaper exchanged looks and focused on Yang, she understood the message. None of the reapers had plans for the blonde, while Brigid tried to find a polite way to tell her to leave, the man was more direct which was something usual on him.
"You can leave now."
"I don't want to. Look, you seem to be a good yet violent guy and I have no place to crash in tonight."
Brigid tried to say something but was silenced by his hand.
"I can let you stay for tonight in my hideout but that has its risks."
"Such as?"
"If you ever say something about me to anyone I would have no choice but silence you."
"Hey, I'm a tomb, I will never betray my friends."
"Friends?"
Yang contained her smirk, for a moment his neutral tone changed to one that expressed his surprise.
"Oh, a new friend!" Brigid exclaimed embracing Yang. "It's so nice to meet you!"
"Yeah, yeah, I need air."
The Grimm Reaper sighed, he could already feel Brigid's begging eyes under her mask. If Yang happened to try something he had plenty of ways to neutralize her aura, she was an excellent close quarters fighter but he knew that without aura he could best her even if he had to use cheap tricks.
"Fine. Brigid take her bike and put it on a safe place."
Yang basically used her body as a shield to keep the woman from her most precious possession after Ember Celica.
"No, no, I am taking Bumblebee with me."
"No, you are not. We want to get there before dawn not in two days."
"My baby is a tough girl."
"Brigid is trustworthy, if something happens I will buy you another one with the same specifications."
Yang took an entire minute debating with herself but in the end decided to trust, damn it. Brigid told her not to worry and rode the bike with shocking mastery. Now with her only vehicle gone, she really had no way to move around quickly.
"We are we going," she asked.
"Lower Cairn."
He was about to walk when Yang grabbed his shoulder. "Do you have a real name?"
"The closest thing to one that I can give you is...Azrael."
