Remnant: Angel of Death
Chapter 9: Heist (I)
Azrael looked over his shoulder making sure that no one had followed him. He moved his hand near his lower back where he could take his gun and shoot if was necessary, he waited for a couple of minutes and fortunately he had not been followed.
He combed his hair back and fixed the buttons of his vest and jacket and got in.
The meetings he had to attend to were usually held on abandoned houses or facilities either far away from populated areas or rumored to be haunted by vengeful spirits. Some of them did have gheists and other minor Grimm but never a true ghost not even a poltergeist, that truly was disappointing. Now he was heading to the basement with his pistol raised on a 45 degrees-angle and covering each room in case of encountering unwanted guests or something else, most homeless people and drug addicts ran away at the sight of a gun.
Why the basement you might ask. Easy, the darkest place was usually the most terrifying one and not urban explorer, addict, homeless or even huntsman would like to be there; it was an evolutionary trait shared by most humans, stay in the light where you can see what you are hunting and avoid dark places where something can hunt you.
He looked at his watch, Neo and Roman should have arrived already. There were no calls or messages so he was not late yet.
With a soft kick, he opened the door to the basement and if no one knew that he was there then they did now. The typical staircase to go down and the narrow walls, architects surely had fun making the creepiest and most overused basement entrance ever. With a quiet sigh, he went down while putting his sun glasses on. Those were no normal sunglasses evident on the HUD that appeared as soon as he touched them twice. The sun glasses turned into night vision goggles (not literally).
Night vision was good but he liked thermal vision more. A stray cat ran away as soon as he approached. He made sure that his dressing shoes didn't make any sound just in case someone was looking for him so his specific position was not evident at all. Soon enough, in a poorly illuminated area, he found Roman and Neo, the former was smoking.
Although it was not intentional, Roman jumped off his chair as soon as he noticed his presence.
"Good to see you made it," Roman said after recovering from the scare, he clearly was annoyed. "There was no reason for you to appear out of nowhere, thought we have already talked about it."
"Apologies, I do not like my presence to be noticed."
Neo waved at him and he did the same. She reached a chair with her parasol and dragged it to the middle so Azrael could sit down. Once all of them were sat, the meeting began.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Azrael. "I am going to head to Mistral the next month."
"I was thinking about Vacuo. With the amount of problems we got there why would you go to Mistral?"
"I will be named the new leader of the White Fang in Vale."
Roman showed surprise and with good reason. The White Fang was pretty well-known for its hatred towards humans but he knew that Azrael had worked with the organization in the past. Neo already knew so that was not a surprise.
"Well, it seems that we are going to part ways soon."
"Sadly."
Roman exhaled the smoke of his cigar, he had a hard time admitting it but going to opposite sides of the known world was kind of saddening and he could say that Neo was truly sad about leaving too. It was kind of funny, two criminals being close friends with a pseudo-huntsman, mercenary and vigilante that actively hunted criminals...Life really liked to be funny.
"So, if you are going to Mistral the next month then we can make a big score together before parting ways."
"Depends, what is it about?"
Neo smiled and leaned forward already excited; for a brief moment, Azrael took a peek at her cleavage and hated himself for doing it but was not his fault, it was his DNA's. How Neo could be small, slender, athletic, and busty at the same time?
"Do you remember Cinder Fall?" Roman asked after smoking a little.
"I do."
"Well, she want us to steal a lot of Dust for her. She gave me half of the money in advance and it is a lot."
"How much?"
"We could get a seat in the Council and own a part of the city of Vacuo."
"I'm in."
Neo punched the air happy to see the hunter on board, Roman just smirked.
"When and where?" Azrael asked.
"I wanted to discuss just that."
"Not here. I have a hideout in the apartments near the docks."
Azrael fixed his position after the car stylishly turned left dodging other vehicles. His playlist seemed to set the mood for her to drive recklessly, not that he blamed her.
~I am an educated fool with money on my mind~
Damn, that song was quite the banger but singing aloud wile he was accompanied would be pretty embarrassing. It was near noon so the traffic was moderated, he had to compliment Neo about her driving, she was incredibly good at that. From there, he could see that she was moving her lips singing in silence...that was a bit much, what a fortune that the cat ate his tongue.
"Neo, you should focus on the road," suggested Roman.
"He is right...Use both hands to drive!"
Azrael and Roman grabbed their seats and seatbelts as soon as they saw Neo raising both hands to follow the chorus. She reduced the speed and stopped on a red light.
"Damn, Neo, if the cops don't kill me you will," complained the criminal. "Take us to the docks in one piece, please."
Neo advanced again but with a more moderated speed, thanks gods. Soon enough both men got bored but while Azrael was silent and dwelling in his mind, Roman was not.
"I never really asked. Why are you always committing crimes if you hate criminals?"
"Multiple reasons. The thrill and the money, earning money the old way is not effective, not if I want to help as many people as I can. Funding orphanages, medical research, weapon research, hospitals, and the police is not cheap."
"So that's what you did with your cut of the last job in Mistral."
"And the cabin and Neo; she eats too much for her s-"
A death glare from her shut his mouth.
Roman fixed his hat. "Well, now that you are going to be the new leader of the White Fang in Vale. What are you going to do?"
"Good question. I am probably going to keep them from doing more terrorist acts and improving their public image and train them to be more professional."
"You have a plan already, huh?" Roman looked though the window, they were already near the docks. "Here we are."
"Neo, do you remember where it was?"
She nodded.
.
.
.
Azrael, Neopolitan and Roman stood in front of the door of an apartment in one of the many residential buildings. Neo knocked on the door twice and waited.
"I was expecting something more...subtle," Roman said. It was normal, considering that Azrael used to be pretty paranoid.
"I ran out of underground bases and caves deep in the mountains," replied Azrael with his neutral tone, it was hard to know if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Who is living here?"
"Someone trustworthy."
Roman had to admit, Azrael was good at finding hideouts. It was a common condo in a common area, sometimes it was better to be hidden at plain sight. The criminal was not someone who trusted others but if Azrael, someone way more paranoid than him, considered someone trustworthy then Roman could be more relaxed; Neo seemed to know the person, she didn't need words to tell how happy she was. She was not hopping around, it was as subtle as tapping the floor with her heeled boots waiting for the door to open. Azrael was arm-crossed and that was all, his body language showed nothing else; he was pretty good at keeping his body under control.
"Master!"
Roman now knew that whoever was on the other side of the door was a woman.
The door opened and Neo was tackled by a cyan blur. "Best friend!"
Roman could take a good look at the girl, girl because she looked too young to be an adult although he could say the same about Neo who was already 20.
The girl had light blue hair stylized into a simple bun, neon blue eyes and a pretty face. She looked skinny and was not too developed which in addition to her really pale skin just brought two words to mind: Fragile or Weak. She wore a pretty casual outfit, a white tank top, mini shorts and sandals; it was not something too surprising, she was in her home after all.
"Blizz," Azrael greeted.
"Master!"
Roman knew how dry was the hunter with physical contact just returning hugs from Neo but the relationship of that girl with his two partners in crime apparently was really close. Azrael had not embraced her but just petted her head, she was barely taller than Neo evidently in the way in which she could only reach the hunter's neck.
She separated and looked at Roman. "Are you a new friend?"
"Not yet," Azrael was quick to answer. "We need to work and your apartment is the only place I could thought of that has the privacy we require."
Blizz extended her hand to Roman. "Blizz Heide."
He could be a criminal but not for that he lacked manners, his hand grasped Blizz' who excitedly shook it.
"The name's Roman Torchwick, pleased to meet you, lady."
"Your voice is so classy."
Blizz and Neo got in the apartment while Roman looked at Azrael inquisitively.
"She is pretty honest and gets excited easily but do not worry she can take secrets to the tomb and act as a professional."
Once the four of them were inside, the owner of the apartment offered coffee and bread with marmalade. The apartment was not impressive and was pretty typical with enough room for one person or a couple and according to Azrael the number of windows were limited to reduce the risk of a surprise attack or espionage. Roman stored in his memory that Blizz worked as a waitress in a family restaurant nearby.
After eating and thanking for it just like a polite person should, they cleared up the table and placed Azrael's Scroll on it. A holographic map came out from the device, it was a detailed map of the kingdom. Blizz said that she was going to take a bath because she had to cover a friend that had to run to the hospital to check on his wife.
"This should be enough. Roman, you told me you wanted to discuss the place and time of the robbery," Azrael reminded him. "Do you have a target in mind?"
Roman meditated for a minute, Azrael never pressured someone when he asked complex questions. A robbery was not as easy as videogames and movies made them look like, it was a hard thing to do and involved a lot of planning if you wanted to get out safely, with the loot, without getting arrested, and leaving no breadcrumbs for the law enforcement to follow.
The first thing to consider was the target, followed by the area, escape routes, getaway vehicles, traffic, time of response from the police, local huntsmen, Grimm, and the weather. That was just half of the plan, the other half was carefully planning how to do the robbery; it usually always ended up being either in a stealthy way or an offensive approach.
"Well, this Cinder wants a lot of Dust so I was thinking about robbing multiple places in the same day."
Azrael put a hand on his chin, it was a good strategy. "Yes, but Cinder wants an industrial quantity I suppose. Robbing small shops will not be enough."
"You are right. Do you have a better idea?" Roman asked leaning back on the couch while spinning his staff.
"We could rob the Schnee Dust Company. There are at least five facilities in the border of the kingdom and the mines store large amounts of Dust, assaulting the train that transport it could be lucrative as well."
Both of them looked at Neo to see if she wanted to give her opinion, she pointed at the ceiling with her palms and moved her arms as if she had two things of different weight on them, she was torn between the two options. Azrael could not blame her, Roman's idea was less risky but the amount of stolen Dust wouldn't be enough while Azrael's involved obtaining large amounts of Dust but placing them under the radar of the Schnee Dust Company. Neo stood up from the couch and began to write in her Scroll to use its voice function.
"We could rob the train and small shops at the same time. We can hire Junior's henchmen and corrupted huntsmen to rob the shops while we rob the train, maybe we can hire people of the White Fang too."
"Good idea," complimented Roman. "I like when you think big, Neo."
Azrael simply crossed his arms and analyzed.
"That is a good idea, Junior is going to cooperate or he will get his legs broken. I will call the White Fang to see if we have their cooperation."
Now with their targets selected, they could begin to think on the robbery itself.
Blizz got out of the bathroom only wearing a towel and ran to her room to dress up for her job. At the time in which she was exiting her home, Azrael and Roman were carefully planning the execution of the robberies while Neo went to take a bath after asking Blizz.
Now that both men were alone, Roman could ask the kid something that had been bothering him for a while. With Neo around, the question might have been offensive, if he had to clear his doubts by asking any of the two then his choice was Azrael; he never hit around the bush and was pretty clear with his answers. He was ready to receive some kind of insult or coldness but if that was he had to do to satisfy his curiosity so be it. The veteran criminal was already wondering what the answer would be.
"Are you sleeping with Neo?"
His question could not be clearer than that.
"No, she has her own room."
Alright, he underestimated Azrael's usual straightforwardness. Roman sometimes wondered if being dense was Azrael's semblance, would explain a lot of things actually.
"What I mean, partner in crime, is: Are you having sex with Neo?"
"Nope."
"Really?"
"Really. I would not dare to cross such a fragile line, besides, it has many risks."
Roman looked at Azrael and without saying anything, he turned off the Scroll that projected the holographic map. The hunter raised his gaze which was as neutral as always.
"Listen, Azrael."
The named sighed and leaned back on his seat, he was not liking the direction of that conversation. Why people couldn't be professional?! He lived with a pretty girl in a cabin reasonably far from society and what with that?!
Oh...He could see why people had the same question.
Roman leaned forward supporting his weight on his legs, there had to be a way to be more subtle about the topic, no, there was not. Maybe touching the topic when they had a job to do was not the smartest thing to do but he frankly could not keep watching how Azrael's blindness kept hurting Neo. It was pretty obvious that she was really interested on him, from the way in which she swayed her hips and showed more of her bust each time he was around to the way in which she made an effort to be with Azrael as much as possible. Roman had never been a romantic man, never had the chance to have such a thing and was not interested and would be stupid to give advice on something he knew nothing about but for the girl, he could be stupid for a minute.
"I will be honest and go straight to the point. Euphemisms and hitting around the bush will be useless."
"Go ahead, Roman. What is it?" Azrael raised his arms and dropped them to the sides. "Is this about Neopolitan?"
Roman sighed and folded his hands, Neo might get upset but he could not step back now. "Azrael or Jonathan, whatever your real name is. Neo is madly in love with you in case you haven't noticed."
"I have noticed. A few nights ago she said something about friends with benefits and was trying to kiss me but she was drunk."
Roman facepalmed, it was common knowledge that when a drunk lady tried to hit on you was either because she was horny or in love...or both. The man in front of him couldn't be so dense or dumb!
"Since it seems you have a hard time realizing it. Her feelings are genuine and she wants you to be her boyfriend."
"But-"
"No buts, you are hurting her. She is really trying to get a reaction out of you, if you really don't want anything to do with romance go with her and be clear before it's too late."
"What do you want me to do? Go with her in the shower?" Azrael replied with sarcasm. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the couch, he rubbed his chin and leaned forward. "I like Neo but this life of ours is too dangerous. I hunt monsters for a living, I fight dangerous criminals for the sake of justice, I help a terrorist organization, and on top of all that I am helping you two with your heists. If Neo becomes my girlfriend, all the dangers of my life will be shared with her and I do not think that I could ever leave this life of thrill. Do you think I want her to mourn me when I get killed? I know I will die in the battlefield some day and no wife of mine will pass through that pain."
Roman sighed heavily, he had good points. In the end, all he wanted to was keeping Neo and himself from getting hurt.
Azrael's Scroll vibrated on the table, he picked up and read the message.
"Neo forgot her clothes, I will be right back."
Roman shook his head as he saw how Azrael nearly ran to Blizz' room where Neo left her clothes. Neo's only hope was pushing him against the wall and kiss him or something like that.
"At least cover your body with the door...Don't move your arms!"
And the veteran criminal sighed again.
3 days later.
Patch.
"Come on, you totally could've dodge that."
"Yang, you know I am better with my beautiful Crescent Rose."
"That's why I didn't let you bring it."
Yang Xiao Long helped her sister, Ruby, to stand up.
Ruby was a teenager with neck-length reddish black hair with red tips and silver eyes, her outfit consisted of a black long-sleeved blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, her skirt shared the same pattern of color, black long stockings and combat boots with red soles. Curiously, she wore a hooded red cloak.
"Urgh, Uncle Qrow, say something," complained Ruby. Yang was an expert at hand-to-hand combat and she knew nothing about it, if she really wanted to have a chance then she needed to fight with Crescent Rose, her scythe.
Qrow put his flask back in his pocket and picked Harbinger, his sword-shotgun-scythe. He was aware of the immense gap in training and experience regarding hand-to-hand combat but Ruby was pretty stubborn and needed to see the gap by herself to understand how much she needed the training even if Yang was being merciless.
"Listen, kiddo. Sometimes your weapon will be out of reach and you'll need to defend yourself, even this dusty old crow knows how to throw a proper punch."
Yang nodded and put her hands on her hips. "I will be leaving to Beacon soon and I want to make sure my little sister can defend herself."
"This is just so unfair, Yang, I don't know how to fight without Crescent Rose," Ruby remarked crossing her arms and frowning.
The blonde shrugged and put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I know, I've been a bit rough. I'll teach you the basics starting with your stance."
Before Yang could continue her Scroll's ringtone announced a call; apologizing with her sister, she answered.
"Yang Xiao Long?"
That voice sounded familiar.
"Who is this?"
"You and I kicked asses in a club."
"Oh, A-" she stopped herself knowing that saying his name aloud would make Ruby curious. She gestured Qrow to keep on teaching her sister how to fight while she went behind the bushes. "Yeah, I remember."
"I will be brief, I am preparing something special, something that involves taking things that are not mine. Are you in?"
"What's in it for me? What about my mother?"
"This business is lucrative, you will have your cut if you give me a hand. Your mother have been hard to find but I might have a good clue about her current location. Are you in?"
"No one is going to get harmed?"
"If we do things right."
Yang looked over her shoulder, Uncle Qrow was teaching Ruby dirty movements that you would use in a bar fight, well, you had to start somewhere. She hid behind a tree and looked around, a pretty raven was on top of the tree branch above her.
That was her perfect chance to bargain, she would be getting into Beacon soon and she won't have time to spare looking for her mother; a week off wouldn't be enough for her to travel to the other side of Remnant, talk with her mother and return. It felt kind of wrong but he was not asking her favor, yeah, it was a...job opportunity and all she was going to do was establishing terms for her hire.
"If I accept then you have to promise me that finding my mother will be a priority."
"Promise."
"And you will take me to her."
"I have already told you that I will do so."
"Then we have a deal, I'm in."
"Good. Meet me at Junior's club tomorrow at 9 AM, I will wait until 11 AM for your arrival if you do not appear you are out."
"Understood, general," she said with a playful tone. "How should I call you now? General Azrael or-"
"See you tomorrow, Goldilocks."
The call ended after that. Now she was a nervous and excited, she was not dumb and understood that she was going to help him to steal something from someone which was illegal and something her father would never approve. There was no use in thinking about it at the moment, her little sister was waiting for her.
The raven took off leaving a couple of feathers behind.
.
.
.
Yang thanked the gods that her father didn't know the every friend she had, her excuse wouldn't have worked other wise. Since she had to go to the capital city of the kingdom, she had to either take the ferry or the bullhead early in the morning, the latter was the winner. It was 8 AM when the sea breeze and its unmistakable smell filled her nostrils and helped her to wake up, the job better was good or Azrael would pay for every hour of sleep she was stripped of.
It was 9 AM when she made it to the club beneath the intersection of the highways, the loud sound of the cars and the darkness were huge deterrents to whoever who was not used to go to such places.
As soon as she entered Junior's club, she was greeted by a nearly empty club just filled by henchmen...oh, Neopolitan was sat in front of the counter of the bar drinking a glass of wine. For a second, she questioned how did they manage to clean the place and repair it so fast; she vividly remembered how the bar was set on fire.
"Neo!" the blonde greeted while taking a seat next to Neo.
Neopolitan waved at Yang and poured her a bit of wine in one of the many free cups that were on the counter. The blonde tried to refuse but Neo insisted too much, she had never drank wine so she didn't know what to expect. The sweet and sour flavor flooded her mouth and the liquid burnt her throat as it made its way to her stomach; she coughed with tears forming in her eyes. Neo slapped her back to help her with the coughing and simply downed her own glass of wine earning a surprised look from Yang.
"My uncle and you would get along just fine," with a last cough, she managed to clear her throat. "How did you do that?"
Neo texted something in her Scroll and showed it to Yang. "You'll get use to it."
"I guess."
"Glad to see you here."
Yang jumped off her chair and landed butt first on the floor and Neo almost did the same if it wasn't for her quick reflexes. A gearless Azrael had appeared behind them scaring the hell outta them.
He stepped back dodging a kick to the shin from Neo and helped Yang to stand up. At least the blonde did not want to punch him, after what he saw in the forest he was sure that she could shatter his bones with ease if she wanted. Instead of an apology, all he did was snatching the bottle of wine from Neo's hand and drink.
"Do not drink, you will need a clear mind."
"Why are you drinking then?" questioned Yang pointing at the bottle with her hand.
"Privileges, you are a minor anyways."
Yang took a good look at Azrael. He wore a dressing jacket, vest, pants and shoes; all of them were black with exception of the shirt that was purple.
"Looking good, Az-" Neo tapped the blonde's shoulder. "How should I call you?"
"Regis of Vengerberg."
"What?"
"We are going to commit a crime, so we will use fake names."
Yang suppressed her chuckle and crossed her arms. "Fine, my name then is...Ursa."
"Good."
Azrael walked away and went to talk to the henchmen who showed fear and discipline straightening their postures and listening carefully to his instructions.
"Hey, Neo. What's your fake name?"
Neo texted in her Scroll and showed it to the blonde.
"Laverna? That's a curious name."
"I chose it."
Yang jumped again. "Cut it out!"
Azrael rose an eyebrow, he had just walked to them and called their attention. "The meeting is about to begin, go upstairs, Neo introduce her to Loki."
"What are you going to do?"
"Make a call."
Yang followed Neopolitan upstairs, a couple of weeks had passed since the last time she was there so it was not a surprise that everything was fixed already but she still wondered how was possible to get everything repaired in such a short time. The meeting was inside Junior's office that was taken over by Azr-Regis of Vengerberg.
The office was fairly...common looking, she expected something like the movies she used to watch the weekends with his Mom, Ruby, Uncle Qrow and Dad; she missed those days, Ruby was younger and could receive as many hugs as her older sister wanted, Uncle Qrow and Mom had awkward silences just to be broken by one of the two, Dad spent twenty minutes choosing the right movie and she, she was as happy as she could be. There was no use in dwelling in the past, not at that moment.
"Neo, you brought...Goldilocks."
Yang snapped out of her memories and paid attention to her surroundings.
There were two men in the office, Junior and another one that she had never seen, no, she had seen him before in the nightclub downstairs. The man was dressed elegantly with a white suit, a fedora hat and a staff. The way in which his orange hair was stylized and the paint under his eyelid made him look like the bad guy from that movie...Mechanical Oran-
"Well, nice to meet you, Goldilocks, I'm Loki."
"Well, I'm...Ursa," greeted Yang stretching her hand.
Azrael got inside just in time to see Roman shaking Yang's hand. Well, time was gold or to be more specific, Dust. A dozen of Junior's henchmen entered the room and moved to a wall trying to not get in the way of the others to see Junior's desk.
The hunter nodded at Junior who silently indicated his men to pay attention to Azrael's words.
Azrael went behind the desk and put his Scroll on it and projected a map of the kingdom.
"This is the kingdom of Vale. All of you already know why you were hired for, we are going to steal lots of Dust. I will be brief, we will go on a stealing-spree never seen in history."
He touched his Scroll and the map of the city of Vale marked several points. Said points showed an image of the shops that were targets.
"This job is considerably easy; get in the shop, steal the Dust and get out, no casualties. Loki, Laverna, and Ursa will lead teams of five. The last five of you will wait with trucks positioned nearby to load the Dust and leave for the next target. Before 11 PM, the Dust of the east of Vale will be ours."
After that, the rest of the meeting was about detailing the plan and forming the teams. It was 11 AM when Roman, Neo, Yang and Azrael got out of Junior's club. The four of them walked for a while until arriving at a poor area of the city that was not too far from the club. The two criminals were not known in the media since Azrael made sure to execute plans that kept their identities safe so they could walk in the public without worrying about the police.
"So, guys," called Yang. "What are your real names?"
"Saying mine does not feel right but Jonathan is the name I identify with the most," answered Azrael trusting Yang enough to share his "true name".
"The name's Roman Torchwick, Goldilocks."
The streets were deserted with only few people walking which was good for them, although a group of strangers sharing their names was not something that specially attracted attention.
"My name is Yang Xiao Long, future huntress."
They got in a bus that took them to the docks and by noon, they arrived at Blizz' apartment. Blizz welcomed them and excitedly introduced herself to Yang, the habit of giving her guests food set her in the mood for cooking. While the owner of the apartment did that, her guests had sat on the couches and were focused on a holographic map emitted by Azrael's Scroll.
"Wow, wow, and I thought that the greatest overnight stealing-spree was thinking big," commented Yang frankly surprised. "So your plan is to steal a cargo train from the SDC with help of the White Fang, did I miss something?"
"No, that is the plan. Maybe with such quantity, our...employer will stop breathing on our necks," Azrael replied still analyzing his plan searching for flaws. It didn't matter how much preparation he had, there were too many variables that could totally change the result.
"If you are going into a train with all of that security you'll need backup,I'll go with you," Yang declared.
Azrael sat down and leaned back with his legs crossed. "Negative, Roman and Neo need you."
Blizz came out from the kitchen and gave plates with food to her guests, a tower of pancakes with butter and cheese. She cleaned her hands with the apron she was wearing before sharing her opinion.
"Master, I think Yang or Neo should go with you, we all know that you...you know. I can go with you if you let me."
Azrael bit one of the pancakes from the pile and looked at the ceiling meditating carefully his answer...Yes, Blizz had a good point and who knows what kind of security the SDC had in its trains...
"No, I will go alone with the men I have already hired, changing Roman, Neo or Yang of position would change the plan totally and make the rest suspect."
Roman bit one of his pancakes too, he already guessed why Azrael hadn't talked about the train during the meeting. "Robbing the Dust shops is the distraction, right?"
"That is correct. Our actual target is the SDC train, with the robberies the police will be too busy and scattered to help and the people that will be helping me posses outstanding fighting skill, we will get in and out in five minutes."
Neo pressed the tip of her fork against Azrael's cheek.
"Yes, you are an amazing combatant as well, Neo, but Roman needs something trustworthy in the field."
Yang cleared her throat.
"Roman does not trust you, Miss Xiao Long. Do not feel sad, he does not trust anyone."
The only who could identify a hint of playfulness in his voice was Neo who was used to his neutral tone and could detect those slight changes.
"Look who's talking, you put trackers on me and Neo the first time we met."
"Roman, you did not expect me to trust you two just because you saved my life and you could have been working for Spider at the moment I had no choice."
The criminal veteran and Azrael were about to start a banter when Blizz gently smacked them in the head. "You haven't finished your pancakes, they are getting cold."
Azrael and Roman ate again now focusing on the holographic map. Neo and Yang were looking at the information in the screen; atlesian knights, drones, turrets, motion sensors, aura sensors, the SDC didn't care about money when it came to protecting their merchandise. How was Azrael going to sneak in with all of that security?
"That train has a lot of security. You will need someone with you," Yang said...again. "Look, if it's not me at least Neo or Blizz, you don't have an aura to tank damage or semblance."
"Your opinion is highly appreciated, battle maiden, but I have no need to use aura. I have fought driders, lamias, undead, basilisks, minotaurs and dealt with your mother for three months I am more than capable to deal with a greedy company."
"Why was my mothe-"
"More than capable. Now eat, we shall get your disguises and vehicles ready."
