The Bullhead had to land some distance away from the place where the girls would be jumping. Once the Bullhead had stopped they grabbed the gliders and started walking.
"Okay, one of us is lying, Lance was clearly looking at one of us and it wasn't me" Hanna said walking backwards to look at the others.
"Hanna, if you keep that up you'll fall on your ass" Hanna stuck her tongue out at Eddi.
"Come on, were running out of time" Jiang said starting to jog.
They reached the overlook that Ralen had marked on their Scrolls. They helped each other with the straps and waited.
"I'm not dropping it; I wanna know who he was looking at"
"Hanna, shut up and concentrate"
"I am concentrating"
"Well then stop talking at least"
"I agree, Hanna we can still hear you, you know"
"Shit…" laughter resounded over the radios.
"Shayne, are you guys in position yet?"
"Almost, you should be able to see the van in a moment" the van pulled up to the kerb opposite to the facility.
"We see you, on your mark" the radios were silent as Shayne watched the facility, it seemed strangely quiet.
He got out of the van, as did the other guys. Shayne sent Blaine out to check. Eddi saw the beast and nodded to Jiang. Hanna took a running jump, kicking off the guard rail into a backflip.
"Woo hoo!"
Silver followed her over with a spin, Jiang and Eddi just jumped. They opened the gliders and sailed over the rooftops, they lined up with the building, then the gunfire started. Shooters appeared on the walls and opened fire on the guys out front. They were doing their job at least. A couple of shooters noticed the girls but Ralen took them out with his crossbow. Hanna, Silver and Jiang landed and shed the wings. Eddi as too high so she decided to use her talents elsewhere.
"Guys, I'm too high I'm gonna find a vantage point"
"Got it, girls go for it" Shayne said cutting a bullet in half.
They quickly made their way to the door, Silver put her ear to it, and she could her footsteps coming up. She hid round the corner and Hanna hopped up above the door, Jiang hid behind some ventilation ducts. The door swung open and two guards stepped out, Hanna dropped onto the second one, while Silver subdued the first one. They crept inside, making sure to jam the door open should they need it later. The halls were teeming with people, but they were also dark, Ralen had disabled the power earlier that day. They snuck around as many people as they could but they were spotted by a few, but they subdued them and hid the bodies. They were moving along quickly, the gunfire had stopped and they were running out of time.
"Girls pick up the pace; we had to fall back, as Lance took a bullet to the knee"
Hanna opened a door and got kicked in the chest, Silver swung at the guy who stepped through the door he caught her wrist and flipped her onto her back before kicking her into the wall. Jiang stepped between them as he brought his axe down towards Silver, she blocked the strike and her shield cracked. Hanna jump kicked him in the chest and he fell back into the room.
"Shayne, we've got a problem"
"Hanna, what's going on, talk to me!"
"It's Cross, he's here"
Shayne turned to the facility, his face one of surprise and fear, two emotions that didn't appear on his face normally. He sprinted at the wall, a few metres from it he drew his pistol and fired both barrels in quick succession, both cracking and punching a hole through it.
"Shayne! God damn it, Ralen, get after him, I'll stay here with Lance"
"Eddi, do you see him?"
"He just went inside, Ralen I can only give you covering fire, once you're inside you're on your own"
"You heard her, go!" Ralen nodded and ran for the hole Shayne had made.
There were recently deceased soldiers just inside the wall, one was cut in half, and Shayne wasn't leaving anything to chance anymore.
"Guys, Shayne's gone Grimm, he's killing now, be on your guard" nobody heard the transmission.
The girls were struggling against Cross, no matter how they tried to attack him he always either blocked or countered them perfectly.
Jiang was trying her best to keep his attention, she shield charged him in an attempt to force him back, but he kicked her shield as she came within range and pulled it from her grip, she stumbled and he grabbed her by the throat.
"You girls are meddling in affairs that don't concern you" he threw Jiang against a wall, and Silver jumped at his face.
He caught her mid-flight and tossed her against a table, he stood over her, brandishing his axe. Hanna, using her semblance got up behind him and put her blade to his throat.
"Let her go and you live to see another day" Cross grabbed her wrist and twisted his body.
She came flipping over his shoulder, landing upside down next to Silver.
"CROSS!" he turned Shayne stood in the doorway, his Katana dripped blood onto the floor.
"Just the man I came to see, Shayne, you know what I want" Cross took a knife from his chest and threw it.
Shayne was fast, but Cross was faster. It was mere inches from hitting Shayne in the face when it shot to the other side of the room. Ralen reloaded. Cross ran at Ralen and Shayne ran after him, Ralen looked up a split second too late. Cross drove a knife straight into his heart. Sliver screamed.
"Ralen!"
Shayne collided with Cross, sending him sliding across the floor, Ralen was thrown through a wall. Jiang made her way to the hole where Ralen had fallen but before she could see anything more guards turned up, she ran to Hanna and Silver.
"We need to go, grab what we came for and let's get out of here" Jiang said forcefully.
Hanna began rooting through the filing cabinets, once she found it the girls ran back to the roof. A large guard blocked their path, they skidded to a halt. A single shot pierced the night. It tore through his neck.
"Guys get moving, I can provide some covering fire but not a lot"
"Thanks Eddi, come on we gotta get going"
"I'm not leaving Ralen here"
"Silver there's nothing we can do now come on" Hanna grabbed her wrist and dragged her up the stairs.
Shayne squared up to Cross and was readying his blades, he would kill him for what he'd done. Before either of them could move the area of wall next to the hole Ralen had fallen through, exploded. Green flames licked the edges and the place caught ablaze. Shayne looked straight into the bright green eyes. They smouldered and smoked as Shayne's rage built, he couldn't stop it now, his eyes turned red like a Grimm. Cross noticed it.
"Yes, Shayne let it out, you know you want to"
Shayne faced Cross.
"You don't want me to let it out, as it first target is you" Shayne strode forward, but was cut short as a stream of green fire shot from Ralen's hand. It engulfed Cross and he dived out the window.
"Ralen, what the fuck was that"
They stare each other down. Shayne strode forward, his eyes still glowed red, his entire being burned hotter as he got closer to him.
"Ralen isn't here, only me"
"What do you mean, Ralen stop this we need to leave"
"I…am…Azrael!" he swung a black scythe at him and Shayne did a back handspring to avoid it.
"Okay, Azrael, if that how you want to play it" Shayne drew his Katanas and utilised a modification he had made.
He removed the grip from one and slotted the blades together, the blade was now twice as thick and since the extremely sharp blade acted as the cutting edge, and it would cut through almost anything now. They circled each other as the flames caught even more; sirens could be heard past the roar of the fire. They clashed, spinning and dancing around each other, the blades flashed and sparked as they collided. They were stopped as a supporting beam came crashing down between them. Guards appeared behind Shayne and Azrael leapt at Shayne, he ducked and Azrael sailed over his head. He took out three guards with a single swing of his scythe and continued swinging, Shayne had to dispatch several of the guards himself, cleaving them cleanly in half. He would regret this later.
Once the guards were dead, Azrael face Shayne again, and fell flat on his face. Shayne took a moment to examine him, it was Ralen all right but his clothes were different slightly. One side of his trench coat was down to his ankle while the other was its usual length, his hair had changed from his usual dark brown and had turned a dark black with green highlights, and it was also swept upwards so that it formed spikes.
He watched as they strange details burned away and Ralen returned to normal, Shayne felt his Grimm recede. He knelt down next to Ralen, he was breathing, Shayne didn't argue, he picked him up and jumped through the window, falling three stories and landing solidly, his aura pulsed as he healed instantly. Shayne ran past the fire fighters and the cops, to the van. Dundra opened the back and Shayne climbed in, putting Ralen down on the seat next to him. The van sped away into the night.
The girls reached the roof and grabbed the gliders again, they ran to the edge of the roof and jumped the glider carried them just over the wall and on a nearby roof where Eddi was waiting for them.
"Did you get what we came for?" Hanna held up the file.
"Come on, we need to get to the Bullhead, we're not done yet" Jiang said shouldering her glider.
"So that's it then, we're not even going to talk about that fact that Ralen's dead" Silver said as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"What's here to talk about, he died and we didn't"
"How could you be so cold Eddi, he was your friend too"
"Silver, I've seen more than enough death to last a lifetime, but all I can do is move on" Eddi strode away. Hanna hugged Silver as they walked.
They reached the Bullhead and it soared over the city, the radios buzzed into life again.
"Guys what the hell happened?"
"It must have been Cross, what else could it have been"
"I don't know, but what happened after we got out?"
"The building caught fire and something happened that I'm not going to talk about over the radio, meet us at the location on your Scrolls, we're going after the next target tonight, and I don't care what we planned.
"But isn't what we planned to do anyway?"
"Oh shit yeah, I'm not feeling right after what I saw"
"Okay, we'll talk once we get there" the radio went silent again, Eddi had turned it off.
"Looks like we're getting changed" she banged on the door to the cock pit
"Keep it steady and don't open the door" the girls changed into their clubbing outfits, Hanna wasn't looking overly enthusiastic.
"Don't worry Hanna, I'll be here, it won't happen again" Silver kissed her softly and Hanna smiled slightly, she was taking a ceramic blade with her just in case. A red light came on over the cockpit door.
The back door opened and the girls dropped to the floor. The others were stood outside the van.
Silver looked at Shayne and he stared into her eyes, she bowed her head as he opened the side door of the van.
"I got him out, and it was weird he had taken a knife to the heart, yet he has no wound or scarring, when I picked him up he was breathing"
"That is weird, but that's not what spooked you is it" Hanna asked, knowing her partner as well as she did, she knew that it would have to be something extreme.
"You're right, before I picked him up he was fighting both me and the guards, he called himself Azrael"
"Like the angel of death?"
"I'm assuming so, does anyone know what he was like before he came to Beacon?" they shook their heads.
Ralen suddenly gasped and shot forward onto his knees in the van. Silver fell to her knees, this was almost too much for her to handle.
Shayne stepped up and helped him back onto the seat.
"Ralen, are you okay, what happened?"
"i-I don't know, the last thing I remember was Cross running at me"
"So you don't remember this…" Shayne rested his hand on his chest and let his memory pass into Ralen.
He saw himself, but he wasn't himself, he was dark and shadowy but it was him. He saw the control over fire and heard the words. 'I…am…Azrael'. He saw the death that he had caused, and saw what Shayne had done.
Shayne released the connection. Ralen shook his head.
"No I don't remember any of that"
"Um, I don't mean to be the one who says this but we're running out of time, if we're going to hit Junior tonight we'd better get going"
Shayne nodded and got in the driver's seat. The others climbed in; luckily the guys had changed before the girls got there. Shayne was leaving nothing to chance with this one; he was going in with the guys after the girls had charmed their way in.
Shayne needed to know how Cross knew where the file was, he wanted to know what was going on with Ralen, and he knew Junior would either know something or he would know someone who did.