RWBY: Angel of Death
Chapter 11: Deadly Deal.
A sea of stars, that was the ideal image that people usually had in their heads when they thought about outer space but for Azrael, when he stared at the infinite void decorated with planets and stars, horrors beyond anything a perversed mind could think of made themselves present like black stars that somehow shone much more than any other. His heart skipped a beat when his eyes spotted a nearby planet moving backwards, he nearly ran towards the bridge but he calmed down when he realized a second later that the spaceship had merely increased its speed.
"I saw that, captain," said a voice behind him.
The man that called him was not human and that could be noticed in a split second. The man was almost 2 meters tall and was as wide as a gorilla. His face had rough features but looked pretty human. His muscles were as big as the ones from a heavyweight bodybuilder. He had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail that fell to his waist. However, what gave away his non-human origin besides its size, was the literal red color of his skin.
"Aithan, you are awake."
"I am."
"How are the others?"
"Some of them are still asleep."
Their destination was still far, maybe they were not light-years away but traveling several kilometers still took time if they did not use the faster-than-light speed of the ship and Azrael was not planning to use it given how fast it consumed fuel. Well, with so many hours left, he really had to do something to kill time.
"I see. I guess I still have time to check my armor. Perhaps you could help me, I heard orcs are just as good as dwarves when it comes to blacksmithing."
Azrael wore a full-body armor made of a metallic alloy that shone golden and looked just like a laminar armor from the soldiers of the Roman empire. His head was covered with a hoplite helmet that covered his entire head hiding his face behind a "T" shaped visor. His thighs were protected by a pteruges and his forearms were covered by gauntlets that mimicked the spikes of a dragon. He used a bulletproof vest on top of the armor. He complemented his armor with a cloak that went down to his thighs.
The visor, cloak, and pteruges were crimson red.
Aithan also wore a similar armor but only the torso and shoulders were covered; the upper armor mimicked the muscles of the torso. He also wore a pteruges, and a hoplite helmet with the same "T" shaped visor hanging on his waist. Unlike Azrael, who had firearms, he only had a large spear almost as tall as him.
"We should arrive at our destination in few hours," Azrael said while turning around to look at outer space again. "Perhaps this time King Damian will get off our backs."
Azrael squinted, not because he could not see well through the glass but because he could not believe what he was seeing. A planet was looking at them, it had a giant red eye that followed the ship's course without missing a single second. Azrael instictively reached for the rifle on the table besides him but his hands touched nothing, in fact, there was nothing around him. The ship, outer space, Aithan, the planet, everything had been replaced by the most pure darkness he ever saw; it was not black what was surrounding him, it was nothingness.
"What the fuck?"
From the darkness in front of him, a giant eye opened and stared at him. His heart should have been beating against his chest, his breathing should have increased, his mind should have gone mad, but none of that was happening.
Η απληστία θα μολύνει τον κατακερματισμένο κόσμο
"What is the meaning of this?!"
Θα βρέξει αίμα στους νεαρούς πολεμιστές
"A prophecy?"
Ο φάρος θα πέσει μπροστά στον δράκο
Azrael woke up with his blood pressure high and a sudden movement of his legs that almost dropped his gun to the bonfire at scarce distance.
"It was just a dream, I hope."
Azrael breathed out, it took him a few seconds to gather strength to stand up. The sun had not risen yet but the sky was getting clear and judging by how tired he felt then it probably was 5 or 6 AM. It was not like he could sleep well, it took him a few hours to find a nice spot and other extra hours to built a bonfire, collect food and clear the area of Grimm. The monsters really never gave up and he had to sleep with an eye open occasionally killing a Beowolf or an Ursa, that task was as tiring and stressful as it sounded; protecting his food and himself from man-killing machines all night long was tough even for him.
"If only I could eat Grimm, my bullets would have not gone to waste."
Since he had prepared to fight against the SDC security, Azrael didn't have any sword nor extra ammo with him and he paid the price for that, he barely had two magazines for his pistol. His rifle saved his life but it got crushed in the process making it unable to shoot anything, the only thing he could save was the red dot sight and the suppressor. He was running out of resources.
"A demonic knife with barely any power left, a Glock 18 with two magazines counting the one loaded in the pistol and an inferno grenade."
The night vision goggles were also destroyed and the gas mask got one of its lenses shattered into pieces by the claw of an Ursa. He had to get out of the forest before sundown if he wanted to survive.
"It would be better if I start moving, the smoke surely attracted unwanted attention."
Perhaps it was a bad idea to make a campfire when he was near the train station supposed to receive the train he helped to stole. Part of the reason why he wondered for too long in the forest was because he had to get away from the drones looking for him and he probably just made their work easier. Now that he thought about it, did Adam and Blake get away safely?
"No, there is no time to think about that. Focus, get out of the forest alive and find a town."
With those words, Azrael disposed himself to erase any trace of the improvised camp he made to spend the night and find a way out of the forest. He hung his broken gas mask on his belt and put the suppressor, red dot sight and the broken night vision goggles in the empty pockets of his bulletproof vest and began to walk forward.
As time went on, his mind inevitably began to wander to random thoughts until he noticed something. At night, the temperature was low almost reaching the point where his body started to shake; now that it was morning, the cold was replaced by an nearly suffocating heat that seemingly reached his inner organs. The tall trees covered the sky above his head blocking the sunlight with its leaves and providing multiple shadows that kept Azrael from overheating.
"It's true that I still have a rope, perhaps I can climb down a cliff if I find one." Azrael took his hand to the back of his combat belt finding the item. "I only have one, I must be careful."
The sun was high when Azrael stopped. He usually was more than able to walk for hours but his muscles simply refused to continue, his chest was not in fire yet which helped him to realize that he actually was not exhausted. Perhaps, not sleeping well drained his energy or maybe the bunny he had for dinner and breakfast was not enough to cover his body's needs. At least he knew that dehydration was not the problem, he drank enough water before leaving, so it had to be something else.
"...?!"
It happened so fast.
Between the trees, Azrael managed to see someone. It was the same orc that was in his dream!
"Aithan?"
It literally could not be possible, the odds were so low that he could only question his own sanity, that, or something else was going on. Yes, that was right, it was literally impossible that someone would make the effort to go there and it was even less likely that someone would be in front of him like that without saying anything. Perhaps his tired brain was playing tricks on him or not, a psychological evaluation was what he needed.
"I prefer to believe I am losing my mind than believe he is actually here."
Azrael took a couple of seconds to recover and prepared to continue walking but something caught his attention, a noise. It only took him a second to realize what happened and react accordingly. The sound of the dead leaves getting crushed followed a rhythm and that could only meant that someone was approaching so Azrael hid behind the tree he was leaning against to rest moments ago.
Two whole minutes passed before he could hear voices clearly.
"Well, the smoke comes from this direction."
"Probably is another of those robots again. The SDC gets more and more miserly with each passing day."
Azrael knelt and drew his pistol and leaned out of his cover slightly just enough to see who were the ones talking. He saw two men of average height and brown hair, they wore a kind of leather armor and he got to spot a collar in their necks. Both of them were armed with swords, knives, and a pistol in its holster.
"Well, I hope we get something else this time. I am getting bored in this place."
"Hey, you know that our job is important, we are holding off the Grimm—"
"I know, I know." One of them shrugged. "It's just that, well, today everything has been quiet and I am getting bored."
"I am happy that we can get a break from those monsters."
"Yeah, I guess it's a good thing not to run into them but you gotta admit that we have fun."
"Yeah, sometimes, when we are not outnumbered 20 to 1."
"Come on, those are the exciting fights."
"You really are dumb."
Azrael sighed, he had an idea.
Azrael's Cabin
Neopolitan woke up as soon as the alarm clock made noise and used her fist to turn it off breaking it into several pieces. The sound alerted Roman who was sleeping on a chair right next to Neo. He stood up and let her go away from the dinning table; it was unusual for her to be in such a bad mood but given the recent events, he could understand why.
"She hasn't slept at all," informed Yang who entered the kitchen for coffee. "Rachel had to mess with her brain waves or something to get her to sleep."
"Neo can be pretty stubborn."
Yang put a mug full of coffee in the table for Roman to drink. She moved across the kitchen seeking for something that she didn't have to cook to eat, she found a loaf of bread and decided to eat it. She was so hungry and tired that it didn't matter to her that the bread was cold, she compensated that with her coffee.
"Can I have a bite?" asked Roman after taking a sip of his coffee and rubbing his eyes.
Yang handed him over the other half of the loaf.
The slowness with which they were eating was not the only consequence of a sleepless night, they still had the same clothes they used for the robbery on.
As they ate, noises came from upstairs almost echoing across Azrael's cabin. Roman and Yang knew that it was Neopolitan who was making all the noise, she probably slept less than them yet she had enough energy to fight against the furniture in her room. After some minutes, the ruckus stopped and Yang guessed that Neo had just ran out of energy or fell asleep; she was quickly proven wrong as Neo stomped the floor on her way downstairs.
"Coffee?" offered Yang. "Bread?"
Neopolitan just walked towards the kitchen and served herself coffee, an almost blasmephous amount of coffee.
"I should head back to my house, I got people to lie to." Yang stood up but a single glance at the mute quickly made her sit again. "It can wait, I'm not eager to lie."
"I guess you're not planning to have any sleep, are you?" asked Roman before drinking the last drops of coffee. "Not until he comes back."
She nodded and took a seat next to Yang. Her eyes barely stayed open and the arm that was holding her head was shaking dangerously, it reminded Yang of her mom. Once when she was little, Uncle Qrow had gone out to take care of the Grimm near the house but he didn't return as fast as usual; her mom stayed awake the whole night waiting for his return even when her dad offered her to switch places.
"Maybe we should go for him," Yang suggested.
"Maybe."
Roman and Yang were about to discuss about it but Neo grabbed Roman's hand and stared at him.
"Alright," he obliged. "We will go for him."
Yang felt like she should have expected to go to the basement, last time Azrael was there for a while. Now that she was there, she was impressed to say the least. the basement was big enough to store at least four small cars, there was an area with a shower, in the wall on the left there was a closet inside it and at the bottom of the room she could see an hyperfuturistic computer with three holographic screens. The basement was illuminated by few light bulbs just enough to see well.
"So this is his cave." Yang squinted. "It does look like something he would have."
Neo almost ran towards the hyper-futuristic computer, she wasted no time and started to type, meanwhile, Roman leaned on one of the walls by the staircase that took them there. He looked tired almost as much as the mute woman who was working on the computer, whatever she was planning, he doubted his brain could keep up with it.
"I suppose none of you slept well."
One of the three holographic screens of the computer changed the image of an atom for a circle with other circles inside. The circles moved when the female voice talked again.
"I also suppose that Azrael has not arrived yet."
"No, he hasn't," Yang replied while crossing her arms. "Lady?"
"I am Rachel, currently the most intelligent mind in this planet even though I am artificial."
Yang put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. "You are not someone..."
"I am the proudest invention of an conglomerate of nations who seek efficient ways to make accurate simulations and calculations while traveling through deep space."
"What?"
"In simpler words, Miss Xiao Long, I am an artificial intelligence made for deep-space exploration. I was originally thought to be in a spaceship and help it to navigate while moving at faster-than-light speed."
"Oh, I get it now. You are like the assistants in the CCTS but in steroids."
"That is not an accurate comparison, Miss Xiao Long, the difference of capabilities is almost infinitesimal."
Roman smirked, not even him expected to ever witness an A.I with ego. He approached Yang slowly taking time to fully appreciate the computer. He did not expect Azrael to have such a piece of technology, he always seemed to be the type of guy who really never got along with machines. Now he wondered how many jobs were successful because of its help, but a question was stronger than the rest. The A.I talked about a spaceships and traveling at speeds faster than light but those things were mere concepts from fiction books and films, yet, the A.I named them as if it was something normal.
"What is going on here?"
Roman casted away his doubts and focused on Neopolitan who was typing on the computer.
"Miss Neopolitan wishes to leave right away to rescue Azrael."
Yang crossed her arms. "That is the plan."
"You cannot do anything in your state, your bodies need to rest at least three hours which is the time an aerial transport can be arranged."
"So we just wait?" Yang asked almost raising her voice. "He—"
"Azrael is an highly trained individual with a disciplined mind, he can survive for longer than you think."
Neopolitan took a step back and looked at the screen that Rachel used to communicate.
"Miss Neopolitan, I do not need to remind you that I do not have a face but seemingly I do need to remind you that you must sleep."
Neo frowned and put her attention on the screen in front of her. She had no idea where the train Azrael was supposed to stole was but if she managed to find the route used by it to travel then she might get a step closer to know where Azrael was, however, her plan came to an end when a hand grasped her shoulder.
"Neo, I know you are tough but even high-level criminals like us need to sleep."
Yang held back the impulse to correct him and simply retreated to the nearest wall to not spoil the moment, it seemed that the small one only listened to Roman.
"I know you are worried, even I am. We know what he can do. Do you really think some Grimm are enough to take him out?"
Neo grabbed Roman's hand and turned around to look at his face. It only took him half a second to realize how bad Neo truly was, just by looking at her you could tell that she was tired both physically and mentally. Seeing her in such a state made Roman's stomach shrink; if he were to made a list of people he hated, at that particular moment, Azrael would have been in it.
"We need to rest, we will turn into deadweight if we try to go when we barely can stay awake."
Neo sighed and nodded, she could not deny that truth.
Yang let out a sigh of relief when Roman and Neo got out of the room, that was one of those moments where you hope for your presence to not be noticed, at least now that she was alone with Rachel, that was the perfect chance to make some questions.
"Miss Xiao Long, I require your assistance." Rachel said almost annoyed.
The blonde stretched her body. "What is it?"
"In order to find Azrael's location, we must recalibrate the connection with the Cross Continental Transmit System. There are three antennas, one of them is close to the Forever Fall Forest, that one must be recalibrated manually."
"That's kind of far from here," Yang pointed out.
"I am aware of that, Miss Xiao Long. The antenna will be calibrated in your way to rescue Azrael. You will do it, Miss Neopolitan and Mister Torchwick can handle the rescue."
"Alright."
"Your role in this operation is fundamental for its success, Azrael life may depend on you."
Yang looked at the ground a bit flustered. "I will not disappoint, I never do."
The blonde approached the computer and looked at the gaming chair that was in front of it. Even Azrael had a weak spot for videogames, it seemed. Yang sat on it and interlocked her hands, no wonder why he spent so much time in that basement, with that computer and the comfy chair one could be really comfortable in the basement.
"Rachel, I have a question. What is the relationship between Azrael and my mother?"
"Azrael really cannot have an opinion of her, Summer Rose has been missed in action since 10 years ago and he has not had the chance to meet her."
"N-No, no, I mean, my biological mother."
"Raven Branwen is a dangerous individual, too stubborn to change her ways."
"He wants her...out of the picture?"
"No. Azrael often sees the worst in people and is prepared to deal with them but he also sees the good in them. He sees good in your mother and he will try to reach it as much as he can."
"Good, right."
Yang leaned back on the chair, her doubts were replaced by others; if her mother had good in her then why she abandoned her in the first place, she never tried to reach her, her father or her sister, nothing. Perhaps, seeing her would be worse, but she wanted answers, her mother might not love her but at least she would get the answers she always wanted.
"You seem troubled."
Yang looked at the screens quickly putting aside her doubts. "How can you tell?"
"A hunch."
"For a machine, you are very perceptive."
"Part of my duty is assuring the well-being of the crew of the ship. Although I am not in a ship and you are not part of Azrael's close circle, it is in my programming to help humans."
Yang leaned back and raised her arms.
"I want to meet her but at the same time I don't want to. What if I get disappointed again or she just doesn't care that I'm her daughter?"
"The result of such an interaction is unpredictable, even if I had my former hardware, I would not be able to predict the actions of a sentient being like humans with 100% accuracy. Humans are complex and just like any other sentient being, they are not conquered by pure logic, there always is emotion involved and, fortunately, emotion is one of the many things that eludes scientific knowledge."
"So, you're telling me to be ready for everything?"
"Yes."
Yang rested her face on her hand. "I think you are right, I have to be ready."
Forever Fall Forest
Azrael, using trees as a cover, took a look at the two men he was following and at the camp they were heading to. There were literal trees being used as houses, they had windows, doors and decoration, oh, and the trees were just as wide and tall as a two-stories building. The trees that were so deep into the forest were ridiculously huge like small skycrepers that dwarfed and concealed the smaller trees below. Having a clear view was kind of hard, he had used the slanted terrain to have the high ground and get a clear view but the trees were so big that they obstructed most of his vision.
"What can I do?"
It took him some minutes to fully analyze the camp and come to a conclusion, the place was a fortress; maybe it did not have walls or a watch tower but the amount of people and the disposition of the tree-buildings made impossible to walk pass it without being noticed. A diplomatic approach was too risky, the camp might belong to bandits which surely had aura and were likely to use violence. That risk could not be taken; if taking out a single individual with aura was hard, taking out an entire camp by himself was literally impossible.
"I need to find a way to avoid it." He stood up and tried to find any weak point but he was unsuccessful. "Vegetation is too thick."
Just as he said, the vegetation was too thick to go through withouth making his presence known which would ruin his initial plan of follow them to the nearest settlement. Well, he expected his plan to have some weak points; for starters, he had no idea if the people he followed had a camp but when the existence of the camp was confirmed he noticed more weak points than he would like. Maybe the camp had enough food, maybe they made their own food and didn't have the need to raid any village, maybe the camp did not belong to bandits.
Walking towards the nearest village was not a good option, he was well aware of his limits; he could spend days without sleeping more than a few minutes, perform almost perfectly without eating for days and even survive without water for almost an entire day but that only happened when he was healthy and had enough knowledge of the terrain.
"No matter how I look at it, my plan is a disaster."
In the camp, at least a dozen of armed people got out of a particularly wide tree and then pointed at his direction. It was impossible that he was seen by anyone, he was covered by plants and his head barely poked out of the tree he used as cover. How could they have detected him? Did aura improved eyesight too?
The answer came to him.
Aura gave people not just an enhanced body and a special power that tended to vary from person to person, those who trained their aura were also gifted with extrasensory perception able to warn them about any Grimm that could be nearby. Something similar surely happened, the people he followed sensed him and waited until getting to their camp to act, that way they had reinforcements. Something did not add up though, he was not good at measuring distances but he could say that he was at least more than 15 meters away from the camp, in theory, he had time to get away quietly since the people looking for him had no idea where he was and the vegetation was enough to slow them down.
Or so he thought.
A man came out from the forest and looked directly at him.
"This is unfortunate." Azrael drew his pistol. "Using this gun, I would be throwing rocks at an elephant."
The man was enormous, more than two meters almost three. Azrael could not see his face well but he saw a long beard and hair that he swore were silver, however, the man was as wide as two men and he bet that receiving a direct hit would be fatal.
Azrael turned around and began to run as fast as he could. A human of that size and musculature normally would have had problems with their stamina while running but the man coming towards him had aura which not only increased his stamina but his speed too. Azrael knew that it was a matter of seconds before getting caught, he had no reinforcements or enough firepower to survive the incoming encounter, the only thing he had was his mind and that was it.
He looked back just in time to jump aside narrowly dodging the massive punch that aimed for his skull.
The ground exploded upon impact, the shockwave was enough to torn tree branches apart and even loosen the surrounding trees. Azrael had drawn his pistol already and pointed at the cloud of dirt that was raised; a hand came out of the cloud, it could grab his head with ease but he did not appreciate that until said hand was at mere centimeters from his face. Azrael dropped backwards managing to fire his gun before hitting the ground with his back. The bullets bounced off the man with a metallic echo that was the signal for him to roll over.
He kicked the air and pushed the ground with one hand. Standing up with a jump allowed him to save few seconds which immediately was proven to be the right choice when a fist landed on the very spot he was a moment ago. Azrael barely had time to duck to dodge a right hook to the face and roll over to avoid a knee to the chest that ended up reducing a tree into splinters; however, the offensive of whoever wanted him dead was still not finished.
He succesfully dodged two straight punches by rapid head movement that would make a professional boxer proud and he leaned his body back to avoid a left hook to the face. Normally, he would have been able to quickly move his body out of the way of the next attack, but that maneuver usually worked when his attacker was not almost twice as tall as him and with superhuman speed. The knee that landed on his chest knocked the air out of his lungs, he felt how his feet lost contact with the ground and witnessed how trees turned into a red blur for an instant before crashing against a robust tree.
Few times in his life he ever got hit with enough force to feel every bone vibrate and every muscle get tensed. He could remember the time where the vehicle he and his squad were in got shot by a meteor spell and ended up inside of a river, the time in which he got shot almost point blank at his chest by a shotgun or when an orc hit him with a warhammer. The pain was closer to getting hit by a shotgun blast, even getting hit by the warhammer of a bloodlusted orc was a level below that in terms of pain.
"You dodged me without aura, impressive."
Only when the low-pitched voice of his attacker reached his ears, his brain took its time to realize that it had lost consciousness for a second. Two extra seconds were needed for his brain to remember the hit that turned his lights off, his head had hit the tree behind him.
"My men reported a fire a few miles from here. Was that your doing?"
Azrael used the tree behind him to support his weight as he stood up. Something seemingly was dancing waltz in his stomach and it only got faster with every word he heard.
"Stay down, boy, you are injured."
Azrael blinked twice to clear his vision.
The man before him was as big as he had thought but the muscles were way bigger and denser, it was the kind of physiche any bodybuilder would kill for. The man had bronze skin and green eyes that put emeralds to shame, he also had an abundant and puffy silver hair and beard that made him look like a lion, however, what attracted Azrael's attention was the golden pteruges on his waist protecting all the way down to his thighs, it had a symbol, a lambda.
"Were did that come from?" he asked while moving away from the tree, he needed some seconds to be fully aware of his surroundings again. "Are you a spartan?"
The giant crossed his arms and stared at Azrael with a stern look. "Do you really know what this symbol means?"
Azrael held back his smirk when he was spoken to in greek. "I do."
"Maybe the fates are kinder than I thought. What are you from, warrior?"
"Sparta."
"We are from the same land." The man stopped a moment as if he were thinking on his next words. "If you are a spartan too then this fight is meaningless."
"I am not from the Sparta you know." Azrael breathed out to ease the pain in his ribs. "It is hard to explain."
The giant man approached Azrael and grabbed his arm; effortlessly, he helped him to stand straigth. "My name is Argyros Conlenth."
"Azrael."
Outskirts of Vale
A violent shake woke Neopolitan, she looked around a bit disoriented but she quickly remembered where she was. Her gaze turned to the window, they were still flying above the city, they were not high enough to make the buildings look small nor fast enough to not truly observe people going to their jobs or opening their stores. She had been against flying so slow but Roman made a point when he said that the last thing they needed was attracting attention after stealing so much Dust.
A bullhead flying at top speed would certainly attract that unwanted attention.
A bullhead was an small aircraft, a kind of tiltwing jet made for transportation. That model they were using wasn't too big, just as big as a medium-sized helicopter, the area of the aircraft where it was piloted was not separated from the three seats placed at the bottom of the aircraft to be used by passangers.
"Alright, we will be there in ten minutes. Do we know what we have to do?" Roman asked whithout taking his eyes off the sky, he wasn't as good as Neo at piloting aircraft.
Yang stood up from her seat and walked to Roman. "I will calibrate the antenna while you two use the signal to track him down."
"Neo?"
She raised her thumb and shifted on her seat; if he had not been besides the pilot's seat, Roman would not have noticed how she tightened her grasp on her parasol.
"Follow the river towards the South, beyond the port and the Vanille Bridge."
Roman glanced at Neo who had conveniently decided to look through the window.
"Isn't that the bridge that was destroyed during the war?" Yang questioned, she had recollection of reading that somewhere. "It was burnt down, right?"
"The Mistral army was able to break through the city's defences and claimed the bridge, Vale bombarded it and forced the invaders to retreat to Beorg where they were felled by the Vacuan army. The bridge was rebuilt by the 11th Mayor of the city of Vale, Jimmy Vanille, in the year 57 after the Great War."
In few minutes, they trio flew over the port and followed the river.
The enormous bridge could be easily seen from pretty far and it was easy to identify, its gothic architecture and its white stone made it stand out from the rest of the buildings which had a more modern-looking architecture heavily influenced by Victorian style. The bridge worked as a connection between the city of Vale, the capital of the nation, and the city of Beorg, famous for being bigger than the capital and being the main producer of food for the entire kingdom; the city also was famous for its police force which had low-tolerance to crime and corruption. Decades after the war, the police and military overthrew a corrupt mayor that allowed a criminal organization to use the city to transport all kind of things to Vale and nearby towns.
"Head to the coordenates in the screen."
Roman looked at the map in the middle of the controls, it showed an aereal view of the city and marked the place they were suppossed to head to. It was at the Southern border of the city, it seemed to be a building of sorts but it was way to big in the map.
"I've never been to Beorg before." Yang got back to her seat. "I heard it was nice to live in."
"It's cleaner than Vale and their huntsman do a pretty good job but criminals there are worse. You should be thankful we are the ones in Vale, Goldilocks."
Neopolitan tapped Roman's shoulder with her parasol, once she got his attention, she used her hands to mimic pointy ears and then a shotgun.
"A faunus with a shotgun?" Yang guessed not too sure.
Roman sighed. "We made a gig for a pretty powerful man, it went wrong thanks to someone who poked their nose where it shouldn't have. Let me tell you, that night wasn't a calm one."
"You guys sure are exciting," the blonde said with a smirk. "And dangerous."
"That's an accurate way to put it."
The trio almost opened their mouths in awe when they saw what the coordenates were marking as their objective.
It was a huge factory complex that probably could occupy the space of Vale's port and at least half of the industrial district, it was divided into four buildings that were two-stories each. They were painted black and red and had a dragon's head as logo. After getting closer, Roman could read the words "Wyvern Industries" under the logos. The bullhead's normally blue HUD changed to red and showed an exclamation sign, only then, Roman spotted the anti-aircraft batteries on the wall surrounding the factory, they were directly pointing at them.
"Hey, turn round!" Yang said while holding onto Roman's seat. "They're gonna shoot us down!"
"I noticed, goldie!"
Neo buckled up and grabbed her parasol with both hands ready to open it to shield herself from the glass pieces that would fly towards her if they got hit.
"Land on the heliport on the roof of the smaller building. They are not going to shoot you down. Stay calm."
Roman scoffed, his experience and instinct were telling him to turn around as fast as posible but the artificial intelligence able to do calculations at light speed told him to do the contrary. Roman decided to trust and kept flying, the knot in his stomach got heavier with every second that passed.
One, two, three, four, five, six…
The three of them sighed in relief when they flew past the wall.
"Rachel, you got to tell us. Who the fuck Azrael actually is," Roman said, he didn't use to swear like that but considering the recent events, he could make an exception. "One of these days he's going to get us killed."
The aircraft delicately landed on the roof where a group of armored men were waiting for them.
"Get down the vehicle with your hands in the air!"
Yang ran up to the co-pilot's seat and almost pushed Neo's head with hers when she looked through the window. "Wow, these guys are not playing around."
The security team was heavy armored with black and red futuristic-looking armor covering everything but their thighs and biceps, their helmets covered their entire head and had no visors or anything else. The used a type of rifle that even Roman had never seen before and they were in formation ready to take them down if they needed. Neo tapped Roman's shoulder and pointed at the building in front of them; it was hard to spot but if he focused he could see the sniper.
"Do not fear, follow their instructions."
"It's not like we have a choice."
Yang looked at Roman and then at Neo, they had were not so sure about that indication but it was not like they could fight the entire group.
"You are breaking into a governmental protected property!" the man in the middle of the group, who was helmetless, moved his arm forward. "Get out of the vehicle with your hands in the air!"
Roman raised his hands, this action was followed by Neo and Yang. He slowly got away from the controls and put his hand on the handle of the sliding door. Fear appeared in the bottom of his mind and it quickly made its way into his body; so many successful jobs, so many times he cheated death, so many times he lied and backstabbed to survive, in the end it would all be for nothing. Was Azrael cold-hearted enough to sell them to the authorities, to sell Neo to the authorities?
"Hey, something's happening," Yang pointed out. "Someone told them to stand down."
Roman had to go back to the controls and risk himself to the sniper to see what was happening.
A man that was almost two meters tall talked to the armed men and they nodded and took a couple of steps back. The man was bronze-skinned and red-haired, his long hair wastied into a ponytailand his eyes were hidden behind circular sunglasses that made him look like some kind of rockstar; he wore a red three-buttoned vest, a white dress shirt and pants and black dress shoes. The small chain on the vest and the overall appereance of the man told Roman that he was someone with a lot of money.
"I'll go out first," he declared with a newfound security.
"I won't stop you," Yang joked as she stepped aside.
Roman opened the door and stepped out of the bullhead followed by the women. He could be grateful that they had changed to their usual clothes before setting out in their quest to save Azrael, he didn't know if someone had seen them last night but it was better not to take unnecessary risks.
"Mister Torchwick, Metis' notice about your arrival was sudden to say the least," the red-haired man said with his hands interlaced on his belly. "But I owe him a favor and I am a man of honor."
Yang looked at the armed men behind the eccentric man and then at the man himself and then at Roman. "I don't mean to be rude but who are you?"
The man smirked and stretched his arms as if he were welcoming the question. "My name is Burgundy Ebony, owner of Wyvern Industries."
"This is the weapon company?" Yang put her hands on her hips. "The one that made the Iris bike?"
"The one and only," Mister Ebony smiled proudly but it quickly faded. "I understood that we are in a hurry, come to my office."
Mistral
Qrow sighed before opening the doors of the bar, he was welcomed with the strong scent of liquor and food; another scent reached his nose, blood.
The Skillful, one of the most famous taverns in the lower levels of the city of Kuchinashi. This city was surrounded by mountains and fog, however, it somehow stood out due to the neon lights its tall buildings had but this city was not famous because of how beautiful it was or the stunning views, no, this city was famous thanks to how powerful criminals were there. It didn't matter where you looked at, there was crime everywhere from robbery to murder and the tavern Qrow just entered was not the exception.
Qrow headed towards the bar and asked for a highly-decorated beer, it was a fortune that he could remember them.
"The table in the corner, there is your man." The barman quickly made the drink and handed it over to Qrow. "4 lien."
"Here you go," Qrow said as he putt he money on the bar. "Thanks."
He walked towards the mentioned table, a woman with red hair and dark eyes was already there with the same drink. She was arm-crossed, enough for the huntsman to deduce that she was not in a particularly good mood.
"You're late," she said clearly annoyed. "You know who I am, you should know what I am risking."
Qrow sat in front of her and put his drink right next to hers. "I do, but getting assaulted by three guys is out of my control."
"You paid the barman."
"I never said that I left them rob me."
The woman leaned forwards and took a sip of her own drink. "What is the job about?"
Qrow grunted as he mimicked the woman, he felt bad already but he quickly pushed the guilt aside, he was doing that for the well-being of his family and Raven. He cleared his throat and took out his Scroll, he put it on the table and touched the screen.
"I need to find this man and deal with him."
The woman leaned back as soon as she saw the man in the holographic projection. A skull-shaped mask, military gear, a lot of firearms…
"You want me to kill him?!"
Every person on the rest of the tables turned towards theirs, Qrow noticed how the people who looked at the hologram either raised an eyebrow or turned around too fast.
"Who is him?" the huntsman asked now interested. "I will pay for the information."
The woman sighed and picked the money that Qrow put in the table.
"This man is to criminals what Grimm are to common folk. He is called the Grimm Reaper or how we call him, the predator. No one really knows who is behind the mask and no one really wants to know, one day criminal families began to die and then small organizations were destroyed in matter of weeks."
"So he is a vigilante."
The woman looked away, she looked at Qrow and then drank her beer in one go. She leaned back on her seat as if she were trying to get away from the hologram. Qrow was really trying to understand what was happening, a single man could not provoke enough bloodshed to make even cold-blooded assassins fearful. A quick look around confirmed to Qrow that the man he was looking for was well-known, everyone had stopped their conversations and were paying attention to whatever deal he was about to propose.
"You are not understanding," the woman said completely sure, "that man is not just a vigilante, he is a monster."
"Worse than the Grimm?"
"Some of us would rather be eaten by a manticore than dying by his hands."
A man approached, Qrow instinctively reached for his sword but that was not necessary, the man simply unbuttoned his shirt.
"What the hell?!"
The chest of the man was filled with scars caused by what Qrow could guess were stabbings. They were so many yet none of them were on a vital place, it was not posible to fail so much, whoever did that was not stabbing with the intention to kill but to cause pain. Was that the Grimm Reaper's doing?
"Daniel," the barman said the scarred man's name. "He used to sell drugs and traffic women, one day he went too far and kidnapped a girl from the orphanage. The Grimm Reaper hunted him down and when he caught him, well, you can see what happened."
"Why is he not dead?"
Daniel took several steps back and looked at the wooden floor, his eyes were just empty. Qrow admitted that he would have beaten the man really bad but even he would have not gone so far, Daniel was terrified, not scared or anxious, terrified. A mano n a nearby table looked at Daniel and then at Qrow.
"The Reaper caught him and stabbed him once for each life he ruined." The man turned around and drank his beer. "Daniel used to talk a lot but after that he hasn't spoken a single word, he got it easy though."
"Easy?" Qrow repeated in desbelief. "Is this pal really so brutal?"
The entire ambient got heavier and that was all Qrow needed to know that he screwed up.
"He cut my hand off."
"He beat me up."
"He killed my sons."
"He burnt my workshop."
"He left me to die."
Qrow looked at the woman who was supposed to accept the job, that outcome seemed unlikely now. Everyone in the tavern apparently had a close encounter with the Grimm Reaper, if what he was hearing was true then the situation was more dangerous than he thought. The man who dug into Beacon's data was able to destroy families and worse, who was able to know what he was capable of with that information.
"How much for finding him?"
The woman remained silent for a few seconds. "Two hundred thousand."
"So much?"
"You're asking me to go too close to fire. If he finds me instead, I could be lucky and die fast or be punished, no one sane would accept less money."
"Alright, alright," Qrow finished his drink. "I only want you to find me and tell me where he is, that's all."
Qrow looked at his Scroll, whoever that man was, he wanted him as far as posible from his family.