Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!
Just returned from a camping trip last night. Now I only have about half a day before school starts up tomorrow. After that late chapters will probably become more common, nor will they arrive at any point in the day. Just a little warning for you all.
As you can see by the title, we've entered Azure II! Remember back in Azure I when she only received two chapters? That sucked. There's more on her now though, and more to come!
I hadn't written in HellFall all summer thanks to camp and a little bit of writer's block (again) that came up a bit before, but that appears to have cleared. I just finished the first few chapters of Grey II, which is great. I hope you guys are looking forward to that.
Recently had some trouble checking the total views on each chapter, and as it turns out in the last two chapters have only had three total views! I know that's not true though, considering I have two reviews from different people on one of the last chapters, so I think the system's just a little screwed up right now.
Anyways, this chapter picks up the pace a little bit, so let's get on with it!
"Look!" Nello called, pointing towards a large house. Inside we saw a young pink-haired woman fighting Rocco Trask.
Octavia's head spun, then suddenly her hand went to Thunder Cyclone, her hammer, "Move!" She called, charging towards the house.
We all turned in unison, charging towards the house, weapons ready. We leapt into the air, drawing all our weapons and crashing through the windows. Glass shards fell around us, scratching the wooden floor and flying all over the stairs and hallway. Rocco turned. The pink-haired woman shielded herself with her arms.
I spun Cratorus 2.0 around in my hands as I stood up, taking up a battle stance. Cratorus 2.0 was an improvement of my old weapon, Cratorus. It was a long, slender, dual-ended spear. It was a spruce-wood color, with two grips along the staff. It better resembled a toothpick, only with one point on either end. The weapon could evaporate into smaller pieces, then reform into an octagonal prism, which could be stored at the small of my back. It could also evaporate into and reform into a sniper rifle. I had a magnet attached to my middle finger on my palm, which I used to control it.
Nello Flecker stood to his feet, yanking out his whip, Eternal Punishment, and readying to strike. The whip had a large blade at the end.
Octavia Strom drew her hammer, holding it in both hands and facing Rocco.
Lastly, Xeyrus Love raised his fists, gun boots hopping lightly off the ground as he waited to attack.
Rocco looked around at all of us, his eyes centering on Octavia before he turned and ran, smashing through the wooden door and running down the road.
"Follow him!" Octavia shouted, turning and running after him through the door.
I turned to the pink-haired woman, who stood shocked and staring. "I'm so sorry," I said, "I'll come by later to pay for this" I gestured to the ground, before turning and following my team out the door.
Outside Rocco ran through the early morning traffic, dodging cars and getting several angry honks. Octavia and Nello followed him in.
"Azure, stay on this side!" Octavia called, "Xeyrus, other side! We'll surround him!"
Xeyrus fired off both his boots, shooting him into the air over the road and landing onto the sidewalk on the other side, where he continued to run. I sheathed Cratorus 2.0 and pumped my arms, running faster along the sidewalk. A group of people stopped on the sidewalk and watched.
"Excuse me!" I called, running past them. Soon I saw Rocco's head above all the cars. Octavia and Nello were right behind him.
He glanced back before throwing his human hand forward. Faded silver chains shot out, wrapping around Nello. Immediately my sniper rifle was out. I fired a bullet quickly, aiming down the scope and breaking the chain's link. The chain disappeared and Nello kept moving, nodding to me in thanks. Sheathing my weapon, I kept up my pace with Rocco.
I saw him duck down and gasped. "Look out!" I called out. Suddenly a car flew into the air towards Octavia and Nello.
"Nello!" Octavia called.
"On it!" He called back, wrapping his whip around the car and letting it down gentler than it would have been onto the sidewalk.
Rocco threw another car, then another immediately after. Nello caught one car, but the next came at him quickly. Octavia leapt towards it, wrapping her arms around the cab and throwing it back at Rocco. It slammed against the ground, crushing his back. Octavia landed on the car, caving in the roof. Nello landed quickly afterwards, and Xeyrus and I stopped on either side of the car.
"You're surrounded, Rocco," Octavia called, "There's no way out of this"
No response. Only the terrified crying of the unfortunate souls inside the vehicle.
Curiously, Octavia hopped off the car and pushed it aside.
"Hey!" Nello called, wobbling on the top of the car as it moved.
"That clever bastard" She said, looking at the road. Xeyrus and I walked past all the now stopped cars to find a hole in the road. He'd dug his way out from under the car.
"He can't have gotten far!" I said, starting towards the hole. Nello raised his arm to block me.
"He's part armadillo," he said, "underground he has the advantage"
"Xeyrus," I said, "shoot down the tunnel at him"
"I can try," he replied, "but I don't know how the tunnel curves. Most likely I'll make it cave in"
"We need him alive," Octavia said, "and on the surface of Remnant. It'd be best to admit defeat for today, try again another day"
I sighed as everyone began to walk away sullenly. I glanced down the tunnel before turning around and joining them.
"Let's head back to base." Octavia said. "And get some money to pay back that poor woman"
"I'll take care of that," I said, "I already told her I would earlier"
"Alright," Octavia replied, "here." she handed me a bundle of Lien, "Tell her she can keep the change"
I nodded before pocketing the Lien and turning around to walk to the pink-haired woman's house. I was too tired to run now, and very slowly made my way there.
When I did reach the house I walked through the door, "Ma'am?" I called.
"In here!" She called. I turned right and walked into a room filled with various instruments. She was sitting on a stool, her scroll in hand. She looked up, "Your back," she said, "did you catch Rocco?"
"No," I replied, "but how do you know his name?"
"He kidnapped and attacked my friend and me not long ago. This morning as you saw he got into my house" she replied.
"Oh," I replied, pulling out the bundle of Lien, "I have some Lien to fix the house"
She looked up, "Oh, thank you." She said, "I'm calculating the cost right now." She tapped her scroll for a bit longer before stopping, "You owe me about seventeen-hundred Lien"
I handed her the bundle, "Here" I said.
Flipping through it she looked up and handed me about a third of the bundle, "Keep the change," I said, "for the trouble we gave you"
"Oh please," she said, "it's not your fault. Only the windows are"
"We still want you to keep it" I insisted.
She shrugged, "Okay" She replied, taking the Lien back.
I turned around to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" The pink-haired woman asked.
"Heading back to meet with my team" I replied.
"No you aren't," she said, "I want to know what you know about Rocco Trask"
"I'd rather not get you involved"
"He involved me already, remember?"
"More involved then you already are"
"I'll take my chances"
I sighed, turning back to face her, "Alright," I replied, "The leader of my team, Octavia Strom, was once kidnapped by Rocco Trask and Gale Sheng. Through some experiment there she had her semblance taken away. Currently we're working to find them in hopes of reversing the effect and returning her semblance to her"
"I see," the woman said, "thank you. What do you know individually about them?"
"Rocco is an armadillo Faunus Hybrid. Meaning something happened when he was born that affected his body, most likely genetics. His semblance is the creation of chains, and his weapon is his gauntlet. As far as we know of, there isn't a gun attached to it. Gale Sheng, on the other hand, we don't know anything but her name. We haven't even seen her yet. All we know is that her hair is a blue-green color"
"Thank you," the woman said, "I'll keep these in mind"
"Are you sure you can take care of yourself?" I asked.
"I'm fine," she replied, "believe it or not, I've been hunting for over a decade"
I was surprised. Clearly she was older than her appearance let on, "Alright," I replied, "good to know"
"Oh, also," she started, "I lost my main weapon to them. If you ever find two brown suitcases in a black car, chances are they're mine"
"I'll be sure to look out for those and return them if I can" I said.
"I'd appreciate it, thank you"
"No problem" I replied, turning around and leaving.
So there you have it. Azure's team and the fact that she survived are both revealed, plus a bit more on Rocco (Gale not so much).
What do you guys think of Azure's new weapon? Yay? Nay? I like it quite a bit personally. It actually went through a lot of major design changes as I tried to make it realistically turn into a gun, but ultimately gave up on it and went with something more futuristic. Otherwise the overall shape has changed multiple times, and I found myself actually forgetting what the final design was on several occasions, which is probably why it changed so much. I had the intention of changing it from Cratorus to Cratorus 2.0 for a while, so I didn't change it just because I didn't like the original Cratorus (although I wasn't particularly fond of it)
Also, Nello's weapon. Blink and you'll miss it, it's a small description, but there's not a heck of a lot else to say about it. It's a whip with a big blade at the end. What do you guys think of that? Let me know in a review!
Anyways, not a whole lot happened in this chapter so I guess I'll just end it here. As usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!