Two in harmony, surpass one in perfection.
It was an old saying, an old piece of wisdom that saw itself fulfilled when two rejected souls found each other.
The first piece of the puzzle was Jean-Paul Valley, AKA Azrael.
A kind and intelligent young man studying Computer Science in Gotham´s University, who was, unknowingly, being crafted, since he was barely a fetus, to be the perfect assassin for the Order of Saint Dumas. The Azrael, the individual that carried out the will of Saint Dumas, was created through a process called The System.
There is little known about the System, as even the Grey Abbot, the individual in charge of the creation of the Azrael was still trying to perfect it. In a quick resume, the previous Azrael will lay with a human female, impregnate her, then the fetus will be implanted in a genetically altered female gorilla, had the Azrael´s genetics spliced for enhanced strength, endurance, speed, etc and shock the unborn baby with electric-shocks. After that, once the baby was big enough, it would be delivered to the previous Azrael that would raise him in ignorance, but implanting several subliminal instructions that would be the base of the System.
The new Azrael will grow as a normal person until the previous Azrael was disabled or killed in action. With the System, the new Azrael will awake his skills and powers and will take the mantle, after being trained with the dwarves of the Order. The dwarves were a race of lesser human beings, created and protected by Saint Dumas to do all kinds of chores and difficult tasks in the frozen and inhospitable Ice Cathedral that was the main HQ of the Order.
The last Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley, was hunted down by a rogue element of the Order, a former member of it that has taken advantage of the money and contacts of the order to made his own criminal empire. The father of Jean-Paul was killed by Carlton Leah after he was sent to kill the betrayer of the Order. Jean-Paul becomes Azrael, and as much as Jean-Paul would have loved otherwise, it was something that would have happened, with or without his consent.
As Azrael, Jean-Paul was something to behold. Strong, fast, relentless, a supreme combatant and a master assassin, with skill ingrained into him thanks to the System. The problem was that Azrael and Jean-Paul operated as separate entities, only when Jean-Paul donned the mask of the suit of Azrael, did his inhuman capabilities activated.
Once Jean-Paul had his red and gold suit in, he becomes Azrael, a nightmare on its own. Bruce Wayne, Aka Batman, knew this; knew this very well and procured to keep an eye on Jean-Paul, however, Batman was a lucky man and Jean-Paul rejected the mantle of Azrael, preferring to be back to being a humble student of Computer science.
Unfortunately, fate was not done with Azrael.
The life of Batman was one of violence, that was an understatement, but on this particular occasion, Batman suffered crippling wounds at the hands of Bane. The drug-enhanced Crime Lord broke Batman's spine and left him paralytic. To kept the legacy of the Batman up and running, Bruce Wayne made a very bad calling.
The choice of Batman was a difficult one, few individuals could dress the mask of the Bat with a semblance of success. Among those individuals, there was Jean-Paul, who was intelligent; as his grades in Gotham University demonstrated; and actually was even superior physically to Batman. Thanks to the System, Azrael was on a higher scale than the usual Vigilante, and when the System was up and running and Azrael was on the job, he could beat Bane in a straight-up fight, even when Bane was on Venom.
The problem was that the mask of the Batman was Not the mask of the Azrael, and the System went a bit into disarray when Azrael was wearing the Bat´s cowl. The actions of Azrael become erratic, the clashing of the System and the Batman instructions made Azrael went mad at the end. Batman managed to defeat the crazed Azrael, but that left Azrael, and by extension Jean-Paul, completely broken in mind.
For months, Jean-Paul just wandered the streets of Gotham as another of the thousands of hobos that covered the city, lost and confused, the System and his own identity as Jean-Paul and as Batman did drove him mad. After Batman set forth something resembling a semblance of order in Gotham, once again with Bruce Wayne under the cowl, Batman went out for Jean-Paul Valley, feeling responsible for what has happened to the young man.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and when Batman helped Azrael to look out for answers in the Order of Saint Dumas, Batman destroyed Azrael.
Batman could not know what he was doing. Batman couldn't know, however, when Azrael appeared back in the Batcave; just sitting in the darkness, without saying a word, without eating or sleeping; Batman knew that something has gone very wrong with Azrael.
Thanks to the "friends" of Azrael, the former hobo, and actual psychiatrist Bryan and Sister Lilhy from the Order, Batman had access to some of the codices and books of the Order, in them, there was a brief explanation of the System and the creation of the Azrael, in the horror site called the Birth of Angels. Batman´s blood run cold at the descriptions, it was so surreal and grotesque that Batman, at first, believed that the code to decipher the codices was flawed, but at the end, Batman had to admit that the Order was filled to the brim with zealots and monsters that justified everything under their faith in Saint Dumas.
Jean-Paul Valley was no more; when Jean-Paul discovered that all his life was a fabrication and he was a modern Frankenstein; and his mind went awol and returned to an empty state. It was something difficult to understand but for Bryan; Azrael´s psychiatrist friend; decipher of his behavior and silence, Azrael was, in absence of a better wording, empty.
Azrael was an assassin, one of the best there is, however, Jean-Paul Valley rejected that idea, that was not a way of living. Without a purpose, and knowing that all that Jean-Paul believed was a fabrication, a cover, Azrael found himself without nothing to live. Azrael has lost his entire purpose.
The Order of Saint Dumas had roots in Christianity, so the idea of suicide was taboo, except as in payment for offenses against Saint Dumas, meaning that Azrael was pretty much waiting for his chance to die, be it in combat or just by hunger, however, with his enhanced body, genetically spliced with animals and who knows what else, Azrael could suffer for a long time.
Even Batman had to admit that he was at a loss about what to do with Azrael. It was a conundrum that baffled the minds of all the crew of Batman. Alfred, the one that first saw the noble lad behind the monster, confided in that Azrael, would in time, learn to be Jean-Paul again. The poor man had all his life destroyed in a very cruel manner, and without nothing to anchor him, well, he just went to the only place where he could stay, relatively unmolested.
The word of Alfred was more than enough for Oracle and Nightwing; even if the latter was almost choked by Azrael when Azrael was taking the Batman role for Bruce Wayne. The new Robin, Damian Wayne, just wanted to kill Azrael, it would be a mercy killing, as the former Assassin of the Order was something akin to a wounded hound, better to kill him with mercy and without suffering than letting him consume in pain and despair.
Robin promptly shut up, when Alfred tossed one of his patented icy glares at him. The grandson of the Demon was scared shitless of the old butler, even after all his training in the League of Assassins, the old butler had the same aura than some of the veterans of the League, individuals that have survived a lot of very, very, nightmarish things.
Batman allowed Bryan and Lilhy visitation rights, even if they have achieved nothing so far, but Azrael calmly and silently looking at them. Only Lilhy has managed to slowly take the cowl of Azrael off Azrael´s head, but the cold, empty and steely look that Azrael had on his sunken and void blue eyes spoke volumes of how little was left of the kind and likable man that was Jean-Paul Valley.
For a long while, Azrael was something akin to a bloodhound. Azrael just stood in the Batcave, silent, and immobile; after a week, whenever Alfred was working on the cave, Azrael helped with the heavy lifting, something that the butler appreciated, even if Azrael was still mute. At that moment, the butler realized that even in his voluntarily malnourished and weakened state, Azrael was capable of easily lifting the Batmobile over Azrael's own head, a vehicle that was easy of several tons of weight.
The red and gold armor of Azrael was everything that he wore, cleaning it by taking dives into the water pool deep in the Batcave, one of the secondary access to the Gotham River. From time to time, Azrael seems to go hunting into the forest outside of Gotham, disappearing for a couple of days, only to come back with some hunting game over his shoulders. It was another glimpse of Jean-Paul Valley under Azrael, Azrael understood that he was a guest, and tried to pay kindness with work and bringing food.
Slowly, Azrael started to become, albeit still silent like a tomb, more humane. Alfred even managed to convince him to take a shower and a proper meal. It must be said that Robin; Damian Wayne, not Tim Drake; was not entirely happy with the silent assassin, usually berating him and treating him like he was some kind of dog. Azrael didn't seem to care much about the boy and in the only occasion that Damian pushed his luck, found himself staring at his reflection on a very, very, sharp blade that Azrael had on his suit. That blade could have sliced him in two before the Devil´s Grandson could even realize what the heck has happened.
Since that moment, Damian tends to be out of the way of Azrael. Damian´s pride was wounded, true, but the boy knew people like Azrael in the League, individuals that simply had lost anything that was not their blades and had zero patience with anything that interfered with their lives. Damian was more convinced than ever to put an end to the rabid dog that they had on the cave and ironically enough the chance of the grandson of the devil came soon enough.
As usual, some of the inmates started a riot in Arkham Asylum and several of the most dangerous prisoners were about to escape. Zsasz, Killer Croc, Harley Queen, Poison Ivy, Calendar man, Firefly, Ventriloquist, and several others were in Arkham, and any of them could make a big kill count before they are stopped and sent back to Arkham.
Azrael listened to the radio and accompanied Batman to Arkham, fighting at the side of the Dark Knight of Gotham with fierceness and the absolute lack of mercy that the Azrael had, but much to the surprise of Batman, Azrael did not take a single life.
It was well known among the crew of Batman that Azrael was possible the best fighter among them. Batman and Nightwing may be more skilled, Oracle may be way smarter, and several other talents that Azrael did not have, but in pure combat?. Azrael had them all beat. The former Assassin of Saint Dumas was enhanced beyond human limitations, capable of lifting several tons, inhumanely agile and thanks to the System, Azrael combat skills were out of this world.
The inmates of Arkham did not know what hit them, but when Azrael was done with them, they were all on the ground, broken and groaning in pain. Azrael took several bullet hits from the guns that the prisoners had taken from the guards, but between his natural resilience and the armor of his suit, Azrael shrugged off the impacts and made the gunners lament the day they were born.
The mastermind behind the sudden riot was never discovered, but when Batman and his crew finished mopping the place, an entire sector of the Asylum went in flames. The explosion was more than enough to destroy some of the sub-levels, creating a massive hole that damaged the roots of the buildings and provoked a cascade effect that made two massive buildings collapse. There were people in those buildings, normal people, not the crazy prisoners, and before they even began to move, Azrael was three steps ahead, jumping an impossible distance and in an incredible show of agility and athleticism, enter the building and help the people inside evacuate.
Thanks to Azrael´s enhanced strength, he was capable of lifting a concrete column that had a lot of people trapped behind it. The concrete would easily weight four tons, but Azrael picked it and raised over his head, with only a grunt. As the people were taken out of the collapsing building, Azrael had to keep the column over his head all he could, until all the people were taken back to safety.
It was the perfect moment for the floor to collapse under his feet; the damages to the building structure were more than enough to shatter any ideas of the building surviving the ordeal and make Azrael fall into the sinkhole that was the explosion site. In other circumstances, Azrael would have survived the fall, he was a tough cookie after all, but with the explosion, the hole in Arkham had become something akin to a sinkhole to the Gotham River. Through the pipes and holes that had been blasted by whatever has detonated down there, tons of water was running in savage currents.
Even if Azrael could endure the fall, the currents would drag him down into the waters, drowning him or smashing him against whatever rubble and crevices that were created by the rushing waters and the explosion.
Azrael was falling to his death.
Damian Wayne, the last Robin, saw the falling assassin. The red and golden suit of Azrael lacked the gadgets that Robin´s had, Azrael lacked a grappling gun, his inhuman agility and parkour skills were more than enough for Azrael to run all over Gotham like it was a playground. The son of Bruce Wayne considered that Azrael has finally found an honorable death and just let it happen, even though Damian could have easily saved Azrael, by tossing the grapple to him and let him climb back to safety.
Now, comes the second part of the puzzle.
Deep below Arkham, where the former Director Hugo Strange allowed some of the most delicate and unethical experimentation to run unperturbed by things like Medical Councils, ethics, and things like that, there was something unusual, even for Arkham demented standards.
One of the things that had all the scientists down there completely baffled was a goo like substance that seem alive but has resisted all attempts at communication that they have tried. The goo like thing seems to be in constant agony, writhing, and screeching in mute sounds, the goo was incredibly toxic and razed anything organic that came in touch with it with incredible fierceness. The technicians were astonished by it.
The goop was something that had all the tech and scientist of the secret lab flabbergasted. The thing, as it lacked anything resembling a form, was a mass of black goop that writhed violently, constantly, never stopping, as if it was in agony. With the help of some hired telepath, it was possible to know that the thing within the container was screeching in anger, a rage so deep that the telepath had to cut the connection asap before the thing overloaded his senses with its psychic screams.
The only thing that the telepath could pick up from the mental rumble, was the sensation of longing, screeching for a "host" and a series of incoherent images about humans, something that looks like magic and conflict against a thing that looked like the bastard child of Lovecraft and a bad hangover.
Hugo Strange was delighted with the idea of a host, but whatever organic materials that are presented to the goop were quickly disposed of. In the beginning, the analysis indicated that it was more than possible that the goop was more or less eating whatever they toss at it, to regrow mass, as the sensors indicated an increase in weight whenever they toss an unfortunate organic sample into the container.
It was pure luck; good or bad, was still up to the debate; that the inmates decided to riot, just a day before Strange finally gave the thumbs up to the human experimentation, depositing a living human in the cage, to observe the fascinating process of the "host" that the goop seems so fixated in. The subject was a hobo that they just picked up in the streets, mentally sane, and relatively clean of any genetic flaws or diseases.
The explosion that shocked the Asylum, was more than enough to shatter the containment measures in place, releasing the goop into the waters that flooded the caves under the sub-levels and the hole that the fissure on the roots of the building has, directly into Gotham River. The black goop filtered through the cracks on the container and drop into the cold waters of the river.
That´s where the two of them, the two pieces of a unique puzzle, met each other and much for their amazement, they discovered that they were not so different and they could become something way bigger than the sum of its parts.
Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley was an empty husk of an individual. All his life has been nothing but an elaborate cover to train him to be the next Azrael, the last of a long line of assassin and murderers under the command of the Order of Saint Dumas. Everything that he believed resulted to be a lie and after discovering the truth, Azrael saw that this was not what he wanted.
All-Black was Klyntar, an alien species of Symbiotes that predated the universe; the first of his kind, a sword forged by the shadow of a god and the fires of the heart of a fallen Celestial.
Both fall to their deaths and in the dark and cold waters of the Gotham River, they found each other.
It was not an easy merging, far from it, it was confusing and painful, however, through their common experiences, they could understand each other and set a solid foundation, a solid merging, a real symbiosis between all the rejected individuals that formed the new individual.
The first meeting was utterly surreal, though.
Azrael was bouncing around the bottom of the waterflood, with his weakened body surrounded by the black mass of the symbiote, that acted as a protective cocoon as they found if their symbiosis was even possible. As they traveled the deeps; Azrael was kept alive inside the cocoon; they were having a mind reunion so to speak.
From Azrael´s point of view, it was a very confusing scene.
Inside a replica of the Batcave, although with Azrael´s and Saint Dumas imagery instead of the trophies and bat paraphernalia that Azrael remembered, there was a round table, where several individuals had taken a sit like this was some sort of meeting.
Jean-Paul, the human, was sitting on a chair, dressed with the same clothes that he had, the last day he went to class into the Gotham University. That felt like a lifetime ago. The young blonde man with azure eyes was observing all the other around the table with no little surprise, confusion, and a bit of fearfulness.
Azrael, the product of the experiments of the Order, dressed in the gold, black and red armor of the Azrael, stood vigilant and silent, ready to strike or defend, all his body language spoke of barely contained aggression. The blades on the gauntlets of his wrist were ready to strike and glowing with an inner fire.
Speaking of fire, the next in the table was a flaming specter, a crusader of some sort. A Templar knight enveloped in flames and with only a helmet covered skull-like face. This was none other than Saint Dumas itself, the founder of the order and powerful spirit that has accompanied all the Azrael's since the first day of the Order.
Saint Dumas stood in the table, the spirit was not eager to lose an Azrael, much less when there was no replacement, and the leader of the Order of Saint Dumas, brother Rollo, was starting to become, more and more rebellious.
The last figure was a hulking humanoid of black, liquid-like, skin with two wide white eyes and a lot of fangs in a wicked smile.
"This is a bit awkward", scratched his head, Jean-Paul, "can anyone please, explain to me what´s going on?, I feel like I have lost a big chunk of my memories".
"You were dying, we caught you before that, we are merging with you, but the other seems to have something to say about it" resumed the black figure, its white lenses for eyes never leaving Saint Dumas or Azrael.
"Oh". Was all that Jean-Paul could add to the words of the Symbiote.
Azrael said nothing, the persona that the System created inside Jean-Paul was not one for philosophical debates, Azrael was an individual of violence. Swift, brutal, accurate, violence that put an end to a threat. Trying to made heads or tails about life, purpose, identities, well...that was Not what the Azrael stood for.
There was a reason why this particular creation of the System was named after the Angel of Death.
On the other hand, Saint Dumas was vocal enough for all of them about his displeasure.
"Wretched alien-spawn, your infectious touch is not welcomed; you sully my work and acolyte with your blighted presence". Vocal, very, very, vocal about how Saint Dumas considered the Symbiote little more than devils work, even if he had seen nothing remotely similar.
"Spare us your insults" simply answered the Symbiote. "We are not speaking with the monster that turned so many lives into living hell just for his convenience".
"You dare filthy abomination?" even if he lacked vocal cords, Saint Dumas surely could pull off a loud volume. "I can smell your eldritch corruption, you are the putrid remnants of some alien filth; I will never allow you to tarnish the work of Angels".
"The work of Angels?, is that how you call the blasphemous acts of the Grey Abbot?" this time it was the Symbiote the one who raised its voice. A curious voice, now that Jean-Paul took a second to listen to the new voice in his head. The voice of the Symbiote was multiple, it was as if several individuals were speaking.
The Symbiote and Saint Dumas continued shouting at each other, it was a peculiar sight, something that Jean-Paul would have never expected in his life, to see a moral debate between a flaming specter and an alien. It was curious and horrifying at the same time.
Jean-Paul was observing his Azrael persona. It was the first time that Jean-Paul had the chance to actually communicate with his other-self, the one that had the super-powers and the fighting skills. Azrael and Jean-Paul could share a body, but had nothing in common; they could not be more opposite.
"I think is the first time that we could chat", said Jean-Paul to his silent alter ego. "Is all these as confusing for you as it is for me?".
Jean-Paul smiled, when lo and behold, the silent assassin actually nodded. Well, it was a step in the right direction, at long last, Jean-Paul could speak with his alter ego; ignoring the screeching pair on the background. The last memory that Jean-Paul had was of the Ice Cathedral going down in flames and being completely obliterated by an alchemical super-weapon of sorts.
"I always wanted to ask something to you", continued Jean-Paul with his conversation. "Every time that I put my mask on, you get out to play, but when I was protecting Lilhy, you got out and kick that man ass all the ways to Sunday, how come?".
The silent angel of death stared at Jean-Paul, man, if that was the sensation that people get whenever they are Bat-glared, Jean-Paul could understand why people were so scared of the man. But the angel was not being hostile, it was not acting hostile at all, it was that he seemed to lack words, then it hit Jean-Paul like a ton of bricks.
It was not that Azrael did not want to communicate, it was simply that the artificial personal lacked the know-how. Azrael was only a complicated mess of skills and metal triggers that turned the puny Jean-Paul into a violent murdering machine. There no words for a persona that was formed through violence and rage, there are no words for a blade, just actions. It was sad beyond words, the System was a marvel, yet it was used to create killing machines that understood next to nothing that was not killing the enemies of the Order.
Now, without the Order, what does an Azrael have?.
The discussion of the other two presents in the curious mind-melding of sort continued, the alien-spawn or whatever, was berating Saint Dumas for being an idiotic zealot and Saint Dumas was pretty much determined to call the black whatever an eldritch, corrupting spawn of a demon that should be purged by fire as soon as possible.
Jean-Paul commented to him alter ego that it was almost fascinating to watch, he would have loved to have some pop-corn and Azrael nodded strongly, agreeing with Jean-Paul. The reasons that both were tossing at each other were not exempt from logic and with fact behind them. The only one that felt like his life was a carnival of horrors was Jean-Paul that was happy to be able to think straight but that felt that a bit of break would have been more than welcome.
Anyhow, Saint Dumas was totally against the merging, and for what All-Black, the black whatever was saying, it was swim or die. The entire race of All-Black was made of symbiotes, entities that bonded to a host, and through the union, they become something more.
All-Black, or Abe, as Jean-Paul has baptized the symbiote, was a sliver of the original All-Black, a piece, severed and burned through the light of a Thunder God at the end of times, a shadow of the first shadow. It was almost poetic.
Separated from the hive, from the collective consciousness of the Klyntar, All-Black saw what their race was and like others, Pariahs, among their people, lookout for a light. That´s what the bonding was called, the light, merging with a living being, and do not consuming it, but sharing life and experiences.
The light was beautiful.
Saint Dumas was against it vehemently, his work was to create angels, purifiers that made the work of Heaven, agents against the evil that lurked in every corner of this world. Azrael was a murderer for the light, the individual that went against the monster that menaced the innocent.
Jean-Paul, the small, weak, human was the one that saw order and chaos, seeing the balance in both of them. The Chaos of Abe and the Order of Saint Dumas were the same through different paths and Jean-Paul smiled at the absurdity and incredible balance between the two.
Azrael said nothing, just stood at the side of Jean-Paul, as he has been since the beginning when the Gray Abbot electrocuted them in the uterus of his spliced gorilla mother and started the process that would make them an Azrael.
The weak link became the strongest chain.
There was no need for words when the battle is inside of the mind, so Jean-Paul accepted both, Saint Dumas and Abe. Abe was a bit surprised by the name, but with his wicked smile, he seemed proud of it. All-Black, now called Abe, liked his name, it was his first name, said in a friendly tone and not in horror or despise.
It was much better than All-Black, that´s for certain, All-Black was the name of an evil monstrosity crafted to slay gods. Abe could be whatever his host and he wanted and that was a wonderful sensation.
Saint Dumas was fire, was brimstone, fury, and the wrath of heaven. Pretty much what Jean-Paul has been doing since day one, but this time, Jean-Paul had zero intentions of being led by the corrupt order. Jean-Paul was going to do angels' work and he was going to do in his bloody terms.
Azrael supported Jean-Paul, it was the other side of the same coin, after all, so he continued doing what he has been doing all this time.
The merging took place in the coldest and darkest waters of the Gotham bay. Inside of black cocoon, what it was Jean-Paul Valley, what was All-Black was no longer.
Symbiosis.
Of course, like any other birth, it was not exempt from complications and pains. Altering an already nightmarish DNA like Azrael´s was was complicated, to say the least, but the All-Black was crafted to be the weapon of a primordial entity when the stars were not even in their cradles and Abe enjoyed the challenge.
The abundant fish and plants on the bottom of the bay provided some very needed bio-mass; Abe informed Azrael that as soon as they were out, they are going to eat a bloody cow with seconds and dessert. And chocolate, Abe loved chocolate and Azrael completely agree with him, chocolate is going to be in the menu one hundred percent of the time if it is possible.
Slow, but steady, the merging continued, strands of DNA, errors in the System; Jean-Paul was an exceptional programmer and now that he had access to his own brain, he was more than capable of looking out for the bugs of the System and see what the heck was wrong. It led to a lot of heated discussions with Saint Dumas for being a zealot idiot that did not see what the Order was doing and how it was destroying Dumas' legacy.
It was something that annoyed Saint Dumas, but with the Order all but gone, this new amalgam of primordial alien shadow and the last of his Azraels had some potential. If anything, the old specter knew full well that the merging will create something out of the nightmares of Satan and the flaming Saint preferred to point out the amalgamation to the enemies of the Lord that against the Lord´s allies.
Scarce as they seem to be in this blasted "modern" age.
Without a clock, although somehow Saint Dumas always seemed to be aware of the time, it was difficult to calculate how much time all the merging has taken, Saint Dumas informed them that it has taken about a year, and only because they were without interruption and with a constant supply of food, water and cold. Frankly, the bottoms of the Gotham bay was dark and cold, meaning perfect for an entity like Abe that was crafted from a primordial shadow.
On the morning of the fourth hundred days of their little merging, a very tired Azrael swam out of the cold waters of the Gotham Bay and into the harbor of the city.
The heat of the sun over his skin made Azrael smile and open his arms to the rising sun, it was their rebirth after all. With a mental command, new clothes appeared over his skin, his old armor was absorbed and transformed into mass for his transformation and the blades were way inferior to the organic weapons that Azrael could materialize now.
Smiling, Azrael started to walk at an easy pace into the streets of Gotham, he had some visits to do. The worst part of the merging was how Azrael has zero ideas about what the heck has happened in Gotham and in the rest of the world.
At some point, Azrael thought about sending up a tentacle, to try to catch up some waves; Wii-fi or radio or whatever; and see what the world has been up to since his demise during the Arkham Asylum disaster. Saint Dumas was "kind" enough to inform them that would work in both ways and the last thing that they needed is to be caught and hunted down in the middle of the delicate process of bonding.
On the first impression, Azrael thought that Gotham was pretty much the same, the streets were the same, the people were minding their own business, the sky was still cloudy ninety percent of the time and Azrael was mugged.
Yeah, Gotham was pretty much the same.
As Azrael was on his way to the house of a friend, suddenly, he was pushed into a dark alley and threatened with a rusty knife in front of his face. The mugger was a very thin man who had all the signals of being a junkie looking out for his next, possibly last, shot. It was a pity really, but Azrael was blinking at the knife, unable to believe that he was being mugged.
The poor sod was with a foot on the grave already, the signals that spoke of that he was collecting money for his final high were clear and Azrael was a bit confused about what to do. On one hand, Azrael agreed with Saint Dumas and Abe that this lad was better off dead. Mercy kills, a swift strike directly to the brain, and the junkie will be down before he could even know what has happened. On the other hand, Azrael also wanted to respect Bat's family code of never taking a life.
Azrael has taken lives?. Yes, he has. During the early days of his career and when he hit rock bottom, Azrael had blood in his hand, but alas, Azrael thought that even if he was a killer, he was not a murderer. It was the difference between a soldier and a serial killer, Azrael took no pleasure in killing, not even when the System was up and running, it was just a mean to an end, there was no satisfaction, no joy, just death.
The junkie got tired of Azael's silence and just stabbed him with the rusty knife, thinking that he will loot the corpse later. The knife broke against the clothes of Azrael. After all, the clothes were just part of Abe, and the symbiote was capable enough to withstand the attacks of gods. A rusty knife was an insult more than anything else.
Azrael stared at the broken knife and then at the astonished junkie, they stood in silence for a bit, before the junkie, commit another big mistake. The junkie punched Azrael and the crack of the bones of the hand of the junkie echoed in the alley. Azrael sighed and slapped the guy against a wall. Like a marionette with the strings cut, the junkie flight against the wall slammed against it, and with a low whimper slipped down the dirty floor of the alley unconscious.
"Well, we have shown notable restraint", commented Azrael with Abe.
They are one now, but each had their own personality. Well, and the constant grumpy uncle Dumas growling in the back of the head or when he appeared at a ghost, floating in front of Azrael's eyes. Speaking of the saint, he manifested in all his flaming glory over the downed junkie and even if he saint lacked facial expressions; being a flaming skull and all that; the contempt rolled in waves from him.
"Why is this waste of space alive?". Questioned the saint. "A mercy kill would have been better than the overdose that he is going to inject himself within fifteen hours".
Ah, yeah, that. Saint Dumas was capable of seeing glimpses of the future but only related to deaths, accidents, and in general the worst of humanity. Dumas could tell Azrael that he is going to be betrayed in the future, but whom and how that was a bit out of his reach. Dumas was the worst Jeremy Cricket that Azrael has seen in his life.
Azrael tried to answer Dumas but he discovered that speaking was notably more difficult than he remembered. His vocal cords were new and unused and they hurt when Azrael tried to vocalize his thoughts. After coughing and clearing his throat a couple of times, trying to find the voice without feeling as if he was swallowing a knife, Azrael managed to make some words.
"We didn't feel the need", shrugged Azrael, staring at the battered junkie. "As we don't walk around looking for ants to stomp, we feel that this was the same, why to kill something so insignificant?".
"Your new tick is annoying", growled Saint Dumas at the way that Azrael spoke.
"We are", shrugged back Azrael and exited the alley, walking down the streets of Gotham, enjoying the morning sun.
It was a long walk to the main building where Oracle had set up her business.
Batman paid for the best computer mainframe that the money could buy and Barbara Gordon; after the tragic attack that she suffered at the hands of the Joker; took the new name of Oracle, becoming a vital part of the Bat-clan and one of the cape community; the hero business so to speak; to go info-brokers. Not only the Bat-clan, several other street levels and beyond went for the clever lass for info, and her info was always good.
Azrael was curious about how had changed the world during his year of absence, so he walked to the most reliable source of information that he knew, namely, Oracle. The girl tried to speak to him when he was out of his mind when the System went into disarray and Azrael was little more than a fighting dummy with a cool cape. Not his greatest moment, he had to admit, but discovering that he was nothing more than a demented experiment was not a happy memory.
Abe had managed to fix most of the whatever the Grey Abbot made for the Azrael, fixing some of the genetic flaws that the brutal splicing of human, gorilla, bear, dog and things that had no name, left on a fetus gestated inside of the womb of a mutated albino female gorilla. Even the symbiote was flabbergasted at the almost alchemy looking mixture, of course, when Saint Dumas huffed proudly, the symbiote wanted nothing but throttle the flaming Templar, but that was a tale for another day.
Right now, Azrael was more concerned about the reaction that the Bat-clan will have about his resurrection. Alfred, good man that he was, will most likely, welcomed Azrael and congratulated him for recovering his humanity, although his reaction to Abe will be something hilarious to see. Azrael was eager to eat the food that the old butler made, it was always delicious.
Speaking of food, Azrael was pretty hungry and in the mood for something more than algae, fish, and cold water. That has been the main source of biomass for the last year and right now, Azrael would kill for a burger and a chocolate cake. But that was a worry for later, first, Azrael wanted to build a good rep with the Bat-clan again, and the fastest route would be to visit Oracle, Aka Barbara Gordon and let them know that he was alive and pretty well.
The only concern that Azrael had was with the Batman himself and the mini-me that he had on the Wayne manor. Damian was Bruce and Talia's son, the daughter of the Demon drugged Bruce and laid with him, only in recent times, has Bruce discovered that he had a son. It was an awkward reunion, to say the least, and the mini-Bruce, believed himself to be the next king of the world or something.
Azrael did not have lots of recollections of his interactions with the small lad, beyond the fact that Azrael almost gutted him once and the lad left him to die on the day where Azrael should have died during a riot on the Arkham Asylum. The less Azrael dealt with the small arrogant brat, the better, otherwise, Azrael will beat the little shit to an inch of his life, with any luck that will give the lad the reality check that Demian needed.
Anyhow, the problem was Batman himself, the sacred rule of no-killing was something that Azrael knew that he will break in the future, it was inevitable. Lots of people in Gotham were beyond redemption, that being said, Azrael was not beyond offering an alternative to people that even if they are criminals, they know nothing better and turned to crime for their survival.
Reaching the building where Oracle has her main hub, Azrael walked to a side alley and without even missing a beat, started to walk on the walls of the alley, climbing the walls as if it was a flat surface. Abe has already created a camouflage cloak around them, so even if someone entered into the alley, they will not see Azrael walking up the wall. With a small flourish, Abe covered Azrael in the drapes of the Azrael armor, the original one, the red, gold, and black but with smaller and more friendly mittens at the hands. The blades were no longer needed thanks to the shape-shifting powers of Abe.
Strolling to the upper floor, the main office, Azrael knelt over the window and politely knocked on the crystal, making the lady on the wheelchair at the other side of the window raise her eyes and observe Azrael with a surprised expression followed by a deep frown and the appearance of a device on her hands.
"That's not a weapon", commented Abe, "but I am sure that it will turn the place into a fortress".
"Most likely", nodded Azrael.
The mask of Azrael retreated from Azrael's face, so Oracle could see the healthy face of Jean-Paul Valley. As soon as she saw his face, her eyes widened in disbelief. Azrael just waved her in salute.
"Good morning, Oracle", smiled Azrael. "How have you been'. Can we enter?. We have a lot of catching up to do".