Spring Rising [HIATUS]

Shadow

"Who were those guys, Charon?"
"Servos, I'm probably a target because I do the assassinations."
Charon turns around and starts packing his sniper rifle. He rests it gently into the case and closes the latches.

"Catch you later."
"Alright. Bye, Charon."
Charon leaves through the door and into the hallway, and Mirel follows behind him.
"I'm taking property damage out of your paycheck."
"Alright then. Come with me and sort it out with the Quartermaster."

Charon gets into the car with Mirel sitting in the passenger seat. They drive over to the Agency building in the car. Both flash their ECHO watches to the front and enter the building. Mirel starts looking around for the Quartermaster in the training grounds, while Charon sits down on a bench at the shooting range.

Sitting next to him is an Immolator in a red jumpsuit and an Arbiter in a grey jacket. Both have a silver-white badge with EDEN stamped onto it. Both of the Agents also have a golden pin with a revolver design.

Mirel comes back with the Quartermaster in tow.
"So, Mirel. Thinking of coming back to the contracts?"
"Hardly, I'm here to take a chunk out of this man's paycheck because he took a chunk out of one of my rooms!"
Charon looks over at the two staring at him. Showing his Izbucni Gifts in his hands, he shrugs with a smug face.

"What was the pay for the assassination again?" Mirel says to the Quartermaster.
"A few thousand dollars, maybe ~70k. I'm sure that's more than enough for repairs."
"What a fortunate man."

"Quartermaster, a couple armed servos attacked me in my sniping outpost. I'm not even sure how they got up there. I'd be dead right now if Alden and Kalee hadn't shown up, consider hiring them sometime."

"They're busy with their minimum wage job at the café or whatever. Surprise, I'm also paid minimum wage, insert magic trick noise. Mirel, I'll write you a check later."

Both Charon and Mirel leave the Agency building.
"Give me some of your money, man. You must have a million dollars at this point, right?"
"No, I don't have a million dollars. I'm always paying people for property damage because Blitzer just, does what it does."
"Fine, then. See you another time. Consider moving out of that apartment, rent a condo here, -Wait no, don't. You'll definitely blow it up within a week."

Mirel punches Charon on the shoulder and smiles as she walks back to the hotel. Charon gets into his car and starts driving over to the café where Alden and Kalee work. He stops at the front and enters the shop. He sits down at a table and starts to look around.
"Oh, Charon. How did the hit go? Was it good?" Stephen asks as he serves some customers.
"Fine, but some, presumably ULAYCLON servos attacked me in my lookout. Now I have to pay Mirel for the damage."

Stephen walks up to Charon's table.
"Well, I guess that's what you get for being a Blitzer."
"Stephen, how's your curse going? The weird one with the black spikes coming out of your back."
"It's fine for the most part. Apostle isn't that annoying, you know."

Charon orders a plain black coffee. Stephen nods with a smile and gives the order to the cashier.
Charon looks around the café, with the stereotypical yet nice green plant shop theme. He looks through the window of the shop at the dark alleyways, where a shadow scurries between walls.
"What'cha looking at, Charon?"

He flinches a little from the surprise.
"Kalee, good to see you. Thanks a lot for saving me back there."
"Wasn't me. Your little student just grabbed my arm and dragged me to the hotel room."
Stephen comes back with the coffee in a plain white mug and quickly leaves to take the order of another customer.

"I really wonder why you three Agents all not only work at the same place, but for minimum wage too."
"Why are you still a taxi driver? It doesn't pay much and you're already a hitman with thousands of dollars." Kalee says as she mops the floor next to Charon.
Charon stays silent after the response and returns to looking outside. The shadow that previously danced between the dark alleys slumps over in a corner. It holds out a decapitated head from its hair and rips off its face.

"WHAT THE FUCK-"
"Wha- are you okay?"
"KALEE GET AL, YOU ARE GOING ON BREAK."

Alden walks out of the break room in uniform.
"Damn. What a mess honestly. Someone's gotta clean that room and it sure isn't me."
Charon runs over to Alden, holding Kalee by her arm. He grabs Alden's collar and sprints outside towards the alley.

"Not this again..."

The shadow in the alley walks out into the sunlight with the face of the decapitated head and human clothes.
"What? That's just a guy walking out of an alley." Alden says confused.
"It's a Skinner, Reikgon. Look closely into the alley, you can see a skinned face in there."
"Holy shit. Who knew the Reikgon roamed this place?" Kalee says.

Alden throws a smoke bomb to cloak all three of the Agents. Charon strafes behind the Skinner and throws three bombs onto the back of its clothes. Alden sneaks behind the Skinner and primes his Dread for an attack. Kalee walks in front of the Skinner and places the Zealot turret shield in front of the enemy's path.
"Kill it quickly. We don't want to alert that many people."

Charon detonates the Gifts, clearing his smoke cloak and stunning the Skinner in place. The explosions burned off the outside layer of disguise, revealing the dark, bloody flesh underneath. Alden charges the Dread and punches forward, clearing his smoke cloak with the blade already in the Skinner. The shadow recoils in pain as Al jumps backward out of the way.

The Skinner recovers and slides backward towards Charon.

"Take this, Reikgon!"

Kalee activates the shield, revealing herself and the turret from the smoke. The bullets fly through the air and pierce directly into the body of the Skinner, dropping it dead. Charon quickly side-kicks the body back into the alleyway and blows it to mist with explosives.

"Great job. Minimal cleanup and a confirmed dead target."
"Alright, I'm off, we need to get back to work."
Both Alden and Kalee hurry back to the café. Charon walks over to the alley he kicked the body into.

While this happened, the chimes of communication between a servo and a cultist ring out from a nearby high-rise.
"There, do you see him?"
"Got it. This shot is for both ULAYCLON and Reikgon."
The bullet of the sniper rifle passes cleanly through Charon's skull. His limp body drops onto the ground.
"Target down."