The Skyline of New Columbia glowed a chaotic purple. Even through the thick hover-cars doors, we could still hear the mess of noise emanating from the city. Despite this, the air lanes were nearly empty. Howard turned his head slightly in my direction. “So, your name’s Reed, right? What exactly drove you to join?” I took my time answering, “Not much, honestly. Curiosity, maybe a purpose.” He nodded slowly, “So Reed… how old are you?” The question came out of nowhere, I blinked, making sure I heard him properly “How old am I? Well I mean, 18…”.
"A bit young to join, don't ya think. " I did my best not meet his gaze, looking intently at the plethora of glowing advertisements outside my window.
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"Well mother's orders."
The car soon fell silent again.
Howard humphed loudly, "Speaking of orders, here, I want you to wear them." He handed me a pair of slightly dusty shades. I took them gingerly, slowly putting them on. "Why do I need these again?", I asked.
We slowed down as our car approached a large off-white skyscraper. The building stood out among the others, not just for its sheer size but also its complete lack of HD screens save for one, a single giant holographic side-ways crucifix. Like, a beacon of hope. Seeing it with my own eyes made my heart race, "So this is it, HQ". Howard gave me a funny look,"good one kid, this here's just a local recruiting station."
Once we had parked in a docking port, Howard opened my door and beckoned me out. "Now, you know why we need sunglasses."
The interior glowed a strange iridescent purple, light fixtures flickering slightly. Nodding slowly, I looked around, "UV?"
"Good eye kid, most creatures detest UV, keeps us safe." Howard grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the building. I walked past a dozen or so odd looking folk, some were short, some were tall, others weren't even human. But, all of them had the same trench coat and glasses we wore. The crowd shook the floor slightly.
Walking down a flight of stairs, I noticed a man who's entire left arm was bubbling violently. Up another, I heard what sounded like begging coming from closed reinforced steel doors, but in an incomprehensible language. Finally, we stopped in front of a room which emanated a strange smell, similar to blood, but distinctly pleasant.
Howard leaned on the door, opening it slowly, as he did a sharp voice came from within the room, “is he here?” He Nodded,”Yeah, he’s here, I could also ask you the same.” The person in the room whispered something. Patting my back, Howard gave me his best confident smile, “Your new partner awaits.”
I didn’t know what to expect, maybe an overly decorated saccharine office, or something barely better than a metal cell, just not what stood before me. A heavy mist filled the room, obscuring two figures. One of them was heavily cloaked, having a dark black plague-doctor mask and sat at an old-fashioned real-wood desk. The other was a tall vaguely humanoid entity, wearing a frayed slightly torn trench coat and some sort of strange face piece.
Waving the mist aside, the cloaked figure becond me to come closer. As I did the second shifted its’ head at me. Howard stepped into a corner, and gave a little nod. Stepping forward, my shoes sank slightly into the carpet, I caught a glimpse of “my new partner”, at least 3 eyes.
“Hey um, my name is Re-.” The person at the table cut me off. “Reed Jovan, we know. I don’t usually like taking a long time to get briefing so I’ll try to introduce you two, ask you a few questions. Visceriel, say hello to Reed.” The other figure, who I noticed was unusually tall, reached out a carpaced hand, unfortunately I couldn’t tell much else beside that, as the smoke was still to thick. Gingerly, I shook it “Um’ iel, angel I presume?” Visceriel simply stared at me. “Well this is awkward I-”. A soft but clear “Humph” came from behind the desk, “I think it’s more important to start asking some questions. Of course we already know alot about you. Still it couldn’t hurt. You know what a Grigori is?” I looked at my new partner,”no? So is he not an angel?”
Howard moved out of the corner “Grigori are a type of angel.” He glanced at the shadowy cloaked figure. “Look, sorry, but you aren’t that good at explaining stuff. No offense but you're far too cryptic and usually it comes off as you interrogating someone for information, not giving it.” The person behind the desk gave a little wave, apparently taking this as a good sign Howard continued. “My general knowledge of Grigori isn't that great, but I know they share a few similarities with other angel breeds, and a few differences. I assume you know most of the basics about angels taught in school.” “Yeah, can’t tell lies, can’t attack without provocation, can’t get implants…” Howard clapped his hands together, “Alright good, however there is one major difference, first of all Grigori can get implants, the reason most angels can’t is because they're made of energy, Visceriel here is made of the same flesh and blood as you and me. As a result he needs to eat, sleep, and occasionally mastru-” Thankfully, the plague-doctor cut him off before Howard could tell what Visceriel needed to do occasionally, “I think that's enough. I’ll ask a few more questions than you can take them to the armory.”
The remainder were simple, just basic quandaries, like prior experiences in dealing with physical alterations, any phobias, things I dislike, ect. After the cloaked figure had finished interrogating me they leaned back, deep in thought, before raising their head, “Alright, Visceriel, Reed, follow Howard to the armory.” Getting up I grabbed Howards' hand before turning to my partner. As we stepped out of the office I finally got a better look at the Grigori. I nearly choked, he was massive, lean, at least 10 feet tall, I realized the room must have been way bigger than I thought, his head looked like a marble trapezoidal snout, with a thin black mouth line that looked almost painted on. Lining each side of his head were three yellow eyes with rectangular pupils, covered with custom shades. He had digitigrade legs covered in what looked like intricate quartz armor, his joints revealed bright blue muscles. The trench coat he wore was indeed torn, having slits on the back. Shrugging his shoulders Visceriel looked at me, I couldn’t tell what expression he was making but it looked like his attempt to be approachable.
Walking through the building I could tell Howard was getting antsy, he muttered under his breath about “not being the same after that mission”. In fact our lead ran into multiple other agents, getting anything from angry glares to what sounded like slurs. Finally we reached a small gold door. Forcing a smile, Howard looked back at us, his face was sweaty. “Listen kids, I’m just gonna leave okay.” Unfortunately for him, before he could make his grand exit, a high pitched tinny voice came from behind us.
“Howard how's it going? My old partners got some rookies?” We spun around, looking at a little person, a red-headed, middle aged woman. Howard groaned, “Hello, Jessica.” She smiled, a little too much, “Well hello, you two must be our new friends!” Howard stepped himself between us. “Thanks, but I think we need to hurry.” Jessica's smile faltered, “You’re no fun Howdy.” Shaking her head sadly, she swung open the door and with surprising strength pulled us inside.
Despite the outward lavishness of the room, the interior was dingy, dimly-lit, and had a distinct metallic smell. The small lady turned around swiftly, “You can take off your shades, trust me I’m a professional.'' Honestly, I had doubts about that, I knew it wasn’t polite to judge, still something just seemed off about her. We pocketed them quickly, Visceriel moved forward opening his mouth to speak, however before he could, Jessica squealed, "Oh, how wonderful! Mr. Angel come with me.'' Grabbing him by the scruff of the coat, she also gave me a little nod, “You can too.”
Jessica led us to a part of the armory where two rows of objects lied. On one side there were vials of chemicals, industrial looking swords, high-tech sprakeling guns, the other held arcane spell books, staffs of what looked like real oak, and at least one wolf skull. “Come here, Visceriel, were gonna get you some nice agumen-” the grigori leapt back so fast he seemed to vanish for a second, “If it’s okay with you, I would much prefer the magic side of things'', yet another surprising thing about my partner, his voice wasn’t holy or melodious, it just sounded like your standard young adult. “Fine, help yourself, guess what Reed...I know just what to do for you.” Walking, past me Jessica reached her hands high, and higher, and higher. Her arms were stretching, like pool metallic noodles waving in the air. Finally after searching for a short while they came to rest on a strange looking shotgun, one with a barbed hook attached to a wire coming out the back.
Turning around she held the object to my face, the thing scared me, up close the barb glowed ominously, and was clearly much bigger than I thought. Jessica had that manic smile again, I tried backing away but her arm prosthetic clamped tight around my wrists, “Oh, not you to.” and with that she jammed the hook into my flesh.
The pain was emenes, it felt like someone had shot a white hot pile of sand into my veins. I screamed, jumping up and down like a druggie. Jessica rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, it only lasts a second.” Outside I was still screaming like my face was melting, but internally I was processing what she had said, the pain had gone away almost as fast as it had came!
Visceriel appeared by my side, he was now wearing a bunch of horrendous smelling plastic garlic cloves ``ARE YOU OKAY?'' His jumpscare scarred me much more than the implant I had just gotten.``Yeah, jeez just, like please, don’t do that again.” The angel had a weird look on his face, it was hard to tell given the alieness of it all, but it looked like guilt. “Sorry, I just dislike seeing people get hurt.”
I held the weapon in my hands turning it over. Like I suspected, it was indeed a strange shotgun, but instead of barrels it looked like two flashlights had been duct taped together by a metal thread. Getting a closer look at the line connecting my arm to it, I noticed something suspicious, the string was messily glued on (not exactly the peak of factory automation). Looking at Jessica with squinted eyes I asked her about a fear that was beginning to form in the pit of my stomach. “What, exactly is this augment supposed to do?'' Beaming, apparently unaware of my growing anxiety, the little woman piped up. “You see a problem in the field work is that your weapon of choice might get knocked out of your hand, so I decided to upgrade some of the tools' '. I moaned “You don’t mean”, she smiled, apparently proud of her handy work, “Yup, that right there is a jessica special, a repurposed hook, with chemicals to kill any pain causing nerves.” I couldn't believe what I was hearing, “Kill not numb.'' Sitting down I could feel the aching pain slowly reamerge, “Let me get this straight, you put a potentially unsanitary metal slag into my arm, and you feel really good about that right?” The woman jumped up and down, “yup!” My face flushed red “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!'' Jessica's smile dropped immediately, her face contorted into one of sheer rage. “OH, I guess that my little attempts to help you aren’t appreciated, HUH, well MAYBE I should rip that thing right out of your arm REED”. Visceriel grabbed my shoulder and hurried me to the door, “Sorry, Ms…Uh Jessica, but I think it’s best we leave before this gets dangerous.” Before she could shriek again, my partner flung open the doors and slammed it shut.
Howard was waiting outside, upon seeing us he merely bowed his head, sighing and patting my back, hurried me away from the chamber. My arm was smoldering again, glaring at the old man I bit my lip, “Your partner’s a real piece of work you know that.” Looking up, Howard mirrored my lip, biting “She wasn’t always like that kid, best to forget about it.”
