Pariah #1: New Arrival: Perils of Azure City (2 page)

Perhaps we had gotten too confident.

We had not counted on the remnants of the Five Shadows also being involved - expressly to hunt down Kamura for his past betrayal. It was the most trying night of my life and I shall never forget those frantic hours in the Tsen Yun building, fighting tooth and claw with some of this world's real monsters. If I ever had any qualms about facing down my own death then I well and truly dealt with them that night. When the sun rose the next day, the Hydra had been slain and the phantoms of the Five Shadows had been exorcised - but Shingen Kamura was dead. We had apprehended the whole lot of them, delivering a salvation of sorts to the entire region, but the cost had been high.

After I had seen to Kamura's burial, I was left with the pressing question of what to do with my life without his guidance. I had always followed his lead and now I was in a world without him; back with bitter regret and a bubbling anger.

And so Azure City called to me.

Kamura had long been planning to head to Azure City; it was fast becoming a hotspot for the kind of activity that attracted an eye like his. The growing meta community, the elaborate organised crime, the endemic corruption, and the alarming density of unadulterated psychopaths; it was a natural target. Apparently he wasn't the only one to consider it so. What newsfeed we saw often reported clashes within the city involving vigilantes. Prominently, one of the first people to ever be dubbed 'superhero' was a heroine by the name of Lady Avalon, who seemed to be a powerful meta taking to the streets in a costume in order to protect the people. Not long after her, a more secretive, seemingly non-meta heroine appeared by the name of Night Spectre, and the two separate heroines seemed to maintain a kind of order in the city. It is probably why Kamura kept holding off our trip - perhaps he thought the city was guarded enough.

However, as I sat listening to worsening reports of the state of Azure City, the prospect of heading back to the states and commencing the work that Kamura had long planned to do gave me a sense of direction. It just felt right. So I took what resources that Kamura had left me, and made my move back home to America.

I brought back my true identity of Evelyn Lawson and made sure to craft a life for myself such that I wouldn't need to be a non-existent shadow all the time. My finances from Kamura left me quite secure but even so I started a modest career for myself as a free-lance artist - perhaps the last real talent of my life before all the violence came - and I made for Azure.

I came for many things: Kamura's legacy, to find some kind of home, to try to protect people, to take out my anger on people deserving of the treatment... But I think most of all, I came simply to try and find my way - to find out what kind of person I am with only myself to decide right from wrong.

I eschewed hiding in the shadows as Kamura had done, and instead followed in the footsteps of the City's current guardians. I would not hide... or at least I would claim ownership of my own actions. The gear I had used from my old life hunting marks more than sufficed for a 'heroine' costume, all I needed to do was go bolder than Kamura liked to do - to announce myself. The way I see it, heroes mean something to society as symbols. Be that a symbol of hope to those who are oppressed, or a symbol of terror to those who would abuse others. With Azure City's conflicted identity, these symbols matter a great deal. So be a bright, vivid, undeniable symbol. Be a beacon that washes out all the darkness and leaves only light.

So that is what I did. I went large. I took to the night and unleashed all of my training and powers on those who prey on the weak. I have rules, of course, which have been instilled in me by Kamura. I do not kill, not ever. Nor can I allow an innocent to be harmed if I can avoid it. Beyond that, however, I don't mind going further than the current heroines of this city do. Putting a mob enforcer away for a year or so on circumstantial evidence for beating up a young lady is difficult; putting him in hospital for months is remarkably easy. As such, I have certainly made my mark in a short space of time. Opinion has been divided on whether or not I am a good thing in this city, and I am wanted by ACPD on charges of vigilantism (which are hardly unfair) as well a whole host of transgressions - necessary transgressions for a symbol to strike fear. My alter ego status as a meta is hardly a secret either, which is just another reason why I am sought after by both sides of the law.

The Azure Herald did me the honour of giving a name to my alter ego, as it had done before with both Lady Avalon and Night Spectre. I had been quite nervous that they would call me something unbearable like 'Star Dove,' so it had come as a relief to me when they instead gave me a practical name that summed up my position in this city.

Pariah
.

With that super heroine alias, I had truly arrived. The Pariah of Azure City. I'm only just into my second month but already I feel a sense of something worthwhile in this life that I am carving out. I look forward to meeting the other guardians of this city in time, though I fear we may not see eye to eye, and even more so I look forward to getting to grips with the very worst cretins of Azure.

Though they be many, I am undaunted. I am Pariah.

Tonight, I come for people traffickers - slavers by any other name. Tonight I ease the scales of Azure City ever so slightly back to the light.

Part Two: Alley Snakes

Night was setting in and a familiar chill was gently plying its way through the streets of Azure. Stuttering street lamps had come to life along with a plethora of contrasting neon lights from various establishments and advertisements. Above it all, the lights of the city's vast skyline lit the sky and seemed to surround the city in a halo of light. It was often joked that Azure seemed a brighter place at night than it ever was during the day. Perhaps it was a sad reflection on the city that this was often true.

In either instance, you never had to look long to find darkness.

In the Gallowgate district, not far from Ravenport, a great many of the street lights did not work and so it was cast in half-light from the surrounding city. This was a place that expected darkness, a place where light was seemingly tolerated but never welcome. In a city with numerous forlorn areas where the ACPD feared to pass, none were as much a dump as the Gallowgate. The only people who desired to stay in a place such as this were the ones who were drawn to darkness and misery - the rest simply didn't have the option to leave.

Markus Crowley was born here, he had lived all twenty-three years of his life here, and it seemed that imminently he would die here.

In a lifetime of dodgy deals and pushing his luck, he had finally overreached. It had seemed like a fantastic idea at the time: The eastside blue snakes were the most drug-addled nut jobs a guy could find - how are they going to tell the difference between premium moon dust and, say, sugar mixed with flecks of pepper? The thing was, they actually bought it at first and handed him over his money - a tidy sum of two-hundred dollars. Once they figured it out, it was more than his duplicity that enraged them - they had been humiliated. Further to that you'd have to admit that it called into question the many other times that they had dealt with him. What if those shipments of amber bliss hadn't been purely legit?

So they had come for him.

And he had been stupid or bold enough to stay in the 'gate. They came for him just outside his 'workshop' and he had led them on a merry chase for as long as he could manage, but they finally cornered him in an alley between two abandoned warehouses.

Everything was 'abandoned' in Gallowgate.

He sank to his knees, as much to catch his breath as in resignation, realising that he was surrounded. There were seven of them in total - nearly half of the gang, if he recalled - and they bore down on him from both sides of the alley. They were all hard men, conditioned by the unforgiving life in the 'gate - much as he had been - and they had turned to violence as a way of life. Pleasure, profession, just to pass the time - it didn't matter - they were violent people. They were comically similar to each other in appearance: all dressed in similar torn garbs, all had shaved heads, and all had inked various tattoos of blue snakes over their bodies. Their rampant drug use was plainly visible in their eyes.

'You worm!' hissed the leader of the group, Kruger Matlock, or 'Venom' to his pals. He was thicker set than the rest and just about a head taller. 'How fucking stupid do you think we are?'

Crowley tried to control his breathing, tried to keep his mind off of wondering why they hadn't simply gunned him down as he ran, tried not to think about the story of what they did to that guy from the 21st street hawks. He was scared of death, and pain, and certainly of a painful death, but he'd be damned if he would show them that.

'Heh... hey, Kruges, are you sure you want me to answer that? I mean, you
did
buy it. This is a seller's market, you know? There's no refunds to delinquent buyers who don't know up from down.' He tried to infuse it with as much sass as he could. Maybe if they were angry enough he might get an opening to push his way out.

The big ganger shivered with anger, 'You are such a derelict, Crowly. You haven't even got the sense to beg for your worthless life, have you?' A smile cracked across the man's beefy face, 'But don't you worry there, Crow, we're gonna be your pals and remind you how to beg. You're gonna sing for me, and we're gonna keep makin' ya sing until you can't sing no more. Then I'm gonna...'

Crowley suddenly dived down the alley away from Kruger and towards the three snakes at the other end. Startled by his sudden move, he managed to push the first snake over and get around the second. The third snake wrapped his arms around Crowley's waist and managed to hold on to him long enough for the other two to reach him.

'No!' Crowley yelled as he thrashed about and tried to kick them off. He was a reasonably tough guy. He could probably have taken one of the snakes in a fight if he had to, but this was too much. He got off some good hits but it was only staving off the inevitable. Blows rained down on him until two of them managed to grab his arms and pin them behind his back, forcing him to his knees. He tried to stand and got a fierce kick to the stomach for his trouble. The rest of the pack stalked up the alley towards him until they all stood right around him.

'Nice try, Crow, but I think we're about done with foreplay, what do you think?' Kruger leaned down until their faces were level, glaring at him with his baleful, bloodshot eyes. He reached behind him and lifted out a rusty machete before tracing the edge of it along Crowley's jaw.

Crowley returned the look wearily, still trying not to show his panic. He felt blood leaking into his mouth, the taste acrid on his tongue, and prepared to spit it out over Kruger's face. A bad idea in the long term, but he'd feel better for it in the short.

Crowley - clearly - wasn't the long term kind of guy.

Before he could muster the energy to commit his last stupid gesture, he was interrupted by the sound of a soft thud from the middle of the alley behind Kruger's back.

Kruger heard it too and his eyes twitched in surprise before he straightened up and span to follow the noise. The silhouette of a figure was standing motionless a few metres away, watching them, as if they had been there the whole time.

As details of the figure resolved out of the gloom, Crowley could see it was a woman. She stood at about 5'8, her frame athletic and powerfully built. She wore a tight-fitting bodysuit that clung to her sleek figure like a second skin. The suit looked liquid smooth and gave off a very faint sheen like it was a kind of leather, though he wasn't sure of its material. It was predominantly black, though it had areas of jade green where segments of the suit seemed to have a thicker weave. These spots looked to be points with greater rigidity as well as bulk, suggesting there might have been form-fitting panels of armour built into it. This gave the decorative effect of veins of dark green trimming her body through the black of the suit. The suit had a subtle zip up the front which extended from her neck all the way down to just above her crotch, which was currently zipped up to just above her shapely C-cup breasts. Though barely visible, Crowley could make out the start of some kind of skin-tight black vest top covering her beneath the bodysuit. She wore a dark metal belt clasped about her waist which had subtle pockets dotted around it, though Crowley couldn't see what they contained. Around her shoulders was wrapped a long black cloak of exceptionally thin material. It fluttered faintly in the wind behind her, revealing the inner lining of the cloak to be a similar jade to the green trimming her suit. The hood of the cloak was pulled up over her head, obscuring her face somewhat, though not completely hiding it. She had a mask of similar material to her suit stuck across her pale blue eyes, further hiding her face from identification. Feathery light blonde hair framed her face and seemed to reach just above her shoulders.

They all gawked at the newcomer. She was quite a sight. Nearly enough to make Crowley forget about his dire situation. Very nearly, indeed.

Her pale blue eyes stared back at them from under her hood, measuring them.

Kruger was the first of them to rally. He leered at her and grinned, 'Hello there, birdy. You're a little bit strange, aren't you? I like strange.' Crowley could see Kruger weighing the situation up in his head - if he wanted to continue making sport of Crowley, or move on to the newcomer. 'I'm kind of in the middle of a thing here, darlin’, but you're welcome to watch if that's your thing.'

One of the snakes by Kruger's side was far less cocksure, 'Uh, Venom, I... I think that might be the chick from the papers - the Pariah.'

Kruger craned his head and gave the other man a sideways look, 'Do I look like I read the fucking paper?'

Her eyes settled on Crowley's. The hint of a smile touched her lips before she spoke, her voice calm and cool, 'Markus Crowley. Crow. I have a proposition for you... It involves you leaving this alley alive and then being something of an advisor for me. A crow in my ear. Sound good?'

As grunts of confusion spread about the pack of snakes, time seemed to slow for Crowley. The remnants of his conscience flickered and reminded him it would be wrong for this woman to die for him - especially the way that these people dealt death. It reminded him that it would be wrong for him to use her pain and death as a means to save his own skin. He swatted the consideration away; he was all at sea with no life line but her. He was going to grab it.

He tried to speak but his voice faltered and he rasped into a cough before trying again, 'Yeah... th-that sounds pretty goo...good to me.'

Her gaze swept up to Kruger, 'I'm not really here for you,' she gestured her head behind her, 'Leave him and go. Do it now.'

Kruger laughed, 'You're a funny bitch, I like you,' his smile dropped and his face pulled into a snarl, 'But I've had enough of this now. Fang, keep her quiet while we see to Crow here - leave me a piece of her though.'

One of the snakes stepped forward - evidently Fang. He grinned with anticipation as his eyes crawled up and down the lissom figure of the woman. He made to grab her, and suddenly she was moving. She moved with absolute surety and it looked almost like her and the ganger were in completely different time streams. She stepped aside from his hand and grabbed it with her own, violently yanking him forwards to follow his momentum. She span around behind him, her cloak billowing out around her, and her leg snapped out, kicking him high on the back and launching his fall towards the wall. He impacted headfirst and dropped like a stone to the floor. As he sank, she already had her back to him and was facing the snakes.

'You had your chance,' she whispered.

'Get her!' Kruger bellowed, rapidly re-evaluating the threat she posed.

Crowley was callously discarded as the gangers ran in. A heavy blow to the back of his head sent him to the ground and on the verge of unconsciousness. He sat on his feet in a heap and watched, slack jawed, as the action commenced.

The first ganger to reach her, a lean piece of malice named Coil, fared little better than Fang had. He ducked in close to her and threw a punch aimed at her face, which she swung away from before pin wheeling around to connect her foot with his jaw. His head snapped down from the kick and in the moment that he was stunned she launched a barrage of her own shots - quick, rapid jabs and kicks that allowed no time to recover.

As more reached her, she stopped hitting Coil and immediately tangoed with the newly arrived snakes. Coil stood for a moment after she stopped before slumping to the ground in a heap. She flowed around the snakes as they tried to use their numbers against her, rapidly moving from one snake to the next, always moving. Her speed and technique kept her one step ahead of them as they tried to close her down. Though she couldn't focus on one snake long enough to put him down, every moment she was laying a new smack down on one of them and they were showing the wear for it.

As two more snakes slumped to the ground Kruger charged in at her, swinging his machete. She darted back and fired a sharp jab at his wrist, forcing him to release his grip on the knife. As the knife fell, she kicked the handle and sent it spiralling away down the alley. He snarled in open frustration and kept coming at her. Every punch he threw connected only with air and was met with a rapid succession of counter attacks. But Kruger was a big man and she was a lithe woman; her attacks stung and bruised him but he kept tanking the hits.

Taking advantage of their leader's onslaught, the remaining two snakes circled around her and attacked together. Without room to dodge out of the attacks, her speed and technique was less effective and Kruger finally connected a partial blow, doubling her over at the stomach. Seeing their chance to stall her movement altogether, the two gangers at her back lunged down and seized her by the arms. Suddenly she was anchored to the spot, their strength enough to keep her from pulling away.

'Yeah!' Kruger exhaled through pants, 'That's more like it.' He made a fist and hit her again in the stomach, this time making a full impact with all his force.

'Ooof,' she heaved as she hunched in on herself, showing vulnerability for the first time.

It didn't last long.

As he drew back to hit her again, she lifted her feet off the floor so that the gangers were now supporting her weight, and launched a sideways kick at the knee of the ganger to her right. The man's knee buckled and he started to fall, no longer supporting her weight and leaving the other man holding her off-balanced. She brought her weight down hard as she fell, breaking free of the last ganger's grip and falling to the floor. She immediately swept her feet around her and tripped him, sending him flying into the incoming punch from Kruger.