Ascension of the Angel

[Azrael]

"I made a mistake."

Azrael snatched his eyes open from utter darkness, and blinked as he looked around. He felt something strange. Something against his ears and around his face. Slowly, he sat up and felt a strange weight to his body.

"What's going on?" he murmured drowsily. "Why can't I...?" He stared at his hands and jerked back, startled. Where his hands SHOULD have been, there were now two red guantlets with wicked looking claws on the fingers. Feeling frantically around his face, he felt a helmet around it. Reaching behind him frantically, he clumsily found the button and removed it, then looked around. He was in some abandoned building. Blanks walls, a large room. Turning to see behind him, he saw a doorway that lead out to a vast and utterly empty building devoid of anything except a skywalk of some sorts leading through it to another doorway.

He looked down at his body, and realized he was in some sort of body armor. Red and gold, with a grey and white body suit. Picking up the red helmet, he stared at it and looked at his reflection in it. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the regular face he was accustomed to seeing in the mirror. He was all right, apparently. He frowned thoughtfully. What was he doing here? How did he GET here in the first place? And why did his armor have....wings? He stared at the four red wing-like contraptions from out of his back. What was it about four wings...? He couldn't remember. Something about a Seraphim having them. Or was it six?

There was the soft humming of an engine. Azrael swiftly turned his head to look out the windows and see a hovercraft of some sort, armed to the teeth with missiles, rockets and a mean looking barrel at the front. The moment he saw one of the rockets spark, he dove for the ground, narrowly missing the rocket as it screamed over his head.

Stuffing his helmet on, he pushed himself up to a runner's stance, and ran out the doorway and down the skywalk as fast as he could. The hovercraft was following him, watching him through the windows. Tapping a button on the side of his helmet, his vision turned green and white, as a targeting sensor analyzed the hovercraft and instantly in small white letters gave this information in the upper left corner of his eyesight:

Model Number: Unknown
Code Number: Unknown
Unit Type: Urban Military Hovercraft
Manufactuer: Unknown
Operator(s): Unknown
Accomedation: Pilot only
Armor Materials: Titanium Alloy
Powerplant: Ultracompact Fusion Reactor
Equipment: Infared and night-vision sensors, and interspace telecommunications.
Armament: Twin 105mm gun, drum-fed. Four high-speed rockets. Main gun is an onboard laser, with 120 second recharge delay between outputs.

Azrael didn't know HOW he knew to do that, but he didn't have time to think about it. The second he saw that main gun start to heat up, he KNEW there was trouble. It was aimed directly at him as he was still running. At the right moment, he chose to jump up and do a somersault in midhair, narrowly missing a bright yellow beam of sheer heat slicing cleaning through the skywalk.

The think needed to recharge thank heaven. At that exact moment, he heard the rockets fire and dropped to his knees, covering his head as they crashed into the skywalk before and after him. Apparently, the pilot was attempting to pin him and take the ground out from under him. Leaping into the air, he landed on the on the further side of the skywalk as the section he was originally on fell down into the deep blackness. Where he was, he was definitely too high up to survive a fall, that was for sure.

Hitting a button on his right guantlet with his left hand, Azrael started running again, then turned to fire three minituare rockets of his own at the hovercraft, disabling it's rocket launchers.

BUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDABUDDA!

Machine gun fire. Most of it missed, but a few of them struck him and knocked him into the railing, almost sending him over. Azrael grunted in pain, but while it bruised his flesh, it didn't seem really DAMAGE him much. His costume seemed to be heavily protected. Then he heard that hum again. The main laser charging to blast.

Throwing his body back, he executed a back flip just in time to avoid the second blast, but it sliced cleanly through the walk way as the machine gun fire hit the metal ropes holding the walkway up. Azrael felt the portion of skywalk he was now on start to give way, and he looked up to notice the rest of the skywalk seeming to fly away as he started to plummet down.

Letting out a frustrated shout, he tucked in his knees and spun around until he was facing the void, and slowly felt himself start to fly upward. The wings could help him GLIDE, but they could not fly. He didn't know how he knew THAT either, and it didn't matter. Hitting another button on his guantlet, he aimed his fist at the remaining skywalk, and shot a grappling hook into it, then pulled himself up.

The hovercraft was waiting for him, showing bullets down on him as he scrambled onto the skywalk. Deciding not to wait for it to recharge it's main laser again, he fired his remaining rockets in his right guantlet directly into the barrel of the gun, disabling the main laser. The hovercraft sputtered out sparks and seemed to generally retreat. Azrael didn't wait to see what was going to happen, he hurried over to the end of the walk way, and into the doorway. Leaning against it, he let out a sigh of relief, then stared as he noticed the area ahead.

There was no floor to this room. Looking down, he saw about 20 feet below him a floor stacked with boxes and crates. The entire area was round, and looking up he noticed what appeared to be a walkway around it leading to the roof perhaps.

"Is he there?" a voice whispered.

Turning his head sharply down he heard the unmistakeable sound of guns being cocked. Jerking his head back, he kept to the doorway for a moment, then gritted his teeth and slammed his fist angrily into the bulkhead. It was a TRAP. The hovercraft flushed him here so they could pin him and kill him.

Narrowing his eyes, Azrael had one thought:

They may take me out. But I'm taking all of them WITH me.

With that, he crouched over the sheer wall like some ancient gargoyle preparing to swoop down on his prey, and lunged downward like a hawk over it's intended quarry.

[Azrael]

((OOC: Azrael Knightquest has for so long been considered the ultimate assassin. Controversial from his first appearance in the Gundam Wing MUD in 98, to his star performance in Gundam Wing:Code Blue roleplay forum in 2000, to his revival of Gundam Wing MUD, and in the roleplay rooms. All the same, everyone wants a peice of this creature I have created, the Avenging Angel Azrael Knightquest. The biggest question has always been "Is he a man driven to insanity in believing he is an angel? Or is he an angel struggling to pretend he's a man?"

No one knows.

Neither does Azrael.

But what was originally the perfect thing about my character was that he did not CARE if he was an angel or not. He did not see things in area's of divine beings or worthiness. He saw sin, evil. Undisputable, regardless of what religion or lack thereof a person had, the evils that Azrael punished were indeed actions committed that would offend any right-minded individual. This was the basis upon his punishments. Not what society or media saw as righteous or evil, but what we all know is true. Deep down in our souls, we all know what is right or wrong. We may choose to believe otherwise, but we KNOW what we should and should not do.

Azrael himself was a victim of evil and corruption. From the moment he was born. And thus, his misery fuels his rage. And the evil give him an outlet upon which to let it out. Azrael's rage was frightening, not in the manner that he killed. Nor in the fact that he was religious about it, despite executing and punishing only those who were so evil and corrupt not even Atheists could deny it was righteous. But in that he knew he had every RIGHT to kill the sinner. And if a man has complete faith that you MUST die, that his very religion and LIFE revolves around the need to end yours...

How then can you stop him? Azrael had no regard for human life if it had reached a certain corruption. We as human beings naturally think of what benefits us immediately first. We think nothing of things beyond us and the immediate. Because the future is an unknown. And in that mysterious place, was Azrael. Like a panther, ever watchful and waiting to strike. Merciless and ruthless. You cannot reason with Azrael. You cannot bargain with him. In essence, truly....

You cannot stop him. For he will sacrifice anything, if only to kill the sinner that dared cross the line into true evil and corruption. Therefore, what stronger sign is there that there is indeed a God, and indeed punishment for evil than an unstoppable servant fueled with rage and hatred for you and you alone that waits until you have crossed a border so that you will be judged not by a single religion, but by all that is truth?))

"Why are you doing this, Azrael? Why hunt and hunt, why give up any normal life you could, to be this....crazed killer?"

"Satan."

"Satan? What about him?"

"He tasks me! He tasks me and I will have him! I will chase Satan and all his servants round the Outer Colonies, and round the whole Earth Sphere and round the fires of Perdition until he rolls over and breathes blood, split, broken, FINISHED!"

--Allusion to Moby Dick by Azrael.

There was the sound of wood splintering, bone crushing and screams heard as Azrael colliding into the group of men, clearly soldiers of some kind, and crates. Snarling through his helmet, Azrael quickly started slamming side kicks, front kicks, swipes and slashes with his claws, elbows, shoulder rams and even knees and headbutts into every single human being that he saw. He moved around, everytime he heard or felt or saw a barrel pointed in his direction he either parried the gun away from him, threw an opponent into him, or moved out of the way. It was brutal and vicious.

Inevitably, the last man standing was declared the winner, though he was not unscathed. Azrael stood amongst bodies and wreckage, blood splashed all over the floor, walls, and his costume. It was a sickly-sweet smell, and disgustingly warm. Blood always was. And a dead body, even fresh, had a stench to it you never forget. Azrael dropped to one knee, panting with the exertion of the fighting, then lifted his head up to glare up as he noticed something coming down. The hovercraft!

He narrowed his eyes as it started to slowly hover down towards him. Azrael was by no means the perfect military advisor to armored weaponry but he did know one thing. Most military vehicles had thin armor on the underside, no matter how heavily armored it was. He had dealt with these men mostly with hand to hand combat. He still had rockets left on his gauntlet. Pointing his fist upwards to the hovering craft, he pressed a button and fired three rockets at it.

THWOOM! THWOOM! THWOOM!

Sure enough, the armor had a cracked hole in it. Exposed wiring was now loose, and Azrael could see the underside of the floor to the inside of the vehicle.

"Hunting time," Azrael growled, then fired his grappling hook in the hole, and quickly rappelled up to it. He had no intention of letting that thing get down here and fire it's heavy weapons at him again. Gripping it with one clawed hand, he started to pull and tear at the metal, then slammed his fist into the remaining metal until he had punched a hole through the floor to the inside. Once the hole was complete, he grabbed the edges of the armor with both hands and started to kick in the floor until finally there was a hole big enough for him to throw his body into it and land inside.

The pilot, a young man of perhaps his late twenties, was already fiddling with a lock on a weapon's bracket where three assault rifles were mounted. Azrael stood up, then charged over and grabbed the pilot by his head and slammed it repeatedly into the bulkhead, then threw the pilot out the hole. Sitting in the seat, he assessed the controls, and finally piloted the hovercraft to go back up the way it came.

Flying up he eventually came to a brilliant night sky, and city. For a moment, he was captivated by it's beauty. Then he turned and noticed another, larger hovercraft flying nearby.

"UNIT LK463," It boomed on it's loudspeakers. "HAVE YOU ELIMINATE THE TARGET?"

Azrael flipped on the loudspeaker, and roared into the microphone, "SHUT UP AND DIE!!" Then rammed his hovercraft full speed into the other one, crashing it into another abandoned building. Then he whirled around and hopped out the hole he made, just in time as both hovercrafts erupted into flames and exploded above him. Bringing his knees to his chest, Azrael tucked his chin in, and then spread his arm and legs out into an X before putting his legs together and glided in an upward arc into the night sky.

For a moment, he relished the freedom. To be up in the sky, soaring above the buildings like this. He couldn't help but smile beneath his helmet for a moment. Looking at the digital compass in his helmet, he twisted his body to the right. West. He had to go west. He didn't know why, but he had to go west. It was there.

What was there....?

Whatever was next.

Epyon.