Chapter Text
The wind whistled in the air as a girl with long black hair turned into an alleyway. Since the Invertia the United Kingdom had descended into chaos. Now years later the deficit of industry and economy could be seen. Rusted husks of skyscrapers rose to touch the sky, many had already fallen but the ones still standing creaked and shuddered, anyone with any sense stayed well away from them. The upper classes had long fled the country, leaving the island to become inhabited by criminals and the poor who couldn’t afford to leave. Luna didn’t have much to her name, being dropped off as a baby to the headquarters of one of the many gangs that had formed. The fortress she called home was once known as the Tower of London, and she had been told that it once held the greatest treasures of Brittan.
The Corvids took in pretty much anyone that showed up on their doorstep and could pull their weight. Their main goal was mutual survival and to make the most of life. It was a small community and more like a family than a gang, so when a baby showed up on their doorstep, they took her in to raise as their own. It quickly became apparent that this child was no ordinary human, she was a Genestella. Seen as a freak of nature by many people, Genestella were not looked upon fondly by the majority of the world, however the Corvids were one of the most diverse gangs in England.
It was customary that when they become ready to fight, members of the corvids are given leather jackets with the emblem of their gang painted on the back. She was the youngest ever to get her jacket at just 12 years old. She had worn the jacket on every mission since and in the last 4 years had been hardened by street brawls. Many thugs without an allegiance saw the jacket and wouldn’t approach even at her young age, knowing what it meant.
She always tried to be merciful in her missions. If an outcome was possible without violence she would take it, after all everyone was struggling here. Today was different. She was heading into the heart of a rival gang’s territory, The Azure Syndicate were one of the more ruthless gangs in Britan, they formed quickly after the Invertia and hated Genestella. The gang had made several threats towards many members of the Corvids including their young, which couldn’t be overlooked.
Luna had volunteered for this mission as soon as she became aware of the threats. She felt incredibly protective over the young Genestella housed by the Corvids, after all she was once one of them.
Syndicate members sneered at her as she made her way further into their territory, they seemed uneasy and she could see many of them with a hand on their holstered luxes. They wouldn’t attack her, not yet at least. She was meeting a representative to try to come to a peaceful conclusion.
The empty warehouse that she had been led to was pretty run down, it was mostly empty with a single rickety desk a few paces from the entrance. A few chairs were scattered around, with a man sat behind the desk. He was clothed in black combat gear with a cloth mask over his face, resting his feet on another chair. Luna sat opposite him.
“You’re the bitch the Corvids sent to bargain huh” He spat venomously, standing up from the table. “Your corpse will prove our domination of your little group.”
Luna used the desk as a springboard, leaping back and out of the way of the machete arcing towards her.
She quickly assessed her surroundings, apart from the opponent in front of her she could see 3 more men in the vicinity, all of them holding standard handgun type luxes. Dodging the barrage of blue bolts wasn’t too difficult with her enhanced athletics. All of her opponents were regular humans, so she wasn’t too worried about facing all four of them at once.
Before her opponents could react she made a dash to the nearest gunman, driving her hand into his shoulder blade and flipping over him, using his body as a shield as she grabbed his arm holding the lux; breaking it in two places before catching the dropped weapon, delivering two swift, but accurate shots to the throat of each of the other lux wielding syndicate members.
Before she could turn her stolen weapon on the fourth man however she sensed a presence close to her, tucking and rolling away. The man was already next to her and was slashing wildly. Luna hadn’t expected him to catch up so quickly, dipping back into a fighting posture as she sized the man up properly. He was well built, but definitely not Genestella. There was no way he should be able to keep up with her.
Luna reached into her custom drop leg holsters, drawing her claws. Wicked 10-inch blades protruded between her index and middle finger and ring and pinky finger on each hand. It was an unconventional weapon but after training with it for years its unconventional attack patterns and angles allowed her to catch most opponents off guard.
She brought her left claw up to deflect the blow of the machete. This guy was fast, even for her. She needed to end this quick. Luna rushed in, ducking under another swipe and plunging both of her claws into the chest of the man.
A clatter rang out, echoing against the walls of the warehouse around her as the man dropped his weapon. Luna pulled out her claws, and the man fell onto his face, blood pooling quickly. He wasn’t dead yet, but he might as well have been. Luna didn’t want to be here when backup inevitably arrived, and she knew the place was swarming with syndicate members.
A hand on her shoulder made her whirl around, readying her claws yet again. She didn’t think that she had missed anyone in the building, and if they managed to get this close to her, they were surely powerful.
“Woah there tiger, I’m not with the syndicate.” The stranger said. Now that Luna could get a better look at him, she could see that he wasn’t wearing syndicate colours. She could tell he wasn’t lying by the way he carried himself.
“Seems like you’re in a bit of a bind here, come with me…” He smirked as he offered her his hand.
She didn’t have much reason to trust this guy, but he could easily have stabbed her in the back unnoticed if he had wanted to. She couldn’t think of any better course, so she took his hand.
A wave of nausea overcame Luna, as she felt the world spinning around her. She tried to let go of the stranger’s hand, but he held firm until the spinning stopped. When Luna opened her eyes again, she was in a much nicer room than the dingy warehouse. The only explanation she could fathom is that this had to be some kind of Dante ability. She had heard of Strega’s and Dantes being able to teleport before, but it was supposed to be incredibly rare.
The man slid her a form from across the table. At the top of the paper was a logo she barely recognised, like a stylised pink and white flower. Anyone in the world would recognise it as one of the crests of a school at asterisk. Reading the form more closely she realised that this was for a special scholarship place.
“What’s this about?!” Luna said. She didn’t have much interest in joining one of those schools and fighting for sport.
“You got yourself into a lot more trouble than you think, those guys you killed, they were part of Solnage.” The stranger stated in a matter-of-fact voice.
Luna’s heart dropped, messing with an IEF was one of the few things that you couldn’t hide from in this day and age. She had no idea that they had people posted in the Syndicate.
“Luckily for you, an IEF wouldn’t target the student of a rival academy, and us at Seidoukan have been looking for strong fighters for this year.” The man said.
“I don’t have much of a choice do I” Luna replied.
“No, you don’t, not if you want to live anyway” The man replied, she could only see the neutral expression of someone just doing their job on his face.
Luna sighed as she started filling in the forms. Hopefully she could get home relatively soon.