Abnormal: Serenity

Prologue

The assassin positioned themselves across the glass palace of the Horizon Club, a place where the rich, the powerful, the high and mighty of Eirene sat around drinking expensive wine, eating fancy cheese while complaining about how hard their lives are.The Assassin peered down to the busy streets below, dozens of people out and about, either walking home from a regretted one-night stand, or a late evening at the bar, kicking themselves for their equally-regretted high bar tabs, the assassin held no pity for those foolish to stay out this late at night.The assassin sighed and got to work. They waved their hand over their left wrist, the blue holographic keyboard of their User Interface ignited, brightening half of their face. The assassin tapped a few keys, launching their drone from their pack, and sent it in to scan the inhabitants of the club. It scanned ten individuals, highlighting them, six red, one orange, and three green. The red were guards, each armed with at least a side arm. The green were innocent employees, just doing their jobs, putting up with the man children, and the orange was the target, surrounded by guards.

The assassin considered their options, sniper; they could just shoot Gate, but doing that would put all eyes on the assassin. Brute force; they could try charging in, guns blazing, but that would probably get them killed, and Gate would more than likely lock himself in his panic room. Lastly, a choice they didn't want to use, was to send her drone in, and hitting the trigger, causing it to explode, killing everyone in the room, including the innocents. The assassin grimaced, it was truly a pick your poison scenario, either they give chase, the assassin gets their ass kicked, or they have innocent blood on her hands.

The assassin sighed, and chose her sniper rifle from their inventory, drew the hood over their head, and typed a few more keys on the UI, their mask atomized over the top half of their face, the eyes lit up bright blue, hiding them, and a black mesh went over their mouth, a digital editor disguised their voice, making it deeper, in case anyone heard them. The assassin set up the rifle on the balcony, lining up the shot with Gate's head. They were hired a week prior by a man who only went by Mr. Red, to kill Gate, claiming he was a nuisance to his political campaign. The assassin didn't question it, they took the money up front, and spent the following four days studying Gate's moves, trying to decide the best way to kill him. A day prior the assassin learned from one of Gate's employees, that he'd be at the Horizon Club tonight. They placed their finger on the trigger, held their breath, and pulled. The bullet soared through the air, smashing right through the glass, into his skull, painting the wall behind him with his brain matter.

Wasting no time, the assassin tossed the gun into the street, it was no use to anyone now, as it was a single-use rifle. The Assassin made their way down the fire escape, dialing Mr. Red. "It's done."

"And your bonus has been transferred."

Chapter 1: Katherine

Rain pelted Katherine as she glided onto the rooftop, her arms spread holding onto the cape for dear life, landing gracefully as the cape retracted into it's proper holder. She took a stance and awaited her ally Cypher to arrive. She opened her eyes to see Captain Simmons of the Athens police force doing the same, taking a swig from his flask, wincing as whatever was in the container go down. She pitied the man, really. His red-brown hair had gone white, Maria had informed her his wife left him for another man in Parádeisos, his son was all grown up and moved out of the house, his job was truly the only thing he had left, and he only had a year or two before he'd be forced to retire.

Katherine turned quickly as she heard something behind her, hand on her sidearm ready to strike, she saw Cypher standing there hand on her left wrist.

"You look like hell." Katherine said in a mocking tone, her voiced digitally altered to sound far deeper than it usually would "What took you so long?" Katherine turned back toward Eric, who now had a bit of a bounce in his step as he was waiting patiently.

"Oh, stopped a mugging, saved a kids' parents from getting shot, got a crowbar to the wrist." Cypher replied, motioning to her left arm.

Katherine turned back to Cypher, "Are you okay?"

Cypher waved her off "Oh yeah, nothing some ice won't fix. Besides, you shouldn't be saying I look like hell. You dress up like a Fox every night."

"Not every night." Katherine replied with a chuckle. But she was right, Katherine had little room to talk. "Are you ready?"

"As always."

The two leapt onto the opposing rooftop as the rain increased it's punishment. Simmons turned and nodded to the two. "Evening."

"How's the department?" Katherine asked

"Still not entirely on-board with you two helping us out, especially the Commissioner."

"Well, did you follow up on what we gave you?" Cypher asked, crossing her arms, squinting as she held her wrist.

"We did, we did." Simmons said, looking away "It was a drug den, well armed drug den. Two officers have been hospitalized, one's in the ER." He trailed off "But we got 'em."

"I'm sorry, give them my condolences." Katherine said

"I did-I mean, I will. Thank you." Simmons said, nodding "Quiet night?"

"For the most part." Cypher said "You have anything for us?"

"Not unless you can break the Grant case." Simmons said with a dry smile, "No, not really."

Katherine gave him a small bow and turned to leave, "Then I'll be off."

Cypher turned her head to Katherine "Wait, what?"

"Yeah." Katherine said "I got a History test tomorrow."

Simmons blinked "Are you serious?"

"No, I just don't want to stand outside in the pouring rain when I don't have to."

Cypher let out a sigh and looked at Simmons "She's got a point." and started to follow Katherine's example.

"Good night, Captain." Katherine said as she leapt from the roof.

"Stay out of trouble!" Simmons shouted to Katherine, and glared at Cypher "Well, you gonna say goodbye?"

"Nah." Cypher said, shaking her head and jumping, giving Simmons the middle finger.

Chapter 2:Troy

Troy sat at his desk, flipping through files with one hand, a cigarette in his mouth, glass of scotch in the other. The lamp on his desk flickering with his rising frustration. It had been six months since the assassination of Senator Grant, and he'd gotten no closer to finding a lead. Troy resisted the urge to just light the files on fire and walk out of the room, go up to Liam Lexicon and hand in his badge, but he knew that was what a rookie would do, not something a man of his age or caliber would. He shut the file, stretched and went to the bathroom connected to his office, and splashed some cold water on his face. He gazed into the mirror, his brown hair had lost it's luster, growing fainter over the past decade, gray had even started to come in around his temples. His eyes surrounded by black rings from lack of sleep.

He sighed, I promised her a straight fifteen, can't back out five from the endgoal.

Troy's phone started going off in his pocket, flipping it open, he answered with a growl, "Troy here, what do you got?"

The voice on the other end answered with a soft, friendly tone, "That anyway to greet a friend?"

"Hello, Mr. Albatross." Troy said, respectful as possible "What can I do for you?"

"Ah, it's not what you can do for me my boy, but what I can do for you."

"I'm sorry?"

"Come meet me at the Arcadia Club."

"In Athens? You want me to travel across an entire ocean?"

"Of course."

"For what?"

"Well I know you never turn down free booze."

Troy's ears perked, "I trust that's not all you've called me about."

"You know me all too well. When can I expect you?"

He thought for a second, "I can be there by noon tomorrow."

"Sounds delightful, Salve!

Albatross is the leader of the Pleonektés Family, one of the few who escaped jail time after the trail, and only one of two who holds no grudge against me for what I did. After his brother Giovanni went down, Albatross took over, even paid for Laura's funeral in full. In the following years, Albatross has silently helped the Overseers in so many ways from the sidelines, mainly in the form of ridiculous sums of cash, or general tips on whereabouts of rival gangs. Him calling out of the blue, it can't be for a pleasant chat, either he wants someone dead, or he wants to warn me about another attack. With my luck, it's probably both.

Troy walked out of his office, locking the door behind him and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights off the building outside. He went down the hall and knocked on the Captain's door before going in, shocked to see a young woman instead of Liam. She was dressed in the Captain's uniform, her hair as yellow as the sun, and her eyes a beautiful blue-green. She looked up from the steak she was eating with a curious stare.

"Can I help you?"

Troy cleared his throat, "I was looking for Liam Lexicon. Is he in?"

She smiled, "I'm not his secretary." She stood up, wiping her mouth with a cloth towel, "I'm his daughter, Lieutenant Serah Lexicon."

Troy blinked, "But you're wearing a Captain's uniform."

Serah nodded, "Awaiting that promotion in a week or so, Captain Lexicon is talking with the committee on allowing me to take over, since he's getting promoted at the end of the year."

"To what?"

She looked at him as if he was crazy, "What, have you been living under a rock? He's taking over for General Hart."

Troy stood there, dumbfounded, So this girl's getting my promotion simply because she shares the last name with the Captain? Well, we'll see how long she lasts before they decide to kick her and replace her with someone with actual experience.

"So." She said, interrupting his inner thoughts, "Is there anything I can do for you, Mr...?"

"Pistós. Troy Pistós."

"Ah, you're the man Father always talks about when he gives us his war stories eh? The Spartan Slayer, the man who toppled Athens!" She said, eyes full of wonder like that of a child

He shook his head, "That's me, but your father has a habit of exaggerating. What'd he tell you, I took out a thousand Spartans by myself? I took the city single handed?"

"No." She said bluntly, "You have a confirmed kill count of seventy-two, and that's not factoring in your time as an airborne fighter, nor as a sniper in the last year of the conflict."

"So he didn't stretch the truth." Folding his arms, a slight smile breaking his lips.

"Again, no. I read the reports. Every year around Haloa, he'd tell us how you and Reapers really turned the tide of the war."

Troy just nodded, "Look, Serah."

"Lieutenant."

"Lieutenant. I'm heading to Athens to follow a lead."

"Good, take a man with you."

"For a sit-down? You're shitting me." "No, I'm serious, some of the men need experience, this is the perfect opportunity."

Seeing as no reason to argue, he simply nodded his head, "Who?"

Serah hit a button on her desk, "Garrus, come in here please."

Not ten seconds later, a young man decked in the standard issue recruit uniform stood in the doorway, his head clean shaven with a five o'clock shadow on his face.

"This, Mr. Pistós, is Garrus Druavan. Top sniper in his class, but to be frank, his detective work is terrible. Garrus, you'll be accompanying Troy on an outing, pay attention, don't fuck it up, and make me proud." Garrus gave a salute and went back towards the locker rooms.

Troy chuckled, "Your pep talk needs work."

She gave him a smile, "And your attitude needs some as well, Mr. Pistós." "Call me Troy." As he shut the door behind him.

Chapter 3: Katherine

Coming Soon