Chapter 14: Moonlight's Mission

 "…You look good in red," I said leaving the office.

 I then rushed straight to the elevator as I was dangerously approaching my limit. I repeatedly pressed the button to take me to the ground floor, but just as the doors began to close….

 "Hold the elevator!" a man shouted running towards me.

 He kept his right hand between the doors, right before they shut, making it just in time.

 "Get out!" I said to the man letting out some pressure.

 "Listen, buddy, there is more than enough…" the man tried to say but then stopped midsentence. He was suddenly rendered incapable of breathing!

 The atmosphere got heavy and sweat could vividly be seen all around his body. Fear took over the man as he desperately tried to reopen the elevator door.

 The doors finally opened and he immediately raced out and fell to the floor gasping for air. As the doors closed once again I watched the man drown in despair as he began to cry.

 I finally took off my shirt and screamed in pain as Lilith opened a gateway beneath us. I landed back at home in front of Azrael and released the dark cloud within my body.

 The cloud rushed out of my mouth and eyes then completely covered the rest of my body. The cloud continuously burnt off my flesh, revealing the bones beneath it. I stood up in my complete 7ft reaper form and faced Azrael and his shadows as they knelt before me.

 "Welcome back master," Azrael said still kneeling on the floor. I nodded in response, still feeling the after-effects of the pain from before.

 "Have there been any improvements with the shadows from your previous journey?" I asked expectantly.

 "Yes master, they have become more responsive and flexible to commands," Azrael replied immediately.

 'So, even they are capable of learning,' I thought to myself.

 "Good, I have another task for you," I said as I looked up to the sky.

 "Do you know who Theós is?" I asked.

 "Yes master, Theós is the architect of the system we see before us. From life, death, and everything in between was designed by Theós. Thus, everything happens within Theós' plan. If it is not within Theós' plan then it cannot be done!" Azrael said with absolute certainty.

 "That's right! I want to be able to resist the system that Theós has placed on us. To do that, I need to become stronger. The humans on this earth are not enough for me to meet that goal. So, I need you to search elsewhere," I said to Azrael then pointed to the sky.

 "Master…I will complete this task and rush back to your side," Azrael said with enthusiasm.

 "Good, I have no particular direction I can send you to, but use what you have learned on this planet. It should give you an idea of where to start.

 Unless I allow it, you can't interact with the physical realm, so I doubt you will be in any danger. Once you have located a planet with living beings, hold your position! I shall come to you," I said then signaled them to leave with a brush of my hand. 

 Azrael then got up alongside 40 low-grade shadows. He turned to them and glared at each of them deeply as if to communicate something.

 After a few moments, they began to pair up in twos. Each pair received different instructions and shot to the sky right after. This went on until it was Azrael alone that was left with two low-grade shadows.

 "Until we meet again master," he said to me as he bowed respectfully in my direction. He knew this new task wasn't like the previous and would take much longer.

 He then flew to the sky, alongside the two shadows. They were so fast that to an ordinary person, it would have looked like they suddenly disappeared. I watched them fly away till they were completely out of sight.

 "Hey tailed Lilith…" I spoke up.

 "Yes, master…?" The tailed Lilith replied. 

 "How come I can't fly?" I asked curiously.

 "Of course you can. You're just an idiot," the tailed Lilith replied respectfully as if to mock me.

 I ignored her little comment and asked, "How?"

 "We can manipulate the fabric of space and create gateways that can take us anywhere in an instant. What's the point of flying?" she said.

 "Teach me," I said to her.

 I didn't care if I could get somewhere almost instantly. Flying seemed fun. I'm not all about the work. I may be dead, but I'm still alive.

…

 "This is an active crime scene please step back!" A young police officer warned as he stopped the approach of a slim-looking man with his hand.

 "Get your hand off of me before I break it!" the slim man commanded.

 Feeling threatened by the slim man's words, the young officer attempted to reach for his gun but was stopped by a detective before he could pull it out.

 "Do you have any idea who you almost pointed that gun at? That's Moonlight! Engrave this name in your pea-sized brain you oaf," the detective said in a harsh tone, then turned to face the slim man.

 "I am truly sorry if this underling offended you. He is still new and doesn't know how things work around here yet. Please forgive him," the detective said with haste not daring to look Moonlight in the eyes.

 The Fool's Gang are known for their extreme brutality. Crossing one of them would keep you in danger and everyone you have contacted may be at risk too. However, crossing Moonlight means certain death!

 "Forget it, I have more important matters to deal with," he said then walked towards what used to be Club Rumors. The detective, feeling relieved, immediately followed behind him.

 Moonlight stepped inside the burnt-down building and was met with a horrific sight. Burnt bodies still lay at the entrance. Individual hands and legs, separated from their bodies, could be seen all around the room. Too scorched to even be identified with the naked eye.

 "I shouldn't have left you here Joey," Moonlight silently whispered to himself in regret as he kept searching around the room.

 "Do you have any leads on the person that did this?" Moonlight asked.

 "Not yet. The fire was put out late, and we haven't found evidence of the man we were told about being here. If he was here, are you sure he didn't burn in there as well?" the detective asked.

 Moonlight then walked out of the burnt room and examined the doors lying on the ground outside. The detective noted Moonlight's interest in the doors and said, "The doors were blown off their hinges, most likely from the gas explosion inside."

 Moonlight then remembered the guy who told them that absurd story had said he was thrown through the doors. A dent could be seen on the doors. He then noticed a piece of a price tag sticking out from beneath one of the doors. Half of it had already succumbed to the flames. On the tag was written, JEFF's.

 Moonlight then also remembered how Arnold said the man had pieces of clothing burning off around his body. However, what stood out about this price tag was that its edges were not burnt like everything else. It looked aged, old, and wrinkled.

 'None of my guys buy from JEFF's, it's not their style. This must have belonged to him! He came with the price tag?' Moonlight went into thought.

 "Detective, have there been any reports of a theft at JEFF's?" Moonlight asked.

 "Yes actually. Just last night, someone broke into the store and stole a tuxedo. We were able to get the man's face on camera, but are still working on identifying him," the detective said.

 "Show me that footage!" Moonlight said with a serious tone.

 The detective then ran with great haste to get the footage. As he waited, Moonlight made preparations to have the dead bodies cleared out from the crime scene. They were all members of the gang, and he wanted to make sure they all got a proper burial. Half an hour later, the detective finally showed up with the security tape on hand.

 "You made me wait. A minute more and I would have actually been upset," Moonlight said as they walked towards a police van to view the tape.

 "Sorry for the delay, the department isn't exactly close and I had to personally be there to retrieve something like that," the man said carefully.

 Moonlight didn't say anything to him and just kept walking. They finally arrived at the back of the police van. The detective set everything up for them to view the tape. The contents of the tape showed a man walking naked into the store, but there was no accomplice with him as Arnold had mentioned.

 "What the...! Is the time shown on this tape accurate?" Moonlight asks in shock. "Yes, I retrieved this myself. No one has tampered with it," the detective answered with confidence.

 "This can't be right. This is around the same time he walked into the club. JEFF's is all the way in Severn Ave, which is 13 miles away. How could anyone cover such a distance in just a span of a few minutes?" Moonlight asked himself with a look of disbelief.

 "Could they be different people?" The detective asked trying to make sense of it as well.

 "No, there's no doubt about it. This is the same man I saw in the club. With the same suit!

 Maybe he tampered with the footage beforehand to have an alibi? That's the only reasonable explanation. He must have gone to the club last night to stir things up. I don't think he accounted for anyone surviving. He even has an alibi for the police and the gang! Which opposing gang sent him though?

 The bastard is quite careful, but not careful enough. I have seen his face, and now, he is a dead man!" Moonlight said with an unwavering confidence in himself.

 "Find out who this man is and where he came from?" Moonlight ordered the detective.

…

*1 week later*

(Achoo!)

 "This took longer than expected, but I finally got the hang of it," I said to the Tailed Lilith after a hearty sneeze. We were both levitating 10 feet from the ground.

 "You've been sneezing a lot this past week. That's not normal," the tailed Lilith said.

 "It's fine. That just means there's a beautiful lady out there who can't get me out of her mind," I said with my chest out and my nose held up high. 

 I then controlled the dark cloud within me, to fly even higher. Looking at the world beneath me go smaller and smaller as I flew higher and higher was an exhilarating experience. 

 The dark cloud seemed to be the source of all my newfound abilities. Even when it came to flying. In my reaper form, all I had to do was control the cloud around my body with a thought and I would move whichever direction I chose.

 In my human form, however, I had to manipulate the dark cloud within my body as a force of energy to lift me toward whatever direction I commanded it to.

 Flying felt unnatural in this form. It required me to use more force and reduced my already limited time as a human. However, I couldn't feel the wind on my skin in my reaper form.

 A light smoke arose from my body during flight, as the dark cloud was basically burning me from within. Luckily, it happened ever so slowly. It was for this reason that I would train in my reaper form.

 "I managed to learn how to fly!" I said with obvious excitement.

 Apart from flying I had also been experimenting and learning more about the dark cloud. The cloud decomposed anything it touched. It was strange how even something like water would be broken down into its elements - hydrogen and oxygen, and even they were split further into their respective single atoms. 

 A phenomenon like this can only be found within extreme conditions such as the sun's core or nuclear reactions. The cloud didn't just decompose things, it brought them to their end, their final form.

 These discoveries helped me maintain my human form even longer, but it was also mostly thanks to the tailed Lilith. When she took my pain away, a foreign power entered within me. This power took the pain but was also in opposition to my own.

 I felt the power the first time but disregarded it. However, the second time, I decided to feel how the power circulated within me and somehow make it my own. I took a portion of that power and continued to circulate it just as the tailed Lilith had done. 

 The power still opposed my own, but if I could find a balance, I could possibly stay as a human indefinitely!`

 Within my consciousness, this power looked like a warm ball of light. This light would circulate throughout my body, at my command, whilst in my human form. I couldn't break down this light like other things and seemed like it had no end.

 "We've given Anna enough time to meet my demands. Time to pay her another visit," I said expectantly.

 I then flew back down to the ground, alongside the tailed Lilith, then went into the house. I took the dark cloud within my body and concentrated it on my back.

 I quickly picked out some black jeans and a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt from my father's closet to clothe myself. Lastly, I wore a white pair of rubbers and was finally ready to set off.

 'I can't keep losing clothes every time I change back to my reaper form. I need to be more careful,' I thought to myself.

 "Tailed Lilith, open a gateway back to New York, it's time to collect," I said with a huge grin on my face.