Rock and Hard Place

Severe is hot (although not so much in this rough scetch...). And Nigel is so cool! But he never gets to show his true powers in the game sessions we had... :( I have such a hard time with action scenes... I've actually already written the next portion of the story before finishing this one, since it was an easy dialogue one XD But after that, I need to wait until the final to publish any more...

***

Nigel had set up camp in the ballroom. He had connected Rei to the triplets back home and distributed tasks to the computers he had scrounged up from the HQ. They were nothing too special, but still state of the art, in normal consumer standards. Considering the missions assigned to the Knights for tonight, he would have a full workload in his hands.

The prying, inquiries and plain keeping their eyes open had paid up. Almost too well, in fact, since they were going to thin out their resources to get everything done. Lord Zaphikel seemed thrilled though, for his underlings were performing so well and would now be ready for further testing. If he didn't need something to have faith in, Nigel would have thought the angel had orchestrated this whole thing, since tonight's missions were a bit too perfectly set up for each of the participating Knights.



They had been informed by the Liverpool Knights that the assassin training camp, that had been there when their London colleagues had arrived to take care of Darkmort, had been annihilated. Rivalry between Death God cults was common, but rarely did they attack each other this openly. The abandoned slaughterhouse had become, well, a slaughterhouse, with shot bodies all over the place. Nigel had been trying to find info on the Ballistic cultists that might have been behind the attack and had finally come up with a lead. None of them was sorry to hear assassins getting killed, but lord Zaphikel had agreed that they still needed to investigate who had been behind the attack. It might either be a potential ally, or an enemy to get rid of before they got too dangerous.

The archangel had decided on Matt and Audrye for that mission. The thief for stealth and persuasion skills, Audrye as a back-up if things went wrong. Nigel had not been happy for this decision, he would have rather kept Audrye at the HQ, but orders were orders. The two were already en-route to an illegal gun shop that might give them more information. Nigel kept a close eye on their GPS signal, while trying to concentrate on his other work.

Another screen showed a GPS signal of McGilligan's phone. The Scot and the Mexican had been sent to investigate a night club called Frost because lately several of its regulars had ended up dead with drug overdose. It was a new party drug called Swarovski, which was exponentially more potent than ecstasy, its predecessor. These two had been chosen because of the Mexican's history with both night clubs and drugs, although Nigel suspected that Frost wasn't really that kind of a club. And in order to determine whether dating a colleague was something to be allowed, lord Zaphikel had sent his lover the Scotsman with him. And this was also the reason for the last pairing, who were at the moment studying the details of their own mission.

Emma had gotten the tattoo, in the form that Matt had suggested. Weston-Pryce had indeed gotten the message, even without the third word. Emma had been on the edge ever since, thinking that she had made a mistake getting it since the man had not gone all ooh and aah over it... Nigel, on the other hand, knew better.

He kept a constant eye-and-ear on all of the musketeers, but Weston-Pryce was on special surveillance, especially ever since he had requested Nigel to make a thorough check on Emma's old fiancé. He had met the other man in Liverpool and despite Emma's claims that the relationship was history for her, there was basis for jealousy there. So on the pretext of looking out for any threats on Donald-the-ex-con-ex-fiancé, Nigel had intercepted some interesting calls the soldier had been making recently, not concerning any assassination plans on the other man, but for a tattoo-design for himself. Thank goodness that Emma had not asked Nigel anything related to her tattoo or her Knight! He was a terrible liar and had no poker face whatsoever. He would have spilled the surprise that Daniel was planning for her. She was getting her sign of commitment. Nigel couldn't wait to see the look on the thief's face.

Despite her insecurities when it came to Daniel, Emma was a professional at other things. She had set aside all that crap while doing her work as a Knight. Those two had been given the task of apprehending an item that could prove useful against Mysterium. Nigel had found this... thing... a 'black hole of magic'. It was hard to locate, because the only way to spot it was to find that void, where no magic could be used. But Emma could help pinpoint it very easily.

"I'll... lose control of my hand?" she was just confirming from Daniel, who had pointed this out to her. Wait, why was he suddenly calling the man Daniel? It must have been because of too much influence from Emma... Weston-Pryce had deducted, as Nigel and Zaphikel before him, that since Emma's arm functioned on magic, it would react to the presence of the void. She was a living radar for magical black holes, Nigel chuckled to himself.

"But if I can't use it... Am I really the best person to go on this mission?" Oh, she could be so simple at times... Or maybe she just wanted to break up the dream team? Before she could ruin everything, Nigel cut in:

"It is exactly because of it, that you were chosen to do it, Emma. Just think about it for a sec."

It dawned on her than no further objections would be tolerated, so she sucked it up, and took off with Daniel – Weston-Pryce! Honestly, so the man wasn't a total snob like he had thought him to be, and sure he was a good man for Emma... OK, he was all right by any standards. Fine, Daniel it was then.

"How is everything going?" a mellow voice asked him. Zaphikel could move silently when he wished and he had crept up on Nigel as the hacker had been concentrated on his thoughts. Or maybe he floated... Nigel didn't really know what happened to those wings when they were out of sight. Maybe they were just invisible.

"Fine, on most parts", Nigel muttered as a reply, "After the Outlanders were done wasting time on unimportant leads, both they and the Dream Team are currently en route to their respective destinations and the Odds have already made progress. They have gotten information on their target and are just arriving at their next location."

"Carry on", the black-haired angel urged him while seating himself on one of the large armchairs in the ballroom. Nigel didn't have to time to fret about being evaluated though, since Emma and Daniel were rapidly closing in on the void. The closer the soldier-woman got, the clearer a sphere Nigel could draw around the area that seemed to suck anything magical into itself. From the soldier-man's visor-camera Nigel could see them reaching an auction house, the same place that had held the electric earrings. Anything occult seemed to always concentrate on specific hotspots, so it didn't really surprise the hacker that the black hole would be found here of all places.

"Nicks? We've arrived at the destination, ready to head in now", he heard Matt report. Nigel quickly switched the thief's iris camera to the big screen. It was a nondescript little pub with enough dirt on its windows to make it impossible to see through them. The name 'Seventh Hell' was barely visible on the door, written in red and gold bold letters. From what Nigel had found out with a quick search, this bar seemed to have quite a lot of action in terms of illegal gun possession, stabbings and of course the regular bar fights which didn't stop with mere bruises. And very few of those incidents got reported to the police. In short, it was a safe heaven for cultists. All cultists, except for Knights.

"Wait, I'll do a scan", Nigel halted them, and then added smugly, "This will only hurt a bit, hold still."

Matt flinched as the camera switched to infra-red vision. The man managed to keep his composure, and tried to act like loitering near the pub's door was something he did on a regular basis.

"There are two men in the room, one could be the bartender", Nigel analysed from the image, "But there are some heat sources scattered on the floor, not enough emittance to be people though."

On another screen, Emma broke down the back door of the auction house. Nigel quickly switched his attention to the Dream Team and mapped out the floor plan, trying to deduct the exact position of the item they were after. He had some difficulty, trying to get his readings to steady, until he had to concede that the item seemed to be moving around because it was actually moving about. And just as the soldiers were closing in on it, it moved towards the front entrance.

"It's leaving! Get to the front door", Nigel forwarded this information to their ear-pieces. The soldiers gave chase immediately.

"Nicks? Any further instructions?" the thief asked him impatiently.

"It's a girl on a scooter", Daniel reported back. They had just missed their target, but were not going to be left too much behind.

"She's carrying it? Can you see what it is?" Nigel demanded to know. He was already putting the computers to the test, trying to enhance the visor image to the highest resolution possible. He sent the results to Emma's wrist computer.

"I think it's the girl. Herself", the soldier answered. Nigel snorted.

"It can't be a person..." he objected when the Odd Ones Out caught his full attention.

"Ads, stay back, I'll go in first and see what we are up against", Matt decided on his own and entered the pub room. Through the camera, now switched back to regular view, Nigel could see the dim interior, as filthy inside as could be anticipated from the outside. The first error he noticed that had made with his assessment was that one of the people there was in fact a female. The second error was that the lumps on the floor were in fact human, just not alive enough any more.

The bartender looked unnaturally pale under his shaggy beard and twitched towards the incomer. Trying to reach for an empty glass on the counter, the man fumbled and swept it to the floor instead. The crashing noise didn't have any effect on the dark-haired woman, who was leaning casually against the counter, eyeing Matt from head to toe. She was clothed in skin tight black leather clothes, that left no curve of her body to the imagination. The nervousness of the bartender was probably due to the gun she was pointing at his face.

"Stall them, I'm trying to cross-reference the visuals", Nigel told the thief while his fingers rushed on the keyboard.

"Ah, hello", Matt greeted, his voice not revealing even a hint that he was in any way upset of the scenery, "I seem to be interrupting something. I never arrive at the right time for a happy hour, it seems."

The bartender gulped visibly, while his eyes darted from the woman to Matt and back again. The woman gave the thief a curly smile with her full lips and adjusted her pose to give the man a better image of her full figure.

"Not at all", she purred, "Please come in and join us."

It was not a suggestion. Matt obeyed, and trying not to step too much into the pools of blood splattered all over the floor he reached the counter.

"Pour my friend here a drink, will you, Tom", she then said to the bartender, with notably less sex appeal in her voice. After much clinking, a glass of unknown alcohol was put in front of the thief. One of Nigel's screens flashed for a confirmed match. The man was Thomas Melvin, owner of the Seventh Hell. Several petty crimes in the past, but had cleaned up his act in the last decade. Not enough, it seemed.

"Thank you", Matt said, to both of them, taking the glass in his hand, but not putting it to his lips.

"Now, who is my new friend?" the woman asked him with the most sultry look Nigel had ever seen. But in Matt, she had met her equal.

"I am Matt Quill, it's a pleasure", the thief replied and Nigel could just visualise him giving her a sparkly smile and maybe a wink of some kind.

"Quill? I think I've heard of the name."

"All good, I truly hope?" And if he hadn't winked before, now was definitely the time he would do it. And his carefree tone of voice didn't falter one bit as he continued:

"As I assume this is your artwork here, and I like my insides just the way they are."

Pride flashed in the woman's eyes. She was one of those people, who liked when others knew they were dangerous. She gave the massacre around her a slowly panned look.

"They got it coming, those low-lives", she spat, "Do you think you got it coming?"

"I've always got something coming", Matt said softly. What was the man trying to do?! She was clearly a murderer and judging from the scene, the same murderer who had slaughtered an entire sect of assassins. This was no time to try to get her between the sheets.

"Nikki? What is going on in there? What about the sheets?" Audrye asked him through the radio.

"Just stay put", Nigel commanded, "Quill is being his usual self, playing with fire."

"I'm getting some weird looks, just standing here..."

"Just hold on for a little longer."

Nigel wished he could say the same to the Outlanders, who were again bugging him with address requests. He was busy here, with the Dream Team getting into a car chase with unknown enemies after them and the Odds being in close contact with Elder knows how serious a threat. There was no way he was going to send Audrye in there. Not if it wasn't absolutely necessary. In the end, it could be possible that the thief could apprehend the killer by just seducing her hard enough.

"So, what did they do?" Matt asked the woman.

"They did nothing!" the bartender blurted, "Severe, these were my customers!"

The woman gave him a cold look. Nigel drew a deep breath as her confirmed profile popped up on the screen. Severe Jones. A Puerto Rican wethand with quite a resume and an expensive paycheck. Her name also popped up in several Knight's reports, but since they hadn't had any visual reference, it had taken Nigel this long to match her face. What puzzled him though, was that Jones had been mentioned as an informant and a loose ally in some of the musketeer's reports. She had saved all three of the musketeers on separate occasions, plus aided in the rescue of Daniel's little sister. Maybe she had switched sides? Become a rogue Black Knight of some kind, killing other cultists for greater good?

"It's the survival of the fittest", Severe shrugged in reply to Matt's question, "And this is a good time to weed out the weak."

"Well lucky for me, no one's ever called me weak", Matt chuckled. He had smoothly leaned closer to the woman, who didn't evade his approach. Tom the bartender chose this moment as a good chance for escape and sprinted towards the back door.

"V! I need a route suggestion", Daniel's voice ordered through the radio.

Bang. Tom didn't make it.

"Not now! I'm busy here!" Nigel cut off the connection. Blood and brains were spilled on the far wall. Daniel could make it on his own. He got Emma to cover him.

"Nikki? I heard a gun shot!" Audrye asked with a tensed voice.

"Matt's fine! Stay put!"

Matt was indeed fine. He had merely glanced at the newest corpse and then returned his attention to Severe.

"So. Who are you really, Matt Quill? And what did you come here for?"

"I actually came here for you." The thief raised his hands to show that they were empty and making himself less of a threat.

"We heard of someone wiping out cultists and it's not exactly something we're fully opposed to. I came to investigate it. And I must say, I like what I found."

"You're a... pigeon?" the woman asked, frowning, "Don't you doves ever learn not to set foot in this place? This place is for bad guys only."

Great. Matt had let her know that he was from the Knights. Nigel noticed himself holding his breath, waiting for what would happen next. Would she shoot him in the next heartbeat?

"I'm not all good guy", Matt confessed with a musky tone. Could he actually play his way out of this mess?

"And I think you're not all that bad. We could do great things together, if you would tell me what you're really after", he continued. His hand had found its way to her waist, caressing its soft arc.

"What I'm after?" she whispered, looking at him through her thick black lashes, "I'm after whatever my god commands me to."

This was becoming some weird B-grade porn film, Nigel thought as Severe twirled one finger in the thief's hair.

"Audrye, be ready to throw some binding spell on the target. Quill almost has her detained."

It seemed to be going smoothly. They would capture Jones and determine here at the HQ whether she was a friend or a foe. Quick glance at the other screens revealed that the Outlanders had made some progress in their investigation as the Dream Team had managed to get rid of one of their chasers. He could help them soon enough.

"Why won't you put the gun down, and we can get friendly?" Matt inquired suggestively. Their faces were so close together, Nigel's screen was almost all covered with an image of her iris. She was batting her eyelids and smiling with her lips seductively parted.

Bang.

The image of Severe's face drew away as the camera panned up. There was blood on the ceiling, as well as splattered across the woman's stern face.

"Audrye! Shield up! Quill just got shot!" Nigel yelled at the radio.

"Roger!" No! He didn't want her to get in! He had ordered her to stay put, wait for danger to pass! What was she doing?!

The iris camera showed Audrye entering the room, visible shimmer surrounding her. She was shocked at the scene that welcomed her, but still managed to block the bullet that the other woman shot at her.

"Fucking pidgeons! How many of you are there?" Severe screamed. Audrye didn't bother to answer. She shot a blinding bolt of light at the killer, knocking her down. Severe rolled agilely to a crouch, keeping a hold of her hand gun. With a wave of her hand, Audrye sent it flying across the room. Cursing under her breath, Severe summoned a rifle out of thin air. She was definitely still working for Ballistic. However, her bullets couldn't penetrate through Audrye's magical shield, which she used to cover both herself and the bleeding corpse of Matt.

"I'll get back to you!" the shooter finally shouted and retreated from the scene through the same door that Tom had earlier tried to use as an escape.

Audrye fell to her knees. The shimmer flickered out.

"Matty!" she cried out. The camera showed the desperation on her face.

"How bad is it? Can you heal him?" Nigel demanded, trying to stay on top of the situation. Other screens were keeping track on the fleeing woman. They would find out where she went. And capture her. Only next time with more firepower, and less playboys.

"Nikki... She... She shot him in the head. Matty's... I think he's dead!" Audrye sobbed. She was touching his wounds, getting blood all over her hands.

"You can still save him, can't you? I know you can, Audrye!"

There was faint shimmer glowing from her hands, but it was weak. She shook her head, tears falling on her cheeks.

"I don't have the power to do it. I used up too much before..."

Nigel tried to think fast. Faster than what it took for Matt's life to completely run out. She needed power. He had it. Now to just get it to her. And quickly.

"Audrye. Listen to me and do exactly as I tell you. Break the radio, smash it! And take out the transmitter, anything that is connected to the antenna. Matt has a knife, no? I need you make a cut, quite a deep one."

"Cut him where?!" Audrye was panicking. Nigel bit his lip.

"Not him. I need you to cut yourself. Thigh maybe, or your abdomen, if you can be sure not to cut any organs. Make it deep enough, and put the transmitter inside. Then be ready to heal him."

"What?!" She already had the knife in her hand, but the sharp stiletto was shaking in her grip.

"You want him to die? Just do as I say and do it now!" He couldn't watch. She suppressed her cries as the blade cut her flesh, but he could still hear her pain. He put his full focus on preparing Rei for an upload. It would be an unfortunate casualty.

"I'm ready!" Audrye groaned. Nigel breathed heavily, staring at the screen. Rei was ready as well. Was he? He had to.

With a fast strike his hand hit the screen of the laptop. His fingertips melted into the surface and blended with it, making him a part of the network. He could see nothing but streams of light, dashing and racing around him, but guiding him to the connection point. He poured all his energy into that beacon. He could faintly hear Audrye gasp. His power was depleting fast, but he could sense it being channelled forward, hoping it would be enough to save the thief's life.

***

Nigel's eyes slowly blinked open. It took them a while to focus on the blur before him. A light. And a shadow on his side. The glare hurt him and he tried to turn his head away from it.

"Stay calm, child", a compassionate voice told him. Something was raised in front of the light, filtering it down to a manageable level. Nigel's vision was sharpening and he could make out more detailed patterns. Feathers. A wall of feathers in front of him. A wing. A large wing with soft silver tipped feathers. And a dark figure, with dark hair and dark eyes. Pitch-black eyes. Everything came into focus.

Lord Zaphikel was crouching beside him, with a worried look on his smooth, ageless face. Nigel was lying on the floor, he had apparently dropped off his chair. On the desk, he could see the smoking remains of his white laptop.

"Are they...", he tried to croak with his dry throat, "Are they OK?"

The archangel gave him a gentle smile.

"Miss White and Mr. Quill are both alive and being retrieved by Melanie. I am more concerned about you now, Mr. Willoby. Nigel? If I may."

"Sure, sure..." he replied, closing his eyes again. He couldn't care less what the angel called him.

"You did well, child, and proved me wrong. But in this, I am happy to have erred."

Nigel's still groggy mind tried to put this into context. Finally it snapped into place. He coughed a laugh.

"You were testing me."

"I needed to know that your close relationship with Miss White would not interfere with the missions."

A cool hand was laid on his forehead. He felt a tingling sensation going through his body.

"Now rest, child."