The Angel of Death (redletalis x Elflady)

[redletalis]

"-and so I said to Wilkins: you've been stealing my ideas for years, you've been treating me like a temporary intern making me do anything but the job I've actually applied and been hired for, you've not paid me for all the work I've put in, and you've been screwing your secretary behind your wife's back - not that it's difficult considering your wife doesn't have two brain cells to rub together - and this entire place is so full of itself that the ego is enough to choke a normal person! Why do you think the interns come and go so quickly?! Well, here's another person who's going to be leaving, and I'm not coming back no matter how much you beg me! In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if this entire place went to the dogs without me! I'd wish you a goodbye, but I'd be lying about the 'good'! Although there was a lot more cursing. After that I slammed the door."

Elizabeth stepped off the bus, holding the cell phone firmly in case some of the other people bumped into her.

"And how did that rant work out?" Anne asked from the other side of the phone.

"I felt good. I felt so damn good." Elizabeth crossed the street and entered the small diner where she worked the night shift. "For about two days and then I realised that I had no work and bills to pay. Wilkins obviously spread the word about my exit. No one wanted to hire me. At one place they actually called me in for an interview and then promptly asked me to leave when I showed up. Bastards the whole damn lot of them."

"So that's why you're working and living in the dumps?" Anne sounded competlely unconcerned.

"Yeah." She sighed heavily. "My savings ran dangerously low. I miss my apartment. I loved my apartment! And now my mom's trying to set me up with every man she knows. Just because my sister's married and popping out babies faster than one can blink..." she sighed. "Listen, I've gotta go. I'm at work now. I'll call you tomorrow morning if I manage to wake up. I've been weirdly exhausted these past few weeks."

"Well, might have something to do with working two jobs, honey." Anne yawned.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she entered the employee's only area of the diner, dumping her bag and jacket on the chair labelled as hers. "Not like I have a different choice right now. Talk to you later?"

"Sure. Try to get some rest in between customers." Anne hung up, and Elizabeth followed her. She stuck her cell phone deep into her bag, adjusted her uniform, pulled her apron off the hook and put it on, and then she hurried out into the main area of the diner.

She went up behind the counter, nodded to the older waitress getting off shift as she passed, and then Elizabeth smiled at the first customer. "Welcome to Hanson's Diner. How may I help you this evening?"

 

[Elflady]

Marcel stood on a slight hill just outside the city, looking out over the busy streets. People was everywhere, walking along the streets, coming in and out from buildings, always moving, always busy. Many walking with their eyes glued to a small device, a phone he recallled. Had they no interest in those around them, or where they walked for that matter.Taking a deep breath that ended in a sigh Marcel started down the hill, almost tripping a few times and cursing as a result. He was still not used to this heavy, bumbling body, it may have looked pretty much like him but it sure as hell didn't feel like him.

He didn't mind the mortal world or humans, heck they were sort of his job so that was kind off self explanatory. But he did pity them in their heavy shells, pitied them for not knowing the light and free feeling of the etheral bodies in the otherworld. And by God did he miss his wings, it had been so long since he had last walked on Earth and even longer since he had walked in a mortal form that he had long since forgotten the feeling of loosing his wings. It was like removing the wings from a bird, you removed part of its life, part of their joy.

Reaching the streets Marcel joined the many humans on the side walk making his way to where his goal lay. Cars zipped past in a never ending stream, some yellow cars cut through the lanes with surprising speed and boldness, others honking in irritation in return and still the flow managed to be controlled by some coloured lights. Somewhat.

Navigating wasn't the easiest however, looking at a city from far above, through another world even, was not as helpful as one might have thought. The perspectives were quite different for one, and with so many buildings, roads, alleyways and deadends Marcel had some trouble finding his way and he was too stubborn to ask for directions, after all, shouldn't he as a high angel be able to find his way without the aid of a mortal?

So he trudged on, pushing through crowds and slowly making progress in reaching the more downtrodden parts of the city where he had been told his target worked and lived. He just hoped it was correct and that luck would be with them, maybe things would unravel slowly and this would be over quick and without much hassle. But Marcel doubted that strongly, nothing ever happened so easily, not in the mortal realm and not in the world of Gods.

 

[redletalis]

It was a long evening. This seemed to be the day no one wanted to go home and eat there, and Elizabeth was run off her feet serving and cleaning up and pouring new drinks. At least there had been no really rude customers yet, which was a blessing, and the tips were small but they kept coming - which was definitely a good thing. Usually she would've tried to keep a running tally of her tips in her head just to make the time pass, but right now she was just too exhausted to do it. Her stomach was acting up too, roiling at the scent of fried bacon.

"I hope I'm not coming down with something." She said during a tiny break, leaning tiredly against the counter. "I can't afford coming down with something."

"You and half the world, honey." Gloria, the other waittress on duty, looked carefully at Elizabeth. "You do look a bit sickly, child. You getting enough sleep?"

"Barely." She sighed. Some people made working two jobs look so very easy. Elizabeth wasn't one of them. She was frizzled and frazzled, and her hair had never been this messy since she had been a young girl in kindergarten. Nor had her clothes been so unkept and wrinkly. No one cared about a few stains on a waitress' uniform.

Gloria shook her head. "Tell you what, honey, I'll have the chef put aside some food for you to take home tonight so that you won't have to waste time on that as well. So when you get home you go straight to bed and stay there as long as you can, alright?"

"Thank you." She knew that she should've refused the offer, but she was just too tired. The bell by the door chimed and Elizabeth turned to look, biting back a groan of frustration when she saw who it was. It was one of the customers who usually managed to create trouble and who seemed to make it his mission to annoy the waitresses, and Elizabeth hated working with him. Unfortunately he sat down in her section of the diner, and she had to plaster on a fake smile and go over to take his order.

"Are you ready to order or do you want more time to look through the menu?" she asked even if she really wanted to throw her notepad at his face when he looked her up and down and smirked at her. Oh, boy, here it came.

"Are you ready to let me do you?" he reached out to pat her bum but Elizabeth moved out of the way.

 

[Elflady]

A poorer part of the city indeed. Marcel noticed as he made his way through the city that gradually the amount of people out and about lessened and the buildings looked more worn down. Cracks spread out across some walls, here and there iron bars covered windows of what looked like stores, his guess was that crime seemed more common here or people had less fancy alarms. It was definiteley not the worst place he had seen but not the best either.

It took him longer than he wanted to get to the place since he didn't walk as fast as he could. He still felt a bit at odds with his physical form and couldn't stomach stumbling over his own feet or a shift in the asfalt and falling on his face, making a fool of himself was out of the question. Who could take an angel who kept falling over seriously, especially a high angel.

So it took a bit longer, the moon had long since risen as he got close to the diner where the woman were supposed to work. It had been a shift in the plans half way through his preparations when she had changed her job and moved to this less attractive part of town. Marcel had not been told why and had not really tried to find out either. His job was to take care of her and keep her alive not know every detail about her life.

Looking around he searched for a sign of the diner, above him clouds were drawing in covering up the faint stars. They didn't seem to hold a lot of rain but the sight felt ominous, almost foreboding. Maybe he was just a bit paranoid, clouds were not a sign of anything else than weather. But they did have nice timing. He was not the only one after this woman, even if he was the only one on her side. The only good thing was that both angels and demons taking physical form on Earth lost some of their powers when contained in human bodies.

Finally he found it, a neon sign declared that the building was indeed Hanson's Diner and Marcel drew a sigh of relief. Stepping inside he looked around briefly, taking note of customers, waiters and the overall layout before he chose a table a bit out of the way but with a nice view of the place. He saw the woman instantly as she was out among the tables taking an order, even from where he sat she looked tired and frizzled.

Now his only problem lay with how to deal with it all. He was not used to dealing with humans, it had been a long time since last but he had a strong feeling it would not work just going up to her and explain everthing. Humans had such little faith in the supernatural, even those with a strong faith in whatever they believed in seemed to be unable to actually accept a real physical, or etheral, phenomen in front of them.

So he decided for now to order something, try to fit in and see what happened, maybe he'd get a chance here or when she got off work. He hoped she would be one of those more open minded people, this would be difficult enough without her panicking or refusing to believe him.

 

[redletalis]

Elizabeth kept the smile plastered on her face as the man continued to not order while giving her the worst and crudest pick-up lines that she had ever heard. The other waittress sent her a pitiying look as she hurried past to wait upon a man who had just arrived. Lucky woman. That man didn't look like he was going to proposition her.

"Sir, if you aren't ready to order then I'll come back later." Elizabeth finally said, cutting the man off right before he could start in on another crude suggestion. She put her notepad in the apron's pocket and turned to walk away. Her stomach was feeling more queazy than ever - no wonder with what she had just been listening to - and she wanted to get a glass of water to wash away the imagined taste of bile.

"Who said you could walk away, bitch?" the man grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "I've been asking you out for the past fucking week, and you've snubbed me every time. That's not very kind of you."

Elizabeth raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "Please let go of me. You are creating a scene."

"I'll give you a fucking scene when I throw you down and take you right here, right now." He grinned darkly, eyes flashing as they ran down her body. "Might get some enjoyment out of it if you're a good girl. Otherwise I'll fucking rip you open and feast on your innards."

"Dude, you need a psychiatrist." Elizabeth pulled as hard as she could, but she couldn't move his grip. She wasn't a weakling, she had taken some self defence courses aimed specifically for women before she had started working in this part of town, but this guy seemed to suddenly developed an iron grip. "What the hell, man?! Let go of me!"

He just jerked her roughly closer. "Sweet-smelling flesh like yours deserves a good pounding. I'm going to enjoy corrupting the future saviour of the world." He licked his lips with a tongue that was far too long to be normal, and then he licked Elizabeth's cheek with it.

She wanted to throw up.

 

[Elflady]

Having taken a seat Marcel briefly checked the menu but it didn't tell him very much, he wasn't very up to date with food, normally he didn't need to eat, so the different meals and drinks only sounded foreign to him. He didn't get to ponder long before a waitress hurried over to his table, notepad in hand. "Are you ready to order, sir?" The friendly looking woman said with a smile and a slight curiosity in her eyes. Even if Marcel was clad in some simple jeans and a jacket he looked like he didn't really fit in in this part of town, and he was certainly not a regular.

"Yes, I am." Casting another glance at the menu he gave up on deciding himself. "Do you recommend anything? Maybe something a bit lighter." Better to start off on the safe side he gathered.

"Well, we do have a very delicious tuna sandwich, but if you'd rather have a meal we have..."

"I'll take the sandwich thank you," he said quickly, cutting her of before she could list of more things to choose from. "Just water with that as well." His tone was polite but cold, not inviting for any idle conversation.

The witress nodded while jotting down his order on her pad before hurrying to the kitchen, the diner was not full but there was enough people to keep the few employees he could see busy. The woman he was sent to protect seemed to have problems of her own, the customer he had seen her with was acting up, from the distance Marcel couldn't hear anything but it wasn't necessary. It was still easy to see the man's vulgar nature and intent.

Marcel wasn't the only one who noticed either, some people in the diner looked up as well at the commotion but remained seated, not wishing to be drawn into something bad. At first he thought it was just a normal but rude customer but as the scene unfolded Marcel started to think differently. Even from where he sat he could feel faint waves of malice and cruelty rolling off the man.

The realisation hit him later than he liked, was his instincts really so dulled here on Earth that he couldn't feel a demon? Or was it just a really nasty human? Not wanting to wait and see Marcel rose from his seat, almost knocking the chair over and quickly closed the short distance.

"You take your disgusting hands of the lady." He said as he gripped the man's arm roughly, his voice was low and cold, it was an order not any sort of request. Up close Marcel could see what the man really was and he knew that it would useless to try and get him to see sense and keep a low profile. Demons thrived on chaos and destruction, so far no demon had let human ignorance stop them. "If you do not obey you will regret it, trust me on that."

 

[redletalis]

"Who dares disturb me in the middle of a meal?" the freaky customer demanded, rising to his feet and practically towering over the newcomer. It was a bit funny, Elizabeth was certain that the customer hadn't been that big or muscular when he had first sat down. How very odd.

The stranger looked a bit like a band member from the 1990s with that hair, and the shape of his face and eyes were quite different from what Elizabeth was used to seeing. It made it difficult to determine if he was Asian or Caucasian, but it didn't matter in the end. The stranger still managed to get the freaky customer to let go of her, and Elizabeth backtracked until she was stopped by the next table. She clutched at her wrist, frowning darkly at the bruise that was developing there and feeling the skin of the bruise pucker and stiffen. It was almost as if she had burned herself or something.

"What the hell, man?" she muttered as her heart started slowing down and her anger came into full force. She wiped her cheek where he had licked her, fought down bile and then glared at the freaky customer who was now staring down the stranger. Oh, so he could respect another man saying 'stop' but when a woman said the same thing it only meant that she wanted more? Well, she wasn't going to stand for that at all.

"Hey, bastard!" she shouted at him and he turned. It took her a quick two steps to reach him, and then she punched him as hard as she could.

Her hand exploded in pain and he didn't seem to have noticed it much if at all.

"What kinda freak are you?!" she exclaimed and kicked out. Right between his legs. That at least got a reaction and the man squeaked and fell over. No one should mess with the epic Squirrel Attack move. Elizabeth glared down at the pathetic man - hell, he wasn't worth of being called a man anymore in her eyes - and pulled out her cell phone. "I'm reporting this in. You stay there like a good boy and wait until the police arrive. Shithead."

"I already called, sweetie." The second waitress came over. "They're on their way. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks." Elizabeth refused to let it show just how much her wrist was aching and how shaken she was, so she focused on the stranger instead. "Hey, thanks for the help. You weren't hurt by the idiot, were you? You okay?"

 

[Elflady]

Marcel didn't bother answering the demon, they might be on Earth with their powers supressed but to still not know who he was just proved that this might not be the sharpest demon around. In any case there wasn't much time to do anything as the, in Marcel's mind, frail woman took a few steps and then rammed her fist in the demon's face.

Which didn't do all that much except injuring her hand. She recovered quickly though and with a new approach felled the man with a brutal kick, effectively wiping off his smirk and probably making him curse the human bodies they had to use as he crumpled to the floor. Marcel couldn't help letting out a chuckle at the sight. So much for helpless humans. Maybe she didn't need a bodyguard as much as he had thought.

"Thank you for your concern, but I am fine," he answered and regained his earlier composure, ignoring the stares of the stunned customers instead turning his eyes to her arm. "You on the other hand should get that hand looked at, maybe put some ice on the bruise as well." A demon in human form was not quite as dangerous as one would think, except their immense strength. But they still retained some of their ability to burn and corrupt.

Now the question that remained was if this had been a random attack, a demon having accidentaly found her or if this was just the beginning. Should he cause a scene by dragging her off to safety or see to it that the demon vanished? It didn't take long for him to decide on what to do. This entire scene gave the impression it was more of an isolated incident, if many demons or angels knew of her location they wouldn't be this subtle. Instead it seemed more like a demon playing with his food.

A furious tirade of half intelligible cursing brought everyones attention to the demon again, who was clearly starting to recover. Making a split second decision Marcel quickly bent down beside him, gripping his neck hard and summoned as much of his powers he could in this form. He didn't have the power to actually purify a demon, erasing it from existance completely, but he could damage the demon's body so it wouldn't pose a threat.

Of course humans in general tended to take distance from violence so breaking his neck or otherwise physically killing or harming him might not be recieved well. But doing some internal damage wouldn't be seen, and if his powers weren't enough it would still render the demon unconcious for awhile.

"Don't worry, he is just unconcious." Marcel explained, letting out a faint sigh as he straightened up. He hadn't succeed entirely but it had at least effectively incapacitated the demon for now, but he was still a threat when he woke up and got away from the police. Which he would do quite quickly no doubt.

 

[redletalis]

"What the hell, dude? Did you do the Vulcan Grip or something to knock him out? I thought that was a myth debunked by the Mythbusters?" Elizabeth blinked down at the very much ex-customer who would never be welcome back in this establishment. The man was properly unconscious this time around, which might be a good thing considering exactly how much pain he had to be in after her kick. The Squirrel Move was devastating on both men and women, but for obvious reasons it was especially effective on men.

She shook her head and sighed, suddenly feeling extremely tired. She felt like she had just gone through the most rigorous exam of her entire life, wrung out and utterly brainless at the end of it. She hadn't felt like this since she had been in school. And to make things better (or worse) her stomach started to roil and churn, and it was making its way up her throat and towards her mouth.

"Pardon me!" she squeaked and ran to the customer toilets. The employee toilet was further away, and even as it was she barely managed to get to a bowl before she started throwing up and heaving. It didn't stop until she had thrown up what felt like all that she had eaten that week, and she felt clammy and weak afterwards, shivering with cold where she sat slumped on the dirty floor.

"What the hell is going on with me?" she muttered and ran a weak hand over her forehead. She hadn't felt sick at all except for the stomach bug, but that had been going on for a couple of weeks now without affecting her like this. And with her stomach as it was she hadn't eaten anything new or unknown. Perhaps something she had eaten was off?

Elizabeth groaned. "I can't afford to get food poisoning, damn it!"

 

[Elflady]

"I don't know what that is." Marcel said flatly, guessing it was probably some cultural thing. "I simply pressed on the nerves and blood vessles in his neck and that cut of his circulation until he fainted." It was simple biology, to a certain degree. Sure cutting of circulation or stop nerves from receiving signals eventually caused a loss of conciousness, maybe not an ideal goal in a fight but still doable. In this case though his powers had certainly helped speed up that process.

After that things went south again, the woman ran off in a hurry looking quite sick. The older waitress had a worried look on her face akin to that of a concerned mother and was about to follow after. But now Marcel had a chance to speak to her alone much sooner than he would have thought and he was not going to et it slip him by.

Stepping in front of the older woman he caught her eye and pressed his will over her. "I'll go look after her," he said slowly, letting every word sink in. "You can take care of the customers and the police." This wasn't any sort of mind control, he did not have that kind of power here, instead it was simply a sort of suggestion. People with weaker will or taken by surprise could be influenced to do as he wanted to a degree, nothing that went against their morals or something dramatic but enough to get his will through´.

Content she would stay behind Marcel hurried to the toilets, opening the door to see the woman sitting on the floor looking deceptivly frail and vulnerable. If he had not seen her display earlier that is. She definitely seemed to be in a bad state and it was quite admirable that she even had the energy to work, although the strain she was under could be seen quite easily.

"How are you doing?" He asked, a kinder tone to his voice than earlier. "Have you considered doing something about your nausea? I'm certain there must be something to be done for women in your condition."

 

[redletalis]

She was far too deep in her moment of self-pity to actually notice it when the door to the toilet opened again, and even then it was only to mentally complain that she would have to wash the bowl and air the place out! Yet another thing that had to be added to her ginormous list of things to get done as soon as possible. This wasn't her day. Or week. Or month. Or even year. Like, seriously! Who's idea was it to torture her like this anyway?!
"So you think it's food poisoning?" she muttered, not really in the mood to put on a happy-waitress persona in front of the stranger even if he had helped her earlier. "That's what I thought as well. Annoying as hell. I can't afford to get sick right now and the pharmacies are closed this late. Nothing to do but wait until it passes and hope for the best."

Elizabeth yawned and stayed where she was another couple of minutes, but the nausea seemed to have passed for now. She slowly got to her feet and stayed leaning against the wall just in case, but nothing happened. Her legs were a bit wobbly for a few seconds, but it passed and it was almost like the entire episode hadn't happened in the first place.

"Sorry about that. If you need the toilet I hope you'll give me the chance to wash it a bit and spray some air-freshener." Elizabeth pushed the button to flush the toilet, and then repeated it again just in case. The smell still lingered, but it wasn't something she could deal with just as quickly. She straightened her uniform and passed by the stranger, managing an honest smile as she did so. "Thanks for the help back there with the... the guy, and for the concern. I'll go get the air-freshener."

She rubbed the blossoming burn-like bruise on her wrist, and then forced herself to stop. Rubbing it had to only make it worse, and the light here in the toilet didn't help. She could have sworn that the damn thing had acturally spread up her arm a bit, but that had to be her mind playing tricks on her.

 

[Elflady]

He did not think it was food poisoning at all but he didn't say anything, instead letting her continue speaking. She looked slightly better now, maybe the sickness had passed, at least for awhile. He was definitely not one of the most well versed in this type of morning sickness, or maybe all day sickness would be more accurate, but at least it seemed like she had been cursed with a harsher variant of it.

"You are staying here." Stepping around her he blocked the door out, preventing her from walking out. "I am tired of dancing around the subject to see how things will unfold." His voice was firm and together with his posture gave the impression of an immovable wall. He needed her to understand quickly but he hesitated to be too harsh since he didn't want to see first hand how hard she could kick. "You are in danger, people are after you, people that want you dead more than anything. That pathetic man out there was just toying with you, maybe you could have survived even, but the others will do no such thing, they only want one thing, and that is your life."

He sighed and once more wished that God could at least have done something to prepare the woman, he was a God for crying out loud, he could have sent a vision or some divine message. Anything that would have made this easier. But no such luck of course. "Do you not think there was anything odd with the man out there? Even a human like you must have sensed something was not right, if nothing else you have your wound, that is no normal bruise." As he said that he motioned for her arm, where the dark bruise spread out.

"That reminds me, this mark of yours need to be taken care of quickly before it spreads and I can help you with that, I am probably the only one who can that will not harm you. If left alone it will kill you and more importantly your child." Showing no signs that he knew or cared about the literal bomb he had just dropped, only a tinge of urgency regarding her wound.

 

[redletalis]

For a moment her heart leapt into her throat and nearly choked her with fear. She didn't want to have another confrontation today, or any other day for that matter. She felt stretched thin and she was tired and cranky, and she had lost a good job because of an idiot of a boss and was now struggling to make ends meet. And what happened? Some idiot thought he could treat her like a girl in a Japanese hentai cartoon, and then this guy - her supposed saviour - tried to order her about?!

A wall he might seem like, immovable like a mountain, but Elizabeth was beyond caring and her brief flash of fear was transforming into anger the longer he spoke.

And what the hell was this nonsense about children? She certainly wasn't pregnant, she hadn't had a boyfriend in months thanks to her previous boss, and the only child that she could come up with that might fit the bill was her three-year-old niece. That just made her anger escalate into fury. Honestly, what kind of people actually went around and threatened little kids?!

"Listen, buddy!" she got right up into his face, glaring for all that she was worth, and poking him in the chest with her finger bent just so that her nail (short as it was) would make the pokes just that more painful. "I'm really not in the mood to be extorted or blackmailed. Are you in league with the idiot out there? Are you mafia? Well, I'm not going to stand for this at all. This is one woman you won't be able to threaten or charm into compliance! Now move out of my way before I make you, and don't you fucking dare lay a single finger on my niece or I'll rain holy hell right down on you right here, right now Vulcan Grip or not!"

No one threatened her family.

 

[Elflady]

Looking down at the finger she practically stabbed into his chest Marcel rolled his eyes and heaved another sigh. "I am not the one you should fear, for God's sake I am trying to keep you alive." Annoyingly enough he couldn't exactly blame her considering what she was going through so he directed his frustration towards the demons and the all mighty angels who had started all this from the start, if they hadn't believed that it was time for the apocalypse, a new start for the Earth then he wouldn't be standing in the human world, arguing with a human in a toilet.

"Look, I do not know what this 'mafia' is but I can assure you that I am not one of them and I am certainly not in league with that thing out there." The thought was almost sickening, him working with a demon? If that happened he could only imagine he must have gone crazy after having failed and God stripped him of his wings leaving him flightless, locked from the heavens. Leaving that trail of thought he focused on the woman again. "I also have no idea about your niece. No, this is about you. No one else. Why is this so hard to understand."

His patience was starting to run thin with this bickering back and forth but he made an effort to keep calm. It certainly wouldn't help if both of them lost their heads and he had a feeling she wouldn't respond peacefully to being threatend or met with anger.

"Make no mistake, whatever you may think, you are pregnant, with child or whatever you may call it. Protest as much as you like but it is easily proven is it not?" He asked, it wouldn't show anything he didn't know but it would at least prove it the this stubborn human and help her understand he might be right and then he could finally start doing his job properly. "I have several ways to prove I am telling the truth but I imagine you would more easily believe a test you do yourself, otherwise you will probably just find more excuses to not believe in my words."

 

[redletalis]

"Well, ducky, I'd like to think I would've noticed if I ever ended up pregnant!" she crossed her arms in a huff. It truly, honestly dawned on her then. This guy was an escaped mental patient, and good god above, he was insisting that she was pregnant! A religious fanatic of a mental patient was telling her that she was pregnant!

"I can't believe I have to explain this process to a grown man, but alright, I'll do it. Now pay attention, ducky, and you might actually learn something. Babies aren't flown in with the stork, they have to be created. And to create babies a mommy and a daddy have to meet and love each other very, very much. Then they dance the horizontal tango together as many times as needed in order for the baby to spark to life. Get it yet, genius?" Elizabeth gestured with her hands and fingers as she spoke, not really caring if she came dangerously close to whacking him on the nose.

Honestly, did he think that she was going to fall for a scam like this? Where the hell had this idiot come from anyway? She hadn't heard anything about escaping crazies on the news, but she hadn't been paying that much attention lately. This was all just too ridiculous to be real, and she was blaming her former boss. It was his fault, somehow. She just knew it.

"Okay, okay, proof, no proof, pregnant with a tentacle monster from Mars, whatever. I don't have time for this. Out of my way, ducky." She pushed at him, trying to force him to the side in order to get to the door.

 

[Elflady]

"What did I do to deserve this." Marcel complained, speaking more to himself than to her, dragging a hand down his face. What did he have to do to get through to her? She was so damn stubborn it had to be some new record. Also, why did she keep on calling him a duck? He may have wings but he was far from a bird. It didn't make any sense, much like what most of what she said.

Eventually she appeared to give up speaking and began to try and push past him. With little success. She was pretty strong but even if his strength was greatly diminished it was still enough to overpower most regular humans. "Fine, if you will not listen to reason I will just have to show you." Grabbing both her arms above the elbows he pushed her back a few steps as gently as was possible with this fiesty woman.

"Please do not faint or anything else that humans are so prone to do." Releasing her but still blocking the door he drew a deep breath and hoped his trick with the demon hadn't drained too much power. It was not his first time doing this but it was the first in many centuries.

Drawing forth his powers he let it surge up through his veins and slowly grow outwards until it rippled over his skin, which slowly changed, taking on a dark greyish black hue. His eyes followed turning into a mix of black and gold but the biggest change came from behind him. Large wings covered in black feather grew from his back, unfolding and spreading out as far as the toilet allowed, curving along the walls and roof, making the room feel smaller than it had just moments ago.

It was not his real wings, that would be too hard on his human body just for this show, but the illusion did have some weight to it. Similar but not the same as phantom pain, the limb was not really there but it could still be felt. Only in this case it could also be seen and others not just him could feel them. Flexing his wings as much as he could a small but real smile removed some seriousness from his face.

Finally he looked back at the woman, regaining his composure. "How about now? Do you still believe I am lying?" He asked her, wondering how she would try and explain away this. "I can not wait to hear what you can come up with." The sarcasm couldn't have been more obvious had he tried.

 

[redletalis]

It was like trying to push a mountain out of her way: impossible. Elizabeth was sure that this guy wouldn't have moved even if she had had a heavy duty digger. She may not have spent much time in a gym but she wasn't a weak woman. He shouldn't have been able to stay relaxed and barely annoyed, as if she was no more than an annoying gnat trying to get at him.

"Hey!" she yelped when she was easily manouvered around. She was no heavier than a sheet of paper to him, and he had no trouble moving her back to exactly where he wanted her to stay. And what was even worse was that she was certain that he could have gripped her with far more strength than he actually had. It was almost insulting.

"What the hell are you bla-...." she trailed off and stared, mouth open and eyes growing wider and wider as he changed. When the wings - wings! - appeared Elizabeth stumbled backwards in surprise. Her legs shook like crazy, her brain was denying what it saw while running through countless different scenarios on how she could be seeing what she was seeing. Because being injected with drugs and hallucinating was far more likely than.. than... than this... this thing that was standing right in front of her!

So she did the only thing that seemed to be logical in her current situation.

Elizabeth forced her mouth to close, marched right up to him - if the term still applied - and slapped him. As hard as she could.

"Holy fucking shit! You're real!" she yelped as she held her aching, hurting hand close to her chest. "What the hell, dude!?"

 

[Elflady]

Marcel rose a hand to his stinging cheek, he hadn't expected that reaction and it had actually hurt slightly. Another thing he wouldn't have guessed. But it was definitely better than fainting. Hopefully she hadn't injured her hand again though, maybe the number one thing to do was to get her to stop hitting people no matter how refreshing that personality was.

"Yes, yes, I am real." He sighed, and lowered his hand, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "I am no hallucination nor am I a lunatic. Are we on the same page finally?" If he ever had to do something like this again he knew what not to do then, no taking it slow to not cause the human too much shock.

"Maybe this is too much to take in at once but this is quite important actually, I think I have tried to make that clear a while now." It was not really her fault that she tried to reject what she saw and heard, for a human it was probably a very natural reaction, but that didn't stop Marcel from loosing his patience. "To make a long story short, I am an angel, the wings might have given that away but just to be clear. That man out there was a demon but he is far from the real threat. The angels want you dead okay, deamons might go after you too but they are just after chaos and has no real goal, so far."

He paused as the thought hit him that while demons so far had only gone around like usual, causing chaos and destruction and had shown no signs to go after this woman. But what would happen if they got together and actually decided to focus on killing her? Could he keep her safe from a determined mix of both angels and demons?

Well, no use wasting energy worrying over that yet, time would tell. "They are after you because your child is the only one who can save the world from the end. And I mean the end, the apocalypse, ragnarök or whatever your culture calls it at the moment. And before you start, yes I know how children are made, but that does not change the fact that you are indeed with child. Even if you deny that fact it will change nothing, in time you will see the truth." If nothing else biology would prove her wrong, although that would take too long in his opinion. He needed her to see reason so he could protect her effectively.

 

[redletalis]

"Same page?! Ducky, I don't think we're from the same universe! Dammit, now all those abducted-by-aliens stories seem so much more plausible!" Elizabeth waved her arms around like a windmill to illustrate exactly how impossible all of this actually was. If she stopped to think about it then all of this sounded far more like a dream than reality. Or one of those teenage romance dramas that were so full of supernatural creatures of all kinds and all shapes. She didn't want to become the next big Twilight-esque series, thank you very much!

God, how was she to handle this?! She had just wanted to work and get paid until she could get a good job again, not become mixed up in a crapload of weirdness. What would her family say about this? Her mother would become ecstatic, her father worried, and her younger sisters might not even really care all that much knowing them. How was she to tell them that she was pre-

"Wait!" she held up her hands as if to stop him from approaching even if he hadn't reall moved. "Wait! Wait wait wait! Hold your metaphysical horses or whatever. Ducky, I congratulate you on knowing how humans procreate, well done. And since you know that much, then you must realise that there needs to be two - or more, whatever floats your boat, really - people involved in the act, right? Well, I'll dash your fluffy hopes right here, right now and tell you that I haven't had a boyfriend that reached second base with me for the past, oh, eight months or more."

That was a good point, she thought. Because people with wings or not, there was still no way to become pregnant by your lonesome. That act still required partners no matter what sci-fi books and fanfictions said.

"See? I can't be pregnant. It just doesn't work like that." She indicated to her very much not pregnant belly. "Now, I don't know if you're really an angel, or if you're just that dude from the X-Men, but I think this is a pretty big hold-up in your divine theory-plan-thingy. Besides, who the hell would choose me to carry a potential Jesus 2.0 to term? Like, seriously, that person needs their head examined. As does every other fool out there believing that I'm doing that. Ugh, I'm gonna have to call the police so often in the coming days, aren't I?"

 

[Elflady]

This was just getting better and better, he sorely wished he had the power to show visions of the future right about now. It felt like it was the only thing that could possibly work right now. Her words continued to confuse her and her refusal to believe him was annoying to the point of exhaustion. To top it of it looked like she might have gone mad, waving her arms and babbling on about weird things that made no sense.

"First of all, of course I am an angel, was the wings not enough? What do I have to do to be taken seriously here?" He asked with an exasperated sigh. "Secondly, it is not my plan, and I am starting to very much regret that I agreed to it at all." Considering it was God who asked him to help it was pretty much certain it wasn't even a question, just a well phrased order. Extra sweetened with the fact that humanity was what gave Marcel a purpose.

"Thirdly, I am quite certain God can do quite a lot more than you seem to think." Although, he must have really slept on the job lately, a few centuries ago people would have believed everything you said to them as long as they saw some wings or a heavenly sign. Now though it seemed impossible to get even a single human to believe anything you said, wings or not.

"Are you sure about that though?" He asked, flexing his half real wings as he spoke, having just enough solidity that the movement sent a subtle gust of wind through the room. "Correct me if I am wrong, but is there really no way to impregnate a woman without the need of a man present? I rememnber it being called artificial something or other. Now, if humans have learned how to create life while bypassing the intended way then should not God be able to do that very thing even better? He is after all God and humanity can only play God, never surpassing their creator."