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Nyx had to remind herself not to damage library property as she flipped yet another useless book closed. In all honestly she probably should have expected it. The university had a very good selection of books on all manner of topics, but any sort of practical guide to angels and demons wasn’t all that forthcoming. What she found was largely contradictory, and the very few that talked about things in a non-religious sense were random cobbled together myths and old tales, some of which sort-of matched, but others really didn’t. All in all that meant that she had very little solid info to go on.

At the very least she had typed a notebook’s worth of into into her cloud account describing everything she saw in as much detail as she could. The sooner she got it down the better, before she started to forget things. At least that part of the day wasn’t a waste. The rest though probably could have been better spent at home with her husband and daughter. Nyx grumbled and shifted her bra a bit uncomfortably. She was due for a pump, and she was sure the little one was tired of a refrigerated supply, so she started to pack things up, before she noticed something that changed the plans, just a little.

“Space marine” Nyx mouthed under her breath as her eyes zeroed in on a surprisingly slender looking male rabbit. Back at the scene he had been the bomb tech and had looked like a veritable sci fi space marine in his bomb suit. here there it was a bit different, flannel shirt and jeans, ears laying back and overall looking a bit stressed out. Not to unusual for a college student, but she figured the stress had more than just classes to blame for it.

Nyx got up and wobbled in the direction of the enlisted man/bomb tech she had met back at Medical Mechanica. She had a temp prosthetic attached to her stump that was little more than a peg leg, and she braced on an crutch oner her left arm to stay up as she tottered over.

When she just about caught up to him she spoke, “Skyler”

A veritable explosion of notebooks and pencils erupted from the rabbit’s arms as he yelped, and leaped up in surprise before twirling around, “Who’s what I… C-can I help you… oh…”

“Remember me?”

Skyler nodded, “Why are you here though. I mean I told them… uh.. what happened.”

“All of what happened?”

Skyler looked uncomfortable, “They said you were on psych leave…”

Nyx cursed and almost spat. Damn bastards should not have been sharing that info, it was private for fucks sake! Gathering herself and looking back at the young thumper, “Did you see anything… Less than normal”

“Well of course I did, didn’t we all?” Skyler said looking like he might start shaking from the memory.

“Other than the half wrecked building and the cyber zombies” Nyx clarified.

Skyler paled, “So those were real?”

“Yes, and I think other things were too” Nyx said again, “If you saw anything, please”

Skyler squeaked.

“dammit” Nyx took a breath, “Look if you think it’ll make you look nuts, I won’t tell anyone, just … here” Nyx took his arm with her right hand and the pair sat down, “Please”

Nyx let her request hang and hoped that he would open up. it took a long moment, but eventually he did, “I saw … I might have imagined. I… “ He took a breath, “I could have sworn I saw an angel.”

“With blue and white fur, nearly naked save gold jewelry?” Nyx asked

Skyler nodded, eyes widening as realization set it, “She was real?”

Nyx nodded and tried to be reassuring by patting his hand while smiling warmly at him, pretending she was smiling at her daughter. Being a mom paid off in her job sometimes too, little Cassie was quickly teaching her how to be, well, ‘motherly’ to people, and Skyler was reacting to it by letting out a breath and seeming to calm a bit.

“I’m looking into her” Nyx continued after a long moment, “Research isn’t to useful, all religious stuff, but there is another lead that maybe you can help with.”

“How?”

“When I saw the angel she was carrying someone, someone who I believe is a student here.”

“uh. ya… I uh” Skyler looked concerned, “I didn’t get a good look.”

“I did” Nyx asserted, “About 5 foot 5. Snow leopard female. Long hard colored blue white and black/ Arm tattoo, low cut button up top, collar, roughly D-cup bust, short green shirt and fishnets, also a nose ring.”

“Holy Crap” Skyler was more than a little surprised at the detail.

“It is my job” Nyx said, and it was, but also Nyx had seen the angel and the girl she was carrying while a demon was in the process of ripping her leg apart, the whole event was seared in her mind quite permanently. “If I could get into the damn office right now, I’d have already compared her description against MM employee photos, but I’m ‘on leave’ so…”

“Do I know her?” Skyler finished for her, “I don’t, but I’ve seen her in the robotics lab, hard to forget that hair.”

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“So this is my home away from home” Atasi said twirling a little to show her company the lab she spent so much time in, and also to show off her outfit, just a little. Short shorts and a form fitting top that showed off her midriff and a good bit of her back. To her continuing annoyance she couldn’t tell exactly where Kate was looking, being invisible, but the pause before she got a reply was long enough that just MAYBE she had been looking at someong other than the room before responding.

“It’s a nice place.” Kate said looking around the lab that was obviously well used but presently empty of students save Atasi, “so this is where you build your machines”
“Here and the dorms” Atasi said, “I can show you them all if you want.”

“Don’t you think you’re staling a bit?”

“na we got plenty of time, Kate” Atasi said insisting. “You liked our last uh … date … didn’t you?”

“I did but that’s not the point.” Kate said again, “We should do what we need to first, THEN worry about this”

“But… I…”

“You’re nervous” Kate said coming over and placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. She jumped at first, but then leaned into the hand

“I’ve never had a gun before.”

“They’ll teach you, there’s a range too”

“DO I have too?”

Kate tugged on Atasi’s nose ring, making the girl squeak, “You DO, you will be able to defend yourself at least a little, before round two starts. Now come or I start tugging”

“OK ok ok” Atasi relented and rubbed her nose when Kate let go, “Dammit Alethea, that was a stupid bet”.

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“She’s nuttier than a squirl farm” Skyler said from his place outside the door. He and Nyx had slipped a camera under one of the doors and were watching, but not hearing the apparent conversation with.

“What if she’s not”

“You mean…OHHH I get it!” Skyler slapped his forehead as if something obvious clicked.

“What’s it?” Nyx asked.

“Got a buddy, he’s a guard, or ‘former’ guard at MM, said he saw an angel too. and that she was invisible most of the time. I wasn’t sure what I’d seen so… I didn’t know to believe him or not.”

“Let’s assume he’s right. we gotta follow her.” Nyx hissed as Atasi left the lab through another door. Skyler helped her up and the pair hopped off on Atasi’s heals.

Skyler helped the crippled agent hobble faster and get into her car before loading himself into the passenger side. The car had little trouble keeping up with Atasi on her bike, and after a short ride Nyx parked a few car lengths from the door the girl had entered.

The two sat in silence, Nyx not saying anything or making any move to get out for several minutes. When Skyler moves to open his own door her hand grabbed his shoulder and squeezed tight.

“Ow hey” Skyler squirmed, “She went in, shouldn’t we like… talk to her? instead of sitting here.”

“The dust”

Skyler gave Nyx a look, “What ‘dust’?”

“On the ground.”

Skylar threw up his arms, “What the hell are you talking aaMMMFFHH”

A hand clamped his muzzle closed like a vice and Nyx looked at him fiercely, the former motherly care gone from the lykoi cat’s eyes, “The dust on the ground is moving. like someone is walking there that I can’t see”. Without letting go she forced the rabbit’s muzzle back forward in the direction she was looking. After a few seconds Skyler’s eyes started to get wide when he realized he did in face see the footsteps in the ground. Long toed footfalls almost like someone walking on their hands appeared in the dusty alley by the gun shop.

“You’re right”

“I need to get something”

“What”

“Some god damn proof! Get in the driver’s seat and shut up.” Her tone didn’t allow Skyler to disobey and he slitted into the driver’s seat as Nyx slipped from her car and started towards the alley. she moved painfully slow even for her hobbled state, but under no circumstances would she allow even the tiniest of noises. She picked every point she put the crutch down and braced herself against the buildings to help make it easier to take each step quietly. One by one. towards her goal.

------------------------

Kate paced around outside the gun shop/range. It was too cramped in there for her to reliable walk around without plowing into someone so she stayed out, but it was still annoying. Inside Atasi was probably getting good directions from the staff inside, but all she could do was stand around outside and try to listen to the city.

She didn’t get much, but she did hear something slight and looked around for a better way to ‘hear’ the city’s needs. Down the alley by the gun shop was a breaker box, or a substation. “Six of one” The watcher muttered as she paced over to it. She forced her will onto the lock and had the box open almost immediately. Then one by one she pressed a finger to the various circuits. Normally this would be pretty dangerous, but she knew she could survive a good shock if needed and it gave her better connection to the city.

With each circuit she touched she understood what the city felt on the far end of it. Be it a new nightclub that was straining old wires, squirrels chewing on old wiring or even a building in an abandoned district that had started to light up again.

Before Kate could stretch her mind along the wires to see in more detail what was going on at any particular location, she was very rudely interrupted by something wood connecting with her back and showing hard. She was not in a potion to resist the sudden force and so stumbled forward getting forced tits first into the substation circuits.

She only felt the pain of the power flowing though her for a split second before her body crumpled and she hit the ground. The last thing she felt before passing out was a sharp pain from one of her wings.