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Tyler barely managed to dodge the attack. Marlow growled and fired more daggers at him. His shield shattered and he fell back, a sharp pain ripping through his side.
One of the daggers got to him.
He growled and shot forward, fingers curling around Marlow's throat. "I've had enough of you" he snarled "Either give in or I'm going to tear you apart"
Marlow's eyes widened.
"I'm being serious here, Marlow" Tyler growled again "Don't push me today. I am not in the mood to play with the lot of you, got that?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm the NightAngel" Tyler growled "Do what I say or I will make sure they pick you up in a river"
"The heroes wouldn't..."
"Bullshit" Tyler snarled "The heroes are busy with other things. They don't have the time to care about small fry like you. You have a choice. One I kill you right here, two I beat you up to get rid of my frustration, three you scram out of this city"
Marlow just narrowed his eyes at Tyler. "I'll leave" the man hissed "But you will be sorry"
Tyler narrowed his eyes at the man as he let go of his throat. "Now scram" he snarled.
Marlow scrambled back and just as he spun away, another set of daggers formed in the air. He ran and the daggers shot at Tyler.
Tyler hissed as he dodged the projectiles. He could feel the other one tear through his side, causing a bolt of pain to shoo through him. With a groan, he got up and tore the dagger from his side. He'll let Arthur look at it later.
"Master Tyler"
Tyler tapped his earpiece. "Hey Arthur" he said "What's up?"
"How did everything go?" the old man's voice asked.
"I'm gonna need some stitches when I get back"
"How serious is it?"
"Not so bad" Tyler grumbled "It should be fine for a while"
"Then we will take care of it when you get home"
Tyler smiled slightly and nodded. "I'm just going to make another round, then I'll be on my way home" he said.
"See you later then, Master Tyler"
With that Arthur's voice disappeared.
Tyler sighed, wiping his hands on his trousers. With a sigh he jumped to the roof, slowly making his way to through the city. It did not take him very long before he ran into the heroes, just outside an old warehouse.
***
Tyler stared at Danielle with a flat expression. She had a stern expression on her face. He glanced at the other that stood behind Danielle. They had a disagreement a few days ago, so all of them still looked furious at him.
For the last five minutes Danielle's been explaining to him what's going on and that he should help them with their plan.
For the good of the people.
Tyler stepped back, crossing his arms. This was not going to be fun. He just wanted to go home, his side burned and his head felt like crap.
"Don't even think about it" he snapped, eyes narrowing at Danielle, pointing at her "I'm not getting dragged into one of your useless fights, understand?"
"Useless?" Danielle hissed, hands balled into fists as she glared at him.
"Yeah, useless. Your plan is not going to work. It a bad thought out idea and will trap you inside with Deamon and his people. You will get caught and then I will have to get you out of there, because you people cannot do it yourselves"
Chris just frowned at him, but did not say anything. He cast a worried look at Jack when he stepped forward.
"Now you listen to me, you twisted bastard. You are going to do what we say or else..." Jack started.
"Or else what?" Tyler interrupted him "You're going to sent me home? I think that's a brilliant idea. I think we should do that. It sounds like an idea that might work"
"NightAngel, please" Vic said quietly, wringing her hands together "We need your help"
"I don't want to help you lot" he said with a sigh, dropping his arms to his sides "Because you don't know what you're doing. You go in with half baked plans and idea and thing that because you're on the 'good' side, things will turn out good. Deamon will rip the lot of you apart, limb by limb and there will be nothing that I can do about that, because I'm not all powerful, like you think. And because you don't know when to stop and pull back"
The heroes just stared at Tyler. The NightAngel glared back at them, not Tyler. His eyes studied her, not showing anything of what he thought. After a moment, the tension drained from his shoulders and he just looked away from them.
Tyler was back, his NightAngel mask gone. He just looked tired now, a bit paler than before.
"I..." Danielle sighed "NightAngel. We don't have another choice. This might be our only chance and we have to take it"
"Night" Vic said quietly and he looked at her "Please don't make the innocent pay for us not getting along"
Tyler sighed and shook his head before tapping his earpiece. "Annabell" he said "Please let the old man know I'm going to be a bit late for dinner tonight. There's something..." he hesitated for a moment "I've got some work to take care of"
Without waiting for the AI to answer, he tapped the earpiece again and looked at Danielle, Vic and the others, his eyes turning cold again.
"I'll go with you" he said, voice emotionless "But do not think that you'll tell me what to do. If I feel that it's becoming to dangerous in there, I'm pulling out, whether you come with me or not. I will leave you behind"
"What ever you say, NightAngel" Chris said with a nod towards Danielle.
"Let's go then" she said "Before you change your mind"
Tyler followed the others into the warehouse, allowing them to pull ahead. He just watched as they disappeared around the corner before stopping completely. Slowly he leaned against the wall, just to catch his breath, pressing one hand against his side. It stung, almost like a burn. He pulled his hand away.
Bloody.
With a growl, he wiped the blood on his pants again.
"NightAngel"
His head snapped up. Danielle stood at the corner, watching him with a slight frown.
"What do you want?" he asked, eyes narrowed at her.
"Are you coming?"
Tyler took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, yeah" he said "I said I'd help didn't I?" With that he started walking.
Danielle caught his arm as he stepped pass her. "Are you alright?" she asked, giving him a worried look.
"I'm fine" Tyler snapped, pulling his arm from her grasp. A bolt of pain shot through his side. He clenched his jaw against the pain. Hopefully this wouldn't take to much time, because he needed Arthur to stitch him up. His healing's been slowly down more than he wanted to admit.
***
Shouts sounded from down the hall. Tyler and Danielle paused for a moment, glanced at each other, Tyler cussed and then they ran.
As the two burst into the room, they froze.
Vic, Chris and Jack were fighting against Mimics. Alley fought against Nero and Glaze, while Heretic, Breeze and Kresh stood on the other side of the room, busy with something that would spell trouble if they weren't stopped.
No sight of Deamon.
Good.
Although they already had their hands full with nine Mimics, Nero, Glaze, Heretic, Breeze and Kresh there. They were in trouble. He shot Danielle a look of 'I told you so' before he shot forward.
A shield appeared between the three remaining villains and the rest. The chaos around them became even worse. Danielle went immediately went for Heretic, leaving Tyler to deal with Breeze and Kresh.
He did not need to look around, to know that they were in trouble. This was a mess. They did not have the fire power to be able to take all of these guys out without a plan. And they did not have a plan.
"Princess" he snarled, blocking one of Kresh's explosions causing a bolt of white hot pain to shoot through his side and up his chest, making him gasp "We need to get out of here. This is out of control" he delivered a kick at Breeze's chest before throwing him to the other side of the room "Pull everyone back!"
"What about the hostages?"
"We cannot just leave them"
"We can't stop now"
Tyler growled under his breath as he dodged another one of Kresh's attacks. They to thick headed to listen to him. And on top of all that, they were in too deep without even realising it.
"You are in to deep" he snapped, one hand shooting out toward Chris and Jack, a shield covering them, stopping an explosion from tearing them apart. Before he could shift his attention back to Kresh, the man threw him to the ground. For a moment he could feel something tearing in his side. He coughed, tasting blood as he slowly got to his feet. With a cuss, he threw Kresh into the same wall he threw Breeze into.
Power burned under his skin, screaming to be let out.
With a snarl he allowed his power to erupt from his body, exploding around him. All of the villain were tore from the ground, thrown into the air. This was not going to last very long, but it should give Danielle and the others a chance to get to their hostages.
"Go" he hissed, straining against the villains "Go get your bloody hostages"
Danielle glanced at him before motioning to the others that they should head out. The moment all of the heroes were gone, Tyler let the villains drop to the ground. His knees buckled beneath him and he sank down to the ground, breathing hard. That was exhausting.
"Oh dear" Kresh said as he got to his feet "It seems that the heroes left you on your own, NightAngel"
Tyler groaned as he looked up, glaring at the villains. "Keep your mouth shut" he snapped, getting to his feet himself "I really don't have the energy for this today. So who about we don't do this today?"
"NightAngel" Kresh said "You are out numbered, are you sure that YOU want to do this"
Tyler gave him a flat look. "Maybe if you invited some more people, you might have been able to win" he said "Because I'm pissed, annoyed and just really, really want to go home"
A gleam appeared in his eyes and he slowly lifted his hands. "So..." he said "Let's get started"
***
Danielle nodded at the others. "Alright, that's all of them" she said, eyes playing over people that now stood in front of her before turning to Chris "Get them out of here. Use the back entrance. I'll go get NightAngel"
"Are you sure about this?" Chris asked quietly.
Danielle smiled slightly at him and nodded. "Some one needs to get him out, or else he'll never forgive us" she said "Now go, before we get into trouble"
Chris nodded and they started herding the people towards the back.
"Be careful" Danielle whispered as she turned back in the direction that they left Tyler and the villains.
She paused as she reached the room where they left Tyler, there was silence. The only thing that she could hear was something breathing. Taking a deep breathe she stepped through the door and froze.
Tyler door in the centre of the room, one hand lifted, holding all of the villains in the air. They almost looked like they were tied up and hung from the roof. Small beads of sweat ran down his temples. Blood ran down the side of his face. His lip was split and also bleeding. It barely looked like there had been a fight.
"NightAngel"
He tilted his head back, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "Are you finished?" he asked with a strained voice "Because I'm done here. I cannot hold them for much longer"
Amilia nodded. "We're done" she said "Let's get going"
Breathing out, Tyler let go of his power, dropping the villains to the ground with a thump. He stumbled back and Amilia caught his arm, stopping him from falling.
Before they could say anything, the ground started trembling. Tyler nearly lost his balance. If it wasn't for Amilia, he could have fallen to the ground. A groan sounded from the doorway. Amilia roughly pulled him through the doorway, right before the doorway collapsed.
The two stopped for a moment to catch their breath.
Danielle took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go" she said and started walking. After a few steps, only silence followed behind her and she stopped. "Hey, you coming..." her voice trailed of as she turned around.
Tyler leaned against the wall, one hand pressing against his side. He was pale, breathing hard.
"Night?"
No reaction.
"NightAngel?"
Tyler swallowed and lifted his head. It was the wrong decision. The world turned, tilted and went dark.
His ears rang. Through the ringing, he could hear a voice calling out to him. Warmth touched his shoulder and he groaned. His head spun, it hurt to breath and he felt slightly confused about what was going on.
Slowly his managed to open his eyes slightly.
A relieved face of Danielle came into focus. "Danny..." he muttered, blinking a few times.
"Are you alright? What happened?" her voice asked and something cool touched his face "Are you injured?"
It took Tyler a moment before he actually could make sense of what Danielle was saying. "I'm fine..." he muttered, weakly pushing her hand away from him "It's nothing... Don't worry about me"
Danielle pulled back, looking at him with a flat expression. "No, you are not. This is not fine" she said angrily, carefully helping him to sit up "You are the NightAngel. You don't just faint and call it nothing. That was not nothing"
"It's nothing" Tyler said slowly "I just over used my power, used a bit much of it. That's all there is to it"
"If you say so" Danielle said "but we need to get out of here. And then I'm going to take you home, no arguments"
"Do what you want" Tyler muttered, flinching at the pain that shot through his side.
***
Tyler clenched his jaw. His hand trembled as he unlocked the front door. Danielle was still with him. They left the other behind and he was glad about that. On the one hand if it wasn't for her, he would not have made it to the house, and on the other hand, he did not want to the others, especially Jack, to see him like this.
He pushed open the door and they stepped inside.
"Annabelle" he said through a clenched jaw "Where's Arthur?"
There was silence for a split second. "Arthur said you should come down to the infirmary" the AI's voice said, startling Danielle.
"Thanks, Bell..." Tyler muttered tiredly and tried to step away from Danielle "You can leave now"
Danielle narrowed her eyes at him. "Not a chance. Not until you are with Arthur" she said "I'm not going anywhere until I know that you are taken care of"
Tyler nodded, he was to tired to do anything else and did not have the energy or strength to argue with her. "Alright..." he said as he stumbled towards the stairs, he could feel himself getting weaker "...Come on"
He could barely keep his eyes open, feeling his energy slowly being sapped by the stairs. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, Tyler was so exhausted all he could do was lean against the wall, trying to get his breathing to even out again. He couldn't even open the door, leaving it for Danielle.
A blast of cool air came through the door as they stepped through.
Arthur looked up from the table he was working at. For a moment he watched the two with a raised eyebrow. "Master Tyler" he said "Miss Danielle"
A slight smile formed on Tyler's face. "Hey Arthur" he whispered "A bit help?"
The old man sighed and walked over, slipping beneath Tyler's arm. "Mind telling me what happened this time?" he asked.
"It's nothing" Tyler muttered, his eyes threatening to close "I'm just... a bit... tired"
Arthur looked over at Danielle with a questioning look.
"He fainted after the fight" she said "Gave me the same excuse as you"
"It's nothing" Tyler muttered again.
"Ah, yes, the new definition for nothing is when you pass out after a fight" Arthur said sarcastically "Now what about that wound from earlier today?"
Tyler flinched as Arthur helped him to sit down on the bed, ignoring the old man's question. He just looked away, refusing to look the old man in the eye.
Arthur sighed. "Take of the gear, Master Tyler"
Nodding, Tyler slowly started to take of his gear. When he got to the shirt, he did not have the strength to lift his arms anymore. He was just to tired. So Arthur carefully helped him, pealing away the material from his side. Blood already dried against the material.
Tyler hissed, clenching one hand into a fist against the pain.
Arthur gave him a questioning look, but did not say anything.
"It was Marlow" Tyler grunted through a clenched jaw "With a poison knife. In the back alley"
The entire time, Arthur kept one hand on Tyler's shoulder, almost as if he wanted to make sure the young man did not fall over.
"Classic answer Master Tyler" he said and took a step back "But you will have to do better than that" with that he left.
"You fought like this?" Danielle asked softly, eye focusing on the cringe worthy wound "With an injury like that? Why did you do that, why didn't you say anything?"
Tyler just shrugged slightly, not looking at Danielle. His head felt foggy and the ringing in his ears were still there, annoying him. Just as his eyes started closing, Arthur came back with a cloth and two bowls of water.
The old man handed the cloth and one bowl of water to Danielle. "Please hold this for me" he said turning to Tyler "Lay down, Master Tyler, so that I can start cleaning the wound"
Tyler flinched as he slowly lay back, as soon as his head touched the pillow, his eyes started closing.
"Do not go to sleep, Master Tyler" Arthur said and glanced at Danielle "Miss Danielle, please make sure that he doesn't fall asleep. You can also go ahead and cool him down"
Danielle nodded and went to stand next to Tyler, wringing out the cloth.
"Master Tyler" Arthur said as he started with the stitches, watching as Tyler flinched again "Is there any other wounds that I should know about?"
Tyler just shook his head slightly, eyes closing again.
Danielle tapped him on the cheek with one finger. "Don't do that" she said as she replaced that cloth again.
"Don't poke my face..." he tried not to think about about the pain on his side. The wound was worse than he thought. He thought that it was only the knife wound, but it almost looked like something took a bit out of his side. And it hurt more that he wanted to admit.
"Then don't close your eyes"
As Arthur finished, he stepped back frowning at Tyler. The healing's been slowing down a lot more than it should. He handed Tyler an old shirt before helping him to sit up again.
"You can hand me that" he said motioning to the bowl in Danielle's hand "Please assist Master Tyler".
She handed it to him before helping Tyler to pull the shirt of his head.
Tyler swayed where he sat and Arthur caught him before he could fall of the bed. "Arthur..." he muttered "I feel sick..."
Arthur sighed. "Let's get you to bed" he said "You can sleep this of"
Tyler smiled as he leaned on the old man.
"Thank you for the assistance, Miss Danielle" Arthur said as he helped Tyler of the bed.
"Is he going to be alright?" she asked, looking at the barely conscious Tyler.
Arthur nodded. "Do not worry. He will be alright. He's body will take care of the poison first, then go on to healing the wound" he said "This will take some time"
She breathed out and nodded. "Thank you" she said before looking at Tyler "Tyler... Thank you for your help. Vic will kill me if I don't tell her that I made you sure are alright. So thank you"
Tyler lifted his head slightly. His eyes focused on her for a moment before he nodded slightly.
***
"Master River" Arthur said sternly "If you wake Master Tyler, you will be in trouble"
River sighed and nodded. "I know" he groaned "But he's been asleep since yesterday. And you said he is sick"
"Well then you should let him heal"
River nodded, staring down at the floor. "It's just... He's been..." the boy sighed, pulling his hands through his hair.
"I know" Arthur said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder "But you don't need to worry about it"
"River..." a faint voice said as the door opened, causing both River and Arthur to jump slightly.
"TYLER!" River called out, eyes going wide as he stepped towards the door.
Tyler leaned against the doorframe of his room. His black hair hung lose over his shoulders. He was dressed in an oversized, long sleeved shirt, sweatpants and socks. While he was still pale, he looked better than before. One hand held his side, like it still hurt him.
The corner of his mouth lifted into a slight smile. "Hey River" he said, voice horse "What's going on?"
"Master Tyler" Arthur said and Tyler nodded at him.
"I just wanted to.... to see if you're..." the boy stuttered.
"I'm fine, River" Tyler said "Marlow's poison took a bit more than I thought. I'm alright"
"You still sound sick" Arthur said quietly.
"I'm tired, but I'm alright" he glanced back into the room.
"Go get some more sleep"
Tyler just nodded and stepped back.
"Tyler..." River said softly, glancing down at the ground.
"Hhhmm?"
"Can I..." River hesitated for a moment "Do you mind if I.... If I stay with... you?"
Tyler paused, blinking down at the boy, before carefully kneeling on the ground in front of him. "River" he said quietly "I'm alright. I'm not going to disappear again, I promise. But if you want to stay in my room for a while, it's fine"
He smiled as he ruffled River's hair.