Panther
September 11, 2001

I was just stepping out of my apartment to head to work when John rushed up the stairs to meet me. He wasn't really the rushing type, so I figured it deserved a few seconds of investigation, especially since I seemed to be his target. I waited until he got to right in front of me and stopped. I would have given him a moment to catch his breath, but this man doesn't seem to get winded.

"You're in a hurry. I have work, so can we walk and talk?"

He nodded, dropping all of his normal calm and mature tone. "Yup. Let's go." Wow, he actually sounded like a normal person for once. He led me down the stairs and out the front door, where we started walking down the street. I noticed he was holding a card in his hand.

"John, what's going on?"

He very briefly looked over his shoulder at me, then shook his head. "What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen used as a murder weapon?"

That is a very odd thing to start asking about, and it makes me think whatever I say will have stiff competition. "I heard of a case where someone tried to use a snake. The snake, when released, turned around and bit the asshole who had been mishandling it."

"How about an angel."

Fucking called it. Also what? "You mind running that one past me again?"

"You met Jana. She's... headstrong. Right?"

Uh, yeah. "To put it lightly. I take it someone's using her."

"Definitely, but that's not the worst of it." He let out a rather loud sigh, going quiet as we came to my parking spot. There were a few people hanging around, and I gather he wanted them to leave before he continued.

I wasn't going to wait for the world to conform to his wishes, so I got in the driver's side and reached over, pushing the passenger side door open. "Come on. This is starting to sound like work for me, so you might as well come down to the station."

He got in, closing the door, and turned to me as I went to start the car. "At Jana's... command center. There was a young woman, an intern I thought, but I actually know her. I never actually met her, but I knew her sister, and her father."

"I'm with you so far." I pulled us out into the street and started on my route to work. "So this intern. Who is she?"

He got right into it. "Her name is Melanie Angel. Her father's name is Cornelius Angel. You know, the billionaire."

"I got news for you, I only learned who Bill Gates was like a month ago. I don't pay attention to billionaires." He seemed to take that information with a mix of complete understanding and mild annoyance. I decided I needed to make sure I wasn't off the mark. "Bill Gates is like... super rich, right?"

"Yes. Anyway, her father locked her away in a tower, basically, for years. She found a way to sneak out, and happened to run into her sister, Melany."

"Melanie's sister is named Melany?"

"It's spelled different. Melany tried to kill her sister, which-"

"Which one tried to kill which one?"

"The other one tried to kill the intern."

"Which one is the intern again?"

"The one who was locked away. Here, we'll call her sister Snow, because she went by Melany Snow."

"Great. Less pretentious than Angel, at least."

"Turns out, their father is a demon worshipper, and forced them on their mother, yes it's at least as bad as it sounds, and all so that he could make his very own human sacrifice, and killed her after the girls were born. That's what Melanie was meant to be. A human sacrifice for a demon cult."

"Okay, that sounds pretty bad. I think we can at least open an investigation into this guy." I assumed that was where this was going, but I guess I forgot about the part with the whole using an angel as a murder weapon for a moment. Other things had kind of come to my attention. You understand.

"Melany Snow tried to kill her sister and take her place, not knowing that they were actually sisters, which was really the only reason it worked because they look exactly the same. Except Melany Snow dyed her hair purple."

"Anyone in this family who isn't a freak?"

"Mmm, don't think so. The place Melany Snow buried her sister was a nest of demonic activity that kept her alive. Melany Snow is dead now, that's a different story, but Melanie Angel just got on a train out of the city."

I stopped the car at the side of the road. I needed to think for a moment without the threat of auto repair bills looming over me. Melanie Angel was leaving the city, Melany Snow is dead, an angel is being used as a murder weapon... "Those surveillance screens in the command center. Melanie showed Jana her father?"

"I know what happened generally, but specifically I'm guessing she sat herself down in front of one watching her father and waited for Jana to start asking questions. You put a demon worshipper, murderer, human sacrificing rapist in front of her, she will take care of the problem."

He's right. There's no way the angel I met would hear about even a fraction of that and leave him be, especially if you add a personal plea for vengeance on the name of a dead sister and mother. So, yes, that would be using an angel as a murder weapon. This leaves me with a moral problem. "John... All of that stuff you said her father did?"

"What about it?"

"Did he really do all of those things? Like, do you know he did for sure?"

"I rescued Melany Snow from the sacrificial ceremony. They happened. He is guilty."

Part of me feels like I'm taking a turn to the dark side if I let him be murdered and do nothing about it. Another part of me says that allowing him to live one more day would be what makes me the villain. I know which side is winning already. I needed to find a compromise. "What if... we let it happen?"

He looked at me almost like a father who, while disappointed, understood where I was coming from and wished he could agree. "And the rule of law? How is this so different from that pimp she splattered?"

"Yeah..." I really needed time to think, but it didn't sound like we had much of that left. I lowered my head, resting my forehead on the steering wheel. "I don't know..." I looked over to see that he only looked concerned. Unless I was mistaken, it looked like that concern was directed at me. Ah... I see. He's not so much worried about the rest of them. He's worried about what might happen to me if I get involved. That's... sweet, I guess.

"Well, I'm telling you all of this because I know we can't do nothing. I'm putting this matter, for lack of a better phrase, in the hands of the authorities."

Thanks for that, John. I really needed this on my plate. "Okay... I'll tell you what I want to do. I want to beat her there and kill that son of a bitch myself. I know that's not a great idea..."

"Melanie seems to think he has some kind of demonic powers. She implied that nothing short of an angel would be able to kill him anyway."

"Really? Nothing?" I pulled out my sidearm and checked to make sure it was loaded before putting it back in its holster. "I can handle a demon, why not a human being with demonic powers?"

"I know, but that's not a risk I would want to take."

"Yeah... but sometimes you have to do something, even if you know your chances are slim. I'm not an angel. I can take a hit, but a bullet in the wrong spot would be the end for me, or you for that matter. I assume an angel can take a bit more punishment."

He shook his head. "That's not a good assumption."

"What?" He said that like he knew better than I did. Like he'd seen an angel die, and to something as mundane as a bullet. He made a face that told me he wasn't going to explain, though, so I left it there. For now. "Then how do we know Jana will be able to handle the old man?"

"We don't, which is why I'm not sure who would be a good alternative, and I'm not willing to start sacrificing people just to find out if we're out of our depth. I've been down that road before, and the answer is that no, you aren't enough to handle him, and I don't know who is. Maybe all of us together, but again, I've been down that road before and it doesn't work out the way you want."

"...What if we just let her do it, but..." I don't know, maybe it would work. "If and when she takes him out, you talk to her, convince her to let me bring her in. Maybe we officially give her a smack on the hand, but in private I let her know that we all appreciate what she did. Maybe Jana has to leave the city for a while, or agree to work with us even. We can make that work, I think. Right?"

"She still has to actually succeed first."

"Which she can do, especially if we help her. And that gives us the added bonus of lending credibility to the whole idea of her working with us. So can you convince her to come in, if we wait until after she takes him out?"

He looked very skeptical. Not necessarily about convincing Jana to subject herself to the rules of the police department, but more skeptical of the entire plan as a whole. "All I can promise is that I can try my best."

"Okay, so we just need to know where our angel is headed, then."

"Right, which is where this comes in." John held up the card he'd been holding. "Melanie's father is connected to this card. It can show me where to find him."

"Ah, the King of Diamonds. That fucking sucks. Well, he is super rich, so it's fitting." I waved ahead through the windshield. "By all means, card, show us the way."

John smirked, but instead took off his seat belt. "Let's step outside and see where it goes."

What, is it going to fly away? That'll be interesting to see. I opened my door and stepped out onto the street, closing the door behind me and stepping around the back of the car to the sidewalk. John was waiting for me there, card in hand. I was definitely interested to see what the card would do. "Alright, let's see your magic card."

John flicked the card into the air, and we watched it start to flutter away. We watched it go up into the air until its course was clear, and we saw only one thing past the card. A pillar of fire.