[Color=yellow]"Hey. Hey, bet you feel pretty fucking stupid right now."[/color] 


Toby did. Stupid, sore, still giving a weak, periodic convulsion from the electrical shock, generally humiliated, and a bit startled by Nicodemus' speech. [color=lightblue] "I d--didn't know," [/color] was all he managed in reply. Fen's emotions being such a strange tangle, how could he have guessed it was not one set of emotions but two?


[Color=lightgray]"Toby?"[/color]


Toby lifted his head slightly at the sound of his brother's voice, but he couldn't see Spire through the smoke. [Color=lightblue] "Yeah."[/color]


[Color=lightgray] "You really get your stupid ass caught? Not a trick?"[/color]


[Color=lightblue]"Yeah. Um. Not a t-----trick."[/color]


Looking pretty unfazed about the whole thing, Spire clicked his teeth together, squinting through the smoke, trying to get a better read on what was going on over there. He knew how to play nice when the situation demanded. But people who made fun of Toby's stutter and threatened to turn his skull into bits of messy shrapnel generally didnt make it into the "negotiate" category. In fact, that would usually earn a ticket that would skip them past "exsanguinate" and sort them right into "eviscerate."


[Color=lightblue]"If you guys can ---get out of here, d--do it. All of you,"[/color] said Toby in as quick a tumble of words as his stubborn tongue could manage, worried they'd shock him again before he could finish. That seemed like the properly altruistic thing to say at this juncture.


Spire ignored him.


In the remaining fog, the laser points on Spire and Hel could easily be traced to their sources with long, straight threads of light. This would make the enemies easy to shoot, but it also made them easy to count, and upon counting them, shooting didn't exactly seem the best idea.


Suicide missions weren't really his thing. Especially not with Hel at his side, and Toby a press of a button away from losing his head.


[Color=lightgray]"All right,[i] Sweet Johnny[/i]," [/color] drawled Spire, oiling the name with as much grease as its owner deserved. [Color=lightgray]"Well played. What happens to the kid if I sign up? Can't promise she's going to be a model employee."[/color]


Hel wasn't exactly known for cooperating under restrictive circumstances. Spire imagined Johnny's only use for her would probably be the significant reward Erubesco would offer.


And that would be a problem.