Corvayne pivoted and swept his spear out once more, summoning a slash of shadows with [Cross Skill: Thresh], splattering it all over the white stone arena. A moment later a creature that looked like a spider slime textured bicycle frame hit the wall of shadows and was knocked over. Mister I planted a pair of arrows with [Double shot] and the monster popped, sending stones shards skittering across the floor, then the arena was quiet.

Wick's words matched his own assessment of the boss. “That was it?”

Scattered about the stone platform were the remains of ten bike golems, attacking in pairs after riding in on huge chains rolling along the wall above the arena. The arena itself was a cylinder with bridges to an exit and entrance and otherwise suspended in a pit. It was the same white bone-like stone with blue decorations the entire dungeon had been. A really neat and dramatic venue for what was maybe thirty seconds of weapon work.

Corvayne was about to warn his party that it might not be over, as he hadn't passed out yet, when he passed out.

He opened his eyes into the dark stormy sky and tried to use his gravity power to slow his fall. Well, it didn't work, but he hit the ground without pain, standing as he surveyed the stone hill with portals all around. The lightning wraith appeared as he turned, appearing as a sparking 12 foot tall pillar of energy.

“NOT READY.” It boomed before once more blasting off into the sky. As it did every time he went to this weird world after the boss.

“Okay sparky.” he said to empty air. He noticed most of the gates were missing, with just a few tiny human-door sized ones that were marked as previously unlocked powers. It sort of made sense to him... aside from a scary detour to the train floor the journey hadn't been quite as stressful as other dungeon runs. He strode through the bowling ball web that he now knew was gravity, while hoping that some day he'd actually understand what the hell was going on at any particular moment of his life.

Back in the real world, he woke as Wick was lowering him to the ground. “Oh, back with me already? Good work Partner! Let's get the treasure and split.”

The hanging exits to the chamber lead to a vast room where gears and huge chains whirled. There was a white raised path above the gear works that led to part of the wall that jutted out, more like a building inside the room then just a feature of the space before him. He saw a set of white stone steps down, marked as an exit by an arch lit with outside light. A blue lit door with stairs up to it was marked '6-10'. The only feature on the walkway besides the expected glowing blue lines and marks on everything was a raised ledge with a bicycle messenger's bag on it. Wick thumbed through it, offering a blue dagger that looked similar to the fire breathing daggers they had to Nyxion, then handing him a healing potion. There was another potion with winged sandals on the cap that she handed Corvayne.

“Rest is credits. We'll split it in the car. Let's get out of the neighborhood and back into the city where we don't stick out like a sore thumb.”

Corvanye had thoughts about that statement but lead the way out the exit without voicing them, keeping his spear in hand. He stepped from a door into the garage. No sign of the bad monk. He opened the garage door and checked for hostiles. Clear, and no helicopter sounds. He lead the way down the street to the van. He didn't see anyone around and he didn't feel murderous intent, but Argyle was somewhere on Cascadia and his attention was now likely focused on them.

Everyone piled into the car. Seru started the van then her phone rang.

Wick groaned loudly. “FUCK! Come the FUCK on.”

Nyxion sighed. “Well, that's one way of getting us. Don't pick that up.”

Seru looked down at it confused, then showed them the ID. “Don't get all bent out of shape. It's just my mom.”

Corvayne doubted that. If he couldn't be sure to catch them inside the tower, how would he go about getting them outside the tower? He didn't like the logic. “Seru, if you pick up that phone, it's going to be Argyle. He knows where you live, and he's going to use your parents to get us to come to him. Then we all die, and them too.”

Her eyes widened. “What?! Wait, what? No! What do we do?”

Nyxion pointed at her. “You can come with us and make yourself impossible to contact. They might live. You can go back alone, and then he holds you hostage and tries to get you to contact us, which might kill them because he doesn't need three hostages, and then he tortures you depending on his tastes. Thought as long as you didn't take Wick's number, he'd have trouble talking to-”

Nyxion's bracelet that started buzzing. He tapped it and his face darkened. “Same number. That monk is a proper cunt. He's calling my main number. Quiet down.”

Wick slapped an hand on his wrist. “Do NOT pick up while we are driving. God, I need to get you people burner phones. Turn all your stuff off. Now!” She dug around in her pack and pulled out what looked like a heavy box. “Put your phones in here. Pronto!”

Seru clutched hers. “But my parents...”

Wick gave her a glare. “If you pick up, they will die for sure... right now I need you to drive. He can get which WIFI towers your phone is connected to. Put them in the box, NOW!”

Seru complied, with Nyxion and LBC also putting devices in.

The van started and Corvayne had turned around to ask Mister I and Nyxion a question when there was a bump and jolt and the car tilted ten degrees, Wick crying out “Break! Stop!”

In the drivers seat, Seru was sobbing. “I don't want mom and dad to die!”

They stopped the car and Mister I took the wheel. Corvayne was given the job in the monks place of trying to calm Seru down, shuffling to the back seat with her now sobbing into his shirt and in no way helping his clenched gut as he tried to think about what the hell he could do. Wick was in the front, yelling at Mister I to drive faster for a few moments before he stepped on the gas and got the van peeling out of the neighborhood they were in.

They were on the freeway when Seru started pushing against Corvayne. “Give me that box! I want my phone!”

Her hand pushed against him like a sledgehammer and he jerked back, seat belt saving him from slamming into the far side of the van. The car actually tipped a little off it's wheels.

Mister I wasn't good at getting angry on command. “Knock it off back there, or I'll turn this van right around!”

Wick yelled at him “You try to turn this around I'll kill you myself!”

Seru held her hands up as if punching him hurt her. “I didn't mean to do that!”

Corvayne held up a hand to say 'got it' as he was wheezing. He hadn't had the wind knocked out of him since he ditched the Watchers. He coughed a few times, then felt his breathing settle back into a normal pattern. Recently it felt like the moment he got back to feeling healthy something else happened. Which reminded him... he reached up and tore off the bandages on his face then blinked his new eye. Not bad.

Nyxion had his arms folded. “If you're going to smack us, then we should cut you loose and let you deal with the monk on your own.”

Lady Blood Claw turned a salmon color. “Her mother picked us up and fed us. Leaving them for dead...? No. I have standards.”

Wick sighed. “It's a conversation we need to have in the financial district. I mean, we'll be ditching the van anyway as soon as we get further into town. Cops are going to probably have Seru's plates run if they haven't already. Give me five minutes to get further into town.”

Nyxion nodded. “Fine. Lady Blood Claw, when we get the phones back text Mila and spend that favor she owes me on getting who exactly he works for.”

Ten minutes later, the homes and businesses of the suburbs gave way to tall boxy buildings. Corvayne marvelled at how much less noise there was in the city when you were inside a car. Wick opened the metal box and handed them back, including Seru's phone which started ringing.

Seru tapped the speaker, then asked “Hello?”

Someone on the other end cleared their throat, then Corvayne heard Argyle's voice. “Well, it certainly took you long enough to pick up. Let's cut to the chase. Seru, I happen to have your parents here. I'll let them go free and unharmed if you and your friends come back to your home. If you do not-”

Nyxion looked over at Lady Blood Claw and made a motion of knocking his knuckles on his forehead. She nodded at him, then waved a hand in front of Seru. Seru slumped and Nyxion gently took the phone from her as she slid off her seat, leaving Corvayne to stop Seru from falling onto the floor of the van. She was snoring gently.

“Sorry, Seru just got very sleepy. I take it you're Argyle?”

The voice on the other end of the line sounded annoyed. “Whom am I speaking with?”

“Nyxion of course, you nitwit. You actually tried to call my phone, you know who I am. Stop stalling. What are you offering us to release Seru?”

The voice on the other end sounded confused. “What?”

“You want us to release our hostages? We need to make a deal. One moment.” He tapped the mute button. “Mister I, 56th and Brook street, please.” He untapped mute.

Argyle's voice sounded cold. “I'm going to kill these two if you keep messing around.”

Nyxion, on command it seemed, could do what Corvayne had always imagined a perfect villain laugh. The amusement didn't bleed out of his voice when he responded. “Why would you killing OUR hostages family hurt us?”

Argyle yelled into his phone. “You are her group! I know you're allied with her, you ran with her from my image!”

“She's going to be the new Supreme Dungeon Master of the Gygaxian Church in five years, tops. Also, that's not what you're really negotiating for... and not what you SHOULD be after. Corvayne, can you describe for me, please, what I'm holding in my hand?” Nyxion leaned over to reach into his bag.

He settled into his weight lifter voice. “Well, bro, it's a phone, it's pink, lots of stickers...”

Argyle's furious voice cut in. “I KNOW you are not actually a dumbass trainer! You spoke normally in the tower!”

“Other hand.” Nyxion pulled out the spent ornate artifact that had been in the crate.

Corvayne reported what he saw dilligently. “Looks like someone made an urchin out of brass with an emerald core.”

The other line was silent for a moment. “How did YOU know about that?”

Nyxion set the object on the floor between his feet, then tapped the phone and pointed it downwards and clicked something. Corvayne heard the monk hiss.

“Impossible!”

The noble flipped the camera to capture his smirk. “You're going to walk out of her parents house, or we give this to Goule's mercenary group. Might be a good way to start off on the right foot with him, hmm?”

Argyle was clearly livid from his voice. “You dumb bastard, Goule killed your grandfather!”

Nyxion sounded bored. “I quite liked breakfast today. Seru's mother and father were excellent hosts. Let them go and I'll bother to negotiate a price for this useless piece of trash you want so bad. Starting at a hundred M. Or six hundred K Ts.” Nyxion leaned back. Lady Blood Claw held her screen up. Nyxion read it, then smiled. “If you do it under an hour, I might even skip calling Baron L'Tideru about you using his pet Gygax faction as hostages. That's all aside from disregarding Jimmy who the Brines Brothers would not be happy at all if you jeopardized.”

Argyle had a moment where he was just huffing, before asking bewildered “How... what.. who the hell is Jimmy?”

Nyxion pointed at a concrete structure ahead and Mister I pulled into an underground garage. Corvayne saw that James Brines, the warehouse's owner, was getting out of a nice car and locking it.

Nyxion laughed. “Why Argyle... our other hostage of course.”

Corvayne had never kidnapped anyone before, but Nyx's directions were simple. Grab him, pick him up, carry him over to the van, put him in the van.

“Oh god! Please don't hurt me! I'm useless!” James Brines cried out as Corvayne gently moved him into the van, careful with his head and flailing arms so that he didn't hurt himself.

Wick slapped him on the shoulder. “Hey! Jimmy! Relax. We're kidnapping you to stop a government conspiracy.”

He looked at the front seat. “Wick? What? And Mister Icariii too?”

Wick turned as Mister I peeled out of the lot. “Someone's trying to kill me. Play along and we'll flip that apartment complex you bought by the space port at a profit for you.”

The man blinked. “Wait, all I have to be successful is be your hostage? Where's my rope and gag?”

Corvayne tapped Nyxion on the shoulder. “So, what happened there?”

Nyxion turned and smiled. “I guessed he didn't work for Goule, then spent a pittance to get info on who he really works for and their allies on Cascadia. He's one of the Baron L'Tideru's men. I suspected he was after the jewel as a guess, what else would bring him to this planet? No offense to Wick.”

Wick was glaring at him in the front seat. “Keep your trap shut.”

Corvayne thought about it. “If he was just supposed to get that thing, why wasn't it the first thing he did?”

Brines laughed. “I got that one! There was a crate that was supposed to be sent to the the main factory and storage facility. It got switched with a regular shipment for rock shops. That's partially the fault of Cascadia Mail Special Service, who actually run the shipping even though they have a big label over all their actions.”

Wick shakes her head. “So this thing worth a tenth of a billion credits is on the floor of the van because the mail sucks?”

Brines shook his head. “This is the first time I've heard of a mistake like this, otherwise the city tracked their accurate and on time metric at nearly one hundred percent...”

Nyxion cleared his throat. “Basically, the error caught him off guard, the portal caught him off guard... and I made it so anything he does to Brines or Seru will loop back to his boss's boss.”

Corvayne looked down at Seru. “So... what's do we do with her?”

“I release her and Brines so he drops the parents.” Nyxion folded his arms and leaned back.

Corvayne was boggling at this. “That doesn't make sense... you were saying they don't matter to you that much! He has to know it's a bunch of lies.”

“He's not going to take Seru hostage. His boss is going to call him in about ten minutes to tell him to ignore Seru, her parents, and Jimmy.” Nyxion smirked while adjusting his bracelet.

There was something else that was off, but Corvayne was trying to track too many things. “Nyxion, this guy kills first and asks questions later.”

Nyxion held a finger up in front of his mouth for quiet, then moved his wrist up to his mouth. “ Call Sir Havortti of L'Tideru. Hello? I'm Nyxion Myrell. Yes. Exiled, but still peerage. Thank you, appreciated.” He let his wrist drop a little. “I should get a secretary too. I wonder if Seru needs a job...”

Wick shot him a glare.

Nyxion heard something and cleared his throat. “My good sir, I bid you a good day! I have a small matter on the planet Cascadia that concerns some Gygax followers and one James Brines. Yes. Let me cut to the chase, I'm at the other end of a negotiation with a fellow named Argyle. Oh no, I understand, I've my own flexible help. 'Can't make an omelet...' and all that. But what I was calling about was in fact egg related. You see I had a wonderful breakfast at a local lady's home. The Innas family on Cascadia. Very hospitable. Mmm. Yes. Well, I owe the Innas family, and I have no bone with the Brines Brothers. Yes. Of course. As I was saying, right now I'm trying to enter a simple negotiation for the gold and green stone the Brines misplaced, and the entire hostage aspect seems barbaric. Oh yes, two people of your allied factions, but I want to release them as soon as possible. Ha, never! He probably had it slip his mind. Oh, a hundred million for the stone, but that's my opening bid. It has no value to me aside from economical. I know, it's a shame. Yes! Yes of course. I mean, maybe when the weather clears up there. Haha! Yes. Give my regards to the Baron, it was a nice party. I thought so too. She looked radiant. Yes. Mmm hmm. Of course he's not versed in our customs, but I trust he'll find me no slouch to be tricked and robbed. Of course. No hard feelings on your end either if mister Argyle is badly maimed or killed? Ah, good. Just let him know to leave enough of me to attend the next time I'm back into society. You as well, have a nice day!”

Nyxion clicked his bracer. “Ah well, we've solved one problem at least. Mister I, please park the van. Mister Brines, thank you for playing along for five minutes or so of being a hostage.”

Corvayne saw that Brines hadn't been paying attention. He looked behind him to where Corvayne had placed Seru in the back seat. “Is that little miss Innas?”

Wick nodded. “It's her van. Mister I, swing back around to his place and drop him off.”

The van turned around and backtracked through crowded streets. They were a few blocks away in a snarl of traffic when Corvayne heard chopper blades.

Wick paled. “For REAL? Not again...”

In this traffic, they were not going anywhere. There were a few other white vans on the street, but with traffic stopped the monk could probably destroy them all before they got away. That is, unless he had a good reason to leave the area.

Corvayne thought about it a moment, then scooped up the artifact from the floor. “I'll meet you all back at Wick's.” He said, and leaned forward to kiss Wick's open mouth before Wick could protest.

He threw the door open and threaded between cars before he jumped out onto a nearby stopped car's hood. He raised the artifact above his head. Looking up, he saw the black helicopter bank, and felt a tingle of hostile intent as it lined up with him.

Corvayne started running between and over cars, wondering if his latest round as the bait counted as brave or just stupid.