forum OxO with @menace-to-society

Started January 17, 2023 by @Emmrii

tune

Magnus smirked at her reaction, rolling his eyes. He doubted that she meant it, and honestly might continue that antic throughout the night to annoy her. Despite his distrust and dislike of the cop, it did feel a little better to have the tension gone from the car. Joking around with her was preferable to the stony silence from earlier, but Magnus wasn't about to admit that. The day he said how he was feeling was the day that hell froze over. So he didn't add to her reply.

As Mercy spoke back up, Magnus glanced over, raising an eyebrow. He couldn't tell how honest or serious she was being, though her remark about her doing most of the flirting make him snort. Maybe that was what she thought. His version of flirting was as much body language as words, and he had definitely been doing the small stuff like pointing his feet towards her, making sure his whole body was facing her as they spoke, leaning in slightly, and on and on. He was fairly adept at reading body language, which could be in part due to his profession and why he was so damn good at it. But he was also just interested in psychology. Maybe in another life he would be a professor or scientist studying the brain and psychology. That wasn't really a major concern at the moment, though.

"If you say so," he responded with another smirk. "So you just plan on flirting this guy into a corner or what? Because the way I was envisioning it, I jump out of the darkness like Batman and hit a pressure point to knock him out or something. Also, why are these assholes always straight? Never gives me a chance to show off my flirting prowess."

“Your flirting prowess, huh?” She laughed softly. “Well, I’ve got not clue on how straight he is, but I do know he’s a bit of a creep and likes to flirt with as many women as he can in one night. And as for our plan, I think I’m gonna try to lure him to somewhere else. Maybe a room, maybe outside…”

Mercy didn’t have a specific place that she wanted to bring him. She had been into the hotel multiple times to set up this plan of hers, and she had noticed many places than could be used to discreetly knock someone unconscious. It was just a matter of getting him there without drawing in too much suspicion.

She pulled up to the hotel and parked in a spot that was close to the building but hidden by the shadows. It would make it easier to get the unconscious man into the car without being noticed.

“Be careful, alright?” She smirked faintly as she glanced over at Magnus. “There are plenty of interesting characters in here, and we don’t your pretty face getting damaged.”

She snorted at her comment as she got out of the car. She knew he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself; he was an assassin, after all. But it was still fun to tease him from time to time.

Mercy leaned against the car, waiting for her partner to get out. Once he did, she walked to his side, looped her arm through his, and began to walk towards the building.

Mercy did have a point. There was no way to actually know if the guy they were looking for was straight, but considering what little Magnus knew about him (mostly thanks to Mercy), the man was a womanizer and that was basically the same thing in Magnus's eyes. Either way it meant Mercy was the best choice to lure him into a corner or whatever. Maybe eventually one of these guys would be interested in men, or just as good, be a straight woman instead, so Magnus could show off his flirting abilities. If there was one thing he did enjoy, it was showing off. He hadn't really had a chance to do that in a while, though, because a successful assassin kept the shadows. Showing off would be a completely foolish thing for an assassin to do, so obviously Magnus had kept that sort of thing to a minimum. It also felt odd to show off when it came to his actual job, as killing people wasn't exactly something to be proud of (though those people were never good people, so Magnus refused to feel ashamed either).

Mercy's flirting brought him back to the present moment, and he chuckled as he got out of the car. A badass looking scar wouldn't be the worst thing, though he had to agree. He didn't want his pretty face getting damaged either. As she looped her arm through his, he couldn't help the smirk that creeped back onto his face.

"I know you said that you hate it when I call you bestie, but this seriously feels like we're two middle school girls going to the mall right now," he teased, poking at her arm with his free one. "That or two high schoolers going to prom together. All we'd need to do for that was sneak some alcohol into the punch and take embarrassing photos."

If he were honest, though, he actually didn't know much about prom other than what he'd seen in movies. He had not gone to a single school dance, having despised the whole idea. It was just a way for the popular kids to grind on each other to bad music and the nerds to stand awkwardly to the side. Plus, he hadn't liked anyone in his school enough to ask them to go to a dance with him, and the dance wasn't an alluring enough prospect to make him care to go alone. High school had been much too clique-y and awkward for him to enjoy much of it.

“We would’ve made such a cute high school couple,” she teased, resting her head on his shoulder. “You with your murderous tendencies, me with my interest in crime and justice. The perfect pair.”

She grinned at him as they walked into the building, arm in arm. Mercy felt weird acting this way with him; after all, she knew he was a murderer, and he could easily take out her if he wished. But, at the same time, she was working with him whether she liked it or not. She was better acting flirty and goofy with him for the entire time than trying to push him away.

As they entered the bar off to the side of the hotel, the strong odor of cigar smoke and alcohol forced its way into their lungs. The bar was crowded that night, but Mercy managed to find a table near the center of the room. She sat down next to him at this table, and while she tried to act normal, the whole situation clearly bothered her. She was gripping his hand tightly, and she seemed bothered by all the people around them.

She took in a shaky breath. “We just gotta get this over with. The sooner it ends, the sooner we can get out of here.”

Magnus rolled his eyes at her comment. She acted as if he wasn't paid to kill the people. It wasn't as if he did it for fun. Everyone did things they didn't like for money, didn't they? Sure, this was clearly different, but still. Something about her saying that sort of thing annoyed him a little. Not that he would admit that either.

As they entered the bar, he blinked away the sharp tang of the smoke. Magnus had never smoked, and he hated having to ingest second smoke either. Smoking would make it harder to take down his targets, giving him a distinct scent and dulling his functions. No, he avoided that shit like the plague. That was the one thing that had stuck with him from the middle school anti-drug assemblies. No drugs and smoking. Weird that someone so careless with human life cared so much about maintaining his own fitness (minus the alcohol he consumed).

He did notice that Mercy got noticeably more uncomfortable as they entered, glancing over at to see that she was clearly trying to hide how much this situation bothered her. Her grip was like iron, squeezing the blood out of his hand. He was not enjoying that, but he decided he would let it slide for now. His companion was obviously not excited to be here at all. It occurred to him that maybe she hated this mission as much as he did, but she had her own reasons for undertaking it, maybe not that different from his own. Sure, he was criminal, and she was a cop, but maybe she had been blackmailed into doing this as well. Or perhaps it was some sense of justice that had urged her to do this, which must be strong if she was willing to endure all of this and the worse things that were certain to come. This was why being pure of morals or whatever was highly overrated.

"That's true," Magnus allowed in response to her statement. "You ready to do this? I can always take your place, you know. I bet I could do a better job at flirting him away, anyway." He was teasing, but he did actually feel the slightest twinge of concern for her. Why? It wasn't as if she would care about him in that situation, and he wasn't supposed to care about others, anyway. It was why he had survived as an assassin this long, after all.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m ready.” She forced a small smile. “Give me- give me just a second.”

She realized how hard she was squeezing his hand and released it, instead grabbing ahold of her purse and pressing it to her stomach. Great. Just great. She didn’t want this happen here. Not now. They had a mission to be on, and she didn’t have time for a mental breakdown. It was just that the smell and the feel of this place brought back too many memories. Memories that she wished to erase but were stained in her memories.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m gonna go step outside real quick. I don’t see him in here, so maybe he’s out there…”

That was a straight up lie; she could see him sitting across the bar alone. But she couldn’t go up to him looking like a wreck. She had to get away and calm herself.

With her hands shaking, Mercy stood up and headed towards the door. She tried to keep her head held high, but on the inside, she knew that she was crumbling. She needed to pull herself together before she ruined yet another mission.

Magnus tried not to make it obvious that he was watching her closely. This was not the time to freak out. How had she managed to do her job all this time if a little smoke and noise made her so anxious? He would chalk it up to lack of experience in the field, but she'd said that she had seen him near several crime scenes, so she had obviously seen some shit. Maybe it was more personal. At any rate, Magnus was starting to get the tiniest bit anxious. How was he supposed to do his job and therefore get amnesty, if Mercy didn't do hers? He wasn't here for fun.

But underneath his annoyance with her and with the situation, there was the undercurrent of concern. He tried to tamp it down, to ignore it, because that sort of thing was deadly when one's job required not caring. It shouldn't be a big deal. He brushed it off, though he couldn't completely ignore the hollowness that followed the brief internal struggle. By the time he was fully paying attention again, his companion was heading out the door. What was with her tonight? She had been just fine at the other bar.

Maybe she had some sort of personal problem with this place specifically? Magnus had no clue, and it only added to his annoyance. Should he follow her? That was what he would do if it were a movie, or if he were someone who cared about anyone other than himself. But he was the morally gray one, the criminal, and they both knew it. Any help he tried to give would only make things worse. He was not good at comforting. Teasing, flirting, making light of a situation, that he could do, but helping others was never a strong point for him. Besides, this was her job anyway, was it not? She just needed to suck it up. Magnus shouldn't involve himself. He didn't care. Maybe if he kept repeating that it would be true.

At that time, Magnus wasn’t the only one having an internal dilemma. Mercy was having one as well, though her’s was about something entirely different.

It had been a long time since she’d had her last panic attack. So long, in fact, that she thought her days of struggling were over. She was a police officer now, after all, and she couldn’t let her little episodes ruin the little reputation she had left. But, here she was, huddled up near the entrance to the bar like a coward. She was focusing on taking long, deep breaths when suddenly, a voice came out from beside her.

“Is everything alright, miss?”

Mercy looked up, and at first, she didn’t recognize the man. However, when she did, a small smile crossed her face. It was the very man she had been looking for. Her target. Despite her screwup, things seemed to be falling perfectly into place.

She straightened her posture and pushed back her hair as she looked up at the man. It was hard to contain her raging emotions, but she tried best to hide her internal struggles.

“Yes, of course. I’ve just had a bit too much to drink.” Mercy smiled up at him. “You know, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Mm, I believe you’re right. We don’t see many young women come to this establishment.” A small smirk crossed his face. “I’m Jakob, miss. Jakob Melrose.”

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Lillian. Lillian Winters.”

Jakob and Mercy stayed outside for a while, chatting, before they eventually returned to the bar. She mostly avoided looking at her partner, but once, when Jakob looked away, she glanced over at Magnus and winked. Things were going well. At this rate, they should be on their way in a half an hour.

Magnus was honestly a bit surprised to see Mercy walk back inside with their target. His internal debate was still running, though it was slowly turning into a tirade of self-hatred instead. Luckily, his companion's reappearance got his mind to shut up for a few minutes. Things seemed to be going well for now, with him looking interested in her and the fact that she felt okay enough to shoot him a brief wink at one point. Well, that took the worry off his hands. Mercy was clearly capable of this, and whatever had happened earlier must have been shoved aside for the time being. At any rate, it had led them right to their mark. It seemed like things were going more smoothly than Magnus could have guessed.

While the two of them chatted away, Magnus tried to watch them inconspicuously. Due to his past experience as an assassin, he was great at tailing people without them realizing it. It had taken a lot of practice and messy failures for him to eventually get to the level he was at, and now he discreetly sat at the opposite side of the bar, glancing over out of the corner of his eye towards the two. He had ordered a club soda, non-alcoholic, but it looked enough like a vodka soda that Magnus's sobriety wouldn't be immediately obvious. He sipped at his drink, watching the other bar patrons out of the corner of his eye as well. It wouldn't hurt to strike up a conversation with someone nearby, a sharp-looking man who was probably a decade older than Magnus himself.

He spoke to the man about his job, which seemed pretty cushy to Magnus. The man worked at a well-known law firm, and he was clearly a bit tipsy. He began to tell Magnus all about his wife and how annoying she had been recently with her increasingly demanding requests. Magnus didn't particularly care about this man's personal life, or his obvious misogyny, but he listened along as if he understood. He was mostly just talking to look less suspicious to any onlookers, or especially their target himself. As soon as it appeared the two were heading out to go somewhere alone, he would excuse himself to go to the restroom and slip around to quietly tail them. This could work.

At first, Mercy wasn’t sure if the conversation was going anywhere. It seemed like she had been doing a lot flirting, and she didn’t know if he was going to flirt bad. But luckily for her, he did, and she began going through the steps that it took to bring her plan to completion.

It took at least ten minutes to convince him to leave with her, but when he did, she made sure to give a brief nod to Magnus. She then stood up and began to lead him out of the bar and back into the hotel. Normally, the hotel would’ve been pretty busy, but with the bar open, most of the residents were in there. This made the hotel hallways the perfect place to knock someone unconscious.

Mercy led Jakob up a few sets of stairs, praying that her partner was following them. She wasn’t sure what she would do if they made it to the top of the hotel and no one was there, but she figured she would decide what to do if and only if it came to that.

Luckily for her, Magnus had noticed the subtle nod. He was suddenly glad for how good he was with tailing people, though the route to that particular skill, like many skills he possessed, was a pretty gory one. He politely excused himself from his current conversation, saying he needed to use the restroom, and stealthily followed the pair back to the hotel. If one were paying close attention, they might notice that Magnus took a wrong turn for the toilets, or that he was making sure to keep Mercy and Jakob within a short distance of himself, but by Magnus's estimation most people were too drunk or too busy to care. That was perfect for him.

His footsteps were as light as a cat's, since agility was another thing he had practiced a lot (the practice for that was a lot less gory than for his tailing ability, mostly involving him moving around his house as silently as possible). This was the final moments of Mercy's act before they could corner the guy. Magnus was curious how the man would react, but could guess from his disposition what it would be like.

Again, Mercy looked a bit nervous, but this time she looked less like she was about to run away. She was more in control now, more determined, and Magnus bit back a smile to see her doing so well at this. It wasn't as if it really mattered. What mattered most was the end goal of him being free, and this was merely a means to an end. He would make sure of that.

Mercy took a glance back on her way down one of the hallways and a slight smile crossed her face. There, just as she’d hoped, was Magnus, silently trailing them as they walked further down the hallway. He was definitely good at his job; he followed them discreetly, and if Jakob happened to look back, he would likely think Magnus was simply searching for his room.

Finally, when they made it up to the third door, Mercy walked up to one of the rooms and pulled out a key card. Mercy had stopped by and booked a room under her fake alias— Lillian Winters— to make it easier to tie Jakob up and interrogate him without having to get his unconscious body out of the hotel.

As Mercy opened the door, Mercy looked at Magnus and sent him a look that told him he was good to go through with the plan. After this, she sent Jakob a smile and walked through the door.

Well, he assumed her look meant that he was good to knock this man out. If not, then she really needed to work on her facial expressions and also stop glancing in his direction unnecessarily. But he was certain he was correct. Why else would she open a room door and walk through it like that? She had mentioned cornering the man inside of a room or something, and this definitely fell into those parameters. He quickly stretched before hurrying down the hall and appearing behind Jakob as the man stood in the doorway.

"Hey," he said with a wink. As the man turned around, Magnus swiftly grabbed the guy's shoulders and forced him down before delivering a knee to his nose. Magnus saw Jakob slump as he passed out, glancing at Mercy as if to say 'well I did my job.' He hauled the man from the doorway into the room before shutting the door behind him. "So do we wait til he comes to or what?"

Jakob's nose was clearly not in great shape. It was possible that Magnus had broken it, but it was far from any sort of life-threatening injury. The man would be fine, though his nose may not be quite as straight as it had been previously. Mercy had said she wanted Magnus to knock him out, so he had done it. There wasn't exactly a super clean way of knocking a person out unless you had chloroform on you, so physical injury was the next best thing. Magnus might think it was a shame to damage a pretty face, but he really didn't think that Jakob was a good-looking man in the first place. Something about him just looked, well, weasel-esque. He really didn't see how this man got so many women–it was probably the money.

(lol idk if this is correct bc i got my info from google but let's pretend it is)

(( Haha me either, so we’ll trust it 😂))

“Nice job, my love. That was impressive, maybe even slightly attractive.” She giggled softly and winked at him. “But as for this guy, I say we carry him into the room, tie him to a chair, and wait until he wakes up. Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

Mercy didn’t even wait for Magnus to help her before she began dragging Jakob’s unconscious body into the room. Once they got him inside, Mercy bolted the door shut and pulled Jakob up onto a small sofa. She then took a thick rope and bound his legs and arms to the chair. She also made sure to gag him, just to make sure he wouldn’t start screaming when he woke up.

Mercy sat down on the edge of the bed next to the sofa the man was bound to, pulling her blonde curls over her shoulder. By the way Mercy looked at Jakob, it was clear that she had the same opinion of him as Magnus; she was rather unimpressed by his looks.

“Next time, no flirting. At least not on my part,” she said. “Flirting with you was fun, but with him? Nope. Not even close.”

Magnus chuckled at her comment, trying not to think about how flattered he was by her first response. Knocking the man out had been fairly easy, and Magnus would be lying if he said it was the first time he'd had to do that. He'd had a lot of practice with that sort of thing. Rather than taking a seat, Magnus had leaned against the wall near the sofa, studying Jakob for another few moments before looking back at his companion. He smirked, raising an eyebrow with amusement.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, trying to goad her a bit. He was genuinely curious as to why that was. Perhaps it was just that he was that much more interesting and attractive. Though he didn't want to flatter himself too much; Mercy had only flirted with him in the first place as a why to achieve her goal of dragging him into this case. "What was he like? A piece of shit, I'm guessing. There are a lot like him in this line of business–a lot of total assholes, I mean."

He crossed his arms across his chest, once again his mind briefly going over the events that had led him to be here. God, he could not have predicted this at all. But maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he was fearing. This had gone smoothly so far. And if every encounter could be so lucky as this, then they could clean up quickly and Magnus could be on his way.

“Oh, totally. I mean, he has his good qualities, but…” She snorted softly. “He probably has even more bad ones.”

She glanced over at Magnus, her mind going back to what had happened earlier. She had had moments like those before in the past, but they never ceased to get any less embarrassing. He likely thought she was terrible at her job, and she didn’t blame him for it.

She stood up and walked over to his side, leaning against him slightly. For the first few moments, she didn’t say anything about it. She figured it might be something she should just let go. But eventually, she spoke up.

“Magnus, I’m really sorry about what happened earlier.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “That- that was really unprofessional of me…”

Well, if she was honest with herself, she knew all to well what caused that panic attack. It was something that had been bothering her for years, but she wasn’t going to talk about it with a man she still barely knew.

For a moment, Magnus wasn't sure what she was talking about before he remembered her hurried exit earlier. He wondered what it was about, but didn't want to pry. It wasn't as if he had any real stake in the matter, so long as Mercy did her job. He didn't really need to know anyway. So he merely studied her for a few moments before letting his features relax again.

"It's no big deal," he responded. "You got the job done, so that's what's important." And he meant that. As long as she could do her part, then he didn't care what else was going on. Mostly. There was no real reason for him to care anyway. So it wasn't a big deal. He glanced back over at Jakob, wondering how long he would be out. Everyone was different, and that had been a pretty solid crunch he'd heard as he kneed the man in the nose earlier, so he wasn't entirely sure how long this awkward conversation had to last. He also was curious to see what happened when the guy did wake up. How good at interrogation was Mercy?

She stood next to him for a few moments, looking up at him as he studied her. When she’d first started her investigation into him, she never thought they would end up in this situation. But, here she was, standing with her partner as she waited for their target to wake up.

“You know, Magnus, I’m really glad we—“

Oh, shoot. As she looked back over at Jakob, she realized something was wrong. She had completely forgotten to blindfold him. Without finishing her sentence, Mercy dug a blindfold out of her purse and began to tie it around Jakob’s eyes. He would likely recognize Mercy by her voice; after all, they had talked for a long while. But she didn’t want him to see Magnus’s identity. Magnus didn’t seem to know Jakob, but in the criminal community, they could easily end up crossing paths again.

Only a few moments after Mercy had blindfolded him, Jakob began to wake up. At first, he remained oddly calm, but it wasn’t long until reality settled in. Jakob began thrashing about in his chair, trying to escape or call for help, but Mercy knew that he would eventually realize that it would do him no good. So, she stood back and waited for him to start to calm down. It took a while, but when he began to calm himself, Mercy dragged a chair in front of him to start the investigation.

“Mr. White, I have no intention of hurting you today, but that’s only if you cooperate,” she said as she took a seat in the chair. “I’m going to take off the gag, but I need you to promise not to scream or do anything to draw attention. I do have a gun, and I will not hesitate to shoot you if you choose not to obey. Do you understand?”

Jakob gave a stiff nod, and Mercy took off his gag. Little did he know that she didn’t actually have a gun on her; it would be hard to sneak a weapon into a place like this, and she was not allowed to shoot suspects. But, even with this, the threat was still enough to keep Jakob from acting out.

“I’m sure you already know why I’m interrogating you, so let’s cut straight to the chase.” Mercy leaned back in her seat. She knew he couldn’t see her, but her gaze still sharpened as she spoke to him. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and you’re going to answer them. I’ve done more researching and investigating than you realize, so don’t attempt to lie to me.”

Jakob nodded slightly in acknowledgement, and Mercy began the interrogation from there. She started with simple, surface level questions; she asked him about his job, his family, his life outside of the gang. Anything to give her an idea with what kind of man she was dealing with. But, not long into the investigation, she began digging deeper into his gang affiliations.

“So, I’ve heard some rumors about the Devil’s Den,” Mercy asked, scribbling down notes for later research. “It’s where the leaders of your organization meet, correct?”

Jakob gave her yet another brief nod.

“And where is it located?”

“Psh, as if I know,” Jakob replied. “They change it every year.”

After Jakob finished talking, Mercy stayed quiet. She knew that he wasn’t telling her everything, and she was planning to sit there in silence until he continued. It was long before he spoke up again.

“Look, lady, I’m not in the top leagues, so I know nothing about these meetings of theirs.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “There are plenty of businesses around here owned by people in the gang. It would probably be at one of them.”

Mercy scrubbed a few more notes down before she continued. “Do you know who’s attending this meeting?”

“Nah, no clue. Valiencia is about the only person I know will be there.” A slight smirked crossed his face. “She’s here tonight, if you wanna talk to her.”

Mercy raised an eyebrow. “And why are you telling me this?”

“Mm, thought it would be helpful, I suppose.” He chuckled softly. He was acting strange for someone tied to a chair. “But, just to warn you, Lillian, she’s hard to catch. Every two steps you take, she’ll always be one ahead.”

Mercy opened her mouth to speak, but a noise coming from somewhere in the room caught her attention. At first, she brushed her anxiety off, but when she heard it again, she froze. Something— or someone— was in the hotel room.

Magnus had been mostly silent as the investigation went on, glancing between Jakob and Mercy as they spoke. He did seem to have some information, though not nearly what higher-up gang members likely had. Hopefully Mercy was getting the information that she wanted out of him, otherwise this would have turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. He was interested by that last bit of information when a noise caused him to quickly glance in that direction, eyes widening. His companion had clearly caught on as well, and he looked to her for any sort of comment before speaking.

"We can hear you, you know," he said loudly, scanning the room for any sort of human life. There was definitely someone in here, and Magnus was not going to let them just disappear. He wasn't entirely surprised about it if he were honest–these were some dangerous people, after all.

She was somewhat glad when Magnus spoke up; it gave her a strange sort of affirmation that she wasn’t the only one hearing noises. But, at the same time, it made her anxious that someone could be in the room with them. Sure, maybe the noise wasn’t coming from an intruder, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

After making sure Jakob was still secured to the chair, Mercy wandered around the room, checking any spot someone could be hiding in. She began trying to dismiss her suspicions as she searched, but it wasn’t until she reached the closet that all hell broke loose. As she opened the closet door, a shot rang out, and Mercy immediately felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She barely had time to react before a woman lunged at her from the closet, a gun in hand.

Mercy’s heart pounded furiously as her and the woman tumbled onto the ground, both trying to get the upper hand. Everything was happening so fast, and while Mercy did manage to get multiple good strikes in, the woman still managed to pin her to the ground and put a gun to her head.

Her eyes darted up to Magnus. “Untie Jakob,” she said. “Any wrong moves and I shoot.”

Magnus's mouth was set in a hard line. Despite all of the rules against weapons in this hotel, he did have a knife on him. He had pretended not to, of course, since he doubted his new cop friend would appreciate him deviating from the rules, but now it might come in handy. Before that, he would need to find a way to get more of an advantage on the situation. He had been hoping the person would have shown themselves, thinking that maybe waiting and biding their time would be better than hunting them out, though he wasn't really sure how interrogation situations were supposed to work. He usually just did his job and was done with it, no questions needed. Stupid police work.

He sighed, eyeing up the intruder. She seemed like she could be a formidable foe, so it was best not to underestimate her. Magnus himself sometimes tried to get people to underestimate him by joking around and acting the fool before striking. Perhaps he could try that strategy here. He didn't recognize the woman, and doubted that she would know he was–he did not make a habit of letting people know anything about himself. Maybe he could use his silence and lack of much of the work that had gone into this interrogation as a way for the woman to underestimate him so he could gain the upper hand.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice," he said as he began to untie Jakob. He kept his eyes more wide and startled-looking. After all, he had looked startled as the woman had jumped out of the closet. He was really out of his element now, but once he could get closer to the woman without Mercy in the way, he would be able to take care of things. He just had to figure out how. Sure, he could have held his knife to Jakob's throat, but knowing the nature of those commonly associated with the gang, he doubted she would stop Magnus from killing Jakob if the alternative was to let them go free. He had to think like his opponent so he would be able to anticipate any moves they might make.

He worked clumsily as he untied the man, hoping it would look like he didn't know what he was doing. It wasn't often he really needed to tie people up, since most of his targets were wanted dead, not alive, so it wasn't exactly difficult to pretend he had trouble with the knots. This might give him a little time to gauge this woman's character and give him more insight to see what she might do. If he could guess his opponent's next moves correctly, then he would be on the path to victory.

The woman was still on guard because of the tense situation, but after seeing how I inexperienced Magnus seemed to be, she shifted more of her attention towards Mercy. She waited for Magnus to finish untying Jakob before she shoved Mercy into Magnus’s arms.

“Don’t try anything.” She was aiming the gun primarily in Mercy’s direction, but she could easily shoot Magnus as well. “One step towards me and you’re dead.”

Mercy stood against Magnus, beads of sweat trickling down her face as she clutched her bloody shoulder. She watched in silence as the woman backed towards the door with Jakob behind her. She knew that she had to do something— throw the woman off somehow— but how she would do that was another matter entirely. Well, for starters, the woman seemed to be more threatened by her than Magnus. Maybe she could somehow use that, and the fact that she had been shot, to their advantage.

“Shoot, my head…”

Mercy dropped her stance for a moment and leaned her forehead against Magnus shoulder, her hand going up to her face. She lifted her head, looking at the woman, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she dropped to the floor.

Her stunt was quite dramatic, but it seemed to fool the woman. She believed Mercy was now knocked out cold, and Magnus— the supposedly incapable sidekick- was her only concern. The woman, clearly overly confident in this little rescue mission of hers, dropped her guard even more as she continued towards the door. Now Mercy had to count on Magnus to rush her before she could escape into the hotel.

That stunt that Mercy had pulled had seemed to work, so this would be his chance to catch the woman before she and Jakob disappeared into the hotel. He had to do this right. His own acting had payed off as well, since the woman didn't seem to view him as much of a threat. Good. Now he just had to distract her so she wouldn't shoot him as he was rushing in. His acting was good enough to carry him through, or the woman was overconfident enough not to think about it too closely. He just had to focus on the strategy now.

What would her next move be? Obviously she was trying to get out of the room and escape down the hall. However, she was still holding the gun, so if Magnus attacked, her first instinct would likely be to shoot at him. While he was fast, he doubted he could dodge a bullet, especially in such close quarters. The hotel room was just that, after all, a room. He wouldn't be able to find much cover here, either, and by the time he came back out from it, the woman would be gone. He did have one idea, but it might be a bit risky. She would seriously have to believe he was a fool for it to work. Well, other than rushing her directly or trying to throw his knife and hoping she would too caught off guard to shoot at him, it was pretty much his only option right now.

"Look over there!" he hollered, pointing to one corner of the room, hoping she would glance away just long enough for him to throw his knife in the opposite direction at the glasses sitting on the counter, stacked neatly as if in waiting. The subsequent shattering sound was loud, which would definitely draw her attention to the glasses, as well as possibly confusing the ever-loving shit out of her as to why Magnus would do that. Hoping she was distracted, he rushed her, ready to knock the gun out of her hands. In hand-to-hand combat, there were few who could overpower him.

“Really?” The woman rolled her eyes, not falling for his tricks. “Do you seriously think I would—“

Without any warning, Mercy sprung up, grabbed the small lamp off of the nightstand next to her, and hurled it at the woman. She managed to do this without getting shot as the woman believed she was out cold. While the woman dodged the lamp, it still distracted her, giving Magnus enough time to do whatever he was planning on doing. Jakob, on the other hand, saw the fight quickly turning against them. Without a word to his partner, he fled out the door and down the hallway.

Mercy stumbled to her feet, trying to go after him, but a sharp burst of pain in her shoulder sent her straight back to her knees. She couldn’t let him get away, but her injury from earlier was finally starting to get to her. She had done nothing to stop the bleeding, so all the blood loss was starting to make her lightheaded.

Magnus didn't have time to shoot Mercy a look of thanks as he continued to rush the woman, trying to knock the gun out of her hands quickly so they would have a more fair fight. Though his pure strength and experience would likely let him hold his own, if not enable him to win. He was confident in his abilities, but he would not assume the woman was the worse fighter just by virtue of his own prowess. He had seen her attack Mercy, and he knew that he would have to actually try to win the fight. Though by strength alone, he would likely win. He could do this.

After he had knocked the woman unconscious, he could go after Jakob, assuming the man wasn't too far away already. He had to be quick. Magnus was willing to fight dirty to ensure that this ended as soon as possible. The lamp Mercy had thrown had at least startled her, if not injured her a bit, so that would give Magnus an advantage. Time to kick some ass.