[@WhiteAngel25] [@Estylwen]

[color=gray][h1]The Louvre Museum[/h1]
[h3]Monsieur de Villiers[/h3]
[/color]

Thierry sat upright, all slouching was removed by perfect business posture. A true clean-cut French businessman. A man clearly in charge of a single sector of The Louvre, but still a necessity as a whole to the organization. The sudden change was due to his personal email's video feed that turned on automatically. He really needed to turn this automatic feature off. He could have been sitting there tieless or worse, [i]getting laid[/i]- but of course only if his spouse had been there, [i]safe and sound[/i].

The scowl on his lips were accompanied by angered eyes as he'd been verbally disrespected. Being called Monsieur [i]Thierry[/i]? Non. He was Monsieur [i]de Villiers[/i]. Only friends, family and close coworkers called him Thierry. Ever. But he made no attempt to correct the bastard with no class and sat in silence, but made mental notes instead.

He'd been just about to get up, to get situated for an emergency meeting that Lucy claimed was dire. Something important about a company, he'd never heard of, [i]Voidlight[/i]. It didn't sound like one of the many corporations that Nick had worked for in the past. So who the hell were they? But he sat here instead, at his desk, angered by an eternally ugly old [i]fool[/i].

Thierry didn't say a word and just let the man talk. Didn't budge at the [i]pet [/i]comment, only mentally flinched. [i]Nicholas[/i]? A [i]pet[/i]? Well he certainly needed a better training technique if this was the case. Nick was costing The Louvre way too much expenditure. [i]Bad dog.[/i] He sat here, pretending to be a harmless koi, rather than flail about like the dragon he truly was. Letting the man play his desired part as the villain.

Admittedly, he was relieved once the man got bored and exited out his feed. Relieved at that, but annoyed that the meeting place wasn't at HiveMind itself. A good call on Galloes' end to use a public access office space. If it had been HiveMind, Thierry would have rained hellfire down upon the company, with nothing but his best business charm, [i]of course[/i]. The empty words of the man rang in his head, [i]You have no cards, Thierry.[/i]

[b]"Are you [i]sure [/i]about that, Mr. Galloes?"[/b] Thierry finally mumbled to himself, straightening his perfectly straight tie. Then adjusted the pistols in their shoulder holsters that sat hidden underneath his business jacket. A man of classy preparedness.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVQkO92wNw[/youtube][/center]

Thierry tapped on his phone, [b]"Lucy, the Voidlight meeting is going to have to-"[/b] His screen turned blue with a scripted text of dots and dashes. A coded message, about Nick's personal safety no less, [b]"I'll be there in 5. And please get me a flight ready for New York. I need to be there by 7:00 PM local time. Rubin is in charge while I'm gone."[/b]

[b]"New York, Sir?"[/b]

[b]"And tell [i]The Council[/i] that I need a word with them."[/b]

[b]"Sir..."[/b] Lucy paused, [b]"Excuse me, but how can you go to Venice to talk to The Council, if you need to go New York tonight? You know they prefer in-person visits only."[/b]

[b]"I have my [i]ways[/i]."[/b] A certain charm that kept giving Thierry promotions through the years; kept him alive.

[color=gray]___________________________________________


[h1]HiveMind Captive[/h1]
[h2]Subject #004[/h2][/color]

[b]"Well, well, how's our [i]sleeping beauty[/i]?"[/b]

Now this was something #4 desperately wanted. It felt insulting being called sleeping beauty, but only because of the lack of sleep the title didn't imply. Rather than the snarky indirect insult of being called a twink... simply because he was in a gay marriage? But then a thought crossed his mind. His anger peaked a little, as the man spoke. Who said Nick was gay again? Oh [i]society[/i], right.

How could #4 realize what was going on, if [i]Operation Nick[/i] was currently turned off? A deliberate glitch in the code? Maybe. Maybe the doctor wanted Nick to know what was going on or at least get snippets of what was happening from time to time. Or perhaps there was no containment of Nick's anger, particularly if remarks towards him came off as personal in nature.

Nick could feel a hand place itself on his forehead, [b]"He's running a bit hot, doctor. Please be careful with my patient. He's more valuable than you could imagine."[/b]

[i]Oh I'll show you hot, asshole. And if I can't, my [b]husband [/b]will.[/i]

Well that was weird. It wasn't like Nick to use the H word when describing Thierry. Not even internally. Call it a societal pet peeve, if you will. Not that he or Thierry were against gay rights, obviously. It was just that neither man considered themselves truly gay... or even bisexual. Just that Nick was an emotionally stunted-yet-needy little shit with legitimate daddy issues, and Thierry was empathetically lovesick towards him. The taboo relationship of a mentor falling in love with their subordinate and it just... worked. Despite the odds.


[b]"Push him a little, doctor. Search him for anything that could be of use to us. Use the serum if you have to. Then, burn away what we don't need. I want him to be perfect."[/b]

[b]"Yes, Sir."[/b]

There were two distinct voices, his doctor and Von Galloes, then two more after they left. #4 wished they'd go somewhere else to carry on their conversation about him. He just wanted sleep. A lot of it. It seemed like every time he woke up, he was more exhausted than before. Like... his brain was purposely not being allowed to rest, despite not being awake. The two voices faded, footsteps and a door closing could be heard.

After a moment of much loved silence, #4 flinched as warm breath hit his ear. It was a third feminine voice that was directly speaking to him, [b]"We will get you out, Nick. I promise, just a little bit longer..."[/b]

But Subject #004 had no idea what the woman meant. Who was Nick? But more importantly, get him out of what exactly? He heard a couple of clipping sounds, then the soft sounds of walking again. The woman seemed to have left as well.

Moments later, another set of footsteps entered the room from another door on the far side. The door his personal doctor seemed to vanish off to after their regular sessions. It sounded as though he was about to speak to him, but quickly stumbled on his words, [b]"Hm. Odd. I don't remember copying this memory feed. Subject #004... " [/b]

The doctor paused, typing something or other up before continuing, almost as if he was turning certain key security features off, [b]"Nick, The Louvre [b]knows[/b]. [i]We're here[/i] with you. I've been keeping in touch with Codename Andrew. I know you've worked with him in the past and figured you'd trust him more than anybody else, considering your overall lack of team spirit. He's personally told Aaron what's going on and a few others."[/b]

The doctor hesitated a short moment, as if checking security again. Making sure he wasn't being spied on. He lowered his voice a bit before continuing, [b]"And I'm sorry about the augmentations, about all of this..."[/b]

[b]"It was either myself or an actual HiveMind employee, so I made damn sure it was me. I tried to pick stuff I thought you'd like, if that's any consolation. It's a prototype ability called [i]Mute[/i]. It allows the augmentee to mute external audio and inner emotions. Allowing for mental tranquility in the midst of utter chaos. It's kind of like Adderall on steroids, but it's not been government approved as a medicine replacement."[/b]

The doctor spy paused again, to type some more.

[b]"But it can also mean giving up certain freedoms if connected to a database like HiveMind's. A lack of inner thought means a subconscious has to be programmed, but I can't imagine [i]The Louvre[/i], [i]Sphinx [/i]or [i]The Council[/i] to abuse this part of you. That they'd allow you to control it yourself offline. Codename Andrew suggested it. Most people want to control fire, water. Something other than [i]the mind itself[/i]. It took some convincing, but I managed to get Director Galloes think it was his idea... or at least in his best interest."[/b]

The doctor's words acted like Thierry's warmth on a cold night, but Nick was still too heavily debilitated to be able to react. The doctor gasped, as if realizing something was wrong, but Nick was still unable to give any kind of true reaction. Some more clicking happened from the side of the room and Nick swiftly turned into #004 again. A cold lifeless shell of a man once more.

[b]"[i]Voidlight [/i]is here [i]too[/i]?!"[/b] The doctor broke out into a hardy chuckle realizing that #3 was safe and the other fugitive was a Voidlight agent nicknamed [i]Ghost[/i], or rather, he felt it just [i]had [/i]to be Ghost. He'd only heard stories about the agent in question, but considering his own personal code containing Nick's memories had been copied... [i]it just had to be her[/i], [b]"That's [i]fantastic[/i]."[/b]