II. Gods and Monsters

2. Friend or Foe?

Oliver raced down the road like his life depended on it. Well, his life did depend on it really, but he was trying to ignore that. He'd just lost his only way to rid himself of the curse and now some angel-terminator-thing had just come out of nowhere and beaten Hades to a stand-still.

"As if one all-powerful, supernatural being wasn't enough..." he muttered to himself.

The old man would have the answers. He clearly knew a lot more about all this than Oli did. Then again, he hadn't managed to beat Hades before, nevermind this death machine from Heaven. Why couldn't Oli have some all-powerful entity on his side? Why couldn't he have some light come down from the sky that didn't want to kill him?

"Jesus Christ!" Oli yelled as a burst of white exploded in front of him, causing him to swerve right into a ditch.

"Not quite Oliver Knight, but the correct idea," came a soft, female voice from the road.

"Let me guess, someone else who wants to kill me?" Oli retorted, furious that he was now stuck and his day seemed to have gotten even worse.

"On the contrary, I am here to help you. Unless you don't want my help?"

"Listen, lady," Oliver started, slowly easing himself out of the car, "I've had a really... really shitty day, so how about you just... oh..." Oliver covered his eyes as he caught sight of her.

She was half-naked, only a shawl draped around her lower half. Of all the things Oli had expected to run into tonight, a half-naked angel was not one of them.

"What's the problem?" she asked, "I'm not that frightening to look at..."

Not that Oliver saw, but she looked him up and down, then inspected herself, realising her error.

"I apologise, I forget these bizarre Earthly customs."

She made a small gesture with her hands and the shawl expanded upwards, ending just underneath her arms. Again, Oliver remained oblivious.

"You may take your hands away from your eyes now Oliver Knight," she told him.

Oliver hesitantly obeyed, then stared at her suspiciously. She was tall, firmly built, with long blonde hair flowing down to the small of her back. A white robe now covered her torso and extended down to her ankles. She could have easily passed for human. Large white wings protruded from her shoulder blades and the soft down ruffled in the small breeze. Her pale blue eyes would have been calming if it hadn't been for the fact that she had just materialised out of nowhere.

"What do you want from me?" Oliver asked.

"To help. I feel that The Lord has been too dismissive of you and do not wish for you to perish before your time."

"At least somebody sees things that way..." he muttered.

"My name is Gabrielle, God's holy messenger and arch-angel."

"You say that like it explains why you just appeared out of thin air and made me crash..."

"Had you been adhering to the laws of the road, you would not have needed to change trajectory so suddenly, thus, you would have avoided driving your motor vehicle into this ditch, thus, I am afraid you are to blame. My arrival had no bearing on your ability to drive."

Oliver sighed impatiently, "Is everyone from your place an asshole in one way or another?"

"Oh no, we're mostly quite amicable actually. Humans just do not appreciate our honesty sometimes."

"Or your tendency to send 8-foot tall robots to kill those you don't like," Oli muttered.

"Metatron is an... unfortunate necessity..." Gabrielle agreed, "But he is the best at what he does, and someone needs to prevent the extension of hell's reach."

"Anyway..." Oli decided to get straight to the point, "How can you help me?"

"I'm afraid not to any great amount..."

Oli rolled his eyes, "Typical."

"But I can provide information on some of his habits."

"Go on then, I'm not gonna say no am I?" Oli was nervous. This could all be a trick to make him stay in one place long enough for Metatron to find him.

"Metatron uses bait. He will gather all the information he can, then use it against you. If you have any loved ones, find them before he does.

Her face was sombre, the sincerity with which she disclosed this information now showing. Images flashed in his mind; Andrew storming towards him with a gun, yelling about his daughter. That had only been a few seconds after Metatron had flown away. What if he'd somehow heard him? With the amount of futuristic technology he must have been packing, this wouldn't come as a surprise to Oli.

"Charlotte..." he muttered.

"I have already broken many laws myself, travelling here using barred means, conversing with one of the hunted, obstructing the work of the hunter... I am afraid I cannot be of much more use to you at this moment in time," Oliver noticed her looking around with a look of genuine nervousness on her face, "Save your family and friends from him. Then you can go see the old man," the angel smiled at him.

"How do you...?"

"He has been alive for a long time Oliver Knight. As have I," she stated simply, "Now, I feel you have more pressing matters to attend to."

Gabrielle gestured to Oliver's Charger now parked on the correct side of the road as if nothing had happened. Oliver didn't even bother to question at this point. He was a guy who could light his head on fire who drove a vehicle that could drive itself and he was talking to a real-life angel. Anything was possible.

As Oliver Knight drove away, Gabrielle watched him. Was she doing the right thing? Was she likely to make this battle easier for him, or hurry him to his doom? She would pray that he survived this experience, but God wasn't listening. In fact, he was the one who wanted The Ghost Rider dead.