The first thing she noticed when she woke up was that her face was wet, when she reached up she felt a cold, wet thing that was on her forehead. She sat up slowly and pulled it down, it was a tan cloth, a damp tan cloth. The second thing she noticed, after throwing the cloth to the side, was that she was in some sort of stone tunnel, a river of brown water drifted past her with its collections of shit, trash and the occasional dead animal which looked like a cross between a bird and a fish. At first, she thought she was in some sort of dream, that she had dreamed up some sort of horrid place that her grandfather and father had thrown her in. When she pinched herself she found she wasn't sleeping, she was fully awake. The idea formed in her head that this was a room in her grandfather's palace, that she had been tossed into a depressing, filthy room that she could never escape from. She stood up, her back aching, her legs throbbing and her stomach feeling like it wanted to burst open. The pain was back, it had either sub-sided as she slept or it had just sparked up. She found herself terribly hungry, she had a craving for pickles and cookies.
"Hey!" Angel yelled. "What sick joke is this? Let me out! I'm hungry ya old coot!"
There was a clanging sound behind her then someone ran up behind her, the person clamped his hand over her mouth hard, his fingers digging into the sides of her face. She struggled, grabbed the hand and scratched it then with a hard twist of her body she twirled around around. She had no time to stop her leg from raising, her left knee slammed up high into Atlas' groin with such power he doubled over. He looked up at her with such fury in his eyes, his hands both clamped over his man parts tightly, that she turned and took off, she was climbing up a metal ladder, heading up, when she felt Atlas' arms pull her back down. He tossed her hard into the brown river that ran between the two stone walkways, when she surfaced she sputtered and gasped, she never noticed the ugly green moldy rat thing that floated past her.
"You deesreeepectin' ting!" Atlas rattled above her, he pointed his finger at her angrily. "Kick me down dare! Shoutin' to lit dem know we's here! Queet it up!"
"I thought you'd already disappeared back to No Man's Land." Angel glared up at him. "Let me guess, Helen of Troy happened to of busted your loins for coming back without me."
"I stee here!" Atlas yelled. "I be lookin' all over de place for yeh! Runnin', hidin', searchin'! You steel have babeh?"
"Had a minor issue come up." Angel replied. "No, I haven't got rid of it yet."
Angel looked down when she felt something hit her and gasped, she climbed out of the dirty water quick with no help given by Atlas who was now walking off down the tunnel, his arms swinging angrily at his sides. Angel rolled her eyes and headed the other direction, she had just turned a corner when she heard Atlas yell for her. She let him yell and continued walking, following the dirty water. She realized that she was in a sewer, a long stone-cut tunnel with a river cut into the tunnel's stone work. When she came to a storm drain she climbed the ladder then sat on the ledge and looked out. It was early morning, the sun was up sending a glow down on the planet but it was chilly out. She found herself wrapping her arms around herself, the pain had sub-sided just before she had been pulled from the metal ladder by Atlas. Seeing as she was in another alley she crawled out of the storm drain. She headed around a corner and stole another headpiece and a black dress that had a slit on both sides then went back around the corner and placed them on her. When she was finished she heard a closer Atlas yelling for her. She was annoyed, very annoyed, and didn't want to deal with him so she left him behind. He was still calling out her name when she rounded the corner and headed for a motorcycle that was parked near a platform. She was just working on removing the ignition so she could turn the little dial inside so it would start when a hand clasped down on her shoulder.
"Yeh leav'd me in deh sew's!" Atlas said in her face, his breath was pretty bad.
"Take the hint jack and take a mint!" Angel snarled at him, she pushed him back.
Atlas dove at her and for a second both of them looked as if they would fall into the seemingly bottomless streets of air below them but Angel made an air funnel which righted the motorcycle just in the nick of time. Atlas wrapped his arms around her and lifted her from the bike, he was none to kind, in fact he was rather harsh. He slammed her against a building hard, she near lost her breath. She struggled in his arms as he held her up against the building then when he walked back to the sewer, her in the hook of his arm, she let loose a fire swipe which drove him from her. She took off once her feet touched the cobblestone walkway, behind her she could hear Atlas giving chase. Just before Atlas could grab her shoulder she transformed into a Gazelle and raced off, leaving him in her dust.
"Exactly what help is he again?" Angel asked herself. "Don't want to do anything the first attempt then gets into the groove of things the second attempt. I need this thing done now, not tomorrow or the day after or a month from now."
She headed for a platform and leaped high, her legs stretching far and transforming from those of a Gazelle to wings, her back legs shrank to become the small twigs of the Hummingbird, her color was bright emerald-green with a bright fiery red chest. She flapped her wings as many times as she could go, which was approximately eighty flaps a second. She saw the clinic ahead of her, it was circled completely by cops and looked to be closed down. There was a hole where sewage drained and she went to it, squeezing in and transforming while doing so into a fiery red mouse. Down the drain, jumping up whenever she reached an elbow and making her left and rights quickly. She stopped when she came to the drain of a sink. She was about to leap out when a female voice reached her ears, the voice was familiar and just hearing it made her little mouse whiskers twitch and her tail straighten out to its full length.
"Yes, Kuruk, I have the clinic under lock down and am sitting tight keeping my eyes open for her." Irka's voice reached her. "She won't be getting any ill-operation done to her while on my watch. What's that dear? Yes, if I see that man with her I'll be sure to have him captured as well."
Angel listened no more, she scurried along the pipe for a long distance, her mouse legs were starting to get tired when she reached another sink. She listened for a bit, listening for any voices, for anyone who was or could be there. When nothing came to her ears she leaped up out of the drain and transformed, this time she went into her trueform, only she was very small, about as small as the mouse-form she had just transformed out of. Before she left the bathroom that she was in, from the looks of it it was the men's room due to the urinals, she peeked her head out the door and looked both ways. There was no one in the hallway so she ran out, she couldn't run at full speed, the pain in her stomach which had just started up again wouldn't allow it. She found herself on the fourth floor, a distance from the second while in her current size, but she managed to slip under the door that led to the staircase and she was able to take the stairs pretty well. What she did was slide down the banister, it was fun and she found that it also helped her get the pain out of her head. When she dropped from the banister it was only because the door directly in front of her was the one that led to the second floor. She slipped through the crack in the bottom of the door and ran down the hallway, again slowly. It seemed like forever before she reached the doors of the room she wanted to be in. They were still open, the grating system messed up thanks to her old man forcing them open with his muscles. The room was empty and she went in without any problem. She quickly made herself grow to her full reach of five foot seven inches, when she turned around she stretched her hands forward and, with some effort on her part, she made the doors slide shut. The doors sent a shower of sparks into the room and made a resisting sound, a scraping sound much similar to what they had made when they had been forced open the day before. There was some arm locks beside the doors and she went to them. She punched a button and they swung down and up, the foot caught up and held against the doors and the weights took place immediately.
"Piece of cake." Angel whispered a bit too loudly. "Now to the table."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Angel jumped and turned around, when she had looked in the room it had been empty but now there were two beings in it. Her, and her grandmother who was just now stepping out from a closet. She got into a fighting stance and started throwing fire blasts and energy attacks. Irka dodged several then was knocked clean off of her feet by a fire funnel. She started returning fire as soon as she got to her feet, Angel dodged the energy attacks, blasts and energy swipes but when her grandmother kicked her leg out, a yellow energy lightning bolt zapped her in the shoulder, she flew back and crashed into the wall. Seeing as she had no choice, she transformed into a Tiger and charged. She snapped her jaws at Irka's leg and near tore it off of her. Irka screamed and made a miniature sonic boom with her hand which drove Angel completely back. Angel lay on her side, breathing hard from this new attack, she lost her transformation almost as soon as she landed on the floor.
"You are putting your baby at risk!" Irka yelled. "Fighting like you are with me! It can create deformities! You can miscarry! You can even put yourself at risk with using magic while pregnant!"
"If I do then that is for the best." Angel got up to one knee. "I have no intention of birthing any ill-spore by my father!"
"How dare you!" Irka yelled, she zapped Angel with a energized lightning bolt. "That is my great-grandbiddie in you! That is a new life! That is a good blooded baby in you! How dare you!"
Angel rolled over once then got up, she sent a fireball at her grandmother. Irka ducked low then sent another sonic blast at her granddaughter, she made sure that it was half strength. Angel again was blasted against the wall. She struggled to get up to her feet, before she could turn she felt her grandmother's hand grip her shoulder. Irka quickly had Angel thrown on the counter top, her hands now gripping the shoulder fabric of the slit dress that Angel was wearing. She ripped off the headpiece and threw it across the room and grabbed what was left of Angel's hair. Angel struggled, the left shoulder of her dress was ripped completely free of the dress, Irka simply tightened her hold on his granddaughter, and placed her hand on one of her legs to keep her down. The next thing Angel and Irka knew was that the door to the room was blasted completely off of its paths, shards of metal flew everywhere, sparks landed and caught fire in a few places in the room. When Irka released Angel it wasn't because she had turned to see who it was, it was because she was wrenched back. Irka thrashed her arms and legs about, casting all sorts of energy blasts and miniature sonic blasts all over the world, she swung the skull wrist gauntlet back trying to catch whoever it was that had a hold of her. The next thing Irka had a full memory of was being throw back against the corner, her spine striking it fully, she felt pain shooting throughout her body. She could only see in a haze now, there was a ring in her ears.
The pain had gripped her so bad that she could only slide down from the counter top, it had started as she had begun struggling against Irka's hold on her. She held her body in such a fashion that she, herself, looked like a baby. Her knees pulled up so close to her face, her arms wrapped around her legs to hold them in place, her back curved. Atlas gently scooped her up, he still had the anger in his eyes, it was mixed in along with the predatoriness which gave his brown eyes a very glare-like look. He saw the table up ahead but he didn't head for it, instead he walked to the counter across from it. He placed Angel on the countertop and began rummaging around with his hand in the drawer underneath, Angel was now yelling in pain and was squeezing her hand as hard as she could on his arm. When he removed his hand he had a syringe canister in it, he grabbed one of the syringes in the container lying on its side behind Angel head and jammed the canister in. When that was done he raised it and jabbed it home in Angel's thigh, Angel was instantly relieved of the pain in her stomach.
"This thing's going to tear me apart if I don't get it out and soon." Angel said, she slid from the countertop.
"La! No taint!" Atlas replied. "Dit the teeble?"
"Yes but it don't work." Angel coughed. "There's another one. On the first floor."
"We go now!"
She had regained her sight and what she saw in front of her terrified her! Irka watched in terror as the man turned and walked from the room, she knew from the looks of him that he was the man that had swung up from her vehicle that her husband had driven the day before, and she knew that the man was also the reason for the energy tank having a hole in it. Her husband was bruised on the side of his face from where he had been hit by the, thought to be, hammer than the man had used to knock him out. Her son had lost the hearing from his left ear and he was temporarily blind in one eye. When the man walked back into the room, Angel having had to stop because the pain had returned again and she could barely walk because of it, Irka's fear rose as she saw him shove her from the room. Once the man had her out of the room and going down the hallway Irka got to her knees, she body was still racked in pain from being slammed into the corner by the man.
"Kuruk!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Kuruk can you hear me!"
"Irka? My love?" her husband suddenly formed in front of her, his image clouded. "What's wrong? Why are you on the floor?"
"Kuruk! That man has Angel!" Irka yelled, she pointed frantically at the door. "He's shoving her around! He's taking her to get the baby removed! It's the man who attacked you and Vile yesterday!"
"I'm on my way!" KurukVile exclaimed.
Atlas had only been putting on a front when he had shoved Angel from the room, as soon as she was out and heading down the hall he wrapped his arm around her waist, helping her. He had left the syringe in the room, it seemed that as soon as she had slid from the counter top she had been gripped in the same pain. She was shaking violently, her legs acted as if they didn't want to work, her arms were covered in gooseflesh, she was covered in a thick layer of slick sweat. When they got to the end of the hall they heard Irka yelling, Atlas looked back when he heard a man's voice yelling out then yelled himself. Charging at him, running full blast, was Master Vile with KurukVile in hot pursuit. Seeing as he still had Angel in his arms he threw her the rest of the way to the stairs then started running, Angel had slid back against the floor and had just stood up, the railing loomed right behind her, when Atlas ran smack into her. She felt her wind rush out of her then she saw the stairs rushing at her. When Atlas had ran into her he had had such momentum to make both of them go sailing over the railing. Atlas landed right on top of Angel, driving her tailbone deep into the edge of one of the steps.
"Kid's either one tough shit or this is pain from a miscarriage." Angel gasped after Atlas got up off of her.
Hearing Master Vile above him, Atlas began his ruse again. He dragged Angel down the rest of the stairs then picked her up and carried her down the hallway when he was out of sight of Master Vile, he tried all of the doors, looking in then running by quickly, when he reached another room with an automatic surgery table in it he ran in. Angel jumped from his arms and went to the panel and started pressing buttons while Atlas took care of the door. He jammed it up good by punching the panel on the wall then he placed the arm locks on good before severing their link to the building.
"Cesarian cannot be done." the panel said. "Male surgery table."
"Come on!" Angel screamed. "I need this thing out now!"
"Error, male surgery table." the panel said. "cannot compute procedure."
She pulled up the manual and pressed Foreign Body, Extraction, Medical Emergency then she slapped her thumb into the Initiate button. The table moved, the glass dome slid up at the head of the table and the glass dome that was down the rest slid sideways, it sent out a cloud of exhaust which drove Angel back a step. She tore her dress from her and slid into the table, the glass domes slid shut, closing her inside. When they locked a series of commands formed above her head, one of the commands read Body Extraction Point. She pressed the command which read Abdomen and the table started working. Atlas had walked over to the table, he was looking down at her, his eyes full of uncertainty. An arm slid on its path and stopped just above her abdomen, it looked like the tail of a scorpion. She saw a bile-yellow spray being applied on her from a tube held to the side, she guessed that the spray was an anesthetic, then the arm which looked like a scorpion tail lowered. When it shot a laser directly on the area that had just been sprayed she sent up a loud scream of pain. As she looked down she saw that the laser was burning, not cutting, through the layers of skin on her abdominal cavity right where a Cesarian would be performed.
Master Vile ran down the stairs quickly, his heart beating a million beats a second. He had overheard his mother telling his father about the man and Angel being at the clinic and had quickly teleported in, his father had appeared soon after right behind him. He had wasted no time in running from the room, he had actually torn the arm locks off of the door himself, the sliding doors had released on their own, the pressure he had applied the day before in using his muscle to force the doors open had severely damaged the paths and bearings of the doors. When he had seen the man he had put two and two together, the man was the same one he had seen with his daughter at the Sperm Ward on Gamma-Vile. He was terrified that the man would hurt his daughter, and would take the child she was carrying. His child, the child that they had made two weeks ago. He had gasped and put on a fast burst of speed when he had seen the man run right into his daughter, when he had seen Angel falling back, the railing having made her flip back completely, he had shuddered and gasped. He had practically leaped down the stairs and was at the door to the first level when he heard the scream. It made him stop suddenly, his golden-yellow eyes growing wide with fear and shock. That scream of pain, that scream from his daughter, the only other female in the building besides his own mother, and the only female in the building who was pregnant. When his father plowed into him he yanked the door from its hinges and tore down the hallway, his feet picking up as soon as they touched the floor.
"I'll have that fucker castrated!" he yelled back at his father. "He's that guy from the Sperm Ward! A suitor, no doubt!"
"He's a danger to Angel, Son!" his father replied. "Make sure you deal with him accordingly."
Angel's screams sent Atlas into a frenzy, he was now punching the glass dome trying to get it to open. As soon as the lasers had sliced a line into her abdominal cavity she wasted no time in pressing the command that said Remove Foreign Body. The laser arm swung up and was replaced by two more which opened her abdomen, one on either side, another arm appeared and reached into her. She felt a crunch and sent up another scream, her head pulled back, the veins in her neck sticking out. Four seconds later, when she looked down she saw that there was a bundle the size of her fist hanging down from the arm that had gone into her body. She looked at it for a second or two, taking in that it had been inside of her almost ten seconds before. The thing made two movements then went still. She tore the umbilical cord from her and the arm swung down, taking the fetus it had just taken from her with it. She pressed the command Suture and was terrified to hear Cannot Do, Sutures Not Available so instead she pressed the command for Staple. Two arms lowered, one pressed her still opened abdomen close while the other stapled. She shivered and sent up a repressed moan. When that was done the table's domed glass lids lifted and she slid down. Atlas grabbed her before she could fall in a clump to the floor. Together, both looked at the dark bundle that the arm held.
The sack around the bundle had started to drop, inside they saw a black being that looked as if it was a Hammerhead shark, the body was thin, no more than two inches wide and about five inches long, when Angel poked her finger at it she noticed that the fetus had been floating in blood, it was the reason why the fetus was black. The fetus looked very alien in origin, it had beady glowing green eyes and it looked as if the mouth hadn't formed yet, it looked as if the lower half of the fetus was curling around. She turned away and leaned against Atlas, he let her use him to get to her feet. Her body from the abdomen down was covered in blood, there were trails of blood going down her legs, when she took two steps she left two bloody footprints behind her. Along with the blood she was drenched in sweat from head to foot. Atlas ran to the counter top and grabbed a syringe, there was a bowl of canisters that read Pain Relief beside the container of syringes and he took each and every one, he simply dumped them into a sack, he was just tying the sack to his belt when the glass of the sliding doors shattered.
"What do you see?" Master Vile yelled. "What? Do you see Angel?"
"She's on the floor, Son." KurukVile replied. "the baby's been lost, she's covered in blood from the waist down!"
"Blast that man!" Master Vile yelled. "If it wasn't for him... dammit all she'll have another baby inside her soon!"
Angel was gripped in pain, not from the baby who was now hanging dead on the arm of the surgical table behind her but from the surgery she had just enacted on herself. The staples were holding well, but she was still expelling blood from the cut to her abdomen. Atlas ran up to her and jammed the syringe in his hand at her shoulder, he pressed the yellow button on the end and heard a spraying sound. Angel stood up, the pain having completely stopped after Atlas had administered the medicine in the syringe. She grabbed the syringe from him and nodded her head at the door, she found herself still in shock and unable to speak.
"We go now!" Atlas said, he pushed Angel gently to the back of the room where there was a window. He slid the window open and jumped out, his two-tone blue robe was bloody and he wasn't very happy about it but he had no choice but to forget about it, he had plenty more at home. The bow and the case of arrows were slung over his shoulder and the sword bounced off of his hip, the hilt of his knife glistened in the sun's shine outside when he exited the window. Angel followed him, soon both were walking the ledge that went around the building going towards a platform where a motorcycle was moored, their backs were tightly pressed against the wall behind them. They had just reached the platform, Atlas having jumped to it first, when KurukVile leaned out of the window, he took one look at them, pointed then yelled something that neither could understand. Angel almost fell, the pain had returned. Atlas grabbed her arm just in time and swung her over to the platform, Angel jammed the syringe into her leg and felt instant relief.
"Your knife!" Angel shouted back when she got to the docked motorcycle that had no wheels. "Turn the ignition... get out of here!"
"La! No! I no go on dat ting!" Atlas vehemently shouted back at her. "We run!"
"You run, I'm driving!" Angel yelled back.
Angel forced the ignition off of the motorcycle and turned the dial so it would catch without a key. Atlas yelled and she looked back after replacing the ignition, a cop was wrestling with the gray-haired man, Atlas was on his back for a second then was up on his feet and fighting. He swung his fists hard, he swung with every ounce of strength he had in his body it seemed and neither caught against the cop. The cop laughed once then kicked him down, Atlas scooted back a step after he saw the cop pull out a near clean gun.
"I will eat your intestines for supper tonight, Boy!" the cop yelled down at him.
Atlas' eyes were huge, he reached for his sword which was still flopping at his side, tethered by a string to his belt. He never got a chance to get it up, Angel swung her hand and a lava stream sent the cop flying over into the air street howling. She ran over to Atlas and grabbed him under his arms, she pulled him twice before he got to his feet then she ran back to the motorcycle and started it up.
"Get on!" Angel yelled.
"La! No!" Atlas still refused.
"Dammit get on or I'll leave your ass here!" Angel yelled back.
An energy blast made the decision for Atlas, he was only able to dodge it because he took a step back. Master Vile, KurukVile and Irka were racing at him, not at Angel but at him, KurukVile had his hands held out, his fingernails shooting at Atlas with a furious pitch. Atlas leaped forward and landed behind Angel on the motorcycle. Angel revved the motor once then took off, she pointed the handlebars up and they shot down. Atlas grabbed her around the waist tight, he pressed his body tightly against hers, Angel couldn't be sure but she thought he had his head buried in her shoulder. She didn't have time to check as as soon as they started their descent a throng of motorcycle cops loomed up in front of them. With a hard yank to the side the motorcycle went right, there was some confusion and Angel thought they had hit something when she drove into a cloud of white smoke. When they came out of the white smoke she looked back, sure enough there had been an accident, one of which they had they had been lucky to not be apart of it. There were three vehicles floating around, smoke billowing from each vehicle only in different places. One of the vehicles had slammed its front into the side of another and the vehicle behind that vehicle had slammed sideways into both vehicles, that vehicle looked as if it was about to break in two.
"I git you for dis!" Atlas yelled in her ear. "I will! I will!"
"Okay Atlas whatever you say." Angel called back.
KurukVile had ran to his ChelGeoX5, the manly vehicle that he drove that was all sleek and polished up, the black paint job casting a glow which almost made him go blind, the light gray bubbles that looked more like chrome than simple paint, and had jumped in without even opening the door. Irka jumped into the back and had just settled in when he started the engine up and drove off, behind him he saw Master Vile jumping onto a WyDeo Model 6 motorcycle, the most advanced and up-to-date motorcycle on the planet. He didn't wait for his son to catch up, he sped forward, he had seen the crash and had grown horribly afraid for his granddaughter, she was driving a vehicle on a planet she had no clue about, she was putting herself in danger.
"That man with her needs to be cast out!" Irka screamed. "He's a bully! He was shoving her around and it looked like he was squeezing her when he picked her up!"
"Not a man I want around her!" KurukVile shouted back. "I know him, he's that suitor that jabbed that hooked sword into my thigh on Gamma-Vile."
"At the Sperm Ward?" Irka gasped. "Why would Angel be with such a man? Such a horrible man who doesn't care for her and who takes her baby from her?"
"He's an old age man, from the looks of him that is." KurukVile said. "Them types abuse their women."
Master Vile passed by his father, going a full one hundred mile an hour, he saw the back side of the man and wanted to get close so he could grab him and throw him off of his daughter. He was furious, he was protectively and jealously furious and he directed it all at the man. In his mind he saw the man as the cause for his daughter's behavior, the man was making her run and fight. His brain put full blame on the man for his daughter's being here, for his daughter coming her to get an abortion. He had wanted to capture the man and teach him a lesson or two, but after seeing Angel run after him he saw that the man needed a quicker finishing. If Angel was running after him then she had accepted him, that could not be, his mind told him. She had the brand on her neck, his brand, she belonged to him and only him, no other man had the right to touch her and she had no right to be with any man other than himself. He had ripped his robe down the front and it was flapping behind him, making him look as if he had a pair of black wings on his back.
Angel knew that her father was chasing her, she had turned around to check when she heard the motorcycle coming closer. When she had Atlas had tightened his grip on her and had yelled for her to not look back. With a flick of her hand she sent the vehicle down, during so Atlas slammed his pelvis into her which made her left hand release the handlebar, they did a loop-de-loop for a while until she grabbed the handlebar and righted the vehicle. They were near the fog below so Angel dove for it, sending the vehicle fully into it. What she saw was the pillars that held the buildings up, and the wires and pipes which ran to and from them. She saw a big unit in the center of all this and headed her vehicle towards it.
"Hey mister, release your hold." Angel called back.
"La! No!" Atlas replied loudly in her ear.
"I meant loosen it not release." Angel turned her head slightly. "Please, you're hurting my stomach."
Atlas loosened his hold on her only to tighten it again when an energy blast made him pull forward, the motorcycle that they were on tilted sideways and Atlas fell off. Angel released one of the handlebars just in the nick of time to grab his hand but his weight threw her off balance and pulled her right off. They fell together, the wind blowing Atlas' robe back, showing the full extent of his body type, his hair which had been made looking like a swirl in the front flew back. He was yelling his lungs out. Just hearing him yell the way he was made Angel roll her eyes and laugh. She reached over and grabbed him with one hand and pointed the other down. A funnel of air stopped their fall, while in suspended fall she teleported them out. She discovered shortly after that with her condition the way it was, she could not teleport them back home. The dropped in a tunnel about ten miles from were the energy blast had been fired. Angel collapsed and fell into a troubled sleep as soon as she fell on the stone floor. Her face landed in a puddle of black liquid. Atlas was able to get up to his side, he looked around incredulously then stood up. He gently picked Angel up and carried her deeper into the tunnel.