Words were flowing out of V's mouth. Numbers of them, all jumbled and incoherent as she fell to the floor. The texture beneath her fingers was soft, and as she kept on crawling, she tried to raise herself up. Nausea hit, and she felt to the ground again.
She'd never been one for motion sickness, but this felt too close to what the damn time machine hit them all with whenever they fucked around, and now she wasn't sure where she was. Just that she had the plushest of carpets cushioning her, and the surrounding area was filled with halls and decorations that would've had a goth kid squealing in delight.
Once her breathing relaxed, she started to register movement. Booted feet approached her, and she was hefted to her feet. Jerking in their hold, she couldn't shake off the grip they had on her, and she started when the glint in their eyes didn't fade. Or the horns, and sharp pointy teeth.
"Holy hell," she muttered. "Uh, nice teeth there, pal."
The figure hissed, and she made a face. Whatever planet she'd just been booted to was certainly not a tranquil or happy one, judging from the locals.
"You know what? We didn't start off on the right foot, so why don't you and your lovely friend here" – the one on her right growled, and V pasted a grin onto her face – "set me down, and we'll start things off with a hearty handshake. Just a real bonding moment as a gesture of respect between our two races. I mean it."
The doors in front of her opened, and V let her words trail off at the sound of laughter. "I do believe you're mistaken."
The figure that strode in towered above her, his horns spiraling off of his head, and that's when it hit. An itch to break free, lash out, and run, irrational as it was, because something was wrong. Horribly wrong, and that's when she really began to study her surroundings.
"Hmm, confused, are you?" he asked, his voice booming.
Her eyes shifted from the floor, to the statues, to those surrounding her, to him. "About what, bossman? I mean, you're the boss, right?" The number of ornaments he had on made her think of fucking Zinyak. "I mean, bosses either get large hats, or horns, and you're definitely rocking the second."
"And you've inherited your own small galactic empire, if word serves me properly. That's no small feat for a person such as yourself."
The smile he gave her was fanged, and it was at that point that the niggling feeling picking at her finally let her spell out exactly what he resembled. A good old-fashioned devil, the kind you'd see in movies and games. A major one. The realization made a cold sweat spread out over her.
"Please. I understand that I may intimidate some. My reputation doesn't always allow for diplomatic approaches. Being the dark lord of Hell can make things complicated."
"Hell?" The word rolled across her tongue, as she processed the rest of his sentence, and barked out a short laugh. One that kept on going, as her heart rate quickened. "Hell? Yeah, with digs like this, this place is certified hellish. Tell me that's not crushed velvet."
"Do you not believe me?" The smile he wore widened, and she felt the grip on her tighten. "I could go through all the traditional means of greeting, but I was hoping we could quickly move beyond that. Perhaps a better demonstration is in order? Or would it be too much to ask for you to take the word of your future in-law?"
"Bullshit."
"No, none at all," he replied, and the creatures holding her hissed again.
Staring at him blankly, she felt her lips move as she took in the symbols surrounding them. The same ones she recognized, but refused to believe in.
And the dread that hit in full was cold. Cold, and numbing as her knees buckled, and they let her collapse back onto the floor.
The fiery walls surrounding them gave way to darkness. Johnny was spinning, falling as he kept on going, and he couldn't tell up from down.
The darkness opened up, leading to a glowing orange light, and he raised his arms. Tried to shield himself as the heat kept on surrounding them. The world flashed, blinding him, and the ground below rushed up to meet him.
He hit it with a solid thud, the angle uncomfortable, but not fatal as it knocked the air out of him. But seconds later, he heard a scream. He opened his arms in the nick of time, keeping Shaundi from slamming into the same spot.
She scrambled to right herself as he felt the air get knocked out of him again, and her head snapped towards him. "Johnny? Johnny, are you-"
"I'm fine. This ain't nothing. You?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." She scanned the ground beneath them, and frowned. "What is this? Etching? I think we're in the middle of a teleporter."
"That your scientific opinion?"
"We're here, aren't we?" She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, and glanced up. "Could've dropped up anywhere, but it had to pick here."
Something glinted above them, and he rolled them to the side just in time to avoid the pinwheeling spirit board. It hit the ground with a loud slap, and bounced before coming to a rest. Shaundi stared at it in horror for a long minute, before switching back to him. "Shit."
"Fucking great." He climbed to his feet, and Shaundi followed suit. "Let me guess. This thing had just enough juice to get us here?"
"I don't know. It should, but…I don't think we're going anywhere else with this kind of damage." Lifting it up by the corner, she turned it over, before handing it off to Johnny. "Wherever here is." She swallowed hard, and her eyes went wide as she took it all in. "Oh, God. This is…" Shaundi coughed, and pounded a fist against her chest. "Please say this isn't what it's supposed to be."
He took in a deep breath, and resisted the urge to hack it back out. "Ah, this is what they warned us about. Eh, fucking textbook." The board fell a few feet away from them, and when they approached it, he noticed a deep crack – in addition to the bullet holes he'd already riddled it with. The thing had been sucked in along with them, effectively shutting them in. "Great. Always wanted to go someplace hot for vacation."
"Not even funny, Johnny," Shaundi laughed, but the sound was weak. "We're stuck?"
"For now. Don't know if this goes both ways, but it don't seem to be talking now."
"At least it's not laughing anymore. It took a moment for her to recover enough to join him, and the two stared out over the charred landscape.
Buildings, some as tall as skyscrapers stretched upwards, while on the ground cars screeched across the pavement. The heat was high. Far worse than what Stilwater threw at them, but not intolerable. It was another curveball that the place was determined to lob at them, and he almost missed Shaundi's next words. He barely heard them over the dull roar in his ears.
"This is fucking unreal on every level. What this is. Or seems to be."
He snapped the board over his knee, and tossed it. "Eh, whatever. Onto plan B. Which is still plan A."
"Find her, and get out of here?"
Gat gave her a small shrug. "Yeah. Mine ain't as short, but close enough." Checking the area around them, the platform seemed to feed into a nearby road. Dusty, but clear, the two followed it with their eyes until it led to the buildings jutting up towards the sky.
"Sure there'll even be someone to throttle by the time you find her? ….I kid with her a lot, but there's no guarantee she didn't try to take the face off of whatever snatched her the moment she was able to."
"Ah, that would be a sight. Pissed off, and impatient, and the first thing out of her mouth is what took you so long?"
"She wouldn't."
The smirk he wore went sharp. "Oh, she fucking would."
He scanned the buildings again, and that's when he noticed it. He blinked hard, certain he was imagining it, but it remained. For a split second he let the idea in that this was a second simulation. Another place designed to bring back old memories, but shook it off. Unclenched his fists, as he took in the dark building reaching high, but never as high as it wanted to be, and wasn't sure he wanted to believe it.
"You see that?"
He raised his chin and Shaundi followed his line of sight. "Ultor. I know they've got connections all over the globe, but this is getting ridiculous. Still, if there was a place for them to be..."
"Yeah, they would be fucking here. No better place."
Shaundi mulled it over for a few seconds, and frowned. "It couldn't have been them, could it? I know we haven't been the best people to work with over the years, but for the boss to piss them off enough for them to kidnap and take her to Hell?"
"Or whatever place this is. Don't matter. We've got a place to go, and they'll have answers."
"Johnny, hey, wait a minute!"
He was down the hill before Shaundi could catch up, set on seeing how quick he could reach the bottom. They needed a car if they were going to get around here, and the locals shuffling around below seemed to be using them. He thought it'd be easier to gauge what they were moving around with up close. He was right and wrong.
They were people once. The being he bumped into on his way down was nothing short of a husk. Dried out and withered, only to fall to dust at the slightest touch. The hair on the back of his neck prickled as he tried to tune out the moans, and spotted a car with two out of its three doors still attached.
After that it was only a matter of doing what came naturally.
The thing behind the wheel took the hit better than he expected, cracking it across the face only to have it stare dully at him before being chucked onto the street. The gesture it threw had Johnny flipping it off in turn as Shaundi clambered into the passenger seat, and once she was in, he slammed his foot down onto the gas. The car lurched forward, and Shaundi's hand shot straight to the grab handle above her door.
There weren't many signs to read where they were. Most were charred, or set on sending them in a shape vaguely resembling a knot before Johnny spiraled off onto another road. The fact that there were roads to navigate at all was a fucking blessing, but there was no guarantee this was the right one.
"Is there a sunroof in this?" Shaundi glanced up at the singed ceiling, and tried to yank the cover open. "Come on." It took a few tries, but it popped open and she brushed the glass pieces and dirt that fell off of her.
"Gonna get a better look out there?" Gat nailed the sharp turn onto the road that he guessed led to the highway, and caught her nod.
"Yeah. If we spot the building, at least we'll be able to orient ourselves from there."
Johnny eased off on the gas as she stood and poked her head out, only to have her duck back in seconds later. He hit the brakes and swerved to avoid the red thing with wings crossing the street. "Fucking A. You okay?"
Shaundi let out a breath, and nodded. "Let me get back to you on that," she replied, hoisting herself up. He couldn't keep an eye on her and the road much as he wanted to, but it didn't take her long to set herself back down.
"You see it?"
"Yeah. It's further into the mainland, so provided this road's the right one, we'll drive by it." She poked her head up again just as he merged onto the highway, and when she sat down, she wore a smile. "It'll be as straight a shot as we'll get. Can't do much better than that."
Johnny pressed the gas to the floor, and they flew.
The buildings grew denser as they made their way further downtown. Stretching towards the sky, they threatened to block it out, climbing as high as they could manage. None matched Ultor, however, and following Shaundi's guidance, they soon found themselves roaring towards the building's ground floor.
The car skidded to a halt on the sidewalk, and Shaundi slowly breathed in and out before reaching for her seatbelt. He hadn't even bothered with his, climbing out to head straight for the front doors to the building, his gun raised.
They nearly flew off their hinges due to the force of the gunshot. The glass pane wasn't as fortunate, shattering inward as they kept up their approach. He didn't pause for anything as he climbed through the new entrance, and after scanning the lobby, turned towards Shaundi. "Can you believe this shit? Burned out buildings and this's untouched."
"Well, was untouched." She cracked a grin as she looked around, and waved him towards the elevators. "Come on. Looks like this floor's empty."
The doors slid shut, and he punched the button for the top floor. Everything was perfect. Down to the polished metal, and the repetitive tunes that kept on looping. It could've been lifted from his mind. Just like the simulation.
His jaw flexed, and he let out a breath. His eyes flicked towards Shaundi when he heard tapping. She stopped when she noticed his raised eyebrow.
"Sorry. Just trying to sort through what might happen if it's Dane in there."
"No need."
She rolled her eyes. "I know. Two to the head, but only after he gives us something on the boss, but… God, I thought we were done with that level of smug."
"Close, but we're getting there." He tensed when they came to a stop, and tried to shrug the tension off. "Think V'll be pissed if I borrow her window trick?"
"Hardly. More proud, if anything."
"Ready?"
She nodded, and when the doors opened, hefted her GDHC as she approached the large desk. A husk was tapping away at their keyboard, and lifted its head.
"Where's your boss?" Shaundi hissed.
It gave a half-hearted growl, slumping its shoulders.
"Don't even," she replied, keeping her gun steady. "You call him up, ring us in, do whatever you need to to make it clear we're not going anywhere. Because we're not taking a number."
It gestured towards the large set of doors.
This set wasn't as easy to kick open, so Johnny settled for shoving them open with as much force as he could muster. They gave with a mighty creak, shifting across the marble floor, and opened into an office that Johnny hadn't seen in years.
He hadn't been there when V had charged up there before, only catching the aftermath after she all but crashed a chopper into it, but this was untouched. Every logo and statue that they'd torn down from the place was hanging proudly, almost as if they never were to begin with. On the other end of the dark marble floor was an empty desk. One that bore a placard detailing exactly who it belonged to.
Johnny approached it slowly, gun out, and scanned the room. Shaundi swept the opposite side, her own weapon raised. Gat glanced over his shoulder, back towards the doors, and chuckled. "Been a while."
"Not long enough if you ask me," Dane replied, his arms folded in front of him. Both of them trained their weapons on him as he walked towards them slowly, and stopped a good ten feet away. "But this…this is a surprise. Now, you two are neither dead nor in the process of dying. I know this place's drawn a lot of admirers over the years, but I don't think that's what drew you here. I've got some ideas, but that's not one of them."
"Oh? I bet you fucking do," Johnny said, moving forward.
Dane flinched when he came almost nose-to-nose with the barrel of his gun, but didn't drop the smug look. "Huh."
"Where is she?"
"What?"
He looked surprised, and Johnny cocked his gun. "You heard me the first time. We head down here after V gets snatched only to see this fucking building, and yeah, it's been a while, but we weren't exactly on the best of terms the last time we saw each other."
"She threw me out of a window. After hitting two or three of the different levels of the building on the way down, I really wanted to share that experience with the guy we hired to design it. Best doesn't even begin to describe it. But…great as it would be to see how Ms. Former President's been holding up in the interim, no. I had no hand in taking her."
"None?"
"None. But if you'd cease the theatrics," Dane said, tapping the side of Johnny's gun, "maybe I could help you find the right person to aim that at."
Out of the corner of his eye, Johnny saw Shaundi glance towards him. She didn't lower her handgun, but her finger slipped away from the trigger. "I really hate to say it, but I think he's telling the truth."
"For real?"
Johnny raised an eyebrow, and Shaundi sighed deeply. "Yeah."
Watching them both, Dane waited until their guns were lowered to adjust his tie. "Well, now that we're all finally on the same page, maybe we can get down to business. So, how did you end up down here to begin with? You skipped the traditional way."
"Spirit board. It made a collect call here and we hitched a ride."
"Huh. Talk about old-fashioned. Effective, but old-fashioned." Dane approached the large set of windows, and turned back towards them. "But you two aren't here to listen to me talk all day, are you? You're here for this."
A slip of black paper materialized in his hand, and Johnny squinted at it as he tried to decipher the words. "The hell is that? An invitation?"
"Of sorts. I could go into the finer details of that, but that's what my assistant's for. Much as I'd love to sit out and exposit for you while handing out fetch quests, running Hell - or better yet, our cozy corner of it - is no easy task. Time is money, and down here we have nothing but time."
Moving towards them, he spun them both around and began to shoo them back to the double-doors.
"The fuck…?"
"Hey!"
"Not that you won't have another friendly face to deal with, but this one should be near and dear to your heart. And I'm a sucker for reunions. They can be real tearjerkers." Depositing them outside, he gestured down the hall past the reception desk. "Take a left here and head straight down the hall. Go through those doors, and you'll have your answers."
The doors slammed shut, and they looked towards the receptionist. It simply pointed down the same way Dane had.
"Well," Shaundi huffed, "I guess that's where we're going next. I hope this isn't the start of one elaborate runaround."
Johnny hoped it wasn't either. Time wasn't something they could waste, and as they approached the doors, he shoved them open.
It was another dark room, but the computers at the center flashed bright. Lines of red and orange streaked across the shapeless background, forming complex shapes in the air that looked better at place on a series of blueprints. They walked towards them slowly, and it wasn't until they were close that the lines went from abstract to familiar.
"That's this building, isn't it?" Shaundi traced a finger along one set of lines, and followed them all the way around. "The entire downtown, or wherever this is. All of Hell's there to look at with the flick of a wrist."
"It takes a little more than that, but you've got the right idea."
He knew that voice. Knew it well, even after going years without hearing it. You never do forget old friends, he thought, but enemies?
Dex earned a place in that category the moment he'd tried to put a bullet in V's head. Directly or indirectly, it was on him, and Gat had sworn that if he'd ever seen him again, he'd pay him the same courtesy.
But now, with Dex standing across the room from them, he had that chance. Couldn't even fucking believe he was faced with that chance.
The doors groaned as Dex shut them behind him, and gave them both a steady glance. "Don't think this reunion's going to draw the tears Vogel's hoping for. Or you. But that could change fast, knowing you."
Gat's gun was up when he crossed the room, set and cocked. In a second it was pressing against the underside of Dex's jaw, and his teeth were clenched tight enough to hurt. "You motherfucking sack of shit. Didn't do enough of this shit in life not to come crawling back to it here, huh?"
"First off, fuck you," Dex said, sneering. "Second, there's a reason we're able to have this conversation right now. You make do. As Dane's so fond of saying, Hell's what you make of it. You dream big, you might just get that chance to be big. And even if that means I get to forward orders back and forth like a glorified PA, better that than resembling one of the baked-out bodies lining the foundation of this place. Been there, done that."
Johnny's finger was on the trigger, a hair from setting it off, but Dex held his gaze.
"So? You want to blow my fucking head off? Do it. That won't bring you any closer to V, or the one holding her. You want to piss someone off? He's the ticket."
"Who?"
"Let me go, and maybe I'll get around to telling you."
The gun pressed hard into Dex's neck, more than enough to cause anyone pain, but he barely flinched. Just stayed on the edge of snarling as his eyes flashed. Johnny shoved him back, and kept his weapon up.
Shaundi kept hers on him as well, and Dex smoothed out his vest as he watched them closely. "Better?"
"Better."
"So share. Who's after her? A demon?"
"Plenty of demons here, but it'd take a hell of a lot for a minor one to even open a gate to your plane."
"All right," Shaundi conceded, "then a higher level one. Talk."
Dex jabbed a thumb up. "Aim higher."
"Higher?"
"About as high as you can possibly go."
"…No. You're fucking kidding. Please tell me you're kidding." Shaundi pressed her hands to her temples when all she received from Dex was a flat look. "This is the part where V says she's seen this before, because that's the only way I'm going to be able to believe it."
"That he's real? Or that she's being held by Satan?"
"God, he's fucking serious," she muttered.
"And he's serious enough about your boss to want to set her up in a perfect match. Sounds like a hell of a party in the making."
"Match?" Gat passed his eyes over Shaundi – who was still muttering under her breath about devils – and turned to face Dex. "Like a wedding?"
"You got it. He's apparently been on the hunt for someone perfect for his daughter, and V happened to catch his eye. Girl's got some luck, I'm telling you."
His gun went up again, and what was left of Dex's smile faded away. "Where?"
"Johnny. Do you honestly think you can just walk in there and take her?"
"I was figuring I'd put two in his head first, but yeah. Just that."
Shaundi groaned. "This is one of V's shitty movies, and somehow we're caught in it. Because you cannot be suggesting we put two in the devil and call it good."
"I'll probably punch him in the fucking face too, but yeah. Works out perfectly."
"You want to put the hurting on him that bad," Dex said, reaching into the inner pocket of his suitcoat, "this is what you'll need."
The ring caught the light, moving over the material to the exact angle at which it could blind you. Johnny narrowed his eyes, but only for a second. "Want to tell us what that is?"
"A halo. Discarded by its owner, it switched many hands here in Hell until it reached ours. Now it's our turn to pass it along."
"What's the catch?"
"Catch?" Dex held the halo up higher, and Johnny's eyes followed it. "Cause no deal's a free one, eh?"
"No. It never is."
He reached for it, but Dex shifted it out of reach. Stepping forward, he reached for it again, but this time Dex didn't jerk it away. His fingers closed around it, and a tingling sensation ran down his arm. Like a low hum right before the sharp pain of a static shock.
A slow smile crept onto Dex's face. "Aren't you going to ask?"
He felt Shaundi's eyes boring into him as they stood there, but he didn't budge. "No point."
"So it seems. Think she'd agree with you?"
"She'd have already punched the hell out of you for wasting her fucking time. Do it."
Dex chuckled, and the halo went white-hot. By the time Shaundi's hand closed around it by his, it was already too late to protest.
He blinked, and pain wracked his body. Made his vision go red, white, then dark.
Every touch, every breath hurt. It seared Shaundi's skin, ran through every inch of her, and she felt ready to collapse. Her stomach roiled, as she doubled over, and struggled to stay on her feet.
Light flashed, and heat ran down her arm and side, branding her. The glow persisted, hanging on as she tightly closed her eyes, but something else swelled with it. A rush of euphoria, and fire in her veins.
She felt powerful. Like she was capable of anything, and the feeling ebbed away as her vision cleared. Around her neck was a small ring, hanging from a chain. It wasn't what she would've envisioned a halo to be at all, but it matched the one now hanging from Johnny's neck as well.
The burning told her exactly what she needed to know as she pulled her sleeve back, showing symbols etched into her skin. The same decorated Johnny, running down his side and leg. He was winded just like her, but recovered in the blink of an eye.
But stretching out from his back were a set of wings. The tips glowed like embers, and Shaundi couldn't stop staring at them. "Wings?"
"Wings. You've got a nice set yourself."
She shifted, and the strange weight on her back moved with her. Her wings swept forward so she could see that faint glow, and she was in awe.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Shaundi stared at Dex, and he watched the two of them, almost intrigued by their reactions. "That halo's from the fallen one, and guaranteed to be your key to wreaking as much havoc as possible."
It did feel good, but kept fading, the sensation falling into the background as she adjusted to it. As the feeling receded, the glowing of the mark did as well, and Shaundi traced her fingers over it as she examined it closely.
"Before that happens, however, there's one thing to run over. Namely, how the hell all of it works." He gestured towards the large windows behind him. "Ready to find out?"
Dex didn't mince words when he gave them the instructions. The energy running through them now was a part of them now, and was ready to kick in at a moment's notice. They stood at the top of the building, hot currents of air whipping at them, and were given a simple command.
Jump, and if you choose to call them, the wings will come. When they got the hang of it, Dex would meet them at the bottom. Shaundi stared down at the lava flowing beneath her and steeled herself.
"Shaundi."
The mark burned again, flaring up, and she looked straight ahead.
"Oh, you ain't talking to me now?"
"Did you really expect me to stand there while you took this on? Alone?"
"No, but I'll live with this shit if it backfires on me."
"And I won't?" She chanced a look his way. "Oh, right. Because you've got a monopoly on making stupid decisions. Completely slipped my mind," she spat. Gat pressed his lips into a flat line, and she stood up straight. Then doubled over. "God, that fucking smarts."
"Shaundi."
"Don't. I'm not here to talk you down, or hold you back. I'm here to help, remember? Just…give me a little warning before the next choice, okay?" Her hand hovered over the marks branded onto her – much like the ones seared into his own skin – and she grit her teeth before righting herself. "Cause I'd really rather not start collecting curses like cards here."
She jumped before he could say anything else.
A long time ago she used to dream about flying. About soaring far above the trees, and over everything. Watching the ground pass under her now was too close to one of those dreams. She flapped them to gain speed as she turned, and laughed as she spun. It was exhilarating, and she never wanted to touch down.
Still, she had to. They both did. She caught sight of Johnny, just a beat behind her, and angled herself towards the ground.
When they touched down on the street however, it was in the presence of an old, familiar face. Or rather, two. Viola and Kiki Dewynter flanked Dex, both looking more or less as they did in life. At least until her eyes settled on the black horns snaking through their hair. What also threw her for a second was their choice in clothes. It was like walking into a time warp as she took in the outfits they wore on the day they all first met, and she approached them tentatively. "Viola."
"Hi." Her voice carried a reverberation that Dex's didn't. "Surprised? The feeling's mutual. Though with talk of a coup, I had no idea we'd be seeking outside sources."
Gat shrugged. "You want to go big, you go big. Though, I don't think they snatched the boss with that in mind."
Viola pressed her lips into a thin line, with Kiki shortly following suit. "No. Word is Satan has another purpose for her," Kiki said, moving her eyes between them both. "That's a political marriage with some clout. Leader of an intergalactic empire, and the daughter of the devil joined in holy matrimony. You can almost hear the bells now."
"Bells? I'm surprised we aren't hearing a hail of gunshots instead. She never was subtle. I doubt she'd be accommodating now."
That earned a scowl from Johnny. "No, she's not. Any word on potential reasons why?"
"We're supposed to have been busy with security detail. With a wedding this important, Satan's been wanting to make sure nothing can ruin his little girl's day."
Security?
Dex noticed Shaundi's raised eyebrow and spoke up. "These two are part of the largest security details down here."
"Were."
"Fine. You're independent, but the facts don't change. It didn't take either of you long at all to find your niche, and make it work in your favor. Hell's a system. You find your place and embrace it."
"That's putting it simply, but you're right," Viola said, giving him a small nod. "Everyone has a purpose here. And after seeing the alternative firsthand, it's not as hard of a choice as you'd think."
The statement was cold, and at once too much like the Viola she had worked with closely, and not at all. V would've given her hell if she had been there, and Shaundi found herself tempted to do the same.
Gat sneered. "Fucking A. Both of you are really set on parroting the same shit that came out of Vogel's mouth. And I don't see why you think it'll get through on the second or third try. You want to justify this shit, fine. But work that on your own time."
The frown Shaundi wore deepened, but faded the moment Johnny looked her way. "Yeah. You know why we're here."
"So, give it to us straight. Why isn't this place shot to hell yet?"
"You want the truth?" Viola asked, meeting his stare. "She's probably still adjusting to the change in location. It's not easy the first time you learn that Hell's an actual locale, and not a cautionary tale meant to keep kids in line."
"People. You've got people on her?" Shaundi asked, stepping forward. "Tell them to get her the hell out of there!"
"It's not that simple. It could be, but the plan would fall flat shortly after being put in motion."
Kiki turned the small tablet in her hands towards them, and tapped the surface. The old set of electronic plans changed to a set of blueprints, this time of a large spire. "Security's at an all-time high. With the amount of attention on her right now, she wouldn't get twenty feet out of there without being caught again.
"But that's where you two come in," Dex said, pointing at them. "Like Vogel said, raise enough hell on the outside, and they'll be scattered to the winds. That kind of an opening will let you get in there and get out without a fight.
"And if you're looking for targets, a good place to hit right now would be here."
Kiki tapped the tablet, and an entire district lit up. A few landmarks stood out like sore thumbs, though from where Shaundi was standing, she could make out something vaguely resembling a ferris wheel, and another like a roller coaster.
"Is that a boardwalk?"
"Somewhat. The entertainment district's one that is often barely in control, and as a result wouldn't take much pushing to turn into total chaos."
"So, you're serious about that. Us tearing up the place?"
"We're in an odd business. That of building and rebuilding. You see, if we remain undisturbed, we funnel the business. If things break, we fix them. Either way we find some way of squeezing a buck or two out of this, with the added bonus of giving the boss some shit to sort through. So, yes. We're very serious, to the point that I'm going to encourage all of it. Speaking of which, I think you two have some shit to stir up."
Dex tapped his watch. "Can't idle too much now, can we?"
