Author's Note : Okay finished one story, so starting next week Issues will be getting updates on Saturday instead of Sunday. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

Chapter 36: The Holy City of Demons

A huge ball of fire streaked across the sky over a Italian city. As tourists gaped and gasped at the spectacle the projectile in question made a beeline for the nearby forests, coming down hard and leaving behind a huge crater in the process. Inside of the crater, the protective black ball that had come down like a meteor unwrapped itself to reveal the form of two young men, one the color of dead flesh indicating his status among the undead. The one on top of him was a different matter, which clearly among the living his body was leaking inhuman green blood, and the sound of his broken insides rearranging themselves echoed as he slowly got up and absorbed the black protective shell he and his associate came down in.

"You alright Mac?" Junior asked looking down at his associate to whom he technically landed upon.

"I will be." Several sick noises followed Mac's failed attempt to get up. "I could use some help though." Nodding his head Junior released several tendrils from his body which wrapped around Mac's body and took on the form of various harnesses supporting his legs, his back and his arms. "Okay I'm good now." With that matter settled Junior took out the Infi-Map from his pocket and attempted to open it, soon letting out a frustrated growl as the map refused to cooperate with him. "The Map already brought us here cousin, we have to do some leg work."

"Great." Annoyed with the map Junior tossed it to Mac as he looked around the area, seeing a distinctive lack of individuals that he recalled being on that exploding blimp. "Where's the others?"

"You will recall that we were sent to retrieve a number of items cousin. Perhaps it thought that two groups would be more productive than one." Mac stated his straitened and proper poster in direct contrast with his several broken bones which included his spine.

"Fine. How does this work?" Junior asked looking as his companion suspiciously.

"As I understand it. The way that the map works is that it takes into account the individuals that it tosses into these situations, with the understanding that what they need to do will soon make itself obvious." Mac explained as he experimentally played with his limbs, testing Junior support rig.

"Alright then." Junior spotted the nearby city that they had passed over on their way here, a road sign gave the greeting of 'Welcome to Fortuna City'. "Let's go that way."

Indeed Junior's guess had appeared to be correct, rampaging through the city were things that looked like bright gold crosses between birds, demons and just a touch of something humanoid. They had already claimed the lives of a couple of adults, and were now barreling down on the three children that were with them, two brown haired, and one white.

"GYAAAAAHHHHH!" The white haired child picked up a discarded monkey wrench and charged at the demon bird prepared to club it over it's head with the wrench.

The demon's response was to simply bat the incoming child out of it's way, smashing him into a lamp post a couple of feet away. As the demon approached the child, it suddenly dropped dead, a large hole going straight through it's skull. Junior took aim at the other demons, his expert dual wielding of silenced pistols buying him just enough time between the shots to rapidly finish off each and every one of the demonic creatures.

"Your welcome." Junior stated gruffly to the frightened and crying children.

"I... Couldn't do anything." The white haired boy stated frowning sadly, his right arm broken and turned red.

"Then learn how to fight." That got the white haired boy's attention. "And next time will be different." Junior stated turning his attention to a clapping Mac.

"Nice shootin Tex." Mac stated in a bad western accent. "Any idea what these things are?"

"No idea." Sliding the guns up his sleeve, Junior reached down and grabbed the creature with his hand protectively wrapped in a Nergal plate mail glove.

"GAH!" Only for the holy power leaking out of the side of the creature's head to immediately burn him forcing him to retract his arm. "It burned me."

"Holy power tends to have that effect." Mac stated kneeling on the ground and prodding the corpse with the wrench.

"These things are angels?" Junior asked retracting the armored glove and sucking on his burned finger tips.

"Unlikely. The more likely explanation is that someone attempted to reverse engineer one based on demonic and human flesh." Mac stated prodding the corpse with a pen.

"Demonic flesh?" Junior quoted a feeling of dread upon him.

"Demons are descended from angels, humans occasionally suffer from a condition called atavism, where traits from distant ancestors such as monkeys and reptiles like tails and scaly skin can reappear in their modern descendants. If you could find a way of inducing atavism in a demon..." Mac stated looking at Junior with a smirk on his features.

"Then you'd get one ugly angel." Junior was in the process of hot wiring a truck with the intention of dragging the creature's corpse onto it and driving through the infi-map back to the present. That was the plan, but the suddenly dissolving corpses looked to complicate that plan a little bit.

"Demonic flesh and Holy power don't mix very well together. Someone made these things." Mac stated removing what looked like a tracking tag from the dissolved corpse of the creature he was examining. "You wanna find out who?" Sticking the chip into Junior's body, it was reactivated.

By now the people responsible for the creation of these abominations were aware of the fact that their pets were dead. Just as they were now aware that their tracking chip was inside of another demon, and if they were experimenting on demons then that made him a very appetizing target that they now knew the exact location of. Junior and Mac drove the truck back into the forests, and they were met by another truck this one carrying group of knights.

"I don't have time to deal with you lackies." Ignoring Junior's statement one of the men readied a net launcher and fired it at him. The mesh of the net was blessed, as demonstrated by the way that it burned Junior's coat of nergal flesh when the two came in contact, and as added punch it unleashed a electrical surge through his body, not that Junior seemed to notice. "I'm here for the prick that made the shitty half ass angels."

Seeing that their weapon wasn't working the knights came after Junior with swords. Given his opponents medieval choice in weaponry Junior decided to remind them what century it was sprouting guns from all over his body and obliterating them, their weapons, their armor, and their vehicle all wiped away in a hail of demonic bullets.

"You don't pull punches do you?" Mac asked walking out from the tree line.

"I don't pull punches, I pull triggers." Walking over to the shredded remains of the car Junior examined it's shredded mass of metal, glass and plastic. Bending down Junior found a item of interest among the wreckage of the vehicle. "GPS. For a bunch of old fashion ass holes they got some fairly decent tech." Transforming his finger into a USB jack Junior plugged into the device and downloaded it's contents. "Head quarters eh?" Re-entering the truck Junior gave it something of a make over, jamming his finger into the ignition the vehicle was flooded by Nergal flesh and covered in a armor green bone and black demon flesh. Driving through the town the two of them plowed through the front gate of a castle's underground structure arriving in sterile metal plated hallway. "You have reached your destination!" Spitting that out sarcastically Junior gunned the pedal and produced a drill on the front grill of the truck. Tearing through the secured facility Junior arrived inside of a laboratory with what looked like people in tubes in the middle of being turned into demonic angels. "This is the place."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY LABORATORY!?" Looking up Junior saw a brown skinned man shouting at him from a balcony up high above.

"Your laboratory eh?" Producing a hand sign like a certain spider theme hero a length of Nergal tentacle was fired from Junior's wrist and hooked the scientist in his chest before Junior yanked him off his high horse dragging him over to Junior. "Now. As I'm sure you must be aware of, you are attempting to produce hybrids of angel, demon and human. I am very interested in this research." Junior clicked a gun to the head of the scientist. "And that, is very good news for you, provided that you hand that research over to me."

"Now now demon lets not be hasty now." Looking up from his victim Junior spotted another knight, this one much higher ranked if his uniform was any indication, walking over to him. "I'm sure we can come to an arrangement."

"I don't make deals with idiots." Junior stated leveling a glare at the man in question.

"Idiots we are indeed. Even with a certifiable Fallen Angel and Demon human hybrid we still lack the means to successfully graft that genetic information onto our warriors. So rather than our research shouldn't it be our raw materials that you are after here?" The knight asked looking Junior dead in the eye.

"Junior." Mac choose this time to crawl over to Junior and whisper into his ear. "If we can acquire the genetic material of a angel that is making the transition into a demon, then we can combine that information with the encroaching doom syndrome to create a new body for Minnie." Junior dropped the scientist and aimed his weapon at the knight. In spite of this development the scientist sought refuge behind his superior.

"Are you alright Angus?" The knight asked peering down at this cowering subordinate.

"I-I-I..."

"Hmm. You seem to have developed a stutter Angus. I hope that doesn't become a thing." The knight commented before turning his attention back to Junior.

"The Angel. Or I put a bullet in every one of those crests in this city." Junior stated using the laser sight on his gun to indicate the guild's crest on the knight's chest.

"Unfortunately I know not where it is. After all I am but the humble leader of the military branch of the order of the sword. But I do have the authority to make a deal on my superior's behalf." The knight stated pacing around the room, Junior reabsorbed the gun, a sign that he was listening. "In our experiments. We have successfully created three artificial Demon Lord class demons. Souls, imbued with demonic power, inhabiting metal shells. The Penultimate step in the process of producing our own devil arms. But they have escaped our custody. Bring us the Devil arms, you will have the angel."

"Deal." Junior grunted taking the truck and backing out of the hole that he had dug. "Oi Mac what's a Devil Arm?" Junior asked as the two of them followed the trackers placed on the demons out of the town.

"Occasionally, there are demons that have consumed so many souls, acquired so much power, that they are elevated to the rank of a Demon Lord, the captains of the demon armies." Mac started to explain, scanning the skies for their first target.

"Makes sense." Junior stated watching the road.

"But the demon armies are not known for being kind. When a position becomes available in the upper echelons, they must prove their worth by slaughtering the other candidates. But then, what happens to the hard work of the losers, whose power would go to waste if they were to simply die off?" Mac asked in a tone of voice that implied that he already knew what the answer was.

"Lemme Guess: Devil arms?" Junior asked sarcastically, having finally reached the point where the question that he wanted answered would be answered.

"When they are defeated in combat, a Demon Lord is forcibly transformed into a weapon which contains their power. Demon Lords of higher calibers are capable of simply wielding these weapons or simply absorbing them into their bodies in a phenomena known as Devil Trigger. Should a weaker demon attempt to wield them though they are instead absorbed into the weapon reincarnating the fallen demon lord in the process. In doing so, they are transformed into a stronger demon, to continue to fight other demon lords, and continue to grow in power." Mac stated his features lightning up when he saw something go across the sky. "There!" Stopping the Truck Junior looked up above, circling what looked like a wild west film set was a giant metal eagle raining down projectiles from the sky.

"Lucifer." Mac turned to Junior to ask what he was talking about. "It's the name they gave the big turkey. I read it in the computer files. So just so that we're clear. I gotta go up there, snap that turkey's neck, and take whatever comes out of it's corpse and bring it back to these order of the sword people?"

"Him and two others of his kind apparently." Mac stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Lovely."

Slamming the door on the truck, Junior produced a nergal grappling hook. You could imagine the demon's confusion when it learned that someone had hooked it's leg. Checking behind it Lucifer saw Junior rapidly approaching it via grinding along the cable that had been attached to it's leg. With one swing of it's wing Lucifer fired off a stream of it's feathered bladed projectiles at Junior, cutting the line. Junior however was already prepared. Already airborne Junior worked the old Nergal magic and produced a biplane lined with machine guns with his Nergal abilities. The guns easily shot down the numerous incoming projectiles, but Junior wasn't counting on the sword like wings turning into birds of all things and coming after him from behind. The guns turned around and shot down the blades before the biplane crashed into Lucifer.

"You Sir...!" Junior hooked Nergal chains around both of the bird's wings. "Are Coming with me!"

Hitching a ride on the giant demon bird, Junior flew Lucifer back to where the GPS device told him where the other two demons were located, Fortuna castle if the name it had on the GPS could be believed. Indeed Junior soon spotted his target, a gun metal Cerberus, and a oversize gunmetal werewolf named Pandora and Gilgamesh respectively if the GPS was to be believed. Steering Lucifer towards the castle Junior had it do a nose dive and a head long collision collision with Pandora knocking the big three headed dog over, and bouncing Junior across the ground several times.

"Ugh... That's the second time today. Now I'm pissed!" While Junior's body put itself back together the werewolf climbed the castle walls and high tailed it into the forest. "Great more Leg work." Junior looked at the struggling pair of demons and with a growl squeezed down on his hand, ordering the nergal chains to snap the bird's neck. Within moments the form of the bird was gone, shrunk down and replaced by the form of a skull shaped back pack type thing with two quivers sticking out like horns. "One down." Junior transformed his arm into a large assembly of guns. "And guess what pal...!" Suddenly Pandora sprung out far more numerous and even larger guns from it's heads. "Yours are bigger than mine." Junior stated his voice that of someone who didn't find this fun.

Junior used his shape shifting powers to duck behind cover in time for the beast to open fire on him. Quickly Junior commanded the bit of Nergal matter he left beneath the beast's feet and had it attached itself to the newly formed Lucifer Devil arm. At once the Devil arm began firing red spears upwards at the giant three headed dog, stabbing them and lodging them inside of the beast's chest, causing the monster to howl and roll around on the ground in pain. Seizing his chance Junior ran out and jumped onto the beast's middle head attaching two more chains around the necks of it's two other heads.

"Walk or die!"

Junior altered the form of the nergal matter into a beetle with the Lucifer Devil Arm as it's shell which climbed aboard Pandora and attached itself to Junior's shoulder. Junior forcibly rode the beast all the way into the forest, rampaging and tearing apart the jungle like growth and mowing down the trees with the beasts numerous guns. Finally the pair came across chunks of metal fired at Junior and his beast. Junior dodged at the last minuet making the beast take the hit, with a squeeze of his hand three necks were snapped and Juniors unwilling ally's life had been ended, shrunk down and transformed into a suitcase. Junior in the meantime watched as the grass and growth that Gilgamesh walked on was transformed into metal, a fact which worried him to no end.

"I will be staying away from that thank you."

Using a tentacle Junior grabbed a hold of the suitcase, followed shortly there after by taking Lucifer and slamming it down on Pandora, before connecting them together using Nergal flesh with a couple souls inside. The end result of this transformed Pandora into a mini-gun and Lucifer into the butt of the weapon.

"This looks promising."

Using Nergal flesh Junior gave his newly minted weapon wings and threw it into the air. Gilgamesh was subsequently pelted by the bright red light arrows of Lucifer, fired at a machine gun pace by Pandora. This gave Junior the opportunity he needed to sneak up on Gilgamesh and lassoed the demon around the neck and with Gilgamesh distracted the Lucifer and Pandora combination left Gilgamesh riddled with explosive projectiles, which then went off and reduced Gilgamesh to bits. Those bits then broke down into particles of light before coming together to form a set of greaves, gauntlets and back attachment. Creating a motor cycle from Nergal flesh, Junior shoved the collected Devil Arms into the side car before driving off. Arriving at the cliff side where Junior abandoned Mac and the ruins of their truck the undead scientist climbed onto the back of the motor bike.

"My those do look impressive. Are you sure you wanna hand them over to these order of the sword people?" Mac stated looking at the weapons in the side car.

"The Earth I remember was already a smoldering pile of ruins. I don't care what happens to it." Junior stated revving the motorcycle and speeding back to the Order of the Sword Headquarters.

"D-D-Devil Arms! Y-Y-You have Devil Arms!" Angus shouted his voice wracked with shock.

"Angel." Junior stated whipping out a large bazooka type weapon and pressing it against the pile of weapons sitting beside him. "Now!"

"No need for threats. Angus." At once the scientist rushed over to the next room over and when he came back he was pushing a large containment tube filled with the struggling form of what suspiciously looked like a severely deformed four winged angel woman. "Your payment for a job well done. Oh and a word of advice. I wouldn't let her out of that cage. She can be quite crafty when she wants to be."

"Good to know." Junior stated, stretching his arm over and depositing the Devil Arms before hooking his arm on the tube and dragging it over and hooking it onto the back of his vehicle.

"We should send our prize ahead of us first, then go look for the others." Mac stated as Junior drove away.

"Your Holiness. Should we not go after them? An individual like that would be an extremely valuable research specimen." Angus explained pointing to the hole Junior made getting there.

"I suspect that won't be necessary old friend." The head knight stated bending down and picking up one of the Devil arms, revealing green blood on Pandora.

"Ouch!" Later on, after dropping the Angel in Halloween town, Junior had taken the Infi-Map and went to go get Chi, which led him here, spat out of a interdimensional portal in the underworld, right next to Chi and Walker. Junior quickly pulled himself out of the crater before leveling a glare at the two. "You two coming?"

Hephaestus finished work on repairing a bow before handing it over to Mimi. As Mimi picked the weapon up, she then notice the arrival of Junior through a ghost portal.

"Time to get this show on the road Mimi."

As Finklestein finished work on improving the Encroaching Doom syndrome a ghost portal opened in his laboratory and deposited with a loud thunk the time traveling group and their prizes.

"Angel." Junior stated kicking over the distressed angel that was trying to beat her way out of her cage.

"Ghost Flu." Walker stated tossing over a jump drive to Finklestein.

"Now get to work."

Review Section:

DPSS: We'll be getting there in due time, just a little bit of patience.

Detrametal: Well I do hope that this chapter answers some long standing questions all of you have had.