Charlie was beaming in excitement.
The day that they would go to Heaven had arrived.
A few days prior, everyone had packed as according to Heaven's advice and brought along the appropriate clothing. Everyone was going along, unfortunately excluding the imps. However, the hotel staff did everything in their way to provide them some protection from Hell's problems.
Lucifer was willing to give them compensation in the form of some secret homes in the circles of Hell as the hotel will cease operations for two months.
As for how they were going to get to Heaven, they were going by plane. Courtesy of the grim reaper.
Well, he wasn't like the normal representations of the grim reaper.
His name was Azrael, and as according to Lucifer, he was the archangel of death bringing souls to their respective afterlives.
The Hotel staff were waiting for the eventual flight at one of Hell's abandoned airports. Charlie and Vaggie were making sure that everyone was around and didn't leave anything behind.
"Okay!" Charlie exclaimed, "Is everyone ready?"
Everyone present which included Vaggie, Husk, Niffty, Baxter and Mimzy cheered which made the princess smile.
Suddenly, the roar of a plane engine roared through the deserted airport and they looked out of the windows in awe.
The aeroplane was a sleek black colour, with a gold stripe along it's side. Charlie knew what airplanes were, but she wasn't so sure on what kind it was.
It had just landed and maneuvered it's way to stop, taking it's sweet time doing so. Everyone had their faces plastered against the window trying to see it.
Eventually, the plane came to a halt where the departure section was. The doors suddenly opened and this prompted everyone to make their way to it.
While the roar of the engine was echoing across the desolate airport, the hotel staff made their way to the airbus. As they approached the built-in stairs now leading into the airplane, a person walked out of it slowly, making everyone stop dead in their tracks.
The person in question was actually hard to describe. They seemed to be numerous people at once, regardless race, gender, or even physical appearance.
"Hello." a voice reached out. The voice was synthetic like the combination of several normal voices into a computer program.
"Who are you?" Vaggie asked, nervous.
"I am Death itself, or by my actual name, Azrael." they said.
Charlie wasn't so sure why but an atmosphere of tension came about in the air.
"Why do you look like the bartender I used to work with?" Husk suddenly asked.
"Death comes in many forms, but everyone of you looks at me differently." Azrael stated, "According to Vaggie, I look like a Hispanic male in his 40s, am I correct?"
Vaggie went pale, "You.."
Charlie looked at Azrael, "I don't.. see you as a person, you look like a shape of a person."
Azrael turned his attention to her, "That's because you haven't died yet. But each of your friends sees things differently."
"Great!" Niffty perked up, "Can we go?"
"Sure!" Azrael replied cheerfully, "Just come inside of the plane and place your luggage in the overhead compartments."
Everyone walked slowly into the airplane, carrying their heavy bags onto the airbus. They arrived inside and gaped at the interior.
It was the metrics of your average plane, with seats along it's side for all of them. The overhead compartments were placed tall above them, but everyone was able to reach them with the exception of Vaggie and Mimzy.
Azrael climbed back onto the plane and pranced his way into the cockpit. Suddenly, flight attendants appeared as the door of the plane shut tight.
"Hello there, everyone." a stewardess said, "Please sit down in the seats provided and buckle your seat belts."
Promptly, everyone did as instructed and sat down in the unbelievable comfortable seats and buckled their seat belts on. After a few moments, the aeroplane began to move. Charlie beamed with excitement and looked towards Vaggie who was seated in front of her.
The princess wasn't sure what kind of plane would have seats facing other people with a table between in them, but whatever they were, they were fancy.
As for the takeoff, it was smooth. Better than the aviation history that Hell could ever do, which blew her away.
But the most baffling thing about it was just how calm everyone else was. Vaggie looked at her amused.
"Something wrong, hon?" Vaggie asked.
"N-nothing's wrong." Charlie said, "This is just overwhelming of an experience."
The moth demon laughed, which made her smile nervously as the airbus began to continue it's flight.
As Charlie looked around, she began to feel sleepy. It didn't faze at her, but when she started to yawn, the desire to fall asleep was beginning to cloud her thoughts.
She passed out, with thoughts of what was to come in Heaven.
Husk wasn't so sure how he fell asleep, but he did wind up falling asleep.
After a while, he began to regain his consciousness. It took a while to readjust himself to his surroundings.
Fortunately, he was still on the plane. Husk put his hand onto his face so that he could rub his eyes, only to realize that he was touching flesh.
He stared back at his hands and realized that instead of cat paws, Husk had human hands. He touched pretty much everything about himself, realizing that he was literally human again.
Ultimately, he took a bit of time to come to this revelation before looked more around him.
It was night, and they were high above the clouds. The lights within the fuselage were dim but he was able to see around the area. The women were placed in front of him so he wasn't able to tell if they were also human.
The only sound within the cabin was the muted sound of the engines, whirring away as they brought the plane towards it's eventual destination.
Looking around, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He looked upwards and saw the built in lights that came in airplanes.
Turning on the lights, he realized that he could look at his dark reflection in the plane's window.
In terms of how he looked, he was back in his late 30s. A decent haircut and a clean shaven face made him look younger than he probably was. But he wasn't a grumpy old man, which made him uneasy.
"That's weird." Husk said to himself, and he was shocked at his voice.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps happened to approach him and a lone stewardess was beside.
"Hello there, sir." the flight attendant said, "Is there anything you would like?"
Husk thought about it for a moment, "Do you have any booze?"
The flight attendant raised their eyebrow, but smiled, "We do, sir."
As if on cue, a trolley with various kinds of alcohol was rolled in by another air host. Husk recognized a few of them and chose the one he liked the most. The attendants passed the bottle of the beverage and a glass appropriate for it.
Once the air hosts left, he poured himself a glass of beer, and took a deep breath. The swig he took easily finished his glass, and the taste was well.. Heavenly.
Husk sighed in relief, the buzz of beer resonating in his throat. Promptly, he poured another glass and took another swig.
The thing was that it wasn't cheap booze, in fact it was pretty high quality in terms of the beer he's had.
For the time being, he drank at least 8 glasses of beer. But he didn't feel drunk at all, just a permanent buzz within him.
After that, he went ahead and called the flight host to put back the bottle and glass. Looking out of the window, a sunrise was beginning to come over the horizon.
Looking around for anything else to do, Husk took notice of a collection of magazines at the side of his chair. Taking all of them out and laying them out onto the table, he eyed at his choices.
The magazines appeared to range about music and fashion, and there was a newspaper sandwiched between them. It looked pretty recent and he picked it up to read it.
Unlike Hell's newspapers, this one had plenty of variety and more entertaining topics. Promotions for music festivals, drama between celebrities and even crimes.
Husk wasn't so sure why criminals existed in Heaven, but it was certainly interesting for a read.
Glossing over the numerous headlines, he could help but lay eyes on a particular headline which concerned the Hazbin Hotel visitation.
The article itself was quite positive as whoever wrote it was anticipating the hotel staff. Husk was somewhat relieved that the visit was well received in paradise but he didn't want any chance.
After reading the comics of the newspaper, he sighed as he looked out of the window once more. The sights of numerous buildings poked through the clouds, and he could see the faint glow of streetlights in the twilight.
Suddenly, he heard screaming.
Incoherent babbling began to echo through the cabin and he realized the women of the hotel staff had also discovered that they were all human.
"What?!" everyone seemed to scream over and over.
Fortunately, the flight attendants were quick to calm everyone of them down and get them used to their personal new forms.
Husk sincerely wanted to see how they looked like and he unbuckled his seat belt to check on everyone. Walking towards them, it was hard to describe his emotion at that point but it wasn't pleasant.
Mimzy was the most subtle when it came to her changes. Other than a slightly dark skinned tone, a more average height of around 5 feet and hazel eyes, she was relatively unchanged.
Charlie also had a human form, with a white skin tone and lacking of the puppet features. It was hard to distinguish what eye colour she had, but it looked nice on her.
Vaggie definitely had the Hispanic look on her, with dark skin, brown hair and two eyes surprisingly.
But Niffty was definitely the most drastic change. The seat where she initially sat at had a 5 foot tall Japanese woman seated in it. She was in shock, at her new form.
"You gals okay?" Husk asked nervous.
"No!" all of them exclaimed in unision.
He smiled nervously, "I'm pretty sure Heaven has a good reason for this. It'd take some getting used to, I guess?"
The flight attendants seemed amused at the revelations that they were having, but they were also calm enough to handle the situation.
One of them promptly cleared their throats which made the hotel staff face them.
"Well, we owe you an explanation, eh?"
Alastor looked at the news channel.
The current topic of the Hazbin Hotel visit was buzzing across the news, with debates surrounding the visitation. Some were enthusiastic about it, some were skeptical, while others seemed to be on the fence. Most of them were anticipating the visit, which reassured the radio host.
Ultimately, Heaven's residents seemed oblivious to the gravity of the situation but that was the least of Alastor's concern. As according to the news, the hotel staff would arrive in a day's time.
He scratched his head as he sipped at his warm coffee. At the moment, he was thinking about the plan he had in mind for the Hotel staff.
What the plan was that it was more of a quick rundown of explanations about everything with everyone. It wasn't going to be much with what Alastor had to handle, but he had his own method to the madness.
Idosing was the only one that Alastor had told about his plan, and he did some tweaking to it making it as good for both parties as possible.
Alastor promptly finished his coffee, the bitter scalding taste exploding in his mouth. He heaved a sigh of relief as he looked back at the television.
"Nice house."
He froze the moment he heard that voice, and suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Alastor couldn't believe that they would be here.
"L-Lucifer. I wasn't expecting any company today."
The king of Hell moved around to sit in the radio host's sofa. He looked over at Lucifer as he plopped himself down onto the couch.
Lucifer looked over at Alastor, in that white suit and hat. Alastor couldn't help but take notice of the sly demeanour the devil had.
"Well, I wanted to surprise you." Lucifer stated plainly.
Alastor scoffed, "Why are you here?"
"Heaven wants to assist in some aspects of the hotel. I thought I'd drop by in person to give them approval." Lucifer said.
"That's good to know, but why are you here in my house?" Alastor inquired.
Lucifer smirked, "I wanted to see you, just because I heard you'll be going away for the army of paradise for a while."
Alastor sighed, "That's two months away, and it's not your concern."
"What if I made you a deal?"
The radio host eyed at Lucifer, "What kind of stupid deal would I make with you now?"
Lucifer smiled just a bit wider, and he pulled out something from behind his back. It was a small opaque container, that looked vaguely like one for glasses. He promptly opened it and took out it's content and laid it on the table.
Alastor stared at what was on the table, and seemed to shiver or shake. He felt a wave of emotions at once, mesmerized at the sight in front of him.
On the table, was a small syringe filled with a clear substance. The hypodermic needle was covered in a plastic cover so that it didn't stab anyone accidentally.
He breathed heavily at the sight. Parts of him were screaming internally to resist the urge, while others were insisting to take it for the moment.
Lucifer chuckled, and the radio host felt rage go through him. But he couldn't act upon it, because of the desire he had.
"You want to know about what happens after this Hazbin Hotel visitation?" Lucifer suddenly asked.
"No." Alastor hissed.
"Paradise will provide protection towards the Hotel with Exterminators guarding the place." Lucifer said, "Alongside that, former members of the staff have the optional ability to work there for a few months."
"W-what does this have to do with.."
"The syringe there? I want to make sure that you don't cause chaos in the afterlife." Lucifer stated in a blunt tone.
Alastor breathed heavily, "W-why?"
"You're a nuisance, Alastor. For both Hell and paradise, but there's one thing about you that all of us can certainly agree." Lucifer said, "You're useful."
The radio host remained frozen and silent, as Lucifer turned around to face him.
"Whether you like it or not Mr. Astor, you are quite useful for a handful of things within the afterlife." Lucifer mused, "If you take this syringe, I will guarantee that if you wind up in Hell for a scouting expedition, protecting the hotel, or even because you wanted to help them, you will be more or less greeted with praise."
"That means?"
"You will become an Overlord again, temporarily at least." Lucifer said, "The legendary Radio Demon would be back, with some caveats and some changes in time."
"No.. downsides?"
"I'm giving you a fair deal, Heaven and Hell get to share you equally." Lucifer mused, "And I think we can all agree that this is better than the joy of killing someone. Or, even your own lover?"
"N-no.. I.." Alastor stammered.
"Do you want it?" Lucifer asked.
Alastor was shaking, a single sentence echoing through his mind as he slowly reached out for the syringe to which Lucifer chuckled.
"I recommend that you use that later." Lucifer stated.
"W-what is that?" Alastor said, frozen once more.
"That syringe, once you use it, it'll appear when you want it with a dosage of your favorite drug. The effects will be the same, but the afterglow will be reduced slightly." Lucifer stated, "Consider it a token of my appreciation after all of these years."
"I n-need it." Alastor stammered.
"Hm, you can take it." Lucifer said, "Not now, though."
Lucifer stood up and grabbed Alastor suddenly by the collar.
"I've known you for a very long time, Al. If you think of even doing anything that changes anything up here or down there for your benefit, everyone's going to have words with you."
Alastor remained silent, as Lucifer stared him down.
"Do you understand?" Lucifer asked.
"Y-yes." Alastor murmured and he was dropped back down onto the couch.
"Enjoy yourself." Lucifer said before he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
The radio host looked over at the syringe once more, and a thought crossed his mind. He heard stories from Molly, Idosing and Angel Dust on how difficult it was to quit addiction, and how easy it was to relapse into it again.
But the temptation was drowning out the coherent thoughts in his mind, and took off his sweater, exposing himself to the warm air of the home.
Wrapping the sweater into a tourniquet, he took the syringe and readied himself for an injection.
His chaotic thoughts became overwhelmed with a surge of bliss that went through it as he injected the drug into him. After that happened, he slowly pulled out the syringe and laid it out on the table. It became to dissipate into thin air as Alastor breathed heavily at what he had just done.
Alastor began to laugh, as joy washed over and he put on his sweater again.
Laying there, he let his mind wander, the bliss of the substance coursing through his veins. The radio host continued to smile, and sighed in relief.
"Oh, how I missed you." he said dreamily.
:)