Chapter 18: ONE STOOD…
Within the palace of the Capital, Hayden, Charlie and the Doom Slayer were gathered around a table in the War Room. Charlie brought out a large map and unfolded it over the table.
"Okay, so." Charlie started, placing her finger on one part of the map. "There are four giant regions in Hell that we've chartered so far."
"Chartered?" VEGA beeped in a questioning manner. Charlie nodded.
"Beyond the chartered land is territory that we can't exactly...walk on, because it's extremely dangerous."
"It could be possible that the portal is past those lands." VEGA beeped.
"That's ridiculous."
Everyone turned their heads to see Benny entering the war room, along with two other demons, an Imp and a wolf-human hybrid. All of them were in chains and heavily guarded by an entourage of royal guards.
"Benny…" Charlie muttered, her eyes tearing up. She remembered seeing his mace on the ground in the aftermath of the battle in the Capital, completely clean. She knew he never would have dropped that mace in battle. After the conflict, she had held a small funeral for him by herself, and spent hours sobbing and cursing herself for allowing him to die. Now, seeing him in the flesh once more, especially after she knew he had died and thought him to be gone for good, was a morbid experience, and it felt as if her feelings of sorrow and despair, her resolve to carry on, were mocked.
Benny noticed her staring at him, and was taken aback by her disheveled demeanor. Her hair was uncombed and ruffled, her clothing was dirtied and wrinkled, and her eyes were glazed over slightly, as if she had undergone serious trauma.
"Charlotte…" He whispered, feeling an overwhelming urge to run over and embrace her in a long hug. He had not seen her since during that battle, and now that he finally got the chance to see her again, he wanted to cry out in pain at the miserable state she seemed to be in.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, can we skip the drama?"
Benny felt his blood boil as he looked down at the Imp below him in chains, whom he noticed was just as miserable as Charlie.
"Who are these creatures?" Hayden vocalized, and Benny was shocked to see the nearly 10-foot tall robot standing across from him at the war table.
"That's...my royal guard." Charlie spoke up. "I...don't know those demons in chains."
The imp raised his shackles and sarcastically waved at Charlie.
"Nice to meet ya, sweety. Lookin' fresh." He said cleverly, though there was no joy behind his voice. The wolf-human hybrid behind him was silent, staring at the ground. Charlie looked up at Benny.
"Who are they?" She asked simply.
"This one here-"
Benny jerked the chain for the imp, who grunted in displeasure.
"-Was seen giving that bastard Alastor the Ancient Book that Stolas possessed. I wasn't sure what else to do with him, but I believe that an issue regarding royalty should be resolved by royalty."
"Ancient book?" Hayden inquired. Benny looked up at Hayden, feeling more than intimidated by the mechanic giant's presence.
"Er...yes." He muttered. "It's a book that allows demons to travel to the living world. It's rarely used, however."
Hayden was silent after that sentence. Charlie's eyes flicked up towards him.
"...What?" She asked, sensing that Hayden was deep in thought. "Is something wrong with what he said?"
"It may be mere suspicion," Hayden said. "But whoever opened that portal likely has far worse intentions in mind for this dimension than releasing a horde of demons into this version of Hell."
Hayden turned his head upwards towards everyone in the room.
"This 'Alastor' may be assisting the individual that opened the portal by helping them send those demons up to this dimension's version of Earth."
Crack!
The Doom Slayer's hand, which was holding the side of the large table, tightened in fury, sending webs of cracks throughout the table.
"It's the same scenario as before," VEGA beeped. "With a different situation."
"It would seem so, if my assumptions are correct." Hayden said. "And this is OUR dimension's problem now, because if they have an interdimensional portal and a gateway to this dimension's Earth, they will be able to grow their power a thousand times over, then storm our dimension. That would be the end."
"I don't see how that's our problem." Angel remarked. "Who cares if a few jack-offs in another dimension get wiped? Means more demons down here, more chaos, and more fun- GACK!"
Angel suddenly felt his windpipe close off as the Doom Slayer clenched his throat. Angel could get no words out of his mouth, not even for a raunchy quip.
"Hey!" Charlie shouted. "Let him go!"
The Doom Slayer's visor moved towards Charlie, who was suddenly hit with that same fear she had when she first met him in the Capital. However, the Doom Slayer released Angel, who fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Vaggie, who had been standing in the corner away from the table, cracked a malicious grin.
"This matters to you," Hayden answered, addressing Angel's remark. "Because these demons will kill you the same as any human being, and what might await during the reign of THESE demons is not something that any of you would like to experience."
"I did want to relay back to the topic of those 'uncharted lands' that Miss Charlie spoke of." VEGA voiced. "Mr. Benny, I believe you had something to say about that?"
"Er, yes." Benny started. "Those lands are, essentially, unable to be navigated. The environment is extremely dangerous, and the landscape is so harsh that all the exploration teams we sent to those places perished. In fact, this is why we have an overpopulation problem, because we can't extend our cities and towns into these territories. We possess neither the capabilities nor technology to-"
"I think I can solve that problem." Hayden interrupted. "The UAC is well-equipped in handling 'extreme' terrain. Assemble what soldiers and forces you may have, and you shall be able to traverse this landscape."
"Well, that's asserting that the portal is even out there. We haven't searched most of our current landscape yet."
"We don't need to." Hayden surmised. "If the portal was erected within the tamed lands of this Hell, you would have heard about it."
He pointed at the red landscape that marked the uncharted land on the map.
"Give my men a few days to construct the necessary components for traversing this landscape, and you will be able to cross this uncharted land."
After the meeting, Charlie had brought all of her friends into a separate room with a balcony. Husk, Niffty, Angel and Vaggie all shuffled in as Charlie closed the door behind them.
"Um, I know this is kind of short notice, but…" She started. "I wanted to talk to you guys about...our current situation."
She walked over to the balcony and turned around, facing the group.
"I, uh…" She muttered, scratching her head. "I know these past few days have been pretty...bad. And...I'm sorry that you all had to endure everything that went down, a lot of it because of me. So…"
She lifted her head up, her face tired and dejected.
"I'm sorry. For all of this. All I wanted was to...to have a hotel for sinners to repent, so they could go to Heaven. And now...we're here."
The room was silent.
"I won't blame you if you want to leave here. I can't guarantee your safety because of this situation, but I can at least-"
"Hold that statement, sweetheart." Angel interrupted, raising a single finger. "What exactly are you gonna do for us? If we don't stop these cock-holding shitfucks-"
He tromped over to the balcony, throwing open the doors and stepping out onto the small terrace, waving his arms across the entirety of the city.
"-EVERYONE IN THIS ENTIRE FUCKIN' DIMENSION IS FUCKED!" He shouted, pointing at various buildings and people to emphasize his point.
"THEY are fucked, THAT BUILDING is fucked, THAT GUY OVER THERE-"
"Howdy!"
"-IS FUCKED!"
He stomped back in, his face filled with rage.
"I didn't overdose on PCP and suffer this shithole for 80 or so fuckin' years so I could get killed AGAIN!"
He walked up to Charlie and prodded her chest with his finger.
"We-"
Poke.
"Are-"
Poke.
"Going-"
Poke.
"To-"
Poke.
"Fix-"
POKE.
"This-"
POKE!
"SHIT!"
"Okay, okay!" Charlie stuttered, raising her hands as a sign of peace. Despite his over-the-top protest, she felt a lot better about getting confirmation from a friend.
"Gotta agree." Husk muttered. "I haven't been in a battle since 'Nam, but I sure as hell am ready to fight for my life again, even if it means living in this fuckin' place."
"Me too!" Niffty piped up. "There's going to be so much cleaning up to do after we SLAUGHTER THESE JACKASSES!"
Husk recoiled slightly at the explosive statement delivered by the little gremlin-looking demon, then back up at Charlie.
"The fuck? Are you crying?" Husk noticed. Charlie wiped her eyes, seemingly realizing she was doing so, then placed her gaze on Vaggie, who was standing in the corner again. The sight hurt Charlie, as she knew Vaggie to be a stoic but proud person, and to see her in this constantly-fearful state hurt her heart.
"Vaggie," She started. "You don't have to-"
"No." Vaggie stated. "I do have to. Especially for you, Charlie."
She drew a long breath and exhaled, then straightened herself up.
"I went with you through hell. Literally. And I will go through more if it means you can live a life better than this."
It took all that Charlie had emotionally to not break down right there. After seeing the grisly and horrible deaths of many of her friends and people she knew for a long time, she was relieved to have people backing her up through all of this.
"Okay, then." Charlie said. "For now, I guess we just have to wait. Or maybe...train?"
"Train?" Angel asked. "As in, improve our combat skills or something?"
"Yeah."
Angel scratched his head.
"I guess we could do that. Or..."
A grin snaked across his face.
"I have a much better idea."
A few days later...
VRRRRRRRRRR!
"How do I keep ending up in these situations?" Seymour asked aloud. He and the rest of his regiment were deployed with some form of futuristic military jeeps, which hovered over the boiling lava landscape as they zoomed through the uncharted land.
"Seymour, don't stare into the lava."
Seymour looked up at Dusty, his longtime best friend and, just like everyone else in his squad at the time, died violently in front of him at the hands of the Doom Slayer; And if Seymour were to lift his head up a little more, he would see Dusty's killer and revivalist standing at the bulwark of this expedition, far upfront with the more important figures. He had no idea how to feel about this, and frankly, he didn't care to try and investigate this myriad of emotional confusion.
"Seymour, you continue to stare into the lava, despite what I just said, bruh."
Seymour couldn't help but giggle at that statement. In light of all this morbidity and depression, more so than it was before the Slayer's arrival, he was deeply thankful to have Dusty back.
"My bad, comrade."
"Comrade?" Dusty smirked. "Didn't take you for a Commie."
"It's got Viking origin." Seymour remarked. "On god."
"Oh? On god?"
The two grinned at each other, before looking back out at the surrounding environment. Seymour took a moment to look around the jeep, recounting the familiar faces riding along with him. Besides Dusty, Steadman and Bricks were back on the squad, which he was elated about, along with a few fresh-faced soldiers, who looked nervous about the whole thing.
"Captain Dusty, sir." One of them piped up, a taller Imp with red-black skin and small horns jutting through his helmet. "Has anyone besides us actually been out here?"
"Nope."
That answer did nothing to reassure the recruit, who looked even more nervous after hearing that response.
Despite this harrowing expedition, Seymour felt special, as if he were setting a precedent by exploring a long-unexplored land. Even if it was Hell.
Suddenly, the radio on Dusty's shoulder crackled to life.
"Hellhound Zero-One, report in, over."
Dusty grabbed the radio, pressing on the button and speaking into it.
"This is Hellhound Zero-One, what did you need, Overlord? Over."
"We're getting reports of movement to the East. We're sending your squadron, along with Hellhound Zero-Two and Zero-Three, to go investigate."
"Copy, Overlord, over."
Dusty released the radio button, getting up from his seat and speaking to the driver of the floating jeep. After a few words, the driver nodded, then began turning the jeep to the right, towards the East. He was followed quickly by several of the other jeeps, with Seymour's convoy being at the front. Dusty took a seat once more, his eyes flickering past Seymour's.
"Good to be back in the action, I suppose." Dusty said, trying to speak over the bubbling lava landscape.
Dusty's behavior both disturbed and intrigued Seymour. Despite having been 'killed' by the Doom Slayer, Seymour experienced only a few hours of the 'lower levels' of Hell. Without going into much description, it was without a doubt the worst thing he had ever experienced in his entire existence. Within the few mere hours he had spent there, his entire worldview had changed, especially because of the range of emotional and mental trauma he had endured. Dusty had to endure that kind of torment for days. And yet, here he was, talking as if he had never gone down there. At this point, Seymour could only see him as some sort of Chuck Norris-level badass.
"I think I see something, Captain, sir." One of the recruits remarked. Seymour turned his head to the East and noticed a break in the bubbling lava, over the horizon.
"Is that solid ground?" Another inquired.
As the battalion approached, Seymour confirmed it to be solid ground, but an odd type at that. It seemed to be pure, stygian rock, smooth and glossy-looking. The jeep carriers flew in and, after a few tested the ground to ensure it could be walked on, the carriers landed, and the soldiers filed out of the jeeps, bringing up their rifles.
Meanwhile, Seymour, being the scout of his small platoon, brought up his binoculars, which had been enhanced by the UAC, whom he had worked close with for the past few days as they made several technological advancements to his gear and weaponry. He had no idea how so many scientists and soldiers had ended up here in Hell, but he didn't question it, which he found befitting of his role as a soldier.
Scanning the horizon, he noticed a few bumps at the edge, moving erratically.
"Dusty, you might want to take a look at this." Seymour remarked, handing the binos to Dusty, who peered through them.
"Aw, fuck." He muttered, handing them back to Seymour and inspecting his rifle, before looking back at the battalion of soldiers.
"IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR A BATTLE, Y'ALL! GET YOUR GUNS READY!"
Dusty turned his head back to facing the East horizon as several guns were cocked, loaded and readied. Seymour looked to him as one would to an idol.
"What's the game plan, sir?" He asked.
Dusty's expression was one of grim determination as he cocked his rifle.
"Plan is-"
Ka-chink!
"-We break in this discovered new land by staining it with red."