"So if you're gonna do this, then the first thing you're gonna need to do is reconnaissance."

Crol was standing on a chair near his dinner table, a bottle of whiskey gripped between his tiny hands. Chay and Husk were seated across from him, with Chay sipping on a warm bowl of miso soup, and Husk 'sipping' on a bottle of rotgut. Vaggie had since left for the Hotel (with Shakie in tow).

"No shit, Sergeant Slaughter.", replied Husk. "The question is how? We can't just ask around for their HQ, and I'm gonna take a wild fuckin' guess that they wouldn't just let us bum a ride."

Crol slammed his bottle down on the table (somehow miraculously not shattering either table or bottle). "Obviously. These guys have a pretty tight operation. But look at what just happened: They seemed to talk a pretty big game, but they were fucking terrified of Cherri. What does that signal to you?"

"That they're cowards?", asked Chay.

"No, that they're about spectacle. It's true that they like to put on the image of an indestructible force, and I know from experience that they aren't afraid of charging into a hail of bullets. But they didn't do that this time. As soon as they saw Cherri's bomb, they tucked their tails between their legs and fucked off."

"Huh.", Chay said. "They're willing to charge headfirst into a hail of bullets with just knives, but as soon as they saw one little bomb they retreated."

"Wait a minute…". Husk scratched his nose in thought. "When was the last time you saw these guys actually fighting?"

"A couple of weeks ago", Crol said. "It was a gang of Eggbois who I think were working with Pentious. They were all outfitted with machine guns and rocket launchers. But these guys came charging out of that fucking bucket they ride around in and turned them into omelets."

"With just knives?", Chay asked.

"Yep, and clubs."

"Hmmm. When was the last time Cherri was out in the streets?"

"I'll answer that one", Husk answered gruffly. "I've seen Cherri in action before. Everyone in Pentagram City has. Our first patron is pretty tight with her."

Chay sighed. "And again, I find out how much of a fucking luddite I've been."

"Look, you're from Imp City. They tend to keep to their own thing when they can. But the rest of Hell was watching TV after the last Extermination. That was the day Charlie announced the opening of the Hotel. It was also the same day that a new turf war started in the West Side."

Crol nodded. "Yeah, I had just moved into my new digs before the war started. I basically spent the whole day hiding in a trashcan."

"I always assumed you just lived in them.", Husk replied. "Anyway, that was the day Sir Pentious decided to take over the West Side with his Eggboi army. Cherri was the one who stopped him in his tracks."

"She had an army as well?"

"No, just her…..Well, her and Angel Dust." Husk took a swig of liquor and belched. "But Angel didn't show up until the end."

Chay's eyes widened. "Wait...I think I get it now. They didn't run away from Cherri because they were afraid of her. They ran because it was a battle they knew they couldn't win ."

"Exactly.", said Husk. "One of the major rules of guerrilla warfare: you only attack if you're sure you can accomplish the mission. If it's a superior enemy, then at best you harass them as long as they're stationary. Otherwise? You retreat."

"Cherri is basically a one-demon army.", replied Chay.

"That's not even the half of it. You saw the damage she did out there. She threw a bomb right into the middle of her territory and basically made the damage worse. It isn't just that she's strong. It's also that she's reckless. I've seen her level an entire city block because she got a bad batch of hash."

"Holy shit…", Chay said, her eyes filling with understanding as some important puzzle pieces clicked together in her head. "They not only ran because they thought they were out-gunned, but because they found another force that was as reckless and theatrical as they were."

Crol sipped at his whiskey. "But they are still active around here even with Cherri's presence. So even if they are scared of her, they still see this as some kind of safe territory."

Husk shook his head. "I dunno about that. If that were the case, then why haven't they tried to just take over territory outright?"

Silence filled the room. It was a real conundrum: This group was obviously confident enough that they could gang up on heavily armed groups, but with the Overlords (and the wannabe overlords like Cherri) they preferred either stealth, or simply avoiding them altogether.

"Have they ever tried to strike anywhere else?", Chay asked. "I know they've never done anything is Imp City, and I'm guessing they haven't gone near the other territories in Hell. They seem to be centered entirely on Pentagram City."

"Wait, wasn't there a whore house that was bombed in Imp City a few months back?", Husk asked.

Chay rubbed the space between her eyes (that would have been her nose). "No, that was an ILF action. That was a massive 'fuck-you' to the guy who ran it for exploiting Imps."

"Who was the owner?", Crol asked.

"Some asshole named Flynn.", Chay replied. "He'd recently set up shop in the city and was picking drug-addicted Imps off the street for Sinners to have sex with. Either way, he died in the blast…you OK there Husk?"

Husk's face was buried in his palms, vigorously massaging his temples like he was trying to rub enough brain cells together to form a memory.

"Yea, I'm fine…..did you say the guy's name was Flynn?"

"Have you heard of him?", Chay asked.

"I don't know….I might have. There was a guy named Flynn who used to live here in the West Side, near the News Station. He ran this shitty little bar that sold bootleg hooch he brewed in a toilet in his apartment. Tom Trench used to duck in there all the time to get a swig of moonshine before he went on camera. It was really close to the center of the Pentagram."

Crol stroked his chin. "Yeah, I remember that guy. Short little orange Sinner with scaly eyelids and green hair. He up and left town shortly after the Extermination. Weird, too… He'd been there for decades at that point. I'd thought he gotten the business end of an Exterminator's spear, but he actually had a fucking 'Closed Indefinitely' sign on his front door!"

"Yeah, he was doin' good business then.", Husk said.

"Why is him leaving strange, though?", Chay asked. "A lot of people flee the big urban areas when the Exterminators show up."

"Because he had never left like that before. I mean, shit, during the Extermination before last he'd damn near gotten bombed out of the fucking building, but he simply rebuilt and re-opened business again."

Husk leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head. "Trust me, that guy was no pushover. He may have been tiny, but he was a scary motherfucker. Anyone got up in his face, he just pulled out that Apache pistol he had under the bar and wave it under their nose. Claimed the knife on the barrel was made out of Heavenly Minerals for Exterminators."

Crol immediately perked up. "Oh, right! Hey Husk, remember that Apache you showed me years ago?"

"Barely", grumbled Husk. "At least vaguely. A few decades of binge drinking will do that to ya."

"Oh, come on! You have to remember this! You were holding it for some one! Collateral, I think?"

"Oh fuck, don't remind me. Yeah, Flynn had given it as collateral for a loan. I was working with Al's money lending operation back then. Not voluntarily, mind you. But yeah, I remember it...it was a custom job."

That last sentence got Chay's attention. Crol had said that the pistol she had must have been custom-made. Was it possible that….

"Custom-made how, exactly?"

"Uuuuh….lemme think a sec." Husk downed the rest of his rotgut, deep in thought.

"Uuuurr…..I think the big difference was the barrel. Normal Apaches basically were made like belly guns with no barrel to speak of. That was the whole point of their design, see...they're concealable weapons that you use in a street fight, like when you gotta shank some poor bastard on a wharf somewhere. Flynn's gun was different."

Chay leaned in closely. "Was it like the barrel of a snub-nosed revolver?"

"Yeah! Thing was, it still functioned properly in spite of that. You'd think having that little divot for the knife would fuck up the barrel...how'd you guess that?"

Chay looked between Crol and Husk. She reached into her pockets, grabbed her gun, and slammed it on the table.

"Look familiar?", she asked.

After much deliberation and consideration (and Husk's drunken bitching), a couple of facts had become apparent:

1. This organization, whoever they may have been, were centered almost entirely around the West Side of Pentagram City, and never left it.

2. In spite of talking a big game, and showing instances of nearly suicidal bravery (even though suicide was something that couldn't actually happen in Hell), they tucked their tails and ran whenever facing someone they considered a genuine threat, which also lead into…

3. The reason they had not extended outside of the West Side was due to the fact that the rest of the Overlords (and petty bosses like Cherri) were a genuine threat, meaning…

4. Wherever their hideout was, it was somewhere within the West Side itself, or nearby.

That only left the big question: What were Chay and Husk going to do about it?

As Crol had stated earlier, recon was going to be the name of the game here. If they were going to track this group to their hideout, then the best action they could take at that specific moment was a passive one: simply wait until the group poked their heads out of their hiding place, and then attempt to follow them back to their base.

But that also brought up another round of speculation: Where could they possibly be hiding? Pentagram City was practically the size of a small country, and the West Side was filled with an endless labyrinth of alley ways and shortcuts.

"And that's not even mentioning the sewers…", Chay remarked, shivering a little.

Crol stroked his chin. "Well here's an idea: There's three of us here, so that's three pairs of eyes. Let's try to think of the top three places they could possibly be hiding. Then, when they finally decide to poke their heads out again, the three of us can keep an eye on those spots and see if they show up."

Husk shook his head. "There's a couple of flaws with that. For one, we could all be completely off base and never actually see them. Second, even if we do manage to see them farting around the city, we could just as easily completely lose track of 'em, and then we're right back at square one. And third…"

"...Even if we do track them down to their hideout, what do we do then?", Chay finished for him.

Husk gave her the side-eye. "Well I was going to say something along the lines of 'we will still be sitting on our asses until then'….but yeah, I guess that also works."

"Nobody said we couldn't be using our time constructively...", said Crol.

Chay eyed Crol suspiciously. "Meaning…?"

Crol shrugged his shoulders. "Fuck if I know. Just a suggestion. But for right now, let's try to think of places where they could be hiding out. Any ideas?"

"Well, my first suggestion would be somewhere around Valentino's studio", Chay said.

"It's a start, at least. But I doubt Valentino would just let anyone near that place and do the kind of damage these guys are doing. Still…"

"That's the thing, though.", Chay replied. "Angel Dust told me that he'd seen these guys driving around and snatching Valentino's employees. So they have to be close by."

Husk picked his nose with one of his claws. "But even if that were true, they couldn't be too close to Val's place, otherwise he would have scorched the whole fucking area to try and get to them."

"So it would have to be someplace inconspicuous. Some place they could go in and out of without making much noise. Any places around here that are abandoned and boarded up?"

"Very fucking few", replied Husk. "The last Extermination took out a good chunk of the Sinner population, but there's always new ones ready to fill the void."

"What about that place you mentioned earlier? The one that was owned by Flynn?"

Husk shrugged. "It's a fucking start, I guess. But you're gonna be real close to the city's center, so prepare accordingly."

"I still think one of us should keep an eye on Val's place.", Crol suggested. "They might not be coming from there, but they're definitely operating in the area. If they show up again, if nothing else we can find out which direction they run off to."

"Alright, so that's two places. What's the third?"

Husk leaned back into his chair and sighed. "Fuck if I know. How about the donut shop?"

Chay and Crol both raised an eyebrow.

"Really?", Crol said.

"You guys have a donut shop here?", Chay asked.

"What? They're good donuts! Besides, Charlie loves that place. She's like their most famous customer or some shit."

"Well, at any rate…", Crol jumped off of the table and back onto the floor. "We're not doing anything until they show their faces again. So my suggestion would be hunker down for the evening and get ready for tomorrow."

Chay looked out the window.

-Wow, it really has gotten late…

"Best fucking suggestion I've heard all day!" Husk got up and stretched, barely keeping his wings from knocking over everything in the apartment. "I dunno about you, but I could use some air. You guys got a way to the roof, right?"

Crol nodded in the direction of the fire escape. "Yeah, out the door and to the left.".

"Bitchin". Husk walked over to the door and turned the knob. "I'll be barfing off the sides if you need me. Oh, and Chay?"

Chay perked up. "Um, yeah Husk?"

"Join me on the roof in a bit. You and me need to talk."

Husk opened the door and left the apartment, leaving an obnoxiously pregnant pause in his wake.