The first thing they heard when they emerged was singing.
Really bad singing.
After having flowed through whatever exists in a warp in space-time, Chay and Husk emerged into an enormous garage. The walls were brick (and was badly in need of re-grouting), and the floor was dirty, scuffed concrete scarred with rubber marks, scratches, cracks and gouges. Around them were various make-shift tables, filled with various papers, chemicals and cardboard boxes. The Assault Vehicle, the one they had tailed to this location, was haphazardly parked near the corner of the room, its chassis dusty and covered in blast marks. The mini-gun, which had terrorized the denizens of the West Side, laid limp and impotent, crooked on it's base.
Husk whipped his head around, somewhat disappointed. "Well fuck, I thought I was gonna get the claws wet."
Chay whispered in a hushed tone. "You still just might, but we need to do a little reconnaissance. What do we have as far as entrances and exists go?"
"Lemme see…"
Husk and Chay took in the rest of the garage. The only possible exits were a door, and what appeared to be a vent, from which the terrible singing was coming from.
"I'm gonna guess that the door only leads to another part of the hideout. The vent, however, seems to lead to wherever they're torturing cats."
"I'm pretty sure that's singing.", Chay replied.
"You can call it whatever you want", Husk said while scratching his ear. "It's still fuckin murder."
Chay reached into her pocket and produced her gun. She folded the knuckle-duster grip into the gun's body, and folded out the dagger. She stuck her fingers through the rings, and gripped.
"Then our only option is the door. We're still flying blind however…"
Husk grinned and giggled to himself, nodding.
"...What are you laughing at, Husk?"
"Nuthin'...just impressed." Husk flexed his claws. "You really do know your shit. A rookie would have suggested the vent."
Chay looked up at the vent. "Why would I choose the vent? Even if we could fit through it, at best it would lead to a duct, and those collapse under the smallest amount of weight. We'd fall right into the line of fire. Why would anyone attempt that?"
"Why, indeed. But before we go in, I wanna check something…"
Husk walked over to the banged-up Assault Vehicle. He peered into the dark windowshield.
"Looking for something?"
"I wanna check and see if it's unlocked. They might have something in there that could help us"
Husk walked over to the driver's side door and jiggled the handle. The door popped over, easily.
"Wanna have a look?"
Chay tip-toed over to the vehicle and peered inside. The inside of the vehicle was cramped, but serviceable, with seats for both the driver and a passenger, as well as a couple of makeshift benches in the back for transporting additional troops. There was also small ladder that led up to the hatch that opened up to the mini-gun.
On the passenger side seat, was a small piece of parchment.
Chay reached in and grabbed the item, careful not to drop or tear it. It was somewhat brittle, but still stable enough to have been folded in half like a greeting card.
She looked at Husk and grinned. "Care to guess what's in here?"
Husk smirked. "Easy. It's what they used to get here."
She opened up the parchment. Inside were several stickers resembling the one they found on the highway: a brown circle with an image of an owl head wearing a crown. She counted nine in total...but there were also indentations in the paper that suggested a sticker had previously been there. All in all, there were roughly thirteen stickers originally.
"They've obviously already used a couple.", Husk said.
"One of which was on the highway, and another…."
They both looked back at where they had appeared in the garage: Stuck on the wall, towards the floor, was what was unmistakably a similar sticker...although it was worn and faded in places.
"Wonder where the other two are…", Husk said as he scratched his chin.
"No idea. And I don't intend to wait around to find out."
They both turned around to face the door.
Husk stretched out his wings, and ground his teeth. "OK, you wanna breach the door or your want me to do it?"
"I'm on point. If we walk into anything, back me up."
Husk nodded. "Understood. Let's do this."
The two Sinners quietly walked to the door. Chay chanced the handle- it was locked tight.
"Locked?"
Chay nodded. "Yeah. Let me get my lockpick.".
Chay rummaged around in her pockets, looking for her skeleton key.
It wasn't there.
"Shit."
"Don't worry, I got this."
Husk stepped in front of her and extended one of his claws. He stuck it into the keyhole and fingered the mechanism inside.
One minute later, and the lock clicked open.
Chay raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Nice. Can't be easy to pick a lock with a claw like that."
"Oh, I didn't pick the lock. I just stuck it in there and broke it. You still on point?"
Chay put her hand on the door handle, gripping the Apache.
"Yeah. Get ready…"
Husk flexed his wings, working his grin into a snarl.
"Three….two…..one…..here we go."
Chay opened the door slowly, peering through the crack in the door before opening it completely.
It was a dusty, L-shaped hallway, with dripping pipes and a dirty bucket of mop water against the wall (complete with mop). It curved around to the left, to possibly another door.
"Dammit!", Husk grunted to himself. "Why you gotta get me all riled up like that?"
"Don't get comfortable yet, we might still be walking into a horde of assholes."
Chay tip-toed through the door and down the hall, peering around the corner. There was a bulletin board tacked to the right wall that was covered with papers and a calendar, next to another door. This door, however, had a window, which opened on to a flight of stairs.
The Sinners slowly walked around the corner, tip-toeing to the door.
"Chay!", whispered Husk, looking at the calendar. "Take a look at this!"
Chay took a glance at the calendar. It was fairly busy, with several notes on days about things like luncheons, 'poetry' readings, 'group meet'...and raids.
Including raids for the last two weeks.
"Fucking poetry readings? Bunch of fuckin' dweebs.", Husk giggled to himself.
Chay peered through the door's window again, looking at the staircase.
"Looks like we're going up a floor…"She jiggled the door-handle. It was also unlocked.
-Are these guys really this incompetent?
Chay walked through the door, followed by Husk.
They began to climb...
(From the Night Before)
"So what do you know about World War I?", Viola asked into Lucius's phone. She was sitting at the Imp's desk, typing with one hand on Lucius's laptop while chewing away at a piece of pockie between her teeth.
"The basics, I guess.", the Hungry Ghost girl answered on the other end of the line. "I know that it started because someone shot Archduke Ferdinand, that started some scuffle with the Austro-Hungarians and the Germans with Serbia, which in turn pissed off the French and the British. The Russians and Italians got involved, and then everyone started killing each other in trenches with mustard gas."
Viola raised an eyebrow. "Your grasp on the timeline is a little mixed...but yeah, that's the long and short of it. Anyway, it was a catastrophic conflict and basically wounded everyone involved who didn't die. Some of those people would then have a hand in starting the sequel."
"Hitler and Mussolini, yes."
"You also probably know about the other big thing that happened towards the end of the war, the thing that got Russia out of it."
"You mean the October Revolution?"
"Right, and that ended up triggering a bunch of similar uprisings and coups all over Europe and Asia."
"It also plunged Russia into a bloody civil war. The events of that era would reverberate all the way to my country many years later."
"Yeah, but we're getting off track…."
Viola pressed a button on her mousepad, enlarging a picture on the screen. It was a photograph of a human: bald, with a prominent nose, intense eyes, a curled mustache and a pointy beard.
"Like I said, after the war ended a bunch of the veterans went back to their home countries, wounded and a little on edge. You already mentioned Hitler and Mussolini, but there was another Italian involved as well."
She clicked on the photograph again. It led to an encyclopedic article on the figure in question, and an additional photo of him in military garb.
"He was pretty famous back then. A very successful writer and poet, and a massive publicity hog. He wrote several novels, plays, but mostly he was known for his poetry. Critics at the time called him the greatest Italian poet since Dante."
She bit into the pockie, breaking it off in her teeth while holding the remainder between her fingers.
"Guess what nickname they gave him."
"I can only guess."
"They called him Il Profeta, the Prophet."
"Fun."
"He was also a massive poon hound. He was a master seducer who would fuck and leave several women over his lifetime. He fathers dozens of illegitimate children and refused to have anything to do with them. He would give speeches on balconies, and screaming fan girls would crowd around under him on the off chance they might get sprayed with his drool."
"That….is some intense fandom."
"He was also absolutely obsessed with his home country of Italy. A serious patriot, to an irrational measure. So when Italy entered the war in 1914, he gave speeches in favor of Italy's entry. He even joined the Italian military and became a fighter pilot. He returned home after the war as not only a man of letters, but as a war hero. He even managed to die of old age, in a mansion, with the reputation of a demigod."
"Quite a life."
"Yeah, but it isn't over yet. This is the part you're going to want to pay attention to…"
The voices were getting louder.
Husk and Chay had climbed an unusually long flight of stairs, one that actually climbed up a few stories. But as they climbed, the noise they had heard coming from the vent in the garage returned, and it was getting louder as they climbed.
"Sounds like they're having a rally.", Husk whispered.
"That...might be a problem.", Chay replied, breathing heavily. "It might make a good distraction, but if we're gonna end this tonight, we'll be surrounded."
"Let's not give up yet, Chay. Let's see where these stairs lead us."
"Easy for you to say.", Chay replied, almost out of breath. "You don't have to walk up this shit…"
Husk gently hovered behind her, his wings flapping as he practically floated up the stairs.
"This still takes a lot of energy, you know."
Chay looked up above her. There was only one more series of stairs to go.
"Hold on….let's stop a second…"
Chay nearly collapsed onto the top step, with Husk gently landing next to her. She wasn't usually this easily winded, but for some reason it seemed difficult to breath here.
It was also warmer than usual.
"Is it just me, or…."
"Naw, I feel it to.", Husk replied. "Maybe the air is just thin here, or something is eating up all of the oxygen."
Chay wiped sweat from her forehead. "But whatever it is, we're getting close."
Husk looked up at the door. "Yeah, we are. What's the plan?"
Chay closed her eyes for a moment.
"It looks like that door has another window. We'll need to get a look inside before we enter….but I have no idea if anyone is guarding it or not.
Husk flapped his wings.
"Hold on, I'll hover up there and see if I can look inside…"
Husk flew up to the top of the stairs, his wings making gentle wind. He hovered next to the door, and peered through the window.
He was right, there was definitely a huge rally happening. The room inside was enormous, and it was filled with hundreds of Inferna members, all wearing their signature black uniforms and gas masks. They were all watching an enormous stage, on which was two enormous torches blazing at full heat, in front of a backdrop that featured Inferna's emblem in enormous display: The Ouroborus, around a red disc, with the Big Dipper once again in the center.
And on that stage, gathered together and struggling to sing something , were various female Sinners of of every size and sub-species of demon. All of them looked tired, exhausted, over-worked...and scared. They all wore identical choir robes of pitch black. And not a single one of them could sing properly.
Husk motioned to Chay. "You'll wanna see this!", he whispered.
She tip-toed up the steps, mostly recovered from the climb, and peered into the window.
"That's them!", she whispered. "That's the rest of Val's girls! I'm also certain of it!"
The 'song' finally came to an end. The girls were 'ushered' off of the stage (at spear point) and behind the curtain. One of the Inferna members (a pudgy Sinner with a paunch) walked up on to the stage, with a snare drum strapped to its gut and a pair of drumsticks gripped in his hand.
"Ahem. Attention, brothers!"
The rest of the Inferna stood fast at attention.
"The Prophet shall emerge to speak with us shortly. Before he does, let us repeat the Oath of Silence, as we always should, and always shall, until his visage rules over all of Hell. Salute!"
The pudgy Inferna stretched out his arm, presenting his hand in an upward facing salute. The rest of the Infena immediately followed suit.
"Brothers! Repeat after me! 'As a soldier of the Inferna brotherhood….' "
"As a soldier of the Inferna brotherhood…", they repeated in chorus.
"I hereby swear upon my damned soul…"
"I hereby swear upon my damned soul…"
"To hold the Prophet and his works sacred…"
"To hold the Prophet and his works sacred…"
Back behind the door, Husk floated gently down back to Chay. "This might be our chance. Should we go in there?"
She stood up, gripping the Apache in her hand. "We'll be surrounded in there, you know."
Husk shook his head. "Don't worry, if all goes to shit I have a back-up plan."
Chay raised an eyebrow. " You have a backup plan?"
"Yeah, though I'd rather not have to use it if I don't have to."
"Hopefully we won't have to.". She climbed up the last few stairs before getting to the door. Her hand rested on the door-handle.
"I'm on point. Follow me…"
Chay slowly and quietly opened the door, opening it to the barest amount necessary to sneak in. Husk slowly followed behind her.
"…..And have my tongue severed and shoved into my arse."
"…..And have my tongue severed and shoved into my arse."
The two Sinners tip-toed as quietly as they could, sweat beading on their brows from the intense heat of the stage's storches. The entire room was sweltering. How any of the Inferna they were quietly sneaking behind could stand it was beyond Chay's understanding.
"Et Suit Inferna!"
"Et Suit Inferna!"
The Inferna drummer then gripped his drumsticks in both hands, and began to patter out a steady beat.
"Now then, brothers. Let us welcome with great joy, the future leader of Hell, whom we shall serve for all time, as Hell shall serve us!"
The Inferna members erupted in cheers.
The curtain slowly opened.
Slithering out from behind it, was the individual they had been calling The Prophet. The source of Chay's problems for the last three days, and the thorn in the side of Valentino, Cherri, and the resident's of Pentagram City's west side.
The Sinner was a green snake-demon, with a curled moustache, pointed beard, militant costume, an officer's cap sporting a feather, and a rose on his lapel.
"Brothers in fire!", the Prophet began, with a deeply noticable Italian accent.
"I come before you a man of vision! A man of principals! A man who strives for greatness, as you yourselves strive!"
"That's him! Viola was right!", Chay whispered to Husk.
"Isn't that the other guy you've been…"
"Yes! It's Profera!" Chay pulled out her phone and swiped through her apps, finding the photo album.
The Prophet continued his speech.
"Brothers! You are not blind, as I am not blind! You have born witness to the corruption, the decadence and weakness of those who claim to rule this Inferno of Suffering! Those who seek to pick the bones off its rotting corpse! Those who cavort with women who seek power, with effeminate men and degenerate peoples who poison our world with their degeneracy! You have seen the dandies who rule in their palaces, nary raising a finger in battle! Yet we are supposed to serve them, to toady to their bloated existence?"
"No!", the members of Inferna chanted.
"Is not Hell meant to be ruled by the strong? The brave? The daring?"
"Yes!"
"Does not fortune favor the bold? Is it not the right of the strong to rule?"
"Yes!"
"And I thought 'Pentious was bad", Husk grunted to himself.
"Do you consecrate youself to this divine cause, brothers?!"
"Yes!"
"Shall we go forth, and conquer?!"
"YES!"
"Shall we topple the House of Magne, and rule all of Hell?!"
"YES!"
Chay couldn't help but giggle to herself.
Viola had been 100% right.
"What's so fuckin' funny, Chay?", Husk asked.
"He's exactly as Viola described him, Husk." she answered. "This is..."
(From the Night Before)
Viola clicked on another link, bringing her to a rather unusual flag.
"After the war ended in 1919, the Allied Powers started divvying up territory between themselves. One of the places in questions was a city called Fiume, which was located in what is now Croatia. It was culturally Italian, but it was attached to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. As you can imagine for a lunatic patriot, this was something he could not tolerate."
"I would imagine."
"Now here is where it gets pretty incredible: the guy decides that someone should invade and conquer Fiume for Italy. So, he gets a few thousand ex-soldiers to rally around him...and he invades and conquers Fiume. Just like that."
"Wow."
"Not only that, but he actually makes himself dictator of the city, crowning himself as Il Duce. He basically starts an entire mini-state that's like a libertine prototype of Fascism. He ruled the place for over a year before the Italian Navy shelled the city and forced him to flee back to Italy. They also had a flag especially for them, and an official seal…"
She clicked on the flag, and routed it to Chay's hellphone.
"I'm sending you an image for your hellphone. It should be getting there in a second."
"OK, it's coming….whoa."
"Look familiar?"
"It's the fucking emblem of Inferna!"
"Ouroborus, red circle, big dipper. The very same. Now you wanna bet who this Prophet person is?"
"It has to be this guy...whoever he is. It's a man, right? What is his name?"
"Hold on, I need to send you one more image. It's his photograph."
The Imp clicked on the photograph one more time, sending it to Chay.
"You'll want to save that picture. His name was…."
"…Gabrielle D'Annunzio.", Chay whispered. "She was right."
There was no mistaking it. The Sinner on the stage giving his fiery speech may have been a snake-demon now, but it was definitely him. The accent, the moustache and beard, the theatricality and ego, the obsession with spectacle...it was definitely him. The Sinner who Valentino knew as Profera was in fact the source of all of this mess, and had managed to convince enough Sinners to follow his lead.
"I dunno, Chay…..something is bothering me."
Chay began folding the knuckle duster grip back into it's position. She opened the cylinder and checked the ammunition: it was fully loaded, and the Exterminator bullet was the first in the chamber.
"What's that, Husk?", she whispered in return.
"It's just…..doesn't this seem too easy?"
Chay re-chambered the Apache and put the gun back into her pocket. "How so?"
"Well….think about it. We haven't encountered a single locked door since we came in here. Not a single alarm, or a guard standing duty…"
"I assumed they were just grossly incompetent, but I think I see what you mean…."
"It's just…why are they making all of this so obvi-"
Husk suddenly shut up, eyes facing forward.
"Yeah….why is it so obvious? Either they really are that terrible or…"
"….We knew you were here the whole time, morons."
Chay's blood ran cold. She slowly turned her head around, looking over her shoulder.
Standing behind them, holding an Exterminator spear pointed directly at them, was the short Inferna member with the metal cuirass and the distortion mask.
"But of course we knew they were here, Liutenant!"
Profera hopped down from off the stage and slithered across the room. The members of Inferna slowly parted as he made his way between them.
"We knew they were here the moment they entered our garage! No one could ignore a sonic boom that loud!"
The snake-demon stopped in front of Chay.
"So you must be the dirt-grubber whom that degenerate Valentino hired. I must give you some praise, for you certainly needed skills to get this far."
He signaled to the Liutenant. "Retrieve her weapon if you would."
The stocky short Sinner reached into her pockets, feeling around for the Apache. His hand emerged gripping it's knuckle duster grip.
"I've found it, my Prophet."
"Good. Bring it here, that I might look upon it."
Husk looked like he wanted to throw up. This shit was just too corny .
The Liutenant handed the weapon to Profera. He rotated the weapon in his hand, fascinated by it.
"Such an unusual firearm. So many diverse parts, all brought together to create one whole. How….poetic.", he hissed.
Chay shook her head. "You are so fucking two-faced. Every fucking person I talked to at Valentino's studio found you an annoying shit...but all of them called you loyal. To a fault, even."
Profera laughed and shook his head mockingly. "Oh, but I do believe in loyalty, my little dirt-grubber! I was loyal to Valentino for many years. Decades! But did he ever return the favor? Did he ever acknowledge my inherent greatness? No! Not once! Not a single, solitary instance did he ever acknowledge that I was anywhere close to his equal!"
The snake-demon grinned. "But then I found a higher calling, something that was worthy of my loyalty! Something that could give me a taste of what I knew in life!"
He slithered up to Chay, extending his neck towards her. His face halted mere inches from hers.
"A cause. A righteous cause. One far greater and more immaculate than Valentino could ever hope for!"
Chay looked over at Husk. His eyes were closed and he was grinding his teeth.
Profera turned around and began slithering away. "But now, our tale ends here. So beautiful, and so tragic...like all great tales do."
The Liutenant poked Chay's back with the Exterminator spear. The point was cold, and sharp. It also burned slightly, like an electrical shock.
"And like the best of tales….it ends with lots of bloodshed."
"It ain't over yet, shit heel!"
-...The fuck?
Chay, Husk, Profera, the Liutenant, and everyone else in the room's eyes darted to the front of the room towards the source of the sudden, vulgar shout.
On the stage, in it's center, juggling a lit cherry bomb between her hands, was the one person that had managed to put Inferna on the offensive.
Cherri. The one person more theatrical than they.
"Finally fucking found you assholes!"
The cherry bomb flew from her hand, towards the center of the room.
Profera's eyes widened as he followed the bomb's trajectory.
It was heading straight for him.
"Brothers! Attend me!"
The Inferna surrounded their prophet, quickly locking arms and providing a living shield between Cherri and him.
But he wasn't going to trust his life solely to them.
The snake-demon reached to his lapel, and ripped the rose off.
Chay and Husk both watched in horror….
It was one of the brown teleportation stickers.
Which meant….
"Husk! Hold on!"
The feline-demon wrapped his wings around the both of them as the bomb bounced to the center of the room.
Profera smacked his chest, activating the sticker.
A loud, enormous sonic boom filled the room, which was then choked with smoke. The floor beneath them slowly morphed into an enormous, green swirl.
There was nothing but shouts, noise and chaos as they fell into space-time.
- This is how my world ends. Not with a bang, but with a…
*thud*
Chay wasn't sure if it was the sound of her head bouncing off of the ground, or just the impact of the fall itself, but it hurt all the same. Her vision was blurry, and her lungs were full of dust as she came to.
"Hus-", she attempted to say, but instead came up with a chest-scraping cough as her body ejected stray dust particles from her trachea. There was a warm wind blowing through the air, and the first things she could see was a series of cliffs.
Red cliffs. With what looked like a skyline in the near-distance.
The Hungry Ghost girl slowly and awkwardly got to her feet. She wasn't sure if she had a concussion, but she certainly felt like something had exploded in her head…
She heard a light groaning nearby.
"Fuuuuuccckkk this…"
Husk slowly got to his feet, wiping dust and grime from his fur and wings.
"Dammit, this like the absolute bitch of hangovers….where the fuck are we?"
Chay hugged herself, trying to keep herself together as the impact continued to rock her. Her teeth were still rattling.
"We're in the wasteland, Husk. Just outside the city."
Husk glanced over at the skyline and sighed.
"Shit, that's going to be a long flight…"
"Wake up, you fools! They are still out there!", shouted an annoyed voice.
Husk and Chay looked in the direction of the voice. It was coming from just over a sandy hilltop to their left.
The two Sinners looked at each other. Neither said anything in response. They simply nodded, and began climbing the hill.
On the other side was a scene that was both chaotic and comical:
Several Inferna members were still out cold, sawing wood on the wasteland sands. Others were slowly coming to, rubbing their masked heads as they, too, had to deal with the aftermath of their escape.
Some, however, were completely recovered (if a lot dustier then they had been). They were standing in a circle, as if hypnotized by the display they were witnessing…
In the center of the group, was Profera. His uniform was soiled and disheveled, and his cap was torn and sans-feather. His head whipped around wildly, screaming at the top of his lungs to anyone who would listen.
Compared to the commanding presence of before, he looked absolutely pathetic .
But whatever metaphorical spell he had over his men still worked...because once his eyes found them, he immediately went into command mode.
"There they are, Brothers!", he stabbed his finger in their direction. "Attack!"
Chay slowly backed away, her hands fiddling madly in her pockets for a weapon...until she remembered that Profera had taken it.
"God fucking dammit!", she shouted to herself.
"Yer tellin' me, Chay!", Husk shouted at her. "We are in some serious shit!"
"What do you…" she attempted to say, as her eyes slowly widened in shock. Husk, who was directly behind her, was rendered completely speechless.
There were more of them.
The Inferna members over the hill were only a small contingent of their numbers.
Around them, climbing over the cliffs and emerging from out of the sand, were other Inferna. Like a well-oiled machine, they slowly and methodically began to surround them. They began drawing their daggers from their sheaths, and clutching them in gloved hands.
Each dagger glinted slightly at the tip...the telltale sign of Exterminator material. They were no longer playing around.
Both Sinners slowly backed into each other, their backs pressed together as the proverbial noose seemed to tighten.
Chay looked back towards Profera.
He was no longer making speeches, or shouting orders, or anything else. He had one of the Inferna daggers clutched between his teeth, and he slithered slowly forward, with other Inferna henchman bearing down on them alongside him.
If they didn't think of something fast, they were well and truly fucked .
"Husk...you know that 'back-up plan' you told me about?"
Husk slowly looked over his shoulder at Chay.
"Oh no, Chay…."
"Husk, we don't have any other choice. It's now or never. So whatever it is you're planning, then do it!"
"Chay…"
Husk slowly turned around to face her. His eyes were pleading, and his ears were drooping.
"Chay…..do I really have to?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
It seemed to even stun the Inferna. They immediately stopped what they were doing, and began looking at each other quizzically. One even shrugged.
"Husk, what the fuck?"
"Please don't make me do this, Chay! I don't want to have to owe that guy another fucking favor!"
Chay was incredulous. She waved her arms around wildly, completely confused and a tad infuriated.
"Husk! What the fuck are you on about?! We're about to be Julius Caesar in the middle of a fucking Shakespeare in the Park massacre, and you're fucking complaining?!"
Husk looked around before tapping the tips of his index finger claws together. "….Maybe we could trying running again?"
"HUSK!"
The feline-demon smacked himself in the forehead. "Alright, fine! Goddammit but I tried to warn you…"
Husk reached into his collar and produced...a hellphone?
"Just gimme a sec. Hope he picks up…"
He tapped some of the numbers on the key pad. The sound of a ringtone could be heard from the other end.
Chay raised an eyebrow. "….You um…."
"Hold on, he kind of likes the sound of his own ringtone…"
The ringtone rang out through the silent wasteland, with only the warm winds and the confused stares of Inferna as it's companion.
Profera simply looked annoyed. He ripped the dagger out of his mouth and hissed. "Attack, goddammit!"
None of the Inferna moved.
"I don't know, my liege." The cuirassed Inferna known as the Lieutenant emerged from behind Profera. "This looks quite humorous. Comedy is it's own art form, after all."
A squeaky voiced Inferna spoke up from among the ranks. "Yeah, I kinda want to see where this is going…"
Profera simply screeched in anger. "Oh for fuck's sake!"
Suddenly, the dial tone ended, and the sound of the line being picked up could be heard.
What emerged from the other end was a...surprisingly cheerful voice.
Though it was a little...crackly.
"Husker, my good man!", said the voice on the other side. "Good of you to call! I was just speaking with Charlie about the arrangements with the contractor…."
"Eh...not a good time, Al. We're in a bit of a jam…"
"Oh, I see. Well then, I certainly can't ignore a friend in peril! Of course, you will pay it forward at a later time…"
Husk shook his head, rolling his eyes. "I know the deal, Al. You need our coordinates or anything?"
A sudden loud crack resounded throughout the wasteland, as if the universe itself had broken open. A large, yellow opening split open in the air, emitting an acrid, sulfuric smell. A bone-rattling roar came from within it.
"No need."
What emerged from the crack was...difficult for Chay to comprehend.
It was black, pitch inky black. It was slimey, and the light of the almost-set sun gave it a bloody red sheen. The sickly glow from the portal also reflected off of it's scales (if they could even be called scales).
It also had eyes. Lots of eyes. Eyes within eyes. Eyes covering other eyes, which in turn sprouted more eyes. There were also tentacles. And arms. And tentacle-like arms.
And it had a mouth. A cavernous, dripping, acidic maw that slowly opened up, splitting into more jaws than any rationally-evolved creature should feature.
And then it roared.
It dove down from its portal, both slithering in air and cracking like crumbled bone. It dove down into the sand of the wasteland, creating yet another portal with it's impact. It began to slither...almost swim...in whatever space it inhabited outside of their realm, before it re-emerged with it's horrifying mouth wide open.
Whatever shock the Inferna were suffering from finally broke. They began screaming at the top of their lungs, and they ran.
But there was no fleeing this…thing.
It simply swooped down upon them, mouth open, and ate them. No chewing of any kind, or biting. It simply swallowed them whole. No matter where they ran, it re-emerged from out of the Outer Dark it existed in, to simply swallow up another group of Inferna.
There was simply nowhere to run.
It rose up into the air, releasing a sound so fouly screeching and roaring that Chay's ears began to bleed .
Lightning crackled through Hell's sky. Even the Pentagram Moon, which was just starting to show itself in Hell's night, seemed dwarfed by this... thing .
Then, it plunged down into the ground, hurling itself into the desert floor. It dragged sand, rocks, bones and random Inferna along with it.
Then, nothing. Just a hole in the ground….
The massive cleft it left behind seemed to flicker and smoke with some infernal malice.
Chay and Husk stared ahead, blankly.
"Good enough?"
Husk slowly lifted the hellphone to his ear. "Yeah….yeah, that's good enough."
"Wonderful! Looks like I left one behind, however….but no matter! Pursuing him should be very entertaining! Ta ta!"
He hung up. Husk pressed the 'hang-up' button and put the phone back in his collar.
"So…."
Chay looked over at Husk. "That was your...plan?"
"Yeah. Tried to warn you."
She nodded slowly. "Yeah….yeah, you did."
The sound of shifting sand and cursing snapped them to attention. As they both looked over to their right, they could see the lone individual that abomination had decided to spare.
Profera, holding a shattered arm, desparately attempted to slither away. His mouth was bleeding, and his uniform was almost completely gone.
Chay looked down at her feet. A metallic glint caught her attention…
Half-burined in the sand, was a small gun. A revolver, with a dagger stuck out into the air.
It was the Apache.
"Um….Chay? He's getting away…", Husk said.
Chay bent down and retrieved the fire arm. She shook off the sand from the metal, and dug the remaining sand out of the short barrel.
"No. No he isn't…"
She cocked the hammer on the gun.
She shouted: "Hey, Gabriele!"
Profera stopped cold. His head slowly turned around to face her. His left eye was almost completely gone, but his remaining eye showed nothing but mad, burning hate.
Chay gave him the bird. "Italy sucks."
Profera screeched at the top of his lungs. He charged down the dune he was climbing and ran towards her. The fangs in his mouth dripped with fury.
She aimed the gun at his stomach.
And she fired.
The Exterminator bullet struck him squarely in his scaley pelvis. The impact erupted bone, blood and organ tissue from his back, and splattered against a nearby desert rock.
The snake-demon collapsed, still.
Chay sighed, exhaling loudly like a suffocated whale finally getting a hit of oxygen. Hours of stress seemed to evaporate.
Husk walked up next to her. "Goddamn…"
He looked at the Hungry Ghost girl. "You uh...you OK there, Chay?"
"...I will be.", she replied.
Husk extended out his wings. "Well, you wanna hitch a ride? It'll take a few minutes before we get back to the city…"
"Yeah.". She nodded, quietly. "Yeah….yeah, sure."
The hot desert wind whistled through the cliffs. The chaos of the previous hour had simply vanished, like so many other things in the wastelands.
A single, pathetic figure slowly crawled towards a gaping hole in the sand. It glowed green, and smelled like a vat of boiling lye.
His abdomen was….barely existant. His wound was open, and pulsating. He could feel the breath slowly leave him, his senses slowly deaden. His organs would fail him...as long as this bullet remained inside.
He turned over onto his back, sweaty and exhausted. His breath became labored. One arm was completely shattered. The other was barely working, shaking and tingling with pain.
He looked at his wound. It gaped at him, almost mockingly.
He thrust his hand into his wound, nearly passing out from the pain. He needed to get this thing out of him. If he was to rebuild his movement, to serve his master, he could not be erased…
"You're still here, Profera?"
His eyes weakly looked to his side. Next to him, was a lone figure….a squat figure, dressed in Inferna black, with a metal curiass and gasmask.
Under his right arm, he held a book: the spell book that had served them well in their endeavors.
"Liutenant! My goodness, you did survive!". He laughed weakly to himself, each chuckle erupting in agony. "Please….master, I think I can survive this! If you could use your dagger, perhaps I can scoop this thing out of me. It may take some time to recover, but I am willing to…"
"No...just stop, Profera." The Liutenant shook his head, almost sadly.
"..W-what do you mean, master? I have served you well, have I not?"
The Liutenant reached up and pulled his mask from his head. He threw it to the side.
Underneath was a Sinner...orange in color, with scaley eyelids and green hair.
"Yes, Profera. You've served with quite well. You did exactly as I needed...but you still failed in the end, I'm afraid."
"N-Nonsense, master Flynn! This is simply a minor setback! Sure, we may have to start recruting again, but we still have the book…"
The Liutenant giggled to himself. "Oh, yes indeed. I do have the book. But yourself? You have….extended my needs, Profera.
The Liutenant lightly placed the spell book on a nearby rock. He then slowly wandered over to the eviscerated figure of the snake-demon.
"You see, Profera…..now, you are but a loose end."
He grabbed the snake demon by the throat.
"And I cannot abide loose ends, Profera."
He dragged the snake demon behind him. Profera shrieked in agony as his wound was dragged across the desert sands.
"You see, Profera...that was always your problem. You're a dreamer...a rather infuriating dreamer. You've always thought of yourself as greater than you actually were. You are quite the artist, I'll give you that much, and courage you have in great supply!…"
Profera yelped as his would struck an odd pointy rock in the sand.
"But you could never follow through. As long as it served your ego...you cared whether your plans fell apart. That made you a great pawn, you know. I learned a long time ago that, if you stay in the background, you could be the greatest of leaders…."
He stopped at the edge of the glowing pit.
"What is it the Princess likes to say? Oh yes…" His eyes glittered with malicious mischief. "You were always chasing rainbows, Profera."
"Please….don't do this, master!", he attempted to cry out through his crushed trachea.
"Oh, Profera…" The Liutenant slowly turned to look at his now ex-servant, directly in his terrifed eyes.
He grinned, revealing prickly, pointed teeth.
"To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you...is no loss."
He tossed the snake-demon, screaming, into the pit.
The Sinner known as Flynn picked the book back up, and gripped it in his arm. He began making the laborious trek back to the city.
Profera would never know if he struck the bottom of the pit...or if there was a bottom.
The only thing he knew...was oblivion.