-On one side of Imp City-

"Alright, do we have everything?" Blitzo asked, checking his own man bag and scanning everyone as they waited out front of IMP for their taxi to arrive. "Come on, people! I wanna make sure we have everything now before we get in to the murder and realize we forgot something and have to stop!"

"How are we going to stop a murder when we're in the middle of one?" Moxxy asked, looking for a clarity check as he didn't understand any of Blitzos' logic.

"That's a dumb question," Blitzo brushed it off and went back to personal inventory. "Milly, what do you have?"

"Pitch fork and hand grenades!" Milly said enthusiastically and opening up a fanny pack. "I also packed some granola bars in case we get hungry."

"Good!" Blitzo cheered, looking next at Moxxy. "And you, Moxxy?"

"I'm carrying the guns and extra rounds of ammunition," Moxxy dully said, holding out a shot gun and turning on the safety. "I made sure there's enough rounds for all of, plus I took the liberty of carrying several paring knives and a-"

"Great!" Blitzo took the shot gun for himself and smiled at Luna. "And do you have everything you need, Lunie?"

"I've got the miserable half brain and my phone for blackmail," Luna said, then pointing her thumb at the still mostly brain dead demon that was holding its arm and now drooling. "Why am I in charge of this thing? We should just put a diaper on it and send it back on its own."

"Now Lunie, we need this asshole to get us back to where they took Coco and to annihilate everything that gets in our way~" Blitzo cheered before seeing the taxi arrive. "Okay! Remember people. This is a rescue. That means, we are okay with taking hostages and excessive cursing."

"We are critically unprepared for this job description…" Moxxy said, looking up at the taxi.

Everyone picked up everything and threatened the driver while Luna strapped the bleeding-drooling demon in the front seat. Everyone began piling into the taxi, but Blitzo stopped suddenly and started looking out into the distance with an uneasy look.

"Uhhh, sir?" Moxxy asked, sticking his had out of the taxi and giving Blitzo a confused look. "What's happening?"

"Get in the car already," Luna said, rolling down the window and sticking her head out to glare over at him. "We're wasting time."

"Yeah…" Blitzo turned and made an uneasy smile while looking away. He was playing with his fingers in an awkward fashion like he was trying distract himself and appear normal. "Well, listen… I was just wondering… Maybe, this whole thing is a blessing in disguise?"

"…. what?" Moxxy didn't even bother looking deadpanned.

It's strange how quickly Blitzo became unsure of this rescue business. On the one hand, Coco has the book and her dying would definitely not be a good thing. On the other hand, it's a lot easier to steal back a book from a dead human. And because these demons are so high ranking, this whole thing could cause a lot of problems. The biggest thing IMP wouldn't be able to survive is getting involved with a demon turf war in the middle of the city.

"What!?" Moxxy shouted, now stepping out of the taxi and staring at Blitzo enraged. "Are you fucking kidding me? We just got everything ready to rescue her!"

"And I'm saying any job that requires grenades and shot guns for help and not fun is a waste of time, resources and our precious lives!" Blitzo explained, looking tense and aversive. "And what's the point? What are we doing all of this for? A human!"

"We're doing it for. The. Book." Moxxy spelled out.

"Come on guys," Milly said, sticking her head and tail out the door with a worried look. "Coco needs our help! The girl's stranded in here, and we're the ones' who are supposed to be saving her!"

"But are we? Really?" Blitzo asked, crossing his arms. "Say we rescue her? Hmm? And then we end up pissing off a major heiress and causing more problems for us. And who would rescue us?"

"That's not the point, sir." Moxxy tried to explain, trying to fight illogic with logic. "The point is, they broke into our office and then kidnapped our property! We can't just do nothing about that!"

"Yeah! We kidnapped her first!" Milly said.

"That's nothing to brag about, Milly." Moxxy reminded her.

"Will you guys quit bitching and make up your fucking minds!?" Luna yelled through the window. "The fucking amputee is bleeding everywhere and he just shit himself!"

At this point, the taxi driver was starting to get testy.

"Will you all fucking get in or fuck off!?" The taxi demon screamed.

"SHUT IT!" All four of IMP screamed back, throughly scaring him and putting the taxi driver in his place as the silent accompli.

While his tactic was terrible, Blitzo did have a point. Trying to save a human could start something none of them were prepared to finish. And if they were going to do this, they better be more than prepared to go all out. So he had to figure out something that made this rescue reasonable and logical to go through with.

"Okay, let's just compile a short list of reasons not to rescue her," Blitzo said, standing out straight and spreading out his arms while putting on his best business-sense persona. In general, he had had this list prepared since yesterday. He began counting this all off on both of his hands as if they were real reasons. "Number one, she's a bit of a know it all. Number two, she's annoying. Number three, she's not hot. Number four, she's only kind of cute in a way that reminds you of your childhood friend that you never wanted to fuck. Number five, she's chubby and stretches out my pants hip line. Number six, she's an idiot. Number seven, we don't really like her that much. Number eight, she's barely a mildly successful person but acts like she's better than everyone. Number nine, she's basically useless down here. Number ten-"

"Wow," Milly said, blinking a moment. "I'm starting to not like her anymore."

"Wasn't this supposed to be a short list?" Moxxy asked, covering his eyes and sighing about this entirely childish endeavor.

-On the other side of Imp City in a Concrete Factory run by a brainwashing Wasp Demon.

Wait.

Was that too much? Maybe it was.

But you get the picture. There was a recap up there. Right? Cool. We're back.-

It would take approximately 1.5 seconds for venom from the tip of Miss Honeys' needle to fill up the prefrontal cortex and dissolve most of the connecting tissue. It would be an entirely painless process since the nerves in the brain don't have sense receptors. Next, the venom would react to the dissolved tissue and fill it up with a kind of grey-matter protein, one that becomes a gelatinous mass and can be directly controlled by Miss Honeys directions.

It works like this: The emotion centers and decision making centers become totally controlled by directives of Miss. Honey. If she wants someone to fight for her, those receptors create rage and directs it at a target. If she needs them to be docile workers, she cuts off rage and dopamine but keeps a steady serotonin kick to keep the body working in a mentally dulled out state. And if she wants them to talk, well that's a bit complicated. Safe to say, the venom is less brain washing than logic dissolving.

And Coco felt the anticipation of the pin-prick so tightly she was already playing what it would feel like to have her brain dissolved almost at the moment of impact. The explicitly mental, excruciating pain was all to familiar and unbearable.

'Somebody please,' Coco continued to beg through the hopelessness. 'Please, please help me…'

And someone did come and help

BOOM!

With a shot gun.

The moment Coco felt one of the demons fall down and let go of her, everyone stopped and turned to look and see none other than Blitzo holding the smoking gun!

"Don't you touch one more hair on my employee you second rate excuse for a slut!" Blitzo shouted, now aiming the gun directly at Miss Honey.

"…" Coco took the moment to step back away from the needle before comment. "Yeah. Good timing…"

Standing across the way, Blitzo stood out holding a shot gun with Moxxy and Milly at both of his sides. Luna stood near the back, dragging behind her what looked like a zones out red body guard being lead by a thick rope around his waste. Blitzo brought back up! And his back up brought… weapons. Miss Honey blinked a few times before narrowing her eyes in distaste at the imps.

"What!?" Miss Honey lowered her hand and stood up to her full 6ft status and snarled at IMP. "What are those complete fuck ups from IMP doing here?"

"How did she know that about us?" Moxxy asked Blitzo, trying to be discrete. "I thought that was a secret?"

'I'm feeling slightly less relieved and more worried now,' Coco thought, automatically cueing the fact that she pinned all her hopes on a bunch of demons who accidentally summoned her to Hell in the first place. 'Man I've got bad options…'

"Alright then," Blitzo called out, tipping down the barrel of his weapon and giving a grin over to Miss Honey. "How about we do this in a civil, business-like way. You hand over our employee and our property and we won't blow up one of your little business ventures as revenge for recking our office and my carpets. Sounds like a good deal?"

"Yeah!" Milly called out, fist bumping while holding something that looked like a trident. "Hands off of our girl!"

"Fucking cretans," Miss Honey slurred and bared her teether at all of IMP. "How the fuck did you even get in here!?"

"Hey! I don't have crabs, you bitch!" Milly shouted, pointing the pitch fork end of the trident at her.

"She said cretans, Milly. Not crustaceans." Moxxy told her.

"We used your lackie here," Luna said, holding up the armless stump of a man who was sputtering. "Guess that poison of yours isn't some quality product after all."

"So I'm gonna take that as a "no" on our diplomatic, business-like offer," Blitzo said, searching his jacket pocket for extra ammunition.

Before any further bad puns and shots could be fired, Coco ducked down out of demons' grips and ran behind them back to IMP! If she knew anything, she knew how to choose who to trust in quick moments.

"Don't let her get away!" Miss Honey screeched, screwing up her face even more. "I want my book!"

"And I want less stress!" Coco shouted, ducking down again and running right next to Moxxy while hiding behind Blitzo. She turned up and looked at him with a pleading, "help me I'm lost" expression of a 27 year old who hasn't slept in days and gave the most compelling plea she could make at that moment. "Let's. Go. Now."

The only thing that could be read in Coco's demand was a simple emotion: General desperation. After being pulled into both Hell and an unknown car, Coco was already exhibiting the signs of total emotional exhaustion that had been carried on since yesterday. And Blitzo knew he was entirely to blame. But…

"Yeah yeah yeah," Blitzo said, ignoring that request before aiming the shot gun again. "We'll get a taxi in a minute. But first! Let's take care of some business…"

The mental sound of a tire being blown out would aptly describe the expression on Coco's face. Absolute disbelief fulled with desperation and gassy antagonism.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Coco shouted, dropping most of her nice-ness and instead being completely honest. "Do you know what that woman is about to do to me?! Let's go!"
"Are do you know what she'll do to us if we don't take care of this fucking thing now?" Luna barked back, her eyes going red as she turned to the other demons with her hand on her hip. "It's Demon Turf laws now, kid."

"Don't. Care. Go. Now." Coco spelled out in dark words.

Fear is such a strong human emotion, one that will consistently override logic and emotion before anything else. It can also easily drive humans to whatever measures it'll take them to avoid whatever it is that scares them.

"Sorry, but she's right." Moxxy said, also taking out a smaller machine rifle and cocking the gun before looking at Coco seriously. "If we don't do this now, they'll just come after us later."

"Better to take care of the mess right away~" Milly cheered, looking excited at the challenge. "Oh~ This will be fun!"

"You might want to cover your eyes," Blitzo said before he turned around to look at Coco and give a stern warning. "And for the love of God, whatever you do, don't move out of my sight or-"

Blitzo was a little too late on the stern warning since Coco was already walking away towards the door. The only bright side was that she was smart enough to know there's no way she was going to escape this mess on her own and was planning on hiding somewhere close by until it was all over.

"I'm done." Coco called out, not even turning her head around and walking towards a ladder where she could hide and creep into her happy place for a few minutes. "Just.. wake me up when the crazy stops."

"…" Blitzo stood there and stared in horror-rage as the human, yet again, ignored him and his sound, unprofessional and usually illogical advice. "… Remind me why we're not killing her again?"

Coco walked only five steps before already hearing bloody massacre sounds and ricocheting gun shots. She then covered her ears and attempted to walk away faster because this was doing one hell of a job on her nerves.

'This seriously can't be happening,' the denial part of Coco's budding psychosis began as she found the closest ladder and started climbing up. 'Recap: Unluckily purchased a bad book, demonic summoning and possession happened without my consent, I have murderers not trying to kill me or really keep me safe and now I'm almost in the middle of a gun fight… My life couldn't be anymore trash than it already is…'

She reached the top of the ladder and found herself on a winged ledge, a place slightly more above all the noise from bellow and where she felt at least safe enough to take a deep breath. She walked over to the wall, slid down and took off the book from her leg and looked at it.

"You mind explaining some of this for me?" She asked the cover with a glare. "Or, how about what this whole 'turf war' thing is?"

Again, the book flew open to an undisclosed page and sat there. Coco just stared at it for a moment, grieving the fact this was happening, and went back to talking to it.

"You're kind of an ass, you know?" Giving the top page a glare before pulling it back up into her lap.

The illustrations on the pages looked like a complex layered diagram of what Hell's hierarchy structure actually is. Coco had a vague idea of what people back on Earth described Hells' structure to be like since she read Dantes' Inferno once. But, this seemed to be completely different and more complex than a silly poem about how a guy hated so many people that he wrote a book about them getting seriously tortured was like.

It was of course divided between seven circles surrounding a center pentagram and layers of different "sub-section territories" cutting all over the map. Inside laid names of different demons with symbols and numbers ranking their influence and power over different parts of different spheres. It was a lot like looking over a really crowded and annoying pie chart.

"Well this is impossible to read," Coco complained before looking down at the moral compass on her wrist. "Okay, advice time. Which of these circles should I be looking at that'll explain this whole situation?"

The thick needle ran from its top position and first pointed to a circle on the top part near the pentagram. Coco moved her wrist towards it and the needle focused on one particular spot that was sort of messy looking. There was a large splash of what looked like liquid-moving blue-gray paint over a large portion of the area, mixed in with violent hyper yellow and a muddy green. When she focused on it, Coco could see that the yellow part had the name "Honey-Jack" written around it with the number 534. The edges of it was mixing in lightly under the large blue-gray mass that had "Stollas" written in it with the number 54,683+ written next to it.

"So we're in Miss Honeys' territory," Coco said to herself, touching the violent yellow hue. "It's a lot smaller than the other two, and it looks like she has a lot less supports than Stollas and the other guy. No wonder she wants this book so bad. But, uh, why do they have demon turf war stuff? It seems really confusing to-"

Now the book flipped over a few more pages and sat open on a page that was actually made up more of text than confusing diagrams.

"And again with the asshole move," Coco bitterly mumbled before looking back down and glaring at the book. "What the hell kind of a font is that? Retarded Helvetica? Elvish? Gibberish?"

From what Coco could gleam and semi-understand, the majority of the text went like this:

"As demons were first deformed from their fall from truth, they began deforming every environment around them to make it different from where they came. And as they changed their land, they decided to change it so it would not be similar to other demons in the same place. And then, when they coveted what another demon made from the same materials, they desired their materials.

And demons reached out for more, growing more and adapting more power to change what cannot be fixed or permanent to have the illusion of that. They ached for more, to devour everything so that it could be definite and understood. But they were never satisfied nor satiated.

Demons covet power, for power creates influence that can cement dominance for short periods of time. Dominance allows them to materialize power and influence over certain other hemispheres, such as the Living World and the World all demons were born from. They may be able cut through those spaces and leave imprints of their power, echoing and making their influence and power in their territory even stronger…"

That confusing bit of non-sense was going to take a few hours to digest and understand.

"I went to college for nothing," Coco said blankly, feeling depressed as she continued to stare at the page. "What the hell is all of this gibberish try to say?"

It didn't help that she had been so over confident in herself just last night about all of this.

"I'm sure I'm smart enough to figure this out~!" Coco mocked herself as she looked at the book, now angry. "UGH! Now I have to eat my own words! How am I supposed to help get myself out of Hell if I can't even read a fucking book that got me to here in the first place!?"

In a spur of rage, Coco held up the book over her head and began threatening to throw it over the railing and down into what she assumed was Hell-magma. The image was very clear in her mind, the sound and weight of it falling, the suction sound that would happen when its pages hit the surface, the feeling of it sinking in and heat consuming it and burning it and dissolving it.

But, she also felt the book was so heavy in her hands that she couldn't move it. Or, that it felt like chains were wrapped around her arms and bond her to the book. Or,

'This book would just take me over the railings with it,' Coco knew as she put her arms down and let the book sit comfortable on her lap. Easing itself in the safety that is Coco's self-preservation. 'And even if it won't, I'd still be more dead without it.'

The incredible rage that comes alongside the annoyance when you realize you're right about something that makes you look stupid is hard to control. It's even harder to like yourself when it happens, even if you know you were doing something logical. But it was just manifesting into an uncontrollable hatred towards a book.

"You could help me figure out how to use you, you know?" Coco said, holding up the book slightly so she was looking directly at it. "I could really use those magical protection powers you've got there. Maybe something that could get us out of her-AHHH!"

Coco didn't know it until it was too late but she had suddenly been picked up off the ground by the back of her neck and roughly held over the railings! She dangled and struggled violently until she could see behind her, and found the boss who had lost an arm was holding her up with his only good one!

"So! The fuckin' imp's got some kind of magic spell keepin' her together," the boss drawled out. He was bloody all over and seemed lopsided, but whatever pain he might have must not be processing since that mind control horn must have scrambled a lot of his reasoning centers. All Coco could focus on was the yellow scar and his red eye, it was bulging in and out and seemed to be completely blood shot with rage. "Real funny, eh? Thinkin' you could come up in here and take over whatever you wanted, playin' some kind of a game, eh?"

"You're the one who brought me here!" Coco screamed at him, clawing at his hands with one hand while she held on tightly to the book with her other. "Stop it! Or I'lll- I'll-"

"You'll what? Start fuckin' cryin? HA!" Blood mixed down his chin with spit and his crazed laugh came out. Looks like his own reasoning centers weren't working anymore. "I see what's goin' on. Can't use that book, can you? Must be our fuckin' luck, gettin' a real stupid imp here to fuck shit up. But she don't even know what she's doin'!"

He was right, Coco couldn't use that protection spell on command. Even worse, she wasn't sure why it would come up or what it would do to her if it happened more than once a day. She wasn't even sure if it could happen more than once a day. She wasn't even sure what all the book could even do…

"Well, you just ran out of your luck, bitch," he cheered, his smile creeping up into a sick smirk as he squeezed her neck tighter. "See, even if that thing was gonna do somethin' now like before, you'd just fall down and die anyway! HA! You think you're so strong just 'cause you got some of your friends around? Nah. Miss Honey wants the book. And she don't want just you. Looks like neither do your little buddies. So you can just keep turnin' red until you turn blue, and then we'll-"

BOOOOOOM!

The sound of a shot gun being fired filled Coco's ears and almost completely distracted her before she grabbed the hot railing bars right before she fell down to her death. Although her sweaty hand made her grip unsteady, she then felt a long, stick tail seep around her waist and help joist her up over the railing.

"Nobody gets to manhandle and threaten my employees but me!" Blitzo said, firing another shot into the corpse before stepping on it. "And haven't you ever heard of asking for consent before chocking someone? That's just bad manners."

Just as the ringing in her ears stopped, Coco looked up and was face to face with Milly and Blitzo, still holding the smoking gun where he shot down the nameless boss! Milly had saved her in the last minute with her tail just after Blitzo had fired the gun at the demon. Behind them, Coco could see both Moxxy and Luna slowly making their ways up towards them with heavily preoccupied looks on their faces.

"You okay, sweetie?" Milly asked, looking at Coco with a more relieved face. "That guy just stood up and ran up here! We got lucky today, huh?"

"Yeah, lucky… I'd call it that," Coco didn't know if she was using sarcasm or not. She was too busy breathing again. She touched where the demon had been holding her up with and felt a light bruise starting to form, but decided it was the least of her worries. "What happened? Did we win?"

"We're not even at the middle with this," Moxxy informed her, looking back behind him with a careful glare and observing their options. "The leader backed away somewhere and called for reinforcements! This place will be swarming with more zombie-demons if we don't get out of here fast!"

"But we gotta take care of this place and make sure they don't come back for us later!" Milly said, standing up and pointing across the way to some maintenance spot. "If we burn this place to the ground then that bitch won't come back to our turf since she won't have a strong hold nearby!"

Coco mostly blanked this out since her near-death experiences of today were taking too much of a toll on her. She wanted to just leave now, no matter how right and logical they were being with staying here. She just wanted to ignore the problem that would make and get somewhere safe and comfortable. And more than anything, she wanted to pretend this all wasn't actually happening.

Coco stood back up and started tying the book back onto her make-shift leg holster when Blitzo walked over to her and smacked her on the back of her head.

"I told you not to move!" Blitzo yelled at her, pointing his finger at her and glaring. He was so mad he wanted to hug her and tell her he was sorry. But didn't. "You know how worried I've been! That book could have fallen right into that bitches' hands if we hadn't come here to rescue your sorry ass!"

"But I-" Coco looked away and was trying to twist logic in a way to defend herself, rubbing the back of her head and avoiding all eye contact as she tried to think of something. "You said it, well, it was gonna… Wait. Do you mean the first time you said "Don't move" or the time that just happened?"

"One job!" Blitzo yelled out, exasperated at how she couldn't follow a simple direction and just had to be as stubborn as he is. "One, simple, job. Don't. Move!"

"Sir, I told you this would happen," Moxxy said like a know-it-all; shaking his head like a disapproving uncle. "Human curiosity. Such dumb little creatures. They never think that far ahead!"

"Can we drop this, now!" Luna yelled at them and gestured right behind her. "The bitch is already starting to get more of her mindless drones together!"

"Do wasps even have drones?" Milly asked, a little confused about the epitomology of this sort of insect strata.

Coco just stared at the group of bickering demons as pieces of mentally broken puzzle started coming together. They were the ones who haven't been keeping her safe in Hell. They seem to want to use her but also want don't really care if she's hurt. If she's being threatened, they only care if the book is involved. They're sitting here, talking about blowing up a building after seeing her literally get choked and hung above at least 20 stories over Hell lava. Blitzo just hit her….

It's no wonder Coco reached her breaking point so soon in Hell.

"SHUT UP!" Coco shouted at all of them. She stood away from all of them right in front of the railing, her hair a mess and her general demeanor of panic obvious. "Just! Stop it! Shut up already! Did you not just see what happened? I almost died- TWICE! And all you talk about is a book! A fucking book! I want to go! I want to go home now! I'm done! I can't do this! I-I-I can't be here! I can't stay here anymore or else I'm gonna DIE!"

The others were quiet for a moment, all four of them giving each other careful glances before deciding positions. Luna already opted to back away and keep an eye on the ground floor while Milly and Moxxy took the roles of good-cop and not-so-nice-but-still-a-good-cop… cop.

"Look," Moxxy started, pretty sure he was supposed to be the bad cop but not really good at being the bad cop. "We all don't want to be here. But this NEEDS to happen or they will keep coming after us. And you! We can't afford a turf war on our turf both physically and financially!"

"We can't help it if this scares you." Milly knew that Moxxy wasn't the bad cop because, come on, it's Moxxy. "But we can't protect you if you're just gonna cry and act like this is the end of the world!"

"I'm not crying and this IS the end of the world!" Coco pointed out correctly. Although, she was mostly definitely on the verge of tears. "This is literal Hell! I was brought here and now I can't leave and you guys are just dragging me around and-"

"Oh will you just drop the self-righteous act already!" Blitzo yelled back while finally turning around to glare at Coco. "GOD! Are all humans like this? Thinking they're all entitled to be the main fucking problem in everyone else's goddamn lives? It's been the most annoying thing about you since you came here- And let me tell ya somethin', sister! There's a lot of annoying things about you!"

Coco felt like she should shut up immediately and felt herself stiffen up like a giant wave was about to crash over her. And the fact that Blitzo cut through the others just to stand over her and glare while he went into his own rant mode didn't help.

"You know how many people get dropped in here on a daily basis?" Blitzo started, the false calm of his voice emphasizing how much she actually didn't know and how it was so completely irritating to have to care about someone who's so stupid. "Enough to justify a literal fucking genocide every year! And I'm not even counting the regular genocide that happens during turf wars! Tons of you come here every day, and you think you're special just cause you're alive? Fuck that! You're just even more miserable and sniffling that all the other fucked up pieces of shit that fall down here for a reason!"

Coco started backing up at this, herself starting to shiver at this kind of scare. Truth.

"Hey now," Moxxy started, stepping beside Blitzo trying to calm him down. Moxxy didn't realize neither he or Milly were the bad cop. "Come on! Ease up on her a litt-"

"Oh what! And start caring about her feelings because being in Hell makes her "uncomfortable?" Blitzo mocked more towards Coco than Moxxy with that. "Welcome to Hell! You will never, ever be comfortable here. Why the fuck do you think more than half of every goddamn loser around here is either hopped on drugs, selling them, or willingly committing mind-fucking auditions to actually join stupid ass groups like that Wasp Bitch's side hustle! How's it our job to make one little human feel "safe and happy" when all she did was hitch a fucking ride to our office!"

"Hey, come on!" Milly said, now trying to defend Coco as she stepped closer to her. "She didn't know what was going to happen! And, it is our fault! Let's just stop yellin' about it and act like the grown ups we-"

"HEY!" Luna shouted, turning to look stress-raged at the others. "If you were FUCKING LISTENING! The fucking second wave is coming whether you want it or not!"

Everyone stopped for a moment until they heard multiple doors burst open and flood with different red-mind-controlled demons pouring in! They carried big work instruments like shovers, crow bars and bats and looked like they had been force fed rage!

"SHIT!" Blitzo said, panicking as he looked around before turning to the others. "Emergency exit plan, NOW!'

"If we blow up the centrifuge then the alarms could mess up with their mind control!" Milly shouted looking all around before she spotted the same maintenance spot a few levels above them. "Then an emergency exit will open and we can get out!"
"Start by setting off an alarm!" Blitzo shouted, running to the nearest ladder to start making his way over there. "Fire alarm! Spill alarm! Nuclear alarm! Lunch alarm! I don't care! Something to make a lot of noise and distraction!"

"On it!" Moxxy shouted as he pulled up a handgun from his jacket and shot it across the way at the fire alarm on the wall.

Then, a loud whooping noise shook the tower in waves as even more flashing red lights flooded the already scary-imposing room. The noise was almost deafening but it did seem to make the workers stop or slow down somewhat. That gave enough time for everyone to actually start moving.

"We need to get up there and set that thing off as fast as we can!" Milly shouted, running past the others to catch up to Blitzo. "If we do, we need to stay together and get out as soon as possible with a portal!"

"What about the human!" Luna shouted, climbing up the ladder behind Blitzo.

"Just keep up with us!" Blitzo shouted, turning his head to look at Moxxy. "You two keep up and make sure you have that book near by! We'll need it in case we need a second exit strategy!"

"On it!" Moxxy called back, turning to Coco and grabbing her hand so they could catch up. "Come on! If we hurry then we can be out of here and-"

Moxxy tried to pull her but Coco didn't move. She felt planted in her spot from fear and every impulse to run seemed drowned down in a frozen state of self-conscious panic. The loud alarm, the shocking and confusing lights were all making her drift in and out of reality. She knew she had to move, and some part of her desperately wanted to move as well. But she couldn't.

"I-I can't do it," Coco managed to make out. Her face was tilted straight to the floor and she could feel her upper body shaking. It was like her self-preservation instincts were starting to turn off, she just felt terrified and confused and self conscious. Like she was guilty and hated herself at the same time as being terrified and over stimulated by everything around her. "I I ca-can't move.. This can't be happening! I can't do this! I just, can't! It's not gonna work if you leave me alone and-"

"You can't pretend this isn't happening!" Moxxy took Coco by the shoulders, forcing her head to look up at him and shouted at her. He was stressed, enraged almost, and wouldn't take it if she continued to refuse to do the simple steps of saving her life. "You can't just wish it will all go away! This is life! For all of us. We have to deal with it, and so do you! Now stop being a child and run for your life!"

His face-to-face shouting did snap Coco out of her head a little bit. After all, someone making you take responsibility for her own life will make you start acting on your own.

Coco only blinked a few times before biting her bottom lip and nodding, signaling she wasn't fighting back anymore. Moxxy just took her by the hand and began guiding her and making her run to catch up to him.

"We have to keep up with the others," Moxxy started, talking her to keep her together as they started running over towards where the others had gone. "When we get to the main place, you need to be able to open the book so we can summon a portal! Then! We can all go home."

"But what if I can't do it?" Coco asked, looking more and more worried that they were putting responsibilities on her she couldn't handle. "A-And what portal? I-I thought you said I couldn't go through a-"

"To the human world," Blitzo called over as they reached the ladder. He looked over and started barking at them as they started climbing up. "You're bound to the book so you can't leave where it belongs. But you can use a portal here if it stays in Hell! It also helps that you've already been where our office is. So, it won't do anything weird like tear you apart of re-assort your body parts on the other side… I think."

"Great," Moxxy said, helping to pull Coco up as they made it to the top, just in time to give Blitzo a side glare. "Thanks for imparting that last minute, terrifying mental image we all didn't need."

"Hey, as long as it inspires you to do better~" Blitzo cheered.

Both Coco and Moxxy rolled their eyes at that. Coco now looked particularly exhausted and brow beaten after having to swallow more of her pride and feel absolutely miserable because she's reflecting on her own mediocrity now.

'My life is trash and so am I,' was Coco's singular thought as she followed along. 'My life was trash before coming here, it's trash in here, and you know what? Even if I do get out of here, it'll all probably still end up as trash…'

This sort of mentality is definitely not conducive to staying alive.

After running over towards the next ladder, the blaring alarm and lights seemed dulled to her senses as Moxxy dragged Coco behind him. But she also had to keep trying to shut out the sound of more and more demons coming in and also running up ladders and chasing after them. The sense of impending doom was already making everyone sweat as they ran.

"Alright," Blitzo called out as they reached the next ladder. He looked over at the connecting bridge that would take them over to the maintenance section so they could actually escape. "Here's what we do! Milly and Luna, you're on total destruction."

"Roger, sir!" Milly saluted.

"Moxxy and the human, you're both on back up so cover our ass!" Blitzo instructed.

"Then what are you doing?" Moxxy asked, honestly confused.

"Side cover and general negotiator," Blitzo explained while cocking the shot gun. "If anything happens, be sure to-"

And something happened.

They were interrupted by demons now climbing over the sides of the railing and the walls! They were shuffling in and forcing themselves over, mostly carrying large crow bars hap-hazardly, and running towards them in odd manners. It was like they had all this pent up rage but couldn't quiet direct it anywhere, so it left them off balanced and sporadically jutting to the side. But it was still pretty damn threatening.

Before coming up with a plan, Blitzo acted in the split second to protect what he most needed to keep safe.

"You!" Blitzo shouted, grabbing Coco by the shoulders and shoving her up the ladder, forcing her to climb up first and quickly. "Go first! Hurry up and get up there and we'll follow!"

"What!?" Coco shouted, stopping and almost freezing up immediately on the ladder. "What are you-"

"Just go!" Blitzo said, continue to shove her so she would move and directing Milly and Luna to follow next. The demons were closing in quicker and Moxxy was already taking out his own gun and beginning to aim. "We'll catch up! You can't get stuck here and trapped!"

"But what about-"

Coco was cut off when she felt the entire level shake! It felt like the entire tower started to tremble and she almost fell off. But even scarier, she immediately heard the bolts snap on the ladder and felt it start tipping back!

If this ladder actually fell down, she would mostly likely been thrown off over the level and down towards… well. Certain doom. And that is, if the crazy raving demons didn't first catch her and torture her and well, that's an even less pretty mental image to imagine. The same series of images that were all flashing through Coco's eyes as she froze when she first heard the sound of the ladder breaking and felt her center of gravity fly away from her.

'I can't make it,' Cocos' eyes flashed at the gap and she felt her legs and feet swing out lightly from under her. 'I can't make it! Why can't this book just help me make it to where it's safe?! How did this all-'

Her thoughts was stopped when the ladder was suddenly jerked back to the wall and she felt something long and thick like a snake actually push her up and over to the top of the level! Coco caught the side of the railing and felt the level shake under her, demanding that she immediately stand up and run to the nearest ladder so she could run across the bridge to the maintenance center.

'Wait,' Coco stopped and looked down over her shoulder, her heart already starting to pound from the surprise mixed with relief. 'What about everyone else. How are-'

When she looked down, Coco saw Blitzo standing down there and holding up the upped level by stabilizing it with the ladder. He looked tense and deep in thought, using all of his strength to keep the level up for as long as he could while everyone else stood around him and start fighting off the few demons who were already coming closer.

"Blitzo!" Coco shouted, pulling herself up enough so she could lean over and try to reach her arm down to him. "Hurry! You've got to-"

"GO!" Blitzo yelled at her, grunting under the weight as his arms started to shake. "We can't make it from here up there before it falls over! You've gotta get to the maintenance center, it's the only place they can't get to before us! Run over there now!"

"But," Coco started, looking scared over her shoulder and worried as she looked down at him. "What about you and-"

"Just go now!"

The few moments that made Coco feel paralyzed started to creep away as she knew she had to go in order to keep herself safe. Although, she felt an ever present need to stay with them, she ultimately stood up and followed Blitzo's orders to run over to the maintenance center first and keep the book safe.

Once she was gone, Blitzo continued to hold up the level until he was sure she could make it there safely. He looked on and saw his employees already starting to have trouble keeping the other demons back as they looked for other ways to make it back up and follow Coco. It was then Blitzo started to feel his focus tune in.

"Let's compile a short list," Blitzo grunted, his shoulders giving in a little as he tried to keep steady. "A list of everything we don't actually hate about the human…"

"What? Now!" Moxxy shouted, shooting his rifle once and looking over at him before reloading. "Do we really have any time to debate this?"

"We gotta find a way to get out of here!" Milly shouted back, whipping her weapon left and right and creating the most space out of all four of them. "If we don't, she's not just gonna die but we'll all go with her!"

"Reasons to keep her alive," Blitzo said, struggling under the weight and starting to feel himself get crushed. "Remember… why are we doing this?"

"She's.. really naïve but also really smart?" Moxxy offered, reloading his gun and unsure of his own answer. "It makes her interesting to be around!"

"She's nice and cheerful!" Milly said over her shoulder, cutting one demon in half before continuing. "She fixes things!"

"We brought her to Hell so she's our responsibility," Luna reminded them as she kicked over several others down off the railing.

"Only one real reason," Blitzo said, finally starting to catch a breath as he began to shift his weight under the ladder. "She got mad that she wasn't a good person. But… she never called us bad people."

At that, Blitzo wrapped his tail around the outside of the ladder and twisted himself around so the it flew out and pushed off the next oncoming wave of demons. From there, he pulled both Moxxy and Milly over and ran with Luna to the edge of the railing. They jumped over and narrowly caught the edge of the neighboring level and began pulling themselves up! When they finally stopped and caught a breath, Blitzo continued his reasoning.

"She didn't blame us for her problems, she only blamed herself and decided she'd fix them." Blitzo thought back to her own resolve to try and find a way out of Hell, to wonder what was making her be less of a good person, to regret not telling her parents she actually does love and appreciate them. He saw someone who wasn't just willing to try and make mistakes, he saw someone willing to learn from them. "She's got a good heart and soul, and I want to protect the few good things I see."

The others stopped for a minute and looked up at Blitzo, surprised at his sudden sense of humanity and care. And they grinned and nodded along.

'Yeah,' Blitzo thought as they started running towards the next ladder that would help them get up to the maintenance platform. 'If there're only a few good things left in Hell, I'd like to have one of them around…'

Running as fast as she could, Coco ran towards the maintenance platform across the bridge. Feeling a sense of sudden need, she started unlocking the book from around her leg and held it up, opening it in front of her.

'There's gotta be a way to figure out how to open up a portal and get everyone out of here.' Coco scanned page after page until she stood in front of the ladder. 'Damnit! I can't read this thing! How am I supposed to open up a portal if I can't figure out how to read this stupid demon language? If we get trapped in here any longer, we'll-'

Her thoughts were cut off as a few of those worker demons ran over towards her screaming!

"YAAH!" Coco flinched back, grabbing the book tighter against her! "Now would be a really good time for some magic crap to happen!"

Even though it was set to happen when she was getting threatened or in a life-or-death situation, the ring of fire didn't appear until the demons were all two steps away from her. When the blast of fire came out and pushed the demons over the railings again, Coco felt some of herself calm down and gathered her bearings a little bit.

'Okay,' she thought, holding up the book carefully and looking at the cover again. 'I guess this will happen more than once a day if I need it. I guess there's some kind of distance limit or threat limit it has too….'

Not taking the second to keep questioning it, Coco turned around and began climbing up the ladder. It was certain that she had no idea how to actually use the book, or why it did what it did. But it would be nice to know what exactly were the rules to this book and how to use it!

"Because it's really fucking annoying when you can't figure out why crazy shit keeps happening!" She yelled at the book in one hand as she started climbing up the ladder. "I could really use some moral support here, you know!"

As she climbed up and observed the area, the whole thing seemed to feel more and more impossible. But that just spurred her on to angrily continue forward, running down the bridged towards what she assumed was where she needed to end up.

'If I can just get to the maintenance platform then maybe I can figure out how to at least close all these doors and stop all of the other demons from coming through.' Coco decided her plan should be helping IMP fight off less stuff so they could focus on getting our of here. 'I guess this little compass on my wrist could help somehow. But how am I gonna know if I don't need some kind of key pass or code into it? I just hope I'm lucky enough to-'

As she turned around, again another wave of crazed-worked demons seemed to be heading her way. Not only was she sure that the ring of fire wouldn't be able to come soon enough, she was pretty sure that the workers weren't here to be friendly.

"God could this day get any more stressful!" Coco shouted, looking down at the book and imploring it to do something. "I could really use a little help here now!"

What caught her eye next was the compass on her wrist. The needle was now wiggling to a stop and pointing directly across at one of the demons. When Coco looked closely, she could see the the demon, holding a socket wrench, had a blue laniard around his neck!

'That's it!' Coco's mind alerted her to her horrible/good luck. 'If I get that key card then I can get into the maintenance system!… But.'

Yeah. There is a pretty big but here when all that's standing in your way are a couple of brainwashed induced demons big enough to crush you with one hand.

"Mother fucker," Coco directed this comment right down to the book. "You don't make anything easy, I hope you know that."

She figured she had two options:

Go back down the ladder and find a way to lose them both while snatching the laniard.

Some how run at one demon, avoid getting beaten to death and do some kind of improvised parkour-shit to steal the laniard and run to safety.

Oh, she knows she has no athletic skills what-so-ever.

'Running for my life it is!"

Just as Coco tried to turn around to run back down where she just came from, she saw Miss honey slowly being brought up above on the shoulders of one of her bigger minion-demons.

"Oh fuck…" Coco said to herself, her heart dropping as she took as step back and looked up. "I'm doomed…"

"Very observant~" Miss Honey cheered.

The only, only saving grace that this implied was that the other demons stopped running and dropped their weapons. They must have had some kind of unconscious control to calm down and be docile while Miss Honey was around.

The demon stopped about a foot away from Coco and let Miss Honey push off of his shoulders and stand in front of Coco. Her face looked sharper than before, and her black eyes somehow had red darts at the corners like she had just snorted drugs.

"You know how tiresome it is to stop my workers just to take care of a little pest problem?" Miss Honey stepped forward, her face looking more threatening then before. Her heels were tight and sharp and it made her sound like she was stomping on glass. "All for a bunch of imps! How, completely, totally, amazingly annoying it all is!"

"Well," Coco felt like she had to answer with something. "It looks like they weren't doing a very good job, seeing that everyone's still alive and your workers keep getting into work-related accidents…"

And she just had to be a smart ass again.

'I'm dead,' Coco's final thoughts were already playing soft piano music.

Miss Honey made a noise like growl from the back of her throat, but it came off like some kind of buzzing sound. She then gritted her teeth and pinched the skin in-between her eyes. It was so personally irritating to her at this point.

"You're a strange one," she said, opening her eyes and looking back at Coco. On second study, Coco was even less impressive then at first with such soft and child-like features. There didn't seem to be an inch of backbone in her nor ability to be useful! "I don't get it, what's the use of you? You can't use the book, you can't defend yourself. Fuck! You're probably no good in bed. So why the fuck would a bunch of IMPs bother trying to risk their lives for yours!"

"Why does everyone think I'm having sex with someone?" Coco asked no one in particular as she momentarily flushed and looked away in embarrassment. "I don't even have enough money for the pill anymore…"

"Doesn't matter," she spat and grinned at Coco. "As long as I've got no one to bother me here! Looks like those imps will be taking their sweet time to get her from three floors down! So let's finish what we started!"

She raised up a long, taloned finger in the air that looked like a sharp thorn sticking out at least five inches! She swiped down once but Coco quickly saw it happen and jumped out of the way!

"What the fuck!" Coco shouted. "Lady get a manicure!"

"Don't think it's going to be easy to get away this time!" Miss Honey yelled, snapping her fingers on her normal-looking hand. "I'm not letting anyone get in the way of what I want again!"

The demons reacted by turning immediately for Coco and lunging at her! She ducked under a few arms and ended up rolling through a pair of legs before getting up and trying to run away. Only before she could slip out entirely, one of them hit her and made her fall to the ground!

"Ah!" Coco clutched her left leg. She remembered she still had that ankle injury from yesterday, and now she felt like sliding along the cement floor must have messed up something else in her leg. "Jesus H. Fucking Christ!"

"Watch your language!" Miss Honey yelled, stomping over with the same heel clicking and a sadistic smile creeping up to her face. "Now now now, girly~ So you broke a leg? That's easy to fix. Just don't scratch my book dear!"

Coco sat up and looked around, realizing she had no where to go. Even if she stood up now and started running, Miss Honey was too close and those demons would just jump in again! There's no way her leg could carry her anymore and the pain in her foot started to burn again.

Sometimes, when you're so freaking scared and panicked and don't know what to do, all your mind tells you to do is calm yourself down. And the only way Coco usually calms her nerves is by singing to herself. She had a plethora of songs, especially church hymns that she sang when she was a choir girl. That whole episode of her life was… weird.

But now, all she could think about was playing a song and singing just to catch her breath. Just to calm her heart. Just to, to, to, for a minute. Pretend she actually isn't about to lose all hope in herself.

So she sang.

"Go tell it on the mountain

And over the hills everywhere

Go tell it on the mountain

That Jesus Christ is born~"

"Again with the foul language," Miss Honey growled again, standing in front of her and raising her nail above her head like a saber. "I'll be sure to sew that mouth shut so I never have to hear a godawful sound like that agai-"

Then she felt everything happen slowly.

The curse mark along Coco's arm burned hot red and when she looked down at the compass, she saw the needle pointing straight at Miss Honey while something spinned underneath it.

Suddenly, that ring of fire that only made a protective circle, spun out from Coco and became hotter and hotter. Coco felt calm and cool in the circle, but she saw that the outside had turned bright blue and began shifting itself. It wasn't the flat 2-D circle on the ground, it began swooping up all over like a 3-D circle! Then! As it grew bigger and bigger, it exploded forward around all sides, cutting into the very concrete and shoving all of the demons off in a blast of bright fire!

Coco was left sitting there, stunned a moment. Silent and feeling her entire body was calm and at peace. When she looked over at her curse mark, she saw the red lines were fading back into black and the heat was dissipating. When she held up the compass to her face, she saw it slowly spin back in place and point behind her towards the ladder. From there, she could climb up two platforms and make her way out of here to the maintenance platform.

"You're a… You're a really surprising helper, you know?" She asked her… moral compass. "Yeah. That's your name now. Moral Compass. Live with the irony."

Hearing no subconscious or demonic opposition, she supposed her joke-name for the demon possession tattoo was cute enough.

It took Coco a moment to actually stand up. The pain in her foot and leg seemed bearable, but now she felt more exhausted for some reason and had to carry the book as well as drag herself up more ladders until she could find some place to rest. When she managed to stand up and start walking, she went over to the railing to keep her balance together.

She looked over the railing to see if she could find anyone from IMP getting closer to her. She saw nothing but demons walking around, they seemed more dazing now for some reason and less murderous. But she also didn't see Miss Honey around anywhere.

"She's not dead is she?" Coco asked herself, the looked down at her moral compass. Seeing a small needle jump off and point towards N, Coco knew she couldn't feel relieved just yet. "I should get out of her fast then…"

She looked over and saw, hanging on one of the rail poles, was that same blue laniard. Coco grinned as she took it and hung it around her neck. The only seemingly positive thing that came out of this mess.

Coco dragged her leg carefully as she walked up the ladder and over closer towards the maintenance platform. The walking and the random attacks playing through her mind were making her mentally more and more confused, which irritated her. How did all of this start, and why was it taking so long for it to end?

She ended up at the ladder right before the maintenance platform and just dropped to her knees. It wasn't in her plans, but suddenly her knees just gave out on her and she fell to the floor breathing heavily and couldn't move. She felt herself sweating and hot all over, like all of the heat was starting to eat her from the inside and swallowing her up.

"Can't… breathe…" Coco clutched her chest and started pulling and her shirt, tearing the buttons undone and trying to find some way to breathe better.

The wave of heat and pain started to slow down, just as Coco heard more foot steps running towards her. She panicked, the thought of more demons coming at her now that she knew she couldn't run away or do anything to fight back!

But when she looked up, she was more surprised to see Blitzo running towards her with Moxxy, Milly and Luna on his heels! Milly and Luna looked worse for the wear, their clothes all torn up and scratched with blood as only Moxxy and Blitzo had a few tears on their clothes. They all looked mostly out of breath and stopped once they saw Coco sitting there.

"Good, you're not dead," Blitzo said, huffing and puffing as all of this cardio was taking a toll on him. He saw actually incredibly relieved to see Coco sitting there, but he didn't have enough energy to pull her into a bear hug yet. Now, he needed everyone to get up and blow this place up before the WASP was back. "Get up, we've still got a-"

"What?" Coco just stared up at him, her heart dropping and her eyes becoming wider like she was about to cry but she knew she had no intention of crying. "You want me to to to do what? What exactly?"

"To get your ass up and start moving!" Blitzo bitched at her. Honestly, he didn't mean to be so rude but he's tired, has a hand cramp and wanted to blow this whole place up so he can go home and have a bath. "What do you think? Now stand up and-"

"I can't move!" Coco gestured to herself, her anger rising as her self shame and pity began to come up again. "I'm sorry if getting hit by demons, running for my life and dealing with this book's shit isn't enough for you! But I can't move my fucking legs anymore! I can barely breathe! And you want me to do what? What? Stand and watch you mess this all up because you don't know what you're doing?"

"Hey!" Milly yelled, popping her head over and glaring at Coco. "We're all tired! And I'll have you know we've got a better plan then-"

Coco threw the laniard at Milly and just gave her an exhausted expression.

"It's for the maintenance log in," Coco said, now entirely exhausted. "You're welcome. And thanks for throwing me out here, where I don't know where I'm going, with no protection. And thinking "hey, this is great idea!" While I ran for my life! I'm sorry I'm tired!"

"Look, it doesn't matter." Moxxy chipped in, his brow bent and he tried putting back all of his own frustration and trying to be the voice of reason. "I know you're tired. We're all tired! But you can't just stay down here on you're own because you can't pick yourself up and-"

"I wasn't born yesterday!" Coco yelled at them all.

Everyone stopped for a moment and just looked at her. This tiny human, this tiny little thing with so much exhaustion and so much heart, almost crying because she's so ashamed that she can't pick herself back up again.

"I'm not completely stupid of everything!" Coco yelled out, almost crying as she sat there. Her leg hurt, her chest hurt, her everything hurt. And now her pride was being destroyed. "I get it! There's shit that goes over my head and that I don't understand and that I'm making it harder for me by doing all of this! I'm completely stupid and fucking things up by being this way! But! I'm scared! And I'm tired… And I don't know what to do because I wasn't made to be doing this… I just want to be better so I can go home and know what's wrong with me so I can fix it…"

Luna, Milly and Moxxy looked at one another. They looked shocked and couldn't think of what to do or say next. Should they offer to help? Should they keep brow beating her into complying. It seemed to work before. But she just sounded so completely tired that they didn't know what could help.

But Blitzo was the first to act. Her walked over and stooped down, his eyes meeting Coco's. At first she was scared, Blitzo had never been so close to her before and never gotten so quiet so quickly. But all of a sudden, she felt him pick her up carefully and hold her up in her hands. He managed to fit her in-between his arms while his tail held on to the shot gun.

"I know this isn't fair," Blitzo said, his yellow-black eyes looking into her green ones. He looked honest and sorrowful, he looked like he was trying to be a human. "And I'm not gonna apologize for it. But… I'm not leaving you behind. So you're gonna have to just trust me while we work and we're just gonna have to trust you to keep yourself safe when we can't."

Coco sat there awe-struck. Here Blitzo was, holding her up so easily with his wiry frame and telling her to trust him. The same man who threatened and offered to kill her last night, was asking her to work with him a little longer just so everyone could get alive.

She just bit her bottom lip a little and averted her eyes in shame, nodding her head a little to show she wouldn't fight it.

"Thank you…" She said quietly to Blitzo under her breath.

"You gotta keep up with us because we're not gonna slow down for you." Blitzo said solely before turning to the others, turning back into his boss mode. "Let's get up there and just fucking blow this place up! We'll summon a portal just as we do it so we can skip the fireworks."

"On it!" Milly and Moxxy said together as they started up the ladder.

"I'll take the book," Luna offered, holding out her hand.

"I think I'll keep it," Coco said, stroking the cover and holding it closer. "It's sort of saved me this whole time…"

"Eh, you do you," Luna shrugged and climbed up the ladder. "Also, you do something back there? Those fuck heads got a lot more scared and weaker a few floors back."

"Maybe…" Coco answered, unsure herself.

Blitzo carried her up the ladder and let her sit on the side near it. Then he ran over to the others and watched as Milly and Moxxy messed with this or that to try and shut the place down.

"How far have you gotten?" Blitzo asked, looking very confused at all of the charts and figures.

"We haven't got single clue as to what to do," Moxxy admitted, looking at Blitzo with an uncomfortable face. "Even if we knew what we were doing, sir, how are we supposed to blow this place up? Nobody in their right minds would design a factory like that!"

"Hey! You're supposed to be the smart ones, not the sarcastic ones!" Blitzo bitched before pushing him aside and looking. "Goddamn it! It's all in math! Figure out something to blow this place up or-"

"Why don't you just turn of the cooling systems to the central centrifuge?" Coco offered, sitting over and eavesdropping. "If the heating core gets over heated, then it'll cause a melt down in the central energy production and cause the whole system to go into fail safe or trigger an earthquake under the building from energy and pressure build up."

All three of them looked over, both surprised and horror stricken at Coco's sudden genius. She sat there, looking uncomfortable and averted their gaze for a minute.

"Um, I study energy planning and engineering in school," Coco said, flushing from the heat. "I-I figured this place must be a lot like a nuclear energy plant, since Hell is really hot and all. So, there probably has to be a main cooling mechanism…"

"… Oh yeah!" Milly said, pointing at a set of controls near her. "Here it is!"

"… Goddamn," Blitzo said, looking over at Coco even more surprised. "I guess you're useful here after all."

Coco blushed and looked away. For once, her random nerd knowledge came in handy but she was still being made fun of for it.

'Smart people are never respected,' was Coco's singular thought of the moment.

"The cooling systems will take about five minutes to shut off completely," Moxxy said, looking over at Blitzo. "Then it'll take about ten more minutes for the whole system to over heat and start building up to something here."

"So we've got fifteen minutes set up a portal here." Blitzo said, pondering on how close of a call that is.

"That's not a lot of time," Milly chipped in, looking concerned.

"There isn't another way out?" Luna said, annoyed and looking around.

"Not that we have enough time to get out through," Blitzo said and turning to Coco. "Okay, hand over the book and let me use it. We'll start setting up the portal now so we can get out of here!"
"Okay…" Coco said, starting to stand up uncomfortably and hand over the book to Blitzo. "Do we need to do anything? Like, draw a circle of- WOAH!"

Coco felt herself get yanked up in the air by force and the book tumble out of her hands awkwardly. The team scrambled for the book before it fell over the rails and it was nearly lost before Moxxy narrowly saved it by catching it and hanging over the railings. After sighing in relief, all of IMP looked up to see Coco hanging up and dangling twenty feet above from them by Miss Honey!

'THE BITCH HAS WINGS!" Coco mentally freaked out as she dangled above the now ever present smell of sulfur and suddenly even more unbearable heat. 'What the hell is floating up here!?'

"Hot enough for you?" Miss Honey's voice had gone up so high she sounded auto tuned. If Coco could turn her neck around, she'd see Miss Honey had lost almost all of her human features and looked like a blaring Wasp-Demon. "Heat rises, along with poison and sulfur. You shits think you can just sabotage my work and get out of here without any trouble?"

"Hey! You're the one building and poaching on somebody else's turf!" Blitzo yelled back at her pushing Moxxy aside and yelling up at her. "You think you can keep hiding this from Stollas and the other dirt bag before anyone notices? Like Hell you'll keep yourself this well off alone!"

"Oh, but I'm not alone now!" Miss Honey screeched, looking down at the others. "You have a precious item of Stollas', and he'll want it back so badly that he'll give anything for it! And I'm sure he won't mind losing his little IMP toys while we're at it~"

"You're so crazy," Coco sputtered, yanking her elbow back so her curse mark could breath more and so she could yell without choking. "You're gonna blow us all up with you in here!? The book'll be burnt and you'll be dead before it all happens you crazy bitch!"

"Oh~ I can take some heat. But you?" Miss Honey sneered. "Such a weakling! Almost like a human! I can't wait until you're all dead so I can tear a part whatever's left of you! I'll split you apart, I'll eat your insides, and then I'll tear off your heads and show them to Stollas myself after you're all-"

Again, the same fire built around her curse mark and sent a smaller version of the blue 3-D sphere of fire (Hell Burn? Should Coco call it that?) out and forced Miss Honey away! Coco remembered hearing the faint sound of Miss Honey screaming and the sound of flesh being sizzled, but she was more preoccupied with falling to her death to pay that much attention.

"Reach out and catch the first thing you touch."

That's all Coco heard before she felt her hands grab hold of the railing of another nearby platform. Her body dangled over the railing for a time longer as her ears stopped ringing and could process sound. And when she could hear again, all she heard was a siren blowing throughout the building all around her.

"It's reacting now!" Moxxy yelled out, opening the book while looking up at Blitzo. "We've got to summon to portal now or we'll all be dead in a matter of minutes!"

"You three take care of the exit!" Blitzo yelled back as he started running forward towards Coco. "I'll get Coco back!"
"But sir-" Moxxy started.

"Just do it!"

Coco dangled precariously, her arms beginning to shake as she tried to keep steady. She didn't know what to do. She knew she couldn't hang on any longer but she wasn't sure if she had enough strength left in her to pull herself up anymore. She felt so physically tired but she was mentally awake and ever more aware of how close to the brink of death she is.

"Coco!"

Coco's eyes went wide and she looked down over her shoulder (wow, scary) and saw Blitzo standing five stories down across from where she was. He was looking up at her panicked but threw away his jacket and opened his arms up.

"Listen to me!" He shouted over the sounds of alarms, shaking platforms and general crushing heat. "The building's falling apart! We can't get up to you! You need to let go, jump down and let me catch you!"

"WHAT!?" Coco shouted, trying to hold in how impossible that was and how stupid his idea sounded. "Are you crazy!? I'll die!"

"You're gonna die up there if you don't do it!" Blitzo called back, walking closer to the railing before standing on top of it to get a better vantage point. "Just do it! All you have to do is give one good kick with your good leg and lean back into it! We can get out of here just in time but only if you do it now!"

Coco felt more frozen in place. Her heart started to beat against her chest as she looked around and felt herself become hotter and tighter. Like the space was choking her. Why was he asking her to do this? Why was this the only thing she could do?

"I can't do it!" Coco already felt like she had given up. "I'm scared!"

"Trust me!" Blitzo shouted back, untying his tie and shouting as much encouragement as he could. "You're gonna be FINE! I can catch you!"

"I don't want to move!" Coco said, burying her head in her knuckles and refusing to look back down. "I can't!"

"Listen to me." Blitzo said one more time. He opened up his arms and stared up at her, his voice as calm as he could be and showing his patience. "It's gonna be okay! I'm right here, and as long as I'm here I will never let anything happen to you!"

Coco stopped and lifted her head from her knuckles. When she looked back down, she saw Blitzo just standing there, waiting for her instead of getting the summoning portal ready with the others. And as she saw him stand there, she forgot why she was more scared of him than of here.

She just remembered how lonely she's been and how much she wanted a friend since before coming here…

Taking the leap of faith, Coco did as she was instructed and let go while kicking her leg against the concrete and falling back. While the hot air created a feeling like needles piercing all through her skin, she did land into Blitzos' arms before crashing anywhere else.

The force kicked them both back onto the hard concrete with Blitzo taking most of the fall. But he had her carefully in her arms and near the safest thing she had been all day.

When Blitzo and her sat up, they saw that Moxxy, Milly and Luna had gotten a small portal open on the ground and ready to jump through!

"Hurry!" Moxxy shouted as Luna then Milly jumped through one at a time. "We can't keep open for much longer! We need to go now before this whole place blows up!"

Blitzo didn't even answer as he picked up Coco again and went sprinting. Moxxy handed Blitzo the book before jumping in himself and Blitzo shoved it in Coco's hands before looking at her.

"I need you to trust me when I ask you this," Blitzo said as he stared at her, boring into her green eyes with as serious a look as he could muster. "Do you think all place in Hell are the same?"

"NO!" Coco said, looking around. Confused as to why he was wasting time and why he was asking such a dumb question. "Of course not! Everyone's different here and has their own fucked up agenda!"

"Then I need to know!" Blitzo said. "Do you want to come back with us!"

"What!?"

"Do you trust me?" Blitzo looked concerned, even tired but mostly like he genuinely needed to know this. "The book won't trust us if you don't and I can't have you thinking I want you dead anymore! Please! Promise me you'll trust me from now on…"

Coco looked at him confused and a second passed before she knew exactly how she felt.

"I'll trust you as long as I'm here in Hell," Coco said, feeling like tears were welling up and about to fall over. "Just… Just please be a friend. Please don't try to use me unless you're gonna be my friend too…"

"Honey, I'd never use you like this if I wasn't absolutely sure I wanted to be your friend." Blitzo promised before stepping into the portal. "Hell, you're probably going to be the best thing I've ever stumbled on in any world…"

The next moment, both Coco and Blitzo shot through the portal and ended up crashing into the wall of the office. That was definitely not good for their backs… The portal burned hot and heavy for a second before burning itself out and disappearing. Leaving everyone either standing or laying down in the middle of the wrecked office with an even larger burn mark in the ground.

"GREAT…." Blitzo complained, sitting up and glaring at Moxxy. Now that he wasn't under a line threatening situation, he felt he could complain a bit more about his crappy life. "You couldn't of made an even more crappy portal, Mox? Just look at what you did to my office!"

"Me!?" Moxxy pressed both hands to his chest and looked appalled at the accusation. "What did I do!? That portal is the best all of us could make without your magic involved! Not to mention there were no ritual stuffs and we were in a burning building to-"

"Hey," Coco interrupted, still laying flat on her back on the floor and looking up at the others much more calmly now. "How do we know is that place is really gonna blow up or not?"

Before anyone could say anything, the red sky from the window seemed to light up several shades brighter and there was a low sound like the bass drop in house music. Everyone stopped and picked themselves up, walking over to the window and seeing what looked like a mega fire off in the distance away from them.

"… So, does this mean the work day's over?" Milly asked confused.

"I guess blowing up a giant construction hive and keep a turf war from happening is considered work?" Blitzo answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"We didn't get paid for it," Luna reminded him before turning and walking away. "I'm gonna take a shower in the back. Someone order take out."

"Chinese?" Moxxy asked, looking at Milly and Coco.

-Later-

Blitzo looked around for Coco in the office. The Chinese food was delivered and everyone was catching idly without her and this was worrying him. Especially since he saw the book sitting carefully on his desk. He looked around the office until he found there was an open window opened to the alleyway. He crawled through and saw Coco sitting there on the fire escape, legs through the railings and her head rested on her arms as she stared out through the crowded buildings at the red sky with the pentagram floating above.

"Whatcha doin?" Blitzo asked, a very giddy smile on his face as he approached her. A lot like a cat in fact.

"Listening to a couple of guys rioting down the street," Coco said, staring out at nowhere facing the sky. She had changed into yet another pair of Blitzo and Moxxy's clothes without the devil horns on and was taking in the new sense of calm that came in Hell when you're not being directly threatened or running for your life. "It's actually strangely calming."

"Yeah," Blitzo said, feeling very chummy. "I like those guys."

They sat there like that for a moment, neither of them speaking and just taking in the pre-dawn Hell before Blitzo started again.

"How's you're leg?" Blitzo asked, looking concerned down at Coco's left leg and foot.

"It's okay," Coco said, holding out her foot a little like she was presenting it. "I found some tape so I wrapped the parts that hurt. I'll just take it easy tomorrow and try not to walk on it a lot."

"Right," Blitzo said. He looked away and sat quietly for another moment before squirming around a little and looking back at her. "You did good today, you know? Not a lot of humans would have made even half as far as you did today on your own. You really went over my expectations… You seriously killed it out there."

"… Did I really do good though?" Coco turned and looked at Blitzo with a tired expression that showed she had been thinking too much these last few hours. "All I did was run for my life but- Well. It felt almost exactly like what I do back home. Like, not as fast or direct, but the same idea. I've just been running away from shit I made myself go through. And, I don't know if I'm running for my life or away from life anymore. Like, there's no end game here or there for me anymore! I'm just running away from whatever will kill me and waiting to run from the next thing that will!"

Coco took in a deep breath and let out a long and heavy groan before leaning back on her hands. She didn't know why she was doing this, but she knew she had to.

"It's like I'm just stuck in the same place as the same person and each time I'm not good enough to actually get where I want to be." Coco complained, before she knew she had to complain about the actual problem she has. "It's just, I don't know where I really want to be. I don't know what I want! I just, keep "going with the flow" and thinking that'll get me somewhere. But it's not. And it hasn't. And I don't what I'm doing anymore or how to get better because I… I don't really know what I'm good at. I don't know what I want because… I'm afraid if I figured it out, I won't know who I am anymore…"

Blitzo sat there for a moment, blinked for a second before holding out his hand and patting her on her head. Coco felt the palm of Blitzo's hand shake her head a moment before he just left it there and grinned at her.

"Hey," Blitzo said cheerfully, taking in her loaded personal-moral crisis and rolling with it. He knew she was smart, he knew she was good and he knew she was handy to have around. So Blitzo thought he could be completely honest and truthful with her. "If you're down here with the rest of these, uh, how should I put it? Hmmm, fucked up individuals, let's call them. Well, then you're doing a lot better by comparison!"

"PFFFT," Coco cracked a sarcastic grin and rolled her eyes at that. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"No," Blitzo said, shaking his head and grinning. "It's supposed to make you laugh. Now come on, kid! No use in cryin' or being embarrassed down here. If you fail once, well nobody's gonna judge you. Not unless you don't learn from it and try better next time."

Coco just sighed and shook her head, starting to stand up and follow Blitzo inside. Like he said, if she's going to be stuck here then she has to accept that she's here. And if she's here, she had to accept that there are things so far out of her control that'll she'll just have to become good at reacting at the stuff.

Plus, like she thought before, if she's stuck here trying to figure out how to get home on her own. Maybe now's a good time to figure out how to be a better person. If she really wanted to know what she wanted to do with her life, being a good person seemed like to be the best place to end up at!

Then, as they stepped back into the office where everyone was fighting over egg rolls; Coco stopped and realized something very important.

"Uh," she started, realizing her entire plan had one false spot. "So… where do I sleep again?"