Chapter 22

Graphics Intro

666 News

"This is 666 News. I'm Katie Killjoy…"

Camera shifts

"And I'm Tom Trench, bringing you a special report! As of 4:00 PM this afternoon, Pentagram City is being overwhelmed by mechanized biological constructs. Let's go to the live feed…"

New image appears in lower corner

Katie speaks

"This is from our film crew on the West Side of the Pentagram. As you can see…"

Image stretches and expands, filling screen

"...their onslaught has filled the streets, sending Sinners fleeing for their afterlives! Every single side of the Pentagram has reported sightings, but the majority seem to be focused on the western half. Eyewitnesses report that these strange creatures appeared to resemble Imps."

Screen reverts back to studio

Tom speaks

"That's right, Katie, although these creatures seem more machine than Hellborn."

"I'd call you an unoriginal dork for making that reference, Tom, but in this case it's accurate. The creatures appear to be spilling out industrial parts and metal from their bodies! Kind of like your last date, Tom!"

"...Not sure what you're implying there, Katie, considering you're the one with the vibrating boyfriend in your dressing room."

"Yeah, well at least I'm not the one with the butter dog!"

"Now Katie, I will have you know that me and Pringle are in a committed relationship."

"Oh sure, anyone can marry a dog, especially a bit-"

Feed cuts out

The screen filled with harsh static.

The Sinner switched it off. The knob snapped off with his hand.

Might as well. It would probably be the last time he ever watched it.

When Paizana and her benefactors had shared the truths of the King in Yellow with him, he knew that his work would be long, grueling even. He was no stranger to dangerous work, especially for a cause higher than himself.

But still, it seemed slightly bittersweet. He'd grown fond of this small basement dwelling he had called home.

He tossed the knob onto the floor and lumbered past the table, where his last Imp subject had long since expired. It's skin was pale, like many of his 'children'. He had failed to find a way to perfect the shard's mechanisms. Still, he had fulfilled his first task: he had shown what the mechanism, even in its imperfect form, was capable of. He would simply need more time for the second. The results of his other experiments hung upon the wall, mangled and desiccated, held by hooks through their shoulders, their spines, their jaws and mouths. Most of them had long since expired.

At least, the Imps had. The Sinners, he wasn't quite sure. They seemed dead. Some still seemed to be capable of producing tears.

He had but one task now: wait. It would take time to rebuild Carcosa's towers to where they would leer behind the twin moons of Hell again...but it would still need people to build a solid foundation.

'Songs the Hyades would sing', indeed.

He sat down upon his stool next to the door.

"I can't believe they didn't even mention me…"

Back on the zeppelin, a despondent Sir Pentious was curled up next to the ship's television, his pride now doubly hurt.

"Now now…", Charlie said in her typically nurturing voice. "They cut the feed all the time, it's nothing to get upset over. Trust me, Killjoy's not worth it."

"That's easy for you to say!", he screeched back.

Chay was looking down through the zeppelin's viewfinder. She could see Paizana right in her line of sight, with her gun pointed at Lucius and Viola.

...and Cherri bomb. That could cause some issues.

Especially since they now saw her-or rather, the ship.

"Hey Pentious, where's the microphone for this thing?"

"Below the atmosphere gauge.", he grumbled. "Don't break my shit."

She looked frantically around the zeppelin's controls, littered with dials, gauges and random lights. Were it not for Pentious having diligently labeled each and every one, it would have been incomprehensible.

-Granted, it was Pentious who flew us here in the first place, but still...

She pulled the microphone apparatus from the console. For a ship covered in art deco, it looked surprisingly modern.

She flicked the power switch and cleared her throat. The speakers rang online with a mechanical shriek.

"Don't shoot!"

"The fuck?", the Cyclops-Sinner managed to produce.

Cherri wasn't the only one in the group surprised. The Imps were all equally flummoxed. Lucius was barely processing the information in front of him.

"Chay?!", Viola shouted. "How the-"

"We got the blimp!", shrieked the speaker. "No time to elaborate, we know who the culprits are!"

She looked over at Paizana, whose gun was still aimed at them.

Her eyes flitted back up. "Yeah...good timing."

Lucius said nothing. He simply stared at some random thing in the distance.

"Hey, is that limpdick snake up there with you?!", Cherri yelled up at the blimp.

"Yeah, but-"

"Is he crying like a little bitch?!", she yelled again.

There was a mild mechanical shriek before the voice from the blimp changed.

"I can hear you, you know!", Pentious's voice yelled from the speaker

Cherri Bomb bent over with laughter, almost wheezing.

"I smell toast…", Lucius blurted out. "Why do I smell toast?"

Viola looked over at the older Imp, eyebrow raised. "Really? That can't be good…"

"Yeah…", Cherri replied. "You might wanna get that checked out."

"One of mah uncles said that before he had a stroke.", Sallie May concurred. "Something about his pituitary gland..."

BANG

"Shut the fuck up, all of you!"

The Imps and Cherri's attention was ripped back over to Paizana, whose gun was in the air and smoking from a recent round.

"I swear to Satan, if I hear one more fucking quip, I'm going to…"

P'TANG

"FUCK!"

The mare's leg clattered to the ground. A sniper's bullet clanged on a nearby piece of car wreakage before clattering to the pavement. Paizana frantically grabbed her hand, doubling over in pain. A drip of black Imp blood trickled out of her lacerated fingers.

From the rooftops, and the alleyways, several Imps emerged carrying rifles, pistols and knives.

Imps wearing red handkerchiefs

Viola looked around her. "Comrades?", she asked nervously.

"The area is clear, comrade Viola.", answered one of them. She was short, and missing an arm. Her hair was inky black with white strands. "We still have several outside of the perimeter, but this block is secure."

"Y-yeah…", Viola said. "Good. Very...very good."

The short Imp raised an eyebrow. "Is there an issue, comrade?"

"No, comrade. Nothing at all…"

From the blimp, the escalator stairs extended down to the ground. Chay, Charlie and Vaggie all rode it down to the pavement, before stepping off.

Viola gave Chay the side-eye. "You could have intervened earlier, you know."

Chay shrugged. "Blame Pentious for making his blimp's controls so goddamn complicated."

"Oh, really? Then how'd you get here in the first place?"

Chay looked over her shoulder at Charlie, who gave her an innocent smile.

"The Princess has her ways.", she said. "Now have any of you heard from Fye?"

That got Sallie May's attention. "Fyewackett? Is he in trouble?"

"He's keeping watch at the Hotel.", Vaggie answered. "Speaking of which, we should probably check for any messa-whoa."

The Moth-Sinner's eyes went wide as she scrolled through her texts on her hellphone.

Charlie jogged up to Vaggie's side. "What's wrong?"

Vaggie held up the hellphone to Charlie's face.

"Oh…", the Princess replied. "Oh wow. I thought my phone was unusually silent up there..."

Viola raised an eyebrow. "You didn't hear a single ding while you guys were in the air?"

"Pentious probably has a jammer.", Vaggie responded, putting the phone back into her pocket. "Either way, it's a good thing Alastor is over there with them."

"They would not be alone in the struggle.", the short red-hankerchief wearing Imp replied. "The entire west side of Pentagram City is currently under siege. We've been attempting to cull their numbers and have only made so much progress..."

Viola nodded grimly. "Yeah, that's what the situation looked like from the ground at least. The roads were choked with our suffering brethren. Your assistance was much appreciated…"

"Our work is not yet done, I'm afraid."

"That's pretty obvious…"

Viola was awkwardly silent for a moment.

"Is something wrong?", the shorter Imp asked.

"I just realized that I have no idea who you are.", she replied sheepishly.

"Sack-and-sugar, comrade." she answered in kind. "My friends just call me Sack. We went to get donuts together at this shop?"

Viola's memory was suddenly flooded with the previous night's events, going down the street during the 'negotiations' to get a dozen boxes of…

"Ah, right. Sorry, it's just-"

"...Been a lot. Yeah. I get that.", Sack replied. "What are your orders, comrade?"

Their conversation was interrupted by an indignant shout.

"She is not your leader, you fucking traitors!"

Paizana slowly got back to her feet, still clutching her bleeding hand.

"You know the chain of command. I'm still the head of this organization, and I think its time for a struggle session…"

Sack peered over at Viola, who sadly shook her head.

"No...I don't think we will, comrade President.", the Imp replied. She pulled her pistol out of her pocket and aimed it at Paizana. "It's over. We've had enough. None of us wanted to admit what was in front of our eyes, but I cannot continue to pretend otherwise."

Lucius, after having been dead silent, finally piped up. "Griz loved you, Pai…", he said, fighting back hot tears. "How could...how could you just…"

Paizana's eyes began to dilate, glowing yellow in rage.

She hissed at her former subordinate with the fury of a hurricane.

"YOU TREASONOUS LITTLE WEASEL! HOW DARE YOU ATTEMPT TO USURP MY AUTHOR-what the fuck is that?"

The Imp's eyes went wide in terror. Every other pair of eyes, Imp and otherwise, slowly wandered to over to what she saw.

Barreling down the street, running at full-speed with the force of a semitruck, was an enormous, black-furred mass of muscle and meat, charging towards them on all fours, with yellow mad eyes and slavering jaws…

...and a tattered kilt wrapped around his waist.

"No more games, laddie!", he shouted. "Where are ye hidin?!"

Chay grabbed for her gun...only to find a small, shivering form clutching at her pants leg.

"Keep him away from me.", Lester begged her.

"Over on yer left, girl!"

Shakie whipped around to find one of the creatures attempting to climb the wall, stumbling over the pile of its now-incapacitated brethren. She took the gun and carefully aimed down the barrel.

She pulled the trigger.

Direct hit.

The creature's neck shard was summarily dislodged and dropped to the ground. The creature immediately stopped moving, and joined the others in the pile.

She didn't envy the clean-up job Niffty would have to do.

"Fuck me, my hands are killin' me here!"

In spite of the gloves, Angel Dust had to temporarily drop his gun to massage his hands. He could feel his wrists tingling from the constant vibration. Below him was a near mountain of dispatched abominations, piled upon each other like pieces of old meat.

He peered down from the balcony. "Hey Fye, you doin' OK down there?!"

He was answered by the sound of a flurry of machine gun rounds.

"C-c-c-could be b-b-better, Angel!", the Imp replied with a shakey voice. "I t-t-hink the vib-vib-ration from this thing may have rearranged my organs, but we're holding the line here. How about you guys?"

Angel squinted his eyes and looked up and down the street. The PMS apparatus was firing as fast and as accurately as possible, leaving several of the things in splattered puddles.

But they were still coming.

"We still got more comin', short stuff.", he yelled back. "If ya got any bright ideas, now would be a great time to tell me."

Down near the front door, Fye was drenched in sweat, the barrel of his Thompson still smoking. Lucille was still madly firing into the crowd of creatures with her shotgun, while Fern was trying to carefully aim with a snub-nose magnum that she had somehow managed to procure.

This wasn't good. Their ammo supply was depleting, and fast.

"Alastor!", he cried over the noise.

"Yes?", came his staticy voice nearby.

"If you got anything hiding up year sleeve…"

"But of course, my friend!

BOOM

The road in front of them seemingly cleaved itself in twain.

"You might want to step back a foot or two…"

CHAPTER 22 END