To Hell-Flame-Narf: Yes. Brian is Baal, Derek is Diablo, and Melvin is Mephisto. Note: The first letters of every demon's human form name will correspond to their real name.

To Captain Skywolf: That's a good idea about the Salem thing but I don't know if I'm gonna add any of the normal heroes to the story...

R&R. I love it! Ummm...Yeah, and don't forget to vote which character is your favorite if you haven't and thanx to those who do!

Disclaimer: Yes. I admit it. The wonderfulness of the Diablo stuff belongs to Blizzard and moogles to Squaresoft. Oh. Ummm..and I guess Hot Topic belongs to whoever owns it...

The imp crawls past, muttering," At the guy's group, kupo."

The guys' first stop was at a shop called 'HoT TOPiC', stocked with lots of black garments and dangerously spiked accessories. Strange, loud music boomed from the odd atmosphere overhead (they don't know about speakers), yet it was surprisingly to the demons' likings...well, to Baal's and Diablo's anyway.

"Can I help ya' with anything?" says a particularly weird man whose hair is discolored and looks as if it has a life of it's own, while his entire face is decorated with dozens of silver rings and piercings.

"Why, yes actually. Perhaps you could lend us your soul," says Brian. The only way to provide the Three with a faster means of gathering power was to take the souls of mortals. The only catch was that the humans had to say they could and give it freely.

"Wha? Man, I like you guys already."

The Three take on disgusted looks . Unable to attain a single soul, the demons bought a few things (overpaying 'cause they hadn't gotten used to the currency thing) and left. Brian had bought some mistakenly large shirts for Salem, Derek got some cool-looking notebooks and a straight-jacket for the hyper Kyra, and Melvin obtained some spiked wristbands and three violent comic books for Rika.

Their next plan was to split up even more so the odds of getting more souls were raised...

The imp walks up with a fake moogle nose on his snout, saying, "At the girls kupo. Check out ma' nose, kupo."

"Ooo! Maybe Derek wants some fish-shaped soap!" Kyra points to a bath-themed shop.

"Er...I seriously doubt that," says Rika.

"Let's see... Maybe you should buy Melvin a plush toy like Mr.Eff," says Kyra to Rika.

Mr.Eff was a black and white plushie of a cat who had a chain necklace on it, which Rika carried around, day and night.

"Then you could be alike!" Kyra says.

"I seriously doubt that too," says the other.

Selena trots alongside her sister. "Can I have a flamethrower?"

"No..."Salem sighs

"I think I'm gonna go look for the guys 'cause you people are scarin' me," Rika says as she wanders off.

"Nooo! Don't go to the light!" shouts Kyra, startling passerbys.

Selena hops away too, but in the other direction towards a store, whose multi-colored sign states, 'Plusheez 4 U And Ur Fwiend', with both Kyra and Salem running after her.

A 100-pound anvil falls on the imp and the moogles stands innocently to the side, saying, "I killed it kupo! Back at the guys, kupo!"

"Give me your soul mortal!"

"Ummm...no thank you?"

Sighing, the Three get the same answer every time, so they decide to regroup, contacting each other telepathically and directing each other to a meeting point.

"Did you get any souls?" asks Melvin.

"Nope," responds Brian.

"No luck here," answers Derek. "Ooo...Look at that."

The others look at what he is pointing to and see massive double-doors between an ice cream parlor and a shoe shop. Brian is the first to walk up to it and places a clawed hand on it's cool surface.

"It says 'Emergency Exit' on it. Good idea. Why don't we have emergency exits in hell?"

"Dunno. But go in. It may lead us to somewhere of importance," Derek walks toward it as his brother opens it, followed by Mephisto.

The demons find themselves in a backdoor alley. A large dumpster sits festering on the right of the wide alley and the ground is littered with loose paper. Let's see...Is that all? Wait! No, there is also a bedraggled, dirty hobo guy sitting on a pile of newspaper on the ground just to right of our hero-er...villia-er...demons. Since the sun is out, it shines directly in the hobo's er...direction, and he looks up at the three figures outlined in a blinding glow standing over him.

"Fianlly! It ish the coming of the angels, come to take me away from 'dis filthy rathole," the hobo dude mumbles excitedly.

Each demon looks at one another. It is Mephisto, the most intellectual one of the Three, who comes up with a plan.

"Er.. 'Tis we, the council of the seraphim, who have come to you. But in order for us to escort you to the heavens, we require your soul," he speaks in an echoing voice.

"I thought you said you was gonna' take me to Kentucky."

"Er...yes...right, Kentucky then."

"I never knew you's requireded souls."

"Of course we do. Just say the words and you've got your passport."

"Oookay then...You's can haves ma' soul."

"Score," Melvin says devilishly through a fanged smile and his eyes flash blue once, like cold fire. The papers on the ground begin to swirl in a malevolent wind like frightened gulls and the Three's human garments whip around violently. Eyes suddenly going black then stark white, the unfortunate man falls forward on the concrete while his body shudders. A vaguely humanoid shape rises up from the man's back like smoke, emerging with a sound like whispers in a long, empty hall. It moves into the priest's awaiting skeletal palm and dissipates like a snuffed fire as he closes his hand. And the other two stand amongst the chaos, looking only slightly impressed.

The triumphant moogle speaks, "Rika's situation, kupo!"

Rika gasps and instantly swings behind the double doors that had been slightly ajar. On her quest to find the mysterious brothers, she had thought it would've been nice just to shut the doors and had stumbled upon the lifeless, yet still-warm body of a hobo just outside. Now she stands there, just breathing calmer and walks away slowly, thinking that maybe she should call someone to investigate the body. And she did. After that, she passes by the bookstore and stops.

There, on a shelf meant for advertising in the front of the bookstore, marked 'best-sellers' was a book on Melvin and his religious ideas. It was a nicely decorated, hardback book with a glossy cover. Thinking it would be a wonderful gift, she buys it and few other books. On the way out, she bumps into someone.

"Hey! Watch where you're goin' ya' yamhead!!!"

"Kyra?" says Rika.

"Yeah?"

"It's me, Rika," she says, annoyed.

"Oh."

Salem walks over and Rika notices her eyeing the books she is carrying. Salem and Kyra trot off to buy some too. By the time they're finished, it's nearly four o' clock and the group rn off to the area called the 'FUUD KOURT', nearly bowling the Three over. When Rika sees her new boyfriend, she notices a strange, new fervor in Melvin. 'That's strange,' she thinks.

Derek's voice breaks her concentration as he looks around. "Uh...Where's Selena?"

"Selena!" Salem shouts and rubs her forehead. "Not again," she groans and flees off in search of her little sister, trailed by the other girls while the Prime Evils said that they'd be back.

The imp drives to the moogle in an army tank with it's barrel facing the moogle, saying, "Step away from the dialogue kupo," while the moogle stutters, "A-At the guys, k-kupo."

Once in the men's restroom, the Three stand in the form of a triangle in the center of the room, preparing to perform a 'search spell'. One sink faucet had been left running, so Baal silences it with a look, blowing it to ceramic dust because it was annoying him.

"Was that really necessary?" asks Derek to his left.

Brian rolls his eyes as he cuts his right index finger with a clawed nail and lets a drop of blood fall to the floor tiles. The others repeat this gesture. The blood begins to sizzle and float into the air as a crimson mist, forming into a sphere in the center of the triangle. The Evils notice shapes forming in the reflective face of the now solid, crimson sphere. The view looks as if from a camera lens, and it shows the sign of the store called 'Plusheez 4 U And Ur Fwiend'. Soon, the angle shifts, moving along the aisles, and goes down the third aisle to focus on a pile of raggedy-looking, used dolls with soft, dirty skin and button eyes falling off. Then the crimson sphere fades out of existence with a faint 'whoosh' and the demons run off, now knowing where the girl is.

And in a stall, a man with his trousers down, faints on the toilet...

A pile of ash says, "Owww, kupo," as the imp, wearing an army hat, says, "At home, kupo."

Up on the roof, Salem felt she could breathe so much easier from the mall predicament. Especially with Brian beside her.

It was night and the stars shone through thin, wispy blankets of midnight clouds. Bright and luminous was the moon and the cool wind swept through the silent neighborhood. She rests on Brian's shoulder so that he was now her support. Brian began to get a little nervous and queasy in the head. Salem sighs and looks out across the stars, wondering.

Just wondering...

Brain sighs too. A content sigh though. His heart sinks too, thinking of how long humans stayed on the mortal plane while he, a demonic monarch of the realms of Hell, would forge on in time and space...forever in the world. To try to forget this, he absently runs his clawed fingers through Salem's hair and she catches his hand, cold and almost pulseless, and holds it against her cheek, warmer than embers to him. Light from the night sky reflects off from the face of the digital watch clasped around his wrist an casts a celestial map upon Salem's skin.

Somehow Brian felt exposed up on the roof. Somewhere the angels would be watching from their cowardly posts but he shakes away his care. 'Let them come,' he thinks. But suddenly, his demonic senses pick up the feeling of a different creature. The hairs on the back of his neck bristle as he senses another powerful force entering the world...from Below.

"What's wrong?" asks Salem as he straightens up.

"Oh, I...uh...thought I heard something."

Salem nods.

And somewhere in the dark, something evil shifts in the night...

Okie dokie then. Now that I have practiced my imagery, I am tired. :P Here's the votes so far.

Salem: 1

Brian: 3 (I love the whole Brian's birthday review )

Selena: 1

Derek: 1 (I think)

Kyra: 0

Rika: 3

Melvin: 1