Maybe it was morning, maybe it was still night, when Mad Dawg woke up, he couldn't tell. He pulled himself up, confused at first ad to where he was, and then remembered that he had effectively signed up for demon rehab the day before. Looking around the room, it didn't seem like anyone or anything had been in his room… he hoped. He also realized now that he didn't really have any clothes… the ones he had worn got shredded when he changed into this thing when he first entered heck, and aside from the boots he had salvaged and repaired, he hadn't really bothered looking for much else.

When he left into the hall, he found a noted on his door, pulling it off, it was short and thankfully concise.

10:00 we'll begin your rehabilitation! See you then! – C

Again, there was something about the over-excited 'rehabilitation' that gave Dawg some pause, as if he was nervous that by doing so, he'd end up selling his soul or his mind to some dark force. But he also knew he had to take a chance as he thought it over. Looking around the room, he decided it was time to go, and set off walking down the hall, seeing another resident leaving their room. As he walked, he absent-mindedly scratched his arm, not noticing he accidentally cut into his multiple times.

"Hey." Mad Dawg nodded.

"Oh, hello." The resident turned around, seeming like a angler fish. "I don't believe we've been acquainted."

"I'm Mad Dawg."

"My name is Baxter." Baxter introduced himself with a nod. "Resident scientist."

"I'm the new guy." Mad Dawg replied. "You… you know where Charlie is?"

"Uh yes, she should be in the study, main floor, fifth door."

"Thanks." Mad Dawg nodded, then turned and left. At first, Baxter thought nothing of it, but then he saw Mad Dawg's arm bleeding, and then close itself… he blinked in surprise then got down to look at the small amount of blood Dawg had left behind. It seemed… wrong.

The rest of the walk was silent and uneventful. Everyone else was either doing something or still asleep. He found a clock, and saw it was nearly, ten, so he decided to head on down. Walking into the small room Mad Dawg looked around at all the bookshelves filled with books, a couch and a loveseat which Charlie and… Veggie? Vaggie? Yeah, Vaggie… were sitting on, watching him enter.

"Hi, did you sleep well?" Charlie asked with a closed-eyed smile. Inexplicably, she was wearing thin square glasses, so either she had bad eyesight, or… whatever. Vaggie seemed to be getting a better look at Mad Dawg, and her expression was unreadable.

"Mm." Mad Dawg nodded, nervously looking around before sitting down on the couch.

"So, your name is… Mad Dog, correct?" Charlie asked, writing something down.

"Yeah." Mad Dawg nodded.

"All right Mr. Dawg." Charlie began, but stopped when she heard Dawg groan slightly. "Just Dawg." She thought.

"Not to be rude or anything, but is Mad Dawg your real name?" Vaggie asked.

"Yes." Mad Dawg immediately replied, with a tone that clearly said there was more to the story, but he didn't want to tell it.

"Okay, as we went over yesterday, I'm Charlie, princess of hell." Charlie smiled at him, and she bit her lip when she saw him blink in surprise.

"Wait. You're the princess of hell… then… your dad is the king of hell… and that means he's…" Mad Dawg slowly said putting everything together.

"The devil, yes." Charlie nodded, noting Dawg's almost immediate aggressive tension that took over his body. "I promise you though, I do want to help you."

"And why should I believe you?" Mad Dawg asked, rising off the couch and picking up his messenger bag, ready to make an escape through the nearby window. It was clear Vaggie was about to snap at Mad Dawg, but Charlie seemed calm and almost timid as she spoke.

"You have no reason to." She shook her head as she admitted. "I know you and I met yesterday, and I'm asking you to put a lot on the line and trust me… but I truly want to help you, and I don't know how to convince you of that."

There was something about her tone that struck Dawg as real. Again, maybe she was acting, but maybe she was being genuine… honestly, she seemed kinda like a freak to Mad Dawg.

"And you know all about that." Mad Dawg told himself. "You were a freak, and no one had any reason to trust you… But Winston took a chance on you, I think you can take a chance on her."

Slowly, Mad Dawg sat back down and nodded solemnly. There was a small sigh of relief, and Charlie began with her questions:

"Can you tell me why you think you're in hell?" She asked, dropping the metaphorical hammer and getting the biggest question out of the way.

"Fire-bombing an orphanage is probably a good guess." Mad Dawg shrugged, not seeing Charlie's mortified face.

"You too?" Angel called from another room.

"I'm being serious." Charlie frowned, biting her lip but not saying anything. "Do you think there was one action in particular that may have caused you to be sent to hell? Something you never asked for forgiveness over?"

"A lot, actually." Mad Dawg admitted. "But it is what it is. Forgiveness… isn't possible for me."

"Why not?" Charlie asked, having heard this quite literally billions of times.

"Everyone I would need to apologize for hurting is dead." Mad Dawg said giving Charlie a flat look. "And those that aren't made it really clear they won't forgive me, either saying so to my face, or when they all agreed to watch me suffocate on toxic gas, and I don't blame them."

"Okay… you don't seem suicidal… but you really seem to have a low opinion of yourself…" She remarked, writing something down. The latter half of his comment was rather upsetting to her, but she did her best not to show it. Vaggie still seemed unreadable, but seemed a bit surprised by everything that Mad Dawg had been saying.

"Not low, real." Mad Dawg shook his head.

"If you want to get better, you need to take this seriously!" Vaggie remarked, annoyed with how this was going. Just like usual, everyone was treating Charlie's ideas like a joke.

"If that's the case, why are you still here?" Mad Dawg suddenly asked, leaning up and glaring at Vaggie. "If you believe in this place, why are you here?"

"Hey!" Charlie exclaimed, quickly capping the fight before it could begin. "That's enough." She looked to Mad Dawg and stated: "Vaggie's right, but I also understand this can be hard for you. Just tell me what you're willing to say, that's the best place to start."

Mad Dawg frowned, biting his tongue to hold back something, but sighed and nodded. "Right. Sorry…" He muttered, his reaction was not what Vaggie had expected, and it left her in stunned silence.

"Let's try this another way." Charlie remarked, pushing the glasses back up on her face and setting the clipboard down to one side. "Enough about sin and damnation, what's your story?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Mad Dawg half-smiled as he shook his head. "But what the heck… I'm not from the earth I think all of you came from. If what I've seen is to be believed, I'm from another dimension's earth, which in turn would've had its own hell, but that earth was the second one I had been in after I got blown up in my original home."

Charlie blinked not having followed any of that.

"I'm a dimension traveler." Mad Dawg admitted, he pulled his sketch book out and scribbled something down, he flipped it over, showing three circles marked with '1', '2', and '3'. Beneath them was 'HECK' scribbled next to a stick figure with horns and a pitchfork. 'You are here' was written with an arrow pointing down. "When I was alive, I lived here." He said pointing to a circle with '1' in it. "In this world, I was sort of a hero. I worked with a bunch of people to protect the world from a terrorist organization who wanted to drive the world into violence and rule through fear. After what I thought was my death, I ended up here." He said pointing to '2'. "In this world, I met a bunch of new people, and got to chill somewhat. Now, where I was living before I died wasn't where I was created. That was another world in and of itself." He finished, pointing to '1'. "And if I had to guess, these three worlds all have their own hell. Or maybe it's all connected, I don't know."

"So, you fought bad guys in one world, somehow ended up in a second where you just… hung out, and then somehow you died and ended up in hell?" Charlie asked.

"That is OFFENSIVELY simplifying it, but yeah." Mad Dawg nodded.

"Sorry, what do you mean by 'created'?" Vaggie blinked.

"I'm not human." Mad Dawg admitted, looking away. "Legally, scientifically, even rationally. I'm a mutant. I was created to be a living cure, a pharmaceutical miracle that would re-build damaged cells and organs, extending the human life by decades! It worked too, so successfully in fact, that I went from stands of genetic code, to an actual baby. What I mean is my cells regenerated so quickly, they formed the body I live in. Then a bunch of edge-lord dumbasses paid off the lab to turn the cure into a weapon, and I became a monstrous mass-murdering death machine."

"Huh." Charlie said quietly, this taking a turn she didn't expect, but at the same time, she could see and hear the pain from Mad Dawg's explanation.

"Thing is… I kinda went berserk and may have killed a few people when I was like, five years old." Mad Dawg continued. "Because of that, I escaped, and they didn't finish screwing with my brain. So... I didn't fully become what they wanted. Anyhow, I lost my memories, got a new name, new home… and then the assholes I mentioned a paragraph ago found me. They didn't know I was the same subject from all those years ago, but they knew I could heal, and were interested in that. I got saved by this legion of heroes, and I decided to join their ranks to repay the favor. There were a lotta good times…" Mad Dawg smiled, then it seemed to twitch and slowly fall to a rather depressed frown. In fact, his whole body seemed to deflate somewhat. "And a whole lotta mistakes..."

"You're a mutant? Like those old comic characters?" Vaggie asked skeptically. Mad Dawg reached for his bag, and froze. He felt afraid of what he was holding, but remembered Lisa, how a leap of faith- wait. That leap of faith ended with him in hell… Whatever. He pulled a beaten folder out and passed it to Charlie. The princess skimmed through it, her eyes widening with each page.

"Uh, could you excuse us a second?" Charlie asked with a nervous grin, before pulling Vaggie out of the room. Mad Dawg sighed and leaned back on the couch, knowing most likely where this was going. Once the pair were down the hall, Charlie whirled around, her eyes wide and somewhat afraid.

"Vaggie… what do I do!?" Charlie exclaimed, pulling her face down as she spoke, her tone one of exasperation. "We have a demon who wants to change… but he's not HUMAN!"

"Okay."

"I wanna talk to him like I did the others, but I don't know if that'll work! I don't know if in… in another dimension good is bad and hell is heaven to him!"

"Charlie."

"And he… he was meant to be a weapon?! What do I say to that!? 'Don't be yourself'?! What kind of message for change is that!?"

"Charlie."

"Does he understand the concept of redemption?! Do I need to teach him everything from scratch!? If so, can I do that? And again, I don't want to force my ways onto him, and maybe he's just as confused as I am! Maybe-"

"Charlie." Vaggie said, a bit sterner this time, stopping the princess. Vaggie sighed before she spoke: "Two things, one; you were doing it right."

"What?"

"You saw him freeze when he took that folder, that's clearly traumatic and something from his past he can't let go of. But he gave it to you. He trusted you with his literal life story, so you were doing something right. Also, I think I get him."

"You do?! What do I need to do!?"

"Look… I can't say conclusively, but I feel like humor is a mode of self-defence to this guy. Or maybe he just makes jokes regardless of how he's feeling. Thing is, he was willing to talk, he was willing to listen. I think you had something, but don't be so formal." Vaggie answered calmly, and Charlie's body seemed to unravel from the anxiety-coil she was currently putting herself in. "I think, at the end of the day, he really wants a friend. Someone he can talk to about his issues without it being all high-strung and all that other crap. When you first met him, he couldn't believe you were who you are. Once you dropped the formalities, I could see he was attracted to that friendliness, and that's what'll help him most."

"Yeah, I think you have a point." She said quietly. "What was the second thing?"

"I probably should've said this first… I think he heard us, because while you were asking what to do about him, I saw him leave."

"WHAT!?" Charlie screamed, grabbing Vaggie and frantically shaking her. "Where!? When!? Did he seem angry!? Did we push him away?!"

Vaggie was going to answer, but the sound of glasses being brought out and laughter caught their attention. The pair walked over and looked into the bar, where Husk was pouring drinks, Mad Dawg and Dust seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, and Alastor was just standing there… menacingly. But also, in an approachably menacing way.

"Are you shittin' me?" Husk asked, laughing slightly. "Your real last name… is McThundercock?"

"Yes, my full given name is, no joke, Kace Horatio Kaiju Megazord McThundercock." Mad Dawg declared before downing another drink. "Before you ask, I didn't give myself that name. And I don't answer to it, if you call me 'Kace' there's a chance I will stab you. Mad Dawg is my name."

"Me likely that name…" Angel purred leaning forward and gently petting Mad Dawg's back with one of his arms. "Do you live up to that name?"

"Ask your mother."

"Seriously? That's the best you've got?" Angel Dust asked, sounding almost disappointed in Mad Dawg's insulting skills.

"Yeah, but how did you get that name?" Husk asked. Mad Dawg bit his lip, downed another drink. This 'Sinful Sider' stuff was GREAT, but it also hit like a truck. Dawg had drunk two bottles already, and was feeling the effects of alcohol already. HE paused to collect himself, then answered:

"I was… uh… I was found on the side of the road by a group who was my sort-of family, and one of them gave me the last three parts of that name. They only kept it because their leader HATED it. She threatened to tase anyone in the crotch who said it. So naturally, they all taught me to say it when I was like, six." He downed another drink. "Eventually, they figured I needed a real name, so they named me 'Kace Horatio'. The first part was a mispronunciation of 'Casey' and the second part… apparently, he was a good friend of the team. He died before I was found…"

"You were a street kid? How'd that happen?" Dust asked. "Back when I was alive, there was the whole depression, so parents were dumping their kids on the street. Or dying and leaving them there, is that still happenin'?"

"I…" Mad Dawg began, looking down awkwardly. He had drunk a little too much, so his ability to hold back from talking wasn't what it normally was. "I ran… I had a really bad home, like… really bad… Parent troubles, y'know?"

"Sure, do buddy." Angle nodded, patting his back consolingly, seeming surprisingly genuine. "My mom was the sweetest woman you'd ever meet, and my dad… he was an utter bastard. No way around it."

"Opposite for me." Mad Dawg muttered. "I think. I never really knew my dad, but my mom was an absolute bitch… she just kept using me."

"Do I want to ask?" Angel Dust said aloud. "Not really, but how did she use you?"

"First of all, I'm a weapon. I'll go into more later." Mad Dawg stated, and most of the demons assumed that meant he had been forced to kill someone by his mother. "But… my 'mom' was insane, and like, really abusive. She hurt me a lot if I didn't do what she wanted, so eventually I just ran away, I didn't know what else I could do."

"So… what happened to yours?" Dust asked, taken aback by the revealed revelation.

"Huh? Oh, I killed her." Mad Dawg replied nonchalantly, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

"Holy shit! Really!?" Angel exclaimed, genuinely shocked by both the statement and Mad Dawg's nonchalance.

"Yeah, and I don't regret it." Mad Dawg shrugged. He noticed Angel Dust had a 'What is wrong with you?' look on his face, Husk had a 'What the hell is wrong with you?' look, and Alistor had a 'Oh, really? Do tell!' look. "She was a psycho bitch who was trying to create an army of unstoppable mutant death beasts, I was the only one that succeeded… I'm a mutant by the way."

"Hol up." Dust said.

"Ah, that would explain your unique blood!" Alistor remarked, Dawg looked over to him, uncertain of what he was talking about or how he knew that, but he was kinda inebriated at this point, so he kept quiet and nodded.

"Probably." He nodded. "Anyhow… a buncha shenanigans happened, yadda, yadda, got found by the group who gave me my name, and eventually, we meet again." Mad Dawg said with a dismissive wave. "So, I find out that I'm a mutant, as up to this point, I didn't know my past. On top of that I'm one of many, many test subjects. The others that didn't succeed the way she wanted were left to suffer eternally until they finally either starved to death or offed themselves. And some of them couldn't do either."

"Holy crap dude…"

"Yeah, and then it turns out this Yakuza-like gang were making more clone-weapons of me, so they kidnapped me and tortured me, then threw me to them. It turns out, I'm effectively the Alpha of these…" Mad Dawg trailed off as he looked away from the winged bartender.

"What?" Husk asked gruffly.

"Uh, they were called… Husks." Mad Dawg admitted. There was silence, then Dust and Alastor burst out laughing while Husk simply gave Dawg a look that was a mixture of drunken indifference and death-fueled hate.

"Oh man… was not expecting that… So, what happened to them?"

"I had to kill all of them. It was worth it though." Mad Dawg shrugged. "I decided that so long as myself, the Husks and my mom lived, there was a massive threat looming in the air, so I dragged her into the middle of them and turned them on her. They literally gutted her and were ripping her organs out when I blew up the place taking all of them out. It was the greatest family reunion ever. And somehow was less hostile, homophobic and racist then most thanksgivings in America!"

Despite the laugh that followed, Dust picked up on the slightly saddened undertone to his speech. Angel Dust knew it all too well, even if Dawg was happy, there was something else. Still, he had been in hell long enough to know if someone talked openly about their past life, it was either to brag, or try and gain sympathy. However, in the kid's case, it seemed… casual. Like this was him trying to reach out and see who could be trusted. That… was a mistake.

"And that's how you died?"

"Nope! I survived that, then tried to kill myself by blowing myself up and taking the leader of those pricks with me… except THAT didn't kill me, and I ended up in this place called Royal Woods… and then I tried to go home through a dimensional doorway thing… and that killed me, somehow."

"That is probably the weirdest story I have ever heard." Angel Dust admitted, seemingly impressed with the whole thing.

"So… because you asked yesterday, and no one told you, I'm drunk. He's horny. She's a clean freak. He's a scientist. And he's… someone you never wanna mess with." Husk remarked, pointing to himself, then to Angel Dust, then Nifty, then Baxter and then finally Alastor. Mad dawg blinked at the last one as he looked over at the Radio Demon.

"Him?" Mad Dawg asked skeptically.

"Yeah. Him." Husker said in a serious tone. "Look, long and the short of it is, that asshole is way more powerful than most of the chumps down here. You screw with him, and your ass is about to feel pain you didn't think was possible."

"Him." Mad dawg asked again, almost laughing. Meanwhile, Alastor's eyes lit up in a way that signaled something really bad was about to happen.

"Yes. Him."

"Oh, c'mon. What can you possibly do that would-" Mad Dawg scoffed, but stopped when he began seeing weird symbols appear around him, floating and distorting. The very world around him seemed to shake and change, morphing into a twisted circus of torture. Mad Dawg felt himself falling into a freezing pit, a swarm of hands grabbing him and pulling him into a liquid-y darkness which swallowed him whole. Mad Dawg tried to scream, but felt the hands enter his throat, suffocating and ripping him apart from the inside of his own body.

"What…is…happeGAH!" Mad Dawg screamed, feeling the ice turn into blazing fire which began to explode out of his body, a swarm of small creatures, no bigger than ants began pouring out of his open wounds, each step the billions of creatures took only burned Mad Dawg and made him cry out in pain.

Then everything stopped, and Dawg was back in the bar. He blinked a few times, then looked to Alastor, who's smile no longer seemed friendly, it now seemed predatory.

"...okay. I'm just gonna go ahead and pretend like that never happened." Mad Dawg blinked, shrinking somewhat in his seat, looking back to his drink, which he finished in one go.

"Don't worry big fella… you're not alone here." Dust said, wrapping a few arms around Mad Dawg.

"All right Dust, I think he gets it." Charlie remarked, finally entering the room.

"Oh… right…" Mad Dawg muttered. "Sorry about bailing like that, you two were gone and I wasn't sure if you were coming back."

"Uh yeah, heh. But I kinda heard like everything I wanted to hear." Charlie admitted, rubbing the back of her neck somewhat.

"So, what do you need me to do now?" He asked.

"Well… every demon is different, and I think we could be done for now." Charlie answered. "You can get acquainted with the hotel and some of the others for a bit while I work out the rest of your rehabilitation."

Mad Dawg seemed puzzled, but also knew that some rehab plans took twelve steps, and he didn't expect to be outta hell within a day…

"Hey, I could take him around town, help him know where everything is." Angel Dust offered, and immediately Vaggie's face said 'NO'.

"Well… would that be okay with you, Mad Dawg?" Charlie asked. Dawg looked from Charlie, to Dust, then back to Charlie.

"I mean… I have no reason to say no. So, what the hell." Mad Dawg shrugged. "I need clothes anyways; can you help with that?"

"Oh, definitely!" Angel Dust grinned, a gold tooth flashing in the light.

"Clothes for HIM Dust." Vaggie said sternly.

"A'right! Geez! Yer no fun Vags…" Angel Dust muttered, leaving with Mad Dawg in tow.

"She seems nice enough…" Mad Dawg could be heard remarking.

"Kid, I've been here longer than you. Trust me, she ain't."

Vaggie narrowed her remaining eye at the pair, and then turned with an annoyed look when she heard Charlie trying not to laugh.

"I think those two together might be a mistake." She remarked.

"Ya think!? You're letting ANGEL DUST introduce a kid to hell!?" Vaggie exclaimed. "Charlie, I believe demons can change… but I also believe that the kind of change Dust will being for Kac-er, Mad Dawg isn't the kind your looking for!"

"Nonsense!" Alastor laughed, suddenly speaking up. "I believe out of everyone here; the feminine fiend is the best compatriot to help give a crash course of the eternal hex and vex of hell to our new furry fellow!"

"Okay, if Alastor is saying this is a good idea, there might be something wrong with it." Charlie frowned. "Still, I think we should give them a chance… what's the worst that could happen?"

"Please tell me you're not stupid enough to believe that crap." Husk remarked, taking a swig from a bottle.

"I'm not, but I'm trying to find something to hold onto here." Charlie said matter-of-factly.

"…and that's why I hate wearing pants." Mad Dawg concluded with his explination.

"Huh. Never thought you would have such a deep, legitimate reason for hating pants." Angel Dust remarked. "Like… that's not just a random off-hand fear and loathing, you actually have a reason for it. I'm impressed."

"Yeah. You're reason?" Dawg asked.

"I like the breeze."

"Fair enough."

Mad Dawg jumped when an explosion went off in the distance, followed by gunshots and sirens of some sort. Before he had said a word, he had grabbed his chainsaw from his bag.

"Whoa!" Angel Dust exclaimed. "Uh, two things: one, where'd that come from? And two, welcome to hell kid. This is your everyday life now."

"Oh… okay…" Mad Dawg sighed, putting his chainsaw back in his bag. The logic behind it confuddled Angel Dust, but the spider decided not to press it.

"Wow. You really are fresh…" Angel Dust muttered, feeling the smallest amount of sympathy for the demon-dog.

"I also was in a crap ton of fire fights, so gunfire tells me to get freakin' ready." Mad Dawg admitted.

"That's good." Dust nodded. "You won't have to get into a gang war… but it's gonna happen eventually, so if you know how to fight, you'll do better."

"Great…" Mad Dawg sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. "I've already been in one… I was hoping that I could avoid them for a time."

"Really? Who'd you fight?"

"Didn't get their names. Some cool and crazy chick named Cherri Bomb roped me into helping her fight a bunch of eggs with my junkyard flamethrower." Mad Dawg shrugged.

"Oh, crap! You met Cherri?!" Angel exclaimed. "She's a friend of mine!"

"Wait, legit?" Mad Dawg laughed. "Yeah… she mentioned her friend was in some hotel, that's actually how I heard about the place… Holy crap! I think that was you!"

Angel laughed as he opened a door and motioned for Mad Dawg to enter, squeezing through the door, Mad Dawg looked around the clothing store, and immediately turned back and looked at Dust.

"This ain't my style." He stated, looking back out over the sequin shirts and leggings.

"Have some faith in me, a'right?" Angel rolled his eyes, walking past the women's clothing into the back. In the back, things were more to Dawg's liking. He found a jean jacket and looked it over, it was in good condition, but he didn't like the sleeves… still, he could easily rip those off. "Really? Jean jack?"

"I like 'em." Mad Dawg shrugged. Dust looked him up and down, thinking something over, the tilted his head back and forth.

"Ehh… I can see it…" He finally admitted. "Not my style in the slightest, but you might be able to make it work, you have more of a 'roughing it' look to you."

"Is that bad?"

"Nah, it's just… you. Y'know?"

The pair spent about half an hour in the store, finally getting some clothes that Dust approved of, and headed back into the town. There were many more demons looking their way as they walked down the street, and Dawg felt a little unnerved by it.

"Don't worry. They'll ignore you soon enough." Dust waved dismissively, turning back to Mad Dawg and grinning. "So… you wanna have some fun?"

"What kinda fun?" Mad dawg asked with a raised brow.

"The kinda fun where we'll cause some trouble." Angel Dust grinned wickedly.

"Doesn't that go against why we're at this hotel?" Dawg asked, and Angel Dust groaned.

"Oh, fer fuck's sake kid!" He yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. "We're in hell! Lighten up a little!"

"Well… I suppose we could write this off as us bonding, and making a real friend." Mad Dawg mused, a grin forming on his face. "Making friends would be a good deed, right? Because then you'd have someone to support you… right?"

"Kid… I like the way ya think." Angel Dust nodded approvingly. "C'mon, let Mama Dust show you all the best ways to 'make friends' in hell…"

Two Minutes Later…

"RUN DAWG! RRRUUUUUNNNNN!" Angel Dust screamed, running for his afterlife with Mad Dawg running on all fours behind him, a swarm of angry demons running after the pair, throwing knifes, bottles, vases, mallets and all assortment of weapons at them. "JUST RRRRUUUNNNN!"

"I think we made too many friends!" Mad Dawg shouted.

"Now's not th'time t'be a smartass!" Angel Dust yelled, brandishing two guns and firing blindly behind him into the swarm. "That's what got us into this mess!"

"I didn't think they'd be so offended by that!" Mad Dawg cried defensively.

"That is the ONE THING all of hell agrees on! And you went and disagreed with it! What did you think was gonna happen!?" Dust retorted.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know!"

"That means a lot right now! How are we gonna get outta here?!"

"Mount me!" Mad Dawg ordered.

"Kid, I'd love to, but this isn't the time for doggy st-"

"GET ON MY BACK YOU FREAKIN' IDIOT!"

"Oh… right…" Dust muttered, jumping and grabbing onto Dawg's long fur. Once he had a firm grip, Mad Dawg poured on the speed, tapping into his mutated adrenaline glands and rocketing away from the crowd, who gradually seemed to lose interest and let them go. Once they were a few blocks away, Mad Dawg stopped, letting the spider get off his back.

"Whoo… thanks for the assist." Dust breathed heavily. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good…" Mad Dawg breathed deeply, letting his body rest for a few moments.

"Crap, you're bleedin' man!" Angel Dust exclaimed, noticing several wounds on Mad Dawg's side. "Hang on, I think I might have some…" The words disappeared in his throat as Dust watched Mad Dawg's wounds close on their own, disappearing under fur once more, leaving no indication they were ever there. "Yo, that is friggin' awesome. Also, I love you fur…"

"A lotta women do…" Mad Dawg panted, feeling like he was back to normal. "So… now what?"

"Well, let's try and help you figure out where everything is." Dust remarked.

Three Minutes Later…

"RUN DUST! RRUUNNN!" Mad Dawg screamed, now the one in the front with Dust running behind him.

"YOU JUST HAD TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH, DIDN'T YOU!?"

"I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS THE ONLY OTHER THING THEY ALL AGREED ON!"

"IF WE SURVIVE THIS, IMMA KILL YOU!"

It was another two hours before they finally returned. Charlie had been reading over some notes she had taken when she heard laughter, and was practically beaming when Mad Dawg and Angel Dust walked through the front doors, Mad Dawg now wearing a sleeveless jean jacket and track shorts, and laughing like two old friends.

"Whoo! That was great!" Mad Dawg laughed.

"Man, where have you been all these years?!" Angel Dust asked, leaning against Dawg as he laughed.

"Not gonna lie, that was awesome!" Mad Dawg nodded.

"You two seemed to have had fun." Charlie smiled at them.

"Aw, man! This kid is a legend!" Dust exclaimed excitedly. "Th'dude's a powerhouse!"

"Not sure what you mean by that…"

"We covered like, half the pentagram in half an hour! This guy can get you places faster than a jet!" Dust explained. "Also, he found this amazing coffee house. I am SO going there like, every day!"

"Dust is a fun demon to be around." Mad Dawg added. "Still, I think I need to take a bath… running through that construction site was a mistake…"

"I told you not to do it! You said 'Nah man, hold my beer and watch this!' and then ran through the mud!"

"No, I didn't!" Mad Dawg retorted in annoyance. "I told YOU not to run through there, and you dragged me through it!"

"…I thought we agreed not to speak of that." The porn star muttered through narrowed eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you two had fun!" Charlie beamed. "But if you want, you can head up to your room, there's a large bath tub and shower if you need it."

"Thanks." Mad Dawg nodded.

"Oh, and if she inexplicably breaks into your room, don't worry about Nifty, she only cares about cleaning stuff." Charlie added. Mad dawg raised a brow, but remembered their earlier interaction and nodded.

Upstairs, Mad Dawg lowered himself into the hot water, groaning in relief as his joints and muscles soaked in the water. He leaned against the side of the surprisingly large tub, it was practically a hot tub… but it was in privacy, which was nice… he felt oddly relaxed despite being in hell.

"Hey Dawg."

"Hey Dust."

It took a few moments, but Mad Dawg's head snapped up to look at the intruder. "Uh… what are you doing?" Mad Dawg blinked.

"Jacuzzi's are communal." Angel remarked, slipping into the warm water and sighing in content. "That feels nice…"

"This isn't a jacuzzi, it's a bath." Mad Dawg blinked. "In my room."

"And mine's busted." Angel Dust said as if that explained everything.

"We're in a hotel. Aren't there like, two hundred more that I'm not in?"

"Yeah."

"…so why don't you go-"

"Hey boys." Husker remarked, dropping a towel and vaulting over the side into the water. He hissed and seemed to react as if the water and soap was aggravating some wounds, but he seemed to calm down pretty quickly, his wings extending around the edge of the tub. It was clear he was way too drunk to be thinking straight.

"Well, all right then." Mad Dawg nodded. Seemingly giving up on questioning this. "If either of you pee in here, I'm out."

"Hey, you have any idea how long that stench takes t'get outta fur?" Husk asked with a raised brow. "Relax, I ain't gonna do that."

"I don't do it for free." Angel remarked.

"Okay, this is bugging me. WHAT ARE YOU!?" Mad Daw exclaimed, turning to look at the spider. "Like, no offence, I really don't wanna be rude here, but I REALLY can't tell what you are, and it's kinda bugging me."

"I'm a gay, drag queen, porn star, kid." Angel answered honestly.

"…wait. You're a guy?" Mad Dawg blinked, as if suddenly realizing something.

"Yeah. Wait. You thought I was a girl!?" Angel Dust laughed, trying to hold it back but eventually his bark-like-laugh broke out when he saw Mad Dawg's embarrassed face. Mad Dawg looked to Husk, who seemed too drunk to react, or care.

"Actually, that explains a lot." Mad Dawg remarked, and immediately Angel stopped laughing, glaring daggers at him.

"Your next words are VERY important." Angel growled. "What do you mean by that?"

"Uh, not to sound offensive, but your voice sounded off. I don't know how else to say this without sounding incredibly offensive, so… uh… The colours, the attitude and your clothing, I kinda thought you were a woman." Mad Dawg timidly explained, not looking at Angel the whole time. "But at the same time, I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to say anything that would be rude or cross a boundary, or-"

"Dawg, you can say you thought I was trans, I won't take offence to it." Dust stated matter-of-factly. "I'm not, and it's no big deal if you wanted to ask if I was. You're probably the only demon or person I've ever met on earth or in hell who hasn't go out of their way to be homophobic towards me."

"Yet." Husk remarked, taking a swig from a bottle of whiskey he had… somehow.

"I'm a mutant living weapon, I kinda know a thing or two about being an outsider on what people want to call 'normal'." Mad Dawg remarked.

"…how did you end up in hell?" Dust shook his head.

"Long story." Dawg shrugged.

"Sounds like it." Husk nodded. "I think you've barely scratched the freakin' surface when you were talking all that crap at the bar."

"Yeah, I've done a lot in sixteen years." Mad Dawg remarked, and it was as if someone had just dropped a nuke in the room. Husk and Dust froze, slowly looking to Mad Dawg, both of them wanting to ask a question, but terrified of the answer they might get. "What?"

"Sorry, can you repeat that?"

"I've done a lot in sixteen years." Mad Dawg repeated.

"Okay… so you've been a hero for sixteen years, and your what? Twenty-two?" Dust asked nervously.

"Nope. Sixteen."

"You're sixteen?"

"Yup. Sixteen."

"…shit." Angel cursed, his entire body seeming to deflate as he realized what he had been doing. "You're really just sixteen?"

"Yeah, seventeen soon, but not yet."

"Why didn't you say anything about that!?"

"Well, one: booze." Mad Dawg answered with a shrug.

"I don't I.D. demons, I'm too lazy." Husker shrugged.

"And two, I figured if you were trying to be a good person, you wouldn't try and seduce everyone you saw. So, I figured that my age didn't matter as much." Mad Dawg concluded, looking to Angel Dust, who seemed offended.

"You are such an asshole!" He exclaimed.

"I know."

"Like… that's not cool dude…"

"Neither is constantly making advances on someone who clearly isn't engaging with them." Mad Dawg retorted dismissively. Dust wanted to respond, but didn't say anything.

"Mad Dawg? Charlie wanted me to let you kn-" Vaggie began, entering his room and then seeing the open bathroom door. She looked into the bathroom and at the three in the hot tub. "Do I even want to know?"

"His idea." Mad Dawg said, pointing to Dust.

"…you are such an asshole…" Angel Dust growled as Vaggie fixed him with a disgusted 'You. Me. Talk. Later.' Look. She left the room, slamming the door behind her as she went, leaving the trio in silence, which was broken when Husk and Mad Dawg burst out laughing.