On August 3, 1979, many years ago in Hell, a kind-hearted imp named Tilla gave birth to two twins, Blitzo and Barbie Wire.

Once she started having contractions, her husband Donner drove her to a nearby hospital in an old gray van. Donner smoked in the waiting room while his wife gave birth. After Donner was allowed to enter, he saw a panting Tilla holding two red imp babies in her arms. An exhausted smile was on her face.

"Holy shit! Twins!" Donner exclaimed in delight.

"I know. Aren't they beautiful?" Tilla smiled. Her face was a paler shade of red under the flickering fluorescent lights.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you," he replied, kissing her on her head. She closed her eyes in happiness.

An imp nurse in green scrubs took notes on a clipboard and examined them. Two other security imps dragged a drunken male imp down the hallway and out the door. A nearby window shattered in the waiting room as three rambunctious imp children raced through the front door to retrieve the basketball they had thrown in. A locksmith tried in vain to fix the lock from the worn-out lime colored door. The hanging hospital sign outside had been tilted askew, "Welcome" being crossed out in red paint and replaced with "Welcum to Circle Two Hospital." The howling of pained wails sounded from other adjacent rooms.

The nurse gave them an apologetic look. "Sorry, we're busier than usual today."

"That's okay," said Donner. "Though I'd like to get home as soon as we can. Don't want a whole bunch of thugs around."

"Both look healthy and happy," the nurse mentioned, before both babies cried at the same time. Donner flinched at the noise, but Tilla was too relieved to be overly concerned. After several days, the new family headed back to their partially decent home in the city.

Donner was tall and slender like his wife, with two long black and white striped horns that curved backwards, like Blitzo's. His face was crimson, and his eyes were red with glowing yellow sclera. His teeth were sharp and yellow, and his long red tail had three spikes on it and a black pointed tip. The tail had several white scar marks. A black goatee hung from his pointed downward chin, but his head was bald. His demeanor radiated strength, perseverance, and cruelty. However, he still loved his family deep down, despite keeping his softer emotions buried inside himself much of the time.

In contrast, his wife Tilla had a more nurturing presence. Her crimson face emitted kindness and her red eyes and yellow sclera sparkled with a child-like humor. Her hair was long and black, draping over her shoulders, with faint strands of gray. Her top bangs leaned slightly to the left. A black necklace with a red skull face on hung around her neck nearly every day. Her horns were small, straight, and black, without the usual thin white stripes found on imp female horns. Donner was enraptured by her sensuality, beauty and accepting attitude. Rumor claimed that Tilla was part succubus, and it may have actually been true. Donner and Tilla shoved aside the denizens' hateful glares of confusion over her "hybrid" status and had gotten married. Though nurturing and soft-spoken, Tilla had a mischievous and powerful side that was hard to ignore.

From the very start, Tilla did most of the child-rearing at home. She would wake up in the dead of night to ease the cries of her two children. But it wasn't always easy. After singing lullabies to her son, he'd fall asleep, only to be woken again by his crying sister. Tilla would yawn as she would get a few more hours of rest before her alarm would blare. After kissing his children goodbye, Donner would be off to work at his salesman career. Like many jobs for imps, it wasn't anything spectacular. Donner would rummage through files in his office, and go outside to sell products like cars, weapons and strangely enough, children's toys. He wasn't afraid to raise prices or initiate darker deals if he had to. It was Hell, after all.

Every day, he would carry a small gun or a blunt knife by his side, especially around the dark alleys. On bad days, he got his anger out by fighting any stray imps that crept into his path. Thus, many imps did not get too close.

"Only 66.99 souls for this here rifle," he said one day. "But this one here…" he mentioned to the slender looking one that had white paint marks painted on it to make it look like an angelic weapon, "Will cost ya much more…"

When the beefy imp inspected it with an impressive look, another thin imp with white hair and a white mustache frowned.

"That's a fake," he told the imp as he moved beside him. "See those lines? They ain't glowin' at all. That's just paint! Don't listen to that scumbag. Real glowing weapons cost a fortune, especially in Wrath where I'm from."

"It is true!" Donner claimed. "Perhaps you're blind to the intricate details of it."

"You think I'm blind, huh?" the beefy imp remarked. "Maybe the blind one…"

He smacked Donner straight in the face… "...is you!"

Donner's imp boss wasn't happy as Donner glowered with a black eye in his office.

"You had one job, Donner," he said, scratching his head of white hair. "Make enough profit to meet our criteria for the month. Now the rates are going down because of that sissy fight you just had with our customer."

"That tattle-tell asshole had it coming," Donner grumbled.

"And so will you," his boss replied with a frown on his face. He handed Donner a pink slip, which the imp promptly tore to shreds. Ignoring his boss' grunts of dismissal, he flipped him off before storming out of the office. Donner then gave the nerdy imp who had just taken his place a glare before heading back home.

"Tilly!" Donner called in anger, finishing a cigarette. "You better find yourself a better paying job while I try to find a new one!"

"You got fired?! Seriously, Don?!" Her hands were on her hips, her long black hair slightly messy.

In the background, baby Blitzo and Barbie Wire had a crawling contest on the floor. Barbie Wire crawled in her diaper as Blitzo hurried after her.

"It wasn't my fault! Some bloke cheated me and claimed my weapon was illegitimate!"

"Was it?"

Donner just shrugged. Tilla narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "You knew going too far would only mean trouble, right?"

"I didn't!"

"Exactly. I warned you. Now you need to be more careful."

Blitzo snatched a bottle from Barbie Wire, who yelled in protest. Barbie grabbed hold of her brothers' horn and sucked on it. Blitzo yanked back and grunted.

"And now you need to find a better paying job than that bartender occupation in Lust!"

"Hey," Tilla protested. "I was lucky enough to get part-time at that club! You have no idea how hard pole-dancing can be after dinner hours."

"Yeah, sure, all that performing and no serious career."

"Come on, Don, we both know you secretly love music and song."

"If you mean songs about victory in battles…or our own love, then sure."

Tilla rolled her eyes.

"Just get a new fucking job! You're the one providing for us all."

"And you do the same."

Then he paused. "Perhaps we could look around together."

"Okay," she said. Two farts and cries came from the twins crawling on the floor. Tilla then placed a pile of diapers in Donner's hands and strut away.

"That's your cue," she sang as he seethed in frustration.

0 0 0

1981

The two imp parents looked around the city for many weeks. Sometimes they would take their babies with them, pushing them in baby carriages. For a time, Tilla's bartender job was the only thing giving them enough money to live a partially stable life. Food was short, days were long, and childcare was quite the adventure. While the twins would often yell, hit, or spit at each other, much of the time, their actions were in sync. Donner and Tilla soon found that they were…well, two fires in a brimstone.

The one older by a few minutes was Blitzo. He was a lanky jester-like imp with a crimson narrow face and long black and white striped horns curved backwards. He had sharp yellow teeth and red eyes with yellow sclera. Then there was the slightly younger sister Barbie Wire. She had the same crimson face, bald head, sharp yellow teeth, and red eyes as her brother. However, she had two black horns with thin white stripes on them, curled into the shape of rams' horns. Both had long red pointed tails, a small white tip on hers and a black tip and small spikes on his.

Both imps grew up to be energetic, entertaining, and enthusiastic individuals with a love of freedom. They learned how to flip off other kids at three years old and learned their first swear word from their father. Although they were too young to use weapons, both enjoyed playing fighting games and rough housing. Both were self-absorbed, confident, and prone to violence and profane humor. However, they both loved each other and their family very much, especially their mother. Tilla was like an older sister to them, despite being their mother. She was the one who rough-housed with them, read them stories and encouraged them to follow their dreams.

"No matter what you want to do; musical theater, circus acts, fire surfing, law or just plain murder, know that you have the potential to do amazing things," Tilla had told them. Blitzo and Barbie Wire always loved her comforting hugs and her beautiful melodious voice. It was even more fun when they were tossed into the air and caught in her hands again. The sounds of giggles would brighten up the rooms. Donner would watch by the bedroom doorway with a small smile as Tilla nuzzled into her children's innocent faces.

After several trips around the city, it was soon getting dark. Blitzo and Barbie Wire were pushed along in their strollers, sucking on chocolate popsicles shaped like swords. Blitzo reached over to bite his sister's tail.

"No, Blitzo," Tilla chided. "Tails are not for eating."

In response, Barbie smacked her tail into her brother's face, much to his annoyance.

The parents tried application after application but were rejected each time.

"We're too full," the owners would say.

"Sorry, not enough experience."

"There's an extra fee to get in."

"Oh, you're that imp who screwed the succubus llama imp. Go back to the chucklefucks, bitch."

"Who the fuck are you calling a llama?!" Tilla bellowed.

Tilla got plenty of vocal exercise, yelling obscenities to the deniers.

"For Satan's sake, Don, just take the kids to regular school," Tilla encouraged as the bone-shaped streetlights flickered overhead. "Let's leave the job hunting 'til tomorrow and head home. And Barbie, stop pulling on Blitzo's horns!"

She glanced down at the black double seated baby carriage. Baby Barbie giggled as she yanked on Blitzo's nearest horn. Blitzo shooed her away with a small hand. They engaged in a blowing raspberry match before sucking on their popsicles again.

"You know how shitty the imp public schools are," Donner replied. "Half the teachers there don't care about the things they teach. Besides, I still need to teach them more controlled attack techniques."

"They're just kids!"

"Who could easily get hurt by the many punks and assholes around here, hun," Donner replied. He briefly put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm just sayin,' survival instinct should come before learning and making friends and such. We'll get the jobs we want and Blitzo and Barbie will be taught well."

"Taught by whom? We can't teach them when we're at work! We'll get kicked out of our house soon if we don't pay the rent. And you honestly think there's gonna be a job out there that will cater to all our needs?" Tilla asked incredulously.

Just then, the imps spotted a large striped red and white tent, with hanging lights in the distance.

"Step right up, imps and implings!" rang a charismatic voice through a microphone. "We are currently looking for new staff to claim exciting roles for our traveling group!"

Donner looked at Tilla with a small smirk as they headed over toward the tent. "I think we may have just found one."