Beautiful chirps came from the beaks of the birds soaring through the air. The morning sun cast a snuggly ray of heat to the people below. The streets of the island city were usually peaceful in the world of the living, though said peace only lasted so long.

"It's him!" terrified citizens fled for their lives, a foul yellow stink line emerging from an alleyway. "Everybody run!"

Basura Bolsa, a man made entirely out of garbage, sludged out of the alley with his head down. He didn't seem to be looking for trouble, but people still acted like they were moments away from death. Basura didn't mind though, he was used to this reaction.

Just then, the seas began rising around the city. It splashed furiously against the island before retracting way back into the horizon. What came next was a tidal wave that dwarfed the city, civilians stopping in their tracks to stare at their impending doom. However, instead of shrieking in horror, they celebrated and rejoiced as the tsunami soaked the city. The water came to a halt just before hitting the living junkyard, Basura looking up to marvel at the being stood before him.

"Trash Compactor." carried by seemingly sentient waves, a dark skinned mermaid pointed a silver trident at him.

"Deep Blue Sea!?" Basura gulped, bloodshot eyes growing in fear. His voice sounded as disgusting as his footsteps. "Why are you here? How did you find me?"

She brushed off the question, swimming closer. "You were warned about staying in Consequencity. How many times must I kill you before you take the hint?"

"Please don't hurt me!" Basura backed away, but Deep Blue Sea seemed intent on doing just that. "I'm trying to get out of here, I promise!"

On his way to retreat backwards into the alley, Trash Compactor bumped into something smooth and flat. He looked to see a mirror sticking out of the ground, but that wasn't even the weirdest part. Inside was a blonde fellow wearing a tuxedo and a red cape, as well as a black top hat that looked similar to the feared beast's living only an island away. He was clearly a magician, and he was longingly staring at Bolsa's ass.

"Reflector!" Trash Compactor turned to the side, a disappointed tut coming from the mirror man.

"Hey, I was enjoying that view." The Reflector chuckled, stepping out of the mirror as it disappeared back into the concrete. "Although I do enjoy seeing a little bit of both sides."

Deep Blue Sea rolled her eyes, the people of Consequencity gathering around to watch Trash Compactor get obliterated.

"Deep Blue Sea and The Reflector are here to save us!"

"I don't believe it, it's really them!"

"Kick his ass!"

"This is so awesome!"

"Two Deadlygion members at the same time!"

"I love you, Reflector!"

Basura whimpered and curled into a ball, the mermaid towering over him while Reflector juggled a glass shard like it was a bean bag.

"I can't believe you actually came back." Reflector gave him a smirk, revealing a golden tooth. "What happened to getting the assistance of Black Hat?"

"He's... he's not home…" Compactor teared up, a drop of gunge rolling down his face.

"Black Hat's always home." Reflector stopped juggling, catching the shard and holding it like a knife. "Ugly bastard never leaves his island for anything."

"It's the truth!" Basura sputtered, his tears ruining the perfect streets. "I went to Hat Manor myself! I looked around and not even the bear showed up!"

The superheroes looked at each other, Reflector scoffing and driving the shard into whatever was left of the disgusting creature's brain. With a single clap, the magician spawned his signature wand in one hand and a hand mirror in the other. Deep Blue Sea gripped her trident, ready to tear Trash Compactor's head off, while Reflector smacked the shard with his wand. In the hand mirror he saw inside Basura's head, the wand changing the view from the organs of the beast to his last recorded thoughts.

The memory was just as Basura told it. He trekked throughout the manor, avoiding any doors that warned him to stay out, and found nobody.

"He's not lying, Luce." Reflector was scanning the memory for any sign of Black Hat.

"Hat Manor is empty?"

"Seems to be."

"See?" Trash Compactor started crawling away. "I told you the truth! Let me go!"

"Hmm…" Reflector picked up a piece of Basura that fell on the floor. (He's wearing gloves, don't worry.) After inspecting it for a second, he flipped it like a coin into the waves carrying Deep Blue Sea. This surprised everyone, the garbage dissolving into the water quickly.

"What are you doing!?" Basura yelled. "She hates garbage being thrown in her water! She's gonna go berserk!"

"Yeah." Reflector glanced at Deep Blue Sea, swearing she was turning red. "But it's not my garbage is it?"

He wandered off as the mirror appeared out of the ground, smirking while Deep Blue Sea tore Trash Compactor apart. He put a foot through the mirror, stepping through.

"I'm heading back to HQ." Reflector called, not turning back. "I'll meet you there once you blow off some steam."

With that, the magician disappeared back into the portal of glass.

Pentagram City was a dangerous place any time of the year. Whether you'd made a couple enemies or somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed, you could be wiped out in a moment's notice. This was why Sir Pentious preferred travelling in the air. While he was a bigger target, it was much harder for demons to suddenly shoot him in the face. Instead, he was stuck carrying a box full of who knows what while an insane lizard girl skipped next to him.

"Right," he turned to Demencia. Now that he was out of Black Hat's sights, he felt safe to return to his villainous persona. "I'm sure you understand this is going to be quite the trip. So if we're going to be walking for hours, I suggest we get acquainted. You will refer to me as Sir Pentious."

Demencia gave the geezer a sinister giggle, daring him to continue giving her orders.

"And as you're fairly new to the underworld, the least I can do is teach you how to survive." seemingly out of thin air, Pentious grabbed a piece of paper longer than him. "First of all, never ever run off on your own! I don't want to report to Lord Black Hat that one of his minions was ripped apart by a pack of sssinners."

"I wanna read it myself!" The girl etched closer to Pentious.

Before he could even get to the most important rule (Sir Pentious is hip and cool), the snake shrugged and handed the list to her. "Fine, but be ssswift about it! It won't sssound right until the words exit my own lipsss!"

She pretended to read it for about a second, but then Demencia decided to shove the entire list in her mouth. Pentious yelped.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? THAT TOOK SSSO LONG TO WRITE!" he reached for Demencia, but she cackled and leapt onto a wall.

Sir Pent went to chase her, but Demencia had disappeared onto the roof. She heard one rule and she'd already broken it!

"DEMENCIA! GET BACK HERE YOU GECKO GIT!" Pentious grabbed the box with his tail and slithered after his colleague.

D3-M parkoured away from her adversary to nowhere in particular. This was so fun! Flug was getting used to her antics, riling him up was becoming harder every day, so it was nice to have a new face to watch get furious at her! The only question she had was how many different ways could she piss off this python before she got bored?

"You driggle-draggle ratbag!" Pentious wheezed. He could just see Demencia's silhouette in the distance. "When I get my hands on you I'll show you what sssnakes do to their prey!"

He placed his hand on a wall, stopping to take a breather.

"All...part of my plan…I'm just gonna rest for a moment and then I'll get you."

Demencia finally pounced off of a building, landing on the ground on all fours like a cat. The impact caused the floor to crack, but she seemed perfectly fine standing up and taking in the surroundings. This was so cool! She was in Hell, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of monsters just as disgustingly chaotic as she was! Giddy with excitement, the girl tore a brick out of the wall and lobbed it at the first person she saw. Crack! That's a concussion! Somebody's minding their business? Rip! Hope they won't miss their ears! A missing pet is trying to find its way home? Splat! Not anymore!

"THIS IS AWESOME!" Demencia cheered. Flug always got in the way of her having fun, but he was nowhere in sight now.

Nearby, a gang of masked sinners wielding melee weapons were watching her. There were four in total, all leather because they thought it looked cool.

"Is that her?" the largest one asked. He faced the demon whose face was covered completely.

Right before she ran off to have more fun, Demencia heard the gangster and turned to face them. Were they talking about her?

"That's her alright." the man, presumably the leader, sounded pissed.

When he heard that Black Hat and his crew were in Hell, he hoped that a superhero got lucky enough to kill them. Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking.

He still remembered the day he died. The world's most powerful superheroes gathered to kill Black Hat. They had a perfect plan, hundreds of backups, to eliminate him for good. Due to this hero ending up in Hell, I'm sure one could easily guess how the raid ended.

When the group of five approached her, Demencia was overjoyed. She understood now, they wanted a battle! It was about time her prey had the balls to fight back.

Crowbars, barbed wire bats and leap pipes were pointed as the villainess was surrounded, but she didn't care. The more dumbasses picking fights with her, the more heads Demencia could use when bowling.

"So, what caused you guys to sign death wishes?" she crouched down to sit like a puppy, not minding her enemies coming closer.

"You're the one who signed a death wish by coming here, Demencia." the boss slapped his wrist with his crowbar. "You're gonna pay for what you did to me and my friends."

Demencia raised a finger, now knowing what was going on. "Ohhhhh, I'm supposed to know you!"

"Suppo-what do you mean you're supposed to know?"

"So who are ya? Some D-Tier, C-Tier superhero?"

"You know who I am! You killed me yourself!"

"Hmm...could you be a bit more specific?"

The former hero growled, reached for his mask. She wanted to know so bad? Fine.

"My name is Fuertes, I was part of the raid on Hat Manor." he removed his mask, revealing flesh and muscle. "And you're the reason I have no face!"

Demencia tilted her head in confusion. "More specific than that."

Feurtes's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me? I was The Debilitator! I had the ability to weaken anybody I wanted!"

"Nope."

Embarrassed, Fuertis pulled his mask back on and growled. "You bitch! Titan and Ripcord, grab her!"

Titan and Ripcord, the biggest ones, grabbed Demencia by the shoulders and lifted her up. She just stuck her tongue out innocently, not acknowledging the situation. Debilitator got in her face, laughing to himself.

"We were talking earlier, and we were wondering what would be the best form of punishment for you." he prodded her with his crowbar. "Eventually we settled on killing you so you could rot down here with us."

This news did the complete opposite of what Fuertes wanted, delighting Demencia instead of filling her with dread. "So I'd get to be a pain in your asses every day?" she gasped. "And I wouldn't have to worry about death ripping me away from Black Hat if I'm already dead!"

The hero stuttered. "I-I…what?" his composure returned. "Well how about we torture you first? We'll break all the bones in your body, one at a time!"

Demencia nodded eagerly, but Debilitator ignored her this time.

"Problem is, your durability is beyond that of a human's. We'd need you weakened before you scream as much as I want you to."

He was failing horribly at threatening the lizard, but he was too into his (evil?) monologue to care.

"Fun fact about heroes in the afterlife, Demencia. We get to keep our superpowers." the two other heroes, Sinistork and Pinwheeler, nodded while Ripcord turned himself into a rope to tie Demencia up. "Which means I'm able to weaken you so much that standing would be too grueling of a task!"

Debilitator's fist emitted a yellow glow, Demencia giving him an interested "Oooh!" when she saw it. Once Fuertes's hand opened, she turned into a human glow stick as well.

"Do you feel it, Demencia!?" the unhinged hero laughed wickedly. "Do you feel your energy and powers draining? Huh? Do ya!?"

She was getting weaker, he could definitely feel it no matter how much she laughed, but something had caught his attention. A spot had appeared in the girl's eyelid, and it seemed to be growing. Was she crying? Debilitator knew he was awesome, but he didn't know he was able to make someone like Demencia cry.

"Uh...uh, yeah! You're crying aren't you?" Debilitator had to keep his hand pointed at Demencia at all times for the power to work, so he kept his arm straight while approaching her. "Like I said, you're about to start feeling the pain my buddies and I all felt!"

Fuertes then noticed that the spot was a bright red. He felt like he was about to throw up the more he looked at it. Demencia stared directly at her enemy. Stupid hero, he'd fallen directly into her trap!

Like a horned lizard, a stream of blood shot out of her eyes! It splattered onto Debilitator's mask, melting it away like acid as he shrieked! Sinistork squawked and ran over to his boss, trying to flap the acid blood off with his wings. Debilitator accidentally pointed his hand at Ripcord in the panic, weakening him to the point that Demencia tore him off her body as if he was cotton!

"RIPCORD!" Titan yelled, snarling at the lizard in his hands. "DAMN YOU, I'M GONNA DO THAT TO YOU NOW!"

The moment the giant's hand covered Demencia's face, his middle finger came right out in her jaws. She gnawed it right down to the bone like a rabid animal. The moment she finished, the bone was then inserted deep into Titan's eye!

Painted with gorey lipstick, Demencia faced the remaining superheroes. Her buffet was only just beginning. Pinwheeler stepped forwards, his head spinning around at increasing speeds. The wind was strong, but it was nothing Demencia couldn't handle.

Demencia laid on the ground, butt raised in the air while shaking similar to a cat ready to pounce. And pounce she did, leaping over the cylinder of wind towards Pinwheeler! Pinwheeler tried to aim at the lizard, but it was too late. Next thing he knew, his disembodied head rolled along the floor. It came to a stop in front of Sinistork, the last hero standing. He gulped. There was no point in fighting, he wasn't even getting paid for this.

"And then there was one." Demencia crept up to the big bird, giggling to herself. "Y'know, I've always wondered what it felt like to watch all your friends die around you. Do you even care about them, or were you just out for yourself? Are you scared knowing you'll die last or happy to have lived the longest?" she lunged forward, clutching Sinistork's wings. No point in trying to escape now. "What's it like to feel this kinda fear? To know you'll die at the hands of the villain right in front of you?"

Moments later, a rope made itself known from behind D3-M, wrapping around her neck and yanking her back. Lifted at least ten feet in the air and slammed face first, the last person she expected to be standing on her head was an eyeless Titan holding Ripcord like a whip.

"What the hell!?"

"I got her!" Titan guffawed, handing his bleeding finger bone to an aggravated Debilitator.

Pinwheeler stumbled to his feet too, trying to find where his head was. What was this shit? She just massacred all these guys, right!?

"It seems this cocky little shit hasn't been down here long enough to know how this works!" eye twitching, Fuertes held the bone up to a confused Demencia's mug. "Now here's a lesson on why you don't fuck with members of Deadlygion!"

"Ahem!" in the distance, a large cobra cleared his throat. "What is a deady legion without a Legion Of Doom?" Sir Pentious proudly held the delivery box high. "And I don't mean The Road Warriors!"

"Pentious?" turns out Ripcord can speak too. "What's Grandfather Snake Breath doing here?"

"That's Great Grandfather Snake Breath to you!"

Debilitator stood up straight, eyebrows raised. "Pentious? Like the one who worked for Black Hat?"

"Used to?" Demencia looked at the cobra, jealousy in her voice. "I thought this guy just got hired!"

"HE'S BACK WITH THE ORGANISATION!?" Debilitator dropped the bone, trembling. "I thought you were alone! Two Organisation members in the same area!?"

"That means Black Hat's not far, right?" Titan bit his lip. "Is he on his way here?"

"I'm not sticking around to find out!" Ripcord bolted away from the group, Titan joining soon after.

"We were so close!" Fuertes wailed, grabbing Pinwheeler's head and using it as a propeller to fly away with Sinistork.

Demencia sat up, embarrassed she even got downed by these nobodies. A smug Pentious slithered over, shaking a fist at the heroes.

"That's right you cretins!" he didn't realise how much he missed being feared. "Just try and handle the ssstunning ssswag of Sssir Pentiousss!"

Sometimes he hated being a snake.

"I so had them!" she jumped to her feet, holding her neck, bruised from where Ripcord pulled. They really knocked the wind out of her. It's a good thing she had superpowers, otherwise she would be going by Deadmencia.

"Did you now?" Pentious asked smugly, before revealing he was serious. "I don't really know, I wasn't watching." he took the box from his tail. "Now, before we're interrupted further, I sssay we get a move on! Chop chop!"

Demencia slid up next to Pentious while he walked away. She had a question she needed answering.

"So, how'd you meet Black Hat?"

"Pardon?"

"Clearly you guys have history." she rested an arm on his shoulder. "And those heroes said you were a former member of the Organisation. How'd that happen?"

Pentious was silent. He shut his eyes, wanting to block something out of his memories.

"That's none of your business, Demencia. That's like asking why sssomebody has an injury."

*Did you join because of an injury?"

"No, that was a poor example. It's more like somebody why they got a job-"

"Do you just love being evil?"

"No, I-"

"You don't like being evil?" Demencia grabbed the snake's hood. "You're trying to betray Black Hat, is that it!?"

"NO! Nothing like that!"

"Do you love Black Hat?"

"WHAT!?"

"Well back off, he's mine!"

"WILL YOU SSSTOP THEORISING WHY I BECAME A SSSUPERVILLAIN?" Pentious freed himself from her hold, which was no easy task. "It is private information! I don't like talking about it!"

"Hmph, probably a lame backstory anyway."

Pentious groaned. She was going to be one hell of a headache.

Not so far away, Angel Dust and Dr Flug returned to the hotel, in the middle of a conversation.

"How could there be zero casualties?" the nerd wondered. "Several people got shot!"

"It takes more than a bullet to kill someone for good down here. To do that you'd need a holy weapon."

"Do we have any weapons like that inside?"

"Not that I know of." Angel opened the door. "Last time I checked, the only person that-"

Inches away from the arachnid's head, a throwing knife was lobbed into the wall. Angie took a look at it with wide eyes, noticing that a printed picture of the Kell Hitchen incident was stabbed at the end of it.

"Ooh…" Angel winced, inhaling through gritted teeth. "You saw that, huh?"

"I saw it!?" Vaggie gave him a bitter laugh. "Everyone saw it, Angel! It's all over the fucking news!"

"The Pride Ring must be having a slow news day." the spider tried making light of the situation, until the wall met another throwing knife.

"The people of the Pride Ring have already vandalized anything to do with the hotel!" she pulled out her phone to enter Voxtagram. "But I'm sure Belphegor will be happy to tell you Siestropolis are still laughing their asses off!"

"Sorry for wanting to keep my pig safe." he gave her a half-assed apology.

"A sorry isn't going to save our reputation!" another knife came so close to hitting Angel that he had to avoid it. "Now Charlie has to go back to that news station to explain the situation!"

The princess sat hunched over with an unfinished beverage beside her, head buried in her arms.

"So what now then, you're gonna punish me?" Angel joked. "I hear cock and ball torture is getting popular, let's try that!"

"You're not leaving the hotel."

His act dropped instantly. "What."

"No, Vaggie." Charlie objected, sitting up. "Angel, we're setting up a curfew for you. Every time you go out you cause us trouble."

"Fuck off." Angel walked out the door, pushing past a surprised Flug.

"ANGEL!" Vaggie reached for her spear, but was stopped by Charlie.

"Don't." she was obviously done with everyone's shit. "Just don't, we'll deal with him later."

Vaggie huffed as Flug walked in, not wanting to be a part of this.

"So what do we tell Killjoy and Trench?" Vaggie asked.

"I don't know. I'll try and think of something."

All of a sudden, a dark smoke shot up behind Charlie. Black Hat emerged from it and grabbed her by the head, Vaggie seeing this and freaking out.

"CHARLIE!"

The smoke encased Charlie as Vaggie ran towards it. The moth ran out the other side, somehow not bumping into anybody while going through. She looked back to see the smoke dissipate, Charlie and Black Hat both gone. Flug didn't seem too bothered, which pissed off Vaggie more.

"Where the fuck did he take her!?"

"Please Vaggie, relax." Flug spoke calmly. "It looks bad, but he only does that to scare people."

Vaggie clenched her fist. "That doesn't answer my question."

"I promise you, Miss Charlie is in no danger. They'll be back soon."

In Black Hat's pocket dimension, he and Charlie teleported out of the same smoke. They had been transported to somewhere that looked like a meeting room.

"What happened!?" Charlie looked around.

"No need to worry, Charlotte." Black Hat let go of her head, hovering over to take a seat in one of the chairs. "I simply wish to speak to you in private."

Charlie was cautious, but decided to sit down as well.

"About...what?"

"This upcoming broadcast. I've noticed the hotel's reputation dropped considerably today, I'm sure you have a plan to reverse that?"

"Well…" Charlie held her arm. "No."

"No? Why not?"

She turned away, taking a deep breath. "What you and dad said about me…did you really mean it?"

Black Hat leaned back. Of course he made no big deal about Charlie revealing she heard everything. He knew she was there the entire time.

"Of course not. We're just trying to get our personalities to rub off on you."

"...Huh?"

"Here's the problem with you, Charlotte. You're too nice. Disgustingly nice. Dangerously nice. Tell me honestly, why is it that you think it's taken you so long to acquire a guest?"

"I wasn't ready?"

"No!" Black Hat slammed his fist on the table. "It's BECAUSE you're nice that nobody wants any part of this. You must remember that you are the Princess Of Hell, not Heaven."

"I'm not going to act like a tyrant to the guests I'm trying to improve."

"As evil as it would be, I'm not telling you to act like a tyrant. I want you to...equivocate."

"You want me to lie!?"

"I don't want you to lie, no." Black Hat pushed himself away from the table to stand up. "But if you're going to get even one soul through the gates, you have to lose this sunshine and rainbows attitude." In a flash, Black Hat appeared behind Charlie to clasp the back of her chair. "If you see even the slightest opportunity to improve the status of this business, you take it without regrets!"

The villain noticed Charlie was getting more uncomfortable the closer he got, so he entered the darkness to return to his seat.

"Pentious was, how do I put this, a freebie. But I'm not going to help you acquire any more guests." Black Hat stared out of the window at a trippy wormhole leading to nothingness. "If you don't think me taking credit is fair, then prove to me you've got the skill to handle it. I want profits, you want respect, but we won't see any of those if you keep moping around waiting for a miracle that will never come."

The meeting room door opened, revealing a blinding green light.

"You may leave now."

Charlie was thinking over what Black Hat said, leaving the table and ambling towards the door. Just before she entered the light, the Lord Of Evil spoke up.

"Take my advice to heart, Charlotte," they say smiling was free therapy, but Black Hat's could cause the most fearless beasts to need it. "And I'm sure Lucifer will be proud of you."

She stopped dead in her tracks, not saying a word.

"Now, after our little chat, do you have a plan for the broadcast?"

After feeling like shit for so long, it was nice that a grin appeared on Charlie's face again. How didn't she think of this sooner? She faced the self-proclaimed manager, looking more like her father.

"Yep." and then she stepped into the light.