Chapter eight. New style


Jack sat in his room. It was your typical bedroom with a queen sized bed, one nightstand on each side, a drawer underneath the window, black carpets, and a closet. He had some shelves on the wall across from the bed with an assortment of mementos on it. He had just got back from their party, having been beaten by Solis in almost every game except one but he claimed he was allowed the win. He called bullshit on that. Now that that was over he had time to think about something that Blitzø gave him an idea for.

He wrote in the air the letters for Dust. "Dust." He called. The mist shadow demon appeared on call, surrounding him. He waved his hand forward and had the shadow demon take a form. It took the form of Blitzø. He motioned his finger and had the figure swing its claws around in the air before spin kicking. "Hmmmmm." He got up and grabbed his scythe, which was hung up under his shelves, and opened it up from its compact form. He tossed it to the Blitzø formed Dust, who grabbed it. He had it sweep it before doing a spin slash then spiraling it above its head before side slashing.

"Hmmm that's how I use it though….alright," Jack took back his scythe and dismissed Dust, compacting his scythe, "time to sharpen my vision."


The next day rolled around and Jack came into the I.M.P. lobby.

"Foxy Foxy Foxy!" Poch was repeating.

"Shit shit shit!...got him!" Loona replied. The two of them were at the desk in front of a red laptop that had a connected mouse. The two had separate earphones plugged in and Loona was looking at the screen, focused, playing some game.

"What are y'all doing?" Jack asked.

"Oh, hey Jack! I brought my laptop over to show Loona Five Nights at Freddy's. She said it looked easy and now she's trying." Poch told the imp.

"Oh cool, what night she on?"

"Night three. This is her third attempt cause Foxy keeps screwing her over."

"Not this time, I'm expecting that pirate bastard!" Loona declared. "Oh fuck off Chica!"

"Good luck. Hey, where's Boss? I need to talk to him."

"Office."

"Alright. Thanks." Jack left for where Blitzø was. He knocked on the door. "Boss? It's Jack."

"Come in!" Blitzø yelled from inside. Jack came in. "Hey Jack! No new clients today!"

"That's fine, I actually have a request, one that I think you're gonna like."

"Go on." Blitzø said, intrigued.

"I'd like you, Millie,and Moxxie to meet me on the roof and show me how you fight. Just pretend you're on some killing spree, and bring your best weapons."

"Oh, wanna take an in-depth look at us do ya?"

"Yeah and then some...not in that way."

"Ahaha I hope not." Blitzø reached for his microphone. "M&M get in here!" He yelled into it.

"I'll see you up there." Jack left.

"Sure thing Jack!" He said into the speaker.


Jack waited at the top of the building. He heard the elevator ding and out came the imps of I.M.P.

"Heya jack!" Millie greeted.

"What's this about looking at us deeply?" Moxxie asked.

"Let's just say," Jack wrote for dust, "this is gonna help me with something. Dust." Dust came.

"What are you summoning Dust for?"

"Dust will be your target. Now," He had dust turn into multiple balls, "Moxxie, you're gonna go first, then Millie, then Boss. Don't hold back, treat these targets like it's a job request from a client and they're all trying to attack you."

"Alright," Moxxie pulled out his pistol, "sounds simple enough." He walked to the center of the roof.

"Ready?" He had the Dust balls surround Moxxie.

"Ready!"

"Go!" He had two of the ball's charge at Moxxie.

Moxxie weaved to the side and shot at them. The balls popped before reforming. One came at him from the front. He shot it before it hit him. Two more were pondering him so he rolled forward to dodge them, letting them collide before taking out a second gun and firing them. Another ball came through the dust before the two he shot reformed. He ran away from it before sliding to let it go above him, blasting it.

"Looking good there Mox! Try not to choke!" Blitzø cheered.

Moxxie grumbled, diving behind an ac unit. He poked out, taking shots at the orbs across him. His gun clicked when he pulled the trigger, the clip was empty. He was quickly surrounded by the orbs. He holstered his guns before pulling out two Uzi's. He jumped up and spun around, raining down bullets on the balls, everytime they reformed they were popped by the endless assault of lead. Moxxie landed and aimed back, about to shoot more.

"That's enough!" Jack yelled. "Nice shooting Mox."

Moxxie sighed. "Thanks." He put away his guns.

"You're up Millie!"

"Alright!" Millie pulled out two red army knives.

Jack surrounded her with Dust in its orbital form. "Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Go!"

The orbitals closed in on her. She jumped forward and sliced the one in front of her before cutting the one on her right and jabbing the one on her left. She leapt up and

Landed on one orb, stabbing it deeply, making it pop. She fell down to her feet, one was coming from behind, she hopped, let it go under her, before downward slashing it in an X. She did a midair spin and cut in half the two coming at her.

"Nice! She's really good with knives!" Jack complimented.

"Haaa you have no idea!" Moxxie said, ogling at his wife with heart eyes.

"Oh, get a room!" Both Blitzø and Jack said at the same time. They laughed at that.

Millie was tearing through the orbs, rushing at them whenever she got close. She had to dodge a few but always went for the kill or atleast a gash whenever she moved away. She was like a bloodlusting warrior.

Jack stopped his balls (Noone make a sex joke). "That's enough!"

"Awww," Millie pouted.

"Bosses turn!"

"Sweet!" Blitzø pulled out his gun and slipped on his brass knuckles.

"Boss, you're kinda an all rounder aren't ya?" Jack asked.

"You calling me fat?"

"What? No, I mean you use both long and close range, meaning you're very versatile."

"Well yeah I guess I am!"

"That's why," he grabbed his scythe, "I want you to use this for now."

Blitzø's eyes lit up. "Really!?"

"Really."

"Yes!" Blitzø nabbed the scythe from Jack's hand.

"Why could I use it?" Millie asked.

"Boss privilege." Jack answered. "I'll let you use it next time."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Now you ready bossman?"

"Hell yes!" Blitzø held the weapon with vigor.

"Begin!"

Blitzø wasted no time and wildly swung at the shadow demon. He sliced three of the orbs before getting a fourth one with a downward slam, stabbing the roof. He tried pulling it out before another came to him. He pulled out his gun and shot at it while trying to free the scythe. He managed to pop it out and swing it in a circle as four orbs closed in on him, managing to get them all. He rushed to another, scraping the scythe on the ground as he got closer, rushing it upwards at his target. His swings were full of strength and fury, using the scythe more like an axe but not completely like one, he still made use of its reach and his gun. He made quite a few holes and cuts in the ground.

"Doing great sir!" Millie cheered.

"I'm gonna have to fix all those," Moxxie groaned.

Jack was satisfied with what he saw but let Blitzø go ham a little longer. "Alright boss," he dismissed Dust, "that's good!"

"That was fun!" He looked around and saw the damage he did. "Moxxie fix this up."

"I fucking knew it." Moxxie pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Here's your scythe." Blitzø gave him back his weapon. "So what'd you want us to do this for?"

"Heh. You'll see when I get back." Jack smirked.

"Get back?"

"Yeah boss, I'm gonna need to take off for a bit. You gave me an idea for fighting angels and I wanna see it through!"

"I did!? Well if that's the case, go ahead! But you gotta show us it when you get back!"

"Definitely!" Jack headed for the elevator. "Laters!" He waved them off.


Jack entered his room and went into his walk in closet. He went for the chest in the back and opened it up. It was full of assorted halo's ranging from regular ones to jeweled ones. He pulled out his phone while rummaging through them, taking a few different halos out, giving Dundy a call.

After a few rings, Dundy answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, you still in the living world?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Can you tell Jared to make a gate for me? I wanna see Gen. I'm inside my closet right now."

"Hold on." The setting down of the phone was heard. In the background the voices of Dundy and another could be heard, barely able to be made out. Dundy came back. "I'm going to send him the coordinates. Stay on the phone please, this will take only a short moment."

"I know how this works, Dundy." Jack grabbed a bag and set the halos in it.

"I know, just wanted to say it."

Jack hoisted the bag to his back and stood up, closing his chest.

"Jared's got you locked in...he's placing the portal a few feet away where your closet's entrance is….ok now he's tethering."

"This always takes a while. I envy Poch and Boss."

"Same….alright he's about to initiate it. Go quickly before someone notices the pathways active."

"Right." Jack waited till he heard the sparking of energy behind him. Electricity sparked at the closet door before becoming larger and more Wild. A black swirling gate appeared, replacing the raging lighting. "Heading through. Tell Jared I said thanks."

"Sure. Take care!"

Jack hung up and walked through the gate.

From the side he emerged from, he came into an underground iron tunnel with high voltage lights on its ceiling. He stood in front of a large round metal door that had a slider in the front and a button below. He pressed the button and the sound of a bell rang out from inside.

A speaker on the rim of the door called out. "Who is it!?"

"Iiiiits Jacko!"

"Oh. Alright, opening the door."

Loud clunks were heard as the door slowly slid open. Jack walked in, passing through the steam pipe filled path, passing a few doors till he came to a large opening that led to a blacksmith's workshop. In this workshop was a large oven on the left wall, a green fire pit on its right, a few anvils that were set in the middle of the room, a tub of water that was next to the anvils, a tub of crimson liquid next to it, a table that was across the tubs, a steel drawer that laid beneath tools that were hung up on the wall, and a desk in the far middle wall that was right beside the drawer.

At the desk sat a red demon cat with black vertical stripes and small wings on the back of his hip. He wore a pair of brown overalls with black stains on them. He swiveled around and looked at Jack with his red eyes. "Jack. Good to see ya." He smirked.

"Hey Gen! How's it going?"

"It's going fine. Need some work on that scythe?"

"A little. Was actually hoping for some add ons for mode two."

"Add ons huh? What'd you have in mind?"

Jack walked up to him and pulled out a notepad from his pocket. "These."

Gen took the notepad and pulled out his glasses from his chest pocket. "Hm...interesting."

"Think you can do it?"

"Got enough halos?" Jack handed him his bag. Gen opened it and dumped it on his desk. "Hm." He looked through them. "...gonna need a few more."

"Shit, was hoping those would be good enough. I'll give Poch a call."

"No need. I got some extra in stock so I'll take care of the rest."

"Really? Thanks!"

"Don't mention it. You'll just owe me one." Gen scooped the halos back into the bag, went to his drawer and pulled out one of them, reaching in and taking out two green and blue jeweled halos and three sky blue halos. He made his way to the tub full of crimson liquid. He dumped all the holy rings in, the tub sizzling and bubbling as they entered. He grabbed a large ladle with holes in it and a few buckets from his tool shelf before sitting by the tub. "This is gonna take a while. Maybe you can go see Nala?"

"Nah," Jack took a seat in the corner, "I'd have to use another gate. Plus I told Nala I'd come back once this whole ordeal is set straight. Would be lame to see her now and then leave, not able to see her for a long while again."

"Heh, yeah that would be." Two yellow pieces of ore floated up. He used his ladle to pick them up and placed them on one bucket. "Heard there's been some early Cleansings going on down there?"

"There has. Supposedly Dundy's looking through the data with Jared since the early Cleansings got gies with the purge ending soon. Last one had a boss that Poch had to solo."

"He soloed it, eh?" He scooped up another yellow ore before getting a green and blue ore, putting it in a separate bucket. "That couldn't have been easy?"

"It was not. I was too busy protecting Boss, so I couldn't help."

"Boss?"

"Yeah, me and Poch got a job in hell. We're assassins for the living world!"

"Ah, the Immediate Murder Professionals."

"Wh- how'd you know!?"

"Saw the commercial last time I went to hell."

"Oh. Cool."

"How's working for them?"

"Pretty good. It's a move to be able to go to the living world and wack some heads with no consequences. The people we kill are pieces of shit too so extra no guilt!"

"Just be careful not to get spotted by the corps."

"I know."

"How's Poch liking it?"

"He's doing alright with it. He tells me since it's his choice it feels better to do, kinda liberating even."

"That's good to hear." Gen smirked happily.

"It helps that he also met a girl."

"Oh!? This I gotta hear!"

"She's a hellhound named Loona. She's the adopted daughter of our boss and, suffice it to say, she's getting along with Poch pretty well. Even let him sit on her lap once."

"Ohoho! You see them becoming a thing?"

"I definitely see the possibility!"

"Haha! I'm happy for him!"

"Same….I think he's finally moving on."

"I wanna say it took him long enough, but...even in two years, it's not easy to move past what he's been through."

"The detox, the deprogramming, the guilt, the self blame, yeah none of that's easy, especially when you get all that at once."

Gen pulled out some more ores. "Mind starting the oven?"

"Sure," Jack got up and went to the oven, "what degrees?"

"About 450."

"Gotcha." Jack turned the knob on the front. Green fire came to life inside the oven.

"Thanks."

"No prob."

"So about that boss, it drop a white striped halo?"

"No idea. After it died, I used Dust to get the halos since I got pickup duty, but Solis is the one who said he'd sort through them for us. He's doing it with Shelly of course."

"Those two love hounds are probably making a game out of it."

"Bet, or being all mushy."

Gen finished scoping the last ore. "Alright." He shook off the ladle before putting it back on the wall. He pulled out some large heavy duty gloves and put them on, grabbing the buckets and placing them inside the oven. "Help me grab some ingots."

"Kk." Jack came with him to the drawer, going for the large bottom one.

Gen pulled it out and grabbed three large smooth bricks. "Grab four."

Jack grabbed four bricks, following him to the table, setting them down there. "This good?"

"Hmmm, get me two more."

Jack went and grabbed two more bricks, closing the drawer on his way back. "Here."

"Thanks." Gen took off his gloves and pricked his arm with his right index fingernail. A drip of blood came onto his nail. He picked up a brick and dragged his nail across the top. Where he scratched left a glowing orange trail. He drew an outline of a shape. He went to the short side, drawing from the edge, making another outline. Once he finished, he blew onto the top and what he drew crumbled into an indent in the brick. He set that brick down and picked up another to do the same thing but with a different outline, pricking his arm again. He made different groves for each brick, setting them next to each other.

Gen put his gloves back on and went to the oven. He turned the dial down, calming the fire, before reaching and grabbing one of the buckets. He took it to the table and poured the yellow liquids into two of the bricks. He went back, put the bucket back in, and grabbed another one, this one with a green and blue mixed liquid. The colors looked like a swirl, a green and blue that won't come together but stood connected. He filled four with that. He put the bucket back and took the one with sky blue contents, filing the rest with it.

He went to his stools and grabbed a pair of tongs and a hammer. He used them to grab the now hardened contents inside the bricks, taking it to an anvil. He took his hammer and started beating into the item. He examined it and dipped it into the water, the tub sizzling in response. He placed it back on the table, grabbing the next one and doing the same. Once he finished with all the pieces, he started to put some of them together, fitting them like a puzzle. He got three separate pieces, a handle with a barrel on its hilt, a thin but wide holster, and a clip. One by one, he took them to the pit, submerging them in the green coals for a good half minute before taking them out and putting them in water. He took the holster and used the hammer to knock it into the handle, locking it into the top of the hilt. He checked it, making sure it was able to flip up and down from the side. He took the clip, sliding it under the handle, clicking it in, a trigger popping out near the part of the handle that was adjacent to the barrel.

"Hmmm." He examined the creation before nodding in approval, dumping it into the crimson liquid, the item glowing as it bathed in it. The glow dimmed before it rose up, Gen picking it up and shaking it off. Its color was now purple and black. "Mid grade. Nice if I do say so myself." He set the item on the table before going to the buckets again, using them to fill up the indents on the molds again, repeating the creation process.

He repeated until he got six done in total. "All done!"

"Sweet!" Jack walked up to him, marveling at the items.

"Test them out."

"Right!" Jack took out his scythe and unfurled it. He twisted the middle handle back and forth. A few lines of purple spiraled out from the center. Once the spirals reached the end the scythe gained a red edge and split into six blades. He wrote for his shadow demon. "Dust!" Once it came he had it grab and remove two scythe blades before taking two handles and sliding the blades onto them, the holster flipping up to take hold of it, completing the gun blade. "Sweet! Can I name these?"

"Sure!"

"I dub these items...the GB holders!"

"GB holders?"

"Well they're not gun blades till the blades are attached."

"Hm. Alright then. You need some bullets or gonna use some of Shelly's?"

"I'll take some bullets." Jack removed the blades and placed them back on his weapon, reverting it back to normal. He used Dust to grab the rest of the GB holders, placing them in the pockets of his jackets, before dismissing it.

"Alright, I'll give you a few boxes. Hang on." He got up and left the room. When he came back he was holding a duffle bag that held three green tins. "Here ya go." He handed him the bag.

"Thanks, Gen!"

"You're welcome. Tell the others I said hi!"

"Sure thing! Seeya!" Jack left with a wave. He took out his phone to call Dundy again.


Jack walked into the lobby again. He spotted Poch and Loona at the desk, both holding a controller, playing a game on his laptop. They had a little blood on them.

"Hey guys," Jack greeted, "I miss something?"

"Nah, just a few clients. Nothing major," Poch answered

"Cool. What game you playing?"

"Rayman legends. A so-called game for nerds that a certain hellhound is enjoying." Poch smugly smirked. Loona reacted by reaching over and flicking his analog stick. "Hey!"

"That's what you get," Loona smugly smirked back.

"Cheat."

"What happened to fnaf?" Jack asked.

"She stopped when she got to night two on the second one."

"She do 4/20?"

"Nah she quit at night si- hey you moved Murphy!"

"Whoops, guess I'll take that coin," Loona said almost innocently.

"Double cheat!"

"Hope you like eyeliner."

"Eyeliner?" Jack questioned.

"We made a bet. If I get more lums, she has to wear a sweater Blitzø got for her, but if she gets more, she puts makeup on me," Poch explained

"Oof. Good luck dude."

"Thanks."

Jack left for Blitzø's office and poked his head in, where Moxxie and Millie also were. "Boss...it's time!"

"Sweet!" Blitzø cheered. "Let's roll guys!" The four of them left for the elevator, passing by the two hellhounds. "Be back soon Loonie!" Blitzø told his daughter.

Loona rolled her eyes but laughed when she saw fall in the game. "You ok there?"

"I keep forgetting about those spikes there." Poch lamented.


By the time the imps came back in, both Millie and Blitzø had stars in their eyes. Even Moxxie looked astonished, asking Jack questions. "So it's like we're actually helping you? You just do it subconsciously based on vision?"

"Yep!" Jack answered.

"That's amazing! It's like your-" they all stopped once they saw Loona applying blush to Poch's cheek.

Poch had on purple eyeshadow and black eyeliner while Loona was adding the blush. "...she cheated." Poch told them.

"Prove it." Loona smirked.

"I knew I should've gotten that screen recorder." Poch grumbled.

"Quit whining." She started blushing the other cheek.

"...so anyway, I was wondering," Millie continued the conversation as they all continued to the break room.

As they left, Loona reached for her lip gloss. "Want red or blue?"

"Red," Poch answered.

"Blue it is."

"No fair."

"By the way, I'm posting this on insta."

"Don't you dare!"

"Why not? You'll look cute." Loona was enjoying this. "Now Hold still and pucker up a bit."

Poch groaned. "Just don't tag me." He puckered slightly.

"Suuure." She said sarcastically, applying the gloss.


Dundy looked at the screen next to Jared, a red spider demon with black eyes and green hair, wearing a suit of black. "This is...disturbing."

"I'll say. I never expected this. But how?" Jared asked.

"It shouldn't be possible to do it that quickly."

"Unless they have an item. But the question is, who's directing them?"

"That is a good question. They don't have the mental capacity to do this willingly."

"Either way, our heavenly friends are planning something."


End

Next chapter. Training.