Chapter 1: Devils in the Rockies
.o.o.o.
"So you think there are demons up here?" Loki asked as he and Daimon hiked up a low but steep mountain in southern Colorado.
"Satanists, more likely. No serious demonic activity, so what we're looking at is people trying to get the activity going," Daimon said.
"Ah. And what do we do with them?" Loki asked.
"Scare 'em straight or send them down," Daimon said.
"Down? As in….down?" Loki checked.
"Ding," Daimon said.
"Oh. Do you know Mephisto?" Loki asked. "He's peeved with me."
"Yes and what the hell did you do, brat?" Daimon said, boosting Loki onto a higher ledge.
"Err, made him think I was still evil to get what I wanted out of him, gave him control of some demonic Valkyries which now serve Hela via my machinations…I think that's it," Loki said. "Oh, and got him in trouble with a mutant girl he liked."
"Kid, you are a trouble magnet," Daimon said, pulling himself up. "Birds of a feather, I guess."
"So, what are we looking for?" Loki asked, fingering his daggers.
"Right now, anything that shouldn't be here—weird sigils, bursts of energy, evil chanting…"
"But not coyotes?" Loki asked, eyeing a small pack that seemed to have found them and was eyeing the duo.
"Stick close if you're scared of them. Animals don't like me—well, except for your mutt."
"He turned out to be evil," Loki admitted.
"Ah. Sorry to hear that," Daimon said.
The hike fell silent for a little while, Loki and Daimon too busy finding handholds on steeper parts and not slipping on the rest.
"Is that one?" Loki asked. The symbol looked like a rune…sort of.
"Amateur, but yeah," Daimon said. "No power behind it, but it's Moloch's symbol."
"So he's one of the devils that's real?" Loki asked.
"Yeah, and you'll love this: he eats kids," Daimon said.
"I had to decide to become a sidekick now," Loki sighed dramatically. "All right, so we may have Moloch-Satanists on our hands. What do we do with them?"
"Get more information," Daimon said. "See if any of them have had any actual contact with Moloch or any of his toadies. If they're not doing anything harmful, we leave them. If they're breaking mortal laws, we report them. And if they're breaking immortal laws…well, you'll see that eventually."
"Ah," Loki said. "If we are to inform authorities, should I do a 'panicked young child' routine?"
"We'll see. Might come in handy," Daimon said. "All right. This feels like the place I was sensing."
The had come to a small plateau.
"Find somewhere unobtrusive to camp. We'll stake them out after dark," Daimon said. "I'm going to check around."
Loki headed off towards a promising-looking rock formation. It looked like they could both comfortably hide inside if necessary.
Loki climbed up the rock in the front of the formation and looked down inside to see if there was room.
"DAIMON!"
Loki almost slipped from the rock as he fell, managing to catch himself before dropping all the way inside. He looked down again.
Upon closer inspection, what he thought had been dead babies were dolls, but they were splattered in what smelled like very real blood, blood that also formed symbols all through the inside of the formation.
Daimon was on the rock, "What, what—oh."
"I think they're all just dolls, but we'll need to check," Loki said. "And that blood seems real."
Daimon sniffed. "It is." He hauled Loki up onto one of the other tall rocks and summoned his trident, using it to sift through the dolls. "No real kids, though."
"Well, maybe they think Moloch's on a diet," Loki said.
"Kid, you're smart enough to know what effigies are," Daimon said. "There's names on these. They're offering kid's souls without killing the kids…"
"You think?" Loki asked.
"Moloch would like some tasty souls. He usually just gets bodies, no souls. That's Mephisto, Beelzebub, Hela, and others. Well, okay, Hela usually gets both and she's not exactly evil, per say…you get what I'm saying, though?"
"So, are they promising the souls to him when they're babies or kids or…what?" Loki asked.
"We'll have to look up some of these names nearby. You got a signal on that phone?"
"A weak one, but yes," Loki said. "The searching may take a while, but it should work."
"All right," Daimon said, hopping off the rocks. "Let's head a bit south of here to camp. You do your data work and I'll see if there's anyone living in these parts."
.o.o.o.
Loki continued going through the records he'd managed to find. A couple of the kids had been mentioned on news sites, falling into mysterious comas, but most were unlisted.
Loki shuddered—if their souls were being eaten, they were probably never going to wake up….and it would be terrifying if they ever did.
Daimon eventually came back with boots speckled red. "Found their slaughter ground. Mostly coyotes and goats. Occasional deer."
"So…what do we do?" Loki asked. "I think whatever they're doing is working, at least a little." He showed Daimon the Starkphone.
"Shit," Daimon swore. "We'll camp here tonight, and then we're going to those hospitals. Might give us a better idea of what we're dealing with."
.o.o.o.
The next night, Loki and Daimon broke into a Boulder hospital.
"Does he seem…demonically affected?" Loki asked.
"I'm looking kid, don't rush me," Daimon said. "No thoughts, no spirit, but not brain dead…yup, there's no soul in there."
"So Moloch has it?" Loki asked, patting the kid's hand.
"It's possible. We'll have to see how those little rituals go to be sure," Daimon said.
"Spying on Satanists during a ritual seems…ill-advised," Loki mused. "Then again, I'm the brat who double-crossed Mephisto. Lead on!"
.o.o.o.
"So, Mephisto said Satan's throne is empty and has been for some time…how are you the 'Son of Satan'?" Loki asked.
"Okay, get this—all the higher Hell-Lords put a bit of themselves into a demon that became my dad so there'd be enough Satan. Therefore all of them kind of have some parental claim," Daimon said. "Apparently Dormammu's my grandfather, too."
"The evil fiery being Dr. Strange considers his mightiest foe?" Loki asked. "By the way, what is it with powerful villains and fire?"
"Don't know. I like fire myself," Hellstrom said, lighting a cigarette.
"You'd better hope gods aren't susceptible to second hand smoke," Loki teased. "These sandwiches are good. Where did you get them?"
"Grocery store deli," Daimon said. "And don't think about touching the beer."
"Of course, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for giving a minor alcohol," Loki said.
"Ha-ha, brat," Daimon said. "Wait…shh."
Loki nodded—he'd heard it too. The duo crept towards the noise that was coming from near the bloodied rocks.
Daimon's lips pursed as they watched he group. He put a finger down in the sand, wrote "Satanists" and crossed it out.
Loki made a question mark.
Daimon wrote, "Cult. Some demonic influences. Watch leader."
Loki did—it was an old man wearing a rather nice fedora. There were things that sounded cult-like enough, promises of "higher power" and "greater force" and "true paths" that nearly made Loki gag in their preachiness.
Daimon rapped him on the head and nodded as blood was used to re-paint Moloch's symbol. Loki frowned, not knowing what he had planned, until two women pulled out a doll and Daimon leaped into view, demonic energy pouring off him.
"Moloch has heard you," he said darkly. Loki rolled his eyes before seeing a little note in the dirt.
"Get the doll."
Loki scurried around the fringes of the group, wishing he knew some way to become invisible. Daimon kept his show going, pretending to be Moloch's greatest emissary, as Loki crept closer and closer to the women and the doll.
He could feel Daimon watching him from behind the sunglasses, and knew he had to move fast. His hand closed around the doll's leg and he yanked.
"What?" one of the women said.
"You should know better than to deal with demons," Daimon said, stopping her from reaching Loki by making a circle of fire. "Now then…who got this little bunch going? I'm the Son of Satan, I could do with some damning."
The fire flared and then died. Loki saw most of the group were unconscious, but there were some piles of ash about.
"Those were the damned," Daimon said. "Rest are just the suckers of the cult. Should stop the sacrifices, though."
"But how do we save the kids from Moloch?" Loki asked.
"That, little trickster, may be significantly more complicated," Daimon said. "But it looks like 'Thomas Luces' has you to thank. Let's take a second look at those dolls, and see what we've got."
.o.o.o.
"Definite connection to hell, specifically Moloch's part of it," Daimon said, inspecting one doll. "I think some of these younger ones might have been the cult member's own kids…bastards…"
"And I thought I'd seen lousy parenting," Loki muttered as he flipped through a few occult texts Daimon had given him. "So, how do we retrieve the souls?"
"Moloch's tough, he's one of the oldest," Daimon said. "We could probably get into his realm quietly through Hel if Hela's in a good mood, otherwise we'd have to just bust in."
"Busting in is probably not the way to go," Loki agreed.
"All right," Daimon said. "Let's go to Hel, kid."