Wandering the secret passageways left Aria feeling shaken and unnerved. Despite only seeing a few licker demons and a few guards in heavier, pink and red armor holding firearms lethal to both angels and demons alike as they snuck around, the passageways, chambers, and rooms themselves proved treacherous and deadly all by themselves. Most of the walls had saw blades poking out covered in blood in need of cleaning, while springlike spike traps dripping with a liquid that stung horribly on Aria's skin hung from the ceilings and jutted from the floors. All of them still held angel remains rotting in them, much to Aria's horror. She tried to use her telepathy to hold back the nasty liquid to get around them, but whatever was interfering with her telepathy was still in force as she was forced to rely on Andrew's unusual abilities with manipulating liquid to get past the dripping traps.
There were obvious signs of nasty damage to many of the traps, but despite that, the sheer amount of traps still left active left Aria feeling positively overwhelmed! Her analysis tech swamped her vision with too many readings, disorienting her and leaving her feeling completely lost. Andrew, on the other hand,, was dismayed at how many traps were still active, making him wilt as he was forced to admit he may have been too hasty using the secret passageways as they kept narrowly avoiding death.
They barely entered a dimly lit room with a narrow walkway overlooking an acid pool when it started to flood with even more acid as a gelatinous demon slurped and surged through the acid looking hungry as it surged towards them! Shifting Angel on her shoulder so that he wouldn't end up losing a limb from the acid waterfalls around them, Andrew managed to split the deadly liquid demon in half like Moses parting the Red Sea, revealing newer models of angelic pieces of armor and weaponry inside it that hadn't yet succumbed completely to the demon's acidic body. The sight of it made Aria shudder as she stayed close to Andrew, who succeeded in getting them out of the deadly room in one piece. Using the golden key card again as they rushed out of the door that opened in front of them, they barely managed to get to it before the acid demon could regroup and surge after them! As they exited the room and locked it behind them with the keycard, however, it was becoming obvious that Andrew was struggling to find a way out of the deadly maze despite his card privileges.
"This is n-nothing like the passageways above us," Andrew muttered anxiously as a spring-loaded trap almost crushed them to death as the walls slammed closed on either side of them, leaving Aria only a second to think as she transformed into a yellow, gelatinous demon quick enough to spurt Andrew and Angel Dust out in time, while she had to slowly ooze out of the fully closed trap, feeling terribly claustrophobic in the process. "D-damn! Thanks!"
"Just keep moving! I don't want to think about where we are too much or I'll freeze up and end up a statistic!" Aria insisted in an intense whisper as she turned back into her bird disguise once enough of herself had gotten to the other side of the trap as she picked up Angel Dust once again, ignoring the tightness of the locket bracelet on her wrist before she suddenly heard one of the licker demons moving down a corridor to the right of them. "Andrew! It's coming this way!"
Andrew was at a loss as he looked around for another way out, while something caught Aria's attention despite the bombardment her analysis tech was getting from her surroundings. Where she could only see a blank, white wall in front of her was a marker in her analysis tech reading that a door was supposed to be right in front of them. Feeling desperate, Aria got a better grip on Angel Dust before she rushed to the wall in front of her and started to push on it! As she pushed at the wall, a terrifying, inhuman screech escaped the licker behind them as it caught sight of them!
"What are you d-doing!" Andrew hissed out as he grabbed her one, free hand and pulled at her. "We n-need to get the hell out of here! The best chance we have is to t-try and get past it! Come on!"
"Stop it! There's a door here! Help me push it open!" Aria insisted desperately as she pulled away from him and pushed even harder, making a seam start to show as the white paint started to yield, creating the shape of a door!
"How did you...n-nevermind! Push harder! Here it c-comes!" Andrew shouted as he suddenly lunged to push the door, too, making the door finally yield as they tumbled into the dark, cobwebby darkness beyond the door.
As the sight of the licker demon surged up towards the open door, Aria scrambled out from under Angel's comatose body to rush towards the door as she slammed it shut! Planting her body against the door as the licker crashed against it, she cried out in terror as she felt the door almost burst open, and then shut again as she pushed against the door, trying to keep the licker demon out! Hoping Angel Dust was far enough away from the door as the screeching and clawing licker demon tried to rip open the door, the next time it succeeded in opening the door, its long tongue flashed through the opening, slashing Aria hard across the face! Feeling dazed as a long, bleeding wound appeared on her upper nose and right cheek, she almost lost her footing as she fought to brace against the door until Andrew finally joined her and shut the door on its tongue, severing it from its body. The demon wailed and screeched in rage, ripping and clawing at the door, but with Andrew's help, the door held, and eventually, the licker demon grew bored and eventually wandered off.
"Phew!" Aria sighed in relief, while Andrew fought to catch his breath. "Well...that was close. Ow!"
"T-too close," Andrew stuttered out as he saw that the door had a hidden locking mechanism near the foot of the door, making him growl in annoyance as he locked it into place, but he didn't look convinced it would hold. "That flimsy lock won't hold up against a l-licker demon long. We better find a way out of here q-quick before it comes back."
"It looks like no one's been in this hallway for years, so the good news is that Valentino might not know about it," Aria guessed softly as she summoned a clean cloth from her storage space and held it to her cheek as Andrew helped her pick up Angel Dust and set him back on her shoulder, while she used her angelic powers to create a light to hover just between herself and Andrew. "I don't like the look of these spider webs, though. Not that we really have much of a choice at this point, do we?"
"I don't think exploring this corridor is a good idea," Andrew muttered darkly as a shiver ran through him before he suddenly brushed at his shoulder and screamed as he found a large spider sitting on his hand! "Ahhh! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"
"Stop moving around and let me-Ahhh! It's on me!" Aria screamed as she squirmed and wriggled until the spider finally got off her, but there were still more appearing from the thick webbing from the ceiling, making her turn and bolt through the hall as even more kept appearing. "RUN FOR IT! THEIR EVERYWHERE!"
Bolting down the corridor at break neck speed, Andrew clawed and tore at his clothes as Aria just kept ahold of Angel Dust and ran as they were forced to run through a bunch of webs, making her scream as she hoped no spiders were on her! Aria hoped and prayed the spiders weren't venomous as she just tried her best to keep them off as she cursed her luck that her telekenesis wasn't working down here, since her hands were busy trying to keep Angel Dust from falling off of her shoulder! She thought of turning into a gelatinous monster again to help get rid of the spiders, but she had no way to know if the spiders were lethal dead or alive, so she just kept running. Turning into a dragon and torching them all was also a no go, since burning the building down was a real possibility if she did that as she suddenly ran into another door.
"IN HERE!" Aria shouted as she barely managed to pull the door open with one, free hand as she let Andrew in before closing the door on a few scuttling spiders as she found the lock on the door and bolted it as she quickly got Angel Dust off of her before she started to swat at her arms and legs. "GET OFF! GET OFF ME NOW!"
"Are there anymore on m-me!?" Andrew asked frantically as she turned and looked at him as a huge spider crawled over his head and hissed out at her.
"Ahh!" Aria screamed as she swiped at the spider with one of her big, bird hands as she succeeded in knocking it off him before feeling something crawling on her neck. "ANDREW!"
With a swipe of his tail, Aria felt the spider on her drop as she saw two halves of it fall to the ground, while she smooshed the spider she'd knocked off of him with her taloned foot. She groaned in disgust as she realized too late how awful that idea had been as she felt all its icky, organ goo on her foot as she wiped her foot on the dusty, gray carpet beneath her feet. Andrew sliced and diced the few remaining spiders, including three that had ended up on Angel Dust, while Aria looked around what looked like an abandoned office, sincerely hoping they had gotten all the spiders.
"I...I think they're g-gone," Andrew said hesitantly as he kept looking around the dusty desk, cabinets, and drawers just to make sure before he suddenly jumped back. "Ahhh!"
"What is it!?" Aria cried out in alarm before she heard a relieved sigh come from him as he picked up a rather well-preserved, dried up, old snake with wings that looked like it had been well preserved in-between a little desk of drawers behind the desk near the wall. "Sigh...don't scare me like that!"
Andrew just chuckled nervously as he put down the mummified, winged serpent on the desk before getting a better look at the room. It was definitely of Celestian make as Aria recognized a planetary time reader still mapping and charting the movement of the stars on one wall, while an old-fashioned bulletin board and yellowed notes still pinned to it decorated the opposite wall near the door they just came through. A mess of books and paperwork littered the chest of drawers behind the desk, while shelves were stacked high on every wall. In fact, the room had a very high ceiling with rows and rows of shelves on every wall filled with books, papers, and what looked like writing supplies. There were a few knick knacks here and there, and even a few pieces of art that Aria could barely make out from where she was standing, but other than that, the office was pretty mundane. Dust blanketed everything, giving every wall and surface a gray layer of color Aria had to rub off of anything she touched as Aria read the notes on the bulletin board and took down and pocketed a few of the photographs her analysis tech could identify.
"Sigh...it looks like this used to be a Missionary Training Center," Aria said sadly as she took in the familiar scriptures, phrases, and jargon as she saw a map of Pentagram City on the bulletin board. "It looks like a Brother Cornelius Flynn occupied this office. He was a teacher of the doctrine of Jesus Christ and would've been teaching missionaries the topics and discussions needed to start missionary work here in Hell. It takes me back to when I served a mission on Earth. The best years of my life."
"Of c-course they were," Andrew said sarcastically as he looked through the dresser drawer to find numerous files inside of them. "Did you ever just have any f-fun for yourself without getting God involved?"
"Bringing souls unto Christ IS fun, Andrew, but if you're just talking about regular fun, then yeah, of course I did!" Aria said as she looked at Andrew with a curious look mixed with a confused expression. "I went to Disneyland, played video games, wrote fantasy fiction novels, and played games with my son and husband together! Just because I took a year and a half off to focus solely on missionary work doesn't mean I didn't know how to have fun!"
"You c-could've fooled me, given your attitude about sex and letting loose," Andrew countered shrewdly as he looked through the files, but nothing stood out to him. "Look, we don't really have t-time for this, anyway. What t-time is it anyway? I have no idea how to read this weird, c-cosmic thing on the wall."
"It's barely been a half an hour since we got stuck in the simulator, broke out, and made our way here, so we might've spent about ten minutes of real time in the simulator, tops. So don't worry, we still have plenty of time to catch Valentino being a creepy stalker well before Angel's sister is in any real danger," Aria said simply as she shrugged off Andrew's worries as she looked down at Angel Dust, letting the analysis tech let her know he was stable, unconscious, and drugged with a sleeping agent. "Great. Angel is still out after all of this with no signs that he'll wake up anytime soon. I bet they use this sleeping agent for sex scenes, too, given the criteria of entertainment Valentino is into. Seriously, though. Why didn't Kingsley have a wake up serum up and running? It doesn't sound like him to forget to have some on hand. What if you accidentally shot yourself or missed your target and hit a friend instead?"
"You really d-didn't take much time to search his pockets, so he could still have it on him," Andrew insisted as he picked up a dusty, wooden toy on the desk that resembled a little car. "I was surprised you d-didn't search him."
"I figured we didn't have the time for a more thorough check, but I did manage to grab the little, white notebook he stole back from Angel Dust," Aria insisted impatiently as she made the white notebook appear in her left hand before dismissing it into her storage space, while she felt something dripping into her feathers on her neck as she reached up a white feathered hand and touched her cheek, which she realized was still bleeding and noticed she'd dropped her bloody rag back in the hallway of spiders. "He won't be getting this notebook back, given that it has every Angel and their codes in it from one hundred years ago. It's too valuable an item to let Mr. Kingsley have it. Plus, I may need it to access any data bank still protected by angelic coding left in the building. Let's hope, anyway. A hundred years is plenty of time to erase data banks and change codes or rewrite programming."
"My thoughts exactly, but I'm g-glad he doesn't have it, at least," Andrew agreed before he looked impatiently at the comatose, pink spider on the dusty carpet as he snored gently on the floor. "What are we going t-to do about Angel Dust, though?"
"I don't know!" Aria said in frustration as she wished there was an easy way to rouse their companion. "I can't carry him forever with those licker demons around while trying to dodge booby traps meant to kill angels like me! Ouch! Argh! Why won't this wound heal!?"
"Oh yeah," Andrew said nervously with a chuckle as he awkwardly watched as her angelic blood dripped all over the desk in the room, including the well-preserved winged serpent as she summoned another clean cloth as she pressed it into her cheek as she also summoned a roll of tape on the desk and a pair of scissors. "Licker d-demon wounds don't heal quickly like normal wounds do here in Hell. It's their s-spit. It slows d-down your body's ability to heal. It isn't permanent, but as long as you have that open wound, not only are you n-not going to heal properly until it closes, but it'll probably be an hour or two before it heals up. That c-could be a problem."
"Why's that?" Aria asked as Andrew rolled his eyes at her, his expression looking exasperated as though he couldn't believe what she'd just said. "What? Why are you looking at me that way?"
"You're ability to shapeshift won't m-matter if the exact same wound is on every face you put on, Aria!" Andrew declared like it was incredibly obvious, making Aria groan as she suddenly realized what he meant!
"Great! Just great!" Aria said sarcastically as she sighed before getting the tape and cutting it into strips to help keep the make-shift bandage on her face. "Not only do I have to worry about angel traps and just try to get out of this place alive, but now I have to worry about being recognized because of my incredibly obvious, bleeding facial feature! This is ridiculous!"
"Well, maybe it w-aaah!" Andrew started to say, but the end of his sentence turned into a scream as he rapidly backed up towards the door and pointed at the desk, making Aria look down fast before she recoiled from it and screeched!
Yawning and twisting as it fluttered its once flakey, white wings wide, the thick, gray dust crumbled and fell from the winged serpent before her, revealing a bright blue body with pearlescent, white scales on its belly as its white, piercing eyes glowed, revealing an intelligence behind them. The beast rose up to stare at her from the desk, creating a light, blue glow around itself as a pink tongue flicked out, scenting the air as it locked eyes with her. The moment their eyes met, Aria was unable to move as something surreal came over her as a presence made itself known inside her mind. As the mind of the winged serpent suddenly touched hers, images began to fill her vision, making the office disappear all around her.
***
"They won't listen! Those lackadaisical, old fools won't listen!" An old man's voice rang in her ears, making Aria turn to find a huge angel in front of her wrapped in a white, blessed robe with a golden pocket watch in one hand, and a white, well trimmed beard on his black, round face. "I know my studies well and I don't care if it's just a hobby! The eternal laws are fluctuating at an alarming rate and just now, the name of God rang empty of its power in the streets while I was being violently accosted by a demon! A demon, Coatl! Can you believe it!?"
A hiss came from Aria, making her realize she was hearing and seeing all this from the feathered serpent's point of view, making Aria wish her new body would get closer to the angel as she felt his hand gently stroke her very cold head with a gentle warmth she instantly craved. Her unusually cold body uncoiled as she found herself slithering towards the man's resting hand as it rested on his desk, only for it to move away as he stood up and paced once more away from her, making her stare after him. Finally, her wings unfurled as she suddenly took flight and landed on his shoulder, giving Aria a better look at who Aria suspected was Brother Cornelius Flynn, while her cold body relished the warmth coming from his body.
"Ah, Coatl, my friend, I have no choice but to prepare for the coming storm and hope some have taken my warning to heart, no matter what the mission president has said," Brother Flynn said heavily with a sigh as he brought up a visual screen before him as he sent a few messages, while some were instantly blocked as he brought up a very complicated chart that looked like an algorithm for reading the level of something, but Aria could only make out the title screen, which read "Hypothetical Corruption Chart". "By the stars! I still can't reach the Heaven's warning systems! The corruption of the eternal laws has progressed far faster than I first anticipated hours ago! If my calculations are right...oh God help us!"
Her body hissed out a plaintive hiss of warning as she felt her scales itch and ripple like a wave, making her feel that an impending doom was rising to meet them. Aria couldn't see the cosmic time reader, but she suspected it was a hundred years ago moments before calamity struck. Her serpentine body coiled and hissed at the door as her body throbbed and ached as something in the air instantly felt wrong. Then...there was a stillness that left her cold body boiling with a terrible rage that Aria could only interpret as the feathered serpent's reaction to a most terrible, spiritual offense!
"There it is! Damn it, I was right!" Brother Flynn cursed as he placed a hand to his heart where Aria sensed was an angelic talisman, but she saw nothing as she watched, or rather, Coatl watched his friend with a mix of rage from what was happening and sincere concern for Brother Flynn. "It is time, my dear, old friend! As I warned, so it must be. Take my memories, erase this room from the memories of everyone, seal it and yourself, and then wait until angelic blood rouses you once more. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but take heart, my friend! You do me a service this night, no matter how awful the cost of it must be! For the one, true God! Bless my last efforts! Farewell!"
With a terrible stab of sadness edged with the steel of duty penetrating her serpentine heart, Aria felt Coatl coil, then strike as he bit into Brother Flynn's neck as she felt the very essence of him drain from his body into hers. Aria was forced to feed and watch as Coatl sucked the very being out of Brother Flynn until his body buckled and pruned until it dissolved into nothing but ash. As soon as the feeding was over, the energy Coatl had sucked out of Brother Flynn made his serpentine body expand to ten times his original size as he then opened his mouth and hissed out in sadness, rage, and longing for his friend!
As Aria saw through Coatl's glowing, white eyes, he broke a jar containing two spiders by accident with his new, huge body that rested near a shelf above him. Aria instantly recognized the spiders that scuttled out of the broken fragments as they scuttled down the wall towards the door. As Coatl glared at the door, Aria felt him force it open with his will alone, making her wonder if he had her ability to move objects with his mind as it suddenly unlocked and swung wide!
A bright, white corridor revealed itself before him as the telltale sound of an alarm suddenly sounded throughout the building! Ignoring the spiders as they fled the office, Coatl used the huge amount of energy inside him to blast out an invisible, intense power throughout the entire building and beyond as Aria watched the air before her with interest! As the particles of light stabbed through brick, wood, stone, and paper, she suddenly could see throughout the missionary training center like a three-dimensional grid!
The grid expanded and filled the entirety of Pentagram City, coiling around it like the body of a snake as it squeezed and closed around even the minds of angels and demons alike as it spread. One by one, the particles of light deleted any mention, memory, or map of Brother Flynn and his office. It only took seconds, but Aria saw the Coatl's last work coil, shift, strike, and squeeze until he succeeded in erasing any mention of Brother Flynn from every document, book, map, binder, and mind who knew him outside of his office.
The last vestiges of Brother Flynn's energy was then spent to conceal the door that led to Brother Flynn's office, sealing it with a layer of paint and a spiritual seal, making the door that led to the office visible only to angels. Wrapping a force field subtle enough to distract curious demons large and small, the seal was completed as the doorknob and frame melded with the wall, utterly disappearing from view. By the time the memory started to fade as the body of Coatl passed out, shrank, and coiled behind the little chest of drawers behind the desk, Aria felt drained from the experience as her mind returned to the present.