With a Smile Chapter 2 - Meeting the Locals, a hazbin hotel fanfic

Authors notes: WOW! 15 followers and 9 favorites! That's amazing! I truly appreciate you people following this story, if you have any recommendations for the story in the future, or just want to give your opinion on it, leave a review on the story and I'll be sure to take it into consideration, can't get better at writing this story without criticism, now can I? Also, almost got 8K words on this one, that's about double the words from the first chapter.

(Alright no more geeking out, story time!)

Chapter 2 - Meeting the Locals

It was a brand new day for Hell, the birds picked the flesh off of fresh bodies, the flowers were torched from Hell's soil, and the inhabitants were slaughtering each other in the streets like animals.

Yep, another fine day in Hell indeed.

As the residents of Hell committed crimes without a hint of stopping, Charlie and her chaotic band of misfits were having breakfast at the Hazbin Hotel. Charlie was describing her recollections of last night, and the strange object she had seen flying over the city.

"So wait, lemme get this straight." Angel dust said while flicking a fork full of scrambled eggs to the side of him, hitting Husk in the side of the head. "You're saying when we went to bed last night, you saw a shooting star fly over the city?"

"Yes! Well…no not really a shooting star per se, but I did see something fly over the Pride ring." Charlie described the object as bright looking when she witnessed it falling into Hell.

"Charlie, are you sure what you saw wasn't just fireworks that some Imps lit off?" Vaggie asked while taking a sip of coffee, recoiling as it tasted like hot dirt, the only flavor this hotel had.

"Y'know, my girl Cherri Bomb was still out in those ruins after me and her dealt with that pretentious snake looking asshole, maybe she got a little too excited and chucked a bomb farther than she would've cared for." Angel Dust commented as he ate a breakfast sausage erotically, however no one had noticed, leading him to just eating it in one bite.

"Maybe… but there weren't any explosions, so what does that mean?" Charlie asked Angel while watching him play with his food.

"Probably just a dud, you'd be surprised how many of her little toys don't work when we're out and about town. It reminds me of this one time, we were at this club an- mmph!" Angel was suddenly cut off as Vaggie slapped one of her hands over his mouth.

"I think what dumb ass over here is trying to say, is that maybe whatever you saw last night was just another mundane thing Hell had to show you. For all we know, the same thing could happen today, I wouldn't even worry about it hun." She said while taking another sip of coffee.

Yep, still tasted like dirt.

"Heh… yeah maybe you're right, probably not worth worrying about it." Charlie said with a slight smile growing on her face.

"I wouldn't jump to that conclusion so soon." Charlie and the other's heads turned to see Alastor standing next to the sink, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as he made no sound or had visibly shown himself walking into the kitchen.

"After all, entertainment comes in many forms nowadays."

"Oh, hello Alastor." Said Charlie nervously, "I was just telling everyone about th-" Before she could finish her sentence, Alastor finished it for her.

"About the falling object last night, hmm?" A large toothy grin slowly made its way onto his face, making the others feel uneasy.

"Uh… yeah.., how did you-" Charlie stopped talking as Alastor disappeared from her sight, only to feel a hand placed on her shoulder as he somehow appeared next to her, the sudden disappearing act he pulled made Vaggie give him a death glare.

"I was up in the broadcasting station as I witnessed that little ball of surprise fly across the ring!." Alastor said as he waved his hand in front of him.

"Wait, so if you saw it too…" Charlie gasped as her eyes became starry, "Did you go out and see what it was?"

Alastor looked down at her with a smug look on his face, Charlie only stared at him waiting for a response. After a few seconds, Alastor responded with a simple…

"No."

All the curiosity on Charlie's face vanished as it was replaced with disappointment. She placed her elbows on the table and propped her head up with her hands, "Ah… you must've thought it was nothing special."

"On the contrary my foolish compatriot! Besides this ridiculous hotel idea," Vaggie was practically shooting daggers at him, "I haven't seen something like that fall into Hell ever since I got here."

"Wait…you haven't?" Charlie took her head off her hands and stood up straight, her interest was clearly showing again.

"Of course not! Playing detective is a little too childish for my taste, but I won't deny that it caught my interest, especially the quake it made when landing. Hahaha! Even while landing all the way across the ring, I could still feel my feet shake a little bit!" Alastor began walking towards the front door.

"Now if any of you don't mind, I must take care of some business. It seems my good acquaintance Vox is trying to smear the radio demon title, and doing a poor job at it I might add." And so Alastor left the hotel to deal with Vox's shenanigans, leaving Charlie alone to think about the last thing he said about the falling object.

She wondered how she didn't feel the shake of the impact the object made. After thinking about it for a few minutes, her only conclusion was that living in Hell made her acclimated to the gunfire and explosions that happened all around her. For all she knew, she slept like a baby while whatever landed in the city shook the entire hotel.

And so, Charlie continued talking to her friends about all the wonderful things she had planned for the evening, such as trying to get Angel Dust to practice being more formal than…provocative, seeing if she could get any other sinners to check into the hotel, as well as wanting to make an actual commercial to play on the air instead of talking about it on the news after last time.

She was ready to take on the day, and all the challenges that would come with it.

Although hours had passed for the man, he continued wandering around the war-torn area of the city, it was surprising just how much damage the Cleansing had spread across in the ring. After walking for a bit, the man saw what looked like a large fur covered creature trapped underneath a pile of rubble in the distance.

Running towards the pile, the man crouched down to analyze the situation. The wolf-like creature was stuck from the waist below. Although he didn't know how long this person was here for, the man grabbed the wolf's free arms and slowly dragged them out of the ruins, carefully making sure the pile of bricks atop the creature's body didn't cave in on their legs.

After pulling the creature out from underneath the rubble, the man checked the creature for any signs of it still being alive. Placing a hand on its neck for a pulse, the man couldn't tell whether it had a heartbeat or not due to its thick fur making it hard for him to check. However, when leaning down towards the canine's mouth, he could feel faint breaths blow against his ear.

While examining the body for any more damages, he felt his hand lower into something wet on the ground, looking at his hand filled the man with terror as he realized the small pool of liquid that was forming near him…

Was the canine's blood.

Following the blood's trail, he realized that the creature had been struck in the head, presumably from the falling debris.

"No…No no no…" Frantically, the man whipped his head around for anything he could use to stanch the bleeding, a rag, a cloth, an old shirt, anything. As his options were slowly dwindling, his eyes locked onto a green neon colored first aid symbol, the word underneath it giving him hope.

'Pharmacy'

If luck was on his side, the place would still have some supplies that he could use to save this person. Throwing the creature over his shoulder, the man made his way to the building, minding his step so as to not drop the injured soul. As the man pushed against the entrance to the pharmacy, he was met with resistance as the doors slightly budged against him, however with a swift but forceful quick, the doors were blasted off their hinges, allowing the man to enter the fine establishment.

The hellhound slowly opened his eyes, the place he found himself in was unfamiliar. Raising himself on some sort of homemade gurney, pain shot through his head like a freight train, making him hold his head in response. Last thing he could remember before he blacked out was him at home, he had just gotten off a call with a friend and had started watching tv; suddenly, the power to the building shut down, and before he knew it, it felt like a gas main blew up right next to him, collapsing his entire room and knocking him out.

*Click*

The hound's ears flicked toward the sound, whipping his head towards the source, he watched as a tall lanky man covered head to toe in white colored clothing opened the door and walked in. He was carrying a multitude of items in his arms and was concentrating on not dropping anything, this concentration was broken however when the hellhound shouted in surprise.

"An angel?!"

"GAH!" The man yelped and jumped back, dropping the items he was carrying onto the floor, the two stared at each other without moving an inch as each item the man dropped clattered on the ground. After a minute, when the items stopped bouncing around his feet, the man finally broke the silence to respond.

"Hey! You're finally awake, glad to see you up and at 'em." The man began to bend down to pick the supplies off the ground.

The hellhound snapped at the man's casual attitude, he had been asleep for god knows how long and suddenly an angel waltzes in like its nothing?

"What do you want, angel? Come to finish me off after the cleansing?" The hound showed his fangs preparing to attack the man, just in case he tried to pull a fast one on him.

The man, seeing this sudden act of hostility towards him, decided the best course of action was to move slowly so as to not make the canine do anything rash. Slowly bringing himself up to a standing position, the man raised both his hands up to the side of his face to show the creature that he bore no arms against him.

"Whoa now…I'm not gonna hurt you, just brought you here to fix up that wound you had on your head." He said as he pointed towards the hellhound's head. Reaching up to feel the side of his head, he could feel the gauze wrapped around his dome, he realized the sudden pain he felt in his head earlier most likely came from the wound.

"And secondly, not an angel, I don't even understand why people keep saying that. I mean, I look nothing like an angel." Even though he personally hadn't seen an angel for himself yet in this place, if they looked anything like the bible described them as, he was in the clear.

"Nothing lik- have you seen your skin? You look more white than Angel Dust!" The hellhound exclaimed while signaling towards the man's skin with his hand.

"Who?" The man raised an eyebrow in confusion, only to shake his head after hearing the beast comment on his skin. "Wait hold on, MY skin? What about you?" He pointed to the creature's fur, "What are you even supposed to be, a walking talking dog?"

"A DOG?! I should kick your ass for saying that, I am a hellhound!" He said while pointing to his face, this only confused the man more as the longer he stared at the canine features, the more he was convinced he was just a dog.

"Huh…Didn't know that was a hurtful comparison…sorry for that." The man quietly said while scratching the back of his head. This confused the hellhound as he never heard anyone apologize to him, or to any of his kind for that matter.

"Well, either way…" The man bent down again to pick up the supplies, " I'm glad you're awake, I was afraid I might lose you!" After picking up a roll of gauze, he walked over to a table next to the hellhound and layed out the items in a line.

"I looked around the store and I found a couple things just in case you might need them, gauze, bandages, some water bottles that weren't destroyed, some behind the counter pain killers just in case that injury is getting too much for you to bear, someone left this bag of white powder in the break room… actually I don't think this is medicine." Confused, the hellhound spoke up, cutting off the man as he continued listing off the rest of the items.

"Why are you doing this?" The man turned his head towards the hellhound, his face scrunching in as he was baffled by the sudden question.

"Well, I put them in order from most needed to least, but now that I look at it-"

"No not that! I mean, all of this, you pulling me out of that wreckage, bandaging me up, bringing me medical supplies. What, you think I'm gonna owe you a favor after all this?" The hellhound furrowed his brow, clearly not liking the idea of owning a complete stranger a favor, especially one in Hell.

What? No! Why would you even say something like that?" The man chuckled to himself as he took a seat on the other side of the room. "You were dying under that building, I saved you because it was a good thing to do."

The hellhound squinted his eyes at the man, "You saved me, because it was a good thing to do?"

The man smirked to the hound, "What, did you just want me to walk on past and let you die? HA! Yea right."

The hellhound's thoughts pondered for a minute. Every imp and demon he's seen, up until now, don't help others out of the act of kindness, usually an ulterior motive or twisted reason is attached to said action. But this was new to him, a demon that acted kind to him, just to be kind.

This man didn't look down on him, or treat him like scum just for being a hellhound, he could've walked past his dying body without a care in the world, and nobody would've known he had died. But he didn't, he saved him, made sure he woke up and was fine, he even brought medical supplies to him. The hellhound laughed to himself quietly, even in Hell, there were still some good souls out there.

"Anywho, how did you end up underneath all that rubble anyway? I was told about your guy's 'Cleanse Event' but I never expected it would do this much damage." The man said while pointing towards the entrance of the store.

Snapping the hellhound of his thoughts, he quickly registered the question and gave a response.

"This… wasn't The Cleanse event, Exorcists never destroy buildings, only killing sinners that are found walking the streets once the bell rings. I have no idea what this was, one second I was watching tv, then BOOM! I was out like a light, then you found me and now here we are." He grabbed the water bottle next to him and took a swig, the lukewarm liquid wetting his throat.

"Now my home is destroyed and here I am, probably suffering from mild brain damage or something." He grumbled under his breath as he swirled the water in the bottle.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that Mr…" The man raised an eyebrow towards the hellhound as he never actually got his name

"Steel, Bixby Steel." The man stood up from his chair and walked towards the hound.

"Well Mr. Steel, I'm sorry that you have to go through this unfortunate predicament, If it'll help you at all in your travels…" The man reached into his pocket and grabbed a couple of bills, making sure to leave one just for him. "Take this for the road, I know it's not much but maybe it'll help you get back on your feet." In front of him, the man held around $400 worth of Hell's currency.

The hellhound looked up at the man's face, the feeling of skepticism growing in him, "Are you sure? Wouldn't you rather keep it all for yourself?"

"Eh, I've been doing fine for now, I'll get by. You on the other hand, you've definitely been here longer than I have, you'll know what to do with it." The hellhound slowly reached out for the money, not sure if the man was trying to trick him or not. Until finally, the bills slid out of the man's hand, and into the hellhounds.

"Th-thanks man, really." A small grin crept up on the hounds face as he thanked the man for his generous donation.

"No problem. I would love to get to know you better Bixby, however, I still need to learn more about this area. Places to see, people to talk to, you get the gist." The man began walking towards the entrance of the pharmacy as the canine companion continued sitting on the gurney.

"Hey man wait, I never even got your name!" Shouted the hellhound.

The man froze dead in his tracks in front of the door, Hell's warm breeze flowing into the building and hitting him head on.

…

My name…

…

What is my name…

…

After a few seconds, the man turned around bearing a soft smile, "Just call me a friend, a friend assisting someone in need of a helping hand." And with that, the man faced back towards the open door frame, and left the pharmacy. Wandering further into the ruins, excited to see where else he'd find himself. Although, as he walked through the remains of this town, his thoughts slowly crept in on him as the silence was becoming almost deafening.

My name…

He asked me my name…

What is my name…

Why can't I remember my name?

After wandering for a few hours, the sky was beginning to darken, the man could feel that night was slowly approaching him. The air felt cooler, the distant noises of the city were beginning to slowly settle down, and some of the bright neon signs in the distance were beginning to turn on. Knowing this, the man knew he had to find shelter, the question is… where?

It didn't take too much searching before the man found a place to take shelter in, an old abandoned factory. It looked to be almost untouched, a window or two were shattered and the doors were covered in rust, but other than that, It looked like a perfect place to take refuge in. Walking to the factory's entrance and trying to open the door, the man was met with resistance again much like the pharmacy, although he did try kicking the door open like last time, however instead of the door being blasted from its hinges, he was meet with a rather sharp pain shooting through his foot as the door didn't budge from its position.

"OW!" The man landed on his ass as he fell backwards, rubbing the bottom of his foot to soothe the pain. Gotta find a way in there, thought the man, it wasn't till he looked through the windows that he spotted a skylight hanging above the factory. Looking around the back of the building, he found a dumpster which he used to elevate himself to an old rusty ladder that looked like it led to the roof.

Although the ladder crackled and groaned whilst he climbed, it managed to support him until he had reached the roof, once he pushed off however, its brackets broke away from the bricks they were affixed to, plunging the ladder into the ground. After looking around for a minute, the man found the skylight nearby, making his way towards it, he could peer into the factory and see just how much machinery was left in the place. Although there wasn't any clear indication as to what this factory was, the man leaned on one of the glass panes as he tried identifying just what exactly this place did. Packing peanuts littered the ground throughout the building, some posters looked to issue warnings towards the workers about operating the machinery, and the conveyor belts were all covered with what looked to be… toys?

-Crack-

Looking down, the man could see that his weight on the glass had created a large crack that splintered to the edges of the frame.

"Oh…OK…Let's just slowly…"

CRASH!

Although the man tried to carefully push himself off the cracked glass, the force his hands exerted was just enough to tip the pane over the edge, shattering under his form the man plummeted into the factory, the large fall knocking him unconscious.

The man slowly opened his eyes, the dark sky of Hell looming over him as he stared through the broken skylight. Slowly, the man raised himself up from the fall, the packing peanuts that littered the floor somehow breaking his fall.

Crack!

"OW!"

Well, somewhat breaking it…

As he stood up straight and popped his back, he inspected his body to make sure he hadn't gotten stabbed by any falling glass from the skylight.

…

Nothing.

The man sighed in relief, being gravely injured would have not been welcomed whatsoever. After laughing off the fall, he wandered around the factory, taking in the wonderful sights the place had to offer to him, machinery that looked like they were still in good working condition, dust covered toys that littered the factories conveyor belts, and a knocked down shelf blocking a door, presumably the same door that made him fall backwards like a baby learning how to stand on their legs for the first time.

Lifting up the shelf and unblocking the door, the man wandered around to check if the place had working power. It wasn't long before he found what looked like a control room, control panels, buttons, and dials surrounded him. Looking at a desk in front of him, he saw a large red button with the word 'POWER' underneath it.

First, the large money sign button at the supermarket and now, a large red button with the word power under it, he wondered if Hell was made by a toddler. However, with no one to stop him, the man pressed the button.

-Click-

…

"Huh… guess this place is dea-

BANG!

Suddenly, the man was blinded as all the lights in the factory flashed on, his hearing becoming deafened as the machines that were initially inactive, sprung to life and began going to work. Leaving the control room, the man witnessed all the amazing things these machines were doing, the dusty toys and plushes that cluttered the conveyor belt were being lifted up and organized by some sort of roaming apparatus, to the man it looked like a robot.

As the toys were all set up in a neat row, the robot clicked a button on a large machine, activating the conveyor belt, the robot then wheeled itself into some sort of charging station with a small steel wall closing behind it, most likely a security measure. The man watched as the dust covered toys fell into a large contraption, the machine whirring as it cleaned the toys to their most pristine condition, after which it spit them out for them to continue down the line.

After watching for a couple minutes, the man walked down to the end of the assembly line. He watched as the last machine stirred and groaned for a few minutes before the doors on it opened up, as a shiny toy presented itself to him on an open white box. The toy looked to be some sort of clown, the colors on it making it almost disorienting to look at, it had a long black tail and wore some sort of lengthy blue and red striped hat, or horns now that the man looked closer.

The man let the machines continue their work as he didn't know how to exactly turn them off, it wouldn't be long before they ran out of toys to process and the machines would eventually slow down, not enough to be silent but just enough to not be too loud for the man to bear.

Leaving the main room, the man found himself in some sort of break room, his eyes drifting over to an old vending machine that stood in the corner. It had been a while since he last ate and he knew it wouldn't be the wisest choice to walk back to the broken supermarket at this time of day. With no other choice, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out the last bill he kept for himself at the pharmacy, a five dollar bill.

Placing it into the machine, the man looked at the different food choices that were at his fingertips, "Crispy Fizzaroli potato chips, Verosika's Juicy Watermelon Flavored Gum, Asmodeus's Grape Flavored Condoms…"

"Condoms?"

Confused, he decided to get a bag of potato chips, hoping that it'll be enough to last him till tomorrow.

-Beep-

…

The man watched as the machine did nothing, frustrated he tapped the side of the machine in hopes it would start working. To his luck, the spring holding the chips began to move forward, he watched as it made its way to the edge of its space and…

-Tink-

Fall right against the glass making it stuck, taking the only money he had and giving him nothing in return.

Yep, that's Hell for ya.

"Oh come on!" The man yelled as he kicked the machine hard, the bag of chips begrudgingly staying in place.

Now furious, the man began yelling his frustrations at the machine, it was the only thing he could think of.

"Why are you giving me all this trouble?! I gave those egg guys that cash register, I saved that hellhound's life, and in return my last bit of money has been taken from me…"

"And I don't even know what my name is…so the least this place could do for me is give me the chips!"The man Stomped his foot on the ground as he finished his tantrum, his voice echoing throughout the empty buildings walls. As he turned around to find someplace to sleep for the night…

-Thump!-

He turned around to look at the machine, he no longer saw the chips in their usual stuck place. Glancing down, he saw the bag of chips laying on the ground outside the machine. At first, confusion slowly crept up the back of his mind, only to be quickly replaced with joy as he finally got his chips.

"Hah! That's right, who has the chips now? Me! Not you!" Opening the bag, the man slowly grabbed a chip from it and gleefully took a bite.

-Crunch!-

…

Man these things are stale.

After he ate the bag of incredibly old chips, the man managed to make a bed by taking a large burlap sack and filling it with all the packing peanuts that covered the factory's floor. Tossing and turning, the man tried falling asleep to no avail, thoughts racing through his mind that he had no answers for.

What is my name?

Why can't I remember my name?

"No…"

Why am I here?

How did I get here?

"No…"

Are we gonna die here?

Am I gonna die in hell?

"Stop…"

"Hey! Who the fuck's in the factory?! Show ya self!"

The man was suddenly jolted awake, even with the machines running faintly in the background, he could hear a large bellowing voice yell outside the factory. As he peered through the break room windows, he could see a large hefty lizard stand in front of what looked like demons. His skin was colored a putrid green and covered in scales, his outfit consisted of a white and blue striped vest and torn gray jeans, pipes protruded out his back expunging black smoke. Making his way to the factory's entrance, the man opened the door to converse with the lizard.

"Hello there! Who might you be?"

The lizard was surprised by the sudden reveal, but even more surprised at the idiotic man's question. "Who am I? Who the fuck are you?! You think you can just waltz onto someones property and just act like you fuckin own the place?"

The man was taken back, he didn't realize someone owned the factory, it seemed like it had been abandoned long ago just from taking a quick glance inside. He quickly responded to defend himself.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't realize that you own this place, I didn't see any workers inside so I just assumed-" The lizard shouted at the man, cutting him off.

"Assumed what? That just because no one was inside doesn't mean I own it? You obviously got no clue who you fucked with buddy." With a snap of his fingers, the lizard's demons slowly started approaching the man.

"You see, round these parts I'm something of an… overlord, I run the production department of Hell. All these factories here in this ring belong to me, and having little shits like you undermine my authority really pisses me off, boys, grab him!" As the two closest demons leapt towards the man, he slammed the door shut in quick retaliation, the demons slamming into the closed door pushing the man back a little. With quick thinking, he threw the shelf down in front of the door, hoping it could hold these people off long enough for him to get out of here.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Damnit boss, he locked the door." One of the demons told the lizard whilst the other slammed into the barricaded door with his shoulder.

"Don't worry, he ain't gettin out, I made sure of it." The lizard laughed to himself as he waited outside.

The man ran through the factory with haste, almost tripping over some of the left out toys on the ground. As he saw the fire exit door, he ran as fast as he could trying to escape, the hope he had quickly escaping his body as he tried pushing open the fire exit door, a pair of demons had placed the dumpster at the back of the factory in front of the fire exit. Terrified, the man ran back to the center of the factory and tried weighing his options.

No way for me to get back out through the skylight, even if I could, the ladders broke, I won't be able to get onto the ground

If I lift that shelf those demons are gonna catch me, no idea what they'll do if they get their hands on me.

Jump out the window…no, by the time I land they'll have already noticed and captured me.

As he kept thinking of different ways to escape, the lizard overlord shouted for the man to hear.

"Now as overlord, I can do whatever I want with my factories! Merge em, make more, tear them down…"

CRASH!

Looking to his side, the man saw what looked like green flames spreading throughout the factory. One of the demons had chucked a molotov cocktail through one of the windows.

"Or I can just burn 'em to the ground and collect the insurance. I don't really need a toy factory, especially not in this place, but don't worry! When we pull your remains from the fire, I'll be sure to put 'killed by Juxtable Hensworth' on your tombstone! That way you'll die with some dignity, instead of being taken out by some worthless fuck of a demon."

The man watched as the windows around him shattered, a new bottle of flames crashing through and onto the factory floors, he was trapped, surrounded in a ring of green flame.

No…

No no no…

The flames were getting closer, the heat being produced making him sweat, the smoke they produced sucking the breath out of his lungs.

No no no no..

"Call it being in the wrong place at the wrong time kid, I wasn't even supposed to be out here, was just trying to find some stupid ass object for my boss, you just happened to be standing in my way!" A grin slowly appeared on the lizard's face as he cackled out loud, the flames beginning to grow large enough to be seen out the windows.

Nononononononono!

The man fell to his knees as the air in the building was sucked out, the flames roaring loud enough to where he couldn't hear the machines anymore. As the flames slowly crept up to him, the man closed his eyes in fear and used the last bit of air in his lungs to shout for help, for someone to save him, a prayer for anybody or anything to help free him from this nightmare.

"SOMEONE SAVE ME!"

…

Eyes still welded shut from fear, the man crouched down in anticipation, waiting for the flames to make contact with him and set him ablaze.

Yet nothing happened, strangely, the sound of the roaring flames began to slowly fade away, as did the whirring machinery that he had shortly grown accustomed to. Slowly, he opened his eyes only to find himself in a dark, empty void, his heart still beating out of his chest, he stood up slowly as his fear of dying had been slowly replaced with confusion about the new place he found himself in. Traversing through the place felt as if he was walking through a swamp, the ink colored ground slowing his movements down to a crawl, slowly sapping the energy from his body as he found it more and more harder to take another step through this place.

As he continued walking, a strange podium began to form from the inky abyss ahead of him, a strange book floated above it. Even from the distance he could tell something about it was off, he was hit with a wave of nausea as he looked at the book's cover, red glowing symbols covered it, morphing and changing positions making it so they never really stayed in one spot.

As he got closer to the book, he could feel resistance in the air pushing him back, like fighting to walk against a strong wind. Making sure he didn't fall, the man stumbled closer to the book, each step making him fall deeper into the void. As he reached out to the book, it felt as if it was impossible to get any closer, the invisible obstruction the book gave off had started to tire him out.

"Just…a little…bit…more." With the last of his energy, he thrusted his hand forward, making contact with the books cover with one of his fingers. Suddenly, images and noises began to bombard the man's mind, people gathering, kids playing, skies turning red, cheering and screaming filled the man's ears making it unbearable to endure. After the visions subsided, the book released a wave of power that was visible to the man, throwing him onto his back, as well as sinking him deeper into the void.

As the man thrashed around trying to keep his head above the black ichor, he watched as the one of the symbols he saw on the books cover began searing itself on the back of his right hand, the sheer amount of pain that coursed through it made it feel as if his hand was melting. As the man sunk into the void, red pulsating energy flowed through his veins, and as his consciousness began to fade away, a deep, booming voice echoed in the man's head.

"Rise."

*GASP!*

The man began coughing violently as he tried to catch his breath, looking around, he found himself still in the factory. The bright sky of Hell rained down on him through the still broken skylight. Thinking it may have been a nightmare, he walked to the entrance of the factory, the large shelf still laying in front of the door.

Heh…guess I shouldn't have ate before sleeping." He chuckled to himself as he lifted the shelf back up and placed it to the side. As he opened the door, he was shocked to find the land around the factory in a horrifying new state. Black trees had sprouted from the ground, their form jagged and crude, their branches sharp as knives, the soil looked depleted of all life, cracks had formed along the ground to which they oozed a strange, dark substance.

As he looked around longer, he could see corpses of the demons that had attacked him, one had been impaled through the mouth on one of the black tree branches, some had been torn in half while others were missing their upper torsos and legs. The man didn't know what to do, his only response was to lock himself in the factory again and try to figure out just what the hell was happening. Looking at his right hand, he saw the same symbol etched into his skin like that strange book had on its cover.

…I…I need a drink…

The man's throat was parched, the fire had dehydrated him. As he raised his hands towards the sides of his head, he stopped as he felt something cold press against his temple. Looking at his palm, he saw an unopened water bottle resting in his grasp. Scared, he threw it across the room, he doesn't remember picking up the bottle ever since he stepped foot in this factory.

"Am…am I going crazy? What's going on?" A sharp pain shot through his head again, the same voice he heard in his dream spoke again.

"No, not crazy."

The man's eyes widened as he whipped himself around to see the face of the sudden speaker, he was left baffled as no one was there, although he was terrified, he managed to speak up to the voice.

"Who's… Who's there? Who are you?"

"Who I am, is not as important as the blessing you now possess. I wish I could explain more, but the link between you and I grows weaker. In due time however, we will meet face to face, and I will gladly answer your questions."

Wincing from the massive pain in his head, the man asked one final question.

"What…what did you do to me?"

"I have blessed you with an incredible gift, a gift to spread joy to the inhabitants of this realm."

"The gift of creation."

And with that, the voice vanished from the man's head, the pain quickly subsiding, as he looked at his surroundings, he slowly raised his hand to look at the etched in marking. A faint red glow pulsed from it, almost syncing with his steadying heartbeat. The man didn't know what the voice meant by this 'gift', but if it meant he could spread joy to others, he'd gladly use it.

However, a new question arose in his brain, perhaps the most important one of all.

How do I use this power anyways?

(In a blimp above the city.)

(Four hours ago)

Sir Pentious looked across the Pride ring from his blimp, he was preparing to give an inspiring speech to his egg boiz.

"Do you know what I see when I look across this ring? I see a place of opportunity, a place of chances…"

He then fired some sort of death ray at a building, obliterating it instantly.

"And a place to take over in the name of Sir Pentious! AHAHAHAH!" The serpent cackled maniacally as his minions cheered at the act of destruction.

"Ahhh…I will never get tired of this." He took a long swig from a champagne glass as he sat in the ship's control seat, his moment of luxury coming to a complete stop when his ship was suddenly thrashed to the side.

"WAAAH! What the fuck happened?!" As he stood up from the ground, he looked out the front of the blimp's large window, the power to the entire city had apparently shut down, only for a few seconds to pass for it all to be back up and running like normal. Looking over to one of the eggs operating a computer, Sir pentious yelled out a question.

"What the hell was that?"

The egg looked out the window before giving his boss an answer, "Well boss, it seems the city had a power outage."

BANG!

Sir Pentious shot the egg with a ray gun, destroying its upper half, he then aimed it at another egg and asked the same question. After a few seconds of typing, the egg boi had an actual answer to give.

"It seems the ring got hit by a wave of energy boss, it appears to have come from…the outskirts of the Pride ring."

The serpent's eyes widened as he knew that no one lived on the outskirts of the ring, so whatever caused this sudden power outage had to be some sort of powerful device.

A powerful device he'd get his hands on first.

"Number 723, lock in on those coordinates, we're heading towards the outskirts!" Sir Pentious raised his fist, making himself look large and intimidating, to his minions at least.

A screen appeared in the front of the blimp, the location they were heading to appearing on the screen.

- Location: Outskirts

Direction: East

Estimated time of arrival: 5 hours

Two egg boiz walked into the control room, a loud door opening as they strolled inside, one of them holding something behind their back. Sir Pentious turned around to see the henchmen walking towards him, a sly grin appearing on his face.

"Number 844, 845, did you two collect what I needed?" After having his last blimp destroyed by Alastor in an instant, Pentious was beginning to lack funds, if he didn't fatten his wallet soon he'd eventually have to start dumpster diving for scrap to make his inventions with.

"Even better boss, we know you'll appreciate it!" The egg boi presented the empty register till towards the snake, a confused look appearing on his face.

"The hell is this? I told you to bring money, not… whatever this is."

"But boss, what's better, some worthless cash, or a brand new nacho tray!?"

…

"MONEY!" Sir Pentious screamed, knocking an egg boi behind him over and and down a few steps, cracking its shell on the ground below. The snake rubbed his eyes as this problem wasn't his main priority, he needed to get to the outskirts of the ring, and fast, before anyone else got the same idea as him.

The two eggs looked at the screen in front of them, seeing the directions reminded them of a certain stranger they met, a stranger that gave them their brand new nacho tray.

"Oh boss, that reminds us, we gotta tell you about someone we think you'll really like as a henchman!"

(Meanwhile, at the west side ruins.)

(4 hours ago as well)

Cherri Bomb was still in the west side ruins of the Pride ring, she had been blowing up demons for what felt like hours, apparently all of them wanted to take control of this side of Hell just like here. She sat herself on a still standing radio tower, it was here she could see all across the ring, the bright neon lights of so many buildings were almost blinding, but beautiful in a strange way.

As she looked at the luminous city and billboards, one particular light caught her eye. Far off on the outskirts of town, was a building glowing a bright green, however, as she watched it, she could see a faint red beginning to peer its way through. Eventually, the red light began glowing brighter and brighter, making Cherri Bomb have to hold her hand out in front of her just to not be blinded. As it started reaching levels of brightness equal to the sun, in an instant the lights in the building were snuffed out, until…

BOOM!

The reverberation the sound created almost made her fall off the radio tower, as she regained her balance she watched as the other side of the ring was engulfed in some sort of red transparent tidal wave. As this tsunami of crimson washed over the buildings in Hell, she saw their power shut down entirely, even knocking out the power to Vox Multimedia, the home of the V's.

As the wave came crashing over here, the once vibrant city she was looking at was now covered in a complete shroud of darkness. However, after a few seconds, the city's power turned back on and was acting normal. She started laughing to herself as whatever caused this sudden chaos was pretty kickass, and, whatever caused it, she wanted to get it for herself. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted however as she heard the sound of roaring engines above her, looking up she spotted Sir Pentious's brand new blimp making its way towards the source of the power outage.

"Oh no you don't." Rushing down the tower, Cherri Bomb hotwired an old motorcycle that managed to survive the Cleansings damage, she knew if that top hat wearing fuck got his hands on whatever caused the blackout, there'd be no way in Hell she was gonna have any territory to take as her own. So Cherri Bomb rode off, towards the East side of the Pride ring, hoping she'd get to the building before the old man did.

END OF CHAPTER 2