Hell was a lot tamer than Damien was led to believe. When Mephistopheles told him their destination was in the land of the damned brimstone and anguish came to mind, not smog and a very crowded city. It felt like he somehow wound up in L.A. The only thing out of place was that everything was bathed in dull red from the pentagram acting as a light source for the entire city. And the residents weren't human, instead belonging to certain species of demon such as imps and hellhounds. The more extreme and unique of the creatures were former humans.
"Sinners," Mephistopheles cautioned, "are not to be taken lightly. Never know when you pick a fight with the wrong one and wind up a corpse. Or worse get erased if they have angelic weaponry. Such armaments are also the only way to permanently deal with one. Anything less and they reform in a couple days."
Damien nodded committing the demon's words to memory when Mephistopheles held out a necklace with a strange sigil on the pendant, "what's this?"
"It's enchanted to give you a hellhound disguise. Disguise is the wrong word I suppose. As long as you wear this you will be transfigured into a hellhound. Should hide the fact that you aren't one. The only drawback is that you won't have any of the abilities. Didn't want it interfering with your angelic traits."
"Why would I need something like this?" Damien took it and gave it a closer look it was made from a piece of silver roughly the size of a quarter, "Id rather not be dressed up like a furry."
"Take a look out the window and tell me how many humans you see."
"Good point." Damien muttered slipping it over his head.
As soon as the pendant hit his chest his vision blurred and distorted. Then his whole body went numb for a second. Then another second passed, and his vision returned and with it he felt oddly itchy. Looking down was absolutely headache inducing cause now instead of his human self it was like his mind had been placed in a goddamned werewolf.
"I already hate this."
"Yes, there is something wrong but were already here so it will have to do for now." he rolled down the limos privacy screen. "Mendes would you kindly hand me the sunglasses in the glovebox?"
through the window a pair of black sunglasses were thrown onto the seat besides Mephistopheles.
"Wait what do you mean there's something wrong?!" damien looked at his reflection in the mirror and couldnt seem to figure out whtat the demon was concerned about. his reflection showed the image of one of the dog like beings outside. it took a moment for him to notice it but everything had changed except fot his eyes. they were still human.
"well talk more later for now leave your things in the car. I must speak with a certain princess about your living arrangements. put these on and make sure the stay on." the demon smirked, "it would be a shame if you were to get torn to shreds before you even got the chance to make a name for yourself."
Staring out the conference room window Blitz could hardly contain his excitement. Earlier in the week he received a call from Stolas about a slient who wanted to do buisness with I.M.P. In the arrangement an angelic specialist would be loaned to I.M.P. for the next year to do whatever they needed done, all they had to do was give him the training necessary to do so. As usual Moxxie gave him shit about not even asking for details before agreeing, but the result would be a payout big enough to buy this entire building. How could he say no. Millie on the other hand was easier to convince that it was a good idea and Loona is well, Loona. She doesn't ever seem to like anything, but he still tries.
In the distance a limousine manifested and pulled into the parking lot around the corner. Blitz turned to the others in their respective seats who had been waiting for nearly two hours for the meeting to commence. "he's here quicky everyone get into position. We must make a good impression on our newest employee!"
Everyone sat in wait until the door buzzer sounded prompting Loona to get up sighing in annoyance. She went to open the office door and when she came into view of the others, she was glaring daggers at blitz. A low growl emanated from her as she sat back down not breaking eye contact.
"Did you let him in Loony?" Blitz asked confused with her sudden change in mood and the fact that the new hire wasn't following her.
They all turned to look then a White claw suddenly gripped the doorframe and the person in question quite literally stumbled into view. The new hire sent way a dark grey male hellhound with some lighter gray in the fluffier areas. He didn't strike them as the warrior type with how short and unintimidating he looked. Although he was dressed in bloodied business casual wear and sunglasses.
"Wow you look like shit!" Blitz gave Moxxie a quick glance only to find that he was also now looking at him obviously with an I told you so vibe, "must have been one hell of a party you came from."
The hellhound used the table for support and found his way to the nearest empty seat, almost falling in the process.
Moxxie couldn't believe what he was seeing, "Sir we already have a troubled youth working for us why in Satan's name would you subject us to another seemingly worse version of Loona! He looks like he murdered a hobo to get his crack fix before coming in."
"Hey it was Stolas's idea. His overlord buddy said wed be more than compensated for the jobs we work with him."
"Oh yeah, what kind of jobs are we talking?"
"two"
"When?"
"In About A year."
Moxxie put his index fingers on his chin and bowed his head, "what might I ask would he be doing the rest of the time?"
"well he'd be-"
"Wait before you answer! Let's ask who this person even is and what his qualifications are!" Moxxie turned his attention to the stranger, "all right mister. What's your name, how old are you, and what does your hit record look like?"
The person in question waited a good moment before responding tiredly.
"My name is Damien; I turn 21 this December and yesterday I killed my father." He shrugged "well, adoptive father."
With this declaration Moxxie got up and walked out of the room, eye twitching. Blitz sat back down sweating bullets next to Loona who felt major amusement at Moxxxie's frustration and blitz's sudden fear. Which left Millie, who happened to be the only one not bothered with the new employee's presence. In fact, she was smiling ear to ear.
"I can't believe stolas gifted the company with a new hellhound I can't wait to start training him." She came over and sat down next to him mimicking karate, "it's going to be so fun just you wait until your first mission. I remember my first professional hit like it was yesterday."
Suddenly prison didn't seem so bad if these were the people he would be relying on to survive next the year.
After the meeting blitz, Millie and Loona left the conference room leaving him with the pedantic one. Moxxie if he was remembering correctly, put an orientation video/ ad for the company that included a jingle. The last line of said jingle left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth but he doubted anyone would seriously call in a hit on a kid. Anything within reason Damien figured he'd be able to Accommodate. After all innocent souls don't wind up in hell.
After the video ended Moxxie shut off the tv and wheeled it back to its corner, "any questions?"
"seems straight forward enough, not to keen on that last part though."
"Not to worry we've only had one instance of a client wanting a child taken care of." Moxxie walked past Damien motioning him to get up. "if you follow me ill be showing you what you'll be doing for today as you don't nearly have the capacity to accompany us on a mission yet."
Damien stood up and slowly placed one paw in front of the other still trying to get acclimated to walking with digitigrade legs. Moxxie was waiting for him by the receptionist's desk arms crossed and tapping his foot impatiently. Loona was behind the desk on her phone and only looking up when Moxxie cleared his thought loudly.
Loona went back to scrolling "what do you want fatty. I'm busy."
"Damien here is going to be helping you with your secretary duties as redundant as it sounds. Blitz's orders."
Moxxie then joined the other two imps who were in the middle of summoning a portal. The portal manifested itself in the middle of the room and with that the imps crossed the barrier into the living world. Loona met Damien's gaze and her frown turned into an ever so slight grin.
"You know how to answer a phone?"
"Of course, I know how to answer a phone. Why?"
"Cause I'm going out for lunch."
Before he could even utter a protest, she had already disappeared into the main hallway. part of him was fuming that this bitch was dumping her responsibilities on him, yet he also felt overwhelmingly relived to finally have a bit of privacy after all that's happened.
"Fuck it"
Seeing this as an opportunity to practice his movement and familiarize himself with the building he ultimately decided to go on a self-guided tour. Maybe it would help clear his mind. First he started with the rest of the office that he hadn't seen yet. The first door he tried was labeled 'Blitzo office'. Inside he saw a desk and the usual things you expect. Then again, the lemon tree and giant family portrait depicting his new coworkers did seem a bit odd. Moving on to the door, on the other side of the receptionists desk was a break room and in the break room there were two more doors. One for the bathroom and one that said armory. Trying the handle on the armory door he found it was locked tight. his eyes moved across the room again until they landed on the refrigerator. his stomach rumbled and he suddenly remembered food was a thing.
"damn when was the last time i ate?"
opening the fridge the first thing he noticed was a Tupperware full of some kind of green sludge. moving what ever gross concoction that was to the side revealed a much more appetizing sight, a pizza box with half of its contents still in tact. he took a couple slices and got a cup of water from the watercooler. he ate the meal rather quickly and downed the water in one continuous drink. Satisfied, he made his way into the lobby and settled down behind the desk waiting for the phone to ring. Unfortunately, his lack of sleep was also starting to catch up with him.
'just a quick nap should be okay. the phone will probably wake me up anyway.'
As he slumped across the desk drifting off the phone started to blink as someone was calling, If only he noticed that the phone had been put on silent and that there were already three missed calls.
The first thing he noticed was snickering then when he opened his eyes there was a flash followed by the unmistakable shutter sound. Loona was back and she had just gotten photo evidence of Damien sleeping on the job. He glared at the girl but then froze when he realized something. She wasn't taking a picture of him she had taken the sunglasses of his face and was taking a selfie with them.
"Shit!" he quicky turned away wondering if she saw his eyes, "You know it's kind of rude to take the glasses off someone whose sleeping!"
She just laughed, "and wearing them indoors like a douchebag isn't?"
"Can I please have them back?"
Noticing the other hellhound was turned away from her she grabbed the arm of the chair and spun him around to face her before he could react.
"Holy shit dude your eyes!"
"I know!"
"they're green!" she backed up a bit in disgust, "you got a disease or something!?"
"No, they just are." Damien just gave up at that point. It wasn't like he could keep wearing the sunglasses around these guys forever. They'd find out eventually. "I've had green eyes for all my life."
A lightbulb appeared above her head, "Ha! is that why you killed your dad? was he mad that you were both a runt and a freak."
The look on Damien's face darkened at the mention of his father. The fact that Loona was being a shit didn't help either, so he decided to fuck with her a bit, "Yeah that's exactly how it went down. Took it one joke about a green-eyed monster too far so I decided he'd get a real good look at em one last time."
The phrase didn't really have the intended effect however and she started growling hackles raised.
"Is that a threat?"
"Only if you make it one."
Loona was now growling an inch away from his face he made certain not to show weakness on the outside but inside he was about one hairs breadth away from pissing his pants. Luckily her phone went off, taking her attention away and from her reaction it couldn't wait.
"Your so fuckin lucky blitz is calling in a portal or you'd be so dead!"
And with that she reached across him into a drawer and got out a rather old-looking book. Opening it an incantation was read aloud and the portal reappeared along with the imps.
"Another day another somewhat successful hit! Oh, that's an interesting eye color for a hellhound." Blitz clapped and came up to the desk putting his arm around Damien, "so rookie how did your first day go? How many calls did you guys get?"
At this point everyone seemed to be standing around the desk looking at the phone displaying Fourteen missed calls nearly half of which were the same number.
"Oh, loony you silly goose you left the phone on silent again." Blitz patted his shoulder, "oh by the way your chauffer called she's been waiting in the parking lot since two. Doesn't seem so happy about it either."
"She?" damien felt a surge of annoyance at the fact that Mephistopheles couldn't be bothered to pick him up himself after this whole ordeal. instead he pawned him off on some unsuspecting third party. 'must have meant well talk later as in days later. already hate the prick.'
Out in the parking lot Damien noticed that the limo there to pick him up was definitely not the one that dropped him off earlier. This one seemed to have parts from a drag car slapped on it and had a front shaped to mimic a face.
As he approached the door opened revealing a grey woman with an eye patch over her left eye. she sat with her arms crossed and a face dark as thunder.
"Better be a good reason I had to wait out here for four God damned hours. It was only supposed to be a 20-minute errand."
Damien got in and sat as far away possible from the demon as his only reply was, "there isn't a good reason."
The ensuing car ride was awkward and silent as he was yet again going into the unknown. Seems like he would be making plenty of friends around here.
A/N: end chapter 2. thank you for your time feel free to give constructive criticism .