Chapter 16
"Thou doth surprise me, Alastor…", Zestial murmured.
Alastor coyly peered up at the gloomy Overlord next to him. "Oh? You of all people should know that I'm full of surprises."
"Thou doth speak true...", Zestial replied. "But still, thou hath continued to give me pause with your activities. First thou makes accord with Lucifer's prodigy, yet now thou doth fraternize with lowly Imps."
The Radio Demon snickered. "The Imp is Miss Ong's companion, not mine. They are amusing to witness, I'll admit."
"Oh, but thou hadst not ceased to surprise me, Alastor. Tell me…"
Zestial spread out his bat-like cape wings, revealing the spidery interior of his outfit.
"From whence did thou attain interest in animal husbandry?"
Alastor's grinning visage turned to the Overlord in confusion. "A what now?"
"Come now, Alastor.", Zestial replied again. "Thou doth have strange companions, as we all. But your companion Miss Ong is stranger still. Indeed, one canst teach a lowly raven to speak as man does, but to have one that can parley as man does? That is e'en without of mine own power."
Alastor peered over at Chay, who was still finishing up her conversation with Carmilla.
He had known since meeting her that something was off about this particular Sinner. Something highly unusual and novel.
It's not surprising that one as ancient as Zestial had also picked up on it as well.
"Oh, Zestial old pal, I can hide nothing from you can I?"
"Flatter if thou must, Alastor", Zestial responded cordially. "Verily, it shall get thee anywhere. Has thou's benefactor discovered this?"
"No, not quite.", Alastor remarked. "But it's really only a matter of time. And when she figures it out...well, that's going to be quite entertaining to witness."
"Verily.", Zestial replied again. "I doth anticipate it."
"Well that was awkward.", Chay said.
"Quite normal for me.", Carmilla replied. The two were standing outside of the building, with the door having once again hidden itself in the bricks. "You get used to this kind of thing in my line of work. The Vees tend to be more bark than bite..."
Chay grimmaced. "Well yeah, you don't have to fear them. I, on the other hand, am now officially on their shit list."
"You'd have to get in line, Miss Ong. Velvette is short like that with everyone. Otherwise, I think you handled yourself quite well."
Carmilla reached behind her and pulled out a small business card, looking comically small in her enormous hands.
"What's this?", Chay asked.
"That 'other business' you discussed.", Carmilla responded. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much except what I've heard from my informants, but I can point you in the right direction at the very least."
Chay took the card and read it.
"Wacky Wally Wackford's Wacky Idea Factory.", she read aloud. She raised a curious eyebrow. "Wackford? What does he have to-"
Carmilla interrupted her with a wave of her hand. "Like I said, I can't tell you much. What I can tell you is that he was recently contracted by Vox for a project involving Wackford's robotics team. Talk to Wackford, and you may have your answer."
Chay grumbled. She finally had another opening to explore. Problem was, Wackford's operation was headquartered all the way in Imp City. Unless she could somehow set up a conference call…
She reached down and felt her newly modified pistol in his pocket. "Thank you again for the maintenance, by the way. That telescopic muzzle was a pretty brilliant idea."
"Only way you can keep using the knuckle duster accessory. Think nothing of it. But I do have one last question for you, Miss Ong."
Chay looked over at the Overlord. "What would that be?"
"You are currently staying at the Hotel, correct?"
Chay nodded. "That I am. Her Highness's generosity."
"Do you intend to stay there?"
There it was. That nagging question again.
"...Probably.", she said quietly.
Carmine nodded. "That is a wise choice. Charlie is a very capable individual, and intelligent. You've proven to that to me as well. You would do well to ally yourself with her if you seek safety...or redemption."
She nodded again. "Yeah, I'm aware. You helped her fortify the Hotel right?"
"In a sense.", Carmine replied. "I supplied them with materials to strengthen the Hotel's building structure as well as assisted them in constructing their security system."
"So that enormous gun with laser sight-"
"-Was partially my work, yes. Or rather, my company's work."
"Well, it seemed to have worked, whatever the case."
"Mostly.", Carmine replied. "I'm sure they already told you about the extensive superficial damage the building suffered, as well as one of the floors collapsing."
"Yeah, Alastor let that one slip.", Chay remarked.
"Naturally. But there was a greater cost still. True, the Princess and her guests survived, but Heaven was so infuriated by her defiance that they took it out on the rest of the Pride Circle. We lost an even greater number of souls last year than we had the year before."
Carmine crossed her arms behind her back. "Needless to say, The Princess's reputation did not improve much."
"Wait a second…"
Chay turned around to look at Carmine fully. "She not only survived, she managed to protect everyone else in the Hotel. Clearly she is far more powerful than everyone else seemed to believe."
"You misunderstand me, Miss Ong."
Carmine turned to look down the street. Out in the distance, the Clocktower was ominously glowing in the red sunlight.
"It is not that they think she is weak. It is that they think she is a coward."
"Shit shit shit shit shiiiiiiiiiit..."
Baxter frantically pounded on his keyboard as the emergency red lights flashed in his room. Lester stood beside him, stone still.
"Well well, nice to see you again fishstick!", the enormous face of Vox taunted from Baxter's screen. "Somebody's been very very naughty."
"C'mon c'mon…", the Sinner moaned. Sweat was pouring down his scaly face. He was sure he could still fix this…. without the aid of his screen, granted, but he'd done stuff like this enough times that he could theoretically do it blind.
"I remember you.", Lester said nonchalantly at the screen. "You are the gentleman with the television head."
"And you're the little shit that helped that ghoul break my boyfriend's hand.", Vox responded with a televised sneer. "Nice trick you pulled."
"Correction: I was the one who broke the large bug man's hand.", Lester said in kind. "Chay simply distracted him. You were also there. What are you doing here in the fish man's computational device?"
The eyes on the screen glowered at him. "Wh-what...You're serious? Did you live under a rock or something?"
"I lived in a cave under a bridge.", Lester responded. "I do not know how this is relevant to the question."
"...Fine. You want to play dumb? Then play dumb." Vox's face grimaced irritably. "I run Voxtek. Your little fish friend here? He's using tech that's pirated from Voxtek. He just tried to fucking hack into Voxtek. Therefore: I'm gonna fuck him!"
Lester looked around at the computer's immediate area. "You are a screen. I do not see any appendages for intercourse."
"Just a bit longer…", Baxter whispered to himself.
"….You know, why am I even talking to you? It's the nerd I need to...wait...wh-whwhah-what's happening?"
Vox's voice grew distorted and filled with static. His image on the screen began to bounce and stretch.
The emergency red lights shut off. Power began to flow back into the room.
"Hhhhhow the...how the ffff-fff-ffuck are you dooooo-ooing this?!"
Baxter didn't answer. He simply kept tacking away at his keyboard, eyes closed.
"And that goes here...and then press this…", whispered to himself.
He made one last dramatic press on the Return key.
"….And systems have been reclaimed.", Baxter said with a relieved sigh. "Fuck that was close…"
"Ththththt-ththth-This is bbbb-bbbulllshit-t-tttt-t!", Vox's face yelled angrily.
"You just tried to use my own systems to invade sovereign Royal property, you stupid prick.", Baxter retorted while wiping sweat off of his brow. "You really think Her Highness or I didn't account for you trying to pull something like this?"
Vox's face began to distort even worse. His eyes began bouncing around the screen like a bad game of Pong.
"I am gogggg-ggg-ggg-going to fufufuf-fuff-fucking gut you like a goooooggogoggogog-gggoogo-goddamn fish you scaley little-"
Vox's visage winked off of the screen. It was now blank, with only a green command line blinking in the top corner.
Baxter leaned back with relief, sighing deeply.
"I still do not understand what happened."
The Sinner looked down at Lenny, who seemed to have not budged a single inch.
"Vox basically has the run of every connection line in the City.", Baxter answered. "It takes a lot of work to keep him out. He almost succeeded this time."
He reached over his desk and grabbed his hellphone, scrolling through the Hotel's local text log.
"Hmmm, looks like he didn't manage to get out of this room. I'm not seeing anything suggesting he was able to shut down the power in the Hotel…we should probably keep it that way."
Baxter hopped off of his chair and walked over to a nearby storage cabinet. "Do me a favor, Lester. Let's keep what just happened between us, savy?"
"You wish for me to ignore that this happened?"
The fish Sinner returned with a fistful of thumb drives. "That's what I'm asking, yes. Everyone is already on edge for tomorrow night. Better to not add to it." He hopped back into his chair and opened up a desk drawer. "That said, we did confirm something: that signal came from the Vee Tower. Furthermore, it wasn't from just one area of the building but from several. If your sister is still alive, then she's somehow gotten mixed up with the Vees..."
Lenny swallowed nervously. It was the first bit of emotion he had shown all day.
"I...do not want to imagine…"
"Yeah, I'd advise you keep doing that.", Baxter replied. "In the mean time, I have a bit of work to do here repairing the system...so, you know, go get some cheddar or something."
"...I feel as if I should be insulted. But I'm not exactly sure why."
"Lester. Get out."
"Understood."
The squat Sinner silently exited the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
Baxter gave another deep sigh as he slowly laid back in his chair.
Now to begin the long process of making sure his hard drive wasn't completely fucked. At the very least, he needed to make sure that his most important files were still accessible.
You know, should worse come to worse.
He inserted one of the thumb drives and cracked his gloved knuckles. It was time to get back to wor-
-Wait, what was that?
The CLI on the screen had changed. It was no longer just a simple a simple command prompt.
Someone was trying to communicate with him.
A single line with the name 'SOL686'
"Lenny?", it said.
Baxter peered behind him. Lester had indeed left the room, as silently as he had entered it.
Hmmm...fascinating. Simply fascinating.
He typed on the keyboard.
"Ella? Is that you?"
The respond was immediate.
"Lenny! I've been trying to speak to you for so long! I don't know where I'm at. It's so dark...but I see things. Wondrous things.
He typed out a response.
"I'm not Lenny. I'm a friend of his. He's safe and looking for you."
The response took a little longer to appear.
"Oh. I'm sorry. What is your name?"
"Baxter.", he typed back.
"Thank you kindly, Baxter. Is Lenny well? Is he eating properly?"
"He's fine. But what about you?"
The response this time took a few minutes.
"It is strange. I do not feel hunger. Or cold. I feel...strange. I feel so large. I feel like I can see so many things at once. But I do not know what I am seeing."
"What are you seeing right now?", he asked.
"A window...at least, I think it is a window. I see a lot of them. Everywhere. I see strange people, doing strange things. They are sleeping, or sitting, or eating. They are talking or trying to have children. I cannot see them for very long, however."
Curious, Baxter thought to himself.
"Do they disappear?"
"No, they run away. Very quickly. I try to follow them, but I have to hide from the blue lightning."
Blue lightning? Is she talking about Vox?
"Are you looking at any window in particular?"
"I see a man with a fish head.", she responded. "He is wearing glasses."
CHAPTER 16 END