Vaggie didn't like seeing Charlie in this state, not one bit. It hurt to see the usually joyful Princess so stressed and worried, and it didn't help that only a month had passed since the day the new Extermination schedule had been announced. It certainly didn't help in the slightest that it meant they only had five months left to make any real headway.

Sure, Pentagram City should be safe now, Charlie had informed Vaggie of John's agreement with Heaven, but Charlie wanted to save all sinners. As such, it was still a rather stressful predicament.

"So, the extermination is coming every six months instead of a year." Charlie muttered to herself, clearly antsy as Keke strutted alongside her. "No big deal, just a little setback." Charlie once again spoke aloud, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself as Vaggie watched helplessly from her spot in the lobby's chair, while Angel Dust and John both watched from their spot on the couch.

"Is this normal?" John asked quietly, leaning over towards Vaggie as he eyed Charlie with his own look of concern.

Unfortunately, Vaggie had to nod her head in affirmation as she glanced at the behemoth. "It's her dream, but it seems like it's always one step forward…"

"Two steps back." John finished Vaggie's words with a sigh of his own as he turned back towards Charlie, who had currently fallen into a stressed ramble.

"Just angels cutting our timetable in half, but who needs a whole year to save souls, am I right?" Charlie's smile was nervous, and her words were bordering upon manic as she tried to reassure… somebody, and probably failed miserably. It was clear that the new schedule was getting to the Princess, who dragged her hands across her face, looking utterly horrified as she rambled on. "And next time when they cut the time in half again, and again, we'll just HANDLE IT! RIGHT?!"

Okay, Vaggie couldn't take anymore of this.

"Yes!" Vaggie spoke up, loud enough to break Charlie from her thoughts as she stood from her chair and walked around the table, gripping Charlie's shoulders in a firm but gentle grip, halting the Princess' actions as she provided a reassuring smile. "We will."

"Oh please." Angel's voice piped in at the most inopportune time, in Vaggie's opinion, rolling his eyes as he did so. "You had less than half a chance when you started all this salvation bullshit. And now?" He paused for a moment, taking a quick glance at his phone and grimacing, before turning back to Charlie with an unamused expression. "Ain't no silver lining this time, toots."

"Ouch." John commented, giving a small smile as he raised a hand to his chest and feigned a hurt expression.

Angel rolled his eyes, but shot the behemoth a smile along with a middle finger. "Screw you, you know what I meant."

"Sure there's a silver lining!" Charlie tried to sound optimistic, but it didn't exactly work that well when she had to pause in order to try and find her words. "We just have to look a little harder for it." She gave a reassuring smile to Angel as she found her words, but it was clear that the spider didn't buy into it.

"Well, while you're looking, the rest of Hell's going nuts." Angel retorted, raising an eyebrow as he twisted his phone so that Charlie and Vaggie could see the screen. "People are already freaking out about the news. Look what's happening in the Doomsday District." He swiped his thumb up his phone, scrolling down so Charlie could see a video of a sinner quite literally burning alive. However, her eyes narrowed at something at the top of the screen.

"Uh, what is a 'donkey show'?"

"Oh, eh, nothing!" Immediately, Angel pulled his phone away so that Charlie could no longer see the screen, nervously laughing as he tried to explain. "It's just my boss, Val, is just freaked out about the news too." His demeanor changed back to it's usual confidence as he explained, before shrugging. "Like I said, everyone is losing their shit."

"Yeah, that's true. Sinners are desperate." Whether he realized it or not, Angel may have just provided the most sound idea Vaggie could've had out of this whole mess as she turned to Charlie with an encouraging smile. "Maybe desperate enough to try anything to escape extermination?"

Charlie gasped as she realized what Vaggie meant, excitement running through her entire body as she smiled. "This is the perfect time to recruit more sinners to the Hotel!" That familiar fanged smile of glee was on broad display as the Princess threw her arms out in excitement. This idea would work, she knew it!

"Cute idea and all," Angel piped up, raising an eyebrow as he did so with absolutely no belief in the idea. "But are you really gonna go out in all this?" He asked, flipping his phone once more to show the carnage that was currently occupying most of Hell at the moment.

"I mean, let's be honest, their first thought ain't gonna be this place." John pointed out, glancing at Angel with a raised eyebrow before turning to Charlie and Vaggie. "Want me to go with or-"

Whatever else John was gonna say was cut off quite abruptly as the far wall behind Charlie and Vaggie suddenly exploded, eliciting a frightened scream from Charlie while Vaggie merely shielded her face.

John was on his feet in an instant, while Vaggie could hear footsteps coming rapidly down the steps, before she caught Vanessa standing at the bottom of the staircase.

"What was that?!" She asked in a panicked tone as John moved past the two women and towards the wall, purpose in every step as he moved at a brisk pace while the rest of the lobby's occupants sans Husk followed after him.

"SHOW YOURSELF ALASTOR!" Another unfortunately familiar voice could be heard ringing through the entire area, not just within, as they all came to a stop at the wall to see who had the audacity to blow a hole in the Hotel.

Up in the air was a large warship. It almost resembled a blimp, but it had an almost steampunk element to it as it hovered. Through the glass, they could see a familiar snake sinner standing at the controls.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding." John looked less angry or worried and more annoyed than anything else as he realized who was 'attacking'. If it could even be called that.

"Who is it?" Understandably, Vanessa was still frightened that someone had attacked the Hotel in the first place, but she did at least feel better when she realized that no one else seemed to actually be worried in the slightest.

"Sir Pentious, a 'great and illustrious inventor'." Angel put air quotations and tone dripped with sarcasm as he looked at Vanessa. "He thinks he's tough shit, but he's really not."

"He is an illustrious pain in the ass, though." John grumbled in frustration, face-palming as he realized it was indeed his job to deal with the snake.

"You know him?" Vaggie asked, raising an eyebrow as she glanced at John with crossed arms.

John nodded as his hand fell from his face with a growl of annoyance. "Yeah. Tried to attack the Hell Hole a couple times." He explained as he shook his head, before perking up as he glanced at Vaggie with a small grin. "Now that I think about it, I wonder if he has any bite scars."

"Considering he's a sinner, probably not." Angel muttered, though he did chuckle at the image that his brain conjured up, while Vanessa, Vaggie and Charlie all looked at him in disbelief.

"You bit him?" Charlie asked, looking baffled at the idea that John would bite someone. In retrospect though, it did make a little bit of sense, with his teeth and all. At least, in Vaggie's opinion.

But John shook his head. "Not me. Beartrap."

At that, both Vaggie and Charlie's eyes flew wide open, brows shooting to match their hairlines as they looked at John in disbelief.

"Beartrap? The kid? He bit Pentious?" Vaggie asked in surprise, remembering how small the hellhound had been when she'd met him. There's no way that he could've bit Pentious, right?

John nodded his head as he turned his gaze back towards the airship with an amused grin. "Oh yeah. Had to chase the bastard around just so I could pry Beartrap off his tail. And believe me, for a pup, he's got one helluva jaw."

Angel opened his mouth to make a joke, sexual in nature most likely, but his mouth closed and he opted to say nothing when he remembered that Beartrap was apparently only a kid. Something Vaggie was thankful for.

"My question is what the hell he wants with Alastor." John admitted as he stepped through the hole and to the outside of the Hotel as the Radio Demon himself manifested from… wherever.

"FACE MY WRATH!" Pentious demanded of Alastor, who looked mildly amused and more… curious than anything.

"Who are you?" Alastor asked simply, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the snake upon the airship.

"Who am I? WHO AM I?!" Pentious sounded almost insulted at the question, glaring at Alastor with a hiss before giving a confident grin. "I AM THE GREAT… Great…" Pentious seemed to trail off, and for a moment, no one could understand why.

"Yeah, yeah, great inventor, all that hooha." John waved it off as he stepped forward past Alastor, raising his gaze to meet the snake's own as he raised an eyebrow. "We've been through this before, Pentious, so you can either leave or get your ass down here." It was clear to Vaggie that John had absolutely no interest in humoring the snake, a sentiment she shared.

Silence rang through the area, all eyes bouncing between John and Sir Pentious as they waited for a response.

The response that came was… rather humorous, even Vaggie could admit.

"The pup isn't here is he?"

Considering what John had just told them about Beartrap and Pentious, it was no wonder that laughter erupted through all of them at the snake's reluctance to even be around the child. Vaggie herself had to stop herself from doubling over in amusement, and she brought a hand to Charlie's shoulder to help her stay upright during her own giggles.

"No, Pen, Beartrap ain't here. Just me." John assured with a small grin as he looked up at the snake sitting within the airship with a small grin. "So, you coming down?"

Things were silent for a moment as everyone picked themselves back up from their laughter, while Alastor simply looked confused as to what was occurring in the first place. Finally, though, the snake did speak.

"If I turn around and leave, are you going to chase me?"

"No."

"Then I think I'd like to leave." No sooner than the words left his mouth did the warship start to slowly rotate, beginning to move away from the Hotel at the soonest and safest possible moment as everyone watched in amusement and slight surprise.

"Why'd he act so afraid of you?" Vaggie asked as she stepped forward next to John, looking confused. John merely chuckled as he turned around and began making his way back towards the Hotel.

"Last time me and him actually fought, if you can call it that, it ended with me tying him up with his own tail." John explained as he moved past the crowd that had watched the spectacle and stopped at the wall, looking like he was studying the damage.

"You ripped his tail off?" Vaggie couldn't help but to guess immediately. She felt a small bit of relief when John shook his head.

"Didn't need to. Made it a helluva lot funnier too." John had a small smile on his face, before it left as he turned to Alastor. "You wanna help me fix the wall Al?"

"As much as I'd like to do so, I'm afraid I'm in need of a visit to the tailor." Alastor said as he glanced down at his coat, lifting it up and showing off what looked like a coffee stain. "I'm afraid that Mr… whatever his name is, ruined my coat when he blasted our wall." He explained as he turned and began walking away from the Hotel, catching everyone off-guard. "Best of luck, chums!"

"Wait, you're leaving?" Vaggie asked, incredulous as she stepped forward as the Radio Demon paused his trek, turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Alastor, we need your help. We need you to do your job." Something that apparently John was better at than Alastor, not that she said that aloud.

"We need a wall." Angel surmised bluntly, jerking his thumb in the direction of the ruined wall.

"Ah, leave him be." John waved it off as he stepped away from the wall, before turning and moving up next to Vaggie. "I can fix it myself, I just figured I'd ask. I'm gonna have to take off anyway, gotta get the supplies to fix it up."

"Well, we have the tools." Charlie said, stepping forward as she looked at John. "Are you sure you need to leave too?"

"We got the tools, but not the rest of the equipment needed." John answered with a chuckle. "Besides, I'm just fixing the wall. I'll leave design and decoration to you. I just need to pick up a bit of lumber."

Vaggie looked up at the behemoth with a confused gaze, raising an eyebrow as she did so. "You don't have to do all that."

John simply chuckled, giving Vaggie a small pat on the back as he moved past her. "No, I don't. But I will anyway." He replied as he began walking away from the Hotel as well. Alastor continued to stand in his spot for a moment, before turning and following after John without a word as they left the crowd standing in front of the Hotel.

"So… movies, anyone?" Vanessa piped up nervously, trying to break the silence that had been left in the wake of their departure.

Vaggie could only smile at the suggestion, even knowing she and Charlie would be occupied for the next couple of hours. For someone in the same line of work as Angel, Vanessa really was still the same kid she'd been when she died.

Hell just had a way of burying the person, Vaggie had unfortunately learned.

An entire empire, two brilliant coworkers, and the ability to do absolutely what the fuck ever he wanted.

Life in Hell was great for Vox. How could he complain? He was an overlord, he owned thousands of souls, and he was one of the biggest names in Hell. To be quite frank, he sometimes wished he'd offed himself sooner.

"That's good television!" Vox laughed as he watched his monitors, where he could see thousands of sinners using his tech.

Brainless idiots, the lot of them. But hey, they made him money.

The TV demon's head abruptly started vibrating as his face was replaced with a different screen, the sound of a clown horn ringtone sounding out.

VELVETTE IS CALLING.

Vox brought a hand to his face, the notification disappearing as an electrical current danced around his hand, before discharging it towards a monitor with another grin.

On the screen, a sinner demon popped up, looking less than enthused in contrast to Vox's own chipper demeanor.

"Hello there, Velvette!" He greeted with a grin as he took a seat in his chair once more, swiping his cup of coffee in the process. "How are you this hellish morning?"

"Oh, cut the shit, Vox." Velvette clearly wasn't in the mood for any jokes, glaring at Vox as she spoke. "I need you up here, now."

"Whatever could be the problem, my dear?" Vox asked as he turned away from the screen, moving to check his phone while Velvette glared at him from through the screen.

"You're little boy toy is wrecking my department!" Now that she mentioned it, Vox could hear the sounds of some kind of commotion in the background. "While I'm trying to pull together a show, and-" Velvette paused, and Vox could distinctly hear what sounded like Val swearing, followed by a woman's blood curdling scream mixed with the sound of ripping body parts. "Just get your ass here now! Dammit Valentino!"

And then the call ended, the video feed going to static.

Vox's smile dropped, frowning as he let a sigh escape him while he stood from his chair.

"Oh god, here I go, Valentino. Just another fucking day with Val." The TV demon muttered under his breath as he made his way out of his lair and towards his elevator. "Hey, hey, hey, fuck my life."

The elevator began to rise quickly and smoothly, and in no time at all, the elevator doors opened up, and Vox put on his best smile as he made his way out of the elevator and into the lobby.

The crowd of reporters that awaited in the lobby wasted no time in shoving their microphones towards his face, clamoring for his attention. No doubt wondering his opinion on the news of the Exterminations.

He made his way over towards the crowd, stopping in front of a female sinner with her hair covering her eyes. She wasn't bad to look at, maybe that was why he'd chosen to answer her.

"Mr. Vox, what are your thoughts on the new extermination deadline?" The sinner asked, pushing her microphone in Vox's direction for an answer the moment she finished her question.

Vox simply smiled, his entire demeanor radiating confidence as he spoke.

"My dear people, we at VoxTek Enterprises have always been at the forefront of innovation!" He stepped in to his salesmen mode, easily telling the people what they wanted to hear and giving them confidence in Vox himself. "And now with this new oncoming threat, we are shifting our focus to your protection." His voice dropped, almost as if he really cared for a moment, before immediately raising a had, gesturing to a lowered screen that displayed a possible logo for… Angelic Security, Vox decided. "We are pleased to announce VoxTek Angelic Security is coming soon!" Vox leaned down, his grin turning menacing as he made sure everyone present got a look at his eye. "Trust us with your safety."

And just like that, the entire crowd was now under his control, causing the TV demon to let a chuckle escape him.

"Sir?" The familiar voice of Vox's secretary entered the demon's ears from off to his side. "Uh, when did we begin working on Angelic Security?"

"Thirty seconds ago." Vox answered, his smile dropping as he left the hypnotized crowd and began his trek towards Velvette's department as his secretary followed. "Try and get that bitch Carmilla on the books and cancel all my appointments today. I have a fire to put out upstairs."

And with those last instructions to his assistant, Vox seemed to disappear into pure electricity, traveling into and disappearing into the camera. He manifested himself into Velvette's department, traveling through the building's circuitry, and arrived just in time to witness the fashion and media woman angrily telling off her employees.

"Oh, Velvette, I can see you're busy." Vox decided to jab, a little bit of payback for Velvette's earlier interruption of his relaxation. He took a quick glance around the studio, and felt a small chuckle escape him.

Val really had turned the place into a bloodbath. Body parts and bloodstains littered the floor, and the sinners that were still among the living frantically scrambling to get things back on track for the angry doll demon.

"Tell me, where's our hotheaded friend now?" Vox asked as he turned back to face Velvette.

"Up in his tower, waiting for a flat-faced prince to calm him down." Velvette rolled her eyes as she turned away from Vox.

The TV demon rolled his own eyes and let a sigh escape him as he realized that he would indeed have to deal with Val. "And uh, what's got him so out of sorts today?" He gave a false grin to hide his frustration as he voiced the question.

"Who knows?" Velvette shrugged, before turning back to Vox with a scowl in her face. "But he tore up my best model. And you know my show can't wait for that unlucky bitch to pull herself back together!" Her tone dropped with irritation as she carelessly chucked a severed arm away. "Melissa! Get over here!"

Vox stood by, watching Velvette snap her fingers and switch between different outfits as a sinner that looked rather terrified stood on the podium.

"Well, looks like you have everything under control here."

"Of course I do, fuck you, now shoo!" Velvette growled as she turned away from Vox, focusing on her phone. "Take care of the piss baby."

With that, Vox turned to leave, wanting to just get this day over with. He made his way over to the door of the Vee's living space, where two demons opened up each door as he approached. Vox paused, giving a slight nod to the two, before stepping inside as the doors closed behind him.

In front of him, the luxurious living room was somewhat sullied bu the site of a massive plume of pink smoke, and Vox could see a shape shift within, a pair piercing red eyes turning towards the TV demon.

And then a familiar moth demon sat up, looking absolutely livid.

"Fucking finally!" Val growled, smashing his wine glass upon the floor in his anger as the wine literally dropped from his lips. "Kitty, another drink!" He ordered his robotic Fizzerolli servant, who immediately took off to follow his orders.

Vox was already done with this shit. At least now he knew why Val had reacted so explosively.

"Can you believe what that piece of shit did?" Val asked, quite literally shaking with rage as his Robo-Fizz gave him a cup and poured a bit of wine into it, before moving away as Val gritted his teeth. "The ungrateful whore!" He practically roared as he checked his freshly made drink.

Vox casually stepped to the side to avoid the glass, an unamused expression on his face.

"Um, which whore are we talking about this time?" Like he was supposed to know exactly who Val was talking about.

"Fucking Angel Dust." Val growled as he marched towards Vox, all four hands gritted in anger. "Who the hell else would I be talking about?" Val's poor eyesight and complete ignorance to anything but himself at the moment kept him from noticing the way Vox pointed at himself. "That fucking slut walked out in me. Me! I fucking made him!" Once again, Val didn't notice as Vox turned away from the moth to check his phone. "Without me, he'd just be a bag of meat with some mildly entertaining holes."

"Angel quit?" Vox guessed, raising an eyebrow and not really paying attention to the pure fury that took over Val's expression.

"No! He didn't fucking quit!" Val snapped immediately in refusal, swiping Vox's phone right from his hands to his chagrin and chucking it at the wall, smashing it to pieces. "It's worse. He moved! He thinks he can just walk in here, work, and then go home somewhere else? Can you fucking believe that?! He thinks he can run off and shack up with Lucifer's bimbo daughter?!" He walked past Vox, moving to a wardrobe as Vox stared at where his phone had shattered.

"Angel is living with Lucifer's daughter, now?" Vox asked, turning to look at Val with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, that bitch, Chalkie or Chandler, or something mannish like that." Val may as well have been frothing at the mouth from how furious he was, throwing the closet doors open and reaching inside. "She's got this hotel and- Which of these makes me look sexier?" He asked, turning to Vox with a smile as he displayed two separate pistols.

Vox simply let a chuckle escape him at Val's antics as the moth turned back around to the closet. "What are you doing Val?" His expression changed, amusement leaving him in place of a stern face as he realized Val's intentions. "You're not going over there." It wasn't a request, but a demand.

Not that Val would listen.

"That slippery twink is going to remember who owns him." Val growled to himself in a sinister tone as he pulled his six-shooter to his face. "I'm gonna fuck everyone in that rancid shithole, I swear to god-"

"vAL!" Suddenly, Vox had Valentino gripped by his coat, spinning the moth demon to face himself so that they were inches from each other's face. He calmed himself and let out a chuckle, before wrapping an arm around his friend and pulling him close. "Think about it." He suggested much more calmly, walking with Val as he spoke. "Our brand is perfection. And what do you think chasing whores around town will do for our image?"

Val looked away for a moment, as if thinking, before answering as if he weren't sure. "Uh… fuck it up?"

"Right!" Vox nodded his head, which began to ding as if it were a gameshow as he placed his hands upon Val's shoulders. "Do you want people thinking you can't control your employees?"

"No." Val answered rather aggressively, as if insulted by the idea of anyone thinking that.

"Exactly." Vox nodded, before turning to face Val with a smile. "And hey, you still have him under contract. He isn't going anywhere." He reminded/reassured, before leaning closer to Val with a raised eyebrow. "So you should…?"

"Do nothing?" Val guessed, to which Vox nodded eagerly as he wrapped an arm around Val's neck, pulling the moth down to his level.

"Great idea! Now that's why pay you the big bucks." Vox assured with a smile as he pinched Val's cheek.

Val let a disappointed sigh escape him as he pulled out his cigar holster from his jacket. "But I really wanted to shoot someone."

"Well, let me call up the lowest earners this month." Vox gave a sinister grin to match Val's own as he lit the cigar for him.

Val smiled as Vox turned and walked away from the moth. "Oh, you know me too well." He gave an amused chuckle as he took a large huff of his cigar. However, he remembered something he'd forgotten in his fury about Angel. "You know, Angel isn't the only one spending time at this ratty hotel with the devil's princessa."

"Oh, who else is there?" Vox asked, barely sparing Val a glance as he continued searching through the lowest earners of the month. "Someone who owes you money?" He gave an off/handed guess as he focused on his self-assigned task.

Val merely chuckled in response. "Someone who us much more than money." He sounded almost giddy, the way he talked about this person. "The Radio Demon is there."

The… Radio… Demon…?

Vox froze. His hands clenched as a familiar and unwanted fury surges through him, his claws scratching the table as the nearest electronics began to malfunction.

The TV demon let out a tense chuckle, twisting his neck so that he could face Val. "What did you just say?" He asked slowly.

Val simply smirked in response. "You heard me."

"Alastor came back," Vox turned around, marching up to porn Overlord, growing angrier with each step. "And he is with Lucifer's daughter, and that wasn't the first Fucking tHiNg YoU tOlD mE?!" His hands clamped down onto Valentino's coat, dragging the moth down to his level as he glared at the demon in fury.

"Hey, killing Alastor is your kink." Val replied with a smirk, standing up out of Vox's grip with a shrug and moving past him as he did so.

The moth pressed a button, a video feed popping up on the screen in response. Vox wasted no time, simply teleporting to the desk in order to see what the live feed was showing as quickly as possible.

The feed showed Alastor walking down some random street in the city, that same infuriating smile on his stupid face. He looked the same as he ever did, and Vox felt his anger spike.

But then… something else in the video caught his attention.

"Who the hell is that?" Vox asked, his fixation on Alastor lost for a moment as he turned to Val, pointing to the screen. When he saw Val's look of confusion, he rolled his eyes and waved the moth over.

Valentino strutted over to the desk where Vox stood at, taking a look for himself, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Alastor wasn't alone. Walking alongside his form was another sinner, some behemoth of a demon. He would have to be taller than Val himself, and he was definitely quite a gruesome site.

And yet, the video clearly showed the two chatting up a storm.

"Maybe Alastor has someone else at that hotel helping him." Valentino guessed with a shrug as he stood back up and backed away, but Vox shook his head.

"No, no…" Vox said as he turned back towards the camera feed, no longer focusing on Alastor, but the as of yet unnamed behemoth he seemed to have befriended. "He looks familiar. I've seen him somewhere before." Vox couldn't place a name, or even a face… but sinners were always distinctive, and this one was somebody Vox had at the very least seen before. But the question was… where?

"Go get Velvette."

Val gave Vox a look, but shrugged and left to as asked, leaving the puzzled TV demon watching feed.

Where? Where had he seen that man before? It was driving him nuts, because Vox never forgot a face. And with how chummy the goliath seemed to be with Alastor, he was sure that this wasn't some kind of deal.

Another Overlord, maybe? No… not one that he'd encountered before, and he was sure he'd distinctly remember meeting a sinner like this.

What did irritate him was the fact that Alastor seemed to be pretty good friends with the guy, if they way they seemed to be chatting and cracking jokes was any indication. That immediately gave him a bad opinion of the behemoth.

The sound of the door opening could be heard, before Val silently walked back into the room, followed by a clearly irate Velvette.

"What, Vox?! I've got a show to run, make it snappy!" Velvette wasted no time, marching up to the TV demon with a snarl on her face as Val returned to his spot next to Vox as well.

"Do you recognize the big guy?" Vox asked, turning to Velvette as he pointed to the behemoth in the live feed.

Velvette rolled her eyes, but turned to see what Vox was talking about. Her eyes widened when she spotted Alastor, but they widened even further when she looked at the behemoth.

"That's the guy that was here a month ago!" Velvette exclaimed, pointing at the behemoth as she turned to the other two.

At that, Val's interest rose greatly as he too moved closer, studying the behemoth walking with Alastor.

The big one definitely wasn't one for looks. All those gashes… Val shook his head at the thought, and the spikes definitely didn't help.

That would've meant he'd been a customer. But that would mean the likelihood of him and Alastor being friends was astronomically low.

"Pull up the footage from a month ago." Velvette instructed, her desire to run her show lost as she found herself focusing on the behemoth. Vox did as asked, the live feed disappearing as he pulled up the security footage for the building.

Vox sped the video up, allowing them to quickly run through it from the beginning to the end of the day, and he allowed the footage to play like that as all three Vees payed close attention to the footage.

"There!" Of all people, Val was the one to notice the behemoth first, quickly pausing the footage, before reaching for the keyboard himself and slowly rewinding it.

The footage at the entrance showed the same behemoth they'd just seen, down to the same outfit, as he crouched down low and made his way through the front entrance of the building.

"Alright…" At this point, they were all curious as to why the behemoth had been there in the first place. He seemed to be friends with Alastor, but the behemoth didn't seem to be doing anything notably suspicious, stopping to talk to the desk lady for a few minutes before leaving.

They kept track of his trek through the building, watching as he went up the stairs, and through the floors, looking aimless and confused. Eventually, he seemed to realize his error, and they watched as he made his way to the floor where employees could live in the building, watching as he walked up to one of the doors with people frantically moving out of his way and knocked on the door.

After a few moments, someone stepped out.

When they saw who it was, Val went absolutely ballistic.

"That's where that fucking slut went?!" They watched as Val's latest employee, Vanessa, walked out of the room. As usual, the girl looked like the complete coward she was, pretty much quivering at the site of the behemoth.

"So that's why he was here." Vox noted, looking at the footage with a sense of intrigue. "I wonder… who sent him, then?"

"We don't know if that's the only thing he was here for, though." Vanessa pointed out, looking over at Vox with a raised eyebrow. "We keep watching till we see something suspicious or they leave."

Vox could agree with that logic, letting the video play out. Unfortunately, as they watched the video, it would seem that Vanessa really was the only reason he had been in the building. Once they were together, the two of them left the building without any pit stops.

"So he was just here for her?" Vox couldn't help but to question aloud, standing up straight as he looked at both Velvette and the once again irate Val. "That… that can't be a coincidence."

"Who would've sent him?" Velvette asked, looking at the two with a furrowed brow of confusion as she leaned in towards the screen, using the keyboard to rewind the video and pausing on the best possible angle of the behemoth's face. "I doubt it was Alastor. We all know that espionage isn't really his style."

"It was Angel." Val growled out, leaning in and glaring at the still image of the behemoth with complete contempt.

"What makes you say that?" Vox asked with a raised eyebrow, because it sounded more like Val was looking for an excuse to be pissed at Angel again.

To his surprise, that wasn't merely the case.

"They're both at the Princess' hotel." Val answered as he turned to his feet, his red eyes turned to face his fellow Vees as he did so. "Alastor and Angel."

Both Vox and Velvette's jaws dropped. Valentino was known for many, many things… intelligence was not one of them.

So the fact that he'd worked it out before either Vox or Velvette had was simply downright shocking.

But… it was a valid point.

"Then it's safe to say this guy frequents the hotel in some way." Vox noted as he turned towards the monitor, staring with a scrutinizing gaze at the behemoth in the video while Velvette whipped out her phone and began swiping away at it. "It's just a coincidence then, not someone important."

"It's someone important to them." Val snarled, leaning further in until his face was mere inches from the monitor as his expression changed to a sadistic grin. "So he'd be the perfect target."

Vox and Velvette both looked at each other, rolling their eyes at Val's antics.

Looks like they'd be dragged into another of his skirmishes.

A/N: To the guest who wishes to see a chapter from John's POV, I regret to inform you that isn't going to happen for a while at the very least. One thing I've learned so far is that with how much I've developed John's character, it's best to write mostly from an outside perspective in these stories. Otherwise, I'm looking at massive expo dumps out of habit and poor pacing for John's development. Not something I'm interested in making with this story.