Chapter 39: Hallucination Truth
Blitz suddenly opens his eyes and soon looks around to find himself in some strange dark abyss. No signs of life, no scenery, not a soul.
"Hello…" Blitz calls out, but his voice echoes.
So far, no one answers.
"Anyone here?!" Blitz calls out.
Again, nothing and no one.
Suddenly, he begins to hear music, more specifically circus music. Blitz becomes confused and wonders where all the music is coming from. Just then, the lights turn on and Blitz finds himself in the center ring of what seems to be a circus, similar to the one his family owns. Soon, there are elephants and horses begin to circle around with the audience watching the show. Just then, a beautiful white horse walks over to Blitz and gently licks him. Blitz giggles a bit and gently pet the horse.
"Hi Blitzo," A familiar voice says.
Blitz becomes shocked and looks to see the person riding on the horse and wearing a circus outfit is…
"Mom…?" Blitz says, shocked.
Indeed, it's Blitz's adopted mother, Lucy.
Lucy reaches her hand towards Blitz, "Come on Blitzo, let's ride."
Blitz smiles and takes his mother's hand. Then rides on the horse behind Lucy. Suddenly, Blitz is now a child from his circus days.
Lucy turns to Blitz and says, "Now say giddy up."
"Giddy up," Blitzo happily says.
Lucy then begins to ride the horse with little Blitz on it. Little Blitz begins to laugh with a smile on his face, laughing. Lucy giggles with a gentle smile on her face.
Soon, he sees Marina dive into the water and her legs are an actual mermaid tail, much to his surprise. However, Marina smiles and swims with the fishes in the largest tank he has ever seen. He then sees his father, and Uncle perform magic with Tim. Andy and Candy performing acrobatic and trapeze. Malcolm is also able to use his body to bend his body in rather impossible places and bends. The animals in the circus are also performing all kinds of tricks and being trained by his aunt. There are even the friends from the circus who are performing the tricks they all know and are having a grand time. Little Blitzo is very happy to see his family performing in the circus being praised by the audience, just like old times. Life in the circus is one of his best times.
But all of the sudden, Blitz finds the scene changes into the circus that is already starting to burn down. Blitz becomes scared and petrified to see the circus is starting to burn. It makes him remember the tragic events that caused his family death. Blitz quickly turns around in shock to see Charlies, Malcolm, and Marina's body lying on the ground, shot dead and bleeding.
"Dad… Malcolm… Marian…" Blitz asks, stunned.
Blitz feels his body shaking and wraps his arms around himself in fear. Suddenly, Blitz remembers.
Blitz cries out, "Mom…! Mom…!"
Soon, Blitz is able to find his mother under the same support beam of the circus tent.
Blitz rushes over, "Mom! Mom!"
Just then, the circus tent begins to fall over and begin to crash towards Blitz. Blitz screams in fear as the entire tent falls down as it burns.
Meanwhile, down the halls of the HQ, Moxxie, Millie, and the others are walking down the halls as they try to find Blitz. They continue to walk down the halls as they still have their disguises on.
"I can't believe this is working so far," Drew softly whispers.
"I know it's a long shot, but it's the only way for us to explore around this place and find Blitz," Berry says.
"I'm just worried about Blitz. I do hope we find him soon," Moxxie says.
"I'm sure Blitz will be fine. If they know he used to be a performer, I'm sure they won't cause any harm to him," Randall says.
"We never dealt with the human government before, and I fear that one day, someone will find out about Blitz being a demon like us. As of this point, Blitz is in terrible danger," Moxxie says, worried.
"I'm worried about Blitz too, but worried about it is not going to help us find him," Millie says.
"Don't worry, we'll find him," Razor says. "Still, we'll have to take necessary precautions."
"Why?" Loona asks.
"It's possible that these Demon Hunters may know about our killings on Earth and come to realize Blitz is a demon themselves. They could have also known about Blitz being raised as a circus performer and have information on Blitz's family," Razor explains.
"You're right," Moxxie says, shocked by the realization, "It's not just Blitz in danger. His friends, his family, at the circus, they'll be in terrible danger. And we'll be there soon if they find out about it."
"That's why we need to rescue Blitz and erase any evidence they may have on us," Razor says.
"In other words, this mission is more serious than we imagined," Loona says.
"I wonder where those demon hunters are holding him," Berry says.
Then Drew notices a few guards ahead, "Maybe we can ask those two."
Randall decides to step forward and walks to the guards.
Randall clears his throat and says, "Excuse me, I was wondering if you have any notifications about the demon that has recently been captured."
However, one of the guards calls out, "Hey, you guys aren't operatives!"
Everyone remains silent, until Randall smirks, holds his guns, and fires them at the two guards, killing them instantly.
"Randall!" Moxxie angrily calls out.
"What, we're going to get a cover blown when they call out their employees," Randall says.
Unfortunately, in the surveillance camera room, one of the guards has seen them. He turns away and spits his drink on the other guy. Then sounds the alert to alert the other guard of the intruders. And soon enough, the I.M.P find themselves being surrounded by the D.H.O.R.K.S employees.
"I think we're going to have our hands full from this," Razor says.
Randall brings out his gun and dagger, "All the more reason to kill these bastards."
"Let's off these fuckers!" Millie says.
The others then bring out their guns and are ready to fight the humans off.
Meanwhile, Blitz ends up with another strange hallucination. However, the place seems like an empty area, and it looks very misty. The place seems almost like a strange empty plain, nothing seems to be around.
"What is this place? What's going on?" Blitz asks.
Suddenly, multiple forms of mysterious glowing mists begin to circle over Blitz's head: Brown, Gray, Pink, Green, and White.
"What are they?" Blitz asks himself.
The spirits begin to swift around him, and some end up blinding him. Blitz tries to run away, but the strange spirits continue to block his way.
Just then, the green spirit soon takes the form of Robert Wayne, making the Imp gasp in shock and dismay.
"Hello Blitzo, it's a pleasure to see you. After your despicable family refused my offer and that refusal caused their death. And you're the only one who managed to survive. Makes you almost wish you died with them you little freak," Robert says and evilly smirks, sounding like a mobster leader.
"No!" Blitz cries out and runs away in tears.
Robert continues to call out, "You think you can escape from me that easily!"
Blitz tries to run away, but a brown wisp coils around Blitz' waist and pulls him away and has him dragged to the ground. Blitz soon looks up to see the brown spirit has morphed into Striker.
Striker says in a southern drawl, "You think that you can survive in Hell? Or believed that royal blue blood could have some affection towards you. You have the potential to be strong if it's not wasted on the human morals from the living world. There are demons who are more than willing to exploit that."
The brown wisp then grabs Blitz and tosses him into the air.
Then the gray spirit morphs into a rubber hose version of the Robotic Fizzarolli.
He then says, "You look a lot like someone that I know, and the real me could know who you are and know about your past. Why don't you go see him? Unless you're afraid to discover the truth," He then winds him up and then throws him to the ground. "Can't let the fear conquer you, gotta step up. Unless you're really that afraid."
Blitz hurts his head as he lifts it up and the white spirit turns into Stella.
"Unless you're afraid to be rejected like the ugly pathetic, low class, low blood Imp that you truly are. Who would be in their right mind to fall in love with an Imp like you," Stella says, and then throws a giant vase at Blitz.
Blitz gasps in shock and quickly moves out of the way. And then the last spirit, the pink spirit turns into Verosika and crawls towards him.
In a seductive voice, Verosika says, "Unless you're also afraid that other demons will know that you're raised by humans and lived as a human being. They'll realize how truly different you are." Then places her hand under Blitz's chin, "A being that can be used to their advantage, little Imp."
Blitz quickly pushes Verosika away and runs away in fear. All the figures soon gather as Blitz runs away and soon disappears in the misty fog. The Imp's tears continue to fall from his face as he escapes from the spirits expressing his fears and doubts.
Back in the reality of the interrogation room, Agent One and Agent Two watch as Blitz is knocked out from the other room.
Agent One says, "Seems normal so far."
"Seems so. However, the expression on Blitz's face shows that the truth bomb is taking effect," Agent Two says.
Suddenly the two begin to notice Blitz letting out grunt, groans, and shows sighs of him shivering, almost like he's afraid.
"That's weird, it seems Blitz is experiencing something," Agent One says.
"Hmm, judging by the expression on his face. It seems that the situation is going on in his mind. Something is happening in there," Agent Two says.
In the interrogation room, they notice Blitz begins grunting and gritting his teeth, and tears begin to fall from his face.
Back to the hallucination world, Blitz soon finds himself in some black abyss.
Blitz looks around, "Wha-what's happening now? Where am I?"
Suddenly, he hears a voice, "Blitzo… Blitzo…"
"Wha-who…" Blitz asks himself confused.
"Blitzo… my little boy…" The voice calls out again.
Suddenly, the dark abyss changes into a scenery of some kind. It looks like he's in some kind of weird tent. He soon hears crying sounds and soon sees two babies on the ground, specifically on a rug with some toys lying around. One of them is a female Imp and she has black horns with small white stripes and it's curved on the end. She has a similar heart skull on the forehead and the same eyes as Blitz. Blitz soon realizes that the other Imp is actually himself as a baby. The two babies cry in tears.
Suddenly, a familiar female Imp from before picks up the two babies in her arms.
"There there, it's okay. My babies. It's okay," The female Imp says.
Soon, the baby Imps stop crying and whimpers.
The female Imp smiles at each of them by name, "My little handsome Blitzo. And my beautiful Barbie. It's okay my little darlings, mama's here.
Blitz gasps in shock to hear what the female Imp says, and hears who she is. This female Imp, is really Blitz's birth mother. And soon, he hears the female Imp singing the song that Blitz is familiar with.
Blitz's mother
Far away, long ago.
Glowing dim as an ember,
Things my heart used to know,
Once upon a December
Soon, the images disappeared.
Suddenly, the scenery changes to a frightening sight. Blitz sees multiple demons running and screaming for their lives as they run away.
Among the crowd are two Imps holding each other's hand. One of them is the female Imp from before. The second is a male Imp who looks very similar to Blitz. with the same red skin, yellow eyes, and body shape. However, his horn pattern is more triangular than Blitz's with black that stretches down the sides of his head to resemble sideburns. His fingers are thicker and black, his eyes have bags under them, his tail is mostly black, and he has a small white goatee that rests under his chin. He is wearing a brown and light brown striped shirt with a ruffled white collar, baggy dark gray pants, black boots, and wears a top bat.
The male Imp is holding the baby girl while the female Imp is holding baby Blitz, each of them having the baby in the basket. Blitz soon notices the crowd of demons are being chased by frightening creatures.
They appear to have a fairly uniform appearance, each being black, white and gray humanoids with the only color being on their faces. They possess two large goat-like horns on their head, above which sits a halo with a central gem and three smaller crystals on both sides. Along with two large wings on their backs, allowing them flight. Their faces are covered with an LED screen mask capable of various expressions. Each of the beings are carrying a weapon that seems similar to the rifle Striker had in his possession
Blitz is shocked and remembers the others explaining to him about these creatures, "The Exorcists…"
The Exorcists continue to chase and manage to kill a few demons in sight. As the crowd run away and scramble, The two Imp end up being pushed and dragged away in different directions, separating each other. The male Imp carrying the baby girl is pushed in one direction, and the female Imp with baby Blitz is pushed to the opposite direction.
The scene changes to see the female Imp holding her baby in the basket runs away from the Exorcists who are after her. Suddenly, a mysterious red and black portal opens in front of her, startling her. Before she can do anything, the portal begins to suck the female Imp in. The female Imp along with her baby are soon pulled in, with the Exorcists following her tail. Blitz watches in shock as the scenery changes, leading to the forest covered in ice and snow. The portal opens and the female Imp falls out. The female Imp is soon running through the forest. A forest with the trees and bushes, and fallen trees covered in show, and it seems all too familiar.
"This… this looks like the Aurora Woodlands. The woods where my family's cabin is. Where my mom found me," Blitz says, shocked.
He soon turns his head to see the female Imp running through the forest and still holds the baby inside her arms inside of the moses basket. The mother continues to run through the forest in the cold winter as snow falls from the sky. She turns her head to see the Exorcists chasing after her.
The female Imp gasps in shock and continues to run as she tightens her embrace on the basket with the baby inside. Soon, the creatures are able to catch up with her, and try to pierce her with the spear or daggers, or shoot her with their guns. The female Imp quickly dodges the attack as she protects the baby in the basket. She dodges the creature with the dagger and continues running in fear. She continues to run, but then trips and falls down the hill from the slippery snow. The woman continues to roll down the snow as she ends up getting covered in show, and soon able to lose the frightening creatures. When she reaches the bottom of the hill, she quickly speeds up and continues running as snow falls from the sky and the wind blows against her.
The female Imp looks around as she heavily breaths in concern and rocks the baby in the basket in her arms. The female Imp looks around and soon notices a hollow log. She looks inside the basket in sadness and tears fall down from her face. The female Imp rushes to the log and kneels down to the opening.
Seeing the events, Blitz gasps in shock and recognizes the hollow log. This is the same hollow log that his adopted mother has found him in all those years ago.
The female Imp then places the basket down and removes the blanket for Blitz to see. Blitz is in shock and tears begin to form as he sees himself as a baby. The baby Blitz begins to cry and reaches to his mother, but the mother shushes him and gives him a gentle smile. Then she leans to the baby and gives him a gentle kiss as she rubs his cheek.
Then the baby happily says, "Mama."
Blitz covers his mouth and softly gasps in shock, and knows more of the female's imp identity. He realizes that this female Imp, is really his mother, his birth mother. Blitz quietly watches as he sees the female Imp removes her red skull choker and places it in the basket next to the baby. She then covers the baby in the blanket and places the basket in the hollow log. She then turns her head to hear wings flapping and the sound of gun firing.
The woman then begins to leave as she distances herself from the log with tears falling down her face and shows signs of sadness and a broken heart as she hears the baby Imp cries in the basket, but feels that it's the only way. Just then, the female Imp waves her arms and runs off as the Exterminators begin to chase her and away from the hollow of where the baby is. And in a matter of seconds, the female Imp and the creatures are gone, as the landscape disappears and hears the sound of the baby Imp crying.
Seeing everything that's been displayed before him, Blitz falls to his knees as tears fall down his face.
"I… I can't believe it… that… that's how I ended up in the Human World, and how I was separated from my birth family," Blitz says, and tears continue to fall, "I had a mother, I had a father, and I had a sister. And my mother… she… she saved my life… by sacrificing her own."
In the interrogation room, Blitz, who is knocked out, tears begin falling from his face in his sleep of the recent memories. How he's been separated from his birth family, how has lost his birth mother, and how she has made the ultimate sacrifice.
He softly mutters in his sleep, "Mama…"
Meanwhile, somewhere in the halls of the D.H.O.R.K.S HQ, the group of I.M.P are running down the halls after the alarm has been set off and the employees of the government have Japanese style weapons from the Edo period ready to attack them. All the government employees try to attack then, but the I.M.P demons have the upper hand.
One agent holding a naginata runs towards them and swings it at them. Berry quickly ducks her head. Loona jumps swinging the axe, cutting his right leg. Then Millie shoots the agent on his head. They hurry and begin to attack and hill the agents. Razor and Moxxie then fire his guns while Randall uses his dagger to kill. Millie and Loona share the giant axe. Berry and Drew also use their weapons to kill the government agents too. They soon are running towards an open door revealing an agent alerting the others as one closes the hatch. Seeing them with shurikens, and begins throwing, Randall acts fast and uses his tail to swat away the attacks.
Millie calls out, "Throw me!"
Loona does what Millie says and throws her into the door as it closes labeled, 'CAUTION BLAST DANGER'. Screams can be heard through the door and the hatch opens to reveal Millie has killed them all and blood has spattered all over the room.
"Damn, you're pretty agile for an old lady," Loona says.
"I'm like 5 years older than you," Millie says.
"Never mind that, we still need to find Blitz," Berry says.
"Yeah. I'm worried about what those two might be doing to him," Drew says.
Then turns to Loona, "Loona, can you pick up Blitz's scent."
Loona smells the area a bit and says, "It smells like the two took him down this hall." and points to the right intersection of the hallway."
"You sure?" Razor asks.
"I'm sure of it. Blitz's scent smells strong, so he has to be in this direction," Loona says.
"Alright. Loona, you lead the others to where they're keeping Blitz. Randall, you're with me. We gotta make sure we get rid of any evidence they may have on us. Even though most won't believe them, we can't take chances if they have proof of our existence," Razor says.
"You got it," Randall says.
"Then let's hurry," Millie says.
Soon, the group continues on ahead to find Blitz and the two agents who abducted him, along with the computers to erase any data they have.
Back in his hallucination, Blitz continues to cry as he shed tears of sadness, seeing his past right before his eyes. How the Exterminators separate him and his mother from his father and sister. How the portal opened and pulled them into earth. Most of all, seeing his mother saved his life, making the ultimate sacrifice by leading the Exterminators away.
Suddenly, Blitz feels something touch his face. He soon looks up and wipes the tears from his face to notice that he's not in the snowy Aurora Woodlands anymore. Instead, he's in an area that is full of all kinds of trees and plants, kinds that he has seen at the botanical gardens, and at Stolas' garden in Hell. He looks up to see the bright yellow sun shining down and a cool breeze on his face.
Just then, the wind blows dark blue-grayish feathers towards Blitz, and begins to circle around him, like they're dancing around him. Then the feathers gently file down a path between two rows of plants that look like the ones from Stolas' home. Curious, Blitz decides to follow the feathers to where they're blowing to.
Blitz continues to walk down the stone path, to see so many different plants, and they all begin to bloom at each step. The wind and feathers continue to gently blow Blitz down the path, almost like they're guiding him somewhere.
Blitz soon notices some lovely white roses, lilies, and other white flowers begin to bloom. Blitz leans to one of the roses and sniffs one of them, and lets out a sigh and feels relaxed. Soon enough, the gentle wind and feathers lead him to a white glowing staircase with golden railings on each side.
Blitz soon begins to walk up the stairs and wonders what would be waiting for him on the top of the tall staircase. Blitz is a little nervous and fears that what awaits him might lead him to more danger and fear, but he's soon proven wrong.
Because he hears a familiar voice, "Blitz…"
Blitz stops in his tracks and looks to see the top of the staircase.
And hears the voice again, "Oh Blitzy."
What he sees are plants fanning with large fans. Behind the fans is Prince Stolas in his royal attire and sitting on a golden throne.
Blitz is surprised and never expects to see him here.
"Stolas…" Blitz softly says.
Blitz soon slowly continues to walk up the stairs once more, never letting his gaze leave Stolas. Soon, Blitz finds himself a few steps away from Stolas, and doesn't have a word to say, or what is happening.
Stolas gives Blitz a gentle smile and reaches his black claws out to him, "Let me help you Blitzy… I'll be there for you…"
Blitz feels reluctant about it, but seeing Stolas' gentle smile and hearing those reassuring words, Blitz knows that he feels safe with him. Blitz then reaches his hand out and places it on Stolas' claws. Then Stolas gently grabs his hand and pulls him up the staircase. Before Blitz could react, Stolas pulled Blitz onto his lap with his left arm wrapped around his waist, and his right claws under Blitz's chin. Then tilts Blitz's head for him to look at Stolas face to face. Blitz blushes to be this close to Stolas.
Blitz tries to say something, but Stolas gently places his finger on Blitz's lips, preventing him from speaking. Stolas places his claws under Blitz's chin and gently rubs it. Just then, Stolas leans to Blitz and gives him a passionate kiss on Blitz's lips, catching him off guard. Blitz is so surprised that he isn't able to do anything at first. Just then, Blitz starts to kiss him back, and it feels very nice.
Back to the rest of the I.M.P, after killing many of the guards and dodging their security system. They soon find themselves in front of a locked door with a keypad next to it. Millie squints her eyes to notice that the Button #1 is practically scratched off.
She then says to Loona, "Try 1!"
Loona squints her eyes to see the number, and presses the button 1 five times. Then, the doors open.
"Sheesh, are these guys this dumb?" Drew questions.
"I'll say," Randall replies, "No wonder their names spell Dhorks. They're complete Droks."
"No kidding, let's find Blitz and kick those fuckers' asses," Razor says.
And with that, the group rushes beyond the doors and it slams shut soon after.
Song: Once Upon a December - Anastasia.