Chapter 52:

Silence before the storm…

"There's …..hundreds…..no…..THOUSANDS of them…." Charlie whimpered as the small group looked up at the sky in horror as from 3 different locations in the Vee's district, waves of small, black dots would assemble into a large, ever growing mass in the sky.

"We HAVE to get back to the hotel!" Vaggie yelled, to which Charlie whimpered back as she felt sheer dread build in her chest "HOW are we gonna get there on time?!"

Before the small group even realized it, Sera had opened up a portal for them "Hurry to your hotel and assemble whatever forces you can, daughter of the Morningstar! I will martial the troops and send reinforcements as soon as possible, but until then, you HAVE to keep them busy, understand?!"

Everyone would nod as they jumped through the portal and before they knew it, they found themselves in the courtyard of the hotel, where a small group had gathered.

"Charlie, what the fuck is going on?" Angel Dust spoke up with panic on his face.

Nifty would just excitedly point to the sky with a large knife "STAB, STAB, STAB!"

Husk took 1 look at the sky and opened a new bottle of whiskey "I'm too sober for this…."

Seeing this, Vaggie would jump right into drill sergeant mode as she began to pace back and forth "ALRIGHT EVERYONE, Lute is on her way with a mechanical army, we didn't ask for this fight, but it's coming. Seeing the speed with which they assemble, I estimate we have about 2 hours to prepare" As she began to lash out orders

"Alastor, you think you can get another shield ready?" to which, the radio demon just smiled "Say no more, my dear"

"Angel, Husk, grab some of the other guests and barricade the doors and windows" as the 2 of them nodded "Ya got it, toots"

"Ashley, get carmine on the phone and contact whatever overlord you can muster" to which she would just quip back "Way ahead of you, Vags" having her phone in hand already

"Velvette, call in whatever connection you have, fuck knows we're gonna need it" as the doll demoness nodded "On it, Feathers"

Once several preparations were made and slowly, the hotel was once again turned into what could only be described as a makeshift fortress, Vaggie would turn to her girlfriend last "And Charlie….i think it's time we properly test that security system…..say the word"

Taking a deep breath, the princess would clear her throat as she yelled out "CARMINE SECURITY PROTOCOL 900, ACTIVATE"

As she said this, several panels would open up on the sides of the hotel, as well as on key locations around the court yard as slowly, angelic turrets emerged as a robotic voice spoke up.

"Carmine defense protocol initialised, thread level 666. All systems online and operational"

Seeing the system in action for the first time, Charlie would look at her partner with a pained grimace as she spoke up "I…I'll need to get a hold of dad…and make some phonecalls….i'm going to need some time…."

Shifting her gaze between Charlie and the ever approaching cloud of angelic automatons, Vaggie winced "That's time we don't have, Charlie. We need a miracle if we want to get to your dad in time….we need.."

"A DISTRACTION!" A confident voice would suddenly pipe up.

As Charlie, Vaggie and the others would all rubberneck to the origin of the voice, they would see Ashley, against a wall, arms crossed and head slightly tilted down, only her large, sharp toothed smile peering form under her large brimmed hat.

"Are you fucking insane?!" Vaggie yelled.

Ashley just shrugged as she got up from her spot "If there's 3 things I'm good at, it's getting people's attention, causing fucking mayhem and getting away with it" as she strutted over to the princess and put a hand on her shoulder "You contact whoever you need…I've been known to be a slippery bitch to catch, I'll distract them until papa Luci shows up"

"Don't you mean "We" babe?" Ashley would hear behind her, and as she turned around, Velvette would be standing behind her, her new angelic sword swung over her shoulder "You're not going anywhere without me, plus, I think it's about time I put these new skills to the test"

Vaggie wanted to protest, but taking one single look into Ashley's eyes, she could see there was no arguing with this woman "….alright Ashley…..if you're sure…..hang on out there….ok? we'll join you as soon as things get ugly"

The shark-grinned sinner would give a nod, a wink and one last gesture of her fingerguns as she made her way to the rooftop, Velvette following suit…

Staring out over the skyline of pentagram city again, Ashley just stood there, awaiting the army of the delusional fallen angel.

"So….this is it, hu?" Velvette would pipe um, next to her…..Ashley would just remain silent for a bit as she stared ahead….before finally speaking up "You know….i always figured I'd go out saving someone…"

The doll demoness would lean her head against the taller woman "…..i fucking love you, you crazy bitch….you know that?"

Ashley would look at her, fondly "….love you too, babe….."

..

..

Airspace above the pride ring, hell:

..

..

Ignoring the seething pain shooting through her entire back with every flap of her new, mechanical wings, Lute would soar towards the princess' hotel in the distance, her new mechanical army following suit, as flanked on either side of her was the moth demon, Vallentino, his wings being used for proper flight probably for the first time in years and on the other side, currently clutching the back of one of the angel bots, was Vox, desperately trying to hold on.

"For the last fucking time, lieutenant, we are schemers, dealmakers, we are NOT warriors" Vox pleaded with the delusional angel as on the other side, Vallentino spoke "C-come on, ma'am. There must be other ways in which we can assist in this fight"

It was clear neither of them wanted to be here, or even be closely associated with the fallen angel at this point, but neither had a choice as Lute had a single goal in mind "Shut up, you 2, maybe in this way, you can die with honor, knowing you served a heavenly cause"

Tho once the reached their destination, they would be met, not by the princess, not by her fallen angel partner….not even the king of hell himself…..

There on the rooftop, stood 2 figures…..one of which being the short demoness who had incriminated Lute with the video footage during the court hearing….but the other, was a demoness she had never met before….

She wore red, pinstripe dresspants that had tears and holes in them, a dark grey tanktop, a weird set of spikey motorcycle boots, leather, fingerless gloves, a long, orange, pinstriped coat with no sleeves and a large brimmed, red hat.

She was tall….maybe slightly taller then the princess…..her slightly reddish, grey skin, or whatever was visible was covered in a variety of wicked looking, white scars, she had wild brown hair…..and a wide….sharp toothed…almost shark like…..grin…

"NOW LISTEN HERE, YOU MECHANICALL CUNTS….." the demoness yelled, addressing the angelic army in an almost taunting way.

"I ROLLED OUT OF BED THIS MORNING, WANTING TO DO ONLY 2 FUCKING THINGS….CHEW BUBBLEGUM…..AND KICK ASS….."

As she finally raised her head to stare down the former exorcist as she pulled out what seemed to be a large, 2 handed, angelic battle axe from behind her and slung it casually over her shoulder

"And I'm all out of motherfucking bubblegum…"

Suddenly, the figure would push off the ground with impressive force as the shark-grinned sinner came barreling right towards Lute with a near maniacal smile on her face as she shouted "WELCOME TO HELL, MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEER!"

Hearing this from inside the hotel, Vaggie would rally up their makeshift troops as she cried out "THAT'S OUR SIGNAL, TO ARMS!"

As the final fight against Lute had officially begun…..

Author's note: The final battle has officially begun, this however doesn't mean that after this, the spory will be fully done.

I'll most likely wrap up some loose ends in epilogues first and then, maybe continue said epilogies with some simpler stuff if i feel like adding.

Also, i had that scene of Ashley on the rooftop in my head for a while and in my head, the background music for that scene would be the opening to "welcome to the jungle" by guns n roses