Super Science
Ch 88: To Hell with You
"Professor! Professor!", Melissa exclaimed as she bolted into Egon's office.
Egon, who was about to take a sip of his morning coffee, sat up straight as he exclaimed back in surprise, "Yes, Melissa. What is it? You sure seem excited."
"I just made the scientific breakthrough of the century!", she half yelled while jumping up and down with excitement.
"That's quite a statement. What did you do?", Egon asked calmly.
"Follow me follow me follow me!", the girl demanded in joy as she grabbed the man's wrist and yanked him out of his office, causing him to nearly trip over his feet.
As they left, they nearly ran into Izuku who was stopping by Egon's office. Seeing the excitement he dropped what he was doing and ran out with them, following close on their tails until they came into the Sound Division. In one of the testing chambers, stationed behind a very protected observation room were Doctor Wily and Professor Hankoyo. After releasing the flustered man, who had to put himself back together, and Izuku who managed to catch up, she stood beside the two men while standing by the control panel.
"Professor Hankoyō, Doctor Wily, and I have worked with our scientific geniuses together to create this!", she then pressed a button on the control panel, and the dark mirror disappeared from the observation window where a very large and complex machine stood in the testing chamber, as she exclaimed, "Tada!"
"Wow! What is it?", Izuku and Egon asked at the same time.
"It's called the I.D.P.C or Inner Dimensional Portal Creator!", Melissa told them excitedly.
Egon and Izuku froze up for a moment before Egon shook himself and stated, "Wait wait, wait back up for a second! Are you trying to tell me that the three of you have managed to unlock and break the bounds of the spacetime continuum?"
Hankoyo nodded at his dissection and told them, "Yes, but it was mostly young Melissa's doing. We just helped with our specific fields of expertise."
"Speak for yourself, snakehead.", Wily grumbled at him as he tried to take center stage, to take credit for the machine.
But he brushed aside as Izuku asked, "Soooooo where does it lead?"
"I have….no idea. We just tried a bunch of random coordinates until one of them worked.", Melissa admitted.
"We went through thousands of different combinations.", Hankyoy stated as he leaned against the control panel to wipe his head with a wet rag, even Wily looked pale and pooped.
But Melissa assured them both as she followed up saying, "But not to worry, we kept the rift small and inside this highly modified protective testing chamber and it will only stay open for a short time. We're gonna send this drone through to get pictures and videos.", she told them while holding up a small circular drone.
"Look at you! Take every precaution possible!", Egon congratulated her while ruffling her head. Only to look at his other employees and Izuku while stating, "I only wish more of you would do the same."
"All I have to do is send the drone through the opening and we can see where it goes.", she told him as she lifted a latch to send the drone inside.
There it sprouted small legs and began to walk before sprouting a propeller and flying toward the machine where Melissa pushed a seemingly random assortment of buttons, causing the machine to turn on and the portal to open. It was red, steamy, small, and very hot. It was so hot that the temperature in the area caused the room to increase by 20 degrees. Once open, the drone flew inside and all the scientist had to do was wait it out. However, they didn't have to wait long for anything to happen as the machine started to buzz and spark up before suddenly appearing to cause the portal to collapse for a moment. But only for a moment as the portal reopened to a graduation size!
As everyone started at this, Izuku inquired in a small voice, "I'm guessing that's not part of the test."
"No.", Melissa answered.
"Quick turn it off!", Egon shouted.
"I can't! Something went wrong with the outer controls!", Wily exclaimed back as he and Hankyo tried to rapidly use the control panel to turn it off.
"Please tell me you have a fail-safe or an emergency off switch!?", Izuku exclaimed.
"Yes, but it's on the machine!", Melissa told him.
"Of course it is!", Izuku and Egon shouted at the same time.
"Less talk and more action!", Hankoyo called out to them as he had already gotten the test chamber door open and was running inside with Melissa.
All the scientists ran inside the scorching hot room as Melissa, Wily, and Hankoyo ran around the machine pulling levels, twisting knobs, and hitting buttons on every possible part of it. But even after they stopped, the portal was still going as strong as it was before.
"What the heck! This thing should have turned off the portal! Why is it still running!?", Wily yelled.
"Something must be keeping it open!", Melissa guessed.
Before they could do anything else, the portal began to vibrate at a strange frequency and pulsate into a strange circular shape before a strange shape was seen from within.
"What is it!?", Izuku asked while staring into the portal.
Suddenly a large figure did a Superman dive and fell through the portal, landing and sliding against the metal floor! The person looked like some kind of devil man, at the very first glance.
"What the-?", Egon began to ask.
Only for the devil man to turn around and yell while pointing at the portal, "Close it! Close it now!"
"I'm trying!", Melissa yelled as she was still trying to get the machine to stop.
"Hurry! Before he comes through!", the devil man yelled as he shifted to his butt and slid back from the opening.
"He?", Izuku prompted only for his question to be answered as an even larger and uglier devil man grabbed the edge of the portal and pulled itself out before roaring at the scientist.
The new devil had an upright boy with red skin, horns, a tail, bat wings, jagged teeth, hooved feet, a flame on its head, bulging muscles, yellowed eyes with no pupil, no ears, no nose, and carrying a flaming whip in its hands while standing at over 10 ft tall!
"Holy shit! Defense measures activate all kill protocols!", Izuku yelled while pointing at the devil creature.
Suddenly several different weapons sprung up from every possible place and began to unleash a hail storm of firepower on the creature! Only for it to shrug the bullets off until the next round of much more powerful weapons came out. Energy bombs blasted the monster and began to do damage as it screeched in pain! Even driving it back! That is until the plasma cannons finally warped up and blasted the monster with four beams to several parts of its body, cutting straight through its flesh and causing it to get flung back into the portal!
"Got it!", Melissa cried as she finally managed to turn the machine off.
Everyone watched in relief and joy as the portal shrunk down till it disappeared, the machine overheating and shutting down, while the room cooled off. Rest couldn't be attained right away as the devilish person was still standing in the room with the scientist and yelled something shocking.
"FREEDOM!", he screams while shooting his arms into the air before falling to Izuku's feet and exclaiming in a yell, "Oh thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! You've saved me!"
Izuku, who was just as confused and freaked out as everyone else, asked the one question they were all thinking, "I'm grateful for your gratitude. But um….who in the hell are you and where in the hell did you come from!?"
"Hell of course.", the devilish man said while bringing his head up from the ground, saying it like the answer was obvious. "More specifically the Ring Wrath.", he added, causing even more confusion to circle the room.
But before things could spiral any further, and with Izuku looking ready to blue screen, Egon took the lead and told the devilish man, "Okay okay! Back up for a moment. We're going to need way more context and full explanation."
"So let me see if I understand this correctly. The portal that we opened was a portal to hell. Like actual hell, the place where all evil people go. And you're a demon…from hell.", Egon asked while trying to absorb all this info he was just told.
He, Izuku, and the devilish man were sitting inside one of the meeting rooms where the devilish man told him some unbelievable and earth-shattering news.
The devilish man looked much like the other demon that came through the portal earlier but with key differences. He was shorter, only 8 ft tall, with a very human face and long black hair but all other features stayed the same.
"Technically I'm only half demon, but yeah.", the devilish man explained,
Egon blinked a few times and then stated while looking at the man, "So if there's hell then that means there's also heaven? So the afterlife isn't just a thinly veiled concept made by humans through blind faith and hope for something better, but real truth!?"
The man replied while looking confused by his confusion, "That's what I just explained."
Egon took off his glasses, setting them on the table as he put the back of his hand to his head while saying, "I think I'm gonna pass out."
But Izuku grabbed and held him up while stating firmly, "Please don't, we don't have a defibrillator nearby."
"I'm guessing humans nowadays are of little faith.", the devilish man inferred.
This comment got Egon's attention and insulted him as he proclaimed back, "Little faith?! I'm of very good faith and very connected to the gods!", to this, the devilish man chuckled a bit, making Egon more insulted as he demanded, "What's so funny?"
After calming himself, the devilish man told him, "Oh sorry, it's just that you said gods, as in plural, like you think there's more than one."
Both scientists stare in shock at what they were just told and Egon said like he was having a crisis, "Are you trying to tell me that my faith was incorrect and that the Judeo-Christianity was correct the whole time?!"
The devilish man rubbed his head as he awkwardly and vaguely answered, "Yes and no. The gods that you are thinking of were Nephilim posing as gods."
"Nafahoo now?", Egon asked.
"Half angel and half human, but I'll explain later.", the devilish man dropped the subject.
Seeing as they were getting off-topic, Izuku chimed in and asked, "You said before that you were half demon. What exactly are you?"
"I'm what you would call a Cambion. I'm the result of when an archdemon does the dirty with a human.", he explained.
"Do you have a name we can call you?", Izuku inquired, realizing they had forgotten to exchange pleasantries.
"Are you evil?", Egon butted in right away.
"Egon!", Izuku scolded the man.
Egon shot his protege a look and exclaimed back, "He's half demon and demons are evil! What do you want me to say?! How's the weather in hell?"
The devilish man chuckled at their bickering and answered, "The weather is always terrible in hell and I don't resent you for thinking I'm as evil as the rest of my kin.", he then took a saddened tone and explained, "As for my name, I don't have one. Only a number.", to which he showed a set of strange symbols edged upon his neck.
"Are you a slave?", Izuku blurted out before he could realize what he was asking,
"Was a slave, but no more thanks to you.", he corrected him happily while giving him a thankful smile. "But if you want to call me something you can just call me Cambion.", he offered.
Izuku frowned at this and told him, "That's terrible, that would be like naming your dog, woof.", Izuku then thought for a moment and offered, "How about…Dante?"
He peeked up at this and standing on his seat he proclaimed, "I like the sound of it. Very well, from this day forth I will be known as Dante!"
Egon nudged Izuku and whispered, "Little on the nose isn't it?"
"You got a better suggestion?", Izuku whispered back.
Egon opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, then opened it again only to fail once more. So he just whispered back to him, "I'm guessing Lucifer is out of the question.", to which Izuku shot him a look.
"So Dante, are there more like you in hell?", Izuku asked the man.
Dante nodded and explained, "Unfortunately yes, but our numbers are thinning significantly. Unlike demons, who are completely immortal, Cambion is only long-lived."
"And how old are you?", Egon prompted him.
Dante thought this over to himself then answered not so sure, "Time is hard to tell in hell, but if I had to guess I'd say about…2,000-ish years?"
Egon looked like he wanted to faint and Izuku had to take off his glasses to wipe the cold sweat from his face as he tried to absorb all of this. So after the two of them managed to calm down a bit, Egon inquired half lucid, "How did you even come to be? Like, how were you born?"
On this, Dante had to think much longer and harder, and once he collected his thoughts he told them, "Well, my mother was a witch and made a pact with a demon to gain power in exchange for her firstborn child. I was born nine months later and sold to my demon dad in slavery."
Both blinked at this news Izuku followed up on Egon and asked, "Wait. Does that mean more like you could exist on Earth?"
Dante shook his head and answered, "Not a chance. Cambion like me has a one in one hundred chance of being born. Usually, when humans get down with demons their children end up having serious mental or physical deformities.", this fact is interesting and the two of them jotted this side note down for future research, and Dante continued to explain, "Besides, humans haven't had the power to reach into hell in ages! Anyone saying they can is lying. And because of the conditions in hell, many Cambion are killed frequently. I'm just one of a spare few."
"Well, that's good to hear.", Egon blurted out, only to realize his mistake and backtrack while saying, "The fact that demons aren't amongst us, not what you said before about being slaves and your kin dying often! Sorry."
Dante waved off his apology and assured him, "It's okay. I was never close with the others."
"So that demon who tried to follow you through the portal, who was he?", Izuku asked.
"My slaver.", Dante admitted a bit too casually.
Both looked shocked at this, then remembered what happened and Izuku said, "Hope we killed him."
Dante sighs and tells them, "It takes more than that to put a pure-blooded first-generation demon down for good. But he will be the laughing stock of hell for centuries on end."
"One more question. You've already established that heaven and hell exist, but which depictions of them are true?", Egon inquired, holding the recorder a bit closer to him.
Dante smiled and explained, "All of them. Heaven and hell are reflections of the human mind. The landscape changes to best comfort or torture the souls within."
Then Izuku asked the biggest question of all. One he didn't want to but had to. So he took a deep breath and asked, "So Dante, what are you gonna do from here?"
Dante opened his mouth to answer but stopped. The wheels in his head began to turn but things came out. Eventually, a depressed look came upon his face as he admitted sadly, "You know…I've never thought of it. My only desire was to escape hell. Now that I'm out, I have no idea what to do. I have so much knowledge of earth but no experience."
Izuku and Egon thought of a solution for a while until Egon rambled out, "Then you can stay here."
Surprised by this, Dante asked, "I can?"
"He can?", Izuku asked with equal surprise and concern.
Shooting him a look, Egon exclaimed, "Yes! He can. Plus we really can't let you go galavanting in public. If the world knew that heaven and hell were real, whether directly or indirectly from you. There would be an uproar! Plus, even though we live in a world of supernatural human abilities, you wouldn't be able to blend in that well as a-.", before finishing that though he covered the young teen's eyes before saying while trying not to tail his own eyes down, "Mostly naked demon man."
Having said this, it was apparent that Dante came through with very little clothing on. He only wore a loincloth that left very little for the imagination.
"That's no problem. I can change.", Dante told him.
"Change what?", Egon questions back.
Only to have his question answered when Dante begins to shrink down to a more modest size, his huge horns shrinking until they were numbing, his bright red skin losing most of its vibrance, his tail becoming shorter and less deadly looking, his wings reabsorbed into his back, and his muscles becoming far less bulky. When it finally stopped Dante appeared like any normal human but with a few devilish features.
Izuku and Egon blinked in surprise at this unusual ability as Egon commented, "Oh….that's handy."
"By the way, what did you mean by supernatural?", Dante inquired.
"About a century ago, these things called Quirks appeared in humans all across the world giving them superpowers. Lots of fighting happened, a few bloody wars, population decline, genocide, blah blah blah. And here we are now.", Egon explained the vague origin of quirks while also producing crystals from his hands to show him.
Now it was Dante's turn to look in surprise as he sat in slack jaws silent about the simple feat that Egon did. After he absorbed this information he exclaimed, "Sheesh! A lot has changed on Earth from what I was last told. Last time, humans were still exploring the greater world. However, that does explain the influx of souls a hundred years ago. That was a busy time."
"Well set up living quarters and something for you to do around here. For now, just take it easy.", Izuku told him as he and Egon stood up, collected their things, and made their way out the door.
Just before they left, Dante gave one last sigh of relief as he said, "Thank you again for your kindness."
Once they left the meeting room, the two scientists met up with the other three scientists present for the appearance of Dante in the hallway behind the one-way mirror, watching the meeting go down. Once things settled, Egn got right into it and stated in a low hissed tone, "Okay, people listen closely.", everyone did so and he took a deep breath before telling them, "As you heard, we just opened a real can of worms here, but we can keep it blocked off to this area. We tell no one about what any of us saw or discovered! If word of this breaks out it would be catastrophic! So delete those coordinates and wipe it from your mind!"
"But those coordinates were going to be used to discover what process we need.", Melissa nervously pointed out.
Egon sighs while slapping his face and tells her, "Okay. Discover the process, then wipe it from your mind!"
"What if we discover coordinates to heaven?", Hankoyo inquires.
This raises the hairs on everyone's heads at this thought. If they could open a portal to hell then who's to say heaven isn't off the table of possibilities? Who's to say they couldn't make an opening to a place where eldritch monsters lair outside of time, space, and mortal comprehension? That thought sent shivers down all their spines!
"Same thing with hell.", Egon quickly stated, getting everyone's attention back, "No one but we can know and forget it!", he finished off as they all nodded and went off to secure this deep dark secret.
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