Testament X: As The Slayer Acclimated

After a few more minutes of the Slayer eviscerating the masses of demons, they began to retreat, slowly, then in packs, running away in fear as the Slayer hunted down any demons that were too slow to retreat.

The defensive circle broke apart after a bit longer, having waited to see if the demonic forces would try another attack. The group as a whole wasted no time moving somewhere else, keeping an eye on their flanks as they navigated the chaotic terrain.

A few hours later, they ended up on the outskirts of the broken city, in the forestry and bushel. Surprisingly, the terrain was not broken apart, nor were there any ravines of lava running through the landscape, though there were some large cracks and damage present.

One of the ARC members, a female lieutenant by the name of Isabella, led the group, of which the Slayer and Beliel followed, carrying Catherine and Charlie along with them. No one dared to speak, on orders of Isabella, for the fear that too much commotion might alert long-distance demons with acute hearing.

Isabella led the group through a particularly dense brush, which carried on for a half hour, until they reached a large door on the side of a mountain. They made their way in, walking through the tight-fit tunnel until it expanded into a larger and larger chasm.

"Woah…" Charlie said with awe, as the tunnel suddenly opened up into a behemothic underground base. They entered onto a catwalk, which gave an overview of several different technical, military and communications departments. Charlie leaned over the catwalk railing to see multiple floors and below her, all of them filled with the bustle of human activity. Radio communications, orbital monitoring stations, military training barracks and courses - It was an indoor mountain base.

"What is this place?" Husk queried to Isabella, who was speaking to multiple passersby as he led the group. Charlie was confused by the question.

"Wait," She interrupted. "Didn't you guys know about this place already? When we...well, fell from the sky...we saw you guys fighting together."

Husk shook his head, still eyeing the interior of the large forward operating base.

"Nope. We woke up on the ground, confused as fuck about what was going on. We just started fighting cuz we saw we were fuckin' surrounded by a shitton of fuckin' demons."

"And thank God you came." Isabella said with a grim expression, her demeanor looking as if she were beaten down and exhausted. "Had you all not popped in, we would have no doubt been slaughtered."

As she said this, her eyes happened to glance over their individual faces, and her eyes widened considerably. She whipped her head back forward, but Charlie was still concerned by that reaction.

"Don't blame her for that reaction, toots." Angel Dust said, leaning in to whisper in Charlie's ear. "She's probably not used 'ta seein' a bunch of demons casually walk behind her, know what I mean?"

Charlie couldn't help but crack a smile. It was good to see an old friend again.

"Yeah, I get you."

She took a quick peek behind her, unable to make eye contact with Vaggie. She hadn't been able to properly talk to Vaggie since they were in Hell, and Charlie was conflicted in her...interests. She was still feeling the awkward and painful aftermath after Vaggie, one day, had a sit-down with her and they went over the direction of their relationship. Charlie had suddenly said, without any thought to it, that she didn't think they were going to work out.

What hurt her even more was the deep dismay that Vaggie showed, as if she wanted to protest but had no energy to. It was as if they both mutually sensed the air of romance and solidarity between them had just...disappeared one day. Maybe it was after Vaggie came back from the dead, maybe it was when they had been separated after her spiritual abduction from Hell. Either way, it hung in the air between them like a barbed-wire blanket.

Meanwhile, Beliel was marveling at the bustling activity around him, as if he were entranced by the sight. Husk, who was curious of this new fellow, noticed every single woman he passed by stared at him with both awe, a deeply sexual aura gushing from them.

"Lucky fucker." Husk cursed under his breath.

"So, Isabella," VEGA spoke aloud. "I am well aware of ARC from a previous encounter, but I was not aware of this base. It looks as if it took some time to build, and surely the demonic invasion was very recent."

"Uh, yeah…" Isabella muttered, still bothered by the group of monstrosities casually following behind her. And she wasn't alone, as every person they passed by stared at the massive group of humanoid demons walking through their base. "We received a transmission from something triangulated on Mars about an 'incoming demonic invasion' a month before it happened, and it sent the world into a panic. We had bases, defenses and a blank check to prepare for whatever was to come."

As she spoke, Millie leaned over and whispered to Moxxie, but to his tire. She had been talking his ear off for the last hour, since they had landed in that big, scary ass battlefield. After the battle, Millie was almost in shell shock, and clung to Moxxie like barbed wire. He hadn't expected this reaction from someone who used to kill on the daily for money, but he supposed that everyone had a mental threshold.

"Moxxie," She mewed. "When is this going to end? We keep getting thrown around to different places, I just want to go home…"

"Look, Millie," Moxxie responded. "I want to go home, too. But first we have to figure out how the fuck to get back, first."

"What're we talkin' bout, o'er here?"

Moxxie outwardly groaned as he heard the familiar, permanently-sardonic tone.

"Blitzo, for fuck's-"

"How do you do, fellow Imps?" Blitzo said, wearing the troll face for his expression. "Now, I don't mean to bother the little love couple, buuuuuut-"

Blitzo parked himself right next to Moxxie's other ear.

"I do believe that Loona is MIA."

Moxxie's eyebrows furrowed. He looked around at the group, to find that indeed, Loona was not here.

"Well, that's not really my problem, so-"

Blitzo's jaw unhinged as he expressed the most offense Moxxie had ever witnessed.

"Moxxie!" He chided. "Loona is a valued member of our team-"

"Debatable."

"-And it's up to us to find her!"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Hey, all!" Isabella suddenly spoke over the chattering group. "I noticed there's quite a few of you, so if only the heads of this small army could come with me, that would be appreciated. The rest of you can follow my associate here-"

She pointed at a nearby front desk worker, whose eyes widened in surprise as Isabella pointed at her.

"-Ms. Rachel will find you accommodations and give you a bigger tour of the facility."

Isabella looked around at the faces in the group, which was a chore since everyone was at severely different heights.

"So? Who am I taking up with me?"

Clump, clump, clump.

Heavy steps echoed across the floor, and Isabella only then noticed the six foot green-armored humanoid walking through the group, all of whom instinctively stepped to the side to allow him to walk through. The humanoid came up to her, and it was then that Isabella could sense the fringes of rage radiating from him as they stood toe to toe. It was incredibly intimidating, as if he were sizing her up.

"I...So...You're the...leader?" She muttered. As if his general aura weren't enough, he towered over her 5'3" stature, looking down at her through the visor. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was looking at something far more powerful than she could imagine, as she stared into his visor.

Charlie was surprised when the lieutenant straightened herself up and looked at the Doom Slayer through his visor. It definitely took an unprecedented amount of courage to face the Slayer head-on.

"Yep, that's the big man in charge." Angel Dust remarked, almost with a snicker.

"Ahem…" Isabella cleared her throat, turning away from the Slayer. "Very well, then. Is...anyone else coming along?"

"I shall." Hayden spoke up, and Isabella was even more intimidated when the ten foot tall giant of a mechanoid stepped out from the crowd and came up to her. She couldn't even crane her head to look up at him, and thus took a few steps back to look him in the eye beam.

"Okay...anyone...else?"

She really didn't want to ask the question anymore. Almost everyone in the crowd was around 6 foot or well over, including the female humanoids. Hayden turned his head to address the crowd.

"I would suggest the Task Force members also come with us." He vocalized. "Considering that you will be directing your own teams soon enough."

"I have no idea what the hell that means, but okay." Husk said, stepping forward and joining the small group Isabella was taking. The rest slowly followed suit, until the small group was formed. Isabella nodded slowly.

"Alright, then...let's get going. Good luck with the rest of them, Rachel." Isabella said to the front desk lady, turning around and leading the small group up a set of stairs. Rachel glanced over at the small army of demonic-looking fiends and unfamiliar military personnel, who eyed her curiously.

"Well?" One of them queried, a forked tongue darting from his mouth. "Where are we going?"

After ascending a few dozen stairways, Isabella's group found themselves in a giant dome-like room, where huge windows looked out over the expansive forestry of Oregon. Several consoles were placed in a ring-shape around one end of the dome room, where a giant screen on the wall showed several different analytics and camera feeds. Several people dressed in dark-blue military uniforms were using telescopes and other strange devices aimed out the windows, while others were working at the consoles.

"Man you guys pimped this place out." Angel Dust remarked. Isabella shrugged.

"When you get a blank check from every single national government, you have money to spend. Now…"

She turned around, facing the group head on. Charlie noticed bags under her eyes, along with irritated red skin, as if she had been sobbing for hours before she met them.

"I'm going to be brief with you all. I have no idea what the hell most of you are, and I don't recognize whatever 'UAC' means on some of your uniforms. But, seeing as we fought our way out of that complete shitshow earlier together, I can only assume we're on the same side, relatively."

She took a deep breath.

"I need to know where you all came from, and how you got here. And what...exactly you are."

The group all looked around at each other, with some of them shrugging.

"Alright," Angel Dust responded. "But it's a long ass story."

After an hour or so of nothing but pure explanations, Isabella looked as if she were going to have a migraine, having sat in a nearby chair once they were 15 minutes in.

"That's...that's just…" Isabella muttered, scratching her head in perplexity. "...This has to be a dream…"

During the discussion, Hayden had been standing near the edge of the group, seemingly in deep, robotic thought. Curious, Charlie edged herself over to him.

"What, uh-" She started. "...What are you thinking about, Mr. Hayden?"

She wasn't sure why she added the 'Mr.', but it felt right to say it. Hayden looked up at her, the two blue beams trained on her.

"Oh, Charlotte. It's been a while, I suppose."

His robotic fingers moved gracefully up and down, rubbing past his thumb.

"Pardon my absentmindedness-"

"Oh, I don't mind." Charlie assured him with a smile and a wave. "I'm pretty sure you're the smartest guy in a room, so if you're sitting in a corner and thinking, I'm sure it's gonna be something that'll help us."

She was confused when he suddenly went silent for a moment, staring at her with those intimidating blue eye beams.

"...Thank you for the compliment, Charlotte. It's been a long while since I have received one."

He sat himself upright.

"I am aware we have not...conversed...as much, in the past. However, I hope in these coming days we may get to know each other better, now that I am confident you are a friend to mankind."

Charlie nodded her head humbly, though she was a bit razzled by the 'friend to mankind' line.

"Anytime, Mr. Hayden."

"Anyways," He continued. "I was merely considering the thought of how your universe has served as a revolving door between ours and potentially others. One thing that baffles me is that, despite this universe having noticeable differences in the names of corporations, government entities and whatnot...everything remains relatively similar to ours, almost strikingly so."

He peered out one of the many windows around the surveillance chamber they were in.

"Which leaves me to consider the idea that this universe is almost parallel to ours, save for a few differences."

Charlie considered what he had stated, a little curious as to what he was getting at.

"What do you mean by 'almost parallel'?"

Hayden gestured around the room.

"In our universe, ARC, the group we are with now, also exists, and rose up to fight off the demonic scourge. And yet, when I pulled Ms. Isabella to the side for a few questions, I found out that no Samuel Hayden, nor VEGA, nor UAC existed in this universe. The signal from Mars is apparently unknown to this Earth, and yet it is exactly what I would have done if I found out the demonic threat was heading here."

He grunted.

"Well, this idea is not significant right now, so we should delegate our minds to more pressing matters."

Charlie nodded, though she felt that the idea he had presented was worth talking about in the future, at a less desperate time.

Meanwhile, Isabella continued her conversation with the small group in front of her, as she took on a plethora of questions from them on the facility, ARC, the enemy, and her cup size (which she did not appreciate in the slightest).

"Slayer," VEGA spoke into his ear. "I hate to break you away from the discourse, but I did want to inform you of an update."

The Slayer tilted his head slightly down, a subtle confirmation that he was listening.

"It took a bit of time, what with the constraints I am in currently, but after scrupulous study of the chemical properties, I have managed to splice the Ambrose we found in that land of heaven, and I have duplicated its advanced healing properties into small micro-syringes that, when injected, will rapidly accelerate the healing process for your bodily functions. I have also removed the alcoholic content, so you will not be getting drunk off the healing process."

The Slayer nodded slightly, turning his attention back to Isabella.

"Hold on, Slayer, if you don't mind; I must pose a request to her."

The Slayer nodded once more, and VEGA spoke aloud.

"Ms. Isabella."

Isabella turned to the Slayer, hearing the question.

"Um...yes, Slayer?"

"Not the Slayer (he does not speak). I am VEGA, his digital assistant. To summarize, I am an advanced AI, and I can port my memory and data through most technological filters. I would deeply appreciate if this facility (with my help) could construct a bionic body so that I am able to move around on my own, thereby allowing me to be more useful as a whole."

Isabella seemed lost for words, her mouth hanging open slightly as she considered what he said.

"Erm...okay. I'll have to put you in contact with our Engineering Department-"

"Sounds wonderful."

"Fuck, this place is cool." Beliel thought aloud, before his eyes widened. "Wait...fuck. Holy...fuck! HOLY FUCK I CAN CUSS! FUCK YEAH!"

Beliel unfurled his wings and flew around the domed chamber, much to everyone else' alarm as he shouted curse words victoriously.

"What the fuck?!" Husk exclaimed. "Is that a fucking angel?!"

Charlie shook her head in exhaustion.

"It's...a-"

"I GET IT, IT'S A LONG FUCKIN' STORY!"