Neptune and Marijiana arrived at I.M.P, ironically getting called in by Blitzø after finishing their half-day at college.

When the two hellhound trainees walked into the office filled with paperwork, they saw Balin on the couch as he was still resting with Loona, now giving her head scratches and belly rubs with his fingers gently gliding through her fur.

As Loona wagged her tail, shook her leg, and purred to his touch, Neptune and Marijiana soon went...

"Awww!"

Balin then looked up as he continued his petting, to see that 'aww'ing came from his two hellhound groupies who had stars in their eyes at the sight.

"Hello Neptune. Hello Marijiana." he waved to them politely.

Loona then perked her head up in slight shock hearing that from the boy, which made him stop the petting.

"...How much of that did you two see or hear?" she anxiously asked.

"Don't worry, we didn't see much." Neptune said, recovering from the cuteness. "We just got here."

"Okay. So, you won't tell anyone, right?" she asked them again in embarrassment, then looked at Balin with a small smile. "Not that I didn't enjoy it, kiddo."

"Not a soul, Loona." replied Marijiana, as she tried crossing her heart underneath her bushy white fur.

"What are you girls doing here?" the boy asked them next. "It's a Saturday. Why is there such a thing as working on weekends?"

This made the three hellhounds laugh and giggle. Mainly giggle in Loona's case so she could keep her cool.

"Well sweetie, Blitzø called us in. So you'll get to spend the rest of the work day with us." Neptune crouched down to Balin's level as he stood at the head of the couch. "How fun is that?"

"Luckily for him, we finished our own morning of college as well." added Marijiana. "So, the irony."

"College too?" Balin was really surprised now. "Wow. Where have all the Saturdays gone?"

"That part, I can agree with you on." Loona smugly said, looking at her phone.

"Did you ever go to college, Loona?" asked Balin.

"Nope. Growing up, my phone was always the best teacher." she shook her hell-phone in her hand to make a point.

"So, where is everyone? Underneath all this paperwork?" asked Neptune.

"In the meeting room." replied Loona blankly. "We had an F-ton of clients coming in, enough to give me a second hangover in a day. So we're just about to start."

"Sure thing." the two hounds said in unison as usual before walking into the board room.

Meanwhile, Loona just stood up, stretched, and made her way to the board room.

"OK kiddo, I'll be in here if you need me." she said. "This'll take around 20 minutes or whatever."

Balin was about to nod when he made a decision.

"Can I join you, Loona?"

"You sure you want to?" Loona then looked at him with intrigue. "There's gonna be fighting."

"I know. My parents only screamed at each other once. When I was born, so I've heard. I'll be okay." replied Balin with a smile, making Loona smile too.

"Little man." she chuckled as she ruffled the boy's head and picked him up in her arms.

...

In the board room...

Neptune and Marijiana were currently practicing their fighting skills and reflexes as the meeting was about to start.

Normally, the imps would use TV sets, but today, the two hellhound trainees had boxes of pizza instead.

Box by box, Marijiana threw the wheels of pepperoni and cheese in the air for Neptune to dice into eight slices with a fencing sword. So far, two pizzas down, and the girls only had seven.

"I just don't understand, sir, why you had to gouge half this company's complete freedom on these pizzas." Moxxie grumbled to Blitzø, with his power in numbers. "It's like you don't even know how much you spend every time."

"At least it's better than the shit billboard we wasted with our spelling, baby-dicked troll." Blitzø poked him multiple times.

"Oh, don't fucking touch me."

Loona and Balin walked into the board room together. As she took her seat at the table, she gently placed him onto her lap, making Blitzø smile even more at the relationship these two had.

"Aww, look at you two. It's like Santa Claus." he cooed, before storming up an idea. "...Or claws! This is brilliant! Moxx, I know how we can celebrate Sinsmas this year."

"Yeah. By asking Tex to play mall Santa." remarked Loona as she typed on her phone.

"I have to agree with Loona on this one." replied Moxxie reluctantly. "She's too selfish and lazy as fuck to do that job anyway."

"FATTY! Pay! Now!" Loona angrily pointed at the swear jar at the end of the office.

She had been taking the jar everywhere she and the kid would come to visit, from her apartment to the office. Other places, she carried it in her tail just in case.

"Hey, I'm just saying." continued Moxxie as he put his tip in the jar. "You're always late for work, and even with the kid, I wonder."

"Hey, don't blame Balin because I faxed you a weight-loss ad." Loona said defensively. "He's a kid. I mean, he's a little clingy at times, but that's because he wants love. Especially right now."

"I know that. And I'm happy for that and him."

"Okay, okay!" Millie intervened. "Before we all fight again, can we just get on with the list of hits?"

"On it and on it, Mills!" Blitzø snapped his fingers in supportive response, before putting on some reading glasses. "Last thing we need is one of Susan's lemonade-stand killing requests."

"Susan...!" Millie quietly seethed her teeth at the name.

"...Anywho, Moxx?"

"Uh, sir, you're the one with the reading glasses." Moxxie rolled his eyes.

"True, but this is an experiment called 'READING THROUGH YOUR EYES!'" exclaimed Blitzø in Moxxie's face.

"Knock it off, Blitzø!" exclaimed Loona, before going back on her phone. "Satan's taint. Sensitive ears!"

"Ugh... runs in the family." muttered Moxxie, before reading the list.

He crumpled up and threw away one piece of paper, which was a target request from Susan, before going through the rest.

"So, our targets in today's chronological order are..."

- A studio of TV producers who fired our client as their reality TV woodsman for teaching campers how to use poison oak as nature's toilet paper, as retaliation for not getting the hosting role.
or
- A Vegas musician who stole his former idolised client's songs before he could even record them after purposely overdosing him on coke.

...

As Moxxie went on, Balin started hallucinating for some reason and began chuckling.

"You okay? Giggles?" Loona asked him as the boy pointed at Moxxie.

The more she listened to him speak, the more she began to hear what it was that made Balin giggle.

In the two's minds, as he kept on reading from the hit list, they heard Moxxie speak in a different tone, but in his normal voice.

"And once we're done, these pathetic humans will flee at the sight of ZIM!" he evilly cackled.

Balin and Loona then started giggling together hearing Moxxie speak as Invader Zim, one of the Saturday cartoon characters they were watching earlier back at her apartment.

"With the power of our Asmodean crystal, we shall all have all the power to rule over the precious Earthly planet of Balin Johnson!" continued Moxxie in his Zim form.

...

Back in reality, Moxxie soon noticed Balin and Loona's wry smiles and snickers.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked confusingly, in his normal speaking voice. "I don't see what's so funny about cathouses... Oh. I see, that does sound a little funny, doesn't it."

"Sorry, Uncle Moxxie. It's a long story." said Balin.

But hearing him talk about the hits in that voice gave him an idea.

"Can I look at the list, Moxxie?"

"...Sure, buddy?" the white-haired imp replied questionably, as he gave Balin the hit-list.

As he looked over it with the fast-reading skills Stolas taught him, he soon got a scope of what these murder cases were and decided to pick an easy one that the gang could do first.

"How about this one?" he said. "A spa worker who secretly kills her guests with a treatment called S'mores. Where she dresses them in a Marshmallow coat and a chocolate top-hat, before cooking them in a sauna."

The four then looked at Balin feeling perplexed that he'd even suggest that one.

"Wait... isn't that from the movie you and I saw recently, Moxxie?" Millie asked her husband with her head tilted to the side.

A/N: Yes indeed, Millie. That movie was 'The Menu' starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy.

"I have an idea on how to kill the evil spa worker." Balin soon got an idea in his head. "Can I have that?" he grabbed the marker from Blitzø and drew up the plan.

Every demon in the room watched as the boy's art skills were put to the test.

BALIN'S PLAN: To do the job, he wanted them to portal up into the salon freezer and steal all the ingredients before the stylist comes in. And when she arrives and sees they're gone, the married imps drop the food to the ground before she either gets shot by Blitzø or torn apart by Loona, Neptune, or Marijiana.

"Ta-da!" Balin then finished drawing up the plan.

The three imps and hellhound all looked at him with impressed looks.

"Sport, how did you ever come up with such a plan of attack?" asked Moxxie.

"Well, it's like Devo always says:"

...

FLASHBACK:

Balin was watching Imagination Castle sometime last year back at his family home.

DEVO: "When an idea is often too tough to understand, people always say no to it. But what they don't realise, is that when an idea is as tough as that, it means there's always a solution. Even if it takes multi-tasking. That way, you can sum it all down to size so that the idea becomes a good one."

FLASHBACK ENDS

...

"Well, I am impressed even more by this kiddo!" Blitzø patted his back. "Who knew you had such fiery potential? Other than us or your family."

"Then...are you guys gonna choose his idea first?" asked Loona.

"Even better, we're starting with his in an hour." Blitzø replied cheerfully. "A mission like this could use all the timing and help I can get, with these two trainees ringing up the pizza over there. So who else's with me?"

Everyone raised their hands one by one, even Balin for some reason.

"Yeah, yeah, kid, you'll be sitting this one out as usual." chuckled Blitzø. "Nice try."

"Ah well, honey." Millie then spoke. "It's just, if Loona knew something bad happened, she'd kill all of us in this room."

"Well, not exactly... all of you." Loona said, winking at the two hounds. "I'll call up Via and see if she's available again."

WITH VIA...

Via's phone was buzzing, so she quickly answered it.

"Y'ello? Octavia here." she quietly whispered.

"Hey, Via. It's Loona. We got another hit. In fact, a lot of hits. Are you free to babysit Balin again?"

"Unfortunately, sorry. Not for a while." she replied. "My family got word of my return and now they're putting on a celebration recital. I'm just at a meeting for it right now."

"Tell me 'bout it. Well thanks anyways, sis."

BACK AT I.M.P...

"Sorry, Balin. She ain't available this time."

"It's okay, Loona." said Balin with his OK smile.

"Well, who else could babysit you...?" Loona started pondering for a bit.

It was then she got a message from Tex saying:
'I could be happy to watch Balin at Bee's for ya. My shift's almost over, so I'd be happy to pick him up from your end if you'd like that.'

Then another text which said:
'Hellhound ears. Lol'

Smiling, Loona sent him a laughing and thumbs-up emoji, saying she'd be happy for them to take care of him.

"Hey Balin, how'd you feel about Tex and Bee watching you? Hmm?" she knelt down to his level.

"Really?"

Loona gave him a nod, making the little boy excited.

"Oh, yes please, Loona. I'd love that."

...

A FEW MINUTES LATER...

Balin chuckled as he got his hair ruffled by Tex, holding the little boy in his other arm.

"I cannot wait to babysit you lil' man. I already messaged Bee and she must be buzzing." he then giggled at his own joke. "Get it? Because she's a bee?"

The male hound then tickled the boy's tummy trying to get a few giggles out of him.

"We'll call you guys through whatever VR phone you said you have later on, for a little mission control with this thinker over here." said Blitzø as he gathered the weapons.

Loona then spoke to Balin with a smile.

"Now you be a good little guy for Tex and Bee, okay?"

"I promise, Loona." he replied.

As Loona gave him a kiss on the cheek, she cheekily grabbed out a folder of some kind from her hair.

"And here's the thinker's homework." she teased.

"Homework?!" gasped Balin dramatically, making Tex laugh as they left the building. "Loona!"

"What? The Saturday fun's not over yet." she chuckled.

A/N: See y'all in the next chapter.