Chapter 1. For Hire.
"God damn it!" Moxxie cursed as he held a box in his arms. "Fucking Blitzø asking me to go across hell for this shit like I'm his pack rat or some shit! 'Hey Moxxie, since you're not doing anything, go get this for me, make it quick, bye!' Asshole." He mocked his boss as he walked down the street.
Back at the office of I.M.P Blitzø, Millie, and Loona were in the conference room. Blitzø called them there to discuss something.
"So, I've been thinking of ways to increase business, while we got our ways to kill shitheads in the living world, it's not enough, we need something to draw in more saps!"
"You mean customers?" Millie corrected
"Whatever! So I've been thinking, what if we expand our services to kill something other than humans?"
"Like what? Demons?" Loona asked, typing on her phone.
"No no, well maybe, but I was thinking more of, wait for it….angels!"
Loona looked up from her phone with wide eyes and Millie's jaw dropped.
"Eh? Good idea right?"
"How the hell are we supposed to kill angels?" Millie asked. "Have you not seen The Cleansing?"
"Yea, but it's not like it's impossible."
"They've literally ripped demons to shreds, and you wanna take that on!?" Loona voiced her opinion.
"Not head to head, I'm not dumb, just riddle them bullets!"
"Like someone else hasn't thought of that!"
"Yeah but we're professionals. We just gotta make a plan and-" Sirens went off in hell that interrupted Blitzø. "The fuck? That the Cleansing sirens!?"
"Can't be, that's not for another three days." Millie said with a hint of nervousness on her voice.
"Uh guys…" Loona started, "I just got a notification saying that they're starting one early."
Blitzø's face sank. "Fuck! Loony, barricade the windows! I'll get the doors!" He commanded.
"Wait! Where's Moxxie!?"
"What? Oh shit! I sent him out earlier to get something!"
"What!?"
"I'm sure he's fine, he probably already found a place to shelter in."
A white hole opened up in the sky, out came the Angels. White were their wings, wearing masks with sadistic smiles, having on light armor and an assortment of weaponry. Screams were heard as demons who weren't lucky enough to find shelter were killed, beheaded, sliced, and gouged by the heavenly descendents.
The screams only hastened Millie's heartbeat. She had no idea where Moxxie was and it made her afraid. She heard her phone ring. She took it out and saw that it was Moxxie, giving her a sense of relief.
Blitzø saw the Id. "See. He's fine! Loona the windows!" He hurried the Hellhound to fortify the glass. She started to pull down the iron gates and covered the windows.
Millie hit answer on her phone and put it on speaker. "Oh Moxxie I'm so glad you're ok! Where are you?"
Moxxies voice trembled and his breath was shaky. "Millie…" he said in a tone of fear. Footsteps were heard and the sound of steel on concrete echoed into the microphone.
The sense of relief left Millie as Color drained from her face along with Blitzø and Loona. "M-Moxxie?"
"I'm sorry but...I don't think I'm gonna make it…"
"Wh-where are you!?" She demanded to know as tears welled up.
"I want you to know…that the afterlife I spent with you...was the best life I've ever had…"
"Moxxie, don't say that, don't say that like your about to-"
"I love you." Was what he said to cut her off.
"Moxxie?" Her tears fell down her cheeks.
"Goodbye."
"MOXXIIIIIE!" She yelled as she heard him scream and heard the sound of a slice and a loud thud. She fell to her knees, frozen, as the water in her eyes leaked like a waterfall.
"This is...my fault." Blitzø said as a wave of guilt and sadness washed over him. "Why did I tell him to go across town!?" He yelled at himself.
Even Loona started to whine as she processed the death of Moxxie….until,
"W-what the-!?" Moxxie said out loud, gaining everyone's attention.
"You ok?" The voice of another was heard through the phone. "Stay close to me if you don't wanna die."
When Moxxie heard the sirens, he panicked. He looked up at the nearest monitor and saw the countdown was blank. In bright flashing red letters it said "The Cleansing has started" and a new countdown appeared. It showed thirty minutes. He looked around, trying to see if he could find someplace to hide. The few stores he was near already barred their windows and closed their doors. A white tear opened up in the sky and when the Angels came flooding out, the timer started going down.
"I need to hide!" Moxxie yelled at himself. He ran to the nearest alleyway. "It's only thirty minutes long! I can survive!" He heard a thud behind him, stopped, and looked behind. Behind him was an angel wearing chest armor and thigh armor, a red mask, and wielded two scythes. It looked towards Moxxie. He felt fear course through him and ran as fast he could down the alleyway. He made a turn and his heart sank. He came to a dead end. "No...no no no!" He looked around for any place to hide. There was none. He heard the screeching sound of the Angel's blades sliding across the concrete, getting closer and closer. He backed up to the walls and slid down. He knew he couldn't leave, that he couldn't escape the angel coming towards him. The angel came across the corner and slowly turned its head to him. Moxxie grabbed his phone and called Millie as it got closer. He thought that he should at least say goodbye before dying.
"Oh Moxxie I'm so glad you're ok! Where are you?" Millie said through the phone.
"Millie…" he replied
"M-Moxxie?"
"I'm sorry but...I don't think I'm gonna make it…"
"Wh-where are you!?"
Tears started to fall and the memories he had of his wife filled his mind. "I want you to know…that the afterlife I spent with you...was the best life I've ever had…"
"Moxxie, don't say that, don't say that like your about to-"
"I love you." He cut her off. The angel stood right in front of him and raised its blade.
"Moxxie?"
"Goodbye." He heard her yell his name as he dropped his arm and phone. The angel swung its scythe, he closed his eyes and screamed. He heard the thud of a head, thinking it was his, except it didn't feel like his head was cut off. He opened his eyes to see the decapitated head of the angel laying on the ground, its body going limp and falling. "W-what the-!?"
"You ok?" He heard a voice call out.
Moxxie looked up and saw a short light brown Hellhound with floppy ears. He wore a black felt jacket that went down to his waist, had two pockets on its chest, three pairs of arm straps, one at the shoulders, the elbows and wrists, and a hood. He had on red shorts with pockets on its legs. His eyes were blue, he was three foot nine inches tall, being only slightly taller than Moxxie by about two inches. He had a blue short blade in his left hand and a red one in his right. The blue one had a cleaner edge and a wavy pattern, while the red one had a more jagged edge and had a sharp zig zag pattern.
"Stay close to me if you dont wanna die." He told Moxxie.
"Wh-who are-!?" Before Moxxie could finish, two angels, like the previous one, appeared from behind the hellhound.
In one swift motion, the hellhound turned and sliced them both in half. The top of their bodies sliding beside Moxxie.
"Ah!" Moxxie screamed.
"Questions later. Can you stand?" The hellhound told him.
"Uh...y-yea." He got up.
"Good. Follow me." He dashed away and Moxxie followed.
As Moxxie followed him out of the alleyway he watched him kill the angels that approached them with ease. 'Who is this guy?' He thought to himself. Once they made it out of the alleyway he was led to the center of the street.
"Stand right there." He pointed to a spot in the middle.
Moxxie went where pointed. "Right here?"
"Yea." He reached in his pocket and grabbed a marble. He placed it on Moxxie's chest and a red barrier surrounded the imp.
"What the-!?"
"Relax. You'll be safe in there, so don't take that off." He smiled.
Several demons wielding katana and had wrappings instead of armor, jumped and lunged at the hellhound. Before the hellhound could respond, they were each cut up into three separate pieces. In Front of the hellhound was a tall, skinny, red and black imp wielding a black scythe. He was a foot and a half taller than the hellhound, wearing a black leather jacket that went down to his knees, and short jeans. His sclera was yellow and his eyes were small black dots. The black of him was a big spot on his eyes, a streak down his cheeks, some on his fingers, and some on his thighs based on what was seen on his knees. His feet were a regular cloven shape. His short stubby horns were pure red.
He looked down at the hellhound and smiled. "That's sixteen. You?"
The hellhound smiled back. "Eighteen."
"Damn. Two behind." He looked towards Moxxie. "Was he alone?"
"Yeah. Found him in the alleyway."
Moxxie looked at the angel corpses behind the imp, surprised at how easy he cut them down. He was startled when he saw those corpses slightly inflate then pop with a flash of light, leaving behind an assortment of rings, some pure gold and some with large jewels on them. He looked down the alleyway he left and saw the same assortment rings where the corpses last were.
"I'll stay here and watch this guy, since I found him."
"Sounds good. Shelly and Dundy are down the road behind me, so I'll go up this way." He jumped away, slicing three Angels in his way. "Ninteen!" He yelled.
The hellhound chuckled before turning around, seeing five of the katana wielding Angels run up to him. The hellhound readied his blades and let them come to him.
Two swung down at him but he blocked. One swiped its sword below him and he jumped to avoid it, pushing back the two that he blocked and stabbing them in the chest. The last two jumped and stabbed at him only for the hellhound to use his daggers to slide the stabs away from him and behead them. He then rolled down and cut through the last angel of the group who tried to block but had its guard broken through.
Moxxie watched, astonished. "Who are you?" He asked.
"Oh crap," he turned to Moxxie, "forgot to introduce myself. My name is Poch. That's P-o-c-h Poch. You are?"
"Uh, Moxxie."
"Well," Poch swung his red blade, making a red tear where he swung, which also appeared in front of Moxxie, who jumped back in surprise, and struck his hand through, which came out the other portal, "pleased to meet you." Poch said.
"Uh, same." Moxxie took the hand and shook before it reached back and the tear closed. He heard loud thumps and felt the ground shake. Approaching them were two large Angels, both muscular, wearing chest armor with no shoulder pads, one wore blue, the other wore red, and black skin tight under armor pants. The rest of them were pure skin and they wore helmets that covered their face. The red one wielded a large hammer, the other a battle axe. "Oh fuck!" Moxxie yelled in fear.
"Big guys, huh? Step back a bit, Moxxie." Poch told the imp.
Moxie did so and the barrier went with him.
The red armored angel ran up to Poch and swung its hammer to the side. Poch jumped and swung both blades down on its face, getting one of its eyes. The angel screamed in pain and raised its hammer up high, swinging down to Poch. Poch dodged to its left and it responded by jabbing at him with its left fist, only for it to get one of Poch's daggers slit up its arms from underneath, and then cut in the chest.
While Poch was cutting at the angel, he wondered where the other one went. He got his answer when he looked up and saw it flying above him, getting ready to plummet. "Ah, good idea." He remarked, cutting the red Angel's right knee, making it kneel. The blue angel then plummeted down towards Poch.
Poch smirked. He brought up his right hand and stuck out his index and middle finger. He began to write in the air black words that had a white hazy outline. He wrote Xțøæß. "Taurus." He said as the words broke and his shadow rose. The broken words went into the risen shadow and the shadow rose up higher and changed shape.
The shadow stretched up high and formed the top of a bull with a large pair of strong arms with bangles on its wrist, big wide horns, and a big ring in its sharp snout. Its lower half was a tendril that connected to Poches feet. Poch swung his arm up and the bull followed, punching straight through the Angel's chest. He then directed its other arm to grab the face of the red angel and crush it.
Both angels became limp and lifeless. He swung his arm to the side and the bull did the same, swiping the angel off its arm. The pull then melded back into Poch's shadow.
"What was that!?" Moxxie asked.
"That was Taurus." Poch said, turning to Moxxie. "It's one of my Shadow Demons."
"Shadow Demons?"
"I'll explain later." Poch ran up to Moxxie and jumped over him, slashing a few angels that were flying to the imp.
Moxxie could help but watch in awe as the hellhound killed angel after angel, their corpses turning into jeweled and plain rings after a few moments. From time to time he saw Poch use his red daggers to make rifts to go through and appear from in another area to throw the Angels off guard. He wondered how to tell Millie this.
"Millie….oh shit! My phone!" Moxxie yelled out
"Huh?" Poch looked at him confused.
"I dropped my phone earlier! I was calling my wife before you showed up!"
"Oh, well we should probably go get that. Follow me." Poch led the way down the alleyway where he met and saved Moxxie. "Any idea where you dropped it?"
"Well I was up against a wall when one of the Angels cornered me, so maybe there." He looked at the wall and saw three piles of gold rings, two against the wall and one a few feet away from it.
"It's probably between those two piles of halos." Poch mentioned, pointing between the two piles on the wall.
"Halos?"
"Those golden rings the Angel's corpses turn into."
"I thought that halos were above the head."
"Not unless they're here in hell. Something about the environment."
Moxxie made his way to the wall, only for the barrier around him to push him back when contact was made.
"Oh right. The barrier. Uh, just tap that marble on your chest." Poch instructed Moxxie.
Moxxie did so and the barrier disappeared. He walked between the pile of halos and began rummaging through them. "Cmon, cmon, it's gotta be here somewhere." He heard the slashing of blades and the thuds of corpses behind him, no doubt meaning Poch was killing angels. "Where is it?" He heard ringing and followed it, digging up where it was emanating from. He found his phone under a pile of rings and pulled it out, seeing that Millie was calling. He hit answer. "Millie?" He called into the phone.
"Moxxie! Oh I'm so glad you're ok!" She cried out in joy and relief
"Yea, I'm fine. This hellhound saved me!"
"A hellhound saved you?"
"Yea, he's killing all the Angels, it's amazing!"
"Moxxie did you hit your head?"
"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true! Here I'll show ya!" He started a video call and pointed the camera at Poch decapitating a large Angel.
"Holy shit!" Blitzø commented.
Two huge cubes fell in front of them, they were golden with silver tailings on it, light pulsing on the trails.
"Moxxie? What's that?" Millie asked.
"No idea. Poch? What's that?" Moxxie asked
"A pain in the butt." Poch answered.
Blocks came apart from the cube, the blocks shifted and changed into the blocky shape of bees. They buzzed towards them as more blocks came off the cube and changed into bees.
"This is gonna be annoying." Poch stuck out his hands and wrote X+ßøœ in the air. "Shiva!"
The letters sucked into his shadow and it broke apart and an army became sharp fragments. Posh waved his hands and the fragments came together and became two large upper bone arms with two forearms sticking out of each elbow. The four hands that appeared had broken tips on each finger.
Poch pointed at the crowd of bee blocks and shards of shadow bones fired from its tips, hitting and destroying the blocks. The bee blocks were being easily dispatched as the shadow bones were losing volume, not as much as the cubes though.
"What the fuck was that!?" Blitzø cried out, enthralled by what was happening.
"I don't know!?" Moxxie responded.
The last block was destroyed and Poch's shadow demon reverted back to his shadow. "That was easy….too easy." Poch remarked.
"Hey Moxxie!" Blitzø called, getting Moxxie's attention, now facing the camera. "See if you can bring that guy back to the office!"
"What, why?" Moxxie asked
"Because I wanna-" Blitzø was cut off by an angel breaking out of the wall behind Moxxie.
The angel had four arms, four wings, a white toga, and a green orb for a head with a white dot on the front that acts as its eye. It wielded two axes in its upper arms and its lower arms had knuckle busters equipped.
"Shit!" Poch yelled as he dashed towards Moxxie.
The angel scissors it's axes towards Moxxie. Poch quickly tried to write in the air. Moxxie reeled back, closing his eyes, bracing himself for impact.
Right before the axes made contact, the angel was stabbed through its chest by a large black blade. Holding the blade was a large black wolf, four times Poch's size, with fully white eyes and no pupils. A trail of shadows connected itself to Poch's feet.
The wolf swiped up and cut its upper body in half. The angel fell to its knees and leaned back.
Moxxie opened his eyes and saw the wolf cut the angel in half. He heard the blaring sound of the sirens and the tears in the sky closing. Moxxie smiled widely. "I survived!" He cried out. He turned to Poch and approached him. "Thanks for sa-"
"I didn't need you, Klarna!" Poch glared at the wolf.
The wolf looked back at him, giving a blank stare.
Poch sighed heavily and waved it off, having it melt back into his shadow. He sheathed his blades into the holsters strapped behind his hip.
"Uh….you ok?" Moxxie asked
"I'm fine….you?"
"I'm alive thanks to you." He took Poch's hand. "Thank you!"
Poch smiled. "Let me lead you home."
"Thanks." Moxxie remembered something. "Oh wait!" He went to the alleyway wall, climbing over the halo pile that the angel from earlier turned into, dug through the smaller pile on the wall and took out a box. "Alright let's go."
"Hey!" The imp from earlier walked up to them. "Shelly and Dundy are already gathering up the halos, what's your final count?"
"Twenty eight regular ones, four big ones, and two devices." Poch answered
"Damn. Second place for me."
"Who's in third?
"Shelly."
"Dundy takes last? Ouch."
"Um?" Moxxie announced.
"Oh right. Taking you home." Poch said to Moxxie.
"Can I come?" The imp asked. "I got second place, so I'm not on pick up duty."
"Sure, Jack." Poch faced Moxxie. "Moxxie, this is Jack. Jack, Moxxie." He introduced the two imps to each other.
"Pleasure!" Jack took Moxxie's hand and shook it.
"Uh...same." Moxxie responded
"Now that we're acquainted, let's roll."
Back at I.M.P., Blitzø was pacing around and Loona was on her phone, but still showed concern. The call Millie had with Moxxie was dropped when that angel crashed through the wall.
"Oh I hope he's ok!" Millie said worriedly.
The door opened and Moxxie walked in. "Hey guys!" He greeted everyone.
Millie tackled him. "MOXXIE!" She cried out.
"Hey Millie!"
"Oh I'm so glad you're alive!"
Blitzø approached them. "Don't you dare scare us like that!" He yelled.
"Sorry." Moxxie handed Blitzø the box. "Here."
"My package!" He yanked it out of his hands. "Alright, you're forgiven."
"To be fair, the Cleansing wasn't supposed to happen today, and it was short." Jack said, walking in.
"Anyone look into that? It was really weird." Poch asked
"Well-"
"DOF!" Poch was tackled by Blitzø.
"You're that hellhound from earlier!" Blitzø stated, standing on Poch's stomach.
"Uh-huh!" Poch said, losing some air.
"How could you fight the Angels? What was that thing that came out of your shadow? Are you working for anyone?"
"Alright alright," Jack moved Blitzø back off of Poch, "let the hellhound have some air." Poch breathed in and Jack Helped him up. "For your first question, we're exterminators. We kill Angels on Cleansing days. Second, that shadow monster was one of his shadow demons, something we exterminators have. Thirdly, no, we are not working for anyone."
"We? I didn't ask about you!" Blitzø said to him.
"Well one more exterminator wouldn't kill ya. I killed like twenty angels."
"Normal?" Poch asked.
"Normal."
"I did see him take down a few angels." Moxxie said.
"Wait, you're trying to hire these guys?" Loona asked.
"Of course!" Blitzø answered.
"Wait, hold on," Poch started, "what does this establishment do?"
"Have you not seen our commercial?" Millie asked.
"No."
Blitzø gasped and ran off.
"Where's he-" Poch was cut off when Blitzø came rushing in with a tv on a cart.
"Have a seat!" Blitzø said, shoving them into a chair. He grabbed the remote and turned on the tv, starting the commercial.
The commercial ended.
"Catchy jingle." Jack said, wearing some popcorn.
"Ye- wait, Where'd you get the popcorn?" Poch asked.
"Found it."
"What?"
"So," Blitzø got their attention, "whaddya say!?"
Poch and Jack looked at each other before looking at Blitzø. "Sure." They said in unison.
"Great! Let's have you start tomorrow!"
"Well be here, boss." Jack stated.
"Now if you'll excuse me," Blitzø took his package and left for his office, "I got something to do."
Moxxie and Millie approached Poch.
"Poch, was it?" Millie asked.
"Yes?" Poch answered.
"I wanna thank you for saving my little Moxxie!" She hugged him.
"Uh, no problem." Poch hugged back, smiling.
"My name is Millie." She said, pulling back, shaking his hand.
"Millie, got it."
"This Is our hellhound, Loona." Millie motioned to Loona.
"Hey." Loona waved.
"Hi. Loona, Millie, Moxxie, I'm Poch, as you know, this is Jack." Poch introduced Jack.
"Sup." Jack greeted. His phone buzzed and he checked it.
"I have some questions." Moxie said.
"It's gonna have to wait. Poch." Jack turned to the brown hellhound.
"Yeah?" Poch answered.
"We gotta go. Shelly and Dundy have our halos."
"Shelly and Dundy?" Moxxie asked.
"Friends of ours, gotta go!" Jack dragged off Poch.
"Well they seem nice!" Millie stated.
End.
Next chapter: starting day.
Poch, Jack, Shelly, and Dundy are all my original characters.
The rest belong to Vivziepop