The Skittering Chaos (Worm/Hazbin Hotel)

The Skittering Chaos Chapter 14

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“You are looking at about twenty guys coming your way in vans,” I inform the team at the apartments, relaying the information that Moxxie and Millie had given me. While I have a decent amount of biters, I’m using them to watch for reinforcements from the alleys. I’d already taken out a few scattered groups of Crimson thugs who were running towards us, ambushing them from alleyways.

At the same time, I continue to use my bugs to identify enemy combatants in both areas of operation and use fireflies I’d possessed to indicate hostiles. One advantage that the apartment team had over the warehouse team was that I’d focused more of my fireflies in that direction. Most of the walls were thin drywall and didn’t actually provide much more than concealment. As such, I’d started indicating with my fireflies where to shoot through the thin walls to eliminate the enemy combatants.

“Copy, we’ll find a place that’s nice and defensible for us to hold out in while the girls get out, Mary Anne, Archie, get these girls moving, we got more incoming!” the leader of the apartment team orders while the two imps nod and continue to help the various slaves up to the roof. There they would move across a roof to a neighbouring building and get loaded into the vans they brought.

With the bugs I have on Felix and the others in the warehouse team, I feel them move up towards the office. The gunfire there has fallen enough that I can finally speak. As I am about to speak, however, I feel something going on inside of the office. Of the four people inside of the office, I can feel one getting picked up. I don’t have enough bugs on them to properly determine their movements as I’d kept my bugs on the more immediate threats, and it was taking a bit of time to traverse the air ducts with my bugs.

“There are four enemies inside of the office, I can sense something going on inside with magic but I don’t know what. Some Crimson reinforcements are coming your way, three vans of men,” I tell them before Moxxie’s voice comes through from the phone.

“I’ve got eyes on the reinforcements, I’ll try to thin out the ones heading to the warehouse first,” Moxxie says. With all the advantages the apartment imps had, not only the drywall situations but also the fact that they were veteran militiamen, they will likely fare better against the reinforcements than the green horns at the warehouse.

“Is Uncle Lars alright?” I hear Felix ask as they enter the metal box entrance. As I pull together many of my bugs near the area form a bug ball by Lars to ask about his condition, I can feel with some of my bugs on them that the imp that was left to help Lars is slowly helping him to his feet.

“Are you alright Lars?” I ask through my bugs. He, however, just waves at my bugs.

“Ye-” is as far as he gets before he starts hacking and coughing.

“He’ll be alright, he just got his arm shot up, and maybe a few broken ribs, but he’ll be fine I think,” Beth says, answering for her uncle who just nods his head. Satisfied, I report back to Felix.

“He will live, the shot possibly broke some ribs and his arm is injured, but he’ll live,” Felix sighs in relief while his cousin Lloyd chuckles. As he does so, however, the magic of one of the thugs starts increasing rapidly. It feels almost like the man assuming a demonic form, but not quite. I can’t quite figure out what is going on magically, but as more bugs enter the room and latch onto the thugs, the one man seems to be sucking on some of the men’s necks after he’s already snapped their necks and bit into them. I hadn’t exactly been sure what he was doing, but from the feeling with the magic- He’s started to move.

“One enemy in the office remaining, watch out, incoming from the office,” I say through my bugs but I can already feel how much more powerful the magical signature of the last remaining thug was. I reach into my coat and pull my gun from it, flicking off the safety. I look at Skidmark and Squealer who look up in surprise as I pull my gun out.

“Warehouse is going FUBAR, we need to get there now,” is all I need to say before the two nod, grab their guns, and start moving towards the van that had brought the robot in.

“How many of their reinforcements have you taken out?” I ask the sniper team.

“Hell yeah! That’s my Moxxie,” I hear Millie cry out before Moxxie answers.

“I’ve taken care of one of the vans, the other two swerved onto the back streets and are heading for the warehouse, there are still three heading for the apartment, should I focus on those?”

“Things at the warehouse went FUBAR, take out as many heading for the apartments as possible, we’re not likely to be able to help if things go to shit there as well.”

“Copy that, I’ll focus on the other reinforcements,” Moxxie says as I feel his sniper with one of my bugs shift towards a spot closer to the apartments.

“So we still doing false flag shit?” Squealer asks and I nod.

“As much as possible now that we’ve got to get involved, come on, hopefully they’ll think we’re vigilantes,” I say as I hop into the back of the van with Skidmark. Skidmark himself is loading metal balls into his cannon as the truck starts and Squealer hits the gas, barely waiting for us to get in. With a biter, I identify some of the trucks moving in towards the warehouse and move some bugs towards the vans and closer to the warehouse.

The two Crimson vans move in, stopping right beside where the three gangsters had been shot up by Cherri’s new robot.

“Stop before turning the corner, we’ll get out there,” I tell Squealer with some bugs in the front. Following my instructions, a few seconds later the van lurches as Squealer brakes. I wait a moment for the van to slow, my bugs growing more agitated as I can feel with my bugs the one imp, Lloyd, being used as a club against the rest..

I jump out of the van and hug the building as I move up, my gun out in front of me as I use my bugs to mark each of the emerging Crimson gang members, bugs for each of their limbs and their torso. Interestingly, on the torso bugs as they move around, I can feel various grenades on bandoliers of the men coming out. Maybe I should get my bugs to try to pull their pins? I’m about to round the corner, however, it would take too long.

Instead, I take aim at the first gang member’s head as I approach the corner, then fire as I turn it. I barely even think as muscle memory takes over, and I line up my shots with each of the bugs I have on their heads. I fire twice more and two more go down before even reacting to the first shot. I line up my next shot with two of the bugs and fire, feeling two of the gangsters fall like puppets with their strings cut. I move to do the same again with my fifth shot. I fire into another gangster, and hear a clang as the bullet hits the side of the truck. I feel the next gangster behind the truck go down but my bug on his head isn’t injured. The truck’s wall likely altered the course of the bullet.

I don’t have time to ponder as I take a step out, and fire at a gangster who accidentally steps into my body’s line of sight. With the bugs I have on the dead I have them come together to start pulling the grenades from them, and towards me. I can feel the gangsters moving now, trying to get behind the cover of their vans. The bugs are taking too long, so I bend a little and reach down with my lower set of arms. I remember how Angel had been able to pull weapons from his little hammer space, much like Circus had. As I touch a grenade on the bandolier, I try to mimic it, and I can feel the grenade in the back of my mind, somewhat like when I pull my arms into myself. I slide my hand across the bandolier and pull in the various grenades on them. I begin to move along the side of the building as Skidmark catches up to me.

“Damn bitch, you work fast!” he says and I ignore his comment. I pull on one of the grenades and look down to see a smoke grenade. Useful, especially since I’ll hopefully be the only one that can sense through the smoke. I pull the pin on the grenade and underhand toss it forward to the front of the van. There is a small pop and smoke billows outwards from the thing quickly making an impregnable cloud. I walk into the cloud, using both my antennae, bugs, and a hand on the van to navigate it while I keep my gun trained on one of the gang members that’s in front of the van. Two shots left, six enemies to go.

In the warehouse, I can feel the thing finish off with those in the metal box, and move to one of the exits. Hopefully the robot is enough to deal with the big guy, but with how it didn’t even flinch at all the fire that the imps in the box had poured into it, I didn’t have my hopes up. Damn, I should have empowered their weapons like I had my own. We might not have taken so many casualties.

Finally around the van, I snap off two shots, first into the closest gangster’s head and then another into one of the gangsters heading to the front of the second van. The two go down as those before. I feel Skidmark move up to the van and I form another little bug ball, pulling them from some of the grenades I'd been hoping to snatch.

“They’re behind the second van, two behind the mid section, two behind the engine block. I’ll hit the ones behind the engine block, you hit the ones behind the mid section,” I say to him as I pull back and reload my pistol. Then, once more I move forward towards the second van while still in the smoke. As I disperse my bug ball, I have them join the others again in trying to pull grenades from each of the gangster’s bandoliers. As I reach the edge of the smoke, I feel one of the gangsters begin to reach for their own grenades. I take aim at the arm and fire. The bug that was on the hand is jerked off before I fire again at the gangster, this time aiming at the bug on his head, before with another step I have a shot on the second gangster and I blow his brains out as well.

Skidmark himself moves around the van and doesn’t even aim when he starts firing at the thugs. He just sticks his cannon around the van and starts wildly firing his metal shot-puts. The cockroach demon can barely keep a hold of his gun as the metal balls slam into the gangsters. The smell of blood intensifies as I smell a lot of it around the other side of the vehicle while I can feel my bugs get thrown off by a tide of fluids. Skidmark makes his way around the vehicle now and properly aims at them, putting another of his metal balls into their skulls. As I start to head towards the warehouse, I aim back and fire at the gangster that went down after my shot penetrated the van. Despite how he hadn’t been moving, I’d rather not have any nasty surprises. I form another bug ball near Skidmark.

“Form up on me, I’m moving up on the warehouse,” I say before I move onto Squealer.

“Bring the van up to the main entrance of the warehouse; Skidmark and I are moving up.”

I reach down and suck in a few more of the grenades that my bugs bring me along with some that the one behind the first van had. I had prioritized smoke grenades with my bugs while the one gangster had all kinds of grenades. Drawing out a smoke from the other space, I pull the pin on it, toss the grenade forward, and move in. I can feel lots of electronics starting up in the area, and with some bugs and a biter I have around, I can see and sense that people are recording what is going on. Some had started earlier, while others had taken longer, but like with most of the idiots in the living world, they couldn’t help but try to record the various violent struggles that occured. Thankfully, the one apartment building was abandoned and there was some kind of bridge for a train on our left, obscuring any kind of vision from that way. The only places where Hell’s inhabitants could get a proper picture of us were some apartment building windows down the street that lead to the warehouse, and I’d already smoked the street to get us across, hopefully unseen.

I feel the van moving up as I run into the next cloud of smoke while crossing the street. I can feel the robot being stomped on by the big guy. Skidmark is moving around the smoke near the tracks towards the imps that had been smacked out of the warehouse. From the bugs on them, they are doing marginally alright as they start to pick themselves up from where they’d been tossed. Already they’d started scrambling for their guns. Seems their demonic regeneration was working wonders as usual.

I emerge from the smoke at the entrance of the warehouse. I can see the massive red man that the imps inside had been screaming about. He is hulking, and his muscles bulge as I take aim at him, lining up my shot with the bugs I have on the front of him. I fire three shots, each finding their mark along the beast’s spine. He shrieks as he winds up, a hand across his back. Seeing an opportunity, I fire into the man’s skull one last shot before my pistol’s empty. The man, like a beast, merely reacts and turns my way, and suddenly I realise that I know him, or rather, of him.

The Crimson gang had recruited Crimson, a previous member of the SlaughterHouse Nine into their ranks. He looked exactly like he did when he had been alive. His tongue lolled out from his mouth, his skin bulged with power, and with my magical senses, his presence was significant, like combining six different regular demon’s powers together into a single person. He roared as I loaded another magazine into my gun, spit flying everywhere.

And then I shot him repeatedly in the face.

He hadn’t actually died that easily, the moment my magazine entered the gun he’d tried to dodge and weave, putting his hands in front of his face, and trying to side step. My bullets into his spine, however, seems to have slowed him down. My bullets quickly ripped through his hand, and as he shifted, his hand moved out of the way of his face, and I had a clear shot. I can see blood dripping from his hand and his face where the bullets hit. One eye is a ruined bloody mess, his engorged tongue had burst, and blood dripped liberally from his nose where a bullet had smashed into it. His remaining good eye stares at me with wide astonishment, seemingly stunned at how my gun could do so much damage. Without giving him another moment, I load another magazine into my gun, and fire again, shifting my aim and my bugs to let me hit some of the softer targets on his face. With his hand out of the way, the magically accelerated bullets slam into his face, hitting more and gouging deep holes into him.

Now blind, he wildly charges in my direction as I continue to fire upon him, aiming directly for his ruined eyes as he charges. Just as he gets close, I sidestep and hit him with a blast of magic, destabilizing him as he falls to the side, his hands flailing around wildly as I continue to dump shot after shot into his face, reloading rapidly as I continually dump my bullets into him as he tries to no avail to avoid the onslaught of magically accelerated and silent bullets being driven deeper and deeper into his skull. Finally, he falls limp as my bullets penetrate the magically enhanced bone of his skull, and turn his grey matter to mush.

His face is a blood mess as he lays limp on the floor of the warehouse. Magic rapidly flees him as he lies on the floor, his form morphing quickly to that of a mere human. I raise an eyebrow as the dead man looks exactly like a human. He wasn’t like Squealer, who was some kind of latex doll demon with a form built for explicit things. This was a regular human body, not only that, but from my magical senses, Crimson barely had any magic at all. In fact, as I look to the imps, who already had such pitiful magical reserves, he was an order of magnitudes lesser than even them.

I swap out a magazine and slot in a fresh one. I need to get a bigger gun if I am going to keep running into brutes like this. First the beetle and now Crimson, not to mention that unlike in the living world, both the law enforcement and the gangs had armoured vehicles with thick armour plates and enough firepower to rival a tank. I think of some of the guns that I’d picked up, perhaps I should upgrade one, or maybe even a few of them with the same thing I’d done to my 1911.

I hear the van drive up from outside, and see a quartet of imp faces pop up from around a stack of crates. I recognize Lars among them, still breathing hard, his arm hanging limply to his side from where the shotgun blast had peppered it.

“Come on, lets get whoever’s hurt into the van, we can grab the loot after!” I shout to them. I can feel Skidmark and the two boys who’d been smashed with Crimson’s improvised imp club following along, clearly in a bit of pain but compared to some like Felix, doing alright. I turn to Skidmark, the two imps, and see Squealer getting out of the vehicle as well. As I turn, I begin to transform into my larger demonic form, growing larger as I look to the fallen imp, Lloyd.

With my larger form, I gently slide my arms along the ground, making sure to keep Lloyd’s neck almost absolutely still as I slowly begin to lift the tiny imp. Even if we can’t die down here except with angelic weapons, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be cautious, and the boy looks far far worse for wear. His nose was broken, blood drizzling from it, while his eyes were shut in pain. Some of his pointy teeth were gone while a horn was also broken off. The boy makes a pained groan as I lift him as gently as possible and begin to move him to the van as Squealer opens up the back, giving me a spot where I can put the poor imp.

All the while things are going smoothly by comparison at the apartment building. The paramilitary imps haven’t been able to clear the whole building, but they have set up in defensible spots by the stairs on the second floor where there is a thin wall they can shoot through with their guns. I have enough fireflies over there to be able to point out targets even if I lose some of them from the imps firing through my bugs into the backs of the Crimson Gang members. Perhaps I should have assigned the less experienced group to the slave apartments and the experienced group to the warehouse, and then maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

But hindsight is always twenty twenty, I think as I slide Lloyd’s broken and battered form into the back of the van. One of the two imps who’d been with Lars is bringing over the female imp who’d been smashed into the wall while another moves to help Felix, picking him up to move as well. Another imp, whose foot was shot because he was standing too close to the robot, starts hopping on over to get into our make shift ambulance. Lars moves to help the one hopping on his one foot while the two, Squealer, and Skidmark are looking around for more casualties.

“Upstairs in the metal box, follow me,” I say as I start moving towards the stairs. As I do, I might as well figure out the situation. “Moxxie, Millie, anybody coming this way?”

“Not from the looks of it, oh hey Moxxie, second sto-” the firing of Moxxie’s gun deafens my bugs for a moment before their hearing is back. Even with a suppressor on Moxxie’s sniper rifle, the thing was damn loud.

“Scratch one more,” Moxxie says as his wife giggles.

“Honey, you are adorable when you’re all serious, I could just eat you up! Now where was I? Oh yeah, nah, I ain’t seen no body coming your way, most of them are going towards the big fights over on the far side of their place. Lots of gunfire and stuff coming from over there,” Millie pauses for a second. I nod to the statement since I could hear the gunfire on the other side of the Crimson territory as well, though in the warehouse, it’s muffled to barely some pops. Then Millie continues, “Huh, they got,” another pause as I hear what could be some kind of detonation. “Well, uh, had a tank. Looks like it got blasted.”

“Thank you,” I tell Millie as we get up to the second floor of the warehouse. One of the imps following me moves to help his cousin who’d been smashed out of the box as we get closer and look inside. I frown as I see the carnage that Crimson had done to the last two imps that hadn’t been knocked out of the metal entrance way to the office area. Groans of pain come from there as they lie on the floor. I can see one of them had their arm smashed in by something, leaving it in an unnatural position. The other imp was bleeding heavily as if he’d been gored by some goat. Then I spot the other bit of Lloyd’s horn stuck in the imp’s midsection.

Remembering some of the first things we learned in the Wards about first aid, I don’t try to remove Lloyd’s horn from the wound but leave it in there as I gently pick up the imp. As I turn back to follow the others back to the van, I continue to command the bugs at the apartment. The Crimson gangsters were getting ready to try to retake the building while mustering on the ground floor. From the look of it, most of the girls had already been collected, and moving up onto the rooftop where they could get across to the other buildings that led to our vans.

Then a pair of Crimson thugs broke off from the main group and started heading into the basement. Curious, I move some more bugs into the building into the basement, and even a biter as well to look through a basement window. Remembering what I’d already mapped out in there, they could only be going to one location.

While mapping out the pens, I’d found that I hadn’t been able to get into one of the places in the basement of the apartment building. At first I assumed it was some kind of vault for money or something, though since they were only going for it now, it must be some kind of special kind of weapon or something to use in an attack, much like Crimson likely had been. Since we weren’t after loot in the apartment attacks, I’d been less concerned about it.

“So, what are we grabbing down here?” one of the demons asks while the other one moves his arm up to where the keypad is on the vault door.

“Power armour, and you’re going to help me put it on,” the lead demon said.

“Power armour?” the demon asks, apparently just as much out of the loop on the Crimson gang’s capabilities as I was if they had power armour. “Why can’t I wear it?”

“Because dumb ass, I’m in charge here, and the boss only wants those of us with the pass codes to these vault doors to use them,” the lesser thug nods as the lead demon pulls open the door. Oiled hinges barely making a sound as the two walk in. I move some bugs in to get a sense of the room. At the same time, I place the injured imp into the van.

“They’ve got power armour in the basement, how long until you finish up there?” I ask the lead imp in charge of the apartment raid.

“About five minutes, we’ve cleared most of the floors but we’ve got wounded girls here that we’re grabbing and moving as fast as we can.”

“You might not have five,” I say as I continue to observe the demons. With the other helping the lead demon, they are getting on the armour rather quickly. The thing, from what my bugs could figure out, was in pieces all over the small vault, with an exoskeleton standing in the middle while there were outfit bits all over with thick metal plates on them that were only a bit thinner than the robot’s armour at its thickest. Even after grabbing the heavier guns that the Crimson gang members had had in the apartments, the imps would have a tough time actually piercing that armour unless they hit a chink in it.

Though, now that I can sense the other side of the vault door, I can’t feel any kind of mechanism to open it up from the inside, and the gangster didn’t have to exert that much effort opening the door. As with most of the windows in the less affluent areas of Hell, the window is shattered and open to the outside. With my biter, I have it crawl in, and quickly drop to the floor before quickly having it scuttle over to the vault door. Pushing at the bottom corner, the vault door slowly begins to close on the pair inside, before quickly gaining speed as I keep having my biter push.

“Alright,” the voice of the gangster in powered armour says as he grabs the heavy machine gun inside of the vault, seemingly completing his outfit. “Lets go kick some-“

Then with a clang, the vault door closes on the pair. The two stare at the vault door for a moment before the lesser of the pair decides to ask.

“Uh… how do we get out?”

“Ah, fuck…” is the only answer the lead demon gives. Despite myself, I smile as I turn around.

“Nevermind, two more are gone and now it’s just the guys waiting downstairs. I’ll mark targets and you take them out,” I tell the apartment team before I begin to point out some of the loot that is going to be useful in the future.

As a measure to make extra sure that there wouldn’t be a problem, I start moving the bugs I still have in the vault between the various kevlar armour sections in order to gain access to the various grenades that were on the gang banger’s bandolier. From there, I get my bugs to collectively start pulling at the pin of one that vaguely reminded me of the shape of a pineapple.

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While I don't very much enjoy begging for comments, I would absolutely love it if I could get some feedback on this and these chapters, speculation, anything really, or even critique.

 

The Skittering Chaos Chapter 15

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“And the Beast just showed up folks to fight the vigilante raiders, and he’s already smashed, one, not three, no, five vigilantes! But, what’s this! One of the vigilantes actually managed to stand up to the guy,” The shrill female news anchor’s voice comes through the radio.

“What a great fight we have going on right now, everyone is pulling out the stops on this fight folks, we got flanks, tanks, and even the big guns showing up, now remember, if you’re listening and are missing the fight, don’t forget we post all these fights online at 666news.hel,” the male news anchor says, his voice muffled a bit as if he was wearing some kind of mask. There is a pause before the female news anchor speaks up again.

“This just in, we are receiving word that there were another series of attacks against the Crimson gang at the same time that the vigilantes attacked the gang as well. One shoot out happened around Hades station while another occurred around four hundred and ninety eighth avenue, both reportedly involving imp gunmen wearing suits while snipers kept overwatch… Ooooh, in addition, the firefight near Hades station also had on the imp’s side, an automaton!”

“An automaton? Well damn, looks like someone really has a bone to pick with the Crimson gang if they’re shelling out the cash for one of those,” the male news anchor chimes in as the van we’re in begins to slow down as we’ve arrived back at the warehouse. Some of the vans have already arrived before us and are parked along the street.

“Now, let’s go to the recording, remember, if you are listening to this rather than watching, you can watch full videos of the fights on 666news.hel,” the female news anchor says.

The van stops and I get out. We’d taken a few vans with us originally, one for the robot, and one for the people now. Sherrel drives as we sit in the back with the robot, much of the loot, and those few imps that weren’t hurt too badly. Lloyd, Lars, Felix, and a few others, however, were off to the hospital. The biter in my arms growls before I silence it, recognising how I’d pushed my reactions into those I control again. I let my bugs get agitated in my place however as I continue to pet the biter, trying to sooth my ire with myself.

Some might argue that it isn’t my fault, that I didn’t know that imps and other things born in Hell could actually die for good, beyond being sliced with an angelic weapon. I was new, and no one had told me. Yet despite that fact, this operation was my responsibility, and I’d fucked up. I hadn’t asked the right questions, and with the belief that none of us could truly die; I’d been reckless and overextended.

What if I hadn’t been there to help at the warehouse? What I hadn’t been able to shut the vault? There were so many things that could have gone wrong in the operation, but I’d made the decision to be reckless because I hadn’t had enough knowledge and hadn’t asked enough questions. I need to know more for next time, so that something like this doesn’t happen again. I may not know Lloyd, but hopefully he pulls through. Lars looked pretty worried, luckily enough, because of demonic healing, and the durability of demons, most of the imps were actually alright, if in need of a couple days of light duties.

I’ll know better for next time.

Adam drops down beside me along with some of the imps. The imps move slowly due to what is likely an incredible amount of bruising from getting pummelled and tossed around like that. There is a squelching sound beside me as someone drops a bag from the back of the van, a purple fluid dripping from the bag, a mixture of blue insectoid and red mammalian blood mixing into an indigo. Something I’d learned from Lars who had experience dealing with roving gangs of sinners, was that one of the ways of keeping sinners down for a while was to take off their heads. They would have to generate an entire body rather than just healing a bit of damage. It didn’t work for every sinner, but it’s a good rule of thumb according to Lars to just chop the head and keep it so that they wouldn’t be getting up any time soon.

We hadn’t gotten many heads, there were simply too many to do in a timely fashion, we hadn’t even gotten all of the loot, merely the most expensive things, along with a few crates of weapons. Crimson’s head, however, had been a must. The former cape had been a one man army both in life and death. Strangely, he wasn’t as tough as the rest of the various demons once he fell, his body being completely human, and as such, the imps hadn’t had a problem prying it along with a few of the other demon’s heads, off to stuff into the bag.

Turning from the imps, I move out from behind the van as Adam follows. We could grab the loot from the back later, then divvy it up between us all. Now, however, there were the former slaves to deal with.

Along the street people are getting out of vans, imps helping the former slaves who’d from the Crimson territory. Like the slaves that I’d seen a few days ago when I’d first began scouting out the Crimson gang, they were barely clothed, dressed in skimpy underwear that left little to the imagination. Some where better fed than others, while some were as skinny as sticks. Perhaps those ones had been more cooperative then? Wouldn’t surprise me if the Crimson gang used hunger to force people to do what they wanted.

I’d certainly learned that food was a powerful way of gaining followers and loyal minions. Back in Brockton Bay, all I’d had to do was to provide food for people to eat, help out a few residents, and establish my rules for my new territory and people had begun to follow my lead and work with me. After I’d shown I could defend them, they’d began to work with me happily, I’d earned myself a loyal community and outside of it, left behind by the PRT flocked to my banner.

“How much did we get out of that safe?” I ask Adam. While a majority of the money from the raid will come from the various goods we would be selling off, the vault that the warehouse had in it had contained a small fortune in cash.

“Couple ten k’s in a variety of bills, but I gave like half of it to Lars though to pay for Lloyd and Felix, why?” with my head, I nod toward the people getting out of their vehicles.

“Look at them, some of them are starving there, besides, we just pulled off a successful raid, why not celebrate a little?” I say, seeing the slowly widening smile on Adam’s face as he realises what I was asking.

“Sure, I’ll see what I can get, pizza alright?” Adam asks and I nod.

“I’m sure they’ll love it,” remembering how after some successful missions in the Wards, sometimes the rest of the wards would pitch in for a bit of a pizza party to celebrate and keep moral up. As Adam pulls up his phone to start ordering, I turn back to the former slaves.

Food, protection, shelter, and work. While the food would just be a start, most of them here would have issues getting the money to get these essentials due to having just been freed. We can offer to help them until they get their feet back under themselves, give them work since the main issue was mainly not enough workers to produce enough drugs, that, and with more employees, we could attempt to rapidly expand into other markets, perhaps using some of them to sell drugs, or maybe they will have a marketable skill from back on Earth or before their enslavement.

Protection will be the main thing that will keep these people down and with us, those that don’t wish to leave to start a new life outside of the city. Unless they live far enough away from Crimson territory, the gang might be on the prowl for them, and if they spot them, then there could be issues. With the Crimson Gang getting ready to leave, however, they should be abandoning territory enough that some of them could move back to their own homes if they’d been on the edge of the territory. For those that can’t go back home.

The place we’ve been preparing isn’t the worse building around. The walls and roof are intact, and there isn’t much in the way of rusted machinery that needs to be taken out. Sherrel and Adam had already been grabbing the various metal bits from over there to use for the reinforced armour on Sherrel’s baby months before I’d even died. As such, the few things still in there were mainly just scrap metal that some of the imps and I had cleared out when we weren’t tweaking the plan and preparing for the raid.

As I look back, I can see that people have begun to look my way, staring at me as I stand before them. Due to my demonic form, compared to everyone else I tower over them.

I hadn’t seen a reason to dispel it since it was barely even a drain on myself. Not only that, but a height advantage was beneficial for commanding authority. Narwhal had demonstrated that whenever we would work together. People would look to her first unless they had an established chain of command. Independents would look to the towering Canadian goddess as she gave out commands and helped them face off with S-class threats. The height also was a good confidence booster when talking to those smaller than you. I’d learned this after my growth spurt, and it might have also helped out the seven foot tall woman, her beauty likely helped as well. She could have been pulled straight out of a teenage boy’s wet dream. Plus, people with the knowledge that Narwhal was also naked under her force fields, likely left those in the know flat footed when speaking to her. All the stumbling with their words likely left Narwhal even more confident as she possibly amused herself with flustering people.

I’d certainly been distracted the first few times talking with her after discovering that.

Clasping my upper arms behind me while my lower arms keep hold of my biter and continue to stroke him, I stride towards the group of people arrayed before me.

“Imps, Sinners, fellow residents of Hell, and newly freed slaves,” I pause for a moment, seeing them all now turn to me. The people we’d rescued from the apartments perking up at that last bit. “Allow me to begin by first thanking the imps, without all of you none of this would have been possible to accomplish. Despite your mortality, and how you had no dog in this fight you volunteered to come to the aid of these people who’d fallen on hard times.

I would like to commend the apartments team, for making it through there without so much as a casualty, something that most trained PRT forces can’t pull off when clearing a building. Next the sniper team,” I look over to Felix and Millie, who perk up as I mention them.

“I didn’t work with many snipers when I was alive, but those I did work with, I was assured were the best snipers around, and you two were more effective, more efficient, and deadlier than them by a long-shot.”

“And the final group I would like to thank are the warehouse team,” I say as I look to those that came out of the vans behind me, battered, bruised, and walking with limps. “Up until Crimson there, despite having far more greenhorns among you, you were kicking as much ass as the apartment team, and even when things went to shit, you kept your heads on straight,” there are some smiles coming through despite the bruising and battering. I see one of the paramilitary imps slap a hand down on one of the imps from the warehouse, earning a yelp as the veteran congratulated the younger imp. Even so, the smiles were smaller, remembering the pummelling they got, and likely remembering what happened to Lars’ boy. At the same time as I speak, I see a black van drive up, various kinds of equipment are on the racks of the van while a few imps in some generic worker uniform hang off of it or are on top of the van as it drives closer and stops near the back of the crowd. From the driver’s side of the vehicle, I catch a glimpse of one of the largest imps I’ve seen so far as they get out, which would be around regular height really.

“Now, for the rest of you,” I say, now shifting my attention to the former slaves who are standing among the crowd of imps, watching as I congratulated the imps for a job well done. “You heard me correct when I said “newly freed slaves,” if you have a place to stay that is safe, or if you just want to leave here, you may do as you will. I will not force you, nor will I demand anything from you. Because, like some of you, not even one week ago, I to woke up, confused, naked, and disorientated. Were it not for a few charitable sinners, I might have ended up much like you.”

“As such, if you do not have a safe place to stay, or if you’re new to Hell and need a helping hand, you may stay with us,” I let things hang as I look over to the building beside us. “We are renovating this building here for your use, if you stay here, you will have shelter, food, and protection. If you wish for more, then work for us, and you will be well rewarded.” I hear the garage door for the Merchant warehouse begin to rise, with Adam and Sherrel driving out in Sherrel’s Merchant mobile.

“For now, however, we celebrate, to the Imps, for a job well done, and, for those we’ve brought back, to your freedom, and once Adam returns,” I say as I point to the Merchant mobile which was driving off, “we’ll have pizza,” I finally say while giving a smile. Some of the imps begin clapping and quickly others join in, whether for the pizza or for the impromptu speech, I don’t know. As I watch the crowd, I can already see some of the imps heading to their camper vans or their vehicles, and I see one or two grab a cooler from their vans. A small cheer rises up as I see beer starting to be passed out. I hear with my antennae some of the warehouse imps turn back to the van that has the loot in it. I know that one of the imps had grabbed a crate of liquor as his reward for the raid, so it seems that we’re well stocked for this. As people start moving towards the sources of beer, a large imp I’ve never seen before approaches easily able to differentiate her from the crowd. The imp held an air of formality about her as she walked forth with a wide smile adorning her almost beak like face.

Her hair was voluminous, rising up and following her horns as it came down behind her. She held a clipboard to her bosom, pushing it out a bit from her jacket into her shirt while her sheer stockings did little to hid the tone of her legs as she gracefully approached me despite her absolutely ridiculously high heels. Were it not for the large horns that had a kind of cow print to them, her red skin, and the tail behind her waving with each shift of her sizable, for an imp hips, she’d have looked like someone’s dream secretary that stepped straight out of the eightys.

“Do you make a habit of making speeches dear?” the new imp lady asks as she stops in front of me, looking to my demonic form.

“Mrs. Pictress from M.I.L.F.?” I ask, ignoring the question. The large imp woman’s smile grew.

“Yes dear, which likely makes you one of the Merchants, hmm? Rather strange way of going about getting yourself a nice stable of whores, most just prefer to just force them or break them, but generosity does have it’s perks,” Mrs. Pictress says.

“We are not planning on making them into whores, we make most of our money selling drugs and performing raids on undesirables,” I reply. To that Mrs. Pictress merely shrugs.

“Well you know what they say, never too late to expand into a new market, it’s what I did when I added corpse removal, fortification emplacement, and bathroom instalment to the things my company will do. Now, you said that you wanted to fix this building here?” Mrs. Pictress asks as she turns from me to the nearly empty warehouse I’d indicated previously.

“Yes, I was mainly thinking of getting the various utilities back up and running, as well as fixing up the rooms in the upstairs area so that people could actually use them.”

“Just that?“

“For now, we have to see how many will stay with us and want to help our little project out first.”

“Your little project?” the large imp asks as she turns to me.

“I want to improve this territory, and make it a place where when my friends in the living world die, they can live here, relax, and enjoy themselves. Instead of having to fight for their lives and lively hoods every day like we did back up top. I won’t be able to make a paradise, this isn’t Heaven and I’m not God, but I can do what I can, and make this a better place.”

“Ooo, big ideas and the will to make it happen, I like it. If you can make it happen, then I’d love to help you build this little utopia you’ve got planned. Anyways, I’ll get my boys to start moving the beds in first, and then we can get working on the upstairs, sound alright?”

“Sure.”

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“Looks like we’ll have about forty to fifty staying with us,” Sherrel said as we stand in a secluded spot inside of the warehouse that we are renovating. For now it more resembles a barracks, with small beds scattered about the place. The sinners and imps are mingling, happily munching on pizza and drinking merrily as they chat up the various former slaves. Some of them giggle and entertain their rescuers, while others preferred to chat with each other.

One imp had brought out a boom box and was acting as the DJ for the impromptu party, playing the songs he could find on Hell’s internet and taking special requests. In theme with the outfits that the imps were wearing, they’d put on some swing music and cleared out the middle of the floor to act as a dance floor.

“That many? I would have assumed that more of them would have had a place to stay, or even that some of them might want to get out of the city, possibly go with the imps,” I say, but Adam simply shrugs.

“Eh, still time for that, lotta guys and gals have been chatting it up, Hell, I seen a few couples sneak out for a bit after a few drinks, but a lot of hoes here only just arrived in Hell before they got snatched, and while some do have places to stay, most of the ones that were still around would either be in danger cause of one reason or another, or they used to live in Crimson territory until they couldn’t pay the protection fee or some shit like that,” Adam says as my frown deepens.

“I guess I had hoped that there would be less new comers to Hell for them to pluck, but with everything Zion did, and with more people dying every day,” I sigh for a moment before continuing. “I guess it was a bit unrealistic.”

“It isn’t just that though,” Sherrel pipes up, “We’ve also got some people that want to stay because they want to help out, and also some that were interested in whoring for us.”

“They don’t call it the oldest profession around for nothing, lotta cash in that shit for having a bit of fun, and some end up liking it,” I frown a bit more at Adam’s words, but only just. While I would prefer if the people we’d rescued had found something less demeaning to do, likely my feminist mother’s influence shining through me there, it is ultimately up to them if they wish to continue to prostitute themselves. At least I can make sure that they remain safe, and possibly arrange for a place for them to stay safe.

Though, am I really considering basically opening my own brothel just to keep some women safe? Then again, what was the alternative if they wanted to continue to be prostitutes? We could kick them out but then what was the point in even saving them? But then… Actually, what was the real issue with prostitution? It was a crime in the USA for moralistic reasons as far as I understood, but here, nearly every law based in morality has no ground to stand on here as morality has been abandoned for hedonism and vice. Actually, I don’t even know if there are any kinds of crimes in truth other than those that the rulers of areas create.

There was also the practical side to consider, such as the fact that prostitution is a lucrative prospect, and could boost our profits significantly if they decide to pay to improve their living situation, or just decided to pitch in money to help us. Then there is the fact that they will do it anyways, why not benefit and assist them rather than leave them vulnerable. If we do want to expand and develop the small amount of Merchant territory we have, then we will need that steady source of income.

“Seems like some will have to double up for now,” I say, shelving my thoughts which were slowly trying to justify pimping out the people who wanted to whore themselves out to instead focus on the bed situation. We’d only ordered about thirty five, having not quiet expected how many we would have to house. It shouldn’t be more than a day to order more beds and then receive them, but for now some will just have to make due.

As I try to ignore my justification of becoming a pimp, I notice Adam and Sherrel share a look with each other before turning to me once more.

“Anywho, I think the pizza is running out so we’ll just go and grab some more from the van, see you in a bit,” Adam says before the two push away from the wall. I say goodbye, then they start making their way through the crowd, leaving me to my own devices. Reaching down, I pull my phone from my pocket and open up the chat room for the vigilantes, checking up on how they made out in their own raid against Crimson.

Welcome to the “Earth Bet Capes” chat room!

[Mistakes Were Made] has joined the chat

[Lucksman] : Well look who it is, the lady of the hour, how you doing mistakes?

[Le Porc] : Bonjour Miss Mistakes, I am sure you are curious in how useful your information was, well let me say that it was highly useful.

[Mistakes Were Made] : I’m doing alright, just dealing with some things that have come up. @Le Porc Really? I’m glad that you managed to hit your targets. Did you manage to get both of them?

[Akuma Ree # 4457] : Indeed some did Mistakes-san, though some were more successful than others.

[Le Porc] : Yes, those that helped with the operation did rather well in making sure that most of the slaves got away, though we did lose a few trucks when the beast showed up and we had to make a tactical withdrawl. An unfortunate loss, but this is still a great victory for us. We even got back a few of us that had been captured before.

[Lucksman] : Makes me wish I’d been there to help, but I was on the other side of town when the info dropped, and traffic is fucking awful in this city. Almost makes me want to try to hang up the bow in order to try to get elected to some position or something to fix the roads.

[H34DP0PP3R] : that shit was crazy, fuckers had a tank! Hell, we had a tank, who the hell brought a tank?!

[Le Porc] : That would be my tank, some of my men were soldiers in the second world war for France, and so the recreated the tank they commanded during the war. @Mistakes Were Made We have you to thank for this victory Mistakes, were it not for your detailed information, and the enthusiasm of everyone that participated, we heroes have been remoralised and reinvigorated. I believe that we will be a thorn in the side of those who oppress and oppose us for many years to come!

[Mistakes Were Made] : I’m glad I could be of assistance. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to the slaves that were saved?

[Le Porc] : Fear not, I have taken care of them. Those who were a part of the cause rejoined whatever hero teams that they were a part of, or joined others. Those that wanted to join us did so as well, as for the rest; I’ve already made arrangements to ensure their safety and protection. They are already being moved to the safe haven I’ve arranged for them.

As I learn more about what is going on with the vigilantes, I feel Adam and Sherrel with my bugs come out of the van with Mimi following along, Adam holding onto something that isn’t a pizza box, and Sherrel is holding a box as well. Curious, I turn one of my biter lookout’s heads towards them, and see Adam holding a small cake, Sherrel holding a wrapped present box while Mimi snaps her fingers. I see the candles on top of it light up, all eighteen of them.

With my biter, I tilt it’s head in confusion as I watch them come into the warehouse. I can already see them with my regular body, and I put away my phone as I watch them approach, smiles spreading across their face as they look my way. Remembering to react with my actual body, I let the surprise spread across my own, and smile a bit as I see them come towards me.

I don’t really know how to react as they walk up, but their grins grow wider as Sherrel holds the present out for me, and I take it, for a moment, I just stare at the colourfully wrapped present.

“We thought that since you’ve joined us, and well, everything went to shit on your birthday, we thought we might as well get you a lil something both for your help, and everything you’re doing,” Sherrel says as she comes to the rescue, interrupting the awkward silence. I let my smile grow some more as I look to them.

“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do this,” I say but am waved off by Adam.

“Yeah but we wanted to, give you a bit of happiness and shit despite fucking dying and all the shit you went through with the golden dick head upstairs.”

“Plus, you did kind of save the world, and while it doesn’t really affect us, it’s well, kind of heroic, and I mean, you should be able to be a bit happy, both for your birthday and also cause you did save the world. Heroes are supposed to get celebrations and stuff… not… well… what happened to you,” Mimi says. I appreciate her trying to avoid talking about my death, despite how other than my unfinished business, it didn’t bother me so much. I’d been so tired, and truth be told, not having the world on my shoulders like I’d felt back then, it was kind of refreshing. Not only that, but in the end, I actually know that I will be reunited with my friends eventually. I actually know that I’ll get to see them again some day, some like Alec, much sooner than the others, hopefully.

“Thank you,” I say finally. There isn’t really much else I can say. Looking down at the present, I have my fingers roam the colourful wrapping until I find the ends of the wrapping at the bottom, and do my best to keep from damaging the paper as I slowly pull off the wrapping, revealing an old shoe box. I open it up to reveal a thick book and a set of fine tools. Lifting up the book, I read the title.

The Complete Guide on Cottage Industry Silk Weaving, From Lingerie to Body Armour, by Lady Orb Weaver. Reading the title, I feel my bugs grow more energetic before I remember to allow my face to show my emotions, my smile growing larger as I read the title.

While I’d learned how to weave spider silk on my own at home, that had been when I’d had been able to just capture every spider in my several block radius and draw them into my house, using them to weave for me. Learning how to do it by myself, however, was proving to be somewhat awkward, especially when I could produce my own silk and it came in such abundance. Perhaps if I’d taken to knitting or something like it when I was younger I would have a better idea on how to have my body weave the silks. Then again, I hadn’t had time for anything but school work, and spending time with the girl I had once considered my sister.

Finally, I look up smiling at them, and all I can say is “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I saw how you’ve tried to weave with your silk the last few days, so I thought that this would make a good gift, plus, you had a great costume for a new cape, better than all of ours, and we were veterans,” Sherrel explains as Adam nods.

“Well now, I think it’s time for your cake, and you know what that means” he says, holding the cake up higher while a mischievous grin spreads across his lips. By now, I’ve noticed that we’ve caused a bit of a scene, with imps and sinners looking to us as they notice the small birthday celebration going on with the cake and present. Rather than show my embarrassment, I let my possessed biters express it for me around our territory, hiding their faces as I keep my body from reacting.

As Adam, Mimi, and Sherrel start singing, the crowd begins to join in as well as in the celebrating. I can hear a few of them slurring the song and giggling at their screw ups. As the song comes to and end, some people who are far too drunk start cheering as I blow out the candles.

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And there we go, another chapter for people to enjoy, hopefully it is to people's liking. If you enjoyed please leave a like, comment, or even a critique as I am not above making a mistake and I would love to improve my writing, Also, any speculation around on things? I'm curious to hear people's thoughts.