The Skittering Chaos (Worm/Hazbin Hotel)

Thread Necromancer · May 14, 2021

The Unicorn said:
If Felix's family lives on Wrath, what circle of hell are Skitter and Co. on now?

Skitter and co lives in Pentagram city which is in the Ring of Pride, I don't know if this is due to early series weirdness and will go away or if Vizi will stick with it but apperently all Sinners start off in the Ring of Pride, and supposedly never leave it, so I imagine there's some time and space buggery going on with how I.M.P. were able to drive to the Ring of Wrath from the Ring of Pride so quickly.

The Unicorn said:
Given the photo, if I was Taylor I would worry about that. If they have black powder cap & ball guns they'd be worse than useless for any sort of false flag operation (they'd make it blatantly obvious it wasn't anyone from the Raz family involved) and pretty close to useless as muscle.

I think this bit of thought came from some previous discussion on settlements in the wastes but Taylor hasn't done much research on things outside of Pentagram city, and as such likely doesn't know about the various issues settlements in the Ring of Pride out in the wastes have with basically starting with no technology and having to reinvent things from scratch if they can't find a major city. The ring of Wrath is different since they seem to have a significant amount of technology despite being country bumpkins so they've got things like shotguns, revolvers, hunting rifles, all in higher calibers, plus, unknown to Taylor, but Moxxie does have a pretty massive gun collection of modern weapons as shown in episode three.

The Unicorn · May 14, 2021

Thread Necromancer said:
I think this bit of thought came from some previous discussion on settlements in the wastes but Taylor hasn't done much research on things outside of Pentagram city, and as such likely doesn't know about the various issues settlements in the Ring of Pride out in the wastes have with basically starting with no technology and having to reinvent things from scratch if they can't find a major city. The ring of Wrath is different since they seem to have a significant amount of technology despite being country bumpkins so they've got things like shotguns, revolvers, hunting rifles, all in higher calibers, plus, unknown to Taylor, but Moxxie does have a pretty massive gun collection of modern weapons as shown in episode three.

Being "country bumpkins" won't make them dress like "banker or some fancy city folk from the late eighteen hundreds would wear."
If there's enough trade to have modern guns in the right calibers they wouldn't dress like they were in the late 1800s. Not at least unless they were rich enough to do stuff like that for fun.

stads · May 14, 2021

nice chapter thx for writing it
good to see taytay reputation with mastering spreading out me thinks she be forced into that at some point

Thread Necromancer · May 14, 2021

The Unicorn said:
Being "country bumpkins" won't make them dress like "banker or some fancy city folk from the late eighteen hundreds would wear."
If there's enough trade to have modern guns in the right calibers they wouldn't dress like they were in the late 1800s. Not at least unless they were rich enough to do stuff like that for fun.

Honestly, with the amount of guns that Moxxie pulled out in the third episode, either guns are extremely cheap, or his family is well enough off that they might just be that rich, because thinking back to the episode where we learn that Wrath is basically the American Mid-West if Hellified, he's the only one wearing old timey stuff, and in this fic, with everyone else just kind of dressing somewhat shabbily. Plus with how Moxxie hadn't really been very culturally similar to the people of Wrath seems to point to me that he's got some kind of rich parents as the culture of the average folk in Wrath doesn't seem to produce very often, as Striker puts it, "Soft thespian types." How it could just be the kinds of things that rich imps wear since every rich imp we see, Blitzo, Wally Wackford, and Moxxie, all seem to wear old timey suits and fancy wear from a different era than the current one and kind of stand out from the regular folk.

Also Moxxie's family here are the only ones dressed in the late 1800s banking attire while everyone else is in like jeans and plaid shirts and stuff like that, I'll have to edit it to properly point out that it is just Moxxie and his family that are dressed like that.

The Unicorn · May 14, 2021

Thread Necromancer said:
Also Moxxie's family here are the only ones dressed in the late 1800s banking attire while everyone else is in like jeans and plaid shirts and stuff like that, I'll have to edit it to properly point out that it is just Moxxie and his family that are dressed like that.

It was clear, but no need to edit that, however despite my acknowledging to myself that taylor could easily be mistaken about the cowboys being dressed in 19th century cowboy's "sunday best" clothes, I still assumed she was right and everyone in the photo was dressed in 19th century styles.
You could keep it that way and make it a big surprise/misunderstanding when the people actually show up, or make it clear that only a few were dressed in 19th cantury fashion.

About the guns, something I guess I wasn't clear about - my point about trade wasn't about the price of guns, but about the same guns/ammunition being available. If there isn't much trade it's still quite plausible that fashion in Wrath is to dress up like 19th century Americans did while having a modern arms industry. What would not be plausible is fir the two independent arms industries to make the same guns.

Thread Necromancer · May 14, 2021

The Unicorn said:
About the guns, something I guess I wasn't clear about - my point about trade wasn't about the price of guns, but about the same guns/ammunition being available. If there isn't much trade it's still quite plausible that fashion in Wrath is to dress up like 19th century Americans did while having a modern arms industry. What would not be plausible is fir the two independent arms industries to make the same guns.

From how it was described in the cartoon, it seems that the circle of Wrath actually supplies a majority of the food supply to the rest of Hell as commented on by Stolas in the latest episode, likely resulting in a significant amount of trade as the farmers, ranchers, hunters and others trade and sell their wares to the rest of the Hell. However the issue with certain guns is an issue, as a non insignificant number of imps will likely show up with hunting rifles, repeaters and things that just aren't likely to show up in the inner city that will need to be swapped out with something else. Double barrel shot guns and revolvers might be able to slip through unnoticed so long as it isn't something so obviously not from the city such as an old western revolver rather than a smaller one.

For those that might not have the guns needed to blend in, well, clunky 10mm pistols seem to be in style, might have to get a bulk order of those from Frederico.

TitaniumQuartz971 · May 14, 2021

Firearms seem pretty common in Hell, it's the ones that are made with melted-down Angel Weapons that are really rare.

The Unicorn · May 15, 2021

TitaniumQuartz971 said:
Firearms seem pretty common in Hell, it's the ones that are made with melted-down Angel Weapons that are really rare.

The point is that not all firearms are the same. Like clothes, everyone has them, but if you're trying to make an attack look like the Raz family you need to make sure everyone in the attack looks like they could be working for the Raz family.

Night Hunter · Jun 4, 2021

Say is this story colse to be updated?

Thread Necromancer · Jun 4, 2021

Night Hunter said:
Say is this story colse to be updated?

It is next on my list to update, I'm currently working on it while also thinking out the minutia of the current arc.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 16, 2021

The Skittering Chaos 13

I'm trying something new with the descriptions of people in this one to give the characters a better description, and would appreciate knowing if I did well.

Any and all feedback is highly appreciated

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My mental map grows as my various bugs and biters navigate the Crimson gang's territory. The rival gang's territory hadn't been immediately identifiable until my biters got further in. From there patrols of heavily armed demons, usually in squads of five began to appear. While some were on foot, more of them rode on motor bikes, hanging off of dune buggies or were in the back of pick up trucks.

Other than the occasional foot traffic, fewer people were on the streets that further into Crimson territory I scouted. Most who were still living in the inner parts of Crimson territory were holed up in their homes with curtains drawn so people couldn't look in. With the biters that had better senses, I had them scale upwards to the rooftops to get a better vantage point. Hopefully I might see where the various patrols are coming from. Maybe I can get an idea of the places of interest.

Slowly, as I watch the streets from all of my different eyes, I notice a few buildings which seem to have armed men and women entering and exiting. Using my meager swarm, I move my bugs in while some biters hop across the roofs and stalk the sewers toward the building.

My bugs trickle inside and I begin to map the warehouse, quickly finding the office and several sealed crates. Guards wander around the levels of the warehouse, passing the time in one way or another. With some of the holes in the crates, I move some bugs in to check the insides. As I trickle more bugs into the crates, I slowly get a clearer picture of the contents. Mostly guns in these crates, though a few of them have other odds and ends that are less identifiable.

"… man, what's biting at ya?"

"Fucking vigilante cunts, some of the fuckers hit the east side again."

I could set up nests in them, breed some more bugs, and have the larvae brought to me so that I could take control of them before sending them back. It would make a good back up plan for distractions if the raid backfired on us and we needed a lot of bugs to cover our escape. I'd started building some small nesting operations, but I'd yet to properly set up anything more than a hive or two in the sewers beneath the building. It was slowly beginning to resemble the set up I had made back home when I hadn't even gotten out heroing yet. There had been various chambers with different bugs so that they didn't fight too much. Sure there was some killing and fighting when I went to sleep, but it was rather minimal, unlike some of my earlier attempts at bug isolation back in the day.

"Which ones was it this time?"

"That one with the squid face dude."

"You were in that?"

"Yeah, fucked my motor so my buggy's fucked, but I still shot the fuck out of squidy, and blew the legs off of that gal they had with them with the turret."

"That was you who brought her in? Nice, had her last night, tight as a virgin," mentally I perk up as I hear this.

"You did? Where is she? I wanted to pay her back for the shit she did to my ride, but when I looked around the west pen I couldn't find shit," I place a few bugs on the two demons talking so I could track them.

One of my biters gets to the skylight of the warehouse, and I start looking down into it. The two that are talking are some kind of massive bug with a huge needle for a nose, likely a mosquito, while the other is some kind of wasp demon. The two of them are dressed similar to the videos I watched of the gang fights between the Crimson and the Raz family, outfitted in leather with metal studs and spikes in random areas on their jackets. Metal bits were strapped to random areas, mostly around their central mass.

"I'll take you to where she's at after the shifts over. Maybe the boss'll let you keep her," the wasp says. As I check the other boxes I note that there are more guns in them. Seems that this warehouse was acting as an armoury for the Crimson Gang. I move most of the insects out of the warehouse to start searching other buildings while I mentally mark the place as a possible target.

My bug make their way into the other buildings while biters continue to check the sky lights and windows, giving me a slowly growing awareness of the area as I continue to mark on my mental map of the points of interest, civilian housing complexes, and areas that could be hit indiscriminately like abandoned ruins and empty warehouses. There are a few garages around that hold armoured and armed dune buggies among other vehicles.

I could hit them there, if they decided to stay and fight it out with the Raz family as we hoped, then taking out their mobility could keep the Raz family from being initially overwhelmed if they weren't up to actually fighting the Crimson gang. The vehicles could also help out in figuring out the extent of the Crimson gang's territory, or what they considered their territory. The gang map that the news provided helped with determining their general area, but if what Angel said was true, then they're contracting inwards. I move more of my bugs into the garages and have them hunker down in some of the hollow parts of the vehicles so I could track and possibly even sabotage them later.

As I do that, something catches one of my biter's eyes, and I see what looks like a Crimson gang member on a balcony with some woman. From the distance, I can't see much but judging by the uniform skintone, the woman is likely naked, and from their movements, they're likely fucking. I start to move more bugs to the place in question.

From just the sounds alone that my bugs are hearing I can tell this place was one of their "slave pens." As my biters get closer I can spot a dozen or so guards around the building, manning the entrances. The exclamations and grunts tell me all I really need to know as I try to block out most of what I'm hearing to focus on the layout of the building. A few of my biters spot a couple of girls on a balcony, thankfully at least somewhat clothed compared to the one lady a few stories above.

"… alright?"

"I guess…"

"Hey I thought I told you to give me a straight answer, now, are you doing alright? Do you need me to handle this guy?" the two are silent for a moment before the second voice speaks again.

"Won't work… he just wants me. Carly already tried…"

"Shit…" there's a clink and the sound of a flame igniting before the first voice takes a long drag. "fucking bastards… hey, you hear that they caught more girls? You're no longer that newest."

"Woo hoo…"

"Yo Skitty you still there?" I hear Adam's voice and a blink as I focus less on my swarm.

"Yes Adam I'm here, I'd just been focusing on scouting out the Crimson gang's territory," I say as the three, technically four since Mark was in a stroller being pushed by Sherrel, of us walk across the street to our destination. While we could have taken the van to get to get here, after the incident with the two enforcers of the Raz family, we didn't want to push our luck that they would recognize Sherrel's mechanical baby.

Pulling out my phone and logging on to the vigilante group chat under a fake name, I watch as the chat goes by slowly.

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Welcome to the "Earth Bet Capes" chat room!

[Mistakes Were Made] has joined the chat

[Lucksman] : Hey mistakes, how's it hanging?

[Factory gal] : hey mis, never seen you around before, are you new?
[Mistakes Were Made] : Alright, how about you?

[Int-net-wiz] : Yeah she is, Le Porc verified her yesterday, no mention of her at all from my searches or from Le Porc's sources, said she was a combat thinker before shit it the fan and she got blasted by the big golden dick

[Factory gal] : You sure we can trust her? And how do we know she was really a cape, or even had powers?

[Lucksman] : Considering that we couldn't verify that you were a cape either factory gal, I wouldn't be throwing stones.

[Factory gal] : I told you guys my designs and what I made! I even went into detail.

[Int-net-wiz] : Sounded like a lot of technobabble from Star Trek to me

[Factory gal] : Fuck off wiz

[Lucksman] : Hey now, no need to fight now, besides, we're all here for you know what, plus there are a bunch of people who just want to help out that weren't capes in life either. After all, there's plenty of PRT guys who're willing to help out, and we also got others like Le Porc.

[Factory gal] : fat lot of good they did.

[gr0un6p0un63r] : the fuck you talking about?

[Akuma Ree # 457] : Sorry to intrude, but would you mind clarifying Factory-san?

[Factory gal] has been banned for (1 day) (Reason : Demoralisation)

[Int-net-wiz] : Sorry about that Akuma, Factory gal's got major beef with the PRT, some stuff happened when she was alive between her and them. Plus she was with the PC Protectorate before Satan glassed most of them.

[Mistakes Were Made] : I may have some information that could be useful to anyone who is interested in fighting the Crimson gang, I just have to verify some things first before I give out the info so that it doesn't end up like the disastrous attack on Valentino.

[Lucksman] : Alright, stay safe Mistakes.

[Mistakes Were Made] has logged off

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Seeing that things were going nowhere fast in the vigilante's private chat room, I say my piece and put my phone to sleep, having planted the seeds for a possible two prong attack against the Crimson gang. If the vigilantes were successful, they might be able to save the people on the other side of Crimson's territory, as well as draw the Crimson gang's response away from us

The place we were meeting Angel's friend as well as the Valentino girl was a café in the area by the name of Lilac's café. Apparently the girl that Angel arranged for us to meet loved going there before and after her shift on the corner she worked. As we enter, a curvaceous demon wearing a skimpy french maid uniform waves at us as we enter.

"Welcome to Lilac's~! I'm Lilac, anything I can get you?" the succubus asks as she leans over the counter, making it easy to stare down her shirt. I deliberately ignore her ample bosom in favour of her smiling face.

"We're supposed to meet a Cherri bomb and a regular by the name of Gina," I say. The demon lady nods and points to one of the corners of the café where a pair of sinners sit.

The cyclops was beautiful in a way similar to Aisha, extremely similar. A lithe feminine icon that would have people in the modern day fawning over her and turning heads left and right to get a look at her. She had the right assets in all the right places to fit that adored hourglass figure.

Yet, just like Aisha, her stunning beauty was covered up by a level of miss use and adherence to punk fashion that marred her beauty. With her fashion choices she turned herself from an elegant head turner into merely another trashy eyecatcher. Her hair was a mess of split ends and done up in a top knot that had half of her hot pink hair flowing down the side of her body while the rest of the hair in the top-knot trailed behind her. Her jeans were ripped to the point that I can't help but wonder how it stayed on while a strapless top threatened to fall were it not for the cyclops's breasts holding it up.

The other sinner was a towering bear woman who looked like she was sitting in a chair just a size too small for her. Where the cyclops was a model with the "impossible figure" all teenage girls dreamed of, the Urcine demon was like a sex idol from an age long past. She was comfortably chubby in a cuddly way like that of a teddy bear, and shaped in a way that was pleasant to the eyes with no odd lumps that might come from just built up fat. Her breasts were something from a teenage boy's, or flat girl's, wet dream. The furry globes of flesh were as large as a person's head and overflowing from the woman's own strapless top.

Unlike the cyclops, the bear's clothing spoke of an awareness of her assets and sought to advertise them off in a very deliberate fashion. She wore an open coat showing off her figure and large breasts nearly overflowing from her low necked shirt while skinny jeans hugged her shapely waist and thighs, advertising herself to any who would look upon her.

Between the two of them, only the cyclops was paying attention as we approach, and was playing with what looked like an old timey cartoon bomb dancing between her fingers while the bear woman taps at her phone. Judging by the bomb, the cyclops is Angel's friend Cherri Bomb, while the other is likely Gina.

"Just over there, would you like anything to drink? Maybe some tea or coffee?" I smile and nod. We order our drinks, black for Adam, tea for myself, and another coffee, this time a double double for Sherrel. Meanwhile, Sherrel could also provide for lil' Mark. With our drinks ordered we head to the corner of the café where the two sinners were.

"Well well well, look who finally showed up," the Cyclops said, drawing the attention of the bear demon to us. "Normally I don't like it when people do shit on my turf, but since you were fucking up some bitches that moved in, and you're friends with Angie, I'll let it slide."

I don't rise to the bait as I sit down at the table. As I do, the bear seems to do a double take as she looks at me. I can't help but notice the gulp that she tries to hide as she watches me. I notice Sherrel giving the Cyclops a hard stare as well, though considering how Sherrel had banned foul language from being anywhere near Mark, it made sense.

"Cherri bomb I presume?" I ask, partially for manners sake, and partially because I wish to be sure. After all, I wouldn't want to make a fool of myself just for assuming.

"That's right, and you three must be the Merchants, mind telling a girl next time you find vigilantes on my turf?" I'm about to nod before I stop and look to Adam and Sherrel to make sure I don't just make a unilateral decision for us. Adam just shrugs to the unspoken question while Sherrel is busy unbuckling Mark from his stroller to pull up to the table.

"We'll call you if we find them in your territory, though, would you mind not swearing?" I ask, drawing a snort from Cherri.

"What? Princess don't like it when I say bad words?" the demon asks, her voice shifting tone to that of a mocking one with a small quibble in her lip while her hands come up to make crying motions.

"More that we are in the presence of a baby, and Sherrel is rather protective of his sensitive ears," Cherri's mocking expression softens a bit as she looks from me to the baby demon who's looking around curiously, his tail swinging to and fro, a happy smile adorning his face as he looks at this new and exciting place. Finally the demon nods before Sherrel pipes up once Mark is sitting on her lap.

"So, you said you wanted to make some suggestions for my ride?" to Sherrel's question, Cherri's grin turns large and toothy again. The cyclops reaches into her jacket and pulls out a notebook with the words "tech 'n' shit" scrawled on the front in permanent marker. I turn from them to address the bear demon sitting across from us. I've experienced enough tinker talk to know when to duck out of a situation. While sometimes I could offer useful advice to Defiant and Dragon when they talked shop, most of it went over my head when they got into the specifics and details as Sherrel and Cherri Bomb are likely to.

"You must be Gina, Angel said that you work a corner around here?" I ask. The bear girl nods, taking a sip from her drink before she answers.

"Yeah I do," her words are short, clipped, and tense, like Rachel's. No beating around the bush then.

"What can you tell me about the Raz family?" the bear pauses for a moment before answering. As she speaks, she seems to slowly ease up on the tension. Perhaps she was simply worried about us then?

"They used to be big, well, big for an imp gang, that is, the boss was some big shot imp, you know, the kind that are just straight up better than every other imp. Made inroads with all the cops in the area and stuff, basically controlled the police force whenever one of the nobles or the commissioner wasn't ordering them around. I've only really started seeing them again a little while ago."

"Where'd they go?" I ask.

"Underground mostly, keeping out of the streets and hiding in their homes, like what any sane person does when a raider gang is prowling in your part of town. After the Don died and the police left, they came running in, burning cars, looting random buildings and stores, and grabbing people right off the street for their pens. Hell, they nabbed me when I was running to my apartment because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You were a Crimson slave?" I ask and the bear girl huffs.

"Only for a little bit, they sold me pretty quick to Valentino, and…" Gina trailed off and shook her head. Cherri pauses in her conversation with Sherrel to look over to Gina, specifically as she mentions Valentino, perhaps some kind of connection there? "Whatever, not important. You want to know about the Raz right? Well a couple of weeks ago while I was working my corner I saw some of the old members wandering around, going door to door for "protection money." Same stuff different day, then-"

Gina cut herself off as she looked past us outside to a large robot that I'd felt with my bugs awhile ago. From what I could sense the treads were as wide as the sidewalk and that the thing was around two meters tall. I'd heard it's treads on the pavement since a little while after the conversation started. Now, however, I could get a good look at the thing.

Across the street the silhouette of the thing looked like a large, slightly rounded coffin on a trio of covered tank treads. It had ball joints for shoulders which connected to arms that were covered by some kind of metal tubing. The arms ended in balls with what looked like some kind of gun barrel sticking out of them facing forward. As the robot slowly moved out of the shade of the building, we could see that the connection between the main body and the tank tread covering had the same kind of flexible metal mesh covering as the arms did, while the upper body looked to be made of thicker stuff than the rest of the robot. It had a single eye which could spin around three hundred and sixty degrees and emitted some kind of laser as I could see a red dot briefly cross one of the walls inside of the café.

And it had an oversized fedora on it's head.

The thing was reminiscent of some of the earlier models of combat robot from Eagleton, when the robots were still using guns and firearms while going for a more direct approach to expanding than their tactic of artillery based expansion into various areas around Eagleton. In truth, if the thing replaced the hat with some kind of gruesome human part, and the guns with something like blades or harpoon guns, then it might have fit right in with the robot army. I could even imagine it with a severed skull on some spike on it or even human flesh draped over it. Non-cape researchers and thinkers kind of agreed that the Eagleton bots likely did so in order to demoralize human troops.

Considering that from just the ads that I've seen and even some of the segments on the news I've watched, that wouldn't work so well here.

"Well... then I saw one of those things," Gina finishes, after we'd all taken a good look at the Robot across the street. If the Raz family had that kind of hardware and was coming back because of it, then we'd need to look into grabbing some of that if we want the false flag to go off right. I look over to Sherrel and she looks absolutely giddy, like a child seeing a parade. Cherri Bomb on the other hand merely snorts with derision.

"That thing must have cost them a pretty penny, wonder if it was worth it."

"Does anyone else use robots like that?" I ask, as I turn to look back at the bear and cyclops.

"I don't know, you could probably check on some news forum or listen to the unofficial pirate radio broadcasts. Mad scientists sometimes like to set them up despite there literally being a Radio demon, he doesn't really seem to mind them being around though, not like Vox and hsi TV stations. I got a client that's trying to become a mad scientist so he listens in on all the tech stuff."

"So what's your interest in those bots anyways?" Cherri butts in. I consider rebuking her questioning, but she is Angel Dust's friend, and unless he was playing at being a double agent, I doubt that he would set us up with an informant. Gina was a little harder to guess, but considering that she'd been sold into slavery by the Crimson Gang to Valentino, she wouldn't be likely to rat on us.

"We're interested in conducting an attack on the Crimson gang and making it look like the Raz family did it." I say simply, and watch as the cyclops's toothy grin grows larger.

"False flag huh? Let me guess, the introduction of those robots has complicated things then?" I nod and Cherri bomb slowly leans back on her chair.

"Tell you what, I can get you one of those bots, but I want a few favours, 'mkay?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"And, what would those favours be?"

"Well one, since I'm grabbing the bot, I get to keep it once you're done with it. Two, Valentino's getting slaves from Crimson right? When you do this false flag stuff, I want you to hit wherever those slavers are keeping their girls, and get them out away from Val. And three, when you guys start fighting Crimson for real, I wanna be there blowing stuff up and grabbing loot, sound like a deal?" Cherri Bomb sticks out a hand as she leans forward. There is a sudden breeze as Cherri's hand glows a soft green. I delay the deal for a moment in order to keep from seeming too hasty as I learned once from Dad. We were already planning on hitting the slave pens anyways, and while keeping the bot would have been nice, and certainly a boon for Sherrel, it wasn't the end of the world if we didn't get it. Plus, if it wasn't too hard to do, we could grab one of the automatons ourselves and see how they ticked.

"You'll grab one? What they gonna fall off a truck or something, and how you gonna move that shi-stuff over to us?" Adam asks.

"What, don't trust me to get the job done?"

"More I'm thinking that Sherrel and I go with you to grab this bot, this false flag stuff's Skitty's idea anyways so you probably don't really need us for what's going on back at home, yeah?" If he didn't feel he needed to be there when the planning was going on, who was I to judge? I nod and Adam continues.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, so, we got a bit of time to get us one of them there bots, you and Sherr can do your tinker talk stuff some more, plus, we learn how to take down one of them bots if we ever need to fight one yeah?" Cherri cocks her head to the side as she thinks about the proposal for a second before nodding.

"Sure, the three of us'll go grab us a bot and bring it back to wherever, I get to keep it, you guys hit some Crimson slave pens, and when this all goes hot, I get to have some fun blowing stuff up like I did Down Under," Cherri summarizes, and prompts her hand again, the wind picking up once more as a deal is has once more been proposed. Seeing nothing wrong with it, I reach across and shake.

And as we finish shaking, our drinks arrive.

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On the screen a scene of a street from a high vantage point show imps dressed in mobster clothes alongside police in heavy armour move from burning wrecks of cars down the street under a hail of bullets as demons in leather outfits with metal bits strapped to them fire from cover and lob grenades down the street. Even with all the bullets flying down range towards the cops and mobsters, I watch as the outnumbered Crimson gang members are slowly picked off as they are forced to retreat farther down the street. The street is littered with corpses and the ruins of vehicles as the heavily armed police are quick to answer the arrival of vehicles with the lobing of grenades.

From off screen, there is the sound of more vehicles approaching. Already I can see the police in the scene reaching to their grenade bandoliers, pulling grenades and hunkering down, preparing to throw. The camera pans over showing a single figure riding on a large chopper, armoured clothed in just a regular leather jacket. Even from under the leather, I can see the muscles bulging beneath the massive man, while his huge canine head snarls as he drives closer.

As he approaches the scene, some of the mobsters pop their heads out of cover and start to try to lay down fire on the approaching motorcycle only for the hulk of a sinner to leap up from his chopper up high into the air. As the Raz family members and paid off police officers adjust their aim up, some kind of electrical current flashes across the canine headed Crimson member, and within an instant he's slammed into the found, his foot caving in the chest of one of the armoured police demons. The canine headed demon thrusts a fist out and a blast of lightning fires from his palm into another enemy before he dashes forward, smashing into another enemy in an instant and leaving behind a path of lightning in his wake. Those he passed froze up, jerking around as they were hit by the after shock.

As expected of a speedster, he was making quick work of those in the mobster and police lines. A cheer could be heard from the Crimson side of the conflict as gang members began to fire on those that were distracted by the canine headed demon.

The largest imp, dressed like a mobster, seemed one of the few that could just barely hold up against the onslaught of the canine headed demon, barely dodging the sinner's attacks and doing his best to power through the aftershocks. Even so, he'd emptied his gun already as the shocks paralysed his fist closed, causing him to waste his bullets. He was already smoking in various areas, and after a punch he hadn't quite managed to dodge, his arm hung limp at his side. The police and mobsters had broken, and were fleeing while the canine headed demon dragged the large imp into an alleyway out of the line of fire. He slammed the imp against the wall, before with a single punch he splattered the imps skull like a watermelon. Blood and grey matter splattered against the wall as lighting sparkled across the body, lighting fires across it before the canine demon tossed the body aside.

Then with a jerk the camera fell to the side and I could see what looked like a demon fallen over, blood pooling as I watch the death of the camera man.

So that's the Beast. I think as I feel more of my bugs bring me more of their young. With barely a thought I incorporate the infantile bugs into my swarm and they are sent back to their nests underneath the warehouse.

As I close the window on the phone, I see though a biter a convoy of vehicles heading towards our street. The convoy of camper vans, family vans, trucks, and even a horse and buggy with a flaming horse pull up to the warehouse. As I get up from the couch Mimi looks up at me from the floor. Her, the biter I brought in and cleaned up, and Mark were playing together, Mimi watching Mark as he rode around on the biter.

"I think Felix's cousins just got here," I say before getting up to head outside to greet them. By the time I get downstairs. Felix is already there with a large group of Imps that have already gotten out and are greeting him with hugs and slaps on the back. Some of the group look like they did in the picture, in what I had assumed to be Sunday bests for them, though if they were wearing like it was normal, then perhaps I was wrong. Others looked far trashier. These imps generally seemed to err on the younger side, with provocative outfits showing off their fit and slim bodies for the ladies, with the guys showing off their muscles in shirts that were likely just a bit too tight. Finally there were those that had come in some kind of red camouflage gear and were armed to the teeth with heavy weapons packed with attachments.

From what I can see of their guns through my biters, excluding the paramilitary imps, they ranged from western style revolvers, repeaters, hunting rifles, and a few shotguns. Some of the more modern looking hunting rifles looked like they were more for big game hunting, or even looked like assault rifles with large capacity magazines and judging by the few that had bandoliers, had far bigger bullets. As for the paramilitary imps, they were geared like a PRT kill team with heavy weapons that ranged from some kind of Kalashnikov rifle to strange boxy submachine guns that looked like it was something out of some kind of sci fi. As I leave the warehouse, Felix notices me and waves me over.

"This is one of my bosses, Skitter, she's the one that is getting this all organized," Felix says. Immediately one of the adult imps steps up and sticks a hand out, a big grin splitting his goatee'd face.

"Howdy Skitter, names Lars, this is Lilly," the imp says as I take his hand while he indicates to the imp woman beside him. "And these are my kids Lary, Lloyd, and my oldest Lee-anne, when Felix here called and said you were lookin' to put some raiding dirtbags in the ground and save some good folk, well me and the kids just couldn't resist. Now down the line, there is the Bob family with Billy Bob, Joe Bob…" and the names go on as Lars introduces me to the rest of Felix's cousins, uncles, and aunts that had come to help us with the false flag attack. By the end there are twenty seven imps, all happy to volunteer for the mission. Lars is quick to point out those that are in it mostly for the possible loot, those being a trio of young imp men with their wives in one hand and their guns in another. The others Lars pointed out were also those that had specifically come to help out the "damsels," his daughter Lee-anne being one of them apparently.

"It's nice to meet you all," I say, "Now if you could head inside, we can figure out what we are working with and figure out a way to best use everyone," as I say that, one final car comes driving up and another two imps come out. I recognize the young imp man from the picture as one of the imps in the picture that looked like a late 1800s banker. The imp had changed his suit from the picture for one that seemed from the sixties, but he still had a bowtie.

Like many of the other imps that were his cousins, the imp from the picture had thick horns with thick black stripes followed by thick white stripes which matched his somewhat scruffy white hair. His long tail ended in a large point with two black stripes on the tail. Amusingly for a creature of hell, his large eyes almost indicated a kind of innocence that I knew was absent of nearly all creatures in Hell.

The young imp lady that came out on the other hand wore some kind of shirt that looked like the top of some black coveralls were combined with a black shirt with some well worn black pants to go with them. Other than that, the imp lady was rather slim with tall pointed horns with thin white stripes on them and a spaded tail ending with a white tip which connected to hips just wider than her shoulders. Her wide and happy smile revealed a gap in her teeth among her pearly whites.

"Well shucks, Cousin Moxxie! I ain't seen you since Daisy's birthday, how've you been lil' guy, and Millie! You've been taking care of lil' Moxxie right?" Lars calls out as the suit wearing imp waves back. The Imp looks like he wants to cry back out at Lars when his wife, Millie calls back to him instead.

"I sure have!" Moxxie seems to shake his head before responding as well.

"I've been doing well Uncle Lars," then Moxxie turns to me, straightens up, and adjusts his bowtie as he and his wife walk forward to me. Like as Lars did with me, I stick my hand out for Moxxie who pulls himself from his significant other before taking my hand and shaking it.

"Welcome to our operation, I'm Skitter, as my bosses are out, I'll be representing the Merchants here," Moxxie seems to brighten up at my greeting.

"It's a pleasure, Felix said that that you might be the one that would be meeting us, I'm Moxxie and this is my wife Millie, though with my Uncle over there, you probably knew that already," I nod as we lower our hands and move onto business.

"Thank you for allowing us to use your suits. As I understand, you might be interested in joining in on the fighting?" I ask. Felix had told me that Moxxie had sounded interested, and his wife even more so about our little false flag and rescue operation. At the mention of them joining in, Moxxie nods.

"We are interested, and in truth, this kind of thing is pretty close to what we do for a day job."

"We're assassins you see," Millie pipes in after Moxxie, her head popping up from behind the suited imp to rest on his shoulder. Moxxie nods before he continues.

"The company that we belong to, The Immediate Murder Professionals, or I.M.P. specialise in assassinating targets in the living world as opposed to the usual kind of assassination companies which are a dime a doz-gah!" Moxxie's speech however is interrupted as his wife pulls him into a hug with an arm around his neck and pulls him in.

"Come on Moxxie, we ain't at work, you don't need to be all stuffy like, besides, we're just helping family right?" I merely watch them as I think about what exactly the implications of this are. These imps have access to the living world. Actual access to the living world, and they were specifically trained to go in and assassinate targets. Who might be a good idea to have killed and brought down here to reduce the amount of damage they could do to the living? Nilbog might be a good idea, with the world fucked by what Scion had done to it, it couldn't really get much worse. There were certainly a lot of psychopathic capes that were in the birdcage that shouldn't be let out. Cauldron members were no longer useful now that their purpose is gone. Maybe it would be prudent to have them eliminated before they cause more of a mess. Considering how their plan went for fighting Scion, it will only be a matter of time before one of them attempts to take over and make the world worse while trying to make it better. Then there was also the Yangbang and it's various capes, and any other S-class threats I'm not thinking of right now.

But what if I could get up to the living world? I could go up to the living world and help the Undersiders out up there, and help keep them safe. As a demon now, it would be a bit harder with how my old bug powers were gone, but I was also a brute now, and perhaps Lisa could help me figure this magic out. It would also let me reconnect with everyone, maybe even have some fun for once after all this time. I wonder if dogs go to hell, and if so, how would I be able to find Rachel's dogs? Could I bring them back to her? Could I bring Alec back up to the surface as well, maybe we could all get together and figure something out.

What about the Merchants though? Should I bring them? Charlotte wouldn't be happy to see them. what about bringing people down to Hell to visit? Could we use Hell as an escape route if we get into a fight? There were the people who already hate me, I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar in the living world. Would it be better for them to come here or me to go there? So many questions, and not enough time. I'll need to figure this out, but not now.

"I mean yeah, but if we get some extra work in, we could get a raise," Moxxie says, trying to defend his advertisement of I.M.P. when his wife gasps and a giddy smile spread across her face.

"Then we could get the suits we saw in the catalogue, with the-" Moxxie immediately jumps at his wife and wraps his hands around her mouth to keep her from speaking, his eyes wide while Millie's dance with mischief.

"Well how about you come inside and perhaps we can discuss the strategies we can undertake as well as where you two might fit into them," I say in an attempt to save Moxxie from further teasing by his wife, before finally turning towards the warehouse where the meeting could begin.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Moxxie, myself, and Lars stand over the kitchen table with a couple of the older imps, including all the paramilitary looking imps who were now dressed up in stereotypical mobster wear. One of the imp's had a map of this part of the city, and with his permission I'd penciled out the area of operation where the Crimson gang were operating for us all to see. On loose pieces of paper were rough drawings of the insides of buildings from what my bugs had mapped out, including the various important locations such as which warehouses held their weapons and ammo, which apartment buildings were their slave pens, as well as the general amount of men there were in each of the important buildings I'd scouted so far.

"Okay, so from the top, we are hitting here and here," Moxxie says, pointing towards one of the warehouses and one of the three slave pens. "Group A with the Robot will hit the warehouse here hard, fast, and make a ton of noise."

"Once that's started, group B will use the roof access I found and they'll enter the building from there so that they're less likely to get some unexpected visitors coming in from behind," I continue on.

"Right, you and the rest of the Merchants will hang back as back up in case either situation gets real hairy while Millie and I provide sniper support from the skyscraper over here," Moxxie says as his clawed finger draws a line from the gathering area in an abandoned warehouse over to one of the closer skyscrapers. The skyscraper was close enough to the target warehouse to provide good sightlines for a sniper, while also able to give those inside of the apartment building turned slave pen a heads up in case of back up. It even had a decent vantage point to hit distant targets with the sniper rifle if a significant portion of Crimson gang members were outside the main entrance.

"I'll also be acting as overlord for the mission, as I can track where the enemies are in each building and the area around them while also providing the locations of more gang members."

"Right, and you said that there might be a fight going on across town between the Crimson gang and a bunch of vigilantes?" Lars asks to which I nod.

"I don't know if they will be going for it anytime soon but I've informed some of the vigilantes of the location of both of the slave pens on the other side of Crimson's territory, in either situation, we have until the next trade with Valentino to hit Crimson before they are likely heading back into the wastes." The imps around the table nod.

"So all we need now are the robot, the ammo for the guns that you gave the guys, and some armour plates?" Lars asks and once more I nod. Despite my fears from first seeing their guns, many of the imps had additional guns that were far closer to that of the kinds used in the city, those that didn't were either provided with some of the guns from the cache of weapons we'd taken from the vigilantes, and as for the rest, Moxxie apparently carried a whole armory of weapons on him, with multiples of the same gun in various colours. This resulted in a majority of our force being armed with a combination of short shotguns with large magazines of shells and submachine guns ranging from the infamous Tommy gun and its multiple variants to various machine pistols more common among the local gangsters.

The armour plates would be a bit more expensive than I wanted, but despite the fact that demons could all be considered at least some level of brute, I'd rather reduce the amount of casualties we take to a minimum if possible.

"Okay but where are we going to get the Raz robot? I doubt that they'll just sell us the thing," Moxxie asks. I'm about to tell him we have it handled when I hear a truck approaching and stop in front of the convoy. From what I can see from my biters and feel with my bugs, it looks like Cherri had delivered on her side of the bargain.

Shouldn't be long now until I deliver on mine.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I feel I've been focusing on other things far too much lately and now I've got this thing done. I also feel that the pacing of the fic has gotten too slow. Granted that could just be me over reacting, but since I've put this story on so many pauses I'll be working on the next chapter next rather than moving onto making a chapter of a different story since you guys deserve that much.

Greatazuredragon · Jun 16, 2021

And best Imps join the party!

Nice chapter, good work.

Night Hunter · Jun 16, 2021

Thread Necromancer said:
And since Blitz is out doing things this week-," Millie starts.

It's written Blitzo (O is silent).

Thread Necromancer said:
"Thank you for allowing us to use your suits. As I understand, you might be interested in joining in on the fighting?" I ask. Felix had told me that Moxxie had sounded interested, and his wife even more so about our little false flag and rescue operation. At the mention of them joining in, Moxxie nods.

"We are interested, and in truth, this kind of thing is pretty close to what we do for a day job."

"We're assassins you see," Millie pipes in after Moxxie, her head popping up from behind the suited imp to rest on his shoulder. Moxxie nods before he continues.

"Though we generally specialize in taking out targets in the living world, the skills are fairly similar to the operation that Felix told us you were about to undertake Ma'am." The living world? Where imps able to travel to Earth? Could sinners do so as well? Perhaps after this, I could check up on that and maybe I could even provide some help to my friends that were still alive?

Suprise Skitter don't think the implications these guys just say they murder humans as a career and there are other demons that do the same thing.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 16, 2021

Night Hunter said:
It's written Blitzo (O is silent).

I had thought of writing it out like that, but since Taylor doesn't know that Blitzo has an O at the end of his name I decided against at the time but I might change it since it might cause confusion if I don't spell it right.

Night Hunter said:
Suprise Skitter don't think the implications these guys just say they murder humans as a career and there are other demons that do the same thing.

I'll have to edit it so that Taylor spends a bit more time thinking about the implications of this as I seem to have not quite done it the justice it deserves.

Night Hunter · Jun 19, 2021

Thread Necromancer said:
I'll have to edit it so that Taylor spends a bit more time thinking about the implications of this as I seem to have not quite done it the justice it deserves.

Also Moxxie at least should have advertise the I.M.P. services to Taylor due to how little clients they get, the highest quantity of clients they get was ten and that was a good month. So they need any clients they can find.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 19, 2021

Night Hunter said:
Also Moxxie at least should have advertise the I.M.P. services to Taylor due to how little clients they get, the highest quantity of clients they get was ten and that was a good month. So they need any clients they can find.

You're right, I need to go back in and fix that part, and probably go over Moxxie's mannerisms and take a deeper look into his various interactions with different characters.

Night Hunter · Jun 22, 2021

Thread Necromancer said:
You're right, I need to go back in and fix that part, and probably go over Moxxie's mannerisms and take a deeper look into his various interactions with different characters.

Moxxie is a educate and professional guy, at last to compensate for his boss unprofessional attitude and foul mouth.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 22, 2021

Night Hunter said:
Moxxie is a educate and professional guy, at last to compensate for his boss unprofessional attitude and foul mouth.

That seems right from what I've seen of both the pilot and the later parts of the show, I'll need to edit it to have that come out properly rather than him just coming into the thing all willy nilly.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 24, 2021

The Skittering Chaos Interlude: Felix

I have edited both the talk about the Robot Army Robot talk, changing the reference from the robot being seen as a heaviler variant to that of an earlier variant with talk of weapons that are more in line with those of the robot army, those being things like harpoons, or melee weapons.

The other edit is to the initial meeting of Moxxie which I hope I made better.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

"Alright Ma'am, we're in position, just waiting on you guys to give the signal," I hear Moxxie through my phone, just like everyone else. Since everyone had a phone people had gotten a kind of conference call set up so us imps could talk to each other. That was mostly a backup system; Skitter was the main person who was coordinating the communications and the job in general. I look over to the front of the vehicle to see Skitter sitting shotgun with Sherrel. Neither of them is saying anything.

I just hold my gun, my hands gripping the barrel of the tommy, staring downwards towards the floor as we get closer. There are thirteen of us heading towards the warehouse target, while the other twelve are on their way towards the apartment block where some of the slaves are being kept. As my thumb continues to flick across the edge of the wooden underhand grip, I can't help but think about my sister. For a moment, I wonder if she's there. We hadn't heard about her ever since that night, a lot of things could have happened to her.

I shake my head, trying to expel the thoughts of her from my mind. I can't worry about that now.

"Hey there big thinker, nervous?" I hear Lars ask me, as usual, there's a warm smile as he looks over to me. The other imps are talking, laughing. Billy-Gee is retelling the story of the comedy of errors that lead to him "saving the town" by accident when he accidentally drove through his father's gate with his quad, totaling the quad, sending him flying into a pile of flaming nightmare shit, and unleashing a horde of flesh eating nightmares onto an army of raiders that had attacked the town.

Of course, his father tells a different story, of how it was actually just a small gang of raiders that had ridden into town. The nightmares had however distracted them enough that the imp militia had been able to take the first couple of shots on them while they weren't looking. This story was told every time we had a get together, sometimes by his father both with pride and to show his pride in his boy, and sometimes by Billy-Gee to impress those younger than him with his "impressive feat."

"No I'm fine," I say, feeling it too. Despite all the talk, the entire hubbub about being nervous and scared before going off to a fight, of people feeling butterflies and all that stuff. I just don't feel it. Really I don't feel anything except… contemplative I guess? Maybe bored? I'd kind of felt excited a little bit at first. First bit of action I'd ever gotten really, especially since despite all the dangers and how Pentagram city was a terrible place with killings and crime nearly every day, I hadn't really seen it up close. Granted, I'd been near shootouts when they happened but not really in them myself.

"You sure? Everyone's always a bit nervous before fights like this, especially if it's your first," Lars says, and I nod just to relieve him of his own worry. He gives me a smile before he leans back and we continue to listen to Billy-Gee until the van slows down to a stop. Moments later, the double doors open into an empty warehouse. It was a short walk from each of the targets, right in the middle so that the Merchants could move in on either target if backup was needed to get us out if things started to go haywire. I hop out and look at the other two vans here that are bringing people. Since we weren't expecting to be bringing extra people back, we left most of the bigger vehicles that had come in the convoy to those going to the apartment building with the slaves in it.

With one exception of course, the truck hauling the Robot drives in and Adam hits the button for the main door, closing it down as people start loading their guns and the door to the truck opens up revealing the robot.

It looked in pristine condition. I don't know how they managed to nab the thing with explosives and keep from damaging it, but apparently it had been a cake walk.

But then sinners could do a bunch of crazy magic stuff that I could only dream of so maybe since the girl they helped get the robot with was a sinner, and Adam and Sherrel were sinners as well, maybe they did some magic mumbo jumbo to do it? Hit it with a grenade of some kind and just grab it and rewire it after? Could have also just bought it maybe, but while the Bosses were doing good for money, they weren't that rich, at least I don't think.

Just seeing the thing, seeing everyone loading up, racking slides back and donning Mafioso like hats on, checking their armour plates underneath Moxxie's suits, stamping out cigars and cigarettes. I swallow suddenly as it all starts feeling real, and my stomach starts acting up. Like I ate too many sugary sweets, manageable, but it came all suddenly, where before I'd been feeling nothing. I don't like it but I can live with it. I grab a stick magazine from my own suit jacket, and slide it into the tommy gun Moxxie had given me. Apparently it was some kind of variant called a M1A1 or something. He'd shown me how to fire it, reload it, and all that when we showed up at that gun range that Adam sometimes likes to go to with his girl and which he brought Mimi and Skitter to a few days ago.

"Vigilantes are already hitting both the apartment blocks on the other side of the territory. How soon until the Robot is up and running?" I overhear Skitter asking Sherrel, who's got her Squealer mask on. Adam's gotten his Skidmark mask on as well. Skitter meanwhile is still in her regular clothing.

"Shouldn't be more than a minute," Sherrel says as they walk over to the bot and Sherrel opens up a panel on the back. Sherrel starts flicking switches as lights turn on and a buzzing whir comes from the robot. Skitter nods, pauses for a moment, then turns to the rest of us.

"Alright, group B has nearly gotten to their staging area, everyone get ready to move," Skitter calls out. Despite myself, despite how I'd felt nothing before, the butterflies are getting worse. I can almost feel them as if they were a physical thing, fluttering around, making me feel worse after every second. I breathe deeper, trying to get more air in, yet I can't get more in, or it doesn't feel that way. I just keep breathing, just keep breathing like that. I know I'm getting enough air… why doesn't it feel like I'm getting enough? I try to breathe just a bit faster, trying to keep people from noticing. I'm just a bit nervous, better now than later. Just… just a little nervous.

I keep breathing, in… out… in… out… yet I can't seem to catch my breath. My stomach feels worse. The more I breath, the worse it gets, I feel like I'm suffocating, my stomach is roiling. I breath a bit faster, in, out, in, out, still deep breaths, just faster. In, out, in, out. I lean against a pillar, and place my gun down, my hands are getting sweaty for some reason, leaning harder against the pillar as well and I wipe my hands on my pants, hoping to dry them before sticking them in my pockets. In, out, in, out. It feels like my mouth is dry all of a sudden, I feel like I'm about to puke, and I still can't get any breath. I open my mouth slightly. Just breath. Just breath, in, out, in, out.

"Hey," a hand lands on my shoulder, and I can't help but gasp in deeply as I look up from the spot on the floor I'd started staring at, at some point. Skitter is standing there in her fluffy long coat and fedora tipped up. She's crouched and looking down at me, when did I sit down? She looks worried with her expressive mouth and eyes. I, fuck, I… "Are you alright?"

I want to speak, tell her I'm alright, but the words don't come, and honestly from how hard I'm breathing, I'm not doing alright. I, I don't know why now, but for some reason my nerves decided to fire off now rather than earlier. Now I'm panicking in front of my boss rather than in front of a family member. Fucking Hell.

"Nerves?" She asks, I swallow again and nod. She smiles at me before answering. "I understand, I felt the same way on my first night. Those butterflies, shortness of breath, all that stuff, I know, I've been there too."

She's silent for a moment before she continues. "You've got a lot of advantages going your way, you've got a lot of family that can help you out that have a lot of experience, a big robot there that's rated against Blaster 4s and lower, and I'll be helping you guys, telling you what to expect and where the enemy is coming from."

I have no idea what a Blaster 4 is, but it sounds powerful. The rest of it… yeah, I guess. Lars is a part of the local militia in his town, and heck, most of the guys that showed up have been in a few fights with raider gangs before already. Skitter, with those senses that Moth demons usually have, they could tell a hell of a lot from just their antennae, and I've seen her control bugs and biters. Maybe she can tell where things are as well rather than just command them? If she can tell us where the enemy is and coming from, it would be like having a team mate on a tactical shooter who's got a fully revealed mini map. It was practically cheating! I just wish there were call outs that I could know and use beforehand so that we might be able to use short hand better.

The notion makes me let out a giggle. Cheating, as if life was a videogame. Damn loser, and yet for some reason, I can't help but smile a bit at the thought. Maybe someone will even accuse us of hacking? The thought brings out another chuckle.

"You'll be doing that thing with the bug ball right?" I ask, and she nods. I reach down and start to push myself up again. The butterflies are still there, my mouth is still dry despite feeling like I have to swallow, but for a moment I can catch my breath again. I take a moment as I stand there with Moxxie's gun slowing my breathing as I try to get a hold of myself. My stomach is still fluttering, it's just more like I'm about to go in for a test I hadn't studied for rather than something like a life altering surgery. I look at her as she pulls her hand from my shoulder.

"Don't worry, everyone gets nervous, like Lars said," Skitter comments as I nod. Right, everyone goes through this out in the wastes all the time. If Mom and Dad hadn't moved here, then I might have already been used to this kind of stuff like the others were. Uncle Lars is looking at me and Skitter, a worried expression on his face again, and I give him a shaky smile with a thumbs up. He smiles back and turns to his boys that came long.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Despite us rolling up to the warehouse with a massive bot that sounds like a tank, we never encounter anyone. Skitter had control of some of the biters, she'd shown that when she showed up just a few days ago with that biter, but she hadn't just gotten rid of all of them right? Just as we are about to exit the alleyway onto a street just on the other side of a building from the warehouse we were hitting, a ball of bugs began to take form in front of us. Lars holds up a hand which I guess means stop because everyone else did so. The robot shifts it's aim to it, but Lars tells it to "hold up."

"There are five men just ahead of you on the street on the left, from there, two men on the roof of the warehouse, both with rifles, and there are twelve in the warehouse," Skitter informs us, her voice from the bug ball coming out like a mimicry of speech, almost like what someone would imagine the overlord of some alien swarm would sound like. The sound honestly kind of freaks me out despite having heard it before, and I can't even picture Skitter with her big expressive eyes sounding like the buzzing cacophony her bug ball sounds like.

"Acknowledged, they will be terminated," the robot announces and starts to move forwards. Lars steps out of the robot's way, an amused smile and a twinkle in his eye.

"Enthusiastic fellow ain't he?" Lars comments as we move up with the bot. The street opens up ahead of us. Most of us look left but don't see much, just some buildings and another street that was going to lead us up to the warehouse. I look right just in case, died enough times not doing that in video games, but see nothing but empty street. The robot drives forward, gunning it for the left street, leaving the rest of us in the dust as we scramble to follow him. As the robot rounds the corner, I hear cries and shouts.

"Holy shit!"

"What the fu-"

"Get back get back!"

I see the robot turn to face them and immediately the guns on him open up with a rapid deluge of lead while letting out thunderous booms. If people hadn't realised we were here yet, then now they definitely knew. We round the corner to the scene of three sinners utterly shredded by bullets, blood everywhere as the robot drives forward, pushing the bodies aside with it's covered tracks.

"Two around the corner and two heading out to the alleyway down the street on the right," the Skitter ball says and I see some fireflies fly out through the middle of the street, moving to highlight our targets. The robot moves forward and as it does so, there is a crack as something hits the bot's shoulder. Unperturbed the bot continues onward, guns pointed towards the roof as it moves. We move along the wall of the building, unwilling to let the sniper get an easy shot. As the robot rounds the corner, a shit ton of fire comes out at the robot, who's sparking as bullets ricochet off of it or impact into it as the metal dents or even pierces it's armour. The robot turns and opens fire on some guys down the street, likely mulching them as some of the gunfire down the street falls silent.

Knowing some are on the roof, a pair of imps step out from the building wall to open fire on the roof guys. In the heat of the moment, I step out with them, my gun up as I side step off the sidewalk with the others. I spot the fireflies hovering over a spot and don't even question it as I open fire on the dark rooftop. Bullets impact all over and the other imps have join in firing at the place. I see a bit of movement as someone goes to take cover. Another figure rises out from an air conditioning unit but after I hear a crack from somewhere else, I see the figure fall after its head jerks back, then another shot ring out as I see a small amount of sparks and another dark figure fall over. Rather than stay out in the open, I immediately side step back to wall of the building. Nervous laughter and a manic smile spreads across my lips as I slam myself back up against the brick and mortar.

"Holy shit, I can't believe I did that," I say breathlessly as the other two follow my lead and slide back to the wall. The robot has moved forwards some more, and has started moving towards what looks like the loading dock of the warehouse. I and some of the others are about to move up when Skitter speaks again from her bugs.

"Seven go right, down the street, the rest follow the robot," I look up towards the roof. They had to have gotten up there somehow, and maybe I could grab a better gun while I was doing so. The Tommy gun was nice, and I could handle it well enough, but maybe I could do some good with the sniper rifle?

"You heard the boss, me and you six come with me, the rest of you follow the bot, we'll flank them," those of us that were just behind Lars, myself being one of them, nod. Lars moves forward and the rest of us follow him.

"There are two gangsters in the alleyway, one behind a barrel and another on the stairs, hold before the alley," Skitter tells us as we begin to run across the street towards the warehouse's alley entrance. Just as we are about to reach the alleyway I begin to hear screams and shots being fired.

"Move in," Skitter orders and Lars is around the corner. He immediately fires on something. As we move into the alleyway, I aim up to the stairs, hearing a biter growling and ripping into something, before I spot a black head pop up over the edge of the fire escape, chewing something. It raises a paw at me and I wave back at it.

"The biter is friendly," Skitter informs us as we enter the alley.

"Alright, three go up the stairs to the second story, the rest of us-" Lars is interrupted as all hell breaks loose inside of the warehouse. It sounds like the robot just made it to the warehouse's main door from the amount of shooting going on.

"Fuck, you know what to do! Go!" Lars shouts as he moves to the door. I can hear buzzing but I can barely hear it over the sound of gunfire coming from inside. I want to wait for Skitter's instructions, but with all the noise, and everyone moving, I follow Lar's directions and take up position with two other cousins while the three going up top to the second door start rushing. Lars holds up a hand and with three fingers out, counts down rapidly before he reaches down, opens the door and moves in while I follow.

As Lars enters, there's a boom and Lars is sent flying back as he gets hit. I don't even aim properly, I just hope for the best as I point at the guy, a some kind of elven looking demon with tiny little horns armed with a shotgun. I dump my mag, hoping to hit something, lighting up the forklift he's hiding behind as he ducks down and I shuffle to the tall and wide stack of boxes that was blocking the view of the door from the rest of the place.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I mutter as I desperately reach for my other stick magazine in the jacket that Moxxie had given me. I hear the shuffling of my two cousins as they come in through the door.

"Forklift!" I shout at them as they come in and thankfully they immediately start pointing at the thing as they move up. The demon elf guy pops his head up for just a moment and gets two bursts of 10mm to the head as they blast him before turning to me and seeing Lars.

"Shit," one of my cousins, Beth, says. "You two go on, I'll see if Uncle Lars is alright."

"Right, shit, come on Felix, reload that shit already," Lloyd, Lars' youngest says as he sees me fumbling with the stick magazine. I nod as my shaky hands try their best to hurry things along, pulling the empty magazine from the gun as I try to align the stick to the gun.

"For fuck sakes Felix, take mine, I'll grab Dad's," Lloyd says as he passes me his gun, some kind of heavy machine pistol or something. It kind of looked like a micro uzi. Lloyd on the other hand grabs his Dad's Tommy gun from the ground. I hear more gunfire from above and a body falls over the railing in front of us. We begin to move up and Lloyd fires a few bullets in the sinner's skull, splattering the buggy looking sinner's brains across the cement.

We duck behind the forklift, and as we move I get a look at the fight before we hunker down. Off on the other side of the small warehouse, I see the robot, hiding behind a wall by the main entrance, using one gun to fire up at the second story where I assume most of the guys are. He isn't in the best shape already, his armour has a ton of dents and holes where rounds pierced him, but he seems to be doing alright as far as I can see. There are a few guys firing at the robot just above where the forklift is, fireflies on them or hovering near them, paying more attention to the robot than to what was going on below them. Across from where the forklift is, past the crates, I can see splatters of blood likely from the two slumped over figures on the second story. Behind the robot, I can see some of my cousins pulling another cousin away as the others seem to be waiting for the robot to move in. While we are hunkered down, I spot the dead demon's shotgun, some kind of pump action from the look of it. I grab the thing and stick the machine pistol in my belt, racking the grip back as it lets out a satisfying sound and a shell.

"Come-on cuz, we gotta get moving," Lloyd says as he points over to a set of double doors near us. I nod and we start moving, him taking point as I follow behind him. Around the corner are some stairs that look to lead up to the second floor. Lloyd starts taking the stairs two at a time as I do my best to follow. As we reach the top of the stairs I see a demon, some kind of mosquito man, crouched behind some box as bullets are flying around him. Within a split second of each other, Lloyd and I blast him, 10mm and shotgun pellets slamming him against the railing and his box before he crumples. Lloyd takes point as I round the corner. I see the three imps that went up the stairs over by their door, aiming over the railing towards the office section of the warehouse, which was basically a metal box with a window on the side closer to the main entrance. Everything goes quiet as with the final guy down, the shooting stops. My ears are ringing and I realise I'm breathing hard.

One guy pops his head out of the office and those of us on the top floor all start shooting at him. His bit of metal wall gets filled with holes and he falls back, dropping his gun. From the looks of it, the wall did nothing to stop the bullets. Then he gets pulled inside. One of the cousins by the door opens fire at the wall, puncturing holes along it as he sprays the office section. Hopefully he got them.

Since I've got the shotgun, I start moving up, keeping my gun trained on the office entrance while Lloyd comes up behind me, doing the same with Lars' Tommy gun. As I slowly move up, I notice out of the corner of my eye the robot moving forward, scanning the warehouse as more imps come in, one of them dragging in Billy-bob who's hopping on one foot. As I'm about to round the corner and see into the office, I take a big step out and pre-fire my gun, hoping to catch someone in the office but all I can see is a sliding trail of blood from the one guy with another closed metal door. What I wouldn't do for some grenades right now, I should have gotten on those pipe bombs sooner.

"There are four enemies inside of the office, I can sense something going on inside with magic but I don't know what," I hear the buzzing of Skitter near by Lloyd and I. "Some Crimson reinforcements are coming, three vans of men."

"I've got eyes on, I'll try to thin them out a bit before they reach the warehouse," Moxxie says through our phones before putting us on hold again before muting himself.

I back up from the door, keeping my shotgun trained on the door as two more of my cousins come in. I look to the hovering ball of bugs. "Is Uncle Lars alright?"

The ball is silent for a moment before it answers. "He will live, the shot possibly broke some ribs and his arm is injured, but otherwise he'll live."

I breathe a sigh of relief, and Lloyd seems to chuckle, almost as if to mock me for my worry, as if nothing could go wrong.

"One enemy in the office remaining, watch out, incoming from the office," Skitter's buzz came through and we refocused on the do-

The metal door smashes open, and a massive crimson man comes through it, his face screwed up in a rictus of rage as the door slams into the wall and the man charges forward. I barely have time to fire a shot off right at the guy's face before he back hands me. Pain explodes across my front as I suddenly find myself flying backwards, and slamming through the window of the office area. I feel a fuck ton of sharp jabbing pain in my back as I fly through the air seeing the outside of the office area as the gunfire starts again and I can see a shit ton of flashes inside.

My flight is prematurely ended however as I slam into the floor, I hear something crack and I scream as immense pain is all I can feel as I bounce across the floor, skipping like a stone before settling and sliding the last little bit. My horns keep my head propped up and looking towards the metal box I'd just been tossed from. I watch as Cousin Joel flies out of the office entrance and hits the wall of the warehouse on the second floor.

Everyone else responds immediately as they train their guns on the metal box, though I watch some more imps head over to the entrance we just came from while others stack up by the main entrance and take aim at something outside. For a moment there is nothing as the box goes silent. I try to move, I try to breath but it's hard, and I can't feel my legs. Even though it's painful, I reach to my belt and grab the machine pistol, shakily aiming it at the box. I see Cousin Lou run towards me from where she had been tending to Billy Bob.

Then the crimson hulk runs out the side of the office's entrance and jumps the railing, wielding Lloyd as a club as he smashes two of the other imps, the two of them flying out of the warehouse and slamming into the street outside. The robot starts firing on the hulk of a man and in response he throws Lloyd at it, obscuring it's vision as he runs forward towards the robot. I watch as the muscled man slams a fist into the robot, it's hat flying off and a massive dent in it's head as a follow up punch to the less protected section of the body goes right through the lower part of the bot and into the stomach area. I hear the screech of metal as the robot falls over.

Lou's looking back at the man, and she pulls her gun out on the thing and we both start opening fire on it, bullets piercing it's crimson hide but it doesn't seem to be doing much as he barrels forward. his right arm across his body as he reaches us and with a swipe, Lou is backhanded away from me, the blow sending her flying across the warehouse before I can hear her hit a wall with an audible crack accompanied by the screech of metal. The warehouse is quiet again. The hulking red thing looks down at me, and a thick red tongue licks his lips, as he bares his teeth at me. His teeth are dripping with blood, red blood, not the black blood of imps. Oh Satan, did he eat someone while in the office, did he eat all three!?

The beast reaches down, I scream and try to fire some more, but my gun is all out, oh Satan oh Satan! Just as the beast's hand is about to reach me, just as I'm about to become a snack for this guy, something starts firing again, and the beast turns. Oh thank Satan! I look as the robot has turned over and is pushing itself up with one arm as the other aims at the crimson man, letting loose with it's gun. Realising my chance and ignoring the pain, because like fuck am I going to be eaten alive, I use my arms to try to push myself backwards away. The hulk is just too fast, however, and a moment or two later he's at the robot, tearing the things arms off before he continuously starts to curb stomp the thing into the floor, each stomp flattening the robot more and more. Sparks fly from the thing as he takes out his rage at it.

All too soon though, his rage at the thing seems gone as he stops stomping. I'm fucked, I'm fucked, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Unable to help myself, I feel tears start to fall as I try my damndest to keep from crying. We're all going to die, and we're going to be eaten. Oh Satan!

Then suddenly there is a wave of black specs rising from the boxes and entering from the outside. There is the sound of small explosions as smoke pours into the room, and I can just make out the silhouette of someone in a long fur coat, and a wide brimmed fedora walking in from the main entrance.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Been a while since we did an action scene, any suggestions on how I might improve on this kind of thing? Or even just suggestions on how it could have gone better for either side.

The Froggy Ninja · Jun 24, 2021

Bummer about the casualties.

Finagle007 · Jun 24, 2021

The Froggy Ninja said:
Bummer about the casualties.

Yup. Imps and other Hellborn don't revive the way sinners do; if they die, that's it for them. No need for Angelic weaponry.

Good thing Taylor's here and ready to kick butt.

Greatazuredragon · Jun 24, 2021

Time fo Skitter to take the field.

Wolfboy · Jun 24, 2021

This isn't just a Skittering, this is a momma bear Skittering

SomeRandomSchmuck · Jun 26, 2021

Taylor is about to pull this mans skeleton out through his eye socket and beat him to death with it, gonna need a lawn chair and popcorn for this one

The Unicorn · Jun 26, 2021

Finagle007 said:
Yup. Imps and other Hellborn don't revive the way sinners do; if they die, that's it for them. No need for Angelic weaponry.

Doers Taylor know that? Bacause I don't remember that being mentioned in the story, and Taylor attitude and tactics don't seem to fit her being aware of the distinction.

Thread Necromancer · Jun 27, 2021

The Unicorn said:
Doers Taylor know that? Bacause I don't remember that being mentioned in the story, and Taylor attitude and tactics don't seem to fit her being aware of the distinction.

Nope, Taylor unfortunately doesn't know that the Hellborn do not have the near invulnerability that the Sinners and the nobility enjoy. Had she know she might not have gone for such an aggressive strategy or as hands off approach towards these assaults as she has done here. In fact, she might have even scrapped the false flag op entirely and gone for a different plan that wouldn't have endangered people had she known, and if some imps die, she's not going to be having a good time and will be blaming herself for her failure, despite not having all the information.

Unlike Taylor, however, the imps know all of this, they know that they are going against immortal immoral monsters that can't properly die (unless they are also a Hellborn) and that they are risking their lives in order to delay and hamper one of the roving raider gangs that so often plague their lands (mostly because I am ignoring the fact that apparently sinners can't leave the circle of Pride at the moment). They accepted the risks, involved, and unfortunately, that means that sometimes, you don't make it back alive.

Deathwings · Jun 27, 2021

The fact that imps are apparently just as violent and impulsive, if not more so, then Sinners probably doesn't help.

Night Hunter · Jun 28, 2021

Deathwings said:
The fact that imps are apparently just as violent and impulsive, if not more so, then Sinners probably doesn't help.

I like to think Sinners are a bit higher than Imps in the social hierarchy but no enough by much if the state of Pendagrin City is to go by.

Vladicus · Jun 28, 2021

Night Hunter said:
I like to think Sinners are a bit higher than Imps in the social hierarchy but no enough by much if the state of Pendagrin City is to go by.

The only thing that matters in Hell is power, and the power to not stay dead unless killed by a specific weapon gives the sinners a huge advantage over the imps who do not have access to said weapons.

Night Hunter · Jun 28, 2021

Vladicus said:
The only thing that matters in Hell is power, and the power to not stay dead unless killed by a specific weapon gives the sinners a huge advantage over the imps who do not have access to said weapons.

There is a difference between your average Sinner and Overlord, power is what matters but I doubt that your average Sinner is that powerful (barring immortality).and Overlords look like the exception from the rule than the norm.

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