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“Would you like to know what you found, Doug?”
Doug was once again seated in darkness with nothing visible but a man sitting across from him. “Crap! Did I fall asleep? I was supposed to keep watch. It’s a really bad neighborhood Bryce brought us to — well, I guess not much worse than where I’m used to living, but if we could break into this building to steal a room, then anybody could break in. Someone right now could be about to slit my throat and steal my stuff… except I don’t have anything now except for that weird cube… which I kinda wish someone would take because it creeps me out. I mean, it just really creeps me out for some reason, and then we went near the wastelands which also creep me out and then to some apartment in the slums of some city I don’t know with creepy people around — I’m just very creeped out right now.” Doug looked around as if to try and see out of his dream. “I really hope no one is about to slit my throat.”
“Don’t worry; you’re fine for now,” the Devil said, and Doug did stop worrying a bit, because the Devil always seemed to know what he was talking about and was easy to trust. “It was busy day and you need sleep, anyway. And before you get rid of that cube, I think you should try to understand what it is.”
“Is it complicated? I’m guessing it’s complicated. I was thinking if this is something important to the Trans and they’re like already powerful enough to blow up mountains with their minds, then it has to be like super-duper powerful. Then again, I was thinking how I don’t understand anything about those guys and thus something interesting to them might not mean much to me.”
“I’d say it’s somewhere in between, Doug. The demons seek it not out of power but out of fear.”
“They’re scared of it too?”
“For different reasons. It’s not something in there that fills you with dread; it’s what it lacks.”
Doug thought about that. “It’s filled with emptiness?”
“Something like that. Now, one of the damned — the Hallowed as you call them — the humans who have submitted their souls to the demons in exchange for immortality and power — they would sense nothing were they to hold it. For that awful feeling you felt when you touched it is what they feel all the time.”
Doug frowned. “That’s horrible.”
The Devil laughed. “Your sympathy is misplaced; they made their choices.”
“Well, at least I know the more powerful people are these days; the crankier they seem.” This was some interesting information, but he remembered how his friends told him to be more skeptical. “So… um… Mr. Devil…”
“You can call me ‘Stan’ for simplicity.”
“Okay. Stan… do you have any ID that proves you’re the Devil?”
“I’m not going to be able to prove it to you, Doug. You’ll just have to see whether the things I say seem true or not and decide using that whether to trust me.” The Devil chuckled slightly. “It will be matter of faith in the end.”
“Okay… I guess that’s reasonable.”
“Back to point, the cube you found was made to prevent the contents from ever falling into the hands of a human. The mechanism to open it is located a spatial dimension you can’t even perceive.”
“And they don’t want someone like me to have what’s in there?”
“No. I doubt anyone would know what to do with its contents, but nonetheless the demons fear a human possessing it in case it might empower you against them.”
“So what is in it?”
“A key.”
Doug grimaced. He was hoping for something more interesting, like a jewel that would give him superpowers to fight evil. “What’s it unlock?”
“Wrong question, Doug. You should ask what it locks.”
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Asmod was at his throne as always. He never moved from it. He never needed to. He was everywhere, and his throne room only was for the convenience of the human mind in needing to believe a being had to occupy a physical space. It was the same as when people would look upwards to pray to the god of old; Asmod simply granted his subject a place to look to.
Robert Darius was still bound to physical form but had transcended the animal existence of being human. He still held the appearance of a man, but he certainly was quite more than one now. His devotion to Asmod had paid off with no longer being attached to a mere mortal form. Thus Darius had no need to have physical proximity to Asmod’s avatar in three-dimensional space to communicate with his ruler, yet he still did so as was custom. “I assume there is no need to tell you this, but the device was stolen.”
Asmod did not limit himself to a purely human form as he felt it limited the perception of him in the human mind. His face was a dispassionate gold mask which titled ever so slightly as if to face Darius. “I am aware.” His voice echoed throughout the room while still not being overbearing. “I am also aware it was not Serpine or Loch who obtained it.”
“They were certainly after it, though. I believe the attack on Shride was merely to cover that that fact.”
“The loss of one city is of no concern. I need to know where the device is.”
It was of some curiosity what made this device so important as to concern Asmod himself, but Darius knew Asmod would tell him what he needed to know. “To know so precisely where we were keeping it points to an inside job. I’m afraid the followers of Elza have infiltrated us again, and it appears they have your device.”
“We cannot let that be.”
Elza was of a great annoyance to Asmod, as Darius assumed she was to all Transcendents. While they tried to build something from this world, it seemed Elza treated it all as a game and used her fanatics to no other end than hindering everyone else. Further complicating things, she had no country, and her followers were hidden all over the world. Her current game was using propaganda to recruit fanatical terrorists, but she was a constantly changing threat. “I’ll need some leeway to deal with her people. Most likely, those responsible are now beyond your borders.”
“Do what you can, but don’t go through Dammon. I don’t need anyone else involved in this.”
This was an even greater curiosity. They often went to Dammon for things that went beyond current treaties with the other Transcendents, so it meant something that Asmod didn’t want him to know of the device… whatever it was.
“I can see your thoughts, Darius. The truth is, even I am not sure of what threat the device may be — if any. It needs to be obtained and studied. It was but good chance we found it first, and now that we know of its existence, we need to possess it until the truth of it known. Also, we need to make sure no other Transcendent knows about it… if possible.”
“I understand. Obtaining the device will be my only priority.”
“Beware that Serpine will most likely task Loch with obtaining it as well.”
Darius shivered. “Loch himself could not be let loose in such a way, could he?”
“Most likely not, but he is treacherous. Be wary of him.”
“I will.” Darius turned to leave.
“One more thing.”
“Yes, lord?”
“There could possibly be another being at play here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone powerful like us Transcendents… but not one of us. If you detect his involvement, I need to know.”
At this point, Darius hoped Asmod could see all the questions in his mind. “Is this a great danger?”
“It is a concern. There are too many coincidences as of late, and when strings are being pulled, he is always the one pulling them. We thought he had no interest in this world, but if he is back, that is something we all need to know.”
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There were screams of panic as the grenade clinked back against the floor, but Doug didn’t look back as he followed his friends in a mad dash for one of the trucks. Charlene quickly took the lead, shooting one of the Amazons and grabbing her rifle without even stopping. Just as they reached the nearest vehicle, the grenade exploded. Doug could hear it pelting the surrounding with shrapnel, but he didn’t feel any hit him as he scrambled into the truck.
The truck lurched upwards as the vehicle began to come under fire. Doug turned to see that Bryce was in the driver’s seat while Lulu was in the passenger seat ducking and covering her head. Charlene was in back among the metal crates with Doug, and she returned fire out the loading hatch as she hit the button to close it. The chorus of metallic ricochets against the vehicle’s hull died down as it rose into the air.
Lulu finally uncovered her head and looked out the windshield. “Looks like my plan worked! Yay me! I saved us all! Go Team Hellbender!”
“Throwing a grenade in the air is not a plan!” Charlene yelled.
“You’re not a plan!”
Charlene growled. “What now?”
Bryce jerked the truck around and accelerated it forward. “We take a leisurely drive through a war zone where everyone is far too busy to bother with us. Then we’re headed to Theed where we have a buyer for whatever it is we have in here.”
A voice came over the vehicle’s radio. “You do not have permission to take off.”
Lulu grabbed the receiver. “Guess what? You have permission to suck it!”
Bryce laughed. “This sure got a bit bumpy when Lulu was discovered and those crazy girls got involved, but overall the plan worked out pretty well.”
“Where was this plan you people keep referring to?” Charlene demanded.
“The plan was to get into the armory and grab a vehicle full of military weaponry,” Bryce explained. “Which we did.”
“That’s not a plan! That’s a statement of what you want a plan to do!”
“Well… it worked.”
Lulu took off her uniform jacket under which she had a pink t-shirt a couple sizes too small. “Really, who made you queen of what constitutes a plan, Charlene?”
“Right now we’re heading for a foreign country in an opposing military vehicle with three of us in uniforms of a nation their at war with,” Charlene said. “If this is a plan, it’s a crappy one.”
“Well I had the foresight to wear something under mine.” Lulu pulled off her pants under which was a skirt that if were any shorter would be a frilly belt. “Bet little miss prepared for anything didn’t think of that one.”
“I hate all of you! I really do!”
“Hey, you got to kill someone today, Charlene; you should be elated.”
Doug finally took off his helmet since they seemed to be in the clear and looked out a gun port on the side of the truck. The whole city was now in flames. He hoped everyone got out okay… except for the job-stealing monkeys. “I guess it’s just good we’re not stuck back there.” He saw something the size of a small city floating in the air. It seemed to pull in darkness around it, and Doug could not see it clear enough other than to know it was intimidating and evil looking. “That is awesome.”
Bryce looked around out the windshield. “What? What’s awesome?”
“This thing floating behind us.”
Charlene pushed Doug out of the way and took a look and turned white. “It’s Loch’s flagship.”
“That’s trouble.” Doug found another gun port and looked at the giant, flying craft. For a moment, it was like his vision zoomed in until he saw something clearly standing on the craft staring back at him. He couldn’t even see anything that he could identify as eyes, but he knew something was looking right at him. Doug stumbled back and fell against a crate. “Dude!”
“I’m sure Loch has more important things on his divine mind than one meager truck,” Bryce said, his voice cracking slightly. “Anyway, if he wanted us, he could just pull us out of the sky. Not like there’s anything we could do about it. If there’s no objections, I’m going to take us near the wasteland to limit the chance of running into anyway else.”
“I don’t like going near the wasteland.” Doug tried to shake his previous experience from his head. “It’s weird and scary.”
“As usual, your objection doesn’t count, Doug.”
Charlene continued to watch out the gun port. “The really destroyed the whole city, didn’t they.”
“Just be thankful we got you out of there, Charlene,” Lulu said. “It wasn’t a unanimous vote.”
“This whole attack was such a pointless display of power,” Bryce stated with disgust. “I’m sure Asmod will eventually respond in kind. It looks like none of the Trans ever get a real advantage over the others. That’s while we’ll always have plenty of opportunity as mercenaries.”
“We’re going to be mercenaries?” That sounded cool, but Doug really didn’t like getting shot at.
Lulu pulled a piece of paper out of the waistband of her skirt. “I have the form to make us official, self-employed criminals.”
Satisfied they were far enough away from Loch, Charlene stopped watching outside and turned her disbelief to Lulu. “Official criminals?”
“There’s criminal and there is criminal, Charlene.” Bryce put the vehicle on autopilot and turned to face everyone. “Don’t worry, though; I’m well versed in the criminal underworld to get us started. We’ll sell whatever we have here and use it as seed money to establish our base of operations for our very own mercenary group. No longer will we be unappreciated tools of corrupt governments and gods. We will now work only to benefit ourselves.”
Doug thought it did sound a bit exciting. “We’re going to call our mercenary group Hellbender, right?” He was always proud of that name since he thought of it himself back when they were kids.
“Better to fail together than fail alone!” Lulu shouted.
Charlene sighed. “I made up that slogan to make fun of our stupid group. Just because we played together as kids, I don’t know why you think that means I still want to be a part of your idiotic plans.”
“If you’re going to be a bitch as usual, we don’t need you,” Lulu said.
“I’m the only one of you who actually has any combat skill!” Charlene shouted.
“Yeah, we’ll get killed pretty quick without Charlene,” Doug said. “Maybe she should be in charge.”
“Charlene is not going to be in charge; she’s mean.” Lulu stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I’m in charge.”
Charlene laughed. “Says who?”
“It really is best that Lulu is in charge,” Bryce said. “Asian women are very underrepresented in crime, so having her as our leader will be a big hiring advantage. In fact, we really have a great group as is for government contracts. We’re at least half-female, which is a must. We have a token white male–” He pointed to himself. “–which they’re actually starting to crack down on if you’re missing. And then Doug… well… who know what the hell he is? We can just list him as whatever minority is particularly ‘in’ at the moment. Right now, I think we’ll put him down as half-black, half-Hispanic.”
“I really think I am Hispanic,” Doug said. “I really really like nachos.”
Charlene once again looked dumbfounded “People hiring criminals really care about all that?”
“Again, just because it’s the criminal underworld doesn’t mean it lacks all civility,” Bryce explained. “And espionage jobs for the various governments are the most lucrative, and they’ll always make sure to follow quotas.”
“And you really think people are going to be dumb enough hire us?”
“We’re the Last Children — we’re unaffiliated. When two governments have a cold war going between them, we’re the sort they’ll hire for deniability.”
“It going to be a lot of fun,” Lulu said, “and it should involve violence, so even you should like it, Charlene.”
Charlene sighed and seemed to resign herself to her fate. “So do these grand plans involve a place for us to sleep tonight?”
Bryce turned back to the vehicle controls. “You worry too much.”
“How about a TV for playing videogames?” Doug asked. “I was planning on playing videogames today… before everything got blown up.”
“Soon, we’ll have whatever we want.” Bryce tossed Doug a pen and notebook. “For now, why don’t you see if you can inventory what’s in here so we can idea what kind of haul we have to sell.”
Doug wasn’t much of a weapons expert, so he hoped everything was labeled. He pried open one crate which had what looked like grenade launchers inside. “Cool.” He wrote down “3 probably grenade launchers” in the notebook and noticed something else inside with them. It was a small cloth sack with an object about the size of an apple inside. Doug reached in to grab it, but immediately pulled back his hand in shock as what was inside was colder than ice. The object fell to the ground and rolled out of the sack. It was a smooth metal cube and it scared Doug worse than anything he had ever seen. He rubbed his hand and tried to regain his composure, but he was become overwhelmed with feeling that they were doomed. “Bryce, you know that important artifact you told the Protectors you had to secure?”
“Of course. I never forget my lies; that’s an important part of lying.”
“I think I found it.”
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