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“You must be pretty special to work so closely with someone like Dammon.”
Lulu jerked Bryce away from the smiling, buxom secretary. “We don’t have time for that.”
Bryce straightened his new suit jacket as he followed Lulu and Charlene into Dammon’s office. Charlene wore a pants suit and even Lulu dressed up for the occasion, though she adjusted her business suit’s skirt a little higher.
Dammon had a large office with a magnificent view of the city. Apparently Dammon kept offices in about every major city. While most things he was involved in were “illegal,” the other Transcendents never took actions against him directly. Dammon was standing by his desk when Bryce and the others entered. He appeared to be a handsome young man in an expensive suit, and he smiled at them somewhat mischievously. “Hellbender!” he called to them like they were old friends. “Have a seat.”
They did as told, and he had three nice leather chairs facing his desk. “We don’t want to waste your time sir,” Charlene said, “but we believe–”
“I don’t know how you plan on conducting this,” Dammon interrupted as he walked towards the computer on his desk that a being like him had no use for other than aesthetics, “but my records say that it’s the pretty Asian woman that’s in charge.”
Lulu sat up straight, trying to look as serious as possible. “What we’re here for–”
“Sorry to interrupt again,” Dammon said, “but we’re not really in a rush. Can I offer you guys some drinks before we get to business?”
Bryce looked to the other two, but neither seemed to be in quick to answer. “Sure… what do you recommend?”
“There’s a bottle of brandy and some glasses right next to you. Quite good.”
Bryce had not noticed the table to his right. He went ahead and poured himself a drink.
Dammon walked over to the bar near his desk and looked at Charlene. “And what would lovely lady number one like?”
“I’m good. Thank you.”
He looked to Lulu. “And lovely lady number two?”
“I’ll have a Cosmopolitan… but I want the lime separate and not mixed with the drink.”
“I can handle that.” Dammon turned to mix the drink and Bryce took a sip of the brandy. It was quite good. In not too long, Dammon had a Cosmopolitan in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. He handed the Cosmopolitan to Lulu. “Limes are right next to you.” And there was a little bowl of limes on a table next to Lulu which Bryce had also not noticed before. Dammon gave the wine to Charlene. “And here is what you wanted.”
Charlene accepted the glass. “If you knew what I wanted, why did you ask?”
Dammon headed back to the bar to pour a brown liquid from a decanter into a glass. “I don’t need to ask any of you anything to get whatever information I want, but I choose to because you find it less disconcerting.” His face turned somewhat menacing. “Maybe you should consider indulging me.”
“Ignore her.” Lulu squeezed the lime into her drink. “She’s already been a bitch to people for so long, I guess she decided to do it to Transcendents for a change.” She took a sip. “This is really good.”
Dammon sat down at his desk. “Thanks. I used to bartend professionally.”
Lulu nodded. “I used to be an astronaut.”
Dammon chuckled. “Well, you three have had quite an interesting time lately as I understand. You recently became decently wealthy by doing a job for Asmod… not through my organization.”
“Is that a problem?” Bryce asked, sounding as innocent as possible — as if that would fool him.
Dammon shrugged. “It’s not the best thing… in my opinion. And then you killed some of my people, extorted twenty five thousand from one of my disciples, and cut off her hand.”
Bryce took a big gulp of his brandy. “Well… not in that order.”
“That was really between Colette and us,” Lulu said. “If you want the twenty five thousand back–”
“I didn’t say that.” Dammon paused to sip his drink. “I’m just going over where we stand in relation to each other.”
“I think where we stand is that you’re an infinitely powerful being while we’re simple humans,” Charlene said.
Dammon laughed. “It’s a skill to tell someone he’s infinitely powerful in a patronizing tone.”
Lulu smiled nervously. “Again, ignore her. Circumstances have been a bit frustrating to us. What we want to do is find if there is anything we can do about a friend who we believe is being held by Ronove.”
“Sure. You can go after him or you can forget him. That’s the sort of advice I give for free.” He looked at Charlene. “I’m quite benevolent, you know.”
“Well, is there some sort of quid pro quo we could work out for a bit more help?” Bryce asked.
“You’re wondering what you can do for me.” Dammon looked quite amused with himself. “I think you know what that is.”
“So, will you help us get back our friend if we bring you back the cube?” Charlene said.
“Well, the cube would be nice to have.” Dammon swirled around his drink in its glass. “If there’s too much of a power imbalance, it’s bad for me. Ronove’s research is all about tilting things in Asmod’s favor, so I’d rather him not have the cube if it really is of any value.” He looked up at the three. “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not like Elza. She’s trying to create chaos by interfering. I’m trying to keep a balance. You people really won’t enjoy it if any of the Transcendents succeeds too much.” He sipped his drink. “And I enjoy humanity too much to see it ended.”
Bryce was already pouring himself another drink. “Would it really be possible to get in there and grab the cube and our friend without Ronove stopping us?”
“It would be difficult… but not impossible,” Dammon said. “Ronove’s lab is not easily accessed, but I think you can overcome that yourself. As for Ronove, he’s a very focused individual so things could be done without him knowing if timed properly. While I simply have taken a form that looks human to you, Ronove actually created himself a human body — cell by cell, vein by vein — and is limited in perception when in it… which is almost all the time.”
Charlene looked to finally relax and drink her wine. “So it sounds like we can do this.”
Dammon smiled. “I’m not so sure. We’re still talking about breaking into a heavily guarded facility even when we factor out the Transcendent. It’s hugely risky, and it’s not the sort of thing a bunch of loser who finally made it big are going to risk everything over because of a sentimental attachment to a childhood friend.”
Bryce’s phone beeped an alert. He thought he had remembered to turn it off.
“Go ahead and check it,” Dammon said.
Bryce took his phone out of his pocket. He had been a number of messages. Each one indicated that one of his bank accounts had been closed. “No!”
Dammon sipped his drink. “Yes.”
“What?” both Lulu and Charlene asked.
Bryce was panicking. He noticed he was on his feet but didn’t remember standing up. “All our money. He took it.”
“When you tried to hide your money in multiple bank accounts, who were you trying to hide it from?” Dammon laughed. “Not from an infinite being, I hope, because then you were just wasting your time.”
Bryce felt he was about to lose himself, and he struggled to keep some calm. “This isn’t right. That was our money, and it didn’t have anything to do with you.”
“I like you humans and your concepts of ‘right and wrong.’ You even make whole belief systems based on it. In reality, though, there is only what one can and can’t do. I showed you what I can do; now I’ll tell you what you can do.”
“THAT WAS OURS!!!” Before Bryce’s sense could protest, he was charging Dammon, about to leap over the desk at him.
Bryce was in darkness, lying down against solid rock. Lulu and Charlene were next to him, looking as bewildered as him. Fire then burst around them, the flames stories high. The heat felt like it was about to melt the flesh from Bryce face.
And then Dammon rose before them — not his human form, but something closer to his real form. At his full height, he was far taller than any skyscraper Bryce had ever seen with eyes that stared down with full contempt for the pathetic things lying before him.
And then Bryce was back in the office, lying on the ground next to the shocked Lulu and Charlene, Charlene glass of wine now staining the carpet.
“Familiarity breed contempt.” Dammon was looking as cordial as ever. “I look human, and eventually people consider me as human. That’s fine most of the time, but every so often I need to remind people exactly what I am. Now, as Bryce mentioned, you are all penniless. You have no money and nowhere to go. That makes you once again the ‘desperate losers’ as you described yourself to Colette. You’re going to go get that cube for me because you have absolutely no other option in this life than to do so. While you’re at it, you can get that friend of your — or not; whatever works for you. If you come back successfully, then we can work out further business arrangements and see about getting you some of that money back. Are we clear?”
Bryce was now equal parts scared and angry. Lulu was the first to get off the floor. “We’ll need some money to do this.”
“Of course.” Dammon stood up from his desk. “On your way out, talk to my administrative assistant and she’ll get you expense forms. I already have a plan for you three to follow, but if you want to do it your own way, I’ll trust your judgment — or successful lack thereof. I think we’re done for now.”
Charlene helped Bryce to his feet and the three left the office. “Why do we even try?” Bryce asked them. “I’m sorry I dragged any of you into this.”
“It’s not your fault,” Charlene said. “No matter what we do, it’s all rigged for failure. It was just as dumb when I was trying to conform with society.”
“But we just keep going in circles.” Bryce pounded a nearby wall. “The best we can hope for is things to be only as sucky as they always were. What’s the point?”
“I don’t know.” Lulu smiled weakly. “Let’s go ask Doug. Maybe he knows.”
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