PREVIOUS
Doug was ready to give up, but he didn’t know how to give up. Nothing he did seemed to make a difference. He kept changing his mind from thinking he was naíve to ever believe his friends were coming for him to horrified at the thought of his friends ending up in this place. He wanted to burn this whole place down, but he feared Ronove was right and that wouldn’t make a difference. The misery would always be out there, waiting for him.
Doug thought he heard a sound from the toilet. If it was Chimezie about to tell him to keep up his spirits and that God would answers their prayers soon, Doug was not in the mood. “I don’t want to talk right now. It was pretty bad today.”
“Did they do it to you too?” Chimezie asked. His voice sounded weak.
“Make it sound like they were torturing someone else?”
“It was Talia,” Chimezie said between sobs. “She got here only a little before you and doesn’t speak any English. They made we watch, but I was gagged so I couldn’t say anything to her.”
“You sure it wasn’t some trick?”
“Yes!” Chimezie shouted, sounding a little angry.
Doug remembered that Ronove had referred to his experiment on Doug as a “control” case, so maybe it was different for the others.
“I can’t take this anymore,” Chimezie cried. “I keep praying for an end to this, but nothing ever comes. Maybe the demons won. Maybe He can’t hear us anymore.”
Doug thought of the barrier, and how Ronove said it blocked them from whatever power may have once been out there. They were truly alone.
Of course, Doug was used to being alone when bigger powers trampled on him. That was life for him. Maybe it wasn’t for Chimezie, though, and this was even harder for him. Then again, Doug thought, maybe Chimezie was just another trick trying to break him.
“I’ve gotten fired from every job I’ve ever had,” Doug said. “Including the real simple ones that even the monkeys can’t screw up. Now, I got these giant powers beyond understanding trying to break me. Seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? Do you know why they are doing it, though?”
“No. I do not understand.”
“They’re doing it because they’re afraid of me. They’re afraid of us.” Doug didn’t really believe that, but he wanted to take action, and this was it. “You tell Talia, you tell anyone else you can, that if they want to be a part of Hellbender, they can.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that though they may treat us as worthless losers, together we’re… we’re… we’re losers together. And we’re getting out of here. Now.”
“Are your friends coming to rescue you?”
“Yeah,” Doug said, trying not to hesitate, “but we got to get things ready on our side.”
“How?”
“Just leave that to me. Just spread the word. We’re Hellbender and we’re together.”
“I still don’t…”
“Just tell everyone!”
Doug stood up and stared at the solid metal door to his cell. Ronove may have been right that Doug’s existence was pointless and destined to end in misery, but Doug assured himself that he was too stupid to understand Ronove’s arguments to know that for sure. So he ran at full force into the door.
He painfully bounced off of it onto the floor. Doug wished he had a better plan, but he figured there had to be more intelligent people than him imprisoned here and they would have already tried all the smart ideas. His first attempt didn’t even rattle the door in the slightest, his full force not even rewarded by a slight vibration. That just meant he would have to hit it even harder. And if that didn’t work, he could always try the brick wall.
Doug stood up to prepare for another run, but the door made a noise. He thought maybe he had scared it, but in fact it was being opened. On the other side stood Darius backed by numerous protectors with rifles. They seemed much more moveable than the door or the wall. And, in fact, they were as Darius merely stepped out of the way when Doug charged at him, causing Doug to stumble into a wall out in the hallway.
“And what the hell are you trying to do?” Darius asked.
Doug let himself lay on the ground for a moment to catch his breath. “I don’t know.” But he seemed to be making progress.
“Well, if you can stop being stupid for a moment, we’re going to get you out of here.”
Doug picked himself off the ground and met Darius eye to eye. “No deal.”
PREVIOUS

PREVIOUS
“You better hope I never get these cuffs off, or I will kill each and every one of you.”
Charlene sighed. “Lulu, shut up.”
The transport they were on had made a landing. In the back with them were Lara and three other devotees of Elza, some wearing Protector uniforms and the others what looked like medical garb. Bryce was pretty certain they were in a caravan, though, and thus there would be more of them at the destination. “So have you been working for these psychos the whole time?” Bryce asked Lara.
“Let’s just say my resume is complicated.”
“So what do you gals have planned for us? Is it weird sexual things? If so, I’m game, and I’m sure Lulu will keep an open mind.”
“Bryce, you can shut up too,” Charlene said.
Lulu glared at Charlene. “I always knew something like this would happen because you’re a stuck up bitch, and that’s why I kept telling the others we needed to one day just drive you out into the middle of the woods and leave you there. Doug was against it though, because he’s stupid.”
“I was ambivalent on the issue,” Bryce said.
“We’ve been playing a kids game for a very long time,” Charlene answered. “I decided to grow up.”
“Then why are you still so short?” Lulu retorted.
“Hello, ladies,” a rough looking man said as he entered the transport. He was followed by two other men wearing Protector uniforms.
This wasn’t something Bryce had planned for. “I have to say, you are some ugly looking women.”
Colette entered after them having traded her evening gown for something more combat worthy. She looked at the handcuffed Lulu and Bryce and then Charlene. Finally, she turned to Lara. “What the hell are they doing here?”
Lulu smiled. “Hey! You got your hand back!”
“Are you guys working together?” Bryce asked. “Since we technically work for Dammon too, we’re all on the same side. No reason for us to be cuffed, then.”
“Yes. Get my cuffs off so I can give everyone a hug,” Lulu said.
The transport began to take off. Colette looked to Lara again. “Will you explain to me why we don’t just toss these idiots out the door as soon as we reach altitude?”
Lara shrugged. “Because that would be violent, and we’re all pacifists.”
Colette looked at Charlene. “And she’s on your side now?”
“She’s a filthy, mudblood traitor!” Lulu shouted.
“Your group was never organized enough to be betrayed.” Colette said. “So, do you have any idea what they’re keeping you alive for?”
“I’m sticking with my guess of weird sex stuff,” Bryce answered. “You know how murderous lesbians are.”
Lara looked offended. “Who said we’re lesbians? Just because a group of women get together for violent purposes doesn’t mean they’re lesbians. If a group of men get together for military purposes, do you assume they’re homosexuals?”
“Well… uh…”
“Don’t fall for her lesbian mind tricks,” Lulu whispered to Bryce.
“Prepare for flying over the wasteland,” the driver said.
“And how do we prepare for that?” Lara asked.
“Just don’t freak out, I guess,” the driver answered.
Bryce looked out a window and could see the black of the wasteland. It was his understanding that there was a specific high-altitude path through the wasteland that allowed access to Ronove’s lab. Bryce hoped the Amazons knew what they were doing, as the darkness swirled as if preparing to consume them. “So how does one break apart reality?”
“I hear every time you try to divide by zero on a pocket calculator, you break apart a piece of reality,” Lulu said.
Lara moved to look out the window. “You know, I’ve never actually heard of anyone actually being killed in the wastelands.”
“That’s because the creatures inside of it rip you from reality so it’s like you never existed,” Lulu explained.
Colette scoffed. “And where did you hear that?”
“I read it in a science magazine,” Lulu replied. “I also hear that pi equals exactly three in there, and if you even look at a circle while in the wasteland, your head will explode.”
“This is a real professional operation, huh?” one of the men griped.
“This certainly wasn’t my planning,” Bryce said. “I can just tell this is going to be a big disaster.” In fact, he was going to make certain of that. He looked again out the window at the swirling darkness waiting to annihilate anything it touched, and he smiled.
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Concentrate. You have to be smarter than you are to get through this. People are–
Doug was distracted by something interesting. He was being led to a lab again by men much larger than himself, but when he got there he saw that Ronove was occupied talking to someone familiar looking. It was Darius, and he had with him black-garbed Protectors holding rifles — the first guns he had recalled seeing in this place.
“I am not interested in Amsod’s conflicts with the others,” Ronove said, seeming quite displeased while appearing emotionless as ever.
“Yet they are interested in what you are doing here, especially so for the cube.” Darius motioned towards the thing which was in a glass container. “We are quite certain that Serpine has tasked Loch to attack us and get it.”
“Do they have any idea what it is?” Doug asked.
Darius quietly approached Doug and looked him over. He then turned back to Ronove. “And what again is the purpose of this human?”
“If nothing else, he’s an interesting test subject.” Ronove went back to work at a computer. “Keep your forces here if you must, but be careful with those guns. Death will adversely affect my experiments. Being a unnatural reflection of a human, your presence alone is throwing off my instrumentation. And if Loch does come, let me try and deal with him before you do anything rash. Please go now.”
Darius started to leave with his soldier, but Doug called out to him, “Do you know they’re torturing innocent people here?”
Darius stopped to take one more glance at Doug before continuing on his way.
“So you don’t care?” No one seemed to Doug to care around here. “Jerk.”
“Strap him to the table,” Ronove ordered, his attention still on his computer.
The two men escorting Doug took off his handcuffs and strapped him to an examination table.
“That is all,” Ronove said, and the men left.
“So what now?” Doug asked. Some device popped up next to his head and began to make a humming noise. He didn’t think he felt anything. “So, should my soul be dying now or what?”
Ronove walked behind the table, out of Doug’s view. “You are all so impatient.”
Doug could see the cube from his position and tried to reach out with his soul to do something… except once again he had no idea how to do that or what exactly he’d be doing. “I think you need to turn it up, because I don’t feel anything this time.”
Doug noticed a different sound. He first thought it was something Ronove was doing, but it was muffled as if from a different room. Slowly, Doug realized what the sound was: It was a woman weeping softly. “Who is that?”
“Who is what?”
The sobbing turned to a weak cry. “…please stop…”
“What are you doing to her?” Doug yelled as he tested his binds.
“Oh; that. I know you like to think you’re special, but do I have other tests going on,” Ronove said. “Just ignore it; it’s no one you know.”
“…please…” The voice became more urgent, and the crying louder.
“Whatever you’re doing to her, stop it!” Doug screamed. The woman continued to cry, sounding not in pain but certainly in intense misery. Ronove gave no response.
“…just stop… please…” She sounded like she was barely hanging on but had no energy left for anything but sobbing.
“You said you want to destroy my soul, you coward!” Doug struggled to free himself, but he was strapped in so tight he could barely squirm. “Stop doing it to her and do it to me!”
Ronove remained silent.
“…please… I can’t…. please…”
Doug had very little energy from his captivity, but he struggled with all the might he could muster. “I swear I’ll… I’ll…”
Ronove finally walked in front of Doug. “What could you possibly do to me?”
“I saw you!” Doug yelled. “You’re nothing compared to me.”
“…stop… please…”
“Is that so.” Ronove hobbled over to a console and turned a dial.
The woman’s sobbing became a cry. “PLEASE STOP IT!”
Doug just stared on in horror.
Ronove turned back to him. “If you’re so powerful, then stop me.”
Doug couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything. There was only one thing left he knew of to try. “Please, God… Jesus — if you exist — please stop this!”
Ronove turned the knob again. The crying became even louder, and the pleas turned to hysterical gibberish. “I don’t think that did the trick, Doug.”
Doug could barely see through his tears. “I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS! I WILL FIGURE OUT HOW TO HURT YOU!”
Ronove turned the knob back, and the woman’s cry faded to its original light sobbing. “These physical ears can only take so much of that.” Ronove limped over to Doug. “Would you like me to explain what I’m doing to her? I’m merely making her experience what it’s like for the human soul and body to become disjoined. The misery you heard is exactly what all the billion of humans who died before you are experiencing as we speak… except no one hears their pleas.”
“…please… enough…”
Doug was crying now too. “You made your point. I can’t do anything. Now stop it… please.”
“Fine.” Ronove walked over and banged his fist against the wall. “That’s enough, dear. You did a very good job.”
“Thank you, sir,” the woman answer, a slight laugh at the end of her answer.
Doug’s mind almost shut down for a moment trying to comprehend.
“One of my employee’s is aspiring to be an actress,” Ronove said. “Do you think she has a future, Doug?”
The despair was once again replaced with rage.
“You tortured yourself in your inability to help her, and now I’m guessing your imagining the violence you could do to her. Am I right?”
He was, but Doug didn’t answer. He was too defeated.
Ronove walked over to the cube. “You saw this for what it really is the other day, didn’t you?” He now came near Doug. “When you talk to your religious friend again, you tell him of that infinite barrier… that void. You tell him of where everyone’s pleas disappear into.”
Doug couldn’t even muster anger at Ronove anymore. “Why?”
“I won’t claim to know the answer to that. What I do know for certain is that if you want any escape from this, I am your only hope. Perhaps you’ll understand enough to give me your gratitude before the end.” Ronove walked back to his computer and pushed a button. The device near Doug’s head ceased its hum. “You were a control case, but I think I got some quite useful data.” He looked to Doug, and the corners of his mouth slowly stretched out into an unworldly smile. “Now I know exactly how to proceed.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
“Nice kitty.”
Bryce kept his distance. “I don’t think it’s a kitty, Tri-Lu.”
The creature cocked its head sideways to get a better look at the three of them. “I don’t know what he is.” Lulu slowly reached towards it. “But I have to call him something, so I’m calling him a kitty.”
Charlene pulled Lulu back. “Let’s not feed the kitty.”
Lulu wasn’t sure if it was a genetically engineered giant lizard or a resurrected dinosaur, but it stood more than fifteen feet tall and had wings for arms. Mounted on its back were some guns and what looked like a rocket launcher. It was unrestrained and seemed unconcerned with all the people moving about the base. “I don’t think it will eat us,” Lulu said. “It’s probably only allowed to eat a special diet of tofu and fresh baby badgers.”
Charlene stared at the creature with a mixture of concern and disgust. “So it will rip us apart with its teeth but not digest us is what you’re saying?”
“I doubt he even has teeth. I’m going to name him Mr. Muffin.” Lulu reached for the lizard again, and the Mr. Muffin opened it mouth revealing inch long blades. Lulu yanked back her hand. “Okay, I guess he does have teeth. Bad Mr. Muffin! You scared me!”
Bryce tried to get a better look of the equipment on Mr. Muffin’s back. “So are people supposed to ride it?”
“It’s idiotic,” Charlene exclaimed, and then backed a few steps away. “There’s no advantage to this over a jet fighter.”
“It’s called style, Char.” Lulu pirouetted. “Everyone else can go around in their boring fighter planes and stupid uniforms while Serpine’s people fly around on giant lizard looking like golden knights.” Lulu loved the uniforms they stole at Stan’s direction. They had normal material underneath, but on top had golden metal plates making it look like they were wearing armor. Plus, her breastplate was molded for her feminine physique. “And isn’t it nice to have a uniform that’s functional while still emphasizing one’s femininity?”
“Mine isn’t emphasizing my femininity.” Bryce looked down at his flat breastplate. “Wish I had metal boobs.”
“So what are you planning on putting in there?” Lulu knocked on Charlene’s chest piece.
She smacked Lulu roughly on the back of the head. “Don’t touch me.”
“Ow! You be nice or I’ll shoot you with my laser gun!” The rifles they got were shiny, smooth, golden things that looked more fancy than the regular cartridge firing rifles they were underneath. Lulu aimed her gun up at an imaginary target. “Pew! Pew!” Lulu noticed the confused looks on her compatriots. “That’s the sound a laser gun makes. You guys should study science more.”
“These guns are idiotic,” Charlene said. “These uniforms are idiotic. The giant lizard weapon is idiotic. Serpine’s whole military is idiotic. She is a nut.”
“She could be worse.” Bryce looked up at the blackness blocking the sky above them that was Loch’s chariot.
There were creatures flying around the craft, and they didn’t seem as nice as Lulu’s new kitty friend. “Yeah, glad he’s on the side we’re pretending to be on.”
“Where are your helmets?”
Lulu turned around to see a six-foot tall woman looking at them scornfully. Her metal uniform covered the important bits and pretty much nothing else. “Um… I guess they’re still back in the truck that we stole the uniforms from.”
“Get ready for the assault or I’ll rip your little head off!” The woman stormed off.
Charlene looked quite stunned. “Did we just get ordered around by a woman in a metal bikini?”
Bryce nodded. “That was awesome.”
“She must be one of the Hollow,” Lulu said. “When your whole body isn’t real, you don’t have to worry about practicality in your outfits. Must be pretty cool.” She turned back to the lizard. “You should have bit the mean woman and defended your mommy, Mr. Muffin!”
Charlene smacked Lulu on the head again. “You aren’t the rocket launching lizard’s mommy. Can we get to this?” She walked off towards a nearby building and Bryce and Lulu followed.
Lulu rubbed the back of her head. “Maybe I should have gotten the helmet.”
“There were stupid looking,” Bryce said.
“They’d be neat if they had horns like a Viking helmet.”
“Will you two shut up?” Charlene approached the door to one of the hangars and looked around briefly to make sure no one was watching them. “After we do this, let’s not ever see each other ever again.”
They entered and inside there were a number of unattended transport vehicles. “These look normal,” Bryce said. “Shouldn’t they be pulled by pegasi or something?”
“You’d think.” Charlene opened the door of one and checked inside. “Serpine’s military is just too idiotic to live. I really hope everyone here gets killed in the attack.”
Bryce checked out the driver seat. “I hope everyone on both sides gets killed.”
“Except for us,” Lulu said. “And Doug.”
“Of course not us or Doug,” Bryce answered. “I like living, and this is all kinda pointless if Doug gets killed.”
“Nothing is pointless if you learn something,” Lulu corrected him.
“So what have you been learning?”
Lulu turned around to see six soldiers entering the hangar. “Hey, guys. We were just checking out the…” She noticed they were all women and had some smug little smiles on their faces. “Oh crap. Not you guys again.”
“Hello, Hellbender,” one of the Amazons said, she having remembered the helmet with her disguise. “Ends up Elza has use for you. You should be honored.”
“And we totally are,” Lulu replied. “It’s just were on a tight schedule right now, so as much as we’d like to help you guys, why don’t we– KILL THEM!” Lulu fired her rifle at the six, but nothing happened. They stood watching in amusement as each trigger pull caused nothing more to happen than a little clicking noise. Lulu saw that Bryce was now beside her, having no more luck with his rifle. Lulu stopped pulling the trigger and took careful aim at one the Amazons. “Pew! Pew!”
Lulu looked behind her to see that Charlene hadn’t even raised her weapon. Instead she stared at Lulu and Bryce with a grave expression. “Um… Char,” Bryce said to her, “we’re having a little weapon trouble. You want to help us out?”
“I… I disarmed them.” Charlene moved away from them.
Lulu looked again to the smiles of their enemies and back to Charlene. “What’s going on?”
Charlene slowly walked over to stand with the Amazons. “I’m sorry, guys, but things have gotten bigger than the four of us.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
“Chi-something, you there?”
“I am here, Doug.” Came a voice from his cell’s toilet. “It’s Chimezie.”
“Chimezie.” Doug tried to repeat.
“Close enough.”
“I was talking with some woman through here earlier… but she didn’t seem to speak English. She was crying. I don’t think she understood me.”
“I’m sure you helped her just by talking to her,” Chimezie said. “They seem to have mainly taken immigrants — people who will not be noticed to be missing. I came here from Africa.”
“I thought that place was all dead.”
“Not all of it.” Chimezie paused for a moment. “Things are very bad there, but the Transcendents — the Demons — had no interest in it. Still, I came here looking to be part of the civilized world. All I found was evil, though.” He was silent again. “I should never have left my home.”
“No. Someone has got to stop this, and it might as well be us. I got good news on that. I…” Doug thought a moment how best to express things. “Um… I like saw into another realm when Ronove tried to destroy my soul. I could see it wasn’t working, and I saw him and he’s like nothing… at least wherever I was I was the more powerful one. And I saw the barrier linked to the cube. Even he was intimidated by it. If we could somehow trap them behind it, we’d be free of them for good.”
“How would we do that?”
Doug thought for a while. “I guess I don’t know. Still, it seems like progress.”
“Yes it does. It is what I pray for. Most here are losing faith, though. Ronove’s experiments are hard on many. He seems to be trying to study how things in this world can affect the soul such as trauma or physically affecting the brain.” His voice trailed off for a moment. “We all live through it, though.”
Doug got the message. None of this should go on even a day longer. “I don’t know what to do, Chimezie. I saw outside, and I don’t even know how my friends will get here. I guess we really have to work on our own plan… except I’m not really good at that sort of thing.”
“We must have faith in God. All things are possible through Him.”
Doug wondered how long Chimezie had been here asking God to help him, but didn’t want to burst the guy’s bubble. “I want to believe in stuff like that, but I remember how as a kid I believed in Santa Claus, but I still never got any presents.”
“God is real, Doug.”
“Then He better do something about all this soon. There’s a lot of crap in this world, and if He really has the power, then He should take care of it.”
“We must take action,” Chimezie said. “And when we have faith, God will help us.”
Stuck in a small dark cell, Doug wasn’t really sure of any action he could take. He knew there was something he could do — he saw it — but he had no idea how. And he had no idea how to figure out how to do it either.
“Do you want me to tell you about Jesus, Doug?”
“Not really.” He really didn’t want to clutter his head with any other hard to grasp concepts. “He fought evil, right?”
“Yes, and He cast out demons.”
“Okay, you can go ahead and tell me about him… but first get away from the toilet for a sec and stop listening.”
“Why?”
“I have to pee.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Colette looked over the images from the warehouse. They didn’t tell her much other than that the killer liked to be messy.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it?”
Colette looked to Dammon. “So was it the work of Loch?”
“In a way.” He sat on Colette’s desk and took a sip from his brandy.
“The fact that everyone is after those three idiots proves to me that they all must be grasping at straws on this issue. So, does it change anything now that he has them?”
Dammon shrugged. “I wasn’t even sure what we were doing with them in the first place.”
Colette stared at him. “Then why did you task them with retrieving the cube?”
“Wasn’t my idea.” He took another sip of his drink.
“Then whose was it?”
Dammon looked towards the door. “Dear, you can come in.”
Into the office walked Lara in one of her usual business suits. “Hey, Colette.”
Colette shot to her feet. “You can’t be serious!”
Lara sighed. “You’re ascended, Colette. You’re supposed to be above petty grudges. And really, you’re such a bitch anyone else would have humiliated you thusly if given the opportunity.”
“And those would be your last words.”
Colette started towards Lara, but Dammon gently put his hand out in front of her. “If we had more time, I’d throw down some mud and let you settle this like ladies. I’m just going to have to ask you to listen instead. Lara works for Elza… who I’ve had a secret alliance with for some time.”
Colette backed off but kept an eye on Lara. “I thought she took the cube from Elza’s people and gave it to Asmod.”
“Don’t ask me to explain things,” Lara said. “All I know is that now we don’t want either Asmod or Serpine to have permanent ownership of the device.”
Colette looked to Dammon. “Elza is playing us.”
Lara smiled. “I’d almost guarantee it. And Dammon is trying to play Elza as he does all the other Trans. Duplicity is pretty much how the world goes ’round these days.”
Dammon led Colette back to her chair. “The obvious lack of trust aside, the fact is Elza has her people planted all over, and I have plenty of contact and resources. Together, we can mount an effort to get into Ronove’s lab and retrieve the cube.”
“And then what?”
Dammon sipped his drink. “That’s between me and Elza.”
“And no one still has any idea what the cube does?”
“I’m guessing nothing,” Dammon said. “Everyone wants it, though, so that makes it valuable and dangerous. So, I’ll need you to get some of your best men, and you’ll be working with Lara and her group.”
Colette looked at Lara. “Will your girls play well with others, Miss Skinner?”
Lara shrugged. “As long as your men won’t rape and murder them. They’re not fond of that.”
Colette was still a moment away from ripping Lara’s head off so as just not see that smug little smile anymore. “I’ll make a note of that.”
Dammon patted Lara on the shoulder. “Lara, could you give me a moment to talk to my employee?”
“Sure. I’ll give you two a moment to plot behind my back.” Lara left the room.
Dammon took Colette by her hand, the one that had been recently severed. “I can trust you can rise above a lust for vengeance over the ephemeral things of this world?”
“Of course. I know I have failed you recently, but–”
Dammon put his fingers to her lips. “A learning experience. You’re stronger for it, and I know I can trust you for this task. Yes, it seems foolish to put any trust into Elza or her followers, but she is an annoyance, not a threat. There is one out there, though, worth fearing… much more than either Asmod or Serpine upsetting the balance of power.”
“Who? And why haven’t I heard of him before?”
Dammon paused thoughtfully for a moment. “We liked to think he had no more interest in this world, but I’m afraid we were wrong.”
“And he is involved with the cube?”
“I am guessing he is involved in a number of things lately.”
Colette thought she saw fear in Dammon’s face, but dismissed the thought. “And what does he want?”
Dammon finished off his drink. “You know children stories where the villain seems to be evil for simply the sake of evil. This is him. He will not rest until anything with sentience is in eternal torment.”
Now Colette was scared. “So what do we do about him?”
“We educate ourselves.” Dammon looked her in the eyes. “This remains only between you and me, but I do not care about the cube. I have a completely different mission for you.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Doug didn’t feel the slightest bit of pain, but he was in agony. He thought about struggling to be free, but moving was no help. There was no escaping misery. What was tearing him apart was existence itself.
His ears were ringing, and he realized it was because he was screaming at the tops of his lungs. His throat started to hurt, and at least that was a distraction.
Get a hold of yourself, Doug. People are counting on you. He forced his eyes open. There was machinery around him, humming. They were causing these feelings in him. If I could shut it off and find the cube… He tried to look around, but couldn’t see anything.
No. I’m going about this wrong. It isn’t in this world I’m being hurt in. Doug concentrated best he could and tried to feel the agony more clearly. He needed to find where the pain was.
There were hooks digging into him, tearing him apart from all directions. The assault was so vicious, he couldn’t understand how he could last even a moment of it. All around were jagged things brutally hacking away. He wanted to turn from it, but he forced himself look down at the damage to him.
There wasn’t any. His body was solid and impenetrable, like a rock, and the attacks didn’t even scratch him. It was like fishhooks trying to cut into a piece of steel. There was nothing here he needed to fear.
He now looked beyond it all and saw a massive barrier to which there appeared no end. It was a void and yet it was solid. Nothing could go beyond it. It was the contents of the cube. He knew it. But he didn’t know what he could do with it.
He wasn’t alone. There was another presence there looking at the barrier. The being seemed so powerful, larger than planets, its footsteps like earthquakes. But then Doug looked at himself again. He was massive, solid, and invincible. He took another look at the being and saw he was looking down on it. As big as it was, next to himself it was small, pitiful. It was scared.
Doug was back in the lab. The machinery was off, and he noticed the foul smell of Ronove. “I think that’s enough for today,” Doug heard him say. “Take him back to his cell.”
“Are you sure?” Doug called out. “It seems like you were so close to destroying my soul. Wouldn’t want to quit now.”
The machinery moved away, and Doug could see Ronove standing next to him, staring at him with those black goggles. “The goal today was merely to gather some data so as to understand how to destroy you more fully, human.”
Doug smiled at him. “I saw you. I saw what you really are.”
“Your delusions won’t offer you hope for much longer.” Ronove motioned to the guards. They unstrapped Doug and lifted him up.
“I saw you,” Doug said. “I’m not scared of you. Can you say the same about me?”
Ronove was expressionless as usual, but Doug could feel him laughing. It was a nervous laugh.

“So you’re the Devil?” Lulu sat in the passenger seat next to Stan.
“It’s a simple way of explaining myself, and thus how I described myself to your friend.”
Bryce sat down in the rear with Charlene. He was ready to relax, but he could see in the alertness in Charlene’s eyes that she wasn’t of the same opinion. Bryce looked to their driver. “You’re not really the Devil like in Biblical mythology, though? Right?”
“Let’s just say it is my habit to rebel against the prevailing power over this world.” He put the vehicle on autopilot and turned to face Bryce. “Once it was a single force, now it is the ones you call the Transcendents.”
“Well, thanks for the rescue, buddy.” Lulu slapped him on the back. “I think the Bible had you all wrong. You seem nice.”
He smiled. “It’s my pleasure. As the character you met demonstrated quite well, some of the scarier things in this world still are humans.”
“So why did you do this when you only appeared to Doug in his dreams?” Charlene asked, an accusation seemingly lying underneath her words. “Why not rescue him since you seem to be the cause of his situation?”
His smile faded somewhat, but didn’t disappear. “I don’t think you people hold any position to demand me to explain myself. To make this simple, I’ll help you rescue your friend. I ask nothing of you. I do admit I have my own ulterior motives, but they’re mine and they don’t concern you. Sounds like a fair enough deal, wouldn’t you say?”
“So you’re powerful, like the Trans?” Bryce asked.
“Quite. I know you feel quite powerless next to the likes of Dammon and Loch, but I can keep the playing field more even.”
“Can you get us our three million back?” Bryce doubted it, but he felt he should at least ask.
Stan laughed. “I can make sure you don’t starve. If money is all you desire, though, I can find you path towards that once you free Doug. If I may give a friendly suggestion, though, I think you three should spend some time figuring out what it is in this world you really do want.”
Lulu giggled and threw her arm around Stan. “He’s like an omnipotent guidance counselor. I like him. Let’s make him an honorary member of Hellbender.”
“So are you really powerful?” Charlene demanded. “Can you read our thoughts and such?”
He smiled broadly. “Don’t worry, dear; I’m not going to reveal your deep, dark secrets to everyone.”
Charlene’s face turned white. “I don’t…”
Lulu yanked on Stan’s jacket. “Come on! Tell us the deep dark secrets! But not Bryce’s; those are probably icky.”
“Enough fooling around,” Bryce said. “You might as well tell us what the plan is as once again it doesn’t look like we have much choice in the matter.”
Stan’s face turned quite serious. “I’m not going to let you pretend that. Dammon’s efforts to bankrupt you may have been perfect, but banks are imperfect. Bryce, if you check your finances, you’ll find ten thousand still in one of your accounts.”
Bryce was quick to check that. He scanned the accounts he set up, and there was the money waiting in one of them. “It’s true.”
“It’s not much,” Stan continued, “but enough to keep you three going until you can establish yourselves somewhere else. I can take you three wherever you want, and I guarantee no more ‘huge forces beyond imagination’ will be after you. You will be able to live relatively peaceful lives… as much as they were before all this.”
Charlene still looked at Stan with visible suspicion. “Do you think that’s going to happen?”
He smiled. “No. I think you three have already made up your minds.”
Lulu punched him playfully in the shoulder. “So what’s next, prince of darkness?”
“Ironically, we will be going where ‘Death’ was going to take you — to Loch.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
“We’re going to let you outside for a little bit,” the orderly told Doug as he cuffed him.
“That sounds nice.” Doug had seen a few other humans in this building who were working for Ronove, apparently assistant scientists or guards dressed as orderlies. They all looked at Doug like he was less than human — if they looked at him at all. He was pretty used to that throughout his life, though.
Doug realized in a moment he was being led up to the roof. “So, do you have a basketball hoop?”
The orderly ignored him. Doug remembered he should be paying attention to everything so he could plot his escape and get an idea where the other prisoners were being held. It was all just hallways and doorways and stairs, though.
They reached the exit to the roof, and the sunlight blinded Doug for a moment when he came outside. When his eyes adjusted, he saw darkness.
He looked all around, and it was nothing but grays fading into complete black. The building was surrounded by the wasteland, but he figured he wasn’t actually in it as he wasn’t being ripped apart by things beyond comprehension. Doug looked up to see a patch of blue sky with the sun directly above him. His eyes had to adjust again as he looked back to the constant darkness of the wasteland which seemed to eat up the light. He thought he saw things flying though it, but it seemed still again when his eyes adjusted… except he kept thinking he saw things out of the corner of his eye. There was the silhouette of what appeared to be a mountain as far out as his eyes would allow him to see, and it appeared to be moving.
“The world ends outside this place.”
Doug turned around to see Ronove standing on the roof.
“So we might work together…” He limped towards Doug. “I wanted you to know that my work is the only escape from here.”
Doug had no idea how he could get out of here with the place surrounded by the wasteland, but then again they got him here somehow in one piece. “You think I’ll want to help you destroy my soul?”
“I think you will eventually come to the conclusion that non-existence is the best possible outcome for you.” Ronove stared out to the darkness around them. “Out there, you’ll find an infinitely worse fate. When the rules of this universe breakdown, it obviously will not do well for your physical shell. But for your existence beyond this dimension, its existence is not easily ended… though you will pray to your imaginary gods for all eternity for release.”
It sounded quite horrible, but it also made Doug wonder how pleasant Ronove’s existence was. “I don’t see a basketball hoop up here, so we might as well go back inside because I’m getting bored.”
“You still have the illusion you can fight reality.” Ronove motioned for the orderly to bring Doug back inside. “I’ll help you understand. And when you do, you will consider me your savior for destroying you.”

“So is that Loch out there?” Lulu picked up a chair as a weapon.
Charlene looked visibly agitated from not having gun… not that a gun would make much of a difference. “That does look like the attacks Elza’s people described.”
“Well, won’t the unstoppable god of pain and suffering be surprised when he tries to open that door and finds a table blocking it.” Bryce took his suit jacket off the back of a chair and put it back on.
“Preparing to die?” Charlene asked.
“No. I’m sure Lulu will be able to knock him out with that chair.” He adjusted his tie, but didn’t see any mirror around the room to check his hair.
There was a knock at the door.
Lulu slowly set down the chair and whispered, “Let’s pretend we’re not here.”
“Either be polite and open the door,” said a man’s voice from the outside, “or I will find a more violent way to get to you three.”
“Are you Loch?” Lulu asked.
“If I am, it won’t help you to not do what I tell you.”
“I guess he has a point.” Bryce walked over to move the table and Lulu helped. Charlene stayed back, looking like she was still trying to come with a plan for attack.
Bryce opened the door and outside stood a man dressed in what looked like to be a black special forces outfit. His face was hidden behind a mask with only an opening for his very scary but quite human eyes. There was a very odd looking rifle in one hand which he pointed at them. “Other side of the room.”
Bryce, Lulu, and Charlene stood at the opposite wall, as far away from the man as possible. “And who are you?” Charlene demanded.
“I am Death. I strike where certain rules don’t allow Loch to go.”
“You’re his disciple?” Lulu said.
He put his finger to where his lips would be. “Shh. That’s a secret.”
Death may have been a scary man, but he was just a man and thus not enough to scare Bryce very much. “From the looks out there, you’re not very efficient in your killing, Death.”
He shrugged. “People expect unimaginable horrors from Loch, but when he tasked me to act on his behalf, I had to come up with something actual to do to people. Exploding them from the inside was my best idea.” He patted his gun. “It took a few tries to get the tech just right.”
“So now are you going to explode us since you told us all that?” Lulu asked. “It could just be a secret between us. We’ll all have a nice chuckle when we read in the news that Loch ripped a bunch of people apart.”
“I don’t care what you people do or say. I was given this job to get who Loch is not allowed to reach, but you three have no such protections so I’ll leave you for him. What I care about is your connection with this cube that all the Transcendents seem to want.”
“Well, we do know all about it.” Lulu idle unbuttoned the top of her shirt while she talked. “Including the mystery of the bunnies. If you want cube help, you’ll love us.” She smiled at him and tossed her hair a bit.
Death laughed. “I was already planning on having my way with you two women, and I don’t think you’re going to like it any. Still, it will be a happy memory compared to what Loch might do to you in. Now, come on. I know you three probably think you can take me, but know I was slaughtering people back when you were wee babes. I maybe even killed your parents.”
“Then you’d be pretty old,” Charlene said defiantly.
“You’d think.” He set down his gun. “I can already tell this isn’t going to go down without you all trying at least something… and I wouldn’t want it any other way.” He pulled out a large blade. “I promise not to cut any of you in any way fatal, but none of you are going very pretty after this.”
Hand to hand combat wasn’t really Bryce’s thing, and neither was it Lulu’s. Charlene trained for this sort of thing, but was just too small to be very effective. Still, Death was probably underestimating them, and that was always their advantage. Bryce made quick eye contact with the other two. They were ready.
A vehicle crashed down between the three and Death, showering them with debris. Through the dust, they could see an opened door facing them. “Get in!” a voice shouted from inside.
The three were inside within a second, and the vehicle pulled back up. There was an explosion outside that shook the thing, but Charlene quickly closed the door and they seemed safe and in the air.
“Before you start worry about it, this is not a quid pro quo,” the man piloting the vehicle said. “What you want is what I want, so helping you helps me.”
Bryce slowly moved closer to the man. He did not think they knew him, but there was something vaguely familiar to him. “So… who are you?”
He turned around and offered his hand to Bryce. “I’m a friend of a friend. You can call me Stan.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
“Is someone in the toilet?” The toilet didn’t have regular plumbing, and just seemed to Doug to be a hole like an outhouse.
“No. I am in another cell. I found I can sometimes talk to the others through the toilet.”
The voice had a bit of an accent. “Others? Is that weirdo trying to destroy the souls of other people too?”
“Ronove is very evil. I think there are maybe a dozen of us he does experiments on.”
“Last Children like me?”
“Yes. It is hard to talk with each other, but I try to find ways. We must not give up hope. My name is Chimezie.”
“That’s a weird name.” One Doug didn’t think he’d be able to remember. “I’m Doug.”
“Why were you shouting earlier?”
“I’m just tired of the Devil bothering me.”
“That is good to hear. Too many are accepting of the Devil.”
Now the toilet had Doug’s full attention. “The Devil talks to other people?”
“He tries to infect all minds.”
“Then why did I get singled out and brought here? He just came to be in a dream, started talking to me about how there is this power out there that watches over me, and –”
“Wait. The Devil told you about God?” Chi-something sounded confused.
“Yeah. Like what the people used to believe in. The dead people.”
There was a brief pause. “I’m not sure we’re talking about the same Devil. He is very evil.”
“Well, this one seems like just more of a big jerk. I thought he was helpful at first, trying to say its actually possible to fight the Trans. Now I got captured and brought here just for listening to him. Why were you sent here?”
“Not for talking to the Devil. I was imprisoned for talking about Jesus.”
Doug had heard the name before, but mainly as an exclamation. “That’s some religious guy, right?”
“He is God’s son. He gave his life on our behalf.”
Though it was nice to have someone to talk to, but the feeling of nausea from the smell of the toilet wasn’t helping the feeling of general unease from whatever Ronove did to him. “No offense, but I don’t really believe in all that. If God is so powerful and whatnot, then He should do something about the Trans. Someone needs to kick their ass if they’re locking people up and doing weird experiments to them.”
“I pray every day for justice. I know my prayers will be answered. Nothing is impossible for God.”
Doug wished he could just shut off his doubts and believe. “The creepy guy says prayers don’t work anymore.”
“He doesn’t know what he talks about!” Chi-something answered quite sharply.
“Probably not… but I don’t know anything either. I’m just hope my friends come rescue me soon.”
“You have friends who would have the courage to come here?”
Doug thought about that for a bit. He knew they all got annoyed about him a lot, but he still could just not imagine them just leaving him. “Yeah. We’re all we have.”
“God must have really blessed you to give you such friends, then.”
As horrible as things were now, they reminded of him of before he and three other kids formed they’re own little group to belong to — back when he had no one to turn to. He didn’t know of prayer back then, but it still felt like a prayer had been answered. “Well, if they’re coming for me, I guess I shouldn’t give up my soul without a fight.”
“I know you will not, Doug! I will keep you in my prayers, and I will tell the other about you. You are not alone here.”
“Thanks… um… toilet-guy.”
“Chimezie.”
Doug tried to say that a couple of times in his head, but he lost grip of it pretty quickly. “I need to come up with a nickname for you.”

“So we’re all in agreement that if we end up with millions again and once again Doug is captured, screw him?”
Lulu sighed. “That’s not helpful, Bryce.” Bryce, Charlene, and Lulu were in small room in one of Dammon’s warehouses looking over the information Dammon had on Ronove’s research lab. He had given them a basic plan to get in that relied on no one paying very good attention to regular security practices, and the three only had the rest of the day to come up with any ideas that might increase their chance of survival.
“Don’t waste time,” Brock said threateningly. He was one of Dammon’s men who had more muscle than the three of them put together and pretty much said everything threateningly. “This is going down tomorrow no matter what, and don’t think we’re not well prepared for the likely possibility of you three failing.”
“We could use our time better if we’re left alone!” Charlene snapped at him. “You don’t look like much of a strategic mind, so I don’t see what you plan to contribute by hanging around us.”
Brock backhanded Charlene, knocking her into a table. “I guess that is about all I’m good for.” He left the room and closed to door.
Bryce walked over to help Charlene back up. “This is why we don’t insult people larger than us.”
“She’s just as tired of all this crap as the rest of us.” Lulu pounded her head against the keyboard. “Maybe we’re looking at this wrong. If we’re quite certain we’re going to die in the next day or so, what do you want to do?”
“Kill as many assholes as possible,” Bryce said. “Starting with everyone in the near vicinity.” He turned to Charlene. “Happen to keep any guns on you we can use as a start towards a shooting spree?”
Charlene rubbed the bruise on her cheek. “I lost perspective for a moment. Let’s not do anything stupid.”
“But anything stupid is what we’re best at,” Lulu whined. “I just came up with five new stupid idea in like the past minute. One of them requires a gorilla costume that’s at least semi-realistic looking.”
A man started screaming outside the room, but the scream was soon cut off sharply and replaced by much more liquidy noise. There were more screams, but none of them lasted very long.
“Well, that’s a promising.” Bryce looked around the room for something to use as a weapon, but decided he didn’t really care that much.
They all stood still for a second staring at the entrance to the room. Either they went out to see what it was or they stood there waiting for it to come to them. It was an easy choice.
Charlene threw open the door. Bryce then scrambled to close the door while his mind worked on repressing what he just saw.
“That was quite a lot of blood out there,” Lulu commented.
“Not as disturbing as the chunkier stuff.” Bryce moved a table in front of the door. “Things just keep getting better, don’t they?”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
“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.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Doug’s lunge at the Devil was unsuccessful, and he instead collided with the wall and fell to the ground.
“You can’t tackle me,” Stan said. “I’m just a hallucination.”
“No you’re not!” Doug shouted up at the blurry image of Stan. “I’ve had hallucinations before, and they don’t tell you they’re hallucinations!”
“Well, then I’m as much a hallucination as previously I was a dream. You are under quite a bit of drugs and duress, so hallucinations are likely. Thus, it didn’t seem intrusive for me to appear now instead of waiting for you to go asleep.”
Doug sat up and leaned against a wall. “I don’t know what you’re trying to hide from. They know I’ve been talking to you and that’s why I’m here.”
“See. Even with the small amount of overt meddling, I’ve affected things. That’s why I usually never try to be this direct.”
Doug misery was slowly being replaced by anger. “What do you want?”
“As I’ve said, I see the possible futures. I no longer see many paths left to you succeeding. You haven’t quite grasped things as I hoped you would, and time is running out.”
“You mean before Ronove destroys my soul?” Doug said dryly.
The Devil laughed. “I don’t think he’ll destroy it in the way he hopes, but you won’t be the better for it.”
“And I guess humanity is doomed because I failed… doing whatever the hell it was I was supposed to do.”
“You’re not taking this very seriously anymore, are you?”
Doug stood up, and he had to stop himself from trying to grab Stan again. “I think you’re full of crap. I think Ronove is full of crap. I don’t think any of you ‘powerful’ beings know what the hell you’re doing. I just wished you’d all leave me alone!”
“I’m afraid to tell you that wishing isn’t going to make it happen, kid.”
“Go away!” Doug screamed.
“Are you going to figure this out on your own?”
“I’m not on my own. My friends are still out there.”
“And rich too. If you think they’re going to risk all that for the noble cause of saving their team mascot, realize they are only human.”
“I said go away!” Doug plopped back down on the ground, sitting against a wall.
“Fine. I’ll find someone else. I thought you were the best chance, but I’ve been wrong before. I would wish you good luck, but it would be pretentious to pretend I care about your fate when it’s divorced from mine. Have fun with eternity; things only get worse from here on.”
“OUT!” Doug screamed again, only to realize he was yelling at nothing.
“Are you okay?” a new voice said, echoing and distant.
“Who’s there?” Doug called out.
“I heard you shouting.”
Doug followed the voice to the toilet in his little cell. “Hello?”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Bryce sat on his hotel room’s balcony overlooking the ocean. He was in his bathrobe and had a glass of champagne in hand. “This is the life we deserve.”
Lulu, also in a bathrobe, walked next to Bryce and downed a glass of champagne in one gulp. “You don’t find the view a bit distracting.” It was a beautiful blue sky over the water, but if was blotted by a bit of darkness off to one corner. More wasteland, which had taken over much of the sea. “Hell, it’s symbolic almost.”
His eyes did keep darting to that darkness, and his thoughts went with it. “I’m sure the Trans will fix what they screwed up one day.”
Lulu tossed her glass off the balcony. “I don’t think any people will be left to see that.”
Lulu hadn’t exactly been her light-hearted self. Bryce wanted to get away from her, but he really didn’t want to be alone either. He felt awful about Doug, but the simple fact was there was nothing they could do about him. They just had to give it time and they’d be able to move on and enjoy their success.
“I’m going to get dressed; you should too. We shouldn’t leave Charlene alone.” Lulu headed back in the room.
Bryce took one last look at the darkness in the distance. It alternately looked empty and filled with things writhing inside it. He headed back in the room and sat on the bed while Lulu got dressed. “I hate being around Charlene.”
“She hates being around us.” Lulu threw on jeans and a t-shirt. “She always has, but that’s never stopped us from being there for each other before.”
“Fine, but then we start living like we’re successes.” He sipped his champagne. It was a little too dry for a morning drink. “We’re rich; we can do whatever we want. If you could do anything, Lulu, what would you do? I know you’ve thought about it all the times we’ve been struggling.”
Lulu’s face turned uncharacteristically serious. “I want to have a baby.”
Bryce groaned. “Why don’t you jump off that balcony if you’re going be like this.”
“Hey! You asked!” Lulu shouted while putting her hair back in pigtails.
“You’d make a horrible mother, Lulu.”
She started to tear up. “I’d be a different person if being a mother were a possibility.”
Bryce was starting to think Charlene might be the more pleasant one to be around. He’d really wanted to be around a guy friend right now, but the only friend he really had was–
Bryce tried to shake the thought out of his head. “You can’t be a different person. You are who you are. I am who I am. We’re horrible people — just less horrible than everyone else. I can live with that.”
Lulu had already dried her eyes. “I know what you want more than anything else. It’s the same as Charlene.”
Bryce didn’t want to hear it, but he knew there was no stopping her. “What’s that?”
Lulu headed to the bathroom to put on her makeup. “Respect. Can’t buy that either — at least not any you’ll believe in.”
Bryce rolled his eyes. “Very trite. And you don’t want respect, Tri-Lu?”
“Obviously not; I just slept with you again.”
That stung a little, even though it shouldn’t have. “I was just trying to comfort you. I didn’t enjoy it any.”
Lulu was busy with her eyelashes. “Ever wonder what’s the underlying cause of your serial misogyny?”
“No, because that’s a made up word.”
There was a knock at the door. More of a pounding, actually. Bryce then realized he was still in his bathrobe with Lulu in the room and instantly felt he should cover that up, but he decided he just didn’t care. He walked over and let Charlene in. She was in a tank top and sweat pants and looked like she had been working out all morning — as if the tiny thing could put on any muscle mass. She made a quick glance at Bryce and Lulu who had stepped out of the bathroom, then looked like she just decided to ignore it. “I’ve been thinking, and I’m not going to give up on Doug without at least trying something.”
Bryce sighed. “You have fun with that, then.”
“It’s not necessarily impossible for us to do something about him.” Charlene looked determined, and Bryce knew there wasn’t any stopping her when she was like that.
“What do you want to do, Charlene?”
“There’s someone we should at least try talking to before we can conclude nothing can be done.”
It didn’t take Bryce long to figure out who she meant. “That’s a horrible idea. Why don’t we all just jump off the balcony if we’re going to have ideas like this?”
Lulu flicked him in the back of his ear. “Why don’t we just throw you off the balcony and do this ourselves.”
Bryce laughed. “Because you can’t do this yourselves. You’re two women. Women are useless. Weaker and dumber than men and you can’t even make up for it by having children anymore.” He picked up his phone and tried to figure out who to dial for this one. “How’s that for misogyny?”

Doug wanted out. He wanted to claw his way out of this universe if possible. He was quite certain Ronove had not succeeded in destroying his soul, but he wish he had if that meant an end.
Doug wasn’t sure where he was now. It was probably a dark cell he had been tossed into, but he didn’t pay much attention. This physical world meant nothing. It was the other one he wanted to escape. He lay on the ground in a ball, trying to figure out how to flee things he couldn’t even understand.
“You’ve probably figured it out yourself,” someone standing over him said, “but death is not an escape from the torment. Quite the opposite, perhaps.”
He knew that voice. Doug regained enough of his senses to stand up and look at Stan face to face. And then he tackled him.

Dammon sat in his office smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of cognac. He so enjoyed the pleasures of this world, but he knew that to best enjoy them required restraint — and restraint was hard when he could summon anything he wanted in an instant. But pleasure was worth the work, so he relaxed some now and then he would handle some business before enjoying this world some more. With the whole “bunny cube” mess and the movements of the various nations on that issue, he was going to have to do something about it to keep his own position of power.
Fun time was over, as one of his women came in with the business, dressed in proper business attire as he demanded professionalism during work hours. He could remember what she looked like under it anyway. He only had the most beautiful women in his employment, as why would he waste his time with any others. “We have word that the group Hellbender wants to see you.”
Dammon chuckled. “Excellent. Set up a meeting for them this afternoon.” He had been looking forward to meeting them. There was no reason he couldn’t also enjoy business.
NEXT

PREVIOUS
As usual, Doug had no idea what was going on.
He seemed to be strapped to a table. There was odd machinery all around him humming as it went about its unknown purpose. The hum eventually ceased, the machinery moved away, and table repositioned itself so now that Doug was held upright.
“You’re awake.” In the room was a bald man in a lab coat, his eyes concealed behind dark goggles. His face was pot marked, and he approached Doug in an awkward gait.
“What’s going on?” Doug asked, his voice a bit slurred. He felt like he must have been drugged as he was a bit dizzy and had trouble focusing.
The man approached a computer console. “I’m checking your multi-dimensional signature,” he said in a complete monotone. “It looks the same as that for any of the Last Children.” He looked at Doug. “I’ve heard things about you, though, and needed to check.”
There was something quite odd to this man, though Doug couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He looked human — certainly not perfect like the Hallowed — but there was an inhuman quality to him as well. It was if the man’s existence just perturbed Doug, much like the cube.
The cube! Doug saw it on a pedestal, some more machinery around it. Though his arms were strapped tight to the table, he still felt like he could reach out and touch the cube.
There was a loud beeping, and the man lurched over to the cube and pressed some buttons on the equipment. “So, Doug, do you have any idea what is inside this object?”
Doug was about to answer, but he got caught up again in how odd the man is. It wasn’t his voice. It wasn’t his appearance. It was something odd to just his existence, as far as Doug could understand. “You’re one of the Transcendents.”
“Interesting you would conclude that.” He walked back over to Doug, looking at him with his expressionless face and hidden eyes. “It is correct, though. I am called Ronove. I created myself this human body — not a simple thing — because I find operating out of the rules of this universe can affect my experiments. We are not natural to this world, and you can see the wastelands as evidence of that. Our mere presence in this manner has caused the universe to break down in places — but at least it seems to no longer be a growing problem.”
“You do experiments?”
“This universe is a point of reference to all the others. I find to understand all there is and how it connects, I need to observe things from this universe.” He walked back to the cube. “Take this device. It is a small, insignificant looking thing here, but it appears to be something quite immense anchored to the three spatial and one temporal dimension you are quite used to.” He touched it. “Do you why there are rodents drawn into its sides?”
“I think Lulu put them there because the cube scared her.” It surprised Doug how quickly he volunteered the information. He felt a bit out of control of himself.
“So that is unimportant — as I thought. Now, Doug, once again I ask, what do you think is in this?”
“The barrier that kept you out of this world.” Doug said, hearing that idea for the first time as he said it. It seemed to make sense, though.
“That is the theory.” Ronove hobbled close to Doug. He really looked quite uncomfortable in his human body. “Now who told you of this?”
“Stan. He said he is the Devil.” Doug couldn’t stop himself from speaking, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to stop. “He told me about you all. That you’re demons. You’re evil… but I think I knew that already.”
“Yes, that sound like him — the Outsider as we know him. It’s interesting how he fits himself into your old mythology, because much like the Devil of the Bible, he means ill for us all — human and otherwise.”
“I don’t trust him, but I don’t think he’s lied to me.”
Ronove slowly walked over to another computer console. “The Outsider made the cube. He is quite wily, so I doubt it will be easy to determine whether the device is truly powerful or merely a distraction he made for his own purposes. What I think I can conclude is that you are not the Outsider taken human form as Asmod suspected. It seems more to the Outsider’s character that he would manipulate a human to his purposes. What is different is how overt he has been in that — to come out and even identify himself in his own way.”
Doug’s table began to move placing him horizontal once again. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I will not try to understand what the Outsider’s plans were for you.” Ronove walked over and stood above Doug. He smelled horrible; Doug suspected he didn’t take particularly good care of his body. “As far as I’m concerned,” Ronove continued, “there is nothing more I can learn about him from you, so I might as well go ahead and use you to learn other things. You might be interested to know that some of that biblical mythology has basis in fact. The human soul can be a somewhat powerful thing, and prayers can help focus it.” Ronove walked out of view and it sounded like he was working some equipment. “It’s more the visualization than the plea to the concept of a supreme being, but the effects on probability are measurable from a certain dimensional perspective. Our altering of this world’s barrier have changed all that, though.” He walked back to Doug and looked down on him with a certain smug satisfaction though his expression was an empty as always. “I can now say with scientific certainty that your prayers are futile.”
The table moved so now Doug was enclosed within a tube. It was dark, but he could see a number of glowing probes. He struggled to get out, but he had no energy to fight. “What are you doing?!”
“Though your souls have no power, they still are impediments to us,” Ronove said from somewhere outside the tube. “I’m trying to figure out how to destroy those impediments.”
“You’re going to destroy my soul?” Doug got a small burst of energy for struggling, but it was of no use. “What happens to me if you do that?”
“Hopefully we’ll find out very soon.” Though Ronove’s voice was still completely monotone, Doug could somehow sense a laugh following that statement. “Do not worry, though; this won’t hurt.” The probes began to glow brighter. “Pain is something your mind can comprehend. This should be much worse than pain.”
NEXT

PREVIOUS
With a warm bubble bath, scented candles, some light music playing, and a new book, Lara was quite ready for a relaxed evening in her hotel suite, but the phone rang. She set her book aside and fumbled for her phone, accidentally dropping it into the tub. She wiped the suds off and didn’t recognize the caller it identified, but she still knew who it was, “Hello?”
“Hi, Lara, it’s Elza.”
Lara wasn’t quite used to one of the immortal Transcendents calling her on the phone like a regular person, but Elza never followed expectations. “Oh, hi. Just relaxing a bit. Asmod’s people have the bunny cube and the Doug.” She laughed. “With such power in their hands, they might be unstoppable.”
“Good. Things are moving along nicely.”
“What exactly was the point of all that?” Lara dared to ask.
“If I don’t tell you that, then whatever happens I can claim to be exactly as I planned.” She laughed a bit. “Anyway, there’s a lot of people running around involved with this; best everyone just knows only her own part.”
Lara settled back into the tub. “Well the whole train thing was certainly a surprise. I think you nearly broke that simpleton’s brain.”
“Things have barely started to get rough for him, I assure you.”
A lot seemed to be being laid on someone so useless, but Lara had trouble feeling sorry for someone who made so little of himself. “So what should I do with the millions?”
“I don’t care. That’s ultimately inconsequential. Spend it if you feel like it. Just make sure you’re ready to help our other operative if needed.”
“Will do. Any idea on the time frame for this next step?”
“That, right now, is up to external forces.”

Loch felt pain. It was about the only thing in this universe he cared about; all else he hated. He even refused to take any sort of physical, three-dimensional form and limit himself a puerile way. Still, he was required to have at least something to identify himself within this world, so he made his craft with which he could hover over the humans. He crafted it of darkness and created nearly formless creatures to populate it. His goal was to give the humans nothing solid they could hold on to in their mind’s eye. With nothing to grasp, when humans would think of Loch they would think of whatever they feared most.
Fear was a more subtle pleasure than pain, but that was about all he had lately. It had been a while since he was last given a human to play with, to test how many of its nerve endings he could activate before its mind collapsed on itself. He had gotten better at keeping the mind awake no matter what physical trauma he would induce, but it would always break in the end. Then the vegetable would be sent back to the rest of the humans, and then they would try to imagine what were the tortures that would cause such a thing. And then there would be the fear.
The fear had begun fade, though, as the humans realized just how much the rules of the other Transcendents restrained his grasp. So he took extraordinary measures — one’s that he himself detested — to let the humans know he can still reach them. Torn limbs and blood was less mysterious than he would have liked, but it served its purpose. He could see the fear of him rising again.
Now Serpine had given Loch a new mission. He never cared for her and her proclivity to take human form or her ambitions with this world, but she knew at least how to give Loch what he needed for enjoyment. The mission he was given was once again to get some device — though Loch could still not understand how anything physical in this world could have any importance to them — but this time she knew where it was. Loch would need to lead a physical army once again because of the limits on him, but Serpine guaranteed him that this conflict would involve humans under no protection from any Transcendent. They had severed their ties with their rulers, and thus they would be Loch’s to do with as he pleased.
Had Loch a mouth, he would smile.
NEXT

PREVIOUS
Lulu never actually expected to be rich. It was just a fun fantasy to hold onto until things blew up in their face and they moved on to the next ultimately doomed scheme. She’d figured that what her life would be until their luck completely ran out. It wasn’t much of a life, but it seemed to her to be a million times better than to try and conform to the insane world they lived in.
Bryce had been quiet on the gratuitously flying train trip back to Avaro as he was quickly spreading the money into multiple accounts before some imagined other would try and steal it. Lulu spent her time trying to get in contact with Charlene or Doug. When that didn’t work, she even tried to get in contact with Lara but was sent directly to her voice mail.
“I wish Lara wasn’t rich too,” she told Bryce as they exited the train.
Bryce didn’t even acknowledge her as he was still busy securing their finances on his handheld computer.
Lulu quickly headed out to the train station lobby and looked around. There she spotted Charlene staring back at her, her eyes red like she’d been crying. Don’t jump to conclusion, Lulu told herself. Maybe she’s sad because she saw Lara gruesomely decapitated. Maybe she even has video of it!
Bryce was the first to speak. “Where’s Doug?”
Charlene looked defeated. “They took him.”
“Who? Why?” Lulu asked.
“Darius. It was insane. Elza’s people somehow ambushed us on the train and just started killing everyone. Lara and I just tried to protect ourselves until the train made its emergency landing, but Doug went charging off to help everyone else. Then the train ripped in two and I thought for sure he was dead. But apparently Darius had been following us — I think Lara had been informing him this whole time — and he found Doug safe on the ground with the cube. They took him along with it. They think he knows something about it — I guess that’s what Lara told them. Darius said he’d pay us extra for the ‘inconvenience.’ He then dropped me off here to wait for you.” She was quiet for a moment. “There was nothing I could do.”
Bryce laughed. “Five hundred thousand extra for Doug? What a bunch of idiots. It shouldn’t take them more than a few minutes to realize he knows nothing, and then they’ll dump him back out on the street. They’ll probably want that money back, but they’re not getting it.”
“They’re taking him to Ronove!” Charlene shouted.
Ronove was a Transcendent allied with Asmod who seemed to have little concern with the warring over territory and people. He instead stayed secluded in his lab from which many stories emerged though Asmod’s government never gave any official acknowledgement of what happened there. “If they’re going to dissect Doug’s brain,” Lulu said, “that’s a huge waste for a number of reasons.”
“Don’t be silly,” Bryce said. “No one knows what goes on at that lab. I guarantee you every rumor we’ve heard about it is completely made up.”
Charlene looked quite worried. “You ever hear of anyone being involved with an experiment there and being seen again?”
Bryce scoffed. “This is just stupid speculation and…” He stopped, apparently not knowing where he was going with that thought. His expression turned serious. “I guess I might as well be the asshole and point out that it’s pretty trivial to figure out how to split three million three ways.”
Charlene punched Bryce in the face.
“Super.” Bryce clutched the bruise on his cheek. “Did you get that out of your system? Now let’s look at reality: There is nothing we can do. Were we somehow able to get anywhere near that lab, you can’t sneak past a Transcendent. You can’t fool someone who can read minds — who doesn’t even exist by our rules. The only thing we can do is hope he decides Doug isn’t worth his precious time. Are you going to argue with that?”
Charlene looked like she was tearing up. “So we go on like nothing happened?”
“That’s all we can do!” Bryce shouted. He quickly regained his composure. “Let’s get out of this city… but let’s not take the train. We’ll get some nice hotel rooms somewhere, sort out the finances, and then soon we won’t have to see each other anymore because we’ll be able to afford friends we can stand.”
Lulu felt she should say something. “I think we should hunt down and kill Lara in honor of Doug.”
Bryce sighed. “We’re too rich for that crap, Tri-Lu.”
She started to walk off with Bryce but noticed Charlene wasn’t following. “You’re both cowards.”
Lulu didn’t mind being called a coward; she knew she was cute and thus didn’t care what people thought about her bravery. Bryce was another matter.
He marched right up to Charlene and stood over her. Bryce wasn’t a very big man, but Charlene was a particularly small woman. “Doug adored you, and you were nothing but a bitch to him. Don’t act like you care more just because of your guilt.”
“I thought ‘Hellbender’ was about us sticking up for each other!”
They looked ready to trade blows, so Lulu took a deep breath and slowly pulled Bryce away as she stepped in between the two. “It was a game, Charlene. Now its over.”
Charlene started crying, and Lulu couldn’t help but cry too as they hugged her. Bryce just stood by silently. They were rich now, but she still felt powerless. Lulu just wished there was something in life that didn’t suck.
Charlene eventually got a hold of herself and Lulu dried her tears as well. “So do you think some powerful entity was really talking to Doug?” Lulu asked. “Because it’s really mean to drag someone like him into an interdimensional conflict. Doug can’t even figure out the map at the mall. I can’t think of any reason someone would involve him in something this big except to be mindlessly cruel.”
Bryce shrugged. “I guess you can’t be so insignificant that one day the universe won’t decide to reach out and crush you.”
NEXT