Chapter 256
Chapter 256:
–Penemue’s Office. The Next Morning–
“The energy in this room…it feels strange,” Penemue said while examining her office.
What was left of her office at least…
Everything inside her office had been torn up or blown to pieces… and then it was all covered in blood and guts. It reminded Penemue of the battlefields from the Great War. Corpses of demons were piled around her office. Their blood and innards were scattered all over the walls, carpet and even the ceiling!
“All of the camera’s have been destroyed. Not just in the office either. A massive power surge fried every camera within a few blocks,” Emma said while examining the scorch marks that littered the walls where Penemue had placed her cameras the previous night.
“Interesting…Look over here,” Penmeue called Emma over to the other side of the room. The wall was riddled with small holes.
Emma grimaced as she tried her best to avoid stepping on all the disgusting demon bodies. She was wearing a brand new pair of designer heels and was trying her best not to ruin them!
“Are these bullet holes?” Emma asked while touching the wall. “Do demons even use guns?”
Penemue shook her head. “Not usually, but whoever these demons were fighting certainly did. I can also detect the faint traces of a Seraphim’s energy in this room. One I have never met before…” Penemue added thoughtfully.
“So we have an Angel from another Universe running around New York now? And we don’t even know what they look like because all the camera’s were fried…” Emma sighed in annoyance.
“Possibly,” Penemue said while examining the room further. She glanced over the center of the room where the rainbow portal had been. It was no longer there, so that was a relief at least.
“I wasn’t expecting a bunch of Demons to be on the other side of the portal! At least our mysterious Angel took care of them for us. A bunch of Demons spilling into the city from Fallcorp Headquarters could have destroyed our company image!” Emma huffed out.
That would have been very bad,” Penemue said grimly. “We’ll have to thank whoever stopped them all.”
“Where do you think they ran off to?” Emma asked. “Is this another Gabriel situation? A random Angel that just feels like taking a tour of the city?” Gabriel was second only to Layla in popularity, and her presence had almost caused full blown riots across the city as people scrambled from all over to come and see her in person.
Penemue pondered for a moment before shaking her head. “It doesn’t feel like a full Angel… I think whoever came through here only had a Seraphim’s blessing,” Penemue explained as she spread her magical senses outwords. She could sense a faint trace of Light despite the demon bodies saturating her office in darkness.
“Well…Whoever they are, they are long gone. They took the elevator down to the first floor and escaped the building with no resistance. We called away all of our security last night as well,” Emma said before pausing. “...Should we call Layla and tell her?”
Penemue shook her head again and shrugged. “Knowing my little sister's strange divine luck, she’ll probably end up stumbling upon our visitor on her own. I’m sure she’ll handle it from here.” Penemue decided to wash her hands of this strange incident. It was already affecting their business. Important meetings had to be pushed back a few hours to give them time to clean the entire building up and dispose of all the Demon corpses. “Do you know any good cleaning crews? Once that will clean my office and dispose of all the bodies no questions asked.”
Emma smirked. “Who do you think I am!? Of course I do!” The Hellfire Club didn’t really exist anymore, but Emma still had a bunch of its shadier contacts on speed dial.
…
–???–
This world was peaceful. ‘Almost too peaceful…’ he thought to himself as he walked down the side of the street, his heavy armored boots leaving small cracks in the pavement with each step.
The normal humans going about their peaceful lives gave him a wide berth as he did so. He realized that he stood out, wearing so much heavy armor in a civilian area, but there was nothing he could do about that. At least he had made sure to wash most of the Demon blood off of his armor before he left the building he had found himself in after walking through that strange rainbow portal.
He kept marching down the sidewalk, he didn't have a particular destination in mind. He was simply exploring this peaceful human city. A few city blocks away from his location, he saw trees.
Actual trees…
He'd spent so much time on Mars, and then in Hell, that he almost forgot what they looked like. He decided to go and look at them up close. He was in a peaceful world with no Demons in sight so far, he figured this was a good time to take a short break while he had the chance. Knowing his luck, a portal to Hell was sure to spring up sometime soon and then he would be back to fighting…
“That's an awesome costume, man!” a guy called out to him when he reached the entrance to the public park. “Are you a new hero, like that spider-dude? Are you out on patrol?”
The Doom Slayer paused for a moment. He was not used to speaking. He couldn’t even remember the last time he held a proper conversation with another person. Most humans he had met the past few years either wanted to experiment on him or they were already possessed by monsters from Hell and he had to put them all down.
“Yes.” He gave a one word response…
“Good on you, man! This City’s been getting extra weird lately. It’s good to have another hero patrolling the streets. Layla of the Fallen and Iron Man keep the most dangerous bad guys out of the city, but they don’t usually go after street level criminals,” The guy explained. The Doom Slayer had no idea what he was talking about.
“Yes...” He answered again underneath his helmet.
“I won't take up any more of a hero’s time! Good luck, man! Thanks for looking out for us!” The guy thanked Doom Slayer before wandering off.
The Doom Slayer never considered himself a Hero, but it was nice to be thanked by someone after everything he had been through. He would like to know more about the other supposed heroes of the City as well. He wondered if they could help him figure out what was going on, and how he ended up here?
He left deep footprints in the grass as he made his way over the grass. He found a large tree out of the way that cast plenty of shade.
He took a seat on the ground and leaned against the bark. Peaceful moments like this reminded him of what he had spent so long fighting for. Underneath his helmet, the Doom Slayer closed his eyes.
He’d been fighting for days on end in Hell and decided to take a quick nap.
“...”
“Hello? Are you ok?”
He opened his eyes a bit later. There were two girls, who looked to be around 16 years old, standing in front of him. The girl who had woken him had long blonde hair and bright green eyes. The girl next to her had different colored hair, but her eyes were the same shade of bright green.
‘Siblings?’ the Doom Slayer suspected.
“Are you ok?” the blonde girl asked him again.
“...Yes,” he told her, almost robotically.
The brunette scoffed. “Obviously you're not ok! Asia could sense your pain from blocks away. Don’t try to act all macho and pretend you're not hurt!” she scolded him.
‘Sensed?’ That was a strange term to use.
The blonde girl…Asia…sat down on the grass next to him. “Nice to meet you. I’m Asia Argento. What’s your name?”
“And what’s with the scary looking armor and weapons!? You look like you’re prepared for war,” the other girl added. “I’m Heather by the way…”
What was his name again? No one had asked him that question in a long while. ‘How long has it been?’ He could hardly recall.
“John…” Yes, that was his name long ago. He was actually glad that he hadn’t forgotten it.
Asia smiled at him. “Nice to meet you, John.” Her smile shifted to a small frown. “I could sense your pain from a long way away. It’s…almost blinding. Do you want me to heal you…?”
“How?” he asked her.
Asia quickly looked around to make sure no one in the park was watching.
“Don’t worry, Asia. I got it.” Heather pulled out a stick and waved it around and said some words in a language he didn’t recognize. The air around them shimmered for a moment. “There, now no one can see us. Sorry about that, but Asia and I are kind of famous because of who my mom is.” Heather said to him. “We don’t want all of her fans crowding us.”
The Doom Slayer could feel a strange wave of energy blanketing a small area around the three of them. He speculated that the girl had created some kind of optic barrier with the simple wave of that stick. Normally, such an ability would put him on guard, but his instincts were telling him that neither of these girls were threatening him.
“Thanks, Heather!”
FWISH!
Neither girl could see his reaction, underneath his helmet, but his eyes widened after what happened next. A pair of white Angelic wings had sprouted out from behind Asia’s back!
“An Angel…” he muttered to himself out loud. Not a weird space Angel either, but a genuine real Angel. Not a lot could surprise him anymore, but this did. He supposed it only made sense. ‘If Hell was a real place, then why not heaven?’
“Yes, I am an Angel.” Asia told him. “I can sense that you have a lot of built up injuries. More than any other person I’ve ever felt. You must have been through a lot…” She trailed off with actual tears in her eyes.
He realized that those tears were for him.
“Do you want me to heal you?” the Angel offered.
“No.” he answered almost immediately. He didn’t need any help. He’d been getting by just fine all this while. The blood of all the Hellspawn he dispatched had been healing his injuries just fine so far.
“Oh…Ok.” Asia said dejectedly.
Heather scoffed at him again. “I said it before, don’t bother acting like such a tough guy. If Asia says you’re hurt, then you’re hurt. Just let her heal you so we can be on our way again.”
The Doom Slayer hesitated. He wanted to immediately say “no” again, but the dejected expression on the blonde Angel’s face made him genuinely feel bad. “Ok…” he told her.
“Thank you!” Asia wiped her tears away and cheered. He didn’t know why she was thanking him considering he was the one being healed but he went with it.
A few minutes later Doom Slayer was surprised at how much better he had felt. The blood of his enemies had sealed away his obvious wounds fine enough, but he never really considered the lasting damage all the never ending combat had actually had on his body. He felt so much lighter than he had in a long time, he felt a lot stronger too. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome!” Asia gave him a beaming smile. Her Angelic wings vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
“Now that Asia’s healed you, it’s time to answer some questions! How come you’re in the park? What’s with the crazy armor you're wearing? You look like you're ready for war!” Heather pointed a finger at him accusingly.
He was ready for war. He was always ready at this point.
“...I'm waiting,” he told Heather and Asia.
Asia tilted her head. “Waiting for what?”
“A portal.” Was his curt reply.
Heather frowned. “A portal? A portal to where?”
“Hell…” he told them.
Heather and Asia both blanched at him and took a few steps back. Asia looked afraid while Heather gripped the stick in her hand tightly. They were both shocked by his answer. He figured, as real Angels, they and the forces of Hell should be sworn enemies. Judging by their reactions, he figured he was right.
“Why are you waiting for a portal to Hell!?” Heather asked in shock. “Are you working for Mephisto!?” She pointed her stick at him accusingly.
He had never heard that name before. “No,” He said while not moving from his tree. He wasn’t threatened by the teenage girl or her strange stick. He had faced far worse and come out on top.
“Portals to Hell are bad.” Asia told him. “If you know about one, then you should tell us. We can tell Layla about it!”
“I don’t know about one. That’s why I'm waiting,” he explained the obvious to them. “I’ve never heard of Mephisto or Layla.” He added.
That was the most he’d spoken in a long time…
“H–Huh!? What!? That doesn’t make any sense!” Heather stamped her foot on the grass in irritation. “You’re just sitting in the middle of central park waiting for a random portal to Hell to open up!?”
“Yes…”
“I don’t think a random portal to Hell is going to spring up anytime soon…” Asia said to him with a short pause. “The world has been pretty peaceful for the past year after the alien invasion in California failed.” She explained while taking a calming breath. Next to her, Heather stopped pointing her stick at him.
‘A failed alien Invasion?’ He made a mental note to learn more about that later. He didn’t bother correcting Asia about a Portal to Hell not randomly popping up either. ‘They always popped up randomly…’ he thought to himself.
Heather grabbed Asia’s arm and started to drag her away. “Come on, Asia. This guy is clearly crazy. He must be suffering from PTSD or something.”
Asia gasped. “If he is, then we should find someone else to help him! My Sacred Gear can’t heal minds.” Asia said solemnly.
“We can call someone for him later.” Heather said. “It's a nice day outside and we were supposed to go shopping! There aren’t going to be any random portals to Hell opening up and ruining our day tod–”
BOOM!
Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed across half of the city! A few blocks away, the top of a nearby skyscraper was blown to pieces! A few of the upper floors were blown away by a strange green energy. A strange green energy that looked oddly reminiscent of a portal…
“Holy shit!”
“Oh no, is it another terrorist attack!?”
“We gotta get out of here! Grab the kids and get to the car!”
Other people in the park heard the loud explosion and saw the destruction as well. Most of the smarter people started to run away immediately. Of course, there were still plenty who stuck around and started filming with their phones.
“I think that was the Baxter building that just blew up,” Asia said. “The science guy who always fails to compete with Tony and Andrea lives there…”
“...Fuck,” Heather said out loud as she gazed up at the destruction and the random portal that appeared at the top of the Baxter building.
Doom Slayer stood up and unslung the shotgun that was strapped to his back. He started loading some shells from his ammo pack.
He shook his head, of course he was right. A random portal had appeared in the middle of this city, and something told him it wouldn't be long before demons and monsters started spilling out of it. He walked past the two stunned Angels.
“Wait!? Where are you going!?” Heather called out behind his back.
“Time to go to work,” he said as he marched towards the chaos.
XXX