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Chapter Text

“YOU UNGRATEFUL, DISGUSTING! FUCKING! LOSERS!” Adam scowled with a crack in his voice. He had done so much to them, killed Sir Pentious, killed so many of her people but Charlie couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity at the pathetic display in front of her as the first man impotently threw a tantrum at his defeat.

It wasn’t in her nature to give up on someone, no matter how vile, horrible and wretched their souls were, she knew they could all change. 

Foaming at the mouth, Adam scanned the crowd with the eyes of a mad dog, giving Charlie a shock of adrenaline, until finally, his hateful gaze locked onto Vaggie, her dearly beloved who had endured so much pain at the hands of the first man and his lieutenant.  

“You worthless fucking traitor, I’ll wipe that look off your face!” Adam seethed with spite as he stretched his arm out summoning the last of his strength to shoot one final holy beam at Vaggie. 

Charlie saw nothing but red as her horns grew out again. She knew she had to act now before he took another one of her precious friends, no, her family at the hotel away from her, especially not Vaggie who she loved more than anything. Without hesitating, Charlie lunged forward and struck him with her trident, right through his heart. Adam coughed up ichor, as golden blood flowed from his chest, falling backwards with a heavy thud.

No no no! This wasn’t what she wanted, she had never meant for this to happen! Charlie fell to her knees trembling in shock. She could hear his Lieutenant, Lute let out a cry of pure anguish as the normally ice cold exorcist rushed towards her commander, tears streaming down her face, pleading for him to live, Adam gave her a tender smile before the light faded from his eyes.

“Now take your little friends and GO HOME. Please.” Lucifer smugly bellowed, ushering Lute and the surviving exorcists to retreat back to heaven, Charlie could vaguely make out her girlfriend Vaggie congratulating her, (“Whoa, you did it, hon!”) she could hear her say with the widest grin she’d ever seen her have in public but hell might as well have frozen over as she simply stared into her ichor covered hands.

She never wanted any of this to happen, she didn’t mean to, she didn’t! She wasn’t a killer, but she just took someone’s life in cold blood, Vaggie shouldn’t congratulate her, she should be condemning her! She just violated one of her core beliefs! How could she preach redemption when she just erased a soul?! But she had to do it! Or he wouldn’t stop! No, no,  no, it was an accident! She just wanted to stab his shoulder like before, she didn’t want to take his life! How could she be thinking this?! 

Bile rose from Charlie’s throat while tears stung her eyes as everything became too much. Catching a glimpse of Adam’s lifeless face just a few metres from her was the straw on the camel’s back as Charlie became so sick the dark bile escaped from her mouth as her stomach clamped down, expelling all the mental anguish from her guts as the dam broke, tears erupting from her glowing red eyes as she cried profusely. 

Alarmed at the collapse of his daughter’s mental state, Lucifer rushed to comfort her, “It’s alright sweetie, it's gonna be alright, I got you now.” The fallen seraph wrapped his red highlighted white tailcoat around Charlie as he held her tight. It was maddening to him that the douchebag managed to hurt his precious Char-Char even in death, still at least that worthless ass gave him not one, but two opportunities to reconnect with his daughter. She was finally going to be back in his life after heaven knows how long they’ve been estranged.

It was unlike his little girl to be so distraught like his, Lucifer had to do something about it, anything to cheer her up. Seeing his bundle of joy in this state disturbed him like nothing else. He let out an awkward chuckle as he finally thought of something, “You want some pancakes, sweetie?” he offered in a hushed sing-song tone.

Charlie gave her father a weak smile as she continued to revel in melancholy and self loathing, at least she went from crying to sniffling though so he was gonna call that a win.

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Charlie was back at the ruins of the Hazbin Hotel, walking through the dilapidated rubble of her lofty dreams. She stopped at a torn banner celebrating Sir Pentious’s first week at the hotel, happier times before things came crashing down as the angels attacked her hotel and Pentious, her second ever guest, the first one to genuinely give redemption a try, gave up his life for their cause.

Charlie quietly reminisced about his sacrifice until she heard shuffling in the distance and a disoriented cacophony of cruel cackles. Something wasn’t right. She summoned her trident as her horns grew out and her eyes once again became a pool of crimson. 

“Helloooo, is anyone there?” Charlie called out, unnerved by the sounds surrounding her before the source finally revealed themselves. Shambling from the wreckage was a group of exorcists, except something was seriously wrong with them. They were all heavily injured, ichor pooling beneath them. Some of them were missing eyes, one had a chunk of her torso bitten off, revealing her rib cage. Another had her pale mustard coloured intestines spilling out of her while some unlucky few were missing legs, using their arms to crawl forward leaving a trail of blood behind them. 

Charlie staggered back in horror at this legion of corpses as they continued to laugh and jeer at her, their accusatory grins stretching ear to ear on their sickly grey rigour mortis addled faces. She swore she could hear chants of “murderer, murderer”  between their raspy giggles. 

Terrified, Charlie hunched back into herself as she pointed her trident in front of her in self defence, desperate to be out of this situation until she heard booming laughter behind the walking corpses as a particularly large silhouette stumbled in front of her. Its wings twisted and contorted into unnatural positions and she was greeted with the unwelcome but familiar sharp toothed leering face, the face of Adam. 

He rested his axe guitar behind his shoulders as he circled the hellborn princess like a predator stalking his prey. “Woah babe, you really fucked shit up! Now you’re just like us!” Adam jeered as he let out more shrill laughter.

Gritting her teeth, Charlie snapped back, “I am nothing like you!” 

Only for the head exorcist to quickly respond, “Well aren’t you, girlie? You led these losers to their fucking deaths. Like fuck, babe, you got that worthless snake fuck to sacrifice himself for your shithole hotel. Not that it did shit,” blood oozed from Adam’s chest as he heaved in laughter. “Like fuck, you sure exterminated me, even fed my girls to cannibals, fucking cannibals! I don’t think any of my top bitches are that hardcore, prime exorcist material right there, sweetie.”

Charlie’s red pantsuit suddenly transformed into a red dress stained with her red blood and the golden blood of the angels as she collapsed to her knees at these accusations, the gurgling chants of murderer ringing in her ears. 

She screamed in torment as she found herself in her bedroom, as Vaggie, who was right next to her in bed, sat up and placed her hands around her shoulders, her remaining eye filled with worry and concern for her girlfriend, “Are you ok hon, another bad dream?” 

Charlie gave her a nod and some words of reassurance as she prepared for the busy day ahead.

Months had passed since that last extermination, the hotel had been rebuilt grander than ever before with her father’s support. Things were even looking optimistic as they were no longer a joke and they even had some new guests, new friends to be made. 

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Charlie got dressed and made her way to the hotel lobby. Outside there was a statue dedicated to her beloved childhood friend and servant Dazzle who lost his life during the battle against the angels, leaving his brother Razzle alone.

Nearby the front door was a memorial to another hotel member that died in battle. Sir Pentious, depicted as the hero he was. Charlie gave the portrait a quick salute, proud at how far he’d come since he first arrived but sad that he was no longer with them. With a heavy heart she made her way to the hotel’s garden to complete her weekly ritual. 

At the back of the hotel were a set of headstones, with the most prominent placed at the foot of a tree. Charlie marched towards the tree and cleaned the tombstone, placing a bouquet of flowers in front of it. The headstone was marked “Here lies Adam, The First Man”-even Charlie’s worst enemies deserved a proper burial. 

“Why did you do it, Adam?” Charlie quietly pondered to the slab of rock, “I already lost the court case, you won. Was it out of spite? Were you that offended by the concept of redemption?” Charlie continued her voice wavering. “Or was it because of who my parents were or were you so vindictive you couldn’t stand anyone humiliating you?”-tears began to fall on Charlie’s porcelain white face-“I never even wanted to fight you! I never wanted it to end that way, but you pushed me! I’m not a violent person! I’m not!” Charlie cleared her throat and got back to her feet, “It was nice talking to you…” she concluded with the headstone and made her way back to complete more errands. 

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Vaggie paced back and forth in the hotel lobby as she was just about to wrangle the guests for the day’s planned activities.  It was going to be another day of herding those idiots into making a half, no, quarter assed attempt at Charlie’s redemption activities. Still, though she’ll never admit it, Vaggie grew fond of the wayward sinners after spending months with them. 

Though they could be rowdy and uncooperative at times, when the time came to fight for their dream, they rushed in to help without hesitation and Vaggie was eternally grateful for that. It made her believe in Charlie’s mission that much more, those idiotas that recently joined could use a kick to the shin though. 

And speaking of her beloved Charlie, the woman that was the architect of all this came back through the front door, with a downtrodden look on her face.  It hurt how much she hadn’t healed from the battle for the hotel all because of that pendejo . 

“Charlie, you’re back!” Vaggie set aside her clipboard and rushed to greet her girlfriend, her boss, her everything really, “Are you ok? You don’t look ok. Is this about that dream you had?” 

Charlie lowered her eyes, “I still see his face everywhere...” revealing all Vaggie needed to know.

 In a swift motion Vaggie wrapped her wings around the hellborn princess, hugging her like a blanket. “Please Charlie, you did nothing wrong, he gave you no choice. You gave that motherfucker mercy and he was too much of an asshole to take it”. Vaggie held Charlie to her chest, her heart aching in pain for her “Please, you did it to save all of us and it was a freak accident anyway. He wouldn’t have given any of us the same courtesy, so please, you deserve to forgive yourself.”

To the former exorcist’s relief Charlie gave a cathartic response of, “Ok Vaggie, thanks a lot for that.” 

“No problem, hon,” Vaggie affirmed. 

“I’m going to hand out some flyers for the hotel. Can you run  things here when I’m out-if that’s ok with you?” 

Vaggie smiled and jokingly responded with a mock salute. “Anything you say, Hon.” Charlie was finally back to her old self.

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It was another joyous day in hell as Charlie strolled the streets of pentagram city with a bounce in her step. It was always a good time to spread hope to her people. The literally rosy cheeked demon girl hopped around the street, introducing herself and handing flyers to any passerby. Most were not interested in redemption, some laughed in her face, others gave her the middle finger and told her to fuck off and the kindest simply gave her a condescending look. 

But that just meant they weren’t ready yet! Charlie was sure they would come around eventually, they just had to believe in themselves! Just now, she was chatting to an alligator sinner and his friend, a man with a ball bomb for a head and they actually seemed to be hearing her out.

“Uh, rejecting sin? Oh yeah, we were going to a concert about that…” the alligator man said in a lazy tone. 

“Yeah, they’re fucking cool and shit!” his friend added in a gravelly voice. 

Charlie's spirits rose higher than it ever had, this was exciting, her message seemed to be spreading across Hell, from conversation with these sinners she got a name “Dawnbringer” , a band she hasn’t heard of.  

“This may sound weird buuuuuut can I come with you guys? I want to see this for myself, if that’s alright with you?” Charlie asked in the most respectful tone she could muster.

The one with the bomb head looked at his friend dumbfounded before awkwardly responding to the bouncing princess “Uh, sure I guess?” 

“THANK YOU SO MUCH!” Charlie excitedly responded, making the two sinners raise their eyebrows at her.

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The sinners led her to what seemed like the ruins of an arena, the entrance looking completely different to the rest of the haphazardly renovated building. Wait, hold on. She recognised this place. Didn’t it belong to a Roman overlord before it was destroyed by the exorcists and the overlord slain during the previous exterminations?

It seemed the local sinners repurposed it into a concert venue, a place of violence and death turned into a place of joy and music, the perfect representation of redemption. Charlie couldn’t wait to meet the people in charge of all this.

When they got to the gate, the imp manning it upon noticing who exactly she was, tried to let her in for free. But Charlie felt bad for using her authority as a princess and quickly pushed some money into his small red hand before he was able to open it for her.

Inside was a sea of rowdy sinners pushing and shoving, hitting one another, surrounding the stage. The arena echoed with a thousand different rambunctious sounds, yelling, screaming, cheers, jeers and scattered conversations. 

The nervous princess took a seat facing the front of the stage among her people. The lights came to life and the chaotic noise unified into a single cheer. The stage lights slowly  illuminated the members of Dawnbringer.  

There was a tattooed man with red skin and large horns on his head wearing nothing but shorts and a leather collar on drums. On the left, a man with a cattle skull as his head with a straw hat, his leather ensemble reminiscent of the countryside on bass. On the stage’s right, was the backup guitarist, a woman with blue skin, an X instead of an iris in one of her red eyes. She had lighter blue hair in pigtails and wore a halter top with inverted crosses and a garterbelt on white briefs. 

Finally, there was the frontman as the lead singer and guitarist and Charlie could not believe her eyes.

 Charlie stood there silent, her gaze fixated on the stage, she rubbed her eyes once, then twice then thrice to ensure what she was seeing before her wasn’t just another hallucination, a trick of her mind. 

If this was indeed real, then fronting the band was Adam, back from the dead as a demon. His skin was a sickly pale colour with a hint of lavender with large red horns that curled upwards among his unkempt brown hair. His eyes were glowing white orbs in a sea of gold and he had large avian wings on his back, the pattern that of a screech owl.

He wore a dark blue jacket, tattered at the ends and sleeves with large golden spikes on the shoulders. His pants were white with a gold belt buckle in the shape of a fig leaf and the distinctive “A” this time with a spiked halo on top was on his shirt. 

This couldn’t be him, right? Adam was dead and this is a sinner. Maybe Adam Firstman is just this guy’s stage name. She’s met edgelords like that, in fact there were some in the audience dressed like exorcists. 

The frontman strummed his guitar sending a shockwave of energy across the arena, briefly silencing the cheers. “Are you fuckers ready to rock and roll!?”  The lead singer and guitarist yelled out, getting screams of “FUCK YEAH” in response. 

By her father’s name, it really was him, Charlie couldn’t deny it any longer, her mind raced to decide whether she was dreaming or not.

“Alright you crazy bitches, give me a one a two, a one two three four!” Soaking in the approval, Adam danced around on stage and bursted into an impassioned guitar solo. 

“When the Rings have fucked ya 

And buried you in their shit 

Here the path you've lived 

Got you well damned and screwed

 This is the only summation 

Of what that whore has ran 

You misfits went and lost it

 Fuck it in this land

 Rip and Rape and kill and Keel

 Forget all your possession and meals 

You try to stop them and you'll know

 Precisely how your ass will go 

As they do it as dryly as they can

 Fuck it in this land

 Does an Overlord own ya?

 Fuck it in this land 

Feel like this fate is for ya?

 Fuck it in this land 

Scared of Old Scratch, Him? 

Fuck it in this land 

Letting Angels butcher'em

 Fuck it in this land

 Crossed the lines, ignored the rules 

And choose all the ways to be cruel 

Got off on shit, can't change your stripes 

You faked it while they cleaned your pipes

 Waved your soul and got yourself a holy ban

 Fuck it in this land”

The sinners all screamed in approval, kicking and punching each other in excitement, all except for one. 

A lamb looking sinner climbed on stage, “Fuck you, you overratted prick! This is hell, we indulge in this shit you stupid, ugly bitch!!” he yelled angrily. Adam had a sadistic smile on his face and continued to sing and dance, during this routine he marched closer to the lamb, giving him a kick, sending him into the crowd, knowing what would come next. 

The bloodthirsty audience descended down on the poor sinner, stomping him with their boots and tossing him around. Charlie could only watch in horror as the crowd cackled and ripped him apart, their boots leaving a bloody pool as his entrails and limbs flew around the arena, and Adam simply continued with his song.

“Diss the Ars Goetians

 Fuck it in this land

 Heed less of gangsters? 

Fuck it in this land Pricks of sinful vultures?

 Fuck it in this land 

Got shot for all you had?

 So fuck it in this land 

On the outs and flip the queen 

And don't forget what you've seen 

And scheme around that wayward thot 

Tell her she can kiss you on your nuts 

Forget all they ever tried to scam

 Fuck it in this land 

When the Rings have fucked ya 

And buried you in their shit 

Here the path you've lived 

Got you well damned and screwed 

This is the only summation 

Of what that whore has ran 

And you misfits went lost it

 Fuck it in this land 

Rip and Rape and kill and Keel 

Forget all your possession and meals 

From your tomb below the greens 

And show where you got your genes

 Why play in someone else's poser band? 

Enemies you're so much better than 

It's time to move against the clown's man 

Here's the way we can stop 

Her Rule of Schlock  

Fuck it in this land”

Adam ended his song on another guitar solo as he posed and pointed towards the sky earning even more cheers from the adoring audience. Charlie stood there in shock, still flabbergasted by this surreal experience. It didn’t matter who he was, she still had to speak with him.

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“Oh yeah this isn’t part of the outfit babe, its my fucking feathers and shit.” Adam pointed towards his neck and chest, which true to his word, was covered by grey feathers acting as a fur collar.  He was lounging around backstage with the rest of the band, after another successful concert, fucking awesome is what it was.  

His drummer, GG was chatting to one of their groupies yacking on about god knows what, from experience Adam did not want to know.  A part of him believed the moustached sinner said the most wild and provocative shit just to rile people up, as long as he wasn’t throwing literal shit, yeesh. Normally, Adam would have a problem with this but given what type of women were in hell and the type GG himself liked, Adam would rather leave him be.

The Bass player was showing off his most prized possession, a golden fiddle he’d won when alive. “Oh, come on Johnny, that can’t be Lucifer’s” Adam said in jest.

“And I’m telling ya it’s the real deal, beat that son of a bitch in a fiddling contest!” was the southern gentleman’s reply. 

“You’re one crazy motherfucker, you know that right?” Adam said while laughing at his bandmate’s audacity with a hand on his face. 

“Come on now don’t judge me, especially how you’re with that guitar of yours~” Johnny coyly added, tipping his straw hat a bit, a smile forming on his cow skull face. 

“Judgement II is awesome and you know it” Adam bantered with a slight chuckle, jokingly pointing at his bassist. 

Adam himself was slouching on his seat munching on some aftershow ribs with a scantily clad sinner woman on each arm, “Anyway so I was saying, actually what was I on about? Eh, who the fuck cares, let’s fuck!” This earning him a look of skeptical disapproval from his backup guitarist Labianne.

 “Oh, shut the fuck up bitch. We both know how much dick you take,” Adam snapped in annoyance. Labbie, much like himself, was an exorcist who came back as a sinner after death, except she met her end during the extermination before the last one. 

Just as Adam was about to make good on his promise, one of his roadies interrupted him, “Uh boss, this chick wants to see you.” 

“Oh sweet, keep the babes coming-HOLY SHITBALLS!” Fidgeting before him, in all her red suit wearing, clown face having glory, was Charlie Morningstar. 

Adam immediately stood up in alarm sending the two attractive sinners falling to the floor. He grabbed his guitar which transformed into an axe in a burst of flames, “I’m handling this, RIGHT NOW!”   Adam took an offensive stance, preparing to strike before Lilith’s little hell spawn held out her hands in diplomacy 

“No no, I don’t want to fight,” she said nervously. 

Adam lowered his axe guitar in confusion, “Well huh, so you wanna get my autograph, fuck me, or both?” Adam responded with a lecherous grin. 

“Fuck noooooo!” was Charlie’s immediate and exacerbated response, “I just wanted to ask you a few questions, like HOOOW are you still alive, what happened?”. 

“Well I don’t know sweetie, after you pierced my fucking heart with your trident, hurt like a bitch by the way, I just woke up like this,” Adam half heartedly responded. 

“And redemption?” Charlie sheepishly added. 

Adam pressed a finger to Charlie’s lips. “Slow down babe, I’m getting there,” prompting Adam to drone on. “So I was like wtf is going on, and why do I look like a freak?” Adam continued while rubbing one of his horns, “All I knew was I needed to survive, not like something like this hasn’t happened to me before.” 

 Adam lazily continued with his explanation, “So let me tell you, hell sucks balls. Like, I thought it was bad just looking at it from above but actually living here? Urrrgh. Like ew, you know what I mean?” he waved his hands around to emphasise his point to the bored princess. 

“Anyway the worst part was hundreds of these losers tried to pounce on me everyday, thinking they can take me on but they fucking couldn’t cause I’m Adam, the first fucking man.” Light began to crackle on Adam’s open hand, demonstrating his point.

“But yeah, I had to do that nonstop for about 3 months. It was fun at first, but man it quickly became a bummer,” his tone shifted into a more solemn one. “It was great when I did it once a year, but every day? I started wondering if this was gonna be my life from now on”. 

Charlie’s expression switched to one of sympathy as he told his tale, “Adam I…-” only to be quickly interrupted. Adam’s axe guitar switched back into an instrument and he held on his lap.  

“So I vented about how I felt and how awful this dump is through song and apparently people loved it.” Adam’s expression began to brighten as he told the next part of his story. “Then, I met these awesome guys!”-pointing towards Johnny and GG’s direction who held up devil horns in response-“and I ran into this bad bitch!” Adam suddenly grabbed Labbie by the waist and held her close who while surprised at first, grinned ear to ear. “So, I found out I wasn’t the only one that came back, and I was like, ‘hey let's start a band’ and long story short we’ve been rocking out ever since and it’s been awesome; what have you been up to?”. 

Charlie was caught off guard at first at finally being given the chance to speak but quickly snapped out of it “Well, we rebuilt the hotel and it’s looking better than ever. We got new guests and they’re all making amazing progress.”

“Oh yeah, I saw that. Pretty cool don’t get me wrong, but man does it reek of Lucifer’s try hardness.” Adam interrupted once again. 

Charlie stood her ground and tried to continue. “Well, I don’t appreciate how you insult my mum or the violence at your concerts, but I like your change of attitude and think we can help each other out. Do you and your friends want a place at the hotel?” The hellborn princess offered him her hand, a look of hope and sincerity radiating from her face. 

Adam looked at her confused before he bursted into laughter, much to the poor princess’s shock “Oh, you thought I’d.. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” barely able to control himself, he clutched his chest to steady himself. “Appreciate the concern, sweetie I really do, but I’m doing fiiiiine on my own.” Adam said condescendingly as he patted Charlie’s head, “Well, if that’s all you had to say…” Charlie jolted in alarm as the angel turned sinner closed the distance between them. 

“Hold on, I think you really need some help!” she said in a panic before being tossed out of the room. 

Adam rubbed his hands, proud as he looked back at the lascivious sinners sitting with their arms crossed on his seat, surprisingly they were still here. “Now where was I? You wanna join in, Labbie?” quickly turning towards his amused, fellow ex-exorcist. 

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Meanwhile at the hotel, the staff and guests were gathered around to watch Cherri Bomb’s favourite program, some public access show on up and coming bands. It seems someone recorded the concert of some underground band, only to catch a glimpse of their fallen enemy.  “How the fuck is he still alive?!” was Cherri’s immediate response, followed by Angel Dust “I thought we buried him in the back?” the arachnid pornstar said with confusion in his voice, “ hijo de la gran puta ” screeched Vaggie. 

But Alastor stood there in his usual calm and collected confidence, his eyes widened with interest and his sinister grin beamed ear to ear, “How very interesting.”

Chapter Text

“Sir, sir, stay with me sir, ADAM!” Lute cried out on the battlefield. This was the worst day of his life in millennia.  Every part of his body ached from the beating Lucifer, of all goddamn people, gave him. He could feel several fractures in his bones and he was pretty sure that he was bleeding internally. 

 Laying on the crimson ground scorching from the impact of his collision, every breath was agonising, made worse by the sharp pain in his chest and the open wound on his heart given to him by that  blonde bimbo. He was counting down to his final breath and yet he felt so, so happy, he wasn’t going to die alone, by the light of the heavens, he was not alone!

Kneeling beside him was his beautiful, precious Lute. The one that always stood by him while his supposed soulmates did not. He had been so foolish, if only he could have seen that sooner, if only he had appreciated her more. But oh well, he was dying anyway. Pushing through the pain, Adam gave his crying lieutenant one last smile. A genuine one, something he hadn’t done in a while before death finally came for him, and he drew his final breath as the light faded.

Adam drifted around in the aether before a light grew brighter and brighter, the sound of a holy choir rang in his ears, playing a mysterious uncertain tune until the light abruptly turned red and roaring flames filled the void. 

Adam woke up in the middle of an alleyway. “Wait, I’m not injured, the pain is all gone.” Adam pondered to himself while tapping every part of his chest and back.  While nothing was broken, something felt wrong, very wrong, with his body. He stood up and surveyed his surroundings. What hit him first was that everything smelled like shit, stumbling around he could feel discarded needles and pipes around his feet and were those used condoms?  

Feeling a moist rubbery sensation around his boots, Adam quickly recoiled and staggered back in disgust. Hell, he was still in hell, but why? Did his girls leave him behind? …No, of course not…They were coming for him any second now...surely Lute would.

Adam began to stumble as his legs started shaking from doubt. Yet before he could continue his thoughts, he began to hear shuffles in the distance. The adrenaline coursed through his veins as he immediately assumed battle stance. 

The hair on his neck stood up as he anticipated enemies around him, “Well, look who's no longer so big and mighty.” Adam turned his head to see a group of demon filth, most likely addicts of some kind, gawking at him. 

“What are you freaks looking at?” Adam scowled at a fish freak looking in his direction, 

“Would you look at that, he still thinks he’s hot shit!” his equally ugly friend added. Soon more of those disgusting hell scum entered the scene. Like the filthy animals they were, they immediately pounced on Adam. Some try hard with a lion's mane lunged towards him attempting to dig his claws onto Adam but he responded by simply punching him in the face, sending the insolent fiend towards the wall, only for a fly headed uggo to grab his leg.  The lagoon freak from earlier charged towards them with a nailed bat, a fucking bat seriously?  

Almost offended by this he smashed his gilled face on the fly’s slimy proboscis, resulting in a squelching noise as blood, slime and acid oozed together.  More of these insolent losers approached the scene from the distance attracted to the carnage like flies drawn to dung. 

“Do any of you fuckers know who I am? I'm Adam, the First! Fucking! Man!” Adam defiantly yelled at the mob he tried to summon a blast of holy light, only to come short. “What gives?”

Adam smacked his hand seeing if anything would happen, nothing did so he tried shaking it until the damn thing worked. Instead of a beam of golden angelic light, at Adam’s third attempt an alien crackle of energy came out, both unruly and unfamiliar to him, twisting in every direction. It managed to strike some of the approaching infernal filth and destroyed the surrounding buildings but the survivors simply climbed over the debris and came cackling forward. 

“Oh, you’re gonna regret ever challenging me in your entire shit lives.” Since his angelic light wasn’t cooperating with him, he called on his ever reliable guitar axe. To his delight Judgement fell onto Adam’s hands. But it looked different, felt different. Instead of the usual gold, white and black, it was red on smoky dark grey, and instead of rounded axe blades, the blades were straight and angular with fiery magma-like veins flowing across the entire weapon.

Adam pushed whatever reservations he had aside, now was not the time to be picky. With a running start and a slash of his axe, entrails were flying in the air, red pouring from the sky as torsos were bisected, heads were thrown and arms were cut off. Adam took a breather, basking in his victory “Fuck yeah, that’s why you don’t mess with Adam” he boasted kicking a horned head on the ground. 

But before Adam could celebrate further he spotted yet another demon in the window. This one might be the ugliest one he’s met yet. He was mostly humanoid with ghastly pale purple skin, his eyes were a ghoulish yellow with glowing white irises like some bog creature. He was a feathered freak, dark feathers covering his neck and upper chest acting like a pseudo collar, with large Strigidae wings, feathers as black as the ones on his chest. Red horns stretched towards the length of his head and curled upwards at the end. 

The carnival freakshow wore a mockery of Adam's cassock, covered in ash and soot, the audacity of this motherfucker. “No…No….. NO!” Adam clutched his hair as panic began to set in. “This can’t be happening!” He began to feel the horns among his hair, immediately recoiling in visceral disgust. He was the freak, he’d been looking at his own reflection the entire time. Adam collapsed to his knees, the weight of this revelation being too much to bear. 

Tears trickled down from his impure unworthy eyes “Sera…please, I’m sorry, you can’t leave me here” the putrid sinner weakly cried out to deaf ears, no one was coming for him. Adam looked to the sky and screamed in pure agony at the pearly gates that he would never enter again.

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Adam’s eyes snapped open in a cold sweat as he took in his surroundings, he was in a rustic albeit slightly messy apartment where the smell of brimstone didn’t hit as hard. Next to him in bed was Labbie in a state of undress that honestly wasn’t too dissimilar to what she usually pranced around in, literally damned slut. Still it was nice having a familiar face around in these difficult times, she was no Lute but she will have to do. He quietly crept off the bed, careful not to wake up his former major and made his way to her bathroom. 

The night and ensuing afterparty had been rough on him. While he enjoyed the debauchery in the moment, it quickly spiralled out of control in a display of degeneracy that even he was phased by. Labianne told him that “ it was something you just have to get used to, things are different down here ” which wasn’t exactly comforting, ‘Fuck this place. I make the rules damn it.’  

“Oh, like hell you do, not anymore,” a smug self assured voice called from the mirror.  What greeted him in his reflection was not the sickly fiendish visage Adam was stuck with but a towering figure wearing pristine white robes. His cassock was beautifully decorated with bluish purple patterns with bits of gold embroidered on. He wore an unblemished black mask with dancing yellow lights in imitation of a face with large horns that ended in gold tips. 

Piercing through him with condescending eyes and a shit eating grin was a spectre from the past and a very unwelcome one. “Oh shut up,” Adam grit his teeth, trying and failing to maintain an air of superiority, losing to his own reflection, his nervous eyes betraying him. 

“I mean have you looked in the fucking mirror lately? Oh wait, you are!” The apparition leaned in closer, casting a shadow over Adam as his neon face let out the most obnoxious laughter, letting him know how little he thought of him. “You filthy disgusting freak, you were onto something when you made extermination day every day, but now look at you.” The figure was straining to contain his snickering, causing convulsions in his mask. 

“That got lame and you fucking know it you prick.” Adam defiantly stood his ground only for the spectre to immediately put him down 

“Right right, that’s why you’re playing for the approval of sinners, fucking sinners.”  He could no longer hold it in and erupted into a series of guffaws ``Dude, you were the one that got lame and I’m proof, you’re a loser now and you know it”. 

“I’LL FUCKING SHUT YOU UP!” Adam was inches away from smashing the mirror before the commotion woke his roommate (and bedfellow) up. 

“Who are you talking to, bossman?” Labbie groaned groggily, rubbing her eye as she got off the bed and slowly walked towards the source of the racket.  Adam had to quickly hide the fact that he almost trashed her bathroom for the fifth time this month. 

“Oh, umm, no one babe, no one at all,” Adam said with a nervous chuckle. The former exterminator didn’t say anything at first, she pursed her lips and gave her ex commander a sceptical but understanding eyebrow raise. 

“At first it was difficult for me to adjust as well.” Labianne stepped closer to Adam, careful in her tone. “I had to deal with the madness everyday like you are, but once I accepted my fate, the visions and voices became easier to manage.” 

Labbie moved a hand onto Adam’s back, her eyes full of sympathy and understanding, he felt his troubles alleviated a bit, but only a bit. “I’m so tired of this hellhole and shitheap, how the fuck did we even end up here, I just want to go home” was Adam’s strained and exhausted reply. “Adam… this is home now” Labbie wrapped her arms around him as she pressed her face against his lower torso. 

With an absolutely drained and defeated look on his face, Adam returned the favour by placing his own arms around her back. “Thanks for that Labbie, you’re a top-class bitch, you know that right?” Adam said in a gravelly voice, earning him a warm smile from the aforementioned woman.  

“Glad to help sir,” was her grateful reply, it was then when she saw her boss turned bandmate’s eyes suddenly light up like he was thinking of something. His mouth suddenly formed into an excited grin leaving Labbie wondering what got him in such high spirits after all that. 

“Let’s call Johnny and GG up, we can get the band together for practice, it will be great!” Adam practically yelled like an overexcited child, Labbie was caught off guard at first but was unopposed to the idea. 

“Ummm, ok bossman, sounds good,” Labbie replied in agreement. 

“Sweet, I’ll get them over to the hideout right now.” Adam gave her some finger guns before rummaging through their bedroom for his phone. Once he found it, he immediately gave one of his new friends a ring. 

“Johnny, how are you doing?” Adam said in a relaxed but cheerful tone, dragging out his vowels.

 “Adam? I didn’t think you’d call so soon, I’m fine myself but a certain someone went too hard on the vices last night.” It was then that Adam could pick up yelling in the background “THAT BOOZE WAS WEAKER THAN MY PISS” only for Johnny to reassert himself. “Oh hush, I’m speaking on the phone. Pardon the interruption, did something happen?” 

“Oh right, it's nothing really. I was just wondering if you and GG were up for practice today, you know to rock out and shit” Adam replied, there was a pause before the rugged man of the book made his response. 

“I understand… we’ll be there in the usual spot as soon as I get things under control, Oh no you don’t, mister!”  There was a commotion before the phone hung up. 

--------------------------

With his former major right beside him, Adam traversed the long abandoned subterranean tunnels of Pentagram City.  They navigated through the labyrinth of manmade passages that sprawled underneath the Pride Ring. From what he’s been told, these were the remnants of one of Lucifer's failed projects, some kind of subway system. 

Apparently he lost interest in it or something and just left it in this state to rot. While faded, Adam noticed the overly bright and garish circus decor on the walls that told him this was that clown of an angel’s handiwork. The apple and serpent motifs that became Lucifer’s signature among the over elaborate patterns confirmed it for him. 

Adam gave it an unimpressed look while he and Labbie continued walking, like everything Lucifer touched, it all fell to ruin. Nowadays the walls are covered in graffiti depicting all sorts of profanity, with the outer tunnels patrolled by roving gangs of violent sinners.  

Those upstarts learnt not to mess with him after the first few “lessons” he gave them and got out of his way to let him through when he passed. With Labbie leisuring trailing behind, Adam made his way deeper into the tunnels, a place he knew was one of the exorcist’s blind spots. 

The “usual spot” was a hidden bunker reinforced with layers of dark steel. According to GG he found this place years back and turned it into both a venue for his own shows and a clubhouse for his fans. Until one day, the wild musician lost any and all interest in it and found it aggravating, and told everyone to leave. And by ‘told everyone to leave’ what he meant was that he started yelling, beat up every fan left and right of him and destroyed the entire complex and everyone in it in a blaze of glory. 

Apparently that was the first time GG found out you couldn’t die in hell unless you’re struck by angelic steel, the revelation inspiring him to pursue more extreme and disgusting displays of self mutilation until he got tired of that too. He found out that it was extremely difficult to shock or offend anyone when every depravity has been tried out and even normalised because well, you are in hell after all. 

Which is probably why the untamable degenerate first started tagging along with Adam. having finally found a way to piss off the average demon. Preaching virtue and redemption as the ultimate form of rebellion among sinners, which didn’t go too well the first few times they performed, much to GG’s delight.

 Oh those early days when he had to annihilate droves of idiots that rejected his message and tried to fight him. One thing he could agree with GG on was that this part of the performance was great fun. He would bash them with his guitar while the debauched drummer tore through them like a wild hyena, nowadays he left it to the crowd to do it instead. 

Adam used the key given to all members of Dawnbringer and opened the gate to the bunker and stepped in. 

Somehow Johnny was already there, much earlier than they anticipated. The rugged country boy was clad in overalls instead of the leather cowboy outfit he wore on stage. `

“Well morning to ya Adam, what took you so long?” Johnny playfully ribbed, performing an exaggerated tip of his hat. Ever the straightlaced and god-fearing member of the group he was already tuning his bass guitar in preparation for practise. 

“Oh shut up, not everyone gets up when the birds do, fucking hick,” Adam bantered back, he could already feel a migraine set in when he spotted who else made it early. Slouching on the same couch wearing only a jockstrap, leather collar and leather jacket was the band’s drummer GG. He somehow looked both inebriated and ready to strike at any moment, which was very typical of him. 

The guy was hunched over like a wild raccoon and babbling a bunch of nonsense but his eyes were as intense as ever, signifying that he wasn’t totally out of it.

“What’s up with him?” Adam asked in both concern and disgust. The bull skulled bassist was quick to answer his question, briefly setting down his instrument to do so. 

“I was just telling ya on the phone but not only did he go through several bottles of alcohol, he took a whole bunch of god knows what at the party and he did it again this morning!” Johnny explained in exacerbation, only to immediately get flak. 

“Oh fuck you that was nothing,I can handle myself” GG screeched like a buzzard being sure to jerk around back and forth and bash his arm on the sofa to voice his displeasure at the implication.  

“Oh? is that’s why I had to drag you all the way here, if only you eased up on the debauchery every once in a while, you wild coyote,” Johnny said in snarky annoyance, of course the ‘coyote’ in question wasn’t going to take that. This time GG stood up from his seat, huffing and heaving in anger, his eyes displaying the gaze of a rabies infected hound. 

“You boring bible thumping motherfucker, you’re just mad you can’t do what I do, cause I’m the man! I’m the messiah! I’m the king!” GG yelled out in hysterics. Yep, the migraine finally came in. 

“Alright first of all, I’m the man and can we get the show on the road already, you whiny bitches?” Adam corrected in annoyance in which case GG sat back down, all anger dissipating from him. 

“Only for you Adam, I’ll set up the drums, ” GG said in a clinical, almost emotionless tone, he dug into his jacket pockets and pulled out a pair of drumsticks. 

“Sweet, is everyone else ready? Adam said in satisfaction, summoning Judgement II into his arms for his own preparation. Glancing over the room, Labbie pulled her own guitar out of the case she was carrying all day and Johnny put his bass over his knee while GG sat himself in front of his drum set.  

Johnny started first, providing the bassline for the song, next was GG who gave rhythm to the music with his drums. It was Adam’s turn and he played a melody on his guitar, with Labianne backing him up he began to sing.  Music filled the entire complex and echoed out into the tunnels as the band rehearsed one of their upcoming songs. 

It was a sombre and frustrated lament on fate and life in damnation, rather routine for their lineup, but today was different. Fueled by passion and emotion Adam gave the rehearsal his all, as if he was on stage. His frustrations and emotional turmoil emphasising the song, it was as if a holy choir backed him up as he sang, his bandmates quickly matching his energy, elevating the piece. Adam may no longer be an angel but he still had his angelic voice, even in hell.  

As usual Adam closed the piece on an impassioned guitar solo that could have been a song itself, revelling in the energy that coursed through him, as he performed the last strum, waking after losing himself in the music. The rest of the band glanced at their frontman proud, happy that he was in high spirits again. Johnny and Labbie gave him warm smiles while GG smugly gawked at him instead, but you could tell he was happy for him too. 

“Man, that was fucking awesome! Did you see that?” Adam excitedly exclaimed to his bandmates, making Labbie and Johnny chuckle.

“Yes Bossman, we saw that,” Labianne replied in amusement as the ‘bossman’ in question’s fist pumped the air. After calming himself down, Adam turned to address the band, making several arm motions as he began his speech. 

“You know that colosseum concert was just the beginning, I say we get out of the underground and let hell know who we are, because soon we will be the ones ruling this dump.” Adam’s golden eyes gleamed ominously in the darkness as he made his announcement. GG was the first to react, exclaiming in agreement and approval of the plan. Labbie’s grin grew wider while Johnny gave a curt grin, excited at the prospect of teaching these wretched souls real music and possibly beating his fiddling rival a third time. 

Adam stretched his Strigidae wings and took flight in the bunker he charged his now infernal guitar with demonic lightning letting it pulsate. He swiped his arm, giving his guitar a strum, laughing in amusement as a bolt of energy shot across the room writhing like a serpent. 

He landed on the table with the grace of a bird of prey striking at its victim, letting his wings drag behind him like an oversized coat. His eyes crackled with energy as he grinned ear to ear. 

The First Man was back in business and the overlords wouldn’t know what hit them.

Chapter Text

Waking up to find her cheerful partner absent from bed, Vaggie got dressed and made her way to the lobby, having already gone through this before. It seemed the other residents of the hotel had the same idea. They formed a crowd around their manic leader, spectating at the stressed filled chaos in front of them. 

“What the devil is she doing?” A rather diminutive angler fish demon called out in condescending frustration. He had greyish blue skin with dark blue piscine hair and fins for ears. He was one of the new arrivals at the hotel, a self proclaimed scientist. Clad in a black lab coat and oversized yellow spectacles that he was currently clutching on to get a better look at what he was observing in front of him. 

“Ah fuck off, Baxter,” The pint sized sinner was quickly shoved aside by a more senior member of the hotel.  Angel Dust, the spindly spider slut and former drug addict, a fact he was proud of, was casually enjoying a popsicle that he sucked on sensually out of habit and looked on at the commotion in a mixture of boredom and interest.

“Ooooh, the bad boy came out of his room!” came a sharp shrill that was bolting towards Baxter, the source was the equally diminutive one eyed maid of the hotel, Nifty. 

His eyes widened in alarm as he ceased his gawking for more pressing matters “Oh no, not you again!” he shrieked as Nifty crashed into him with her arms wide. He tried desperately to pry his unwanted admirer off only for her to cackle all the way through. It devolved into them wrestling on the floor while Baxter cursed and Nifty continued to laugh.  

Meanwhile, Husk, the hotel bartender and literal bar cat observed this idiocy in tired annoyance. He was far too sober to be dealing with this and corrected this issue by drinking out of a flask. Upon noticing him, Angel Dust moved to greet his friend Husk.

“Heya, whiskers~,” he crooned in a slightly sultry tone, another force of habit for him.  Husk simply greeted him with a neutral but subtly pleased grunt. 

“Alright, move along people,” Vaggie attempted to break the crowd and let herself through so she could see what was going on. What greeted her made Vaggie both sad and disappointed for charlie. 

Charlie paced back and forth in the hotel lobby, having not had any sleep the night prior. What she was pacing around was a board with magazine articles, promotional material, social media posts and other pieces of information, all centred around one subject, Adam. 

“So angels can come back and go to hell, how is this possible who knows, hahahahaha” Charlie was mumbling in a delirious state, clearly the lack of sleep had gotten to her. “What’s his next move, what’s he planning, if he and that girl can come back, what if every exorcist that died, did too, what are we gonna do?” Charlie clutched at her messy dishevelled hair in the middle of her incoherent rambling. 

“Morning, Charlie! How are we on this beautiful hellish day?!” the king of hell made his grand entrance, as always down the stars, posing after his performance.

 “Oh! What’s going on here!” Lucifer quickly rushed towards his daughter, grabbing and pacing around her, erratically inspecting every inch of the unkept princess. “Are you ok? You don’t look ok, did you get any rest? Did you eat? Cause daddy can get some hot towels and pancakes going, you just say the word!”  Lucifer offered in rapid succession. 

“No dad, I’m fine,” Charlie replied to calm down her showman father.

“Ah, ok then,” Lucifer quietly mumbled, he turned his head and it was then that he noticed the board his darling daughter was working on. He gave it a look of unimpressed disgust before turning back to his daughter “He isn’t bothering you is he? Because I can teach him another lesson! ” Lucifer smacked a fist on his hand as his voice suddenly turned deep and gravelly. 

“No no, nothing like that, Dad!” Charlie awkwardly replied. “I’m just trying to figure out his next move and where he might be after we last met.”

“Oh, if it's just that then-” Lucifer was quickly interrupted by a red, deer-eared annoyance that materialised in the room. 

“Perhaps I can be of assistance!” Alastor announced in a transatlantic accent overlaid by distorted radio static. 

“Oh. It's you ,” was Lucifer's unimpressed and annoyed response, glaring at the radio demon. 

“I found this during one of my delightful strolls in town,” Alastor procured a poster in his hands; it was an advertisement by one of the popular clubs in the entertainment district, promoting a performance by Adam’s band, Dawnbringer taking place during the night. 

“Alastor, that's amazing!” Charlie shouted in excitement, while her father looked on in anger.

 Her problem finally had a solution! 

“Well that’s wonderful, Charlie, but I think you’ll need someone that had more success with our old buddy Adam, ha ha ha!” Lucifer tapped at Alastor’s chest with his apple themed cane in a manner that suggested playfulness but still had an air of hostility. He made sure to strike at his angelic steel afflicted wound, causing the radio demon to wince and clutch at his chest in pain, much to his amusement. 

As the two men squabbled, Vaggie quickly interjected, “I’ll go with you, Charlie! You’re right we have to deal with this problem now, who knows what he’s up to now.” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hell won’t be the same once I unleash this on them!” the feathers on Adam’s chest and wings ruffled like a beast, his eyes holding a bright amber glow in the dark of the hideout to pair with his fanged grin.  

Lightning crackled around Adam’s arms as his Axe-guitar materialised, the magma-like veins pulsating with energy. He played a powerful tune causing shockwaves in the bunker. Once finished, he grinned in ominous satisfaction at the effort. 

“Fucking sick! This mixtape is gonna be awesome!” Adam turned off the makeshift recording equipment in the bunker, having finished the song compilation. He held the completed cassette tape in the air in pride and strutted across the room.

“I’m telling you, once you hand these out in our next show, word will spread and our legion will grow!” GG remarked in an emboldened but matter of fact tone, drawing from his own life experiences. Today he was wearing a Stahlhelm with holes specifically cut out to make way for his horns. He boasted of taking this from some sinner soldier after he beat him up in a brawl some time ago. 

“Now hold on, we still have a gig to prepare for tonight and we still haven’t found a way to mass produce these things” Johnny tried to remind his bandmates before they did something too hasty. 

“Oh yeah, isn’t it a big one too? Being held at one of my favourite hangout spots too…” Labbie mused, she placed a finger on her ever smiling mouth as she daydreamed, pleased at the prospect of performing at a popular club she regularly frequented. “Hey Bossman, which outfit makes me look hotter?” Labbie said coyly, suggestively posing for Adam’s viewing pleasure. 

Before Adam could give his opinion, someone else chimed in. 

“Go with the black one that has your ass out!” GG practically yelled from the room.  Somehow you could tell from Johnny’s featureless cow skull face that he was not amused in the slightest. 

“You know what, I’ll fish the closet for that one,” Labbie agreed, voicing her approval of the suggestion. Behind her, Adam sported a lascivious grin, signifying that he too approved of the idea. 

“Alright, since that’s sorted, call up our guys to set up the show,” Adam instructed GG, who was just to his left at the time. While the scarlet skinned sinner was about to make his phone call, a banging noise came from the entrance of the hideout. 

“Who the fuck is that?” Adam called in annoyance, making his way to the front door, scowling the entire time. No one could have known where they were, it was deep underground and further in the tunnels too. He swore that if it was one of the junkies again, he’d scorch their head off, just like the old days… back when he was someone worth something. 

“Ok, to whatever freak dared to interrupt my jam session, this better be worth it or I’ll shove your head up your own ass!” Adam practically growled to the door.  In front of him was a dorky looking loser. 

He had silver and blue scales like a tuna fish and yellow hair that Adam couldn’t discern from his fins. He wore a red turtleneck with a stylized blue V logo embroidered on it.

“Good afternoon, my name is Elias and I’m here to represent my employer, the biggest media mogul in hell. He would like to extend an opportunity to you and your associates, since I was told you’re a newcomer here,” the weirdo spat out in a clearly rehearsed manner. 

Meanwhile, Labbie was strutting towards him with a flicker of interest in her eye, circling him like a shark in water. “So, Eli was it? You came all the way here just to see me? You looking for some fun, fishboy?” Labbie was practically stroking his hair, her eyes locked onto him like a tigress. 

“Nnnno my-y name is E-lias, ma’am,” the toadie’s silver scales began to turn red like a lobster in boiling water as he stammered all over the place. Clearly, he was flustered by Labianne’s advances. 

“Hey, Sushi face! Here's my answer!” while Elias was distracted GG grabbed the sides of his head and shoved his face towards his crotch. Unfortunately for the poor Sinner, GG was only wearing a pair of black briefs today. 

“I don’t know who you think I am, but a sellout isn’t one of them!" Adam chuckled, laughing at the nerdy sinner’s torment. 

After a few moments, GG let up and Elias was able to finally breathe, his scales flushed with sweat as GG’s phone rang, prompting the depraved drummer to let him go. GG’s face went from confusion to disbelief then annoyance. 

“Hey Adam, Rex just called to tell us the sound technician’s dead. Like shot through the skull with a holy bullet dead,” GG informed in an almost clinical tone. 

“Seriously?? What the fuck, we have to perform in 6 hours and that idiot got himself killed? Who did he even piss off?!” Adam spat in frustration, earning an immediate reply from GG.

“How the fuck should I know?!” GG hollered back in anger.  

Meanwhile, the aquatic annoyance on their doorstep dusted off his sweater and recomposed himself in confidence. 

“It seems you gentlemen are in need of a new technician and luckily for you, that happens to be part of my skill set,” Elias mustered in the most confident tone he could, the entire band looked at him with suspicion, clearly the timing was too convenient to be a coincidence. 

“You know what, you’re lucky we need someone, right now . You’re hired!” Adam was shocked and almost impressed at this guy’s sheer audacity, maybe he wasn’t a total dork after all and he couldn’t deny that he could use someone like that on his crew right about now. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Vaggie clutched her angelic spear right as she guided Charlie through the neon entrance of the nightclub. This was not how she wanted to spend her evening. Surrounding her were blinding sensations that overstimulated her heavenborn sensibilities, a constant barrage of sinful sights and sounds, all the time, of course this was where that perro, Adam, would hang out.

She didn’t understand why her girlfriend would want to see the first douchebag again. He rejected her the first time she offered, he didn’t even want redemption and she doubted he would ever want to stay at the hotel. If it were up to her, she’d let him burn in this hellhole. He was finally cast down to the place he belongs, as the demon he always was and she was fine with that outcome.

But if you asked her beloved Charlie, the idealistic hellborn princess too pure for the pit she came from, she would often remind her how everyone deserves a second chance, even enemies. And Vaggie swore to support and protect her and her dreams, this would be like one of their many many failed trips to convince Sinners to redeem themselves and she would be ready to strike him down if he did anything. 

Vaggie led them both to a table with a clear centre view of the stage, tense for who exactly would be performing on it momentarily.  The club, even for its popularity, was unusually crowded. There were rows and rows of writhing demons, their eyes and teeth ominously glowing on their shadowy forms on the dimly lit dance floor.  

“I think the show is gonna start soon,” Charlie whispered to Vaggie, pulling her out of the thoughts, and she was correct as the stage came to life, the lights slowly erupting to unveil the silhouettes on stage. 

“Hello, you sinful motherfuckers!” an obnoxious and unfortunately very familiar voice called out to the raving cheers of the crowd being addressed. He wore a deliberately tattered denim jacket with spikes covering it over a pair of black jeans with a belt buckle engraved with a fig leaf pattern, as if subtlety was out of the question. 

 And oh, how demonic he looked. Wine red horns protruded from the top of his skull, his wings were no longer any semblance of holy but instead gave the impression of a predatory bird, his eyes which were a shining yellow with white irises that struck at you. They scanned the crowd as his fanged mouth gave a smug grin. Vaggie grit her teeth, scowling as those arrogant eyes locked onto her direction before bringing its attention elsewhere. 

“Alright, let’s rock this shithole!” Adam yelled to the audience as if making a declaration to his infernal admirers. The demons surrounding him on stage began first. That was odd. Adam was usually too egotistical to have anyone but himself start the song.

  A man with a cow skull for a head that looked like he came out of the countryside like some inbred hillbilly started on bass while some crimson coloured degenerate, who didn’t hear about the concept of a shirt bashed the drums. The loudmouthed prick himself finger banged his guitar like the overcompensating idiot he was while a scantily clad skank trailed behind him as they danced around in song. 

The song was some whiny spiel bitching and moaning about hell, sounding like some sacrilegious mixture of church choir and rock and roll. But somehow the entire club of wretched souls was loving it, causing an orgy of violence and debauchery in commotion for it. 

The blue skinned puta wearing little leather pieces of nothing, exposing her body for all to see on backup guitar backed the boorish pig during all of this like an over glorified floozy.  

Wait, hold on. She looked familiar, was she Labianne? Seriously ? Vaggie’s face quickly soured at seeing an old colleague of hers in the nicest terms possible. “Labbie” was back, fantastic, just peachy. Still sucking up to Adam as always even after damnation just like the rest of her “sisters”. Vaggie’s tongue tasted something bitter at the recollection of her time in the corps and the implication of any comradery or familial connection .

As the thankfully former exorcist crossed her arms, clearly not enjoying any of her time here, her partner and superior, Charlie, the cherished source of her devotion, was oddly unphased by all this, albeit slightly nervous, Vaggie didn’t know whether it was because she was used to the “quirks” as Charlie put it of her home or because she attended one of his rowdy concerts before…she should have been there the first time she did. 

“Thank you, thank you, you’re all fucking awesome! Just sit right there, cause we’ll be back after the break!” Adam gave a series of false gratitude like he always did after a performance, earning screams of him to “get the fuck back here” from the club goers. But this time was different, he never had a crowd this rowdy in heaven, this fanatical for him except for the exorcists….

“Charlie, here’s our chance. We need to know what he’s up to,” Vaggie dragged Charlie backstage, with the princess being surprised but unphased as she slid across the floor. 

Vaggie violently kicked the door in with her strong well developed legs, taking the entire band by surprise. 

“OK, who the fuck is it now?!” Adam yelled in annoyance as he glanced over he saw exactly who it was, a nervous princess giving him an awkward smile and her wench, the lamest buzzkill his army had ever harboured. “Oh, great! It’s you,” Adam said in exacerbation “What do you want now?” Adam barely had the energy to be annoyed and took a slurp of his beer, barely acknowledging the two women. 

“Well, you didn’t really let me explain the last time but-” Charlie began her piece before being cut off. 

“What are you planning asshole, cause I don’t buy this whole man of the people shtick you have going on” Vaggie pointed her spear at Adam’s chest, having half the mind to just charge at him, it didn’t matter that he towered over her, she’ll do it herself this time around. 

“Who me? I’m just here to rock out and fuck bitches, what’s it to you?” Adam retorted in his usual smarmy manner. Meanwhile Labbie reached into her guitar case and pulled out an angelic steel polearm rushing to point it at Vaggie.

“Back off the bossman!” Labianne sneered, her eyes locked onto the traitor as their angelic arms clashed. 

“And you, look at you Labianne, dressed like a cheap whore. At least you like the floozy you are now!” Vaggie venomously spat at her former comrade. 

“Whore? Me? I’m not the one that sucked some royal bitch off the first chance I got just to survive, I made it all on my own.” Labbie bit back laying it with condescending false offence.  

“I see it's no surprise you two adjusted to hell’s culture pretty quick, you’re finally where you belong,” Adam visibly winced at Vaggie’s statement, his expression quickly turning to scorn. 

“Ok bitch, I don’t give a fuck that I’m not in heaven anymore, I’m still the greatest rockstar in all creation, meanwhile what the fuck have you done? You’re some worthless cunt. Still worth nothing. ” Adam seethed in pure hate. 

“That’s not ok to say to someone at all!” Charlie interrupted the spat, her red horns stuck out of her temples as her eyes glimmered red, getting in between Vaggie, Adam and Labbie.

“Pardon me, miss, I apologise for my bandmates behaviour. They can get defensive sometimes, I don’t think we’ve been properly acquainted, my name is John C Daniels but you can call me Johnny” Adam’s bassist gave a hand out in diplomacy, diffusing the situation. At the surprising friendliness, Charlie immediately took it, happy that at least someone here was really nice. 

“Oh I’m Charlie Morningstar, it’s nice to meet you, sorry for not properly introducing myself” Charlie shook his hand, glad to make a friend in all this. 

“It’s fine, your highness.” Johnny’s attention shifted towards Vaggie “I don’t think I’ve met you before, who might you be?” 

“It's Vaggie, Vag-gie,” the red bloused angel replied in a deadpan manner. 

“No, it's fine! Just call me Charlie!” the idealistic princess and struggling hotelier corrected before turning her attention back to Adam. “You kicked me out before I could really explain myself. I know we’ve had our conflicts and despite your douchebaggery, other than you threatening and slaughtering my people, I never really had it out for you specifically and since you’re one of them now and you seem to be floundering…despite everything I’d like to help you out in any way possible. What do you say?”  Charlie extended her arm out to Adam and mustered a strained but sincere smile, her eyes full of sympathy. 

But instead of seeing a compassionate young woman willing to help her worst enemy, Adam instead flicked between visions of a pre-fall Lucifer right before him, offering him the apple that would be the doom of him and his descendants. He was confused at first but his eyes quickly gave an expression of a cornered animal. 

“NO, just no. I don’t need some loser's help. I’m Adam, this is nothing for me, I’ll be fine on my own! I’m thriving here for fucks sake!”  he quickly spat out in agitation but before he could rant further, his bandmate Johnny stepped in. 

“Hey Adam, she seems really sincere about this, I’ve seen the Flimflam, snaked eyed look of her daddy before and you probably did too but this ain’t it. I reckon you should give her a chance.” Johnny assured Adam. 

Adam thought about it for a second, conflicted as the crowd outside rioted for another performance. “Tell you what, I doubt I’ll be checking in anytime soon but have this so you don’t surprise me next time.” 

“Next time?” Charlie asked in confusion before Adam shoved a handful of tickets and backstage passes into her hands. Her eyes beamed as if they were winning lottery tickets. “Thank you so much, I don’t know what to say!” Charlie quietly  exclaimed in gratitude, restraining herself from jumping up and down. 

“Yeah whatever princess. Alright guys, let’s get back on stage. I don’t think we can keep them waiting for much longer,” at Adam’s command the band marched back to perform and Charlie beckoned Vaggie to leave as well, out of courtesy. 

While it may have been naive, Charlie hoped this would be the rocky start to a new friendship.

Chapter Text

The entertainment district was a neon jungle of constant noise and flashy stimuli as if a moment of clarity was itself a sin. There was always something that competed to catch your attention no matter where your head turned and nowhere was this demonstrated the most then the very heart of the district, Vee tower. 

 Surrounding it on screens and billboards were blaring advertisements peddling the Overlord trio’s various wares, “NEW VOXTEK HELLPHONES, TRUST US WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION”, “VOXBOOK, TRUST US WITH YOUR CONNECTIONS”, “TRUST US WITH YOUR INFORMATION”, “TRUST US WITH YOUR ENTERTAINMENT.”

They all shared one thing in common, a sharply dressed man in a dark blue and neon pinstripe suit jacket over a striped red and black shirt who possessed a television projecting an image of a face in place of a head, the founder, leader and mascot of Voxtek, the eponymous Vox himself. 

Although the majority of the advertisements and promotional material plastered around the district focused on the company’s namesake, with Vox present to promote every one of his company’s products, others focused on the other two Vees, his closest associates and business partners; a dark skinned doll demon, Velvette, featured in promotional material for clothing, perfume, accessories, makeup and jewellery. Her domain fell on the realm of the internet and social media rather than traditional media and while not depicted himself, but rather his stars, for the most part, the district was also adorned with posters and billboards promoting the works of the moth overlord of lust, Valentino. 

No, that front was also covered by Vox, who also knew what to say in front of the media, in fact he controlled it, all three of them did.  And today was one of those days, a whole crowd of reporters waited patiently in front of the elevator doors in the lobby of Vee tower, which again was painted with Vox’s visage. They were anticipating the arrival of the man of the hour himself, and the moment he appeared, the crowd erupted in a cacophony of camera clicks and questions. Vox straightened his posture and confidently approached them, responding with simple hand gestures. Although he tried to project an image of humbleness, he clearly revelled in the attention.

“My fellow demons, we at Voxtek like many of you witnessed the events of last year’s cancelled extermination live as it unfolded. It showed us that we had a fighting chance against the angels above. Turns out that all this time, we held their weakness in our grasp: angelic steel.

Since we care so deeply about the wellbeing of you, our loyal supporters, we decided to give something back to you all. I am pleased to announce that we are in talks with Carmine Industries to bring the power of angelic steel to you, the average demon. As part of our upcoming angelic security, you too can have a fighting chance.”

Before ending his obviously rehearsed press conference, Vox’s left eye bulged as a spiral within it swirled. “TRUST US WITH YOUR SECURITY, TRUST US WITH YOUR WELLBEING!” Vox commanded to the press, their eyes filled with the same red spirals as they and by extension their viewers stood there drooling and slack jawed, locked in a hypnotic stupor. 

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Hotel guests and staff, old and new alike, were gathered in the lobby, awaiting what new harebrained scheme their hopelessly chipper leader, Charlie, came up with this time. The leader in question was holding a handful of tickets and band passes to her chest.  With Vaggie by her side for support, she took a deep breath and made her announcement. 

“Well, as you all know, I recently got these and I know first hand that Adam’s hurt a lot of us….. But! I figured since I have a lesson plan on reconciliation anyway, I thought this could be a group excursion for us, yay……….”  Charlie tried her best to sound enthusiastic but unfortunately came short, just as wary of the idea as her friends were.  

Husk was the first to speak up.

“Are you sure this is a good idea princess? Haven’t we had enough of that asshole already? Seems we’re bringing trouble to ourselves.” The bartender brought up in concern in his usual deadpan and raspy tone before taking a sip from his whisky bottle. Angel Dust who was lounging inches away from the feline sinner raised his hand and was the next to chime in. 

“What I don’t get is how come Pentious is dead but that guy came back, we killed a lot of angels that day, what about them? Are they back too?”  Angel Dust asked in sincere confusion. 

“I don’t actually have an answer to that and um I don’t think he has one either.. Ha ha ha, but! If angels can become demons then maybe the opposite can happen, possibly?” Charlie nervously chuckled. 

“But it's totally fine if you guys aren’t comfortable with it, you don’t have to go.” The princess clarified to her beloved friends. 

“Are ya kidding, Charlie? Of course we’re going, gotta see what that prick is up to!” Cherri yelled from across the room. 

“Indeed, I have the perfect opportunity to observe resurrection up close and another specimen for my thesis that redemption is impossible!” Baxter said in an eccentric and condescending tone earning a collective groan from the rest of the group all except for one. 

“Oooh, I like it when you talk like that~” Nifty who was already sitting uncomfortably close to the deep sea scientist, scooched even closer to him while giving him an absolutely filthy look with her singular eye. 

“Heya, Charlie, what have you got there!” Lucifer popped up right next to his daughter and examined what she had in her hands, placing a finger to his chin as he squinted his eyes and did an exaggerated “Hmmmmmmm.”

“Oooh, a concert! Haven’t been to those in awhile. Showman to showman, I’d like to see what he’s got.” Lucifer said in a smug tone. 

Charlie tried to keep the situation from getting out of hand  “Dad, I don’t think that’s a good idea-”  

Only to be quickly interrupted  “Wonderful, let’s go!”  the king and ringmaster of hell immediately replied. 

“Sssure dad” Charlie sighed in exacerbation and defeat as the rest of the hotel gang chatted amongst themselves while her father wrapped his arm around her, smiling like an idiot. 

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Charlie looked at the address on the tickets then up to her current location wondering if she went to  the right place. Surely enough the racket inside and banners strewn about confirmed that it was. Charlie showed the gatekeeper the backstage passes and tickets she received from Adam, who she still had complicated feelings about and walked in, while Vaggie led the rest of the group in. 

The venue this time was in the middle of a junkyard near the doomsday district, which was a bit  unconventional but the idealistic princess was open to new things, especially since they really cleaned up the place for this event. 

“Alright people, stick together we gotta stay as a group, wait where the fuck did they go?” Vaggie commanded the hotel members, only to immediately lose them in the crowd, leaving only her, Charlie and Lucifer who insisted on attending. 

As the girls frantically searched for their friends amidst the rambunctious chaos of the concert, Lucifer was less than amused. He cautiously walked around the repurposed junkyard, wincing in disgust at everything around him. Heads, organs and bodies flew across the air as sinners beat each other senseless.  The fallen seraph’s face scrunched in disapproval, this was free will?, this is what his dreams amounted to?

It had been awhile since the king had been out and left his workshop, much less interacted with his “people” as his beautiful, adorable daughter called them and he now remembered why that was. Oh this was rich, in front of him near the stage were two pale half naked sinner women, to put it generously, going at each other like stray cats. Both of them wore poorly made effigies of exorcist masks made of cardboard, the type humans wore at halloween. One of them shoved the headstock of a prop guitar up the snatch of her friend.

 It was made in homage of Adam’s old guitar and it wasn’t even made well! The thing was hastily spray painted and drawn on with a sharpie with cheap styrofoam to give it a harp shape, Lucifer could conjure something better in 3 seconds and he’ll prove it. 

“Hey idiots! Have a gander at this!” with a snap of his finger and a flash of light, a perfect 1 to 1 replica of the first douchebag’s beloved guitar formed in the ringmaster of hell’s gloved hand as he handed it to the two degenerates. 

“Uh, thanks dude,”  was the slack jawed response he received as they resumed fornicating right in the middle of the concert.  

This is what folks were into nowadays ? Lucifer thought. He wasn’t cut out for this, he had never been cut out for this, why did he decide to come again?

His musing was interrupted as a snake mouthed sinner charged at him with his grubby hands, prompting Lucifer to push him away with his cane to keep him at a distance. 

Things were so much better when Lilith was still around, he hoped his little girl was having a better time, satan knows he’ll never let her go to these alone again.

“Guys, guuuuuys, where are you?” Charlie called out into the sea of people, fighting to not be drowned out by the crowd’s sheer racket, trying to at least find someone there. 

Until she heard a familiar voice.  

“Wheeeeeeeeee!” 

“Niffty!” curled into a ball and being punted across the air, was the tiny, hyperactive and deranged housekeeper of the hotel, who seemed to be enjoying herself.  Acting quickly Charlie cut through a crowd which included a small red demon straddling a donkey headed demon while on fire. 

She caught Niffty in her arms ,who was still absentmindedly smiling, as if  she was playing a demented form of catch. “Niffty, where are the others?”  Charlie asked her in a panic, the pint sized cyclops, still in a state of mania gave an immediate albeit scatterbrained answer. 

“Oh the kitty is over there and I think the bad boy went over there” 

“Unhand me you dolts, AAAAAARGH” to Charlie’s left Baxter was grabbed by a group of perverted sinners, their eyes full of sinister intent being dragged off for unspeakable reasons. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll save you!” Niffty screeched out, cackling as she dashed knife in hand towards the anguished Baxter. 

“OH NOOOOO” the pint sized self proclaimed scientist yelled in panic, his eyes wide with fear as Niffty approached him. 

As that was dealt with, Charlie refocused her attention on Husk, who was….. currently chugging an entire barrel of alcohol as a crowd chanted “Chug! Chug! Chug!” over and over again. 

“Husk, what are you doing?” Vaggie asked in annoyance only for Husk to raise his hand at her, imploring her to wait for an explanation. As he drank the last sip of liquor, a four horned, 3 eyed demon handed him a wad of cash. 

“Thhhey uuh bbet that I uh couldn’t drink ah all of thhis iiin one go, but they ccan ssssssuuuuuck it,” the feline sinner slurred in intoxication preceding to collapse on the spot. 

“Husk, are you serious? You couldn’t help yourself even for a second!” Vaggie looked down and scolded the half conscious bar cat. Unfortunately, she so happened to be standing in a line of sinners orally passing around a wisping red smoke from a bong and it just so happened to be her turn. 

An Alpaca man kissed the former exterminator right on the mouth to pass the smoke along, Vaggie wobbled a bit before puking right then and there. 

“Dude…you’re not supposed to inhale the entire thing,” was the lazy response from the aforementioned sinner as Vaggie collapsed to her knees, profusely shaking as her pupil dilated to the maximum. 

Charlie rushed to her girlfriend’s aide as Vaggie stood there incapacitated and delirious only making “ah” sounds every few seconds, just as she was helping her up, Angel Dust came in the scene, with a shell shocked look on his face, using his four arms to hug himself. 

“Angel, where’s Cherri?” Charlie asked her first ever guest. 

The arachnid sinner’s reply was “Trust me, ya don’t wanna know” he lacked the usual coy effeminate shrill to his voice so she knew he wasn’t kidding. 

As they rounded up most of the hotel gang, her father appeared right behind her leaning on his cane in a puff of gold dust. 

“Chaaarlie, there you are! You wouldn’t believe the time I just had, man these people are crazy, you’re totally ok right charlie? They didn’t hurt my little girl right because if they did” Lucifer asked, inches away from completely smothering Charlie despite his smaller stature. 

“No dad, I’m fine, really” Charlie assured her father, prompting him to give her some space. It was just then that they heard a soft fiddle melody play across the venue and turned around to realise they were in front of the stage. 

Johnny was playing a slow sombre song on his shining gold fiddle which was engraved with a serpent curling around an apple at the bottom. Adam was joining in too with his guitar as he began to sing, the crowd of sinners calmed down and stopped whatever it was they were doing as their music reached them, swaying to the tune. 

They were all in a happy soothing trance, all except a gaggle of female fans directly in front of Adam’s line of sight. They were as deranged as ever, all were topless with “I love you Adam!” carved on their pale chests. 

He would be flattered if they didn’t scare him so much. One of them was staring directly at him, eyes hidden under her bangs. She had four arms, one pair monstrously oversized while a more normal pair was almost hidden underneath. She was profusely masturbating with her lower set of arms, one hand in her crotch the other digging around in her rectum. One of the larger arms clutched a life-sized Adam doll. It was an unfortunately lumpy, deformed handmade thing, haphazardly repaired and covered in stains. All the while she grunted, her remaining arm banging on the floor completely offbeat. 

He needed to tell one of his roadies to keep her far, far away from him.

Some tried to grab him on stage but he nonchalantly kicked them away, having been through this too many times.

Lucifer was looking at him with scepticism during his performance, one hand under his porcelain chin, deep in thought. The moment the song was over, the sinners went right back to the rambunctious debauchery they were doing before. 

It was then that Adam spotted the hotel gang in the crowd, his proud smile dropping immediately as he saw who was among them. 

“Fucking seriously girlie, you brought him along!?” Adam yelled in frustration pointing towards Lucifer, who flew up to greet him. 

“So this what you’ve been up to lately, fallen on hard times buddy? Gotta say you’re looking worse for wear.” Lucifer mocked him wearing the smuggest shit eating leer. 

“ You ? Of all people judging me ? You’re literally the first Fallen!” Adam shrieked in frustration, his voice wavering. 

“You best get on and git you forked tongued, snake sucker, unless you want to lose another bet!” Johnny chimed in, sneering at his most hated musical rival, waving around the fiddle to emphasise his point. 

“Oh, John C Daniels” Lucifer literally hissed in pure contempt, his wounded pride having never recovered from that fateful day. 

“I DON’T CARE WHO YOU ARE, YOU’RE GONNA EAT MY SHIT!” GG yelled from the stage, making hand gestures to communicate that he would make good on his promise. 

“Charming. Quite the ensemble you got there, Adam,” Lucifer simply shrugged his shoulders and tipped his hat in a mock bow. “In any case, you’re in my kingdom now, so allow me to introduce you to your new eternal home,” the king of hell offered, not once losing the smug tone in his voice. 

Adam was dangerously agitated, the type of agitation that made him ominously close to doing something stupid. “Fuck you, you clown faced midget I’m gonna wipe that smile off your face cause I’m still the first fucking man-”  Adam was interrupted mid rant by loud booing from his audience. “Wait what?” Adam looked in shock, confusion and astonishment as the crowd threw rocks at Lucifer to chants of “Lucifer sucks”, a smile formed on Adam’s face as he got an idea.

Adam backed up the chants with a power chord which only encouraged them as they switched from rocks to pelting Lucifer with rotten food and garbage, he played an impromptu song number making up the lyrics as he went along. 

“Lucifer totally sucks you motherfucker, Lucifer totally sucks, 

Lucifer Morningstar was a devil indeed, he ruined all creation 

With his own greed”

“Wait, hold on now!” Lucifer pleaded to the crowd only to be met with a barrage of garbage, they even went so far to toss the entire bin at him. As the song continued more and more sinners were whipped into a frenzy. They searched the junkyard for more scraps to throw at the humiliated king. Soon condoms, random junk and human faeces, courtesy of GG, 

were thrown at him. At one point, a small flaming sinner with knives in each hand was tossed at the fallen angel.  

The crowd tore up the place to get their hands on more things to throw at Lucifer. Soon the rambunctious audience was as wild as ever, all fear ceasing as they united in hatred and song like a mysterious aura overtook them as Adam sang and played his guitar. 

Lucifer was covered in layers of muck and junk as more was thrown at him and sinners continued to mob him. He flew into the air to escape them but they refused to cease, now he was  livid. A ball of hellfire erupted from where Lucifer was burning off the filth off his clothes as if it was never there.

Crimson horns grew from his temples and his eyes glowed red. His tailcoat and bowtie became dotted with infernal eyes, his tail appeared from beneath it and an ouroboros in place of a halo appeared above his head as he grit his sharp teeth in anger. 

“Alright enough , don’t forget who you’re messing with!” The enraged devil raised his arms  ready to conjure an inferno large enough to torch the entire concert until a voice rang out from the crowd.  

“Dad, stop! Just calm down!” his beloved daughter Charlie called out from below, snapping him out of it, making him realise she and her friends were in blast radius. 

Lucifer went out of demon form as he turned to embrace his princess “I don’t know what came over me, Char char-” the moment completely interrupted by obnoxious laughter coming from the stage, making him sneer back in hate. 

“Holy shit, I said you were the most hated being in all creation but fuck! Ahahaha!” Adam could barely contain himself from howling in laughter in amusement at this turn of events. “And you!” Adam pointed towards Charlie, “Fuck you and fuck your stupid hotel” causing the princess to grimace at him. 

Her father was about to charge at him until she backed him down “Dad, let’s just go home” Charlie sadly suggested to her father, a rotten apple was tossed at his head just as she said it and something was thrown into his mouth. He was about to snap at whoever threw it until he saw what it was, a little rubber duckie crudely customised to look like Adam, Lucifer discreetly put it into pocket, intending to work on it later. 

Today was a complete disaster, nothing went right and for the first time Charlie felt afraid of her own people, the guilt of which made her stomach churn. Adam went from being dismissive to being outright hostile to the hotel and with this newfound power over her people, this did not bode well. Charlie took one last look back, Adam had his arms stretched out like a deacon during mass as he soaked in the praise and  adulation of the crowd, his eyes glowed ominously in the distance and his teeth stretched into a sinister smile. 

“That was fun! We should go again!” the scatterbrained housekeeper of the hotel suggested as they left only to get a melancholic reply of “Oh Niffty” from Charlie as she gave the diminutive little psycho a smile. 

Meanwhile back at the hotel, while he did not join the rest of the hotel in attendance, Alastor listened to the commotion of the concert on his radio with interest. “What an entertaining turn of events.”

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Vox sat in the chair of his monitoring room, his screens displaying different footage centred around a singular subject. On one monitor was Adam’s victorious fight against Alastor on another was a previous concert of Adam’s and on a third was his very public confrontation with Lucifer at his latest concert. 

“Vox, do you see this shit? The wanker is trending everywhere!” his associate Velvette informed him, “Wait, he’s back?” Valentino exclaimed looking at his phone, getting an annoyed response from Velvette

 “Yes, you bloody idiot! We’ve been tracking the knobhead since he debuted.”

Valentino once again turned to Vox for clarification “So cariño , what do you think of this?”

“Val, I think we found just the guy we need.” Vox’s right eye swirled once again as he grinned ear to ear at the possibilities, he put an arm over both his partners as the three Vees let out a maniacal cackle. 

Chapter Text

Much like most of the Pride ring, this was the bad part of town. Even with attempts by its Overlord rulers to make this section of the city as flashy and sterilised as possible.  Underneath the glamour however, it seemed not much care was invested into it beyond image, falling to  the usual sinner afflictions of violence, crime and debauchery, the only way to escape it, of course, was by way of soul contract. 

And to illustrate this theme further, among this superficial sea of sin was a nightclub that somehow managed to be equal parts luxurious and low class. While it was a premier and popular place to be, its services and decor being the best offered. In hell, being popular only meant the potential for sin and degeneracy was higher and this club provided all of that.  

Alcohol was endless and fueled by a cocktail of hard drugs invented in the infernal abyss. The sinners would dance and rave under the bright neon lights until their legs collapsed, for their indulgence was never ending.  And sitting there across the club was Adam and his band Dawnbringer, relaxing and sharing several rounds of drinks. 

“Is this fucking awesome or what?! Better than the places Labbie usually takes us!” Adam let out a hearty laugh and took another gulp of his glass of beer. 

“Oh, shut up big man. You only know this place because I took you here,” Labbie playfully jeered.  

Adam and his bandmates were lounging around in celebration after their latest concert. While their previous performances weren’t failures by any stretch of the word, none of them really blew up like this one did. It was not every day that an entire crowd of rabid fans booed and pelted the head honcho of hell himself and from that little incident, their name was now the talk of the town and Adam was all too eager to exploit that opportunity, as soon as he figured out what to do. 

Even if he improvised the lyrics in the heat of the moment and it came out a bit shoddy, that song he came up with when the crowd was putting Lucifer in his rightful place was still good shit. Hmmm maybe he should sit down and write a better version of it, the fans would probably love it.

“Man, imagine needing a bunch of freaky losers to stick up for you. Couldn’t be me dude.”

Unfortunately Adam’s pondering was interrupted by the unwanted commentary of a shadow from the past, his own inner voice. The obnoxious apparition was sitting right across from him, clad in his old embroidered robes and his shining exterminator helmet. He forgot exactly when this prick first appeared, maybe during his first days in hell, but ever since then, this fucking douche refused to leave. 

“But that’s just fitting isn’t it? You, the king of the losers. Face it you never belonged in heaven.” The figure’s flickering face sneered, Adam wanted so badly to strike at it, but he knew by now that it wasn’t real. Besides he was out in public, having a good time and this was one of those times Lute would have warned him to not make a fool of himself.

Lute…

Man, he missed her. 

“Adam? Adam Firstman?” 

 “Wait, what?” Adam looked across his table and instead of the product of his delusions and inner turmoil, was a shrimp looking sinner wearing a courier uniform.

“Are you Adam Firstman?” the shrimp reiterated.

“Damn right I am! Want an autograph or something?” Adam replied while downing a glass of beer. 

“This is for you.” The shrimp wheezed out in a scratchy voice, handing him a gift basket. Before Adam could ask what the fuck this was, the lousy shrimp had already scampered off. 

Adam brought the basket to the table and cautiously examined it with his bandmates. It seemed to be the type of tacky thoughtless present corporations gave out to their employees, which was odd. Adam threw that previous assumption out of the window when he detected an inviting aroma coming from the basket. 

It was a box of barbeque ribs and it actually smelled good for once. He took a single rib from the box and apprehensively took a small bite of it, and to his surprise it actually tasted good. Still not as good as the ones he was used to in heaven but he was glad it was half decent which seemed to be a rare compliment for the food down here . 

Also included in the bundle was a bottle of high end wine. Clearly someone knew of his taste which was suspicious to say the least. 

“Who do ya reckon sent this over?” Johnny asked, glass of whiskey in hand.

“Beats me dude. Wait hold on, there’s a card here.” Lazily munching on more of the ribs, Adam pulled out a cardboard greeting card with a blue V logo on the front of it and took a read. 

“Congratulations on the success of your latest tour, we at Voxtek have been following you and your band for some time now and we are impressed by your work. We would like to discuss future opportunities for a collaboration. Yours sincerely, Vox.”  The other side of the card included a time and a date and an address for a ritzy restaurant located downtown.

“Vox huh? Now where have I heard that name before?” Adam put a sauce stained finger to his chin deep in thought, taking another look at the logo on the front of the invitation card. It seemed oddly familiar, that he took a look at the back of his phone, and realised that the logo was the same. Looking around, he noticed that everyone’s phone had it. Adam took a look at the tv and looked out the windows seeing the Voxtek logo or Vox himself on the screen and on the billboards. 

“Huh this guy is a big deal around here” Adam muttered to himself before coming to a realisation  “Wait hold on, is this the guy, ummm what’s his name again? Elias? Works for, what the fuck has he been up to again” Adam turned to Johnny.

“I think the fella just went home after work, a real shady guy too, kept using his phone every few minutes and just snooped around the place”  Johnny told in a matter of fact manner, finishing the whiskey he had in hand. 

“Ah yeah, got to deal with that loser later, now about his boss, I say we see what his deal is” Adam said finishing the last of the ribs, Labianne chimed in as soon as he did 

“Uh Adam we need the help sure but an overlord?, and a big one too? Like I get it ,but they never do anything without wanting something in return, just don’t get roped into a deal” 

Adam simply waved her concerns away “Appreciate it thunder thighs but you forget who I am, I can handle any overlord” he emphasised his point by letting a ball of lightning crackle and rapidly form on his open palm. Just then GG who spent all this time on the dance floor beating up people that entered his vicinity while heavily inebriated made his way back to the table, stomping. 

“Woah woah woah, you’re actually thinking of hearing this guy out?, a businessman and an overlord? That’s like twice as worse, what does he have that we don’t?” GG voiced in annoyance, sweating and bleeding, which wasn’t all that unusual for him. 

“Oh now you decide to join the conversation, where even were you, we were meant to stick together as a group” Johnny replied in irritation at his bandmate’s continued antics which only served to make GG angrier. 

“Get off my ass, I do what I want and you know I’m right about this, you self righteous idiot”  GG pointed at Johnny in agitation to really boost his argument further, Johnny simply sat there and poured himself another drink from a bottle of whiskey, a neutral look on his face, not exactly arguing but not entertaining the manic musician’s antics further. 

“Relax GG, it’s not like I’m agreeing to anything, I just want to see what that tryhard is about” Adam reassured his drummer, not showing the least bit of concern in his demeanour. 

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Adam looked at the invitation and looked back up again. What greeted him was an establishment with decor reminiscent of a more vintage style, it was decorated with a sign depicting a neon red demon stabbing another.  

The restaurant, while high end, carried an air of seediness around, it was a playground for the foulest of the foul and a wretched den of the vilest of villainy.  The other patrons were a mix of mob bosses, Hellborne nobility and of course overlords. Adam took another look at this cackling rogue’s gallery before the maître d', a tall and well built red imp in a tuxedo pointed him towards a seat where a certain overlord was sitting. 

“Glad you could make it, please, take a seat” Vox called out to Adam in a jovial tone, his voice that of a smooth talking television presenter with occasional static, the screen he had in lieu of a face displayed a friendly smile that occasionally flickered to a leer of greed. 

Adam sat down and immediately put up his feet on the table “So, what did you drag me out here for?” Adam asked both sceptical and uninterested.

“Well I thought we’d use this meeting to get to know each other better for potential working relations later on” Vox answered in faux friendliness, his eyes tracking Adam’s response.

“Oh yeah? Who’s asking?” Adam replied sarcastically, picking at his teeth.

Visibly taken aback at his audacity at first, Vox straightened up and put his award winning smile back on “Where are my manners, I haven’t even introduced myself yet! I’m Vox, CEO and owner of Voxtek, the biggest entertainment and technology company in all the seven circles. I control all television broadcasts in hell and I form the Three Vees with my associates Valentino and Velvette. We control the entertainment district and all associated assets” Vox explained in thinly veiled pride. 

“And I’m Adam, the first fucking man but you probably already know that, the entire human race came to existence from me getting it on and I started everything on earth, pretty much laid the foundations for all human civilisation, then I was the first guy to go to heaven and I led an army of badass babes to come down here and kick ass, until little miss rainbows and sunshine and her dumb hotel ruined everything with her loser of a dad. 

Adam reminisced before continuing on “And I still kick ass by the way” Adam let lightning pulsate around him to demonstrate his claim.

“But anyway, I like to rock out, so me and some guys formed a band and that’s been awesome, we’re probs the best one here, like we can command the crowd to do whatever we want, like did you see them chuck shit at Lucifer’s bitch ass, AHAHAHAHAHAHA, still gets me, I don’t know about you, but I got into some wild fuckery let me tell ya, got stories for days, like this one time-”

A ringing noise, similar to that of malfunctioning electronics rang out from the table, an expression of agitation briefly flickering on Vox’s face before he composed himself once more “That’s very intriguing, as an entertainer myself I also know a thing or two about commanding a crowd” his right eye bulged and swirled as he gave a smirk “you know my associates  and I actually watched your fight with the members of the Hazbin Hotel live, prime television I tell you I especially liked how you struck down that vintage fuckface Alastor” 

“That was his name? I mean who gives a fuck honestly” Adam added in snark 

“I KNOW RIGHT?!” Vox replied excitedly making Adam raise an eyebrow, the overlord businessman and TV host would quickly correct himself, clearing his throat “What I meant to say was that we have no fondness for the Hazbin Hotel or his majesty either, you know a man of my resources could really do a lot for you, we can help each other out” Vox offered 

Every one of Adam’s actions and expressions were scrutinised and he was sure it was somehow being recorded given this weirdo had a tv for a head “Right, I’ll think about it I guess” Adam replied neutrally growing tired of his host’s antics.

“No pressure of course, but I’m just saying you could really use a sponsor you know, but in any case, here’s my card, feel free to call in case you need anything and don’t worry, lunch is on me today” Vox slided a business card to Adam with his blue clawed hand his smile revealing itself in sinister smugness. 

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A man was walking down the grimy streets of the town bordering Uptown Pentagram city and the Entertainment district. The damp pavement either had sinners killing each other, shooting up drugs or otherwise loitering around. The man pulled a stack of cash from his large manilla coloured trench coat and counted his gains after another successful con. 

He liked to think he was different from the scum around the street, not that he denied being a scumbag, it was the one thing he was honest about. But he was no ordinary sinner, he was known by many names and made sure to keep changing aliases.  Most knew him as “Ronnie the Rat” and that wasn’t just referring to his rodent-like appearance. 

He had made a name for himself and became an overlord for his services as an info broker and smuggler, able to give you any kind of intel and get his hands on pretty much anything not nailed down. Sure he wasn’t the strongest out there and needed protection from far more powerful overlords, who for now were the Vees, but he was sure that in no time he’d be a big shot. 

In fact he was just a few steps away, he already made a name for himself all he needed to do was to con just a few more soul contracts, he was so close he could taste it. He shook that pleasing thought off and continued walking the streetlamp illuminated streets. He took a turn to the right then suddenly stopped.

A man of his trade knew to always look behind his shoulder and right now he could not shake the feeling that he was being pursued. He looked  around in all directions but couldn’t see anyone, normally he’d chalk it up to some random pickpocket looking to cause him trouble but he just couldn’t ignore it, his instincts which saved his soul before never failed him, so why would it now?

Getting increasingly stressed, he pulled out his pistol and shouted in the distance “Show yourself, I know you’re there somewhere!” yet he received no response. Pointing his gun and taking another look around, adrenaline slowly making its way through his veins, he could still find no one around. His eyes scanned the surroundings once more, looking for any signs of pursuers until he saw a shifting shadow. 

“Aha Gotcha!” Ronnie fired several rounds in the general direction of the shadow, tense but satisfied with his effort, believing the threat to be eliminated. 

He was ready to give a sigh of relief and be on his way until he saw the shadow again, if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him he swore he saw it jump from the shade of a streetlamp to another, suddenly every spot of darkness seemed hostile and he wasn’t prepared to deal with it at all. 

Sweat dripped from his brow as he prepared to make a run for it, not wanting to fight his mysterious pursuer. He tried desperately to evade this unknown threat, making several turns, running through alleyways and changing direction in rapid succession. But every time he looked back he could see the shadow right behind him somewhere, what made it worse is that he was unable to track the direction it was coming from, somehow it kept changing positions without any rhyme or reason.  He was trying every evasion technique he knew in the book but none seemed to work, as he scurried past an antique store, the radio on display suddenly came to life, playing a vintage tune.

  “ Hush, hush, hush

Here comes the Bogeyman!”

He came to a crossroad, his nerves preventing him from deciding where to go, until he saw his own shadow unnaturally shift and  pulsate.

“Don't let him come too close to you

he'll catch you if he can.”

Shrieking in panic he chose the path to his left and desperately ran ahead hoping that this nightmare would finally end. All hope ceased as he came to a dead end. 

His heart was beating out of his chest as his back hit the wall, his laboured breaths making his lungs work overtime, in delusion and pure desperation he wondered if it was possible for him to scale the walls.  He started to seriously consider this option, until a crimson red figure emerged from the shadows and his heart sank to his stomach. 

“Fine weather for an evening stroll wouldn’t you say, good sir?”

 The figure’s Cervidae ears perked up as he casually closed the distance between him and Ronnie with a sharp toothed grin while Ronnie was too stunned to utter a single sound, as Pride’s premier info broker he knew exactly who this was and what fate awaited him, no one survived an encounter with the Radio Demon.

“What do you want from me?!” Ronnie yelled in a panic, but he just kept smiling. 

“Anything you want I can give you, just name it!” Ronnie pleaded, but he just kept smiling.

“You want information? You can have it, just tell me what you need to know” Ronnie desperately offered, but he just kept smiling. 

“You know, I have all sorts of secrets about that Vox fella and all his associates. You can have all of it! Free of charge! Please just let me go!” Ronnie made one last offer, running out of options. This time the Radio Demon let out a deep sadistic laugh, finally giving his answer.

“What I want, my furry fellow, is your demise.”  Alastor put in a calm, matter of fact manner, the same tone one would use when explaining to a friend what they read that morning. 

Ronnie’s eyes widened with fear, “NO! PLEASE NOOOOO!”

Alastor struck at his abdomen and yanked his clawed hand back, pulling Ronnie’s bloody intestines like a string. Ronnie squealed and shrieked like a rodent in agony, his arms making desperate clawing motions on instinct, Alastor used his free hand to grab his neck, causing him to bleed further before sinking his teeth into the rising overlord. 

Once he took a bite out of him, Ronnie went limp, no longer struggling or making any noise, Alastor released his grip, letting his body flop to the floor, leaving him like any other corpse in Hell’s back alleys.  

Alastor dusted himself off after another successful hunt, the advantages of his fashion sense being that no matter how much blood covered him, no one knew the difference.  He turned his attention to a sleek security camera with a blue V on its side, that recorded the entire incident. 

He stared directly into it with his gleaming red eyes which turned into radio dials, his sharp grin growing wider as he made one final threat to the person on the other end.

“See you soon, old pal.” 

Chapter Text

With the power of his angelic sorcery and what creation magic he had left, the hotel had been rebuilt from the ground up into the shining beacon of hope his daughter deserved.  He spared no expense and every detail was meticulously crafted like a work of art. Little additions were made to honour every member of the hotel past and present, gone was the decrepit, rotting building destroyed during his battle with Adam; his little girl finally had a proper foundation for her dreams. 

He wasn’t going to allow her dreams to rot away like his dreams did. He wasn't going to leave his little duckie all alone ever again, she was finally back in his life and he was gonna support her and make up for all the lost time in every way he could.  In fact he built a tower shaped in the fruit that would become his signature on the side of the hotel  and moved his workshop there.  His own personal corner of the hotel, a home away from home where he could watch over Charlie and she could call upon him for help within a moment’s notice. 

And right at this hour, Lucifer was perched on his workbench, grumbling and making faces as he tinkered with the latest of his hobby pieces. Someone else came back into his life, but unlike his darling daughter,  was more how we say, an unwanted source of trouble and an old enemy, Adam. 

Just the thought of their last encounter made him curse and grit his teeth. He almost crushed the rubber duckie he was working on for the past few hours and ceased immediately once he realised.  The little duckie wasn’t one of his, instead “gifted” to him by one of Adam's uncouth fans, which was why he spent days fixing its imperfections. Between this and the poor excuse of a replica guitar it seemed that art and craftsmanship wasn’t the strong suit of that pack of rambunctious philistines. It was obvious to Lucifer that the kind of people who rallied behind Adam’s  boisterous tunes were completely lacking in artistic talent. 

Oh those barbaric ruffians, they completely ruined his return to the public and turned him into a laughing stock, in his own house, no less.  When he heard that somehow Adam returned  from the dead and took up residence in his domain. Knowing him, Lucifer knew he’d cause a ruckus and he wasn’t going to let him ruin what Charlie’s worked for again and so Lucifer decided to deal with him the first chance he got.  

That arrogant jerk invited his daughter and her friends along to his performance for Hell knows what and only wishing to protect his little sunshine, Lucifer saw the opportunity and took it. When he saw his pathetic overcompensating face again as one of the many damned souls here, he knew he got it in the bag.  As the ruler and mightiest in all the land, he made sure Adam knew whose realm he was stepping around in and was going to usher him in to keep an eye on him and make sure he was far far away from Charlie and couldn’t hurt her ever again. 

But then rocks and rotten tomatoes were thrown his  way and Lucifer was flabbergasted, he knew what it was like when a crowd didn’t like his show….  too many times when he was in Heaven but this was ridiculous.  Sure he was never that great at talking to his people and he was getting rusty, since it had been awhile but surely he wasn’t that bad. But somehow, Adam, their slaughterer, of all people managed to sway them to such an extent that he mobilised them against him.

Not respecting him was one thing but these crazy sinners weren’t even scared of him at all. Adam now had an army of violent fanatics he could command at will and now Charlie was in even more danger.  A pit in the fallen king’s stomach grew at the thought that this might have been his fault, but he quickly brushed that ridiculous notion aside, he could never have made things worse for charlie, he was doing everything he could to protect her and besides this was a fluke, Adam doesn’t have that kind of power, surely and if he did, Lucifer was confident he could beat him back yet again. 

The smile plastered on the duck in Lucifer’s hand seemed to be jeering at him, made worse by the fact that it was made in homage to Adam, so it felt like he was laughing at him. Why couldn't he have stayed dead, things would have been so much simpler but he had to come back to his life again and put a spanner in the works. In truth, despite his rage at him being inches away at ending his cherished Charlotte’s life, he didn’t actually want him to die, he just wanted to teach him a lesson. And in a time long past there was no animosity between the two of them, that is until the first man, filled with so much potential, turned into a jerk one day. 

Lucifer took another look at the rubber duckie and put it back on the table with weary eyes, he sighed as he put a creaking hand to his face. His eyeshadow could no longer hide the many rings around his tired eyes and behind it all he was no longer the bright young angel he once was, a fact he bitterly tried to hide in futility even as centuries went past. 

No, as much as he denied it, he was an old man now and dreams and ambitions weren’t for him now.  His time in the sun was over and all he wanted to do was settle down and focus on his family.  He was tired of his “kingdom” , tired of his so-called “people” , tired of dealing with failure after failure after failure.  He had long since lost the energy and patience to deal with his infernal realm, an accursed dump of nothing but the worst , where dreams went to die.

And the cruellest joke was that he was the undisputed king of it all, the tsar of a mountain of garbage, he had to escape from it all and so he retreated to the refuge of his workshop, the last vestige of his doomed ambitions.  Between the fingers covering his eyes he spotted the shining golden glow of his wedding band and rubbed it as tears began to sting his jaundice eyes, Lilith…. 

Unlike him, Lilith, his  beautiful, wonderful beloved wife thrived after the fall and turned this hellhole, a whole world of evil into a strong budding kingdom. While his spark extinguished, her spark shined brighter than ever before,  he was lucky to have such an amazing woman by his side and foster a beautiful family with her.  Of course it was no surprise she saw what a pathetic husk of a man he became and slowly slipped away from him, never to be seen again. 

The sleeve of Lucifer’s coat became wet as he wept in sorrow, “Please Lilith, come back, I know I messed everything up, but Charlie needs you, I need you” Lucifer said with a warbled voice as he cried in the darkness of his workshop.

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“Thank you, thank you, Ripper Heights you fucking rock!”  Adam could feel the electricity in the air as he threw devil horns in the air to the psychotic cheers of his damned fans. Adam swiped the sweat off his brow and basked in the atmosphere, days like this was what he lived for and as a performer by heart, the feeling of being on stage was addicting. It was yet another successful concert, this time in the middle of a public park located right in the middle of a place that was once a haven of depraved killers, that is until he arrived.  

In the heat of the moment, Adam took another glance at his supporters, they were still horrific demons but what the heck they might not be that bad for sinners.  He managed to direct them into making this dump a somewhat better place to live… in the only way they knew how, wanton violence and destruction, used for good for once.  Hell might be getting to him and it sounds kinda crazy but maybe just maybe he could turn these freaks into half decent ehhh okayish people under his lead, pffffft like that’s ever happening. 

People don’t change especially in this infernal hellhole, despite everything Hell was still forever and the best he could hope for was to carve his own piece of it and tame the land. 

All he needed to do was get rid of those overlord tryhards and turn the smouldering garbage dump Lilith was so proud of into something actually good, a slice of Heaven away from Heaven, that should give these losers some taste for once.  But man imagine if he brought these crazy people back with him to Heaven, crowds up there were nowhere near this intense. It could be fun, just imagine…..

Adam’s train of thought was interrupted when another one of those crazy chicks suddenly  lunged at him.  Adam stepped out of the way and smacked the deranged fangirl with his guitar, sending her flying back to the audience. “They just never learn do they?” Adam mused in annoyance only to have a camera flash in his face, followed by another and another. “Oh my god, quit it!” Adam yelled at the perpetrator, a woman wearing band merch on her blouse with a camera for a head and an eye where the lens was, who ignored him and continued taking pictures every few seconds. 

“Never saw you up close before, big fan, gotta keep taking pics” disoriented by the camera flash, Adam stumbled off stage. He landed directly onto a chair, which on closer inspection was another sinner woman that looked like some technicolour animal from some computer game his descendants came up with. “I’ll gladly be your footstool, if you need to get back up” the freaky sinner offered in a perverted tone.

  Offput , Adam got on his feet in disgust where more of his freaky admirers greeted him. “Hihi my name is Coalette. It's a huge honour to meet you. I love your teefies!” waved a small blue fire sprite that barely reached his hip in height.  She looked up at him with star struck eyes while Adam just looked down at her weirded out. “Ok just stand back, a little more and a bit more” Adam nudged the pint sized flame elemental away from him with his guitar, which only got her closer to another concert goer’s boots, resulting in her getting kicked around by the crowd. 

Another tiny sinner, tugged at his feet, this time a hamster looking chick, wearing an admittedly very impressive Adam costume. She looked like a miniature version of him, which was kind of sick actually. The little critter did nothing but smile at him, glad to be in his presence. While Adam was preoccupied, a horned avian sinner wearing a salvaged exorcist uniform screeched out “He’s distracted, now’s our chance, drag him to the basement sisters!” 

Without any warning a rogues gallery of stalkers and deranged fangirls closed in on Adam. He shook the one clinging to leg off and turned his attention to the wall of freaks surrounding  him. With a look of exhaustion and frustration on his face, the type that screamed “Why do I always have to deal with this shit” sighing, he charged his guitar and half heartedly lifted and slashed, sending them all flying away. 

“We’ll get him next time” could be heard echoing in the distance as Adam dusted off his hand in a job well done. Amidst all the commotion Adam swore he caught a glimpse of a familiar woman from his past before she quickly disappeared, unfortunately Adam was too tired to pursue this matter further. “Man fuck this shit, I’m going backstage” Adam mumbled to himself as he marched away from the crowd.

He kicked down the door and announced his presence in obnoxious confidence. “What up baby~” Adam yelled in song, only to immediately deflate and collapse on his seat. “Let me guess, big guy, those crazy chicks again?”  Labbie asked in concern, receiving a lazy “uh huh”  in return. 

 “It's been a busy week for all of us, the towns just get worse and worse but we’ve managed to make them at least a bit better, say Adam some odd fella just dropped these off, said they were for you” Johnny informed his friend and bandmate in his usual level headed tone. 

 Johnny pointed towards a bouquet of blood red roses placed on the table. They had an enticing and ominous glow and swayed in the distance with twisting veiny thorns, their unnatural beauty typical of the flora in the infernal abyss.  Adam couldn’t help but be drawn to them and slowly made his way to the table, despite his earlier exhaustion. The somehow breathing flowers had a message written on a piece of card “The Dark Mother sends her regards, see you soon.” 

There were a handful of women  Adam knew who could be called The Dark Mother and he got an idea of who it might be from. “Lilith? The fuck is she doing down here, she should be living it up, up there” Adam bitterly reminisced on his old home and a deal he made seven years ago. 

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The shining golden city behind Heaven’s gates was as bright as ever on another joyous day in paradise. The divine megapolis in the sky had the appearance of being both unfathomably ancient with its angelic design and inscriptions but also more futuristic beyond anything imagined in both the mortal realm and the infernal abyss below, a true testament to creation’s beauty.

 Heaven’s streets and towering spires were coated in pleasing colours that inspired serenity in all who gazed upon it.  Nestled in between the sprawling urban centres were sanctuaries to mother nature, where beasts roamed free, ignorant of pain and strife. The same was true of the blessed souls that made the bulk of the population, peacefully strolling the promenade as there was no need to rush in this heavenly realm. 

All except for a singular soldier hurtling through the crowd in rage, desperation and misery.  Her wings, like the halo above her head, were pitch black, its feathers in the pattern of a war hawk. She was dressed in uniform as she always did, a dark grey tunic with white elbow length gloves and matching boots with a black horned helmet that covered her face on top. The helmet had a moving electronic display in place of a face, with a crossed out eye and a stitched mouth meant to strike fear in the hearts of Heaven’s enemies.      

Once she made it to a desolate alleyway, sure that she was away from prying eyes, the lieutenant took off her exorcist helmet, revealing her snow white hair and yellow eyes, a trait she shared with her late commander. She had a look of pure anger and frustration on her face, she tried to keep her composure even as it hung by a thread but eventually her own emotions betrayed her as she began to cry. Lute, as her now deceased commander, best friend and so much more, Adam had named her,  tried her best to suppress the raging emotions inside her but couldn’t help but let tears escape. The events just moments before were vivid in her mind.      

“This changes nothing! Just because this snake managed to slither his way here doesn’t mean anything, Hell is still a threat, now more than ever” Lute screeched in exacerbation to the head seraphim, this day was getting worse and worse. She couldn’t understand why the angels couldn’t see the problem right before them.  

“This means everything, this Sir Pentious has been redeemed, he’s now in our care, you are to stand down, is this understood?” Sera ordered Lute in sad resignation.

“With all due respect, you don’t know what I’ve been through down there, what I've seen, what I've lost. The demons know they can take down an Archangel, they’ve taken down entire units of my sisters, demote me, sure, I’ll do anything for heaven but why couldn’t we send Abaddon to lead us and the host to eradicate them once and for all!” Lute replied with a trembling voice, struggling to control her tone and volume. 

Another angel in the court, whose head was like that of a gentle flame spoke up “Abaddon? Whose entire existence is dedicated to death and destruction? He is far too much of a loose cannon, we do not need this to escalate into another Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Lute having lost any and all restraint yelled back “A COMPLETE PURGE IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED”

An angel whose head were a set of wheels with eyes dotted on them chimed in as well, shutting down the enraged lieutenant “Abaddon was the one who personally trained Adam himself and turned him into a sadistic bloodthirsty fool exactly like him”

Sera acted quickly to restore order to the court “Calm yourself lieutenant, just because we are ending extermination from this point moving forward, does not mean other methods of dealing with hell do not exist, the decisions is ours to make and it is final, this will not be discussed further” 

Sera’s words in that trial echoed in Lutes head as she cried in anger and grief at her injustice. Adam and countless of her fellow exorcists were killed and cannibalised because of the Princess of Hell,  and Heaven just didn’t care, all because of a single soul, a single fluke. The worst part is, she lost everything and there wasn’t a goddamn thing she could do about it now.  

She was about to strike at the wall in rage until she spotted a familiar figure in the distance. Turning her head she could see a certain someone dressed in iconic robes and an exorcist commander helmet, Adam? It couldn’t be.  In confusion and desperation, Lute cut through the crowd and frantically followed the mysterious figure, all the way to Adam’s former apartment, where she finally confronted him. 

“Adam, you’re alive?” Lute said in an uncharacteristically vulnerable tone, the figure answered her. 

“Oh fuck no, I’m all in your head, guess you missed me that much you crazy bitch”  even as the hallucination addressed her in a rude, crass manner, it was comforting to the disgraced exterminator in a familiar way. 

Lute stood there motionless, before clenching her trembling fists and smashing everything in sight in reckless abandon. Furniture, instruments, the records hanging on the wall, it didn’t matter the wrath inside her that was building up all day exploded into an inferno that consumed everything around her. 

“Woah someone’s on their period, the fuck happened?”  the apparition sarcastically commentated  on the mindless destruction before him. 

“They shut down the exterminations and told me to step down, I don’t even have command of the exorcists anymore” Lute recounted in quiet sorrow.

“Wait, didn't I die?” the spectre asked.

“They don’t care,” Lute answered in defeat.

“Well that’s a bummer” the spectre said in support.

 “ You know I never even got to tell how I felt about you” Lute admitted to the spectre in regretful grief.

He immediately replied in a matter of fact tone “You think I didn’t know already?” 

“You did?” Lute asked in a small quiet voice like that of a sad little girl. 

“If you don’t know, I don’t know, all in your head, remember?” the mirage of Adam replied carelessly, Lute in pure delusion and desperation tried to embrace the figure, only for it to phase through her arms, her face had a look of despair and agony once it did.

“So what are you gonna do about it?” the spectre asked in a sly sinister tone. 

The fire in Lute’s eyes reignited, for once today she knew exactly what her next course of action would be.  “I am going to contact a certain seraphim who was always sympathetic to our cause and with his help, the princess is going to pay for what she did that day” Lute declared, venom seething through her teeth with every word. 

Chapter Text

Chaos and violence raged on in all directions no matter where the head turned. Overwhelming hordes of crazed demons, their fangs gnashing in delight at the very thought of ripping the princess and her loved ones to shreds were closing in and fast.  No matter how many of them Charlie and her friends fought back, it didn’t seem to make a difference  as hundreds more, even worse in their madness and bloodlust would soon replace their fallen comrades. 

To her side, Vaggie, her partner  and biggest supporter was taking out as many sinners as she could, swinging her angelic spear in deadly precision, left, right and centre to no avail. “ Dios mio , they just never give up” Vaggie seethed in frustration, her movements got more and more aggressive with each strike as hordes of the wretched, dressed in a perversion of heavenly regalia poured in. With each enemy struck down her strength waned and it wouldn’t be long before she collapsed. 

The others weren’t faring much better, Angel was on the other side of the hotel, spraying the unrelenting crowd with bullets with Husk by his side “Eat lead you motherfuckers!” yelled the eight limbed sinner, sending bullet casings raining, unfortunately while he cleared crowds in an instant, he was quickly running out of ammunition.

 Alastor was nowhere to be seen, Niffty and Baxter were lost in the commotion  and Lucifer just watched atop his perch as he obliterated the mobs directly targeting his daughter and no one else. Charlie was unable to convince her father  to alleviate the crisis. He was only interested in keeping his little princess safe and refused to lift a finger for anyone else , vowing to pull her out, once it got too dangerous if she wasn’t able to take control of the situation herself, right now. 

“You know Charlie, there’s really no point even bothering with these awful people! Let’s just go already, come on I’ll even make your favourite~”  The fallen seraph lazily coaxed in a sing-song voice, wearing a giddy grin at the end with cheerful needy eyes.  Charlie let out a tired groan before preparing to give her father the explanation she’s sure she repeated fifteen times in the last thirty minutes alone. “Dad, we can’t just give up and leave them here-” before being silenced by the powerful reverberating strum of an electric guitar.  

It came from over the horizon and below the hill, the demon playing this thundering tune was standing on top of a demolished automobile. The archfiend stretched his coal black wings like a falcon, his posture straightened to one that denoted wicked regality as he performed atop a stage of crumbled steel and broken glass for his legion of the damned. 

He violently threw his head back and forth, lost in the rhythm of his own music and encouraged his followers to join him and do the same. The very presence of their leader and his singing caused a ferocious fervour to ignite within the wretched mob. 

While they rushed towards the besieged building with emboldened fury, the archfiend rose his head to Charlie’s direction, a lecherous leer creased along his lips as he blitzed towards the sky.  Vaggie, two steps from collapsing from complete exhaustion, had a renewed wind in her sails as she pointed her spear and rushed to protect her beloved. The  exiled angel, grit her teeth, as the bane of her existence emerged from a crater before them, his axe guitar resting behind his shoulder haughtily. 

Charlie’s heart tensed before she pulled out her weapon, an angelic steel trident and pointed it defensively, her vision distorting the more she gazed at him, his hellish rockstar regalia briefly flickering to that of a heavenly cassock. 

“Adam, Ieave, I don’t know what you’re trying to do here but it's pointless, you’re not gonna accomplish anything , so please, just take your friends and turn back, it doesn’t have to end this way” Charlie both pleaded and demanded  the Archangel turned Archdemon. 

He began his response with a dismissive cackle, the demons surrounding him joining in a cacophony of echoing hyena calls.  “Look everyone, the princess of fucking hell, just gave me an order, could you believe it.?” Adam trampled all over her offer of peace as he continued mocking her, causing the princess’s eyes to squint in frustration as she held her ground.  “Sooo, what are you gonna do about me?, kill me ?” 

The sky seemed to be swirling as Adam’s audacious indignation caused  her to lose the grip on her trident to such an extent that it  almost dropped to the floor. “No, no ’ Charlie mumbled in utter shock, barely able to speak, but this did not stop his sadistic taunts. His draconian eyes turned into empty voids as ichor, the golden blood of the angels that now had the appearance of bile, began to drip from his nose,mouth and sockets.

 “Come on, just take the shot”  Adam growled,  his complexion turning paler and cadaver-like, by the second.  The rotting archfiend aggressively pointed at his bleeding chest in mockery, goading Charlie to stab him. “Isn’t this what you wanted?” Adam screeched out with his rigor mortis afflicted chest. As his grin grew unnaturally wide, the demons surrounding him shifted into the walking carcasses of the exorcists, they too bore stretched stitched smiles as they laughed along with their leader spilling ichor all over Charlie's arms and dress.  

The battlefield was littered with static bleeding bodies, among them on closer inspection were the departed remains of the high seraphim Sera and that of Adam’s former lieutenant, Lute. Charlie staggered back in horror as her breathing became panicked, rapid and laboured. “NO, I never wanted any of this!” Charlie screamed to the heavens.

Her distress immediately alerted her father above. “Ok, that’s enough of this” Lucifer declared as he wasted no time springing into action, diving towards the wretched archfiend threatening his daughter, with an outstretched flaming fist. 

Rather than being relieved, Charlie looked up and her  eyes widened in shock as a new panic overwhelmed her as she shrieked like a banshee  “NO DAD PLEASE STOP!.”

But her pleas fell to deaf ears, the devil struck Adam’s chest at mach speed, causing his head to fly from his body” the disembodied head of the fallen first man glared at charlie mid air as he gave her a final satisfied grin. 

 “NO I DON’T WANT THIS!” Charlie continued to shriek, launching out of bed in a cold sweat. Scanning the room, she could see Vaggie beside her, with a look of concern on her face, she woke her up with her night terrors, what a fantastic way to start the day. 

“What’s cracka-lackin Charlie! Are you ok? Do ya need something?” shouted Lucifer in both concern and excitement, causing Charlie to fall backwards from surprise. “WOAH!, dad, what are you doing here?!” she enquired, after getting back up, not exactly expecting to see her father in her bedroom the first thing waking up.

“Well I was up early making breakfast and I usually check up to see if you’re ok every morning anyway since you’ve been having those awful night terrors, so I came as soon as I could when I heard tossing and turning, speaking of,  do you need a towel?, do you want your pancakes now.?” After explaining himself in a roundabout and scatterbrained way, Lucifer presented a silver tray up to his daughter's face with a stack of honeyed pancakes with caramelised apple slices on top, alongside a plate of eggs and bacon and an entire jug of orange juice. 

Charlie blinked at the offering with tired eyes and a strained but appreciative smile, while Lucifer looked on with enthusiastic and needy eyes, occasionally looking towards the platter and then her, beckoning his daughter to take it. 

“Thanks a lot dad, you can umm put it on my dresser” Charlie awkwardly placated, to the chipper reply of “sure thing kiddo!” 

While her father hopped off to place the tray of food down, ecstatic  that Charlie seemingly accepted his platter, Charlie herself blew out a sigh of deep exhaustion, these past few months have not been kind to her.

 Nothing seemed to go her way, there was pressure along all sides, with her dream having more enemies than ever before and she was at a loss on what to do, plus the reappearance of someone in her life did not help things at all. 

“So what’s the matter? Why the long face, it isn’t about him again isn’t it?” Lucifer suddenly appeared right beside her, scooching inches away from her face , interrupting her contemplation and startling her again.

“Ah!, it's just the same nightmares as before ha ha ha……” Charlie mumbled trying to sound as fine and dandy as she could, as her dad would put it. 

“So Adam is still tormenting you even in your sleep, oh this is just on brand for him, the pompous douche” Lucifer whined in a dismissive and annoyed tone. The less than statuesque devil, got up from Charlie and Vaggie’s bed and started pacing around the room as the couple braced for the king to rant and complain more than he already did. 

“Like you think after his pathetic showing last year or was it five months ago, last week maybe? I can’t remember he’d just stay where he was, ya know, dead, sure it was a headache to explain to Heaven but at least it ended right there.

 But  nooooo he just had to come back and do it in the loudest and most obnoxious way possible because he can’t do it any other way.  Things were going so well too, until he arrived and ruined everything ”  flames erupted between Lucifer’s teeth while his voice briefly reverberated as he exhaled in rage.

 “Did you see what they did to me last time? Covered head to toe in filth and garbage and by my own name I don’t want to know what else, I had that coat ironed that morning too, could you believe it?Those horrible sinners actually like his terrible music, enough to boost his ego as if it wasn’t over inflated enough. And the audacity to  actually stick up for him???.

 You know the same guy that had a laugh about killing them for fun not even half a year ago? That guy, It's like they have no standards, he doesn’t deserve any of this.  But that’s how it's always been hasn’t it, here I am stepping out into the kingdom for the first time after all this time and he interferes with your little project again and humiliates me in my own domain no less.”  

The former seraph paced around the same spot on the carpet stomping around with a look of indignation on his porcelain face, fire spitting out from his mouth from anger every so often. Charlie couldn’t help but  zone out witnessing her father go on the same impassioned rant for the ninth time this week, he really didn’t take the complete disaster that was her last “visit” to Adam well.  

She was grateful for all the help her father has been giving her and the continued work he did for the hotel, elated that he was  finally in her life like she always wanted. In the past she and Lucifer were never as close after her parents split, leaving Charlie to pine for a better relationship with her father but she was beginning to remember why they were estranged.

 Now that he was finally in her life again after decades of estrangement, he went from being completely absent to now being too present in her life and interfering with every facet of it. It was what he always did, make high level executive decisions on her life without consulting her. His heart was in the right place with noble intentions, only wishing to help her as best as he could, but he needed to know in the gentlest way possible that she was a grown woman now and not just his little princess anymore. 

He was now uncomfortably close and sometimes that made her life more difficult than it should have been in some ways.  He seemed to be overcompensating for their previous estrangement by doing everything he can, which was now less than ideal for things, Charlie really needed to set some boundaries for him. 

But he wasn’t the only one that resurrected himself back into her life and unlike her father, Charlie didn’t know what to do with him.

 She was never the same after the day she accidentally caused Adam’s second death with her own hands. The guilt ate away at her body and soul like poison in her veins and continued to haunt her in her sleep, she had never taken someone else’s life before or ever again and the fact that she could reasonably justify it as done only to save her beloved’s life only made her feel even worse rather than alleviate anything. So when she first saw that Adam had been reborn as one of her people, she knew it was her chance to make things right. 

And as one of her people now, he deserved a second chance and her help like all the others, after all it was what the hotel was built on, and what better  way to convince him the error of his ways, make up for their rocky history and  prove to everyone everywhere that redemption was possible then by helping him redeem himself.  She figured he must have been so lost and afraid in Hell, it was how most first time sinners fared when they first arrived, no less a soul who spent millennia of his afterlife up behind the pearly gates of heaven, and she would lend a helping hand to him. 

But that was not what happened, rather than struggle to survive in the dark abyss, he thrived in it instead, waving away any notion of help from her, proclaiming himself to have no need of it. 

Was this how most sinners felt? That they neither needed nor wanted her help?.  However she refused to give up, unable to just ignore him and when she was at a loss on what to do, he gave her an olive branch. Which quickly turned to disaster when her father invited himself to the matter and against her better judgement she didn’t push back on it, despite knowing her father and Adam being in the same vicinity spelt doom. Predictably it all went crashing down as she was even further back then when she started after Lucifer fought with Adam and his fans. 

She groaned in fatigue and frustration and sighed  even more at what she saw on her screen. Adam would have to wait, there was another problem she had to deal with immediately and she needed some room to do so. “Umm dad?” Charlie called out to the ranting ringmaster who quickly stopped in his tracks, his ears perking up. 

“Yes sweetie, do ya need me to do something?” Lucifer asked with sparkling eyes and an eager grin. 

“Ah yes actually, I think the errr sink in the 2nd floor bathroom needs to be fixed, I think it's leaking” Charlie quickly came up with an excuse to keep her father occupied.

 Upon hearing her facetious request he  immediately sprung into action with a chipper “sure thing Charlie! Dashing out of the room, excited at the prospect of being helpful.

Charlie was pacing around in the hotel foyer during their impromptu managers meeting, while Vaggie looked on skeptically. “Charlie I don’t see the point in doing this” Vaggie brought up in concern 

“But Vaggie  they told all those lies about the hotel in that documentary series when they came over here, if I go on live television , something Vox and Velvette can’t edit, I’ll clear things up and everything will be fine” Charlie proclaimed in confidence. 

“There’s not much you can do against them in their own domain, besides we’ve never been popular with the sickos down here, we’ll find a way to make it work, we always did”

Vaggie gave Charlie a worried but sincere smile in reassurance.  Charlie smiled back but gave her a saddened  look with pleading eyes, causing the mauve coloured angel  to falter in her resolve. 

“Ok alright, hon, but I’m coming with you in case any of those creeps try anything” Vaggie proclaimed with resolve, clutching her spear, eye narrowing as the thought of the overlord trio and their associates messing with Charlie made her see red. 

The studio where 666 news and the rest of hell’s small screen entertainment roster including  Vox2nite and It’s Dahm Good were filmed and produced was a noisy, bustling environment that seldom stood still. Busy demons went in and out communicating and passing on orders in constant motion. 

 It looked chaotic from an initial outside glance but in actuality, everything was highly coordinated and organised with perfect communication from upper to middle management and down to every little working demon below, no matter the role. This was everything it took to make the Vee’s media empire, the undisputed top, without competition.

Everyone from the presenters, camera crew and personal assistants worked as a singular cohesive unit, their moves in lockstep with each other like clockwork.

In fact the moment Charlie and Vaggie stepped in, the news and film crew were already  preparing for this night’s airing of 666 news, the premiere source of information for demons all across the seven rings, kept under Vox’s careful discretion of course.

 They were all being led by Velvette, a member of the aforementioned media overlord triumvirate and their chief narrative spinner  and a dark blue and cyan eel sinner wearing a red sweater with the Voxtek logo embroidered on it, Vox’s very own liaison and personal assistant,  who enacted commands directly from his flat screened superior.

Upon noticing the two, Velvette looked up from her phone and smirked, holding back a giggle.  “Back again princess?haven't learnt your lesson yet?” Velvette sneered with venomous smug superiority, her voice barely able to sustain even a modicum of concern at the situation.

“What you guys said in that documentary was so misleading so I’m here to set the record straight live on television where you guys can’t edit anything!” Charlie proclaimed in confident indignation trying to channel her mother’s poise and ferocity. 

Velvette could no longer hold back laughing in the pathetic princess’s face and let out a haughty chuckle, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth in complete confidence of the guaranteed victory she was about to receive as she continued to mock Charlie’s attempt at standing her ground.

“ You’re up Katie!, you know what to do~”  Velvette announced sinisterly, not humouring Charlie with any further acknowledgement  as she sat back to enjoy the show, sporting a sadistic smile on her face. 

“Well if it isn’t Charlie Morningstar herself, back for round two?” dressed in a form fitting red business dress wearing pearls as pale as her complexion was a face all too familiar to the bright eyed princess, the face of 666 news herself, Katie Killjoy.  

She had a spindly body with insectoid-like proportions that formed an hourglass with a wide face and a  sharp wide smile to match. She sported large red mantis-like eyes and slicked blonde hair. Her appearance both hid and alluded to her  predatory nature, a quick witted, fast talking and sharp tongued woman able to dominate every conversation and tear her guests and anyone alike to shreds when called upon. 

Charlie gave her a look of disdain, taking her place on the guest chair, preparing to be interviewed.  

“We are going live in 3, 2, 1” one of the film crew announced to his colleagues. 

 The eel assistant tapped his ear piece and passed on orders to the rest in a cold monotonous tone, ushering the film and television crew to take position as the lights blared to life one by one while the cameras rolled as the show went on air. 

“Good Afternoon, I’m Katie Killjoy” the consummate anchorwoman began the show in a practised cadence. 

 “And I’m Tom Trench”, her cohost introduced himself right after she did ,desperate to not be cut off this time, his voice having a muffled echoing quality through the  gas mask  he wore on his face.

Making the most of what what little time he may or may not have to speak, he began the bulletin

“Demons all over Pride are eagerly anticipating the release of Voxtek’s Angelic Security line with many asking when the next fight with heaven will arrive” Tom recited  in an eager and charismatic voice, passionate for his position. 

He would predictably  be cut off and quite literally shoved aside by his co host, nearly toppling over from his seat as she asserted herself as the main star of the show. 

“That’s nice Tom” she said without a shred of sincerity. 

 “In other news, while the events of last year’s cancelled extermination day suggested the death of leader of the angelic legions and dangerously dashing bad boy Adam the First Man, it seems this heavenly icon isn’t as dead as he seemed.

From methods we still do not know, he has made his way back to Hell as a fellow demon and has wasted no time making his comeback. 

Adam and his band, The Dawnbringers have risen in popularity in the indie scene and broke into the mainstream after a viral confrontation at the Fiendfest music festival, feuding with the head honcho himself, who has also made his return to the public after a long absence. And during those events  Lucifer was not only booed off the venue, something already unheard of,  but in an unforeseen development he was actually attacked and humiliated by a mob of angry fans.

Could you believe that?”

Katie paused to let out bemused  laughter, directing  the live audience members to do the same. 

“And recently after charting with a new hit single Queen Bitch” they've been taking over disputed territories in the upper districts, knocking over established kingpins and minor overlords and accumulating quite a following, could he be our next major player?, when will this wave of Adamania end?”

Katie pauses before the graphics change with the topic 

“On the other hand, we’ve also witnessed a meteoric downfall as well  after our film crew visited  the appropriately named Hazbin Hotel and documented the never before seen inner workings behind closed doors, those wash ups and losers have never sunk so low.

They just can’t seem to stop failing, it's no wonder they have a permanent vacancy, not even daddy dearest can fix this.”

Katie laughs hysterically in mockery, leading the hyena like cackling of the live audience before turning her head towards Charlie’s seat,

 And here in our studio today for an exclusive interview  is Hell’s biggest nepobaby and laughing stock, the owner and architect of this colossal fuck up, 

 Charlie Morningstar!  ”

After being introduced Charlie immediately got to work trying to clear out the slander given to her and the hotel.

“That documentary you guys released was full of lies and incredibly misleading, so I’m here now to clear everything out” she declared in optimistic assurance. 

“Oh really now, so you’re telling me you actually have a plan and it doesn’t consist of summer camp activities? and you’re not being propped up by connections with Hell’s elite?”

Katie enquired with false sincerity dripping through her voice. 

“Well ummm it’s not an exact methodology but I have a clear vision of what I want to do and I don’t know what you mean with the second part, I had to start with a charming although decrepit building and whatever scraps and help people would give me”

“And how did you acquire that building?” Katie pressed on further 

“It was an old family home…….”  Charlie sheepishly replied, the sinking feeling that she just fell into a trap creeping up towards her but she wasn’t going to give up without a fight 

“Right and the help you say you reluctantly took out of desperation just so happened to be Alastor?” Katie said with the leer of a lioness on her face

“The Radio Demon? Isn’t he one of the most feared overlords out there, possibly among the most powerful sinners, how’d you manage that ? perks of being the princess?” Katie’s masked co host asked with genuine curiosity, he then shrieked in pain as Katie poured hot coffee on his lap for daring to steal her spotlight. 

“That’s not all Tom, from what our guest has told us, by her own words she used old royal family property and got help from the most powerful demons in the realm including the radio demon and now the prince of darkness himself, her own father and our head honcho, Lucifer Morningstar.  Imagine failing with all those perks and connections, what a fuck up am I right?”

Amidst all the mockery she received every second, with a thumbs up from Vaggie who was sitting in the audience, Charlie steeled her composure and stood her ground. 

“I don’t see how any of that takes away from my mission at all, it only proves I’m using everything I have to help my people and give them a second chance from every horrible thing Hell has to offer and save them from damnation and extermination” she retorted back.

Unfortunately Katie was well prepared for this and her smile only stretched wider. “Well lets see how truly pious little miss bleeding heart here actually is” she scathed in sadistic anticipation. 

“Let me remind the viewers watching at home that behind that disney princess routine, Charlotte Morningstar is a demon at heart like all of us, in fact the one time she and her has-beens actually accomplished something was when they slaughtered the angelic legions and fed their corpses to a cannibal army.

 I mean why would any sinner want to join and play patty cake when they can easily follow her example and wage war on those holy rollers.  In fact the princess herself was the one that made the kill to their leader, Adam himself, talk about being the devil’s daughter.”

In that moment Katie’s mocking commentary and the laughter of every demon behind her began to mumble and blur as her body tensed up and her vision went out of focus, she struggled to speak between adrenaline affected breaths but managed to seethe out a few words between her teeth. “That. Was. An. Accident” 

Like a shark smelling blood in the water, Velvette immediately picked up Charlie’s faltered composure and vulnerability, giving a hand signal to Katie who reciprocated with a nod, knowing exactly what to do. 

“And if that wasn’t enough you have to see what this paragon of virtue and good samaritan gets up to in her personal life.”

The broadcast displays an unflattering cartoon of Charlie and Vaggie making out, leaving Charlie speechless in her seat. 

“Not only is it a woman, it’s also none other than an exorcist angel, you heard it here folks, the hotel all about redemption and opposing extermination and the owner gets it on with an exterminator angel, who sources say is also the manager of the establishment”  

While Charlie tensed in her seat, her fists clenched, not knowing how it could get any worse, her host was about to demonstrate how it could.

“Our sources were actually able to acquire  footage of what those two degenerates get on behind closed doors and you’re about to see it here folks”  

“WHAT!?” Charlie was halfway through transformation into her full demon form and flames were beginning to circle around her as 666 news broadcasts footage of a particularly sensual roleplaying session between her and Vaggie where her girlfriend was dressed in her old exorcist uniform, something Charlie said would help with her self hatred. 

This time even Vaggie was enraged at such a personal and intimate moment being unveiled to the public “You motherfuckers!” she shouted at the news crew. 

“You saw it here folks, the princess and her pet exorcist are filthy sinners like the rest of us” Katie continued her slander.  

Crimson horns pierced out of her temples with jaws  filled with rows and rows of razor sharp teeth.  Her claws and tail outstretched to strike and a fiendish red glowing gaze erupted within her eyes. Enough was enough for Charlotte Morningstar and she was going to make this corrupt journalist eat her words. Charlie lunged at Katie Killjoy who also transformed into full demon form to do battle, spindly pincer-like limbs erupted from her back as she made an insectoid screech, striking back at her opponent. 

The broadcast was abruptly cut out as everything in the studio was destroyed and knocked over during their fight. Meanwhile Velvette was lounging in her seat with a smile of satisfaction on her face, recording everything on her phone, ready to go viral everywhere the next day, she couldn’t help but laugh in celebration at how well everything went. 

Adam was standing atop the rooftop of a burning building flanked by his bandmates, Johnny, Labbie and GG. They looked down upon the carnage below,weapons in hand, Labbie pulled out her old angelic polearm from her guitar case, Johnny had his fiddle in hand, striding its bow against it ,creating a discordant note that hissed with demonic energy while Adam held Judgement II in hand ready to put on a performance of a lifetime. 

“Alright let’s tear this place up!, ATAAAACK!” Adam yelled to begin the onslaught, performing a metal scream. 

The moment he finished pumping his fist in the air Adam swooped down onto the street below with the ferocity of a flying falcon. Dozens of demons to Adam’s left and right were knocked back and taken out through the force of his wings alone. Sinners in misshapen effigies of angelic garbs entered the battlefield and attacked the survivors, attracted to the sound of Adam playing. 

Labbie flew through the air, making up for the loss of her wings with acrobatics, jumping off from wall to wall and striking at targets with the  precision of a trained hawk. Meanwhile GG cared not for strategy or tactics, instead charging at a group of combatants and swinging wildly in all directions, all too happy to revel in the violence. He was soaked head to toe in blood and entrails both his own and that of his opponents, it blended in with his crimson red skin and he rubbed it into his chest making a mock performance in the middle of battle. 

Meanwhile Johnny sat down and played his fiddle hard, the bow burning with hellfire as a band of demons appeared before him in a burst of fiery flames.  “Oh Christ on a stick what’s going on now” a tall imp with long horns shouted in irritation, brandishing a flintlock in each hand while he scanned his surroundings. 

“Sir it appears we are in some kind of turf war” a smaller male imp with white hair answered  in a high pitched nasally voice. 

“Uh Mox I think it's that one sinner with the king’s fiddle again” a female imp with a southern accent replied. All three of them stared daggers at Johnny, not amused at being pulled from their job to do his bidding for free. 

“Well since you’re all here anyhow, why don’t we get this started” Johnny nonchalantly suggested to the trio of imps before he pulled out his own weapon, a bass guitar with a shotgun built into the stock. 

While the trajectory of his flight alone knocked every sinner in his path aback, Adam didn’t bother fighting the small fry. No, he was looking for the big shot around here and after making several laps around the block he finally found him,  armed to the teeth, ready to face him. 

“I’ll tear the wings off you, this shit is nothing to me, get down here and I’ll prove it you little bitch” a large imposing sinner with the appearance of a monstrous cockroach the size of three men hollered at Adam in a deep guttural voice, a cleaver in each of his many hands. He was a local overlord, one at the middle tiers, renowned for his incredible physical strength, among the small leagues of course. Adam didn’t bother learning his name but when he was taming the land and knocking down nearby kingpins and minor overlords, taking their territory for his own, this bug here decided to feud with him when he moved closer and closer to his plot of land. 

Adam dived in for a punch, only to hit concrete after the nasty vermin scuttled out of the way. “Oh now you just made me mad ”  Adam swung Judgement II at the insectoid overlord only for metal to collide with metal as the cockroach blocked it with four of his cleavers. 

“Angelic steel, custom made from Carmine industries, how’d ya like that bitch” the invertebrate overlord taunted, as they clashed again, again and again.

Growing tired of the stalemate, Adam decided to summon forth his demonic lightning and end this fight, he was still getting used to it but found that using Judgement II as a conduit helped direct and aim the thing. Raising his axe guitar in the air a pulsating bolt of red lightning twisted and made its way to the cockroaches hands, causing him to drop all his weapons onto the floor. Unfortunately Adam miscalculated the amount of energy he released  and dropped his guitar axe onto the floor from the sudden shock on his hand. 

Seizing the opportunity the hulking pest shuffled towards Adam, intending to overpower the resurrected rockstar. Adam was utterly insulted that he thought this would work and was sure to express it to his assailant flipping the sinner off with both hands, in that moment a wave of lightning shot from both fingers and cleaved the cockroach’s head right off, his carcass collapsing onto the pavement as Adam looked at his hands both impressed and surprised. 

Victorious, he strolled around without a care in the world, happy to declare this section of town as a new edition to his territory.  He went to sit down at a rundown bar which was still open for business even amidst all this carnage and chaos, which is how you knew this was Hell.  Adam took his seat while the bartender took no mind to him and continued cleaning his glassware. There was a news broadcast playing on the television, somehow they were already reporting the scuffle he did just a second ago, calling him things like the new rising star in hell, Archdemon and the next big up and coming overlord, suggesting he’d one day have a seat on Carmine’s table of power players. 

But no, no, the spindly bitch with pearls and the twerp wearing the gas mask must have gotten the wrong idea, he wasn’t some demon lord, that’s not what he was nor what he’s trying to be. Adam wasn’t like the scum around here, he wasn’t a depraved power hungry bastard like the rest of them, he was different, sure he revelled in being the bad boy back in heaven, but this wasn’t who he was, he wasn’t some evil overlord, was he?.

In that very moment Adam looked down and his shadow distorted into an apparition from his  past,  looking especially monstrous.  Reminiscent of his old helmet were protruding horns, and sharp yellow teeth and eyes forming a depraved sadistic smile and outstretched wings,  the very image of a devil.

While almost every corner of the Vees compound was bustling and flashy with busy demons working tirelessly to uphold the Vee’s empire, there was one place, restricted to all outside the eponymous overlord trio and select employees where things were more relaxed.  It was a luxurious lounge room where Vox, Velvette and Valentino could rest and relax, taking time to bask in their own glory and success. 

“That little tart is finished, there’s no way she’s ever recovering from this” Velvette gloated between giggles as she tapped away at her phone. 

“Well Vel, don’t forget you couldn’t have done that without my film crew, speaking of, stocks for Angelic Security are through the roof after that news segment” Vox trumped in self aggrandisation. 

“Oh fuck off Vox, those blithering morons would have been nothing without my direction, say Val what about you? Any new success on your end?” 

“That new reality tv show I put on is doing really well on streams”  the moth-like overlord replied in a stretched out tone. 

“Oh yeah the bloody porno romp that you ran half my stars through for” Velvette said sarcastically, very much not amused. 

“As much as I love chatting with you guys, I have a business meeting with our angel investor” Vox informed his compatriots while standing up and putting his coat back on, fixing his shirt, making sure he had his award winning appearance back. 

“We have people in heaven supporting us?wow that business trip really paid off” Valentino asked with full sincerity. 

“No Val, it's a business term, let’s just say it's someone that put in a lot of resources to help build Voxtek when we were first starting off” Vox corrected with confident, self assured poise as he fixed his tie. 

“Hey V why do we never get to see this bigwig, if he’s that important to us, I want to bloody well meet him” Velvette enquired with concern and suspicion 

“Well my dear, unfortunately he only wants to see the CEO, which would be me, oh look at the time I better get going, I’ll see you guys later”  Vox said his goodbyes as he stepped out of the door. 

Vox entered his dark monitoring room and went across the narrow catwalk, illuminated only by glowing LEDs on the wall and the glow of his many computer monitors. Once at his station he pressed a few buttons and turned around to await the arrival of his benefactor. 

A fleet of projectors clicked to life to display a three dimensional hologram that easily dwarfed Vox. What faced him was a figure shrouded in shadow with three pairs of wings on its back, looking down upon him. 

“Your Eminence, it's so nice to speak to you again, it's been too long, how is the kingdom of God this time of year?” greeted Vox. 

“Cease with your pleasantries and state your current progress, I find my time very precious and do not like it wasted”  commanded a deep domineering voice distorted by digital reverb that echoed throughout the entire room. 

“Of course, the angelic security project is coming along very well, once it's fully online I’ll pass control of all the systems to you for our scripted uprising. As for our common enemies, we just destroyed that little princess’s credibility into oblivion. I assure you there’s no way she’ll ever gain support for her project again. Oh and you wouldn’t believe this but Lucifer’s public support has also taken a hit and the person who did it is none other than Adam” Vox prattled on. 

“You are correct in your assumption of my disbelief, you are bold enough to lie to me demon? Let me remind you that it was you yourself that gave me news of his passing before even the lieutenant returned to heaven and I currently hold in my hand pieces of his halo” the dark figure said in tranquil disdain.

“I assure you it's no lie, as you can see in the images and footage I’m displaying right now he has been resurrected with methods I still have not figured out, as a demon in Hell. He’s been rising the ranks down here too, if I can acquire him as an asset, would it possible my lord, for me to receive a fraction of the power you promised me. Vox placated 

“I find your bargaining posture highly dubious but very well, if you are able to secure the former commander for a private  meeting with me, I may consider your proposal” the shadow with a halo and six wings proclaimed to Vox before disappearing as the projectors turned off. The TV demon displayed a grin of greed and satisfaction stretching ear to ear on his screen, it paid to be on the winning side.

Chapter Text

The streets of hell stank of sulphur with the sounds of pentagram city stinking up the whole atmosphere. There were demons stabbing each other, demons raping each other and demons eating each other. This was a day like no other, some might even say things were actually calmer on this particular occasion. And skipping along this perfect day in pandemonium was a chipper young woman, humming a happy tune as she plastered hand made posters and flyers wherever she could.

 Despite its unique “eccentricities” as she put it Charlie could never bring herself to hate the kingdom she inherited from her mother. Was it perfect? Of course not but despite all its flaws it was still worth fighting for, Her mum did and Charlie was going to follow in her footsteps. Sure they actively spat on her at every turn and made her the butt of their jokes and after that disaster of an interview probably made even more jokes about her, but Charlie wasn’t giving up that easily, there was still some way to make the hotel thrive, maybe?,  possibly? she just needed to keep going at it and then she'll figure it out. 

And just as she was nervously sticking another crayon drawn poster to the wall, nearly crumbling the paper, the determined princess heard a gang of demons approaching her direction. 

“Like did you see the look on that cunt’s face? Bitch was all like this cannot be meanwhile I didn’t even have to waste time blasting her, just did a sick solo and boom her shitty territory claim is gone, can’t believe demons actually fight over this, fucking hilarious I tell ya”  

The boastful demon was clad in a blackish blue coat embroidered in silver with his own emblem, its sleeves ripped with  large curling spikes decorated the collar and shoulders among the sinner’s own black feathered neck. Charlie’s high spirits immediately sank at the sight of him as she groaned out “anyone but him”.

“Of course Adam I was there with you, I still think you should have at least given her some dignity in death” his friend suggested, a sinner with a straw hat and a cow skull for a head before being rudely cut off 

“No fuck off,  you should have let me take a dump on that bitch’s head instead of pussying out” another sinner, a red devil wearing a stalheim and franking not much else chimed in. 

“Dude, shut  up and help me with these posters, this concert is going to be awesome can’t believe we’re going to be playing in that bitch’s old concert hall”  he haughtily marched forward too preoccupied with promoting his latest performance to notice that he was about to bump into someone

“Watch where you’re going. Wait WTF?!” Adam jumped back when he realised the demon he almost knocked over was none other than Charlie Morningstar. “The fuck are you doing here, you’re not going to go all bleeding heart on me again are you?”

“Leave me alone Adam, I can’t deal with you right now” Charlie said in a melancholic whispered tone, trying to keep her composure as she picked her scattered papers up from the floor. 

Before things could escalate, Johnny stepped between them. “Why hello there Charlie, what might you be doing out in these wretched streets?, you know this ain’t exactly the nice part of town, well I don’t actually know what part is good but this surely ain’t it”  he had a friendly smile on his milky white face and tipped his hat in a joking but jovial manner. 

“Oh hi there Johnny, I’m just putting up posters for the hotel, gotta spread the word out there you know” Charlie swung her arm to emphasise her point, which came out more neurotic than she intended despite her joyful tone. 

Unfortunately Adam couldn’t help himself and quickly butted in “Oh yeah nice chat and all but we’re  busy promoting a project people actually want to see” he said in a paper thin veneer of nicety while slamming a poster featuring himself with the word  “Repent” in big bold letters right over the one Charlie had already placed  and motioned for his bandmates to leave with him. 

Charlie could only groan in annoyance as she glanced over Adam’s own self aggrandizing promotion of himself and grimaced even more as she noticed the slight similarities to the posters Lilith herself used to put all over Pride. Why did she have to run into him now of all times, he just made everything complicated and she was at a loss on what to do with him. But one thing was for sure as much as she wanted to help him, she was not going to let him tarnish her mother’s legacy any further. 

“You know the only reason you’re getting any attention is because these poor sinners are trying to fill the void my mum left”  Charlie retorted back. Adam turned back and tried to keep his smug grin  even while it creased with anger. 

“Lilith this, Lilith that, every day I hear about how oh so great queen bitch is and how she built this kickass kingdom. but you know I also hear demons screech about how much they hate it here and what a wretched cesspool she created .  I know your standards are in the trash but look around, you’re actually proud of this shithole?  You’re just mad I’m outdoing both of you at your shtick!”

With tears stinging her eyes at his blatant disrespect of her mother and all that she’s done Charlie snapped back “You don’t really care about these sinners, you just want to be worshipped and I won’t let you badmouth my mother just because she refused to submit to your will!”

Adam grit his teeth and scowled at what she was insinuating, slowly marching towards her in tranquil fury  “What the fuck are you talking about and what would you know, cunt ”

“Adam please, we were on our way anyway” Johnny grabbed Adam on the shoulder and tried to convince him to not do this but it was too late. 

Nearly inches away from Charlie’s face, something caught Adam’s attention, the glimmer of an embroidered book the pitiful princess was holding in her arms. He  quickly snatched it from her. 

“The Story of Hell?” Adam ham-handedly flipped through the pages with unimpressed disdain, occasionally exclaiming “bullshit” in between. As he turned the pages, disdain turned to anger, he became tempted to rip the page off with each one he read.

Eventually he had enough of this tripe and  prepared to throw the damn thing in the air, scorch the blasted thing and be done with it. Adam roared in rage and punted the thing as hard as he could, unfortunately Lilith’s delusional daughter frantically dived in to save it before he was able to do any of that. 

She looked back at him in contempt but he didn’t care, it was nothing compared to what she was about to experience. 

“It all makes sense, of course you’d turn out this fucking stupid raised on this fairy tale bullshit, tell me who wrote it, your lying fuckface of a father? Or was it your selfish bitch of a mother? You probably spent your whole life too much of a dumb bitch to tell it's full of shit!” Adam said scathingly, hate dripping from his teeth like venom. 

At first Charlie was shocked at what Adam was implying, sure she knew it was a story her parents read to her as a little girl but surely they wouldn’t lie to her, would they? Without thinking she remarked “it was right about you, that’s for sure”

Adam just looked down at her with a look of condescending disgust not bothering to come up with any insults “eh whatever, suit yourself, I’m out, enjoy welcoming your non-existent guests” and as they left an idea sprouted in his head, he finally knew exactly what to write for Dawnbringer’s next song,  something to set the record straight and put the Morningstars in their place.

Downtown, not too far from the embassy, a woman in purple strolled the streets of hell, the brim of her hat concealing her face, her hands clasped in a regal poise as she took glances at the state of the kingdom around her. As she made her way across the secluded alleyways, she gazed at the flyers and posters that adorned the walls with disinterest and disdain, for she knew they were pale imitations of what came before.

 As she exited the alleyway she arrived at a quaint colony of cannibals, the veneer of polite respectability could scarcely hide the vile savagery that condemned its inhabitants to the dark abyss. And so beautifully was this displayed in the scene right in front of her, as a well dressed gentleman helped a sumptuous young lady back to her feet after she tripped and fell, only for the two to cease all small talk as their empty black eyes locked onto a group of rowdy sinners, whose violence brought them to this corner of Pentagram.  Saliva dripped from between their sharp carnivorous  teeth, as the two made their attack, pouncing and ripping apart the group with the demeanour of  hungry coyotes, other  members of their community soon joined the effort, united in their everlasting gluttony. 

But no matter how unruly, deranged or degenerate, as the mysterious woman came near, all ceased their depravity and  parted to make way. Eventually she made it to her destination at the centre of town, a little shop front with a sign reading “Rosie’s Emporium” on top. It didn’t matter how long the line was, the cannibals made no fuss in letting her through once they sensed exactly what she was. 

As she entered through the door, the overlord proprietor of this establishment and its namesake greeted her. “Now what might I do for you today?” The cannibal overlord gave her the greeting she gave  all her clients, until her dark void-like eyes registered who was in front of her. “Oh my lady!, it's been too long, come in, come in we have much to talk about” 

Rosie beckoned her to a more private part of her emporium where they could chat, fixing her honoured guest a cup of tea as they sat down to talk. 

“You’ve been gone quite awhile, a lot has happened, the place has gone to the dogs, well more than usual.  But you’d be delighted to know everything’s gone to plan, that Charlie girl is progressing quite well, fought off the angelic legions and won!, oh they grow up so fast” 

Rosie took a sip of tea before continuing with her gossip 

“And speaking of, you know that rube I had on contract awhile ago, yes the one with the funny ears, well he thought he could take on an Archangel, broke his staff and everything, ain’t that a rib tickler” the mistress of the flesh eaters laughed hysterically with deep dimples forming along her corpse coloured face.

“Why it's almost as hilarious as the way he died, but anyway he demanded I fix his staff but I told him, he’s not getting it back until he does what he was sent to do, on another matter that Archangel has risen into one of us now, now I know what you’re thinking, but given our resources I don’t think its a problem at all”

Rosie set down her tea as she reassured her guest with confidence “So whaddya say, should we start your comeback right away?”  donning a sharp smile from excitement.

From the other side of town, the “Archangel”, well Archfiend now, was lounging in his band’s newly acquired headquarters, a hidden warehouse compound they recently came across.  It was once  the local overlord’s storage and operations facility, until they took it off his hands when they took over. Right now he was showing off his guitar skills to a group of attractive sinner women who sat around him on the couch. 

“I bet you don’t know anyone that could do that, yeah!”  Adam boasted, shooting a storm of lightning that vaguely formed the shape of musical notes in the air as he performed an impromptu solo with excitement.

 This was great, it was almost like having his old powers back, sheer force alone served him well for a while but it finally felt that he was starting to get a hang of his demonic powers. 

Even better was that he seemed to grow stronger by the day the more he fought and the more wannabes he knocked down. Adam could tolerate the section of hell he was in better too. Ever since he knocked down district after district, the place was looking upwards. It was still several leagues below what he was familiar with up in paradise of course, but still much better than before, filled with friends, fans and devotees, as deranged as they were. 

It reminded the first man  of those foundational days on Earth post Eden, when he was just learning to tame the land and build the first settlements. It was  a whole lot of bad with a few good moments interlaced.  Of course these sinners were no substitute for his family, he shuddered to think of them as his descendants, but they were good enough to hang out with and it felt nice being appreciated for once, way cooler than his pussy of a son, Abel up in heaven that’s for sure.

“Hold on, what? You aren’t seriously thinking this are you?” Adam looked over from his seat and sighed at who came back. It was the apparition again, his head looking less like an exorcist mask and more like a demonic face under the glow of his halo and heavenly robes. This time instead of an expression of smug condescension on his face, his face showed nothing but livid anger, as it hovered over Adam. 

Adam himself tried to ignore it, refusing to have it ruin the good time he was having again. With Judgement II still in hand he called out to a fellow bandmate  “Hey Labbie how’s the clean up going in the territory we just took, what did they call it again? Anguish Avenue? Something like that” he asked his former sergeant. 

Of course the former exorcist was clad in over glorified nothing as usual, having gone native since reawakening as a sinner. “It's going great bossman, we’re just hunting down some of the old guy’s cronies and stuff, you know how it is gotta deal with the crackheads and crazies once the big guys are gone” she reported. a hand on one hip and the other holding her polearm which was resting on the adjacent shoulder. 

“Thunderthighs, you’re one of my top girls for a reason, I never pick wrong” Adam congratulated with pride earning a smile from his bassist and fellow angel turned demon. 

One of the women lounging with Adam, a girl with a Venus flytrap’s mouth and red hair and reptilian eyes turned to speak to him. “You know I used to spend almost all day and night there doing nothing but blow, fucking anyone that’d say yes and some that didn’t, we called it  ‘anguish avenue’ for a reason, I fucked up, went to hell so I thought why not fuck up so more, 

but then I saw you touring in town and realised it was all bullshit, sure we’re in hell, but who fucking said we had to live that way, like it sounds sappy but fuck man, Hell is forever, it didn’t hurt to give virtue a try.”  

Adam’s stomach dropped, why did he have this awful feeling in his chest, he couldn’t possibly be moved by a fucking sinner’s words, in any world he should be laughing with pride at the win he just scored over little miss sunshine but he didn’t, why did he feel so guilty.

His apparition, the ghost of the angel he once was, looked at him with disgust, even he didn’t feel like laughing at his suffering. 

“Are you ok big guy?” Labbie looked on with concern, knowing her former commander she very well knew something was up. 

“Uhm, uh totally, why wouldn’t I be, I’m fucking Adam, now if you excuse me ladies, I uh need some alone time… yeah, the next concert is gonna kill me I gotta chill”  to the disappointment  of the women lounging with him, Adam awkwardly rose from his seat and hastily made it out of there. 

Eventually he made it to a bathroom, walls covered by mirrors where the fallen rockstar could be alone with his thoughts. 

“Really?, fucking really, you felt bad for a sinner? A SINNER, how low are you going to sink?” His angelic reflection shrieked at  him. 

“Shut the fuck up, it was just one, a fucking chick no less, these ones are different, they’re not as worthless as the others” Adam snapped back, intending to silence this annoying apparition. 

“Hold on, are you getting sentimental? None of them are worthy of us, after all we did for them, did they honour our teachings and continue what we started for them? No, they spent millennia inventing new ways to fuck up, one upping each other in atrocities and committing even more after being sent to this dump.

 They may descend from us but they have no relation to us after the choices they made. They fell to temptation, they fell to sin, chose old scratch and the first whore over us, just like her. We gave second chances once but look how that ended up. Are they seriously corrupting you or were you always a pathetic sack of shit like them?.”

“I SAID SHUT UP, NOW FUCK OFF AND NEVER COME BACK” with the fury of a thousand devils, Adam opted to do what he always wanted to since reawakening in hell and smashed the apparition’s image to a thousand pieces with his flaming fist.

Silence fell upon the room outside his own laboured breaths as tears stained his enraged eyes. What had he been doing with his afterlife, it all seemed so pointless, now more than ever, maybe Lucifer’s little princess was right about him. He was a sack of shit like every stinking sinner in this dump or perhaps it was the other way around they were just like him, they came from him after all. Maybe that’s why he loved exterminating them so much, they were  living reminders of the first failure, him. 

Adam shook his head, No, no, Adam always knew he was an asshole but Lucifer’s brat and her lying little book were wrong about him and damned as he might be he wasn’t going to let any of their ambitions fuck him over again. But he still had to make things right, somehow, he didn’t know how but he knew he had to do something. 

The silence was broken with the sounds of knocking at the door and the voice of one of the only sources of comfort the first man had since becoming a sinner.  “Adam, Adam are you in there? Is it happening again?”

Adam snapped out of it and opened the door. “Sup Labbie, were you seriously worried for me that’s cute babe but I’m completely fine, just had an issue with the mirror” and  just like that he was back to dickmaster mode. 

“Um sure boss, just tell me if you need anything,” Labianne replied, not quite convinced by his words in the slightest. 

“Actually can you find out if we can branch out, the concerts and conquering the upper districts is cool and all but what if we could expand our reach, outside the mixtape I mean, like completely reshuffle and rearrange Lilith’s shit” Adam asked, still haunted by what transpired earlier. 

Before she could answer a crash and a bang could be heard before a red blur rushed towards them. 

“There you are, the fuck are you doing down here, you made me run 3 laps looking for you asshole, we got a problem all the pricks in the entertainment district cancelled our bookings,  the shitheads even threw out our albums, I was about to kick their asses, I’m still gonna do it later despite what Johnny might think, but we can’t play anywhere outside of here.”  GG announced 

“What? Are you kidding me” Adam was in disbelief and curled his fist into a ball which was quickly pulsating with demonic energy until a thought hit him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the business card given to him when he met Vox and stared at it in frustration, crushing it in his fist,  recalling exactly who ran the entertainment district. 

“Wait, doesn't flatfuck run the place, I need to have a talk with him” Adam growled in indignation especially as Vox 2nite went on air on the tv set across the room. He temporarily forced those feelings to a halt as more pressing matters needed to be solved.

“But what do we do after the next concert?” Adam asked his fellow bandmates, who were also baffled, outside of suggestions by GG to continue taking territory if only to find more places to continue their performances.  As they stood there not knowing what to do in the near future, radio static filled the air as the room became a little darker.

All three looked up to find the source of the disturbance and standing on the catwalk above them was a familiar sight, a tall man in a scarlet coat with deer ears atop his crimson hair, carrying a microphone staff held together with glowing green stitches.  “It seems you’re in a bit of a bind, my formerly angelic adversary” 

Labbie pointed up her angelic polearm, GG was about to attack  while Adam was not impressed nor intimidated in the slightest. “Ok edgelord you have five seconds to give me a good reason to not kick your ass again” Adam said with annoyance already summoning Judgement II in preparation. 

“Well to be frank, things have been so dreary, nothing of note really, I was bored out of my mind.  But then you arrived and your hooliganism made for such delightful entertainment I couldn’t help but keep up with your antics!.” Alastor chuckled to himself before wiping  off a tear of laughter.

" There hasn’t been such interesting developments and disruption to Hell’s mightiest since well, my very own debut, oh it makes one nostalgic. But then you just disappeared! And I had about just enough of hosting the hotel and our delusional devil  so I thought I'd pay you a visit today. And quite frankly I don’t understand why any musician would need to rely on the picture box or any new-fangled platform and not well radio.” 

The radio demon disappeared for a moment before appearing again in the shade in front of the band. 

“Ok so you’re a fan, now what do you want, TV for a head already tried to get us to sign a deal and I don’t see why I should agree to either of you” Adam yelled at the soon to be roadkill standing right in front of him.” 

“I want to help, can’t have my source of amusement  drying up thanks to the whims of frankly worthless fraud.  Your music broadcasted all over hell and the expansion of your operations with my resources and in exchange we help each other against common enemies, how does that sound?”  With eager eyes and a grin Adam still couldn’t quite decipher, Alastor outstretched his hand in anticipation of a handshake. 

Under normal circumstances Adam would just throw this prick into the garbage, humiliate him worse than last time. But this might be the only way to rectify their problem and perhaps along the way get the chance to make some things right. “Ok fuck it why not, but I’d like to add one more thing, I reserve the right to kick your bony ass whenever I feel like you’re full of shit, agreed?” 

He could see the crimson demon wince a little before he recomposed himself “Acceptable, then we have a deal”

 The two sinners shook hands as green flames enveloped them with Alastor’s maniacal laughter. “Oh this is going to be the bringing of a new dawn .“