And Now, Something Plot Related

<p>"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" was the echoing scream of Cael as he fell through the vast portal into Hell, being of a dark blue hue. The last thing he'd expect was to be literally dropped into Tartarus below. Once he collected himself, he made mental preparations, first by changing into his fallen angel disguise. With two pushes of a button, his wardrobe changed back into that of a real fallen angel. It felt like an hour falling through the portal, according to his watch, and he started to get a little bored. That was until he saw a bright red, large pentagram coming into view. He snapped to his senses and braced himself for possible impact.<br/><br/>After a moment, he didn't feel anything. He looked to see a large city below him with skyscrapers of different sizes and shapes. But he had to worry about that later. Right now, he was falling fast and he didn't want die on the first day of the job. Searching around, he found a good place near a harbor. It looked filthy, but what choice did he have? Clutching his briefcase tightly in one hand, Cael stretched out his wings and flapped them to slow his descent and glide towards the soft bit of earth but just missed it and collapsed into the water.<br/><br/>Regaining his balance, Cael stood hip deep into water as he wiped his face. Disgruntled, he looked up into the sky and frowned at the huge pentagram covering the entire sky as if the senior archangels were still up there. "Thank you soooo much," he said sarcastically as he brushed himself off and walked towards the shore.<br/><br/>Once ashore, Cael found a place under a boardwalk and began the sequence of contacting HQ. After a few rings, he could hear a voice from the other end. "HQ to Cael, have you arrived at your destination in one piece?" said Rathanael's voice.<br/><br/>"Yeah, I'm fucking here. Thanks for the sudden drop by the way," he complained, giving away his discontent for what just happened.<br/><br/>"We do apologize for that. Exceptional as you are, you still haven't been use to this kind of travel yet. I'm sorry."<br/><br/>"Whatever, just informing you I'm still whole and proceeding with the next phase."<br/><br/>"Good man. Report in once you've made contact with the target, alright? Best of luck to you."<br/><br/>"Yeah, yeah. Over and out." Cael switched off the line of communication with Rathanael and released an exasperated sigh. He was going have to put up with this for as long as he was down here. Knowing he'll have to dry off before going into town, Cael decided to check the files again for any details he didn't have a chance to look at. As he crouched down, he read about the people running this 'happy hotel' starting with first and foremost the princess of Hell.<br/><br/>Her name was Charlotte Magne, aka Charlie which rubbed him the wrong way just a little bit; but it wasn't his choice to make so he had to let it go for now. Her profile labeled her as a tall demon, her height being 5'7" as he was at 5'10". She had curly, long blonde hair and black lips. Her cheeks were red which made her look like a clown or a puppet. Though, scientifically and biologically speaking, red cheeks are often associated with happiness and a cheerful personality, which indicated that's what she had towards people. Her eyes were black and her sclera was the coloration of light yellow. Her eyelids had a contrasting pink shadow and also seemed to be decorated with gray eye shadow.<br/><br/>In the photo used, she wore a black bow tie, a white shirt underneath her frilly red-colored tuxedo jacket, paired with aubergine-colored trousers with stripes at the end of the legs in the same color as her jacket, long black suspenders, and black and white spectator shoes. <br/><br/>"Unusual, but hopefully it's for the hotel. Unless she might be...eh, whatever. Fuck it. It's none of my business anyway." Cael grumbled. And besides, he never let himself get attached to anyone in the line of duty.<br/><br/>The next profile was on Charlotte's assistant Vaggie, but is formerly known as Vagatha. She was a slim demon with muted lavender-colored skin. Her hair was white with light pink stripes at the ends, and she wore a big pink bow on the back of her head. Vaggie's right eye had an ivory white iris and her sclera was light pink. Her left eye, however, was missing; being replaced by a pink X.<br/><br/><br/>She wore a pastel, goth-like outfit with a mini dress white with light-navy blue X's on her bust, a frill at the bottom, and a belt. All of them had the same color. She also wore light-navy blue evening gloves and a choker of the same color. Vaggie's right stocking was also light-navy blue and her left stocking had light-pink stripes. One of the straps of her dress were down, revealing a light-navy blue bra/tank top underneath. "Hmm, kinky." Cael said to himself. "She seems like a fiesty little seniorita."<br/><br/>And finally there was the client that the hotel had, by far the <strong>only</strong> client they had at the moment. The client was a porn star by the name of Anthony, though he often went by his alias "Angel Dust". Cael made an impressed whistle when he read that Dusty was around 8-9 feet tall. He had a slender build with fluffy white hair and pink details on his fur, including a pink heart on the back of his head and on his chest with a line going down to his crotch area. He wore notable eye shadow and eyeliner. While both of his irises were pink, his left eye had a dark sclera and no pupil. Dusty also had a single gold fang among his sharp teeth. One of Angel's most noticeable features was his prominent chest.<br/><br/>The chest was composed entirely of fur, and the fur looked like breasts but Cael figured it was actually a cluster of his fur pushed up over time due to the tightness of his jacket. Angel's attire consisted of a white suit with pink stripes, a black and pink bow tie, a black choker, pink gloves, a black miniskirt and long black thigh high heel boots. Though usually depicted with six limbs, Angel apparently had a third retractable set of arms that he could summon to use at will.<br/><br/>"Quite a trio of misfits." Cael muttered to himself as he finished reading off the files on who the targets were so far. He placed them back into the file and into the briefcase. Ater taking out some of the cash for him to use today, Cael set the combination lock on the case with his own four digit code and locked it with his own personal key. He kept the key on some leftover fishing lure in which he tied part of it on a belt loop and the other at a reasonable length to the key. He placed the secured key into his pocket and stood up. Seeing that he was now mostly dry, Cael could go into town and find something to wet his whistle. "At least the watch is still holding out." Cael acknowledged.<br/><br/>The city was nothing he'd ever imagine, at least in Hell. With all that talk about brimstone and fire, agonizing torture and/or misery, it seemed like complete bullshit. It looked more like New York in the apocalypse. The city seemed to be separated into different sections with many different places of interest such as casinos, nightclubs, adult film studios, brothels, restaurants, television stations, and hotels, hopefully one of them being the Happy Hotel. <br/><br/>There was a Clock Tower in the center of the city, which served as a counter for the 365 days that have passed until the next...extermination? This was something Cael never expected Heaven to have a hand in, nor was he ever informed of such a thing. He'll have to get to the bottom of this soon, but right now he had some priorities to take care of first. One of them getting something to drink from a small pub or bar.<br/><br/>Cael couldn't remember the last time he went without a draft of Irish beer. It was a particular favorite of his, but any kind of alcohol would do. Being in Heaven kind of robbed him of that luxury. Not that he was an alcoholic or anything, but he enjoyed some adult vices once in a while. After a half hour of walking amongst the various demons, he finally came across a club entitled 'Klub Kaiju'. It had an entrance that looked like a pair of green jaws and green fluorescent lights popping out of the entrance.<br/><br/>"Hmm, I guess that'll do for now." Cael said to himself. He had to be careful, especially the fact he not only carried a briefcase of money but classified information as well. Keeping a good grip on the briefcase, Cael made his way <br/>through the gaping jaws.<br/><br/>The joint looked casually busy as almost everyone took up the seats with a few open at the bar itself. With the kind of music that clubs usually would play, it didn't seem that bad. It almost had that sports bar kind of feel to it. Taking up a seat at an empty barstool, Cael took out a little bit of money and signaled for one of the bartenders to serve him. <br/><br/>"Gimme your best draft beer," he said as he hands the barkeep a ten. The demon nodded as he took the money and went to get Cael a cold one. The undercover agent noticed that some of the patrons were looking at him with suspicion the moment he walked in. He leered at them while waiting for his drink. He thanked the bartender when it arrived.<br/><br/>Taking the glass, Cael looked at his reflection to see if there was anything wrong with his appearance. He had spiral ram horns, his face was light red with large black circles on each of his eyes with his sclera being of yellow and he had his attire of a jacket and black wifebeater with jeans. What may have been the problem was either the briefcase or his wings being once a heavenly golden color now the blackest of a raven's feather.<br/><br/>Either way, he wasn't going to be put off by it and drank his beer. It was like kissing an old flame of his, the best taste to his lips so far. "God I missed this."<br/><br/>"Never had a drink in your life, huh?" said a voice next to him. Cael looked to his right to see a teenage demon that looked like a hyena based on her spotted fur and mane. Her fur was white with countless red spots. Her right leg, nose, ears and left forearm were brown and the inner parts of her ears were bright red. She had fluffy cheeks and lots of freckles under the eyes. Her sclera was light orange and her iris hot pink.<br/><br/>She had very thick hair and an even thicker tail. Her hair was colored white, where the lower parts and ends were dyed bright red. She wore a black collar with spikes, a bright red tunic with a printed skull and a brown unbuttoned sweatshirt with torn sleeves. She looked a little young to Cael but he just rolled with it.<br/><br/>"You might say that," he said to her, sipping his beer again while looking at her. "You a regular here?"<br/><br/>"On occasion," she responded as she swiveled her stool around to face him. "I'm more of a liquor girl myself. Though I best recommend the bourbon they serve here if you're the kind that goes for the hard stuff."<br/><br/>"Much obliged." Cael thanked her with a gesture of his glass and a nod.. "I'll take note of that next time, Miss..."<br/><br/>"Crymini," she said holding her hand out to him for an introduction. Cael responded by taking it and kissing it the way only a chivalrous cop would do as he responded with "Cael. Very pleased to meet you."<br/><br/>The little hyaena couldn't hide much of the blush that glowed pink on her fluffy cheeks as she looked flattered. Cael smiled as he saw her reaction. He always enjoyed getting that kind of reaction out of women, giving them hope that there was still a gentleman alive and well. After collecting herself for a moment, Crymini spoke. "So what kind of demon carries a briefcase into a place like this?" <br/><br/>Cael felt that that was the reason why he was getting so many looks from the other demons so he went ahead and played it cool. "Just someone with business to take care of. Although I could ask you how someone your age is in a club who doesn't seem to look quite legal enough for alcohol."<br/><br/>Crymini's tail frazzled as she was feeling flustered. "Hey! A girl can enjoy herself, can't she?"<br/><br/>"I wasn't saying you couldn't enjoy yourself. I was just curious about if they were either more relaxed with age here or you might be just as sneaky as you look." He gave her a reassuring wink to make her feel at ease. "Tell you what, you don't ask me about my briefcase and I won't ask about your age. Deal?," he asked as he held out his hand to her. <br/><br/>Crymini calmed down for a little bit, then shook his hand in compliance. "Deal."<br/><br/>"Good. Now that we're being civil, I don't suppose you could tell me why that countdown clock is there in the first place. I'm a little out of circulation with current events." <br/><br/>She tilted her fluffy head in puzzlement. "You mean the countdown of the next extermination?" Crymini asked in a low tone, eyeing around the club to make sure no one was hearing their conversation. "I don't know much about why, maybe it was a deal made between Heaven and the lords of Hell. But I know this much, every year they send down these cold murderous assholes known as Exorcists. During every annual extermination, they appear to mostly target anyone outside and it's unclear if they do enter the buildings. They don't seem to care much about their weapons though and often left them behind for us to take."<br/><br/>Cael was very surprised to hear this. He heard of such rumors when he was starting out in basic training, but he was a little naive about it given how everyone was being a Mr./Ms. Goody Little Two Shoes. Something was definitely up and hopefully, he'll find out why. <br/><br/>Cael then tried to see if he could get anything else out of his fellow bar patron when a news flash came on the TV above them, the news channel being 666 news (how subtle), interrupting whatever program had been playing as he came in. The head news anchor was a very tall as well as slim demon with short blonde hair, pure white skin, and red eyes with small, yellow pupils. Her most noticeable body traits were her long neck, red lips, big firm breasts, and wide shoulders. Whenever she moved in a very sudden way, cracking sounds were heard coming from her body; like she was about to snap at any time.<br/><br/>"Welcome back!," she said, announcing to the inhabitants of Hell that might be watching. The shots would often change on occasion showing her co-host whose head was composed of an expressive gas mask, which covered his entire face and neck, and a sweep of ashy blonde hair. He wore a grey suit with a white collared shirt, incorporated with black gloves, red tie, and a red pocket square.<br/><br/>"So Charlotte,..." the camera switched over to the news anchor and Charlie, the girl he had been assigned to investigate.<br/><br/>"It's Charlie," the princess said in correcting her, but the news woman continued.<br/><br/>"Whatever. Tell us about this new passion you've been insistently pestering our news station about?" The way she asked it was a little too aggressive, as if she was being a cunt to Charlie. Hell's princess then elaborated, saying that she was born in Hell and how she tried to see the good in Hell's citizens, wanting to help after going through a recent extermination. <br/><br/>"<em>Recent</em>?!" Cael exclaimed in his head. "<em>Jesus Christ you picked a hell of a time to send me, Rath</em>!" He continued listening to her on how she couldn't stand seeing so many lives being lost and that no one was ever given a chance. He knew this much, he never knew anyone in Hell that ever cared that much about its citizens. He kind of respected her for thinking outside of the box.<br/><br/>And then it was announced, the proposal he heard about: a hotel to rehabilitate sinners! At first, it didn't seem like anyone quite understood what she meant by that. He looked over to Crymini who seemed just as confounded as they were. "Did you follow any of that, Cael?"<br/><br/>"I did actually." Cael said. "Basically, anyone who wants to get into Heaven can if they can truly redeem themselves for whatever sins they may have committed. Though I don't really think it's going to fly well around here. At least, not at first."<br/><br/>"Do you really think a demon can be redeemed?"<br/><br/>"Well maybe. It could happen. Crazier things have. It might just work, if planned out right." After an awkward moment, her royal highness then tried to explain it to them. In song. As soon as he heard the music cue, Cael had a bad feeling that this was all gonna to go up in smoke. <br/><br/>One song later,<br/><br/>Cael didn't think the musical number was all that bad. But he didn't think it was enough to win the audience over. After hearing someone shout "Wow! That was shit!", he could hear everyone in the news room laughing hysterically at her; making her feel miserable. He hated see someone miserable, especially a woman. It was sort of a weakness he had; small but still there like Cindy Crawford's mole.<br/><br/>When being talked down to about how ridiculous the notion was, Charlie did bring up the one client she and Vaggie had. And that client was Angel Dust, a porn star as Cael already found out already. According to her, Angel has been behaved, clean and out of trouble for two weeks. And cue the breaking news! It seemed that coincidentally during a turf war skirmish mentioned before, a third member had joined the fight: Angel Dust himself. <br/><br/>"Any idea where that area is?" Cael asked to the bar keep who had just handed him a second bottle.<br/><br/>" 'Bout two miles away from here. Why? You thinking about joining them?," the bartender asked the 'fallen' angel as he was cleaning an empty glass. <br/><br/>"Not exactly." With that said, Cael downed his second beer in three to four gulps and laid down thirty dollars for the guy. "That should about do it, as well as cover whatever <strong>she</strong> drank." Cael indicated with his head at the hyena demon sitting next to him, who was rather surprised that he would be a gentlemen to do so. "And as the leper said to the prostitute, 'keep the tip.'"<br/><br/>He stood up and made a little bow to Crymini. "Have a good day, Miss Crymini. It was nice talking to you. And thank you for your time. But right now, I need to go." He then added ominously, "I've got some work to do." But before that could happen, he had something to pick up first.</p>