Imps and earls

Torque stood in front of the smouldering groove carved into the earth, gazing at the destruction he had caused to the house.

After a minute of observing, Torque swivelled round to the girl wordlessly, and began frantically scanning the girl.

"I'm fine you big metal lug" the girl said giving him a knock on the chest, " the question is, did you remember to collect the rest of the pyres, can't leave all of them lying out in a field somewhere"

Torque turned away, not looking the girl in the eyes.

"Torque" the girl said in an annoyed tone.

At this, Torque turned to her, his hands full of candles, his eyes burning brightly and the corners of his grating raised slightly, his form of a smile.

"Ok, ok, you did good, now it's probably time to get out of here, can't imagine they wont follow us after that, really, just smushing the bustard would do"

Torque gave her a concerned look.

"Dad will catch up, he's always been good at tracking, now, to the wagon"

About ten minutes later, Torque had been strapped up to the front of a wagon raring to go, while the girl sat lazily in the back.

"High ho silver" The girl called, "away"

With the command, Torque began to pull the cart.

Starting off in a slow lumbering fashion, before picking up speed, eventually breaking out into a full sprint, speeding across the wastes like lightning, the small cart, rocking and crashing as it went, the single passenger giggling manically the whole way through.

...

About five hours later, just as the suns of hell dipped below the horizon, a creature approached the house.

It looked like a massive wolf, though due to the little light, it was hard to make out its finer features.

Its size was the most noticeable aspect about it, as it easily dwarfed the small shack, though as it approached, it began to shrink to a more reasonable size.

It gazed at the groove in the ground for a minute, then the hole in the side of the shack, and the clear lack of inhabitants.

It slowly trotted into the shack, moving swiftly through the small rooms in a slightly frantic manner.

After a fruitless search, it raised its snout and began to sniff the air, letting its other senses guide it, eventually finding some barely visible tire tracks.

"Those damned kids" it muttered in gruff voice, before bolting after the tracks, not noticing the small black raven hiding in the shadows of the rafters.

...

The next day, another figure visited the shack.

From the shadows cast by the first rising sun, an ivory plague doctors mask emerged, the crystal lenses and gold accents glinting in the morning light.

The mask rose, the shadows seemingly following it, becoming a large imposing figure.

The figure slowly surveyed the broken down shack, clicking his tongue in disgust.

A small squawk caught the figures attention.

A crow flapped hurriedly down from the rafters, landing at the figures feet, hoping about in excitement.

The shadows parted slightly to reveal a gloved hand, white with gold markings, and claws poking through on each of its four finger.

The figure bent down to stroke the crow softly, before offering its hand as a perch.

The crow hoped on with a cheerful chirp, waiting for the figure to raise the bird to its face, allowing the crow to nuzzle the mask.

"What news?" The figure asked with a raspy drawl.

The crow began bobbing excitedly, starting to caw a facsimile of demonic.

"Big... Girl... North... Wolf... Late... Follow... Imps... Attack... Pyres... Taken"

"Hmmmm, troubling" The figure mused, "but they where just imps, as long as there weren't too many, it should be fine"

"Eighty" the crow squawked in reply.

"That is troubling, no matter, we will catch up soon enough, return for now, I will send you if I have need"

The figure slowly retracted his hand, pulling the crow into his shadowy folds.

Glancing to the north, the figure let out a small sigh.

"I wonder, how will you escape my grasp this time, Lily"

...

Torque had been pulling the cart nonstop for about a day, he wasn't tired though, and he wasn't bored, he could run for all eternity and never get bored.

The wind whipping his metallic body, feeding the flames in his heart, it felt great, this was his happiest state, or it would be, if not for the living headache he was dragging around.

"Hey, you're running weird" Lily moaned, kicking Torque in the back, "the cart's rocking to much, run better"

Torque looked at the harness around his chest, it would be easy, just heat up slightly and burn through the rope, he could tell dad it was an accident.

If only.

Torque eased the pace a little, bringing himself to a light jog, seemingly placating Lily.

Though Torque made sure to keep up the pace, after all, there was a lot of hellfire being used just out of view.

Suddenly, Torque felt two arms wrap around him.

"Hey" Lily said in a soothing tone, "how about you stop the cart for a minute, so we can have some alone time"

Without hesitating, Torque reached over his shoulder and popped Lily's head like an overfilled balloon.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked from the back of the cart, "honestly, I wonder if your brain is even in there some times"

Torque shrugged in response, moving on in silence.

...

In a small cave, only a few metres away, a pair of demons sat, arguing in the quietest shouts they could muster.

"Well clearly it was your shitty hellfire not making a convincing enough illusion" on demon whispered in frustration.

"They are brother and sister you dumb fuck, I just wasted my hellfire" the other demon retorted in indignation.

"I thought you said succubus weren't into that weird shit"

"I only found out after I used my hellfire, I'm not a prophet, they didn't say anything about it in the wanted posters"

The two demons where polar opposites, one looked almost identical to a human apart for two ram horns on the side of her head, while the other demon was a hulking mass of pure red muscles, his face a mangled falsification of a face.

"Well" the female demon said with frustration etched in every syllable, "guess we just got to go at it the old fashioned way"

...

It had been about ten minutes since the illusion, but the people targeting them hadn't made a move, worrying.

Torque shrugged off the feeling, either they ran, or where biding their time for the next strike, either way, it didn't matter.

After getting a taste of a demons hellfire, Torque was always able to identify it, without fail, the illusions wouldn't work.

"Hey, heeey, Mr broody and moody"

Torque turned around with an irritated glare.

"Firstly, the sas is not needed, secondly, we should probably stop the cart, after all, we have two new guests"

As torque came to a screeching halt, a figure came crashing down from the sky like a red meteorite, creating a massive crater in front of the cart.

"As I always say, we should just cut out all the needless mind games, and skip straight to the stick up"

"Well I like the mind games, gets the guys nice and spooked before the kill"

The two figures spoke with a southern drawl, one gruff and gravely, as though they smoked twenty packs a day, and were trying for twenty one, while the other was dainty and feminine, with a soothing tone that melted in the ears.

The first demon was a massive hulking brute, standing around nine foot tall, its skin was fire red, and its face was a contorted and mangled mask of horror, more a loose assortment of lacerations with sensory organ rammed in haphazardly.

It wore a plain white shirt that threatened to burst from containing his bulging muscles, a pair of simple black trousers with braces stretching to their limit over his broad shoulders, and a small fedora on his head, all with a few patches of red.

The other demon looked almost identical to a human woman, though an unnaturally pretty one, her skin was unblemished and flawless, her hair was a golden blond and fell all the way down to her waist, the only thing not human about her where two curled ram horns protruding from the side of her head.

The demon wore a rather tight fitting, cowgirl outfit, with a plain blue shirt with most of the top buttons undone, a black waist coat, and blue denim jeans that accentuated all of her curves, though unlike her partner, her suit was completely stainless, and immaculately well kept.

Torque began to undo the harnesses attaching him to the cart, he was itching for a fight.

"Say sugar" the female demon drawled from her perch on her partners shoulder, "you wouldn't be willing to hand yourselves over to little old me, save us all some trouble"

"I do not feel comfortable around someone whose into what you're into" Lily retorted in a heartbeat.

"Oh please, I had no idea you where siblings, I can assure you I meant nothing by it" the demon was calm externally, but internally, she was sweating bullets.

Only the target should be able to see the illusion caused by her hellfire, so how was she able to know what she had done.

No, it was just bait, she couldn't have properly seen the illusion, just made an educated guess from the residuals.

"But Banie, I thought-" the big demon started.

"Quite Clad, your better seen not heard" Banie said giving Clad a small knock to the top of his head.

"So, you two finished your armature comedy sketch or will we have to suffer through any more of your lovers spat?" Lily asked with faux innocence.

"Now now dear, we're just getting to know each other" Banie drawled, taking time to move to a resting position, before shooting past Torque and heading straight at Lily, "let's have a personal chat, just the two of us alright"

Torque swivelled round at break neck speed to grab the Banie, only to grasp thin air, an illusion.

Before he could react, he found the back of a sturdy fist firmly planted in the side of his face, sending him rocketing across the plains, slamming into the side of a cliff with a reverberating crash.

"You take the big one" Banie said, hoping off Clad's massive shoulders, "I got the girl"

"Right-o" Clad roared with a smirk, dashing off to meet his foe.

"You'll regret doing that" Lily sneered with a grimace.

"Oh sugar" Banie replied with a smirk, "the only regret I'm gonna have is having to split the reward"

...

Torque picked himself out of the rubble with a casual air, flicking loose debris off his metal frame as his rose.

"So, is this what you traded your body for?" a booming roar came from directly in front of Torque, prompting him to cover were his ears would be, not that he had any though, making it a useless act.

"You would trade the greatness and potential of flesh and bone for the frail fragility of metal?" Clad roared, flexing in multiple positions as he spoke, "gaze upon the image of... of, of... of"

Clad froze mid monologue, snapping his fingers in frustration, unable to find the word he was looking for.

In response, Torque simply flexed his arm in response, some form of muscle seemingly bulging.

Clad froze for a moment, before a massive grin split his face.

"A man after my own heart, screw all the fancy pants crap, our fists can do the talking"

With that, the two ran full pelt at each other, neither showing any sign of slowing of stopping, fist raised in preparation.

They both threw their fists in unison, not bothering to block or dodge in anyway, Torque even made sure Clad was close enough to hit him.

As their fists connected with the others face, a resounding explosion of sound erupted around them as they where both flung back.

 Torque slammed his feet into the ground, tracking two large grooves as he came to a sudden halt.

Clad was launched off the ground after the hit, forcing him to claw at the earth to prevent himself from flying off into the sunset.

"YEAH, WOO" Clad whooped and hollered in glee, a trickle of blood coming down from what Torque assumed was his nose, "your good I'll give you that, but we're just starting"

...

Lily quickly backed away through the plains, trying her best to avoid every attack that was thrown her way.

Banie laughed maniacally as she chased after the young demon.

"What's wrong sugar, all hot air?"

It wasn't that Lily was at a major physical disadvantage, far from it, both demons where both equal in terms of raw strength, no, it was these god damned illusions.

Every single attack would have at least three false duplicates, and Lily was getting tired of it.

Suddenly, Banie shot forward at an odd angle, splitting into six.

Lily decided to take a gamble and ran right at one of the Banies, throwing a strong jab at her face, and only finding air.

"Aw, too bad sugar"

Lily immediately threw a desperate kick at where the voice came from, pleased to see Banie about to get kicked in her smug face.

Only for the illusion to dissipate.

"Sorry sweetie" Banie gloated, delivering a devastating blow to Lily's stomach, "you looked so happy, I just had to take that away from you"