“What the hell took you so long.” I grunted, doing my best to keep the smile off my face.

Becca shrugged, “Blame the pretty angel lady, she had to bend a whole bunch of rules to get me here. Apparently I'm still supposed to be dead, but she didn't think you could do much without having me around. You know, people really don't have a lot of faith in you, boss.”

“I don't blame them.”

“Yeah, your plans don't generally work out, huh?”

I sighed, “No, I guess they don't.”

“Er, not that I blame you for getting me killed and all that, boss.” Becca added quickly, “I mean, it wasn't that bad really. And uh, I'm back now, and you're still awesome in my books.”

I chuckled, “Thanks, Becca.”

“So like, what's going on?” my secretary continued, looking around the place for the first time, “And where the hell are we? Fuck, I should have asked the Angel lady to tell me shit before I got dropped here.”

“Uh, extremely long story short, Sara's gonna destroy the universe, and we gotta stop her before the army of demons upstairs kill all of our friends.”

“Um...”

“So help me up so we can free the ancient Aztec stoner god from that stasis field so we can start up the inter-dimensional machine and get to another reality.”

“What the actual fuck...” Becca exclaimed, shaking her head, “I mean, all I did was die for a few days and what happens? The universe is literally going to end, there's like, armies of demons invading the world, and now we're gonna travel through dimensions with Aztec gods. Boss, I'm not gonna lie, but your life must have been seriously shitty before you met me.”

She looked down on me with that same gorgeous grin, and offered me a hand. I took it, and pulled myself up. I was still feeling like wet garbage, but just being near Becca gave me energy.

It's good to have her back.

I smiled, and ruffled the girl's multicoloured hair, “Well, I was in Hell before, so I guess I didn't have much of a life until you came along.”

“Well, have no fear boss, 'cause I'm back now!” She beamed as she gave me a big bear hug, “And I'm not going anywhere, any time soon. It seems my boyfriend becomes a complete mess without me around, and my boss is even worse. I definitely can't have that happening.”

I chuckled, “Then that boyfriend of yours must be one lucky fellow. But come on, there's time for fun and games later, we got a universe to save.”

“Ugh, there's always something to ruin the fun...” Becca mumbled. “But I guess we gotta prevent the end of existence and all that. I seriously deserve a raise after this.”

We made our way towards Mike's frozen body. He was stuck in some kind of clear capsule thing, kind of like what you'd see astronauts use in those sci-fi movies when they want to sleep. I didn't see buttons to press that would release the god, or even a way for him to get out really.

“So uh, how do we get the dude out of that?”

I shrugged, “I guess we try breaking it?”

Becca took a couple of swings at the thing with her sword, but like my earlier attempt, the blows didn't seem to do anything to the glass.

“Er... it's not working, boss.”

I sighed; it looks like I'll have to do this the hard way.

“Ok, give me a minute to rest up. I'll try burning the damn thing to the ground.”

I sat down, and concentrated on getting as much energy as I could from Lucifer's ring, and Uriel's necklace. It was slow going, with how limited my connection to Heaven and Hell was, coupled with just how completely exhausted I've gotten, but after a few minutes of doing nothing to channelling energy, I was mostly healed, and I had just enough juice left to summon a tiny bit of Banefire.

“Ok,” I finally said, “I think I'm good to go.”

“Cool, boss... but uh, you might want to hurry it up.”

“Huh?”

Becca pointed towards the severed body of Sathanus, and I understood what she meant. The damn Demon Prince was still regenerating. Hell, even as I speak, I saw that the two halves of his body were inching every closer towards each other, and the left side of his body was already starting to fill up.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me. What the fuck is the guy made out of?” I said, “Becca, you mind slowing him down for a while?”

She ran towards the regenerating demon, and started hacking away, “Way ahead of ya, boss. I dunno how long I can keep this up though.”

Shit, it seems like Sathanus was healing faster and faster as time passed, and I doubt Becca could keep pace with him for long. I cursed under my breath, and forced as much Banefire as I could into existence. I willed it into a fine point directly on top of my finger, and started the slow process of sawing away at Mike's glass container.

And holy shit was the going slow. I could only keep a very tiny stream of Banefire going, and Frankenstein's damn container was thick. It took at least fifteen minutes just to get a small cut across the glass, and at this going, Sathanus would revive before I could ever get the thing opened.

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“Boss...” Becca said, her voice a little higher than usual, “The creepy demon zombie's real close to getting back up... Can you hurry it up a tad bit before we get our brains eaten?”

“I don't think he actually eats brains.”

“Seriously, boss?” Becca said, looking my way. The glare she gave me made iceburgs look toasty.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, this is not the time for jokes.” I answered, “Just... give me a bit longer.”

“I hope you really mean that boss, 'cause zombie dude's not gonna wait, even if he doesn't eat brains.”

I gave up trying to saw the machine apart, but I focused my attention on the small incision I made into the glass instead. I picked up my sword I threw earlier, and pried the thing into the small cut.

I took a deep breath, and hoped that what I was going to do next isn't going to kill Mike. I braced myself, and willed a very small amount of Banefire into the tip of the blade where it was hitting the glass. I willed another tiny amount of Heaven Fire into the same spot, and waited for the magic to happen. The second the two opposing forces touched, a vortex of energy was released, and the glass container, along with Mike himself, was blow into pieces.

Well, technically only the machine was destroyed, Mike looked a little more haggard than usual, but at least all of his limbs were still on him. Sure the limbs were a tad scorched, and he flew at least a dozen feet before landing on his head... but he was in one piece.

“Holy shit boss!” Becca exclaimed, “What the fuck did you do?”

“I took a short cut.”

Becca looked back at the mess I made, and her expression turned to worry when she saw the lifeless looking Mike on the ground. “Uh, is the dude even alive?”

“He's a god.” I answered, “He should be fine. I think. Probably...”

I poked Mike with the flat side of my sword a few times, and after the fifth jab the unconscious god jolted awake.

“See.” I said, “Told you he's ok.”

Mike got up slowly, and nestled his head on his hands. He looked like he was nursing the biggest hangover in existence, but I guess landing on your head after an explosion will do that to a person.

“What the hell happened, man?” He said, his voice hoarse, “I feel like I ate one too many brownies. Holy shit, am I still tripping out?”

Becca raised an eyebrow and asked, “Er... that's a god, boss? Seriously?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Dude, what happened?” Mike asked again, still looking a little shaken.

“You don't remember being kidnapped, and turned into a popsicle?”

“Uh... no?”

I shook my head, “Well, that's basically what happened; you were put in a freeze after you finished the machine for Frankenstein, and we had to rescue your ass. There's also a small army of demons upstairs.”

“Holy shit man.” Mike said, “That sounds pretty awful. I guess it could be worse.”

“Oh,” I added, “Your mom's also here, and she's pretty pissed off.”

Mike's face turned ashen, “You're kidding, right? I can handle an army of demons, but please tell me my mom's not seriously here. You're screwing with me, right?”

“Nope, but you're just in time to save the universe, so I guess that counts for something.”

“Oh god... mom's here... fuck man! That's like, worse than the end of the universe! I'm so screwed! That woman's crazy!”

“Well, just do a good job fixing things here and I'll put in a good word.”

The god immediately turned towards Frankenstein's machine, and started tinkering with the thing. He was moving at a frantic rate, and after just a few minutes, he got the thing to turn on somehow.

“The things beat up a bit, but it still works.” he said, “Uh, I got you as close as I could to the crazy girl on the other side, so uh, all you guys gotta do is go through it now.”

“Boss...” Becca interrupted, “Zombie dude's getting back up now...”

“Right.” I said as I dragged Mike over to Sathanus' body, “Mike, meet a demon prince of Hell, or at least what's left of him. He's probably going to completely regenerate soon, and he'll be angry when he gets up again. I'll leave it to you to keep up from killing everyone.”

“Uh...”

“And Becca,” I continued, now dragging my secretary away from the demon, “we're going through that portal.”

“Got it boss,” She answered, “and uh, good luck with the zombie demon, Mike.”

“Thanks,” he answered, “I think.”

And with that I half shoved Becca into the milky white portal, and rushed in after her myself.