Angels came down in righteous arcs, stabbing, slicing and eradicating any sinner they could get their hands on. Bodies littered the ground, but a fair few were still fighting, and several more had fled. It was all a frenzied blur to Joshua as he watched people being murdered left and right.

He clenched his fists, glowing with the power he had just earned. "Time to get serious."

"Time to get us, and your friends, to safety, moron." Katie ducked beneath a slicing spear. "Or we'll all be dead!" She dodged the next blow and slugged the angel in the face, making a break for it while it was stunned. "Come on, come on! Move, you shit!"

"Sorry! Christ." He shoved the angel with a sudden angry burst of energy, sending them tumbling across the street. "Oops?" There wasn't time to ponder it, so he scrambled after Katie, narrowly avoiding getting skewered. "Are we going the right way?"

She led the charge through the city streets, ducking past attacks and leaping over fallen sinners. "Yeah, yeah, just get your ass in gear." She grabbed a pole and swung sharply into a building. "Your place, oh man." She hopped over the bodies in the hallway. "Angels are already here."

"You're shitting me!" Joshua swore, but didn't stop moving, leaping up the stairs, four at a time.

The first angel he saw, he screamed with an animalistic fury that didn't match his adorably pudgy form. His fist erupted with the power he had only just discovered and he slammed it into the angel, causing the holy messenger to fly backwards, slamming into the opposite wall, and crumpling to the ground. "Guys! I'm coming!"

Katie popped her head up behind Joshua. "Damn, otter boy, you coulda told me you were holding out."

"I wasn't. It was all that training." He rushed down the hall, his clothes smoking from the energy that coursed through him. "I can feel them, uh, my friends, in here." He thumped his chest. "That means they're alive." He ducked back, narrowly avoiding a sword that cut a few hairs free of his chest and sliced his shirt.

With an angry growl, he pounced the angel and began beating them into the ground with senseless cries. "No!" He jumped up at a sound, reaching for the doorknob to his apartment, only for it to be cut off. "Hank? Winny?"

He kicked in the door, seeing them being crowded by two other angels. The angels looked back at the opening door. "Lookie there," taunted one with a smirk on their mask. "More sinners, come for execution."

Hank glared at the angels, but his lip curled to one side, almost a smile. "Knew you'd find some way to help out."

"It'll be over quick." Joshua drove a knee into the angel in front of him, forcing them back, but doing little real damage. "One way or the other."

Winny flipped from her place, claws first, sinking them deep into an angel's neck, dragging them to the ground. "Die, bastard!" The angel howled and wailed as it squirmed in their grip, still breathing despite the horrible gash in their neck.

They would have recovered, but Joshua found them first, stomping them with feet that flared with images of Winny with every smashing thud that crushed bones and flesh both. "Leave my friends alone!" The second angel took to flight, his wings sweeping Hank and Winny back with a powerful gust.

The angel descended with a fierce war cry, sword flashing. "You have the honor of dying in the name of God! For all of Heaven!"

Joshua caught it mid-swing, blood seeping down his hand. He winced and fell back with a hiss of pain, but he had stopped the strike. "H-honor?" He fumbled a leg forward, then the other, pushing up with a renewed surge of adrenaline. "What, what honor?" He clenched his bloody hands, raising them up in defiance. "I've seen the carpet of bodies you're leaving behind, helpless, sinners or not, cut down by the dozens. You call that honor?!" He snarled as he let out a bestial roar, grabbing the angel by the head. "I call that genocide!" He hauled them to the floor with a yell.

There was a sickening crunch as their skull impacted on the wood floor, and things became quiet, nothing moving but his friends, new and old.

Hank shook his head. "You don't gotta convince me. I hate all of 'em."

Winny raced forward, tears in her eyes as she squeezed Joshua. "I didn't want to say anything, but we're doomed."

Joshua held her close. "It's okay. We're together. We're okay. That's what matters." He released her to have a look outside. "Oh, um." Most of the angels he could see were flying upwards towards some portal in the sky. The great purge was ending, if only for a year.

Katie climbed over the mess to get into the room with a laugh. "Damn. Good work. I never got into the action, but that doesn't seem like something you can mess up on." She clicked her tongue and fired two finger guns at Joshua. "Check you out."

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Joshua was barely listening to her as he pulled Winny and Hank into a tight hug. "Thank goodness you two are okay!" He nearly jumped as Katie joined in the embrace, adding a back massage for good measure.

Hank gently pat Joshua on the back, a clear question on his face. "What was all that? How'd you rip through them when we could barely make them flinch?"

"Oh." The otter's tail lashed nervously. "I guess it's all the souls. They're helping me?" He rubbed behind his head. "I didn't do anything. I just... wanted you two to be okay." He hugged Winny tighter, leaning against Hank.

Winny began to peer at Joshua. "I appreciate the help." She pushed him back. "Souls? Explanations. We all need them." She looked past Joshua to Katie, who was already poking and searching the fallen angels. "You know about this?"

"Yeah, he has souls and they have powers." She held up the blade of the slain angel, then tapped it to their face. "These sell for good money. Be sure to pick 'em all up."

Joshua slowly walked to the kitchen, abandoning his clutching hug at last. "I'm glad you're all okay." He poured himself a tall glass of water as sirens played outside, the crisis winding down. "So, remember, I kinda have all your souls?" He smiled nervously. "Sorry?"

The trio stared at Joshua before Hank guffawed. "Damn. So that's it. The reason you're so weird, even by hell standards." He wiped his eyes as he chuckled. "You're not one of us, are you?"

Joshua drew back at that. "Of course I am! I'm your friend, Josh! Card buddy!" He rushed to the table, letting the class clatter to the ground behind him. He grabbed a handful of cards, wielding them almost as a shield. "We play every week?"

"I know." Hank let his hands drop to the table. "But you're also not." He raised a finger to thump Joshua in the chest. "You own us. Smiling and friendly Josh. Dopey Josh."

"Hey..."

Winny snickered softly. "He's not wrong, but here we are, with our souls—" She put her hands on her chest. "—in your hands." She spread them towards Joshua. "More literally than I thought. Look, if I had to pick someone around to have a punch when we needed, you'd be in the top three at least."

Katie turned around in the middle of hacking apart the corpse with a stolen blade. "Aww, that's so nice. I don't believe you at all, but that's so sweet. He's mine." She tossed the weapon onto a small pile of other things she'd found to sell. "You had him for, what, so many years on Earth, then you got with that jerk." She pointed at Hank. "Yeah, Josh is available, and this ass is his." She hiked a thumb at her own rump. "Calling dibs."

"Look, it's not like that." Joshua picked up his chair and set it on a patch of less bloodied floor. "I just, you know, I want to keep you all safe, as friends." He flumped down onto the chair with a sigh, only to find Katie climbed up onto his lap, firing a deadly set of bedroom eyes at him.

"Stop that." He tried to divert the situation with tickles instead, which did get her laughing. It was nice even, hearing the gentle sounds of laughter instead of the course noises of her usual foul mouthed diatribes. "You're a friend."

"This is why you died a virgin." Katie slid down to her feet. "I figured, otter, you were a furry or something. Those are usually freaky in bed. Nope, you're one of the cute fuzzballs that doesn't even know what sex is. Figures." She crossed her arms, eyes on the wall as she pouted. "Well, if that's how it's going to be, I'll just have to keep finding more and more of an excuse to just, you know, stick around, until you start begging for some of this." She patted her rear with a playful wiggle of the hips.

Joshua nodded slowly, just to catch up with a jerk. "Hey!" But he didn't angrily order her to leave, a fact she noticed with a snicker. Instead, he looked to his other friends. "I won't let you get hurt. Why the hell do they allow this?!"

Hank snorted at the question. "It's hell. It's amazing we aren't all enjoying spa day in lava baths every day. Once a year jumpscares are light compared to that."

"I, for one, look forward to it." Winny paced about the room with her hands on her hips. "It gives me something to work on, something to distract from..." She shuddered visibly.

Josh caught the hesitation. "Winny? What are you doing when you're not here, playing some cards?"

She scowled at that. "Surviving." Her eyes looked towards the ceiling. "I used to have dreams, you know, even after it all. Even after death, I was a happy person." She shook her head. "But Hell has a habit of reminding you just how fucked you and everyone around you really is." Her claws came out to drag lightly across the wall, drawing thin lines into the already ruined surface. "If only you had a spare soul, I'd take it."

Joshua slumped in his chair. "I have a few." He scratched at his cheek. "I don't know how to pass them though? They're not like coins." He held out his hands, but could see nothing too obvious about it. "I just know I have them. I also know I care about you guys. I don't want you doing things that get you hurt."

Katie groaned, rubbing her face. "Ugh, this is why you're a virgin."

Winny barked a laugh. "You keep saying that." She raised a brow at the imp. "You that eager to fix that for him?"

"If he let me." Katie shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time I took a cock in either end to get in a better position, and he's adorable enough to probably stick around afterwards."

Joshua leaned against his knees. "Okay, wait, really, just stop." He let out a breath to calm himself. "Can we focus on how we just almost died, again? The first time was more than enough, thanks." He rubbed his arms, remembering the chill that had seized him. "And we're all still alive." He let out a deep sigh of relief. "Thank heavens for that."

Katie stuck her tongue out. "It's Hell. Nothing about this place is heaven. And, technically, I'm alive, and you're not." She snickered at the others in the room. "Bunch of dead sinners."

Joshua slowly raised a paw to wave at the others. "But we're okay." He pointed at himself. "I feel alive, right now." He hopped to his feet, tail swaying. "I'm fuzzier than I used to be." He twirled in place with a little laugh. "I'm okay with that. I still have my friends. Life's worth living. Isn't that all you need?"

He faced the others with a bright smile. Winny broke the growing silence by punching Joshua on the shoulder. "You shouldn't give sappy speeches while you're still splattered with the blood of angels. It's trippy."