Clearing out the Hero outpost was easier than Grim thought it would be. Other than a few imp casualties, courtesy of Stella and her disregard of where the initial hatch she had ripped open landed, there was no overall harm.

His new Hephaestus Breastplate and Hellfire Gauntlets had held up extremely well in combat as well. He still hadn’t infused any demons into his armor, as his lack of true demonic entities was limiting his ability to do so, but for this world with its lack of gods it seemed to be enough. At least for now. There were always the Class IV and Class V supers that he had first encountered. He theorized that, with enough proper equipment and a decent weapon, he could go toe to toe with them without a demonic infusion.

As the imps and Stella ransacked the base, he and Bag examined what was left of the control center. Grim had, unfortunately, completely wrecked the surveillance system when he knocked the door clean off its hinges. On the flip side of that misfortune, the servers themselves were still completely in one piece. Bag walked him through how to disconnect them and he passed them off to the imps with clear instructions not to damage them.

He wasn’t confident in those instructions, but imps were what he had to work with right now.

The loot from the outpost consisted of the servers, a small but complete armory of weapons and munitions, raw materials for base maintenance and repairs, and of course the supers bodies themselves. The combat super Grim had engaged in the hallway was, more or less, intact. He had plans for that one. Mostly to see if his ability to utilize energy could resurrect a dead person with an intact soul.

Letting go several of the heroes had been part of the plan as well. That Sandman had escaped would only serve to spread his chosen moniker among the Heroes and populace. Apparently if he was going to take over Elysium, and in turn the Republic, then he needed to be well known… and well feared.

Stella came into the remains of the command center. Nothing much was left inside at this point, even the bodies having been removed.

“Master,” she said stopping with a curtsey. “Everything here has been removed. Jeeves wills tart going through the data on those servers when they get back to our base,” the succubus reported. “I am a bit curious however, what are your plans for all the bodies we have been saving? I know you use the… materials for the imps. But we have far more organic mass than even is needed.”

Grim thought that question over for a moment. He was never inclined to share more than what was necessary. Not even with his demons. Bag… Bag was a different matter entirely, as they had a psychic link that went far deeper than with anyone else in his life. Except maybe his Father. However… Stella’s question was a good one.

“I am going to, eventually, create a Hell Spike. I have a strong feeling that wiping this outpost off the map will bring either heavy attention to our activities or complete abandonment of this region by the Heroes Guild,” Grim explained. “Either is a direct indication of preparation for a full out assault to wipe us off the map.”

Stella nodded thoughtfully, “So this Hell Spike, is it the one you explained to Tetra some time back? Why the need for bodies?”

“Creating a Hell Spike is a lot like creating an imp,” Grim replied, surprising her with an actual answer. He walked back out of the outpost, leaving the rest of the menial work to the imps. “Only you need a magnitude more material for even a small one. To be honest, I don’t know if I can even create one here in the first place. This universe is separated from the others by a veil so heavy I don’t know if I can pierce it.”

“But you are still going to try?” Stella guessed.

Grim nodded, “I am still going to try. The alternative is to try and create a Spawning Pit from scratch. Something I haven’t done before and would be insanely difficult to do. Even attempting that would, most probably, destroy the planet.”

The succubus found a way for her usually pale skin to become even more pale. The thought that the mere attempt at creating something, anything in fact, could destroy the entire world was terrifying to her.

As they headed outside to the street where the truck waited, Grim came to a sudden halt. Stella gracefully danced around her Master, ending up at his side. She could clearly see what gave him pause, however. There, watching the line of imps transfer goods to their truck, were three people. And they were clearly villains of some kind, based on their attire alone. However, they were not villains that either Grim nor Stella recognized.

As soon as Grim appeared, however, the trio made their way over slowly. They took particular care not to seem threatening or aggressive in any way, something very unusually for people who were usually violent at the drop of a hat. This told Grim and Stella that they wanted something. And that they wanted it bad enough they were willing to behave.

“Hey there scary man,” the middle villain said. He was dressed in thick a thick leather jacker with metal spikes coming off the shoulders. He was wearing ripped jeans, and two leather knuckle dusters with brass plating over the tops of them. The second villain was dressed much the same, while the third, a woman, was dressed in plain clothes.

“I’m Ripper. My friends here are Sweeper and Joan,” the man said, introducing the trio.

Grim cocked his head to one side, the plate that covered his face swirled with a fog like visual effect. “Joan? That hardly seems villainous. It’s the most normal name I’ve heard yet in fact,” he said to the plainly dressed woman next to the two leather clad villains.

Joan just shrugged, “I get that a lot, but I don’t really go in for the hype that most others do over names. Most of them are lame anyway,” she explained as the two villains next to her looked mildly hurt by her words.

“Interesting,” grunted Grim, “So you being the strongest of the three would make you the leader then right? Why is he talking?”

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The three tensed for a moment, then Joan laughed. “Yeah. You got us. I’m the leader, although I’m kind of curious as to how you figured out I was the strongest.”

“An ability, and I’m going to leave it at that,” Grim said bluntly. The woman just nodded her acceptance.

“We came here peacefully, and for a good reason. Whatever your answer to our offer we wont fight you unless you attack first,” Joan started off, making Grim more than a little curious about why they were here. “You ran into one of our Bosses when you first arrived here. Your brief encounter left a rather large impression on him.”

Grim frowned under his faceplate, and although no one could see his face he gave the distinct impression of being annoyed. “I met about half the supers in the city when I fell into this world. You’re going to have to be far more descriptive than that,” he said gruffly.

“Death. Death sent us,” Sweeper chipped in, getting a glare from Joan. But he only shrugged, “What? We were told to answer his questions. No questions asked,” he said.

Joan sighed and rubbed her face. “Right. Yeah, Death sent us here. He wants to hire you and bring you into-“ she started to say, but Grim cut her off.

“No,” he said simply.

Joan blinked, “You haven’t even heard his offer though? There’s a lot of money to be-“ she said, trying again. But Grim shut her down once more.

No,” he repeated.

Ripper laughed, “Told you. He isn’t a follower. If he was, we would have met him at the League, not on his turf.”

Joan reached into her pocket and took out a small rectangular piece of plastic. “Ok. I was warned you wouldn’t be interested in a job, but damn did you shut me down quick. Here’s a data stick. Its got some stuff on there that Death wants to share with you, agreements, concessions, that kinda thing. Stuff above me honestly. I may be upper Class III, but I’m still just a grunt.”

She tossed the stick to Grim. He snatched it out of the air and stuffed it into a pocket. Then he stood there, staring at the trio until they shifted uncomfortably. “You have thirty seconds to leave,” he deadpanned.

The trio took eleven seconds to clear out. Ripper was fast, and Sweeper turned out to be a speedster. But Joan simply took off into the air, breaking the sound barrier as she departed. This caused Stella to whistle in appreciation.

“She was more like a Class IV super. I highly doubt that flight is her only power. But I’ve never heard of her before. That makes me a bit more than just curious about where she came from,” said the succubus.

The duo got into the truck just as the imps finished up loading it. Rolling down the window Grim ordered, “Get everyone back to the base, and this time don’t track sewage inside or I'm going to track whats left of you back outside,” he growled to the nearest imp.

The demonic laborer saluted, then turned and began slapping other imps upside the head. It being issued orders directly apparently put it at the top of the pyramid. At least until it got jumped by a half dozen other imps and a large brawl ensued.

Grim sighed, imps were helpful but annoying. And now they had nearly thirty of the damn things helping out around the base. They had even excavated some new rooms for Tetra to use. With the amount of stuff they were bringing back they would need another warehouse quickly enough. Just another project to assign to the always bored demons. He needed smarter demons. Stronger demons. Demons who could fill a variety of roles and complete complex tasks.

He needed a fucking Hell Spike. If they even worked in this universe.

“It’s annoying when you get all technical, but I get it. It will probably work but not how we expect it to,” Grim summarized. He thought about his next question as Stella drove them back to the base. She glanced at him, but remained silent.

“What will it look like? Do you have any idea? Projections?” inquired Grim back after a moment of contemplation.

“Fuck me,” Grim said, now truly annoyed. This garnered another look from Stella, but the prudent succubus remained silent.

Grim hated alchemy and its rules. It was, more often than not, a kind of pseudo-science that was implemented in places where the System had either not been implemented yet. That, or it was being used to attempt to cheat the System, which never ended well. You played within the confines of the Systems rules, or you didn’t play at all. And that meant you were dead.

Alchemy was based around the concept of the transformation of matter from one form or state to another. It was, in many ways, a crude fore runner to the chemistry of more advanced worlds and nations. IN the case of the Hell Spike, however, Grim was certain that Bag meant that in order to bring something through the Spike he was going to need to offer an equivalent as a kind of sacrifice to power the transfer. That would be annoying.

And quite possibly very expensive.

They probably had enough biological matter to build the structure, but Grim still needed several components to complete the device that ripped open the dimensional veil between universes. His hope was that because he was not attempting to access another prime universe, but accessing a demi-plane between universes, that the cost would be less. That being said, he still needed a dozen pounds of gold, multiple high-quality gems, and an area large enough to actually build the device and operate it.

Now that the Hero outpost had been taken care of, it was time to move on to gathering more materials for the Hell Spike.

Grim turned to Stella, “When we get back I want you and Joe to get me a list of places where I can get gold and gems. Even if we have to rob a gods be damned bank,” he said.

The succubus looked mildly confused, probably because she didn’t understand why he wanted valuables, but nodded none-the-less. “Of course, master,” she replied. “Oh! Tetra began digging quite a large underground area for you. Something about needing a lot of space for something.”

Grim smiled. Tetra was turning out to be an invaluable addition to his team. Not only was she now beginning to develop weapons, armor, and devices for his budding evil enterprise, she had more than likely preempted his need for a massive space for the Hell Spike.

He grinned under his mask, Causing Stella to shiver next to him. While it wouldn’t be prudent to do anything today, or perhaps even tomorrow, he would be getting together with Joe immediately to plan on how to get those resources. The sooner they had a plan the better. Maybe Tetras fencing friend could help? Grim could think of a few things he could trade for what he needed.

Or they could just rob a bank. Those places were literally depositories for valuable items and goods. They would definitely have what he was looking for. Granted, there would be a lot of fighting involved. But you had to break a few bodies to build a Hell Spike… or something like that.

That would probably tie in well with him building his reputation within this region of the world. And after this most recent attack, keeping that reputation would be imperative to fulfilling his long-term goals. Yeah. Yeah that sounded like a much better idea. They would knock over a bank.

He hadn’t had this much fun in years.