Grim sprinted as fast as he could through the sewer tunnels. That insane fucker had collapsed a building on top of him with little to no warning. Thankfully his Hellfire Armor empowered his abilities to use Hellfire itself and he was able to burn a hole clean through the floor and into the waste disposal system underneath the building.
“Shut it. That thing in there was no God, but it was damn near as strong as one. Both my powers and abilities are diminished. You were insanely fucking lucky to survive that transition. We both were,” he growled back mentally.
He sprinted around a turn in the sewer and made a massive leap over Rat and Stella, who were both just standing there. They had, apparently, been waiting for him much closer than he had thought they would.
“You two, get to it! We need to get back to the lair and plan our next steps,” he ordered as he took off down the tunnel. The two looked at each other in amusement, then took off after their boss.
Contrary to the research that they had done prior to attacking the bank, the sewer system did not extend all the way into the industrial district. At least, not in any way that was traversable. The trio would have to come above ground near the edge of the financial district in order to finish their retreat back to the entrance of the lair.
After nearly an hour of traversing cat walks, wading through stagnant, stinking water, and struggling to walk through fast waist deep water, they arrived at the manhole that they had been looking for. Hopefully there were no heroes waiting in ambush. That was highly unlikely, but Grim was not one to take chances at this point. He was certain at this point there were telepathic supers on both sides.
Climbing the ladder, he cracked open the manhole cover to check the area. The exit seemed to come out into a dark, dead end alleyway. Not seeing anyone, Grim pushed the cover aside and climbed up into the open air.
“Fucking fresh air, about time,” he grumbled.
Rat nimbly jumped out of the sewer, pushing himself off the top most rung and into the air. He landed with a soft thump on the asphalt covered ground. Stella was more reserved, slinking out of the hole with a subtle grace while replacing the manhole cover.
“Where did Tetra say she was going to park the truck?” Grim asked, turning to Rat.
The Anubis demon snapped his fingers as several rodents scampered out from under a nearby dumpster and up his arms. Chirping softly, they wiggled their whiskers and made some noises. Then one of the rat pointed outside of the alleyway.
Rat nodded at his little spies. “My little pals here say that a truck matching the description of the one we parked at the sewer plant is across the street. It’s covered in… debris? Camouflage? Might be cardboard. My rodent friends aren’t sure how to describe it,” he explained. “But it is super nearby Boss.”
Grim nodded. “We have to cross one street. So naturally that’s going to be where everything goes wrong,” he grunted. “I can already tell there are several powered individuals here. They can’t hide from me.”
While working on a way to prevent ambushes, having been sick of them at this point, Bag had developed a way to sense powers nearby through the energy they radiated. The stronger the power, the longer the distance the demonic assistance could detect them.
Grim passed on the information. Then, without waiting for the other two, he stepped out into the street. However nothing happened. There was no confrontation, no attack, and no shouts of cheesy one liners that he had come to expect from the annoying supers of this world. They just seemed to be observing Grim and his minions. Now only one question remained.
Should he confront them, or simply go onward?
“Get the fuck out here,” he growled loudly, stopping in the middle of the street. “You’re all fucking annoying, and I have no patience for this right now. I want a shower and a meal. So hurry the fuck up and come out so I can kill you all, or piss the fuck off.”
Grim shrugged. “Something, something, something, buried bodies,” he grumbled, eliciting a soft laugh from Stella.
The trio headed across the street and found a large pile of garbage and cardboard. After a few minutes of removing the items, they uncovered the old truck that Joe had used initially to get them to the sewage processing plant. Tetra had made several modifications to the vehicle, including armor and an upgraded engine and some body work. What came out the other side of her tinkering looked more like some third world technical missing its gun than anything else.
They piled in and, without prompting, the vehicle started up. “Hello there Boss!” Tetra’s cheery voice said over the radio, “I will drive you on back, so feel free to relax and enjoy the ride. You will find refreshments in the center console and glovebox. I wasn’t able to do much else for storage. I also have a surprise for you!”
“Surprise? I’m not one for surprises,” Grim grunted out in his typical killjoy fashion. “Why don’t you just tell me now and I won’t sick the imps on you.”
Tetra laughed, the radio producing static due to her high-pitched voice. “Boss the imps love me, and I find them pretty adorable. I haven’t had any issues with them yet,” she said back with a grin in her voice. “But fine. I can understand not liking surprises, even if they are good. Between the imps, Joe, and I, we got the lift installed and working. You wont have to go through the waste plants tunnels anymore.”
“Thank fuck for that!” cheered Rat. “I already smell like dog shit. Pun intended, because the fur doesn’t help.”
Stella smiled at that. “I think we could all use a deep clean,” she said, batting her eyelashes at Grim. “Maybe we can finally see under that helmet? I can help you get nice and clean Master,” she purred.
Grim rolled his eyes under his helmet. To date, he had not removed the thing. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, it was that he refused to. Doing so left him immensely vulnerable, and if Murphey was going to kick him in the nuts then he would wait for him to be his most vulnerable. So he would put that off for as long s possible.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Tetra, did you get the pit dug? I want to work on getting the Hell Spike built as soon as possible,” Grim said while completely ignoring the succubus. She pouted as he continued speaking, “Make sure that the ground is firm, reinforced, and that all the bodies we have collected are stored nearby.”
Tetra was silent for a bit, and when she spoke there was clear hesitation in her voice. “Boss… we dug out the room like you wanted, but we found something else. There was a decent sized cavern under the laboratory portion of the lair, but the real find was that when we cleared the rubble at the back we realized that it was a large network of caves.”
“And how is that an issue?” Grim asked, annoyed she didn’t just come out and say what she meant to.
Clearing her throat, the winged cat demon clarified, “The caves are full of beasts.”
Stella gasped and Rat looked nervous at that revelation. The two obviously were aware of something that Grim was not. He had heard of beasts before, hell the Rattlers and their little mutated leader had been considered some. But he didn’t know a lot about them. Even Jeeves archives were surprisingly scarce, leading him to believe that they were a recent evolution… maybe even a result of tinkering by Mr. R and his siblings.
“Why is everyone so surprised? I need information and context here,” grumbled Grim.
Rat swallowed and said, “Boss, beasts are… they are similar to people with powers. But worse. They are engines of destruction that need entire super teams to put down. To put one down that is. Whenever one shows up near Elysium the Heroes and Villains team up to take them down. With no funny business. That even includes the independents and vigilantes. They are that bad.”
Considering Grim was fairly certain that the two sides were working together under the umbrella of someone else, that must seem amazing to an outside observer. However, the fact that even third party supers including villains and vigilantes got involved made him rethink about just how south this could go.
“How many are we talking here? Five? Ten? A couple dozen?” Grim asked, genuinely curious and more than a bit worried.
Tetra was silent for a while, until Stella prompted her to talk, “Say something already. If its that bad we will need to move regardless and notify the Hero’s Guild and League of Villains.”
“Three or four hundred,” Tetra muttered. “But they are all asleep. In suspended animation? I’m not sure how to describe it. Maybe hibernation is a better term. Whatever is keeping them asleep they didn’t budge a muscle when my drones went in to scout out the area. On the other hand, when I got within ten feet of the break in the cavern they began to stir.”
Grim sighed, “Seal it off. We can address it later. I need to make the Hell Spike before anything else derails our plans. I have the gems for it. And the power source,” he said.
Rat and Stella looked at one another, confused. They knew that Grim had stolen the gems he needed but they had no idea about a power source. Maybe more souls?
He caught the confusion on their faces and simply said, “I will bring you up to date later. Just know we have the energy to complete the Hell Spike.”
The rest of the ride was made in silence. They were all tired, dirty, and hyper aware that they could be attacked at any point in time. With both the Guild and, apparently, the League hunting them they were more than likely considered independents than actual villains. Perhaps even vigilantes. Although when Mr. R decided it was time to leave Grim had no illusions about how chaotic everything was going to get.
The truck made a sharp turn into what seemed to be some kind of gravel processing plant. The rough road jolted him out of his thoughts, even as he realized they were no where near the processing plant. Tetra had said that she had finished another way in though…
The truck rolled up to what appeared to be, at least to his untrained eye, a large rust covered shipping container. Roughly sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, it was quite large. Large enough for a dozen or so vehicles of moderate size anyway.
The front of the container opened on silent hinges and the remote controlled truck drove inside. The door shut behind them with an ominous click, locking them inside.
“Tetra cackled, “Fools! You’ve fallen for my trap! Welcome to your doom!”
Grim crossed his arms in the dark, his eyes burning crimson through the mask. “Tetra, get us down into the base where I can shower or I am going to tie you down and give the imps feathers.”
The winged cat demons swallowed could be heard over the radio, “Got it Boss. One transport coming right up.”
Small floor lights activated, illuminating the space. The floor they had parked on turned out to be a platform, and it slowly descended into the darkness. Once they were several dozen feet down another platform slid shut over them, giving the illusion that the container on the surface was just that. A container.
The platform continued slowly downward for some time before jolting softly to a stop. A tunnel with several small lights in the walls stretched out before them. Jerking forward, the truck drove off the platform and into the tunnel. The ride was rough, as the tunnel was unfinished, but Grim could see imps along the way diligently working to expand and finish the underground entrance. Honestly, he was impressed they had done so much in such little time.
The imps carved out the raw stone from the walls, using Hellfire to melt, compact, and reinforce them. They then took small round electronic lights and pressed them into the cooling walls. This provided enough light for the team of demonic workers to move down to the next spots and repeat the process.
The ground itself was rough and bumpy, showing that Tetra had focused on construction and stability over finishing the aesthetic values of the tunnel. Grim approved. Function over form was a key tenant to success. Pretty could always come later after effectiveness was achieved. All too soon the truck pulled into a very large unfinished cavern. Grim could see when Tetra was excited to find this place. There was enough room in here for a small town.
Closest to him a team of imps were working on the floor, making it smooth. Other teams were building support pillars out of the rock they had excavated, melting them and sculpting them into place with Hellfire wrapped around their hands. One side of the cavern had an elevator, which Grim assumed led to the labs above them. The other side had the makings of a massive fortification. He could only assume that was where the entrance to the beast caves were.
The center of the cave was piled high with all the organic matter that Tetra could find. From bodies and discarded food to what raw waste could be recovered from the sewer plant. Anything and everything was heaped into a bowl at the center of the cavern. Grim nodded in appreciation, it was enough to work with.
The trio got out of the truck and headed up the elevator into the labs. Tetra met them at the top.
“So Boss, is that place big enough for one of your scary spike constructs?” asked the curious demonic genius. “I really want to see you build something. Really, really bad,” she admitted enthusiastically.
Grim nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Sit down. I’m going to go clean up, then we can begin construction on the first Hell Spike. We should have enough matter down there. Good job collecting it all,” he said gruffly.
Tetra nodded enthusiastically, then froze. “Wait, the first Hell Spike? You plan on making more of them?”
Grim stared at her for a moment incredulously, then remembered he was on a world where literally no one knew anything about other universes or realms.
“Yeah. Usually each Hell Spike connects to a particular realm. There is no such thing as one of the constructs connecting to all realms. Its not a fucking phone. It’s a one way gate that allows access to areas to recruit denizens of other realities,” he explained.
Rat blinked slowly, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. “So Boss, where are you gonna be connecting it to?” he wondered.
Grim smiled under his helmet and that seriously uncomfortable feeling washed over everyone in the room. Even the imps present shivered. “My first connection will be to what many realities call the first layer of the underworld, the cavernous realm of Inferno.”
“Ah great, we get to go to Hell. That’s wonderful,” muttered Joe as he walked in and caught the tail end of the conversation.
Grim shrugged. “There isn’t any Hell like home,” he replied.
No one had an argument for that.