Grim had given precise instructions to the imps and Tetra on just what they were to do. Tetra was definitely not a fighter, but she was more than capable of manipulating the large industrial equipment within the factory. The imps, while also not meant to be purely offensive, were much stronger than the feline demon. He had them ready to surprise their soon to be guests. They had their tasks. Rat had yet to return however, and he had no idea where Solaria had fucked off to. He would find her soon enough though and ensure her loyalty.

It only took a few hours for reinforcement supers to arrive. And they arrived in force.

Floating down to the floor in front of him were four supers. Two more speedsters showed up on foot, coming to a stop in formation next to the lead, shining white hero.

“Oh, hello there. Retribution, right? It’s good to finally chat with you now that you aren’t, you know, trying to murder me out of hand. Kill many innocents lately? Seems to be a bad habit of yours if you ask me,” quipped Grim with a murderous smile.

The massive immaculate hero frowned as he took in the situation. “You again. I was positive Death had hunted you down by now. This was, honestly, the last place I expected you to be,” he said, unhappy with the turn of events. “When those two morons reported in that someone had killed Arbalest with his own arrow, I figured there would be a larger threat.”

Grim burst out laughing, “He used a bow… but you called him Arbalest?” he gasped between hoots. “You guys have the fucking stupidest names.”

That prompted frowns from most of the heroes in front of him, the sole exception being a woman on the end who suddenly collapsed. One of the speedsters flashed over to her, rolling her onto her back. She wasn’t breathing, her eyes having melted directly into her skull through pure psychic force.

Bag sniffed with utter disdain.

Grim had the sudden urge to rub his face in exasperation at Bag’s terrible, horrible, no good and downright nasty puns… but he resisted. Looking at Retribution, who was now beet red with fury he said with a grin, “Ah… your psychic seems to have had a mental break. Happens sometimes.”

“Jericho, Mab, kill this asshole. We can turn his body over to sciences later for examination,” the not so heroic hero ordered. “Thunder, Lightning, play back up. Sonic you’re with me.”

Retribution floated up into the air with one of the supers by his side, leaving the two speedsters and two of the flying assholes with Grim.

“Now this is a right party. You guys know any tricks? Maybe-“ he rolled to the side as one of the speedsters threw lightning at him.

“What the fuck is with these guys and lightning?” he quipped to Bag, dodging more strikes as the two flyers began dive bombing him.

Grim dodged the first series of attacks, only to be hit in the back by the second speedster. It knocked him off balance long enough for the two fliers to smash into him jointly, sending him head over heels in a roll.

He recovered his feet quickly, coming up and into a fighting stance only to catch lightning in the face. Thankfully his helmet, and Bag, deflected it sideways. One of the unfortunate speedsters caught the blast in his chest, taking him out of the fight.

His fellow super didn’t even remotely hesitate, “Fuck Lighting! Watching your shots,” grumbled one of the fliers, coming down with another swing at Grim. Unfortunately for the super he was ready this time.

Snagging an ankle after he passed by, Grim swung the surprised hero in an arc like a giant hammer catching the second flying hero and sending him screaming up and into the crucible above them. The man impacted the piece of metal industrial equipment with a dull gong before falling to the floor with a groan.

A burst of green energy smashed into Grim, sending him flying with a startled yell. He was so surprised he let go of the super he had been using as a weapon. The hit was powerful, sending him through the wall of the building and into the ground out front in the unloading yard.

“Fuck,” he grunted, getting to his feet.

Bag warned.

Looking down and touching his chest Grim could see, and feel, the deep burn and cauterized laceration across the top of his chest that led down and around his side. That had fucking hurt.

“New plan. Need a ranged weapon. Convert a Shedim,” he ordered.

“Yes, I’m fucking sure! Do it now!” he yelled, confusing the super and speedster who had followed him outside. The two looked at one another… then began closing in.

The black liquid that flowed out of Grim's helmet and into his hands caused them to pause. The liquid quickly solidified into a deep black handgun, tinged with red trim. The two supers blinked; a tad nervous that their opponent now apparently had some kind of ethereal liquid handgun.

“A gun? Fucking really?” Grim sent mentally in exasperation.

Bag responded smugly.

“Nifty,” he said aloud, then stuttered. “Wait, those pukes are that weak?”

The heroes dove for cover. Apparently, their abilities didn’t prevent being ventilated by a demonic handgun.

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warned Bag.

Sixteen shots. That would work fine. Grim wasn’t a bad shot, not at all. In fact, he trained extensively in all manner of weapons with various demons, his father Sam, and within the various worlds he visited. This would be like shooting legless crabs in a barrel.

Turning to the speedster, who was a blur retreating for the side of the building, he decided not to waste a shot on them. Yet. To be honest they were too fast, even for such a weapon as his Shedim handgun. No, he would pick off the remaining fliers first.

Tracking the man who was fleeing, he was about to pull the trigger when a massive force picked him up off the feet, hurling him through the air and over the concrete wall that surrounded the steel mill. He slammed into the concrete road, shattering it with the force of his landing. It took him a moment to realize that he had been smashed into the ground from midair.

Still gripping the weapon, Grim staggered to his feet to see Retribution floating there. His silver suit was immaculate, cape fluttering in the wind.

“Villain, you think I would allow you to harm yet another member of my team?” the hero roared, arms crossed. “You will not triumph in my presence.”

“God damn your such a pretentious asshat,” grumble Grim, spitting out some blood. Those hits had hurt. “Can’t you fucking fight like a man instead of taking cheap pot shots like a fucking bitch?” he taunted, still clearing his head. Those punches had rung him like a bell.

reported Bag.

Retribution yelled in fury, even as the flying super that had left with him, Sonic, tried to prevent him from charging in. But it was too late. The hero became a silver blur, closing the distance between himself and Grim in a second.

And Grim smiled.

Retribution, seeing the smug man, opened his eyes in horror as he took note of the pistol turned up at him. Throwing himself sideways as Grim pulled the trigger, he narrowly missed the rapidly spinning green and black projectile that shot out.

“You missed villain!” he mocked, only to hear a meaty thud as he turned and saw Sonic face down on the ground. Lifeless. “Sonic!” he screamed, shooting over and picking up the man. A hole in his chest where his heart was, clearly displaying that Grim had not, in fact, been aiming at him. “You’re a fucking monster,” the hero accused, picking up his teammate.

Then Retribution did something that Grim wasn’t expecting the annoyingly smug super to do. He called for a retreat.

“Pull back! We can’t continue to take losses,” he ordered, flying off into the sky in a silver streak. The remaining flying super swung down and nabbed the remaining speedster, taking off as well. In mere moments Grim was left alone with two dead and one heavily injured heroes. Sighing, he dismissed the Shedim handgun. It vaporized into black smoke, dissipating in the air.

Absorbing the energy of the dead, Bag reported he had been brought back up to roughly twenty percent energy and two souls to use. He would keep those in reserve, just in case. This energy issue was becoming more and more prevalent, moving to the top of his list to figure out a fix for. He couldn’t fucking do anything with what he had. Between the need for more demons and armor, he didn’t have anywhere near the reserves to actually rebuild his suit.

With a deep sigh, he wandered over to the speedster that was attempting to get out of the front doors of the steel mill. Grabbing him by the throat, he side kicked the man’s knee, shattering it. While the man let out muffled screams of pain through his mask, Grim drug him inside. He was annoyed that he didn’t even get to use any of his traps. He didn’t even get to employ the imps, things having had happened so quickly.

He dragged the struggling speedster up a flight of stairs, banging his broken leg against every step causing the man to renew his screams. Sometimes it was the small things in life you had to take enjoyment out of. Other times… other times you just blew something up.

Tossing the man into a chair in the break room, Grim wandered into the barracks. There he saw the succubus sitting on a bed, staring at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Treating that man that way… that was not okay,” she said directly. “Torture is not an effective way of getting what you want.”

Grim snorted. “That wasn’t torture. You haven’t begun to see a single action of anything that could be considered torture from me. Breaking his leg and dragging him up here was for fun. He attacked me. He gets to suffer,” he retorted as the woman’s eyes narrowed. “Go find Tetra. I have tasks for you.”

With that, he turned back to the hero, whose eyes had rolled back into his head.

“No, no, no. None of that now,” Grim said, slapping him back into consciousness. “I have questions. You have answers.”

“Fuck you,” spat the hero.

Grim wiped the bloody spittle off his face. “I can already see we are going to be the best of friends. Thunder, right? Yeah. Pretty sure that’s what they called you. I think you would make an absolutely stunning demon,” Grim said, making the man go pale. “Maybe some kind of phantom? Those are fast… no. I know what I can convert you into. Furfur likes lightning and thunder. How do you feel about deer?”

“I don’t know anything I swear!” the man said quickly. “Ret just said he wanted some backup to take care of something nasty. He got all weird when Carol and Streak came back and said there was some weird demon-looking fucker who killed Arbalest.”

“Streak? Jesus, sound like a line of shit a dog would rub out on my carpet,” complained Grim. “Whoever comes up with your names sucks.”

The super shrugged, wincing in pain as it disturbed his leg. “They pay me either way,” he said.

Grim nodded. Their short interaction had given him multiple bits of information. Thy had a central area where they met. There was a hierarchy. The heroes got paid, probably by their position in the previously mentioned hierarchy. The most important bit however was that someone was handing out shit names like candy. And it irritated him greatly.

“Who is in charge of the Guild?” he asked leaning over, curious.

Bag supplied.

“Good point,” Grim agreed.

“And where is it?” he added.

The man looked at Grim like he was insane. Which wasn’t far off the mark really. Insanity is a state of being that society doesn’t accept. Whether that’s have proclivities, tendencies, or some other trait that most people frown upon or simply being strange. The mark of sanity and normalcy is defined by the majority, not the minority.

There was no doubt that, by societies standards in this world, Grim was far past the mark of insanity.

“Downtown? The… the giant skyscraper and campus surrounding it is the Guild Headquarters and campus,” the hero explained. “That’s where the Guild Council meets, and all the heroes in training live and work.”

“Great. A college. You have a fucking college… for superheroes. That’s aggravating,” Grim grumbled. He liked grumbling. He hated college. These two things were in diametric opposition to one another. So naturally, he got annoyed.

The hero stared at him “What, did you think we just tossed newbies out onto the streets and let them have at it? That’s insane! They would all die from the first villain, robbery, or thug with a gun they ran into,” he said vehemently.

“I mean… yeah? Based on how horrible you assholes fight, not to mention your names, that’s kind of… no that’s exactly what I thought,” admitted Grim. He sank into thought about newbies and just how shitty their training programs had to be to turn out… fuckers like this.

“I told you what you wanted. Let me go!” said the hero after an incredulous pause, breaking him from his thoughts.

Tetra and the succubus walked through the door of the break room. While Tetra stopped a few feet away the newly born demon kept walking. She strode right up to Grim and, with a rather bored look on her face, plopped her not-insignificant rack right onto his face.

“What the blubba gah?” Grim managed to get out before he was partially smothered. Tetra burst out laughing, and the speedster just stared at everyone like they were fucking insane. Apparently, she didn’t like that and stabbed him in the throat.

The succubus only quirked an eyebrow at the violence, having a simple two-word response in mind for Grim.

“Booby trap.”