Return of the Pyromaniac, Part 1

"What did you call us in here for, then?" Austin asks.

"We know of the Cards of the King's master plan," Ivy answers, causing all of our eyes to widen.

"What is it?! Spit it out!" I desperately cry.

"Settle down, Fūjin," the Chairman orders, and I look down at my arms and see that my veins begin glowing blue. I settle down my demon sintics to kill Ace, and my veins return to their natural pigment. "Renzu, if you will?"

Renzu turns to the Chairman and nods, before turning back to face us. "Yesterday, my Squad was spying on the Cards of the King's current Church of operations, in an attempt to gather intel. The Cards of the King plans to make their move soon," Renzu begins to say.

"Soon?! How soon?!" Grover cries.

"Tomorrow."

We're all speechless.

"And how do you know that?" Ella asks, breaking the silence.

"The Cards of the King have discovered a relic that can open up the portal to Hell; the Almighty Church. They are aware of its location and plan to claim the torch; the Temple of the Almighty Torch," Renzu explains.

"They mentioned the requirements to open up the portal to Hell-" Ivy begins to say before turning to Ralph and raising her voice. "But someone was too busy babbling away in my ear for me to hear it!"

"Sorry," Ralph replies with a small chuckle.

"By opening up the Portal to Hell their plan is to: A) Restore the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to their former glory, B) Flood the world with all of Hell's demons, and C) Unleash the Nine Circles of Hell -the current rulers of Hell and Hell's nine strongest demons- into this world. By doing so, the Cards of the King hope to bring the world to ruin, where every human will be slaughtered except for their Cult, as they were the ones to give power to our new demon overlords, in order to create a "new" utopia," Renzu explains.

"The Nine Circles of whaa…?" Grover asks.

 "Hell is separated into nine different areas," Jamie explains. "When someone dies, their soul enters the first ring of Hell, Limbo, where the soul waits for God to judge whether or not the soul enters Heaven or enters a deeper layer of Hell. For each sin one commits, their soul is sent deeper and deeper into the Nine Rings of Hell. And with every ring the soul descends into, the harsher the torment that the soul faces. From the second ring down are where the demons live. As you go down the ring, the stronger the demons get, with the weakest demons living on the second ring and the strongest demons living on the ninth ring. And each ring has its own demon guardian called the Nine Circles of Hell. Much like regular demons, the Nine Circles of Hell guardian demons gets stronger and stronger as you go down the circles, although the Nine Circles of Hell are far stronger than the regular demons, with Limbo, the first of the Nine Circles said to be five times stronger than an average demon residing in the Ninth Circle of Hell, and Treachery, the Ninth Circle of Hell, said to be a little bit weaker than the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

"How do you know all of this?" Jamie asks, appalled.

Ella shrugs. "Church," she answers.

"So what, now we have to fight nine more extra powerful demons on top of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, on top of the Cards of the King?" I ask.

"I am dispatching your Squad to fight the Cards of the King, and to prevent the opening of the Portal to Hell," the Chairman interrupts.

"But why us?" I ask. "We're just a ragtag group of kids. Everywhere I go, everything seems to be centered around me! The Cards of the King, the Four Horsemen of the Apayolpose, my half demon encounters, the Assassianiton, everything! I'm just so sick of it!"

"It's because everything is centered around you, Fūjin," the Chairman answers. "Since everything is centered around you, it's centered around you squadmates, too. If this information were to get out, it'd cause mass hysteria. That's why your Squad is taking care of this. Since I have no choice but to tell you. As a powerful half demon of my International Professional Slayer Organization, it's up to you, Luis Tramontana, to save us."

I take a deep breath in…then out.

"Fine," I say as I peer back up at the Chairman. "So that's tomorrow's mission? Well…then I have something that I must do today."

"That's another reason why you're going on this mission," the Chairman replies. "If you can recruit him, we'll have yet another powerful ally on our side."

I nod in response. "I'm going after Mikey."

"I'll send you everything that you need to know about the Pyromaniac," the Chairman continues. "But just remember, if you can't recruit him…your orders are to kill the Pyromaniac, not just as a threat to our Organization, but to the world."

"Don't worry, I'll get him back," I reply.

***

"So this is where Mikey is, eh?" I ask as I peer down at the notes on my phone as to where Mikey's location is, sent to me by the Chairman. I then slide my phone in my pocket and look up to face the dinky, old, rundown shed that is Mikey's "home."

"Mikey's not too good at hiding if the Chairman keeps sending Assassins after him and knows his location," Austin snorts.

"Well he stands out a lot," I reply.

"Why isn't Grover or Ella with it?" Jamie asks.

"I sent 'em to fetch Daniel, we're gonna need his strength for this upcoming final battle, too," I answer.

"Alright, should we head in?" Jamie asks.

"Yeah, I've already thought of a pla-" Austin begins to say, but I cut him off.

"We don't need one. This is Mikey we're talking about, we're not walking into a battle," I reply.

"Luis, I know how you feel about Mikey, but-" Austin begins to say, but I cut him off again.

"That's not what I mean," I explain. "I know that Mikey will attack us, but that's besides the point. I don't want to attack him. We need to walk in all inviting rather than aggressively, so that he'll join our team to take down the Cards of the King."

"I see," Austin replies as he does the anime glasses guy thing again. "Such sentimentality can be unwise for a hostile encounter, but then again, I'm not too fond of Mikey."

"Neither am I," I reply. "But he's still my friend."

The two of us slink over to the front of the shed. And without another word, I grab onto one side of the doors, as Jamie grabs the other, and the two of us slide the metal doors open, as Austin steps inside.

I take out my phone and turn my flashlight to see. Austin has his super high-tech visor's night vision mode on. The shed is about as dingy, rundown, and filthy on the inside, as the outside makes it out to me. I'm not surprised.

At one point, I aim my phone's flashlight to the floor, just to see a rat scurry past Jamie's feet, causing Jamie to gasp and fall backwards, thanks to the squeaking rat. We then hear some rustling come from the opposite end of the shed.

"Look-" Austin whispers to us as he points to where we hear the noise. He must see something, thanks to his night-vision goggles. I lift my phone up and aim its flashlight to where Ausitn is pointing, seeing a figure in red slowly rising out of bed and tossing some blankets off of his body.

"Who's disturbing me while I'm trying' ta' sleep?" The figure groggily grunts. The figure's voice is one that I recognize, but it sounds far more sinister and mature than when I last heard it. The figure then opens its eyes and turns to face us, and that's when I see its red eyes, glowing brightly through the dark of the shed, only barely illuminated by the crack between the opened shed doors.

Mikey.

Due to the dazzling flame in Mikey's hand, I get my first look at Mikey in almost two years now. Mikey still has that spiky brown hair of his, and his hazel color eyes almost glow red to the the illumination of his flames. Mikey is wearing a sleeveless red coat with a tall collar that doesn't go down past his waist, with a black zipper going down the center, and gold decals. Mikey is also wearing long maroon-red sweatbands on each wrist, and his usual pistol holster, with a matching brown belt. On top of that, Mikey is wearing scraggly black pants with various sketchy red stains and pitch black boots.

"Mikey…"

"Luis…"

Mikey and I stare one another down through the darkness for a brief moment.

"Mikey, I-" I begin to say, but I'm interrupted when Mikey sends a fireball streaking through the air, flying my way.