Chapter 18 | Another day in Hell part 4

Dynamite CleanersNot far from the building and parking lot filled with various vehicles that were still leftover from the extermination a month prior, a group of parked cars was stationed just on the other side of the street. Within each one, sinners were loading their guns and rifles for a potential shootout with their target.Inside the lead vehicle, an Avian sinner sat in the driver's seat while a bobcat sinner sat in the passenger's seat. The Avian sinner spoke as he checked the magazine of his automatic rifle of its bullets before clipping it back into its slot, "I keep telling you, Bob." He sneered with a sideways look at his fellow college. "Drop the habit of drinking while we're on the job!" the avian sinner berated his fellow sinner.Bob shot his compatriot an annoyed look as he gulped down his whiskey bottle in one go and tossed it out his window, resulting in a loud crash of glass from the bottle, "Shut it, Mac!" he sneered while wiping residual liquor off his chin. "And I keep telling you to stop calling me Bob just because my body looks like a bobcat! It's Dobber, get it right!" he exclaimed with a slight hiccup afterwards.The bobcat sinner jabbed his index finger at the avian sinner, "Or maybe I'll just call you Macaw instead!" He said before picking up a semi-automatic rifle that was on his lap and checking its chamber. Then, he went to check its iron sights out through his window with one eye squinted and the other leveled with the sights. "I'll drink on the job if I want!"While this was all going on, the fellow henchmen-esque sinners who sat in the back were minding their own business, doing their best not to bother the two upfront.Mac rolled his eyes at his fellow member's attitude and moved to get out from his side of the car to stand outside and wait. Dobber followed suit after checking that everything was in order with his gun and exited his side, leaving the remaining crewmembers of the group to finish up on their own.As Dobber shut the car door with his rifle in a firm grip of his hand, he leaned up against the side of the car while he struck up another conversation with Mac, "By the way, you think we need all these men for one guy?" he remarked while resting his elbow down against the roof of the car.Shifting the weight of his automatic rifle and his hand to a more comfortable position, Mac glanced away from the entrance of the store to look directly back at Dobber, "I would have asked Mister Eldritch for more men, but it's only one guy…so" he shrugged, "I thought otherwise. It's not like we're going up against an overlord's gang.""I suppose you're right about that," the bobcat sinner remarked with an amused toothy grin before frowning quickly. "Wait." He eyed Mac. "Isn't this Graham guy also one of Carmine's men?" Dobber asked.Mac let out an annoyed grunt from his lips. "No, you're hearing the wrong gossip through hell's vines." He answered with a roll of his eyes and looked directly at Dobber. "High intel says she doesn't own him and his services but is a very big patron of the man's services."While the two of them continued talking, the rest of the crew assembled from the parked vehicles and began making their way onto the parking lot of the nearby store with guns, melee weapons, and everything in between in hand.JoshuaWith a notepad in hand and a pen in the other, Joshua wrote into the pocket-sized notepad as he approached the store's front doors. Making a mental checklist and crossing off the listed items on his notepad, Joshua clicked the top of his pen and pocketed it into one of the pockets on his vest.As he exited through the front doors to wait for Niffty outside, Joshua finished pocketing his notepad inside his vest, opposite where he usually stores one of his pistols on his person. If Charlie, much less Vaggie, had a problem with him defending the hotel, they'd have asked him to stop well before he bought the SAM launcher.The hotel was supposed to be a welcoming building for sinners, but that did not bar those who would attempt to destroy the property or harm the residents.He was pretty sure if Charlie, given the reason and motivation, had the capability of defending the place, but so far, the impression he'd gotten out of the spawn of Lucifer was that she wanted to come off as approachable to all sinners and not some big-shot princess of hell…Or at least, that's what's figured out so far…Perhaps he'd asked the girl herself on the matter, but for now, he supposed he'd take up the position as her Warhawk…Joshua paused in his steps and stood on the store's curbside as his thoughts drifted to his previous life in the Mojave…the execution of Salt-Upon-Wounds by his own hands…However, his thoughts were cut short by a dozen or so sinners heading his way from across the street and into the parking lot of the store he stood in front of… Judging by their looks, he was their target.Well, now…there could only be a few reasons for a group of criminal-looking sinners eyeing him down like a target…in all honesty, it felt like a walk in Zion Canyon for him against only twelve or so sinners.Inside the storeDigging through her small purse, Niffty smiled as she pulled out a few soul dollars to pay for her cleaning supplies. Bending at her knees, she hopped up and stood on the countertop to hand her money to the Imp cashier.The imp cashier looked bored as she rested her cheek against her palm and blew a bubble from her chewing gum. By appearances, the female imp looked like she was in her teenage years in imp years. "Thank you," she spoke, bored, while chewing her bubble gum back into her mouth to chew it. "Here's your change.'' The female imp finished saying while handing Niffty her change back.Niffty preened with a sharp, gleeful smile after accepting the change back. After saving up on enough coupons, she was able to get the price of her supplies down to a decent amount. "Eheh, it's always a pleasure!" she cackled while pocketing her change into her purse before hopping off from the counter to waltz to the end of it and pick up her bags.As Niffty collected her bags of cleaning supplies, the windows of the store were soon blown out by bullets, greeting the customers and workers inside the store to the sound of a shootout.With an ever-present bored look, the female imp cashier reached down to put on a metal helmet. Reaching beside herself, the imp pulled over to her a mic and clicked a switch on.While Niffty excitedly zoomed over to see what sort of fight broke out at the front of the store, the imp cashier spoke through the intercom system to all present within the building. "Attention customers and staff." She began with a bored tone. "We have another shootout in the parking lot, that is all," she said into the intercom before putting the mic up.The imp yawned and rested her cheek back into her palm as she waited for the next customer to check out, she glanced for a moment to the front windows to satiate her curiosity. Seeing Niffty bounce on her feet to peer over the broken window sill, the sinner giggled and awed as she watched the chaos ensue outside.From the outside, a sinner was sent flying through one of the windows from a grenade blast, with severe blood trauma flowing from his chest as his body hung over the broken window he flew through.Not a moment sooner, Joshua reached in from the outside after making a quick move to reach the sinner's barely unconscious body and pulled the sinner by his leg. "Wha-" the sinner groaned as Joshua grabbed him by his face. "MHMF!" He muffled out as Joshua clenched his fingers into the sinner's face before prying him up off the window sill and using him as a meat shield while bullets were sent his way.Once the bullets ceased flying for a moment, Joshua tossed the bullet-riddled bloody body of the sinner aside. He quickly noticed Niffty was staring at him through the broken window, "Excuse me, I'll be ready to leave after I finish this mess on my hands." he remarked quickly before making a hasty move towards a broken down car for cover.Niffty's ever-present smile became a shark-like grin, "I didn't know he had such a bad boy streak in him!" she remarked before quickly rushing off to head through the front doors and see the fight for herself better."'Ang on thar!" Millie's voice rang out. The imp reached for Niffty and pulled the sinner from heading out just in time. "Are ya crazy!?" she asked her fellow store acquaintance while trying to hold Niffty up by the scruff of her shirt. "What yer think'n go'n out thar fer?"While an explosion erupted from the outside, causing some asphalt to blow through the broken window, Niffty craned her neck to look at Millie with a pout. "I wanna go watch the bad boys play!" she whined.Millie gave Niffty a weird look and placed her palm on her hip while she held the small sinner up. "And with no gun on ya?" she asked, giving Millie a disappointed frown and waggling her finger at the sinner. "Ya's got tah know better than that, darlin! Otherwise, you'll find yerself riddled with bullet holes!"Niffty giggled at that while clasping her reddened cheeks at the mere thought, "Ehhe, I know, that's the best part!" she remarked and bit her lip while the sounds of gunfire continued outside.Millie blinked at Niffty's behavior toward the idea of pain and realized what sort of sinner she was dealing with. She perked up with a shining smile. "Oh well, howdy. Yer one o' those sinners, ain'tcha?!" She poked at Niffty's cheeks before setting her back down and shooing her off. "Well, go on then, go have yourself some fun then!" She encouraged the small sinner.Outside"Who the fuck is this guy!" Shouted Dobber over the sound of gunfire as he peeked over from behind the vehicle he had exited from prior, only to jerk himself back down as one of his fellow men was blasted by an explosion and was sent careening through the air until his body impacted the hoot of the car and bounced off to continue flying past it.Mac let out a grunt of anger as he replaced the magazine of his automatic gun before standing up to fire at the burnt and bandaged man with short, controlled bursts. "I don't know! Boss said to rough the guy up and drag his limp body back to base!" he yelled back through the chaotic mess that was a one-man versus many shootout.As the avian sinner shot cover fire on the retreating form of the burnt sinner, a grenade was tossed by the man just as he took cover behind a beat-up car in the parking lot."Fuck! Incoming!" Mac yelled as the grenade arched through the air and landed on the other side of the vehicle he was taking cover behind.Mac ducked back down to avoid the exploding shrapnel of the grenade alongside Dobber. Both sinners felt the tremors of the explosion from the grenade hit the car as they leaned down against the side of the car. Asphalt and metal shavings ended up flying over the car while gunfire continued within the parking lot between the Burnt sinner and the remaining henchmen sinners.Dobber winced as he palmed his ear from all the ringing he was hearing, "Fuck!" he exclaimed and hefted his rifle back into his hands before getting back up to return fire, "Nice-pueh!" he was cut off from saying any more as the burnt sinner fired directly at him with a pistol.A bullet was fired at Dobber's chin, causing the anthro bobcat's entire lower jaw to be eviscerated, miraculously leaving his tongue intact through the whole process.Dobber dropped his rifle and panicked in pain as he backpedaled and reached to try and cover his bleeding mouth. The brush of air against his eviscerated mouth was a foreign feeling to him as he eventually tripped on himself and fell onto his rear end."I wanna join! I wanna join!" A separate feminine voice yelled through the violence.Mac lost attention from seeing his partner in…well. Was crime really a crime in hell? He never really thought about it till now."Ah, this stupid midget bitch is stabbing me in my back. Get her off me, get her off me!- Kekgk.." One of Mac's men yelled before making a gurgling sound that Mac was very familiar with.Whoever was their target's backup was, she had slit one of his men's throats open."Less talking, more killing! Ehehe!" The female yelled through the gun"Stupid bitch, you'll pay for-kugk." Mac listened and heard another gunfire, followed by the sound of a head being splattered by a bullet."If you're going to help, don't leave yourself open." Their target presumably admonished the female."But I wanted to be shot at, too~" The female whined back at the burnt man.Now, with wide eyes, a sweating face, and trembling hands that threatened to drop his rifle, Mac was beginning to question what his boss was doing, sending them on this sort of mission. He was starting to regret not bringing more men…and firepower.After a few seconds passed for the avian sinner, he realized things had quieted down. Taking great care to lean and peek from the frontside of his car quietly, Mac saw that all his men were incapacitated, bleeding out on the ground, or outright missing parts of their bodies from explosions while lying on the ground in a pool of their blood.Letting out a quiet breath, Mac retreated to lean up against his car as his mind raced about how shit went south. Turning quickly after thinking the coast was clear, his eyesight was covered by the site of the target's face, and his eyes bore holes straight at him."..." Mac slowly tried to give the target a disarming smile.JoshuaJoshua quickly grabbed Mac by the throat, causing said sinner's eyes to bug out from the vice-like grip. Mac began to claw and struggle for air as Joshua carried him off back towards the store, all the while Mac kicked his feet to find perchance, only to find none.Niffty waved a gleefully sharp smile at the avian sinner as Joshua carried him through the front doors. The imp manager stood not far from the entrance with an annoyed scowl and arms crossed at Joshua and the Avian sinner."Excuse me, but do you have a place where I can interrogate this man?" Joshua asked Kipster with a genuine tone of curiosity.Kipster stared up at Joshua and glanced around a bit at the damage to his store while weighing his options before thumbing at the employee backroom. "So's long as ya cover the cost of the damages." he expressed with an annoyed grunt. "Our transaction earlier aside, I can't run a charity case here!"Joshua nodded at the manager once, "Foot me the bill." he said before carrying off the sinner who had passed out from the little air he could barely breathe in from Joshua clenching his throat.As Joshua carried the sinner off to the back rooms, Niffty walked back in and eyed her bags, sitting beside Millie."Well, golly," Millie remarked as she handed Niffty's bags back to her, " n' here I thought you were less violent than I took ya fer!" She shined an amused smile at Niffty.Niffty giggled a sharp grin back at Millie and waved off her comment, "Oh, that wasn't me being violent! I was just being myself and having fun!" she gushed excitedly, to which Mille smiled more."Aren't we all? Am I right?" Millie remarked back to Niffty with an amused expression.