Barbie Keane was seated at a wooden bench just before the desk of the watch commander. She had her hands crossed as she looked down on the floor, her mind going back to what she had learned of Valefar.
When she had first met George Vale, he appeared to be an independent with a dashing suit, and the amount of vague information he gave to her upon introduction was enough to pull her into intrigue, even if she already had knots with Lloyd Howitzer. When she was about to finish highschool, her father warned her about men of all kinds, regardless where they were from, or who they were.
She pulled that information into her head at first, before she threw it all away down the drain, as far as the sewage waters would reach the edge of the pipes. She got a gig at the Midnight Owl these last two years thanks to Lloyd Howitzer. She met him after the war, following his fair share of the Allies winning the worldwide conflict involving the Axis.
One is dead, she thought about Lloyd. The other is a demon, the thought of Valefar ran through. She never had any attachments for 'George Vale'. The human disguise Valefar wore was simply too much for a loving partner, let alone someone she would want to get close with, but his kindness was enough to get her attention to an extent. Kindness wasn't exactly the easiest thing to get in town.
Not that everyone's an asshole here, but a lot of people were far from saints, even if they weren't involved with crime.
Her mind struck at the times Valefar could have killed her the moment she fell for his human disguise, could have dragged her naive state and claiming her soul in the process, doing whatever dastardly things a demon would think of. But that wasn't the case right now.
She thought of the time he helped her get to safety at that Rat King. Now the Representative of the Gunsmith was now helping humanity.
"Even then, he's doing it because his boss told him too." She said under her breath. Lloyd wasn't a demon, but he wasn't an angel in turn.
Like Valefar, Lloyd did things any person would get into deep trouble with the law, and most of these things were because he was told to do so. She never got to know just how far his crimes were, whether or not it involved killings. Heck, he was absent most of the time he was in a relationship with her, even canceled certain activities with her thanks to his so called work, despite telling her in advance.
Why was I curious about how that demon actually looked? She thought about what she said to Valefar by the time he told the truth about himself, about these Hellfire Arms.
"What's troubling you Miss Keane?" a voice called. She looked up to see a gray haired man with a sturdy build. He was in the usual officer's attire. His arms and hands looked like they belonged to a boxer, they were that sturdy. On the officer's golden badge was a number: 1937
"Just trying to cope with this Hellfire Arm situation, officer…?"
"Neal." the officer spoke to her. "Robert Neal."
"Officer Neal do you think, even without these Hellfire Arms humans are corrupt?"
He raised his eyebrow.
"I'm sorry." Barbie said with a frown. "The Representative...I mean, Valefar."
"That guy." Neal scoffed and sighed deeply. "Demons come in all shapes and sizes. As somebody who was born and raised on Southern soil, I could understand that."
"Whereabouts in the South?"
"Scarburrow."
Neal chuckled at the sight of Barbie dropping her jaw in surprise. "I know right?" the officer chuckled as he placed his hands into his pocket. "Even after all these years, this place and Scarburrow have their...different ways of seeing life, but then again Morissey's still rivaling Oyster Bay over sports. But to answer your question, yes, humans can be corrupt."
"He paused. "BUT it all depends on how much any man or woman's willing to convince their mind that certain actions can lead to dangerous results. My sister…" he paused again. "She learned it the hard way." he mumbled that last part under his breath as Barbie's eyes widened in surprise.
Her heart raced a beat as she heard the shouts of a man. She and Neal shifted to see the sight of two suited men. Judging by their faces, they looked Italian, and in their grasps, they were carrying a man who seemed far older than them. The older man was tired, and he was grasping onto a wound, coated in red.
He was more than hurt, more than suffering it seemed judging by his breathing.
"Valefar sent us!" the first Italian spoke. "He probably needs help, get the army for crying out loud! Hell, get everyone involved!"
"Maurizio? The hell!?" Neal jumped slightly at the sound of Joey Satriano's incredibly loud voice. Satriano's voice pierced through the walls. Barbie felt her ears hurting at the sound of the man's voice.
"Dammit." Neal mumbled under his breath, his tone caught by Barbie's ears. He turned to the sight of her. "Miss, I don't mean to be rude, but you think you can tell Joey Satriano over there in his cell that we're handling this?"
"Joey? Joey!" the elder man spoke harder. He coughed midway.
"Dad?" Joey's voice went through the roof now. "Dad!? What the hell!?"
Barbie's heart dropped at the sound of Satriano's tone. She gulped at Neal's request. She remembered when the police came to her about Lloyd Howitzer's "condition". She was going to be in their shoes soon.
***
Defici stood a few feet away from Valefar as he saw the Representative's shell crack open. He saw the demonic parts of his opponent, but he kept his mouth shut the entire time. Valefar cracked a raised eyebrow.
"Never seen a demon before?" Valefar mocked his opponent. He tightened his right arm, and it slowly burned away. His disguise, the human flesh slowly decimating as it revealed a dark colored coat of skin with glowing veins of red, orange and yellow. It was like lava. His fingers twisted and blood came out, the fingertips were mangled but soon the tips grew into dark sharp spikes, each of the spikes replaced the position of the fingers.
Cracks were heard towards Defici's ears, the possessed white eyed man flinched at the sound of Valefar's claws taking shape. The process was the same for the left hand.
"People, are simply not good to each other." Valefar first started speaking. His voice made the ground slightly tremble. Defici felt the state of the ground running through his legs. Even as he obtained power from Odette Black, Defici still felt the trembles like a normal human would.
"Living beings aren't good to each other, my boss included if I have to be fucking blunt." Valefar started as the ground began to develop. The gray concrete was started to get covered up by black moss with fumes, the same color as the veins on Valefar's skin. More cracks emerged as his human disguise was cracking like an egg.
"You believe in monsters, Defici?" Valefar spoke. Cause I do. There ain't absolutely no living being on the fucking planet, let alone places in far beyond, that's afraid. No shit? Exactly. Oh ho, if you only knew the demons I've met downstairs. Every one of them. Every single fucking one of them."
The words did not send Defici towards shaking. His face was as still as a metal pole, as he continued to cross his arms.
He disappeared into thin air.
As Valefar blinked at the sight, Defici appeared in front of him, yet the latter saw the Representative's claw make contact with his face, crashing it and sending him a few feet away. Defici's face dragged alongside the concrete out of bounds from the black moss around Valefar's feet.
Defici winced in pain; parts of his face were torn like a ripped shirt. He got up and rubbed his face with his hands, the ripped parts of his face were starting to come back; the skin cloaking the flesh of his face.
He raised an eyebrow at the sight of Valefar's human disguise which was gone now, but it didn't matter. He disappeared again in thin air.
But the tactic he did the first time was no better. Valefar's claws manage to spike Defici toward his stomach. The spikes were slightly warm and dark, they punctured Defici's organs like balloons, but Valefar snickered.
"If it weren't for Queen's Revenge, you would have been dead by now." Valefar sighed. "But my boss gave me a drink that's kinda like a booster for me, in a sense, and I don't mean the kind that makes my mood better."
He threw Defici far and hard like a baseball. The hostile Italian felt his body being pushed by the speed of the wind as it carried him all the way to a building, the wall ending his situation. Valefar heard the ringing of a telephone, and he saw the Hellfire telephone dropping a few inches away from him.
The phone picked itself up, and floating towards' Valefar's ear. Sporting fangs, the Representative chuckled.
"Yes boss?" The Representative spoke. "I know, I know, I can't fight the Hellfire Arm users, but everyone else beyond that?" Valefar snickered. "Of course, get the Arms by all means necessary. Yeah I remember, don't destroy the world and all that."