Barnaby looked at Marianna and asked her, "How did you end up in hell?"
"Well, I was running away because my parents were going to sell a sea park and send all the marine mammals back to see when they had no means of fending for themselves. They wouldn't listen so I ran away. I made it to Jeremy Ludstrom's house, a family friend. He was a gifted scientist who found out how to manipulate time and space and open portals to other dimensions." Marianna explained.
"Are you aware of the fact that there is another portal that took me here?" Barnaby asked.
"No, I had no idea. That was the only one, unless someone stolen his ideas or he had other secret ones. As far as I know he stolen the idea from a place called D.O.R.K. I was nosing through his files when he spotted me. He told me I wasn't supposed to look at those. I asked him jokingly if he were some kind of bizarre mad scientist. He didn't laugh along but he did smile at me. He offered me some coffee and I drank it. I started to feel ill when he offered to let me sleep. I was sluggish for a week when I noticed barnacle growing on my legs and arms. I showed him and he mentioned that the disease was working perfectly, bust still slow for it didn't start to dissolve my brain yet. I then realized I was being used a test subject. I wanted to run out but he told me if I left I would infect everyone and I would be the one at fault for starting a global pandemic. He locked me in a basement and gave me a vial of cyanide to drink. I wanted to make sure that evil man did not get away with it. There was a bucket of water in the basement and I decided to finish him off. I was going to take him down with me. I used what was left of my strength and managed to break out of the room. I took the bucket with me. He was armed with a laser gun, or so I thought. I splashed him with the water. The weapon short-circuited and he fired random portals to other realities. One hit me in the chest. I felt extreme pain and I saw a human heart five feet away from me. I was dying, but not before a laser backfired making one of his eyes vanish. He dropped the gun while in pain and it exploded, burning and electrocuting him. I did not feel bad for destroying the man who wrecked me. I fell into darkness and then I found myself here in Pentagram City."
"So you became a possible patient zero." Barnaby said.
"Yeah, and look at my shoulders." She removed her hoodie. Underneath was a white tanktop and on her shoulder were some barnacle, but these looked more demonic than the ones he saw on Earth. "I saw it," she whispered, touching the center of her chest where a faint, rhythmic glow pulsed beneath her skin. In this realm, sinners often manifest forms that reflect their lives or deaths. Marianna’s arms, once covered in barnacles, had hardened into a shimmering, protective shell—a permanent mark of the "disease" Ludstrom had engineered. "So you aren't dead and you are killing anyone infected on Earth because of Sally Salty giving the order without looking for a cure?"
"You got it." Barnaby said.
"Oh, Marianna... that is the most horrible, heart-wrenching thing I've ever heard! To be used like that by someone you trusted? It’s just... it’s not fair! But listen to me: you are not a disease. You’re a person who survived something impossible. And as for being in 'Hell'? Well, maybe it’s not what you expected, but at this hotel, you’re safe. No more mad scientists, no more cages."
"Save the sympathy." Marianna, the orca demon bellowed. "I saw Ludstrom, now Ludstorm, hiding behind some crummy mothman and mannequin. He now is selling futuristic tech and is now an overlord demon. I tried again and again to kill him with angelic weapons I spent all my money from Carmilla. Now I work at Miss Alba's. She is an albatross demon who is an overlord demon demon since five years ago and Baxter stolen something from her. If I take it back, she is offering me an award I simply can't turn down. I need that money! I will buy a weapon not even Ludstorm can't survive." She gripped her triton fiercely.
Charlie's eyes widened, her hands flying to her cheeks in a mix of horror and utter confusion. "Wait, wait, wait! Ludstrom is an Overlord now? And he's working with a moth and a mannequin?" She shook her head, trying to process the influx of names. "And Miss Alba... the albatross? I didn't know she was hiring! But Marianna, using angelic weapons to settle a grudge... that’s exactly what we’re trying to move away from here!"
Vaggie stepped forward, her hand resting on the hilt of her spear, her gaze sharp. "If she’s buying from Carmilla Carmine, she’s serious, Charlie. And if this 'Ludstorm' is selling futuristic tech, he's a direct threat to the Vee’s market—or worse, he's their new favorite toy." She turned to Marianna. "What did Baxter steal? That little fish is usually too busy with his 'science' to pull a heist unless it’s for a very specific component."
"Probably some glowing doohickey for his 'death ray' or whatever," Angel Dust chimed in from the bar, leaning on his elbows. "But if Alba is an Overlord and she’s offering a 'reward you can't turn down,' you better read the fine print, honey. Overlords don't give away 'retirement' money for free."
Charlie took a tentative step toward Marianna, her expression softening into that trademark "please don't kill anyone" look. "Marianna, please. If you get this weapon and kill him, it won't fix what he did to you. It just adds more blood to the carpet! What if we... I don't know... talked to Miss Alba? Or found Baxter ourselves? We can resolve this without a trident-related disaster!"
"Too late Sweetheart." Marianna grinned. I already work as a swimsuit model and hitman, uh hitwoman, for Miss Alba. Being an orca demon with black wings gives me strength, and beauty to deal with cretins." She face Angel Dust. "Angel Baby, can you kindly tell me where Baxter's little fish bowl he's hiding in so I can be out of here?"
"I'm not getting involved." Barnaby said. "I'm going for a walk with my gasmask on to clear my head."
"Hey, don't 'Angel Baby' me unless you're buying me a drink first!" Angel Dust quipped, though he instinctively recoiled a bit at the sight of her trident. He checked his nails, leaning back with a smirk. "But hey, if it gets you out of Charlie’s 'hug-zone' faster... Baxter’s got a makeshift lab set up in the basement. Just follow the smell of formaldehyde and the sound of things blowing up. Can’t miss it."
Vaggie’s eye narrowed, her wings twitching with agitation. "Charlie, she just admitted to being a hitwoman. We can't just let her go down there and shish-kebab a guest!"
"He’s not a guest! He’s... a long-term resident who refuses to participate in activities!" Charlie corrected frantically, her hands waving in the air. She turned back to Marianna, her expression caught between horror and a desperate need to be hospitable. "Marianna, wait! Miss Alba might be an Overlord, but she’s using you! If you do this, you're just another pawn in their game. And Barnaby—don't go out there! There are demons with guns and knives waiting to spring on their next victim!"
Barnaby ignored her, his gasmask clicking as he sealed it, stepping out the front door into the chaotic red haze of Pentagram City.
Marianna, meanwhile, didn't stick around for the lecture. With a powerful flick of her black wings, she hovered just above the carpet, her orca-like grace making her look both majestic and terrifying. "The basement, huh? Thanks, legs," she tossed over her shoulder at Angel.
She descended into the dark, damp belly of the hotel. The air grew cold and smelled of ozone and salt water. She kicked open the heavy iron door to the lab, her trident humming with a faint, vengeful energy.
"Alright, Baxter! Come out of the tank!" she bellowed, her black wings rustling against the low ceiling. "I know you've got Miss Alba’s property, and I’m not leaving until I get it—or until I turn this lab into a sushi bar!"
From behind a bubbling vat of neon green liquid, a pair of glowing goggles popped up. Baxter looked frazzled, holding a pulsating, crystalline core that looked suspiciously like the engine of a portal device. "It's for science, you overgrown dolphin! This energy signature matches the dimensional rift from five years ago! I need it to—wait... Miss Alba sent an orca?"
"Oh, yes, and not that like friendly Shamu and his crew being protected up there. Cough up the Seablaze 500 or I will have you wriggling like a worm on a hook!" Marianna scrapped her triton on the floor sending sparks flying to make herself look intimidating."
"Hey! Watch the equipment! This flooring is highly conductive!" Baxter shrieked, clutching the Seablaze 500 to his lab coat like a newborn child. The device hummed with a violent, oceanic blue light, casting flickering shadows against the vats of bioluminescent chemicals.
"You don't understand, you monochromatic brute!" Baxter adjusted his goggles, his fins twitching with anxiety. "This isn't just some shiny bauble for Alba to flaunt at the next Overlord meeting. The Seablaze is the only stable power source capable of anchoring a localized reality fold! If I give this back to that albatross, she’s just going to sell it back to Ludstorm so he can complete his 'New World' grid!"
Marianna didn't flinch. She stepped closer, the smell of salt and ozone thickening. "I don't care about 'grids' or 'reality folds,' small fry. I care about the reward. Alba’s offering me a Permanent Identification Erasure and enough soul-credits to buy a God-killer from Carmilla. My heart is five feet away from a madman in another dimension, and that 'bauble' is my ticket to the weaponry I need to go get it."
"She's lying to you!" Baxter hissed, backing up until his heels hit the edge of a pressurized tank. "Alba doesn't want you to kill Ludstorm; she wants to partner with him! You’re not a hitwoman to her, you're a delivery girl for his missing prototype!"
Marianna’s grip tightened on the trident, her black wings flaring out to block the exit. "One more word and I start poking holes. Hand. It. Over."
Upstairs, the front door creaked open as Barnaby trudged back in, his gasmask lenses fogged up. He looked rattled. "Charlie... Vaggie... you might want to look outside. There are infected humans with barnacle on them. The zombies must be coming for Shamu because they know we have them and will try to drive away the Void Shores."
Charlie’s face went from worried to pale as a ghost. "Infected?! But... but we're in Hell! How can you be a zombie when you’re already dead?!" She rushed to the window, pulling back the curtains to see the horrifying sight: a crowd of shambling souls, their skin crusted over with the same jagged, parasitic barnacles Marianna described, moaning with a wet, gurgling sound.
"It’s not a biological infection, Charlie," Vaggie shouted, summoning her spear. "It’s a dimensional breach!"
"I wouldn't put it beyond Vincent Harry to open a portal to infect Shamu, Dolly, and the others. I will get rid of all of them." Barnaby paused. "Hold it a second! Sinners are already dead and can't be infected! Angle Dust, are you a sharpshooter? I normally have backup but since my platoon is not here I will make due with what I got."
"Hell yeah, I'm a sharpshooter! I've got eight eyes and six arms, honey—I don't miss," Angel Dust barked, shifting into combat mode as his extra set of arms popped out, each wielding a gold-plated submachine gun. He took his position by the window, kicking a velvet chair out of the way. "If these barnacle-freaks think they're crashing this party, they’ve got another thing coming!"
Vaggie stepped up beside them, her Angelic Spear glowing with a dangerous white light. "Barnaby's right. If they can't be 'killed' because they're already Sinners, we have to dismember them or blast them back through whatever rift they came out of. Charlie, get the shield up!"
Charlie bit her lip, her horns beginning to grow as her demonic side flared up. "On it! Nobody touches my guests—or my hotel!" She slammed her palms against the floor, sending a wave of pink and red energy pulsing through the walls to reinforce the structure against the infected.
"Charlie, let us out, Angel and I are hunting zombies." Barnaby shouted.
Marianna climbed out of the basement with Baxter in a headlock. "Don't leave me out of the fun! I'm taking him with us and I am not putting him down until he hands the Seablaze 500 over."
Charlie didn't even have time to protest before the sheer chaotic energy of the group blew past her. She dropped the shimmering pink barrier just long enough for the heavy front doors to groan open.
"Fine! But please, don't die again!" Charlie yelled after them, her fingers laced nervously through her hair. "And Marianna, try not to squeeze the scientist's head off! We need him for... science things!"
Barnaby got himself in position and opened fire. He managed to take down many of the zombies but dozens more were coming. Marianna used her triton to send electric waves, frying them. Angel Dust ran around wildly gunning them down. "They aren't after the sinners, they can't get sick from them. They would want me or the Defenders of the Pacific. Shamu and his crew."
Marianna shouted "We need reinforcements!"
A cyclops demon with pink hair fell from the sky armed with a hand grenade. She was smiling manically.
"Cherri Bomb is in the house!" she cackled, her single eye dilating with manic glee as she tossed a glowing pink grenade right into the center of a barnacle-crusted cluster. BOOM! The explosion sent shells and holographic static flying everywhere. "Hey Angie! You started a war without me? I’m hurt! Deeply, emotionally wounded!"
"Save the drama for after the massacre, Cherri!" Angel Dust shouted back, gunning down a drone that tried to swoop in on her.
Alastor joined them next. "A-ha! A little bit of 'technological' pest control?" Alastor chuckled, his voice echoing with a tinny, 1920s filter. He tapped his cane on the ground, and giant, ink-black shadow tentacles erupted from the sidewalk, snatching two moth-drones mid-air and crushing them like soda cans. "I must say, Marianna, your 'mad scientist' friend has such tasteless toys."
"I'm a genius! Put me down!" Baxter shrieked, his fins flapping wildly as Marianna hauled him toward the fray like a blue, glowing battering ram.
"Finally, you are useful for something, Baxter Boy!" Marianna laughed.
"Useful? I am a visionary, not a siege engine!" Baxter wailed, his lab coat flapping in the wind as Marianna’s powerful black wings propelled them toward the towering Mannequin. The glowing Seablaze 500 in his arms hummed with a pitch so high it was starting to shatter the windows of the Hazbin Hotel.
"Oh, I do love a good 'scientific' collision!" Alastor cackled, his voice distorting into a chaotic radio screech. He slammed his cane down, and his shadow tentacles swatted the zombies back, baring its glowing chest-core like a sacrificial lamb. "Do be careful, Marianna—I'd hate for our little fish-friend to be turned into caviar before he pays his rent!"
"Out of the way, Smiles!" Cherri Bomb yelled, tossing a final, massive cherry bomb to clear the last of the barnacle-zombies. "Give 'em the deep-sea special!"
"Alright, Baxter." Marianna said. "I'll let you use the Seablaze 500 to get rid of the zombies, then you hand it over to me and I'll leave you alone, deal?"
"Deal! Deal! Just stop shaking my internal organs!" Baxter shrieked, his fins vibrating with the hum of the Seablaze 500. He aimed at the zombies and pressed the button. There was a roar of blue light and all the zombies were disintegrated.
Barnaby checked the air for any airborne eggs. He removed his gasmask. "Congratulations, everybody! We did it! Now we've shown whoever brought the infected down here what we are made of. And Marianna, put Baxter down."
She did with the contraption under her arm. "I'll return this to Miss Alba then I'll return to the hotel. I believe I have my heart set on a room here." Marianna said.
"A room?! Oh, Marianna! That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!" Charlie squealed, her demonic features melting back into a face of pure, sparkling joy. She practically vibrated on the hotel steps, resisting the urge to tackle the orca demon in a hug. "We have the perfect suite! It’s got a king-sized bed and—if Baxter helps—we can probably install a saltwater tub!"
Baxter grumbled as he hit the pavement, dusting off his lab coat and adjusting his cracked goggles. "I am a scientist, not a plumber, Your Highness! But... I suppose it beats being used as a projectile." He shot a wary look at the Seablaze 500 tucked under Marianna's arm. "Just... try not to let Alba use that to blow up any more city blocks on your way back."
Alastor hummed a jaunty tune, his shadow tentacles retreating into the floorboards. "A new resident with a penchant for high-stakes 'deliveries' and a grudge against a rival Overlord? How deliciously entertaining. I do hope you bring back stories from Miss Alba’s nest, dear."
Cherri Bomb slapped Angel Dust on the back, sending a puff of glitter into the air. "Well, if you're staying, honey, you better be ready for 'Girl's Night.' We do it with real explosives!"
Barnaby wiped a smudge of soot from his cheek and gave Marianna a respectful nod. "Get your reward, Marianna. Secure your future. But don't take too long—the Pentagram City streets are never quiet for long, and as I understand this Ludstorm isn't the type to take a 'hard reset' lying down."
Marianna spread her massive black wings, the blue glow of the device reflecting in her predatory eyes. "He can stand up all he wants. Next time, I won't just be resetting his tech—I'll be reclaiming what's mine." With a powerful thrust, she took to the crimson sky, heading toward the Albatross Overlord's tower.

End of Chapter