An Overlord of Earth

The Vengeance Database had a lot of Sinners immortalized on it. And a lot of them may or may not have been dead by the time Gwen and Cecil got to it.

Given that neither the names, nor the appearances of the Sinners matched with their mortal versions, and also that most of them didn’t have any remaining records of what their mortal selves were like, finding Teddy was looking to be a nigh impossible task.

“This is the closest one on the list, though,” Cecil said, having built his own query manager to sort through all the information in minutes. He popped out of the computer in a shower of sparks, which Gwen expertly fended off with a fire-retardant umbrella she had sourced from the Human Torch.

The computer monitor was now displaying a singular profile, of a Sinner which looked more like a bear mascot costume, in bright blue and black and silver. One of the eyes had popped out, to reveal some sort of metallic inside structure. Like the outer shell really was a costume.

“Roose,” Gwen said skeptically, looking at the name. “You get to choose whichever name you want, after dying, of all things, and you go with Roose.”

“I mean, the Teddy Bear thing comes from Theodore Roosevelt,” Cecil pointed out, “Maybe it’s a reference to that?”

“That could make sense,” Gwen allowed, looking at the rest of the profile. Main Abilities: Information Manipulation, Communication Technology Sabotage, oh that was Teddy for sure. Power Ranking: Low, which unfortunately matched up with him too. Defining Points: Timid, Family Issues – first one she’d give them that, second one… that was probably Gwen’s fault. Current Status…

Killed in the last Exorcism.

“Dammit,” she ground her teeth together. “That’s the closest match in this hunk of junk?”

“Yep,” Cecil agreed.

“And it’s the best Database in all of the Pride Ring,” one of the demons helping them said, puffed up indignantly. “If you can’t find him here, you aren’t going to find him anywhere.”

So this really was the best shot they had.

Gwen was having concepts of an idea come together in her mind, but it was risky. And she’d need a lot more information before she could proceed.

“How do you confirm kills in an Exorcism?” she asked, “If it’s such a bloodbath and the cannibals start foraging before the dust settles.”

The demon smiled, falling into a well-rehearsed script, “Ah, that would be VoxTech’s state-of-the-art surveillance system! It records everything, and uses new-fangled facial recognition technology to see who’s been murdered! We use the information to research how best to combat the Exorcists. And you can have access to this extensive library from the comfort of your own home with a small monthly fee-”

“Yeah, you’re not tricking me into a subscription service, thanks,” Gwen cut them off, unimpressed. “This one I actually do have a workaround for, so I think we’re done here.”

This time when they jumped, they were back on Earth, and Cecil had shifted back to his human form.

“Aw, I miss the ears,” Gwen pouted.

“Get a pair yourself,” he glared at her, and then looked around, “Why are we in the suburbs?”

“Finding a free workaround,” Gwen explained, skipping up the driveway to ring the doorbell.

Cecil squinted at the postbox, which had a name printed on it, “I don’t think Vincent is going to be much help with this.”

“I’m not here for Mr. Doombot,” Gwen held her finger down on the doorbell for several seconds, “It’s the roommate we’re after.”

The front door glowed purple, and then burst into shards.

“Who dares disturb our meditations?” asked a rumbling voice, and an intimidating figure walked out from the now clear doorway, wearing a swirling cloak, and a mask that covered the upper half of her face, with the image of a single moving eye on top of it, pinned directly on them.

Gwen waved.

Terrible Eye paused. Then took off her mask.

“Hi girl, hi!!!” she said, smiling cheerfully, “Man, I thought that it was some Ding-Dong-Ditcher again. Just wanted to give the kids a bit of a scare. Hope you don’t mind,” she snapped her fingers, and the shards of wood turned back into a door.

“It’s been a while!” Gwen agreed, pulling her into a tight hug.

“And Cecil’s here too!” Sarah turned to look at him, offering him a hand that passed right through his shoulder like it was made out of vapor.

“Still intangible,” Cecil made a face.

Sarah wrinkled her nose, “Ugh, I’m sorry. At least you don’t have to pay rent, amirite?” she chuckled to herself.

Cecil laughed uncomfortably, “Is that why you’re rooming with Vincent Doonan?”

“It’s kinda weird that he went from being my secret kinda-evil boss to my roommate, but people really don’t want to rent out to mercs. Or witches. Not after what I did to the bathtub the last time I had to do a summoning.”

Cecil and Gwen exchanged glances. The last time she had to do a summoning was because of them.

“Sorry about that! But this place won’t have a problem with it, will it?” Gwen said, “Because I was hoping for a scrying from our Sorcerer Supreme in the making.”

“You’re really convinced I’m going to get that far,” Sarah said, flushing brightly and giggling, appropriately flattered.

Cecil would have considered it a manipulation tactic, except Gwen had a strange relationship with time. Mostly in a short-term sense, or in a very-flawed-memory-because-of-ADHD-chemical-imbalances sense, but there was apparently an incident when she first awakened her media manipulation powers, where she had met people from the far future.

She didn’t really talk much about it. But made references to it constantly, enough to piece together what had happened. And apparently one of the factors was Sarah the Terrible Eye becoming Sorcerer Supreme. Gwen was convinced of it. And that was enough to make Sarah willing to hand out favors to her.

“Alright, come in and I’ll see what I can do without doing structural damage to the bathroom,” she relented, waving them in.

They stood in the foyer, and Sarah busied herself with gathering up armfuls of books and ingredients.

“I need to look at the recipes and their side-effects, to figure out what the cleanup will be like!” she explained, rocking on her heels a little.

“Take your time!” Gwen assured, before thinking it over, “Wait, is this going to take more than half an hour? I don't think I have the attention span for that.”

“Help yourself to my artifacts if you want!” Sarah offered, back to her and mind otherwise consumed by her books.

Gwen nodded, going to sit on the painfully normal couch and look at what had been left on the coffee table for her perusal. This scene was happening, so there was something that would come of it.

Her eyes were drawn to one cover in particular, the only one with a properly typeset cover.

Secrets of Agamotto.

Yeah, she'd take that as a subplot.

“Charlie, Charlie, listen to me,” Lucifer held her shoulders tightly and looked into her eyes desperately, “Do not talk to that girl. Don't even approach her. She's fickle and can go from being your best friend to your murderer in seconds. Don't even try it with her.”

“Okay...” Charlie said nervously, not quite seeing it.

Alastor seemed to be of a similar mind, as he laughed to himself, stirring a cocktail glass filled with dark red liquid she was going to guess was Sinner blood.

“I think you might be catastrophizing a bit, Luci,” he said, smile all teeth, "Unlike you, I had the unique pleasure of having a meeting with her. And I saw none of this immense destructive power you claim she holds.“

“Well, that's what the others thought too, and look where they ended up.”

“What others?” Charlie asked worriedly.

“Some... mortal creatures. A few Norse gods. It doesn't matter. Just know that you can't underestimate her.”

They had reached a standstill now, and Charlie considered both options before her carefully.

She had no doubt that whether or not she backed Alastor on this, he would carry out his plans anyway, and the hotel would be dragged into because of his reputation as its manager. On the other hand, she was the Princess of Hell. She should have some control over her subjects. At least those residing in her hotel. Picking fights with people rumored to be as powerful as this wasn't a good look for them, and she should put a stop to it.

On the other other hand, her mission statement was to help rehabilitate the people found unfit for Heaven. And shouldn't this Gwen Poole be given the same chance?

Finally, before she could pick between one or the other, Husk spoke up, adding another opinion to the crowd.

“I ain't getting involved in whatever this shitshow is, but if you're looking for proof of her power, Zeezi and a bunch of the other Overlords they were saying she offed have been popping back up,” the Sinner noted, eyes fixed on wiping a glass.

“Ah, see! She couldn't even execute a proper execution of Zeezi. Lots of talent, but still needs some refinement. Maybe experience in a hotel will do her some good.”

Husk rolled his eyes, “Slow your roll, I'm just passing around a couple whispers going about. But apparently, the ones who came back aren't exactly... there. Properly. They're all different like, I mean.”

A beat passed.

Alastor's ear twitched. His smile widened, but his voice was slightly off-sync with his mouth when he next opened it, “And you're telling me this now, old Husker, old pal?”

Husk shrugged, “Just passing on shit I heard. Don’t know if there’s any merit to it, really.”

“Well, no time like the present to figure this out!” Alastor decided, straightening his bow tie, “Come along, I wager this won’t take long.”

Lucifer twitched, looking down at his phone as it began ringing sharply with notifications, “Don’t bother, she’s already on the move. And whatever she did, it’s making our systems big mad.”

“Gwen, I got the location of your Demon’s murder site!” Sarah said, coming back into the living room, to find Gwen sitting in the same position she had been in initially. Now with her hair incredibly windswept, and traces of green magic still lingering over her, and an awestruck look on her face.

“What… happened?” Sarah asked.

“Side quest,” Cecil stretched out his arms, until the joints popped and cracked. “We now have a bunch of enchanted ammunition hanging out in the whitespace. Please tell me you have the location, before she goes off to look for more.”

“Uh, here’s the occult directions to the spot you’re looking for,” Sarah handed it over, and wisely stepped back as they dove back into whichever pocket dimension Gwen had achieved mastery over.

“See, the thing is, I don’t really need this thing,” Gwen told Cecil, crumpling up Sarah’s notes and leaving it behind. “What I needed was Sarah going through the motions, and seeing where it was. Then we use that to teleport instantaneously to the position like so-” she hopped over the pages, and used margins as balancing beams, until finally diving down into the location she wanted.

They came out back in Hell. This time in front of a picturesque fountain, pumping brackish water, and still streaked with the blood of dead Sinners, which had only recently been dragged away.

Gwen didn’t care about them, bar one. And the bodies weren’t needed for this anyway.

“So, what’s your super risky plan?” Cecil asked.

Gwen wet her lips, pacing around the fountain, “I’ve been observing this environment. How it moves. How it functions. The lack of speech bubbles, the framing, the designs. And you know what I think? This isn’t a comic. Or a book. This is some kind of animation.”

Ah, she was devolving into the crazy talk.

“And since it’s way too long to be some kind of gif, that means it has to be video,” she continued, now waving her hands erratically and pacing faster. “And a video means video controls, and that means-”

Something strange happened then.

It was like what he imagined slapstick cartoon characters feel like when trapped under a treadmill, or when taffy is being stretched. Backward, voices chopping over themselves, scenes clipping together. Except not all scenes. Not them. Just the environment around them. A small section of the fountain was being rewound, deaging, having bodies be dragged back into frame, then suffering their death again, but this time in reverse, until they were back to running from some unseen threat, all inside that one frame. Anything outside it was being cut cleanly away.

When it finally stopped, Cecil struggled to regain his ability to breathe.

Gwen smugly had her hands on her hips, “- a back button,” she finished.

On the foot of the fountain, a Sinner in a mascot costume cowered.

Neither noticed the trio watching from afar, utterly gobsmacked.