Flames

Fire

Valentino ran straight towards the hotel.

Alastor ran after him, trying to use his abilities to stop him, but he couldn't, why? He summoned his tenticals, but they crawled back into the portals he summoned, some were cut in half and bleeding out. His shadow was nowhere to be seen, his powers were... Weak. He had used up all of his energy battling Valentino, he was out of power now, weakened by blood loss and wounds Valentino inflicted to his body.

Then it hit him, this was exactly what Valentino planned. He had probably known Alastor was going to arrive in his defence, he had probably trained against Alastor's abilities before. How could Alastor have been so stupid! But wait... If he had planned everything up to this that meant...

Oh no.

Alastor ran even faster, but it was to late! Valentino was already in front of the hotel, he was holding an object in his hand. He threw the object, it was a bomb, Alastor shouted and tried to lunge at Valentino.

Husk was sitting on top of the bar counter, he jumped down when he saw something smash through the glass door of the lobby. He then instantly recognised the silhouette of Valentino, and looked down, he didn't realise in time that there was a bomb right by his foot. He tried jumping out of the way, but the bomb was already at its end, blowing up and sending him flying.

Alastor watched Husks body fly across the lobby, he smashed into a wall in the corner of the lobby, unresponsive.
"Husker!" Alastor shouted. There was screaming from upstairs, probably result from the entire building shaking and there being a huge loud explosion sound below them.

Valentino was once again grabbed by the neck by Alastor, but quickly escaped his grasp, he didn't have much power over him anymore. He was weakened, it was exactly what he wanted. Valentino went into the destroyed lobby, spotting Husk passed out in the corner of the room. Fire was starting to rise around little areas of the lobby as a result from the damage done. But it wasn't enough to start a proper fire.

Now that did not sit well with Valentino. He grinned evilly, he could here people heading downstairs, so he quickly took a box of matched out of his pocket, lighting a match and throwing it Infront of the stairway. He did the same for different areas of the room, to really get the fire started. He exited the hotel and set the entrance on fire, it didn't really spread much though.

Alastor shouted at Valentino, he snuck up behind him and grabbed Valentino's gun out of his pocket. Valentino spun around and his eyes widened for a moment, he stepped back slightly. Alastor held the gun right up to his chest, aiming for Valentino's lungs or heart. Valentino had done enough damage already, all Alastor wanted was for him to just die already.

Valentino didn't stand still though, he knew Alastor definitely had the gut to shoot him, he would gladly do so. So the only thing he could think to do was just dip, that's what he was going to do anyway, just let those demons burn.

(Quick little bit of info, I know in helluva boss the demons didn't burn when set on fire, so this doesn't make to much sense. But this fire is different, its sort of a red flame similar to Valentino's red smoke, it harms demons just like normal fire would harm a human. Just to let you all know.)

Alastor wouldn't let him go though, just because he was weakened that didn't mean he didn't know how to shoot. He pulled the trigger and shot Valentino in the upper back three times, before Valentino ran around the corner out of his reach. Valentino just kept running, which was surprising, he had alot more fight in him than Alastor ever knew, and he shouldn't have underestimated the cruel demons power.

Than Alastor turned his focus on something else, Oh Shit! He looked up to see the now burning building Infront of him.

He ran inside, putting a sleeve to his nose so that he wouldn't inhale to much smoke. He spotted Husks body, surrounded by fire in the far corner of the room. He had burns and cuts, one of his wings looked broken, an obvious result from the bomb. Alastor dodged the fire and jumped over it, trying to get to his friend. He grabbed Husk and hoisted him up, wrapping his seemingly lifeless body around him like if he were giving him a piggy back ride.

He teleported him back outside, almost collapsing. Teleporting took a lot out of him, he didn't know how many more times he could teleport before he just completely collapsed. He placed Husk down, seeing if he was responding. He had a couple of burns on his body and face and was bleeding quite a bit, but he was still breathing. Alastor heard screaming coming from the higher floors of the building, he could see the fire growing, and moving up the building.

Alastor teleported inside the building once more, it almost felt painful to teleport, it was light a pain in his chest. He saw Vaggie holding Charlie and Angel holding Nifty in her arms. Nifty was snuggled up in Angels chest fur, she had tears in her one eye. Charlie pointed to Alastor,
"Al! Here!" She shouted desperately, Vaggie turned her attention to Alastor, she was coughing and spluttering. Vaggie and Charlie had burned marks on their clothes and a couple burns on their skin. They also seemed like they were struggling to breath, no wonder, with all the smoke. Angel was protecting Nifty the best he could with his arms, taking all the burns, he had to get them quickly.

He held his hand out, Charlie quickly took it and jumped over to his side of the room. She took Vaggie with her, Angel handed Nifty over to Vaggie carefully. But before Angel could cross over, the floor fell through, the entire group falling down to the floor below.

Charlie screamed, she clung on to Vaggie, Vaggie held Nifty tight. They crashed through the floor. They were just on the first floor, so they fell through and crashed straight into the lobby. Alastor looked around the lobby, it was submerged in fire, he didn't know what to do. He saw that the building wouldn't hold up much longer, after the floor collapsed and was collapsing around them. It was also getting bigger and going higher up the building, so it wouldn't be long.

But something even more unexpected happen, the wall just blew open, like something had crashed through it. They ran towards it, seeing what had caused it, and also escaping the fire. Alastor was shocked to see his friend, Husk, standing there, his wing limp, burned and bleeding, gesturing for his friends to make their way out of the building,
"Come on! Quickly! Fucking run!" He shouted, stumbling for a moment over the limp his leg had. Everyone got out of the building, running.

Charlie had tears in her eyes and was hugging Vaggie, she was properly crying on her shoulder. Vaggie placed Nifty down, she went running to Husk, hugging his leg. Vaggie comforted Charlie, Charlie was extremely upset, she didn't know exactly who caused the fire, but she could take a good guess. She wasn't only upset by who caused the fire, but upset at the fire itself. That was the only building her dad gave her, for the hotel, and it was gone. Now she had no chance to redeem demons, unless she found somewhere else.

But there were more important things happening right now for her to be worrying about that, that would've just been rude. Right now there was something they had to check, was everyone there?

Charlie wiped her tears and sniffed loud, steadying herself, as she was shaking,
"Okay, is everyone here?" Charlie asked, Alastor looked around,
"Let's see, Husker, Nifty, Vagatha, Charlie, me...." Alastor snapped his neck round, looking behind him. He looked around in an almost urgent way. Charlie's eyes widened, she then realized why he was freaking out. She looked at Vaggie, Vaggie looked just as panicked,

There was one demon missing, the demons this was aimed at.

Angel was still up on the first floor...