When the Dawn Breaks [TBAU]

☆ Chapter 16 ☆

"Welcome welcome, to the SECOND ever meeting of THE one and only Demon Protection Squad! Hosted by yours truly," Scar grinned and tipped his hat before doing a little spin on his heel.

"Woooo!" Impulse cheered, clapping with Bdubs. Scar steadied himself after his spin and walked back over, plunking himself down in the chair across from Bdubs and Impulse.

The three of them had gathered at Scar's house for this meeting, and were all sitting around his living room area, mugs of steaming hot tea before them. Impulse wasn't the biggest tea fan, as he was really more of a coffee guy, but he was giving it a shot. Well, honestly, as long as a drink had caffeine in it, he appreciated it.

Originally, they'd all met up at Scar's bakery, before Impulse had convinced them to go to Scar's house instead. While the bakery was full of wonderfully sweet treats and snacks that were perfect for a club meeting, it was also far too public for secret club meeting.

The wide glass windows meant that people on the street could see in, and the 'open' sign meant people could come in at any time. Since Impulse had agreed to show off some more of his demon powers, and since he'd be dropping his aura for them, he didn't want to risk having any of the other hermits seeing in. At least if someone came over to Scar's place they'd knock first or something, giving Impulse the few seconds he'd need to put up the aura again.

While they weren't at the bakery, that didn't mean that Scar and Bdubs hadn't wanted to take half of the bakery with them. The table before them was loaded with scones and cookies and doughnuts— well, let's say that Impulse knew why Scar carried around pocket cookies, the man simply never ran out of baked goods.

Bdubs grabbed one of the pastries, a jelly tart shaped like Jellie. "Alright, first things first," he said, taking a massive bite before talking again, "I have BIG news. About, of course, the running Tango issue."

Scar raised a curious eyebrow, subtly grabbing a cookie and motioning for him to continue, while Impulse pulled in an excited breath.

"I was talking to him the other day, and I brought up a little thing or two about demons," Bdubs waved his hand around as he spoke, scattering pastry crumbs on the floor. "Because, of course, he thinks I'm just interested in them because of that day at the library—"

"So that makes you the perfect person for the mission!" Scar interrupted, eyes wide, yet obviously not noticing the pastry flakes raining down onto his carpet. Bdubs nodded vigorously, with an almost smug grin on his face.

"Anyways though, he definitely doesn't mean what he said that day, he told me himself. All I had to do was bring up some cool demon facts and he almost instantly doubled back!" Bdubs finished his sugary treat and grinned.

"But how?" Impulse muttered, narrowing his eyes in confusion. Extremely biased people don't usually change their opinions in a dime like that.

"I think it has something to do with Zedaph," Bdubs answered with a shrug. "Tango told me that apparently Zed doesn't hold any strong opinions on demons, so he decided that he shouldn't either. He's easily swayed I guess."

"Neat," Scar drummed on his knees with his fingers. Impulse briefly remembered Xisuma saying something about how Scar shouldn't have caffeine, but it slipped his mind fairly quickly. "I think we can call 'Operation convince-Tango-not-to-be-a-meanie' effectively complete now! And you, Mr. Impulse, can show us the rest of your amoizin' magic!"

"Yeah! Drop that silly aura already!" Bdubs agreed, turning to Impulse like an eager toddler.

"Ugh, the peer pressure! Fineeee," Impulse said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. He scooted a little further from Bdubs to allow his wings room, before releasing the spell that kept his human appearance in place. In a shower of purple sparks, his demon features came back to life. Horns grew out from his scalp, ears elongated, and shimmering wings unfurled.