Redemption lies within

Pentagram City

"Unhand me thisss inssstant!" Sir Pentious demanded as Joshua dragged him from off the premises and across the street before feeling a jerk on the pull that the burnt sinner had on him. "Waaah!" the serpent sinner yelled as Joshua tossed him aside next to the corner of the street.

"Ugh…" Sir Pentious shook his head off the daze he felt from the disorientation coming on before propping himself up from the ground to glare at the burnt sinner's back as he left him at the curbside, "How Dare you!" Sir Pentious shook his fist at Joshua while the burnt sinner walked off from him, "I will have my vengeance on thisss day! Mark my wordsss architect of Carmine!"

Either the burnt sinner ignored him, or the man didn't bother with such threats. It remained to be seen, as Sir Pentious couldn't see the face of the man, even under all that wrapping the burnt sinner had all over his body.

Not one to leave an opportunity to be passed up, Sir Pentious brushed himself off. They followed after the other sinner to hound the man down and demand an actual duel before moving on to the infamous Radio Demon Overlord. In the Serpent Sinner's mind, if he could not defeat the burnt sinner to any capacity, what chance did he have against the Radio Demon?

"Turn and face me!" Sir Pentious demanded as he slithered after Joshua, trailing behind the burnt sinner by a few feet. "For when I defeat you, I ssshall one step clossser to ruling Pride ring!" he boasted with a smirk.

Joshua momentarily stopped, which led Pentious to believe he finally got the man's attention, only for the burnt sinner to quickly turn and face him before grabbing him by the scruff of his suit. "Wuh!?" Was all Sir Pentious got out to say before finding his world in disarray as Joshua pulled Sir Pentious with him through a semi-broken storefront window, the remaining glass shattering in the process from the burnt sinner tossing himself into the empty, abandoned store while pulling the serpent with him the process.

Not a moment sooner, the sound of tires screeching and gunfire echoing off outside the store filled Sir Pentious's ears while he found himself having been thrown aside into a table. "Stay down." was all the burnt sinner got out to say before Pentious watched from his prone position. As Joshua lay to the ground, bullets whizzed past him, some even grazing the back of his vest as he scrambled to a nearby countertop to take cover.

"Wait, wuh, what'sss going on?" Sir Pentious spoke urgently as he tried to pick himself up, only to fall back down to avoid an incoming spray of bullet fire once he saw a shark demon aim in his direction from the outside and fire at him.

"He's got company with him! Some idiot looking snake!" A voice shouted from the outside.

Sir Pentious, having taken offense to the insult of being called an idiot-looking snake, shook his fist up while keeping himself down low on the ground to avoid being peppered by gunfire, "SSScoundrelsss! I am Sssir Pentiousss, Architect of Doom!" The Serpent sinner declared.

"Who did that snake say he was?"

"Who cares? Just keep shooting!

Sir Pentious soon found he had to get lower to the ground and hug the floor as a hail of gunfire peppered every inch of the abandoned shop; not shortly after, Pentious felt a tug on his tail before finding himself jerked and pulled further back into the shop.

"Ack!" Pentious groaned while rubbing the back of his head. He blinked his bleary eyes open to see the burnt sinner was in the process of checking his gun before swiftly standing up out of his cover to retaliate with a few well-placed shots; after firing off twelve rounds, Joshua quickly knelt back down into cover behind the counter to empty his magazine from his pistol.

"Shit, he got Jorge!"

"I'm fuckin bleedin' over here!"

"Radio in back up, we need more men!"

A cacophony of voices echoed from the outside, accompanied by the sounds of those suffering from wounds.

"You should leave out the back," Joshua spoke plainly, earning Sir Pentious's attention as the burnt sinner slotted a new mag into his pistol before pulling out another from his vest to duel wield his firearms. The burnt sinner eyed the serpent sinner with an inscrutable gaze while Pentious was propped up against the counter where Joshua had pulled him over to get cover.

Sir Pentious, on the other hand, was a bit miffed that the man told him to leave. "You dare order me around?" the serpent sinner gestured at himself, annoyance written all over his face.

"It was a suggestion, serpent. I was simply telling you to leave so as not to get mixed up with this little…altercation I have with those men outside." Joshua retorted as he held his firearms up at the ready. The burnt sinner stared back at Sir Pentious with a flat look.

"I will do no sssuch thing!" Pentious declared with his finger up in the air at his proclamation, "You and I ssstill have a ssscore to sssettle, and I will not have it ssstolen from me to some rapssscallionsss!" The Serpent sinner finished saying before pulling a firearm from his coat suit.

"Behold, my newessst marvel of dessstruction, the annihilator two thousssand!" Pentious said proudly as he held out at arm's length a blunderbuss; near the stock end were two glass chambers. One held blue liquid while the other held small sparks of electricity, "With Thisss, my enemiesss ssshall tremble in fear!" he shouted in glee and looked at Joshua to see an expression on the man's face, only for him to see the other sinner simply give him a flat look.

"How many rounds does it hold?" was all Joshua managed to get with an unimpressed voice before the sounds of incoming vehicles homing in on their location, before making screeching sounds of brakes being used. "Forget it for now, out the back, both of us," Joshua commanded sternly before bolting off towards the back door.

"Get that minigun at the ready; I want to see that asshole riddled like Swiss cheese!"

"Someone help me with these RPGs!"

"On the move it isss!" Sir Pentious said with wide eyes and in an urgent tone as he slithered up somewhat while holding his weapon and followed after the burnt sinner in a serpentine manner.

Joshua, once having reached the back door in his haste, tackled the door aside with this shoulder to slam it open before narrowly avoiding a few bullets sent his way. As he held the door open by standing on the other side of the wall and keeping the door between him and the wall, Joshua waited and watched as the serpent sinner slithered quickly out the back before another hailstorm of bullets followed after him.

While Pentious allowed himself to right himself up against the wall of the back room on the other side of the doorway, Joshua's eyes quickly glanced around and noticed a stairway up the led up to the roof. "The roof." He simply said before sprinting towards the set of stairs while letting the door slam shut after stepping away from it.

"What? Why!?" Sir Pentious questioned, unsure why they would head up to the roof where they'd no doubt get cornered if there were no adjoining buildings to cross over to.

At the next moment, the sound of a whir picked up speed, followed by the high-pitched sound of a minigun going off; if it weren't for his quick act of ducking, Pentious would have found his torso riddled with bullets after seeing bullets be fired through the entire building from the firepower of whatever minigun the scoundrels were using.

Hold his firearm invention close to his chest, Sir Pentious shouted as he bolted for the stairs, "Up the ssstairs, yesss, good plan!" he hollered with urgency, and right before Pentious reached the stairs and slithered as fast as he could up the flight of steps, missiles, and rockets bombarded the wall where he and Joshua once took cover behind.

"Aahh!" Sir Pentious shouted as he practically flew up the set of stairs that he slithered up on, his speed taking him up to the roof at record speed by his account of how fast he was moving.

Hazbin Hotel

The residents of the hotel's foyer occupied themselves by either lounging or drinking. One was periodically seen cleaning things with a broom before zooming off into another room. Charlie and Vaggie, in particular, stood not far from the hotel's entrance.

"So, here's the plan," Charlie said as she paced around a bit while Vaggie stood off to the side. The fallen angel herself had her arms crossed as her lone eye followed her girlfriend as Charlie paced back and forth. We visit the city, invite some sinners, ask around, and see if anyone wants to take shelter at the hotel!" She said, standing before Vaggie to face her partner with a bright smile.

Vaggie gave her girlfriend a simple smile and shrugged, "Eh, I don't see why not. What with all the panic across Pride Ring going on?" she remarked, her arms relaxed while still crossing her chest.

"Oh!" Charlie punctuated by slamming her fist into her palm, "Do you think we should call Joshua?" she asked.

Vaggie frowned a bit and gave her girlfriend a raised brow, "What for…oh." she realized what Charlie was leading towards, "You think he could help find some sinners as well?" she asked, with some skepticism in her tone, before shrugging, "Eh, it wouldn't hurt." she replied to Charlie's question in a blase manner.

"Great!" With a bright smile, Charlie exclaimed and pulled out her phone to dial Joshua's phone, "With this, we can cover more ground!"

While the Princess of hell dialed into her phone, from outside, the distant sound of gunfire and explosions echoed as soft murmurs from how distant the chaos of Pride ring was going on in its city. After dialing Joshua's phone number, Charlie smiled and hummed to herself as she waited for her fellow worker at the hotel to pick up his phone.

After a few tonal rings, the call was finally picked up, and what greeted Charlie was nothing short of chaos on the other end; in fact, Charlie had to hold her phone away from her ear and look on in worry as explosions and gunfire roared in the background of the call.

"I'll be with you in a minute." Joshua's voice hollered through the phone, prompting a surprised look from Charlie, causing her to glance at Vaggie, who simply gave her a shrug.

"Um…" Charlie murmured back while more gunfire rang out through the call.

"I sssee an open window from thisss roof we are on!" Sir Pentious's voice chimed in through the background of Charlie's call with Joshua.

With a somewhat more surprised look on her face, Charlie traded looks with Vaggie, who looked back at her with an incredulous face.

Charlie brought her phone back up to her mouth to speak clearly, "Joshua, is everything okay?" she hollered into her phone with a look of worry on her face.

What followed next were the sounds of more gunfire and explosions, followed by Joshua and Sir Pentious tumbling through whatever they were doing, before another explosion rocked the call in the background.

After a few heavy breaths on Joshua's end, the burnt sinner replied to Charlie. "I appreciate the concern, but I believe I have things handled. This isn't anything I'm not used to." Joshua spoke to Charlie during what seemed to be the lull of whatever firefight Joshua was altercating.

"Indeed, for as long as you have Sssir Pentiousss, villain extraordinaire at your ssside, thessse rapscalouions ssshall know the full wrath of my inventionsss, wahaha!" Pir Pentious gloated from the other end of the call.

"I'll get back to you after I settle this dispute with these attackers. Have yourself a good day, Charlie." Joshua finished his call with her before the call was disconnected.

After digesting the entire debacle of whatever Joshua had gotten involved in, Charlie, with a worried look, turned to look directly at Vaggie, "You think we should…"

Vaggie rolled her eyes while her arms were still crossed, "Look, Charlie, he said he had it handled." she answered while shoving her shoulder in the direction of the nearby that showed the city in the distance, "Besides, whatever he's experiencing, ain't nothing different from what sounds like some sort of territorial dispute." Vaggie remarked before unfolding her arms to shrug with her hands up midway by her shoulders, "Joshua probably just got dragged into some scuffle between two minor factions or something." she rolled her eyes at the end.

With a skeptical look, Charlie lifted her finger to tap her lip in some worry. "I don't know. It sounded more than a simple territorial dispute if it involved him in the mess…" she remarked.

"Princess," Angel Dust said as he looked up from his Vphone and lounged on one of the couches. He gave Charlie a cynical look in the process: "Every day in hell has a territorial dispute, big and small, so chances are, Mister King Tut of Guns will need to shoot his way out of whatever he's gotten himself involved with, regardless of whether you help him or not."

Charlie sighed in defeat, not one to resort to violence so easily, to set a better example of what she wanted to represent. "I suppose you're right." she winced.