Tony tried to stay quiet, hidden among the pulsing, throbbing Hell creep made from the organs of mutilated people. The hordes prowled the streets with cybermancubi and barons tromping over the desiccated, stripped, and flayed human bodies left in the streets. He closed his mouth and nose as the stench was terrible; the rotten meat of the dead was sickening, reminding Tony of his dead parents.

It had just been two hours ago, but that was enough to keep it fresh in his mind. His parents had tried to run from a company of zombies with plasma rifles and flamethrowers. They had not succeeded. His father turned to a crisp, his mother caught by an imp and decapitated. He ran for cover and dodged into a storefront. The zombies and imps tried to find him, but he hid behind gore spread across the doors and windows.

This was where he found himself now, watching the forces of Hell trounce by. They looked like they were looking for something. Maybe they were looking for him?

The ARC radio station had devolved into rhetoric. He had been listening to it with his parents, but it now broadcast nothing but wishful prayers and hopeless babble. His dad had turned it off and threatened that was the last he would ever hear of it. The state of the planet he blamed on Samuel Hayden in bringing them to the brink. Tony's mom didn't agree and said that "The Slayer would be coming." Tony had asked who that was, and his dad was quick with an answer.

"More crap from Hayden!"

"It's not crap!" Tony's mom argued. "He took down the entire Hell invasion by himself on Mars!"

"Bullshit!"

Tony's mom covered his ears. "Miguel!" his mom shouted.

"Well it is!"

Tony cried, wishing he had his parents back, even if they were arguing again. Both of their deaths ran through his mind. The screaming flames of his father as he fell to his knees, reaching out for his family to help in someway. The gargled cry from his mom. Blood splashing to the ground from her severed neck.

Thinking about this, a strange noise came from behind him. A bright blue orb hovered in the air with a whining charge. Tony screamed as he fled the store, a blue, devastating explosion hot on his heels. The storefront was left in smoking debris as an arachnotron slammed through the smoke, firing its side guns in a barrage of red shots. With tears and his arms out, Tony ran screaming. He jumped over several, red, sticky hurtles, trying to avoid from dying.

Slipping, he slid into a small legion of imps with a carcass backing them up. A large, blue energy wall crashed down in front of Tony as he cried, getting back up. He looked for someone to save him, but there was no one. He crossed a dead ARC soldier as he ran, fireballs following him. The soldier had been ripped from his mech and cut open like a turkey. His guts led out from his body right into more gore.

Rounding a corner, running down a darkened street he heard a ghastly, primeval roar. He again slide to the ground and a hunched over, tusked creature sped out of a mini mall. "Oh God, no, no, no, no!" There was no way he was outrunning a pinky.

It growled and wiped its feet with a gruff snort, deadlocked on the boy. Behind Tony came the arachnotron, crawling sideways around the building, firing at Tony. The boy cried out, holding his knees, with the shots burning into the ground around him. The pinky was almost on him, giving him barely time to scream before being torn apart by the charging demon.

Suddenly, a hard, meaty, destructive blast stopped the pinky and threw it through a window.

Stepping out of the darkness came a tall, big man dressed in dark green armor. In the one hand, lazily resting on his shoulder, he carried a sawed-off, double-barrel shotgun with a blood-soaked, two-pronged hook. In the other, a long, blood-soaked blade protruded from his forearm. He marched in front of Tony and stood in front of the arachnotron with that shotgun aimed at the cybernetically enhanced demon.

It stopped only for a second, but fired. The blast went right over the armored man's head as he launched his hook and flew towards the beast, lighting it on fire. He fired the shotgun and blasted the monster back, shooting again, making it stagger. In its dazed and confused state, the armored man took his blade and plunged it right through the beast's brains, a geyser of blue fluid issuing forth. It made this hollowed, frightened hiss as it fell to the ground dead.

However, the pinky was back, having recovered from the previous attack. It growled at Tony as he was still crying. It charged the kid, but the man picked him off the ground and spun with the child in hand. He then fired at the thing's back, twice, sending four shells deep into the pinky's spine. The pinky fell to one knee.

The armored man put Tony down, gently, and marched over to the demon and stuck it right in the ribs with that arm-mounded machete. The pinky choked up a river of red and fell, face first, in a pool of its own blood.

Two imps then appeared, but the man in armor quickly wiped them out switching from his shotgun to a plasma rifle. One he sliced in half and another he finished off in an explosion of bloody bits.

Turning towards Tony, the man in armor marched towards the crying kid and lifted him up. Tony stopped crying as he looked through the helmet into the man's eyes. Eyes that held a hatred unlike any other. Not for him, but for the demons. Tony had never seen anything like it. They were like the demons, but deeper, more evil. Yet, he felt no ill-will or malice towards him. It was for the denizens of Hell. A destructive, monstrous force for the hordes of the inferno only.

Putting him back down, the armored man began to walk away when Tony asked, "Hey mister?"

The armored man stopped.

"Are… are you The Slayer? My mom use to tell me stories about The Slayer. I think she just heard them from Samuel Hayden, but are you him?"

The armored man looked over his shoulder at Tony and subtly nodded. He then began to walk off.

"Hey, wait!"

The Slayer stopped again.

"I don't have a family anymore and, and I have nowhere to go. Do you think you could…" Tony stopped as The Slayer moved. He dipped his fingers in the pool of blood left by the pinky and drew a crude stick-figure family. Tony understood and told him, "No, they're dead. Killed by the demons."

The Slayer just stood there, still and silent.

"Don't you talk?" Tony asked.

The Slayer then turned his head, as if he was listening to someone else speak. Tony wondered what he was hearing, but soon he was up in The Slayer's arms, and was moving through town faster than he or his parents could run. The Slayer was indeed running, but it seemed effortless for him. His legs moving in the armor like they were unhindered. Along the way, Tony watched as The Slayer demolished the legions of Hell. Cacodemons were gutted, barons obliterated, arachnotrons annihilated, and mancubi were turned to mush. Everything in between met its end by blade, flame, and bullets.

After exiting the city, on the outskirts of the lost metropolis, there was an ARC battalion. It looked like they saw the approaching two, and at first, aimed their weapons, but their faces melted to shock as The Slayer approached with a boy in his arms, easily slicing away a charging imp.

It was here that Tony spared a glance back at the city and saw all the Hell following them. He gripped The Slayer's bloody armor and whimpered out, "Slayer, there's so many!"

The Slayer turned with a loaded rocket launcher. He dropped Tony and pointed towards the ARC soldiers.

Several snake-like demons slithered towards the two, snapping fiery lashes. Beyond the accumulating horde came a big, tall demon that raised its hands as they filled with two flaming orbs in its evil grasp. The demons roared against The Slayer as three barons rushed The Slayer and four, horned, brown-skinned cacodemon-looking monsters flew for him, smaller demons flying out of their maws.

Tony ran for the ARC soldiers and watched as The Slayer lept into battle. He moved faster than any of his adversaries, fought harder than anything with teeth or claws, and killed with more vigor than any other infernal beast. He cut through the fire shield of the tall monster and it tried to defended itself, but that was an effort in futility. The Slayer easily grabbed its arm and pierced its skull through its bottom jaw; his blade running through its mouth and brains, discarding its dead body like trash.

Tony felt the ARC soldier pick him up as he was still transfixed on The Slayer and what he did best: rip and tear demons. The boy couldn't help but shout out, "That one was for my mom and dad! Get them Slayer! Kill them all!"

After the tall demon was dead and had faded from the world, a swirling red portal had opened near The Slayer and a figure stepped out. A broad-shouldered, skeletal humanoid with large horns and red eyes. In its hand was a crimson light-blade ax and a double-barrel shotgun on its hip. It had similar green armor to The Slayer as an evil, thick voice told the demon destroyer, "Doom Slayer, betrayer, false idol. You may have slain my brothers, but I have more to offer than those before. I have observed you in past battle and in present engagement, learned your tactics and powers. Time to face the future, Slayer. One without you."

Shoved into an armored car, Tony tried to stay, or at least see The Slayer, but in no time the car was racing across desolate, decimated Earth. The last thing Tony saw was The Slayer in the air with his shotgun leveled and aimed, while the corrupt slayer reached back with his ax to cleave the hellion mutilator to pieces. A frozen image that Tony promised he would remember for the rest of his life.

"Holy Christ, kid! How the hell did you make it through that alive?!" came the voice of the driver.

Tony smiled and told the driver, "How the rest of us are going to make it. The Slayer."

"One man can't save the entire planet."

Looking back towards the destroyed city, gazing up at the blazing scarlet sky and columns of smoke, Tony saw one of the titans tromp midst the skyscrapers with a barge on its back. His smile got wider as he asked, "Wanna bet?"