New Employ

7. Harvest Festival

Disclaimer: I do not own Helluva Boss


Hell is time for most to relax and do just about whatever many would want. Not the typical tales of burning constantly in Hell depicted in most media and literature on Earth.

At the Goetia mansion, two lovebirds, one literally a bird, are resting after an evening of incredibly debaucherous sex. A sigh of contentment from Stolas is heard. Blitzø is shown lighting a cigar on Stolas' bed and folds his arms behind his head as he takes a drag.

"I'm sorry for having to move our little rendezvous early." Stolas calmly explains. Well, as calmly as one can explain while tied up by his wrists to the headboard with rope while wearing a ball gag and harness. "I have an engagement this month on the full moon."

"When this happens, it's not really something I fuss about…" Blitzø says as he uses the cigar to burn the rope, freeing Stolas. The royal bird rubs his wrists for a second before he takes Blitzø's cigar from him and takes a long drag of it. "But, do you really need the book for this farm bullshit? I have, like, fifteen new clients waitin' for heads to roll." He continues his explanation on their discussion.

"As shocking as it may seem, Blitzy, my grimoiiiiiire is actually incredibly important. And it isn't supposed to be lent out to itty-bitty Imps like yourself." Stolas smiles as he explains the importance of his book before he proceeds to put out the cigarette on one of Blitzø's horns and pinches his cheek cutely before Blitzø shoves him away. "The Harvest Moon is a very special occasion! It's been my annual duty to showcase it in the Ring of Wrath. It's celebrated by a very charming little festival with the locals." He happily finishes saying.

Blitzø then proceeds to pull a feather out of his mouth in disgust, a pretty big indicator as to the sort of activities they were doing moment earlier. "Wrath, huh? My-… Most of my employees are from there. I've never really been. I hear it's full of inbred chucklefucks." He nonchalantly admonishes the place.

"Oh!" Stolas gets an idea as he sits up excitedly. "Why don't you all join me at the festival? I can guarantee you all…" In his own sultry way he pulls the covers over his head, crawls under and his head appears near Blitzø's crotch. "…special access. Hmhmhm." He chuckles.

"Look, I told you, we're not bodyguards. Okay? That was a one-time thing we—" Blitzø is about to continue but remembers exactly how things went down when they did their bodyguarding contract. He grumbles a little at the memory before sighing and relenting. "… Most of us, did badly."

"I'm simply offering a work-free day of fun!" Stolas stands up with the covers on his head. He even does a playful owl head tilt to go along with it. "I feel quite safe at the Harvest Festival. It's the same every year." He does what he can alleviate the imps worry over the mission.

Blitzø looks uneasy at the idea of doing another semi-bodyguarding contract considering their last one was a hassle and half to deal with. Eventually submits to the idea. "Well if you promise this isn't some fuck fest invite, it does sound like it could be a blast and a half. Plus, it's not like we can do jack shit without your book anyway." He points out that last little tidbit since they can't even do any of their regular work without Stolas's book.

"Aww, I'm sowwy your clients will have to wait…" Stolas proceeds to baby-talk Blitzø as he pinches his cheek a little.

Blitzø waves a dismissive hand off the bird. "Oh, fuck my clients!" With that declaration, IMP has their new contract.


It's been a hectic time for the human veteran. After the fire-themed sinner burst in and dropped a load of cash on the table, Ajax found something for him to do:

Solo work.

Not much to say or grandiose all things considered, but its his work. Not anyone else to come with, not anyone else to get in the way, not anyone else to watch his back.

Just… him.

His own moves to go. To move. To plan. To find, observe, setup… and kill. Most of his life was always him following orders, doing something else that someone wanted done in one way or another, even if he was given leeway to do this or that at one moment or another. He was always the tool to someone else's work.

While it's nice and good to be working with people who has his back and are nice… mostly… in the form of the imp demons and Hellhoud, after the news of the Afghanistan war ending with less than absolutely stellar results, to put things mildly, he was just defeated that most of that part of his life was a waste.

But now? With the solo work he can choose whether or not to take contract. Choose to go after this person or not. It's… a good feeling. One that he finds comfort in knowing that he can go about it his own way and his own style.

*Riiiiing*Riiiiiing*Riiiiiing*

Although right now the human is particularly annoyed at the infernal ringing noise of a phone waking him up from his nap. He decided to crash out on the couch in the office after a solo contract so he could return the book to its rightful place in Loona's desk without the others knowing. He's not sure how Blitzø would respond to him going solo every soften but he doesn't want to deal with that.

He groans as he reaches over to the end table next to his head, fumbling a little as he tries to grab the phone before eventually managing to grab it. He barely manages to crack his eyes open as he glances at the caller ID. A curious brow is raised at the name as he wasn't expecting them to call him at this time.

He answers the call, "What is it Mox?" He questions in a tired tone.

"Sorry to call you at this time Ajax but I conferenced you in as apparently something came up." The white-haired imp answers in an equally tired and annoyed tone.

"Conferenced?" Ajax questions as he rolls over onto his back to look up at the ceiling as he talks. "With who?"

"Hey meat shield! Hope you had a good dream princess!"

Ajax is holding the phone several inches away from his ear with a look that screams he wants to murder someone.

He lets out a long drawn out sigh and puts the phone back to his ear with an indignant sigh as well. "Okay… since you decided to wake up everyone at this ungodly hour, what is it?"

"Yes, what is it, sir?" Moxxie also chimes in tiredly on the phone.

"Well we got something new ya'll! How would you two and Mils like to visit the Wrath Ring for some harvest bullshit this year?"

"The Harvest Moon Festival?! Yee-fuckin'-haw!" Millie wakes up, yelling excitedly at going to the festival.

Moxxie sighs at his wife's excitedness, who probably was sleeping through their conversation until mention of the Harvest Festival came up and she just shot up like a kid learning they are going to Disney land. "Well, Millie likes the idea." Moxxie smiles for a second at his wife before he gets a confused look. "Wait… Where are you calling from?"

*CRASH*

Ajax sits up in surprise. He's about to start shouting and asking if everyones alright… but it doesn't take him long to notice theirs no screaming, yelling, gunshots, stabbing and other noises of destructive of visceral nature. Theirs only option he can think of with the others being so calm about this:

"Moxxie…"

"…Yes…?"

"…He fell from the ceiling again, didn't he?"

"YuP." He pops the 'p' as he says.

"Of course." Ajax tiredly replies as he pinches the bride of his nose. "Boss, do we have to leave right now? Right this second?"

"Of course fucking not! The festivals not for a few days so—"

"Then wake me up when its time to really go."

*Beep*

He ends the call, places his phone on the floor and turns over in his makeshift bed.


Blitzø looks at his phone with stupefied expression as it registers the ended call before he gets an annoyed expression.

"Well that's just rude." Blitzø nonchalantly as he stretches his limbs for a second before flopping backwards with his hands behind his head. "Some people huh Mox?" He asks his employee with smile.

"Mmmmmmm… yeah… some." Moxxie growls out in rapidly rising annoyance. On one side of the bed is Moxxie, staring up at the ceiling with his hands gripping the tops of his covers angrily and threatening to tear into the fabric. On the other side is his wife Millie, a smile on her face as she lightly chuckles with an amused expression. Blitzø has found himself lying between the two with a content smile and relaxed look about him with his hands behind his head.


"Are you okay? Are you experiencing any uncomfortableness? Unease? Possibly bursting into flames?"

"Moxxie I said I'm fine. Why are you freaking out so much over this?" Ajax can't help but ask the white-haired imp at his incessant prodding.

"Yeah Mox? What's got your panties in twist on the big guy back there? I means its not like he hasn't been shot at, shot, stabbed, punched, kicked, chair broken on him—"

"Yes thank you boss! You don't need to remind us all the moments of my near death!" Ajax loudly interrupts him.

Blitzø smiles at the annoyance in Ajax's voice. "Anytime." He soon gets a frown as he glances back at Moxxie. "But seriously what's with all the questioning?"

"I'm sorry it's just… I didn't really inquire back when we went to Loo Loo land considering we left the Pride Ring to go to the Greed Ring because I was so focused on us making sure that Stolas and his daughter were safe and healthy." He looks out the window to glance at the desert somewhat barren setting they are traveling in. "And now we're here in the Wrath Ring."

"Okay… so what?" Blitzø nonchalantly asks.

"With a human sir." Moxxie waves his arm in the direction of Ajax likes its so obvious.

"For fucks sake Moxxie! Just say what- Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, I get it now."

"What?" Ajax asks as he looks confused. "What is it?"

"Wait, you guys never told him?" Loona in the passenger seat asks, looking up from her phone as she looks incredulously at the others. "You never found out?" Loona asks with a wry smile as she looks back at Ajax in the back.

Ajax frowns in annoyance at another thing he doesn't know about. "Coming here to Hell didn't exactly come with brochure on the rules here. Especially since I came through the detour route that was much less painful than the main way…" He says before he takes a moment to remember what happened that got him in Hell. "…Sort of." He adds at the end. Getting shot still sucks beyond all reason. At least he didn't die.

"Ughh." Loona groans before turning around fully in her seat and glaring at Ajax. "Didn't you ever notice how Sinners, you know the humans sent here in the express route, only ever stayed in the Pride Ring where our office is?"

Ajax gets a curious look before shrugging. "Kind of? It wasn't exactly something I was focusing on as the only time we left the Pride Ring was for a job in one way or another so that was my focus."

"Of course it was." Blitzø rolls his eyes as he mutters under his breath before raising his voice to talk to Ajax, "News flash dude, Sinners can't leave the Pride Ring. Period." He bluntly informs him.

"They can't?" Ajax asks curiously with a pretty good amount of confusion. "Why?"

"Who knows and who gives a fuck." Their boss answers back. "Probably so they can all be corralled in one area so they aren't running amok all over fucking Hell. I mean have you seen the types of things these guys become when they get down here?" He asks everyone out loud incredulously over what he knows. The others voice their thoughts in agreement as Aja thinks a little on some of the different sinners he's seen. It's an interesting concept to him considering the fact that a human who was just that, a regular human, back on Earth, dies, gets sent to Hell, and has powers and even possibly an appearance based around exactly what it was that killed them.

"Yeah, quite the way they are." Ajax mumbles and sighs before looking at Moxxie. "So that's why you're wondering about me being here."

Moxxie embarrassingly scratches his cheek. "I've never actually seen what happens when a Sinner tries to leave the Pride Ring. Is there an invisible barrier? Are they compelled to go back? Is there pain? Do they die again and respawn like some weird horrific video game mechanic? I'm not sure." He looks back at Ajax with clear concern on his face. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright so this mission can go smoothly."

Ajax smiles at the imp and nods at him in appreciation. "Thanks Moxxie. I appreciate your concern. If I start to feel anything out of the ordinary, I'll let you know."

"Thanks." Moxxie replies with a smile of his own and sits back in his seat.

"Ugh, just get a room you two." Loona almost gags from the front seat before chuckling with a smile.

Moxxie looks annoyed at the Hellhound before Millie snickers a little and comforts her husband as she rubs his arm a little. It looks like it does the trick as he smiles back at his wife.

Ajax smirks at what Loona says before he leans back in his seat. He doesn't stay still for long before he looks down at the item in his lap. A new wave of unsureness hits him as he stares at it.

"Millie, are you sure I don't need my gear? I'm still trying to keep a low profile here in Hell." Ajax asks her as he looks at his gas mask in hand.

"Of course I'm sure!" Millie turns around and gives Ajax a teeth filled smile. "These are my parents we're going to be staying with. They're not going to make a big fuss about you being human. As long as you're a hard worker and a semi-decent person and don't do anything stupid, they won't give one mind if you were even a literal angel. Don't sweat it." She finishes explaining to him before she moves back to sit down on her seat. She looks unsure for a moment before glancing back, "Actually I'm not sure with the angel part but your not one so we don't have to worry."

Ajax stares at her for a second before pursing his lips as he looks down at his mask one more time and idly rubs his finger over one of the lens. He sighs as he places it on the seat next to him and looks out the window.

The are they find themselves in is something out of a more dreary and slightly redder looking Texas. Not many trees, and those he sees are a little black and kind of shriveled up. Its mostly flat dirt and sand for as far as Ajax can see. It isn't long after they are silent before something begins to come into view in the distance. As they get closer, Ajax is able to make out the telltale signs of a straight up cowboy ranch house. He is able to catch the name of said ranch, known as Rough n' Tumbleweed Ranch. They pull up in their van just outside the house where a couple of imps are waiting for them.

One of them is a very burly male imp, having muscular arms and a pronounced torso. He has red skin, yellow eyes, white hair and a matching bushy mustache, along with black and white striped horns like all other male imps.

He also has white marks all along his left shoulder, wears a sleeveless black vest over a brown sleeveless shirt, a black belt with silver buckle, and gray pants with black boots.

The other is a female imp that bears a striking resemblance to Millie, having red skin covered with white spots, although hers are more numerous, in addition to dark wild hair, yellow eyes, and black horns with thin white stripes.

She has a full-figured body with thick thighs, wide hips and plump breasts but a slim waist. Her attire consists of a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, crimson ascot around her neck, faded blue jeans, and gardening gloves on her hands.

"Mama! Daddy!"

"Well that explains it." Ajax mutters to himself as Millie all but jumps out, sprints over and embraces her parents. "Should have figured. She did say we were meeting her parents." Ajax mumbles to himself as he unbuckles his seatbelt.

Moxxie, Loona and Blitzø all get out with Ajax taking up the rear. All of them have different outfits that fit the sort of atmosphere they are now finding themselves in.

Blitzø is wearing a light grey shirt with black suspenders with small red buckles holding up his black jeans and a dark red vest with white spots on it similar to the white scarring on his body. Ending it with black cowboy boots with red trimming on the top edge of his boots and at the end where his toes are.

Loona's outfit is not a major change from what her normal outfit is. She still has her collar and leggings but is wearing a black short shirt, black fingerless gloves, a red ripped sleeveless vest, and a black skirt with red trimmings on the ends.

Moxxie is wearing a grey button up shirt with white sleeves, dark grey bow tie, dark grey pants with black boots with red trimmings on the edges.

Millie is wearing a red vest similar to Loona, a black short shirt, black fingerless gloves, and dark grey shorts slightly ripped with red trimmings on the ends, and still has her black toeless footwear.

And it end it off is Ajax with his getup consisting of a dark grey button shirt, a very dark brown, almost black leather coat to go over it, and loose fitting black jeans. He doesn't have traditional cowboy boots on and instead has his black combat boots on. He has a dark brown belt with a holster holding his revolver to add to their cowboy theme. To end the whole look, he is wearing a wide brimmed black cowboy stetson hat with red trimmings on the edge, the stitching on the center of the hat as well as on the tied up string on the top center of his hat.

He lets out a breath of air as he stretches his legs when he steps out and watches the family in front of him and their joyful reunion.

"Yeeeee-hawwww! How's my deadly little pumpkin spice doing?" The male imp rancher says to Millie as he ruffles her hair affectionately.

Milie smiles. "I'm good, Pa! Thanks for lettin' us stay here for the harvest jamboree." She thanks her parents for the help.

"It's no trouble. We know you aren't making as much anymore since y'all went 'freelance'." The female imp, Millie's mom, says to her. This causes Ajax to look at them curious on what they think she's been doing.

Millie rolls her eyes at her parents as she tries to alleviate their worries. "Freelance pays fine, Ma! We're doin' fiiiiine!... It's fine." She adds the last part in a more serious tone than the more carefree tone she was first speaking.

"Hgnnnn! Guhh!" Ajax looks to the side as he spots Moxxie trying to carry some of the luggage and struggling a little.

"Here Moxxie. Let me help." Ajax walks up and grabs half the load off the imp.

The effect is almost immediate as Moxxie lets out a breath of relief as he finds the lesser load much easier to handle. He gives the human a grateful smile in thanks, "Thank you Ajax. This stuff was heavier than I—"

"C'mon hun!"

"Hgrk!" Before Moxxie can finish thanking him, Millie comes up and grabs his arm and pulls him harshly, eliciting a strangled cry from the imp as he flips the luggage he was carrying into the air. Ajax is just able to catch the rest of the luggage before it slams into the ground.

"Anyway, y'all remember my husband Moxxie?" Millie shoves her husband in front of her parents. Once Ajax organizes the luggage properly, he looks to see they are staring at him in disapproval.

"Hmph." Millie's father makes no attempt to hide his annoyance with Moxxie as he scoffs at the imp.

"Greetings, Lin! Joe!" Moxxie tries hard to offer a proper greeting but fails pretty badly. "How have you been, uh, with all the… flaming twisters and stuff around here?" Very badly as he nervously holds out his hand.

"They have that type of stuff here?" Ajax asks Blitzø and Loona.

"Oh yeah. Pretty messed up place to live in to be honest." Loona explains.

"Yep. It's why you won't catch me coming to this of the ring on a regular basis. Too much of an opportunity to be sucked up and burned… and not in the good way." Blitzø adds the last part with a cocky smirk. This gets a disgusted scoff from Loona and a weird side-eye look from Ajax before he looks back to the family's and in-laws talking.

"We lost our old farm hand to one of them terrors last week." Millie's father, Joe, tells Moxxie of what happened since he had asked.

Moxxie proceeds to laugh nervously as he touched up on somewhat sore subject right off the bat. "Hehehehe… Oh, crumbs. My bad! I am so sorry. I- I didn't mean to open that wound… sir."

"Hey, watch it! I'm the 'sir' here, bucko!" Blitzø can't help but interject as he walks up to them and proclaims. Ajax sighs at his boss butting in like usual.

"Oh yeah! Y'all haven't met my boss Blitzo! And his hellhound!" Millie informs her parents of them.

"I'm not just his hellhound." Loona naturally is pretty annoyed with the moniker.

"Yeah, she's my daughter!" Blitzø claims as he pulls her to his side lovingly.

And of course Loona is still annoyed. "Only on paper."

Blitzø then elbows the side of Ajax, "And this tall drink of water here is our—"

"One-man-army, Ajax Rourke." Millie interrupts with a smile. This gets a curious look from most of the others and an annoyed look from Blitzø at the cut-off. Ajax tilts his head curiously at her label but is even more so when she jogs up to him and grabs his hand, making him drop some of the luggage…

"Hey! Wha- Oof!"

Right onto their boss, leaving Loona to chuckle at her adoptive fathers state as she takes a picture.

Ajax is pulled closer to Moxxie and her parents as she explains, "Hand-to-hand killer, explosives and weapons expert, crackshot sniper," She smiles to Ajax as she mentions that part, which makes Ajax nods back at her, "And overall best employee, ally and friend to have."

With his introduction done, both Ajax and Millie's parents stare at each other for a second before Ajax nods and tips his hat to the two. "Sir. Ma'am." He greets them. "Your daughters one of the best CQC specialists I've met. She may be small compared to my kind but can cut a person down without breaking a sweat whatsoever."

Joe looks impassively and firmly at Ajax. "Nice to meet you hun. We sure raised her right we did." While Lin happily greets the human with a nod of her own and fawning over her daughter while also pinching her cheek, eliciting a blush and some playful swatting from the daughter. Both men though continue to stare at one another.

"Nrah!" Blitzø shouts as he throws the stuff off him and wipes the dirt off himself. He looks annoyed as he walks over to Millie's parents.

Loona chuckles as she looks at the picture of Blitzø before going back to typing and surfing the web on her phone as usual.

Blitzø walks over to Millie's parents now with a slight smile on his face. "It's a pleasure to finally meet the sperm and egg factory that popped out this little gem of an assassin." He casually pushes Moxxie away from them and gestures to Millie. "You two raised a sturdy bitch!" Blitzø elbows Millie playfully. Ajax is pinching the bridge of his nose at the 'sperm and egg factory' comment.

"That we did!" Joe proudly agrees. "So… Blitzø, is it? Heh heh. That's a fine name." He compliments IMP's boss. The both of them shake hands as Ajax scratches the side of his face.

"It reminds me of war." Ajax freezes at Lin's comment.

Joe sighs happily as he reminisces a little. "Nothing like a little war to make a strong man!" He boasts as he flexes his bicep.

Ajax slowly lowers his arm as he narrows his eyes at them. 'So they do have war down here.'

"I like you people." Blitzø has a sort of different response to the whole thing.

"Y'know… more battles were won by technological advances in warfare." Moxxie decides to go into a sort of lecture on the subject. "I've researched the history of weaponry extensively, and it's inspiring how… for example, the progression of guns utilizing angelic technology has changed the landscape of Hell's combative…" His explanation cuts off as Millie makes a 'cut it out' motion with her hands while Joe crosses his arms, unimpressed with Moxxie. "I mean… War fun." Ajax sighs at the deep awkward voice Moxxie uses at the end of his sentence.

Joe smirks at the imp. "Guns get the job done… but a man ain't nothin' if he can't tear the head off a hellish beast with only his bare… hands!" He speaks quite enthusiastically about the whole thing. Ajax purses his lips at his comments about the whole thing

"HAAAA! He's right, Moxxie!" Blitzø shouts before talking to Moxxie in a baby talk tone. "You got cute wittle baby hands like your baby dick!" He even grabs his hand and reaches toward his crotch. Moxxie slaps his arm away.

"Refrain… sir." Moxxie hisses at his boss.

"You know, Ajax here is also a war veteran." They look to Millie as she makes the comment. Ajax raises an eyebrow as Millie pats his back. "This guy right here has quite the lifetime of war experience."

"…" Ajax doesn't immediately answer, a little unsure of the idea of being put on the spot like that but notices Millie's parents staring at him. 'Might as well try to make things interesting.' "You can't always expect to have access to a gun all the time. Having the skills and strength to kill with your hands is invaluable." But as he remembers some moments, he smirks as he crosses his arms. "But a gun trivializes all of that. A bullet… even in the most inexperienced of hands… can end and kill any skilled, experienced, or the best of fighters out there. A gun makes things…" He sighs a little, "Way too easy."

"I don't know." Loona makes comment with a smirk, "You did pretty good tearing that one guys throat out with your bare hands."

"That was you?!" Blitzø accuses Ajax. During the Spring Break contract he had assumed the body lying in a pool of blood was killed by Loona. Turns out he was wrong.

Joe lets out 'hmph' at Ajax's explanation before smirking. "You know, speakin' of strong hands, y'all should meet our newest help. Hey! Striker!" Joe calls out and yells.

The sounds of a horse neighing can be heard. A black hell horse can be seen galloping towards them, a fiery mane of hair with black flaming hooves clopping on the ground. Blitzø is gushing happily at seeing the horse but the rest are focusing on the rider of the hell horse as the animal slides to a stop in front of everyone

He is a fairly tall imp, rivaling Blitzø in height, and has pale red skin. He possesses a pair of bright yellow eyes with green rings, and a serpentine-like face with a large gold tooth in his sharp-toothed mouth, which he is smiling almost evilly at them. He has a small black mustache and ivory white hair with a pair of black and white-striped horns.

Striker's horns point upward and, compared to other imps that Ajax has seen, the stripe pattern is more jagged. His tail has four black stripes at the base, with eight spines lined up on them, and one on his tail fork.

Striker's attire resembles that of a southern cowboy, with a stereotypical large grey sun hat, cowboy boots, and a light red bandana around his neck. He wears a black turtleneck shirt with a dark grey vest and a light gray jacket with dark gray cuffs and black tassels below. He wears black fingerless gloves and ivory white pants that are ripped by the thighs.

Striker tips his hat to everyone in greeting, a stalk of wheat in his mouth. "Well, howdy!" He greets in a deep drawl voice. "Oh, lookie here!" He gets off his horse as he looks specifically at one of them. "You must be the famous Mildred!" And of course in a way that rubs Ajax the wrong way, Striker walks towards Millie, ignoring him and most of the others. "Heard some good things about you from your folks, little lady." He even goes as far as to add the charm of winking at her.

"Ohhh! Hehehe." She laughs sheepishly at his actions.

Striker shakes Millie's hand. "What're y'all doin' so far away from Imp City? Heh. The free workin' finally slowin' down?" He assumes for her.

This snaps Millie from her sheepish state as she replies, "Oh, no! Freelance isn't free! It's a- Never mind. We're just visitin' for the festival. The prince is our boss' boyyyyfrieeeend!" She can't help but call out in a dramatic tone of the whole situation they got contracted for.

Blitzø looks annoyed at her, "Millie, I am not above hitting a female in front of her daddy." He nonchalantly. A glance to Joe shows he doesn't seem all that angry or surprised by statement. Most likely he knows his daughter can take care of herself.

Striker smirks as he stares at Blitzø. "Boss, huh…? Ohhh, so YOU'RE the bold imp to start his own killing biz?"

"Yeah, well if you're good at somethin', you should probably capitalize." Blitzø boasts.

"Not many Imps start businesses on their own. That's pretty impressive, sir." Striker seems to lay on the charm for the boss imp.

Blitzø is immediately flustered by the whole thing as he stammers, "Oh…! Yeah? It is- I- I- I guess- I guess it is, isn't it?"

"So you even conned that ditzy blueblood into gettin' you to the surface?" Striker states as he and Blitzø shake hands. Ajax takes note of the tone in Striker's voice and how he refers to Stolas of all people.

Blitzø still is a bit flustered. "Well, it's long and complicated, but the short answer is yes. But he's not like, you know- W- We're y- We're not, like… We're not doing it… We w- What's betw- It's a transactional fucking, you see." He finally relents in saying, even going as far as making sexual motion with his hands.

"Y'know... you boys should enter the Pain Games!" Joe calls out and proposes for them to do.

This immediately catches Blitzø's attention as he scuttles sideways over to Joe.

"I heard games! What games? I'm in!" He enthusiastically says. Ajax isn't sure he particularly likes the name of those games.

Lin explains what the games are, "Every harvest festival, there's a competition to be the roughest, toughest bastard in Wrath!"

"Yeah! Wish I could play." Millie pouts with crosses arms.

Lin smirks at her daughter, "Millie, you know you get too carried away. The last competition ended in fifteen separate funerals." She reminds her. Ajax quirks an eyebrow at his fellow assassin. She's always been enthusiastic in fighting and killing their targets but looks like she's always gotten sort of carried away.

"I'm aware, but I only caused nine of them!" She tries to reason but doesn't look like it really works. "How come Sallie May still gets to compete?" She points off to the side. Ajax follows her gesture to see a taller dark red female imp than Millie, about the same height as Blitzø, tying up the end of a sack. She has a white streak over the eye that shows and long dark hair like her sister covering the other, though she has a splotch of white hair coming from beneath her red bandanna. Her horns are designed with thick white stripes like her father's.

She wears tan short shorts and matching heeled boots, along with ripped black leggings and a black crop top with various tears in them.

"Your sister doesn't have a neighborhood head count."

"She so does!"

Sallie May walks by as she carries the sack and a small imp follows behind dragging an Imp body in the background with her. "It doesn't count if they don't find the bodyyyyyy." She answers in a singsong voice.

Millie seethes at her sisters teasing.

"I mean she's right." Ajax speaks up after a bit. When they look at him, he shrugs. "Need a body to confirm the kills. Even an authority figure to sign off on it. Back when I was deployed I took on several sniper missions with dozens to hundreds of sniper kills on my record." He smirks as he looks to the side. "Could have been several hundred to a thousand if I didn't take so many solo assignments. Need an officer and a spotter to confirm my kills for official records."

Striker gives Ajax a curious look before he smiles at him, "Well now, aren't you a curious character, aren't you?" He walks up to Ajax and gives him a look as he crosses his arms. "So it looks like these ones went ahead and grabbed you from the surface huh?" He gestures with his head to the crew of assassins Ajax is with. "What brings someone like you down here?" He tries to lay on the charm for Ajax now.

The human in question simply stares at Striker for a second before giving a small chuckle before he replies, "New locale. Went through hell up there. Decided to see what it was like for real down here." He gestures himself to his coworkers. "Plus certain… circumstances compelled me to be hired by them."

"Extenuating circumstances!" Blitzø suddenly shouts as he pops up next to Ajax. "Unlike war as you all have been talking about, circumstances involved us getting paid for the job our client demanded of us. I mean who doesn't want to get paid?" Blitzø states with a smile.

"I didn't get paid." Ajax states firmly. "War was my job. My life's work." He glances to Joe, catching his eyes for a second, then looking directly at Striker. "And I was VERY… good at my job."

"Hmph," Striker smirks before he gets sort of predatory look about him as he challenges Ajax's stare back at him. "I bet you were."

Many of those around look at the two as they seem to size each other up, seeing who cracks between the two of them in some way.

Lin smiles at how everyone is before she moves to comfort Millie. "Still sweetie, you can still get to root for your sisters and your brothers, and now you can cheer on your boss!"

"Yeah she can!" Blitzø shouts before gently elbowing Ajax. "What about you, Jaxie? You looking to get down and dirty with the ranch folks?"

"Is it required of the job?"

"Well, no but—"

"Are you going to pay me extra?"

"Fuck no!"

"Then no." Ajax declines.

"Killjoy."

Millie and her mother chuckle softly.

Moxxie comes up and puts a hand on Lin's shoulder. "Y'know, she can also cheer for me." Moxxie confidently states.

"Ahhhahahahahahahaaaa!" Almost immediately Joe busts out laughing and even slapping his own leg at the apparent joke that Moxxie told. When no one else is laughing, including Ajax as he gives a hardened cross stare at the elder imp, Joe looks up in surprise once he's done laughing. "…Wait, you?"

"Yeah! I can compete, can't I?" Moxxie points out which most likely is true. If Blitzø was invited to join, including Ajax, then why couldn't Moxxie.

Lin elbows Moxxie hard in the side, causing him to cough and tear up in pain. Ajax clenches his fists in annoyance at their treatment of his partner, an action which Striker notices and subtly smirks.

Joe calms down and looks at Moxxie, "Sorry, boy. But, I don't think sensitive, thespian types would last very long in the games."

"I was born here, too! I have some fight in me." Moxxie says for himself before adding the last part as a drawled tone.

Striker decides to come up and puts a hand on Moxxie's shoulder. "Huh. Well then, little fella… Why don'tcha help me wrangle one o' them hogs for dinner?" He proposes and gestures over to the pigpen and what appears to be a hell hog and its sleeping. It's got the same skin color as an earth hog but these ones look to be much meaner than normal hogs. These have several tusks and horns on their face and mouth, including sharp spines and spots along its body.

"Simple. Watch me." Moxxie confidently states. However his confidence falters as Striker hands him a sharp red and black dagger and a small bundle of rope.

"Nah… with these. Bullets can't pierce the shell. You gotta get the knife underneath and pry yourself an openin'." He informs the smaller imp.

Moxxie gulps nervously before getting gaining his confidence again although this is more fake than before. "Oh! Right, right. I knew that."

Of course now Blitzø leans in toward Moxxie and grabs his shoulders. As per their bosses usual state of intense closeness, Moxxie's eyes twitch. "Now, just remember, your rep with the in-laws is on the line here. So, no pressure at all, you totally will not make an ass of yourself in front of everyone important in your life. Go get 'em, tiger." He shoves Moxxie forward.

"Ohhhf!"

"Mox." Ajax calls out. Moxxie straightens himself up from the push before looking at Ajax who is giving him a firm stare and nodding. "Keep calm."

His words are short but simple. Moxxie returns the stare and tightens his grip on his knife and his nods before going forward to the pigpen.

Millie is worried for her husband as she tries to dissuade him from this, "Mox, you don't need to do this!"

"Oh, he totally does. KICK ITS ASS, MOXXIE! YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Blitzø is no less subtle in trying to cheer him on as he enters the pen.

Moxxie nervously walks forward, knife in hand. When he gets close enough, he tightens his reverse-handed grip on the knife and the rope. After taking one last breath of air, Moxxie leaps forward and wraps the rope around the hog's neck. Just he lands on it does the hog squeal and roar loudly in annoyance as the imp lands on it and wraps the rope around it. Moxxie grunts as he's shifted about but that doesn't stop him. He moves his knife down and strikes it into the hog's hide.

Instead of killing it, the hog roars and runs around frantically and angrily, trying to buck Moxxie off now that its injured and undeniably pissed off. Moxxie shouts and yells as he desperately tries to hold on.

"FUCK yeah, Moxxie! Ride it, Moxxie! Make it that bitch you won't call back in the morning!" Blitzø enthusiastically shouts towards Moxxie and his desperate attempts to hang on. Although in truth its possible that he's enjoying the hazard effort that Moxxie is putting in.

"This is fucking beautiful." Loona on the other is very much enjoying the show as she watches Moxxie get flung around. Even going as far as recording the whole ordeal with her phone.

"Doin' great, Moxxie!" Blitzø shouts encouragement again before leaning close to his daughter. "Send me that video later." He whispers to her.

Moxxie continues to buck about on the hog as he struggles to hold on. During the haphazard movements, Moxxie manages to catch the look of concern in his wife's look. Second to that, he spots hi partner Ajax staring at him with a firm look. Not a look of disappointment, frustration, anger, or even encouraging for the imps situation.

He looks more confident at what he's seeing. When they see each other, Ajax just gives him a subtle nod with his arms crossed.

Moxxie narrows his eyes and grits his teeth tightly. He grips the rope he's holding tighter and locks his legs as tightly as he can onto the back of the hog. After he's able to somewhat steady himself, he pulls up his knife and raises his knife high above his head and brings it dow—

"Oof!"

Suddenly, before Moxxie can inflict his next blow, a figure comes down from above and pushes Moxxie off of the hog and slams into the back of the hog.

Moxxie grunts as he is thrown to the ground and lets go of his knife. He looks up and stares as the person who tackled him was none other than Striker.

The cowboy imp gives off a smug grin at the downed imp and twirls his dagger in one hand and lifts it high into the air.

*BANG*

A gunshot rings out. A splatter of flecks of blood hit Moxxie and Striker. Moxxie looks on with a smirk while Striker looks surprised and annoyed as he lowers his arm. The hog lays their dead with a bullet hole in its eye socket. Blitzø and Loona look to the side.

Ajax stands there with his gun, a Colt Single Action Revolver, held at the side and having made the shot with deadly accuracy at the hip and killed the hog. Silence permeates the air as a small trail of smoke leaves his guns barrel. With an expert move he spins the gun in one hand and holsters it.

"That was my kill." Striker crossly states to Ajax.

The human scoffs as he looks annoyed at him. "No. It was his." He gestures to Moxxie. "You want to take down a target, then kill it. Don't fucking showboat." He turns to walk away but leaves with one last comment, "It's hide might have been tough… but the eye is always a weakspot." He then walks away, ignoring the death glare that Striker is giving his back.

"Ooooh, drama." Loona comments. Ajax rolls his eyes as he moves to grab some of their luggage from near the van.

Moxxie grunts as a small bit of pain shoots through him. Soon enough a shadow goes over him and he sees Striker glaring down at him. Soon enough it turns to small smirk before shaking his head. "You never stood a chance." He comments and proceeds to pick up the dead hog and carry it over his shoulder as Moxxie growls at him. "Hey, boss man! You wanna help the men skin this thing for dinner?" Striker calls out to Blitzø.

"Oh, I am always down to skin the manly meat with the manly men!" Blitzø unceremoniously and confidently states as he struts towards Striker.

"He hears himself right?" Ajax comments as he drops the luggage near Loona, Millie and Moxxie, who is now sporting a cast on his arm.

"That's what she said!" Loona doesn't reply to him but instead makes a very obvious joke at her dad.

"What 'who said'? Wait, what bitch is talking shit about me?!" He loudly and angrily demands but some of the others just laugh or give him incredulous looks. He doesn't make anymore threats as he follows after Strike, along with Millie's parents and Loona.

M&M, and Ajax hang back as Millie comforts her husband. Moxxie himself looks particularly down after the whole situation.

"Don't let 'em get to you." She smiles at her husband. "And hey, you don't need my parents to respect you. They will eventually."

"No, they won't." They look to the side to see Millie's sister, Sallie May, nearby with a smug grin on her face. Of course Millie hates what her sister said as she glares at her. "What? I'm right, ain't I?"

Moxxie glowers at the lack of confidence in his abilities by the imp and speaks in his drawl tone, "Oh, I'mma enter in those games."

Ajax sighs at Moxxie's firm stance on his next action. While the games may be fun and a good way to blow off steam, frankly its for those of more built and strong stature and someone like Moxxie is not one of those. Of course in Ajax's mind that's not what Moxxie's strong suit is. He is an imp focused more on agility, marksmanship and maneuverability, not brute strength. Moxxie's skills with a gun puts many of the men that Ajax has served with to shame by leaps and bounds. Ajax doesn't want Moxxie to be hurt or have his confidence destroyed in trying to impress Millie's parents, even though they clearly hate Moxxie.

Millie sighs sadly at her husband.

Sallie May as usual appears out of nowhere with a curious look. "Hmm, how pissed would you be if I bet on him dyin'?"

Ajax is about ready to grab Millie as she looks like she's about to hurt her sister.


Once everyone has moved and gotten themselves settled into their new temporary home for the time being, it was time for the Harvest Festival to commence for all.

Ajax and everyone finds themselves now setup and ready to participate and enjoy the festivities of the Harvest Festival. Most of the others stand about as they watch the stage where the people are going to signal the start of the games where Ajax sits on one of the bleachers in the back to overlook the whole thing.

The stage is pretty simple with a large wooden box platform and some stairs on the side leading up to the top. Two large poles holding up a white cloth banner with red splotches and designs on it with the words HARVEST MOON FESTIVAL written along it. There is a small red and white tent on the back of the stage with Stolas sitting inside it. There are four large speakers, two on each side of Stolas's tent. There is also a large dead and gnarled tree right behind the stage to add to the look of the whole thing.

An imp by the name of Wally Wackford takes the stage at the microphone. He looks like a carny-like imp with muted crimson skin, curled black and white horns, a triangle-tipped tail, white hair, and black eyes with yellow sclera. He also has a long curly mustache.

He wears a white regency shirt, sleeve garters, gray vest, black Kentucky colonel tie, white pants with gray stripes, and black boots.

"Welcome, I say-a, welcome-a... all to Wrath-a Ring's-a annual-a Harvest-a Moon-a... a-Festival!" He greets everyone loudly and happily in his southern drawl accent. "To kick things up, we have the great prince Stolas-a, here to usher in this here Pain Games!"

Once he introduces Stolas, the royal bird himself moves up and takes the microphone from the imp. Ajax also takes note that at first the general mood of the crowd was good and excited to see the start of the festival. However as soon as Stolas takes the stage he notices a distinct shift in the mood of the crowd and most actually look angry or cross at the royal.

"Hehehehe… How kind, Wackford. Greetings, tiny… Wrath Ring Imps! I hereby welcome you all to another year of celebrating the spoils of your labor that continue to feed the citizens of Hell!"

"Boooo!

"Boooo!"

"Well that confirms it." Ajax mutters since as soon as Stolas greets them, almost everyone outright to begins to straight up yell negatives to Stolas on stage and he spots some throwing things at him. At first while he was told Stolas only told Blitzø and IMP to come in order to hang out with his lover and have a good time for all in general, something tells Ajax that their contract may in fact have to go with them moving to protect Stolas if the receptions Ajax is seeing now is any indication. 'Looks like royalty is frowned upon here… or Stolas wasn't exactly tactful with his words. Either or.'

Stolas continues his announcement. "I'm happy to kick off the start of these games that will challenge the toughest Imps to show their skill in dominance. Good luck to you all! Especially that sexy little one there… Yoo-hoo! Blitzy!" And of course in true fashion Stolas waves to Blitzø in front of everyone. He glares at the owl bird, no doubt for embarrassing him in front of everyone.

"Ugh. Fuck me." Ajax can hear his boss grumble.

To mark the start of the games in true fashion, a gun shot goes off and the games begin. To Ajax's disappointment, Moxxie gets trampled with a yelp as the other imps race down the trail ahead of him. Striker makes head way through the contestants as he climbs up a wooden ramp structure while Blitzø leaps down ahead of him. Moxxie isn't dissuaded yet though as tries his best to catch up to them. His determination though doesn't bear as much fruit as they want since as soon as he claws at the structure to climb up, he simple falls back into a small puddle.

Ajax's eyes widen as Moxxie starts screaming as he suddenly gets chewed up and thrashed by a monstrous black and white shark. "What the fuck is that?! Is that a shark? We're on land!" He incredulously questions at what he's seeing.

"Relax dude." Loona replies to him a few seats below him as she records the event. "Animals down here are more resilient than those on earth." She informs him like it's a much obvious fact.

Ajax looks at her confused on how this makes sense. Millie smiles a little towards the human but her focus is still on her husband, "Sometimes they like to add surprises to the 'course. Livens things up in a way."

Ajax still isn't sure about the whole thing but decides to say 'fuck it' and focus on his friends. Ajax isn't sure what happened because now he is seeing Striker grin smugly at Blitzø, who has his legs, arms and horns tied behind him. On another part of it shows a muscular Imp holding a rope and grins at a scared Moxxie.

It did not end well for him, leaving a worried and tired Millie and Ajax in the stands. Next up has Striker, Blitzø and Moxxie team up in a tug of war match, however it still doesn't go well as Moxxie falls into the water and the shark attacks him again.

"What the fuck is that sharks problem?" The human mumbles angrily at his friend getting attacked.

Next up is a wrestling match in the mud and tow of the contestants is between Blitzø and Striker but they seem to be enjoying the grapple they have on each other. Elsewhere theirs a group of imps that have dogpiled poor Moxxie and doing their best impression of a football huddle on top of him. When they pull back, giving Moxxie some breathing room, the shark appears again and leaps over the fence and begins to elbow drop Moxxie.

"MOTHERFUC—!"

Ajax looks away and can only hear the sounds. As much as he wants to pull his gun out and fan fire his entire cylinder into the shark, Ajax knows that Moxxie doing is for his confidence and to prove himself to everyone around. The human coming in and saving him would just further bring his mood down.

He can only sigh at the whole situation.


After the wrestling match, their were no other matches as the games were concluded. Wally Wackford takes the stage again to announce the results.

"I say, I say, for the first year ever, we have a tie for winner of the Harvest Moon Pain Games!"

Once he announces that, Stolas comes up and takes the microphone from him, "The winners are… Striker, aaaaand my darling Blitzy!" He happily announces, especially at the end as he does a pose midst the cheers from the crowd.

"Just say my name RIGHT! Fuckin' dick!" Blitzø angrily sulks as he walks onto the stage in frustration. Ajax, Moxxie and Millie watch from the wooden bleachers.

Moxxie looks annoyed as he waves a hand to the stage as Striker begins to make his way up carrying something, "Alright. So, he has the 'physical advantage.'" He air quotes the words, "I'm better at other things, like singing!" He tries to make the excuse of him being better than Striker at something.

"I'd like to take this opportunity to sing a quick song I wrote just now, about me winnin'." They look back to the stage to see Striker now has a guitar and is strumming it.

"Oh, WHAT THE FUCK?!" Moxxie angrily yells in disbelief at the absurdity.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Ajax mutters angrily as well as he lets out a long drawn out sigh and lets his body sink into his seat.

He doesn't even bother wanting to listen to the drivel that Striker is singing about to everyone. Instead when he looks over to Moxxie who just looks down and depressed even more as Striker sings about, making the crowd go crazy with adoration for him. He even notices one squealing fangirl imp get kicked by him into the crowd as she tries to get close to him. Almost immediately the crowd surrounds the girl and begin to maul her.

Ajax shakes his head and tightly taps Moxxie's shoulder. The imp looks up depressed at Ajax, "Firearms."

"…" Moxxie blinks a couple times at Ajax before he sits up a little straighter and looks confused at the human, "… what?"

"Firearms. Moxxie… I have been working with many people for many years in all kinds of shootouts, combat engagements, and firearms use. I can tell you from my experience that I have not seen anyone be able to take apart, put together, clean, maintain and show some of the best skills and marksmanship with a gun than you." This gets a small smile from Moxxie and a wide grin from Millie behind her husband, showing she's grateful for Ajax's words. "Rest assured Moxxie, you ARE good at other things better than him." He begins to lift himself up a little as Ajax continues, "Besides, once we're done here we won't have to worry about that Jackass anymore."

Moxxie begins to relax a little as he takes Ajax's words to heart, "Yeah, yeah your right. It's only a couple days and then that'll be it."

"There ya' go hun." Millie hugs her husband from the side.

Moxxie smiles at his wife before turning to Ajax, "Thanks part—"

"Isn't this guy great?" The mood is royally killed as their boss Blitzø arrives with his mouth full and a slice of cheese on a stick and plops himself down next to them.

"False!" Moxxie angrily rebukes their bosses comment on the farm hand. Ajax gets a sour look on his face at the comment of Striker.

"It's gonna be nice workin' with him." Blitzø nonchalantly states as he pours hot sauce on his cheese and takes another bite of it.

It takes a second for the others to register what he said with Ajax widening his eyes. "Excuse me?! What the hell do you mean by that?" He asks with a twinge of shock and slowly rising anger.

"Working with him…? WHAT?!" Moxxie is nonetheless surprised and clearly angered by the idea.

"Yeaaaah! I asked him if he wants to join I.M.P." Blitzø answers in a carefree tone.

This allbut floors the other three as Moxxie looks heartbroken by the information. "You asked… But…" He looks visibly hurt by this as Blitzø looks at him confused.

Ajax lets out a growl of frustration. "Boss, you can't just ask someone out of the… red… to join our group! We need clear roles and bonds to work with in this business. We barely even know the guy!" Ajax shouts as he is shown more and more offput by the idea.

"Oh come on! You've seen his skills and how much of a badass he is. The amount of guys I've seen break into little tiny pieces in this whole fucking competition would put a lot of people to shame, and problem make them wet themselves too." He tells them with an almost fond smile on his face. Then it turns to an annoyed expression as he looks to Ajax, "Besides, just like you said, I'm the fucking boss and what I say goes so nyeah!" He sticks his tongue out at Ajax at the end in a childish display.

Ajax holds his tongue as he's about to retort harshly but holds himself back. Millie though grabs Noxxie and goes to comfort her distraught husband, "Mox, I think you've had enough, for now. Let's head back to the house and get you clean." She helps him up as they begin walking away from the bleachers. Ajax not wanting to be there anymore gets up, planning to go find Loona and make sure she hasn't gotten into any trouble.

"The super cool me, handsome guy—" In the middle of Strikers song he coughs, "Moxxie, go fuck yourself!"

Ajax lets out a menacing growl as he is tempted to shoot the asshole but focuses on his friend, who tears up slightly with Millie ushering them out a little faster as Striker finishes his song.

"Did you hear something? It was just the wind."

With that last bit of the song finished, the crowd cheers and shouts their admiration for the imp on stage.

"Thank you. You're too kind." Striker thanks the crowd as some of the members of IMP go out of earshot. As they leave Striker glimpses at them as they go, smirking at his song against Moxxie to goad Ajax some more, even though he knows the human won't do anything against. Not when he's already so beloved by so many so quickly.


Some time passes and the competition has concluded. Everyone retires to the farm to go about things. Blitzø has found himself encaptivated by Strikers horse Bombproof and is laying the ground, kicking his legs back in the air as he admires the horse whilst it feeds on an animal carcass.

Millie and her parents smile as they watch Ajax and Millie's brothers load up jack-o-lanterns into a truck. Ajax grabs two jack-o-lanterns and hands them to one of her brothers as the trucks is finished being filled up. They thank Ajax for the help, one of them patting his shoulder. He nods at them and tips his hat back at them. Millie waves at them as her brothers go to take their cargo and runs off. Ajax walks away to continue staying nearby on the farm.

The rest of the farm isn't as happy, relaxing or joyful. Inside the cottage is Moxxie, still bummed out by the whole competition and Striker's apparent soon to be hiring at IMP, walks glumly up some stairs.

Since his loss at the competition, he hasn't exactly been feeling up on his game or his attitude for that matter. Millie and Ajax did what they could to comfort him to make him feel better after the whole thing but not much of it took. Ajax did say he'd talk to their boss to clear things up on Striker joining their group.

That brought some comfort to Moxxie at the very least to talk some sense into their boss against the snake. He still feels down in the dumps though as he walks past some doors leading to the peoples different rooms. Moxxie notices light shining through the bottom of a door. He raises an eyebrow at that, "Well, that's troubling." Curiosity gets the better of him as he opens the door and peers around. The room he finds himself looking through just so happens to belong to the one person that he has no love for, Striker. He notices the light coming from a box near a wall on a stable. He walks over and his eyes widen. There sitting in an open gun case, he spots a beautiful rifle with designs glowing about the adorned weapon. "Oh, my crumbles!" He almost whisper shouts as he runs his hand along the side of the rifle. "A genuine carmine crafted blessing-tipped rifle!"

Carmine weaponry are the makings from one famous in the Hell world Carmilla Carmine, known as one of the best in firearms manufacturing and one of the very few sources for getting blessed-based weaponry of different types.

To see one of them astounds Moxxie as he examines the rifle in all its glory, but his moment of fascination turns to confusion. "How… How in the fuck did he get one o' these?!" He questions out loud, not really expecting to get an answer.

Unfortunately, he does get an answer.

"Why don't you ask me, little dude?"

"Shit!" Moxxie shouts as he whirls about and looks back at the door. Striker can be seen there leaning on the doorframe with a sick smile on his face but a death gleam in his eye. "W- Why do you have this… mister?! You are aware this kind of weapon can kill—"

"…demon royalty?" Striker finishes his speaking with a wide smile on his face, accentuating his sharp teeth and gold tooth with the wheat stalk in his mouth.

"Yes. That." Moxxie stays firm in what he was saying but gets a little bit nervous considering Striker shows no concern whatsoever.

"No shit. That's kinda the point." He says like it's the most obvious thing out there as he plucks away his wheat stalk. Strikes also shows he's done talking when he rakes his claws down along the door and closes it before marching menacingly on Moxxie with the grin still on his face.

Moxxie begins to get more nervous as he tries to look around for an escape as he babbles a little, "Okay. Well I'm- I'm relatively concerned by your possession of this…" He gestures to the rifle, "I'm also glad my instant dislike of you has been vali- Grck!" His words are cut off as Striker quickly grabs onto his throat and lifts him up. "—DATED!"

Striker's tail coils tightly around the little imps throat, making it that much harder for him to breath. To have some fun and enjoy this Strike proceeds to slam Moxxie hard against the wall before tossing him to the floor. He grabs onto Moxxie's throat with his hands and continues to choke him out. Moxxie hisses as he tries to claw at Striker to let him go but Striker uses his body weight to overpower the smaller imp.

It's thanks to Moxxie's quick thinking that he manages to spot a lamp on a table near them. He kicks it and causes the lamp to fall and break on Striker. The loud noise of the breaking objects catches Millie's attention from right outside the house. Her parent's had moved away to continue working on the stuff for the festival but she was able to hear the commotion. Ajax is nearby with Loona as she talks amicably with Millie's sister but he manages to notice Millie going into the ranch house. Nothing about her screamed like she was in a rush so he simply narrows his eyes and hums before going back to the others conversation.

With Striker nursing the hit to his head, Moxxie manages to stand up, make a break for it and races toward the door. He pulls the door open but before he can make it out, Striker roughly pulls him back by his tail. Striker covers Moxxie's mouth so he won't scream and slams him against the wall and begins to strangle him again. Striker proceeds to chuckle evilly as Moxxie begins to lose consciousness from the lack of air.

Striker is showing such great pleasure in what he's doing as he smirks evily at the soon to be passed out Imp. "Hm… Pathetic."

*SHICK*

"ARHHH!"

A knife is stabbed hard into Strikers back. Millie has made her way to them after hearing the lamp crash and immediately turned into a feral, angry and murderous demon as she latched onto Striker's back and immediately begins stabbing him over and over again. Her action causes Striker to finally let go of Moxxie, making the smaller imp collapse to the floor and try to regain his breathing, and his consciousness.

Millie moves her knife up and gets ready to slit Striker's throat but the snake manages to break the hold Millie has on him and stops her from cutting him. He grabs onto Millie and slams her against the wall. Millie yelps in pain as her arm gets broken. She collapses and is now-bleeding next to Moxxie as she clutches her arm. Her husband Moxxie tries to reach out to his pained wife. "Millie…" Unfortunately, his voice is still hoarse and sore from the choking earlier so he can only speak very weakly.

Striker growls out at the two of them before he grabs the both of them by their hair and drags them out the back door without anyone noticing. After flinging open a couple of doors, Striker tosses the both of them downwards into the dark in the cellar.

*KCHIING*

"Aaaahhhh!" Millie's cries out in pain as her foot gets out in a bear trap that was open.

Striker grins devilishly down at them. "I'd kill y'all, but I feel like there's more leverage with your rodeo clown of a boss if I don't! Plus, you little things ain't worth the cleanup." He menacingly and insults them as he grabs the doors. Moxxie runs up the stairs, desperate to get him but Striker closes the cellar doors just before he makes it. Moxxie growls in anger as he tries to push the doors, but they won't budge, not of someone of his stature.

Moxxie's anger turns to worry as he looks back at his wife, "Millie!" He runs down the stairs to Millie, assessing her and her leg trapped in the bear trap. "Oh, Satan!" He mutters in increasing worry her state.

"Moxxie, I'm fiiiine!" Millie manages to try to alleviate her husbands worry but still grits her teeth in pain before looking back at him, "I got worse than this during the flower tufts at my brother's weddin'. But I caught that fuckin' bouquet, and it was fuckin' worth it! You just have to get out there, and fuck up that brownnosin' cocksucker for me!" She tries to hype up her husband to get him going.

"But I can't break through it. I'm not strong enough." Moxxie sadly states. Considering he wasn't able to break the door or push it open when Striker tossed them down there, he doesn't have much hope he can get it open with his strength.

"Not with your hands, baby. Use what you're good at." She sincerely tells Moxxie with a smile on her face, doing what she can to instill the hope back into him of his skills.

"I'm not good with my hands?" Moxxie asks her with an almost shocked looked at what she is insinuating about him.

"…" Millie doesn't say anything. She merely raises an eyebrow with an unamused expression.

"…Ohhhh." It takes him a second but Moxxie gets it. "Right. Yeah. Yeah." He pulls out a pistol and fires a hole in the door, allowing him to push open the door with the lock now busted. "I… I probably should've used this earlier, huh?" He nervously says, knowing they just might not be in the situation they are in if he decided to put some rounds into Striker.

Millie sighs and givers husband a tired smile, "I love you, hun… But, for fuck's sake." She groans as she sits there and continues to work on the trap while her husband takes off.


The festival has started to come to a conclusion with Stolas back on stage and addressing the crowd. Ajax stands there next to Loona as the bird royal flips through his grimoire.

"My dear commoners of the Ring of Wrath! I, Stolas of the Ars Goetia, hereby curse this year's harvest with the glow of the true Harvest Moon!" He announces to all as he casts his magic. The clouds swirl about as Stolas creates a portal over them. The portal reveals a glowing orange full moon in the sky, making the crowd ooh in wonder.

"Huh, well at least he knows how to wow them." Ajax mutters as he stares off at the show that Stolas is giving everyone.

"Eh, seen one seen it a bunch of times." Loona comments next to him as she scrolls through her phone. Right now the two of them are standing near the bleachers and watching the rest of the crowd enjoy the rest of the festival. Well, more likely one of them is watching the crowd while the others still goes through her phone. Loona looks up for a second at the moon before going back down. "Meh, doesn't look all that different from what people post online." She nonchalantly states.

"Hmm, maybe so. But I have to admit at first Stolas did a good job in accidentally pissing off all the workers and farmhands here. Looks like now he was able to get on their good side." Ajax comments.

"Doesn't take much really." Loona comments bored. "Flashy show, some nice words and most become putty in your ha—" Loona is interrupted as her ears suddenly perk up. Ajax finds himself suddenly on edge at her sudden stop and her ears. She moans lowly in annoyance as she continues focusing back into her phone.

"What's wrong?" Ajax asks cautiously as he subtly moves his hand to his gun.

"Blitzø just whistled to me. He usually does that whenever he needs something. Mostly stupid stuff like needing me to grab the fucking remote when its literally a foot away from him. He can wait a fucking minute." She angrily hisses out, no doubt at stupid mundane crap her father did or wanted her to do.

"Oh… right." Ajax replies and his hand slowly leaves his gun until he stops and looks around. "… Where's the others?"

"How the fuck should I know?!" She angrily replies as she looks up exasperated and bringing her phone down. "Their probably inside the house or off doing whatever the fuck so the bird doesn't embarrass them again." She goes back to looking at her phone and continues scrolling on it for a second before she sighs. "Why do you as—" She goes to ask him but as she looks at her side, he's gone. She looks around her for a second but finds him gone almost out of nowhere. "Goddamnit… I hate it when he does that." She grumbles.


"Ugh, fuckin' damn it, Loona." Blitzø angrily states when he doesn't hear his daughter heading for them. Both Blitzø and Moxxie are on the ground with Striker aiming his rifle down at them and pinning Moxxie's arm down to the ground with his boot. Both of them are in a precarious position with the object of their ire Striker ready to execute them. The two were able to stop the cowboy imp from assassinating Stolas but now the two are in his crosshairs. Blitzø had put on a faux act earlier of being on board with Strikers plan to kill Stolas but it was just a ploy to wait for Moxxie to get into position.

He did and had the gun aimed at them but a short tussle later had them pinned with Blitzø trying to call for his daughter. They couldn't find Ajax considering they were on a very tight timeframe to save the royal bird form getting his brains blown out.

"It's a damn shame, Blitzø. We might actually've made a good team…" Striker says almost forlornly and almost in a sad tone.

Almost.

"Ah well." He nonchalantly says without a care and readies his gun to kill them.

"In your wet dreams, you honky-tonk—"

*ThumpThumpThumpTHUMPTHUMP*

Blitzø stops in his insults when the sounds of stomping footsteps can be heard. Striker goes to bring his rifle up to aim towards the door but Blitzø grabs the barrel of the gun and keeps it aimed towards the ground but still aimed away from him and Moxxie.

Striker growls as he goes to wrestle his gun away from the imps on the ground but Moxxie reaches forward and bites Striker's ankle. "Arhh! You sniveling little shi—"

"HRAAAHH!"

"OOF!" A blur comes out and slams into Striker and carries him across the room. The cowboy imp is slammed into the wall away from the others. Striker goes to claw out the eyes of his would-be attacker but coughs up as he is gut punched a couple times before he slams his elbows down onto their back. A yell of pain and his attacker reveals an angry and pissed off Ajax trying to kill him. Striker immediately goes to grab his throat with one hand while Ajax uses one hand to grab it's wrist and weaken its hold on his throat but not able to actually pull the hand off him. His other hand is preoccupied with sending a fist straight to Striker's face to cave in the imps skull but it is blocked with an open palm block from the imp.

Ajax stares crossly and angrily at Striker while the imp just smirks devilishly at Ajax. "Hmph, well it was about time when their lackey was going to show up."

Ajax lets out a menacing growl at the imp as tries to force more of strength over Striker but can't.

"What is it then? Too washed up up top to do work so you come down here for scraps? That's pathetic old—"

*KICK*

"Arhh!" Striker grunts as Ajax kicks his shin, making the imp curl low to the ground for a second before using his other leg to knee Ajax in the stomach. With Ajax grunting from the hit, Striker pushes himself back up and properly kicks him in the stomach.

He kicks Ajax away, forcing the human to fall backwards onto his back. Before Striker can do anything to his opponent he sees Moxxie and Blitzø up and readying their weapons once Ajax is out of the way. Striker quickly dives to the side behind a long desk and out of their view as they miss their shots. Before they can reload or shoot again, Striker grabs the end of the table and heaves it up with all his might and tosses it away from him with a loud yell.

As Ajax was getting up into a crouching position, he sees the desk head for him so he dives forward into a roll, narrowly avoiding the thrown object going over him.

The same can't be said for the other two. "Watch out, sir!" Moxxie tackles his boss out of the way of the way as they land near the wall and desk slams next to them, embedding itself slightly into the wall. Just before they can get up and try to back up their human employee, the desk tears itself off the wall and slams onto the ground.

"Oooww! Christ on a fuck stick!" Blitzø curses as the desk falls off the wall and one end falls on one of his feet. No permanent or serious damage as his boot took the brunt of the hit but now he's pinned.

"Sir! Hang on I got—"

*Crack*

Moxxie was getting up to help free his boss but a vase fell from above and breaks into a million pieces on the poor imps head. Moxxie sways for a second before his eyes roll back and he passes out unconscious next to Blitzø. He looks at his down and out employee for a second before looking up, making his eyes widen.

The desk slamming into the wall caused one of the shelves filled with a bunch of nick-knack junk to begin to topple over

"Oh for fucking—" Blitzø begins to curse their luck until he covers his head with his arms as the shelf collapses onto the two of them. Thankfully the shelf doesn't completely fall on the two of them. The top part of the shelf catches onto side of the wall and tears a groove into it before it catches itself onto the edge of the desk and stops it from completely crushing the both of them, although Blitzø cries out again in pain as the impact against the desk further injures his foot, on top of all the knick-knacks falling onto the both of them. Blitzø groans once all the stuff breaking around him has subsided. "Fuck this shit." He grunts as he works to free himself and not let both he and his fellow employee get crushed by the shelf still above, as well as not-so-gently waking Moxxie up.

While this was going on, when Ajax dodged the thrown desk he threw himself forward and rolled under the desk to dodge it. After the roll he pushes off the ground and shoulder tackles Striker. The both of them fly through the air and crash into the wall.

A loud crashing noise goes off as the two of them break through the wall and collapse in the next room amidst the fall of splintered wood chips on them.

Both of them groan from the impact as they roll onto their fronts in trying to get back onto their feet. Striker is just a little bit faster but that's probably because he is exceedingly pissed off, as evident from him clawing the wooden floorboard harshly as he growls out. His vision turns to Ajax angrily. "You…" Striker pushes himself up to one knee. "Fucking…" He gets to his feet as Ajax manages to roll onto his front. "Pathetic…" He takes a step toward Ajax, who manages to get to his knee. "JACKASS!"

*SMACK*

"Arhh!" Ajax cries out as Striker kicks him right in the gut and forces him to roll onto his back.

"You and your friends just had to fucking ruin everything didn't you?!" He yells as he goes to stomp on Ajax's face but the human manages to roll out of the way in time. "You also embarrassed me with the pig you fucking- Ahh!" Striker goes to stomp on his head again but Ajax rolls back closer to him and punches his thigh, making the imp shout as he crouches on reflex but that just gives Ajax the opportunity to jab his fingers at his throat. As Striker chokes for a second, Ajax rolls away from him and manages to push himself back onto his feet.

"You fucking embarrassed yourself." Ajax taunts back as he grabs his revolver.

"Fuck off you creaky old fucker!" Striker curses and charges forward. Just as Ajax pulls his gun out and up, Striker is close enough that the first shot fired simply cuts his shoulder as he jerks to the side and goes to let loose a punch to the humans face. Ajax manages to duck under the punch but as he goes to fire the rest of his bullets, Striker manages to grab his wrist and push it away from him, letting the rounds fire into the wooden wall and floor behind him. Once it click empty is when Striker brings his elbow up and hits Ajax in the side of the face. As Ajax groans from the hit, his grip is loosened that he's forced to drop his gun.

That doesn't mean he's done though as with his other fist Ajax gut punches Striker, making the imp groan for a second from the hit but quickly recovers as he headbutts Ajax. The human cries out as he grabs his face from the hit but as he manages to look he barely blocks a punch from Striker, but he wasn't able to block the second punch as it connects with his face. He grunts from the hit but retaliates by grabbing Strikers head and bringing it down to his knee.

With the knee hit connecting, Striker recoils back with a small spray of blood leaving his lips but watches as Ajax goes to punch him again. With one arm, he deflects the punch away from him while countering with an elbow strike to the humans chest.

Ajax is forced to step back and cough from the hit and his back hits the wall they went through before. When he looks up Striker is already launching a punch to his face. Ajax manages to tilt his head to the side and allows for the punch to impact the wall, even cracking the wall just a little at the point of impact. Ajax capitalizes on this and grabs Striker by the neck and swings them around so now Striker is the one that's backed into the wall. Ajax slams him against the wall as he begins putting pressure onto his neck. Striker chokes as he grips the humans wrists and tries to pry his hands off his throat.

The only thing that can be heard is the small choking noises from Striker, and the angrily growls from Ajax as he almost tries to squeeze the life out of the imp. They stare into each other's eyes as Ajax wants to see the life leave the demon before him, "You fucking asshole." He manages to get out amidst his anger. "You tried to fucking kill my friends. The people I care about." He tightens his grip some more as one of Striker's hands leaves Ajax's wrist. "I won't have it. I will fucking enjoy making your head pop like a fucking—"

*Smack*

"Arhhh!" Ajax grunts as Striker punches him in the side at his kidney. Then he does it a few more times, sending waves of pain through the humans being but this just pisses him off even more as he comes very close to crushing the imps larynx.

Striker actually looks distressed for a second before he grits his teeth angrily, tightens the muscles in his neck, and kicks.

*CRACK*

"AHHHHHHH!"


Ears perk up.


Striker kicks Ajax's knee, dislocating and almost shattering his kneecap as the human just about collapses onto the ground. With his throat now free, Striker breathes in deeply but is already moving to fight back. He grabs Ajax's upper arms and with a mighty heavy, pulls him to the side and swings. The human is thrown to the side and breaks through more of the hole that they had went through before.

Blitzø and Moxxie, who woke up and is trying to push the shelf off them, both look up to see their human employee thrown back into the room, where he rolls a few times before he slams harshly against a thickly wooden drawer that was next to the desk from earlier that was thrown.

"Ajax!"

"Jaxie!"

Both imps cry out for him as they continue to work to free themselves.

Ajax groans in pain as he grabs his side from the punches and tries to get up but only collapses back when pain shoots through his leg. "Mother… fucker." He grunts out in anger.

"You know I have to hand it to you lot," Ajax looks up at the voice, seeing Striker has stepped through the hole in the wall and is now standing in front of him. The window is to Striker's back while the piece of furniture Ajax is laying against is right behind him at a slight angle. Strike gives them a small coy smile as he holds his side for a second before he straightens up, wiping a small trail of blood from the side of his mouth. "You guys got some good licks in. Just about almost had me there I reckon." He chuckles a little as he twists his neck to the side and some of his bones pop. "But not good enough."

"Fuck off- Ahh!" Ajax shouts as Striker kicks his dislocated leg, sending a spike of pain through.

"That pig was my fucking kill." Striker growls out angrily. He crouches down and pulls out a menacing looking red and black knife, gripping Ajax's hair with one hand, and putting the knife to his throat. "I don't like it when others take my kill." He tries to threaten Ajax.

*PTOO*

All he gets is spit to the side of the face. Striker doesn't say anything at first. He simply lets go of Ajax's hair but not before hitting his head once against the wooden furniture. Striker chuckles as he wipes his cheek. "Fightin' till the end. I can respect that." He nods to Ajax but then soon lets out a sigh as he presses the blade to Ajax's throat just a bit harder. "But now as much as much as I would like to keep this charade going, I have a job to do. So… would you please kindly… fucking die." He hisses the words out as he tightens his grip.

Ajax doesn't close his eyes. He continues to stare directly into Strikers eyes, intending to watch everything about the assassin until the last second as he hears the screams and shouts of his fellow employees.

Actually, he thinkgs its good for him to call them friends.

He smiles just subtly.

Yeah, he likes that.

A thin red line—

*SLAM*

Most of the people in the room jerk up at the sound and feel of the door slamming open. Ajax can appreciate Strikers professional focus as he doesn't jerk the knife in his hand pressed right at the humans throat. Everyone turns to the door.

Loona is standing there, her foot forward after she kicked the door in with a tired expression. "Hey! I heard someone yell I never heard before. What's going—" Her tone trails off as she sees the situation before her.

To the side is her adoptive father and Moxxie, who managed to get free and have their weapons in hand with Moxxie having the blessed rifle in hand while Blitzø was in the middle of reloading his flintlock. In front though near the window, she sees Ajax on the ground with the farmhand Striker staring at her with a knife pressed to the humans throat.

That gets a reaction out of Loona. She grits her teeth and lets out an animalistic growl as she bares her claws. "What the fuck are you doing?!" She gets out in a threatening manner towards the assailant.

Striker goes to stand up, ready to take on the new challenge with his knife, but someone stops him. He's stopped as Ajax actually grab the blade with his left hand, curling his fingers behind the blade to avoid grabbing directly onto the sharp edge as much as he can. It takes Striker a second in confusion as opens his mouth to yell at the weak human.

"Grk!" Except his mouth is slightly forced open as Ajax uses his right hand and grabs Strikers gold tooth.

For a second, a very real second, a pang of fear hits Striker as he stares at the almost glowing red and angry eyes.

With a twist, Ajax pulls.

*Crick*

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Striker screams bloody murder as he pulls himself back, almost slicing Ajax's palm to the bone as he lets the assassin step back, yelling as he does while gripping his mouth as blood flows from it.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING HOG SHIT WASTE OF FUCKING VERMIN ARRRHHH!" Striker curses to the human as he jerks to the side of the pain he's feel and very quickly rising anger. Ajax looks down at the golden tooth in his hand before he grips his fist tightly and braces himself against the furniture and places his fists on the ground either side of him. "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU YOU—!" Striker in his anger yells at Ajax and dive at him, knife and his hand pointed forward, intending to eviscerate Ajax and make his body completely unrecognizable, spit and blood flying from Striker's mouth. Striker flies towards Ajax as the human grits his teeth and braces himself.

To Strikers surprise, Ajax pulls up his intact leg and actually catches Striker in the chest and holds him up. Strikers eyes widen at what's happening as his knife just barely misses stabbing the humans chest. For a second they both stare at each other before Ajax speaks lowly in restrained anger, "Fuck off you snake…" Then his voice begins to increase in volume and now unrestrained anger, "and GET! OUT!"

He pushes with all his might and sends Striker flying away from him.

*CRASH*

And right out the window.

The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass can be heard as Striker is thrown back and right out the window.

"Ajax!" Moxxie calls out in worry. All three of them rush up to the human, with Loona and Moxxie checking Ajax while Blitzø immediately points his pistol out the window to look for Striker. He clicks his mouth in frustration when he finds the farmhand has disappeared. "Are you okay? Where are you hurt?" Moxxie begins to quickly assess his partners condition while Loona tries to make sense of what the fuck just happened to everyone while she was away.

Ajax grunts as he sits up and lets out a deep breath of air. "Mmmm… boss." He speaks, getting all their attention as Ajax looks tiredly at Blitzø, "… I don't think Striker's going to work out." He states.

The boss imp lets out a sigh as he holsters his gun.


With everything that happened, the festival itself went off relatively well. The others behind the scenes… not so much. Moxxie has a bandage around his head from the blow he took before and is trying to put away some suitcases filled with their clothes into the van.

Ajax is sitting nearby with Millie as she gets patched up. He has a thick roll of bandage wrapped around his knee and midsection with a bandage on his throat. Setting his knee back into place wasn't exactly fun nor pleasant in any way. A fair bit of yelling was done and now Ajax has a crutch next to him to help him walk so he doesn't have to put pressure on his knee, and he's swimming in painkillers right now. No permanent damage was done to his organs either but the bruising was quite painful and made it hurt to breathe for a bit. The painkillers made things better for him but after the time they spent on the farm Ajax is just ready to head home.

Millie was freed from the basement and is currently having her arm bandaged up by her mother while she sits with her foot in a cast, a pair of crutches next to her.

"I can't believe you let him trap you, Millie! Haven't we taught you better?" Lin can't help but reprimand her daughter over what happened. The fact she's disappointed in her daughter rubs Ajax the wrong way, even in his down and depressed state.

"I was seein' red, Ma! And he was slippery." Millie replies.

"Excuses! You're better than that, Mildred."

Moxxie has had enough of what Millies parents are saying to her so he closes the trunk once he's done and marches over to Millie's parents.

"Y'know, she protected me." He begins to speak and shifts his voice between having a southern drawl and his normal voice, "And maybe I'm not a strong beefy dickhead, but Millie has the strength enough for both of us! You two are getting on her case about being hurt by a psychopath you hired?! Shaaaaame on you!"

"Aw, Moxxie, look at you! Speechin' like a big boy with his big paaaants!" Blitzø can't help but ruin the moment a little after Moxxie's speech.

Joe glares at Moxxie, then curtly nods and goes to leaves but stops as he looks at Ajax, who is still down and depressed after the fight.

"How was that gunplay then?" He jests to Ajax with a curt smile. The others look on as Ajax is without emotion to his expression as Joe looks a little smug to the human, no doubt wanting to reiterate his opinion fighting would have gone better than his use of guns. "Couldn't hack it with your gun toys now could you? Maybe if you had worked a little on yur' fightin' spirit maybe you wouldn't have gotten your keister handed to yo—"

He stops as Ajax has completely surprised him and everyone else as without any change to his facial expression, pulls out his revolver aims it right at Joe's chest. The imp himself simply looks down at the gun for a second before staring back at Ajax.

Neither of them say anything until Ajax holsters his gun again and pushes himself back to his feet. Without another word he begins stepping away with his crutch to the van. Before he gets too far away he stops and glances back at Joe. "Even when I got my ass-kicked, even in my decrepit state, just one shot was all I would need to kill you then and there." With his final piece said, he makes his way to the van, intent of wanting for them to get the hell out of there. "And maybe next time hire better! Pretty sure your reputation would go to shit if one of YOUR hired hands killed royalty!"

Millie and Moxxie look a little sadly at their fellow employee and Joe smirks at the human before walking off. Millie's eyes widen as she remembers something earlier.

"You know hun, I don't know if you noticed but he nodded to you!" Millie excitedly tells her husband from before Ajax's interaction. "He's never acknowledged your input before." She smiles at Moxxie. She then grabs her crutches and makes her way back to their van.

While the situation with Joe and Ajax was tense, Moxxie can't help but feel a little vindicated when he remembers the nod joe gave him. "Soooo, is that progress?" He asks his wife as he jogs back up to her.

Nothing more is said as the group piles into their vehicle.

"Bye Ma! Bye Pa!" Millie waves to her parents as Blitzø begins to drive them away. Millie's parents wave back to their daughter as they watch them leave. Sallie May can be seen giving small waves as well but she's more nonchalant about the whole thing.

"Alright, about time we leave this hodunk place and time to get back to our airconditioned glorious business pads." Blitzø sighs contentedly. While the competition was fun for a bit, theirs really no beating modern airconditioning.

"Finally. Can barely get a signal in this place." Loona complains as she goes through her phone.

"Still it was good seeing my family again. I just wish we could have enjoyed things a bit more and not almost get killed." Millie complains as she looks down at the cast on her leg.

"Yeah that kind of brought things down. Stolas said this was going to be a simple fun gig and we end up having to save his bird brained ass again from some two-bit assassin." Blitzø grumbles as she lazily drives with one hand.

Millie scrunches her face as she scowls at her boss, "Speakin' of that 'assassin' maybe next time you should take Ajax's advice and actually ask questions before suddenly hiring someone out of the red."

"Ughhhhhh fine!" Blitzø loudly moans with an exaggerated expression. "I was wrong! You were right! Rub it in why don't you huh Meat shield?"

"…"

Loona looks up from her phone and the others get inquisitive looks when their human employee doesn't reply.

"Ajax?" They look back, except Blitzø who uses the center mirror, at Moxxie staring at the back set. Ajax doesn't say anything as he's simply sitting at the edge of his seat and staring out the side window with am unreadable expression on his face. "Ajax?" Moxxie carefully reaches forward and gently shakes Ajax's shoulder. The human slowly looks from the window to glance at Moxxie to see the imps concerned face. "Are you okay?"

"Mm? Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. Just tired after everything and ready to get back to the office."

"You sure?"

Ajax gives Moxxie a small smile and nods to him. "Yeah I'm good. Don't worry about it." He tries to assure his partner everything is okay.

"He said he's fine Mox! Just nursing his whittle wounds from the ass-kicking he got." Blitzø states with an almost smug expression as he jokes.

"Remember sir nearly all of us got our butts kicked by Striker." Moxxie can't help but remind their boss of what happened.

And the smug expression on his face was gone as he sulks. "Just had to remind us of that huh, Baby dick?"

And in true fashion the two begin to bicker again in the car. Loona rolling her eyes as she buckles her seatbelt in. Knowing at this point not to trust her adoptive fathers driving.

Millie smiles at her husband but notices the human behind her has gone back to looking back out the window, the smile he had earlier completely gone. She sighs as she leans back in her seat.


The trip back to their place of business wasn't all that eventful for the group of them. Its late in the day by the time they make it back with Millie and Moxxie starting to feel the days events start to weigh in on them.

"Alrighty then! Glad to be back in our own little abode!" Blitzø happily states and crashes in a chair. "Now with that job done all we have to do is wait for Stolas to give us out pay and we're golden." Ajax takes the opportunity to sit on the couch and let himself relax as well.

"Actually sir," Moxxie begins to say as he rubs his shoulder. "I think its time for us to head home. The days pretty much over so I think after everything we're going to call and head home." He informs them with Millie agreeing. As tough as she is, theirs a bit of an annoyance with having to use her crutches for the time being and she mostly just wants to relax at home to speed up her recovery.

"Oh come on! Oh whatever. I don't really feel like doing any more jobs at the moment anyway. See you lover birds later then." He waves them off and relaxes in his seat as M&M make their way out the office. "And don't go fucking yourselves up with anymore bed time play you hear me?!" He loudly without shame calls out to the two of them. A small strangled grunt of annoyance can be heard from Moxxie while Millie lightly chuckles. Blitzø sighs with a smile on his face. "Haaaaa… that was fun."

"You should probably go drop them off at their place." Loona suddenly proposes.

This gets the other two in the room to look at her, with Blitzø mostly in surprise. "What?! They always take the bus home and its not that far. Why should I bother now of all days?" He asks his daughter with crossed arms.

Loona doesn't say anything at first. Instead, she crosses her arms and gives him a raised eyebrow look. "Well, considering you were about to hire a killer that was going to kill your boytoy and our ticket topside without any input from any of us, and the fact they knew he was bad news first and almost everyone else got fucked up way more than you," Blitzø looks down at his foot that was almost crushed. Key word being 'almost' as his boot protected him so he doesn't need crutches like almost half their employees. "You do owe it to them at the very least to give them a ride home." She finishes explaining why to him. Ajax stares at her as she was explaining the whole thing before turning to his boss.

Blitzø looks conflicted for a second before he slumps in his chair that he almost falls off. "Guuuuuuuuuuuhhhh ffffffiiiiiiiinnnnee!" After a moment of self-annoyance he relents and pushes himself off his chair and heads out to the elevator. "Hold the elevator god damnit!" He shouts as he sprints out the office door. He almost slips and falls as he takes a turn down the hallway.

They wait a few seconds until the elevators are closed.

Ajax looks skeptically at Loona. "Why do I get the feeling you didn't send him to help them out of the kindness of your heart?"

"Because theirs something I need to know." She states as she turns around, grabs the chair Blitzø was sitting on and drags in front of Ajax and sits down in front of him, staring at him firmly before she continues speaking. "… What's wrong?"

He raises an eyebrow at her. "I don't know what you—"

"Ohh cut the shit." Loona rolls her eyes as she leans back in the chair and gives him a disbelieving look. "We both know you usually brush things off even when things don't go your way usually. Like that cartel compound shit where you rescued everyone else, not to mention the shit show that happened at Loo Loo Land but you brushed most of it off. You said you were good back in the van, and while your usually in a funk," He gives her a look at that comment, "This time it feels different and I can tell your not as good as you claim you are." She leans forward and gives hi ma hard stare. "So spill."

"…" Ajax doesn't say anything at first. He just stares at her for a bit before he lets out a deep sigh and turns away from her as he speaks, "The compound… it wasn't the first time I had to get allies out of enemy territory surrounded by hundreds of enemy combatants. Loo Loo Land… I wasn't expecting to survive that encounter alone. I just needed to distract it enough to get the others to back me up…" He looks down for a second as the memory of the fight at the ranch house plays back in his head. "But Striker… he's good. He's very good. It was me… and it was Moxxie and Blitzø. All of us experienced and expert killing machines in our own right." He looks up at Loona.

She subtly flinches when she sees the restrained anger on his face.

"And we failed. We got fucked up and beaten by him. If it wasn't for you distracting him, he would have killed me. And even though the others freed themselves, they would have been able to work together to fight him and beat him after I tried to fight him but I would still be dead." The anger slowly subsides as he just feels tired now. Then he lets out a small smirk and some sad chuckles. "It's funny… years ago I would have killed him. I would have been able to get the edge on him… and I would have killed him. Been faster, been quicker, more maneuverable… more durable." He mutters the last part has looks down at his injured leg. One kick was all it took to take him down during the fight and lose all the edge he had. He clenches his fist for a second before relaxing and looking back up at Loona. "So yes, while I am 'bummed out' from how the fight was, we completed our objective and its done."

She gives him a somewhat skeptic look, "That's all?" She asks.

He nods his head. "Yes, that's all. I thank you for your concern but I'd like to be alone and work on many recovery and work on how to best improve myself in the future and be better prepared." He tells her.

She doesn't really looked convinced all that much from what he said, but after a moment she shakes her head and stands up. "Whatever. Doesn't matter all that much to me. What's done is done or whatever the saying goes." She takes out her phone as she moves to head out the office. "Can't change the past or whatever the fuck. I'm going to head down to the parking lot so Blitzø can pick me up and we can head home. Be seeing you."

"See ya'." Ajax waves bye to her with a small smile as she heads out the door. Once she's gone, the smile disappears and he slumps a little in his seat.

Loona doesn't continue walking towards the elevator and stops after a few steps. She turns back to the door and simply sighs and continues walking. She has the feeling he hasn't telling her the whole truth, but the day is late and no need to bug the guy who's more than likely annoyed with everything that had happened.

Ajax while he was able to give some reassurance to the others, he is anything but good as Loona had predicted. The fight and the injuries he sustained all culminated into one indisputable fact for him:

He is old.

Its something he's known for a bit, don't get him wrong, but to fight and be beaten so badly, his aging body no longer capable of keeping up with his skills and knowledge…

He let out a subtle sigh, not wanting to draw attention to himself. It's not something he's fond of, something he was hoping he would be able to put off for awhile now, but days before seeing the war he worked so hard in end in such a failure, and the fight that trounced him badly… its something he can't keep pushing back. He could try to work more, do better, try and exercise and setup a regiment for himself… but theirs nothing he can do to counteract the effects or fix what time has done to him.

He looks down at his hand, his fist tightly closed up the whole time. Slowly he opens it.

The golden tooth belonging to Striker, now in his possession.

He should feel some form of satisfaction from this. Despite the loss, the injury he was able to steal away from the assassin would basically be rubbing salt in his wounds. To have as a sort of trophy from him.

"Hmmmm." Ajax sighs as he gently closes his fist.

Right now… he just feels tired.


"Next time…"

*Click*

In a less than stellar hotel room, a room bathed in a bit of darkness, someone sits there on the bed, having just hung up the phone with his client.

A menacing glow comes from his eyes and his gritting teeth, reflected off the glowing white-blue light from the angelic revolver he has in his hand, another Carmine weapon.

With one hand he thumbs the open cylinder as he spins it slowly. In his other hand is a small hand mirror. He brings it up, revealing an angry Striker staring into it. He stares at his own reflection for a few seconds until he turns his head to the side. A small hole can be seen in his teeth's jawline. He even pokes at it with his tongue but that only makes him angrier. A small growl escapes him as the mirror glass cracks from the pressure of his grip.

"Next time, you two." He menacingly states.

With a throw he tosses the mirror into the air.

With a flourish he spins his revolver one handed before taking aim at the mirror once it holds in the air for a split second.

*BOOM*

It shatters into a million pieces.


And there it goes. The Harvest Festival has come and gone for everyone and things did not go the way that anyone had planned, least of all Ajax. While most of the episode did go along similar, I did want to give some moments for Ajax to back up Moxxie without overstepping. The hog kill and not helping in the competition were probably good places to be and as much as I would like for Ajax to have backed up Moxxie, the imp joined the competition in the first place to prove to himself and the others that he's tough and strong enough to keep up. Ajax helping him would have completely undermined everything Moxxie would have wanted to do, even if he did fail almost all the events.

And of course Ajax, his instincts the whole time for the ranch hand Striker was proven right by the end of things but was a very painful lesson to have been proven right. As much as how much of a deadly threat Ajax is due to his experiences and his skills, time has always been a killer of the greatest of things and Ajax is no exception to this. I wanted to show he isn't perfect and now he's starting to show the waning in his skills with time passing for him.

Amurphy616: Huh, not sure if you meant my stories in general or Helluva Boss that this is the second story that mentioned Afghanistan. Either way hope it was well for you.

Just to let everyone know, I no longer have any chapters in storage so I'm working right off the bat on whatever else piece of story I plan to work on next, mostly whatever catches my fancy and I get inspiration for at whatever time. I also want to say I've got some ideas thought up for a Hazbin Hotel story but that's not for anytime soon, and at the same time I don't know if I want include Ajax, combine it with my Helluva Boss story, or keep it its own thing without any mention of the IMP crew. The show is still in its infancy and while the first season was an absolute banger and I loved it to all Hell, they have way more to reveal and keep us entertained with whatever else ideas they plan to throw our way. Let's let it keep progressing and see how they shape up the story, which I have high hopes for.

Thank you all for your continued support. I am a bit excited for the next chapter of this story as it will be a turning point for some but I can't say when it will be uploaded. Lots to go about with it. In any case, thanks. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish. Thanks all, have fun reading but most of all, have a great day each and every one of you.