Multifandom Oneshot Book

Infernal

Josh looked at the note in his hand for what had to have been the twentieth time, he'd gotten a message from Alex to meet him in this concert hall to discuss something. What it was the guy wanted to talk about and why he couldn't just call Josh over Skype was anyone's guess but Josh wasn't one to turn down an opportunity to meet with a good friend. Alex had said they were to meet at 11:30 and it was currently 11:45. "Darn it Alex," Josh mumbled, "where are you man?"

"Right here."

Josh turned to see Alex standing in the doorway. "Hey dude," he said, beaming, "what kept you?"

Alex smiled, "Sorry I'm late, border patrol."

Josh laughed and climbed up the steps of tiered seating to shake Alex's hand. It'd been a while since they'd actually met face to face and, honestly, it was nice to have this chance.

As soon as their hands clasped, however, Josh snatched his hand back, recoiling. When they had shook, something had felt like a burning hot iron gauntlet on his skin. He glanced down at his hand, as a large burn formed there where Alex's hand had gripped his, his flesh stinging. His gaze flicked back up to Alex, who just stood there with a sinister smirk on his lips. Josh backed away, eyes wide in disbelief and slightly afraid. "Dude, what the heck?"

"How interesting," Alex drawled, "people don't usually get that strong of a physical reaction to me. So... what's special about you Joshie?"

That voice. Josh knew that voice well, it was the Hades voice. "Alex, this isn't funny man."

Laughter, laughter that made Josh's skin crawl, was Alex's reply. "Quite the contrary, this is hilarious. Seeing you like this is just priceless, and we're only just beginning." Alex snapped his fingers and the door slammed shut. Outside the windows, a barrier of dark energy went up, surrounding the part of the building they were in and preventing anyone from entering. The Canadian glared at Josh, stalking forward with a dark intensity in his eyes, no trace of humanity remaining. "Let's see if they trained the band geeks to fight. What do you say?" He raised a hand and a solid beam of red light, like a blade, slid from his palm.

Josh backed away further, stumbling down the tiered rows of seating. The Aerial Blades? That was meant to be a gag. A cool little thing Alex had thought up for that little story arc he'd made a couple of years ago. It wasn't real, was it?

Before he could finish his thought, Alex sent the blade flying at Josh, already forming another in his other hand.

Josh leaped back onto the level ground in front of the stage, narrowly avoiding getting impaled by the blade. "Alex, drop the act before someone gets hurt. Namely me." He backed away further reached behind himself onto the stage hoping to find something he could use to defend himself with, his heart soaring as his fingers closed around a metallic pole. He brought it around in front of him just in time to block the incoming blades. The blades were deflected by the music stand Josh had grabbed but the ends were blasted off in the progress. Josh steadied his nerves and took up a defensive stance with his improvised staff. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt his friend. Act or not, this was out of character for Alex and Josh was determined to find out what was wrong.

Alex stopped near the bottom of the steps and tilted his head in curiosity. "You still think it's an act, don't you?" He laughed, "You're an even bigger idiot than Pitty Pat." He continued his approach until he was standing right in front of Josh, eyes that were once a blue-grey were now pure black with pinpricks of crimson light paralyzing the former marine under his glare. He leaned in and whispered in Josh's ear, "This is no act Joshie, Alex Rochon is gone. And now you will follow him to hell." No sooner had those words left his mouth did Hades send an Aerial Blade plunging into Josh's stomach.