Unexpectedly, the rest of the day proved uneventful. During the afternoon, you accompanied Charlie and Vaggie to the Ascension Room, helping them show Lucifer around.
This is the area of the hotel where angel ambassadors from Heaven routinely check on the Hotel's progress. They also usually bring down a list of sinners that God deemed worthy of bringing up to Heaven.
Those sinners are then brought to the Ascension Room, and if they are willing to leave Hell behind, the angel ambassador brings them up to Heaven, where they can now live a life free from the constant pain and chaos of the underworld.
Lucifer actually seemed to like the idea, especially since sinners are given the choice of staying in Hell or ascending to Heaven. He was happy that they weren't being forced to go to Heaven; it was entirely their choice if they wanted to leave or not.
Since he is the ruler of Hell, he was, understandably, shocked to learn that the vast majority of sinners who are given the choice decide to go to Heaven, rather than stick around.
Regardless, he seemed happy that the option to remain in Hell was there.
After the day concluded, Lucifer thanked you all for your time, and returned to his room in the hotel. He picked Room 666, for obvious reasons.
Presently, you and Charlie are walking down the hall hand in hand, heading back to your own room.
"So despite a rough start, today didn't turn out that bad after all." you say.
"Yeah, I'm surprised!" Charlie replies. "After this morning, Dad was... pretty much normal!"
"Well he's the Devil, so wouldn't 'normal' be kind of a bad thing?" you ask.
She laughs and softly hits your arm. "You know what I mean."
"He was a lot more open to the idea than I thought. Honestly, I was a little nervous when we showed him the Ascension Room, but... looks like everything turned out okay!" you say. "Maybe he'll even give Alastor his room key back."
"I still feel like Al might've just lost it." Charlie shrugs. "And I can almost guarantee you that it was him this morning, saying I 'slipped on a banana peel'. That just sounds like a dumb Alastor joke!"
"Normally, I'd agree with you, but he was PISSED when I brought it up to him. I've never seen Al that angry. He swore up and down that he had nothing to do with it."
"I mean, he even stopped smiling for a second, if you could believe it!" you add.
Charlie's jaw drops slightly. "No way! I've only seen him do that once, back when he was interviewing Angel for his radio show."
You chuckle. "That sounds about right."
"Regardless, I'm not letting him off that easily." she says. "Everyone I asked said it sounded just like him, so I'm guessing Dad was probably being a bad influence on him."
The two of you walk past the radio station on your way downstairs.
"Oh, speak of the Devil! Or Radio Demon, technically." you say with a laugh.
As the two of you walk past the studio, the door unexpectedly creeks open, making you both freeze in place. Slowly looking toward it, at best you expect to see Alastor walking out. At worst, Lucifer.
Instead, you see nothing. The room is pitch black. It's as if the door mysteriously opened all by itself.
"What...?" you say quietly. Peering into the room from the outside, it appears empty.
You let go of Charlie's hand and say "I'm going in there."
"Not without me!" she says, grabbing you by the hand again. "We need to get to the bottom of this, and we're doing it together."
"But I don't want you to get hurt, if a bad guy's in ther-" you begin to say.
"Hon," she says. "I can turn into a demon at will. I think I'll be fine."
As concerned as you are for her safety, she does make a valid point.
"Alright, but be careful." you mutter.
Slowly, you push the door open all the way, and you step inside the waiting room, with Charlie following close behind.
The room is completely dark, and you can't see anything in front of you. Pressing your hand against the wall, you can feel a light switch, so you flip it on.
The lights turn on in the waiting room, but not in the studio itself. Everything in the waiting room looks just like how it did this morning, with nothing out of place.
"There's no one here." you say. "Maybe... a draft opened the door?"
"No way." Charlie replies. "These doors are way too heavy to open up from just a small gust of wind."
A sudden bright burst of flame directly next to you makes you jump. You quickly turn to your side, and see that Charlie turned into her demon form.
Two large horns are sticking from the top of her head, and her eyes have become a dark shade of crimson. Also, all her teeth have become razor-sharp fangs, akin to her father.
"A bit of warning, next time, hon!? You scared me half to death!" you exclaim.
"Hehe, sorry." she says. "I just have better eyesight when I'm in this form."
"Maybe we should get you a pair of glasses, then." you say, quietly.
Ignoring your comment, she slowly steps up to the closed door to the radio studio. "Alright, here we go. If someone's here, chances are they'll be inside. You ready?"
"Let's do it." you say.
She gently pushes open the door, and slowly peers around the dark radio studio.
"Dad? Al?" she asks, looking around the room. There is no response.
You follow her inside, and she flips on a nearby light switch. Like the waiting room, everything seems normal here as well.
"Must've been getting worked up over nothing." you say. "I hope so, anyway."
"Me too." Charlie replies, scanning her surroundings.
She looks under a table, before you hear an unfamiliar voice gasp.
"An Egg Boi!?" she suddenly asks.
"A what now?" you ask back with a surprised laugh.
"Boss, I've been compromised!" the voice yells. "Abort the mission!"
After he says this, a sudden bright flash of light encompasses the room, forcing you to cover your eyes with a hand. When the light fades and your eyes readjust themselves, you quickly look under the table next to Charlie.
He's gone. But you notice something odd, that looks strangely like a megaphone.
You pick it up off the floor, and upon close inspection, you can see the words "Voice Imitator 5000" engraved on the side.
"I think I found that 'hard evidence' you were looking for, hon."
—————————————————————————
"He has to be nearby, let's get him!" Charlie shouts, before sprinting out of the radio room.
"Who's nearby? What are you talking about!?" you ask, following close behind.
"That voice changer... it had to have been made by Sir Pentious!"
"Because that totally clears it up for me!" you say, following her up the stairs.
"That one snake-looking guy." she says. "He tried taking over this region of Hell a long time ago, but Alastor destroyed his giant blimp thing so he couldn't."
"Shit, I must have missed A LOT when you guys first opened up."
"Kinda." she replies. "I thought he gave up, but this random voice changer, plus that Egg Boi minion of his... this whole thing might be his fault!"
"Alright, now I don't care who he is, I'm gonna kick his ass." you say in an intimidating, Duke Nukem-ish voice.
"That's the spirit!" Charlie laughs.
The two of you make it to the top of the stairs, and Charlie throws open the door to the hotel roof. Running outside, you come face to face with an enormous airship, hovering directly above the building.
You see an Egg Boi holding onto a ladder that is dangling down from the airship's cabin.
"Come on, guys!" he yells. "Couldn't you have just teleported me inside the ship!?"
"We're ssstill working on that." another voice says over the airship's intercom.
A set of stairs emerges from the airship cabin, and a tall figure steps out from inside. He stands on the very edge of the stairs, looking down upon you and Charlie.
"Ssso... Charlotte Magne and her little human pet, we meet again!" the weird snake guy says.
"Uh... do I know you?" you ask.
"Again? Seriously!?" he shouts. "After ALL this time?"
He pauses, and clears his throat. "My name... is Sir Pentious, now TREMBLE IN FEAR!"
You look over at Charlie. "You know, I bet if I had a needle right now, that giant airship thing would probably just 'pop' like a balloon."
You hear a faint "no it wouldn't!" from the snake guy, but you don't really care.
She laughs. "I don't exactly have one of those on me right now, but I've got something in mind."
She raises one of her hands, and a ball of fire promptly forms within it.
You giggle, before looking back at Pentious. "Buddy, you better have used helium gas instead of hydrogen in that thing."
He audibly gulps in fear, before sprinting back inside the airship. "Get usss out of here!"
The stairway to the airship cabin quickly closes back up, and Charlie tosses the fireball in its direction.
"GO GO GO!!!" you hear, as its engines roar to life.
As the fireball nears the airship, it suddenly flies away at a ludicrously fast speed. The fireball falls to the ground below, and the ship is long gone.
"Wow, was not expecting that." you say.
"At least we scared him off." Charlie says. "I'm gonna go talk to Dad about this. He probably knows something we don't."