"You think your measly bullets can stand a chance against ME?" Alastor cackles, with red electricity sparking in his hands.
"This will be a cakewalk!" He steps out of the elevator, and uses his magic to form a massive magic bubble shield around your party of friends.
"Give us your worst!" he demands, as bullets begin to fly everywhere. They ricochet all over the room, bouncing off the walls and ironically ending the lives of most of those that fired them.
"Follow me, my allies! Pentious lies ahead!"
You look over at Charlie, who clearly would've preferred this to be a nonviolent confrontation.
"Shall we?" you ask, gesturing to Alastor as he steps forward.
"Doesn't seem like we have much of a choice." she replies.
You, Charlie and Lucifer all follow the Radio Demon, as he slowly makes his way toward the grounded airship. Bullets continue to fly all over the place, all of them bouncing harmlessly off your bubble shields.
Alastor has his own shield, which seems to be taking the brunt of the assault as he charges ahead. The Egg Bois must have been really angry at him from all his taunts.
Like your own shield though, no bullets manage to make it through his.
The demon maniacally laughs as he nears the entrance to the airship's cabin. "Oh Pentious... come out, come out, wherever you are..."
The firing is slowly but surely letting up, as the casualties on your opposing side are mounting high.
You've seen your fair share of fights during your time in Hell, typically by defending Charlie from naysayers and hostile demons that were opposed to her hotel idea.
You've never won one by simply walking through your opponents, though.
Alastor throws open the door to the airship, and you all follow him inside.
Everything is dark inside the airship's cabin, almost unnaturally so. All at once, the two bubble shields simultaneously vanish.
"Al, did you do that?" Lucifer asks.
"Of courssse not, I did!" an all-too-familiar voice echoes all around you.
All the lights suddenly pop on in the room, revealing the snake-demon himself, standing at the wheel of his airship.
You can see that Pentious is pressing a large yellow button on the console in front of him. He removes his finger from it and turns around to face everyone, a wickedly-evil smile on his face.
"That button removes all the magic abilities of everyone in my airship! You're helpless now!"
Alastor scoffs. "He's lying, let's get him!"
Lucifer takes a step back, a look of worry on his face. "No he's not..."
Pentious chuckles. "You're not as mentally-deficient as you look, Lucy."
"This is nonsense!" Alastor shouts, raising his arms in a battle stance. "Watch, I can easily use my magic to end this wretched creature's life."
Alastor begins frantically waving his arms around, but nothing happens.
"What!? What's going on!?" he yells, looking down at his hands with a nervous expression.
"I've just explained it to you." the snake-demon says. "And I was never one for repeating myself."
After he says this, a group of five surviving Egg Bois walk in through the door, their weapons drawn and pointed at your group of friends.
"Ah, just in time!" he says, mischievously rubbing his hands together. "Everyone, keep an eye on these hooligans. We're going to pay their Happy Hotel a 'visit'..."
Charlie gasps. "No, please don't!"
"Oh, but I will." he says. "I'm going to put an end to this 'redemption nonsense', and you're going to be here to witness it!"
He smashes another button on the console with his fist, and an enormous hatch in the ceiling slides open. The airship slowly rises up and out of the underground facility, now hovering just above the Imp City skyline.
"All systems are 'go', sir!" an Egg Boi says. "Setting trajectory to... Hazbin Hotel. We're ready to go!"
"Excellent, let's set off!" Pentious says, before pulling a lever on the console.
The airship's engines come to life, and it begins slowly moving forward. Demons on the ground look up in horror at the enormous craft.
An automated female voice on the ship's intercom starts doing a countdown.
"Preparing for jump to the speed of sound: 5. 4. 3. 2."
After a long pause, nothing happens. The airship only continues to slowly move forward.
"Uh... isn't a '1' supposed to come after that?" one of the Egg Bois asks.
"Yes, you simpleton!" Pentious screams. "Check on the engines, make sure none are malfunctioning!"
"Y-yes sir!" he says, dropping his weapon on the floor and hurrying off to an area behind you.
This gives you an idea. Maybe you won't exactly need magic to defeat this guy, after all.
"Hey Charlie, remember the last time we went camping?" you ask.
She gives you a very confused look. "Yeah... why?"
You look out one of the airship's windows and randomly point at something on the ground. Something that isn't actually there.
"Hey Pentious, what's that!?"
"What's what?" he asks, sharing a similarly confused look.
Charlie immediately catches on. "Yeah! That 'thing' that's right behind you!" she says, also pointing out the window.
This makes Pentious look outside. "What are you imbeciles talking about? I don't see anything."
You slowly inch your way toward the airship's control console. "Keep looking, you'll find it!"
"I... I don't see anything!" he says, curiously putting a hand to his chin as he tries to find whatever the 'thing' is.
Even the Egg Bois aren't really paying attention to your movements, instead looking outside the windows as well.
"It's right by that building over there!" Charlie exclaims.
"We're in the middle of Imp City, there are buildings everywhere!" the snake-demon snarls.
Looking at the control console, you can see a large green button labeled "magic-reactivator".
You smash the button with your fist, and dive for the gun that's laying on the ground. You pick it up and point it at Sir Pentious.
As he turns around, you can faintly hear what sounds like electricity surging in the air. Alastor and Lucifer smile.
"What!?" He frantically looks at the Egg Bois and shouts "Don't just stand there, you disgusting fried chicken fetuses, fire!"
Before they could pull the triggers on their guns, Alastor's hand begins glowing a bright red magic color, and he pulls all the weapons from their grip.
Their weapons fall to the floor, and they nervously look up at the Radio Demon.
"Hey guys, what's going on up here?" the Egg Boi from earlier walks up and asks. His jaw drops and he gasps upon looking at the scene.
"Hey Lucy, how do you like your eggs? Poached? Scrambled?" Alastor asks.
"Surprise me!" Lucifer says.
Pulling out his knife, Alastor laughs maniacally, and the Egg Bois leap out the door in fear.
He sticks his head out the door. "And STAY OUT!"
Alastor closes the door, and Lucifer smiles. "Well done, Al!"
He shifts his gaze to Sir Pentious, who gulps in fear. "And as for you..."
"No hard feelings...?" the snake-demon asks, nervously laughing.
"Consider our partnership... over."
The demon overlord snaps his fingers, and Pentious suddenly disappears.
"Whoa! Where'd he go?" you ask.
"I just sent him to The Penitentiary, with an indefinite sentence!" Lucifer replies.
"Hell has a prison, I never knew that..." you say quietly.
"Right here in Imp City! Since he seems to love it here so much, it only seemed fitting."
"Fair enough." you reply.
"This is all well and good, but..." Charlie says, with a nervous look. "What are you going to do about the Happy Hotel?"
"I was actually just getting to that." Lucifer replies. He presses a button on the airship's control console, and it stops moving.
"Like I was saying earlier, I no longer have any intention of taking over. You've all shown me that redemption is, in fact, possible. It was an eye-opening experience, that's for sure."
"So... you'll let us stay open?" you ask.
"Yes, of course!" he replies. "It's a fantastic way to help decrease our overcrowded population. While I admit, some of your methods are a bit... different from what I was expecting, I think it's a marvelous idea."
"Yay, thank you!" Charlie says, giving her dad a hug.
"You're quite welcome, my dear. But there is one more thing..." he says, breaking off the embrace.
"What is it?" she asks, with concern beginning to fill her voice.
"You simply must help Niffty improve on her cooking abilities. I know she's more housekeeping, than anything, but my goodness! I didn't know jambalaya could get so burnt!"
"We'll keep that in mind, Dad, thanks." Charlie giggles.
Lucifer laughs along with her for a moment, before turning his attention to you.
"Your words from earlier hold merit." he says. "You do truly care for Charlotte, and I thank you for helping to keep her dream alive. When even I was too foolish to not believe in it myself."
"You're welcome." you reply with a smile. "Just don't go... messing things up again."
"I wouldn't dream of it." he says, chuckling once more. He then turns his attention to the Radio Demon, who has been steadily avoiding eye contact with the fallen angel since your victory.
"And Al," Lucifer says. "I know that my betrayal affected you greatly. If you no longer wish for our friendship to continue, I completely understand."
Alastor grumbles. "We can remain... acquaintances for now. I would like my room key back, though."
"To your radio studio?" he asks, as Alastor nods. "Unfortunately, I never had it. One of Pentious' minions stole it, so it's probably still on one of them."
"Wait, what!?" the Radio Demon asks.
"Actually, I think it might've been one of the few that were holding us at gunpoint, a moment ago." he adds.
Alastor throws open the airship cabin's door once again, and looks down toward the ground.
There are five small parachutes laying in a perfect circle, and you can see five small egg-like creatures sprinting away from the airship.
"SATAN, DAMN IT!" Alastor screams.
—————————————————————————
Epilogue
"Thanks, Dave!" you say, heading over to your booth at the ice cream parlor with Charlie. "Nice catching up with you!"
"Same with you, dude, take care!" he replies, before turning his attention to another customer.
You take a quick sip from the chocolate shake in your grasp, before saying "He's such a nice guy. No idea how he could've ended up here in Hell."
Charlie leans in toward you and whispers something in your ear.
"Tax evasion, really?" you quietly ask.
"Yeah, the IRS takes that kind of stuff really seriously." she says.
"If you somehow end up here for not filing them, I guess God does too then..." you say with a small chuckle.
You both find your usual booth near a window and take a seat, sitting across from each other.
You place the chocolate shake on the table in front of you, and Charlie begins to take small sips with her straw.
"So... we did it." you say, thoughtfully looking out the window. "We saved the Happy Hotel."
"Not just that!" she adds. "We saved literally thousands of people, since Dad decided to cancel this year's extermination."
"I know, thank God." you reply, turning back to face her directly.
"God definitely played a big part in this, but come on, give yourself some credit!" she says.
You chuckle. "Yeah, and your Dad's eyes basically lit up like a Christmas tree, when Vaggie showed him the list of all the sinners we redeemed so far."
"Yep, all 4,873 of them. But who's counting?" she says with a smug smile.
"If seeing that couldn't convince him that redemption works, I don't know what would." you say.
She gives a relieved sigh. "I'm just glad everything turned out okay, in the end."
"You and me both." you say. "Saved the hotel, saved countless people's lives, and even changed how your Dad views redemptions. Quite an eventful day, we've had!"
"And that's putting it lightly!" she says with a giggle.
"Yep, sounds like your dreams are finally coming true, Charlie." you say, offering a sincere smile to her.
You can see her cheeks become a bit flustered as she returns a smile to you.
"I'm so glad I met you." she says, lovingly looking into your eyes.
You softly take grasp of her hand on the table. "I feel the same way. You changed my life, hon. I have no idea where I'd be now, if you hadn't been there for m-"
Your words are cut short when she suddenly leans across the table and passionately presses her lips to your own. Your eyes widen in shock, before they slowly lower as you lean into the kiss.
This moment couldn't have been any better than you could've possibly imagined.
Being together, with the girl of your dreams. Helping to make her dream become a reality.
She's at the center of your world, and you're at the center of hers.
You truly are a match made in Heaven. Or Hell, technically.