Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (22 page)

“Yep, it’s true,” Ash
said. He didn’t expect Aura’s explanation, but he could definitely believe it. “Some humans never settle down with just one person.”

“
Sign me up!”

“Okay then! If this wild plan of yours actually works, I won’t leave you down here.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘down here’?” Aura had to ask.

Ash didn’t mean to, but referring to Hell as ‘down’ just seemed natural. In all the mythology he’d heard
of, Heaven was always ‘up’ and Hell was always ‘down’. Of course his explanation to Aura wasn’t so smart-sounding. “Isn’t Hell, like…underneath the Earth?”

“What are you talking about?” Aura
asked. “Hell is on its own planet.”

“I’m on an entirely different planet?!” Ash
asked, aghast. This whole time he thought he was still somewhere on Earth, albeit another dimension or something. Now he’d have to find a way off an entire
planet
? Though this did explain why there was a humongous moon in the sky at all times, as well as the absence of a sun. This ‘Planet Hell’ must be in an entirely different part of the solar system!

“You actually thought that Hell existed somewhere under the Earth’s crust?” Aura roared with laughter. “That’s rich!
Did you also think Heaven was somewhere in Earth’s clouds!” Ash said no more on the subject. Instead, he changed the topic to something that was bothering him since he found Aura in the castle’s cafeteria that morning, looking tired and lonely.

“So what happened with your friends?” He had guessed that Aura hadn’t been back to see them until today, hence the reason they found him in the castle.
The death toucher didn’t go back to them after the team’s first day together.

“They kicked me out of the gang,” Aura replied miserably. “The gang
I
started! I guess I should have seen it coming though. I did abandon them to join you guys.”

“The way I see it, you didn’t have much of a choice. You
had
to join us.”

“That’s right! I told them that too!” Aura
said. “But it doesn’t matter. Abandonment is abandonment, no matter how you slice it. My days with them are over. We can’t be friends if we’re playing for different teams.”

“That’s not true. Why do you think you can’t be friends anymore?”

“Cause they’re a bunch of thieves and I now work for The Royal Family.”

“That’s a load of bull! If you guys are friends, nothing can change that! In fact, it’s almost better now because you can act like the inside man for them!”

“Inside man?” Aura repeated. He’d heard Ash mention that term before, but was still unsure of what exactly it entailed.

“Yeah! You can make sure they know
where
and
when
they can avoid the Royal Guards, or bail them out of trouble if they ever get caught! They should be begging you to still be their friend!”

“Wow, I never looked at it
that way. Maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right!” Ash had never been so certain of something in all his life. Now a new plan
formed in his head. “I say we go back there tomorrow, first thing, and try talking to them again. This time, you can make amends with them. Once you’re back on good terms, they’ll definitely help us out!”

The two boys smiled at each other. This night had turned
out surprisingly fun. “You know Ash,” Aura said, “I know why Shiva doesn’t like me. But I can’t understand why she doesn’t like you.”

“Just give me some time,” Ash said with confidence. “I have a tendency to grow on people!”

“I think you and I are going to get along great.”

That night Ash went to sleep with renewed optimism, and a brand new friend for life.

Chapter Eighteen: Them and Us

It was not difficult convincing Shiva to go back to speak with Aura’s ex-gang again. She only had one condition: that she be involved in the questioning this time. Aura didn’t feel good about her being there, but hoped he could work things out with his former friends before any violence erupted. After a
quick breakfast the team was once again back in South Hell, standing outside a building two-thirds of the team was unfamiliar with. It looked like a run-down shack, but then again, most of the structures in South Hell did. Shiva couldn’t believe people actually lived there, but Aura swore it was their home. A base, he liked to think of it as. When the crew needed to lay low for a while, have a rest, or the Missing Piece wasn’t available, this is where they came. It was rarely occupied by less than ten people at any given time.

“Remember, we’re just here to
talk
,” Aura reminded Shiva once again.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Shiva reassured him, not-at-all convincingly.

Aura showed them to the back entrance, which was slightly boarded up. “Probably squatting here illegally,” Shiva muttered under her breath. They bent the boards out of the way, and climbed through. Once inside, all attention was on them.

What they had just stepped into was a tiny house. There were tables and chairs and couches strewn about, and quite a gathering of people all chatting away softly. Aura had mentioned it was a place for relaxing and lying low, and it looked like that’s exactly what the people were doing there. Nearly every seat was taken in the house, and every pair of eyes was on the group. Everyone recognized Aura immediately, but it took a while to register the sight of Lady Shiva.

Everything came to a halt. All the squatters stopped what they were doing, put down any food or drinks, and in some cases stopped mid-sentence. Everyone remained quiet, eyes fixed on the three. The only person in the room who cared to see Ash again was Dunger, who immediately snapped to attention. He wanted another shot at fighting the boy. He didn’t like losing to anyone, especially a
human
.

The group wasted no time with formalities. Sars
sat at the rear of the house with ‘his’ gang, so that’s where they headed. The team pushed past the people’s chairs and tables and approached the gang, who remained in their seats unflinching.

“Hey guys, hear me out,” Aura started to say.

“Come to rat us out to your new friends?”

“I’ve come to talk,” Aura
said, and casting a sideways glance at Shiva added, “
civilly
.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Sars said. “As far as we’re all concerned, we don’t even know you anymore. We’ve no reason to speak with you.” Fry and Vadnais nodded in agreement.

“It doesn’t have to be that way!” Aura said, becoming frustrated. His friends never used to be so stubborn! Feeling Shiva’s patience slipping, Aura continued his speech. “If anything, my joining this team is a good thing! I can help you guys out, bail you out of trouble!” He leaned in closer and lowered his voice, not wanting Shiva to hear this next part. “I can give you all the information you want about what goes on inside the castle.”

Shiva did hear him, and definitely didn’t like the sound of that, but she said nothing about it. Instead she made a mental note to yell at him later about divulging any Royal secrets.

“Sure, you say that now,” said Sars. “But how long until they win you over? How long until you stop caring about us? What then?”

“What do you think, that I’m just going to start thinking I’m better than you or something? That wouldn’t happen!”

“That already
has
happened,” Sars said.

“What?”

“You’ve always lorded your death touching ability over everyone. Your ego was practically the fifth member of our gang!” At that information, Aura remained silent. Had he really been that bad of a friend and never realized it? He knew that he could be narcissistic and selfish at times, but he’d never thought it bothered his friends.

Ash was about to stand up for and defend Aura, but someone else beat him to it. “
Idiots
!!” Shiva roared, grabbing a hold of the small table that stood between her and Sars. “Can’t you see he just wants to be your friend!?” With a defiant roar of anger, she lifted the small table up and threw it at the least-populated corner of the room. Suddenly, the tension in the room went from 1 to 11. Everyone was on their feet, ready for anything. Dunger pushed his way forward, eager to start brawling.

Aura was speechless at the sudden escalation. Which
was unfortunate for him, since he wanted to diffuse the situation and calm everyone down. Before he could speak, Sars’s agitation finally peaked at the intruders in his home, and his fist flew at Shiva’s face. He would have hit her, but Aura caught the fist, just inches in front of Shiva’s face.

“She’s not the one you’re mad at,” Aura said. “And besides,” he added, winking at Shiva, “Ladies are for hitting
on
, not hitting,” Shiva couldn’t decide if she was grateful or offended.

With violence initiated, both Fry and Vadnais leapt into action. Aura released his grip on Sars’s fist, and everyone backed away from each other. It was unclear if it was planned or not, but Vadnais and Fry both aimed for Shiva. This time, she was on guard and ready for action. Sh
e stepped back and avoided them while gathering a small amount of flame in her hand. Within seconds, she shot a fireball forward. The three men jumped out of the way as the fireball hit the wall behind them.

“Everybody out!” Someone shouted, and soon devils were up and fleeing their supposed ‘safehouse’.

“Don’t let them go!” Shiva shouted over the panicked cries and commotion of everyone else trying to get out. With the boarded up back door jammed with people, some devils took to jumping out the windows (which were also boarded up). Ash was caught off guard by the commotion, and knocked around by the various fleeing people. In all the hubbub, he was pushed to the rear of the room and separated from his team.

Fry and Vadnais were back on their feet, eager for a rematch. But as she’d proven time and time again, Shiva was no pushover. She easily proved to be more than a match for the men. Meanwhile, Sars and Aura
traded blows. With the five of them within such close quarters, the scene looked like a jumble. Punches were flying all over the place, and not many of them were landing where they were aimed. More than once, Shiva ended up smacking Aura and vice versa.

While just trying to push towards his teammates, Ash felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned around, expecting something bad to happen. Standing before him was Dunger, with a frighteningly happy grin on his face. Before he would allow anything ‘bad’ to happen, Ash struck first. He aimed low, right for the giant man’s stomach, his fist connecting with Dunger’s ripped abdomen. Dunger flexed his abs with all his might, softening the blow. He took one step backwards, but that was all. What happened next was all a big, painful blur to Ash.

Dunger grabbed him by the arm and threw him straight out the last remaining boarded-up window. Ash crashed through it, shattering the thin layers of wood and landing on the dirt road outside. Although it didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it would have if he were still a human, Ash was, for the moment, down.

Dunger peeked through the window frame to see the results of his throw, and when he saw the boy still lying
on the ground he smiled even wider. The bulky man took his time crawling through the window frame (which by this point was really just a hole in the wall) to join Ash outside. In pain, but not by any means defeated, Ash watched his muscular challenger drop to the ground in front of him. The boy climbed to his feet and shook the splinters off his dusty coat, all the while suspecting his opponent would launch another attack. Dunger was beginning to think he perhaps misjudged Ash’s strength during their previous encounter.

When a couple of men that had also vacated the safehouse saw Dunger standing before a weakened Ash, they decided it might be fun to join him in the beat-down. Five men stepped forward to join Dunger. Realizing that taking on six fully-grown devil men probably wasn’t the best idea, the half-human knew this would have to be a game of keep-away. Even though Shiva had warned against it, Ash brought
out his wings. “Come get me!” he shouted at them, as he used his wings to give himself an extra boost with a high jump up to the roof of the house. The men stood staring blankly up and the roof where Ash was, before one of them finally shouted
“after him!”
and they all pursued.

Now on the rooftop, Ash wasn’t quite certain what to do next. He mostly just hoped the men would give up pursuing him, but that hope fell apart when one by one in quick succession, they dropped from the sky to the roof, surrounding him.

No time to think. As the men came charging, he did the best he could to avoid their punches. The first few he was able to stop and counter, but gradually he slowed and one of the men hit him from behind. He took a tumble and fell to the ground. At least he wasn’t surrounded anymore. The man who knocked him down readied a massive ball of flame in his hand, which was pointed at the boy.

Ash rolled to his right, and the man casually corrected his aim. He fired the ball of flame directly at the boy. Ash’s devil instincts kicked in, telling him to lean back as far as he could go to avoid the fireball. He never knew that he could bend so far, as he witnessed the flames whizzing by just inches above his face. On his back, he rolled over quickly onto his stomach. The fireball flew across the street and collided with a nearby smokestack, crumbling it and raining down debris on the street below.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ash saw a Royal Guard below take notice of the explosion. Surprised, the guard looked around and saw Ash and the men on the rooftop above. The guard shouted something inaudible, and several other guards came from around a corner and joined him. From there, several of the guards produced whistles and began blowing into them. Ash smiled, thinking he’d be safe. Most of the men, upon hearing the Royal Guards whistles sounding, turned tail and decided to run. All except for one. Just Dunger remained.

Inside the bar, the fight drew to an end. Shiva and Aura were not only holding their ground against the three men, but slowly gaining the upper hand. Shiva found Fry and Vadnais to be relatively weak in terms of fighting ability. Vadnais had strength and Fry had speed; but they both lacked technique. Shiva was craftier and had more experience. She toyed with them ever so slightly, for fear she may not get to fight anyone else today. Not once did the thought of defeat enter her mind.

Aura and Sars faced off in a somewhat more evenly-matched brawl. Aura was a clear ringer; however, Sars had spent many years by his side watching him. In all that time, he had also been studying Aura’s every move, though he’d never thought that he would have to use any of the information
against his friend. He stayed as far away from Aura as he possibly could in that cramped area, content with firing balls of flame.

“Stop it!” Aura
said, swatting aside the weak flames with his gauntlet. “I just want to talk!” But Sars was no longer listening to words of reason. His anger had peaked, his temper had snapped; Aura was an enemy now, and he’d defend his home no matter what.

After finally tiring of playing with her victims, Shiva decided it best to finish them off for the day. Her decision coincided with Fry managing to finagle his way behind her as she was preoccupied with a frontal assault from Vadnais. With the majority of her attention on the larger man, Fry was able to grab hold.

“I got her!” he shouted to his partner. Thinking this was to be the finishing move, Vadnais with all his strength punched forward as fast as he could, aiming directly for Shiva’s face. Their fight was over.

It just didn’t end in the way
the men had hoped. Shiva took advantage of Fry’s small size and bent forward so that his feet lifted completely off the ground. The top of his head replaced the space where Shiva’s face had been only milliseconds before; the space where Vadnais’s fist now occupied. Immediately, Fry released his grip on Shiva and fell to the ground, desperately clinging to consciousness. Vadnais saw what he had done and felt all sorts of guilt for punching his friend. Shiva took advantage of the man’s hesitation. She leapt into the air next to him, extended her leg forward, and then swung it around to connect with the back of his head. Vadnais dropped to the ground on top of Fry.

Now fed up with Sars’
s determination to fight, Aura finally decided he’d get serious. Maybe it’d be easier to talk some sense into his friend if he were lying on the floor, unable to fight anymore. Luckily, Sars made the mistake of allowing himself to be distracted by Shiva’s wild antics. Aura caught him in his moment of distraction, and floored him with a knee to the gut. He fell to the ground, completely winded. It was at this point that the Royal Guards busted in through the partially missing doorway, barking orders for everyone to cease. Of course, they weren’t expecting to see Lady Shiva.

“You should go speak with them,” Aura said to Shiva, referring to the guards. Shiva was slightly annoyed by what sounded like an order to her, but didn’t say anything about it.  She gave Sars the stink-eye once more, and then crossed the room to meet with the Royal Guards (who
calmed down when they realized Lady Shiva was involved).