A dry, gritty breeze flitted through a narrow alley lodged between a pair of rough tower-like skyscrapers, providing a momentary reprieve from the thick, suffocating air down at the ground level.

Blackened water crawled slowly down the street side gutters, emanating tendrils of black miasma and gurgling with displeasure as they flowed down into a storm drain adjacent to the only source of dreary light in the entire alley.

Most of the light was temporarily blocked as a sizable pair strode and then stopped in front of the repulsive window, providing a momentary reprieve for the dark things scuttling about within the sewer line.

The large, black humanoid demon was the first to stop, allowing only small rays of light to dart past underneath his shoulders as he turned to the dark-skinned man behind him.

The large black demon’s voice rumbled out with a hint of concern masked in deep, low baritones “So, are you gonna be the one to tell her, Biggs?”

“What? Oh, ah, of course I will! Wedge, why have ya been asking me that? This had always been settled!” The man responded in aggrieved surprises, as he crossed his muscled arms matter-of-factly.

Bigg’s gazed doggedly upwards into Wedge’s beady red eye’s, as the creature scratched his head in deep thought before striking a confident pose himself.

“Well, I guess since you got so small? I’m the bigger one now.” Wedge growled again, and leaned over Biggs, his black and red tufts of fur danced haphazardly across his thick shoulders, all while casting an array of shadows as the breeze finally reached them.

“SMALL?! That all you got?! You… you’re just jealous, that’s what!” Biggs slammed his fist into his chest, puffing himself up as large as he could manage.

“I stole the biggest damn body in their whole bloody army! What’d you get? Nothing! As expected from a 14!” Biggs railed on, tapping a finger accusingly onto Wedge’s chest.

“Hmmm. Biggest, huh. Didn’t you say you were gonna steal the giant’s body, though?” Wedge leaned back, showing off his sharp fangs in a wide smile.

“That- That was not my fault! How was I to know Necrotius would up and melt ‘em to slag with the whole damn block?! Like hell I would tell him to stop!” Biggs tried desperately and failed to shove his face in front of Wedge’s, and instead he quickly pivoted to shake his fist at the pitch-black sky.

“Hmm. Typical 13s, making excuses. You know, I could have sworn you said that you would even fight the Hellflame himself to get that body, 1st generation or not.” Wedge prodded again, grinning ever wider.

“Y-YOU! I chose to respect my elders, and you need to learn from my example!” Biggs practically shouted, as his temple throbbed ever so slightly. “Maybe you want me to pop back out of this body? Then I’ll teach you again!”

“Then do it, boss. This student would like to learn. Huhuhuhu.” The demon laughed pointedly, earning him a fresh glare from Biggs. However, both of them froze as a sweet voice whispered from above them.

“My my, I would adore it most pleasantly if you would!” A pair of vines sprouted from the walls far above their heads, and draped slowly down to their ears. “In fact”, it continued, “Perhaps you both could use another lesson on respect! I tire of reminding you not to mention that bastards name in front of my doors!” Sweet gave way to sour, tempered with a strong dose of annoyance.

“A-ah! Lady Esther, what a surprise! Look, it was Wedge’s fault. Really, I just-!” The gnarled wooden door to the club flung itself open in time for a swarm of vines to launch themselves through. They swerved with greater accuracy than a sharpshooter on their best of days and wrapped themselves around the two loiterers, yanking them forcefully into the building while eliciting a sharp groan as the two had all the air squeezed from their lungs.

The sudden gust of wind from the bodies flying by and the slamming of the door caused the overhanging sign to creak and sway for the first time in a fortnight.

The light from the lonely window finally caught it at just the right angle for the grime-covered text to become legible, reading simply “Devils and Dryads Inc.” with a small picture of a martini glass next to it.

The inside of the club was far grungier than the outside, and the humidity had reached a whole new level of oppressive.

The moisture in the air was thick enough that small drops of water would form and drip from any bit of hanging moss, light, or plank from the ceiling in an almost rain-like effect. Living bodies were no exception, as Wedge’s fur soon turned into a matted mess and Biggs thick canvas shirt clung to him like melted chocolate.

Dozens of demons in various shapes and sizes filled the various chairs and corners, quietly dropping their conversations as the odd pair came flying into the club.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

The odd, diamond-shaped purple phosphorescent rhomboid continued to float around the room unabated while releasing deep, rhythmic pulses in time with slight flares to its color, with hints of deep blues and unhealthy yellows. As the sound made it difficult to hear anything further than a human arm’s length away, most of the demons returned their chatter in disappointment.

The vines unwrapped Wedge and Biggs in front of a small platform underneath the second-floor overlook, and gathered together into a mass on the ceiling before descending as one into the air above the well-lit platform.

No matter how many times they had seen it before, the countless woody fibers convulsing over each other to form a disembodied face made them cringe once again. The semblance of a smooth, perfect woman’s face just made it feel all the more uncanny.

“So, to business, then? I’m sure I didn’t break any ribs this time!” Esther’s disembodied voice sung pleasantly, guided around by the vines behind it as she moved between Wedge and Biggs.

“Y-yes! My report, Lady E-Esther! Hooooo.” Biggs huffed heavily, savoring each breath of air he brought back into his lungs while despondently massaging his ribs. A couple of small splotches of red slowly spread out from the area just about where his lower ribs would be.

Wedge winced as well, his only advantage was that his dark skin refused to reveal anything openly awry.

“Do hurry it up now, you have been keeping me waiting all day! So, were the rumors true?!” Esther’s face plunged within a needle’s breadth of Bigg’s nose, and Biggs could feel the ground under his feet writhing as fresh vines sprouted from the floor and weaved themselves into a pair of legs.

“Yes! We investigated the rumors, my lady! That a portal had, in fact, opened up in your district!” Biggs stood sharply at attention, and stared lifelessly forward as he refused to acknowledge anything within his direct line of sight. He failed to repress a shudder as many more loose tendrils crossed his shoulder, weaving themselves into a delicate arm as countless threads gathered and attached the host of disembodied limbs together.

Soon Esther had finished assembling her favored appearance of a woman with shoulder-length leafy green hair, and clad in bark from her knees to her shoulders. However, her legs were still merely for show, as the vines would glide her ‘body’ through the air wherever she wanted to go.

“And? What did you find?” She pressed on, inching devilishly close to Biggs ear, much to his chagrin. Biggs cast a dirty eye at Wedge, who was failing once again to repress a grin.

“We found that there was a greater than seventy-percent chance that this was true!” Biggs announced confidently, standing taller and firmer than before.

“That’s it? You took an entire day, and that is all you found out?” The playful smile dropped from Esther’s face, and the entire club grew silent. Even the pulsating rhomboid stopped its rounds.

“Yes ma’am! We couldn’t find any traces of corpses from the demons who disappeared, and it seemed unlikely that their bodies would have melted away that quickly! So the odds that there was a portal is high, ma’am!” Biggs puffed out his chest once again, but he immediately deflated when he finally looked at Esther and saw her grating her faux teeth.

“Did you think to check for a residual fracture? Did you find where the potential portal sight might have been? Did you do anything useful at all?!” The building convulsed as ripples glided violently across Esther’s ‘skin’, and several demons began quietly making extra distance between themselves and Esther.

“W-well, we had an idea, but Necrotius sealed the are-“

“WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT SPEAKING THAT BASTARDS NAME HERE?!” Esther shrieked, sending convulsions through the streets and buildings surrounding the club as if they were water, exposing long thick roots to the night air.

“YOU, YOU ARE SO DE-?! “ Esther froze, as her front door slammed inwards and a platoon of knights came charging inside, howling in some strange foreign language. Orange glows and white light gleamed in from cobbled streets and wooden structures, and an unseasonably chill wind roiled in through the doorway.

The knights all halted in visible confusion, the door slamming willfully behind them without the slightest trace of having opened at all.

The humanly visage disappeared suddenly behind the hum of countless threads vibrating simultaneously, sounding as if an orchestra of bugs had come into existence throughout the parlor.

The entire room came alive, countless vines launching like needles into the screaming knights, as others launched into all directions surrounding the club, searching desperately for something that could no longer be found.

“FRESH! MINE! ANSWERS, NOW!” Esther howled, as her body unraveled into a human-like mess of bark and vines, gliding towards her ensnared prey with absolute malevolent focus.

Biggs seized his opportunity, and grabbed Wedge by the arm.

“Now, out the back!” He hissed into Wedge’s ear, and began dashing through with Wedge ducking through doorframes as he attempted to keep up.

“Hey boss, do you think he will come here next?” Wedge grumbled, as they finally escaped the maze and exited through a man-hole just barely large enough to fit them single-file into the sewers below.

Almost as if in answer to his question, a small earthquake rumbled through the ground sending small chunks of rock and dust crumbling from the sewer’s ceiling.

“Of course he is. He personally blocked the first portal area, and the next one wound up being our front door! Only an idiot would stick around when two of the nightmares are gonna go at it!” Biggs asserted, as another series of progressively stronger quakes followed.

Both of them eyed the walls suspiciously as they progressed. Getting caught in a cave-in wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to them tonight, but it would certainly be annoying at the very least.

“Hey boss, what about the other saying though? That only an idiot would leave before one of the nightmares dismissed them?” Wedge grunted, as they squeezed underneath a tight set of grates in their path.

Biggs sudden halt forced Wedge to crash into him like a slow-motion bulldozer. The blood draining from his face was luckily not visible in the darkness of the sewers.

“Hey Wedge, how 'bout you shuddap?”