A fools errand.

Back in Kong, 2D and  Cortez's disappearance had not gone completely unnoticed, the raven's especially. The impostor now realized that it had been the keyboardist, that the raven had chose to help him find the bassist. He felt like kicking himself for assuming that Russel would have been the best choice, and for wasting his time watching the large man. Now it seemed obvious to him why 2D was the better option. No one could possibly of guessed it. The impostor waved it off at first, believing his demon friends would deal with them. However, by the next day that confidence had evaporated. He had assumed that one of his friends would join him in Kong, but the more he thought about it, the more he could not help wonder if that would occur to them. Worried that they would make a mistake, and land them all in deep trouble with Satan, he decides to go down there himself, and deal with the situation, personally.

As soon as the impostor steps into the Hell hole room, he feels the cold presence of 2D's circle. The bassist looks around on the floor for it, but the power pouring from the hole had already erased it visually. Annoyed, he leans down and uses the faint sensation of its power, to try to find the circles starting point. By taking that point, where the chalk had first made contact with the ground, the demon could use his powers to unravel it, and trap the raven and the keyboardist in Hell forever. Then all he would have to do, is call one of his demon friends to join him in Kong, to take 2D's form and place. He holds his hand over the area, and searches vainly, but it quickly becomes obvious that the sensation was far too faint to show him where to begin unraveling it.  He swears to himself, annoyed that he had not come down sooner. Now it seemed he would indeed have to enter Hell himself, and deal with them both face to face.

Walking down the small flight of steps, to the very edge of the fiery hole, the impostor cannot help but wonder how the real Murdoc had felt, stepping down and seeing him floating there before him. He smiles at the memory of the old man loosing his balance and falling into the hole. Chuckling it off and taking a deep breath, he raises his arms and draws the Hellish power to him Slowly his feet lift from the floor, and he floats out to the center of the hole. With one glance down into the depths, he drops into the hole with nothing more, than a roar of flames.

The raven and the keyboardist were already dealing with a problem. One of the small minor demons is pacing up and down before them. Thinking that perhaps if he brought the two trespassers to his Dark Lord personally, he could possibly win favor with him, it continues walking back and forth, trying to figure out the best way to capture them without help. 2D holds out his weapon, keeping the small creature at bay. The demon growls at him, trying to appear threatening.

“I don' wanna fight yah. I'm here for sumfink else.” 2D explains, watching the little demon carefully. It stops pacing and tips it's head slightly to its shoulder, eying the scared young man.

“Yeah I know, you're here for the bassist. He's dead, so you come with me.” It snarls, curling its lips back over its needle sharp teeth with a grin. Cortez ruffles his feathers angrily. The bird knows better. If Murdoc had died, he would have been the first to feel it, aside from the old man obviously. The fact that this small demon thought he could trick him with this obvious lie annoys him greatly.

“Dead? I fought he woz possessed, or sumfink? Wait, ain' we here for... No, I dunno.” 2D complains, more confused than before. The raven looks at the young man incredulously, but quickly turns his attention back to the little creature, not wanting the insult on his intelligence to pass.

“You no fool me leetle Diablo. I a messenger and heem no dead, so run along before I peck you eyes out.” the raven snarls. The small demon grits its teeth, nervously glancing from the raven to the keyboardist. It grumbles to itself, irritated that it had failed to recognize a messenger, but decides to stick with its lie in the hopes that it would still be able to fool the bird.

“Yes he is, and Satan would like to see you to. If you come with me, I can prove to you that the bassist is dead, and then we can go see Satan.” 2D looks from the creature to the raven, still confused, but hoping to glean enough information from their conversation to work it all out. The raven slits his eyes at the creature and hisses.

“So Murdoc is heya? But I... Nope I still don' fink I understand it.” 2D mutters, dropping his guard and pressing a finger to his bottom lip. The raven shakes his head at the young man dumbfounded, as the little demon blinks at him in confusion himself.

“Don't he know why he's here?” It asks the bird. Cortez bows his head and exasperated, looks down at the floor.

“No. Coz he ees stupido. Si Murdoc ees here, that why we here. Don't you leesten when... What I sayeeng, of course you no leesten.” The bird grumbles, keeping watch on the little demons movements. 2D looks down at him in annoyance.

“Well'w yeah. I listened, but I kind'a forgot some bits and now I'm just, well, confused. That's all.” he moans. The memories start to whirl painfully through his mind again, and he rubs his eye holes trying to press them away. The little demon notices that both he and the raven have stopped paying close attention to him, and takes a small step froward. Cortez notices the movement, and decides he has had enough. He flies at the little creature, flapping his wings into its face and clawing at its eyes with his feet.

“I teel you already Diablo. You no fool me, Murdoc ees alive and we get heem back.” The little demon screams in pain and fright, brushing away the bird. Covering its bleeding face with its hands, it races down the corridor and out of sight. Cortez drops to the ground and watches its exit with a slight grin. 2D turns and looks down at him a little surprised.

“You scared the piss outta him.” He mumbles, lazily pointing his weapon down the corridor in the direction the creature had run. Getting serious again, he shakes his head. “But wait, how do yah know he weren' tellin the truth?” The raven sighs and looks up at the still confused keyboardist. He had tried so hard to explain this whole plan to the young man, and now it seemed this had come undone because 2D was incapable of holding a single thought in his head long enough, to make much of a difference. However, now that he was here, perhaps it did not matter that he didn't know the reasons, or had forgotten the details. He decides to at least explain what he was regardless; the young man was bound to forget about it later anyway.

“I am the messenger of muerte.” he replies with a half sigh.

“Who's muerte? I fought you woz Muds pet.” 2D asks still confused. The raven shakes his head in disbelief and flutters up to sit on the young man's shoulder.

“Wha, no? Muerte, you know. Greem Reaper? What that word?” the raven ponders, searching his memory for the English translation. “Murdoc ees my master.... But I no ones pet.” He adds quietly, annoyed at the suggestion that he belonged to anyone but himself.

“Grim Reaper? Oh, do you mean death?” 2D asks, making his way down the corridor. Cortez bobs his head excitedly; almost proud, that 2D had understood that.

“Si, si death.” he squawks. “That why I know Murdoc ees alive, and that leetle Diablo just playeeng games. I am messenger of Death. Okay?” 2D smiles at the bird and they continue their search for the bassist.

The impostor makes his way firmly through the corridors, not stopping to consider the fact that he had not reverted to demon form on arrival. Turning a corner, he comes face to face with a group of medium sized minor demons. He ignores them and takes a step forward, to continue on his way, when suddenly they all rush at him, grabbing at his arms and tearing at his skin. Hearing one of them mutter something about him being Murdoc, he realizes his mistake.

“I'm not him you fools!” he roars, fighting back. However, they do not believe him, and come at him again. The impostor snarls and in a bright burst of hot blue flames, changes in front of them. They leap back out of the way, shading their eyes with their arms. There before them, now stands a huge major demon. Its eyes burning with rage, ten-feet high, with massive wings and huge clawed hands. The impostor roars at them, making them quake with fear and back away, bowing their heads respectfully and mumbling apologies at him. He grits his teeth at them and approaches, shoving them aside as he continues his search. The shaking demons watch his exit, looking at each other and muttering, wondering why he had taken the bassist's form in the first place.

It does not take long for Satan to hear about the goings on in his realm. The Dark Lord shakes his heavy head, and wonders who had handed out the invitations? He sits back and taps his long talons on the arms of his throne, after listening to a report about a raven and a blue-haired keyboardist, who were apparently wandering around the corridors of Hell. Thinking that it must be some kind of bad joke, and in a moment a jester would appear in the center of the room and shout surprise, he waits. Time seems to pass slowly for everyone standing in front of the unimpressed Lord, and the sounds of Hell echo loudly around the dimly lit room. Nothing had happened, so the Dark Lord concludes that this was not a joke, and someone really was randomly inviting people in, without asking his permission. However, when the name Murdoc strikes his pointed ears, his whole mood changes and he does not appear to be so concerned with the other two trespassers.

“He's here, bring him to me!” Satan demands, jabbing a pointed talon to the ground before him almost excitedly, but with a deep guttural growl. The demons that had brought him the report look at one another nervously and shrug.

“Well here as in Hell. Not here as in, well here.” One of them mumbles, swallowing hard as a bead of sweat makes its way down his cheek. Satan stares at the speaker for a moment, not sure whether to take him seriously or not. The tension builds in the room and the Lords personal guards shuffle their feet and clear their throats, breaking the deadly silence that fills the room at that moment. Realizing that was everything the demon had to say, and that he was not being funny and had no idea where the bassist was, Satan roars like a ferocious tiger and storms over to the speaker, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him from the floor.

“Well then I suggest that you go and find him, and bring him here.” He hisses into the medium sized demon's face. The others, still kneeling on the floor in front of the Dark Lord, shuffles back and out of range, just as Satan tosses the speaker from the room like a rag doll. They turn their heads and watch their hapless companion sail through the air a short distance, before hitting the floor with a thud, and sliding  along it and out the door, tumbling down a small flight of stairs with a yelp. They turn and look back at their angrily snorting Lord, thinking perhaps they had better do as their told and leave, before he did the same to them. They quickly bow their heads, and rapidly leave the room.

“And don't you dare forget about those other two, either!” Satan roars after them. They stop at the top of the stairs and slowly look back at him, then quickly race down the steps to retrieve their crumpled companion, before making their exit.

Now that it had become obvious that the demons now knew of their presence, as it was now harder for 2D to avoid contact, he and Cortez manage to make their way to a small room, and lock themselves in. The raven watches the young man pace up and down the room, muttering to himself as he thinks. He suddenly remembers something about spells and stops pacing, turning to the bird and furrowing his brow.

“Wot we need, is tah like be invisible or sumfink.” He states firmly, jabbing his finger at the raven. “Is there like a spell for that?” the raven looks hard at him; not appreciating the suggestion in 2D's voice, that this was entirely his fault. However, understanding the urgency of the situation, he bows his head and thinks carefully.

“No. Not that I remember.” He finally answers, looking back up at the young man's face. 2D slumps with disappointment, and rubs his arm nervously, looking towards the locked door. His nervous tensions builds steadily, and he looks back at Cortez, wishing he had not come down here, and it was all a horrible dream.

“Well'w how are we gunna do this, wif all that lot tryin' tah kill us? He snaps, pointing angrily at the door. Cortez slits his eyes and ruffles his feathers, even more irritated that the young man believed he could snap at him like this.

“Don't blame me for thees, caca head.” He snaps back. Suddenly he remembers seeing something in one of the books, and brightens up. “Wait! We no have to be eenvisable.” 2D raises an eyebrow; not quite believing the bird was taking the situation so lightly.

“Ah yeah, we do.” He grimaces, leaning his weight back on one hip, as he looks the bird up and down incredulously. Surely, Cortez could see what to him seemed perfectly obvious.

“I hope you breeng that dark book.” Cortez mutters, as he rummages through the backpack. 2D stares blankly ahead, mouthing the word book, but having no clue as to what the bird was talking about. The raven pulls out the book and  drops it onto the floor near the keyboardist's feet. The young man looks down and shrugs, sitting down in front of the book. He opens it and begins turning the pages, waiting for Cortez to tell him what he had been talking about.

“There, there!” the raven squeaks, flapping his wings and pecking the bottom of the page. 2D reads the spell slowly to himself, taking in the information as the bird slowly watches. When finished, the young man closes the book and smiles down at the raven, his confidence now lifted.

“Cortez, you're a genius.” He chuckles, ruffling the ravens head feathers. The bird puffs out his chest and coos proudly.

“I know.”