The High Order

24. Aloha from Earth

24. Aloha from Earth

1. A bank in downtown Los Angeles was brought to life under the mid-morning sun to an explosion from the front doors, covering its gleaming white walls in soot and black dust. A group of people in black suits and masks emerged from the site, as people scrambled for cover against the backdrop of a fire burning inside the bank. Suddenly, something swooped down from the sky, another figure in a mask and suit. Several of the larger group formed a ring around those carrying sacks of money as the sound of police sirens grew stronger in the air. Purgatorians had an inane sense of finding others of their kind nearby, another power for a very powerful species. The bank robbers shot blasts of black energy at the solitary one, grabbing cover behind an old brown car. 

They took out a small phone and called in a direct line to the Soul Judge requesting backup as members of the Dusk clan were causing mayhem in the human world, as they regularly did. After five minutes of standing their ground, the one Dawn fighter was joined by the appearance of several others, including Dan. He had been visiting Purgatoria when the Soul Judge requested several members of the community to lead a mission to the human world in order to stop some mischievous Dusk. Dan stayed behind as two of the suited Dawn led the charge against the Dusk. Nearby police sirens and gunfire had little effect on the fighting Purgatorians beyond briefly knocking them to the ground. Gradually, the Dawn gained the upper hand and forced the Dusk to retreat back to their home realm without their loot in hand.

"where are you going?" one of the Dawn saw Dan head over to the bank entrance.

"there could be stragglers inside" Dan ran inside the bank to find smoke rushing out and people leaving through multiple exits. He returned outside to find the screeching police cars and cocking of multiple guns as the police told the masked Dan to get down on the ground. There were no stragglers to be found. The Dawn and Dusk had seemingly abandoned him to be arrested for a botched bank robbery while he was taken into custody in the back of a rolling police cruiser. Dan was not amused at the predicament, the second time he had ever been caught in the act, the other time it ended up with him dead. Who knew what would happen this time around?

2. Back in Hell, Satan had wandered across town to the northern district for Sibyl and back to the citadel laden with a very special red flower in a glass cylinder. Its destiny lay with the angel ambassador at the embassy. The story behind this red flower could be rooted in the sending of a white rose from Heaven to Hell, addressed at Satan's citadel. Satan was the recipient of this special white rose, the sender being Beatrice. No message accompanied the rose, only the name of the sender. He took whatever the rose implied as positive as he had never seen such a more beautiful flower in his life. In an equal act of generosity and providence, Satan sought to seek out a flower as beautiful as the white rose in a place of inhospitable manchineel trees and poisonous flower resin.

 He was eventually informed that there was a reclusive botanist who specialized in cultivating rare and exotic plants from all over Hell, residing at a laboratory in the northern district of Sibyl. Earlier that day, Satan had proceeded to the botanist, ho eagerly presented him with the rarest and most beautiful flower he had to bestow: the fire lily, now pricked for spikes to avoid injury and distilled of its toxic venom to render the flower as harmless as a regular rose. The price for the rare and priceless bloom was a collected haul of gunpowder, silver, and a casket of toxic waste retrieved from a local nuclear power plant. The transaction was short and sweet, but in the end, both sides got exactly what they wanted. 

After buying the flower, Satan would seek the angel ambassador to send the flower by express mail to Heaven in another glass cylinder similar to that used to send the white rose. Soon Beatrice did receive the fire lily and would keep it pride of place on the windowsill of her small farmhouse for the time being. There was a certain air of symbolism behind the flowers, possibly what was felt between the two, if there was love still evident, or even if it never went away. As for the white rose, it stood on a windowsill in Satan's private quarters overlooking the city, sunlight glinting off its delicate petals, as a reminder of a friend he had in high places.