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“IS EVERYONE READY TO GO?”
Nine, Koa, Finn, and I were all gathered in Uncle Newt’s room with our backpacks filled with whatever it was that we thought we needed. We all had the tracking bands on our ankles (King Victor’s invention - meant to be used so if anything happened to us, King Victor would know where to look for us) and we were all as ready as we would ever be for this. The only thing that was left now was to actually leave.
“Where are we going first, Uncle Newt?” I questioned.
Prince Lucifer told us to patrol all of the angel territories (meaning cities and towns that were mostly dominated by angels and other species that supported Gavin and therefore were controlled by them) since we had no idea which Corps of White Nightmares location King Victor was now at, but there were so many angel territories. I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to check them thoroughly and be back in two weeks.
“I didn’t want to do this, but it may be best if we split up for this mission,” Uncle Newt decided, then handed each of us a map.
“So... Athena, you’re going to be going to Europe with Finn. Koa, you’re going with Nine to Asia. I will stay here in North America. Once we’re done with our individual territories, we’ll-”
“Shouldn’t we check Los Angeles first, though?” Nine asked, “I mean, it would at least be a good way for us to warm up before we all split up.”
Uncle Newt thought for a moment, “Well, I was going to say that we would finish with Los Angeles, but I suppose that wouldn’t be a terrible idea.”
“Then let’s get going to Los Angeles,” Finn said impatiently, “Before someone - meaning the princess or Roscoe - overhear us and get suspicious.”
There were obvious reasons why Eddie couldn’t know where we were going, but Roscoe didn’t make too much sense to me. I supposed it was just because Roscoe was so close to Eddie and it was going to be too hard for him to lie to her.
Newt nodded and reached out to us. “Come here, then,” he ordered, “You all know that it’s best that we teleport together. This isn’t our first rodeo... though I have a feeling it may be our last.”
❀
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA was easily one of my least favorite places.
Although it was only one of the dozens of angel territories in the world, Los Angeles was directly under the White City and therefore was the most disgustingly obvious about the fact that it was an angel territory. It only got worse after the humans went extinct, though, because Los Angeles completely morphed from the way that humans made it to the way that the angels always wanted it: a God worshipping, statue erecting, mural painting garbage heap of a city.
Sure, the demons claimed Las Vegas as one of our territories, but we didn’t make it as obvious as the angels did. We didn’t have a single statue of Victor or his father, Satan - not even in Hell - and the angels had them everywhere. It was just a wee bit excessive.
Still, I did my best to focus on the prize and followed Uncle Newt and the boys through the streets of Los Angeles, doing my best to keep any eye out for anything unusual while we also searched for the Corps of White Nightmares headquarters - well, the Middleworld headquarters. The CWN’s real headquarters in the White City was far easier to spot, but that was because they didn’t feel the need to hide it as much as they did in the Middleworld.
Somehow, the horrors that took place at the Middleworld locations were worse than the ones that took place Upstairs. Part of me hoped that we didn’t find King Victor at any of the places in the Middleworld even though it was going to be nearly impossible for us to get to the one in Heaven without getting help from the brothers, and probably some help from Eddie, too.
My only question was were we looking in the wrong places all along? Were we wasting our time being here and not trying to get into the White City already? I looked up as Nine’s sights locked onto something in the distance.
It was an angel running down a dark alley before entering what looked like a door originally hidden by a stack of wooden crates and other virtually useless objects. The five of us exchanged glances, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we dared to go in there. I started to ask the question aloud when Newt grabbed us and pulled us into an empty warehouse, narrowly avoiding the sights of three men - three more angels. These angels, though, were ones that I knew very well.
Two of them were Gabriel and Michael and the third looked far too much like my best friend for it to be just a coincidence.