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(PLEASE READ THE OVERVIEW FIRST)  Language warning.

Hellraisers Book 1:1 -- Hellraisers United
Chapter 1 Naroth's First Strike

Maieson walked out on the deck of the house around 3:00 A.M., his
pulse still pounding from the nightmare of Nagumo and his demons.
In the aftermath, the dream's message was clear.  They were coming
and soon Maieson would have to face them.  Sometimes he resented
the soul he held that had changed his life upside down and inside out.

He remembered when it first came, eight years past:
first he heard voices
he felt pain
then comfort and a voice
He didn't know why he had the honor of being tortured with
immortality and the responsibility for saving the world; but he knew
he felt stronger every day and had a friend in the form of the soul.

<Nightmares about Nagumo, Maieson?>

"Yeah, I know he's coming, but I can't stop him myself." Maieson said,
aloud.

<You are not alone.  You have friends, and you have Switchblade.>

Switchblade was the name of the second soul inside Maieson's body.
For all the trouble bearing it had cost him, it had also helped him
through his
darker moments, including the break up with Rain, his
high school sweetheart.  The soul had been his mentor and friend for
the past eight years, and they had grown accustomed to each other.

"Maieson?" asked a sweet female voice.  As Maieson turned he saw
Megumi, Amano's Sister.

"I didn't know anyone else was up," Maieson said.

"I couldn't sleep either." Megumi said, softly, as she joined him at
the railing. As they stood there, they heard the faint roar of a lion at
the
zoo, two blocks away.

"Nightmares?"  The street was quiet again, except for the chirping of
crickets.

"Yes, about Nagumo and the demons."

"Same here."

"I'm not at all sure we can beat them."

"We'll find out soon enough."  Maieson fell silent as they listened to
the
crickets.  Switchblade stirred within him, sensing something, and then
the
silence was shattered by an explosion, leveling  a zoo building.

"It's Nagumo, isn't it?"

"Get the others, Megumi, it's time to go to work"

"Gotcha" Megumi said just before another explosion occurred even
closer to the house

"And hurry!"  Maieson snapped as he ran to his room to hastily pull
on his "working clothes", a black jumpsuit,  swordbelt, red cape and
mask.  The others quickly joined him and they proceeded in force to
the site of the latest explosion.

Switchblade took over as they saw Naroth, Nagumo's black-cloaked
flunky, backed by ten demons.  "Naroth, you son of a bitch, you're
gonna pay!" Switchblade snarled as he drew his swords, irritated by
Nagumo's  lack of respect in sending his errand boy to take them on.
Leaving the lesser demons to be handled by the others, he charged
straight at Naroth, hitting the man at full speed to send him slamming
into a concrete wall.  As Naroth rose, he assumed his Demon Master
form, and a blade of  flame formed in his left hand.  He stalked
silently
toward Switchblade, a fire blast shooting out toward his opponent.
Switchblade dodged, letting the blast immolate the demon attacking
Mido.

"Pathetic.  If your attitude is as bad as your aim you're as good as
dead," Switchblade mocked as he prepared a blast of his own and as
Naroth evaded, tossed a sword spinning outward to slash Naroth in the
side.  As Naroth's blood sprayed, the sword returned to Switchblade's
hand and he charged recklessly forward for the kill.  Naroth leapt back
desperately, just enough to keep his chest wound from being lethal.
A barrier of  fire erupted between them, and as Naroth noted the
casualties on his side he snarled, "Foolish immortal, we'll meet
again under other circumstances.  Count on it, you have not heard the
last of Nagumo's empire," and disappeared in a cloud of fire.

 In Osaka Nagumo was seated on his throne in Edo Castle when
Naroth reappeared in front of him, bleeding from his wounds.

"Naroth reporting Lord Nagumo."

"And what do you have to report?"

"We failed to kill the Hellraisers but we did..."

Instantly Nagumo was on his feet, slapping Naroth to silence.
Naroth cringed as he felt his cheek.  It felt more like a baseball
bat had hit him in the face.

"You lost all ten demons without killing a single Hellraiser?"

"Yes, Lord Nagumo"

"I see.  Commander Naroth, I'm _very_ disappointed in you.  The
point of this exercise was to test and demoralise our enemies,
not to give them a light workout.  Ten demons should have been
more than adequate to take out at least one of them, if adequately led.
Quite a few of your recent assignments have been bungled..."
Nagumo kept Naroth in suspense for a moment, then continued,
"But I won't kill you this time.  I'll give you one more chance to
show me what you can do."

>From the corner of his eye he saw Faust Munihausen, Nagumo's
advisor and the General of the demon forces, looking on coldly.
Faust was tireless in his hatred of Amano, who had
shredded half of his body, Himi for being the True Cho-Jin, and
Switchblade, of course, for forming and leading the Hellraisers.  He
was full of  half-baked schemes to destroy them, schemes that Naroth
had to execute, only to get punched, kicked and even stabbed by Nagumo
when Munihausen's ideas failed.  Munihausen took all the credit for
successes, Naroth took all the blame for defeats.   Sometimes Naroth
wondered why he had been chosen. <Just lucky, I guess> he thought.

Later in the house Switchblade was still angry.  Only luck, and
Naroth's poor leadership had kept the Hellraisers from disaster.
They'd won, but not without injury.  Mido had taken some of the
backlash from Naroth's fireblast, plus cuts and bruises.  Amano
had taken a pounding from two demons.  Megumi had a
gash, the length of a pencil, in her midsection and was being
attended by Himi, who had already healed herself.  Buju was only
somewhat bruised, but none of his people had entirely escaped
harm.  Switchblade took off the mask and smashed the table they
were sitting by in half.

"Maieson calm yourself," Mido said, as Maieson walked away from
the table.

"Nagumo had us where he wanted us!  The only reason we won is
because he didn't respect us enough to send someone better than
Naroth!"  Maieson said as he threw a chair at one of the walls.

"Damn it, Maieson, don't be such a pissass.  All we need now is
you in a bad mood" Buju said clutching his ribs

"He's playing with us!" Maieson snarled as he punched through the
closest wall.

Amano walked painfully over to Maieson and slapped Maieson in the
face.  "Don't you go loco on us, now.  It was you who brought us
together and made us the team we are.  Right now, this stuff will
happen the way it always does when a new group gets together.
You have to get past it."

"I know but Nagumo...."

"FUCK NAGUMO!  Nagumo will kill our asses if you let him get to
you this way!  And I'll kill you before you let that happen!"

The last time Maieson saw Amano this angry was the bar fight in
Kyoto where Amano completely leveled the place.  Since, he'd
avoided pushing him, but right now he was going to break that
rule as he grabbed Amano by the collar and gave him a look like
a lion hunting for dinner.  "Listen Amano I'm in a bad mood
because Nagumo came damn close to killing all of us today  and
it's tearing me apart!  So don't threaten me, because you
just might have to back it up!" Maieson then released Amano
and went into the garage.  Maybe a spin on his bike would help
him relax...

To Be continued........ in part 2