Piedmon had gathered a nice collection, paid to take some, paid by some he took. He thought back on how he'd arrived here all those years ago, and mused  he'd had a hell of a lot of fun since being thrown through MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny...

Oh, vengeance and getting back to the Digital World had been on his mind in the first few days but he'd found himself liking it more and more. He learned the way of the place, had himself fun gathering up and selling off keychains, and occasionally worked as an assassin, the side gig that had eventually put him on Verosika's radar, and then, Stella's when they teamed up.

The magazine in Stella's car, though, had piqued interest... and then posed him a problem. The demon girl who he wished to collect... Was Charlie Morningstar, the daughter of Lucifer and a Princess of Hell. They said fools rush in where Angels feared to tread - and Angels showed up every year around here so he had learned patience. He wasn't going to take on Lucifer himself... not yet.

But there was a possible route to his new goal. The Overlords, and those seeking to be called such. The hotel was located close to the territories of many, and Turf Wars were frequent. He'd even posed as a simple swordsman for hire in a few...

He read over the article again, and decided to do some planning... First, the limo needed to be disposed of. The IMP offices might also be a good place to ransack. And maybe he needed to find someone else to work with. Maybe he could get the Turf Wars to work for him...

As he exited the vehicle, he noted the grins of three Imps, carrying... spoons?

"Hey, rich clown boy. This your ride?" One grinned.

Piedmon studied them. Rather pedestrian little things. One female in black fishnets, leather shorts, and a strip of cloth over her chest. One male, in just ragged brown pants. And a second female, in a torn-up dark blue dress. Pure background characters at best.

But he could use a few more goods for sale. He drew his handkerchief, and a moment later after cries of shock, three cheap new ball-fisted toys were ready for sale when he next opened shop.

***

A few days later... A lair in Pentagram City...

A serpent-like demon sat bored staring at a muted television playing the news until one of his egg shaped minions neared.

"Mr. Bossman, that assassin guy is here!"

Sir Pentious perked up as the clown-like demon was led in.

"Ah, welcome, Piedmon! Sssso glad you're interested in hearing my offer. Now, as you know, I am having some troubles with a rapssscallion called Cherri Bomb. My plans for conquest are frequently blocked by her, and her ally, Angel Dust...."

"Yes, the spider whore. And from what I can tell, it's his ties to your enemy, that may help me with my plans. You see, I'm something of a... collector. And it may be that getting him out of the way will assist with some acquisitions I have my eye on. And I think I know a way to draw your foes out."

"Hmm... I'm listening..."

Piedmon gestured to the muted television, where the news was still running.  The Digimon gave a wicked grin.

"I've generally worked in shadows in my time in hell, but I feel that for what we both want here... perhaps some hiding in plain sight will get the attention of all the right demons."

Sir Pentious smirked just as widely as the clown-'demon' before him.

***

At the Happy Hotel, Charlie had just  replaced the sign again.

"New day, new chance for everything to go right for once. Today, it was fixing the sign. And then maybe tomorrow, who knows!" She cheerfully said in a sing song voice

"You know Alastor's just gonna switch it back in like five minutes, right?" Vaggie noted after she returned from her task.

"Even if it's just five minutes a week the hotel has the right name, it's five minutes!"

The Happy (soon to be re-renamed Hazbin in a few minutes) Hotel had been going for a couple of months. Things had... sure happened, but Charlie was still going! No matter how many times her efforts to start one thing in the day right got dismissed as  'pointless endeavour that would blow up in short order' by someone. Even if it had frequently been literal, like the previous week when Crymini's interest in a chemistry set in the morning led to Angel Dust's new meth lab exploding six hours later.

"Anyway, Vaggie... How's our guest count today?"

"Angel Dust, Crymini, and I guess technically Fat Nuggets. And all except the pig aren't here," the moth-like sinner said.

"Well, uh... Unless they get into some massive trouble that's totally newsworthy we can pretend they're out doing good things and not just blowing up a room again! Oh, is Niffty done cleaning that up, by the way?"

Vaggie shuddered at her girlfriend tempting fate.

"Yeah, she, uh... she's finished. But I think now you've said that we need the TV on."

She set it to the news. Charlie growled a little seeing Katie Killjoy's smug face, but suppressed it. The blonde anchor stood in a recording studio, with a half a dozen despondent looking imps and succubi lounging around behind her.

"I'm Katie Killjoy, and if you just switched on the TV for plot convenience: We're live from the Imp City penthouse studios of Verosika Mayday, popstar and walking bag of STDs, who remains mysteriously missing. No rehab centres or frequent body dumping grounds have shown any sign of her, and her posse is starting to run out of drugs."

"It's just the missing pop star, see! Though really I thought they would have covered how Stolas and his family all vanished some more, that's really worrying..." Charlie said.

"Their forced cold turkey has let them be so inattentive they're just letting any asshole come in to steal things, like this young woman here!"

The camera focused on a short Dalmatian-like Sinner, who looked alarmed to be called out as she tried to haul out an electric guitar and sound system.

Charlie, however, screamed and began running.

"Razzle! Dazzle! Get the car! We're going to Imp City!"

Vaggie facepalmed.

"And Satan knows what Angel's getting up to..." She sighed, and followed

Charlie didn't even notice the sign was changed back as she left.

***

Angel Dust was watching the news at Cherri Bomb's place with amusement.

"Hah, busted! Poor little pup's gonna have Charlie racing right to her if the TV's on at the hotel..."

But as the cameras kept rolling, there was commotion. Even the too-sober members of Verosika's posse responded, as Egg Bois stormed in.

"Well, now, it seems Pentagram City criminal and all round loser Sir Pentious has sicced his minions on Verosika's studio! Could he be involved or is he just after attention like most people who attack us when we film live? We'll find out soon!"

"Huh. That edgelord's not usually one for attacking media," Cherri said.

"Even his old ass moves with the times, sugartits. Wanna go wreck his shit?"

The spunky powerhouse pondered this.

"...Nah."

But on screen, things were going... strange. The Egg Bois were present, but Sir Pentious was not, even as Katie and her camera crew covered events. The minions were being mostly defeated, though, even sobering-up demons able to wipe the floor with them. And then white cloth flew over the news anchor, and she screamed. The camera dropped a second later with another yell, landing to show more cloths flying out at the startled members of Verosika's posse, and hapless bystander Crymini, still trying to steal the guitar.

"The hell happened there?" Angel said.

And then a hand picked up the camera, focusing on a white-painted face.

"Good morning, Hell. I am Piedmon, and I have a special message for one Cherri Bomb, from my associate, Sir Pentious. He offers you a choice - you come here, or he comes there. Either way... we'll be ready," the clown laughed and then destroyed the camera, forcing a cut back to studio.

"Oh son of a bitch he's hired a merc! And called me out on TV! Also I think he killed your roommate or some shit," Cherri fumed.

"Eh, she was a casual acquaintance at best, never really got much of a characterisation from her. Looked interesting  but that's all I really got from her. Buuuut I guess you wanna head out?"

Cherri grinned, and pulled a rocket launcher from nowhere.

"You bet your ass, Angie!"

***

Piedmon picked up his new creations. Seven imps and succubi dangled from one hand, a news crew and one less than subtle thief still holding the stolen guitar from the other. Each had a frown face, ball-hands, and was nothing but a small lump of plastic resembling the demons they had been moments ago.

"Impressive sssstuff. Magic users are certainly handy in a fight..." Sir Pentious praised his ally.

"Quite. So, how long until your little problem arrives?"

"Well, she stole one of my hyper-bombastic rockets a week ago,and if she uses that to strap to her car like she claimed..."

A sudden crash came, as a car with a rocket strapped to the roof slammed into a building across the street. Cherri Bomb and Angel Dust leapt from the smoke.

"...Now. Also she stole someone elssse's car, smart move," Sir Pentious gave begrudging praise.

The two waited.

"...I guess we shouldn't have cut the elevator cables, they have to take the stairs, don't they?" Piedmon realised.

Eventually, the two stormed into the Egg-boi splattered studio penthouse, short of breath.

"Pentious.... You prick...." Cherri gasped.

"Who wrecks the elevators?! Who?" Angel wheezed.

"That would be me," Piedmon bowed.

"The clown boy throwing bedsheets at people. So, uh, you kill them? Cos, if you did, well... the dog-looking sinner demon's kinda a friend of a not-quite-friend who gives me a free place to stay so... I guess I got more reason to kick your ass or something," Angel rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you mean this little one?" He waved his hand, and produced the keychain of Crymini.

"...Uh, yeah. Wait, she's a doll!?"

"A keychain, if you want to be precise... Anthony."

If Angel Dust wasn't already mostly white coloured, he would have turned pale.

"How do you..."

"Oh, I research my targets.... But are we here to talk, or fight?" Piedmon replied

"Fine by me!" Angel Dust pulled out his guns.

Cherri Bomb fired a rocket at Pentious, the two starting their own fight, as Angel and Piedmon began theirs.

A hail of fire was completely parried by flashing swords, and as the guns ran dry, Piedmon stood with blades in hand, smirking.

"Ah, Tommy Guns. Very... Gangster Chic. But such inelegant little lead belchers."

"Yeah, yeah, Pierrot, you studied the blade like all the other neckbeards that keep coming down here dead from diabetes or autoerotic asphyxiation..." Angel growled, reloading.

"Hey, Angie, a little trouble? Let's swap!" Cherri giggled as she landed beside the irate spider-demon.

"...Sure," He agreed, shooting at Pentious who returned fire with a raygun.

Cherri swapped to a four-barreled launcher, still grinning.

"Bye bye, clown!"

Four streaks of smoke flew in quick succession, and four explosions echoed... as the rockets were batted aside.

Cherri's smile faded and she fumed.

"Those explode on IMPACT! You used your sword to HIT them! They should have EXPLODED!"

Piedmon simply looked at her in confusion.

"Not if I hit the sides to deflect them. The fuse is on the nose. I can deflect much smaller bullets, if anything the rocket is easier. But keep at it, maybe Sir Pentious will lose before I get bored of it..."

"Aha! You're turning on him?" Cherri smiled again as she lobbed some bombs.

"What?! You ssssnake! How could you?!" Sir Pentious screeched hypocritically from the other fight.

"Oh, I'm not going to turn on him..." Piedmon sighed.

"Phew!" Said a snake.

"Aw..."  Said a cyclops and a spider.

"...I did it half an hour ago."

The fighting paused.

"Say what?" Sir Pentious asked, and then a cloth erupted from his pocket, quickly mummifying him as he screamed.

Piedmon waved his hand, and the small form of the snake demon appeared, frowning as all the rest did. His ball-hands had small spiked claws extending slightly, and he retained his serpentine shape, lacking the stick-legs humanoid keychains gained.

"Oh... kay..." Angel Dust said.

"Now, let's have a little chat again!" Piedmon clapped his hands, the keychain vanishing in the process.

"About what?" Cherri asked.

"Well, whatever you like, I'm just killing time until Angel's not-quite-friend arrives..."

The spider demon laughed.

"Oh man, you're really kinda crazy ain't you? You want to meet Charlie?! You did all this when you could have just knocked on the door!"

"Yes, I could have.... But this was all in motion anyway. This little one, a coincidence all around. Like fate simply inserted her into the story for the fanservice..." The Digimon said, waving Crymini again.

"And yet, if your Charlie had seen just her, she'd have been enough. Not that all this wasn't fun..."

He gestured to the wrecked studio, holes in the walls, smoking rubble, destroyed equipment, and smashed Eggs.

"But she's a nice addition to my collection either way. Besides, who else lurks in your hotel at times?"

"...You afraid of Smiles? Maybe you're not that crazy," Angel realised.

"He could be a problem, is all. I'd rather have a little more leverage if I do have to confront him. Maybe offer him some new entertainment. That's why he's there, yes?"

"He really does research shit," Cherri stage-whispered.

"Like how he somehow knows my real name," Angel nodded.

"Oh that was easy. I just asked her..."

He waved his hand, and tossed something at Angel Dust. The sinner almost dodged, but it wasn't a knife or one of his cloths. It was another keychain.

Four spindly legs. Four arms tipped with ball hands. Large blonde-pink hair.  And unlike most keychains, a smile on her face.

One in sharp contrast to horror on Angel's own as he stared down at the keychain of his twin sister.

"M-Molly?!"

"She's a rare smiler, one in thousands! Literally...." Piedmon grinned.

"How... how did you... You fuck!" Angel screamed, and pulled his weapons again. Cherri, also incensed, did the same, producing a new rocket launcher.

Piedmon sighed, and leapt past the pair, blades flashing. They turned to face where he had landed... as their weapons fell apart.

"Now, the fun is sadly over with you two. I hear a car nearing...." He said, drawing and throwing handkerchiefs.

Angel and Cherri dodged at first and drew spare weapons, but Piedmon decided to add throwing knives to the mix. One landed in Angel's thigh, making him yelp, and be caught by a cloth.

He cried out as lighting crackled, and the cloth shrank. Cherri was distracted by this, letting Piedmon catch her too, with another scream of pain.

He waved his hands, and one frowning Cherri Bomb figure appeared, long pink hair and single eye, the standard ball hands, and her little stick thin legs patterned with her ripped leggings. She held a rocket launcher over her shoulder, a tiny little four barreled lump.

The Angel Dust figure, like his sister, had a smile, but still held a couple of his guns, a revolver and a tommy gun.

And the door of the wrecked studio then slammed open, a panting Princess of Hell and equally exhausted Vaggie entering.

"...Who took out the elevators?" Charlie wheezed.

"As I said to Anthony, me. But greetings, ladies, do catch your breath..."

Vaggie recovered first.

"Wait, who the hell are you?" She asked, producing a spear in readiness.

"Oh, did you not catch the whole news broadcast? Maybe it's still going..."

Charlie had her phone out and loaded the 666 live feed.

"...pretty boring now, we're just circling waiting for literally anything.. Hell, wondering why cops haven't shown up yet, Imp City has some somewhere, probably..." a bored newscopter pilot said.

"Oh, that's what that helicopter was for!" She realised.

"Charlie, the top floor of the building we drove up to  was smoking and exploding! How did you not realise that's why it was here?" Vaggie asked in exasperation.

"Yes, and about that... I would rather as few witnesses as possible to our little meeting," Piedmon said, producing a small bag from nowhere, labelled Blitzo's Emergen-C Bag.

From it, he removed a gargantuan rocket launcher, and casually fired it through a hole in the wall.

"...Oh hey, more rockets firing... at us... At us?! Oh shi-..." Charlie's phone said, as the feed was cut off from the chopper.

"Oh, for a minute I kind of hoped you might have been a fun clown," Charlie herself frowned.

"I think he's a psycho clown, the only thing missing is blood everywhere... so far..." Vaggie said.

"Oh, I try to only spill blood if there's no choice, or I really don't like someone, or if chopping a leg off would be funny. I know, I know, how'd a saint like me get to hell..." Piedmon fake-sighed.

"Wait, so, you wanted to meet us?" Charlie remembered what Pidemon had said firing the rocket.

"Indeed. Why, I'm quite a fan. I read an article with a most interesting picture...."

"I was young! I was trying to fit in more at college!" Charlie interrupted.

Piedmon paused.

"...Not that one. It was a picture of you, more recent. And I am a collector..."

"So you want her autograph? You blew up a building and killed everyone up here for that?!" Vaggie said.

"Apart from the helicopter I didn't kill anyone. In fact, the gang's all here..."

He waved his hands, and an overturned table flipped and landed before him. Dropping cloths, he yanked them away, revealing over a dozen keychains.

Charlie stared in shock, as did Vaggie.

"Wait... That's Angel Dust, and Crymini... and I saw those Imps on a TV ad last week... Stolas and his family?!"

"What did you do?" Vaggie growled.

"Why... this!"

Charlie screamed as a cloth hit her, and Vaggie looked on, shocked. The cloth shrank, and with a wave, appeared in Piedmon's hand.

He then removed it, and standing there, smiling, was the Princess of Hell, in tiny plastic form. Red tux, blonde hair, and ball-hands.

Vaggie was horrified, only for two angry screeches to swoop in. Razzle and Dazzle rushed Piedmon, only to be snared in another handkerchief. The pair were soon revealed, one keychain, mirror images of the two plushie-like demon familiars side by side... as plastic with frowns.

"You... You're gonna die for that! If I don't get you..."

Piedmon rushed the sinner, throwing the spear away and grabbing her by the throat.

"The Radio Demon? I think I have given enough of a show to argue I've got new entertainment for him. Like this..."

A wave, and a book appeared in his hands, bound in blue. The Grimoire of Stolas.

"...I think he'll make more use of it than the owl's pet imps. Funny, this would have been so useful the first few days but I really like it here now, so... yeah. And if you meant Lucifer? We both know he thinks she's a failure. He'll get over it. Who knows, maybe he'll be glad to be rid of his little disappointment..." Piedmon said, dismissing the book, and bringing out a handkerchief.

"Now... How about you join her?"

Vaggie screamed, as she shrank... and moments later, the one-eyed sinner sat on the table, beside the doll of Charlie. She frowned like most others, and held the same proportions. Her eyepatch x was painted onto her plastic hair, rather than simply being seen through it, for she was just inert plastic rather than a semi-magical demon. She was not really a rare example of a keychain.

But for Piedmon, the fact was, she was a unique one. Special for association, with the smiling figure beside her.

"Well... Looks like I'm done for now. But there's a whole Hell full to collect... Haven't been to the other rings in a while," Piedmon grinned, as he walked out, gathering his collection with a wave, and leaving the wrecked studio behind.