Chapter Text
“Be so serious right now!” Impulse ducked behind the island counter, listening closely to the slow footsteps of the creature stalking through the house. In the garage, he could hear the squeal of hinges - most likely Skizz and Grian hiding. In between bursts of static, Gem was shouting a jumble of panicked words. This was supposed to be an easy contract , Impulse thought to himself, rocking on his toes. As it was currently, they had no evidence, Skizz had almost died twice , and this was the ghost’s fifth damn hunt.
“...standing…..door!” Impulse gritted his teeth, trying to make sense of the few bits of information he was getting from Gem through the radio. It was standing at the door? Trying to break through it? Listening? “....creepy!”
Impulse counted to ten in his head, and then popped up from behind the counter. “Ghostie,” he called, fumbling for the smudge and his lighter. “C’mere ghostie!
The ghost’s footsteps started up again, thumping through the hall in tandem with the gurgling moan. It rounded the corner and sped up so quickly that it crossed the room in almost a second flat. Impulse let out a choked off screech, fumbling with the lighter. The ghost’s fingers were just wrapping around his throat, a shock of cold amidst the warmth of the house, when it disappeared like a cloud of smoke. Impulse collapsed against the counter, gagging.
“Impulse?” That was Skizz, voice pitched up in worry. “You there, buddy? I heard it speed up pretty fast.”
“I’m good,” Impulse rasped, smiling shakily at Skizz. “I know what it is though. There’s only one ghost that speeds up like that. Let’s get out of here.”
Standing in the warehouse on his own was creepy, and Impulse usually tried to avoid it. But he’d sent Skizz, Gem, and Grian home, promising that he’d finish up paperwork, so of course he was alone now. He was in the office, staring at the paperwork with blurry eyes, when there was a clatter from the common area. Adrenaline shot through Impulse’s veins like ice, making him straighten in his chair. He stared at the door, expecting someone to appear in the window of the door.
For a long moment, nothing happened. The adrenaline slowly leaked out of Impulse. With a quiet sigh, he rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Get it together, Impulse. You’re not usually this jumpy.”
Ah, but how true is that?
The shriek that came out of Impulse’s throat was embarrassing, and he was kind of glad his friends weren’t here to hear it. There was a dark chuckle, the same low timbre as the voice. Impulse looked around frantically, but there was no one in the room with him. “Hello?”
The fear is so delicious. Truly the best I’ve had in a few million years.
“I’ve officially gone insane!” Impulse laughed nervously to himself, standing slowly from the desk chair. He does a thorough look around the office and finds nothing. So, he goes out into the common area. There’s nothing there, either, except for a clipboard that had fallen off the wall. “Four years of doing this job and it’s finally gotten to me.
Not quite, unfortunately. But soon, hopefully. Those who go insane always feed me the best.
Impulse was walking back to the office when he caught a look at himself in one of the windows. He froze in his tracks.
His eyes were pitch black. There were fangs poking out of his lips.
“Hello there.”
“Impulse, homie buddy!” Skizz called cheerfully, tossing his keys on the table and poking his head into the office. “How did paperwork do…last night..” Skizz trailed off, staring in confusion at the empty desk. Usually that was where he’d find Impulse in the morning, finishing paperwork or looking through contracts. Today, it was empty. Skizz leaned back, racking his eyes over the common area. It was empty. “Impulse?”
“Skizz?”
Impulse’s voice is quiet, and it cracks halfway his name. Something is very wrong. “Where are you, Impulse?”
“Skizz, something’s wrong.”
“I know, buddy, but I can’t help if I can’t see you.”
There was a quiet whine and then Impulse appeared from around the corner. Skizz pressed his mouth in a thin line, staring at the new features on his best friend. There are some tiny horns protruding from his forehead, turning from Impulse’s skin color to black at the tip and fangs were poking from his lips. Most jarringly, Impulse’s normal, brown, human eyes had gone pitch black. There were tiny little pinpricks of yellow in the middle. “Hmm. You’re not Impulse.”
Impulse flinched, but the voice that came from his mouth wasn’t his. “ No, not entirely. He’s still got control of his body, if that makes you feel better, cherub.” In fact, the voice was actually very familiar to Skizz. He couldn’t help but sigh in annoyance.
“Skizz?” Impulse’s voice was hesitant. One of the eyes flickered back to the normal brown as Skizz’s friend spoke.
“How did you get here, Tirkoz?”
“A lot of work.” The demon in his friend’s body grinned with his best friend’s mouth and fury swamped Skizz so completely that it was a miracle he didn’t try to exercise Tirkoz right there in their common area. But that would be a bad idea, because Tirkoz would just possess the next unfortunate soul in the room. Which - Skizz sighed deeply - would be Gem. “Oh, hello!”
“What the fuck,” Gem said - quiet eloquently in Skizz’s opinion. He held out a hand, though, to keep her from coming any closer to Impulse and his new roommate. “What happened to Impulse.”
“Skizz, I’m starting to freak out a little,” Impulse whispered, eyes flickering between Skizz and Gem. “What’s going on?”
“You’ve got a demon in ya, buddy. My guess is it’s the ghost we were hunting last night. Mimicking a rev, huh?” The noise that Impulse made was one Skizz never wanted to hear again. Gem gaped from where she was by the door. “I can’t really get rid of him right now, because he’d just go after Gem, and I know neither one of us want that, right Impy?”
“I don’t know, I think I could beat a demon,” Gem said. She didn’t sound scared at all, and Skizz was kind of impressed. This wasn’t her first demon, but it was her first possession and she was handling it fairly well. “Especially one that can’t even take full control of a body.” Gem scoffed and the demon in Impulse’s body growled.
“Imprudent human! I could flame your friend from the inside out!”
“Uhuh, keep talking buddy.”
Skizz jumped in before the demon really did try to flame Impulse’s fragile mortal body. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said, shooting Gem a stern look. “Tirkoz, you can inhabit Impulse a little longer, but the second I can I’m kicking you out. Impulse,” Skizz made an aborted move to put a comforting hand on Impulse, before remembering that would be a very bad idea. “We can’t touch while Tirkoz is with you, okay? I would accidentally kill you, and I don’t want that.”
“What?” Impulse’s voice cracked, and the desperate look in his single human eye broke Skizz’s heart.
With a deep sigh, Skizz finally shared the secret he’d kept close to his chest for a while. “I’m a Cherub, buddy, a guardian angel. My touch alone would kill Tirkoz, and burn your body with him.”
A screech announced the arrival of Grian and Skizz sighed. This was going to be a lot to explain.