[center][h1][color=0054a6][b]B L U E    D E V I L[/b][/color][/h1][hr][/center]
	[sup][color=black]2:49 p.m. PST | July 13[/color][sup][color=black]th[/color][/sup] [color=black]| Los Angeles, California[/color][/sup]


Daniel stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel to dry and wrap around himself. He kept his eyes purposefully raised, focused on a single point of the wall ahead of him, until he was fully covered. He sighed at what had quickly become an annoying and uncomfortable routine. 

Every morning for the past week he'd wake up early, just after dawn, and eat a full breakfast. He would slip out of the house before his sister woke, and leave a note on the counter letting his family know he'd be out until the late afternoon. Then, Dan would take the nearly hour drive in silence back to the abandoned construction site he had first gone to where Astaroth would spend the next four to five hours instructing him on proper combat techniques, mental focusing exercises, and agility training.

For the first several days, Daniel had found himself pathetically struggling with the regimen. Despite having the hybrid form's incredible body and abilities, he had a difficult time translating Astaroth's purely verbal commands into physical action. He imagined it would be like trying to take a karate course strictly over the phone. And the mental exercises, meant to narrow his focus for tactical and strategic reasoning during combat, he found even more trying. But in the past couple days, there had been a noted improvement, and Daniel was respectably adapting to the physical and martial aspects of it all. While he was still far from an adept fighter, and he doubted he was going to have a magic Miyagi moment where the repetitive training methods suddenly bestowed upon him excellent kick-ass talent, Daniel couldn't help but take some pride in his efforts.

That was not the routine Dan took issue with. however. It was once the training was over, upon returning to his house, that he had quickly discovered several very awkward and unfortunate side effects to the merging of demon and teenager. It had been the second day after the incident that brought them together, when the young man had felt nature's call. The previous few times since Astaroth became his accidental guest, Dan hadn't even considered the implications. But, on that morning, halfway through the deed, a sudden thought had struck him. 

"Uh, Astaroth..." He had hesitantly asked after washing up.

"[b]Yes, Daniel Cassidy?[/b]"

"Do, uh. How do I put this. Do... can you see what I see?"

"[b]Your senses are shared with me now.[/b]"

"Right," Dan had continued, unsure if the next question were better left alone. "But, do you [i]always[/i] see everything? Like, can you close your eyes or something?"

There had been a very notable pause, then, "[b]no. I see, hear, and feel what you do.[/b]"

Daniel had visibly cringed at that. "So, that means you just—"

"[b]Yes.[/b]" The way Astaroth had said this made it clear to his host that he had no desire to dwell on this topic further.

That had been seven days ago exactly, and every moment since then Daniel had been hyper-critically aware of every sight, touch, and smell he experienced. He knew he likely made it all the more awkward with his attempts to maintain privacy, such as now, clumsily pulling on his underwear with his eyes closed tightly. The stress of realizing his privacy was completely destroyed in ways no other person could ever hope to understand was incredibly frustrating. He just was thankful he didn't have a girlfriend to make things more awkward. 

But, even with the horror show that was his former privacy, Dan had to admit that things had been going very well the past week, and after today's intense training session, he felt it was time to push forward with his plan. It hadn't taken him too long to come up with a way he felt would allow him to try his hand at vigilantism with Astaroth's approval, but Dan knew he'd have to be patient and build up to it before broaching the subject with the demon. Now that he was finally nailing the regimen Astaroth had put him on, the young man figured this was as good of a time as any. 

A brief moment of doubt returned, though, as Daniel entered his room and prepared to give his pitch to Astaroth. The same doubt had come to him late at night as he lie in bed, waiting for slumber to overtake him, and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Were he to be honest with himself, Dan knew he was in over his head. And he knew the risk was heavy; Astaroth had stressed that multiple times practically every day. By putting himself out there, by repeatedly taking on the demonic form, by doing what he was about to do, he put not only his own life at risk but those around him. But if the forces of Hell truly wanted him, and what was inside of him, as badly as Astaroth claimed, and this so-called Triumvirate was even half as powerful as he had been told, then Daniel believed they would eventually find him regardless of how much he tried to hide from these new powers. And if that were the case, he had no doubt he'd die. Brutally. Painfully. Daniel accepted that part of his motives for using these abilities to join the budding hero culture were selfish and vain, but if he truly hoped to have any chance of survival when Hell came knocking at his door he would need to be ready and able to fight them off. 

Which is exactly the speech he intended to give Astaroth. Appeal to his warrior sensibilities, convince him this was the next logical step in the training. 

Dan crossed his fingers, and stood in front of the full-length mirror. "Hey, Astaroth. I've got a proposition for you."

The deep, gruff voice inside his head responded. "[b]What is it, Daniel Cassidy?[/b]"

"So," the teen began tentatively. "The training's been going pretty well. I definitely feel some improvement."

"[b]It has been mostly acceptable thus far.[/b]"

"Right, so, I think, maybe, if you think it's a good idea, that we ramp things up. I mean, nothing too extreme!" Dan winced at his delivery. This scenario and speach had gone significantly smoother in his head. "I just think there's only so much you can have me do with leftover construction material. I appreciate what you're doing, so I think, I don't know, maybe I need some practical, hands-on training. A better challenge than using concrete as a punching bag, you know?"

Daniel braced himself for the inevitable disagreement. He wasn't ready, or that would only bring more attention, or a multitude of other reasons he was sure the demon must have. 

"[b]Your assessment of the situation matches my own. You will never prove capable enough if only our current methods are utilized.[/b]" 

"I get that, but if I can just—" Daniel jumped right into his prepared rebuttal before he even registered Astaroth's words.

"Wait, I'm sorry, you're agreeing with me?"

"[b]Yes, Daniel Cassidy. For a human child, your ideas are not always disagreeable.[/b]" 

Daniel could have sworn he heard a hint of humor in that last statement, but he was too caught off guard to question it. He had spent more than a few hours over the past week preparing and going over bullet points to hit, planning multiple avenues of debate for the arguments he had expected from Astaroth, and gone over in his head an opening and closing speech. Dan had planned to treat this like a lawyer appealing to a jury, and he had barely gotten the first few sentences out before he had already 'won.' 

"Oh, uh, okay, then." He stammered, trying to regain his composure. "I'm, uh, glad you agree." 

"[b]What is your plan to further increase the challenge of your training, Daniel Cassidy?[/b]"

"Right, yes, my plan!" Dan's eyes flashed, and a goofy smirk stretched across his face. "First thing's first, we need to pick something really important up. Tell me, Astaroth, you ever been to a pawn shop?"



[center][b]* * *[/b][/center]	[sup][color=black]5:17 p.m. PST | July 13[/color][sup][color=black]th[/color][/sup] [color=black]| Los Angeles, California[/color][/sup]

"[b]I do not understand.[/b]" Astaroth's voice cut through the static emanating from the little black box that Daniel Cassidy fiddled with. 

The former general of Hell recognized what were various dials, buttons, and a small, telescoping antennae across the surface of the item, but he was unsure of its purpose. The teenager had briefed him on the basics of the plan during the ride to the pawn shop - a dirty, dingy building even by Earth standards crammed full of unwanted oddities and decades-old electronics. From Astaroth's understanding, several individuals in recent months had begun to exhibit abilities far above the norm for their species. From this arose those who used their newfound capabilities to fight humanity's concept of crime, which subsequently encouraged others to challenge these individuals for dominance. Daniel Cassidy's plan, then, Astaroth assumed was to step up as one of these Earth heroes so as to be confronted and challenged by other enhanced beings, thus providing him with appropriately powerful foes to truly test his limits on. Crude and simple for the most part, but it was effective enough for the demon to get behind. 

"This," Dan said lifting up the black, handheld object, "is a police scanner. It'll allow me to listen in to all the crime reported in and around the city. With any luck, we'll be able to get the scoop on anything exciting happening and get there before the cops. There's technically apps for this I could get, and I probably will, but this is just so much cooler."

Astaroth made a note to learn what an 'apps' was at a later date, then continued with his questions. "[b]This scanner, it will allow us to track and hunt these criminals down?[/b]"

"Well, the police dispatcher will give a location of where stuff happens. Could be general or pretty specific. But it doesn't pinpoint them and can't follow them if the bad guys run. At least, not unless the cops give chase."

"[b]I am not sure how useful this will be for our puposes, Daniel Cassidy, but I will trust your expertise on this matter.[/b]"

"Uh, thanks. I mean, I'm not really an expert, but I appreciate that."

A moment of silence followed, during which Daniel played around with the scanner more. 

"[b]How long must we wait for the device to take effect?[/b]" 

"You know, I, uh, don't really know. In the movies it always happens super fast, but..." Dan let the sentence hang, and Astaroth already began to doubt the credibility of this plan. 

"[b]We will wait, then.[/b]" 

"Okay." 

Several more long, awkward moments followed, punctuated only by the dead air of the radio.

"So, are you sure you can't, like, make your mind go [i]blank[/i] or something so I can have some privacy every now and then? Because that would—" 

Astaroth sharply cut the young Cassidy off. "[b]We will wait in [i]silence.[/i][/b]"

"Oh. Right. Yeah, sure, of course... Yeah, I'll... okay." The boy managed to stammer out. "Shutting up now."

Yes, the demon knew, this endeavor was definitely to be a challenge. If not for Daniel's abilities, then most certainly for Astaroth's patience.