Chapter Text
Everything was such a mess. To put it simply, the hotel room looked like it had been stuck by a tornado. Maybe one welding sharks. There were clothes strewn across the floor, which actually was a completely normal mess considering the circumstances, but then it all must went downhill from there. Deep claw marks gouged at the walls, blood dripping down like they were open wounds. The loveseat was smashed to pieces, the stuffing strewn across the room soaking on the bloody ground. And at its center was the source of all the mayhem. A sort of meaty mass lay on the bed. Whoever or whatever this person once was, they were completely indistingishable. The body, if it could still be called that anymore, still clung desperately to the warmth it once held in life.
There was another person in the room, sitting in the corner, away from the bed. He had his head between his knees, shaking in such a manner that one might have thought he was crying. The man's clothes had been discarded a while ago, yet he still wore his signature black top hat. It was easy to tell with a mere glance that he was not human. His skin was the same dark gray as charcoal, and if his face were visible the first thing you'd notice would have been his green, toothy maw. All of his digits were clawed and caked in crusting blood.
The man, no, the demon, sighed before standing up, having apparently recovered from whatever events had happened in the room. He walked over to one of the piles of clothes. They were covered in blood too, just as everything else in the room seemed to be, but with a snap of how fingers they were on his body, crisp and clean like as if they hadn't been witness to some gruesome murder. The demon could have given the same treatment too the rest of the room, but he was tired. It had been a long day and his attempt at destressing had clearly failed. So instead he walked towards the darkest shadows of the room, continuing until he was somewhere wise entirely. Now he was back at the manor, his home.
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It had been a couple of weeks since that brutal murder at the hotel. None of the news reporters could figure out why he was killed, but Black Hat knew. After all, he had been the one who committed this particular atrocity. He did it for one simple, yet obscure fact: demons became aware of their pregnancy the very moment that they become so. And unfortunately for Black Hat, this was the case. And being a demon, he had to follow a certain code of ethics, the most important of which being that he cannot harm any sort of demonic children.
Right now, Black Hat was exactly where one might expect to find someone a couple weeks into their pregnancy: in the bathroom with his face hovering just inches above his porcelain throne. When Black Hat finally figured that he was done with his dry retching, he got up slowly, using the wall as support. Black Hat had been pregnant before, but unfortunately for him his symptoms were not exactly same as before. Much worse actually. With his last pregnancy, all he got was the occasional nausea, and then by the end of it some mild bloating. This time around, he felt weak, we was sick everyday, his stomach was in sheer agony, and when he stood up too quickly his head felt funny. Lightheaded was the word that came to mind.
As much as he hated the thought of it, he needed help. Dr. Flug was likely the only one the demon knew who could both help him and was least likely to stab him in the back. Least likely being that there was still a possibility. He was able to bluff his way through his last pregnancy, but if Flug knew found out this time, especially so early on, there was no telling what the mad doctor would do to him. But then there was the very real possibility that if he didn't get help, Black Hat would die. Whether it be from his own body turning on itself like it is now, or other villains would kill him without hesitation on his moment of weakness. Weighing his options, telling Dr. Flug about his predicament really was the lesser of two evils.
Black Hat sighed before shadow-stepping into Flug's lab, but as soon as he did, that funny feeling in his head turned to vertigo. His body crumpled beneath him against his will, and despite his efforts he couldn't figure out how to move it. Black Hat thought he heard Dr. Flug say something, but couldn't quite make it out over the cacophonous ringing in his ears. The last thing Black Hat noticed was the darkness that had been creeping in from the edges of his vision. Then,
Nothing.
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When Black Hat came to, it was to someone shaking him. What were they doing? Couldn't he see that Black Hat was trying to sleep? He was going to kill as soon as... oh. This wasn't his room and he wasn't in his bed. He was laying on the floor of the lab. He sat up. Bad idea. As soon as he had done this, the room started spinning again, which just made him feel sick.
"Whoa there, take it easy, ok? Wouldn't want you fainting again." He... fainted? That can't be right, he was Black Hat! "How are you feeling?" Under ordinary circumstances, Black Hat would have felt disgusted by this sentiment, but right now... he thinks he needs it right now, so he was disgusted by that instead.
"To be perfectly honest for once in my horrible existence, not good. I feel dizzy and bit sick to my stomach, which feels like it's been wrung out and left in the road to be run over a couple of times, and then eaten by a rabid racoon. I've been experiencing these symptoms for a week now." His stomach made a weird sound at him, which actually brought him more pain. "Yeah, there's also that, but I think it's because of the stupid half-human hybrid abominations growing in there."
"Wait, you're pregnant again? Um, well in any case, I think I know what's going on. Just stay there, would you jefe? I'm going to go get something for you." With that, Dr. Flug scrambled out the room. Black Hat sat up again, thankfully without the accompanying dizziness. When Flug came back, it was with what he recognized be last night's leftovers.
"Flug, that is a burger. Why would I need this?"
"Well jefecito, I think you might just be hungry. I thought about it while heating this up, and, well, you said that the baby was half human? Maybe it's the babies that need food, but since they receive nutrients from you, they're forcing your body to respond to their needs. This is just a hypothesis of course!"
"That sounds plausible, I suppose. Alright then, hand it over." Black Hat begrudgingly took the plate from Dr. Flug. The burger on it looked repulsive, the bread was soggy and just barely keeping it together, the lettuce was all floppy, the meat was gray. He could go on, but he did want to get things done today. So he sucked it up and took a bite of this 'burger' and... it was the best thing he's ever tasted. Usually, Black Hat had to be very bored before he would resort to eating food. He had no use for it and it just tasted weird to him. But now he couldn't get enough of it.
Black Hat started off slowly, but before he even knew it, Black Hat had obliterated the burger. More importantly, his stomach was no longer in pain. Not that he'd ever let Dr. Flug know, but Black Hat felt grateful towards his scientist. Flug could have killed him at any point during Black Hat's little episode, but instead he actually helped him. Maybe he could trust him.
"Best be going now. Business to conduct, evil to preform, you know, the works." He stood up and for the first time all week there was no 'lightheadedness', no vertigo. He even felt a little less weak than he did earlier. "Gracias." Ok, maybe he could show a little bit of gratitude.