Calli flames into the Hotel Lobby, having been in her aptly-named 'Burn Room' she made underneath the garage she keeps her and Charlie's bikes, and sits next to Lucifer on the couch after Vanishing all the ash and soot off her - she may not burn from her new Phoenix Fire, but she's come to the conclusion that she now needs to fireproof everything. Including her clothes, sheets, and furniture, because she accidentally set her outfit on fire this practice session - and she'd really rather not set her bed on fire because of a nightmare.
Lucifer glances over at her, asking "Going back down later, or…"
Calli shakes her head, saying "No…'m beat. Turns out Phoenix Fire is exhausting when used for an extended period of time."
"You said you were getting better at it, though!"
"Better, as in, less likely to accidentally set an entire dish on fire just by touching it. Nowhere near the level of control I'm working towards, though." Sighing as she leans her head against Lucifer's shoulder, Calli adds "Plus, there's the detail that Phoenix Fire, back in my old world, could do a lot of things…"
At Lucifer's curious look, she says "Phoenixes were extremely powerful, Luce. Their tears could heal anything up to death - hence why I have seven vials' worth of the stuff in my bloodstream. Their songs could inspire their allies and terrify their enemies at once. And their fire could…well, everyone that studied it used the words cleanse and purify interchangeably, but always in relation to Dark Magic. Cleansing a curse from something, or purifying a place riddled with it." After a moment, she adds "Seems I certainly got the fire bit…let's not test out the tears any time soon if we can help it, though."
Lucifer nods, saying "Yeah…let's not accidentally poison someone trying to heal them or need to heal them from a fatal injury if at-all possible."
"Heard from Charlie, Emily, or Lilith yet? They've been gone a while."
Lucifer shakes his head, saying "Still out on their Mother/Daughter/Aunt/Niece/Cousin bonding shopping spree down in…I think she said Gluttony." Charlie had the idea for the three of them to go shopping since Lilith's gotten strong enough to stay awake for most of the day and has filled out a little.
Just then, Lucifer's phone pings with a message - when they open it up, it's a picture of Emily, Charlie, and Lillith sitting at a table each with some kind of drink - Lilith's wearing a large hat like Rosie's got, Charlie's got some sunglasses on, and Emily's ears got pierced with some ruby studs with a matching necklace. And then a caption text comes in two seconds later, saying 'Having a blast, might need to call Aunt Bee for help with the bags tho.'
Calli snorts, murmuring "How much have they bought already? Tell 'em if they need help I'll come over and shrink it all before taking it back to the Hotel for them."
Lucifer grins, texting as much and telling them to have fun.
And then, unexpectedly, Gabriel texts them on the group chat they have. 'Sera's in another meeting about something with the Council, not sure what. Michael got called to this one though. Keep you posted, but be ready for her to do something stupid. My idiot sense is going off about all the meetings lately.'
Calli scowls, then types into her own phone 'Michael, when you read this, call me. Put me on speaker, but don't let anyone else know. I'll mute myself so they won't hear me.' "Something's going on. My scheming senses are going off about this."
Lucifer nods, eyes narrowing as Michael calls Calli a minute later - Gabriel's kept them up to date as much as he can on what Sera's doing, but he doesn't have much information to pass along - apparently, Sera's a lot of things but as monumentally stupid as Valentino isn't one of them. She has to know that, with Lucifer's innocence in Hell's creation and Eve's circumstances coming to light, the three Archangels only volunteered to be on the Delegation to get the chance to reconnect with Lucifer. Gabriel even tried to diffuse their last meeting, no badly-hidden mistrust and hostility underneath his attempt at separating Calli and Sera before Sera could end up a golden blood spatter all over the nearby ground.
So, yes, she has to have realized that the entire group is on much better terms…and that the three Archangels' loyalties are now Lucifer first and everything else a distant second.
That Michael won't automatically jump to Sera's defense if it's Calli that offends her, won't blindly follow her orders just because she says its what's best for Heaven, that Raphael and Gabriel won't hold her back a second time.
So…if she wants to regain control over Heaven…they won't do a thing to help her.
Hells, Michael will probably fight Calli solely for the right to fight and kill Sera, if it comes to it.
They don't hear anything of note until Michael's voice suddenly shouts "Following your orders, Sera, ripped my family apart! Following your orders saw Lucifer, my brother who only ever saw the best in everything, wrongfully accused and sadistically tortured for something that was never about him to begin with! No more! I'm THROUGH being your dog of war to terrorize them into compliance! You go down to Hell, you do so without Heaven's Greatest Warrior!"
Calli and Lucifer trade horrified looks, and then literally leap off the couch and into action. Calli starts swearing in Parseltongue as she activates the Wards in the building to alert everyone to come down, and Lucifer pulls up Lilith's contact to call them up. Then thinks better of it and calls Frederick. "Hey, Freddie? I need a sudden massive favor - could you call Lilith up and invite her, Charlie, and Emily over to catch up over lunch? Like…now? Yes, really, I'll owe you one. Trust me, everyone will get filled in during the emergency meeting we're gonna call once we get this mess sorted."
Everyone starts gathering in the lobby, thanks to Calli's Wards lighting up the entirety of the Hotel, and Alastor asks "What's going on?"
"Sera's pulling some shit, this is absolutely not a drill. We're evacuating the Hotel until we're sure it's safe for everyone to come back. Yes, we're serious, everyone! Grab everything you can carry or can't replace, I'll open a portal to…anyone have any ideas for somewhere to stay for a few hours?"
Alastor says "I can have a word with Rosie in Cannibal Town."
"Perfect."
Rosie raises an eyebrow, asking "Come again, Al?"
"Something's going down at the Hotel, and this time Calli and Lucifer just decided to up and evacuate the place to deal with it by themselves." Likely because it was so last-minute they couldn't guarantee everyone's safety otherwise. He never thought Calli's inclusion of an emergency alarm system in the Wards would ever be used, but seems he was wrong.
Rosie blinks, then asks "If they needed a small army of Cannibals to deal with the Exorcists…"
Alastor's very certain Calli didn't actually need the Cannibals - or the rest of the Hotel residents, for that matter - to hold off the Exorcists, truth be told…she just let them join in since she could keep them all alive. And perhaps to keep from showing Charlie just how incredibly ruthless she can actually be, there's that. Alastor just shrugs, saying "I don't think they had time to do all the prep-work this time. And, from their reactions…it's not small this time either."
Suddenly, a glowing portal opens up from Heaven's Gate in the sky, and a small army of figures start flying from it - Alastor isn't sure what they are, but even from Cannibal Town Alastor can tell they aren't Exorcists. Far too armored for that, for one.
"So," Rosie says, voice sounding numb, "that?"
"That." And now he gets why they evacuated the place - if it turns into a full-scale battle, there's no way the two of them can keep everyone safe.
Panicked whispers start up from the crowd, and surprisingly it's Angel Dust of all Sinners that gets everyone's attention. "Alright, people," he shouts, clapping his hands together loudly to get everyone's attention, "we've done this drill before! Just like Extermination Day, we all know what to do! Find somewhere to hide, put your grudges with whoever you end up with aside until it's safe! Everybody here's survived Extermination Day at least once before, so hop to it! Annual Hide-and-Seek with deadlier stakes, so find somewhere to hide!"
Rosie and Alastor watch in amazement as the entire group not only calms down but goes to hide, and Rosie says "Well, he's…certainly something, isn't he?" She'd wondered how Alastor managed to stand being around a porn star…looks like she has her answer. He's actually got a brain underneath all the flirting.
Alastor nods his head, Angel Dust has always been…well, he can certainly talk. He might not have always been interested in what Angel Dust was saying, particularly in the beginning when he was constantly flirting with everyone in sight, but still.
Rosie gestures for everyone to follow her, saying she build an underground basement that doubles as a massive bunker into the Emporium for hiding all of Cannibal Town's population away during Extermination Day…and there's space for everyone else, to, as most of Cannibal Town has taken to having secret basements of their own as well. And then, just as Rosie's closing the doors to the Emporium and Alastor's finished setting up a magical barrier around Cannibal Town to hold the new version of the Exorcists…they see a brilliant mix of gold and green light shoot back up towards Heaven. Quickly followed by a figure flying up and…wrapping the giant floating object in bright green.
"Fuck," Rosie mutters, "just what happened over there?" On the bright side...she's fairly certain there won't be a round two for Extermination Day.
Calli and Lucifer have just gotten the entire Hotel evacuated to Cannibal Town, when suddenly they sense a familiar power enter Hell - Heaven's Council…plus backup.
When they get outside, Lucifer mutters "Of course she brought them…" Michael told them one of his jobs was to train Heaven's warriors - he's Heaven's greatest warrior, but that implies he's not the only warrior. And it's been his duty to train them, to make it so they can defend Heaven in the event the place is attacked. They mainly patrol the city, act as security for the Council, etc.
Until now, apparently - that, or Sera's managed to convince Heaven's Council to raid Hell themselves despite her having almost no actual power anymore and Calli being there.
In about five minutes, Calli and Lucifer are staring at the entirety of Heaven's Council, plus a small legion of warriors in golden armor wielding silver longswords and spears - figures, Sera likely had the Exorcists' weapons modeled after these ones so they wouldn't be easily distinguished. Likely had them made at the same time, to.
And…Lute, still missing her arm and eye, and looking positively murderous when she sees Calli.
Ironically enough, most of them look extremely uncomfortable, three of the Council members look like they're about to pass out altogether.
Tellingly, Sera's the one who seems to have the least amount of trouble, even less so than Lute - being around Adam so much, who went down to Hell every year for nearly ten thousand years? Or something else?
Alarm bells start sounding in Calli's head at the sight of Sera being only mildly uncomfortable while the rest of those aside from Lute she brought with are clearly struggling to not show how affected they already are, but she pushes them to the side for later - right now, she and Lucifer have a literal invasion force to deal with right now. "You lot must really want a war, you know that? Coming down to our turf, armed to the teeth like this?"
Two of the guards level their spears at her, arms shaking so hard they can't even keep them steady, while three of the Council members suddenly collapse right then and there.
Sera's stony expression changes, panic flickering in her eyes before she hisses "What have you done?!"
Calli and Lucifer trade glances, and Lucifer flatly asks "Really, Sera? Really?" She's gonna try and pin this on them?
Calli says "We didn't do shit, what did you do? Oh, right, brought them all down here with no way to protect themselves against Roo's influence, that's what. You did this to them, Sera - or did you think I was bluffing when I left those twenty pendants for the Delegation to use down here?"
Another Council Member and three more guards collapse, and one of the remaining members hisses "You knew of this, Sera?"
Calli snorts derisively, saying "Of course she knew - I told her. Azrael did, to. What did you think happened to Lucifer to give him Hellfire, red eyes, sharpened teeth, and a retractable set of horns and tail?" Before anyone can answer, she makes a shallow cut on her palm and then waves it so her blood splatters on the ground between them.
To all but two people's amazement, the entire hillside plus the Hotel itself lights up brilliant green, Runes and Symbols none of them understand appearing all around them.
One of the Council Members breathes out a few choice words as everyone looks around, and Lucifer smirks before saying "You don't know the half of it."
Calli starts speaking in Parseltongue, and bright green magic wraps around all the newcomers to Hell. Sera jerks against the bindings, and Calli asks "You didn't really think you could just invade our turf out of nowhere, no warning whatsoever, and we'd just let you? Just in case you did, let me disabuse you of that idiotic idea - wewon't. Luce?" She'd wonder what the point of sending the Delegation down here was in the first place, but the answer seems obvious enough - it was to pacify the uprising Winners, nothing more.
Lucifer smirks as he makes a cut on his own hand and grabs onto the glowing green chain that Calli manifests in front of him, channeling his own power directly into the Wards - every single chain wrapped around the literal invasion force in front of them suddenly gets shot through with golden flames, Lucifer's power wrapping around them just as tightly as Calli's magic. His horns and tail sprout from his body, Hellfire igniting between his horns, eyes turning solid red as he says "As Sovereign King of Hell, I hereby banish all of you back to Heaven and bar you from re-entering Hell." One simple sentence, twenty words, but it's as effective as any incantation for a spell.
The Wards blaze green and gold, and then suddenly the entire group is launched into the air via a beam of magic. A beam of magic heading straight back to Heaven up in the distance.
Calli glances at Lucifer, and says "I'll go make it impossible for anyone to come in the long way. You get the Sins on the line, we gotta deal with this now." Because that was, without question, a declaration of War. And by Heaven, no less.
And they keep saying the two of them are the bad guys, the damn hypocrites.
Lucifer nods, his legs feeling like jelly after that display - he may not be able to create Wards like Calli can, but they've known each other for so long she they figured out how to make it so he can use them if they're already there. It's why he was able to activate them when Calli went to go fight Eve, why the two of them were Warding the entire Hotel together - Calli can add him in, and then he's got almost as much ability to use them as she can.
But, fuck, it's exhausting when he does something big like that.
Just as he's opened his phone, he starts getting calls - the first one that pops up is Satan, unsurprisingly, so that's who he answers. "Satan, I swear I'll explain everything at the meeting I'm calling right now, alright? Just get your lieutenants and get to the palace ASAP, kay?"
Lucifer finishes getting that message to the five other Sins, the Von Eldritches, and Paimon, then notices Calli free-falling from Heaven…which is encased in bright green magic, did she really block Heaven itself?
And then his brain kicks itself into high-gear - Calli was already tired from practicing with her new powers, and now she's just helped him Banish some of Heaven's most powerful residents and several dozen armed guards...and then blocked off Heaven.
She's probably passed out right now, then.
Lucifer scowls up at Heaven once he catches Calli, feeling the Hellfire he controls burn just under his skin to be let loose with his fury - Sera and Heaven's Council wants a war? Fine, he'll give them one.
It's like they completely forgot Calli quite literally went to war with all of Hell, all by herself, and won.