Chapter Text
Chapter 3 – Preparations for the job
Target: Unknown
Location: Playtime co factory
Description: Client was unable to describe target.
Info: Client was given strange VHS and told to meet up at old workplace, Killed from behind by unknown target.
Moxxie gave the document one last look over, before placing it back on the desk, all he had to do was wait for blitz to return. He’d just cleaned up the budget documents he had accidently dropped on the floor earlier and was currently on the computer searching up any sources of info he could on the playtime co factory.
It was a good thing that the mortal realm’s internet was also accessible from hell. Thank Lucifer that Blitz paid for the special ‘Vox Living world package’. Its much better for investigation work then the pony show about friendship that his boss originally bought it for.
Moxxie didn’t have any other things he could do around the office and since the job couldn’t get done until Blitz got back with the crystal, this meant that the sharpshooter could wait take his time to research what he could and plan for the job.
So far Moxxie had been doing just that for the past few hours, not that he was complaining about it.
Honestly, he wished he could do investigation work more often. Moxxie never really got an opportunity to do so, he was even able to prepare a selection of weapons he thought would be ideal for the mission.
Usually when they got a mission Blitz would immediately open a portal and push them through, no plan, no research and it would usually end with the job getting done, but with a lot of unnecessary carnage.
Didn’t even matter what Moxxie was doing at the current time either, Blitz would sometimes just pick him up and lob him through the portal. Moxxie still remembers the time Blitz thought it would be funny to open the portal right under his feet. Thankfully he stopped doing that after the first time.
Although after the last time he'd done investigation work, he now knew not to get too carried away with it and focus on the mission.
Moxxie had been able to go through the history of the company, and it was interesting to say the least.
It was founded in 1930 by a man named Elliot Ludwig and the company had been very successful when it was around.
The man from what Moxxie could find was considered a hard worker who saw everyone in the factory as his family, the man strived to make sure that every child could smile. It was the very reason that he created play co in the first place.
It said that he devoted every waking moment of his life to bring joy to children, it was honestly very inspiring.
He even felt a bit bad once he started to read further into the info about his life that was available.
The man was so devoted to his work that it ended with his own wife divorcing him, due to his work ethic going above his marriage. The man had even lost his daughter.
‘The man had lost so much, yet he continued to bring joy to everyone around him, he didn’t care about himself but other around him’ Moxxie thought, feeling a bit sad for the man.
Moxxie looked through more of the articles, until he seemed go across one that stood out to him.
- Body found on Elliot Ludwig Estate -
Moxxie had to stop for a second to reread what the article said, he really hoped it was a joke.
With a little bit of hesitation opened the link and started going through the article.
“On the morning at 9:45AM, local authorities report that the body of a young boy was found on the estate of the late Elliot Ludwig, an esteemed toy maker and originator of the Playtime Company, the identity of the boy was never confirmed.
Reports say that the child’s body was located upstairs in the man’s bedroom inside a large duffle bag, it detailing that boys remain were disturbed, with organs and even bones from their skeletal structure missing from there body.
“Dear, Satan” Moxxie said aloud to himself almost horrified, he had to take a few moments to really grasp the words he had just read. He was thankful that he hadn’t taken a sip of his coffee that was next to him, otherwise he would have to explain to blitz why both the floor, and the computer were soaked and ruined.
Its moments like this where Moxxie was reminded that every human could look nice on the surface, but underneath it all they could have the most nasty, vile and putrid souls imaginable.
What made it worse in Moxxie’s case was that person could still be around in the pride ring somewhere, assuming he wasn't a victim of the yearly extermination.
Moxxie may have been trained to kill through his whole life, he may even assassinate for a living. But there were lines he wouldn’t cross and jobs he would never like to take.
He had his morals.
Really needing a palate cleanser after reading something so vile, he decided to investigate other topics involving the company.
And after doing a bit of digging, he was able to confirm that yes, what the client had said was true. All the staff had just disappeared one day.
The report went over how on the 8th of August 1995, suddenly all the staff seemed to just up and vanish from playtime co.
Except for one person.
A man by the name of Leith Pierre, the new head of the company. It seemed after Elliot Ludwig had passed away, Leith went from the head of innovation, to become the successor to the company.
Now of course it raised eyebrows to Moxxie that the only person to come out of this ‘Incident', was the current person in charge.
This lead Moxxie trying to do research on Leith Pierre. However, while Elliot Ludwig was a very public figure who always seemed to be in the mood for talking, Leith was a very different kind of person, as there was next to know information about him available, Before, during or even after his time at playtime co.
The only thing he did know was that Leith was investigated after the incident and it he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Anyone (or at least any sensible person) would point to him as the most likely culprit, but Moxxie wasn't sure.
‘This doesn’t make any sense, don’t you need employees to make profit. If so, why would the one in charge make such a convoluted incident?’
From Moxxie could tell the company never seemed (or what was reported) to suffer any financial problems, so money might not have been a reason.
It did raise a very big question to Moxxie though.
‘What did happen to the staff?’
‘How was it not a bigger story?’
Humans seemed to just want to move on from some tragedies, it seemed.
This lead Moxxie to checking through playtime co’s back catalogue of things they were involved in. while it wouldn’t help with the job currently, it would help distract him (Also he was curious).
This brought him to the list of the many toys and products the company had made over its 65-year run. Moxxie spent a little while going through the different products the company had produced.
A weird doll with red hair, a blue thing called ‘Huggy Wuggy’, a group of collectable animals and even a creature made of doe, just to name a few of the things they made. It was fascinating how vast and varied all their products were. I guess they had to be to stay in business.
But, while Moxxie looked through all the toys, only one thing seemed to come to his mind.
‘I don’t get the appeal.’ His face was blank as he tried to make sense of any of the toys.
Not that Moxxie hated the toys he was looking at, it was just he didn’t get them. He didn’t have any toys growing up.
His father didn’t allow him to have any toys whilst he was a child, his mother had bought him a few. Which were found and probably burned by his father right in front of him.
“I’m raising a MAN, not some DAMN baby, so NO BABY TOYS.” He heard his father’s voice say as he remembers another one of his ‘Lovely’ childhood memories.
He still remembers when he told his co-workers and wife that detail about his life, which he didn’t think was that big of a deal.
The only reason they even got on the topic was because they were discussion what kind of toys they would get for Millie and his baby.
Which lead into a discussion on what kinds of toys everyone had growing up.
However, once the conversation drifted to him, and he stated he didn’t have any toys. It seemed to spark everyone in the office, (Even Loona) to look at him in weird ways, it seemed like they pitied him.
Moxxie just didn’t get what the fuss was about, maybe because he didn’t have any that he didn’t get the appeal. But he really didn’t see any problem with it, unlike his co-workers, who seemed to think he was missing out.
When your being raised in a mob family, your priorities seem to go in a very different direction. His dad had never gotten him any toy growing up and had gone out of his way to make sure he didn’t get any.
He gave another look at the clock on the offices wall.
3.15 pm
His boss (and his boyfriend) had been gone for an almost the whole day at this point. ‘Where is he? He isn’t usually gone this long when doing something.’
Moxxie’s answer was given shortly after, as the silence was broken up by the sound of the front door to the office being slammed open.
Moxxie jumped for the second time that day and looked up towards the door. In the doors entrance was I.M.P’s lovely boss Blitz, as he strolled his way into the office with a few bags in each hand, carrying that confident smile on his face. Shortly followed right after by his Boyfriend Stolas, the former Goetia prince, who was also carrying several bags in each hand, their little outing appearing to be completed.
“Hey, Mox, sorry we’re late, ran into a bunch of assholes at the clothing shop and had to teach them a lesson, got a bit heated and we had to run once the police were called over.’ Blitz said.
‘Well, that at least explains his absence’ Moxxie thought.
He never understood how someone could always get themselves into so much trouble and yet always find a way out of it. His Boss had some insane luck, which he couldn’t explain.
Blitz had since made his way over placing his bags on the counter before making his way over to Moxxie. “So, how’s the day been going, we got anything?” He said as he placed his hands front desk were Moxxie currently sat.
Moxxie sat up in the presence of his boss. “Actually Blitz, we just had a client come in a little while ago.”
“Alright Mox, look at you putting on the big boy pants, can you hand me the client’s sheet, I take it you’ve already made one.” Blitz said while gesturing his hand to be given the file.
Moxxie happy handed over the sheet, that was still on the desk. “Well, Blitz I did what you asked, but I figured I should talk to yo-
Moxxie couldn’t finish his sentence before the sheet was snatched out of his hands by the boss of I.M.P.
As Blitz took a quick look over the file, his smile dropping slightly into confusion upon seeing the client’s sheet, before looking at his employee. “Moxxie what the fuck is this? There's hardly any information, I told you to only accept clients that can provide every detail.” Blitz said with slight annoyance and confusion.
Moxxie was quick to defend his actions while keeping his cool “While that is true Blitz, you also said to always take jobs for sinners that were willing to provide everything they had. I figured I’d wait for you to come back to see if it was doable.”
Blitz was quick to change his tone. “Oh, we got a freshly dead sinner with a massive hate boner, my absolute favourite kind of customer.” Blitz said as the smile returned to his face. “Ok never mind then, good shit Moxxie.” Blitz said as he began to flip through the client’s sheet.
Moxxie sighed, he was nervous for a second thinking he had upset Blitz again. “So, do you want us to do, Blitz? They left a number so if you want to ca-”
“Well no time to waste, I want you to go up and kill the target” Blitz said interrupting Moxxie, as the place the sheet back on the table.
“One amazing benefit we’ve been provided for this kill by the looks of it is that the client isn’t aware of who did it, so we can just kill any old asshole and call it a day.”
Moxxie didn’t look pleased with that answer. “But Blitz, with all due respect I still think we should try and kill the actual target, so I propose that we could go and so a bit of investigation on the fac-”
Moxxie seems to stop talking as he just realised something his boss had said. “Wait, I’m sorry Blitz but I must have misheard you, it seemed like you were implying I was going up there by myself.”
Moxxie looked at Blitz’s hoping to get an answer, but he noticed that Blitz had slowly started to form a bigger smirk across his face, and Moxxie knew when Blitz ever pulled that face it meant something bad was coming.
‘Oh, no’ Moxxie thought.
“Yes Mox, you heard me right, while I would like to just do it my way I know you’d throw a hissy fit if this wasn’t handled correctly and I’m kind of tapped out after going shopping.”
“But are you really sure?” Moxxie seemed to get a bit nervous and rubbed the back of his head. “It’s just last time I was tasked with leading an investigation mission It didn’t go so well.”
“Aargh” Blitz threw his hands up into the air before looking back at his employee “Moxxie there you go again, overthinking things and doubting yourself.” Blitz moved over and placed both his hands the imp’s shoulders “You made a mistake, you know you’ve made a mistake and we both know if anyone in this company is capable of learning from their mistakes and improving, it’s you.” Blitz said with a smile on his face.
“You really mean that?” Moxxie said with a glitter in his eye.
“Of course, I think this will be a good test to see how you do while running solo.”
“Wait, will I get the crystal? Moxxie said questioning if his boss.
“Oh, no no no nope” Blitz said placing his hand over the crystal that was on his glove. “I trust you with the mission for now, let’s not get carried away.”
Moxxie thought about reminding him of mission in Antarctica but chose to not change the subject.
“So, how it this mission going to work then?” Moxxie as asked his boss.
Blitz reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone “Simple, you’re going to go into the factory, do you little ‘investigation’ as you put it, find the asshole and kill them.” Blitz using his fingers to form a gun to pretending to shoot.
“Then once that’s done, you’re going to use you phone and sent me the picture of the dead target, then I use the crystal to bring you back. You get the target, we get the money, everyone wins.”
Moxxie nodded before making his way over to the storage room to get some weapons he had already prepared for the job, before he could though he was stopped by Blitz.
“Oh, before you go digging around for a few weapons, I don’t think you’ll be needing many for this mission, I think you should just take a pistol.” Blitz said to Moxxie.
“Blitz, don’t you think I should at least have more than one weapon for this mission?”
Blitz looked at Moxxie with a look of reassurance, a face he’d rarely seen on his boss’s face “Moxxie, you have to understand, you tend to overthink things, so I think you should try to only bring a single gun on this mission, that way you won’t spend a while fussing.”
Moxxie didn’t like the answer, but he also trusted Blitz enough to know figured he was right about this. “Fine, if you say so.” Moxxie said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his trusty pistol.
The gun was a custom M1911 pistol with a red and black colour scheme. He’d just completed an inspection of the weapon early, so he was aware that it was in good condition (like all the weapons he uses), but Moxxie still wanted to give it another quick look over before leaving.
It never hurts to double check.
He’d used this pistol a lot and was aware of its workings, inside and out. The weapons currently had a full magazine inside with 7 rounds.
While Moxxie was checking over his weapon, Blitz had begun to raise his hand, the crystal on his gloving orange colour before a portal began to martialize in the middle of the office.
Blitz went and placed his hand on Moxxie’s shoulder “Ok, Moxxie remember don’t overthink it, also feel free to take your time, I know that didn’t work well last time but I know you won’t disappoint me.” Blitz said as a final act of reassurance to his faithful employee.
Blitz gave his employee one last smirk “And beside it’s a toy factory, so this might be a good time to break your toy virginity.”
Moxxie looked back and Blitz with a look of ambivalent, “While I do appreciate the encouragement, I wish you didn’t have to word it like that.”
Moxxie then turned towards the portal.
‘It’s just an old factory; how bad could it be?’ Moxxie thought as he entered through the portal, and it closed behind him.