V1: Chapter 16 - Welcome Home

"Welcome Home" is the 16th and final chapter of Fiends For Hire - Volume 1: Curse

## Synopsis

### Plot

After packing up their apartment, the Fiends For Hire prepare to depart to the train station to go to their new permanent residence. However, they are ambushed by the police in the parking lot, led by the now detective Tusmon. The officers open fire, and Tusmon manages to shoot Phon twice before they can take cover. Drim organizes their defense, having Kada and Xard block the bullets until Phon can muster enough strength to teleport them away.

Phon manages to get them to a nearby rooftop where the Fiends temporarily split-up. Kada goes back to the apartment to distract the officers there. Xard runs through the streets of Constead to divert the attention of officers stationed around the city. Meanwhile, Drim carries Phon through the backstreets to try and avoid police and a pursuing helicopter. He manages to treat her wounds along the way with the aid of his curse.

When Drim reaches the city square in front of the train station, he is surrounded by an elite squad of CP soldiers. Drim creates an impenetrable wall of vines around him and uses this time to hide Phon and Pox underground. Drim then wraps the vines into a cloak around his body to make an armor that whipped away any attacks. Meanwhile, he summons four giant vines that assault and easily dispatch all of the attackers but one. He manages to defeat the last soldier by parrying them.

Thoughts in Drim's head that don't seem to belong to him tell him to kill the solider, but Drim resists and yells at the source, and then knocks out the soldier just before Kada and Xard arrive. Phon manages to recover enough to teleport them away as Tusmon and the other officers arrive on the scene. Tusmon vows that he'll chase after them and takes off his sunglasses revealing that he's become a Lesser Fiend. On the train ride, Drim sees a reflection in the window that doesn't belong to him for a split second.

After a long trip and several transfers, the Fiends arrive in Bisomote, the Drazah's old home town in Segrevide. As they walk through the streets towards the old Drazah estate, the citizens see them, panic, run inside, and shutter their buildings. However, there is one old woman shopkeeper who is happy to see them and gives them sweets. When they get to the estate, they are stopped by the guards. Harth Boldur steps out from the nearby guard tower and orders the guards to leave and return to Central Peace headquarters.

Harth explains that he got permission from the CP to turn the land back over to the Drazahs and then asks for hugs from his niece and nephew. While Drim is hugging him, Eleen Drazah, Drim and Phon's mother, takes over Drim's body and assaults Harth while yelling at the others. Drim manages to get her to relinquish control by choking himself with his curse before she can further harm anyone.

Harth leaves shortly after, and the Fiends head into the estate to find it just as decrepit as when they left. Drim and Phon explain to Kada and Xard their plans to rebuild and also explain their training. Before getting started, Xard asks why the Drazahs are doing all of this in the first place. Drim responds that they're going to change the world.

### Featured Characters

* Drim Drazah
* Pox
* Phon Drazah
* Kada Susten
* Xard Randex
* Tusmon
* Nachi
* Harth Boldur
* Eleen Drazah