A lantern was bobbing down the Styx River like a marshmallow on top of hot chocolate.--really, really moldy hot chocolate. It was old and yet new, and the nature of the Styx made it gleam.

Naya sighed, her legs pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She was bored, nearly to death... Anything, even cleaning TOILETS had to be better than doing nothing, then it caught her
eye. Something shiny, unusually bright floating down the river... Her ears perked up and she moved forward a bit. "What the...? "

A bird-girl violently popped out of the lantern. Her skin was as black as soot, and there were huge wings sprouting from just behind her shoulder blades that looked dangerous. Her dress was slightly on fire, and she looked, at a word, perplexed. "Who-Who are you? "

Naya's eyes were wide to say the least, but she stood her ground and pulled her sword. "What the hell do you mean who am I? Who the hell are you?!"
The girl didn't back down, though she eyed the sword with some trepidation. "I'm Phenix." Then she bent to pick the lantern up gingerly. "Wow...it worked after all!"
Naya looked from the girl, to the lantern, then back to the girl, eyed her for a second, then, as if deciding she didn’t look dangerous, re-sheathed her sword. "What worked...?"

The winged thing flicked the lantern. It was still, silent, dull. Her nails left sooty streaks. "Oh? My
second wish. I mean, it wasn't my second wish but it was a favor. "
Naya frowned, lowering herself to all fours and looking at the sitting woman eye to eye. "What kind of a favor is being in a lantern?"
Phenix cocked her head like a little bird. "My uh...my friend can make magic. With his hands." She moved her hands, as if trying to explain. "This is his lamp. I was bored. I wanted to go somewhere different. So he told me that if he put me in this lamp (it's his old one) I would find a place. Where am I?"
"You’re in the Underworld..." Ominous music could be heard from far off. "and believe me, it’s not someplace you WANT to be..." Naya took a quick look around her dark, dank surroundings. "I dont mind it...But most people hate it."
"The Underworld?" Phenix did a double take. "Wow! I've never been here before!" In a covert whisper she confided: "You'd think, being sort-of immortal and all, I'd travel? Hah! "And, rising, she began to beat her wings, creating massive winds, before vaulting upwards and flying around like a bat on LSD.
Naya yelped out in surprise, scurrying backwards on all fours before stumbling and falling on her ass as she stared up at the winged woman. "Holy Mother of Hades you can fly!!"
Phenix was swooping and diving on stale air currents, trailing smoke behind her, when she crashed into Hades (currently trying to lure an unsuspecting henchwench into bed with him). "OW!"
Hades eyes went as wide as they could possibly get as he was slammed backwards, not even having time to think about poofing out of the way, before he skidded on his back down the hall, a winged woman on him. "What the--!" Was all he could get out as of yet.

The first thing Phenix saw was his hair. "Oooooo!" She gasped, mesmerized.
"Get OFFA me!" He cried, pushing at her as his legs flailed in an attempt to sit up. She got off rather quickly, folding her wings behind her, and blinked rapidly.

"Hello."
"Aggg!!" He screamed, quickly getting to his feet. "Who do you think you are flying around and running into people like that!?" He stopped, seeing that it was quite an attractive woman he was speaking to, and his frown turned into a leer. "I mean...Hell-o..."
She reached out for his hair, not noticing the look in his eyes, and smiled absently at him. It was a pretty smile. "Firrrreeeee...."
"Umm..." He fought the urge to back away and just tolerated her apparent obsession with his hair. "Well... So...What’s your name...?"
Flames dancing in her eyes, she seemed to finally notice him as he put a hand on her waist. "Phenix. I'm a fire-bird."
He paused for a moment, his hand slipping further around her waist. "Phenix, eh?"
"Yesss..." It came out in a hiss, which was a little unnerving, but no deterrent. "Phenix...." She stood closer to him, reaching for his hair, once again mesmerized.
He just shrugged, being the pervert that he was and not one to push a nice woman away. "Ahhh, I see... and why are you down here?"
His words, repeated several times, finally made an impact on the flame hypnotized little phoenix-bird. "I'm bored!" Phenix began to expand on how bored she was to Hades when Naya came up behind them and frowned, putting most of her weight on one hip, her arms folded in front of her.

"Hades, I dont think the fire nymph or whatever here came down here to be molested..." said Naya.

"Naya..." Hades said. "Go find something to do, eh?"

Phenix did a second take in Hades' direction, distancing herself a bit from him, and said imperiously: "I don't do molestations." Naya snickered as Hades fumed, his hair tingeing red, but only for a moment.

"Alright babe. " He crossed his arms. "You still haven’t answered why you’re here..."

Naya triumphantly held up a lantern that had all the glass smashed out and a lot of bent metal. "She was in this."

Phenix fanned out her wings, just in case she would have to make a break for it. "But I'm not dead. I'm an ex--Uhh, I'm immortal?"

Hades studied her for a moment. "Ok so what in the name of the Styx were you doing in a lantern?"

Phenix preened visibly. "I wanted to go places and Balaha (we're just friends) said that if I let him zap me into it, I would! And... Voila!... Here I am."

"Mmm-hmm..." Hades rolled his eyes ceiling-wards.

Naya walked over and shoved the lantern to Phenix. "Well here’s your stupid lantern back."

Hades placed a hand on a very irritated looking Naya’s shoulder. "Naya, Naya! ...Be nice now... She’s a guest."

Phenix looked up at Hades with big, innocent eyes. "I can stay, can't I?" She took the lantern from Naya, not really noticing the damage.

"For a little bit... " Hades cooed. "’Til we figure out what were gonna do with you...Naya! Show her around!"

"HEY!" Naya yelped, irate beyond belief. "Why do I always end up showing the new people around! Do I LOOK like a tour guide!?"

"No..." Phenix looked down at the lantern then. "HolyFUCKING--Balaha's gonna--" she stopped, finger to her lips, and mused "--Kill me. You'll protect me, won't you?" She asked of Hades, trying a different approach, and winked at Naya covertly as she held back an impish grin.

"Who’s going to kill you?" Hades frowned, instinctively putting his arm over her shoulders and leaning in.

"Balaha." She said with a shudder that shouldn’t have been there, and rubbed her arms, as if she was cold. "That's his extra lantern. He lent it to me as...insurance. Just in case."

"Oh..." Sliding his arm off, he looked at Naya, to Phenix, and back to Naya again. "Ok... Since you don’t need to do anything else right now you can guard her AND guide her around!" He grinned cheesily, as if he’d found the perfect solution. Hardly.

Naya slumped, unenthusiastic. "Ahhh, joy..."

Phenix, not noticing that Hades had grabbed the lantern from her, squeaked, excited, in Naya’s general direction "Can we fly? Oh, I do so love a good flight!"

Naya’s eyes widened like a large bug’s. "I--Don’t fly...."

"That's ok." Phenix said. "Grab onto my feet with your tail or somethin' and give me the flying tour."

"No no no--I said I don’t fly!" She backed away a little. Beware of leaping phoenixes.

Hades rolled his eyes. "Naya--just go. Oh and ladies, I’ll see you later..." and with that, he went back to harassing the chick who was there before.

Phenix, used to being ignored, looked around. "This is great! Where first?"

"Well, we WALK down this way and I’ll show you the throne room..."At that Naya started to walk away at a brisk pace, obviously annoyed. Phenix folded her wings, miffed, and ran to catch up. They arrived at the throne room, where Pain & Panic sat on the throne, eating a bag of MunchyCrunchyBones and getting crumbs everywhere.

"Hi!!" Phenix called, waving wildly. "I'm Phenix!!"

Instantly there was commotion as Panic leapt off the throne, knocking Pain onto his face. He a dash towards Naya, climbing up her like a squirrel and perching on her shoulders, half hidden behind her head, as Pain just lay where he fell.

Naya actually smiled for once. "This is Panic..."

"And I’M Pain!!" Pain announced, vying for attention as he scurried over. Phenix fleetingly hoped he wouldn’t try to hump her leg.

Naya rolled her eyes. "And that’s Pain..."

Phenix looked at Panic, then at Naya. "Ah, he must be yours." She nodded dismissively at Pain, who had touched the edge of her dress on accident and acquired a third-degree burn.

"Yes... He’s mine..." With that Naya reached up and skritched the skittery Imp between the horns, making him close his eyes momentarily before he fixed a nervous stare on the new arrival.

"Wh-who’s she???" Panic whispered in sotto voce.

"Phenix..." shrugging, Naya continued. "She was in a lantern."

"I floated down the Styx. But I'll be staying here for awhile. Whether you guys like it or not." The bird-girl grinned impudently, tossing her multi-colored, almost flame-like, hair.

"Yeah..." Naya grumbled.

"Oh..." Panic trailed off. Behind them, Pain was rolling around in the dirt in agony. "Are you a henchwench?"

"No. What's that?"

Naya tapped her chest. "It’s what I am... Just someone who works for him basically." ‘Him’ being Hades. "Technically we’re minions but he thinks it’s funny to call us different...Except I’m a bodyguard.. I dont clean toilets or file papers like some of the others."

Phenix scratched her feathers. "Oh? Sounds...mundane. Filing things, I mean. But anything's better than what's up there, ya know? This from someone who's been up there most of her lives..." she sighed. "How do you get to be a henchwench?

"You sign a contract...." A shrug from the bodyguard.

"Y-Yeah but... It ain’t that g-great..." Panic stammered.

"Yeah, " Naya agreed. "Read the fine print. Gotta sell your soul."

"Soul?" Phenix repeated, and again in her mind. Soul? I don’t think we covered that part...

"Yes..." Naya answered like a woman possessed. Wait, Naya isn’t possessed...She just hears voices! Oh, screw it. "Your soul...."

"Sounds depressing." Phenix replied, stretching. "Can't you just stay here, you know, in a temporary situation?"

They all shook their heads no, even Pain, who was eyeing Phenix’s leg with a glint she didn’t like.

"Too bad what's-his-name saw me." She quipped. "Can we pretend I never showed up and I can hide out here for awhile and cure my boredom?"

Naya made a face. "Umm.... No, because since he saw you--he kinda knows, stupid."

Panic huddled against Naya’s head more, his arms wrapped halfway around the top of it.

"Should I be afraid?" Phenix asked, concerned.

Shrugging, Naya crossed & sat in the throne with a thump, Panic crawling into her lap with a blissful sigh. "Not really... Just don’t let him lure you into a bedroom and you should be fine..." She promptly departed the throne, walking over and sitting on the war table, picking up a statue and crunching its head off as she ate it. Panic climbed back to his former position to accompany her.

"Well, I think I know a way I can not sell my soul..." The other woman began.

Naya raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I still have one wish left!"

With a completely unamused look, Naya yawned. "Uh huh."

"You don't believe me."

Naya shook her head no, smirking. "Not really..."

"Hmmmmm....well, I''ll just have to prove it then." Phenix looked around for the lantern. "Oh no! Where did my lantern go?!"

"I don’t know." Said Naya. "You had it last..."

"Right when I was talking to...Hades!"

"So what..." Naya arched one perfectly stenciled brow. "He wouldn’t have taken an ugly broken lantern."

"Oh. Maybe I dropped it." Highly unlikely.

Naya just slapped her forehead in earnest. "How could you drop it and not notice?!"

"I...I don’t know." Phenix replied, her voice dropping to a tremulous, somewhat shrill, whisper. "I don’t know!"