"You alright there Bud?" Alex asked for what felt like the hundredth time to Nort. But he couldn't really blame him, after all Nort had locked himself in his room, after what was from Alex's point of view a completely normal encounter with an annoying but harmless pest only to emerge days later ,looking like he hadn't slept in days, asking him to buy him a good device that could detect said pests and then jumped onto the next spaceship heading towards the nearest planet of the Galactic Union. So he could understand why his human friend had joined him, but it was still annoying that he viewed a demon that had possessed an old toy to try to steal Norts soul as a mere pest.

  But he was glad that had come with him, because his human friend was rather good company to keep if you wanted to pass the time or avoid thinking about something. Although that wasn't always because of his winning personality, but simply because of how the passengers reacted to him. Just seeing an Alien almost twice their size jumping out of the way as soon as he saw Alex was just funny and showed rather clearly what the kind of reputation Humanity had in the Galactic Union, after all they still often referred to humans as the laughing killers because of this reputation. Making it also quite useful when their ship had to deal with pirates, something the captain of their vessel knew all too well. So when a pirate ship appeared on their scanners he immediately ordered that Alex as well as Nort be brought to the bridge. Where Nort quickly learned that the only reason he was there was to act as Alex's translator as well as his handler, nothing else. Thankfully Alex had a very cunning plan to get rid of the pirates. So he asked them to hail the pirate ship and as soon as the line was open he yelled "Oy you runty gitz youz thinkz youz hard Iz zoggin smash youz Iz will" at which point the pirate ship quickly turned around to ran away, seemingly putting all their power into their engines to get away as fast as possible. This unsurprisingly caused the entire bridge crew to break into cheers, right until Alex said "Aw so I guess ramming them is off the table now?" making everyone on the bridge turn to stare at him, because of how disappointed he sounded. The captain was the first one to recover his wits and said with a chuckle "Good joke Sir" only for Alex to tilt his head to the side to say somewhat confused "What do you mean?" making the captain realise that he wasn't joking. Nort just chuckled as he shook his head, because he knew that ramming was a legitimate strategy in the human space battle doctrine, to the point that even many civilian spaceship manufacturers had made sure that most, if not all, of their spaceships could employ this tactic. Although that wasn't something that they could do, so he just grabbed Alex and got them off the bridge, before he could tell them more about human battle doctrine. That was thankfully the only speed bump on their and just a day later they had reached their destination planet 321.

  Yes that was it's name for you see the different species of the Galactic Union had one thing in common that being that they valued names so they only gave them to for example planets and people of great importance, all others were given numbers. Anyways 321 was a relatively young colony world, but thanks to the planet being quite resource-rich it had enjoyed a rather rapid growth compared to other less fortunate colonies. Thanks to that it had quite a few decently sized cities on its surface and thusly quite the high population for a colony, making it the ideal place for Nort to find out if his hunch was right or not. Which was why they immediately, after getting to the surface and storing their luggage in a decent hotel they had found, went to one of the big market places in the city, not only to test Norts theory but also to get some decent food into their stomachs and after eating their fill Nort asked Alex "So did you bring it?". Alex only smiled and pulled out a pair of what looked like sunglasses out of their case that he had been carrying in his jacket, before handing them to Nort. Nort simply looked at the sunglasses for a moment, before he looked up and asked Alex "Is this really it?" Alex gasped and put his hand on his chest, before he said " You honestly believe that I would do you dirty like that I am hurt sir truly truly hurt." Clearly not meaning a word of it so Nort just rolled his eyes, before asking "Alright so how does it work?", causing Alex to pout a bit before he answered "You just have to put them on". Nort did as instructed and as soon as he put on the glasses they booted up, highlighting Alex in green. "Ok so I guess green means you are not a demon and red means you are a demon right." Nort asked. Alex simply nodded and said "Yeah pretty easy to understand right and that's not the only thing this baby can do. It has night vision, heat vision, you can zoom in, you can look through surfaces with this thing to check if something is in your walls it also comes with a built in translator. Cool right?" Nort smiled widely and said "Yeah really cool. You humans really have the best tech." meaning every word, because to him that was simply the truth. Alex just gave him a dismissive little wave and said with a bit of a valley girl accent "Aw stop it you. Flattery will get you nowhere.", before dropping it to casually ask "Anyways what's the plan bud?" like they were on holiday or something. Which Nort of course could understand, after all they were just here to investigate a hunch of his and after that just go home, because Nort still didn't know what to do if his suspicions turned out to be true. So he told Alex "Now we just walk around the market for a bit." Alex raised an eyebrow at this answer, but then just shrugged and then said "Sure I wanted to look around a bit more anyways." before signaling the waiter that they wanted to pay.

  After doing that they picked a random direction and began their little walk. They didn't meet a lot of people thanks to them being on the very edge of the quite large market place all highlighted in green. As a matter of fact the stalls, signs and wares the merchants were selling were also highlighted in green, making it easy for Nort to notice the spot of red on one of said signs. The sign said "Fruit & Souls" causing Nort to stop in his tracks and stare at the sign for a moment, before his attention was pulled away from it by a "What's up?" from Alex. Nort simply pointed at the sign and asked "What does that sign say?" Alex looked at it for a moment before he said "It says...fruits?" sounding not too sure, which was weird, after all Alex had had not only a translator but also translator contact lenses that allowed him to read Galactic Union standard. So why did he sound so unsure? Nort decided that this was a question for later and returned his attention to the sign, removing the glasses as he did, to answer the more important question to find that it now the sign only said fruits in Galactic Union standard. But as soon as he put the glasses back on it said fruit & souls again, just in latin now thanks to the build in translator, causing the same bad feeling in his gut, that he first had when Alex told him about the demons, to return and it only got worse when he looked at the wares, because while most of them were fruits of various kinds like advertised some were what seemed to be little glowing white balls of gas package in a ball shaped capsule. The owner of the stall was nowhere to be seen, so Nort walked towards the stall and picked up one of the capsules to inspect it, which turned out to be quite the weird experience, because his eyes told him that he was holding a capsule seemingly made of plastic or something like it, but it felt like he was holding a orange. Confused, he turned to Alex to ask him to hold the capsule, but stopped when he saw how intently he was staring at it. So instead Nort asked "What do you see?" Alex didn't answer immediately and when he finally did he only said "I am not sure." causing Nort to tilt his head in confusion before he asked "What do you mean you are not sure?" Alex seemed unsure how to answer but after a moment he said "I don't know. I just have this feeling that it is not what it seems to be. Sure it looks like a fruit but something tells me it is not. Get what I mean?" Nort simply nodded, before he said "Yeah I get it. Anyways, let's look around a bit more." putting the capsule back, before walking towards some more stalls that had spots of red on their signs.

  The first one he reached was another fruit stall manned by a someone from a insectoid species that Nort didn't know the name of, and with how many insectoid species there were he could be forgiven for that, who was highlighted in red and would have looked a lot like a fruit fly if Nort hadn't wore the glasses. He knew this because there were two more of the same species at the stall that were highlighted in green giving Nort a good idea what the red highlighted one should have looked like. But instead the red one looked like a well more demonic version of the green ones with spiked carapace, claws, horns and everything. Making it quite clear to Nort that his hunch was right, now the only question left was how bad was it. So they kept walking, searching for more of these red ones or possessed ones and quickly found that they were far from common, but not exactly uncommon either. This absolutely terrified Nort and why shouldn't it this was a colony world, a big one sure but still a colony world, if there were this many people possessed by demons here than how bad was it on more populated worlds and if they had spread so far it was more than likely that they had infiltrated the leadership of the Galactic Union, giving them an incredible amount of power. What made it worse was that the demons seemed to be able to replace their hosts without any problem whatsoever, making it clear that they had access to the hosts memories and that meant that without something like the glasses Nort wore it was impossible to tell if someone was possessed by a demon or not. Which made things quite more problematic, because if Nort revealed the existence of the demons to the population of the Galactic Union, the paranoia this news would create in the hearts of the people could lead to entire witch hunts. So Nort was rather unsure of how he should proceed, because he hadn't really thought about what he would do after his hunch was proven right or wrong and more what it implied than anything else.

  But he didn't even get the chance to think about what he should do now, because Alex grabbed him and began to pull him towards the exit of the marketplace. Surprised Nort looked at his friend's face to find him wearing a rather serious expression causing him to ask "What's wrong?" Alex put on a clearly fake smile, at least to Nort, before answering "Act normal there is someone following us." That certainly got Nort heart pumping, but he did his best to act calm despite that before asking "So what is the plan?" Alex just chuckle and then said "That's what I wanted to ask you. After all you are here to get some answers right? So this is a good chance to get some answer." Nort couldn't deny that his human friend was right, but Alex's words also left him with a question that he just had to ask and that was "Are you sure its a demon?" because he was the one wearing the device to detect demons not Alex. Yet despite that Alex answered quite confidently "Yeah I'm pretty sure its a demon." confusing Nort enough that he asked "How?" without thinking. Alex seemed to ponder that for a moment before he said "I don't know. I just know." sounding just as confused as Nort. So Nort decided that this was another question for later and focused on the question of what they should do. But before he could come up with a plan somebody behind them said "Excuse me my mammalian friends might I have a moment of your time?" in Galactic Union standard and when Nort turned around he found that the speaker was another one of the red highlighted fly-like aliens that they had seen manning the fruit stalls. "Depends on what you want from us." Nort simply replied, deciding that it was best to find out first what the demon wanted before they did anything. "Well I couldn't help but notice how disappointed about the wares this Market has to offer the two of you seemed to be when you walk by. So I thought you might be interested in my wares, after all I have the most exotic wares that you will find nowhere else on this entire planet." ‘Jackpot’ Nort couldn't help but think as he put on his best fake smile and said "Oh that sounds interesting. Right Alex?" as genuinely as he could. Alex for his part put on his best fake smile as well and then said "Yeah it sure does, way more than the rest of this boring market." making the demon rub his first pair of hands together in a distinctly fly-like fashion before saying "Excellent excellent, then if you would follow me. My shop is a bit of the beaten path but not far from here." 'Perfect' Nort thought before he said "Sure lead the way." causing the demon to once more rub his hands together before turning around to lead them towards an alleyway not far from the edge of the market district. Normally that would have been cause for concern, but to Nort and Alex this was absolutely perfect so they followed their demonic black market dealer friend into the alleyway with zero hesitation, something the demon seemed to appreciate. So they walked down the alleyway until they almost reached the end, where two dumpsters hid a door in the wall from prying eyes. The door led to another alley, but they could already see their destination at the end. It was a old one story building that was ,like many buildings in the Galactic Union, a plain grey block with the only thing that made it stick out from the other ones Nort had seen being the large old school exhibition window that was filled to the brim with what looked to him like antiques, all of which were highlighted in red and when he took of the his glasses they all suddenly looked brand new or like they were of high quality.

  Intrigued Nort followed the demon into the shop where he found himself almost assaulted by the color red, because literally anything in the room was highlighted red, since it was filled wall to wall with antiques and other wares to the point where you could barely see the walls or the floor so red was the only color besides black he could see. This unsurprisingly kinda hurt to look at, so Nort took the glasses off before he entered the shop with Alex in tow. Who then began to walk around the shop checking out the antiques, plants, fruit, meat, books, hardcore pornmags, spices and powders on display, while Nort walked towards the demon who now stood behind a counter with some display cases on it filled with all sorts of jewellery as well as some weapons before he said "Damn you weren't lying when you said you have the most exotic wares on the entire planet. Must have quite a few connections huh." The demon simply nodded and said "Yes I have quite a few friends across the Galactic Union more than happy to give me some of their wares at a price of course." That last part got Alex's attention, causing him to walk towards the counter while asking "While we are talking about prizes. What kind of payment do you accept?" The demon simply looked at Alex and then said "I accept Galactic Union credits, but I am more than willing to trade my wares for something of equal value." Alex raised an eyebrow at that before he asked "You mean like souls?" Surprisingly the demon nodded at this and said "Yes like souls though of course..." before stopping after it realised what Alex had said and then just stared at him clearly shocked. Alex for his part smiled smugly before he said "Wanna know where I heard that from huh? Sadly we are the ones asking the questions here not you." The demon simply laughed at this clearly not taking them seriously. So Alex pulled a bottle of ,what Nort now knew was, holy water out of his bag and then splashed some of it on the demon's face. As soon as the holy water hit the demons face it howled in pain and then tried to swipe the bottle out of Alex hand. But Alex simply moved his hand out of the way and then emptied the battle over the demon's head. It howled once more, opening its mouth as much as it could and then a being made entirely out of flames in the rough shape of a human with two horns protruding from its head emerged from the hosts mouth.

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  "YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU THINK SOMETHING LIKE THAT CAN STOP ME. I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER WHAT A HAVE A HUNDRED TIMES OVER" the demon yelled, before it took a deep breath and then led out a loud scream. Nort managed to shield his ears just in time, but still the shock from the suddenness of the attack made him stumble back a few steps to the delight of the demon. But when the demon turned towards Alex he let out a shocked "Wait what?" because Alex seemed to be utterly unfazed by his scream. Something that didn't surprise Nort after all the scream had been loud, but even through covered ears he knew that it was not enough to harm him so there was no way it could do anything to Alex. In fact the only thing Alex did to even acknowledge the scream was scratching one of his ears a bit, before he said "Quite the set of lungs you got there. Oh you will work just fine." Utterly shocked all the demon managed to get out was "I-I-I don't understand how did...", before he realised what Alex had said and asked "Wait what do you mean with 'I will work'?" seemingly a bit surprised by the question Alex answered "Hm? Oh I was just thinking that with a few modifications you would make for a hella good set of bagpipes. Pun intended." Both Nort and the demon kinda just stared at Alex for a moment before the demon found its voice again to say "Um thanks I guess, even though you are clearly joking." though judging by Alex's facial expression Nort knew that he wasn't, but the demon didn't seem to notice that and just said "After all I am a being from a alternate dimension so you can neither touch nor harm me." but despite that Alex just walked up to it, grabbed its shoulder to spin it around and inspected its back, before saying "I′m gonna need some extra pipes and then there is the matter of where I blow into." causing the demon to jump away with a yelp, before it now somewhat nervously said "You... you are quite the powerful opponent aren't you. But that only means that you will make quite the powerful host." before it charged at Alex mouth, shrinking itself down as it did so that it could force itself down his throat. It all happened so fast that Nort couldn't do anything to stop it, not that he could have done anything anyways even if he had seen it coming, leaving him no choice but to wait and hope that the demon really couldn't steal Alex's soul. But that hope nearly died when open his mouth and said with the demon's voice "Oh I could get used to this. With this power I will be unstoppable hahahaha." before it seemingly tried to take a step forward but found that Alex's body wouldn't move causing it to say "Wait?" without thinking, before trying again only to get the same result as before making it scream out "WHY WON'T YOU MOVE." in sheer confusion clearly addressing Alex. Who took back control of his body like it was as easy as breathing just to say "Uh oh, seems like someone got themself trapped." causing the demon to shout "HOW??? WHAT KIND OF MONSTER EVEN ARE YOU?" in pure confusion and panic, before trying once more to get Alex's body to move but failed miserably, forcing it to change its approach. "Wait wait we can talk about this. You can just let me out and we can just forget this ever happened." But Alex was clearly not listening and instead started pulling more bottles of holy water out of his bag until he held three of them in each hand causing the demon to ask "Wh-What are you doing?" but the only answer it got was Alex screaming "BEGONE FOUL DEMON!" and then he chugged all of the bottles at once.

  Thankfully for Nort this drowned out the screams of the demon. He held little sympathy for it but the sound of screams of pure agony weren't something that he would call pleasant even if it didn't take long for the holy water to run out at which point the demon left Alex's body and tried to run away. However Alex didn't let it get away so easily, putting it into a chokehold almost immediately, before grabbing some pipes from one of the shelfs then jammed them into the body of the demon and then actually used it as a set of bagpipes to play a song from a old show about a samurai that had to get back to the past. The entire thing was more than unpleasant, because the original song was intentionally not good, but when there were actual screams and moans mixed into it was bad on a whole different level, to the point where Nort had to cover his ears. This caused Alex to stop, but only to say "By the look on yer face I can tell that ye like the pipes, wee laddie." before he continued playing. Nort had to raise his hand and almost yell "Stop" to get him to cease this torture, then he walked up to the demon before he asked "I guess you are ready to talk now aren't you?" The demon quickly nodded before he said "Yes yes just please no more." Nort just nodded clearly satisfied by the answer, before he asked "Good how many of you are there in total?" the demon hesitated a moment, before answering "I don't know the exact number, but we roughly make up two percent of the Galactic Unions population." That answer sent a shiver down Nort spine. Sure it didn't sound like a lot but two percent of uncounted billions was still a lot, but Nort knew that was something to worry about later. So instead he asked "Have some of you infiltrated the Galactic Council and if yes how many exactly?" the demon had to think about that for a moment, before he answered "Two, but I don't know their names." sounding somewhat unsure, probably because it wasn't interested in politics, but Nort ignored that and moved on to the next question "How much has your kind influenced the Galactic Union?" once more the demon hesitated before it rather nervously answered "As far as I know we have never influenced the Galactic Union." Nort just raised an eyebrow at that obvious lie, causing the demon to quickly add "L-listen we have feed on this cattle for untold thousands of years if not millions of years and in that entire time we never really had a reason to really influence them. After all when we take over a host we literally become them, so we live their lives like they would have, making it rather hard to tell if someone is possessed or not. So until you two came along no one even knew we existed. Besides every government the cattle has ever conceived has always kinda worked in our favor and even if it hadn't or anything else happened that could threaten us we can always just move on to better feeding grounds and as long as we can eat we are happy."

  Nort couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as it became clear to him how somewhat simple minded the demons seemed to be or at least this one seemed to be. But still he didn't like how confident it was that its species could escape anything that could threaten them. Sure it could just be a lie but seeing as how he was dealing with a demon from another dimension it was rather save to say that it wasn't lying. But if that really was the case that they couldn't really be stopped just chased of. Nort couldn't help but close his eyes and massage his temples as he was once more confronted with the same question again that being "So what now?" demanding pretty much all of his attention to the point that he almost didn't hear the demon say "So um can I go now? U-u-unless you got...wait what are you doing? WAIT N.." causing Nort to open his eyes to find the demon gone and Alex swallowing something. Both of them just stood there for a moment in pure shock, until Nort managed to ask "Did you just eat the demon?" Alex just nodded in reply "Why?" Nort asked, utterly confused by his friend's behaviour "I don't know." Alex answered just as confused as him, before a familiar white ball of gas forced its way out of Alex's mouth and then flew right into the mouth of the host body the demon had just left standing behind the counter like a zombie, causing life to return to its dead eyes. At first the fly just kept touching his body, before he said "I'm free? Oh by the queen I am free!" jumping up and down in sheer happiness. Nort just let him have this moment of happiness for a bit before he asked "Sorry for asking you this, but why did the demon keep you prisoner?" causing the flies attention to snap to him, because it had seemingly forgotten they were there so being suddenly addressed had frightened him. But after calming down he answered "Because it needed my memories to trick everybody into thinking he was me and also because that way it could torture me whenever it felt peckish, since I was still in there, just couldn't do anything but watch. So thank you for freeing me from that hell." Nort just smiled and said "You are welcome, though what are you gonna do now?" the fly pondered this for a moment before answering "Well I have no other choice than to run away, since the others will be able to tell that I am no longer on of them. So they might torture me to find out how I escaped then probably just eat my soul." Nort couldn't help but feel sorry for the fly, but before he could offer his assistance the door to the shop flew open and another one of those fruit fly-like Aliens waltzed in hollering "EY RUNT YOU GOT SOME OF THE GOOD STUFF LEFT?"

  At first Nort just thought that this was just a rowdy customer here to get his fix, but when he looked at the fly behind the counter and saw he blind panic in his eyes he knew that it was another demon. However before he could do anything he felt a familiar hand touch his shoulder and heard Alex say "Don't worry I got this." before he sprinted forwards as fast as he could only stopping when he was right next to the demon then he turned to face Nort and said "Hi I am Alex. This is my show. I eat the demon." Said demon didn't even get a chance to react, before Alex somehow pulled him out of its host and the swallowed it whole so fast that all Nort saw of it was the head of the demon being crushed by Alexs jaws for a fraction of a second, then it was over. Both Nort and the fly couldn't help but stare at Alex in pure horror, before Nort managed to pull himself together enough to ask "How did you do that?" Alex just put on the dumbest face he could before he answered "I don't knnnoooowww." clearly trying to sound as dumb as possible, as the soul of the other fly flew out of his mouth and into their body, causing Nort to just shake his head before he said "I should have known." He then turned around and addressed both of the aliens "Alright you two you are in luck, because I know how to get some tickets for a ship heading towards, what the Galactic Union calls, human territory tomorrow. You know the place this demon eating fellow is from so you should be safe there, at least way more than if you stayed in the Union." Seemingly surprised by what Nort had said, both of the flies got on their knees and started to bow to him, thanking him as well as promising rewards all the while. But Nort simply waved them of and told them "Just be at our hotel tomorrow morning and be on time or you will be left behind." before he headed towards the shop door with Alex in tow.

  Once outside they both headed back towards their hotel. They didn't talk the entire way, but once they were in their room and Nort had sat down on one of the beds Alex asked "So what now?" Nort just sighed and then said "I don't knnnoooowww." trying his best to imitate Alex back when he had eaten the demon right in front of him. Alex just smiled at that and then said "Well I got a plan." Nort just raised an eyebrow at that, before he asked "Really Alex a cunning and subtle one?" Alex just smiled and said "Yes" causing Nort to ask "As cunning as a fox who has just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University?" a smile slowly spreading across his face, mirrored by Alex as he answered "Yep" Nort just shook his head as he said "Well it can't be worse than my plan to escape all this by pretending to be mad, with all you humans around who would have even noticed another madman in your corner of the galaxy?" causing both of them to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all, after which Alex cleared his throat before giving Nort the sales pitch for his idea "Alright we form a secret organisation to hunt down the demons." Nort had expected something like that, because he knew Alex. So he just tried to give as little of a reaction as possible while signaling his friend to continue. "Ok so first of all finances. For that we could probably go to the leaders of any of the human nations or maybe all of them, since none of them probably want the Galactic Union to be controlled by demons from another dimension that feast on souls and suffering, even if they haven't influenced the Union yet. After all, just because they haven't done that yet doesn't mean that they won't do it if it benefits them. Besides that I guess they would also like the manpower and knowledge the people we would have to get out of the Galactic Union would bring along. Also I don't think we would have to worry about being discovered after all if the demons managed to trick everybody in the Galactic Union for this long, then I think we can pull it off too. Sure the demons are another matter but they have never been threatened by pretty much anything in thousands of years, especially not by someone that can tell who is possessed and who isn't, so we just have to hit them fast and hard enough before so that they can't react. Anyways, what do you think so far?" Nort thought about it for a moment. It was definitely not the best plan, but it definitely wasn't the worst either. So he just said "Let's just tell your government about this, after all if those two aliens show up we have at least some witnesses and then take it from there." Alex didn't seem too happy about this but didn't argue, so Nort just had to tease him a bit "What you wanted to play secret agent that much?" which Alex countered by saying "Oh come on you know you wanted to do the same."

  Nort couldn't deny that so he just raised his hands in surrender and said "You got me." before he put on the demon detection sunglasses Alex had given him and asked "Anyways Agent A you wanna go gather some more evidence in case our two witnesses are a no show?" which put a wide smile on Alex face as he pulled a matching pair of sunglasses out of his backpack and said "Sure partner lead the way." Then they both walked out of their hotel room and together towards a uncertain future.