Impulse slowly woke up in a dark room, sitting upright in a chair. He tried to move his hands to rub his eyes, but they were tied behind his back with what felt like rope. So were his legs. He swivelled his head around frantically, eyes spotting the form of Zedaph sitting on a similar chair beside him, head lolled forward. Impulse tried to yell out, but there was some sort of duct tape over his mouth.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he managed to see he was surrounding by stone brick walls, with no obvious entrance or exit. He was positioned near the middle of the room, him and Zedaph on either side of the centre point. There was a faint light permeating the room, with seemingly no origin point. It smelt faintly of smoke, despite being nearly freezing. It had to be underground somewhere. That was the extent of what he could deduct. All he could do was wait.

-=+=-

Impulse watched as Zedaph opened his eyes, going through the same motions he did when he first woke up. Their eyes met, Zed's wide with fear. His jaw twitched as if he was trying to speak, but whatever tape was over their mouths seemed to stop any sound from being released. Eventually, Zed's struggling stopped as he gave up as well. Hopefully someone would find them.

-=+=-

Impulse closed his eyes as a bright orange light surrounded the room. The normally cold room was flooded by fiery heat, cocooning around his body. It felt like his skin had burst into flames. He gritted his teeth as the light and heat reduced to only mildly uncomfortable, and opened his eyes.

Tango was standing there, but instead of his usual silhouette he had two bat like wings spread out. A scale tail swept behind him, two pointy horns jutting out of his head. His eyes glowed red as he regained his posture and laughed a demonic laugh.

"Now, you two are probably wondering why you are here" he said, voice almost an animalistic growl.

Without waiting for an answer he continued. "The demons are in need of some more recruits. Of course, I thought of you two. Easy pickings."

Zed and Impulse looked at each other in fear. Tango walked up to Impulse and leant down to put his scaled face near Impulse's.

"Just stay still." he spoke, showing off his sharp teeth and forked tongue.

Impulse felt like he was being pulled forward into the red void of the demon's eyes, his skin heating up to unbearable levels. Red magic swirled around his body, making him feel dizzy and nauseated. A rush of adrenaline melded with the magic flooding his veins, allowing him to break out of his bindings, leaving the chair to collapse on the ground. Tango stepped back calmly, watching with muted expression.

Impulse's vision swam red and his field of view narrowed as his pupils turned red and slitted, pain sprouting around his body as red scales pushed their way through his skin. Teeth shifted to become more similar to a carnivore, sharp and pointed. Two wings exploded out of his back, ripping two holes out of his shirt drenched with sweat. A tail appeared out the base of his spine, fingers curving and melding with fingernails to become red tinged claws. He turned to see Zed looking at him shocked, breathing heavy.

Impulse screeched as the magic entered his brain and heart, and the final shifts took place. Two sets of horns pushed out from his head, displacing his hair. His tongue forked, and two clawed feet tore the front of his sandals. The scream cut off as he stood up straight, blood dripping from the sudden new limbs. He smiled at Tango, and turned to Zedaph.

Tears started rolling down Zedaph cheeks as the two stepped closer, fangs bared in a grotesque grin. Zed struggled some more, closing his eyes as if that would keep the demons from hurting him.

"There there Zed, we wouldn't hurt you without good reason" Impulse said sweetly, a weak attempt at reassurance from the growling voice.

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder, tightening it's grip, digging into his skin.

"Don't make this hard. Just open your eyes" Tango growled from in front of him.

Zed shook his head as the claws dug deeper, and stopped.

A purple light swept through the room, this one cooler than the heat from the orange light. Zedaph wanted to see what had happened, but he kept his eyes shut in case it was a trick.

"What are you doing? We had a truce!" A voice that sounded like Mumbo's yelled.

"Nothing says we can't recruit more of them! That's better for both of us!" Tango rebutted.

"Fine, but be we will tell them." Iskall snorted.

The purple flashed again, as he felt the demons walk back up to him.

"Now, where were we?"

Red magic surrounded his head, forcefully opening his eyelids. He couldn't help but stare into the hypnotic swirling red of Tango's eyes, and felt two horn burst out of just above his ears, curling around like a ram's. The chair was destroyed as wings grew, bindings snapped as he grew stronger. Zed roared and went to attack Impulse, running towards him as Tango simply forced some more magic to swirl around him. He drifted off to a world of pain and fire as he collapsed on the ground.

So, this chapters connects two of my existing storylines. Can you guess which ones?