it could’ve been ten
@cagedindarkness
After dropping 'the kids' off in Pennsylvania to retrieve Michael's blade from Lucifer's vaults, Stark had made a quick trip to Vidocq for the necessary potion, then to accessorize for the following trip Downtown. Sneaking has never been one of his better skills. It's no surprise that he drew the notice of a few guards when he stepped out of the Room and into the royal kennels beneath Lucifer's palace (now inhabited by the usurper Crowley, of course) in Pandemonium. Rather pleased than distressed to have an excuse to slaughter a few Hellions, the nephilim dispatches of them quickly enough to give him a new disgust for Crowley's pathetic followers, only acquiring a few negligible wounds himself. Then it's a matter of feeding some Hellhounds the mind-fuck potion, mixed with something to knock them out for a while, mixed with the entrails from the guards he took out. Once the hounds are incapacitated, Stark awkwardly hefts one over each shoulder and finds an appropriate shadow to head back Upstairs. The bunker they've found to establish as command central for Lucifer's war against his brother is nicely sited in a very unpopulated area. They haven't finished putting up all the wards and protection spells it will need yet, but there are enough that Stark isn't able to enter directly. Instead he has to leave the Room some ways outside and walk to the concealed entrance, wait for the spell to acknowledge him and let him in. Once inside, he paces to the main room, half-kneeling to lower the unconscious Hellhounds to the floor (and not at all noticing or caring about the trail of blood dripping from his drenched coat). He can sense that Lucifer is in residence, so rather than going searching he calls out: "Luce! I got the hounds, come here!" As is typical, Stark thinks nothing of addressing the second-most powerful being in the universe so brusquely.