Trick 154: Punishing Sinners can be fun!

Ace was standing in a new Realm, smiling happily with his hands on his hips as he looked at the endless wasteland.

Peggy, Thanos, and Mezorak stood behind him, Vanessa jumped around and shouted "Yay! I can be your receptionist! Woohoo! What's a receptionist! I'm so excited!"

Ace rubbed her head and smiled happily "You'll see! But first! It's a bit dreary…" he clenched a fist in the air, a blindingly bright purple light surrounded it as he punched the ground.

The entire realm started changing as Ace's figure morphed due to him using his power.

His head turned into a skull and long curled horns grew out of his forehead. His cloak covered the rest of his body and big white wings sprouted from his back.

He still seemed to emote like a normal person turning around and saying "Cool, right?!" The three looked at the endless grassland with clear blue skies and nodded, "Very nice."

Peggy smiled, "Very calming." Thanos smiled softly, agreeing "And comforting." Vanessa rolled around on the grass, asking "What is this?! So nice!"

Mezorak crossed his arms and frowned "Isn't it supposed to be where you go when you die? It's a place of torture, right?" Ace chuckled and his skeletal head clacked around, saying "There's all kinds of different methods of Torture. Mental torture is quite effective!"

Suddenly, a soul landed on the grass and looked around saying "What the hell?!" Ace looked at him and grinned "Hello sinner! Welcome to Hell!" Vanessa hugged Ace's arm and said "He's a really bad guy!"

Ace patted her arm and the soul looked at him, saying in shock "God?!" Ace turned and gave his three friends a thumbs up, they rolled their eyes at him and Ace turned back saying "Mhm! That's me! Do you have any questions?"

The man seemed to be in shock, saying "I didn't know there was a Hell!" Ace nodded and grabbed the man's chest, pulling a list out as he said "I see! Well, you tested it, killing 981 people in several bombings all across the planet. Well done! Unfortunately, you didn't go poof! But ended up here instead, where you'll be tortured for 981 years! Oh! By the way, time works differently here. On your planet 1 year is equal to…"

He looked at his watch for a moment before adding "100 years here! So your punishment will be for 98,100 years! Hope to see a change of heart by then! Off you go!"

The man was stunned silly before being hung from a tree in a cocoon with his face exposed as a bunch of plants bloomed under him, faces appeared on them as they started singing happily.

Peggy was confused and asked "This is the punishment?" Ace turned to them and smiled "He can't sleep, move, eat, or close his eyes. The plants will never stop. He will endure 98,100 years of that, you tell me."

Thanos, Mezorak, and Peggy looked at the singing plants and imagined it before shivering.

Vanessa clapped along with the plants, just happy to be here.

Ace grabbed everyone and flew off, saying "Let's go make a city!"

And slowly time passed just like that.

Yao came to relax in Ace's realm a week after the torture on that guy started and Ace had been learning with her since.

It was the 50th year that Ace came to the Death Realm.

He sat on a bench and ate some ice cream, smiling happily.

He was sitting in the first city, the one with a massive white castle in the middle of it.

Ace decided to make a world in his Realm. Then when his friends died, they could come here! That would be nice!

There was even an economy based on Soul Coins.

And people made things, farmed, worked, etc.

It was a whole working world with all the fixings.

However, only the lighter souls were allowed to live in and around the cities. The sinners' souls ended up in tortures and punishments unimaginable to even the cruelest evil doer!

The singing flower torture

A person asking you something over and over until you answer and then interrupting you immediately over and over again

Working retail with endless customers coming back to return items without bathroom breaks

A little girl crying in front of you for not playing with her for eternity

And even…

In the most extreme of cases!

Your childhood friend telling you that she loves you but it won't work out because she had to move out of town.

Truly Cruel!

Imaginable pain was swept around the sinners!

The other souls wouldn't even approach the place in fear, there were always screams or loud crying somewhere near there…

It sounded like a bad time.

Anyway!

Ace was walking the streets, having made everything accessible. He even created cable TV! Of course, almost all the channels were fabrications of his imagination, but some were Lucifer making movies with his friends.

There was even a channel called 'Hela's Hel' where Hela would show you Hel and all the people she had in there along with Fenris, who played a dog…

It was very original…

Reminded Ace of a sitcom!

As he walked around, he felt something and disappeared, reappearing in Death's hall, sitting on a table.

He put the Ice cream in his mouth and said "I want her." Death said "No." Ace repeated "I want her." Death looked at him and he smiled "Ice cream?" she looked at the ice cream and hesitated before finally saying "Okay."

Ace gave her his ice cream and looked at her expectantly. She waved and obliterated the ice cream, looking at Ace, who pouted, making another ice cream for her.

Ace turned to Natasha and smiled "Welcome to Hell!" Natasha looked at him, dumbfounded as she said "What- What happened to you?!"

Ace chuckled and tilted his skull head, in his Death God form, as he clacked his jaws, "Whatever do you mean, Natasha Romanoff? I'm the God of Death!" Death licked her ice cream and looked at him as he corrected "I am one of, under the majesty of the Mistress, Gods of Death."

Death looked back at the ice cream and Ace appeared next to Natasha, grabbing her as his wings flapped and he disappeared in an instant, returning to his realm.

Ace landed in his castle and let Natasha go, saying "Cool, right!?" as his form dissipated, returning to his original appearance. Natasha looked at him and said "That's what you look like?! Wait! You're the one from Peggy's funeral! I knew you were suspicious!"

Ace's lips twitched and he said "You just caught up? Anyway, listen, I have a deal for you." Natasha took a step back and said warily "Just like the devil…" Ace's eyes twitched and he said "Do you want to go back to the world of the living or not?!"

Natasha froze and asked "You can do that?!" Ace nodded and asked "How did you die anyway?" Natasha replied "Oh! I jumped off the cliff on Vormir for the Soul Stone." Ace was stunned and asked "Vormir? Where the fuck is that?"

Natasha looked around and laid on a throne with her legs on the armrest, replying "Space. Also, you wanna hear something crazy? I got emails from a racoon!"

Ace was stunned and said "A racoon???" Natasha nodded and repeated "A racoon! Honestly, the craziest thing I've ever experienced! Hands down." Ace sat on her and hummed "That's pretty strange, but I fought around 800,000 aliens for almost 15 years."

Natasha looked at him, stunned as she said "What?" Ace leaned back on the throne and waved his legs, saying "Well, there was a tournament to become a God of Death for those who qualified. And so I went and won. Now you're in my realm, one of the highest realms of Death there is. The only higher one is that bastard Mephisto's and the Mistress'..."

He turned to Natasha and said "Speaking of outrageously beautiful women, where's Sharon? Are my kids smarter yet?" Natasha looked at him and her lips twitched as she replied "She's… missing. They all are. Where's everyone else?"

Ace sighed and replied "When you get snapped, you go to the Soul Dimension inside the Soul Stone. You don't end up here. But just like here, you don't age anymore so~" Natasha snapped her fingers and said "Huh! By the way! We went back in time to get the Stones before Thanos and snap everyone back."

Ace was stunned and looked at her, saying "Holy! What?! Wow! You're gonna make Mistress Death very happy… All those lost Souls will come back and funnel into the Realms of Death, I'm sure she would kiss you if she wasn't so cold." Natasha pursed her lips, asking "Yeah, what's with that?"

Ace shrugged and replied "Dunno! She's basically the embodiment of Death so can she have emotions? I'm not sure really. Maybe though! Anyway, what have you been up to?" Natasha waved her hand replying "You know, the usual. Half the Universe disappeared so we've been dealing with it. It's really tiring being the Head of the Avengers… You?"

Ace tilted his head side to side, saying "Well, managing my realm, you know. Punishing Sinners for their crimes, the usual. Though, sometimes I go out for ice cream." Natasha asked "There's ice cream here?"

Ace scratched his neck and replied "Well, not really. But there's devils and demons, some of them produce like a soul milk thing? It sounds weird but it tastes really good! So I figured out how to make ice cream… I have a whole world down here, it's really cool! There's even TV! Internet too! It's just… there's nothing to do really so… the internet is a bit dry… Maybe Tony will die soon and help."

Natasha's lips twitched and she replied "You're waiting for us to die so you can make internet games?" Ace frowned and muttered "Well, when you put it that way… It sounds bad… But I can go back whenever."

Natasha was stunned and said "What? Wait! Really?? And you HAVEN'T???" Ace nodded and said "I've been studying Death Magic, really cool! You can summon all sorts of demons, create a domain in the real world, kill plants, it's fun! You wanna see some sinners?"

Natasha looked at him for a moment before saying "Okay."

Ace showed Natasha around the city and then went to the Sinner's Garden.

Countless sinners were strung up with different punishments, they saw Ace and shouted "MERCY! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! PLEASE! GOD HAVE MERCY!" Ace chuckled and gave them fingerguns, saying "No can do, fellas! You're despicable! Haha! Good times!" before bringing Natasha past them, showing the different techniques.

Natasha was stunned and said "How evil!" Ace nodded proudly saying "Painful Torture techniques are really boring and cruel, so I came up with these. I think these are worse. Look."

She looked over to see a man beam at the sight of a girl, saying "Roxanne! You're back! I love you!" the girl sighed sadly "I love you too… It's just my cat passed away and these streets remind me of him… I'm sorry, my love. I'm leaving this city. I'm following my dreams! I'll hold you forever in my heart…"

Before reaching out her hand to the man, dissipating just before touching him as she sighed "I must go, my love…" The man went ballistic shouting "ROXANNE! NO! NOT AGAIN! WHY, GOD, WHY!?" as Roxanne disappeared, leaving a single teardrop.

Natasha was stunned and turned to see Ace wiping a tear from his eye, clapping "Indeed, why must it be so!" Natasha rubbed her eyes and felt that if she stayed here any longer she would start getting more idiotic…

She asked "So going back… What's the deal?" Ace's eyes lit up and he forgot about Roxanne, snapping his fingers as they returned to the throne room. He clapped his hands and pulled them apart, revealing a scroll as he said "This is a contract. Your soul already belongs to me so you can't sign it away. The main point is, you will become my Ghost Rider, punishing sinners on Earth."

Natasha asked in confusion "Ghost Rider?" Ace nodded and said "Flaming skeleton, driving around at night, punishing sinners, you know Ghost Rider stuff. Listen, I already have 2 in the Universe, you'll be on Earth. If you see Evil, you'll send them to me, basically… Well not to me because I'm gonna go back to Earth too! But you know, send them here."

Natasha asked strangely "If you go to Earth…" Ace waved, "I have someone to take care of things. Plus, I already set up a thing. As soon as a sinner comes here, they go to the Sinner's Garden. If it's a normal soul, they go to the city. I'm very efficient. Not like that loser, Mephisto! He's always on earth trying to tempt some people and steal souls, even his own Ghost Rider rebelled against him! Hahahah!"

Ace laughed and added "Imagine that! What a LOSER! HAHAHAHA!" Natasha's lips twitched and she smoothed out her eyebrows, saying "Okay, what do I have to do." Ace grabbed a feather quill out of thin air and said "Sign here, please!"

Natasha signed and Ace closed the scroll laughing evilly "You've been tricked mortal ahahahhaha!" Natasha looked at him flatly and Ace paused, frowning "Hello?" she rolled her eyes and said "Shut up, man… You're so bad at lying it's unbelievable."

Ace was stunned and said worriedly "I'm not really, right? You're just saying that? Right? I lied to Sharon a few times, do you think she knows?!" Natasha laughed and shook her head, saying "No, no, I was just kidding!"

Ace let out a breath and said "Thank god… I really thought- phew!" as he wiped his forehead. Natasha rolled her eyes and Ace looked at her, waving as she grew younger by 10 or so years.

He nodded and smiled "Much better! You look better this way, you looked old as fuck before." Natasha glared at him and he chuckled before a rainbow colored glow covered him.

He was stunned and said "Hey! What do you know! They want me to return to Earth." Natasha looked at the glow and asked "They did the snap! Good." Ace hummed to himself and grabbed Natasha before blinking out of the castle.

He returned to Death and said "I know what I want to wish for!" Death looked at him and he said "But I want two wishes!" Death blinked slowly and Ace pushed Natasha forward saying "She and my friends brought back everyone who was in the Soul Stone."

Death paused and looked at Natasha, before saying "Very well." Ace said "I want her to return to life." Natasha was touched and Death nodded, Ace added "Also, I want my Ghost Rider count increased to 10."

Death said "You get 5." Ace pouted and said "I have ice cream?" she paused and said "7." Ace retorted "8!" Death nodded "Okay." while stretching out her hand. Ace handed her a barrel of Ice cream and she waved them off.

Ace dragged Natasha away, grinning "Heh! Works every time!" Natasha was a bit overwhelmed and Ace looked at her, smiling "Ready to go back?" she replied "Well… I guess…" Ace nodded, "Good!" before he hugged her, transforming into his Death God form and flapping his wings, shooting off into the sky and evaporating into nothingness.