At the pinnacle of Caiaphas Industries, where the glittering foam of the sea shone like stars against the crystal dome protecting the futuristic city from the crushing onslaught of the oceanic abyss, Leviathan had continued leveling the playing field by expanding his rapidly advancing technological knowledge toward the energy grids across all of Sloth. The ancient deity had finished his construction of a new power core model, one that could black out the entire city, when the lights began to flicker.
The light fixture's shine burst and sparked before plunging the tower into a dark, disorderly chaos. Leviathan, piloting Morpheus' mechanical suit, paused his work with a snarl, turning his attention to the lighting above. "That accursed ghost!" He roared, striking the table with his fist hard enough to power through the frame of the furniture, shattering the large table into splinters of metal. Morpheus' possessed shoulders rose and fell as the edges of his steel black armor glowed brighter sparks of silver.
"Fine then! I'll drag this little girl out into a fight, specter against spectral idiocy!" Leviathan stormed out of the room, leaving a possessed Cynthia to maintain the reboot protocol for the power grid. Leviathan flexed Morpheus' freed fingertips, clenching his fists tight while blinking lights from the suit's combat programs fired to life. Emerald green waves of energy bathed the black hallways of the tower as Leviathan stormed downward to the central platform above the foundation's chandelier walkways.
As Leviathan glared down the open space of the tower's interior, a shimmering, window-walled structure of walkways and platforms lined with books, manuscripts and educational journals from interns and professors in Sloth's mechanically advanced society, his mind flashed with enraged, guiltless enthusiasm. "These halls are empty, the scientists and professors are still recovering from their brainwashed trauma. And though a cruel and inhumane tyrant I confess to be, I am a cruel and inhumane tyrant to my subjects as they live."
Leviathan rapidly inserted codes and numbers into his right gauntlet. The doors in every building, space and room in Caiaphas Industries slammed shut, locking tight behind steel reinforced technology. "These souls will make excellent psychic batteries for my unrivaled mental capacity." But Leviathan did not stop pressing buttons and flipping digital switches. "For my next magic trick," he growled, swiping to a button that flashed from green to a deep orange in the light of his mask, "I'll set up a well-deserved fire drill." Torrents of fire screamed from the pillars on the walls, igniting on preset defense protocols turned maverick at the command of the eldritch god.
Leviathan growled through Morpheus' deep black breathing apparatus. "If I cannot progress through the technological regression I have tried to bring about, then I will convert these flesh bags into my own psychic conductor and shatter all of Hell with the psychic force I have collected between my fingertips!" While Leviathan clasped the Lord of Sloth's puppeteered gauntlets behind his back, the fangs on his mask turned in soured rage when a voice shouted above the roaring coastal barbecue in progress. "LEVIATHAN!!" Hundreds of feet below the platform at the top of the tower, E-102 stood with her hands raised and the Sin Hunter's bolt pistol pointed at the armored Demon.
"Turn off the flame turrets now!" She shouted. But the corrupted Lord of Sloth twisted his neck in a full rotation, cracking bones and joints all throughout the possessed form of Morpheus. "You. The shivering, whimpering creature that dared to stand in my way? Impossible! I should have wiped you out the moment I first saw you in this puppet's cranial cavity!" Eleanor laughed, transforming the folded fingers of her right hand into a rotating ion shield that engulfed her fragile but mighty form.
"Well go ahead! You've waited this long for it, now come and get it!" With an explosion that shook the heavens and a force that shattered the floor, the emerald enforced Lord of Sloth slammed into the floor in front of the tiny robot, the green lights powering on while bony fangs jutted from a broken, chaos warped helmet. Leviathan raised the outer curve of his fish hook with E-102, twisting the edge of the tool. "I will cherish every moment of this." E-102 laughed, smaller rocket pods exploding on her back as she pushed the corrupted Tyrant backward. "Oh, you better enjoy it," she retorted, swinging forward with an ear splitting crack against Leviathan's blade.
High above the large digital chandelier, E-102 soared through the woven fabric of digital data, firing at the corrupted Tyrant of Technology. Like the robes of their savage facade, Morpheus' black cape flashed in the flickering orange light of the flames while Leviathan powered forward, using the Lord of Sloth's large fish hook to clash against the ion shields of the smaller robot. E-102 retorted by clamping a visor over the lower half of her screen, pushing up into the air. Leviathan spiraled around in a stunned flash of rage while E-102 summoned rocket pods, missiles and lasers from her mech suit, firing everything she had toward the armor.
E-102 backed away, using the digitally composed chandelier to her advantage to swerve around and dodge the much larger machine god. However, when Leviathan finally seized E-102, slamming the machine tight against the rim of the chandelier and dragging her battered exterior across the rivets of the steel frame, powerful tendrils snapped out of the glass crystals, ensnaring the corrupted Tyrant's gauntlet before Leviathan could raise it to strike down at the robot. "Engh! What is this?!" He roared, but when the Lord of Sloth turned to face the music, powerful sonic cannons exploded against his shell as Verne slammed headfirst into his corrupted father.
Leviathan tumbled backward, his power pack catching the robed psyker in the air while nasty green foam bubbled at the edges of his helmet, the emerald green lenses of the black and silver armor set flashing a psychically charged green at the sight of the three children. "What madness is this?!" Leviathan shouted, but Franklin flew down next, latching firm against his father's chest and striking the helmet with all four of his mechanical arms. "Hang on tight Dad! We're getting you back online!"
Leviathan roared with a volcanic rage as he spun the disconnected torso of his power suit clockwise, throwing Franklin across the air into the arms of E-102 as Verne slammed into his armor again. This time, the emerald lights sparked and shuddered with static, blinking white lights. From Leviathan's perspective, tucked inside the shaking mind of Morpheus, its jutting fangs curled into erupting fits of anger. "No no NO!! You stupid cephalopod squibs are ruining everything!!" As Leviathan pressed its sleeves against the makeshift controls of the cerebral control system, the emerald lights flashed to life in brighter bursts.
The hunched, sweating form of the glowing anglerfish Demon poured out into the control window of the Lord of Sloth's mind, its large, glassy eyes sparking with quaking volts of green psychic energy. "I've had ENOUGH OF THIS!! I'm shutting these brats down for good! Surely there's something here that turns off their armor..." As Leviathan pressed buttons and jerked at the psychic tendrils granting it control of Morpheus' mind, the shackled Lord of Sloth watched from afar, his eyes wide with fear. 'My children," he whispered, his tentacled beard curling into boiling beige wisps of defensive smoke.
Outside in the battle, Verne and Franklin both slid across the plexiglass walkway, helping a battle damaged E-102 to her feet. Franklin's servo-arms flashed with waves of light, scanning the hovering figure of their corrupted father. "It looks like Leviathan's prepping some kind of massive psychic overhaul!" he shouted. E-102 turned her blocky screen face to the young cephalopod, blinking in a startled shock. "What does that mean?!" she asked. Verne clamped his plasma gloves tight against the handrail, lifting himself onto the ledge for another power slam from his rockets.
"It means Leviathan's trying to tear this tower down with his mind! And we can't let him get that done!" Verne charged into the air, flinging himself forward with a rocket fist straight at his corrupted father's chest. But halfway through the air, his arms and legs grew heavier and heavier, and the thrusters of his rocket pack switched off mid flight. "What the hell?!" he screamed, plummeting to the ground hundreds of feet below. As E-102 dove after Verne, Franklin snatched a laser gun from his hip before his own suit powered down, becoming heavier to lift.
In the air above the trembling Demon Prince, Leviathan swirled with the warped frame of its robes spilling over Morpheus' steel black armor, neon green lightning filling the blacked out laboratory tower. "Take that shot, little imp. Watch what happens when I return that gesture ten thousand fold with pure psychic focus." Franklin clamped his teeth tight against his thin tentacled mustache, his beaded eyes narrowing. "You're not my dad," he retorted. The black and green twisted Morpheus cackled, the tusks of his breathing apparatus raised and glistening in the darkness as wisps of green smoke floated from his ancient robes.
"You're right. I'm not," Leviathan replied, its voice harsh and crackling with foaming static, "I'm so, SO much worse."
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Double or Nothing: One in a Million
БоевикArmed with a steeled confidence and a fresh magazine of allies on all sides, the Sin Hunter takes flight with his team of Hellish assassins and surgeons to send personal regards and aid to the Lords and Ladies of Hell before their kingdoms are crush...
