Double Or Nothing: A Coin Flip Away

Accept No Bull

Morpheus' heavytread boots swept through the silver halls of his tower, followed by Winfrey holding a clipboard. "Okay," Winfrey sighed, rubbing his eyelids, "that was a detour around the factory, but the parts are being assembled and shipped by warp gate to Lucifer's garage. We should assemble them before Wrench returns from Greed." Morpheus folded his clicking steel gauntlets behind his back, nodding with approval. "Yes, and we must find our way back to Lucifer's mansion. I have a warp gate in my office, but time is running out."

Winfrey nodded, fixing his glasses on his face. "Lord Morpheus, are you worried about your old assistants?" Morpheus shifted his tentacled beard down to Winfrey, shaking his head. "Worried? Worried about a shapeshifter and a spectral transcendent? I would hope not." Winfrey scratched his sleeve as the two entered a large elevator off the large tower foyer. As the doors slid shut, Winfrey tapped his hoof. "Well, Missus Florence has a bedridden daughter and more family in the Living World. I just wish she wouldn't hurt more than now." While the ping of the elevator rose higher, Morpheus cleared his bubbling throat.

"Juliet Florence. Mortal at seventeen, alive after a sniper shot to her gut. She's got much of her father's resilience beneath her fedora." Winfrey chuckled, exhaling. "Yes, you're right. But if you're also right about Jack-" "Which I believe," Morpheus frowned, "I am," for Winfrey to continue, "then Jules will have a rough upbringing as the new Sin Hunter." The Lord of Sloth pursed his watery lips, patting Winfrey with his fingertip. "We mourn what will be lost and mind what will remain, Winfrey. That is how we survive this nightmare."

Although Morpheus and Winfrey entered the elevator in orderly silence, a loud explosion brought dust scattering on the floor, disrupting the facility's ambience. Morpheus shielded Winfrey under his arm, leaping out of the elevator shaft. Overlooking the floors below the tower, Morpheus' steel blue eyes narrowed in sparks of pulsing diamond plasma. Swarms of reds, blacks and grays flooded the lower floors of the tower in a bloody mess as shotguns rang with the autonomous screams of its inhabitants.

Winfrey swallowed back his fear, but Morpheus pulled his hat low, hooking it to his mask while glowing blue fusion hooks exploded from his wrists. Winfrey snapped up to Morpheus, whose leg planted on the handrail. "Morpheus, what are you doing?! Those terrorists will kill everyone in this-!!" "I refuse to let them die, dammit!! I'll find their source and slice off their bloody head at its stump!" Although Winfrey struggled to protest, the Titanic Tyrant of Technology swung from the balcony, powerful plasma cannons protruding from his back plating.

A group of scientists with plasma rifles had backed up into the stairwell as bloodied terrorists of Sinner and Demon alike surged forward. In one blinding flash, however, the scientists were standing behind the large navy cloak of their king. Morpheus, his fusion blade hooks at his sides like claws from a wolverine, bellowed a roar of abyssal rage, sweeping through the hordes of reds and grays as bullets and grenades bounced harmlessly from his shell. "Which of you parasites broke through my barricades?! I DEMAND TO KNOW!!"

A smooth voice echoed from behind the steaming Lord of Sloth. "Sheesh, pal. Calm down, it was a joke." Morpheus spun with his blades glittering, sparking blue plasma flaking from his arms. In his optic lenses, the slim outline of an Overlord stood before him, propped on a sword stick with snapping claws. "You." He snarled. The Overlord kicked off from his perch, striding around the Lord of Sloth with a grin. "I'm here on business, sir. I know The Sin Hunter has already been here, and he's convinced you not to speak to me as a friend, but as an enemy."

Wasting no time, a scream of sonic-fused plasma ripped at The Crimson Stripe. In flashes of blue, Morpheus cleaved through the Overlord's furious roars of shock and confusion. Not accustomed to this savagery, The Stripe became fearful of this anger, sweeping into a new stance. Reforming his bloody body behind the Lord of Sloth, he screamed through a stitched mouth of scars and blood, slashing at the Tyrant's cloak. But as The Crimson Stripe shredded through the cloak, revealing emptiness beneath, his arms shrieked in boiling, writhing agony.

Morpheus slashed the Overlord's arms apart, burning their stumps short. As The Stripe staggered, flexing his limbs, his expression snapped from anger to rigid shock. "M-my limbs," he hissed, "why aren't they growing back?!" With one last blow, Morpheus slammed his fist into the Overlord's face, splattering The Crimson Stripe in a pulpy mess against the wall. Terrorists gripped their weapons with quaking hands as the Lord of Sloth cracked his knuckles, wiping blood from his eyelids. "So," he faced the crowd of trembling terrorists, "who's next?"

The horde screamed with Sinners climbing over themselves to escape the building, but Morpheus curled his arm into an ion cannon, evaporating everything with one blast. As The Crimson Stripe slumped over from his bloody puddle, he gawked at the hissing Lord of Sloth, unscathed by everything he threw at him. Morpheus turned with a snarl, his mechanical tentacles grinning. "What's wrong? Scared you finally met someone above your pay grade?" He chuckled. As The Crimson Stripe slithered away, Morpheus punted a biker's helmet off the balcony ledge.

"I'll come back. When I do..." The Stripe growled. Morpheus spat on the floor, replying, "I'll be waiting to trip you into a puddle of shame." As The Crimson Stripe shrank into a blip of red droplets, Morpheus turned to the scientists behind him. Kneeling, Morpheus said, "You are all safe. Alert the others that the threat has been dealt with." As the scientists rushed away, Morpheus turned to the elevator, sighing. "Alright, let's go find Winfrey."