"You fucking promised me the Disir, Loki!" Blackheart growled angrily as he jogged to keep pace with the trickster god. "I've been patient, but now it's time to pay up!"
Loki sneered. "I grow weary of your incessant whining. I merely asked if you would want the Disir, I never truly promised them to you. Precision, demon."
"Don't give me that cute word-play excuse," Blackheart hissed. "The intent of the conversation was clear."
"Intent holds little meaning," Loki argued. "You of all beings should know that. For do the damned truly intend to sin without end?"
"I sent the Enchantress to Hell and ripped her bodyguard to shreds," Blackheart reminded him. "I'm owed compensation! There will be Hell to pay if I don't get it!"
"You overstep your bounds!" Loki said as he stopped in the middle of the hall and rounded upon the demon. "Loki is a founding member of the Overtakers, a god, and a king! He is owed far more respect than the table scraps you have shown! Have a care. You are naught but a lowly creature of Hell. I could destroy you with a simple spell from one of my grimoires!"
"You're a snake, Loki," Blackheart said with a scowl, though he did not argue further.
The demon prince huffed and scurried off in the other direction. Loki massaged the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Insufferable fool," Loki grumbled under his breath. "How can I be blamed for his lack of attention to our deal? He expects good faith when Loki has none to give? Better he should expect a cat to leave a field mouse be."
"An understatement to be certain," Grimhilde said as she proceeded towards him.
"Queen Grimhilde, to what do I owe this honor?" Loki asked, putting on a façade of nicety.
"Spare me the pleasantries," Grimhilde said. "Your challenge to determine the Fairest One of All was naught but manipulation. I've since learned that you played the three of us against one another to fuel your own agenda!"
"And yet you came out the victor," Loki pointed out. "Orlais is yours and so too is the title of the fairest. Why then are you clucking over the contest's intent?"
"I do not appreciate being treated as a fool!" Grimhilde replied.
"Then do not act as one," Loki quipped.
Grimhilde gasped in outrage. "You dare?"
"I do," Loki said with a nod. "Now, if you had another reason to approach me other than to berate me for your own stupidity, let it be known. If not, then off with you!"
Grimhilde glared daggers at Loki and twirled her cape around before storming off. Loki sneered at the scorn his allies held for him. He was no stranger to such disdain, yet it never became more palatable. Loki proceeded into the small council chamber, where five of the other founding Overtakers had already gathered.
"Loki, you've arrived at last," Maleficent said as she waved him into the chamber.
"I was detained by your lesser Overtakers with their insufferable outrage," Loki replied.
"Perhaps if you did not involve my allies in your ridiculous games, you would be on time," Maleficent said with a condescending glare.
Loki resented Maleficent's words, but he kept his mouth shut. There was little use in starting an argument with her.
"Does Edgington not see fit to grace us with his presence?" Loki asked when he noticed that one of the Overtakers was not in attendance.
"He's too busy starting a war with Radiant Garden," Fish said disdainfully.
"Those of us present will suffice," Maleficent declared. "The journey to Olympus did not reveal the location of the final gem, yet we now know that the final altar will require this dragon egg to activate."
The egg sat situated in the center of the round table, glistening a dark shade of purple in the dim light.
"And what good does that do?" Doom asked. "If we know not where the door is located, why then do we concern ourselves with the key?"
"Keep your skirt on, Doomsy," Hades said. "We're gonna find it. We just need a little finagling first."
"I am entrusting you, Doctor Doom, with the egg," Maleficent said. "I would like for you to determine how much time we have until it hatches. If need be, I'd like for you to freeze it in time until we are ready."
"Easily doable," Doom remarked.
"Meanwhile, I have a lead that I would like to follow," Maleficent said. "A specter from the future possessing my magic has revealed to me that the time is nigh for my vengeance on Princess Aurora. That is why Hades and I will be leaving immediately for the Enchanted Dominion."
"So the rest of us are expected to patiently await the moment of our vengeance while you scurry off to gain your own?" Loki asked. "I see clearly whose ambitions hold priority."
"Do not be a fool," Maleficent said with a dismissive wave. "I only proceed down this path because of the possibility that it will lead to an important advancement in our plans. Trust me, Loki, I have no delusions that my endeavors should take priority above the rest."
"So you say," Loki grumbled.
"Meanwhile, the situation in Radiant Garden needs to be dealt with," Maleficent continued, ignoring Loki. "Ursula. Fish. I am entrusting you both with the task. I care not how you handle the situation. Kill everyone in the city if that is what is necessary, but ensure that my ability to reclaim Hollow Bastion is not lost!"
"We'll handle it," Ursula said with a nod, though Loki could tell that neither of the two women were looking forward to the task ahead of them.
"That leaves one final task at hand," Maleficent said. "We need to learn where the Eye of Cronus is hidden. There is little doubt in my mind that Zeus knows exactly where the gem is located, but to trick him into revealing it to us will require a masterful manipulation. I can think of only one suitable for this task."
Loki grinned confidently. "It will be my pleasure, Maleficent!"
"You misunderstand me, Loki," Maleficent said with a shake of her head. "This is not a task meant for you. Zeus's lust is well known, and Amora the Enchantress is most adept at manipulating lust. We cannot afford to lose so valuable an ally due to petty squabbles. Your task, Loki, is to retrieve her and make amends."
"I will not!" Loki spat.
"Do not allow your petty grievances to stand in the way of our goals," Maleficent replied. "You will do this, or you will not be granted a share of the universe once we have conquered it."
Loki bit his tongue and cracked his neck. Now was not the time to show his hand. Loki flashed Maleficent a smile as earnestly as possible.
"My apologies, m'lady," Loki said, though the words stung like a harsh drink.
"You have your tasks," Maleficent said, turning her attention back to the group at large. "If you require the aid of any of our other allies, recruit them as you see fit. Now off with you!"
Six Corridors of Darkness flashed, clearing the room at once.
Russell hadn't limited his jail break to just the Undertakers. As the Restoration Committee rushed to contain the break-out, they found Castle Town and the Burroughs under siege by the children of Echidna. The three headed hellhound Cerberus, the many headed Hydra, the fire-breathing Memnon, the invincible Nemean Lion, and the serpentine embodiment of Doubt itself were carving a path of destruction through the city. The damage done to homes and businesses was already extensive, and citizens were running about in utter panic as Radiant Gardeners unfortunate enough to be in the monsters' path became lunch. The Restoration Committee, by necessity, had to focus all of their efforts on protecting the town from the five furious monsters. Using the monsters as cover, the various Undertakers and other escaping prisoners slipped past the heroes easily. After all, what were escaping convicts compared to the catastrophic doom being brought down by the beasts?
One such escapee was Morgana the Sea Witch, sister to Ursula and one of Mozenrath's former allies. She slithered as far away as she could get from the castle. After how Mozenrath left her to rot in prison, she had very little interest in rejoining his faction. The sea witch figured that life would be much simpler returning to Atlantica permanently and laying low for a while.
"Hey sis! Goin' somewhere?" Ursula asked as she slithered into view.
Morgana gritted her teeth angrily. "Ursula. What an unpleasant surprise."
"You went turncoat on me," Ursula reminded her. "Turned on your own flesh and blood. Abandoned my team and joined that rotten little one-handed brat. That hurt."
"Mother's long gone, so I don't have to pretend not to loathe you any more, Ursie," Morgana sneered. "And, thanks to Mozenrath, my magic is stronger than ever. Strong enough to destroy you if I so choose. But I'm feeling generous tonight. Walk away and let me go free, and I'll let you live."
"You? Let me live? HA!" Ursula replied. "You never were very bright, were you? By the way, did you know the Overtakers have a charter?"
"How fascinating," Morgana replied in utter disinterest. "Are you getting to a point?"
"Maleficent didn't think we needed one," Ursula said as she summoned a golden scroll to her hands, "but I insisted. Wrote the charter up myself. It says, and I quote, 'All who willingly agree to ally with the Overtakers are subject to the authority of the Overtakers and the power of this charter, regardless of any knowledge thereof. The act of consenting to an alliance with the Overtakers will be considered consent enough to the will of the charter. Therefore, any backstabbing or treachery on the part of an ally is subject to the penalties of breach of contract, to be executed at the leadership's discretion.'"
"Fine, then sue me like a normal person," Morgana said. "I know a shark of a lawyer."
"Oh, dear Morgana, you should know me better than that," Ursula said with a devilish grin. "My contracts are always legal, binding, and completely unbreakable! And when Ursula executes her contracts, it's a real execution!"
The charter dissolved into a swirl of golden light, and it immediately engulfed Morgana. The sea witch screamed both in rage and in pain as she was reduced to a scraggly looking polyp. Ursula cackled wickedly as she scooped up Morgana and unceremoniously stuffed her into a bottle of salt water.
"That'll keep you from slipping away again," Ursula said with a smirk.
Sora sliced through two of the soldier Heartless that lunged towards him, causing them to dissolve into nothingness and for their captive hearts to float away into the ether. A snarling werewolf and hatchet wielding pirate ran down the cobblestone street towards Sora.
"Force!" Sora cried out as he cast a gravity spell over the assailants.
A large purple and black orb materialized over the two Undertakers, slamming them hard into the ground and knocking them both unconscious. Sora could see the destruction Hades's monsters were unleashing a few blocks further down. Leon and the others were already there, and, from the looks of things, they could use all the help they could get. Sora attempted to run further down the street when a bolt of lightning crashed directly in front of him. Sora barely managed to stumbled backwards to avoid a nasty jolt of electricity.
"Ain't so tough without your gang, are ya?" Electro taunted as he flew into view.
"My friends and I are together even when we're apart!" Sora cried out. "Not that I'd expect a loser like you to understand that."
"Aww, ya hurt my feeling," Electro taunted. "I only got the one of those!"
Electro hurled two new bolts of energy at Sora who only just managed to dodge roll out of the way of both of them. Sora drew his Keyblade and summoned up a water spell to neutralize Electro. However, before Sora had the chance to unleash the water on his opponent, something else swooped down out of the sky and carried Sora away into the atmosphere. Vulture flew straight upward, high above the rooftops of the city.
"There's a word we old aviators once said," Vulture taunted as he held Sora out in front of him. "GERONIMO!"
Vulture released his talons' grip on Sora and sent the boy tumbling back down towards the ground like a stone. As the ground got closer, Sora desperately wished that he had some pixie dust right about now. If he wanted to avoid becoming street pizza, he was going to have to get resourceful.
"WIND!" Sora called out as he summoned up an Aero spell to slow his descent and set him on a trajectory towards a building tower.
Sora dove toward it confidently, activating his flowmotion powers so that when he collided with the tower, he magically was able to cling to it and spring off of it towards another wall. However, as Sora clung to the second wall, it suddenly collapsed as Rhino barreled through it. As the once sturdy wall became a pile of debris, Sora only just barely managed to jump clear and tumble to the streets below. The impact hurt quite a bit, but Sora knew quite well that the pain meant he was still alive.
"Heal!" Sora called out as he cast a cure spell over himself, instantly freeing himself from the throbbing pain in his arm and leg.
Rhino continued his rampage without giving Sora a second thought, crashing through and toppling more buildings and homes along his way. Overhead, Sora spotted Vulture and Electro flying in the same direction as Rhino.
"Leon, guys," Sora said under his breath, "please hold on a little while, okay?"
Sora took a deep breath and ran after the Sinister Six.
Kingpin slammed his fist on top of his phone, shattering it into a million pieces. Steve Newlin, Fish, Alistair Smythe, and Mary Sanderson, along with Kingpin, were gathered around Steve's office in Villain's Vale, the news reports of the fiasco in town playing on the television in the background.
"What on earth was Edgington THINKING?" Kingpin roared. "His paltry acts of violence have jeopardized our long term projects!"
"I think that was the point," Steve said with a sigh.
"What did you do to him?" Fish asked angrily. "He was fine yesterday, and now he's gone postal. How the fuck does that happen?"
"I didn't do anything!" Steve argued.
"Bull. Shit," Fish replied.
"Perhaps everyone should form a calming circle?" Mary suggested.
"Shut up, I wanna hear this explanation," Fish snarled. "First this punk cut me out of my own scheme, and then he goes and botches the job. I wanna know how that happens."
"Russell and I have just... had a rough patch," Steve said. "Our date just turned into a fight over work, so I left him alone. I didn't think he'd go this fuckin' off the rails... I mean, yeah, he's gone this way before, but I didn't think that would set him off."
"Unbelievable," Fish said with a sigh. "Your relationship drama started a war. Fucking white people!"
"I can turn this around, alright?" Steve said. "We start floating the conspiracy theory that Russell was a plant to make us look bad before the election. I've already spent months gettin' in the public's heads over the prison. This just proves I was right all along. We can still make this work to our advantage!"
"The Restoration Committee is already in the streets fighting the Undertakers," Kingpin said. "The public is seeing them quite clearly play the hero and us the villain! We won't get the chance to spin this our way. We'll be run out of town like common vagabonds!"
"Thou couldst, perhaps, cast a spell of amnesia upon the lowly people of the city, and, lo, they shall forget all!" Mary suggested.
"We don't have that kind of magic ready," Fish pointed out, "and I don't trust you to make it. Even with Ursula in town containing the nonsense, we're not gonna be able to just reset back to our old plan!"
Silence hung over the five as they considered the situation. Everything was a complete and utter mess, and they all knew it. They needed a new plan and fast. Only one of the five had yet to speak up.
"What are you thinking, Smythe?" Kingpin asked after a moment.
"We still have the data for Operation Repose," Smythe said. "Though our original use for it is no longer applicable, the data could still be used to serve our purposes."
"T'is brilliant!" Mary declared. "Umm... what's Operation Repose?"
"The Chamber of Repose is a hidden room deep beneath the Hollow Bastion castle," Smythe relayed. "We learned from Demyx that Xemnas stored Aqua's armor there, but that the room itself was more than merely storage."
"Apparently Ansem invented it as something of a panic room," Steve continued. "A hidden chamber known only to him and his closest advisors where he could lock himself away and retain complete override control of the entire city. Not even the MCP could block a command given through the Repose system."
"We'd planned to use it to monitor and, if need be, alter the election results to ensure that everything proceeded in our favor," Kingpin jumped in. "We also planned to turn the Claymore defense system on the Restoration Committee, letting us come into power right as the committee's own arrogant system backfired and destroyed them!"
"Wait a minute," Fish said. "You're telling me that we have complete control of the entire city? How the Hell did you score that?"
"I have my ways," Steve answered vaguely.
"This... this could work," Fish said.
"What art thou planning Ms. Mooney?" Mary asked.
"Russell has created a situation where fixing things is out of the question," Fish answered with a devilish smirk. "So why not roll with it? We can't fight the friction, but we can ease it off!"
Maleficent and Hades leaned over the edge of the balcony in the audience chamber as the guests and nobles filed into the room bearing gifts and entourages.
"You sure we're invisible to them, babe?" Hades asked. "I can still see you, clear as day."
"My magic hides us from view to all who do not know we are here," Maleficent explained. "You and I can see one another because we are aware of each other's presence. The royal and noble guests are not so fortuitous."
"We go from a party with my hated rivals to a party with yours," Hades pointed. "Well aren't we just Mister and Missus Popularity? What kinda shindig are they throwin' down there."
"Those fools celebrate any occasion," Maleficent remarked. "It does not matter. My future self foretold an opportunity. We should keep a discerning eye upon the revelries."
The royal fanfare trumpets sounded off and a hush fell over the crowd.
"Their royal highnesses, King Phillip, Queen Aurora," the herald called out, "And the newborn princess."
Maleficent's eyes flashed with a mixture of rage and interest. "A daughter? Then this is to be her Christening?"
The priest began the sacrament in a process that Hades found tedious and entirely too devoid of ritualistic sacrifices to hold his interest. Maleficent, however, seemed to be enthralled.
"What name is given this child?" the priest asked.
"We have chosen to name our daughter after one of the four saintly daughters of King Anna of East Anglica," Aurora announced loud enough so that all who gathered could hear. "She shall be named Princess Audrey."
"Princess Audrey," Maleficent repeated with a sinister grin.
"You wanna, y'know, crash the party, Malef?" Hades asked. "Give 'em somethin' to remember you by? I mean, they didn't learn from their parents mistake. Where was your invitation to this Christening, am I right?"
"There are far more intriguing forces at work here," Maleficent remarked with a smirk. "Can you not see it? King Phillip and Queen Aurora broke my curse with the power of True Love, and the child is the product of that True Love, a child born of magic."
"Yeah? So?" Hades asked. "It's a hero kid born to blondie and the sword-happy bozo. The kid's gonna be indoctrinated into their twue wuv and happily ever after nonsense."
"Perhaps," Maleficent replied. "She could grow into a powerful hero capable of great good, but with the potential for that light also comes something else," Maleficent smiled devilishly as she paused for dramatic effect, "the potential for great darkness."
"Whoa, hold up, time out," Hades said as he made a 'T' symbol with his hands. "Just so we're on the same page here, are you talkin' about kidnapping the brat and taking her home with us? You do know babies poop a lot, right?"
"Bright lights cast dark shadows," Maleficent said with a wave of her hand. "Let her stay with the foolish king and queen. The pressures of adhering to the legacy of a Princess of Heart will crush the light inside of dear Princess Audrey. And that is when I shall have my revenge!"
"But that could take years," Hades said with slumped shoulders. "Do we really have to wait for a baby to grow up?"
Maleficent smiled as she produced the Fists of Might and Ability from her satchel and held them aloft so that they sparkled in the light pouring in from the stain glass windows.
"Fortunately, we have all the time in the universe."
Loki stormed into his chambers and poured himself a glass of wine. He hastily guzzled the drink, spilling a stream of wine down his chin. He wiped the dribble from his chin and angrily tossed the empty glass across the room.
"She scolds me as if I were a child," Loki ranted to himself, "demeans my abilities in favor of that harlot's and then expects me to act as her errand boy whilst she satisfies her own vengeance and neglects mine! How dare she treat Loki, the God of Evil himself, as if he were some lowly servant! Her allies are no better, whining that they were outwitted by a better man as if they did not enter the contest willingly. I've had just about enough of these... Overtakers!"
Loki grabbed his cape from the wardrobe and fastened it over his shoulders around the horned skull brooches sewn into his tunic. He quickly tucked away his important magical treasures into his satchel and hid the collection away in a pocket dimension for safe keeping. Loki flounced out the cape as he summoned up a Corridor of Darkness.
"I remained here at Victor's request," Loki said, "yet he saw fit to hide the truth about Imshael from me. So why should I bother to continue honoring his request? Why should the Liesmith be constrained by lopsided honor? Victor might see these fools as friends, but I have seen them for what they truly are. I will waste my time with them no longer. What need I for friendship? Loki has other plans with which to attend."
Loki proceeded through the dark portal without a single glance backwards. The time for such useless ties had passed, and there could be no regret on his new path. The portal vanished, leaving behind only an empty room and a broken cup.