Valentino sat in his office inside the porn studios, glowering at the television in front of him. He wasn't really paying attention to what was on the screen, his mind was still replaying the events that occurred at Flamegan's. Vox must've grown some huge balls to even think about addressing him in such a way. Well fortunately for him he wouldn't have to do that again. Valentino meant what he said, they were through for good this time; he knew Velvet would have his back so Vox can deal with being the solo V now. As he thought, he heard coughing underneath him.
Addressing it, he asked in a harsh voice, "Did I say you could stop?"
Looking down, he saw Angel between his legs, coughing and looking up at him with running mascara. He had been down there ever since Valentino returned, helping him "cool off". Of course Valentino wasn't really looking for pleasure, he just wanted someone he knew couldn't say no to him without consequences. Of which he reminded him.
Leaning down, he said, "Keep going. And watch your teeth. If I feel even a single poke, well, you know what'll happen."
Angel nodded weakly with a "Yes Mistah Valentino" before attending back to the moth. With a humph, he looked back up at the television to see it change into a special news broadcast. He rolled his eyes, not really interested in what was happening in Hell at the moment. As he picked up the remote to change the channel, he saw the scene change from the News 666 studio logo to that of Vox's district, shot overhead from a helicopter camera. And it was currently in flames. Valentino's eyes widened slightly, realizing that Vox wasn't lying to him, and he put down the remote to listen in to the program.
"As you can see Katie," Tom Trench, the other half of the studio's news-reporting duo, explained, "I am now at Vox Productions and at least half of it has been turned to rubble, with no response from the overlord himself. There's also no clue as to how the fires started nor if anyone is behind them. Considering they have been going on for this long, I'll speculate and state that Vox may have got caught up in Pentagram City's near-daily turf wars. And if this is the case, where is Vox and why hasn't he already dealt with those responsible?"
Why indeed, thought Valentino, as Katie Killjoy's voice came in from the studio. "That's great speculation Tom, it looks like your dramatic theater classes are finally paying off. Now if you're done with that, go back to reporting the fucking news." Her words were purposefully blunt, as she loved to undercut her co-anchor at every opportunity. Valentino couldn't help but smile, although he didn't really care about the news Katie was always a delight to listen to.
"Well Katie, if you opened your eyes you could see that's exactly what I'm doing. You must be too busy blowing the CEO for a raise, again."
Katie gave a loud fake laugh at Tom's comment, then replied, "Oh Tom, we both know you're only saying this because you're too chickenshit to say it to my face. And is that jealousy I hear in your voice? Would you like to have a go with him when you get back?"
Katie's taunts were getting to Tom, and the two started to bicker back and forth. Unlike other times where their jabs were interwoven with the news reports, this time they were focused solely on insulting each other. This was Vox's doing, as Valentino somewhat remembered being told by him how much Hell's population loved seeing them go at it and he altered the broadcasting so it was more focused on the drama than the story. It was a decent change, although Valentino wondered why he didn't just give them their own show entirely at that point.
As they argued the camera continued to scan the wreck that was Vox Productions and Valentino felt some semblance of guilt grow inside him. Vox told him that this was happening and at the time Valentino didn't believe him, now that he was actually seeing it he didn't know how to react. On the one hand Vox wasn't lying, but on the other he did insult him unnecessarily because of it. Thinking about it for a few more moments, Valentino made a decision.
Alright Voxy, when you come out of this on top, I'll forgive you just the way you like. I know you aren't really mad at me, not forever at least. We'll consider this water under the bridge and find ourselves laughing at all this years from now.
Valentino smiled at the thought of absolving Vox, then everything went dark.
-Back at Vox Tower-
The shaking intensified after Vox's outburst. I had managed to get on my feet but the rumblings throughout the complex made it more than difficult to stay upright. Pentious was having more trouble; still weak from his wounds he leaned back against the wall to prop himself up and he slowly worked his way over to the opening he created. I assume he did so to see what was causing all the shaking. His minions on the other hand were practically rolling around at this point, didn't help their bodies were the perfect shape for that. As I was being entertained watching them tumble helplessly around, Pentious looked back at me with wide eyes.
"Joker!" He exclaimed. "We need to leave now!"
"Why's that?" I asked, shakily making my way over to him.
As I haphazardly walked, he replied, "Because it isn't someone attacking the tower, it's the tower itself."
At first I was confused at his vague explanation, but once I reached the hole and looked outside I could see what he was saying. The buildings below us were slowly getting smaller as we climbed higher up into the sky. The tower was moving.
"Oh," was all I could say at first. Then I looked at Pentious and asked, "Alright, what's our exit strategy then, plan-maker?"
He looked at me for a moment, then peered down and nodded at something below. Following his look, I saw his airship right below us. Immediately I understood the implication of his nod, and realized we'd have to go now. I placed a hand on Pentious's shoulder.
"I see, well then, after you!" With a small shove I threw the snake off-balance, eliciting a small yelp from him, and sent him falling, screaming, down onto the ship.
Seeing him fall head over tail caused me to laugh a little, before I jumped down to meet him, cackling all the way. Unlike my temporary partner I was able to land on my feet, bending my legs and rolling over to mitigate the force of the impact. Steadying myself, I found myself at the head of the aircraft, and looking behind me I found Pentious. He had stopped rolling and was gripping onto a hatch with a clawed hand. He glared at me angrily, while I returned his look with a smile. With a frustrated noise, a mix between a growl and a grunt, he pulled open the hatch that led into the ship's interior.
"Get in before I change my mind and throw you off my ship!" Then he dropped through the opening. Carefully, I made my way over and dropped in a few seconds after him.
I landed on a metal floor and looked around the room I found myself in. The hatch led us into the main part of the ship, as I could see Pentious standing in front of what looked like a control console. The walls surrounding us held a variety of pipes and vents, where they led or what their function was I didn't know. Nor did I care. I was more interested in what the snake was doing, and I stepped over to take a closer look. The panel he stationed himself at only had two levers and a few buttons, pretty simplistic controls for piloting an entire ship. But my assumptions proved untrue as Pentious started to interact with the large circular piece in the middle of the levers. At first I thought it was just decoration, but as his fingers flew the display changed and showed varying icons and symbols; the complexity of it all definitely fit this ship more than the simple levers.
He seemed to know what he was doing, so I left him to it and I peered ahead through the large window that sat at the front of the ship. The tower was in front of us, and it was still rising. But from here I noticed it was doing something else too. Curiosity got the better of me and I had to take a closer look. Looking around, I found a staircase set into what seemed to be a carving of a snake's tail and I walked down to the floor below. I took this time to gaze around once more, noting the walls down here held a scale pattern design, on top of which sat depictions of Pentious's face.
This guy is really full of himself, I mean, who goes around plastering their face everywhere inside their own ship?
Shaking my head, I refocused back on the tower in front of us and stopped in my tracks, as what I noticed earlier became more clear. The tower was changing, not just rising out of the ground. The glass on the sides of the building were shifting up, panel by panel, to the top of the tower. The exposed openings they left behind were quickly being sealed up by metal shutters that extended left to right for each area where a window used to sit. Following their path up the tower, I noticed they were stacking on top of each other, interconnecting to form one giant solid glass structure. Then, movements below my line of sight drew my attention back down, and I saw something emerging from the sides of the tower. They looked like plain metal beams that were, much like the glass above the tower, interwoven with each other. They extended from the top of the building all the way down, stopping at a point a little below the building. As I traced my eyes along this newly-forming structure I slowly began to realize what was happening. What the building was turning into was absolutely crazy and wondrous; a part of me loved it, then the louder part of me reminded me what this thing was and that we needed to get out of here. I vocalized this to Pentious behind me.
"Pent! You may want to back up, like really back up. Right now!" I exclaimed, backing away from the window myself.
"Yes, I know, I can see it! But I don't believe it…" Pentious breathed incredulously.
I turned around and took the staircase two steps at a time until I was back with Pentious on the higher platform. With another few taps of the screen I could feel the ship rock side-to-side, then Pentious grabbed the levers and pulled them back, forcing the ship to move backwards away from the transforming tower. With this new angle we both could clearly see what Vox Tower was becoming. Below the building were two large cylinders, extending to the ground at a length nearly as tall as the building they came from. The two arm-like support beams I noted earlier started to have metal covering them as well. They descended from the top, covering and reinforcing these two new structures, all the way down to the hands. At least I assumed they were hands, they were modeled like they were and they were flexing like hands would. Lastly, the glass climbing the building had finished forming at the structure's apex, creating a complete rectangle. Upon which Vox's face was immediately projected, and the transformation was complete. Vox Tower had become Vox himself, and me and Pentious looked up at him with two different kinds of dumbfoundment. I was the more amused kind of dumbfounded, and although I couldn't see his face I bet Pent was more the terrified kind.
"Holy hell, now this is crazy!" I exclaimed, taking all of this in stride.
I could see Pentious shaking his head out of the corner of my eye. "This shouldn't be possible. I saw the schematics for it, but the power demand for this would be astronomical. The only way to achieve such a feat…" his voice drifted off, and I didn't need to look at him to know why.
The city below us grew dark, starting from Vox's territory and then spreading out in a circle until all of Pentagram City was blacked out. The only light now came from the sky and Vox's giant face.
"Would be to siphon power from the whole city," Pentious finished.
As he voiced this revelation, the blue of Vox's screen intensified, and we could see he was now looking down at as. With a smile, his voice boomed from the giant screen.
"Look what I found, a couple of bugs on my turf. Time for some pest control."
Slowly, a giant metal hand began to make its way towards the ship. My face grew with worry when I realized we were sitting ducks; this wasn't a plane, this was nothing more than a glorified blimp! No way we would be able to avoid his attack. Once again, Pentious managed to prove me wrong.
Looking over I saw his face had grown serious, and he pushed a large button next to the central display. Just as the giant hand was about to connect with us, I felt the ship drop and we started hurtling towards the ground. It looks like Vox wasn't going to kill us after all, we would be killing ourselves.
"What the hell are you doing Pent?!" I shouted, the speed at which we were traveling threw me up into the air and kept me suspended.
Pentious, however, was holding onto the control console to keep himself somewhat on the ground. He answered, "Making some changes of my own."
While I was mid-air, I noticed the interior of the ship had started to transform, explaining Pentious's vague statement. Pipes flipped and shifted and the interior started to get smaller. I could hear the sound of groaning metal coming from all around us, and it continued a little after the changes inside the ship were complete. Eventually the noises stopped, just in time as we were now seconds away from hitting the ground. I then saw Pentious pull sharply back on both levers and I slammed back into the floor as the ship turned up and swiftly flew away from the ground. Although we were now safe from becoming a flaming metal pancake, all I could do was groan as pain filled my face from breaking my fall.
"Are you ok down there?" Pentious asked, more in a taunting manner than a concerned one.
"Peachy," I hoarsely said, ignoring my broken nose. Lifting my head up I asked, "What the hell just happened?"
As I picked myself up, Pentious replied, "I had suffered a recent defeat at the hands of another adversary of mine. I'd rather not name him, but the outcome of that encounter spurred me to make some changes to my typical airship. I needed something fast, more aerodynamic, in case I needed to avoid attacks my older, slower, models wouldn't be able to."
Pushing a lever up and pulling one back, he turned the craft around so we were facing the giant Vox once more. He had noticed he missed his attack and was slowly turning to meet us.
"This ship was the result. It takes the cannons and transforms them into powerful thrusters, the excess metal combines and sticks to the sides for powerful wings, and the entire craft slims down as a result for increased speed and mobility," Pentious proudly explained.
He then faced me and said, "Unfortunately I didn't have time to add more guns to be used in this form, so your only real option will be to avoid his attacks."
I looked at Vox, then back at Pentious, realizing what he just said. "I'm sorry, my only option?"
"Like I told you before, Vox can only be killed if his network is down. I need to finish the EVP. When he's hit with it, he'll be forced into a body separate from the system, then we'll be able to strike." He paused and slid away from the controls, gesturing to them. "But obviously I can't be in two places at once, so someone will have to make sure we don't die."
"I think that's precisely what will happen if I do take the controls," I said. Not that I wasn't confident in my piloting skills, I have flown planes before, but those previous crafts had controls I understood. Looking at the panel now it was like an alien language. Under different circumstances I would be happy to trial and error my way into flying this ship, but with Vox now bearing down on us I knew if I didn't get this right all my efforts would be for nothing.
Seeing Vox approaching, Pentious grew exasperated, "Would you rather I call one of my minions up here to try and execute complex maneuvers evading that giant metal monstrosity?"
I thought back to my brief encounter with his weird henchmen; they seemed capable enough with a gun, but that's not exactly a high bar to cross. That, and I don't remember any of them making it out of the tower with us. Preoccupied as they were with rolling along the ground. I'm pretty sure even a few of them were finding joy in helplessly being tossed about. They definitely were not the brightest bulbs in the batch.
After that brief moment of hesitation, I stepped up to the console. "Alright, fine. I'm taking the wheel. But if I crash straight into Vox's giant metal goodies I don't want to hear any complaining!"
"I only need a few minutes, I'm sure you can handle that," Pentious commented, then he slithered quickly through a door in the back of the room.
A few minutes, right, I'm sure.
I stared at the controls, unsure of what to do for a moment. Then I thought back to what I saw Pentious doing. The levers were obviously how I changed direction, he pulled both back to go back, so it stands that pushing both forward will go forward. And we turned when he pushed one forward and one back. Ok that makes sense. But when we were falling he pulled both back and we went up, so how did that work? I really wish I was paying more attention.
"Well, well," I heard Vox's voice resonate around me. "Looks like you have some surprises of your own Pent. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be able to keep up!"
I saw his giant frame take a hard step forward, and his back leg began accelerating up towards me, threatening to kick the ship. With little time to react, I pushed both levers forward and the ship launched towards Vox. While I avoided his kick, I was heading straight for his leg! Taking the right lever I pulled it until it was center and the ship started going diagonally right, away from Vox. Now having some more time to breathe, I looked at the console for clues on how to maneuver the ship better. The levers were obvious to me now, but the buttons were not labeled and, besides the large button Pentious pushed to transform the ship, I had no clue as to what they did. This only left the main display, and all the nonsensical symbols it contained.
I continued to fly along, looking up occasionally to make sure I wasn't going to hit another building, as I stared at the display. None of it made any sense. The majority of it was covered by a giant pentagram, and along the outside of it there were different icons for other things. But as I looked some more, there were a pair of icons at the bottom that looked important. One of them was a joined up and down arrow, and the other was a left and right arrow; the latter was highlighted. Curiously, I pressed a finger on the unlit icon. Then the ship began to spin.
My hands shot out rapidly to grab the console and keep myself by the controls. I cried out as the ship creaked and revolved around uncontrollably. I could only imagine what Pentious was going through right now, although I did warn him this would happen. As the ship spun I looked at the display, seeing the icon I pressed was now highlighted, then my eyes turned to the levers. They were still in the last position I placed them in, one up and the other in the middle; at that moment it clicked to me. Shakily, I slowly reached out to the extended lever. Grabbing a hold of it, I pulled it down so it was parallel to the other lever, and the ship lurched as it stopped spinning and I slammed into the floor, again.
With a quivering hand, I reached up and grabbed the edge of the control panel. Lifting myself up I took a couple deep breaths, then resisted the urge to vomit. I was sweating profusely from the continuous motion, adding more stains to this once pristine suit of mine. After a few more breaths, I reminded myself about Vox, and I immediately perked up. I pressed the other icon so the ship would only move on the x-axis and I turned it around once more to find him. Vox is a pretty large guy now, he wouldn't be too hard to miss. Pulling the levers back to the middle, I looked out the front window and came face to face with Vox's fist.
I didn't even hear him come up on me, and the surprise of this attack nearly caught me off-guard. But my hands were still on the controls, so I changed them again and pulled both levers down so the ship went up and narrowly avoided his punch. I could see the frustration clearly on Vox's enormous face after seeing my avoid him. So he immediately followed up with another punch from his opposite hand. It came across from right to left, and I pushed the levers forward so the ship dove down below it. I felt a smile grow on my face, I was getting the hang of this. And based on the growl I heard coming from outside I was starting to get to Vox.
"Stay still and die already!"
He threw both of his large arms up, and swung them down with tremendous force. There was only one way to avoid this attack, and I could feel myself dreading what I was about to do. With both levers back in the middle, I pushed the right one up and could feel the ship start spinning to the left. It was hard to tell if I was even moving at first as, against my better judgement, I looked out the window to see where Vox was. But after a few spins I could see his arms narrowly pass by the side of the ship and hear them crash into the ground. Then I threw the lever back to neutral to stop the ship's rotations. At least this time I managed to land on my feet when the ship righted itself.
This was starting to get kind of fun. Sure killing Vox would bring much more entertainment later, but constantly making him swat at me like I was an annoying gnat was too hilarious. Every time he missed I couldn't help but giggle a little more. Those very giggles then grew into a laugh, as I saw Vox was not making any attempts at hitting me after that last failed blow. I wonder what he's doing right now, crouched on the ground as he is? Is he waiting for me to think I'm safe, then strike the ship when I least expect it? Or has he finally given up, realizing that growing to match the size of his ego did nothing to improve his fighting abilities?
Soon though, I found the answer to be neither as a louder laugh outgrew my own, and I slowly ended my laughter to see what Vox was up to. Controlling the ship I flew it slightly away from the giant overlord, watching him rise up from the ground holding something in his hands. He followed my movements and faced me at his full height. Looking at his hands again, I realized what he was holding; various pieces of different studios crumbled into metal and stone debris. I readied myself to fly out of range, predicting he was planning on raining the rubble mishmash down on the ship.
"Dodge this you little shit!"
Then he charged me. Heavy footfalls slammed the ground below as he came closer; I thought he was going to throw it at me, but now I didn't know what he was doing. But I knew I couldn't just sit here and take it either. I swiftly turned the ship around and started to fly away as fast as possible. I pushed both levers forward until they were at the limit, then held them there. Although I couldn't see him anymore I could feel he was right on me. If he was planning on hitting me like he was trying to earlier, I'd need to get higher to avoid him. So, changing the axis again, I pulled the levers so the ship went straight up, then I turned it into a loop so I sailed the craft over Vox's head. Vox anticipated this.
Taking the debris in his hands, he stopped his run and slammed his hands together; a thunderclap of sheer force that sent the detritus flying in multiple directions. That was what he was doing. With an attack like that it sent projectiles in multiple directions, there was no way to avoid it. All I could do now was brace. Several pieces of large rock smashed through the front window and into the front of the cabin. Luckily nothing made its way up to where I stood. But then I felt more pound the exterior; metal clanged against metal, creating noticeable dents in the ceiling. Then, I felt the ship stagger. Something important outside got hit, and that was immediately reflected when the central display turned red.
The pentagram at its center changed into a schematic of the ship in its current form, and it showed one of the engines in the back got critically damaged. I could feel it too, as the craft tried desperately to stay airborne. But I could feel it faltering, slowing down much more than it used to go, until it was pretty much going at the pace an airship or blimp would probably go at. Even so I didn't have a backup plan, abandoning ship at this point would be suicide as Vox would easily see me and I needed Pentious to finish his Vox-killing device. So I kept the levers forward as far as they could go, although this did nothing to increase the ship's speed.
For a few seconds nothing else happened, the ship was slower but it stayed in the air, and Vox didn't make any efforts to make himself known after the recent attack. What was he waiting for? I heard the doors behind me open, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin, and Pentious slithered up to me. I could only hope he brought better news.
"Pent? Is your fun-box ready?" I asked, keeping my hands rigid on the controls.
"Yes," he said, "it is, despite your utterly horrid piloting skills, I managed to finish its construction." He held it out to my side and I looked at it. It was just like the box I saw him with when I first met him. A wide grin filled my face seeing it.
"Now just what the hell is going on? What have you done to my ship?!" He asked incredulously, retracting his hand.
"Hey, first off I told you not to complain, I warned you what would happen if I was at the wheel!" I shouted back. "And second off, you should be thanking me. Anyone else would've crashed this ship long before now, instead I managed to give Vox the run-around. Which, might I remind you, is pretty fucking hard to do when he's at least four hundred feet tall!"
Just then, as if to contradict my words, the ship abruptly stopped flying forward, sending me and Pentious tumbling over the railing onto the lower floor. We connected with two solid thuds, and a slight skitter which belonged to the box that went flying out of Pentious's hands. Groaning, I looked up off the floor, only to be met with a giant red eye in return. The sight of it was so unexpected I couldn't help but give a small frightened shout. This must've woken Pentious up, as I heard him grumble and lift himself off the floor next to me. When he faced Vox's eye he merely turned to face me.
"Gave him the run-around, huh?"
The sarcastic jab wasn't called for, and I let him know it with a glare in his direction. Then Vox got both our attentions, now that he had the ship in his grasp along with the two people he wanted to kill the most at this very moment.
"Finally got you little bastards. Good to see you're both in here and didn't escape. I want to make sure you two die this time." With that, the ship adjusted so it was further away and we could see the entirety of Vox's face.
He took his other hand and wrapped it around the ship. Then, with both hands, he began to crush the vehicle in his grip. I could see metal being ripped open, whining and tearing against the immense pressure Vox was putting on it. Bolts shot out like bullets all around us, and we reflexively ducked our heads to avoid getting hit by them. Steam hissed out of the pipes as they burst open, and alarms rang out, reminding us that we were going to die very soon unless we could find a way to get off the ship. Looking out the window again, I saw Vox was giving us a twisted leer as more of the ship broke apart in his clutches, and he gave one last parting remark.
"Show's over."