Chapter 14: Echos of the Past
"Are you insane!?"
Elli kept her gaze neutral as Adam, the Exorcist Leader and the First Man, raged at her. She rolled her eyes at him. Ever since news got around that she was leaving for Hell, everyone has been trying to talk her out of it.
"It's HELL! The scummiest of the scum live there! Sin is rampant! You'll be corrupted the moment you arrive!"
"God has permitted it. And you know how our Lord works in mysterious ways. He might be sending me for a purpose."
He scoffed.
"Yeah, right. Elli, you are one of the best model citizens in Heaven. You have it good here! You can find a husband, continue to be with your family that is here, start a new family once you find-"
"My family also includes my son, Alastor. I'm going to Hell, whether any of you like it or not. I already said goodbye to my parents and extended family. But I'm a mother. And no matter how you perceive it Adam, my job is to be there for my child."
Adam tilted his head in disbelief. "Alastor?!". He threw his hands up in the air. "Oh, of course. Why not? You wanna find your son? Fine, go ahead! But don't come crying back at the gate cause ya can't!"
"I won't. Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Adam."
"That's LORD Adam to you. D'oh whatever. I have better things to do." Adam said before flying away.
Elli sighed in relief. Now that that's out of the way, she can continue preparing herself for her journey downwards. When suddenly, she felt a tug on her dress. She looked down and saw a cherub she had never seen before. A blue/white-furred cat, with bowler hat, a black tie and yellow gloves. Which reminded her of a cartoon.
"Oh hello, there. Where do you come from?"
"Good morning ma'am, Whizzle's my name. I up and heard about your journey down below. I came here to wish you good luck!".
For the first time, someone from Heaven aside from God supported Elli 's decision. It… was very nice to be honest.
"Why thank you. I appreciate it."
Whizzle waved it off. "No sweat, ma'am. In fact, I have something for you goin' underway." Out of nowhere he pulled out a golden whistle. "Should trouble ever find you, whistle this and Whizzle finds you". He winked and tipped his hat. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to ride this rigatoni downstairs.
He stepped on a giant rigatoni and "paddle" while singing "Orale" by Dean Martin.
What an odd fellow, but Eli welcomed it. She put the whistle in her pocket. She had a feeling it could come in handy one day.
Little did she know that Whizzle was grinning evilly as his fur turned from blue to dark purple. His master would be pleased. He couldn't wait to see what they had planned!
"This is bad… so very very bad!" Velvet laminated.
"What do you mean, Velvet? I'm fine!" Vox refuted drowsily.
"No you ain't!"
"What the devil are you talking about?" Alastor asked Velvet.
"Clearly Valentino did some shit to him! Look at his eyes!" She explained pointing at Vox's eyes.
Sir Pentious hummed as he took a closer look.
"That does look concerning. Maybe… we should turn him off and on again?"
Before Velvet could answer, Vox summoned cables and ensnared the snake and Alastor. The Tv demon chuckled.
"Just for that, I'm letting off you with a warning. As for you Bambi, I've waited a long time for this!".
"Vox, you idiot! We're on the same side!" The stag glared.
He's completely helpless within the prison walls negating his powers. But he couldn't let him know that!
"As if! Ever since you came here, you've been nothing but a pompous prick! But soon, that changes as I deal with you once and for all!" Vox exclaimed as he raised his hand and prepared to blast the deer to kingdom come.
Velvet wasn't having any of it. On pure instinct she blocked the electric blast Vox fired at Alastor with her knife, saving the buck's life. This shocked everyone present. Including Vox, who growled.
"The fuck Velvet?! Are you… turning against me?! After everything I did for you?!"
Velvet gripped her knife tight. Vox's accusation hurt, but not as much as what she's about to do.
"After everything you've done for me… I am saving you!"
Velvet rushed towards him. Vox summoned more cables to stop her but Velvet sliced them with her knife. She threw the potion in her hand down to the ground creating a smoke screen. Allowing her to get closer to Vox and tackle him. The two overlords rolled over the floor, trying to overpower the other.
Sir Pentious saw this as an opportunity to free himself. With one hand, he dialed some buttons on his raygun and set it to "Overload". He put the raygun on the cable and fired. The cables' power overload, causing them to disintegrate. Freeing him. He then did the same to free Alastor.
"Come on, we got to help" Pentious said before joining the fray. Alastor nodded and followed his lead.
Soon Sir Pentious, Alastor and Velvet all dogpiled Vox. Sir Pentious coiled around Vox's legs, Alastor grabbed his right arm and Velvet his left.
"Get your hands off me you nasal backstabbers!"
"We will not!" Sir Pentious barked, before setting his raygun to Freeze. "Apologies in advance, but this is for your own good!"
He then turned the ray gun towards him, beaming hitting the Media Overlord. The Tv demon's scream died out as he got frozen, still as a statue.
Alastor tilted his head, surprised.
"What did you just do?"
"I froze him. No wait! I PAUSED him!" Sir Pentious claimed, feeling pretty good at his wordplay.
"Hmmm, fair enough. But now what? Vox seems to be under some kind of control spell and Valentino is nowhere near to be found!"
"Not for long he's not!" Velvet hissed and got on her phone. If she remembered correctly… "Gotcha bitch!"
She turned her phone to show Alastor and Sir Pentious.
"Sinners have tried to control Vox's property before. Hackers, sinners with electric powers, all that shit. So Vox created an alert-network to pinpoint and stop such attempts for all his products and technology. Aaand, if I use this alert-network with Vox's inner system…"
"You can pinpoint and reverse whatever's controlling him!" Sir Pentious finished. "Well done, Velvet! The faster we've cured Vox, the faster we can continue our search!"
"Yeaaaah, the bad news is it'll take a while." Velvet added.
"Fantastic, we're killing more time while Valentino's God-know-where".
"I'm not finished." Velvet said. "Vox ALSO installed his technology with trackers, including Valentino's phone. Aaaand voila!"
Velvet grinned as she presented Valentino's current location.
Sir Pentious ooohed at her.
"You're good."
She gave a smug smile.
"I know. Alastor, why don't you pay Val a visit while I and Penty keep an eye on Voxxy?"
Alastor's grin sharpened in sadistic glee at the idea of squeezing that rat for answers.
"I will!" He started to turn but paused, looking back at her. "Ms Velvet, your help has been… more adequate than I expected."
Velvet rolled her eyes.
"Weird apology, but gladly accepted. Now go kick Val's ass so we can find your mom."
The Radio Overlord's eyes turned into dials, his smile nearly splitting his face as the air glitched dangerously around him.
"With Pleasure~"
The wedding planning was going on without a hitch! With Elli under the illusion of the necklace, it was only a matter of time that it would become permanent. They already got a dress. He just needed to find one of those quickie chapels. Shouldn't be that hard.
After some searching, he found a former wedding planner to help with that. A tower of a walrus demon, wearing a blackish-brown suit. The demon smoked a cigar between his two tusks.
"Hmmmm, a chapel, ay? Seems a little underselling for such a momentous occasion, don't you think?" the walrus inquired.
"It's not an issue. A chapel for just the two of us will do just fine." Adam answered.
"Very well, my good man." The walrus snapped his fingers and a lackey gave him a huge book which he looked through for the right location. "Let's see, in the city? Too crowded. By the sea? Too salty. In the country? Too country. Aha! Here!"
The walrus ripped the page out and presented it to Adam. The chapel in question was a small building, with a forest of dark pine and a river of blackish water in the background. "This chapel here is out of the city, and close to a beautiful dark forest. Right out of a dark fairy tale."
Adam was in awe. A wedding in nature! Eli would love it!
"It's perfect, sir! Thank you."
"Not a problem! I shall send my men out to make the preparations! I guarantee it'll be the best wedding tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow? It'll take that long?" The spell will take effect tonight!
"Well, no. But this forest is at the edge of hell. Sinners and demons alike have mysteriously disappeared around the edge, especially at night! Legend has it that, that beyond the edge, there's no city, no civilization. Only the cold wind, unforgivable wilderness, and untamed abominations risen from the dead! Clawing at whoever dares to cross the border." the walrus told dramatically.
Adam resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He will not delay his one chance because of some fairy tale! Risen from the dead, bah! Like that ever happened in hell!
"Sir, with all due respect, my fiancé and I have waited LONG enough. So we'd like to marry TONIGHT."
The walrus smoked his cigar in thought. "You are quite bold, aren't you? Very well, tonight it is!" the walrus relented before snapping his fingers and spurring his men. "You heard the man, people! Get to work!"
Adam breathed out in relief. Chapel is taken care of. Soon Eli will be where she should be. And no overlord, or ghost story will change that!
"Do you think you can fix him?" Velvet asked the snake. "Have you done anything like this before?"
With Alastor away tracking down Vox, Velvet and Sir Pentious were back at the snake's airship with Vox hooked to one of his many machines. The Media Overlord's screen was still shut off. So they didn't have to worry about him yelling or sending bolts of electricity at them.
"I've been dabbling in software technology and mechanics for a while. Mostly for the sake of my lover. I've worked my way up to becoming what you modern Sinners call a 'hacker'. Granted, I have equipped my airship to not be interfered with by electrical sinners in the past."
"Wait… You actually have a blockage from Vox's devices?"
The serpent blinked as he looked at her.
"Oh uh… yes. I never thought of it having that advantage before. It was mostly for my peace of mind to not worry about someone taking over my airship while I was in the air. Or have access to all of my weapons."
She nodded. That was understandable. Hell was a full of vile people that would go to any extreme to fuck over other people as long as it benefits them. Why the hell would Overlords like herself, Vox and Valentino keep their positions?
"Anyway, applying my machines to the alert-system should accelerate the process. Although it would be still hard to predict when-"
Pentious' machines suddenly made all sorts of noises. One of his monitors turned on and showed an arrow pointing behind Vox's head.
"Ooooor maybe not. Now let's see what we're working with."
The snake turned Vox around so he could see the back of his head. Near Vox's neck stood a microchip the size of a dot. Sir Pentious pulled out a special magnifying glass to take a closer look. It diagnostically dissected the microchip to find out its purpose.
"Hmmm, it seems Valentino has used a special memory wiper on Vox. Quite diabolical."
Velvet's stomach dropped. Memory wipe?!
"Fuck! What do we do!?"
Sir Pentious held up a finger, raised it high, and pressed on an intercom button.
"Initiate reverse engineering!"
A loud whirring sound was heard as Velvet watched the Victorian Sinner's inventions, egg bois and other machines get to work on fixing the Media Overlord's memories. She was… impressed to say the least. She's seen his social media posts and his obsession over them. She just thought he was some washed-up old nerd.
But now…
Now she understood how cool he actually was! He actually reminded her a bit of her grandfather. Old, a bit dorky with trying to keep up with the trends, nice, spells like tea and oil…
If she didn't know that he died in the 1800s, she would believe that he was! She was definitely going to try and get to know the snake better. After all, Vox was basically her dad, and here he was trying to save him.
"So…" She rocked back and forth on her heels. "Ever done anything like this before?"
"Plenty of times. My lover tends to send me a lot of videos and camera footage from his job for me to look over for him. He doesn't trust the department section his job has to not screw up. He's a bit paranoid about it. I've done it to two other electric demons. One a laptop demon and the other a picture camera demon." He paused, giving a small smile. "He spoiled me after he got home from those interrogations."
She giggled.
"He as old as you, gramps?"
"Oh no! Younger than me that's for sure. He died in 1950. I think you know his younger brother, Angel Dust."
She blinked in surprised.
"You're dating Angel Dust's brother!?"
The serpent smiled.
"I certainly am. He's the light of my life in this dank and forsaken hole."
Shit, this snake was an oddball, that was for sure! A beeping sound rang throughout the airship, causing the snake's hood to flare out.
"Oh excellent! It's completed!"
On cue, Vox shot up, his eyes had returned to normal. He looked scared out of his mind.
"What the fuck?! Where am I?" he asked then growled as his memories came to him. "Where the fuck is Val?"
Sir Pentious and Velvet looked at each other concerned. They were not sure whether this is a bad thing or not. Velvet was the first to speak.
"We don't know, but Alastor is already on his tail and-"
The Tv demon took a running start and threw himself through the window. Instead of falling, he was flying in a blue ball of electric power. Fueled by sheer willpower and anger.
Sir Pentious stared in awe.
"He… can fly?"
Velvet, flabbergasted as well, rubbed her forehead.
"Yes."
"That's scientifically amazing! But we should follow him before he does something crazy."
Velvet nodded before hauling ass after him. Whatever Vox was planning to do now, she had to be there to see it! After they find Valentino, hopefully they can find Elli!