After sixty uses of a Dermal regenerator across Angel's entire body, a detoxifying treatment to flush all drugs out of the system, and some intensive surgery, Angel Dust was stabilized after being beamed up and brought to the Excalibur's med bay.
The med bay on the ship resembled that of a primitive slaughter house rather than a place of healing and recovery. Blood was splattered across the floor, treatments placed hazily across a metal table, and a blood covered Dermal regenerator.
Disinfecting his hands one last time Kylkuc grabbed his communicator in the comparatively unstained Starfleet Medical facility onboard the Federation Starship.
"This is Commander Kylkuc. I request the on duty senior officers meet me in the medical bay at once." He spoke calmly as he closed his communicator.
"I have to admit, these wounds were considerably extensive." He said as he turned to Angel. "Your upper femur alone had approximately seven fractures. Your skin seems to have burn marks, most likely from a heat source applied directly. Furthermore your rib cage has several broken ribs and your right lung collapsed. Even your skull was concussed. All of this has a shared commonality: all of them appeared to have originated from severe blunt force trauma."
Looking down even further after waking up Angel wasn't too keen on hearing about just how brutal Valentino could get given how nothing short of a holy weapon or disintegration could truly kill him.
"Moreover, you had considerable amounts of Psychoactive drugs in your system. There was enough in it to make three humans overdose."
"Mind if I inquire, who is the person responsible for this harm?" Kylkuc asked as he rolled back up his starfleet sleeves.
Angel never liked confining in other people, they either viewed him as disgusting trash, ridiculed him, betrayed him, or only pretended to care while doing nothing to help. And it displayed weakness that was all too often preyed upon. But on the other hand this elf impersonator just didn't seem like the type to do any of those things and didn't have the naive undertones Charlie had. More importantly the guy did fix him up despite how most of the injuries would've healed in a day or two.
Angel opened and closed his mouth several times before deciding to settle on, "Look…even if I told ya, it's not like you sci fi nerds could or would do anything about it."
"I would have to disagree. If you enlighten me you will likely find that may not be the case." Kylkuc responded.
Taking a deep breath, Angel decided to let a bit out. "I…uh, I…work for a guy named Valentino who controls nearly all the 'adult entertainment' on this ring."
"Is there anything keeping you from leaving the employment of this Valentino?" Kylkuc inquired.
"Look I…!" Sighing Angel decided to continue, "Y-yes I…signed a contract with him years ago like Husk and Nifty with Alastor that gives him ownership of me-I mean my services."
"Does this contract have any consequences that would occur if you violated its terms that would prevent you from leaving his services?"
"Look long ears! If you need to know about that kinda stuff you can ask Alastor or Charlie! I'm…" Angel didn't continue as he grabbed his head in pain.
Kylkuc, seeing the pain in Angel's head, went over to the supply cabinet and picked up a pink vial of substance. "That must be the concussion that was sustained during the trauma." He said calmly as he placed the vial into the hypospray. "I'm prescribing you Vertazine. It will stop your head pains. Hold still." Kylkuc said as he placed the hypospray to Angel's neck, and with a trigger applied from the medical officer, the drug was injected relatively harmless into the demon's system.
"I would highly suggest that you should rest until the pain subsides." The Vulcan instructed Angel Dust as he placed the Hypospray to the side table. "Furthermore, any other Psychoactive Drugs would mitigate the effects of the treatments; even with your demon physiology being able to counteract most of the effects. So you will be experiencing symptoms of withdrawal for at least a day."
"Wait, you're not gonna make me go completely clean are you?"
"Negative. I am just advising you to not take them in order for the drugs to take their full effect and to give your body ample time to heal. You may retire to your room at the hotel if you wish, but if you experience any harmful symptoms you may find myself here or use the communicator given to contact me."
"I…uh, well thanks doc. I'm gonna go try to get some sleep."
"I would highly advise that." Kylkuc said to Angel as he put away the medical supplies into the storage compartments.
Atathia Sh'ithiaqos, the acting captain of the Excalibur and first officer, was the first to arrive in the medical bay.
"Kylkuc, I hope nothing bad has happened to any of our crew members?"
"No captain, but one of our new allies rushed into the uncompleted clinic down at the hotel. They had sustained very extensive injuries that were mostly from blunt force trauma, prompting me to aid them as I could. However, I discovered some very troubling information about how they obtained such injuries."
"What do you mean "troubling information"? Did anything get out about us being here?" Atathia asked as he began to lean on a medbay.
"No Commander, but it appears as if the demon Angel Dust is currently in an exploitative and heavily abusive work relationship. It stems from him being under a contract from an Overlord he can't escape that puts him in a position akin to sexual slavery."
"Dear Zhen, that's horrible!" Atathia exclaimed as she put her hand over her mouth.
"I wasn't able to coax much out of him, but it appears as if this has been the case for many years and that Mrs. Morningstar hasn't been able to or is unwilling to find a way to get her first patient out of said contract."
"Wait, who's in a contract?" She'rl, the caitian helmsman of the Excalibur, asked as she walked into the medical bay.
"It is agreeable to see you Lieutenant. We were just conversing about the situation that Angel Dust is in."
"Angel Dust?" Said Xehrarv as he walked into sickbay. "He's the spider lookin' 'fellow right?" Alastair said as he followed him respectively as the Chief security officer and engineer joined the discussion.
"You are correct in your assumption, Commander."
"Wait a second." She'rl said as she looked around sickbay; scanning the members that were present. "Where's the Captain?"
"I prescribed a sleeping aid to him after he displayed symptoms of severe sleep deprivation, he will be unconscious until tomorrow morning."
"I don't blame you. He looked like a Zombie. Given another day of this mess he probably would've started to eat people's brains." Xehrarv commented.
"Sorry I'm late," Rolf stated as he joined in. "I was finishing up a communications report for the captain."
"Well now that everyone is here I should elaborate on what has transpired."
"Approximately two hours, fifteen minutes and twenty seconds ago Angel Dust arrived into the unfinished clinic in the hotel while suffering the effects of severe blunt force trauma. I took him to the med bay and remedied his injuries before inquiring how he sustained them."
"How bad was he hurt?" She'rl asked.
"Hey sustained several broken ribs, multiple fractures in his femur, a concussion, a collapsed lung, multiple burn marks across his body, various scratches, and there was some evidence of sexual abuse. It should also be noted that he had enough psychoactive drugs in his system to cause three humans to overdose."
Christ almighty! That's 'orrible!" Alastair said as he reacted to the information.
"From what I could gather from inquiring into the cause of his injuries, it appears as if the one responsible is an Overlord named Valentino who has a contract over Mr. Dust signed many years ago that is somehow preventing him from leaving the Overlord's services as a prostitute. He also suggested for me to ask Ms. Morningstar or Alastor for more details on how such contracts work."
"First of all, that is truly horrible. I wish well for Angel, and I hope he'll get help." Xehrarv started speaking. "But with all due respect, why does this concern us? Shouldn't we focus on getting home instead of involving ourselves with demon politics?"
"Because it is very likely that should Angel remain under the service of this Valentino, it will only be a matter of time before he is led back to us. Logic Dictates it."
"That only gives us more of an incentive to work harder to find a way out. What are you telling us to do? March down to this pimp's office, and tell him to let him go? We're still on the prime directive, remember."
"Wait, we were attacked by the demons, doesn't that mean-?" Sh'rel replied
"They only saw the outline of a ship. That's it." The Atathia interjected. "We have to keep it that way."
"'ang on a moment. We could 'elp Angel in a way that don't show ourselves as we already 'ave, right? For now, right, we should give it a go and play it safe. Maybe we could get into touch with Ms. Morningstar?"
"Wait, Kylkuc, did he tell you why he was abused?" Atathia asked the chief medical officer.
"He did not, but from what I can gather the Overlord in question seems to be very manipulative and controlling."
"I see." Atathia said as she began to ponder her mind. If memory serves her right, this was the first time she was given the conn as the first officer of the Excalibur, and it just happened to be at a crossroads for the crew of the Excalibur. If they did nothing and upheld the Prime Directive, it would only be a matter of time before Angel cracked and said everything he knew about Starfleet, and Excalibur, and the Federation; leaving them completely exposed. If they did interfere and try to help Angel, it could very well blow up in their faces and not only reveal Starfleet's presence, but also miscommunicate that their intentions were hostile. It was a Catch-22. Their presence was going to be revealed on either decision they would make. That was the job of being in command after all, you had to make the decisions that decided the fate of the entire crew. After pondering over it for sometime, an idea clicked in the female andorian's mind.
"I have an idea."
Scrolling further down the wiki page on the PADD Edison had given the hotel Charlie was amazed at just how far humanity had advanced technologically and societally. While Starfleet had done a decent job at explaining the basics when they met in person, the information on the PADD added a lot more nuance.
There were many ideas and reforms that if possible she could implement herself should her father decide to let her take the throne in the future given how her family aged much, much slower than humans did. But then again the rest of hell's nobility wouldn't be too keen on them, especially given how there had been a fragile peace between them and Lucifer ever since he ascended to the throne.
Her hotel was a project that no one save her mother or father could really stop. A way to deal with the most impending problem of overpopulation and to try and stop the annual exterminations. It was the most she could do given the circumstances. Yet at the same time it nearly cost her her relationship with her dad and the hotel really didn't help his image as king over hell. She had almost been tempted to give up after that horrid interview that lost her any respect she may have had among most of her people. But now there was a real chance to make her dream reality with the help of her new friends.
Despite this, she couldn't help but put down the feeling that the more and more she learned about the Federation that she was missing something in her approach to helping the denizens of hell. And there was still an issue with Angel that she had yet to come up with a way to rectify.
Her thoughts on the matter were interrupted and the holoprojector next to her started beeping, prompting her to push the button Edison said was used to answer calls causing a small image of Atathia to appear.
"Ms Morningstar," The Holographic projection of the acting Andorian captain stated. "We need your help with something. Should we meet in the hotel or the Excalibur?"
Deciding it was more convenient for just her to move to the ship and because she couldn't resist another chance to see the interior of a spaceship again Charlie began to state it was best for her to be brought up only to be slightly interrupted by her business partner.
"And what seems to be the commotion my dear friends?" Alastor butted in as he wandered to the table in the lobby Charlie was sitting at.
"Uh, just something Starfleet wants to discuss with me Al." Charlie replied
"Well then, I'm sure I could be of service as well given my status as your esteemed partner."
"I…well okay Al, but you need to be respectful of them unlike last time where you kept teleporting Edison around with us."
"Oh very well princess, hopefully whatever our new friends will be discussing with us will be entertaining enough anyways." Alastor said with a nonchalant shrug.
"Okay, well uh Ms. Sh'ithiaquos you can beam us up now."
Nodding at the princesses request, an orange hue surrounded the two demons as they were transported onto the Excalibur for a second time.
Arriving in the transporter room the two found the ship's first officer waiting for them.
"It's good to see you again Ms. Sh'ithiaquos." Charlie stated.
"It's good to see you too Ms. Morningstar. If you would follow me, the other senior officers are waiting."
As the three made their way down the hallways of the ship they found themselves back in the medical bay.
Noticing that his favorite captain to try and rile up was absent Alastor voiced his curiosity. "And where is our dear Captain Edison I may ask?"
"He is currently unavailable until tomorrow, command has transferred to me in the meantime." Atathia replied.
"Oh, I hope it's nothing serious." Charlie stated in concern.
"He's just catching up on some well missed sleep ma'am." Xehravr replied
"Onto more pressing matters. A major issue with Angel Dust has arisen that we hope you could elaborate on and to help us find a solution to." Atathia said.
"What exactly happened?" Charlie asked with worry.
After filling Hell's princess in on what happened she was appalled and angry at herself to say the least.
"I…" Sighing Charlie continued. "H-how could I have let this happen."
"It isn't your fault Ms Morningstar."
"NO! I-I should have tried to find a way to get Angel out of his soul contract the moment I let him into the hotel, I was never going to make much progress rehabilitating him if he had to keep going back to Valentino anyways."
"Listen, you can't blame yourself!" Xehrarv injected as he stood as high as his body allowed him to. "I was on a starship. It was the USS Traben and I was on tactical. By the time an enemy ship was in the range, the chief tactical officer and the team weren't ready in time and so two hundred souls were taken in an instant! Do you think I still dream about screams of the dying? Their moans? Their cries for their loved one? You can't dewell what on how things could've changed, you just have to learn from your mistakes and make things right!" Xehrarv implored to Charlie as he recounted his past experience.
Wiping her face of any tears and sniffing, Charlie replied. "I..you're right, I have to help Angel now. What do you need from us?"
"We need to know exactly how these 'soul' contracts work in order to free Angel. Otherwise not only will you be unable to make much progress on rehabilitating him, but he will eventually be forced to spill something out to Valentino that could lead him right back to us and fully expose Starfleet to hell." Atathia explained.
"I can be of much service there, I myself am very familiar with these sort of deals." Alastor stated.
"Yeah…how do these deals operate?" Atathia asked.
"They work as a means of enforcing an agreement between two parties. The type in question binds the soul of one party to the other which allows them to call for the other when needed and will ensure that the bound soul in question will continue to experience an everbuilding pain until they comply with the requests of the one they are bound to."
"I would ask exactly how that is supposed to work, but I get the feeling the response is just gonna be 'magic' and we don't have time for a discussion on that." Rolf replied
"Yes, I suppose that very interesting talk can wait for later, but back onto topic the only way such a contract can be broken is for one or both of the parties to die or for the one holding the contract over the other to willingly abdicate or transfer it."
"Well the first method is out of the question." Atathia said, injecting herself into the conversation. "The prime directive forbids us to interfere with the development of a species. We're still on thin ice with us helping you, we don't want to risk it any further. And knowing Charlie even for only a few days I assume you're not willing to kill this guy you're telling us about either."
"No, I can't bring myself to kill another soul unless absolutely necessary for survival or to save the people close to me." Charlie added onto Atathia injecture.
"Then why not join me in saving Angel my dear, it would certainly save him from such unpleasant company, rather than let him continue to suffer under Valentino." Alastor said to Charlie who was now looking down with a very conflicted face.
"There could be a way to get Valentino to transfer the contract to you or to cancel it all together."
"I don't mean to be a downer, especially given my love of smiles, but Valentino isn't likely to give up his most prized and popular 'employee' for anything short of a trove of angelic weaponry or a powerful artifact in a vain attempt to elevate himself to the power of the likes of I or the Ars Goetia." Alastor started with a hand on his chest.
"Or perhaps all of his stocks and online funds." Atathia voiced
The suggestion raised Alastor's eyebrows while Charlie inquired further.
"Wait, you mean it could be possible to blackmail him for Angel?"
"It's certainly within our abilities, if we do decide to go through with this. We could also do more than just threaten his finances, dirt or corporate secrets are valuable as well." Rolf suggested
"Well that would certainly be a joyful sight! But there is another obstacle in this crusade for dear Angel's freedom: the company Val surrounds himself with."
"I don't follow." Atathia started with a quizzical glance.
"You see, during my younger years when I was having the time of my life toppling other overlords and watching them panic like sheep after a wolf got into the pen, a few of the younger and less established ones decided to try and ban together in a desperate attempt to save themselves from me. At first this strategy only made it easier for me to find them, but eventually it proved successful at creating a stalemate when Val and two others banded together to display their unimagitevness by naming their partnership the three V's."
"Three V's? Let me guess, they all have V's in their names." Sh'erl commented.
"Yes, quite astute my feline friend. The other two are Vox who runs the television and internet on this ring, and Velvet who controls the cesspool that is social media."
"I can attest to that." Rolf injected. "The Captain put me on information gathering duties. I'm probably going to have to do a reset on all of the computers after this."
"What should we know about these overlords and what obstacles do the other two present?" Atathia inquired.
"You see, Vox despite being such a drag and predictable fellow is the only one of the three that brings any serious power in combat as he is almost entirely robotic and possesses the ability to hack into and control electronics like almost no other. Valentino on the other hand is mostly along just for the fact that he is useful in information gathering and income, while only possessing some minor supernatural abilities akin to putting on a show of smoke and mirrors."
"What about this Velvet?" Atathia asked
"Ah yes, that doll in a literal sense too I may add is perhaps the most interesting out of all the three as most of the denizens of hell know next to nothing about her despite her knowing almost everything about them. But from my few encounters with her she seems to possess an uncanny ability to manipulate the minds of others as well as possessing a nearly all encompassing surveillance network due to her insatiable desire for gossip."
"Like Vulcan Brain Physiology but on a higher scale." The Vulcan Officer said. "Fascinating."
"Well unless Velvet's telepathic abilities are able to reach us from kilometers away and up in the sky, the only real threat would be Vox's abilities if he could get past our firewalls." Xehrarv said.
"I seriously doubt it. Unless he can somehow just automatically control electronics, the fact is that everything we've observed in terms of telecommunications and electronics here is equivalent to post world war three tech from our earth. No one here would likely even have the first clue how to get past our firewalls or trace any of our electronic signatures." Rolf stated
"That is a most enlightening viewpoint, however I can confirm it is probably the later given the fact that he can't control older technology."
"You're certain he can't?" Xehrarv asked.
"Quite so. You see, Vox considers me his rival despite the fact that he surrounds himself with two other prominent overlords just to be able to contend with myself. And over the years he has made many attempts at removing me from the picture, but he could never make any progress on the matter due to my love for the classics. It's hard to beat the reliability and elegance of the rotary phone. He did show some minor skill in trying to manipulate some of my radios, but they ultimately proved futile given my mastery over the art of audio broadcasting."
"Hmm, well there could always be the slim possibility of this Vox getting past our firewalls but it seems like we have nothing to worry about. Rolf, if you feel like there is little to no risk I want you and your department working on hacking into the three V's finances and digging up anything that can be used as leverage if most of the other senior officers agree."
"I'm ready to start working on this plan if you all agree too." Rolf said.
"I don't want to see one of our new allies suffer when we can do something about it so count me in." Sh'erl voiced.
"Logic dictates we must relive Angel of Valentino's employment to prevent ourselves from being discovered." Kylkuc stated.
"I think Angel deserves our 'elp, an' we if we can free 'im by hacking it won't reveal ourselves anymore than we 'ave."
Everyone turned their heads toward Xehrarv to see if he still thought that the crew of the excalibur should focus all resources on finding a way out of hell rather than take a slight risk to stop themselves from eventually being discovered.
After a sigh the security officer gave his answer. "I still have reservations about us interfering anymore than we have, but I suppose it is best we prevent what will become an eventual leak and help out our new ally while we're at it."
"Very well. Rolf, get started as soon as you can. The only other thing we need is for someone to get the physical contract and negotiate with Valentino in person while we work our magic." Atathia ordered.
"Me and Al can do that, Angel is my responsibility and I'll do whatever it takes to save him from the abuse he continues to suffer."
"Yes, jolly good show my dear! And with myself being the scourge of the three V's, we should have no problems getting their attention."
"So. We're going to attract three of the most powerful people in this god forsaken place and try to deal with them?" Xehrarv voiced. After a moment of silence, he let out a laugh. "Well, we'll definitely be dead either way if we don't do this, so why not?"
Cherri was in a decent mood having just blown up a Voxtech cable van that dared to enter her meager amount of territory.
Normally she would be more joyful at the prospect of rearranging architecture and equipment with the power of nitroglycerin and various other makeshift explosives. But it wasn't the same without her best friend.
She hadn't seen Angel in over a month, with him having been cooped up in that princess's crazy hotel with the radio demon of all people.
Her opinion of Charlie wasn't hostile, but it certainly wasn't friendly either. She could give the princess credit for helping Angel and she at least tried to care for her people. However, her idea of redemption was utterly laughable and both her and her uptight girlfriend embodied an almost prudish persona when it came to having fun.
Didn't the two realize that life was meant to be lived in the fullest? Otherwise what was the point? To watch as everything degrades around you as you toiled away doing mind numbing or back breaking labor for the majority of your life only to most likely end up here anyways?
Still, she had to give them credit for providing her best friend with essentially free board and room.
She hated having to see Angel every time he returned from a work session with Valentino. And while her company and support did him well, she just couldn't think of a way to get him out of that pimped up dickhead's service short of a nuclear blast that would vaporize the fucker.
Sadly, that was way out of her league in terms of her near endless knowledge and skill with explosives. Gathering the materials to build such a bomb were even less likely given how hell's royalty kept an extra close eye on all uranium and plutonium to prevent any sort of nuclear apocalypse. Though it certainly didn't change their stance on regulations even with material as dangerous as that given what happened at the Schreiber power plant years ago.
Then again there were rumors of a meteorite or plane crashing into the place, but the former was supposed to be impossible in hell and the latter seemed unlikely as so few people down here had aircraft.
Deciding she had spent enough time lost in thought Cherri decided to go and hit up the nearest bar to participate in the not so uncommon event that were bar brawls and to get a few drinks.
However her next scheme of debauchery was interrupted as she saw the very unusual sight of the princess of Hell in the company of perhaps the most feared and sadistic sinner in hell walking down the street.
It was completely unimaginable that the Radio Demon would involve himself in Charlie's self proclaimed passion project. Had she not seen Alastor at the hotel herself in her very sparse visits to see Angel, she would never have believed it.
Deciding to see what was up she approached the two who seemed to be walking with purpose while Charlie was occasionally talking to someone and holding an earpiece.
As she got close, the princess halted and seemed to hesitate with pressing the earpiece again before opting for a greeting.
"Cherri?"
"Hey princess and uh…Alastor."
"Greetings my fellow overlord! I must apologize for not informing you sooner, but me and my new business partner will be briefly passing through your territory to have a little…'discussion' with Valentino. Especially since this was the closest place we could find a parking spot in this nightmarish traffic."
Cherri blinked twice. She always knew Alastor would never involve himself in trying to redeem sinners out of the goodness of this heart. Could it be that he was simply trying to get the princess of hell to join him in toppling the only group of overlord's that were able to survive him?
"Valentino? Wait, d-did princess here finally grow a spine and decide to help you remove him from the picture?"
Giving out a sarcastic yet nervous laugh Charlie replied "Uh..no, we're not going to kill him. But some new friends of mine have provided us with a way to ensure he lets Angel out of his contract for good."
Cherri did a double take "I'm sorry, you're telling me you made friends down here and have a way to free Angel without killing Valentino?! You must have some next level dirt or leverage to get that slimy cocksucker to give up Angel Dust of all people."
"Well..uh actually you're right." Charlie said while rubbing her neck
"Huh..I never took you for the type to blackmail anyone. You must have slept with a looot of people to get that dirt. Or maybe you've grown a mean bone in your body for once." Cherri teased.
Blushing furiously, Charlie stammered out a response. "H-hey! I can be assertive when I need to! Besides, I used another method to get the leverage we need."
"As charming as this banter is ladies, I think it is best we get back on track." Alastor interjected.
"Uh yeah, this may be our only chance to free Angel so we have to get going." Said Charlie.
""Alright princess, but not before I come with you."
Before Charlie could say anything Cheeri held up her hand.
"Now I know you don't have the best opinion of me Princess, but I'll be damned before I let you go off on some crazy stunt to help out my best bud without me. Besides, you are passing through my territory and you will probably need my help when you face off the Three V's."
"Splendid Idea! It will be trio against trio! Why I haven't felt this excited since my first radio broadcast I did down here!"
Smiling at her two acquaintances Charlie was filled with feelings of determination and hope.
"Ok, let's go save our friend."
Valentino was enjoying a very profitable day, the daily rush for the night life was well in swing and head just got out of a nice coke fueled orgy. It was a night that was repeated time and time again for the overlord, he did have the copious amounts of capital for it after all. Currently he was in the top floor penthouse with his two business partners discussing their current profits and losses as well as spitballing ideas for expansion in the areas around their bases of operation.
Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Valentino let out a colorful display of smoke as he breathed out. Were it not for his sinner physiology his lungs would have certainly shriveled up into a charred meat sack long ago, but thanks to the regeneration he could enjoy almost any narcotic to nearly any amount he wanted. And they greatly helped him to unwind like his sessions with his favorite toy. Normally he would have avoided damaging Angel in areas that were visible outside of his typical pink and white striped suit, but the fact was it was near impossible to hide anything if he had him strip down anyways for a photoshoot or filming session. Plus his sinner nature would ensure he was completely healed in a week or so at most anyways. On the other end of the table he was sitting at were his two "business associates", conversing about the annual report of their business. Vox himself began to list off the report.
"So profits are up as usual with my flawless decisions and vigor in running Voxtech and I now stand as the only cable and internet provider on the ring. The only exceptions being a few damn thieves that keep pirating a few of my signals. But otherwise I think it is time for new terms of service on all software as a means to raise prices a bit more and forbid all family sharing of streaming accounts. I can run a short ad or story on Killjoy's show saying that corners will have to be cut to fund a new anti-virus software or better operating system or something while I just change around the code a little."
"How devious my little idiot box, In the meantime I'm racking in a little over the usual while having made a large expansion in my workforce by 20%. Hell's appetite for new arrivals is insatiable." The overlord said with a shiver. "Otherwise I'm focusing most of our investments into expanding my hold on internet porn. I think it's time you ought to start a crackdown on getting rid of everything free on the web too, Voxy boy. Then you can help me set up a streaming service requiring them to pay for what is mine, though I can always rely on the fact that most people outside of sad dweebs with no life prefer the real thing, especially when they aren't allowed down to lust."
Velvet giggled white Valentino listed off his accomplishments in his report. She was furiously typing on her phone, posting images of herself from the past day ranging from the food she ate, to the few shops she visited, and the poor souls she eviscerated for taking too long waiting in line and checking people out to buy the latest fashion in clothes.
"What about you babydoll? How's Voxtagram going?"
"Great Val! We're up to 2 million more users and our newest algorithm is giving extreme preference to posts with the best drama and essentially purging all the little troublemakers that spread all those false rumors and say mean things about you. I even learned that one of Satan's newest gym instructors in charge of running their new eating healthy program was cheating on his diet while posting daily about needing support for it!" Velvet stated with a devious snicker.
"Uhhggg, even the most mundane gossip will turn you on babydoll." Valentino said while taking another drag on his cigarette.
"Oh lay off of her Val, at least she doesn't throw temper tantrums and takes out her frustrations on one of her greatest assets."
"Hey that little shit deserved it! That bratty slut started giving me lip and resisted my commands while being extra happy about something he still refused to tell me about! I needed to remind my favorite little whore that he belongs to me and me alone!"
"Well maybe if you didn't spend so much time fixated on your whores, you wouldn't have to rely on me for your damn internet porn adventures!"
Receiving an urgent text from her phone Velvet's eyes went wide. "Uh guys?"
"Oh please baby, we both know your flathead ass and so called multimedia empire would never have taken off without my help at ousting the competition. And at least my sluts know their place and how to keep their mouths shut."
"Guys."
"My place? The fuck you trying to say to me!? I'm just as much if not more of an overlord than you! Hell, none of your operations would have any capital to draw from and no one would care about your little whorehouses without my advertising. Get off of your imagined throne of dildos and stop being such a prick!"
"Guys!"
"Oh fuck off you crazy techno dweeb! Maybe I oughta crack that pretty little screen of yours to give you a glimpse of the world outside of that shitty plastic and glass filter you lug around."
"Guys!"
"Bring it you moldy gray FUCKFACE!"
"GUUYYSS!"
"WHAT!" Screamed both of the two male overlords.
"ALASTOR IS ON HIS WAY HERE AND HE'S LESS THAN 2 BLOCKS AWAY!"
Any animosity between the two was immediately dropped as the two rushed to a set up of personal security cameras monitors in the penthouse confirming to their slight horror that the radio demon was indeed making his way with two other individuals to their location. A closer look revealed that the two accompanying him were none other than Princess Charlotte and minor overlord Cherri Bomb.
"The hell is that adrenaline junkie bimbo and child-brained princess doing with him?!" Vox questioned.
"He's helping sponsor her joke of a hotel dumbass, this must have been his goal; To get her to join him in taking us down." Val answered.
"Fuck. Let's tell everyone on the first floor to clear out and try to meet him in the lobby. If we're lucky, we can avoid a blood bath."
Taking a hold of a microphone Valentino ordered everyone out of the first floor except for security which was to try and form a perimeter behind the lobby for them to fall back to when the fight inevitably went south.
While the three V's were all narcissists to varying degrees and exhibited some symptoms more prominently than each other, they were under no illusions that they couldn't beat Alastor in a straight fight, let alone him and the daughter of Lucifer.
Grabbing his ivory and gold embroidered pistol, Val entered the elevator down to the lobby with his partners after loading up a magazine with angelic metal tipped rounds.
The ride down was nerve wracking, not that any of them would admit. The overlords did however take in and let out a deep breath when they reached the bottom, save for Vox who lacked said physiology.
Walking up the three entered the lobby to find Alastor himself twirling his microphone flanked by Charlie and Cherri, with the former having her arms behind her back and the latter tossing one of her makshift bombs up and down.
"Ah, so glad to see that you all got my invitation to meet me down here." Alastor stated with a toothy grin
"Your invitation? This is our joint you 1920's reject." Vox interjected.
Letting out a short chuckle Alastor responded sarcastically. "Charming as always Vox, though I must commend you three on making your way down from your metaphorical thrones so quickly to see me. It really helps show your impeccable control over things."
Twitching one of his eyes, Val responded. "Enough with the crap Alastor! Let's skip the part where you ogle yourself over some boring speech and get down to business. Even though you're not man enough to face us on your own and decided to bring two whores to be your lackeys, you'll still just find yourself at an impasse as always."
Alastors smile only increased as Valentino spoke and after chuckling some more he responded. "Ah, it's so amusing you actually see it that way. But to my slight disappointment I have to say I haven't actually come here to finally rid myself of the annoyance you three are to me. Rather our visit is of a different nature."
"HAH! You expect us to believe you didn't come here to topple us?! We know you have no interest in anything beyond a hundred years ago in terms of technology and you don't get excited down there over anything. Unless you came here to offer me the one eyed chick on your right, she's been a slight thorn in our side for a while and I would enjoy breaking her in." Val taunted with a leery grin.
"Pfftt, I'd probably vomit most of the time over how gag inducing you are bug face. Besides, people love having me take the dominant role in the sheets as they explode with pleasure. You know that reminds me, how's that cable van you sent over to Sumner street flathead?"
Before the sneering TV demon could reply Charlie got right to the point.
"We've come to make an exchange for Angel Dust's contract."
The three overlords paused for a second before bursting out laughing.
"Oh please princess, as if you had anything we could want. You really need to keep this record of embarrassing yourself up, it's soo funny!" Velvet jeered.
"Baby doll is right honey, you must be really touched in the head to think I'd part with my favorite toy. And it shows just how weak and pathetic you are that you would try to bargain for it when you admittedly have a good chance at just ending the contract by trying to end me." Val stated.
"Oh, I think you'll find what we're offering is more than worth it from your perspective. Though my business partner isn't really accurate by phrasing it as an exchange. It's more along the lines of a deal where we will agree not to do certain things to certain assets of yours in exchange for a certain contract."
The three V's paused over that and lost their leery grins over their attempts to try and humiliate Charlie who the three didn't notice had pressed a button on her earpiece.
"You're full of shit Alastor. There's no way a fossil like you who's stuck in the past almost a century ago can get past the protections I've put in place. The same goes for that armature terrorist and wannabe Dinsey princess with with daddy issues. None of you three have the skillset or resources to try and blackmail us with anythi-" Vox's triage was interrupted as multiple major alarms inside his digital brain went off with a fury.
Diving deep into his connection to the vast digital database his multimedia empire had constructed he found something that should have been impossible: all of his contact information and about half of his passwords and credit card numbers had been compromised and leaked all across the web. Not only that, but after a few milliseconds searching around he found that one of his bank accounts was completely emptied. While the majority of his billions in wealth was in stocks, assets, and loans with insanely low interest rates he had secured, he had still just suffered a major loss. He still had one with a small amount of funds as a back up in a relatively small but secure bank and of course there was the one at Lucifer's Grand Imperiale Bank, but he had still lost well over a few hundred million.
Furious at this blatant breach in security he tried to hone in on whoever was responsible only to come up with nothing on his first try. Realizing he had paused for under half a minute he decided to get his allies up to speed before attempting damage control later as he suspected the same happened to them.
"Yo Vox you with us? Snap out of it for fucks sake!" Valentino yelled at his fellow overlord.
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Vox screamed.
"Whoa, whoa. What's going on Vox?" Velvet questioned
"One of my bank accounts just got EMPTIED! And I've been doxed, ME! OF ALL PEOPLE!" The robotic demon screamed.
His two allies were about to tell him that was impossible only to be interrupted as similar alerts popped up on Velvet and Val's cell phones.
Taking a few minutes to go through the alerts the two quickly found the same had happened to them their outrage was unable to be expressed at first as they were struck with disbelief.
Laughing almost uncontrollably, Alastor and Cherri started clapping. "Now this is what I call entertainment! This is just as exciting as the stock market crash from 1929!"
Valentino Glared hatefully at Alastor "You..you pompous Strawberry FUCKFACE! How the hell are you three doing this!"
Whipping a tear from his eye Alastor decided to humor them a little. "Well unfortunately I can't take credit for this ingenious act of digital sabotage despite my unmatched skill over radio, you could say I've made a few new friends who share old Voxxy boy's attunement for new technology. Only their priorities and motivations are polar opposites, which is part of the reason why they are miles above of you."
"Who the hell would want to make friends with an eldritch abomination like you?!" Velvet taunted as she spun around to Alastor's side only to switch gears completely as both her playful and need to know side took over as she got on her knees and did her best puppy eyes impression with her hands held together. "Pleasepleasepleaspelaseplease tell me! I must KNOW!"
"Now now my dear, there would be no mystery or fun in that." Alastor said as he patted the female overlord's head to her frustration.
"If you won't release Angel from his contract, who knows, maybe even your other bank accounts might be taken!" Charlie said, obviously signaling to the Starfleet crew.
"Wait what!?" Rolf exclaimed in the communication console. "We can't do that Charlie, it'll give us dead away from how much network usage we're using!"
"That is what they call a 'bluff' Lieutenant." She'rl responded from the Helm of the Excalibur.
""I…you know most of our money is in stocks you'll have to do bett…"
"VAL YOU FUCKING DIPSHIT! YOUR FAVORITE LITTLE WHORE IS NOT EVEN WORTH THE MONEY WE'VE LOST ALREADY!" Vox screamed.
"YEAH well it ain't just about money! How do you think my reputation will look if I GIVE UP A FUCKING SOUL CONTRACT! I'll be seen as a weakling and and FUCKING JOKE! Not to mention the hit I'll take with my clientele over their favorite CUMSLUT!" Valentino screamed back only to have Velvet interject after.
"Look Val! People have already caught on to us being doxed, so we're suffering a hit already and I'm not going to have people see me be one upped even more at my own favorite game because YOU WON'T PART WITH YOUR PATHETIC SPIDER CRACKHEAD!"
"Well since you mentioned being doxxed, I should also mention we leaked how to pirate Vox's signals to get free streaming and how to share it with all your friends." Charlie said while looking to the side and twiddling her thumbs.
Vox slowly turned toward Valentino while twitching uncontrollably with a crazed look in his eye.
Val stuttered from a moment as he narrowed his eyes and let out a frustrated breath, crushing the cell phone in his hand as he did. A moment passed before he spoke again in a low cold rage filled tone.
"Vox. Velvet. Upstairs."
Reluctantly the three V's walked up to the elevator, taking it up to Val's penthouse to fish the contract out of his safe.
Upstairs the Overlords discussed things while Vox went into detective mode to find out just how the hell things became so compromised. How could things get so bad in the first place? He had the best encryption and firewalls in hell, so good that it gave some governments a run for their money, so who the fuck manage to hack it?! He began to look through all possible internet traffic; there needed to be a lot of it, it had to be strong, and it had to connect to his private servers. If he could find a connection that matched all of these points, he would know who was responsible and put a stop to their miserable lives. As he began to trace the connection, he somehow for some reason God only knows, couldn't find it. No matter how hard he pushed himself, he couldn't seem to pinpoint where it could come from! However, he was able to get something; a somewhat large blank spot of connections near the Hazbin Hotel. He could trace a few connections to, but nothing that matched all the criteria needed. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
While Vox was busy doing damage control and trying to find the sons of bitches responsible Val and Velvet had their own discussion.
"FUCK!" Val screamed as he slammed his fists down on his desk
"How the fuck could anyone have gotten to us like this! There's no way Lucifer is backing up his daughter on this. That fucker is to busy distancing himself from his embarrassment of a daughter to care about her little 'passion project'."
"I'm pretty sure he would just march in and order us to give up Angel if he wanted to anyways. I mean demons as old as him aren't trending you know?"
"Eeehhhhrrrr! Who could possibly want to help them with something like this? She must not have the spine to topple us, otherwise Alastor and her would have simply whipped the floor with us. And any of our rivals in the other rings would just continue their hacking to try and leak and steal everything."
"Could it be there's something more valuable about your mobster femboy than we know."
"Bitch I know everything about Angel-cakes! He doesn't so much as wipe his ass without me knowing!"
"Look Val, we don't have much time before Alastor and his friends start doing even more damage. So you're gonna have to just give the contract up while we work this out later, and then we can EVISCERATE LITTLE CRETINS RESPONSIBLE!"
Furiously puffing on his latest cigarette Val stood there angrily for a moment before stomping over to his safe and entering the combination. After fishing the contract out he stormed over to the elevator with Velvet following before shouting out to Vox.
"Yo IDIOT BOX! You better have something before we go back down there!"
"I'm trying! I'm not getting much. But… I think I have something near the Hazbin Hotel!"
"Fine. But you better come up with something more concrete soon." Val said while blowing out another furious breath of smoke
Making their way back down to the lobby the two groups of three faced off again.
"Took you dipshits long enough. You two must be getting too old for normal life, maybe that's why Mothball breath over here needs his whores just to get laid at all." Cherri taunted.
Valentino slammed the contract down onto a nearby counter before pointing a finger at Cherri.
"Don't make me change my mind bitch!" Looking back down at the piece of slightly glowing paper Val took out a fancy quill with a gold tip and wrote something on it causing the glow to evaporate before it was yanked out of his grasp by one of Alastors shadowy tentacles.
"Most appreciative of you sir. It was most fun here today, although I can't say I will be visiting this establishment again unless under different circumstances. Anyways, toodle-loo!"
As the three left Val clenched his fist again, cutting his fingers on the quill in his hands, still sour over losing his most favorite and most abused sex worker.
Stepping out of Valentino's establishment the three demons started to make their way back to the hotel while Alastor handed the now void contract to Charlie.
"My dear."
Charlotte graciously accepted with a tear of joy streaming down her face shared by Cherri who would never admit such a thing.
"I must say princess, that was something I certainly wasn't expecting. Maybe you've got some spine after all."
"Yeah, I'm just so glad that Angel is finally free! Now maybe I can start to undo all the damage that BASTARD did to him." Charlie said while letting her more demonic form show for a second.
"Well I'm definitely coming with you to see his reaction now that he is free from that dickface. It'll be nice to see that lovable crackhead again."
"Uh…yeah totally"
"If this is about me being a 'bad influence' I'm gonna have to ask you to pull that stick out of your ass princess. I'm going to see him."
"No, no, no, it's….uhhhh. It's hard to explain."
Letting out a short snicker Alastor interjected into the conversation the two ladies walking a slower pace behind him were having.
"The issue my dear Cherri actually stems from our new and very interesting friends who were behind the ingenious and greatly amusing round of hacking displayed minutes ago."
While Alastor was speaking Charlie held her hand up to her earpiece again and listened in on a short message.
"Oh yeah. Just how did you two dorks find someone willing to help you with Standing up against Valentino of all people? No offense but one of you seems to scare everyone away while the other is a little overbearing."
"Well they kinda just knocked on my door one day. But they are AMAZING, they've shown themselves to be very kind, selfless, smart, intuitive, and they've agreed to help me with the hotel!"
"Whoa, whoa! You're telling me that you found some people actually willing to help you out with that destined to fail experiment of yours?! And what does that have to do with your hesitation of letting me see Angel?"
Despite being annoyed at hearing someone ridicule her dream for the umpteenth time Charlie decided to let a little out without revealing anything important.
"Well, it's just that my new friends have a strict policy of keeping their existence unknown to as many people as they can. Most of them are all gone from the hotel for the day though, so I'll call them once we reach my limo to discuss things."
"Hmm, well I can say that's a very smart policy of theirs. But now you've really piqued my interest over them."
The demons continued their conversation shifting it to more everyday topics until they found they had arrived at the limo that was thankfully unmolested probably due to razzle and dazzle's vigilance when it came to protecting their mistress and her things.
"If you don't mind, I'm going to sit up front this time to call our new allies and work out something with you visiting. I guess…you can talk with Al or something if that's okay."
"Hmmm, well normally I'd be wary of something like this, but I guess he's cool."
"Splendid my dear! I'm sure you can't wait to hear all about my earlier days as a radio broadcaster! Why I started out with nothing more than a microphone and old radio my old grandfather used to own, it was really…"
Cherri seemed to groan as she sat down into the limo while charlie covered her mouth to hide a giggle before she got into the front seat giving her two goat like servants pats on the head they so enjoyed before taping her earpiece again.
"Hey Ms. Sh'ithiaqos…yes it's safe for me to speak."
James Hendrix Edison opened his eyes after a long and needed rest to the sight of the same ceiling that he had become accustomed to. Interior design wasn't something that Starship engineers paid much attention to, there were more important things to a starship than interior groaned to himself as he sat up in his bed, putting his fingers betweens his closed eyes. He checked the clock that was beside him. He had gotten a good night's sleep and then some. As he got from his blankets and bed sheets and onto the hard floor, he felt a grumble in his stomach and a realization soon after: he was hungry.
Edison stumbled towards the food synthesizer as he began to regain his footing after the prolonged doze. He looked out the window as he saw what was beyond the white-plated hull of the Excalibur: nothing but red skies and polluted clouds. Perfect for hiding from a civilization that would probably kill you and your crew in a million different ways that would make a Klingon blush. As he got to the food synthesizer, he began to command the machine.
"Bacon and egg sandwich, please. Also make the bagel an everything bagel and have some butter on it." Edison commanded, and was shortly greeted by a fresh hot bagel sandwich. As he ate his breakfast, he looked down at his clothing; just a simple white t-shirt and black slacks. "I should probably get into my uniform." The captain thought to himself. After a shower and going through his morning routine of brushing his teeth, combing hair, and shaving his face, Edison was suited up and ready to resume his duties as captain. As he was ready to resume his duties, his eyes trailed to an old photo of him and a raven haired woman on the beach, as happy as two humans could be. Edison chuckled to himself. "Maybe someday Teresa. Someday…" He said to himself as he exited his quarters.
As Edison walked down the halls of his ship, he felt a sense of unease in his mind. He was worried that if there was truly a way to get out of here that didn't mean blowing themselves up and causing a city sized crater. But what other choice did he have? The longer they stayed down here, the more of a chance that they would be discovered would only grow and grow. "There has to be a way, right?" Edison thought to himself so that he could calm himself down. The wormhole appeared without any starship, so there had to be a way. All he had to do was find it, which at this point was starting to become a constant worry for him. He was only in his mid thirties, why did he have to be the one that had to care for his crew like he's doing now? Someone with the likes of President Archer, Captain Pike, or Admiral Kirk would probably be drinking coffee back in San Francisco by now. But Edison didn't have what they had, or at least he didn't have them yet. However, that didn't matter. He and his crew are here, and he had to push through no matter what.
As the Captain entered the bridge he found Athatia, Rolf, She'rl, and Xehrarv engaging in a conversation with someone on the planet's surface. The question of who they were talking to was answered when he heard the voice of Charlie on the other end of the call.
"I'll leave it up to you if you want to bring her into the secret or just have me hide any trace of you in the hotel, but she won't be stopped from visiting the hotel and she has the right to want to see her best friend after what's happened."
"Who won't be stopped from visiting the hotel?" Edison interjected, much to his confusion.
"Captain on the bridge!" An Ensign said to the crew, who saluted him before returning to their work.
"At ease, Ensign." Edison said to the Ensign as he walked towards his senior officers.
"So, you're finally awake." Athatia said to the Captain.
"Thanks Commander. But who's not going to be stopped from visiting the hotel? Did anything happen while I was asleep?"
Everyone on the bridge all shared a glace before She'rl answered.
"Oh, you could certainly say that."