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“You think we should expand the topside?”
“Mhm, you can expand my topside anytime you want~!”
He felt a boot nudge his hand in an, in fact, very annoying manner.
Vox looked up from his plans, raising an eyebrow at the other's comment. His business associate grinned back at him. He took a drag from his cigarette, exhaling slowly and letting the red smoke wander through the room. His tall figure was barely able to fit the chair he was in, therefore crossing his legs leisurely on top of the table. The TV Demon’s eyes involuntarily wandered down his partner’s long legs before he came to an haltl, slightly shaking his head to regain his focus.
The moth had stopped paying attention to the briefing a while ago, tossing in the occasional pointless comment. The comments had grown less creative as the meeting dragged on
Vox knew it was a game to rile him up, but both of them could play. He could keep up his act as the unaffected, “actually-working-on-their-future” type, while Val was… well, Val.
Still, if the meeting didn’t end with one of them bent over the table, it was a loss on both sides. He just needed to drag it out a little longer; long enough to finally see the defeat in his partner’s eyes.
He smirked to himself.
But for now, they needed to get back to the task at hand. The plans for their future headquarters were spread before them, a tower he intended to make a landmark in Hell. Every detail had to be perfect as their brand commenced. The paper was already filled with notes and the occasional “sexy doodle.”
The moth demon leaned his head on his hand, squeaking in annoyance at Vox’s indifference. They had been partners for roughly ten years, which meant there were barely any surprises left. Everything had fallen into a routine, yet after all these years, they had amassed enough souls to finally expand their empire. They had ruled their side of Hell for some time now, making them full-fledged Overlords.
“Voxxy, as much as I enjoy you playing your big man makes big decisions routine, very sexy, really, I actually have business to attend to,” he huffed, clearly fed up. “These whores won’t manage themselves, you know.”
Well, that was his cue. The meeting had officially dragged on too long, long enough to make his partner prefer actual work over listening to him.
Val stretched before slowly standing up, towering over the table and, by extension, over Vox. The TV Overlord remembered how awkward it had felt, always needing to look up to meet the moth demon’s gaze. Luckily, his business partner bent slightly, leveling them out just enough to make their heights more even.
Seeing Val standing in the cramped room reminded the TV Demon why they needed their own tower in the first place.
“Val, this is important. Think about it! A building towering all over Hell.” The TV demon started dramatically, throwing his hands in the air to emphasize his words.
The moth demon just took another drag.
“You want my input? Just make the thing taller, add more windows on the sides, and I want a rooftop patio.”
Vox blinked.
After two hours, the moth suggested something sensible for once. Already scribbling on the plan, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the moth was walking toward the door.
The tall sinner halted before leaving, glancing back at the TV demon. He leaned against the doorframe, taking another drag from his cigarette, eyes narrowing as a wide grin spread across his face, showing his sharp teeth.
“By the way, I forgot to mention, rumor has it your little boyfriend is active again.”
Vox stopped in his tracks; he could feel the electricity building up around him. He turned to the moth, a wide smile spreading across his face.
“Hm, is that so?”
The tall sinner crossed his arms, both his antennas perked up, surprised at the seemingly calm tone.
“Yeah, last I heard he offed one of these new Overlords. What was his name again? Like, the guy had a microphone for a head? Was it Mike? I think that would be too on the nose don't you think?.” Val muttered, thinking out loud.
“Eh, who cares? The guy’s screams could be heard earlier this week on the radio.”
The TV Overlord was oddly calm at that statement. Val wasn’t used to Vox not exploding at the sheer mention of the deer. He remembered Vox once describing his scorn for the Radio Demon, which, from Vals perspective, basically boiled down to a silly hate crush.
Vox exhaled a slow breath, more for dramatic effect than for the need to actually breathe.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Valentino stubbed out his cigarette and flicked it away.
“You know- dear old Mike won’t be the last one to suddenly disappear from this unholy plane of existence.”
Vox paused to process his words, a low chuckle slipping from his lips.
“Wait, are you - are you actually worried about me?
Vox turned to look at his partner, his expression turning sour. “I'm a fucking Overlord, Val. This FUCKING old-timer has nothing on me!”
A loud thump echoed through the room as Vox slammed his fist down on the desk, his right eye swirling as static overtook his screen.
Val just raised his eyebrow at his partner. Ah, there it was. The explosive temper he missed earlier.
“I'm just saying,” he tried, attempting to smooth things over.
“You never just say, Val.”
The moth just shrugged at that.
---
Vox was seething.
If Val were here, he’d probably call it nothing more than pouting.
The TV demon just tsked at his own thoughts
Being patronized by Valentino of all people put him in a foul mood. His claws crackled with electricity as he thought about the red freak who seemed to be wandering under the pentagram again. He knew Alastor went through active phases, tearing through the Overlord ranks like a buffet, before he would stay dormant again for some time. Still, since their last meeting at that bar, Vox hadn’t actually seen the deer again.
Overlords were rising just as quickly as they were falling, nothing new there. Val’s warning still left a bitter taste.
He pinched the place on his screen where a nose should be.
“Ugh that's just perfect, I don't have time for that.”
He scanned his office, his eyes fixed on the display of his cameras. Methodically, he began mapping their territory, linking every location for fast travel, whether one of Val’s clubs or a random street on the far side of the city. He would be there in seconds.
Mentally, he zipped through the feeds, hopping from camera to camera, until he reached one on the edge of their territory. The display was choked with static, making it difficult to make out the surroundings.
“What the-”
“Hello old pal.”
Vox jerked back at the sound. No wonder his camera had failed. That weird, ancient demon never had a thing for modern technology. It was actually disgusting.
Not even knowing if Vox was actually watching, the deer just continued his talk.
“My listeners yearn for new screams in my broadcasts. I thought it was about time to meet up with you. Now, what do you say?”
It was a trap. A horribly obvious trap. But Vox wouldn't be in this ring of hell if he didn’t zap over there instantly.
With an electrical sizzle, he materialized in front of the deer, patting his suit in a casual, relaxed manner. He wasn’t afraid of the guy, not anymore. This time, they were equals.
The Media Overlord scoffed at the earlier statement.
“Didn't know anyone still listened to that. Maybe it’s time to upgrade, old man,” Vox sneered at the deer.
The Radio Demon tapped his mic a few times before continuing to speak.
“Ah, the comedy! You should have kept spewing your nonsense ideas like back in the day. It was truly entertaining, really.” Alastor jerked his head sharply, as if snapping his own neck.
“But instead, you're running around with your little friend, playing in the Overlord business.”
“So? What is it to you? Finally threatened by me?” Vox growled at the slowly approaching sinner.
“Oh, Vincent, I never thought you’d make it this long, but look at you. Finally, a respectable Overlord after all these years.”
There was a deeply mocking tone behind that grin, which made Vox's blood boil.
“Don't you dare call me that,” the TV demon pressed out through his teeth.
“Aw, don't get so defensive. We're old chums, after all.”
Alastor's eyes narrowed at that. “And since we're old friends, it almost makes me sad to say. Your time is up.” His eyes turned to slits.
Vox couldn't react fast enough as a black shadow tangled around his foot and threw him into the next building. Crashing through the glass, he could feel his head spark with electricity. He warped into the next power line just before a black tentacle slammed down onto him.
He materialized behind the deer, expanding his cables to grab the other Overlord, barely missing as the red demon sank into his own shadow.
A static laugh crackled in the air as Vox looked frantically around to spot the demon.
“Look at you. You're just as useless as the first time we met.”
Vox’s screen flickered with anger at the taunt, sparking even more electricity around him.
“Shut the hell up and face me, you prick!”
“As you wiAHHZZzzz-” The slightest twitch of the shadow gave Alastor away. Vox’s cables shot out instantly, electricity surging through the radio demon.
Alastor laughed through the shock, grabbing the cables holding him in place.
“That… almost hurt a little,” he sneered, eyes gleaming with malice.
Vox tightened his hold on the radio demon, his body shaking with barely contained anger.
“You don't say?”
With a sudden, brutal move, he slammed the deer to the ground, whipping him back and forth. A twisted laugh lingered in the air.
“WHAT’S SO FUNNY?”
Pausing the attack, Vox dragged the demon closer.
“Your desperation is quite amusing, don’t you think?”
A jolt ran through Vox’s body, as if every nerve had been pricked. He lost his grip slightly, stumbling back. That single moment was all Alastor needed. With a swift motion, he summoned a swarm of minions, toppling the TV demon.
With the TV demon distracted, Alastor swung his staff lazily.
“My dear listeners, it’s a pleasure to finally be back on the air, gracing you with yet another delicious takedown,” Alastor began, his voice crackling with radio static.
“The theme today is radio or TV; which medium will outlast the other? Now, what do you say, my dear?”
The microphone tipped to Vox’s level, while he fought to fend off the seemingly endless wave of minions.
“FUCK. YOU.”
“Now, now, no need to swear. I’d much rather have you beg.”
The TV demon’s eyes widened as the shadow of a slowly growing Radio Demon stretched over his face. Its twisted form, stitched with glowing green seams, made it look more puppet than deer.
He felt a sudden pressure on his screen as he was flung almost comically into the street. The impact drove the air from his lungs, making him wheeze, before he felt warm blood rise in his mouth.
Before he could even stand again, the Radio Demon was on the move, striking viciously with his tentacles. Vox managed to grab one, stopping it for a brief moment, just enough to spot a camera and aim to zip straight into it.
Already halfway materialized into electricity, he felt something clutch his ankle, refusing to let go. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He is supposed to be electricity, no one could grab energy like that!
His panicked thoughts were cut off by another blow to the face, dragging him back toward the other Overlord.
It felt painfully slow, as if time itself had warped. He felt his screen crack, tiny shards of glass scattering to the ground.
Alastor slowly warped back into his normal form, grinning as always, as if he hadn’t just been flung around earlier.
“Dammit,” the TV demon rasped, struggling to breathe as he was lifted slowly to Alastor’s eye level.
“Looks like you’re still the same fool I met all these years ago, but I'm not surprised, really.”
All Vox could do was heave heavily, forcing himself to keep a pained whine from escaping. If he had to die today, at least he wouldn’t give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing him cry.
“Don’t look so glum.” Alastor almost looked like he cared as he lightly caressed his face, before his expression twisted into something sick. “I promise I won’t make it quick. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Vox swore he’d heard that line in one of Val’s films before. He chuckled at the thought. How ironic.
Alastor seemed amused by the sudden show of emotion, ready to speak again, until a sudden, dull impact echoed through the street. Vox watched as a fist collided with Alastor’s face. The moment lasted only a second, but Vox could clearly see the deer’s surprised expression, before getting slammed to the side. The Radio Demon tumbled through the air, flipping several times before landing on the bloodied street.
Vox hit the ground at the same time Alastor was knocked aside. Still dazed, he felt someone grab him by the collar, lifting him up.
“YOU IDIOT!”
He was shaken violently. His eyes widened as the blurry face before him morphed into the angry face of his business partner.
“Val, how-”
“Aren’t you supposed to be the reasonable one? You’re supposed to put out my fires, not the other way around! I warned you! And you- just look at you!”
Valentino shook him harder, and Vox couldn’t even blame him. He was a fool.
Before Vox could respond, both of them noticed the Radio Demon slowly rising from where Val had punched him earlier.
The moth instinctively fluttered his wings, creating a wall of smoke that shielded them from the eyes of the still-lurking sinner. Val’s pheromones were completely useless against Vox, thanks to his filtering system and his half-tech, half-sinner body. Whether they affected the Radio Demon, however, was another question entirely.
He felt Val’s claws dig into his arms, with an urgency he wasn’t used to from the moth demon.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Val growled, gently, almost too gently, lowering Vox to the ground.
Feeling the hard ground beneath him, Vox winced, reminded of just how much he actually hurt. He was normally able to regenerate quickly, but now it felt painfully slow. However Alastor managed to kill sinners, Vox had surely just gotten a taste of it.
He gritted his teeth, focusing. He needed to regenerate faster; he couldn’t let Val face that freak alone.
The click of Valentino’s guns echoed through the eerily quiet street. Alastor crossed his arms behind his back, his stance slightly lowered, as if bowing to the newcomer.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt a conversation?”
Val simply aimed at the deer, silently daring him to come closer, a toothy smile spreading across his face to mirror Alastor’s.
“Oh, I know but you should always interrupt if things drag on for too long.” He winked at the deer, earning an almost-imperceptible scowl.
“You and everything you do down here disgust me. Now step aside so I can finish off our mutual friend over there.”
Val looked Alastor up and down, taking in his ragged, bloodied state.
“The only one who gets to make him finish is me, so you’d better get lost before things get even uglier here.”
Now that got a reaction out of the deer. It was subtle, but Vox could swear the static in the air seemed to suspend for a moment.
“That’s it!”
With that, Alastor summoned his tentacles once more, flinging them toward Val. The moth demon gracefully stepped aside, sprinting toward Alastor at top speed, aiming to fire a bullet straight through the other’s head.
All Vox could do was watch from the sidelines as Val tried to close the distance between himself and the Radio Demon. The moth had notoriously bad eyesight, so he needed to get as close as possible for a better chance of hitting. Still, if he got close enough, his odds of landing a hit would be nearly 100 percent.
Dodging Alastor’s previous attacks, Valentino managed to get right in front of the Radio Demon, landing a solid punch to his side before raising a gun to his head.
The moment Val pulled the trigger, Alastor twisted around the moth, rapidly trying to reach Vox.
“Hey! You stay right here, mister!” Val unleashed a wall of his pheromones, encircling the Radio Demon, who now lost sight of his surroundings.
The Radio Demon didn’t appear lovestruck like the other sinners Val had used this trick on, but it was still effective, buying them the necessary time.
Valentino reloaded his gun with practiced ease, glancing back at Vox. The TV demon could swear he almost looked concerned.
“Vox, you better move your sorry ass, or I will!”
The TV demon, still slumped on the ground, just grunted. His wounds hadn’t fully healed. He needed more time.
Valentino seemed to realize this and lunged forward, aiming another punishing punch at the deer. But this time, Alastor’s shadow caught the blow, holding his fist in place.
Val simply grabbed Alastor’s arms with his lower limbs, pinning them to the side of the deer’s mangy body, drawing blood in the process. A surprised hiss escaped the Radio Demon, which only made the moth clamp down even harder.
“Get away from me, you disgusting-”
The static in the air grew loud as Alastor squirmed angrily, struggling to get the moth off him.
Alastor lashed out with a tentacle toward Val’s neck. The moth ducked just in time, and the tentacle only caught the farthest point of his head. Being suddenly dragged down by one of his antennas, Val went completely slack, crashing to the ground. A deep growl rumbled from his throat before rising higher. He bit his lip to suppress a pained whine that threatened to escape.
Helpless and furious, Vox felt his pulse race at the sight of the moth, his body itching to fight but refusing to obey.
Suddenly free from Val’s grip, Alastor spared only a glance at the writhing moth on the ground, his antenna still trapped in the tentacle’s hold.
He slowly turned back toward the TV Demon, a grin stretching to his eyes.
Vox could only watch, glancing back and forth to Valentino on the ground to the radio demon that slowly came closer to end their fight. Vox mustered the strength to lift his heavy limps, standing up with a light bend, holding his head that was still buzzing with static.
Alastor reached for his neck, slowly transforming back into his demon form. Vox could only feel his body dangling in the deer’s grip, watching as Alastor’s mouth opened wide, the scent of blood and decay filling the air. The acidic taste of his own blood filled his mouth as he tried to speak, but no words would come.
A dull sound reached his ears, but he ignored it. Getting eaten by a freak was certainly not how he had imagined dying a second time. His eyes slowly closed as he felt the warm, decayed breath around him. The buzzing in his head grew louder and louder, while the world around him seemed to fall into an almost deafening silence.
Then everything shook. The tentacle holding him quivered, and suddenly the hot air of hell rushed past him again as he crashed to the floor. In the process, he lost even more parts of his screen but still managed to open his eyes.
He shook his head to clear his vision and froze. Alastor’s grinning visage loomed before him, still smiling, but with a hole through his head. A bullet had entered the back of his headl and exited through the center of his forehead.
The tall figure of the Radio Demon swayed before toppling over, landing face-first directly in front of him.
“What just happened?” Vox gasped as Alastor’s shadow slowly dragged his real body down, sinking into the ground.
Valentino appeared in Vox’s line of sight behind the sinking Radio Demon, breathing heavily. The gun still steamed in his hands, gripped tightly to suppress the slight shake in them. His posture was off. Vox knew how Val normally holds himself, and this wasn’t it.
His eyes drifted up to Val’s face. The left side was splattered with blood. Where his furry antennas had once been was now a mangled, bloody mess. The right side remained, a reminder of what it used to look like, feathers and bloody strands falling as the moth struggled to keep from collapsing on the spot.
Vox just stared at the sorry state of his partner, though he probably didn't look better. He wiped the blood from his mouth, trying to get his voice back after the initial shock.
“Are you alright?”
The taller sinner scrunched his face as if Vox had just asked the most annoying question imaginable.
“AM I ALRIGHT?”
The raised voice made both of them flinch. Valentino grabbed the left side of his head, as if he had nothing more than a mean headache and not just blown a part of himself away. “What do you think, Vincent? Really, what did you think? I told you to be careful, and you just went to face that thing anyway. What’s the point of me even talking to you if you’re too damn stubborn to listen?”
The TV demon could only sit there like a scolded child, waiting for his partner to finish his angry fit. As he looked into his friend’s eyes, he slowly saw the anger fade, replaced by deep exhaustion.
“Can you just calm down for a moment?”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Both fell silent. Valentino sighed, dragging his hand over his face and leaving a streak of his own blood.
“Voxxie, you better not make me regret this.” the moth huffed angrily, though there was no real venom in his voice.
Vox pushed himself up. Despite his fuzzy head, his body had regenerated enough for him to stand again.
“If you ever pull this shit again, I won’t be coming to save your sorry ass.” Val weakly pointed at the TV-headed demon. How he hadn’t fainted yet was beyond Vox’s comprehension.
Vox reached out to help the wounded sinner, but Val weakly slapped his hand away, dipping even further downward, yet still managing to keep standing.
Vox was at a loss. His partner had just saved him, what was he even supposed to say?
“Val, I-”
“Shut it. Whatever you want to say it doesn’t matter,” the moth rasped, his eyes drooping. “You better bring me home, because if I wake up on this street with your sorry ass, I will-”
His eyes closed, and he finally collapsed forward. Vox stepped in swiftly, catching him before he hit the ground. Holding the moth, he got a better view of the wound on Val’s head. He slowly traced over the mutilated antenna, watching one of the few remaining white strands of fine hair fall away. The injury didn’t seem to have been caused by one of the Radio Demon’s attacks, but rather by a precise shot to the side of his head.
Vox’s mouth fell into a thin line as he carefully wiped the blood from his friend’s face. The moth’s expression scrunched in pain, causing Vox to tighten his grip around the sinner.
He felt himself shake again, hugging the taller sinner closer to his chest. The moth was still breathing, and even though they technically couldn’t die here, that fact alone made him feel a little calmer.
His gaze lingered over his partner’s form again, something tight and unfamiliar settling in his chest.
“Couldn’t just leave me to die, huh?”