| Canon Story | ||||||||
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| Choosing Sides | ||||||||
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| Artist | Writer | |||||||
| David Hopkins | David Hopkins | |||||||
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| Arc XLIII: Megan's Run, Part 2 | Arc XLV: The Princess of Hell's Highlands | |||||||
In Kane's Castle, Lisa is throwing a temper tantrum because there's no food. In another room, Bob gets fed up with her constant demands to bring her more food and sneaks out of the fortress.
Elsewhere, Lita is leading a group of refugees through a crevice in Hell's plains towards a base camp for the Rebellion, when she berates Cliff for his recent behavior at the camp, sickened by his actions and with no patience for his distractions. She confides to Sepka that if the Rebellion didn't need every available person, she would abandon him.
They're close to the camp when they're suddenly attacked by a giant Cthulhu Hellbeast. The creature manages to corner them in a dead end and proceeds to kill several of their party before Bob suddenly appears and utterly destroys the creature. The troop of refugees are shocked at this, and Bob demands to be taken to their leader.
At the camp, Jack, Central, Reckonin and Farrago are discussing their plans for the upcoming war with Kane, with Jack reporting that Vanity is refusing to take a side and doesn't understand Kane's upcoming push against her. The group knows firsthand that Vanity's Tower has the power to alter the reality of Hell, and that it would be an ideal target for Kane's upcoming conquest of Hell. While their army is growing, they know their soldier are poorly skilled and open warfare favors Kane's victory. Lita suddenly appears along with Bob, who confirms Kane's next goal is to take the Tower, and adds that Kane's forces are constructing "pipelines" from Vince's Coliseum to help quickly feed respawned troops back onto the battlefield.
The others are naturally skeptical of Bob's change of heart, and he admits that the only reason he's switching sides is because of his hatred for Lisa.
During a flashback, Bob and Lisa have completely abandoned their old office worker lives and become cannibalistic serial killers, traveling the country, murdering and consuming their victims and then assuming their identities on short term basis before moving on to feed again. Despite the surface level similarities, both of them have grown suspicious of each other, suspecting every unplanned or sudden change in their lives to be the deliberate actions of the other.
Both are constantly paranoid the other is trying to undermine or kill them. They move into a new neighborhood, killing new arrivals who had just purchased a home and assuming their places before the neighbors get to know the real couple. They plan to live at the house for a few weeks, feeding on an unsuspecting community members. Bob has a crisis of conscious during the stay when he unexpectedly finds himself sympathizing with his neighbor's wife Ellie, feeling bad for her as her husband is mentally and physically abusing her. Lisa on the other hand is instantly smitten with her husband Branger, and begins a sexual tryst with him.
Branger maintains a public friendly face while secretly taking his frustrations out on Ellie, and Bob begins a friendship with Ellie, helping her with housework while Branger is away at work or having an affair with Lisa. Despite cheating on him, Lisa is still jealous and suspicious of his relationship with Ellie and keeps tabs on their activities.
Finally having lost all empathy for Lisa, Bob decides to turn himself in to the authorities. He also encourages Ellie to leave Branger and leaves her his wallet so she can buy a bus ticket back to her parents. That evening, Lisa prepares him a meal, but he's shocked to find out it's Ellie. Lisa had killed her mostly to cover up their identities, but also rubs salt in the wounds by suggesting that Ellie had Bob's wallet because he had paid her for sex. She then brags that's she's leaving him to live with Branger, justifying that he can provide her a more fulfilling life and she won't have to worry about covering up for Bob anymore who she views as sloppy in his work.
As she's walking out the door, Bob makes mention of "leftovers" in the house's walk-in freezer. Lisa panics and her worse fears are confirmed when she finds Branger's corpse hanging from meat hooks in the freezer. Bob snidely remarks that people like them are curse to be together forever. They begin to fight, and Central suddenly appears and closes the freezer, locking the two inside. Bob and Lisa are trapped inside for days, eating what little food is in their, each trying to outlive the other just out of spite. When they finally run out of food, both make it clear they're not going to starve to death. Bob and Lisa both end up killing each other while trying to feed on one another.
Back in the present, Bob wraps up his story, reasserting that he has no personal interest in the goals of their rebellion, he's only fighting against the side Lisa is on. Jack finds Bob's story flimsy and obviously one-sided, but knows they are in no position to turn down a powerful ally and agrees to let the Sin work with them. Bob leaves with Reckonin to scout the pipelines Kane is constructing. Alone, Central tells Jack her position has been draining on her and she plans to step down as Highwing when the Rebellion is over. She adds she would like Jack to replace her when he redeems himself and goes to Heaven.
As Bob and Reckonin are leaving the camp, Twone, a young angel being trained by Lita tells Bob she found out Ellie turned down going to Heaven because she was hoping to go with someone she met shortly before she died. Twone suspects that's Bob, and Bob seems to grudgingly agree, but still tries to dismiss this and departs with Reckonin.
In a final twist, Cliff has switched sides and made his way back to Kane's Castle, approaching Drip in his pit and offering the Sin anything he wants as long as Cliff gets Lita in the end.
Characters[]
- Lisa Vorsh
- Robert Vorsh
- Nostrum
- Drip
- Cliff
- Lita
- Sepka
- Jack
- Central
- Reckonin
- Farrago
- Twone
- Branger
- Ellie