A prison break? How thrilling. To be so desperately sought after by the Clifford Empire? Entirely exhilarating. Every prisoner in the federal penitentiary wanted to be Walter Crawford as he waltzed out of his cell with the help of Otto Schäfer, Nancy Clifford's adopted brother. After the murder of Sullivan Clifford, Nancy was struggling to remain in power. With the loss of such a major supplier for the Clifford's weapons, she was close to being overthrown. She needed Leviathan, so Leviathan she resurrected.
Except dear Nancy? Well, she just wasn't her father. Sullivan always had a charisma about him that few others could replicate. The old man ruled with an iron fist, but it never felt unfair. His presence alone caused immense fear, and people believed that just by uttering the Big Boss’ name that he’d suddenly appear behind them. An omen, but one that was respected by everyone everywhere. He had always been a bit of an inspiration for Walter. Imagine the arms dealer's disappointment as they brought him to a safe house and he met the spiraling psychopath.
Nancy was worse off than he originally thought. She was obsessed with gaining back power while she continued to lose it due to her way of ruling. Sullivan usually had good reason if he ordered for someone to be killed or even did it himself, Nancy was killing her own people for fun. That wasn't how you kept or earned loyalty. The crazed clown makeup wearing woman had never been sane, at least in all of Leviathan’s dealings with her, but she had completely fallen into absolute madness. Her father’s murder had truly affected her in ways that possibly no one could have imagined. Walter knew the longer he stayed under the thumb of Nancy and Otto, the shorter his life expectancy became. That just wouldn't do.
From the moment Leviathan was born, Walter had been building his own underworld empire. Sullivan viewed Leviathan as a partner, of sorts. Nancy was sure to view him as a rival. Walter had a plan. A way to ensure he could go back to getting rich while being rid of the Cliffords for good. Though this plan could spell trouble for Walter himself, as it meant he was making a deal with someone worse than the devil. Someone that he supposed even the devil would fear.
A woman that was in no databases, but highly trained. She would kill police officers who thought they were close to arresting her, she would kill children who stood in her way, and she was even the one who had bombed a daycare to seemingly kill a single teacher. A true terrorist, but a person that Walter had dealt closely with. Cold eyes that held no life, and yet her body still moved. If Walter hadn't met her face to face, he would swear she was nothing more than a ghost. Yet Warmonger was very real. She was the real threat that everyone needed to be afraid of simply because she could not truly be bought. She could only be swayed by the promise that she could kill. Her extreme hatred towards superpowered people could cause her to be temporarily leashed like a rabid dog. But Walter, well, he was superpowered himself. He had always been a gambling man.
Walter put out the word that Leviathan was back in business. All his old contacts were welcome to return and their final requests that he may have not filled were done so in full… with a little extra to make up for them waiting so long. He knew this would bring in Warmonger. She always needed some of the heaviest and strongest fire power that Walter could provide. Lately he’d been hearing rumors about some tech going around that could temporarily take powers away, and if it could be put into a bullet he knew Warmonger would want it. She was unpredictable, but her hatred made her a bit obvious. What he didn't expect was an attack on the safe house he'd been shoved into.
The safe house had been secured. Round the clock guards that were heavily armed rotated out as protection. No one unwanted was getting in or out without a fight. It came by surprise when two canisters of tear gas and a regular smoke grenade dropped into the room from a ventilation shaft with plinging noises. The guards all looked around in confusion before they realized what they were. Just a moment too late as they all three went off. Walter was in another room, but as soon as he heard the commotion and shortly after heard muffled grunting — he knew. Warmonger had come for him.
There was really nothing stopping this woman from just immediately shooting Walter on sight. He simply had hoped that she wouldn't. That she would hear out his proposal and that they could once again become buyer and seller. Should worse come to worse, Walter wouldn't go down without a fight. Though he was at his most powerful when in his suit and with weapons, he was skilled at martial arts and his motion mimicry gave him an edge. He knew that he wouldn't ever win against Warmonger, but it wouldn't stop him from trying. Due to this, Walter managed to slip between a small hole in a wall and quickly made his way towards the stairwell. Up seemed like the best option. He would rather jump from a building than be stuck in the basement with a murdering psychopath between him and the only exit. He saw a red dot from a laser sight flicker on the wall ahead of him, ducking down a hallway to avoid being shot as more guards came running past him. He looked back just as they rounded the same corner he'd come from, watching as blood splattered before one of the large men fell backwards. The very tip of a silencer pointed around the corner before he whipped his head back in front of him and turned to rush up the stairs.
Walter had a split second to decide where he wanted to go. As soon as he reached the top of the stairs he quickly entered one of the only rooms with a whole door still left on it. Closing the door and locking it behind him. It wouldn't stop her, but he angled himself to where he could jump out the partially broken window should he need to do so. Gunshots were finally sounding, ones that meant the Clifford's guards were trying to fight back. It was a very tense few moments, listening to the chaos as he practically hid away. The sunlight that streamed in through the window illuminated dust and smoke that swirled around inside the room, making Walter realize Warmonger had hit this safe house in the middle of the day. That woman wasn't ballsy, she was insane. Police would descend quicker as civilians were more likely to call in violence or unusual sounds during the day.
As the last gunshot sounded and Walter heard a strangled scream be cut short, he knew what it meant. Warmonger had finished off all the guards. The silence was intimidating, but what was worse had to be the heavy footsteps that made the partially rotten stairs creak and groan. Now she was playing with him. She normally wasn't this loud. This woman wanted him to hear her approaching. To hear his impending doom. He could hear her footsteps approach the door he'd locked and they came to a halt. Silence once again. Walter didn't know if she was going to start shooting the door and hope one of the bullets hit him, if she was going to blow it up, or if she would light it on fire. No one ever truly knew what Warmonger was going to do next. Though the door being loudly kicked in with one swift movement, stirring up another thick layer of dust that made Walter cough, and having that red dot laser aimed directly at his forehead? That was enough to make Walter nervous.
He took a moment to look over Warmonger, her face was mostly covered but he knew it was her. All he needed to see were those eyes. Dark and dead. With a smirk, he opened his arms and leaned forward. She still hadn't shot him. She knew he could have gotten away before she killed all the guards, but he purposely stayed. She knew he had something to say and she wanted to hear him out.
"Since you've paused your murdering rampage, I have a proposition.” Walter grinned at the woman. Letting his eyes wander down over all of her impressive gear she had on. It looked like she was dressed for heavy warfare, with real military grade shit. She’d always wanted the top quality things he could get from his military contacts. “I want out from under Nancy and her brother's control, and you want them dead. The brother has intense powers, but there's no way you can kill him without killing Nancy as well."
The gun was lowered away from Walter's face, but still pointed at him. He noticed she moved her finger farther away from the trigger, but still rested it on the trigger guard. She stared at him directly in his eyes for a moment. He needed to make this deal sweeter, otherwise there was nothing keeping her from whipping the gun back up and ending him where he stood.
"Remember when you had that run-in with the old crime watcher, Sentinel? He retired, but I can promise you the new one. If you find him, I'm sure you can find the one that retired. I hear he's grooming teenagers and young adults to fight crime, perhaps some mutants are mingling in there." It was just like Walter to sell out children and not care what happened to them, as long as it meant he made it out relatively unscathed himself.
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"We have a deal." Warmonger croaked out, still not taking her eyes off the man. Even though Walter thought he could remain one step ahead of her, he knew this woman was certainly not stupid. She had to already be assessing the fact that Walter was a true con man at heart. That was what would get him killed in the end, surely. His greedy ways that knew no true bounds.
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Well, Walter had just made one unstable partnership. Just how far would he take that partnership, though? He’d already tried to harm his own children a year prior, not caring if he killed them after learning that they’d been the ones trying to hinder the building of his empire for all those years. Walter Crawford may have been one bastard of a man, but was he truly so evil that he’d let Warmonger, the mutant killer, take out an old friend of his? Would he let her hurt a boy that was like a son to him? It all would just depend on how badly Walter wanted to survive. Like a cockroach, it seemed that man could survive anything and come back from the brink of death each time.
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