“Yes, Liu your mastery of disguise-fu is strong…”

“…But you still have much more to learn.”

Little Hector always bit off more than he could chew.

But as he grew, so did his appetite.

“Help someone! Help my baby boy!”

“I’ve got ’em!”

“…The mechanical engineers don’t think it should be too hard either. Anyway, should be fully operational by the end of next month. What’re you guys going to do with it anyway?”

“Oh… nothing special. Just sail around the world, visit a few sites maybe.”

“Look at those blithering imbeciles! Human and robot alike, fools one and all, wasting what pathetically little remaining cerebral ability they’ve allotted themselves after trying days of mindlessly undisciplined busywork. I cannot pity such  imbeciles, so much as I must find a way to put them out of the misery of their pointless lives. But finally, I have found a way. They will rejoice when they see what relief I will finally bring to them. They will, at once, collapse in eternal bliss…

“Now they will understand why I’ve toiled all these years. NOW, THEY WILL LOVE ME FOR IT!!”

In the blink of his omnipotent eye, an angry God wiped the earth of modernity.

And though gone was the era of convenience, soon rose the era of a wrathful God’s most monstrous abomination to salt the Earth of humanity and its little remaining technologies.

That which we archaically called the Leviathan.

“Okay, okay here I come. Did you need an umbrella? I’ve got a spare.”

“Huh. I… guess not.”

When they first came, they were beautiful…

…but when they left, they took so much with them. So much.

She smiled sweetly, and we kissed goodbye as the skies began to shower.

Would I ever see her again? On what other planet?

In what other lifetime?

“Here he comes! Ready everyone?!”

“HEAVE!”

“HO!”

“… and so it is with a heavy conscience that I order our military to deal with this, our most fearsome enemy swiftly and viciously.”

They came down from so far above.

And when they left, they left us with nothing.

“Peggy? Are you alright?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Sis! I’ve got it under control.”

“Longer legs?”

“Grown-ups are dumb.”

Joe rode to work casually, without a worry in the world.

Little did he know, a cereal killer was lose on the city…

AND HEADING HIS WAY!

“Dammit Bob, the pain’s only getting worse. Let me show you.”

“It’s right here. What do you think I should do?”

“I’ve got a few ideas. Let me show you what I’ve been using.”

“It’s so easy, all you’ve gotta do is hold the rope!”

“What’s this then? Bystanders? In jeopardy?”

“Fear not for your troubled trolley and turn to the sky, friends, for it is I…“

“Sir Gerald Wendicott the Third, at your service!”

“Well? What do you see, Timothy?

“EVERYTHING! I’ve never seen colors like these before, Doc!”

“Good. Just as we expected.”

“It’s super neato, Doc! Hey, what’re you gonna do with these anyways?”

“Ha, don’t you worry about that, Timothy! My assistants in the back room are doing all the hard work.”

Lightning tore across the sky in bleak morning sky as he set sail for that abominable place.

And none knew their ultimate destination but he.

Despite the legends and warnings, Eric had not expected the evil presence to take hold of their ship so quickly.

Crew and guest alike. None were untouched.

Until, finally, he and nine others abandoned their overtaken vessel.

The sea grew angrier, but he voyaged forward despite their pleads to stop.

What were once ten survivors turned to eight. Then six. Then four.

And now three.

Until there was one.

His journey may have been weeks or may have been months. It may have been day or may have been night.  Yet suddenly, as through out of time and space itself, Eric alone arrived at the floating gateway to the dark place of his dreams.

His single obsession for these cruel, seemingly-endless leagues of ocean.

Furiously, he navigated through the bowels of the cave, maddeningly, through its twists and turns, desperately, around it’s corners and cavernous enclaves.

Until he reached the place… from his dreams.

He crashed at the edge of land and leapt forward with what little energy remained to begin walking, slowly.

In silence.

Until finally, finally, his Dark Master appeared to him, as he had once before.

Following Eric, all along.

Testing him.

Waiting.

Just above him.

“Look Smith, you’re done. We got the whole thing on camera and the witness correctly identified your voice! Spill it, where was your accomplice?”

“I swear man, I dunno! He never came inside!”