Insider: Hellmouth*

A Story by Abishai100

Two dark axes of power in a proverbial 'dark city' gauge this noir-tale of unexpected apocalyptic diagonals.

A dark city dualism vignette (with no canonical reference to any standard religious doctrine), but inspired by the offbeat film Assassin's Creed. Enjoy (signing off again),

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The city was dark and ominous and the evil was silent and invisible. There was no police force, as the hellmouth opened by the sheer 'leviathan' of human sins made corruption a thing of mystery and even beauty. That's why there were only two axes of power in this dark city.

Capitalism was overrun and mismanaged and forms of anti-capitalism terrorism (e.g., 9/11) rose to the spotlight. Blood-diamond (warlord-mined gems from Africa/Europe used to fund terrorism) had scarred the global gem market. Therefore, the world of capitalism in this hellmouth world where the proverbial 'dark city' was conspicuous made wealth and fortune a deadly game.

I'd mentioned in such a place of darkness, there'd be only two axes of power. The first axis was a vigilante-ninja thief named Sparrow, who intercepted baron blood-diamond spheres in Europe by looting silos from safe-boxes in banks controlled by these corrupt modern barons overshadowing the dark city in ways. Sparrow was a crafty dark warrior, and his Interpol-relations helped to cleanse some of these blood-diamond dragons. A thief is a man who lives by wits and resourcefulness, like Sparrow, and his single axis of power was based on the hellmouth of 'controlling' raw skill.

SPARROW: I use a handy-dandy machine-gun for my baron-heists in Euro-banks, and my axis of power is one of energy.

I'd mentioned there were two axes of power in this modern apocalyptic Earth with the proverbial 'dark city' conspicuous. The second axis of power was the Woman of Babylon, who'd have the power to seduce powerful leaders in engaging in adultery and scandals, designed to bring to 'light' the modern apocalyptic raw interest in pure capitalism-oriented magic and conspiracy. After all, a man of power with a mistress at his side can control the mob in the dark city, creating special 'rings' of metaphysical aura. This Woman of Babylon was nicknamed Red Sparrow, and she's very different from our skillful ninja-thief Sparrow. A woman of the dark city is one of unfiltered human flesh and mysterious allure, and the axis of power she controls is one of undeniable dreams.

As the Woman of Babylon hosted special 'gatherings' to elevate and praise this modern dark city phenomenon of flesh experimentation to create new forms of metaphysical magic, our ninja-thief Sparrow continued his crusade to lift the power-spheres of blood-diamond barons in Europe. Red Sparrow's Babylon gatherings were hellmouth-symbols of other-worldly immersion, and Sparrow's theft-circus was a hellmouth-symbol of civilization diagonals. Who'd be the 'insiders' in such a place of absolute socialized daydreams about strange beauty?

This sort of dualism between theft and seduction prompted a serious modern dark city comic book writer (me!) to improvise to create a series of Batman adaptations, about the city of Gotham, where the 'dark knight' was a man of mystery and ninja-thievery (an obvious allusion to Sparrow), while his 'rival' is the magician-woman of seduction and ritual (an obvious allusion to Red Sparrow).