My name is Ashmedai, the author of this novel. I hope you enjoy! For now, we join Satan, a young man with big dreams. The year is 2024, and our man Satan is about to embark upon his quest for power and glory! There's just one problem....

Chapter 01: A Troubled Start

He was broke. Satan had put his entire life savings into a new garbage recycling tug built to cut away at the ocean's pollution, and nobody wanted to buy it. He just couldn't believe it! With all the work he'd put into the damn thing over the past six years, blueprinting, prototyping, brainstorming every chance he got, and now nobody wanted his hard work.

Satan hung his head over the letter. It was from the Green Earth Initiative, politely declining his offer for a prototype. He sighed heavily, and tossed it in the garbage can, alongside the dozens of other polite declinations from companies all over the globe. He'd tried everything! But nobody was interested in the three mile wide island of trash out in the Atlantic, or the four mile wide island in the Pacific. All people cared about these days was Global Warming, and the trash in our oceans apparently had nothing to do with it.

Satan just walked away from his desk, head hung low in defeat, his long hair hanging over his lightly bearded face. He wandered into the kitchen, looking for comfort food of some sort, and ran straight into the backside of one of his housemates, Leviathan.

"Watch where you're going, Sae!" Leviathan shouted as she grabbed onto the nearby counter for support. Satan looked up in surprise, gathering his balance for a moment before responding.

"Oh, sorry Lev. I wasn't looking where I was going." He mumbled, scratching his face. He weaved around her and made fast for the refrigerator. He quickly snatched the tub of ice cream and snagged a spoon from behind Leviathan, making a break for his office before the inevitable questions.

"Sae."

Damn. He wasn't quite fast enough. Satan turned slowly back around to see Leviathan looking at him concernedly over the bar.

"What's wrong, Sae? Did you get another letter today?" She asked, giving him those damned eyes he could never turn away from. He sighed heavily, and shuffled over to the bar, sitting down beside Leviathan.

"Yeah. Green Earth Initiative this time." He said as he peeled open the tub of ice cream.

"What? I was sure that they, of all people, would be interested!" She looked at Satan with big, sympathetic eyes. "Oh, Sae. I'm so sorry. Those guys have no idea what they're missing out on. We'll find you a company yet, don't you worry." She put her arm around his shoulders, and he shoveled his mouth full of ice cream. He went to get another scoop, when something occured to him.

"Hold on, where's Lucy?" He asked, raising his eyes from the tub of ice cream.

Leviathan laughed, removing her arm.

"Oh, he's downtown. He said he had a surprise for you when he got home too!" She checked her phone for the time. "And he should be back any minute too. I'm sure his surprise will put you back in a good mood!" She clapped her hands together, looking at Satan hopefully.

"Yeah. I'm sure it will, Lev." Satan said, returning to his ice cream. He would never tell her, but he wasn't so sure anything could lighten his mood just then. They sat together for awhile, Leviathan working on homework of some kind. Satan supposed it was for college, which she attended online. She was studying to get her Doctorate in far too many things for Satan to remember. He was sure at least one of them was psychology of some kind. He realized that he'd been out of his friend's lives for far too long, dedicating himself to his work. He shook his head, deciding then and there to remedy that as soon as possible. He raised his head back to her, and was about to ask what she was working on, when he heard keys in the door. He stood immediately, his hand going to a sidearm that wasn't there, and he cursed himself for leaving it in his safe.

The door opened, and there stood Lucifer, looking a little taken aback at Satan's ready posture. "Damn, Sae. It's just me, man." He said, walking in and closing the door behind him.

Satan sighed, sitting back down. He realized then that he'd been away for far too long indeed, to be ready to draw on one of his friends. He considered then a career change. Perhaps he'd pulled one too many security patrols on the Luna. See, Satan worked on an international container ship, the Luna, as a security patrol. He was away at sea for half the year, and international waters were dangerous these days.

"What's up, Lucy? You still keeping the ladies on their toes?" Satan said with a wide grin over Leviathan's head at Lucifer.

Before Lucifer could even answer, Leviathan was up on her feet, her eyes flashing with anger. "He'd best not be!" She turned to Lucifer. "You're not, right?"

Lucifer raised his hands in surrender. "Me? No! No, babe, it's one girl for me these days, I swear!" He looked to Satan for help. Satan still had a wide grin, twisted a little into an evil smirk now.

Leviathan stomped over to Lucifer. "It had better be! I better not ever catch you messing around with another girl. If I do-"

"She'll die a slow death, and he'll wish he got it so easy." Satan piped in.

Leviathan turned around, her eyes flashing at Satan. "You're damned right! And don't interrupt me, Satan." Lucifer grinned at Satan over her shoulder.

She whipped back around to Lucifer, his grin disappearing as quickly as it had come. She opened her mouth to say something more, her finger coming up at him, but she just closed her mouth and stomped over to her homework, muttering to herself quietly. Satan just shook his head, chuckling at her antics.

Lucifer came over and sat down beside Satan. "Hey Sae! You're gonna like what I've got for you." He said, thumping his briefcase down onto the bar.

Satan turned his head to Lucifer. "What's up, Lucy? Another key chain from Las Vegas?" Lucifer darted his eyes to Leviathan and back again.

"Nah, Sae. This time I thought I'd bring you a number. We all know you need it, buddy." He said, a sly grin spreading across his face. Satan smiled widely, knowing exactly what he was doing. Satan heard Leviathan get up quickly behind him, and her stomping footsteps could be heard through the house, ended by the slamming door of the bedroom she shared with Lucifer. There was a moment of silence as the two boys grinned at each other, before they both busted into loud laughter.

"So, what's the surprise, Lucy?" Satan asked after they'd both calmed down.

"Ah! Right, check this out." He popped the clasps on his briefcase and pulled out some papers, handing them to Satan. Satan looked down at the papers, reading the top line. "Bold Industries". He raised an eyebrow at Lucifer, who just gestured excitedly for him to continue. Satan looked back down, reading onward. His eyes gradually widened as he continued to read, and when he got halfway down the dense page of text, his mouth dropped straight to his chest in disbelief. Satan looked back up at Lucifer, his mouth still wide open.

"That's right, bro! He wants to see it!" Lucifer looked positively ecstatic, but Satan could only stare at the paper in confusion. Bold Industries... It was one of the largest conglomerates in the world, it's child companies specializing in everything from children's toys to military technology for several different countries. It was run by Nicholas Bold, hardly the richest man in the world, but certainly one of the most powerful for reason of his wide portfolio. He'd come up in the past ten years from obscurity to the first car in space, the first extra-planetary mining operation, and many other achievements, but what confused Satan is that Nicholas Bold had never shown any outward concern for garbage or the Earth's pollution. Why did he have any interest in Satan's Recycler? The paper gave him an appointment of the next day at 3, downtown in an office building recently acquired by Bold Industries.

Satan looked back to Lucifer and asked one of the many burning questions on his mind. "How?" He asked tremulously.

Lucifer leaned onto the bar, taking on an arrogant air. "Well, I may have pulled a few strings down at the office." He said, checking his nails, trying to look nonchalant. The act dropped almost immediately when he looked back up at Satan excitedly. "But they really seem interested in your Recycler! When I told them you'd made it all on your own, they wanted to see you right away! I managed to put it off until tomorrow to give you a little time to prepare." He smiled widely at Satan. "This is it, man! This is your chance! If you can sell this, everyone will have to take you seriously!"

Satan just shook his head, still reeling at the sudden turn of events. He supposed he'd better pull his suit out of the closet...