Orion wants SCAUR (South America) to join UNOW. He plots with a drug trafficker named Diamond Diego to make this happen. He and Manny go down and see the drugs. Manny implants them with psychic residue that will make anyone who takes them have positive feelings about UNOW. Manny is very weakened by the effort. Diego promises to help, but they know he wants to take over himself.
Diego has the leader of SCAUR killed, and Orion moves in. He plans to kill Diego, but they find out that he's already dead. Orion now has command of North and South America and Australia. Great Japan and Africa remain adversaries, however.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Pellon Cross and Zebra also tried to make a deal with Diego. However, Diego threw them out. They are the ones who killed him in response.
Back at Grendel's Palace, life is getting harder for the vampires. They are getting bored being stuck in one place, and as a result they start to fight among one another. Some try to escape, but usually die in the attempt.
This arc has a very unique storytelling structure. Each of the comics in this arc are divided into two stories, each of which continues through the arc. The first half of each issue is about Orion, and is told using multiple small rectangular panels of the same size, usually 8 to a page. The text is often placed in large paragraphs the size of the drawn panels. The second half of each issue is about the vampires, and is told using a more conventional panel/text layout. Each of the vampire stories are themselves made of two parts: one about Cross, Kierch, and Zebra, and another about one of the "everyday" denizens of Grendel's Palace. They are narrated by either Zebra or Kierch.
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