In Which The Overlord Violates the ESRB Rating for Makai Kingdom [Open]

[i_am_the_bafo]

You know how sometimes, for dramatic effect, a character about to drop an F-bomb will inhale -- and then the camera will cut away to a long-shot of the city. A bell rings. Birds take flight in alarm

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[things_go_boom]

Somewhere close by, Lash continued her work as she heard an explosion.

"What the..."

BOOM!

"Hey! Explosions are supposed to be my specialty!" Quickly, she dropped her stuff and ran to where it had gone off to find... "It's those penguin things!"

Oh my god they looked almost adorable. Adorable for someone like Lash. Did that one have an afro?

Oh yeah and Zetta was here or something. Right.

"What happened to you?"

[i_am_the_bafo]

A couple of the Prinnies began edging carefully away from Lash, as if sensing that here was someone they did not want to be in grabbing range.

"Oh, hey, Lash," the book said quite calmly -- then shot back to ranting-anger. "ALEX! The ship saved ALEX! Not Pram! Not Babylon! Not even Mickey! ALEX!"

[things_go_boom]

Yeah it was probably better for you, Prinnies. But she had to laugh at that change on tone.

"Oh, you mean that guy you were kicking in the butt?"

[i_am_the_bafo]

"Yes! That brat of a god of an Overlord!" He was indignant at having to share the same COSMOS as Alex, let alone a ship!

[things_go_boom]

"Tee hee, you called him a br-"

[things_go_boom]

"-wait he's an Overlord?" That...sorta made sense and explained the guy getting angry but... "I didn't know there could be more than one. So is there like, a supreme overlord or how does that even work?"

"Wait, who's Mickey? Is there really an overlord named Mickey too or is that a minion?"

Somewhere, Mickey was busy being FABULOUS.

[i_am_the_bafo]

"Yeah, Alex is actually an Overlord," Zetta said. "Overlord is the title belonging to the ruler of a Netherworld. After being on this ship, you should know that there's more than one universe. There are some Overlords out there who are pretty weak, honestly."

Zetta sighed as she dragged up more memories (as if he hadn't mentioned it to begin with). "Mickey is the top part of Dark Lord Valvoga, the Star Overlord."

[things_go_boom]

"Yeah well..." Wait, what. "I can understand the whole universe thing, sorta but I didn't think your own universe would have multiple universes and..." this was sort of getting beyond her. "This feels like going into Quantum Mechanics blindfolded. But okay, I'll take your word for it." She pondered some more at what he said.

If he was worried about Alex, or at least angry, there was either some bad blood (totally not evidenced by the statue kicking), or Zetta was to some degree, afraid (but he appeared more angry than anything, so that was ruled out. Mostly. A good scientist / mad genius never ruled out possibilities until they were a hundred percent certain).

"So what's Alex's like?" She cautiously asked, before looking confused at the mention of Micky. "The...top part. Riiiight." If universes having their own universes wasn't enough, Lash didn't even think about multiple people sharing the same body.

[i_am_the_bafo]

"What? No, every universe has its own Netherworld. The grand scheme of everything is the cosmos. It's not that complicated. Even I understand it."

Failing to realize he'd just zinged himself, Zetta scowled, looking down at the floor. "Alex is... a brat. He's got a taste of power, and he thinks he's got what it takes to play at my level. Now that he's here, it's just gonna be the same old thing. Wars. Assassins. Him thinking he can take me and is somehow my rival. Don't tell me you never knew someone who THOUGHT they were great, but really just sucked."

[things_go_boom]

Hey it's not like Lash assumed there would be a Netherworld back home. "If you say so. Never saw any of you guys before so..." she simply shrugged.

But her face did morph into something of disgust as he went on about Alex. Not because he was talking about Alex. But oh, if Lash had a rival she really hated? Or was she really a rival or more of an annoyance, it was hard to say. But they'd fought wars and she'd tried to kill her. Overgrown ketchup asparagus hair. Kindle.

"Yeah I knew someone who sucked," she finally answered, recalling how Zetta himself had roasted a row of her during their last spar. "But I doubt Stacy would let either of you try to kill each other without doing anything. Remember what's-her-face?" She meant Big Zero, obviously. "She had fifteen warnings and then they took her to a place and..." she paused. "Let's just say it looked really, really painful."

[i_am_the_bafo]

"Yeah, I saw that. That was way out of line... not that anyone cares any more, since they all appeared to forget it happened about a day after it did... but that doesn't worry me," Zetta said. "I don't even know what she would do to a book, but either way I'm still the strongest being in the cosmos. And I can survive in the space between worlds," he added ominously.

"No, Alex is just going to be one giant pain in my ass. Such as it is at the moment. Frankly, I was kinda liking things before now."

[things_go_boom]

"Oh I remember all too well. I got my face smashed in because of of my hair." She shrugged and idly rubbed her nose. "But she's dead so, eh. That was before I was a ranger anyway." She had to raise an eyebrow at the whole survival thing. "Well it's nice to know someone's going to still fight the Ohm if the ship blows up I guess?"

Right. Back to Alex.

"Currently, you don't have an ass for him to be a pain to," she pointed out very frankly (and maybe with a tiny bit of a teasing tone too and a grin). "But hey, we've got Lord Zedd, so I can understand the whole annoyed at some guy being here thing. But I'm guessing Stacy wouldn't have let him out if he wasn't useful for something." She sat down. "So what does he do? Apart from being a pain in the ass, that is."

[i_am_the_bafo]

"Oh, don't get me started on Lord Zedd!" Zetta said, getting started on Lord Zedd. "Pretentious pretender! I can't stand Alex, but even I'll admit that Alex is an Overlord. Not some... some... stupid... Overlord... wannabe... guy!"

The book fumed a moment more, gnashing his teeth and generally being overblown in classic Zetta fashion.

"Alex thinks he's my rival, remember? He wants to take me down. So he's gonna show up and say things he THINKS are clever and generally be a pain."

And see Zetta as a book. That's the big thing here.

[things_go_boom]

Lash could only agree on Lord Zedd. "His putties have big Z's on them. I don't get what is every bad guy's obsession with making nearly unkillable things...then sticking a big glowing target in the middle!"

"But you have such sharp wit and skills," she snickered, patting one of the Prinny's in the head. "You know he's coming. Besides, you have field advantage, so to speak."

[i_am_the_bafo]

That Prinny just keeps getting more and more nervous. For some unexplained reason, it just doesn't seem to trust Lash.

"Yeah, I'm not worried. Nothing worries the great Overlord Zetta! But he's annoying! You have no idea! It's like a mosquito flying around that you just can't swat!"

Zetta considered her other comment for a moment, attempted to shrug, and nearly fell over because the gesture just didn't translate properly to a book. "Eh, I keep Prinnies around, and they explode," he said roughly -- she hadn't SEEN that, right? "But really, I do that because they're hilarious to abuse."

[things_go_boom]

That was probably a very wise thing in retrospect. But thankfully Lash just wanted to pet it today. For now.

Lash had hung around enough villains to know this was either a coded message for 'I am somewhat worried but I will not show it in an effort to preserve my badassity and masculinity' or just the plain old 'I am so badass no one can ever stop me mwhahahaha'. She suspected the first one, but said nothing. Besides, mosquito itches were pretty nasty.

She held up a Prinny in the air, inspecting it as it flailed around.

"So is that all they do? They have a backpack and explode for no real reason?"