Disclaimer: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and its characters are copyright Jhonen Vasquez. The Original Characters in this story are mine, not yours. Enjoi.


Todd has found that school is still unbearable in certain areas, but his brother's extended wing of protection helped him coast through painlessly. Lenna was still a constant nuisance to Pepito, but the feminine attention was more positively received to Todd. He liked having a girl close to him, even if she was a vampire. The normal kids all feared him, and the outcasts liked him at a far, far distance. No one but Pepito and Lenna got close to Squee in school.

"Hey" Pepito began at the private lunch table.

"What?" Todd replied.

"How's that what's-his-face guy you've been playing with?" Pepito asked.

"RoninMusashi12?" Todd clarified. "I guess he's fine. We've been ranking up like crazy lately."

"What game?" Pepito asked.

"Any game we play" Todd answered. "He's like a gaming genius, or something."

"Isn't that oxymoronic?" Lena pointed out, stirring her food with a fork. "A 'Gamer Genius'? Anyone who plays games is obviously not a genius."

"Hey now!" Pepito growled. "My IQ is over a hundred and I play games regularly! Squee pays them too!"

"The exception makes the rule" Lena said, moving one seat closer to Todd. "Squee's a handsome, smart young man who happens to play video games. They don't effect him in any way..."

"Oh really?" Pepito began. "You haven't seen him play. He gets these wide, blank eyes like a fucking serial killer staring down his victim. It's scary!"

"So?" Lena said, wrapping her lace-covered arms around the unmoved Todd. "That doesn't change his appearance in any way..."

"So I'm just a piece of meat to you?" Todd joked. He chuckled lightly and Lena laughed, but Pepito just grumbled and turned away from their mushy affection. When he turned, he saw something outside the window. Far across the street from the school, in the busy urban streets, a transaction seemed to be going on. Normally, such incidental happenings wouldn't faze Pepito's satanic focus, but what happened now had somehow snared him.

Two men were standing on the street in classic trench-coats the middle of the day. Their conversation was obviously suspicious, but no one around them noticed. One man was about average height, and the other was shorter and very oddly built. It looked like he had a humped back or back-of-neck somehow.

The short man did most of the talking with the plain man nodding occasionally. Then, the short man slipped an envelope out and the normal man took it. He opened it, read it quickly, and put it back into his own coat. After that the conversation seemed to be over. The two walked away from each other and eventually disappeared from sight.

"Peppy?" Lena asked. "You okay?"

Those people Pepito thought. There was definitely some weird vibe coming from them. It felt...threatening. I'm a damn devil god and I felt like I was corner as I watched them. The presence that small one had was totally unearthly, and the taller one just plain scared me. I felt challenged...helpless just looking in his direction!

"Pepito?" Todd asked. Pepito finally snapped out of it and grinned his devilish grin at his friends.

"Sorry" he said. "I was just planning an extortion scheme...got a little carried away is all."

"Oh" Todd said. "On whom?" Pepito sighed with a smile, glad the subject was averted but still on edge over the odd happening outside the window. His act held up perfectly, and even his own brother had no inkling that something was wrong.


"So what really happened at lunch today?" Todd asked that evening. Pepito froze up and accidentally ran into a fire, dying instantly from the game's poor design.

"Cheap-ass SHIT fire cock-smoker bitches!" Pepito raged. He felt the temptation to throw his controller into the TV, but resisted it and calmly set it down. Then he punched a hole in his bedroom wall. "What do you mean?" he now asked his brother.

"I know you weren't scheming" Todd explained, neck-deep into the game they played. "You're scheming face looks a lot scarier. Pepito retrieved his fist and sat back down. "You grin from ear to ear and your eyes roll back into your head."

"Like this?" Pepito asked, demonstrating his hellish clown smile and white eyes. Todd chuckled at his brother's antics and nodded.

"You seemed really distant and sort of angry" Todd pointed out. "I've never seen you like that. It was like you were calm, but also ready to kill."

"You're always like that, killer" Pepito said, mocking his sibling. "I just had a bad premonition, is all. It's really nothing."

"Oh, alright" Todd said. He knew that the demon realm and its problems were no place for him to understand. "You know, I was thinking about asking Lena out sometime..." This sudden news furrowed Pepito's brow and shaded his eyes in black. "You think that's a bad idea? Since we're all friends, and it might get awkward around each other."

"Maybe" Pepito said. "It doesn't bother you that she's a little older and taller than you?"

"No" Todd said. "In fact, I never really paid attention to stuff like that. She's a nice girl, is all. I can see her without all that make-up acting like a normal girl sometime."

"That make-up keeps her alive, you know" Pepito pointed out. "It's super sun-proof. Besides, hermano, you shouldn't worry so much about love. I have a feeling most things we strive for will become useless in the near future."

"Really?" Todd asked. "Is this about your premonition?"

"Sort of..." Pepito answered. "As for Lena, do whatever you want, really. I don't care either way. But if she starts biting you, I'll kill her."

"Gotcha" Todd affirmed. They went right back to playing their game, unaware of the repercussions of Pepito's true premonition. In the game, a message flashed onto the screen, signaling that RoninMusashi12 had logged on. A few moments later, he sent an invite for Todd and his brother to join him in their game.

"You want to?" Pepito asked.

"Sure" Todd answered, accepting the virtual invite. They equipped their headphones and prepared to talk.

"Yo!" RM12 said to them both. "How're you guys doing?"

"We're okay" Todd answered. Pepito remembered that his headphones hadn't worked since his last raging torrent he threw last night, so he tossed them aside and scowled as the lobby screen came up.

"That's cool" RM12 replied. "Well, I'm ready for some homicide, how bout you?"

"Always" Todd said, half joking. The three started playing, killing enemy players left and right as soon as the map started up, thoroughly enjoying the massacre they all created along the way.


Meanwhile, as the sun had already set, Yvonne was settling in to bed. Her hair was reset to a regular, partially curly brown color and bunned up to keep it under control during the night. She wore a tiny negligee and black lace underwear to bed, as she is wont to do, and her handsome guards all retired to their tiny quarters upstairs and next to the door. Only Beelzebub stayed awake with Yvonne in his telepathic insect form.

"What an awful day" Yvonne growled. She huffed her way haughtily to bed and pouted on its edge. "I wake up and find out how badly I was embarrassed from you, and I lost the kill to Thomas of all people! God, this sucks!"

At least you're alive Beelzebub pointed out.

"That doesn't matter to me" she grumped. "I just want to win this silly, stupid competition."

Why? Beelzebub asked. Does it have something to do with your past? Some deep-rooted complex that forces you to the top of whatever mountain you see? Yvonne, contrary to his plotted reaction, just scoffed at him and turned her head.

"Don't be an imbecile" she said. "I have no past." Beelzebub morphed into his alien form and quietly paced over to her.

Of course you do it said, carrying the tone of concern more than matter-of-fact. Don't you remember it?

"Actually" Yvonne started "I don't. I don't even remember my parents. All I know is that I'm the daughter of royalty in my home country and when my parents died they gave me everything, down to even the villagers below their castle. I was born into this world with everything I would ever desire, and that's fine enough with me." Beelzebub kept silent for a while.

How interesting it noted. I've visited the surface of a dead, burned-out star and I've traveled into the event horizon of a black hole, but the living things that exist in this cosmos always find ways of surpassing my own understanding. You're condition is truly fascinating.

"Well, I am fascinating" Yvonne gloated. "I'm glad you could find me out of everything else in the universe. It's a good opportunity for you to study a superior specimen on this planet."

Hmm Beelzebub apathetically grunted. It began to silently wonder if there truly was another purpose for it to be on this planet, something epic it had to observe. This game Yvonne played for the devil was one thing, but Beelzebub could already sense something infinitely more important, more cosmically significant happening right under his antennae.

By the way it started up again politely, when will you schedule a meeting with me and the provider of this event you're in? This Satan?

"Oh, eventually" Yvonne responded. Honestly, she was unaware of how should could do that or if she would be allowed. She decided to tuck herself into her bed and wait for the next opportunity to ask. That was the best she could do for her handy psychic sidekick.