A Hell of a Time
When I got home that afternoon, I was met with a hug from my long lost cousin.
"You're awfully clingy today, Sicily."
"I'm always clingy," the angel said in reply, "but big brother doesn't like to be hugged where people can see so I don't get to hug very often."
I chuckled "Not a lot of privacy at home?"
"Not really," my cousin replied, "there are servants coming in and out of every part of the castle-especially big brother's room since he never learned how to pick up after himself."
Okay, that was... "Well, I guess those are the drawbacks of growing up in a castle full of servants?"
"Yep!"
I walked, nonchalantly, into the kitchen, my baby cousin hanging off my back, where one of Sicily's prinnies offered me a cup of tea-earl gray, hot, no milk, no sugar-which I accepted.
"So Taylor," Sicily asked as she let go of me and I took a seat, "have any plans for superheroics today?"
I thought on it for a moment as I took a sip of tea. I didn't have anything planned, specifically, so far all of my heroism had been spur of the moment or forced on me, so... I'd probably have to get in the habit of patrolling or something. I did tell her she could be my sidekick, so I should probably let her do sidekick stuff... "Nothing specific planned, but maybe we could go on a patrol after dinner?"
Sicily jumped, "yay!" I smiled and finished my tea.
"So, turns out that people have been talking about me on the internet, and I want to see what they've been saying."
"Big brother does that a lot." Yeah, from what Sicily's told me Laharl was kind of full of himself.
I went up to my room, with Sicily following behind me, and sat at my computer to sign into PHO... That's weird, I had a Private Message. I'd literally just made this account this morning. I checked it out.
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Topic: Reluctant Villains seeking hero to join.
In: Boards ► Private Messages
Posted On Jan 25th 2011:
Hello, you don't know us, but we know of you... You kind of kicked our boss's Ass. We're not mad, he was a dick.
Our problem is that with him gone, we have no protection and we kind of need it. Bad
Now, none of us would have been villains if we had better options-I was literally forced to work for Snake-Face at gunpoint-So I guess what I'm asking is... Are you in the market for minions, Akuma-Sama?
I blinked. "Sicily," I asked of my baby cousin, "could you be a dear and hand me my mom's hellphone?"
The young angel did as I asked, handing me the phone, and I dialed a number I'd been given yesterday.
The phone rang five times before it was answered. "Hello," came Director Piggot's voice, "who is this?"
"It's Akuma," I answered, "um... something happened and I don't know who else to ask about this sort of thing."
"Oh for the love of..." I heard the sound of indistinct grumbling on the other end, "you haven't been kidnapped again, have you?"
I blinked. "No."
"Oh thank God." I was starting to regret immediately going to Piggot. "Okay, what happened?"
"I just received a private message on PHO from someone claiming to have worked, reluctantly, for Sna-Coil, and it basically says that they and their... I don't know, partners or teammates or whatever want to join me and be heroes." That sounded a lot less crazy in my head. "I'm just wondering, what's the etiquette for this?"
There was a long moment of silence where I couldn't here anything from the other end. After a solid minute I began to fear that the call had been dropped, but then the Director spoke up again. "That... would explain some of these E-Mails we've been getting. Why don't you let us get back to you on this, okay?"
"O-Okay." she hung up just like that. After looking at my Mom's phone I just shrugged and pulled up Google, to figure out what attaching "-sama" to the end of a name meant.