Bunnyloverforever: I do not own anything pertaining to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, or any of the games. The only things I do own are my characters.
Chapter 3: Ladies and… Ladies
All six of the new guardians had unpacked their things in their appropriate rooms. Eric, Devin, and Nick all shared a room with three separate queen sized beds next to each other against the wall. Robin, Sasha, and Kim shared another room with the same queen sized beds. The girls were in a particularly good mood. It was easy to create conversation with themselves since they had already known each other from their childhood. With the boys, Devin and Eric shared a checkered past, and Nick was much more fond of girls than boys. All three of them were quiet, almost solemn as they unpacked their things. Nick was practically raised around his three good friends, Robin, Sasha, and Kim. He never met Devin, since the boy was from Earth. He'd never seen Eric until today. It would take a lot for him to open up to the two men. He suspected that Devin would be easier to talk to versus Eric.
Laharl stood outside of the boys' room. He had his arms crossed and thought intently to himself. He wanted to work on the boys first. Teamwork was the key to success in future battles that would surely come; even battles that would determine the safety of the Netherworld and its people. Laharl still had to save and take care of his people… for Flonne's sake, to become a maleficent Overlord. He would do anything for that title. He wanted to be like his father, no, even better than he ever was. Deep down, Laharl felt a special connection with Nickolas. His title as a Cosmic Hero… could it be? Were those legends true about warriors actually harboring the power of the universe and the power to destroy anything around them? It couldn't be, not from the go-lucky, friendly appearing, Nickolas he had handpicked; virtually all 'Cosmic Heroes' didn't have those powers. It was believed to be a hoax. It didn't seem likely… but he would surely find out soon, and what about Eric's attitude toward Devin? Would they end up as friends or enemies on his team? He can't let their checkered past from keeping them to work together. Laharl would find a solution for that matter.
The Overlord fist slowly rose to knock the boys' door. Eric's mind was engrossed in a book he was reading, Devin was half asleep on his bed, and Nick was enamored with the program on T.V. he was watching. All three of them jumped up at the knock. They instantly knew it was the Overlord himself, without question. Nick glanced back at the other two boys, who also looked back at him. It seemed to mystify them that their door had been knocked on by the Overlord.
"Ladies, open up the door, damn it!" Laharl roared, pounding on the door with both of his fists. Devin shrieked at the Overlord's response and jumped off of the bed. He ran up to the door and waved his hands in front of himself to signal Laharl to stop pounding, since the door was open and he would pound on him instead. Laharl did so and rested his glare on the human boy with bright blonde hair and big blue, innocent eyes. It ticked him off to look at the lad. He looked so naïve.
"Dear, Overlord! I'm sorry! It won't happen again! What is it that you need from us? Anything we can do for you?" Devin put his hands together as if he were praying.
The Overlord continued his menacing glare down at the timid EDF soldier that was apparently top of his class. It looked hard to believe. The Overlord was inwardly surprised when Eric pushed Devin out of the way, finally someone who could possibly match his icy glare. Unfortunately, the competition was destined for another time. Laharl had bigger plans and Eric had the nerve to defiantly question him about them.
"What the hell do you want? You almost broke the… your own door down." Eric crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. He was too angry being interrupted from his book to remember that he was talking to the Overlord of the Netherworld.
Laharl didn't mind the little back talk. He liked it actually. Perhaps it would come more in handy when they were up against an actual foe. "I need all three of you for a little pre-test." His hands gripped his hips and a small, knownig smile formed on his face.
"What kind of pre-test? I've never been good at Math." Nick approached the door and stood next to Eric. The pirate looked back at him with his one eye, the other being concealed by a black eye patch. Devin also thought the same question, but stared at Laharl.
"Simple, all three of you against me!"
"Laharl, are you sure of this? This doesn't seem fair. What if you get hurt?" Flonne was overly concerned for Laharl's welfare. She didn't exactly approve of the three against one match.
"Everything's going to be all right, Flonne. Nothing can go wrong, trust me. Just stand on the sidelines and don't get too close!" Laharl clearly ogled a determination. Flonne noticed this and stepped back. The Overlord held out his hands and clapped them together. A flicker of light was released. Laharl held up his right palm and with his left hand, he pulled out a white feathered hilt that formed on his right palm. He completely pulled the angelic sword out and swiveled around.
"He literally pulled a sword out of his hand!" Devin pointed out and hid behind Eric. The pirate raised a brow at the action while Nick looked grossed out.
Laharl snickered at their reaction. He approached the three of them and glanced back at Flonne. Laharl held the angelic sword with pride. He was able to discover its power more and able to form it when he realized that his bond with Flonne resulted in more of its strength. The design was purely angelic and contradicted Laharl's attire. Its blade was entirely white as well as the feathered hilt. A small, blue jewel was embedded in the middle of the hilt. The Overlord held the handle with pride and prepared to use some of its power in the fight.
"Okay, this match has started!" Flonne raised her right hand and then dropped it to her side. She knew in her heart that Laharl would win this match. It was just designed to see how good the new guardians were.
Nick raised his Cosmic Blade, but lowered it when Eric ran past him towards the Overlord in hot pursuit. Devin followed him after loading his gun with only a few bullets. The warrior just decided to watch what the two would do. They appeared to be implementing a strategy and he didn't want to get in the way of it. Eric made the first move. From his pocket he took out a stealing hand. Quickly putting on one glove on one of the ends, he threw the other end at the Laharl's sword, in hopes of pulling it out of his hand, which he knew was probably a naïve choice. Devin ran up next to him and in a split second, took aim and shot a bullet at the Overlord.
Laharl took a step back, but he didn't plan on dodging the odd looking bullet. He soon realized that that was a mistake. The one bullet was shot at his left arm, completely weakening his grip on the handle by sending some sort of electrical shock wave throughout his arm. Laharl almost expected the stealing hand from Eric. After all, pirates were all petty thieves. As the stealing hand was nearing his sword, with his right hand, he quickly mustered up a purple energy ball, not particularly strong. He was going to save up as much energy as he could for when he faced off with Nick. Laharl was careful when he shot his energy ball. He merely shot it in front of the hand, diverting its direction completely. The hand turned around and wrapped around the pirate and EDF soldier, trapping them and causing them to tumble over.
Nick chuckled at the two comedy duo more so than a combat team. He stepped in front of the two and drew out his sword again.
"Hey, what are you doing? Help untie us!" Eric ordered angrily of the cosmic hero as he struggled from his stealing hand's stronghold.
"Look, you can't order me around, and you two had your chance and blew it. So, excuse me." Nick turned back to the two and stuck his tongue out at them. Devin frowned, visibly ashamed, while Eric was holding his breath to keep himself from degrading the other male.
"That's true." Laharl stated, regaining feeling in his left arm. He would have attacked the cosmic hero while he was talking, but he desired to properly fight him instead. With both of his hands, he gripped the handle of his sword and looked expectantly back at Nick.
"Sorry, Overlord! I won't hold back!" The hero stepped back and clenched his handle. "Ha!" he yelled out as a white light surrounded him for a few moments and then dispersed, revealing his new pitch black hair color, light grey eyes, and black markings on the side of his cheeks and arms.
Laharl knew that there was something much more different about him than his appearance. A new sort of energy had taken place in his body. So, the legends were true, Laharl thought to himself. The two of them clashed swords, and Laharl was quickly overpowered and took a few steps back, as if pretending to have some kind of combat plan in place when he really didn't. He wasn't even entirely sure if his power could match that of the true Cosmic Hero. He could control the universe with his kind of power, but it looked as though Nick was clearly unaware of its fullest potential. His newly colored grey eyes from his transformation held an uncertainty. The Overlord simply smiled back. Flonne looked quizzically at Nick. She had heard about legendary Cosmic Heroes possessing extraordinary powers, but she didn't think that they existed anymore until now.
Nick charged at the Overlord. All Laharl could do was defend himself. Every time Nick's sword clashed with Laharl's, a blinding white light illuminated his sword's trail. The hero used his red devil wings to stay in the air and float above the Overlord while he slashed away. Laharl stayed on the ground, being pushed back with each clash of their swords. Flonne began to worry again. Laharl started to seriously question his own power. Should he even try? Should he end the match?
"C'mon, Laharl, you're not even trying!" Flonne yelled out. Now she was encouraging fighting! Would the Seraph approve of this?
Laharl knew what Flonne said was right. He was taken aback by Nickolas's power. Now it was time for Nickolas to become dazzled and amazed. Laharl jumped up in the air and even surprised himself when he clashed swords with Nick and sent him literally flying all the way across the other side of the room. He crashed into the wall, buried by debree. Laharl landed back on the floor and found himself panting and especially exhausted. That blow took a lot out of him. It wasn't just any wave of his sword.
"Don't move!" Devin demanded.
His childish voice almost made Laharl giggle. He felt Devin's pistol behind his head. Laharl truly knew that Devin would never shoot him. Nor was it even possible, but then again, Devin's bullets did a lot of weird things. Maybe he actually had some bullets that could take down a full-fledged demon. But Devin couldn't overcome his slow human reflexes. In a split second Laharl ducked and his hand gripped the pistol. The Overlord ripped the gun out of the human's hand and pistol whipped him, quickly laying him unconscious on the floor.
"What? Devin!" Eric revealed himself in the air. He was invisible until he saw Devin get pistol whipped from the Overlord. It should have been expected! The pirate quickly landed and sprinted over to the human that Laharl thought he hated. As he made his way, he was completely oblivious to the fact that Laharl was standing right next to his body. His eyes were fixated on Devin's unconscious expression. Laharl decided against shooting Eric even though the shot was inevitably easy and would have put out the pirate. He stepped back and watched as Eric knelt down to examine Devin's skull. The Overlord was sure that he didn't hit him too hard, but what a demon could withstand and what a human could withstand are two completely different levels. "If he's badly hurt then I'll kill you!"
Laharl was hesitant to react to that comment. He didn't believe that anything was wrong with Devin. It suddenly came to him that Eric was very protective of the human. What was the history? It shocked him more when Nick blew past him and knelt down over the boy as well. His markings, hair, and eye color were still the same. He wondered what deactivated his power.
"Laharl, is he okay?" Flonne questioned as she ran over to the human boy as well.
Laharl sighed and rolled his eyes. His antennas even drooped somewhat. "He's fine. Should we take him to Delta?" he said with exasperation.
"He's waking up!" Eric held him in his arms and lightly shook his head to help him gather his consciousness. Devin slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw at was Eric's worrisome expression. "Are you all right?" Eric glanced at Laharl and gave him the evil eye for a split second. Laharl rubbed the back of his neck timidly. This wasn't exactly how he wanted to end his day. He thought he would start on the right foot with these boys.
"Yeah… my head hurts." Devin rubbed the side of his forehead and felt blood streaming down. It wasn't a life threatening injury, but it sure did leave a throbbing headache. That was the last time he would ever threaten the Overlord or hold a gun within the vicinity of him.
Eric chuckled at his response. "Yeah, Laharl got you pretty hard," the pirate glanced up at Nick, as if he had known him for quite some time before this experience. The hero looked back at him and shared the smile. The two of them looked down at Devin and smiled back down at him.
Laharl couldn't understand the smiles, and even Flonne suddenly started sharing her smile. Then he received a nasty glare from her. "Laharl!" she firmly said under her breath. The Overlord took a small step back and his eyes widened at her tone.
"What?" he asked aloud and received another stern glare. "All right, gees," Laharl understood what her looks meant. He loathed how nice he would have to be to his new… companions… that would help protect the Netherworld alongside him. And he could always count on Flonne to pick the weakest EDF soldier out of all of them. He was left unconscious after a mere pistol whip. Then again, perhaps Laharl was being too hard. He had to admit, he did want to hit him hard enough to lay him out, but he didn't think that the whole fight was going to halt because of it. 'A team is only as strong as its weakest link.'
Laharl knelt down and picked up Devin in his arms bridal style. Devin was perplexed by the Overlord's most kind gesture. "Okay, I'll take you to your room and come back with some bandages. If Delta knows I hurt somebody already, I'll be the one needing bandages…"
Flonne smiled at Laharl's forced generosity. Eric followed him closely as well as Nick. Laharl couldn't help, but notice that Nick's markings or hair and eye color hadn't changed back. Perhaps he did control the power to transform and turn back to his regular self, but something about his blows made the Overlord think otherwise. They all seemed too amateur, yet powerful. Laharl didn't know much about Eric's or Devin's power, but he would make sure to find out soon. Nickolas's power brought many, many questions in mind. Flonne flew off to the nursery to secretly get gauze for Laharl without Delta noticing. Flonne flew back hastily to the boys' room as fast as she could. Flying into the room, she quickly handed Laharl the ball of gauze and bandages. Laharl started and finished bandaging the side of his forehead within a few minutes. Devin did his best to not move a muscle in fear that Laharl might accidentally carve his eyeballs out with his extremely long and yellow fingernails. Eric thought the same thing about Laharl's nails.
"Okay, I'm all done. Flonne, can you give me a moment?" Laharl truly asked of Flonne. Whenever he asked questions, they sounded more of a mandatory demand. Flonne nodded and made her way out of the room and closed the door behind her.
"Why did you send Lady Flonne out?" Nick queried.
"Because I'd rather talk to all three of you guys alone. That is, if you don't mind," Laharl finished and sat down next to Devin on his bed, placing his hand on his shoulder. Eric raised a curious brow at the gesture. He had read stories that the Overlord was cruel and heinous… not kind… did Flonne actually change him?
"Sure, whatever you want, my Lord," the hero happily stated and smiled toothily. As soon as he did, his markings, hair, and eye color all went back to its regular form. His hair turned auburn brown and his eyes back to red.
"What would you want to talk to us about? Did we fail the pre-test?" Eric asked in a mono-toned voice.
"Actually, you did, but that's all right. Everyone has their weakness. Yours is Devin," Laharl faced Eric when he said this. The pirate looked at his feet and felt his face heat up. "Your power isn't a weakness, but you have to learn to work together with your teammates and control it more steadily." Laharl turned his head toward Nick. "And you… I think its better if you stay as far away from the enemy as you can," a small smile tugged at his lips when he said this. Devin's face lit up at the Overlord. Laharl turned away and glanced at the other two boys. "I think you two should take a seat," he suggested. Nick and Eric glanced at each other curiously, but the two of them did as Laharl said and sat down next to each other across from him and Devin.
"What else do you want, my Lord?" Nick inquisitively asked and cocked his head somewhat. Eric crossed his arms and had no special interest in the Overlord and his requests. Devin on the other hand held Laharl in a totally new light.
"I think I would feel like I knew you all better if you told me a little about your pasts or childhood, or where in the kingdom you grew up in," Laharl now had on a stern look on his face. It didn't look like any of the boys had a choice whether to tell the Overlord about themselves or not. This was mandatory, and it was only the first day.
"I'll start first!" Devin excitedly raised his hand. Everyone had their ogles turned to the thrilled human. "All right, well, I was born on Earth, dear Overlord." Laharl nodded at the boy in understanding. "I had nice loving and hardworking parents, but I was an only child. So, to keep myself busy, I had high hopes and dreams of becoming the defender of Earth! So, I went into the EDF, of course. I had the best time of my life. But, there was one problem…"
"Huh? What was it?" Nick was intoned with the story and quickly wondered why there would be a problem with one of your dreams becoming a reality.
"I was under aged, big time. I joined when I was turning fifteen, and the minimum age limit was eighteen. I was a bit tall, so I faked my birth certificate and ran away from home. I was really afraid for my life when I was supposed to be sent to the Netherworld to fight and kill the Overlord, but our ship… crashed. Everyone perished except for me. I have no clue why. I lost my closest friends in the EDF in that flight." Devin bit his lip when he mentioned that he was sent to kill the Overlord. Laharl gave him a small smirk, but didn't mind whatsoever. "So, that was when… Eric saved me. Eric lived alone… and he took me in. I don't know why, but he did, and I'm thankful for it. And then I had the drive to protect the Overlord of the Netherworld, alongside Eric and fight for true justice!" Devin stood up and raised his fist in the air, clearly making his own self happy by stating how he ended up as a guardian. Laharl raised a brow at his enthusiasm, but smiled nonetheless.
"That's a nice story, Dev." Nick commented and smiled at the boy when he sat back down, "mines pretty short." He said and faced his lap. Devin frowned at his reaction. He hoped that Nick didn't have a hard life, but what did he know about him? The cosmic hero jumped into his story right away, wanting to get the awkward moment over with. "For as long as I can remember, I've live with my older brother. Yeah, he wasn't the nicest person to be around with, but I loved and appreciated him. He was all I ever had. As soon as we just started to get close to each other less than a year ago, he passed away in his sleep. That was the hardest time in my life. I literally had no one to call my own." Nick paused. He was a bit startled when Eric placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, as if he knew what the feeling was, and Nick didn't have any doubt in his mind that he did even though he didn't know him.
"Anyways, he was the one that trained me to become a guardian right when I told him that I wanted to protect Laharl, even when your father was still alive, my dear Overlord. Without the help of Robin, Sasha, and Kim, I wouldn't be here. All four of us made the preliminaries together. And before I knew it, you handpicked me first! I am very grateful to be here, dear Overlord," Nick stood up and bowed down at Laharl. The young Overlord grew timid. He couldn't believe people grew up wanting to protect him.
"That's… wondrous…" Laharl couldn't think of a single word to properly satisfy Nick's must to protect him. The Overlord faked a smile when Nick sat back down on the bed across from him and brightly smiled back at him. The tyrant turned his gaze to Eric. The pirate rolled his eyes and stood up.
"If you think I'm going to share my life story with you, then you've got another thing coming, Laharl," Eric didn't care to call Laharl, Overlord, or Lord, or dear Lord, those were labels. Devin and Nick felt as though the pirate had insulted the Overlord by calling him by his real name.
Laharl quirked a brow at him. "That's all right, I guess." The Overlord was admittedly taken aback by Eric's sharp words and reaction. Maybe there were some things better left unsaid, or perhaps there was something in the pirate's past that was to be ashamed of.
"So, forget it. You're not going to learn a thing from me besides I'm here for the same bogus reason everyone else is, but you're only doing this for your reputation. You have no idea the loyalty everyone has for you! That might be your downfall," Eric solemnly made his piece and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
'What did that mean?' Laharl thought to himself. He kept a firm expression on his face. Nick and Devin looked like that had been slapped and gazed at him for some sort of comfort they would never receive.