Lal was tired and not really in a good mood. While the honeymoon had been rather fun, the return had given her migraines.
Namely because once again, the English morons thought they could order like a dog and that she would cave into their demands that she "do her duty".
While it was great that anyone with experience breaking curses was promptly called in to find out how to break the Arcobaleno curse on them, the reasoning behind it wasn't.
They wanted her to do her duty as a witch and start siring heirs to her family magics...and all the gold.
Not that there would be much gold soon. Viper had finally combed through the last of the financial records and tracked down most of where the gold went.
Now she just had to start turning it into either profit (in the form of cold hard coins) or into favors to be repaid later.
She was so bored!
Next to her, Colonello was adjusting his new toy, courtesy of Verde. A collapsible sniper rifle with an extended range.
"You look bored," said Reborn from his spot on the couch.
"I am bored. I'm not getting stuck as an Auror trainer, and there's no way I'll let them saddle me with the DADA position. And no one will hire me if they know I'm the Sky Arcobaleno...not without tying us down," said Lal crossly.
"Then find something to do," said Reborn.
Lal sighed.
"Any idea where Verde is?"
"Outside, correcting Arthur's assumptions about electricity, among other things."
Verde had been so appalled by Arthur's misconception about electricity and technology that he had taken it upon himself to teach the man. Fortunately the Weasley patriarch was a more than enthusiastic student.
Lal went to the shed and found the two working. Verde seemed to be on automatic, answering basic questions while working.
"Hey Verde, do you have an untraceable laptop I can borrow? My last one got fried," asked Lal.
Verde bent down after a moment, before handing her a spare.
"Thanks."
She took the laptop back to the house and logged on to the deep web.
An hour later, Reborn and Colonello were bored enough to try and figure out what she was doing.
"What are you doing?" asked Reborn. She wasn't the only one bored.
"Seeing how much data I've collected while I was out training," said Lal.
"Data?" repeated Colonello.
Lal hit a few buttons... and they all stared.
"Is that... are those videos of magicals caught on camera?" asked Colonello baffled.
"Yup."
"Where did you get that?" demanded Hermione, catching what they were watching.
Lal smirked.
"The government might be monitoring and taking the videos down, but my program collects them the second something pings on the algorithm. If it's a genuine video of magic being used, then it gets stored until I find a use for it," said Lal.
"A use? What possible use could this have?"
"You'd be surprised. I made damn sure that when I erased myself, I had enough blackmail to make people leave me the hell alone," said Lal bluntly. "It wasn't needed, but I still left it to collect."
"Could someone explain?" asked Colonello.
"You really think these people would bother to consider cameras? Do you have any idea how often they get spotted and recorded? The governments don't want to deal with the headache of magic being exposed so they have teams of people to wipe the videos off. But my algorithm collects it before they have a chance to see it and stores a copy."
"I see. You're literally holding the magical enclaves for ransom. They wouldn't understand the first thing about the internet, and they wouldn't know where to look," said Reborn smirking.
Hermione looked appalled.
Lal smirked.
"The hat did want me in Slytherin originally, remember? If I was going to be dragged down in the cage the magical enclaves wanted to shove me in, then I was damn well going to take them down with me. There's a reason why my handle is Icarus."
"Handle?"
"Wait, you're Icarus?!" said Colonello looking at Lal horrified.
Lal grinned evilly.
"Oh yes, how could I forget the lovely sound of my favorite student swearing his head off when I started killing him with one shot every time he resurrected? Some of those were particularly inventive," cackled Lal.
"Evil!" said Colonello pouting.
Reborn grinned.
"Now I have to know," said Reborn.
"Icarus is the name of the best shooter in the warfare MMO's, especially Call of Duty," said Colonello pouting.
Lal looked positively smug.
"When I found out what his handle was, I couldn't resist hunting him down every time I saw him online and killing him repeatedly while he was trying to fill quests," said Lal laughing. "You kept bugging me for what mine was and I was too busy enjoying you tearing your hair out trying to beat Icarus!"
"Do you have any idea how much Adrien is never going to let me hear the end of this! It's bad enough his wife can kick my ass at games!" said Colonello.
"Look on the bright side," said Lal.
Colonello was still pouting.
"What bright side? My wife kicks my ass at first person shooter games..."
"Yes, but imagine the laughs you'll get when people hear that you married Icarus, only to find out it was your former instructor," said Lal.
Colonello perked up. That was sure to get him a few beers from their old friends and colleagues.
"Can you help me beat the other instructors? I want to see their faces when they find out your handle," he asked, practically begging. Their faces when they found out she was a Sky were hilarious... this was certainly going to be just as good!
No one knew who Icarus was.
"I'm confused. What's a handle and what is Call of Duty?" asked Hermione.
"Handle is a username hackers use online, and Call of Duty is a popular video game. How out of date are you that you don't know what that is?" asked Reborn.
"She was always more interested in books than games," said Lal. "Besides, can you think of a better way to force them to back off than to threaten to expose them to the mundanes?"
"You would risk..." started Hermione horrified.
"Well my nickname as a trainer was Demon. Besides, it's set to automatically release all the collected videos and information the second I'm dead and in the ground, or if they really do something to piss me off," said Lal without mercy.
"But that would..."
"Create open war? Cause all hell to break loose? You seem to forget Hermione, I was practically forced into becoming a child soldier from the start. The first thing I did was join the military and rise through the ranks. War is all I know, and from what I've seen nothing has actually changed since I left."
Hermione looked openly horrified.
"What's this?" asked Reborn, changing the subject. He pointed at an almost as large file.
"Music file."
"Music file?" said Reborn.
"Hard to put up a proper rave without the right music," said Lal.
"Rave?!" said the others in disbelief.
"I'm an insomniac. Do I really look like I spend every night practicing the same thing?" she asked.
From the look on Colonello and Reborn's faces...that was a yes. Lal scowled at them.
"I do have something resembling a life, you know!" she said annoyed.
"I call bullshit," said Reborn.
"Just for that, I'm dragging you and the others to a rave this Saturday. Be prepared to bring ear plugs," said Lal darkly.
"What are we doing here again?" asked Skull nervously.
"Lal said something about a night off from research and work," said Fon. Though he was clearly confused as they were.
"Where is Lal anyway?" asked Verde crossly.
The music up ahead shifted to a smoother, lively beat that had the blood almost pumping in excitement.
Skull perked up a bit.
"Wow... that DJ is really good!"
It took them a bit to find a spot where they could enjoy the music and not get squashed. Being small sucked.
"Oh. My. God... is that Lal?!" said Colonello, eyes honed in on the figure at the DJ booth.
They all turned to where he was looking and stared.
There, on the DJ booth was Lal Mirch with her computer, fingers flying across the keyboard. She had on a pair of fake wings, her visor firmly down over her eyes and a smaller version of her favorite tank top and jeans.
"Let's give it up for the number one Disc Jockey in Europe... ICARUS!"
Lal seemed to spin on the chair, before amping up the music even more. The people below were all dancing and gyrating like crazy, as the energy level shot through the roof.
"I don't believe it," said Verde staring.
"I...honestly had no idea she was that good," said Viper.
"Seriously, what the hell? Why didn't she mention this before?"
"For the same reason she kept her silence on the fact she was the one who kept killing you online most likely," said Reborn.
"This is awesome!" said Skull. The music was epic, the vibe was absolutely perfect for a rave, and no one noticed him filching the good booze from the bar.
It was a very relaxing evening...especially since they were able to cut out most of the volume level with ear plugs. How these kids were able to tolerate that much noise would forever be a mystery.
Or it could be the booze.
Lal broke off the second the cops busted in to shut down the illegal rave. She was gone long before they spotted her, and was soon joined by the others.
"That. Was. AWESOME! I had no idea you were a disc jockey!" said Skull.
Lal grinned.
"Insomniac who hates boredom. Seriously, when my nightmares woke me up almost every week I had to find something to kill time until the wake up call. I only practiced my martial arts three days a week, and the rest of it I use to play online. Though to be fair the whole disc jockey thing was mostly a way to supplement my crappy soldier's income," she said. She pulled out a rather sizable number of pounds with a smirk.
"What's with the wings though?" asked Fon.
"Icarus is my handle, so it seemed fitting at the time. Now it's my calling card," said Lal.
"Icarus is a Greek legend. He and his father were imprisoned in a tower, and his father made wax wings to allow them to escape. However Icarus flew too close to the sun and the wings melted, causing him to fall to his death," explained Reborn.
"When I 'fall', I intend to take the magical enclaves with me, hence the nickname," said Lal.
If she went down, then the entire world was going to burn with her. Let it never be said she didn't know how to hold a major grudge.
Verde pushed up his glasses.
"How good a hacker are you?" he asked.
Lal smirked.
"I bet I can hack into your tech in an hour."
"You're on," said Verde, smirking back. (Verde was rather put out when she managed to break into his encrypted laptop in forty-five minutes, despite his best efforts.)
"So what other sort of surprises are you going to spring on us? Are you some sort of incredible singer or musician?" asked Reborn.
"Of course not. I can barely hold a tune and at most I can play the scales on a guitar. But I do have a massive cosplay closet... it's going to be a total pain in the ass resizing all to those..."
Colonello perked up.
"Cosplay?"
"Seriously, how did you miss the costumes in the back of my closet? I wasn't exactly trying to hide them."
"Okay, this I have to see," said Colonello grinning.
"Same," said Reborn, equally eager. If only because it would give him something else to share with his Sky.
Seeing the looks of the others, Lal sighed.
"Fine, but don't you dare laugh!" she said exasperated.
Two hours later...
She hated resizing charms. They were always either too big or didn't fit at all! Which is why she merely used a shrinking charm on her closet instead. So much easier.
She dug through her collection of cosplay and found something that wasn't too embarrassing.
Colonello was eagerly awaiting to see what his angel came out with, since she looked so adorable with those fake wings earlier.
"Is that a miko outfit?" asked Fon.
"It was based off a miko outfit," admitted Lal. She was wearing her Sekirei cosplay...specifically Musubi. She was even wearing the brawler's gloves.
"Soooo cute!" squealed Luna, practically glomping her.
"That is such an adorable outfit!" said Ginny.
"I have more, and I can help you get your own. We could go to conventions!" said Lal enthusiastically.
Hearing the duo squeals of the girls, Lal grinned.
"Wow..." said Colonello staring. And she had stuff like that hiding in her closet? "How come I've never seen you dress up in stuff like that before?"
"Even I like to dress up every once in a while, idiot! Besides, my rep as a demon would have taken a hit if they saw me in some of the things I have in my closet!"
"Now I have to see the rest of them!" said Colonello grinning. His eyes were gleaming with mischief.
"At least it means I have someone else to go to conventions with," said Reborn grinning.
"I know, right? It's so boring, going alone!" said Lal.
