Alastor

Starscream and I walked our way to the Overlord meeting. I figured it would be nice to be back at one of those, seeing as I've been gone for some time now. As well, I would like to see how the Air Commander has acclimated. But our walk was plagued by...

"Are you our new boss? Are your antlers real? Are those your ears or part of your hair? Can I touch your staff?"

...ugh. Those pestering eggs. Starscream didn't comment, but I assume he was also irked by their incessant prodding. My eye twitched as I put all I could into keeping my composure.

I eventually snapped, "Could you kindly stay quiet, hm?" One pipped, "Okay boss!" Starscream either chuckled or sighed.

We continued walking for a bit, and I saw the tall, dark stature of what could only be one Overlord. I greeted, "Zestial! How pleasant to see you."

He slightly bowed back in regard. "It is mine pleasure to reunite with thou once more." He then rose to regard the Air Commander. "And I see-eth that thou has company?"

Starscream smiled and held out his hand, similar to how he greeted me. "Air Commander Starscream. A pleasure to meet you."

Zestial smiled. "I see thou has proper manners begotten an Overlord."

Starscream chuckled. "I pride myself on that fact. And judging by everyone else," he looked at the myriad of Sinners who would set themselves ablaze just at the mere sight of Zestial, "I assume you are quite influential."

"Right thou are." Zestial smiled. He walked with us to the Overlord meeting, and we participated in some small talk.

"Alastor, it has been-eth quite some time since thou was last seen. Seven years, almost." Zestial commented.

"Ah, I do like to keep people on their feet! Never let an audience know you're next move, after all." I smiled as I snapped my fingers. "Here here," Starscream added.

Zestial seemed in thought for a moment. "We were all beginningst to think that thou fell to holy arms. Glad to see mine assumption was wrongeth." I slightly tripped at his statement for reasons I will not disclose.

Gladly, Zestial turned his attention to Starscream. "So, thoust is the neweth Overlord?"

"Right you are, Zestial." Starscream smiled.

Zestial asked, "Telleth me, what was thou's position in life?"

"Oh, just the top student at an academy for war and an academy for science, top flyer, premier scientist and explorer, and a prince to name a few." Starscream listed as he chuckled.

Zestial raised a brow at this. "Ah, I was not awareth that I was in the presence of a royal."

"Oh please, we're both Overlords." Starscream brushed off. "As far as I'm concerned, we're equals."

Zestial smiled at Starscream. "I see-eth thoust is respectful. Quite a commendable trait."

I chuckled. "I knew we'd like him from the first day I met him!"

We were all in good spirits as we walked to the meeting.

"Alright, stay here." I commanded the eggs. I didn't want them to get in the way.

Zestial, Starscream, and I got to the elevator and went all the way up to the meeting room. On the way, I guess one of those pesky eggs had gotten stuck with us by accident. Go figure...

We all exited at our floor and entered the meeting room. Zestial sat at the head of the table by Carmilla and her daughters, I sat by my good friend Rosie, and Starscream sat by me. We saw the other Overlords enter, except for the Vees, no surprise.

Carmilla nodded to all of us and started, "Greetings, Hell's sovereign Overlords. I am sure you are all aware of the subject of this meeting, so I will not dwell on explanation."

She turned her head to regard Starscream. "As we all know, Air Commander Starscream is the latest addition to our ranks."

Starscream got up and smiled. "Right you are. And I must say," he looked at his arm-mounted rifles, "I find your wares to be quite satisfactory. Good job."

Carmilla simply looked at me with dull surprise. "And it seems that Alastor has returned."

"Indeed I have. I know you all must have missed me quite a lot these past seven years. I must have left a large void in my wake." I smiled. Carmilly dryly replied, "We haven't," which made me glower.

She then turned around and motioned to a board. "As you all know, the Extermination date has been pushed forward and will now occur every six months. As well, the violence and death toll of these Exterminations has seen a sharp rise as of late. As such, to minimize damage to assets, we should all plan-"

Before Carmilla could finish, Velvette, the shortstack brat influencer, rudely interrupted her. On her phone, per usual, she loudly called, "Yes, I've got it handled, Vox. Are you doubting me? Really, me?"

She waited for a bit then chuckled. "Heh, that's what I thought. Yes, I know. They're all a joke! Thank you V! See you soon!" She then plopped down at her seat and continued scrolling on her phone.

Carmilla ignored her rudeness as she blankly asked, "Are you're teammates not attending the meeting?"

Velvette replied, "Nah, I'm representin' all of us!" She scrolled through her phone as Carmilla continued, not paying attention in the slightest. Then, a zap hit her phone, causing it to shut down. I looked to where it came from and barely caught a glimpse of Starscream returning his hand from a finger gun pose with electrical sparks. I chuckled, realizing he had used his dandy Null Rays to fry her phone. Velvette was predictably upset, but didn't do anything.

As Carmilla posed potential courses of action to minimize losses, Velvette rudely interrupted again, "Why don't we just fight those angels?"

Carmilla looked at her incredulously. "And how do you suppose we do that? The angles are invulnerable."

"Not as invulnerable as you think." Velvette pulled out the severed head of an angel, and we all reacted. Starscream seemed intrigued, some seemed disgusted, Carmilla scrunched her face, and I thought it looked rather tasty.

Velvette got up on the table and began to take over. "As you can all clearly see, the angels can be killed!"

Carmilla asked, "Where did you get this?"

"Found it after the Extermination." Velvette shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Point is, we can fight back and win."

Zestial commented, "I do believe-eth that taking such a brazen course of action is nigh suicidal."

"Says you, you senile old man!" Velvette rudely insulted. She looked to everyone else, "What, too afraid to fight, you outdated pansies?"

Carmilla slammed her hands on the table. "You better show some respect! Check your behavior, no one speaks to Zestial that way! Did you expect us to sit back; And take your insolent, brazen display?"

Velvette retorted, "You've got it twisted! I'm not the one who needs a new attitude! Maybe you missed it, but I'm that #Bitch!"

"And I will do nothing less than what I please, woo! I'm the backbone of the Vees! Mad that I acted respectless? Well, it's 'cause no one could respect this."

Velvette went on, "Sorry group attendin'; Since when are overlords too scared to fight? You're long past trendin'; Sorry, bae, but I ain't swipin' right!"

She insistently droned on, "You lost your relevance!"

Zestial finally tried to inject some reason, "We can't act without more intelligence."

Velvette rudely interrupted, "Ugh, no wonder I'm so respectless; I could eat you lot for breakfast!"

(

That's when Starscream jumped up onto the table. "Ha!"

"You can't be serious? You don't stand a snowball's chance in hell! You must be delirious; 'Cause I could crush you like a bug!"

I grinned as he went on, "And you thought you could just step to me? Please; You just challenged to royalty! You just couldn't respect her; So you'll learn why I'm Air Commander!"

Starscream bit, "You and the Vees are inane and uninformed; Smug wannabes, who don't heed when you've been warned."

He then slammed Velvette off the table. "I'll tear apart your thin veneer! I'll burn all you hold dear; 'Cause your power is insincere, And I can smell your fear!"

He continued to put pressure, "I'm the bear, you're the faun! You've got no brain or brawn! You'll wish I'd begone-"

He cackled with glee as he threw her out the window, "Cause I'm a Decepticon!"

We all rushed over to see what happened. I had to suppress every urge to cheer for the Air Commander's performance. As we looked at the windowsill, we saw Velvette barely holding onto the edge. She lifted her arm up to get a better grip and yelled, "What the fuck are you bitches doing just standing there?! Help me!"

But Starscream simply stomped on her arm. "I don't think anyone here is inclined to help." He looked down at Velvette groaning in pain, barely hanging on and begging for help, and began to laugh.

"On, where have I seen this before...?" Starscream scratched his chin, then smiled as he pointed up a finger. "Ah, I know! I've been in this exact situation dozens of times before! Although..." he knelt down to be face-to-face with Velvette, "I was on your side of this equation."

He rose and spoke, "See, I used to be just like you, Velvette. Insolent, brazen, impatient. I saw a fleeting inch of an opportunity and pounced."

Starscream continued, "When I was alive, I was very impatient. My boss and leader, the man I was second in command to, would more often than not nearly kill me when I did the things you just did. Whenever I tried to put forward my two scents, he would ignore me and listen to more cautious advisors. At first, I didn't understand why. I was one of the smartest around. Valedictorian to both the War Academy and the Institute for Flight and Science."

He knelt down again and chuckled, "Until I realized: I never thought things through. The moment I'd see any proof of weakness, I'd strike, which led me to quite unfavorable situations. But when I learned patience, my plans started working. I began living up to the success I always knew I should have had."

"You know: even while being a moron like you, I still managed to find success. I was a demon in the air. That was thanks to my skill, determination, grit, and intelligence. Something you don't have. Your insolence, impatience, and brazen attitude are all you have. That can get you far as a bratty influencer, but just gets you killed in war," Starscream gloated.

He forcefully pulled her up from the collar of her shit and threw her on the floor. "Since your parents never did anything good raising or disciplining you, I'll do it myself."

He walked up to the head of the table where Carmilla was. "See, Exterminations are becoming more violent and more frequent. And now we know that a single angel has been killed. Any guesses as to the correlation...?"

Missy Zilla shot her hand up. Starscream smiled, "Missy Zilla!" She answered, "They're getting revenge!"

"Exactly!" Starscream gave her a thumbs up, then looked to Carmilla. "Now, do we even know how this angel died?" Carmilla gave a stone-cold expression as she bit, "No."

Starscream smiled. "Exactly. We don't know how to kill these angles. For all we know, it was killed by another angel. And Velvette expects us to go to war with all of Heaven. Now, what would that invite...?"

Carmilla quickly answered, "Our destruction. All-out slaughter would befall all of us."

"Precisely!" Starscream smile. He turned to glare at Velvette, "And I don't think the brat that suggested we go to war would even fight. I think she can't even lift anything heavier than her phone."

Velvette tried to speak up, but Starscream cut her off. "You see? You are just a social media brat. Heck, you aren't even a full Overlord! You aren't an Overlord, Vox isn't an Overlord, and Valentino isn't an Overlord. Rather, the Vees are an Overlord. It takes all three of you working together to amount to one of us. Even then, by myself, I was able to humiliate you in front of everyone! And you have the gall to say that you could take us all on? No. You're in the tank, and I'm the shark. I chose to attack the Vees for a reason: because you were so pathetic that my victory was guaranteed, but you still had enough publicity to make said victory impactful."

Velvette glowered as she tried to bite back, but she couldn't say anything. Instead, she ran out. Starscream smiled as he went back to his seat and nodded at Carmilla. "Now, you were saying?"

Carmilla simply glowered. "No. I believe you've covered all the major points."

Starscream looked a bit shocked as he got up and bowed, "I apologize for interrupting. And I'll pay for the window."

Carmilla simply massaged the bridge of her nose as she waved her hand. "Abandon the formalities. Just... Go. This meeting's over."

Starscream simply nodded as he walked out, holding the door for everyone else. I saw Carmilla and her daughters give each other knowing looks, and I went down to the egg, who was named Frank if I recall. I commanded, "Go follow Carmilla and see what goes on. Then report back to me, and me alone."

The egg saluted, saying, "Got it boss!" as he went to follow Carmilla. I went down the elevator with everyone else. Starscream opted to go out the window and fly down. But while he did, I could have sworn I heard metallic scuttling go in the direction of where Carmilla went.

I shrugged it off as I waited in the alley for the egg. I waited for a while, and the egg eventually fell from a garbage shoot into a dumpster nearby.

I got him out of the trash as I brushed him off and asked, "Now, what did you see?"

The egg rambled, "I saw the big knife lady, there was the vampire guy, there was singing-"

"Get to the point," I commanded.

The egg replied, "Oh, right! The big knife lady killed that angel!"

I scratched my chin and smiled wider. "Very interesting... Now," I went down to his eye level, "Let's keep this to ourselves, shall we?"

The egg answered, "You got it bo-" but got cut off by a familiar voice saying, "Very well."

I looked over and saw Starscream standing at the end of the alley with one of his scraplets on his arm. I asked, "Were you there eavesdropping? It's very rude."

Starscream simply chuckled. "No. I had my own informant." He lifted his arm, and the scraplet screeched.

I gave him an incredulous look. But he smiled and assured me, "Don't worry. Think of this as a shared chip on the table. A secret between friends."

I smiled at that. I raised my hand to shake his, and he obliged. I think he will be quite pleasant to have around.