Author's notes: I want to get this out of the way first. If this concept sounds familiar to some of you, it is inspired by 'Thespian and the Popstar' by an_undead_gamer_45. He almost beta read this story for me but after months of him not getting back to me, that didn't go anywhere. Don't bother asking what Blitzo and Loona are up to in this timeline because I didn't bother coming up with that.
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Millie and Moxxie were ecstatic about the job they just accepted. After a long time of working freelance assassination jobs, they had been recommended to serve on the security detail of the popstar Verosika Mayday. This was brought about because of an attempt on the popstar's life last Saturday that she survived but her bodyguard (a hellhound named Donnie) did not. This new job would mean that Moxxie and Millie were getting a much steadier income as well as having some of their living expenses related to relocating to Lust comped by her record label.
They arrived at the office building containing Verosika's studio ten minutes earlier than when they were supposed to, eager to make a good first impression with Moxxie carrying a duffel bag of equipment. With them was a massive hell hound named Vortex who would also be on Verosika's security detail.
"And you must be Moxie, Millie and Vortex," they were greeted by a succubus with a dark red skin tone and poofy, Afro-like hair. "I am Coco, Verosika's personal assistant."
"Nice to meet you," Moxxie agreed enthusiastically. "Let me just say that Millie and I are looking forward to this opportunity."
"Yeah," Millie agreed enthusiastically. "The apartment the label's got us in right now isn't that much of a step up compared to our shoebox apartment in Imp City but the pay is quite a bit better compared to when we were workin' freelance. And we're lookin' forward to having some fun here in Lust during our off hours."
"You'll fit right in with that attitude," Coco replied with a grin. "You'll definitely be glad to know that Verosika is performing at one of queen Beelzebub's ragers a week from Saturday and working for her means you're invited. Now follow me."
Coco brought them to a waiting room like area and handed them each a clipboard of paperwork to sign.
"I know that sucked but it had to be done," Coco said after they finished and then led them to another part of the studio. This looked like more of a break room and inside were six other succubi and incubi. "Everyone," Coco addressed the others, "these are the new members of Verosika's security detail. This is Vortex, Moxxie and …"
"Millie," Coco was interrupted by a short and stout succubus with a darkish, reddish skin tone and very short dark hair.
"Have we met before?" Millie asked.
"No but I saw you compete in the pain games a few years ago when I was visiting family in Wrath. Everybody, do not piss her off: she is twenty pounds of vicious in a five pound bag."
"Ah, ain't cha sweet," Millie replied with a wave of her hand to indicate how flattered she was.
"So I'm Milky," the stout succubus identified herself, "and this is Kat, Apple, Kiki, Josh and Ace."
"Sadly, that's all the time we have for introductions right now," Coco piped in. "Verosika will be here very soon. You'll then take her to a salon where she'll get her hair and nails done for a TV interview/performance later today. Here's copies of today's schedule for more details," Coco finished with handing them each a piece of paper with the itinerary.
Coco then led them to the studio motor pool where Verosika's limo was kept in between uses and handed Vortex the keys, knowing from his resume that he had the training to drive it.
Not long after, Verosika approached the limo. Moxxie held open the door for her. Verosika said nothing as she entered the vehicle, used to this kind of treatment. Moxxie and Millie entered the main area while Vortex entered the driver's cab. They left for their first destination of the day.
"Hello," Moxxie began. "I'm Moxxie, this is Millie and the massive hell hound driving the limo is Vortex."
"Hey," Vortex greeted from the driver seat.
"And we're your new security detail," Moxxie continued.
"Whatever," Verosika replied dismissively. "I understand why Vortex was hired but why were you two brought along?"
"The idea is that Vortex serves as the traditional bodyguard to deter people from coming near you or shove them away while Millie and I serve as his covert back up. With extra eyes, we might see an attack coming early and give him extra time to react. Failing that, we can ambush any attackers while they're focused on Vortex."
"And how exactly do you two plan to do that?" Verosika asked venomously, extremely skeptical as to how these two little imps could do the job they were assigned.
"Well I'm fast, strong and very good with blades," Millie answered. "Give me thirty seconds and a large enough blade, I can make it look like someone got tossed into a giant blender."
"My expertise mostly revolves around firearms," Moxxie added. "I'm also a medic, which seems like it would be useful to the overall goal of keeping you alive."
"Damn, you got me there," Verosika admitted.
"Now how would you prefer to be addressed?" Moxie asked. "For the sake of professionalism, I'm tempted to go with ma'am…"
"Do that and I'm going to stomp on your nuts," Verosika angrily declared. "And as a handsy fan learned the hard way last month, my heels are real nut poppers."
"Gulp," Moxie uttered, actually saying the word gulp out loud.
I'll just have to hope, Verosika thought, That the higher-ups at the label knew what they were doing when they hired this guy.
"As for what to call me," Verosika continued, "I'm fine with boss or just Verosika."
The decision to bring on Moxxie and Millie was made above her head. From what she understood, the two imps had done a job for a friend of one of the label executives and did it so impressively that it got them on the short list for possible additions to her security detail.
"There is one other thing we should go over," Millie spoke up. "Moxxie and ah are datin'. Thought ya should know that."
"What?" Verosika said in surprise. "But the two of you seem so different."
By which I mean, Verosika thought, is that he seems like a huge dork and you don't.
"Sometimes relationships are just as much about differences as they are about similarities," Moxxie explained. "Millie and I originally met when we were solo freelancers and got hired to kill a target that would've been impossible for us to kill separately. We found that our skill sets complimented each other very well: she goes into close quarters while I give her covering fire. She's the brawn, I'm the brains. You get the idea. We found that we worked so well together, we decided to keep our partnership going and a few months after that, we redefined it to also be romantic in nature."
Moxxie finished by holding Millie's hand and looked into her eyes lovingly.
Verosika wasn't sure how she felt about this. On one hand, she was a little disgusted by this display of romantic sweetness but on the other hand, she also found it strangely adorable.
"Dating each other won't be a problem," Verosika responded. "We're very casual about that stuff here in Lust. For example, four out of the seven people on my crew are dating each other. As long as you don't let it affect your work, we won't have a problem."
Some time later, they made it to the salon for Verosika's appointment. Vortex, Moxxie and Millie all had earpieces that would let them talk to each other. Verosika was about to go inside but Moxxie held up his hand to stop her.
"Give me a minute to get set up on the roof," Moxxie said and motioned for Millie to come towards him while he dropped his bag. "Springboard me."
Millie nodded in understanding and brought her hands together in front of her. Moxxie placed one of his hooves in her hand and propelled him onto the rooftop of the third story building.
"That's a neat trick," Vortex said in admiration. Millie then threw Moxxie's duffel bag up to the roof for him.
"Sniper coverage is ready," Moxxie said only 30 seconds later. "I'll cover the rear entrance. Millie, you camp out at the coffee shop across the street and three doors to the left and discreetly watch the front entrance. Vortex, you stay with Verosika."
"Sounds good," Vortex agreed. While one would normally expect him to take issue with being bossed around by someone about a fourth his height, Vortex decided to go along with the plan because he didn't see anything wrong with it. He opened the door to let Verosika into the salon while Millie took up her position at the coffee shop.
So apparently, Verosika thought, being a huge dork and being good at his job are not mutually exclusive.
…
Sometime later, Millie was at the coffee shop pretending to read a magazine as she did discreet surveillance.
This is really borin' but at least it pays well, Millie thought. And Mox and ah have our hobby to provide excitement.
"Millie, we've got a situation," Moxxie said through his earpiece. "There are four sketchy demons in the alley. I'm gonna try to scare them off but be ready to back me up." She left the cafe and began heading to the alley by the salon. "What are you guys doing here?"
There were two shark demons, a hellhound only slightly smaller than Vortex and an imp about Moxxie's size. The two shark demons responded by taking out pistols. Moxxie shot one with his rifle and ducked back to avoid a shot. He took a blind shot with his rifle based on where he thought the shark was and was rewarded with a hit. He shot his rifle while also taking out a pistol and killed the two sharks.
While this happened, Millie ran up to the hound and stabbed him two times. The hound punched Millie, causing her to slam into a wall. Millie countered by throwing one of her knives at the hound's crotch, causing him to howl in pain. She saw the imp making a run for it and threw a knife, killing him. She took out another knife she had on her and ran up to the hound. She stabbed him and pulled herself up by the knife handle and slit his throat. She then stabbed him several times to make sure he was dead.
"All clear," Moxxie said.
"What happened?" Vortex asked through his earpiece. He would've moved to help but as they went over earlier, he knew his role was to be near Verosika in case this might've been a two pronged attack.
It's not like I was needed there anyway, Vortex thought.
"I saw four suspicious demons in the alley behind here," Moxxie began explaining. "I pointed my rifle at them to scare them off but their rebuttal was to pull guns on me so I shot two of them and then Millie killed the other two."
"Ah don't think these are just random assholes," Millie said as she searched the bodies on the ground. "The imp had a knife on him and what ah think is meant to be a cuttin' torch. The hellhound had a pistol and some kind of rubber tubin' with handles on each end and a pouch thing in the middle. Ah think the plan here was that the hound and the sharks were going to slingshot the imp onto the roof and then he'd slink into the vent system. The other three burst through the back door to try to kill Verosika and if they failed, then the imp would move in for a surprise attack."
"Maybe this wasn't about Verosika," Vortex countered. "Maybe they just wanted to rob this place."
"I doubt a salon this high-end does a lot of cash transactions," Moxxie pointed out. "If I am wrong about that, then Millie and I did the right by making sure Verosika didn't get caught up in a robbery attempt."
"All right," Vortex agreed. "But shouldn't we have kept one of these guys alive for questioning?"
"Wouldn't have mattered," Moxxie answered. "If these guys were pros, then they were working for a firm. They wouldn't know who actually wants Verosika dead and their handler would've impressed on them importance of not bringing up their name." Moxxie tossed his duffel bag down to Millie. "You know what to do."
The rest of Verosika's appointment went without incident. The four of them got back in the limo.
"Great job keeping those assholes from getting near me," Verosika complemented. "Though I am definitely not happy with another attempt on my life happening on what was supposed to be my first day back to business as usual following the last one."
"Seeing as how the first attempt," Moxxie began, "was only five days ago, whoever's behind this might have thought that your replacement security detail was hired last minute and was therefore not up to snuff."
"Well we sure showed 'em wrong," Millie chimed in and opened up the duffel bag. "Ah took the stuff they had on 'em. Prepaid phones and no ID imply that these were pros who didn't want to be traced. Not a great deal of cash on 'em and I can already tell that the shoes on the ones who wore 'em won't fetch much on the secondary market. Fortunately, their weapons should be worth somethin' along with this gold tooth I took off one of the sharks."
"Why did you take all that stuff?" Verosika asked.
"It's not like they needed it anymore," Millie answered. "Also, do you know where we can find a pawnshop with a no questions asked policy?"
"No," Verosika replied then lowered her head into her hands in sadness. "I'm worried about what this means if these repeated attacks are my new normal. Does this mean my life depends on you plus Vortex killing everyone who comes after me until whoever's behind this runs out of guys?"
"That sounds good to me," Millie said with a wide smile. Her smile quickly faded when she realized what she said might not have been appropriate. "Ah'm talkin' about the 'killin' an unknown but likely large number of demons to make the problem go away' part, not the 'your life being in constant danger' part, just so we're clear."
"More importantly," Moxxie spoke up, "you should understand that assassination is kind of like insurance: high risk translates into high cost. What's likely to happen is that after a few failed attempts, whoever's hiring people to kill you will eventually get priced out of that being an option. Of course I have no idea who this person is or how much money they have so there's no way of knowing when that will happen."
"If these future attempts," Verosika began with a relieved smile, "are anything like the one that just happened, then my life is in very good hands."