In Which the Overlord Has the Least Subtle De-age Ever [Open]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Another day in the Overlord's Fortress.

Today, Zetta sat in his throne lazily, feet up on the most freaking sweet ottoman in creation, grinding out a few levels of the freaking sweet new game he'd picked up on XaXing (Nuclear Death Apocalypse Extravaganza: The Annihilation of All Mankind: Tactics) on his freaking 99" widescreen TV.

Yeah, he'd gone pretty wild at XaXing, to judge from the various tapestries and banner's now hanging on the walls, the statues positioned in key places around the fortress courtyard, the sapling planted in one corner that visibly distorted time around it, and various and sundry other luxury goods.

Oh yeah, and he apparently had a body. What's up with that?

[[OOC: So, uh, since Zetta's de-age is, as noted, as subtle as the Overlord himself, and we don't want an obvious reveal too soon, it would be appreciated if any characters who wander by not run off to tell lots of important people quite yet. ^.^ ]]

Comments

[thewunderkind]

"Never went to school so I can't say," she answered truthfully. "Anyway forget about all of that. Let's find some really tall buildings to climb." She wasn't telling him what she was planning just yet.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Okay. How about that one?" He pointed to a particularly large skyscraper not far away.

[thewunderkind]

"That will do. Drive into it."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"What, literally, or drive up it?"

He'd kinda like you to not die, Lash.

[thewunderkind]

"What's the matter? Is the Overlord a chicken?"

Lash, didn't see it that way.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta shrugged and swerved the car towards the building. If he needed to, he'd jump out and save it. The damn thing was expensive!

[thewunderkind]

"Come on, faster! Faster!"

With her right hand, she was busy tapping on the side of the car.

This wasn't going to be the first time she'd activate her Commanding Officer powers to show off. But like she'd tell Zetta. It was more fun that way.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Sure, why not? He stomped the accelerator, making the car engine roar as the vehicle jumped forwards, charging down the building at a pace far beyond reckless.

[thewunderkind]

Commanding Officer Powers didn't have to be yelled out, it just worked more efficiently on large troops that way. But this was just one car. Lash simply thought about it, and spread out her hand on the car's right door. Granted her powers might not be the most flashy like Hawke's or cause meteorites to fall from the sky like Sturm, but damn if seeing Neotanks and Megatanks climbing mountains defying all gravity and logic wasn't fun to see.

Or in this case, for a car's front to touch the building, only to suddenly go up as if it was the most perfectly natural thing in the world.

Someone looked incredibly pleased with themselves.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hey, Lash?"

The car roared up the side of the skyscraper, still at a ludicrous speed. Even given its height, they only had a dozen seconds, tops, before they shot off the top.

[thewunderkind]

"What?" Oh, she knew what was coming, and pushed up the shades on the bridge of her nose. "It's just a small drop."

Falling down and landing safely and giving out heart attacks was her favorite part.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well, there was only one possible answer to that, as the car shot off the top of the side and into the air.

"That's what she said."

[thewunderkind]

And then Lash punched him on the elbow as they came down.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta didn't really notice that punch, but the landing? That actually earned an impressed look from him.

"Okay, how did you get these powers again?"

[thewunderkind]

"Dunno," she honestly admitted. "Nintendo doesn't explain why, it's just a cool game gimmick Some think we're born with it and it just manifests in the early years of our lives for the most part. Whatever it is, it's one of the unspoken requirements to be a Commanding Officer in any given army in my world. Hell, we call them CO Powers. Hawke even pulled out one of the grunt soldiers, Flak, and made him a CO when he realized Flak had the same powers as us do. There's been tests but nothing conclusive. What we do know, at the very least, is that some part of it appears genetic."

As they scaled up another building, she continued.

"During the first war, one of the COs of Orange Star, Andy, was cloned in our labs to create tension between all the other nations. Despite being a clone, that Andy could use all the same powers as the original. But cloning technology required too much materials and energy to keep them functioning for long. We didn't use it during the second war. When Von Bolt took over in the later years to start the third, he revived some of those things but I didn't get to see most of what he did when Hawke and I deserted. But I did see the clones he made, mostly of the top ranking COs of the other nations. Again, the CO powers worked just fine. His just seemed to..disintegrate after a few day's use unlike our Clone Andy and were a weird green color probably from growing them in the labs too fast. Sloppy work. But you should have seen them with chunks falling off their body in tiny bits! I think it traumatized Max when their clone Andy died in his arms. Apparently that one had even developed some sort of conscience. The real Andy is a good friend of his, and wasn't present in that war."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"It's... kind of like mana power," Zetta said. "Demons have a natural affinity for their own power, so doing crazy and wild things like that isn't really too weird even for a pretty weak demon. But humans aren't supposed to...

"Maybe you guys have some demon heritage." He grinned at the thought.

[thewunderkind]

The idea that they might have gotten their powers from demons certainly was interesting, but that would only raise a million more questions.

"Admittedly we never did research on the ethereal side. Our world is mostly governed by science and cold hard logic. We just figured it might be the next stage in human evolution or something." She shrugged. "But that still wouldn't explain a lot of things. Mainly how the other nations get them. Black Hole having powers from demons, I could almost accept. But Orange Star? Nah! Waaaaay too goody two shoes for that. I mean sure, they fought in the wars but only when we provoked them." She paused again to think more about it. "Well you do have guys upstairs too." That seemed like it could almost work..."But! Then how do you explain all those powers in the ship? Don't tell me everyone would have demon heritage..."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"There's always angels, I guess," Zetta shrugged. "I dunno about that. The Netherworlds have things like succubi and nekomata. I'm not so sure Celestia is exactly big on the sex-appeal side of things. Trust me, even the goody-goods can find themselves making a few tactical errors around a couple of giant cannons, if you know what I mean."

As for the other people on the ship... he shook his head. "Naw, they just have different rules or crap for their worlds. Most of it is pretty standard stuff. Magic or tech or whatnot. Yours is different."

[thewunderkind]

"We have more of the Force and the malabac-malavacata--maladt--whatever Vader called them? I agree on the mistakes. Olaf was full of them! It would be dumb to think that everyone got home safely each night. But what's a nekomata?" For some reason that sounded really weird to her.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh, uh, cat demon. They bite and scratch." Lash would understand if she was male...

[thewunderkind]

"Cat demon? So do they have the rest of the animal kingdom too, or are cats special?" Oh she might understand more about cat and demons than you think (look at her Japanese name on top of the picture). "A lion demon I could understand, but a cat? Sounds...unusually cute."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

It was more a matter of understand why it was hard for a guy to resist a cat-demon that scratches and bites. But she probably didn't want to.

"Cats have the sex-appeal thing going on," he said. "I mean, they're cat-girls really, they have ears and a tail and the claws. Not really very animal-like."

[thewunderkind]

"Sex-appeal..." she repeated. Nope, she couldn't understand why a guy couldn't resist cat-demon scratches and bites. And she probably didn't want to. "That sounds more like aesthetics than anything else. In fact the tail might be a disadvantage when fighting. Kinda dumb." Really didn't get it.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Actually, they're really strong physical fighters," Zetta said. "The tail is good for balance and they're freaking demons, so it can even hit hard if it has to." How had the conversation gone down this road? And why did this seem to happen to so many of their conversations? It's like they're friends or something what the hell.

[thewunderkind]

Because Lash was curious and Zetta liked to talk about himself, obviously. Or at least that is what Lash would tell you if she was asked.

"I guess being a demon would be an advantage. Your molecular structure is fundamentally different than a human's." As they got down from the next building she stretched her arms. "I wish there was a pile of mines in the ground somewhere. I'd like to see the car go through that!" Lash was weird.