Overdeath

Disclaimer: I don't own Grim Tales or Overlord(Game)

Summary: Attempting to find a missing Junior, the Grim Clan arrives in another world, in the territory of The Overlord and his half-sized armies. But finding Junior isn't the problem: convincing an amnesiac Junior they are his family is. Him being the Overlord just makes it harder not that they know that yet. Grim Tales/Overlord Xover, other series too. Pragmatic evil Junior, pairings later

Regular Speak

Thoughts and Flashbacks

Demonic or Animalistic Speak

Demonic or Animalistic Thoughts

Beta: Dragon_Wizard91

Grim Reaper Junior: Prince of the Underworld, Heir of Death and the Demon-Reaper….and currently missing.

Due to the circumstances at the time, no one had realized this for the first two days. Pain and the guards had been busy getting the defenses upgraded, Mandy was busy inspecting those and preparing for an inevitable political and/or military confrontation with HIM, Grim was looking into the Red essence that had been stripped from Mimi and Minnie had been training and...brooding for lack of a better word. With his new "pet" to take care of, no one had paid his absence much mind at first.

Then, Grim had gone to his room, wondering how his boy was handling the little amputated half-breed. What he found was a room empty save for a dehydrated and starving Mimi, hiding under the bed in a pool of her own filth.

Now, while Grim technically could pull rank on Mandy due to being the official/original owner of the realm and their guards being skeletons, he never did for various obvious reasons; incurring her wrath being fairly high on that list of reasons. That said, Mandy knew something really bad was going on when all the guards seemed to drop what they were doing and start searching the castle.

"Grim, what's going on?" Mandy had asked in a stern, curious voice that told him this had better be important.

"Junior's missin!" Grim exclaimed, looking somewhere between angry and worried.

"...What do you mean, missing?" Mandy questioned in a hard voice, all but hissing the question.

"I mean he's missin! I had Pain check de footage. Junior went inta his room two days ago and neva came out! I go in to check on him an all I fin is dat brat of HIM's, half dead and practically waitin fer me to make a business call!" Grim explained impatiently to his wife.

Mandy had stared at him for a long moment, her mind absorbing the fact that her eldest was apparently missing, presumably kidnapped right out from under her nose. "...Go back to his room and check every way you can for any disturbances or portal signatures. I doubt he's still in the castle, but I'll let them continue to make sure," Mandy ordered in a low, dark tone...

The physical search had turned up nothing; even using hounds to track Junior's scent came up with nothing. It didn't even appear like he'd left his room. All residual traces of the Demon-Reaper's unique power had long since faded. Interrogating Mimi had been less stressful than Mandy had expected. After being restrained, cleaned and force-fed, the demon-puff had been cooperative enough to indicate that Junior had vanished two days before their search started and she had seen nothing of what happened to him.

Grim's active searching for Junior's connection to him had turned up nothing as well. It was still there, Grim would have felt it being severed, but there was a lot of interference somehow; which was both comforting and frustrating. It thankfully meant that Junior was still alive or as alive as he already had been. However, there was very little that could cause this type of interference, according to Grim. As long as they were in the same general afterlives of a given world, the connection should be relatively unmarred…which had led them to their ultimate, unfortunate conclusion.

Someone, somehow and someway, had sent Junior to another world.

It took another week for Grim and Mandy's scientists to find a trace of some odd form of portal magic in Junior's room and track it through the cosmos.

"Is it done?" Mandy asked with a deeper, darker scowl than normal as she stood in front of a portal that reminded her to an annoying degree of a stargate in miniature.

If Mandy had anything light in her heart to begin with, it had snuffed itself out over the past two weeks.

"Assumin the fooking piece of junk doesn't blow to pieces on us," Grim muttered in annoyance as he dusted off his boney hands, his robe covered in some grease and oil from helping the scientists, something he'd done mainly to keep himself busy. He was more likely to murder something than Mandy if he dwelt on his worries about Junior. He had put more effort in the past two-hundred-some hours of finding Junior than he had in the past two hundred years of reaping.

Mandy made no comment as she glanced to the final member of their non-missing family, her only daughter.

The blonde ragdoll hadn't smiled since before Mimi had broken into the castle, but now she had no glare or anger about her. Instead, her youngest child had a dulled look in her eye, a sag in her shoulders and a sad frown on her face.

Minnie...MiniMandy had taken the entire situation like a cosmic slap to the face. The moment she heard the news, that her brother was missing, she had felt a sharp pang of guilt in her ragdoll chest. It was only after the first week, when they knew for a fact he wasn't in the castle and likely not in this realm that it actually hit her. Her brother was gone. He was gone and they had no idea where he was. And all that registered in her mind was how this, how she had acted as of late, would be the last memories Junior had of her…of her coldness, her jealousy over the hell-spawn he had protected, her dismissiveness of him as she prepared to draw lines in the sand and what probably even seemed like hatred in his eyes.

That had nearly broken her, making her want to curl up and cry, the idea that her brother might go on believing she hated him.

Due to it being a supposedly mortal realm, Minnie had obtained a new eyepatch, one that gave the illusion of her former flesh and blood body. She had even worn her old outfit in the hopes of blending in a bit better if needed.

"Sanchez, is it finished?" Mandy called to the mad scientist.

The blue haired man let out a burp before answering, "Yeah, yeah, keep your panties on. Tracking inter-universal travel not made by one of my selves is not the easiest thing in the cosmos," Rick commented in annoyance.

"You're lucky you owe me more favors," Mandy warned with a glare at the mad scientist.

"Hit the jackpot with her, Skeletor," Rick muttered with an eye roll. He sometimes resented being one of the only Ricks that found a way to portal into the afterlives. "That should do- *BURP!*- it. Fair warning, I've never been to this universe and with how much the signature degraded, I can't promise much beyond getting you on the same continent-sized area," Rick explained as he hooked two coils together, flicked a switch and gave the sputtering device a good whack as a swirling purple portal appeared.

"That's the bes ya could do ya drunkard?" Grim asked with a glare.

"Hey, I got you on the same planet!" Rick countered in annoyance. "Y-you lot and your missing kiddo are immortal, so it's not like you're short on time to find him. Now if you'll excuse me, I got to make sure my grandkids haven't blown up the garage or took my ship for a joy ride," he said as he pulled out his portal gun and fired it, walking into a green portal without another word.

"...I hate Ricks," Grim murmured in annoyance.

"Suck it up. He's the best at this kind of stuff," Mandy reminded with a scowl as she turned to her assembled troops: three hundred skeletons with mystic rifles and spears, with Pain at the front.

"Mistress, are you sure you don't wish me to accompany you?" Pain asked, reluctance heavy in his voice.

"Someone needs to hold down the fort, Charles," Mandy reminded simply. "Hopefully this'll be a quick snatch and grab mission. Junior shouldn't be too hard to locate between Grim's connection to Junior, the bloodhound and the scanners keyed to him."

Charles looked a bit uncertain but nodded all the same. "Good luck Mistress, Master, Young Mistress. I hope you find the Young Master in good health."

"We betta," Grim muttered darkly to himself.

Mandy just nodded before turning to Minnie, said ragdoll staring at the portal with a sad yet hopeful look, 'You picked the perfect moment to vanish, Junior. I'm pretty sure she'll do anything just to see you smile at her again,' Mandy thought with a mental sigh. Minnie had been growing into her darker, more ambitious side until this happened. Now the girl was a wreck, all her frustration and jealousy evaporating under the soul crushing fear of actually losing her brother, "...Are you ready, Minnie?" she asked neutrally.

Minnie didn't say anything for a moment before looking up at her mother, "Aye, Mother. Shall we depart?" she asked, adjusting the bow and quiver of arrows on her back and sheathing her rapier on her hip.

Mandy nodded as she ordered her soldiers to move out...

The Dark Tower Throne Room

"Master! Master! Where are you, Master!?" An aged voice called as a hunched over creature looked about the royal room for his ruler.

"Gnarl, this better be important. Even Evil gets to take a day off every week."

The old minion master wore a troubled scowl on his ancient face as he turned to his overlord, laying sideways on his imperial throne, head resting on one of the chair arms. "Apologies, Dark One, but the newsis urgent. The Tower Heart has detected a portal of some sort opening within your domain."

"Great, another Abyss Gate," The Overlord lamented with an eye roll, sighing as he rose into a seated positon and got to his feet.

"That was what I suspected as well, Sire, but this one is in Mellow Hills," Gnarl informed with a grimace. "Since you already conquered that one, I checked again. While definitively evil, the dark energy from this one is distinctively different from the Abysses or anything else I can recall."

"There goes my Friday. Well, if it turns out to be nothing, I'll just push up dealing with Spree to today and take tomorrow off," The Overlord mused as he rose, heading to the forge to retrieve his armor.

"I'll be sure to inform Lady Rose if such a thing comes to pass," Gnarl called, stroking his chin idly. "Anything special you plan to take with you, Master?"

"Not really. If it's just someone spying on me, I'd rather not give anything away right off the bat," he answered with a dismissive wave over his shoulder.

Forests of Mellow Hills

Mandy was genuinely ready to murder the skeleton in front of her; many times over and as creatively as possible, "What do you mean the scanners don't work!?" she questioned in cold displeasure as they stood in the midst of a forest.

The poor skeleton with the job of informing Mandy seemed to pale somehow as he dutifully rephrased his answer, "It's not that they're malfunctioning, My Queen. According to the devices, the prince's energy readings are simply all over this area," he exlaborated, holding up a square metal box with a screen displaying a map of the area that appeared to be in thermal vision. "The only explanations are either that he is close by and expelling a steady and large amount of energy or he has been frequently in this area," he explained nervously, trying not to let too much of his fear show and annoy the queen further.

"Dat be abou wha I'm gettin so far," Grim informed, drawing his wife's attention to him. "I'm still acclimatin ta switchin ta dis world, but Junior has been here a lot. So, props ta yor drunkard scientist fer gettin us in de righ general area," Grim elaborated with a shrug.

"So this is a good thing," Mandy decided with a hum before turning to the skeleton soldier, "Get the hound ready with the hoody."

"Yes, Mistress!" The guard saluted, happy have a reason to leave her presence.

"So, wha if somebody asks abou de two headed dog?" Grim asked with a grimace as he wiped a hand over his face and took on a human appearance.

"We just say it was born like that," Mandy answered, turning to Grim and gave him a "really?" expression, "Joe Black again?"

"It works," the now-blonde man answered with a shrug as he straightened out his business suit.

"Mother? If Brother frequents this vicinity, would that not impair the hound's ability to follow his trail?" Minnie pointed out thoughtful.

"We're about to find out," Mandy answered with her usual scowl as a skeleton brought up a two-headed hound on a chain leash. One head was a growling Rottweiler; the other was a calm bloodhound.

"Sometimes I'm surprised you don't just bring a pack of wolves," Grim commented, his accent gone in this form. Besides, he was pretty sure that a Jamaican accent would stand out here.

Mandy ignored him as she watched one of the soldiers kneel down to let the dog's heads sniff the article of clothing. Immediately, the bloodhound head started sniffing the ground as it led the skeleton on. "Okay, ten of you with me, Grim, and Minnie. The rest of you, follow us but stay in the forest. Last thing I need to deal with is whatever dogma against the undead this current world has going for it at the moment," Mandy instructed as they began to follow the hound.

The skeletons all gave nods and salutes.

"Wonder why Junior sticks around here?" Grim mused to himself.

"Maybe he expected us to show up wherever he landed and didn't want to be too far away," Mandy proposed, not really caring at the moment. When they found Junior, they could ask all the questions they wanted.

"Or mayhap he merely found a dwelling of some sort out in the wilderness?" Minnie wondered as she looked around the forest. Something felt wrong but not unpleasantly so. As creatures of the Underworld, dark and unnatural things were actually often relaxing to beings like herself. Yet this tranquil forest seemed natural enough.

"Umm, Milady? I think we found something," one of the guards informed in a confused tone as they stopped at some bushes at the edge of the forest.

Mandy rose an eyebrow as she and her family strolled forward to see what they meant.

"...That is a great many sheep," Minnie commented in light surprise at the flock of puffy creatures.

"And a lot of death too," Grim murmured with a suspicious scowl as he looked around the area. He sensed a lot of mass killing in this area, mainly sheep though.

"I think they were referring to that," Mandy pointed out, looking up at a small hill atop which was some kind of alter modified to be like a much smaller stone-hedge, only with ugly monster faces carved into the stones.

"That's a lot of magic," one of the guards said, the royal family looking to him. "Umm, I mean that the scanner has a warning saying that if I were to activate it properly, it might explode here," he explained nervously.

"And of course, the dog is pulling us that way," Mandy commented as she took the leash from the skeleton, letting the two-headed beast lead her up the ascent.

Grim just sighed as he followed, "Boy, what trouble did you get yourself into this time?"

Minnie scowled. She wasn't sure what it was, but something was putting her on edge, "Have ye ever seen anything akin to this, Father Grim?" Minnie asked with a head tilt as they approached the structure, the hound using both heads to sniff an engraved stone circle in the middle of the structure.

"Oh yeah, lots of portals and shrines. That's the problem: Nothing really stands out to me about this," Grim answered with a shrug, hands in his pockets.

"Junior's been here, recently too," Mandy said as she knelt down to the dog, scratching the bloodhound's head idly.

"How do ya figure?" Grim asked with a raised eyebrow. Mandy simply pointed down the ground next to the circle. There in the dirt was the impression of child-size sneakers.

"Brother," Minnie whispered with a smile as she visually followed the foot prints.

"We just missed him," Mandy muttered, pleased and annoyed by that. Pleased that he was close, annoyed that they might have found him if they were mere minutes earlier.

"Ummm, Mother?" Minnie called with some urgency, staring with wide eyes at something.

Mandy and Grim instantly looked to her and followed her gaze. A good distance down a path from the hill was a pearly white domed structure that glowed with obvious magic. It looked divine, heavenly, and welcoming.

"...Grim, you remember the first time I ever got the heebie-jeebies?" Mandy asked evenly as she eyed the gate suspiciously

"You mean that first time you found a portal to actual Hell?" Grim guessed with a head tilt.

"Yes, I'm getting that feeling now," Mandy affirmed. "Someone made a portal to a hellish afterlife and dressed it up as a passage to paradise."

"Sounds like something Kare would do," Grim muttered darkly.

"The mutt is pulling me that way," Mandy pointed out with a twitching eyebrow.

"Of course it is," Grim said with a sigh, "Think he thought it was the way home?"

"Or, per chance, he did not deduce it was for teleportation. While displaying obvious power, its nature as a gate is not so plain to see," Minnie theorized, mostly to herself.

"Go join the rest of the troops," Mandy ordered to the soldiers with her, "Wait for my signal. We're probably going to go through another portal at this rate."

"Hopefully the gods around here just wanted Junior to act as Death for them," Grim muttered, "Otherwise, we might be fighting a god or two."

"They could be the weak variety of god," Mandy pointed out in a rare show of optimism as the Orthos lead them towards the deceivingly holy-looking construct...and walked right by it.

The Grim family all came to a halt, giving each other looks of surprise, even Mandy herself. "Seriously?" she asked skeptically, looking down at the dual-headed mutt before the Rottweiler barked as it tugged for them to go further down the path. "Well, wasn't expecting that," Mandy summarized their collective thoughts, wondering how they dodged that bullet.

"Guess Junior was smart enough not to touch the thing," Grim mused, eyeing it over his shoulders as they continued on.

"Which hopefully means he wasn't tricked into some millennium of servitude contract," Mandy commented dryly.

"Like you'd leave him here and make him honor it," Grim retorted with a smirk.

"It's not a breach of contract if his contractor dies," Mandy countered with a small smirk, frowning as she saw something around the end of the trees ahead of them, "...I think we found where Junior is staying."

Up ahead of them was a small village, surrounded by wooden walls in the form of thick logs with a gate acting as a draw bridge over the small stream, a few guards on the walls and gate.

"Looks pretty medieval," Grim noted with a hum.

"And just waiting to be taken over," Mandy muttered, eyeing their pitiful defenses.

"I'd stand out in these clothes and...well, they'll probably think you're a witch or sex demon," Grim mused, smirking despite his displeasure.

"Regrettably, you are correct," Mandy acknowledged with a glare for the settlement.

"Perhaps I could venture in and attempt to determine if our lost prince truly dwells within?" Minnie proposed, a bit hopefully while her mother and (adoptive) father glanced at her for a moment.

"She would blend in pretty well, aside from being a little girl on her own with weapons," Grim pointed out with a chin stroke.

"If they try anything, we'll just raze it to the ground," Mandy said darkly as she pulled an ear piece from her hammer-space and gave it to Minnie before putting one in her own ear, "If they can't understand you, just get out of there. If they can, try not to give too much away, we don't know what's normal for their world and what's not. And keep any fake backstories as simple as possible," Mandy instructed matter-of-factly.

"Yes, Mother. I am merely a sister searching for her brother with mismatched eyes, armed due to rumors of foul beasts in these areas," Minnie answered with a smile.

Mandy smirked and patted her on the head before waving her down the path. "She learns the oddest things from you," Grim muttered as they retreated with the dog into the trees.

"Mistress? Master? What is the Princess doing?" One of the skeletons asked as they lurked several trees back from the edge.

"Checking to see if Junior is in there. Turns out Junior didn't go to that portal back there, but keep everyone on their toe bones in case these peasants try anything," Grim ordered as he leaned on a tree, watching the town gate.

"Something wrong?" Mandy asked, watching the entrance as well.

"..." Grim didn't say anything, narrowing his eyes as his gaze drifted to the ground, "...Nah, just annoyed with how long it's taking me to sense Junior properly."

Mandy wasn't sure if that was a lie, but it definitely wasn't the whole truth.

Gate of Spree

"Well, ello there, Young Miss! Aren't you a bit young to be traveling on your lonesome?" Carl the militia guard asked with a concerned, friendly voice as a young, one-eyed blond girl walked up to the town entrance with a small sword on her waist.

Minnie smiled at the man. By his make shift leather armor, old helmet and wooden spear she could tell that this colony had no true military force of its own and was likely a peaceful place as a result- if left alone, at least. "Aye, good sire, but nary not concern thy self. I am traveling with my family and merely stumbled across your town during a small excursion of whimsy," she explained with a polite smile.

"Hmm, fancy speaking you got there. Are your folks looking to talk with the lord?" Carl inquired, looking curiously at what he was sure was some highborn child.

"Nary to my knowledge, but we do come to this land with purpose. We art searching for a relative we believe may have passed through here. Hast though encounter a boy my age with brown hair and mismatched eyes of blue and grey?" Minnie inquired with a head tilt, hiding the hope she had from showing on her face.

"Ohh, you must be looking for Little Grim! Didn't know he had any family, let alone well off folk," Carl said with a grin.

Minnie's smile was beaming now, "Yes, that would be him, good guardsman! By chance do you know where I might find him?"

"Little chap's been showing up for a while now around here. Never talks about his family. We just thought he might be an orphan, but he takes care of himself somehow," Carl mused thoughtful before looking into town and pointing inside. "You're in luck, actually, I did see him come by just a while ago. You'll want to look for The Happy Mule. We usually don't let him drink any of the good stuff, but that doesn't stop him from fleecing a few of their coins," he explained with a chuckle.

"Thank you much, good sir," Minnie said gratefully before heading into town. "Mother, he's here," she said softly while pressing the ear piece.

'Good. You two might be able to just walk out of this,' Mandy noted, mentally skeptical of how insanely easy this was starting to seem.

Minnie giggled as she passed thought the town's main dirt road. She received a few odd looks but most paid her little mind. It didn't take her long to find The Happy Mule. Not only did the road practically lead to the inn, which had a sign with a picture of its name sake, but it was also fairly crowded with loud drunkards both within it and outside at the wooden tables. The princess of the underworld didn't know to be disgusted or amused by the sight of the merry townsmen having a drinking contest at one table.

A movement of black caught her attention and all such idle thoughts left her mind. Her body went stiff, her breath caught in her chest and her eye started to glisten in happy tears. Sitting at the end of the table was Grim Reaper Junior, his chin resting in his hand and rolling his eyes with a small smirk at the older males in their revelry. He stood out a bit due to his modern clothing, looking just the same as when she last saw him in human form.

She managed to calm herself as she walked over to the table as casually as possible and taking a seat in front of him, smiling lovingly at him.

Her actions caught his attention. She watched as he turned to face her and met her gaze, waiting for recognition to reach his eyes.

It didn't.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow after a moment of silence.

Minnie blinked at the question, unable to comprehend it for a moment, "Thou...thou does not recognize me?" she asked in disbelief.

"I'm not always great with faces, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember a cute blond lass with an eyepatch," Junior answered with a frown.

"Oh..." Minnie said numbly, not quite registering that he called her cute.

"Hey, Wittwe Glim! I didn't know ya had a wady fliend!" A drunkard with a round belly said with a slur, patting the preteen on the back with a wide grin on his face.

"Never met her in my life, Jakes," Junior commented in monotone. With a shrug, he smirked at the men. "So, any of you up for a game of Alouette?"

"Today's the day I beat ya, ya cheeky blighter!" Another, slightly more sober fellow declared as he sat down roughly next to Minnie.

"Keep telling yourself that, Harlow. How about you, Miss...?" Grim Junior asked to the lone female in their company.

"U-um, Minnie, and nay. If you'll pardon me, I must be going. Apologizes, but my parents will become worried if I tarry too long," she said a bit unsteadily as she made a hasty yet calm retreat

"Wha's up with her?" Jakes asked to Junior, who just narrowed his eyes at the blonde's back before pulling out a deck of cards.

Minnie took a deep breath as she slid into an alley near the inn, calming herself as she pressed her ear piece. "Mother, I hath located brother, but we have...complications," she informed hesitantly.

'I knew we would eventually. What's the problem?' Mandy questioned with a resigned frown.

"Well, to start, he is in the midst of gambling," Minnie informed, deciding to state the simple issue first.

'Is he winning?' Mandy inquired curiously.

'Really, Mandy?' Grim's exasperated voice could be heard over the line.

"Aye? I believe so?" Minnie answered awkwardly, glancing out as she saw Junior playing with four men, one of them looking a bit nervous already.

'Well, you can let him collect his winnings before getting out of there,' Mandy allowed with a shrug, 'It's the principle of it, Grim.'

"That tis not the problem," Minnie corrected with a sigh, "Brother doth not recognize me. I suspect he has amnesia."

There was a pause before Mandy gave a suffering sigh. 'Of course he's got amnesia. Now we got to convince him we're his family. Fuck. He might not even know he's a skeleton, let alone a Reaper,' She muttered darkly. 'Minnie- what is it?'

"Mother?" Minnie called in confusion.

'One moment,' Mandy said to her as the line went silent for a moment. The Princess of the Underworld could practically feel Mandy's mood growing darker over the line. '...Minnie, don't draw attention to yourself and get ready to grab Junior to make a run for it.'

Minnie's free hand went to her rapier at her mother's warning. The tone spoke of potential danger, "What comes, Mother?"

'Something big and armored with a lot of little things following him,' Mandy informed, eyeing a figure through the woods that was approaching Spree, 'We'll come and get you if he starts something.'

"Understood," Minnie acknowledged as she stepped out of the alleyway and looked to the gate. Despite losing her Nergal in giving her brother her eye, she retained a few perks. Such as advanced senses, including eyesight, allowing her to witness what was approaching the poor town guard to whom she had spoken.

There was a tall, imposing figure that was at least as tall as the Grim Reaper himself, taller still with the heavy armor covering his entire frame. The armor was a grey color with a few edges and the engraving of a demonic little face on the front of his waist. A blue cape was fashioned over him and in his left hand he held a large mace with startling ease. His right hand held nothing but the gauntlet covering it possessed a large glowing yellow stone. His helmet had a spire on the front and another on each side that looked almost like wings. But despite it being a bright day, it was impossible to see his face, only the two icy cold blue slits that were his eyes, glaring out at the world from a black void.

The face engraved on his armor, however, became a very common sight. Trekking at his heels was a force of small scrawny imp-like creatures. They seemed to come in four differing colors of blue, green, red and brown. They were no taller than their master's knees and had wide glowing eyes. The little imps walked about with what could only be called a look of evil glee on their faces. They all wore and wielded mismatched armor; some wore helmets, others wore hats or buckets. At least one was wearing a pumpkin. Their weapons were just as mismatched, but most of them had swords or daggers or an axe in a few cases.

There were at least a hundred of them, most of them brown. Despite their small size, Minnie could tell their viciousness and numbers would allow them to tear through this town with ease.

Then Minnie blinked as she realized something. No one was running. The guard wasn't running. In fact, he seemed to welcome the imposing man in with a bow, getting a nod from the figure. And the townspeople they were...

"Oh, the Lord's come ta visit!" A man said, actually sounding relieved, "Hopefully he's going to deal with those damn dwarves, before they burn the whole place down."

"Mama! Min-Mens! Min-Mens!" A toddler cheered while pulling on his amused mother's hands, pointing at the small creatures with a wide smile.

The moment the large man strolled past the outer gate, nearly half the creatures bolted forward with battle cries of excitement as they made a beeline for the Inn.

"Susu!" One of them greeted, breaking off to run up to a town maiden, who bent down with a giggle to give him a pet on the head.

"Ah, Lurkie! Is that a new hat?" A vendor asked with a grin down a helmeted minion.

"New hat, new hat! Buy old hat?" A pirate-hat wearing green offered, holding up a piece of simple if dirty headwear.

"Haha, sorry! Couldn't afford to clean it!" the vendor retorted good naturedly, the minion groaning overdramatically.

More of the minions made a beeline for the Happy Mule, making Minnie tense as she expected them to run at Junior...only for them to ignore him completely as he chuckled, along with the rest of the customers laughing as well as the little creatures burst into the establishment.

'Minnie, what's going on? What's happening?' Mandy's voice shook Minnie out of her shock.

"I...am unsure. I believe this man is the sovereign of this town. The...creatures seem entirely unhostile to the townsfolk," Minnie explained awkwardly.

'...Seriously?' Mandy asked skeptically, obviously expecting a bloodbath.

"I shall speak again soon; something is occurring," Minnie whispered as she saw a dark skinned man exit the Inn and approach this "Lord."

"Ahh, Milord, it's mighty good to see you here. Your boys are as riled up as ever," Archie greeted respectfully, bowing his head deeply, "I was getting a bit worried we might lose our crops again with how close those Dwarven Raiders are getting to town."

"I'll deal with them soon, Mayor Wobbleboard," The Overlord answered in a lower, dark voice that reminded Minnie of ice freezing to the point of cracking from the cold itself. "In light of recent attacks, I shall be leaving these stationed here," he explained, motioning with his mace to a group of fifty Minions. All were browns, standing a minion-head over their brethren and wearing a more uniform dress code with spears, helmets and leather armor. They also had a bit of fur on their upper back and neck, but Minnie wasn't sure if that was natural or clothing. They stood at attention and saluted at being addressed, grinning or giggling beneath their helmets. "They'll help you...secure Spree."

There was some kind of a threat in that tone, Minnie was absolutely sure of that. Something like the creatures doubling as an execution force if they tried anything. Or perhaps their ruler was merely annoyed at them needing round the clock protection.

"We...we deeply appreciate that, Great One!" Archie assured quickly, looking just a bit nervous now.

"Have there been any other issues?" The Overlord questioned, his eyes narrowing.

"Hmm...not that we know of, sire. A unicorn ran out of the Everlight a while back, but the Elves dealt with it," Archie explained thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

The giant of a man, if he was even a man, hummed for a moment before accepting the man's answer. "Very well, I shall take my leave then. If the minions cause any trouble, just tell Captain Crunch to keep them in line."

A minion, almost indistinguishable from the rest, grinned and held his head high at that. "Thanks again, Lord and good luck with the Dwarves. Not that you need it, I imagine," Archie said with a chuckle.

Minnie couldn't see it, but she was sure the armored titan smirked as he started to head off to another exit of town. He flexed his right hand, Minnie noted, as a near undetectable wave of magic washed over the area. As if hearing a call, the rest of the minions abandoned what they doing and started fleeing back to their master. The minions piled over each other to get out of the Happy Mule, burping and giggling in intoxication while...releasing their bladders as they ran.

Minnie grimaced a bit at that, as did several villagers even as they waved off their lord with well wishes and praise.

"Alright! Maggots! Six a gate! Watch for enemies! Two at yum-water! Minions no drink on job! Rest guard round inside, change shift when moon up!" Crunch ordered sternly to his comrades.

"Can Minions drink if being attacked?" One in front asked curiously, getting hit in the helmet by Crunch's spear, "Owwww!"

"You stupid! Of course we drink! Yum-water make Minions stronger, but we weewee everywhere!" Crunch reminded, the others snickering at their fellow minion's expense.

Minnie just stared for a moment longer, having no idea how to react to all this surreal scene. This was a strange world, she decided. That or her mother had very much misled her about how mortal humans behaved. Turning her attention back to the inn, her heart plummeted.

Junior was long gone.

End of Chapter

First chapter! Gods I have been waiting to publish this! I had this done for months, but I had to get a few more updates done due to my personal rule of five updates between pnlishing new stuff. And a loto f stuff happened, including me FINALLY getting a job.

Anyway, moving on. Yes, Junior is the Overlord. That was gonig to be obvious, now or next chapter, so I didn't try to hide it from you all, just the Grim Clan. Obviously Junior has been in this world longer thhan he's been missing due to timeline speed differences.

Also, Junior took the place of the Third Overlord and went from the there. You'll see how things went different for him in flashbacks and explainations. But for now, you get to see Junior be a badas but practical evil overlord. Well, mostly practicle, but that's up for debate.

Until next time.