#piny1234

After yet another encounter with Rayman, his counterpart suggested that instead of being the on-again off-again lackey of whichever successor of Mr. Dark attempted to take the mantle, he should strike out on his own and 'make friends'. Naturally, he found that notion preposterous, but the suggestion did get him to think.

For what was the main difference between them? Surely not strength, but rather, strength in numbers! Rayman always had others trailing along with him, whether it was a toad, a fairy, a living weapon connected to an axe, a Teensie and so on. Clearly, what he lacked was the right team. Proper underlings, just like his master used to have.

With no better alternative in mind, this led him to once again return to his usual hunting ground of Clearleaf Forest and set up his own little recruiting booth. A station from where he could gather a whole army of loyal minions. All he had to do was to be welcoming, be patient, and wait.

None of those were really his strong suits.

"One more hour and I'm calling it a day." he grumbled, leaning back in his chair. The lack of success bothered him immensely, especially after he put together the sign and everything. The critter he allowed to tag along let out a noise somewhere between a coo and a grumble, prompting him to give it a quick scratch on the top of its head.

“Maybe I just need an army of you..." he muttered, trying to envision an army of these blackened fuzzballs, though they were unfortunately much more docile than those lurking in the depths of the world.

The sudden sound of awkward waddling made him turn away from this little pet project though. A rather imposing figure entered the clearing the limbless had claimed for his recruitment venture. 

At first, he thought the new arrival was just Rayman's toad friend, but at a second glance, while the general dimensions were close, this specimen was a suitably evil shade of purple all over. The first promising candidate in forever.

Raymesis sat up and composed himself as the frog-like thing approached, trying his best to look as professional as one could be. Sure enough, the creature stopped before his stand, glanced at the signs again briefly, before speaking up.

"Are you still hiring?"

His voice was a lot deeper than the limbless had expected at first. Still, he didn't miss a beat and nodded.

"Of course! The position is still open, if you're interested. Have a seat."

Before he could have moved the stool from under the counter, the large toad sat down, still more than tall enough to be at eye-level with Raymesis, even while sitting.

"So, what’s your name?"

The question made the applicant think for an alarming length of time.

"I had many names." he mused. "Back when I was me, but then I became us and we had as many names as there are words for 'darkness'. But then we melded together, and the us became I again."

Raymesis wasn't sure how to respond to any of that.

"I'm Glombrox." he added, cutting the complicated story surprisingly short.

"Yes. Okay. Um." Raymesis stumbled with his words, trying to put this already derailed conversation back on the proper route. "So Glombrox, why do you think you'd be good for this role?"

"I'm very strong and dependable person. Plus, I even brought this-"

Before the limbless could respond, he slammed a green mass of plant matter onto the counter, still dripping with water. Once more, Raymesis found it difficult to assess the situation. It was one of those rare moments where he had no idea what to say or do.

"...and this would be...?"

"What you asked for." he said, pointing at the sign. "Says right there, 'Please have Cee-Vee ready'. Seaweed."

There was a long, silent pause.

Raymesis' face turned a brighter shade of purple from the laughter brewing inside of him. With years of discipline under him, he suppressed it as best as he could, and instead walked up to Glombrox, reaching out. He shook the frog-creature's hand.

"This is exactly the kind of outside-the-box thinking I was looking for. You're hired."

His pet seemed to approve as well, as it was already lightly gnawing on Glombrox's leg, though it was doubtful whether he even noticed it.

"Here's to a successful partnership then!"

"Well, it's more of a... executioner and assistant kind of deal?"

"Executive?"

"Yeah, that's what I said... wait, who are you?"

The two turned to the unexpected audience member, only to find no one at an eye-level. The clear sound of footsteps made them glance downwards though, their gaze ending up on a dark-blue Teensie before them. He was no taller than most of his species, but his appearance was noticeably more 'tattered' than that of his fellow explorers.

They stared at him for a short while, before Raymesis spoke up again.

"Do... you want us to find whoever beat you up?"

The Teensie sighed, but decided not to make a fuss about it. "Nobody beat me up, this is just how I look." he said.

"Well, you look like you've seen some fighting." the limbless mused, inspecting him. "Is that why you have that nose tattoo?"

"No, that signifies that I've returned from the dead." he said, some level of frustration brewing in his pink eyes.

"Cool." said both of them in unison.

"Yes." he sighed. "So are you still looking for-" he peeked up at the crossed-out portions of the sign, hiding a faint smirk ‘accomplices’, is it?

"I... guess, yeah, but... you're a Teensie! Aren't Teensies all goody-goody and stuff?" Raymesis mused, scratching the back of his head almost exactly like his counterpart usually would. "We're evil, you know! Or at least, I'm definitely evil, and Glombrox over here is-"

"I'm semi-evil from time to time!"

"-exactly, he's semi-evil, which is very evil, but only sometimes." he explained, crossing his hands. "Are you at least semi-evil too?"

"Well, I've never tried being evil before. But there's a first for everything."

The limbless glanced back at Glombrox, both of them trying briefly to communicate without words, with no success. Instead, he returned his gaze to the Teensie, reaching down to shake his hand, as much as he could at least.

"I like you enthusiasm! You're hired."

"Wonderful. I'm the First King. Or the first Minimus, as it were."

Raymesis scratched his head again, squinting at him. "Would that make you... Minus?"

"Do not call me that."

"We'll discuss codenames later then, I didn't prepare a brochure on those."

His pet approached the Teensie with curiosity, sniffing at him from several angles. It remembered possibly chomping down a couple such beings in the past, but this one had a different aura around him.

A miasma of decay that just wasn't as appetizing to snack on, but felt oddly relaxing even with how different it was from the 'regular' darker auras of the other two. 

The First King pointed at the ground and the sprite responded, sinking its head and allowing the little being to climb on top of him, finally putting him at eye-level with Raymesis at least.

"So now that you've assembled this team, what exactly are we going to do?" he asked, while petting his newfound carrier.

"Evil things." Raymesis stated with a stern look on his face. "First of all, we're going to beat Rayman up."

"But then he'll just come back with all his friends." the First King remarked, quirking a brow.

"Lots of them, too." Glombrox added.

"Well. That's what I'm supposed to do." Raymesis sounded bewildered. He clearly did not anticipate any disagreements. "That's what Mr. Dark or Ales would tell me to do."

"You're our boss now. You're supposed to make sure all three of us prosper from your plans." the First King said. "Beating Rayman will just end up with him returning the favor."

Raymesis stroked the underside of his mouth, thinking hard. "Right, right... er, any suggestions?"

Glombrox raise his hand. "We could beat people up for other people."

"But that sounds like doing a favor. Something you do when you're good."

"It's not if we demand to be paid."

"Tings, scrolls, magic trinkets, other such things." the Teensie explained further. "And if they don't pay-"

"We can beat them up and still take payment!" Raymesis smacked a fist into his palm. This plan definitely made sense now.

"Precisely. We'll be semi-evil and semi-good."

"I don't like the idea of being good, but okay. We'll just be evil in hiding then. No one will expect us to be so clever." the limbless nodded, smirking as they each put their hands together. "We'll grow into a powerful organization right under the fairies' noses, and none of them will know any better."

"I'm sure those fairies would be very interested to hear you repeat that."

All three flinched as someone slammed their fist on the counter behind them, right after the final word. They looked, only to find a humanoid figure leaning on the stand the limbless had left earlier. She was quite similar to fairies, but notably different at the same time. The closest resemblance was more to Rayman's axe-wielding companion, than anyone else.

The air turned still and quite menacing as the three sized her up. Glombrox rose to his feet, Raymesis' cracked a knucle and even the First King's new steed started to growl.

"But as fun as that might be, I've got something even better on my mind-" she continued without missing a beat, sliding a piece of paper forwards from under her hand.

Raymesis caught it and stopped in his tracks, recognizing it as one of the applications he had put together earlier and just forgot to hand out. Though he couldn't quite make out everything, it was completed quite diligently.

He looked up again, taking note of the dark smile across her pale features, somewhat mirroring the grin of the bat-winged skull she had fashioned into a helmet.