Slugmeter wasn’t happy at his job, but then he wasn’t supposed to be. Indeed, happiness was an entirely foreign concept in his mind as he scrunched down uncomfortably in his creaky chair and watched his screens. Their sickly green light barely illuminated the cramped chamber in which he labored.
“Oh, look,” he said to himself. “Lil’ Ronnie’s tryin’ to send in his application to college. Ooh, lookit you. Big man on campus, eh?” he sneered. “Not if I have anythin’ to say about it.”
He could see that the hopeful teenager had typed out the email address correctly. It would take only a few keystrokes on Slugmeter’s end to redirect it away into the oblivion of the Internet, changing the course of the young man’s life, closing off bright futures and pushing him towards a swarm of unpleasant possibilities. Slugmeter grunted nastily and reached for the keyboard.
“Hey,” a quiet voice said from just beyond the dim light of the screens. “I wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t what?” Slugmeter said.
“I’m filling in,” the voice explained. “Normally the Archangel Gabriel would handle this, being patron of the mails and all, but he’s addressing another matter. So you have me.”
“And who’re you, then?” Slugmeter scowled, straining to see.
“Jude,” came the reply, and there was a light whispering ring as a sword leapt from its sheath. “Lost causes, remember?”
This story was written for the below prompt by
: Crunch: Write about a mailer daemon.
LETS GOOOOOOOOO! MAN you have a way with superhero entrances!
"Ah, yeah. You're the guy from that hospital Danny Thomas built for sick kids."