Chapter 3

So, everyone panicked as you would imagine any villain would when the worlds, sorry, the universe's most powerful superhero starts flying full speed towards their secret lair. The robo-minions instantly took their battle ready positions, while me and Grace calmly started preparing ourselves for the worst. I currently had an 18 loss streak against Galaxus, so I too, was a bit worried about this encounter. Me and Grace made our way into the lair's basic security room and watched as all of the robo-minions grabbed weapons that I knew full well would do absolutely nothing to a foe like Galaxus. A faint rumbling started, and all went silent. This was it, Galaxus himself was about to take down my lair. What? You think I was gonna have faith that me and my literal pieces of scrap metal would stand a chance against the most powerful being on earth. The rumbling grew louder with each passing second, until soon enough the rumbling was directly above the lair. I braced myself. This was where my villain-ing career would end once and for all. Thank you all for reading my historical biography on how I became the world's most feared and greatest supervillain. Grace wrapped her arms around me, and out of direct instinct, for some odd reason, I did the same to her. The rumbling ceased for a direct second, and all was silent once again, the knowledge that we were about to be thwarted for good this time all in our minds…until at last the ceiling burst open and down he came. In all of his glory…

"COSMINEUM!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" He shouted loudly, his deep voice echoing throughout the lair.

Oh god, he's scarier when he sounds british! When he sounds…sounds…wait a second…why does Galaxus sound so british? He's never sounded British before, has he? I let go of Grace and pushed my way to the front of the security room, so I was directly in front of the screen. The dust that came from the demolished ceiling hadn't settled yet, so I couldn't see anything as of yet. My heart was racing and my mind was going ballistic at the thought of my entire lair being destroyed, so I slammed my fist onto the button which controlled the P.A. system and shouted into it.

"Robo-minions! Destroy the intruder and leave nothing left behind!"

After a second, bright lights started to flash behind the smoke, indicating that the robo-minions had started firing. My breath was quickened as my anticipation for the robo-minion's success was growing rapidly. The only thought that flew through my mind was who this intruder was, if not Galaxus. After a bit of shooting, I pressed the P.A. system button and spoke into the microphone.

"Everyone enough. Let the dust settle so I can see what remains of our intruder and if there's anything left for me to salvage."

The firing stops and the dust begins to settle. I watched as the robots all left the dust to not get in the way, and when the dust cleared, there was nothing there. HAHA! What a fool this intruder was, thinking he could breach my lair and expect to walk away without a taste of death! I pushed past everyone in the security room and exited to go see the ashes myself. Over the years of fighting heroes I have learned that you must always check to be sure that whoever you obliterate is truly down for good. When I reached the ground floor, I slowed my movements, just in case anything were to pop out at me suddenly. Even though I saw nothing in the destruction's wake, I still didn't trust that these measly robo-minions could have truly killed anyone. Actually I wouldn't trust them if they told me they killed a fly. When I reached the crater I looked down into it and laughed when I truly did see nothing but a torn piece of cloth.

"Heh. Typical intruder. Always rushing in without knowing what they are getting themselves into." I said to myself.

"Now that's just rude, you shouldn't call people typical intruders." The British voice said next to me.

I scoffed and shook my head. Typical intruder talk. I looked next to me to see the intruder standing there. Oh look, he's alive. The intruder placed a hand on my back and patted it as I sighed in disappointment.

"You must be Cosmineum. Y'know, for a self proclaimed supervillain, you sure don't show the basic skills and knowledge for it. After all, the number 2 rule for villains is…" He said, holding up a hand for me to finish his sentence.

I sighed again and looked down in embarrassment. He was right, I didn't follow the number 2 rule, which, I kinda gotta admit doesn't really work well with rule number 1 which is making sure the person you fought and killed is dead. Whoever wrote these rules did not know what they were doing.

"Rule number 2, as listed in the Book of Villainy is to never investigate a scene, because that's the police's job. Now, what do you want, I have a very long quest planned ahead. If you wanna steal something, do it now and be on your way." I said, dismissive of my failure.

The intruder blinked once and shrugged, but never moved. Wh- why did he shrug if he didn't wanna do anything about it? I looked up at the intruder to finally see who it was.

"Oblivion?" I asked, my voice quiet and surprised.

I could never forget what Oblivion looked like, just like I could never forget the words that Galaxus told me. Oblivion stretched out his arms and wrapped them around me like I was some long forgotten middle school friend that you haven't seen or heard from in years. I, on the other hand, didn't know how to react to a gesture such as this…from a man who aided in killing my mother. This man, whom I have never forgotten about since I was a mere child, now stood before me, holding me in an embrace. Today is moving way too fast for my liking. I pushed Oblivion off of me and brushed off my black trench coat.

"It has been so long my friend! How have you been?" Oblivion asked in his normal, happy go lucky tone.

"Friend? Oh no, we are not friends. You must be crazy to think that I would ever agree to be YOUR friend." I replied angrily.

"Come oooon, Wayne, we've been best buds ever since the tragedy that happened 12 or so years ago. Surely you must remember the final words of your oh so dearly departed mother?" Oblivion's tone shifted to more cynical and sinister when he mentioned my mother.

I growled and clenched my fist as Oblivion began to circle around me, tracing a finger across the top of my back. Keep calm, just keep calm and don't flip out. Last thing you want to do is to get into a fight with an elder villain. I thought to myself, trying to take deep breaths. I was surely right this time, as elder villains were no joke to mess with. After all, they alone could wipe out an entire city if they truly wanted to. Oblivion came close to my ear and snickered a bit before opening his mouth to speak again. He better be careful what he says-

"I sure do remember seeing her body be blasted to a bloody pulp, and how you were oh so close to saving her! Am I wrong…Wayne Hopkins?!" Oblivion maniacally laughed.

My head started to throb as flashbacks of me being close to the building when it blew up playing on repeat in my mind.

"I see now why you chose to be a villain…because you just couldn't be the hero, could you? " Oblivion grabbed my arm and threw me across the room and into a pillar.

Stay calm…stay calm…

"So, I've come here to finish off what I started, which is to torture Galaxus by eradicating his poor, abandoned friend." Oblivion started making his way towards me.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Grace had perched herself high up on a balance beam, ready to pounce at any second, but before she did, I held my hand up slightly, ordering her to stop. If anyone is gonna kill this bastard, it's gonna be me….actually….killing him is exactly what my quest requires! HAHA! Thank you for the light speed moving plot Dante you devious human being!

….

(Uhm…you're welcome…I guess? How the hell is he talking to me?)

I quickly pushed myself up and stood tall. Being thrown into a measly pillar is nothing compared to the beatings that Galaxus had given me. Wait…speaking of Galaxus what did Oblivion just say?

"You're just a minor tool to be used in my very looooong plan of killing Galaxus and taking control of Geoside City!" Oblivion shouted proudly

No, no, not that, before that what did he say about Galaxus? Just before Oblivion got ready to charge forward and strike again, I raised a hand to ask a question. Surprisingly, Oblivion, who just lectured me on the rules of villainy, stopped dead in his tracks. Rule #3: Never let the enemy power up or give a long monologue. For some reason, this rule is nearly never followed. Man, villains are just bad at being villains. Interpret that as you will.

"Wait, what did you say about me being Galaxus's friend? I would never be friends with a hero, no matter how desperate I get for friends." I said.

My arms drooped down, making me look like I was weakened, even though I was far from it. While Oblivion was being fooled by my demeanor and strange choice of words, Grace, moving a little past the speed of sound, carefully placed a disintegration gun into the back of my belt. She may be obnoxious, but she never fails to disappoint when it comes down to it. Oblivion started moving forward, ever so slightly, trying not to make it seem like he was going to attack, but I knew so much better than to let some puny, low grade, degenerate villain get the best of me. By this point, we were matching each other's movements in the slightest ways. I looked up to see that Grace had perched herself up on the beam that she was on before she gave me my weapon.

"Listen chap, I'll be willing to forgive you now if you leave quietly. You and your silly nonsense about me being friends with Galaxus." I said.

My attempt at a peaceful negotiation, as you might imagine, failed, just as all things I try to do. Oblivion laughed and dashed to the side in a blinding flash. How fast. I remained in place, trying not to move too much. I wanted to see if I could hear Oblivions obvious footsteps scampering at high speeds across the floor. I can't say I'm too upset about the outcome, considering how I felt like killing something anyway. Pulling the small device from my pocket, Oblivions voice echoed throughout the room. God he's so obnoxious.

"Do you really plan to kill me with THAT pathetic piece of machinery?! HAHA! How quaint! Just hit me if you can! If you do, I'll happily leave your STUPID lair! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Yeah, but if I hit you, I'm not gonna LET you leave. Letting this thought enter my mind, I pressed a button on the small device and instantly, it turned into a large railgun, with a bright green aura that started glowing inside of the gun's engine. The "Sun Blazer", one of Grace's most famous creations in my personal opinion. I can remember the day I asked her to make this for me, it was nice and sunny out, and me and her had just had a large plate of pancakes. I looked at her after taking a sip of my apple juice, which my robo-minion had poured me, and asked 'Grace, make me a gun that melts the flesh of a human off of their bones.' She gave me a bright smile and took a sip of her orange juice, like a loser, and nodded. Anyway, I raised the gun and looked down the barrel, still keeping as quiet as I could. I had one shot at making this shot, and there was no way in HELL that I would embarrass myself in front of my entire army. Luckily enough, Oblivions footsteps were very loud, so I could easily follow where he was. Guess he didn't expect to be facing a man who can perceive events 50x faster than light. His loss. I took a deep breath and closed one eye. My breath had become steady and my arms stopped shaking. My heart had slowed to a very calm rate and at that exact moment, I saw him. With a large grin, and in less than a yoctosecond, I pulled the trigger and shot a green beam of plasma straight through the leg of Oblivion, who, upon being shot, tumbled and rolled until he crashed into a wall. Pieces of rock flew everywhere as a large crater in the lair's wall formed from Oblivions impact. I raised the gun and rested the barrel on my shoulder, letting out a breath of relief. I may be a villain, but never underestimate my gunmanship. My mother used to teach me all of the tips and tricks in order to fire a gun correctly, and I have practiced with one ever since, always wanting to protect my mother. Grace jumped down from her perch and walked next to me towards Oblivion, who was holding his leg in pain. Now, I'm not too good with gore, but when I saw Oblivions leg, I couldn't help but smile. There was a large hole, about the size of a baseball, which went all the way through his leg. The immense heat from the ray had burned the inside of his leg, stopping the flow of blood. You could think of it like a giant scab…almost. I pointed the barrel of the gun at Oblivions face. Oblivion looked up and saw that the gun was pointed at him again and immediately started to panic.

"W-wait! Please! I'm sorry! I-I-I was never going to ACTUALLY hurt you! I was just going to…I don't know…" Oblivion nervously said.

Grace jammed her shoe against Oblivions injury, making him erupt with screams of pain. When I heard the screams, a few flashbacks began to play through my head. You must be dying to know what the flashbacks were about, but we will get back to them later, because for now, there's someone else who is DYING to have his story continued.

You know what? What the hell, I'll tell you the flashbacks, because I'm soooo nice and I'm the best narrator ever. Let's take a step back…back into my school days once more. It was the day directly after the one my mother had died on. As I walked into school, I had but one goal…to kill all of the damned students that laughed at me when Galaxus insulted me and my mother. In my backpack, I had a large dagger with my mothers name carved into it. That was my handiwork, mainly because I wanted my mother to be there when I took my vengeance upon everyone that supported the man who cursed her name. She would have been so proud of me. When I sat down, all I could think about was the plan I had made to enact my killing spree…until Grace came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to face her and saw that she was holding a single dandelion. A dandelion. A f*cking weed. But also my mothers favorite flower. At the sight of the dandelion a few tears crawled into my eyes. Back then, when my mother was alive, we would lay in an empty meadow and stare at the clouds, while my mother picked dandelions and told me that 'even a dandelion, a mere weed, can have the beauty and elegance of a real flower.' I never understood what she meant by that. I reluctantly took the dandelion from Grace's hands and smelled it. It had such a grassy, natural smell. Upon seeing me smelling the flower, Grace wrapped her arms around my neck, and hugged me tight, but I didn't hug her back. The thought of hugging her back crossed my mind….but so did the plan of killing everyone here. I didn't wanna get attached to her moments before killing her after all. When Grace let go, a student came up to me and her and started cracking insults and jokes. I can't remember what happened exactly at that moment, but what I do remember is a knife entering the neck of the student. Blood gushed out of the place where he was stabbed and onto Grace's hand, which was holding onto the knife. The student fell over to the ground, writhing and squirming as blood continued to gush out onto the floor. The student uselessly grabbed and clawed at the stab wound, blood spilling onto his hands. Everyone else in the classroom immediately stood up and ran away to the farthest wall at the back of the room. Now, if I remember correctly from when I asked Grace for her side of the story, she had always had the knife with her that day, and also had planned to kill everyone at the school for what they did to her only friend. I wonder who her only friend was….it certainly wasn't and never will. I don't really wanna waste my breath telling the rest of the backstory, but long story short, together we slaughtered every last one the people that were in that damned school, and then together broke out of prison and built the lair. There. Now you have the backstory, back to the REAL story. Grace continued to press her shoe against Oblivions wound. I snapped back into reality and looked back down at Oblivion, who was writhing in the same manner the student Grace killed was. It made my evil veins tense with joy. Oblivion held out a hand, covering the barrel of the railgun as best he could, but knew that it would have been useless. I told him I would kill him if I caught him, and here we were, him caught. Even while I held the man who killed my mother at gunpoint, something inside of me didn't rest right, and I couldn't get myself to pull the trigger any further than it already was. Why? Why was I chickening out now of all times? It might be important to note that killing someone is never easy, even if you are a psychopath. No one ever wants to do something like this, regardless of if you're evil or not. With this thought, and my mother on my mind, I sighed and lowered the gun slightly.

"You made a lot of damage to my lair here today Oblivion…so, for that very reason, unfortunately…" I said, getting ready to pull the trigger.

Oblivion braced himself for death, Grace also eagerly awaiting his death, but I didn't pull the trigger, instead, I pressed a button on the gun and turned it back into its smaller device. Grace looked at me, confused.

"My lord? Why aren't you killing him?" She asked, disappointed.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

"Don't get me wrong, as much as I want Oblivion dead, I don't think death would be the worst punishment for all that Oblivion has done against me. I have…another plan for him." I replied, turning my back on Oblivion.

With the wave of my hand, Grace helped Oblivion up. I looked to the robo-minions, who were standing by, waiting for my commands. I motioned for them to handcuff Oblivion. The robo-minions all quickly flew over and cuffed Oblivion with a very tight pair of handcuffs.

"From here on, you will be my minion. You will work for me, and me alone, and you will help me on my conquest of killing all villains. If you have any objections, don't bother telling me, because frankly, you don't have a single goddamn right to." I spat in his face.

Oblivion wanted to speak, but closed his mouth, knowing better. At this moment, I started to curse myself angrily for sparing someone. Ok, listen reader, don't expect me to be sparing every single person that I come across, because I won't. This is a story of diabolic villainy, not stupid, pathetic heroship. If you want heroic leadership go read a superhero comic book or something like that. The only other time I spared someone in my career of villainy was when I mistook Grace for a superhero on halloween. Her face almost turned into a liquid that night. I looked to Grace, who was holding Oblivion by his wrists.

"Take him to get cleaned up. Heal his wound too, I don't want an injured minion that will drag me down when we embark." I said.

"Yes my lord. Would you also like me to fetch him some new clothes? His current ones are covered in blood." She replied.

I took a good look at Oblivion's clothes. She was right, his current clothes were dirty as hell. I also wouldn't want a minion who looks like he has no sense of class when we kill all of the other villains.

"Sure. But don't give him any of mine." I nodded.

Grace bowed and left, nearly dragging Oblivion away. While he was being dragged away, he jammed a foot into the ground, halting his movement, and looking at me. His eyes looked like they were crying out for me to kill him. I don't know how it is in the hero world, but down here in the villain world, if you get captured by a villain, your reputation is horrifically ruined and your face is smothered in dishonor. Oblivion was an elder villain, so he had probably seen another villain who had been dishonored. Like I care anyway.

"Wait! Cosmineum! Why are you sparing me?! If you're going to capture me, my career of domination will be over! Please just kill me!" Oblivion pleaded and screamed.

His attitude was different now. Typically, when he was portrayed in comic books, he was seen as a psychotic madman, but what I was seeing here, right now, was a man who spoke clearly, and sounded like a standard villain. I wonder how I'm portrayed in comics. Are all villains portrayed differently in comics then they were in real life? I sighed and turned fully to Oblivion, raising a hand to halt Grace.

"You killed my mother, Oblivion. The last member of my family. Death isn't a suitable punishment for a scumbag like you. Having your reputation ruined isn't even the worst that will happen to you from here on, but death is one thing that I will not give you on this day." I told him solemnly.

Oblivion growled and tried to struggle out of Grace's grip, which was never going to happen. Grace could, with her bare hands, pull two train cars together with near relative ease. Her strength was frighteningly large. I put my hands behind my back and walked towards the security room again, just to see where Grace was going to take Oblivion. In case you don't know Grace, she has a bit of a…kink for men who're unable to fight back to the things she wants to do to them. I learned of this kink the hard way. I was trying out the new handcuffs that me and my robo-minions designed, and at the sight of me helpless and unable to fight back, she kinda…tried to force herself on me. She was locked away for a month or two after that so she could recuperate. I entered the security room and watched as Grace took him to a changing room. Perfect. Now I just need to make sure that she doesn't do anything reckless. Upon zooming into the specific room that Grace was bringing Oblivion to, Alexis, the computer's main AI appeared and covered my view. You know exactly why she was covering it.

"Excuse me, sir, but what do you think you're doing???" She asked.

"I'm making sure that Grace doesn't personally violate someone, could you please get out of my way?" I replied, slightly frustrated.

Alexis shook her head and put her hands on her hips sassily.

"Grace told me you were going to try and spy on her!" Alexis said.

I facepalmed. Of course that woman said that. Of course she wouldn't be able to resist herself. Alexis turned around to see the screen, and, whatever she saw, it made her eyes widen. That's what she gets for trying to stop me from saving Oblivion from a fate worse than death.

"She's doing it, isn't she?" I asked Alexis, leaning forward.

Alexis didn't respond, and instead just slowly covered her mouth. I didn't move to save Oblivion at first, but upon hearing a moan, I instantly turned and dashed to get Grace off of him.

* * * * * * * *

12 hours later, Grace was locked up, getting herself fixed before being released, and I was making some final changes to the Jet before we took off the next day. As I was working, Oblivion entered the room and looked at the Jet, his mouth dropped in awe. Some robo-minions came to take him away, but I raised a hand to stop them. Showing off in front of another villain was something that should never be passed up.

"Like what you see, Oblivion?" I asked, looking over my shoulder.

Oblivion walked forward and started examining the wings and then, somehow, managed to open the engine plate which covered the engine and started messing with it. I did nothing while he did this. Why? Who knows, but I wasn't going to let him go without figuring out what the hell he was doing.

"Why are you touching my stuff? Don't touch my stuff. In fact, you know what, don't even look at it." I shouted down to him.

I jumped down and slapped his hand away and looked at what he was doing. I raised an eyebrow in surprise when I saw. This guy…was improving the engine. With no tools and in less than 30 seconds, he managed to improve the engine ten fold.

…

Let me repeat.

He first touched my stuff, then proceeded to IMPROVE it, as if it wasn't already improved enough! I spun around and looked him in the eye, which was glowing slightly. Wait. Why was his eye glowing?

"Apologies, my lord, I was just using my power to help improve the engine of this fine vessel slightly." He bowed.

What a change of attitude. I've gotta admit, I was a little uncomfortable with his sudden attitude change, but no matter. He still helped me, and I hated it.

"Look, Ob, don't touch my stuff, alright? I don't need failures to improve something that is already perfectly built." I said, annoyed.

"If I was able to improve it, clearly it wasn't perfect." He replied

"You little-"

"Don't get your panties in a twist, Wayne. We depart tomorrow to kill all villains, yes? I don't want us to look like utter fools in the process."

Did he just address me by my real name? This guy really has no filter at all, does he? I jabbed a finger at him, but then lowered it and turned back around to look at the shiny, perfectly built Jet.

"By us, you mean me, right?" I asked.

Oblivion took some time to answer this. It was an easy answer: Yes.

"No, I mean us. There's no I in team after all." He replied.

"There is no team that you are a part of, or ever will be a part of. Me and Grace alone are a duo, and there is no 3 in duo." I snapped back instantly.

He shrugged and proceeded to climb on the Jet. Why does he think he can just do whatever he-

"Fixed a spot on the wing." He shouted down to me.

"You did WHAT?"

"If we had flown tomorrow with that little imperfection, the plane-"

"-It's a jet." I cut him off.

Oblivion flicked his wrist, dismissing my word fix. Hey, listen, if he's gonna talk about my baby, he's going to do it right.

"The Jet…would malfunction, and the wing would come clean off, killing us all. You can't really 'kill all villains' if you're dead, now can you?" He said, tapping on the wing.

How good of a building IS this guy? He might actually be a better inventor than Grace. I let this thought sit for a second. I might not need Grace's inventing expertise if this guy is an even bigger expert. That's when I remembered the pile of blueprints on the table behind me. A devilishly good idea crossed my mind as I stared at the table of blueprints. I think it's time to put Oblivion's 'expertise' to the test.

"Hey Oblivion, get down here." I shouted up to him.

Oblivions head popped out from on top of the Jet and looked down at me. Having to look up at Oblivion made my blood boil, but no matter, there was something more important to ask.

"Oblivion, I am currently considering bringing you along on my conquest, but before I do, I want to test you." I shouted up to him.

"Sure, Wayne, what's up?"

"I want you to build something for me. If you manage to build it successfully, you will join us, but if you fail in even the slightest way, you're staying here with Alexis, and trust me, you don't want that." I said, holding back a snicker.

There was no way he could complete this task. What I wanted him to build was a Time Stopwatch, which does exactly as it sounds: with the click of a button, all of time stops for a designated interval of time. Our first villain, who will be able to move near infinitely fast, won't be beaten unless we have this stopwatch. Oblivion blinked once, then hopped down, accepting my challenge.

"What is it you want me to build?" Oblivion asked.

He snatched the blueprint from my hand and unrolled it. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what it was. Ha! I guess he's getting cold feet about building this. Actually I shouldn't say that, just in case I jinx it and he actually finds it relatively easy.

"This is a…very intricate design. Complexity aside though, I think I could build this by tomorrow morning if I start now." Oblivion said.

He moved to the blueprint table and laid it out, about to get to work. Before he started working he looked over his shoulder at me. What does he need now? I swear if he asks me to bring him food, I'm locking him up again.

"Could you tell me where the materials are? I think it's self explanatory why I wanna know." Oblivion asked.

Ah, that is a good question. I pointed to a large set of shelves that contained every gadget and piece of material needed to build high level inventions. Oblivion nodded at me.

"You have until 12:00pm tomorrow. Do NOT fail me, or else you will be banished in a cell for the rest of your pathetic life." I said, moving to the exit of the room.

This will be a very interesting next few days, depending on if Oblivion manages to successfully build the TimeWatch or not. Now, if you're asking, no, I'm not replacing Grace, I never could, she is much too important for my plans to give her up, plus…she means too much to me. So far, this fast moving couple of days has been in 1 word, eventful. As I crawled into bed, I realized that Grace was also there, shuddering and mumbling something in her sleep. I could faintly make out what she was saying: "Don't…..me….love….you…."

How curious. I went to pick her up, but after seeing her in an unstable dreamstate, I just let her be. I sighed and pulled the sheets up over her, instead of over me. Upon placing the covers over her, I placed my right hand on her back, trying to warm her. Grace's shuddering stopped at the touch of my hand, and a small smile formed on her face.

...

…..

…3…

…2…

…1…

"Ok Grace, get up, you ain't sleeping here." I said, shaking Grace.

To my surprise, she wouldn't move, and instead just kept sleeping. After a few more attempts to push her out of my bed, I eventually gave up and just fell back onto my pillow, getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow we fly. Tomorrow…my conquest for becoming the world's greatest villain begins.