Villains High: Bienvenue Ball For A Nouveau Riche
For some involved in this story, it was still a miracle that Ruby hadn't fainted yet ever since she had moved in to her new mansion.
Cologna didn't joke: the mansion was perfect. Five-stories tall, made of white polished stones and purple tiles, a big garden with a purple-tiled swimming pool, a massive kitchen, so many bedrooms, a gym, a spa-like bathroom, a living room, a room for disco parties, a room for more formal parties, and a movie-theater room, including recliner chairs. Even Emerald and Jade had their own cushioned litter boxes. And since the Fiskes were only eight castles or mansions away, any of the two parties could come by in case of need.
Ruby's room led to a balcony with a fantastic view of the Northern District, Villainapolis itself, and the bay glowing under the sunlight. But it was mainly on that balcony that Ruby observed her 'new neighbors' via spyglasses. Though frankly right now, after observing them ever since she moved in first thing in the morning, she found it hard to narrow a suspect. Every one looked like they had enough cash to hire a thief and kidnapper, but right now most of them just looked like they preferred spending their time getting out of their ego-reflecting homes, jumping in fancy cars, and driving somewhere to do something insanely.
"Nothing but blue skies and... AAH!" Ruby screamed and ducked when something dark seemed to be swooping in from the sky.
"Perfect clear skies and you're already behaving like a wet pussy?"
Ruby looked up. Penna De Mort was sitting on the railing of the balcony, her legs crossed. The sorceress was flipping through a magazine that, to Ruby's dismay, had one of the covers of her time in Fashion Week. "Penna, I'm not in the mood right now. Don't you have some plagues to send on the pirates before they sail out of the bay?"
"Uh, actually no." Penna flipped the magazine shut and tossed it away. "I have nothing to do, so I decided to troll the new resident of the Northern District."
"You don't live here?"
Penna exploded into laughter as if what Ruby said was the most hilarious joke in the universe. "No," she said flatly and jumped onto the actual balcony. "But since all the residents are afraid of me, I'm like a mandatory guest."
"Yay." Ruby went back inside the mansion, with Penna following her. "And I don't suppose you know anything about you know anything about a punk with a star tattoo who has a shine for pink diamond earrings, into robotics, and kidnapped by boyfriend and Imora Sombra?"
"Not for the last one," Penna shrugged as they went into the living room, "but I saw that guy at Villains High."
"You did?" Ruby spun to look at Penna. "Who was it?"
"Hey, I said I saw him, not that I knew him!" Penna raised her hands in defense.
"You're Penna De Mort! I thought you knew everyone you tormented because, well, you torment everyone!"
"Aw, thanks!" Penna said, flattered. She jumped onto the purple couch in the living. "I don't torment everyone, Ruby. Just those who are worth my time."
"Wait. There are people out there who actually don't have to worry or fear you?" Ruby asked. "That's new."
"No, I still bother them. Just at different levels." She nudged over and tapped her hand on the spare space. Ruby shrugged and sat next to Penna. "When you are a professional villain, the way you torment people depends on your perspective of people. Take the freaks who are now your neighbors. They torment those they deem inferior with the power of social class. Me? I torment anyone depending on our their villainous significance is worth my time. There are four levels in my method. One, the villain or antihero is downright pathetic at his job, I decide not to waste my time but I still contend myself with sticking out my foot and tripping them."
"Rather mundane, coming from you."
"I know, right? Level two: if the villain has better worth than the first, it might get me interested, but only by an inch, so I'll usually leave the torture to my associates. Level three: if the villain has high worth that could pose a challenge, I send in some weekly curses. And finally, level four, if it's someone who constantly annoys me or actively tries to challenge my authority as the greatest villain there is..."
"You kill them."
"No. I make them wish I'd kill them after I've inflicted some personal fate worse than death on them. Or another reason for level four is if I really enjoy tormenting certain people." Penna shrugged and sat up straight. "Any way, concerning your punk. I don't know who he is, but I recall spotting him in the Technevilology classroom during the school year. I didn't bother his name, even Eggman, the class's teacher, pretty much doesn't remember his own student's name."
"He's that bad?" Ruby frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. He succeeded in stealing dangerous AIs hidden underneath a governmental lab, use them to create a diversion while using some, and also incorporating their data into some kind of toy robot so he can kidnap two rich kids... and you tell me that he stinks in Technevilology?"
"Maybe he decided to pass off as a weakling so that no one would suspect that he had a genius' brain?" Penna suggested. She tilted her head and sniffed the air. "Ah! Looks like you're bound to get the nouveau riche welcome in three, two, one..."
DING DONG!
Ruby got up and opened the door. Purple streamers and a black banner with the purple glitter words WELCOME NOUVEAU NEIGHBOR! splashed onto her face. She brushed the stuff off her eyes to see Macy Beth accompanied by her three brothers and her boyfriend, Manny Colchis.
"Great. You threw me a party," Ruby said drily.
"No. It's just the Beth clan's tradition of welcoming all fellow nouveau riche," Macy admitted humbly.
"Lord and Lady Macbeth send forth their homemade haggis as a house-warming gift," Manny said dully. He lifted up some sort of silver dish, and even though a lid covered it, some green smoke trail came out of it, forcing Ruby to clog her nostrils at the foul scent.
"Ugh! Macy, I'm touched... but..." Ruby kept gagging.
"I know." Macy sighed. "You threw up after Buffy Killigan tricked everyone at school to eat her dad's haggis on Mystery Meat Monday."
"We've tried for years to convince Mother to change her recipe," Alasdair nodded.
"She still keeps giving it to any new neighbor we get in the district," Aengus shrugged.
"She's Scottish. She's a natural stubborn lady," Blair said.
Penna stepped from behind Ruby, raised her head up, and sniffed. The Beth siblings and Manny cringed a bit when she smiled down at the silver dish and uncovered it. Ruby covered her nose in disgust.
"Wild haggis!" Penna licked her lips. She grabbed the dish from Manny and immediately forced all the haggis into her mouth in one gulp.
"Weird Sisters curse me, that's some appetite!" Macy was shocked.
"She actually beats you when it comes to having a Gaul's appetite," Blair elbowed Aengus. Penna conjured a napkin and used it to wipe the dressing off her mouth.
"Delicious!" She smiled. "Still tastes like wild mountain goat digested by a yeti!"
Ruby took a deep gulp to take in the disgust.
"O.. K." Macy shook her head and pulled out a yellow envelope with a fancy orange ribbon. "Anyway, aside from the surprise welcome, we came on our mother's behalf to give you your invitation for your Bienvenue Ball."
"What?" Ruby frowned.
"Translation, you're being invited by a nouveau riche to a party attended by other nouveau riche to welcome you, a new nouveau riche." Penna shrugged. "It's basically welcoming you to the world of new money."
"Does your mom do that to every new resident in the Northern District?" Ruby asked Macy.
"No, just for the new residents who've made their fortune out of new money," Macy said.
"It's a common clash among the inhabitants of the Northern District," Manny explained. "'Old money' relates to the elite whose wealth comes from multiple generations dating to close to since the medieval times, whereas the 'new money' relates to those whose families have amassed a great fortune only recently. For instance, Martin Fiske comes from two lines of rich aristocrats, thus 'old money'. You amassed a fortune during Fashion Week. You're 'New Money'."
Ruby rubbed her nose in forgiveness. "Macy... I can't accept this."
"We heard about Martin." Macy nodded. "Why do you think I brought my brothers?"
Minutes later, in the living room
"My brothers are alumni from Villains High," Macy said as they were all gathered in the living room.
"But we still make the occasional break-ins," Blair smirked as he slouched on the couch, "to get into the teachers' quarters and gain access to their computers."
"Oh my god..." Penna slapped herself in exasperation. "The VH faculty has access to the most fool-proof data cracking computers! Why didn't I think of it? I'm the student body president!"
"Jekyllyde finds the teachers' untrustworthy to use them." Aengus shrugged.
"Why? What's so particular about those computers?" Ruby asked.
"They're said to hold all the student records," Manny explained. "Who is or was attending, what they studied, what they did on a regular basis... They are like the school archives. But the principal keeps those computers under lock in a room in the teachers' quarters that only she can access. How can you?"
"We have our methods." Alasdair said passively.
"Point is, we know how to break in and use the computers to crack any information you need," Blair pointed a finger at Ruby.
"Who the mysterious punk is," Aengus added.
"What do his victims have in common," Alasdair joined in.
"Or who in Villainapolis has purchased a toy robot with a TTK-666 microchip," Macy pressed on.
"Yeah, those don't even come cheap!" Alasdair raised his eyebrows. "When Macy was still a wee thing, she once wanted this headless unicorn toy robot from Torturokyo."
"Mother and Father refused to get it. If it was a mere headless unicorn toy, they would have gotten it, but since it had a robotic system powered by a TTK-666." Aengus rolled his eyes.
"How expensive are we talking?" Ruby asked.
"How about you'd have to sell your new mansion and the castle of the Beth Clan just to pay for it?" Penna asked.
"THAT EXPENSIVE?" Ruby almost fell off her seat. "Who's crazy enough to want such an expensive toy?"
As if to answer her, Manny grabbed the remote and clicked on a button, turning on the living room's TV. He switched to Chanel 1789, just in time for a commercial to play.
Commercial: Robotic pets, your new best friends!
Other kids will be jealous until the world ends!
They're so real when they move and act so lots!
You won't even know they're robots!
As the song played in the advertisement, the screen also showed some children opening up a box to reveal animals running around their house or playing with them outdoors. A little boy was playing fetch with a puppy while a girl was riding some black pony, making other kindergarten girls look envious. So to speak, the animals did look like the real deal of real animals until the advertisement went on to pop their heads and reveal the technology hidden in their skeleton, including the purple microchip known as the TTK-666 microchip. Manny turned off the TV after the ad recalled the insane price, which wasn't any better even if the microchip was sold separately.
"Talk about uncanny," Penna said.
"Yeah, I guess it didn't really scare me when I first saw the ad when I was eight," Macy said. "Rather different when you're older.
"Remind me, Beth, when your brothers said you wanted a headless unicorn toy robot, was the toy actually representing a headless unicorn or did you think they had them after you saw the part of the add where they removed the head?"
"The point that my dearest is trying to make is that if Ruby attends the event being hosted for her by the nouveau riche elites, the hosts will be so busy making the event perfect for her, they will fail to notice the lack of presence of their three eldest children, who will be hacking out the information Ruby needs," Manny explained.
"Uh huh, just a thought." Penna raised her hands. "Don't you think Macbeth and his wife will notice if their three sons are missing?"
"Relax, we triple-paid our three butlers to use Polyjuice Potion to pose as us!" Aengus snorted.
"Swindled by the Weird Cousins?"
"No, I made them." Manny raised his hand.
"I don't believe it!" Penna said in false amazement. "A member of the Beth Clan finally made the wise decision to not take a potion or advice from one of the Weird Cousins!"
The next night, at Inverness Castle
Most people would remember Inverness Castle, the home of the Beth Clan, as something dating from the end of medieval times. Perfect sandstone walls, windows with white painted windowsills, a garden filled with vast trees, hedges, and flowers of either red or black coloring, and stables for the horses. Many people in Villainapolis have come to wonder how was it that the Beth Clan, who once possessed wealth from ancestors, went to become one of Villainapolis' most popular nouveau riche.
The answer was rather simple. After Macbeth's defeat (read the play), he chose to abdicate and fled the country with his wife to find refuge in Villainapolis. They started off as merely above middle-class, but after Macbeth succeeded in starting a great company in Scottish exports and Lady Macbeth grew in fame as an event curator, the Beth Clan managed to get back in their place in the aristocratic world. And though they never told anyone, a small bargain with Penna De Mort cured Lady Macbeth into finally bearing children, three sons and a daughter. Though Alasdair was first in line for the throne and two brothers followed along, most of the rich residents in Villainapolis knew that Macbeth adored his only daughter. And no one could really tell if his wife valued favoritism or contempt over their children.
Lady Macbeth had welcomed the guests with an opening speech. She presented Ruby to the guests and applauded her for being among the rare individuals who've proven that they brought their greatest efforts and sweat to create a new wealth and she wished Ruby best of luck in rising further into the nouveau riche society. The other wealthy residents applauded in agreement.
"So, Ms. Kyle. What projects do you have in mind now that you've been introduced to your new place?" Lady Macbeth asked as she and Ruby walked around the garden. "I mean, besides hopefully finding your paramour?"
"I'm not really sure. But if I may ask, your Ladyship, if you had to suspect anyone among your neighbors, who would it be?"
"Rough question." The lady tilted her head. "My dear, the main mistake that a villainess can make is putting full trust in anyone. She must know that anyone who surrounds her has the ninety percentage of pulling out a knife to stab her. Thus, our rich cliques have the tendencies of not trusting each other."
This isn't getting me anywhere. Ruby clutched her champagne glass tightly.
"However, any of us would have to be insane to try endangering the others' children. Especially when it comes to any child born from the nine richest families in the Northern District."
"What makes you say that?"
Lady Macbeth quickly checked to see if anyone was listening to them. She nudged her head, directing Ruby to follow her. The two ladies went off further into the gardens until a grove of dark roses shielded them from the rest of the guests.
"There's a legend that dates back to when Villainapolis was a mere colony. You know how the routine goes when empires conquer foreign lands: they push away the natives in a disadvantaged war. Well," Lady Macbeth leaned in close enough to say quietly, "among the colonizers, there were nine lords and ladies who were allowed the first pick of the conquered territory to establish their new homes."
"Is that territory what later became the Northern District?" Ruby asked.
"Yes." Lady Macbeth looked around nervously. "According to the legend, the natives were even more outraged at the nine colonizers' choice of territory than they were by being chased away. The natives' shaman warned the colonizers that they were choosing their territory in what used to be a burial ground. The colonizers didn't listen and killed him on the spot, but he died after he managed to warn them of the curse of the burial ground."
"A curse?"
"Yes. He declared that should a lord or lady living in the territory kill the children of the nine wealthiest people living in the territory and their bloods shed the earth, than whatever was trapped beneath the burial ground would be released to wreak havoc on earth."
Ruby looked down at the Earth. "You mean... something is alive and underneath us?"
"Well, the legend was more that the burial ground served as a door, locked to separate the surface... from one of the cells in Tartarus." Lady Macbeth finished the rest of her champagne. "You know that Tartarus, the deepest part of the Underworld, serves as the main prison for all the worst criminals in the world. Criminals worse than the common thief and murderers that mere jails hold."
"Yeah, Proserpine Pitit Fi Anfèr told me about Tartarus. They can hold gods, demigods, monsters, serial killers, homicidal cult leaders, and so on."
"Well, as you know, and so does everyone else, once you're locked up in Tartarus, it becomes harder to escape. I've heard rumors that even if the prisoners were left to roam around out of their cells for even a few minutes, they wouldn't be able to scale the walls without gravity pulling them back or security scaring them back in. The only way out that seems possible but highly unlikely to their knowledge would be if they completed their sentences or if Hades pardoned them. But, burial mounds and any place you'd bury the dead have been known to serve as direct doorways between the surface of life and the death from below. Many people have practiced dark arts or curses in lands marking death. Though of course, if it was a mere tomb in one secluded area, it would just lead straight to Hades' castle, but a burial mound full of thousands of dead ones would lead straight to any cell in Tartarus. And if a curse had been placed to anyone who dared to settle above a burial ground... well, the curse would be the key to opening the cell."
"So you think... that whoever kidnapped Martin and Imora... will try to kidnap the other heirs from the nine richest families in the Northern District and sacrifice them to release something from Tartarus?"
Lady Macbeth nodded silently until her face transitioned to horror. "Oh no... My husband and I are among those families! My children are in danger!"
Meanwhile, in Villains High
It didn't take long for the Beth brothers to pop an air vent open, land into the teachers' headquarters, and use a fancy gold pen to break the lock into the archives. Six computers, big enough to enjoy the games of jeerball, stood on a table. Each of them had a label, giving away what each of them specialized in.
DATA ON STUDENTS
DATA ON TEACHERS
GLOBAL DATA
DATA ON PURCHASES
DATA ON PROPAGANDA
DATA ON LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS
"Alright." Aengus sat down, cracked his knuckles, and began to navigate the data of the DATA ON STUDENTS. A search bar appeared. "'Type name of class to narrow down your search.' Let's type Technevilology." Aengus did so and a list pulled out. "That won't be easy. More than a hundred students have taken that class."
"Look for the list of current students," Alasdair said.
Meanwhile, Blair got to the computer of DATA ON PURCHASES and did some research on the microchip TTK-666.
"We got a better list... Found it!" Aengus clicked on the file of the student with the image matching the description Ruby had given the Beth brothers. "Melvin Peprich. Current sophomore at VH. Transferred from a technology institute in San Foulisco." He frowned. "Well that's odd."
"What is it?" Alasdair asked.
"It doesn't say who his folks are or where he currently lives. The only contact the file has is his email address."
"Print out the information. I'm going to check something else." While Aengus went on to print out the information on Melvin Peprich, Alasdair took his turn by checking out the GLOBAL DATA computer. "How's it going Blair?"
"Bad. Jekyllyde was tricky when dealing with the hacks for purchases. I managed to find a list of all the residents in Villainapolis who managed to purchase a TTK-666 microchip, but the only information they have are the credit card numbers and no mention of the owners' names."
"That's rather stupid," Aengus commented as he picked up his printed file.
Just then, a ringtone with the sound of bagpipes vibrated in Alasdair's pocket. He pulled out his phone and saw that he got a text from Ruby. "Mother's looking for us. We'd better get back home."
"Hold on." Blair printed out the information he needed and shut down the computer. "Let's go."
Back at Inverness Castle
The Beth Brothers ran back home and panted once they arrived at the gardens, just in time for Lady Macbeth to unmask in public the servants posing as her sons when the Polyjuice potion lost its effects.
"You boys better have a good explanation!" Their mother told her sons.
"Lady Macbeth, it wasn't their fault!" Ruby came in their defense. "They offered to look up information related to the case if I attended your event."
"I don't believe this," Macbeth said in exasperation, "how many times have we been telling you boys to stop breaking into the Villains High archives? This now makes it the 110th time you've disobeyed us and three-quarters of those times were after you graduated!"
"Lord Macbeth..." Ruby insisted.
"We understand why they're doing it and we appreciate you standing up for them," the lord told Ruby calmly, "but my sons are fully aware that my wife and I do not approve on them breaking in to this specific area. Had we not bribed Jekyllyde with money for funds, they would have been expelled!"
Lady Macbeth looked around the audience. "Has anyone seen our daughter?"
"Miss Macy got a stomach ache from the strawberry parfait, your ladyship," one of the servants said. "Manny Colchis escorted her back to her chambers."
"That can't be right," Aengus scowled. "Macy hates parfaits of any flavors."
A scream came from the castle and a flashing light came from one of its windows.
"That sounded like Manny screaming!" Blair pointed at the window. "And that window belongs to Macy's room!"
"Guards! My daughter's in danger!" Macbeth called out to his guards. They, along with the Beth Clan and Ruby, ran inside the castle and up to the fourth floor. They found Macy's chamber door open and Manny on the floor, traumatized and breathing like a gazelle chased by a pack of lions. He pointed at the only thing damaged in Macy's room: the computer on her desk. Its screen was cracked and releasing a mass of smoke.
"M...Macy! Cr... Creepy girl!"
"Manny, calm down." Ruby knelt down next to him. "What happened?"
"Some female stepped out of the computer! She was like a ghost than she was solid! She hit me with her weird shock currents and she dragged Macy into her computer! The creepy computer girl looked like a Scyphozoa!"
"Scylla Phozoa." Ruby recalled the name of one of the stolen AIs. "Lord and Lady Macbeth, your daughter got kidnapped by the same person who kidnaped Martin and Imora. He used a stolen AI to kidnap her."
"We found the guy." Aengus pulled out the file he had printed from the records. "Melvin Peprich..."
He didn't have time to finish. His father immediately snatched the file from his hands, glared at it, and dialed the number to the Huns.
Soon enough, Ruby's case was no longer private and now Villainapolis was in a manhunt.
The next day, back in Ruby's mansion
Tara Sam gave the file on Melvin Peprich back to Ruby once they, Mystère, Ben Tron, and Sharon Paon Lei gathered in Ruby's living room.
"I showed the file to my dad and he recognized the last name of Peprich from the old list of WHOOP criminals," Tara Sam explained. "He knew Melvin's mom, Muffy Peprich. She was arrested for robbing a top-secret lab's mind-control microchip to create a brainwashed sorority to destroy all the other sororities in her college campus. All because she wasn't accepted into any of them."
"Seriously? That's such a pathetic waste of time for a mind-controlling chip." Sharon scoffed.
"Sure, but my Melvin's a puzzle. He looks like a duplicate of his mom straight to the clothing, pink hair, and blue star tattoo on their faces. Both are tech prodigies and partially rejected from other social groups... Yet my dad and I can't figure out why he transferred to Villainapolis from one of the world's greatest institutes of Technevilology."
"The school has the highest percentages of graduates moving forward with careers in futuristic architecture, advanced computer programing, or even research stations," Ben Tron said as he projected some holographic displays of articles related to the topic. "They even offer scholarships that would pay three-quarters of the tuition fees."
"Still, it doesn't add up." Ruby shook her head. "He just succeeded in kidnapping three rich heirs and Lady Macbeth tells me this old legend about a curse concerning the heirs of the nine richest families..."
"It could just be a coincidence," Tara Sam shrugged.
"Well... Ruby might have a point," Sharon sided with Ruby. "Remember, right now the theory is that Melvin got hired by someone to do the kidnapping. I don't know who'd be crazy to follow some legend, but we're in a neighborhood full of villains who'd do anything to get rid of the competition. However, the Villainapolis law decrees that neighbors can't kill each other if they come from the same neighborhood. But, if somebody in the Northern District wanted to get rid of the competition but wanted to throw off suspicions..."
"I'd hire somebody to do the dirty work for me and if said person was wanted for it, I would never be suspected!" Mystère snapped his fingers.
"Sure, but what about the legend?" Ruby insisted.
"Ruby, it's just a legend!" Tara Sam raised her hand in exasperation.
Ben Tron walked outside to the garden and came back with a bunch of dug out soil bundled in his hands. He sat down and scanned the soil in it. "I'm picking some signs of ash-reduced remains of a Homo Sapian skull."
"Not surprising," Sharon said. "As time flies, buried bodies became skeletons, and depending on how they were buried or how the environment around them changes, they can either become fossilized mummies or reduce to ash."
"I'm also finding some anthropology articles about the natives who lived previous to the colonials' arrival. There appears to be no specific name for the tribe that used to live here. Due to the so-called legend, archaeologists have been forbidden to dig underneath the territory."
"Why must we always resort to the last option?" Ruby sighed. She got up and pulled out an empty backpack from the coat closet.
"What are you doing?" Tara Sam asked.
"Packing for a trip to the Underworld."
"ARE YOU NUTS?" Tara Sam jumped off her seat. "You're going to risk a one-way trip to the realm of Hades just to ask about a myth you don't even know if whether or not it's real?"
"Don't be ridiculous! I'm only going there because Proserpine Pitit Fi Anfèr is there for her summer vacation and she's the only one in Villainapolis we know who's an expert in death curses."
"Um, it is true that the children of death gods are allowed to dig from any burial site they please, but are you sure it's worth it?" Sharon asked.
"Better now than never."
* End of Episode
* Next Episode: The Pine Walkers' Prisoner