14

Syndrome was enjoying himself quite a bit, maybe even too much. Mirage was sitting next to him in nothing but a bra and panties, and he was biting his tongue and trying to keep himself from doing something overzealous. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, smiling politely and tilting his head to the side, which made his hair fall over his eyes. Mirage giggled and pushed it out of the way, and he squirmed. Part of him was still thinking over the recent events, and the cause of his bathroom dilemma. Mirage was proving to be quite the distraction, hanging over him like a dead goose – a very attractive dead goose, but a dead goose nonetheless.

What the heck was she getting at anyway? Oh, great, now she was wiggling her derrière. So much for trying to think straight. Syndrome looked at her and blinked; she edged over to him and attempted to remove his shirt. After a bit of struggling and silent protest on the part of the evil genius, she finally managed to pull it off, and then yanked off his pants. There they were, sitting half naked, looking at each other in awkward silence. All of the sudden he stood up, a grin on his face and his eyes wide, like he had just had the most brilliant idea on Earth. "The recordings from the security cameras!" he announced proudly, standing in a victorious pose, wearing nothing more than briefs.

"But you know how much I detest being taped," Mirage groaned, staring at him with narrowed eyes.

He wasn't paying attention to whatever she was saying, he quickly ran out the through the doorway (which still had no door), and in his underwear, headed towards the security room, leaving his ex-girlfriend sitting on the bed looking rather frustrated.

Syndrome opened the door to the room where all the monitors were, and saw all of the other supervillains and a couple henchmen gathered around the screen, looking at his bedroom. "Hey!" he exclaimed, causing them all to turn and face him.

"Oh my, Syndrome! Ha-ha, this isn't what you think," Xerek started, standing up from his spot quickly and laughing nervously. The others looked ready to crack up at the sight of the fiery-haired supervillain in his drawers.

".. You all have major issues that I will address later," Syndrome said, pushing past them, switching the view to the bathroom and rewinding the footage to the time before he woke from from being knocked unconscious. "A-ha!" he exclaimed, pointing to himself taking a shower.

"My God," Xerek murmured.

"Egad!" Earthworm exclaimed.

"Sick and vrong, sick and vrong!" Ruthless Jr. chimed in.

"Uck!" Bomb Jour coughed, looking like she was going to be sick.

Syndrome looked particularly annoyed. ".. You sickos were attempting to watch me go at it with Mirage -- how is being naked in the shower any different from being naked in bed!?"

"If we had known that that's what you look like nude, we never would have dreamed of it," Bomb Jour gagged.

The evil genius ignored her and watched the footage of himself falling down inside the shower-tub, taking the curtain down with him. A few moments later, he crawled out and collapsed down by the toilet. "Mystery solved!" Syndrome said with a satisfied nod.

"That's good enough to be on Hilarious Home Videos!" Earthworm laughed. "Who wants to submit it!?"

"Don't you dare!"

Bomb Jour pulled the tape out and waved it in the air. "Come on, let's go mail it!"

Syndrome tried to grab it from her, but she tossed it to Xerek who caught it and ran out of the room with it. The other supervillains pushed past him and ran off, laughing and tossing the tape from one person to another. "And you still look like you've been hit by a train!" one of them yelled as they ran off down the hallway, leaving a furious Syndrome standing in his delicates.

--

"And now back to the live one-hundred thousand dollar giveaway on Hilarious Home Videos!"

Dash was sitting down on the couch, laughing as the clips played. Violet was busy packing whatever she'd need for the trip, which was basically nothing more than her super suit and some other essentials. "Dash, cut the television off, we've got to go in a few minutes," she said.

"Hold on, sis, it's only got a little bit of runtime left, let me finish watching it!" her younger brother pleaded.

"Oh, fine, but you'll have to pack quickly once it's over."

"Our next video comes to us all the way from Volcán Island! It serves as a lesson to us all: shower curtains don't make good fall-stoppers." The audience laughed, even though the joke was crummy. The clip started playing and Dash was already chuckling. After a couple moments, he suddenly stopped and stared. "Ahm – Violet – come look at this – I think it's that one villain guy you're in love with..." He said, motioning for her to come and take a look.

Violet sat down next to her brother and looked at the video. She could tell it was Buddy, albeit he looked a bit different – and he was naked. Luckily, since it was a family show, the naughty bits were blurred out. "Oh my gosh, it is him! Where is this clip from, Dash?!" she exclaimed.

"Um – um – it was like Volcán Island or something – yeah, that was it!"

"This makes everything so much easier! I told you he was alive, Dash, I told you!" Violet said excitedly. "Quick, we've got to get to the private airport to meet Marty!"

They quickly ran out the door, almost forgetting their luggage until Dash reminded that they needed it, and they hopped onto Violet's motor scooter and headed towards the airport, which was just on the outskirts of town. They skidded to a halt at the entrance and rushed in, ignoring the yells of the security guard. Standing by a sophisticated looking jet-plane was a young man, one eyebrow raised as the two superheroes came rushing towards him.

"Marty! Do you know where Volcán Island is?" Violet asked, slowing down her pace until she eventually came to a stop in front of the pilot.

Marty bit his lip and looking up at the sky for a moment, searching his brain for the answer to Violet's question. "Ahm – well – yes, yes I do! It's somewhere in the Caribbean, if I recall correctly. But I heard that's it's a dangerous place to go flyin' by, it's got some filthy rich owner who doesn't like planes getting within radio range of the place. I also heard that someone got shot down flyin' over 'round that particular island."

"That sounds like Syndrome, alright," Dash said, remembering back to the time they were all nearly killed when a missile from Nomanisan Island hit the plane they were in.

Marty took a toothpick out of his pocket and bit it, shrugging. "I can get you in real stealthily, though, they won't even pick us up on their radars."

"That'd be great, Marty! You really are the best pilot I know!" Violet said, climbing into his plane and looking around.

"Not a problem," he said with a shrug, following them and taking the captain's seat in the cockpit. "After all, I do owe you a favor. You've saved my life, more than once."

And with that, the plane took off into the sky.

--

Syndrome groaned, arms folded over his chest as the others were hovering over him, laughing and pointing as they rewatched the clip of him in the shower on Hilarious Home Videos for the millionth time. "I will destroy you all." He swore as he frowned, eyes narrowed. He cringed as Earthworm gave him a 'noogie', and Bomb Jour giggled hysterically at it. Syndrome sat in the middle of the entertainment room, attempting to block out the teasing that was coming from all sides. Would they let it die already? Seriously, there are tons of other funny clips on the show, why did they have to obsess over his? At least it had won the one-hundred thousand dollar prize, but he had to split it with the others or they'd make his life even more miserable than it already was.

"You had to go and tape it," Syndrome growled, glaring at Ruthless Jr. who was near laughing his head off. They had sent the original copy off to the studio, and even though they'd requested, they hadn't gotten it back, so instead, they had recorded the television show. The thing had only aired earlier that day, and yet it was a worldwide sensation. I'll be known as 'that guy who slipped and fell in the shower' or 'the guy who kissed a toilet' for the rest of my life.

"I'm going out," he decided at last, exiting the room and heading towards the hangar where his plane was. He liked his plane, he had modified it himself a few months ago. It had the same automated piloting his Manta Jet had had, except on this plane it was only optional, so he could fly it if he wanted to. It also had laser guns for aerial battles, just in case. He jumped inside of it and sat down, running his gloved hands over the sleek interior.

He started the powerful plane up and jetted out of the hangar, shooting at near sonic speed into the sky. He handled the controls with expertise and flare. All of the sudden there was a beeping noise coming from the radar. He squinted and looked at it, finding it hard to see the darn thing because he still didn't have the use of his left eye. Because of that fact, he really shouldn't have been flying at all, but he didn't care. There was a red dot on the screen near him which meant there was an unidentified craft of sorts nearby. "Huh," he grunted. "What's another aircraft doing around here?"

Syndrome turned his plane so that he was headed in the direction of the red dot. No commercial flights ever passed by Volcán Island, so this was highly suspicious. "Run unknown plane identification," he commanded. The computer made assorted beeping noises before an electronic voice said: "Inconclusive."

"Whoever these people are, they must have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure they weren't identified. They must be from the government."

In the distance he was finally able to spot the other craft. He pressed the red button on his dashboard, and the plane went invisible. He fly past the other plane with ultra-speed, then made a loop and came back down over the top of them, shooting his laser canons.

"We're under attack!" Marty yelled back at the others. "I suggest you fasten your seatbelts and hang on, this may get ugly."

Violet and Dash did as the pilot said, sitting back and fastening their seatbelts tight. Dash turned to his sister and said, "at least this time you'll be able to make a forcefield big enough to protect us."

Marty looked absolutely ticked. "I can't even see who's firin' at us!" he growled, boosting the jet to turbo and dodging the laser shots. "They're not on the radar, and they're not in my sights, yet I can tell these shots are close-range."

There was a large boom as Syndrome's jet flew directly above their's at an incredible speed. The villain once again looped his plane around and shot at them. There was an explosion as the right wing of Marty's plane was torn off.

"Hit confirmed, right wing destroyed." Syndrome's computer said. He smirked and came back around for another shot. "Be advised, invisi-shields will wear off in approximately three minutes."

"Now would be a great time to make one of them forcefields of your's, Miz Parr," Marty said as the plane jolted from the hit and started spiraling down towards the water.

Violet nodded and conjured up a forcefield that was large enough to protect the entire plane. She didn't know how long she could hold it, though. Syndrome's shots were coming down hard, but none of them were able to penetrate.

"What is this? I had a clear shot, I could have destroyed them entirely! -- They must have some sort of protective field, gah!" he snarled, turning his plane back around and firing at them once again.

"Our fuel tanks were hit, this plane's goin' to explode!" Marty exclaimed, turning back to his passengers. "What are we going to do?!"

"Quick, get over here and I'll put a forcefield around all of us," Violet said. Marty clambered to get out of his seat, and Dash unbuckled and stood next to his sister. Just as she was about to put a forcefield around the three of them, there was the sound of an explosion. Syndrome had shot their tail to bits and they were now spiraling out of control, and being tossed about. Violet threw up a forcefield quickly, hardly able to think about anything. There were several more large blasts and the plane exploded into bits. Syndrome's invisi-shields disengaged themselves and he slowed his speeds so that he could watch the fulmination. He smiled wickedly as bits of metal flew in every which direction. Violet heard as splash as she landed in the water, but they didn't sink. Somehow, the forcefield prevented her from sinking. The fuselage, or what was left of it, came down into the water, creating a wave that pushed her to the side.

She looked down, Dash was crouched by her feet. He looked up and to the sides. "Where's the pilot?" he asked after a brief moment.

That was when Violet realized that Marty wasn't with them. She felt a lump in her throat and she swallowed. She hadn't been able to save him. All of the sudden Syndrome's jet flew down right next to them, and for but a second, Violet caught a glimpse of the pilot.

It was Buddy.

--

Agent Cautz picked a paperclip off his desk, and dropped it, only to pick it back up again and repeat the process. There still hadn't been any sign of the supervillain, even though they'd look just about everywhere they could think of. He pulled out a file from his desk drawer and looked over Syndrome's information for what seemed like the millionth time. Was there something he missed? He looked over the file and something suddenly caught his eye. It was a report on Nomanisan Island and how the government had seized it.

Islands.

They hadn't thought to look into that.

How stupid of them.

Villains loved islands, most of them had one.

It was all so very obvious.

"I've got to tell the chief!"