Phil waddled up the stairs as fast as he could, knowing better than to be late for one of his meetings. He cursed his tiny Goomba legs and the fact that the stairs were much too big for him to ascend easily.
He wasn't entirely sure why the Boss had to hold these meetings regularly, but he knew better than to question him, if what had happened to Gary was any example. He involuntarily shuddered, trying to clear the gruesome image out of his mind's eye.
The Boss- and he would always be known as that, it was forbidden to even think his name- wasn't exactly the nicest of people. He had the annoying tendency to gruesomely dissect any underlings who dared to question him, his abrupt mood swings were enough to make anyone dizzy, he never completely revealed himself to anyone; save for those closest in his cabinet, and he had a laundry list of unusual personality quirks.
None of this mattered. If you wanted to live, you did what the boss said. Period.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he pushed the door open with his head and hesitantly poked his head inside.
"Come in." said an icy voice.
Hesitantly, he edged into the room, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He could just make out the outline of a chessboard on the table. Sixteen other members of the Evil Cabinet sat around the table, awaiting orders.
It hadn't taken long for Phil to rise in the ranks. After that incident last year, with the Boss almost dying, he had been the one to retrieve the Boss' broken body from the Void and return him to the castle. In a rare display of gratitude, the Boss had promoted Phil to be on his Evil Cabinet.
Despite what everyone else believed, the castle miraculously survived the near apocalypse and the suppression of the Void. The Boss would later explain, in very ambiguous terms, that he somehow managed to "re-activate" the Void and use it as a base of operations.
The Evil Cabinet was made up of the boss' most trusted members of his meager army. After what everyone loosely called the incident, several of Bowser's troops chose to defect and join the Boss' ranks. Unfortunately, the Boss' trust varied from day-to-day, and the Evil Cabinet had an extremely high member turnover rate.
It was unanimously regarded that allying with the Boss was an exceptionally stupid decision. By the time most troops realized that, nearly twenty-five percent of the defectors had been viciously slaughtered. By this point, though, they truly had no choice.
The figure sitting behind the table grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth in the darkness. He reached out in front of him and moved a remarkably accurate figurine of Bowser to a square on the board.
"Excellent. Everything is falling into place." He moved another figurine, this time resembling Mario.
"Now. I have a question. Which of you WAS IN CHARGE OF SECURITY TODAY!?" he screamed, dropping his calm demeanor in seconds.
Mike, a Koopa in charge of security, held an internal debate with himself. It was suicide to admit failure to the Boss, especially since he had the nasty habit of dissecting minions once they "outlived their usefulness." On the other hand, rumors were going around that the Boss could read minds. Either way, he was doomed. Hoping for a painless death, he decided to speak up. "I..I..I w-w-was.. B..B-boss."
"Excellent." The Boss' hand shot out to the side, wreathed in purple flame. He grabbed the Koopa nearest to him, who began to scream in agony.
"B-but I said that I was responsible for security!" Mike blurted, placing his honor before reason.
The screaming increased in pitch.
The figure's eyes gleamed with malice. "I know. But... I will punish your friend for your failure. Think of it as... motivation." Abruptly, the screaming stopped. With an idle flick of his wrist, the Boss threw the corpse against the wall. "Remove the debris from my sight."
Obediently, two Grubbas marched up and hesitantly picked up the now-lifeless body of the Koopa.
"Let that be a lesson. I do not tolerate failure."
"Now. I will explain once again. This operation is time-critical. Before someone slipped up and let them escape early, I was supposed to gather them all together. Regrettably, that is now impossible. The spell is already in effect."
In a second, he was screaming again. "You messed up the entire operation! IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN THIS WAY! They ALL needed to be here!"
A brave board member chose to speak up. "W-why do you need them all in one place?"
Abruptly, the Boss' mood shifted again. "An excellent question. Might I remind you that, at least for the time being, I can only use a finite amount of magic before my power is exhausted? I had to bring them here so I could send them all from one place."
Motioning with his hands, the Boss created another two figurines-one black, and one red.
"Unfortunately, I had to use the last of my power to return here. I must still obtain him" he mentioned as he set the red figurine next to a large, obese model of a man, " and him." he said as he set the black figurine in the middle of the board, away from any of the others.
The Koopa nearest the figure decided to speak up again. "If you weren't wasting time with all those silly charades, Boss, you'd have been able to do it a lot faster! I'm no expert, but it must take a lot of magic to create those illusions, to change forms, and to-"
The minion never got to finish his sentence. The Boss' clawed hand eviscerated the back of the Koopa's skull, spraying the rest of the room with tiny chunks of bone. The distinctive odor of roasting flesh permeated the room.
"There is a purpose to everything I do. Remember that." he said, relishing the horrified faces on the rest of the Cabinet members.
The figure rose from his seat, still wreathed in darkness.
"I will return shortly. Until then, you are in charge." He casually mentioned, pointing at Phil, who turned a sickly shade of white.
"Tim! Mark! You two are appointed to my Evil Cabinet, effective immediately! Pray you don't disappoint me." the Boss murmured to the guards, changing moods in an instant once again.
With much fanfare, the Boss motioned with his arms and disappeared from the room. A shockwave washed over the rest of the board, signaling his departure.
Who's the Boss? I think I made it fairly obvious by this point.