Lord Boxman wasn't the only well-known villain in this wild and wacky world. Obviously, you couldn't run a business providing for bad guys when there aren't any bad guys who needed providing. Boxman had many, many clients, and none were more so infamous than the purple-skinned mad scientist himself, Professor Venomous.
However, as he sat at his desk, staring at his computer, bored out of his mind, he would end up meeting his match.
"Hello, Professor." Obsidian said after phasing through Venomous' office and making himself visible. His voice startled the professor, who turned around in his chair towards him, immediately pulling out a small but potent ray gun from the inside of his white coat. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" PV said threateningly.
"Hey now, let's not get violent, mate. I hear you're one of this world's best villains?" Obsidian said with his hands up. "Wait," PV responded as he put his gun down slowly. "people have said that?" "Forums don't lie, 'The_Great_And_Venomous94'." "Who are you?" PV asked.
"Oh! Pardon my ignorance. Name's Obsidian Fox. You've probably never heard of me. It's understandable, given our great distance between bases of operations." "You're 'Obsidian20' from the interplanetary-range chat room? Other than that, i've never heard of you before." PV said. "Well, let's get to know each other then, Professor." Obsidian motioned towards PV's kitchen. "Fancy a cuppa?"
"Oh, no thanks, i'm good. Why the heck are you even here, though?" asked PV. "Ah." Obsidian answered. "Well, there's this… project i'm working on. It's pretty big, no pun intended. Probably the biggest thing i've ever done in my long and industrious career as a villain. So as you can imagine, even with my incredible intellect and skills, i cannot pull it off alone. I hear you're good with technology?"
"Yes i am. But…" PV said. "How do i know i can trust you? Don't think i've had problems with betrayals before." "Oh, Venomous. Poor, sweet Venomous. I don't even need your trust. All i have to do…" Obsidian pulled out both a small picture of PV's organically engineered minion/daughter figure Fink and a lighter, pressing the button to generate a tiny fire. "...is offer the incentive of not having a loved one hurt." Obsidian then moved the lighter closer to Fink's picture, burning the latter until it was nothing but a small pile of ash.
PV, being the calm and collected guy he is, was not intimidated. "Ha! Like you'd ever harm Fink."
Unfortunately for the violet-skinned villain, all it took was for Obsidian to press another button on the lighter, transforming it into a quite massive amalgamation of supremely sharp blades and the front ends of multiple types of gun-like weapons, all held by a surprisingly strong handle that Obsidian kept a tight grip on. That was enough to convince PV how legit evil he was.
"Woah-kay, hold on now! Fine, i'm in. Just put that thing away…" Obsidian did as he was told, and reverted his ultra-weapon back to a simple lighter. "Alright. i'm glad you're in. I won't promise this will boost your reputation in any way, as i'm sure it's already bloated as it is. But you'll be doing me a great help that could possibly help turn the tide of the war between good and evil." he told the professor.
"Sounds good to me. Not like i have anything better to do anyway-" PV was interrupted by the sound of his front door opening, and a very familiar high-pitched voice. "Boss! I'm back from my playdate/mass genoci- hey, who's this guy?"
"Fink," PV told her. "this is adult business. Go to your room." "Okay," Fink responded, then focused her attention on Obsidian. "but i'm watching you…" she took a few slow steps back, doing the two-fingers-back-and-forth motion before running to her room.
"Anyways," Obsidian said as his focus went back to PV. "I've already set up an underground HQ for my mission. Here's the address." He pulled out a business card sized piece of paper with the location of Obsidian's base written on the front. "I hope you'll meet me there."
As Obsidian disappeared before his eyes, PV looked at the card and pondered whether or not to go there. Let's just say he was leaning toward yes.
...
The dark basement stairs were slightly illuminated by the door that led to them, opened up by Red Action and the quartet from Gar's following her. A conversation was struck up between them as they walked down the stairs, their voices echoing inside the walls of the darkened room.
"So you're saying you know something about Obsidian? Is that what i'm getting at?" Carol asked. "Well, i wouldn't say i have… until today, at least." RA responded as she flipped the light switch near the entrance to the stairs, revealing a considerably large room filled with technologically advanced stuff, including floating bean bag chairs, screens that curved and glowed like futuristic holograms, and even voice-activated wallpaper that changed to any design RA preferred to be surrounded by.
"Design #1184-B." RA spoke aloud for the aforementioned voice-activation software to hear, causing the walls to instantly change from a recreation of the walls of a early 2000s emo teen's bedroom (completely with "posters" of various bands and movies that fit the theme scattered about) to a simple bright gray hue with bright blue robotic lines strewn across.
Dendy was enthralled by the tech around her, especially the one that was just triggered. "Wooow!" she exclaimed. "I didn't think that kind of programming was even possible! I mean, voice-activation software definitely exists, but never can it be used to alter entire wall designs!"
RA raised an eyebrow slightly and smiled."You like?" she told the tiny genius. "All of this comes courtesy of the future. But let's not dabble on that. Your friend's in trouble, right?" she sat down in front of a desk that held up a big keyboard connected to one of the floating screens. "Uh, yeah, obviously, Red Action." Rad said. "but do you actually know what or who's behind this?"
"Well," RA responded, her eyes still fixated on the screen and her fingers still typing away. "since that battle between you guys and that weird giant thingy Obsidian fought with, i've been doing some private fast-forwarding in time to see if he'd ever come back. And let me tell you- things didn't look pretty." "Uh… how so?" a slightly unnerved Enid asked.
"Generic City is just the beginning. K.O.'s rampage will continue, even beyond the Neutral Territory. Eventually, the entire world will become the boy's demented playground. And i know exactly who his puppet master will be… Obsidian Fo-"
"I knew it!" Carol gleefully exclaimed. "I told you! I-" she stopped once she realized how out-of-character she began to seem. "Ahem, sorry." "Anyways," RA began. "I've been doing extensive research into Obsy's history. Had to go through multiple underground forums to find any information. What i've gathered so far- aside from the obvious fact he lives on the distant planet of Sanigran, just a couple universes away from here- is that like Boxman, he dabbles in both villainy and business. He, however, doesn't exclusively sell to other villains."
Enid stared at RA's screen and noticed something while information regarding Sanigran spread all over it. "Stop! I recognize that language…" she pointed to a section listing its, well, language, showing both the English translation (Sansian, as it was dubbed) and the native wording. "That's what was on those candies the day K.O. first grew!"
"Wait, wait, hold on." Rad said. "Are you saying that-" "Our friend Mr. Fox happens to run a business selling 'transformation candies'. Or, as he calls them, Obsidian's Ultimate Treats. According to some reviews, they're pretty good, unlike their creator. The green ones are especially popular; you guys obviously know what those do."
"Okay," said Carol. "So if he made those candies in the first place, then Obsidian must've known to put… whatever he put in to alter its effects." "But that leaves one other pressing question, Ms. Kincaid." Dendy chimed in. "Why would Obsidian, a person K.O. has never met, target him specifically?"
"Hmm." RA said. "That is a good question. Maybe let's try focusing on that now-" SLAM! went the door to the base and out popped none other than Lord Boxman, accompanied by a Shannon and Raymond. As the three rushed down the stairs, Boxman began to speak, in his usual trying-to-be-intimidating tone.
"Alright, you ingrate Plaza denizens!" he said. "You're gonna tell me how your little friend got not-so-little, or-" "That's literally what we're trying to figure out, Boxman!" Enid interrupted, throwing him and his minions for a loop. "Wait, what?" Boxman said, more calmly and more confused. Shannon, however, was not as quick to forget the "objective". "Quit trying to bluff us, Enid! Have you forgotten we're still mortal enemies after that battle with Obsidian!?" "Quiet, Shannon!" Boxman interjected. Focusing his attention on the Plaza group, he then said, "You actually have no idea how K.O. grew too? Then again, i didn't really plan this out, so why am i even asking?"
"You are right, Boxman." Dendy said. "We don't know how he grew, but we might have a lead on who did it. That culprit, of course, would be Obsidian Fox." "Ah, so he is as villainous as i'd imagined." Boxman responded. "Not only does he come up with ideas i definitely could come up with, but he thinks he can do them better than me!" A hint of rising anger came out of his voice as he spoke.
"I think he is doing it better than you would-" Rad quipped, but stopped when he saw some kind of dart rapidly fly behind him, ramming the back of his neck. Before the rest of the group could react, that same tranquilizing-agent fate befell them as well. At least, the ones who weren't made of metal.
"Um, what's going on?" Raymond asked. "I don't know," Shannon answered. "but at least we're still stand-" the latter was unable to finish that sentence thanks to the thrown cinderblock that obliterated both robots' heads.