He once again was hearing the humming of a lullaby from a woman that was unfamiliar to him, yet he had been hearing for so long. He felt himself being cradled by someone who he assumed was her as she sang in a sweet and gentle yet regal tone.

They remained quiet and without any fuss. Simply listening to her lullaby to... they presumed them (?). The lullaby might not have been good from what he is hearing, but she sang it with such love that he didn't care. He didn't know to whom, but it was nice hearing it despite it all being a dream. A dream he had been having for the past week with it slowly becoming more and more lucid each time. It was strange, but he felt so comfortable. It was always peaceful here.

She then proceeded to say something he couldn't understand as another voice responded that he couldn't make out. His entire body felt relaxed and at peace that he hadn't felt for the past years. He felt as if he could stay in here forever... that was until he began to hear a noise interrupting whatever she was saying.

"Sir?"

"Victor?"

"Sir?"

Victor woke up as he rapidly blinks, his eyes adjusting.

"Don't do that again." Victor told in a dry tone due to just waking up. The pilot quickly nodded his head before saying in a slightly nervous voice, "Sorry, sir... it's just that we are nearing the location."

Victor just looked out the window of the helicopter before saying, "Alright." There wasn't much thought put into that answer as the pilot was panicking internally, with him believing it was better if he just kept his damn mouth shut and if he was going to be replaced because of this.

Meanwhile, Victor was trying to figure out what he had done before going to sleep until he saw what was right next to him. It was a crossword puzzle he had decided to take with him. After trying to solve it, he realized he hated crossword puzzles and fell asleep.

That's why, just in case he hated it, he brought along play cards in his left pocket in his dark just in case he ever got bored, but it seems he won't get to use them anytime soon since he already missed his chance. There was a lot of work to be done once he arrived. He could already envision the amount of paperwork he would still have to do and had already.

Not that it mattered; he was already too far into this to back out now over some paperwork and boredom.

He decided to just sit quietly while listening to the music the helicopter was playing. The music that was playing on the computer was... fine? It's not like he could pick it since it was on the radio... well, he could since he owned him as well as the helicopter, but it was fine for what it was since he wasn't going to tell the pilot to change it. Plus, it helped build up tension for his arrival; it sounded like the arrival of a powerful leader, so it would fit nicely since they weren't too far away from his destination. He looked out the window as the distant dot slowly became more and more visible as the helicopter flew towards it.

Crown gold. The perfect place to build his empire that he would need in order to complete what he has set out to do and planned for eight years now, as well as having some help on this plan from the old man.

He didn't want to get too much help from him due to him already having helped plenty already and since he was kind of overbearing, so he only edited some parts of the plan to make a little more sense after he finished planning the main part out.

Having to go around the world for the past 5 years in order to gain experience with the underground, having to be tutored by crime lords that were under the old man, as well as having to fight against hitmen after his head (by himself with no help since his teacher at the time said he could "handle it" despite only being 16 at the time), for whatever reason (though he had a sneaking suspicion why), he was just a little bit tired to say the least. The first thing he was going to do once arriving was go to sleep in the abandoned casino's carpets.

…

On second thought, that might not be the BEST idea since tourists along with agents might come by later after his organization truly begins to start, and it wouldn't be the best image to see the owner sleeping on carpets, even if they were clean carpets.

'Hmm, but maybe that would distract them while my minions knock them out?' This thought made him quickly snap out of his current state. He shook his head in order to rid himself of his fatigue. What was he thinking? Was he even thinking, or was he still half asleep? He began to force himself wakeup up as the dot on the horizon was growing larger, and soon, his own base would be within reach as well as his goal.

So many years were spent towards this, so many sleepless nights, so much time spent in the underground living a hell of a life when he could have just lived his life as a rich snob ever since that day. It's not like his guardian would seem to mind... no, they probably would if he had gone that route, but he wouldn't know now.

He had come to the decision to become an evil genius after he heard what an evil genius was and how the previous one almost destroyed Forces of Justice along with the entire world. Hearing that, he knew he needed that kind of power if he was to ever achieve his dream.

When they tried to talk him out of it, his stubbornness refused and after two years they relented.

He wasn't going to be talked out of it; even if he regretted it at times, it was his decision, and he could have stopped out any time, but he didn't and will never stop until he has completed the mission.

First, he was going to recruit minions, gain a gigantic following in the underworld, and complete his dream. All he had to do was act like a calm and composed leader, along with having the reputation of one. He had practiced years into perfecting his facial expression as well as his speech pattern.

"Sir, we're almost there." The pilot said with more hesitation this time due to not wanting to lose his job or, worse, die.

"Good." Victor replied with a collected and disciplined tone that was taught to him till he had perfected it. The pilot let out an internal sigh of relief at this answer but still felt a little anxious just in case Victor was pissed under his calm surface.

Victor put the pilot as a secondary thought as he was more focused on the control panel that showed the time to be 11:02 am with him noting the time. They would arrive soon, and the true real would begin to start constructing his base.

He bit early, with seven minutes to spare by the time he arrived, so he decided the pilot might deserve a raise if he continued to deliver results like these.

Deciding to shift in his seat by stretching, which shook off the last remnants of sleep. After all, he had to make himself look more presentable and like a proper leader towards the minions that would greet him when he arrived at the island.

The pilot has done his job perfectly, and the music the radio played was serving its purpose in order to keep the atmosphere around them appropriately tense.

Victor felt a sort of invisible weight lift from his shoulders after years of hellish training. It would soon pay off. Having learnt from the best (or worst in the "Global Defense Alliances" perceptive) and dodging more attempts on his life than he could possibly keep track of, he would soon put these skills and tricks to good work... or, well, bad work? Evil work?

He would build his organization from the ground up and without any more help from anyone with his own knowledge and experience.

Pride filled his being as well as determination as the helicopter had arrived and began to descend on a giant platform that was built on top of the small mountain that was connected to the base. The construction workers, aka the workers, were surprised to see the copter was already here. They scrambled to get in position to greet their boss as the helicopter landed in front of them. The six of them stood in two straight lines facing each other with hands at their sides right in front of the entrance of the copter as the doors opened to show their new boss, Victor.

Their boss's appearance exuded elegance and power, like a sophisticated aristocrat. Dressed a white button up shirt, long black paints covering the entirety of his legs up to his shoes and a short black cape that fell to one side with it only barely reaching the lumbar part of his spin. He personally found it as if it complemented well with his clean red hair (although it wasn't really red, more so just a very light reddish brown) and ocean blue eyes. It also did a fine job at managing to cover his lean build that had been given to him despite his long years of training in the past with him standing at 175 centimeters tall with him looking kind of scrawny due to his outfit. Still, their very presence made it, so they all commanded respect and admiration towards him.

Victor had one of his hands behind his back as the sunlight hit his eye, which was slightly irritating as he took a walk forward past the two lines of minions that kept facing forward even as he passed. After doing that, he gave them a thumbs up and gave them the go-ahead to finally greet him properly.

One of his employees stepped forward to greet him, "Hello boss? Um, we didn't expect you to be here so early." He said while scratching the back of his head while giving him a tense smile, hiding his anxiety.

"You can thank Charles for that." Victor simply stated as the minion turned around to look at Charles, who was giving a thumbs up as the minion was giving him the 'Why the heck would you do this!?' since there were still a few things left to repair and deliver as Charles simply shrugged while smiling as sweat was pouring down his forehead.

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

The minion quickly shook his head, not wanting to show his nervousness to his boss. "No problem at all, sir. We're just... surprised, that's all." He forced a smile, hoping to keep his composure. "We're almost finished with the last touches. We are just a few small details left before we are finally done."

At that moment, the evil genius's eyes narrowed. The minion felt the sweat on his neck, but it wasn't because of what he said; it was because the sun was still annoying Victor's eyes as he turned to the base to get a better view and not have the sun in the corner of his eye annoying him. He wasn't going to reveal that part to any of his minions.

The abandoned casino resort was truly as described. The golden and lushes' beaches looked beautiful, as did the nature around the island. The casino building lodged in the huge mountain was truly the perfect and classic villain lair to have, even if his goal isn't to be an evil genius. Well, not entirely.

Victor remembered that the minions were still there as he finally responded, "I hope you get those final things done before we start. I won't have any delays." His voice was not raised, yet he had not needed to as the effort he had put into his words were more than enough to send the minions scurrying off to complete the base.

The minions went into the elevator that went down before going off onto the pathway to the base as Victor watched from above, watching them go like ants.

His ears heard the construction along with the crashing of waves against the beaches, which fell into a harmonies discord for him. With his back turned, he addressed Charles, who was getting off the helicopter. "Charles."

"Y-yes sir?" Charles quickly straightened his back as he felt his fear return all of a sudden.

It quickly faded away just as quickly after the next thing Victor said while staring at the blue horizon. "You've done well today. I expect this level of efficiency to continue."

Charles was silent for a moment being stunned, before he finally gave a bright smile before saluting him. "I won't let you down, sir!"

Victor merely turned around and looked at him with an unreadable expression as he walked towards the elevator that had come back up.

"See to it that you don't. Along with everyone else that shall work here." He vanished into the elevator as Charles decided to just wait inside the helicopter until his shift ended. Just in case the boss needed him to go anywhere, and he could deliver without delay.

Victor could feel his eyes twitching partially while looking at the casino after walking out the hall of the base as he tried to keep a dignified expression.

The entire place was a complete and utter mess! Nothing was clean—boxes EVERYWHERE, broken machines, and a damn covered statue! He felt his brain screaming while cursing at the minions for not removing such junk on an automatic response. Only thing that was stopping him from getting rid of all this random junk was the fact that he could sell it for money, and he needed all the money he could get his hands on before making his presence known to the Forces Of Justice.

He was taught that money would drain very quickly at the start of his plans while building his base, so it was best to sell these things later. No matter how much his mind and body twitched, wanting to order the minions to clean it all up or even do it himself if he had to.

'We will do it later.' He told himself. 'We have better things to do than waste our time looking at... this.' With that, he excused himself back into his secret lair behind the casino doors, getting himself as far away as he could from the mess.