Victor was at his wits end with all of these damn investigators from ANVIL. Not that he didn't mind taking care of that organization nor did he hate beating them, but they kept coming at the worst of times, especially when he was in the middle of eating or trying to take a break for a couple of minutes.
It seemed like he had to deal with them since his current minions seem to go down in three shots from these little bastards. Not only that, but bags have recently begun to develop under his eyes as he felt more violent than usual.
He needed muscle—someone that could tank more than a single bullet. The thing is, those minions cost a higher salary, which would mean he would have to set up more criminal networks.
This time he didn't set it up in ANVIL. Even if he hated ANVIL the most, Victor knew that if he ended up setting all of his criminal networks in ANVIL, he would draw in more and more powerful agents and even their Super Agent.
Victor instead put his three new criminal networks into SMASH territory. With that, the money truly began to flow in as his minions began to commit crimes ranging from robbing banks and stealing paintings.
He unfortunately had to use most of that money on generators, again. The only reason why he got more of the overgrown toasters was because he had installed more radio repeaters in order to get more broadcast strength, and that required more power. He had to keep prioritizing most of his base to be taken up by these things that each gave barely anything back to him.
All the more reason to hate the generators that cost a fortune was that they are taking up so much space in the base. He also hated looking at those stupid generators. Actually, now that he thought about it, why blame the supplier? Why isn't he hating this needy, electrical of a base? The power in the base had already shut down multiple times in the past week.
It was obvious that he needed better generators to feed this monstrosity, so he was planning to have his scientist build him a medium-sized generator that would provide twenty power per build instead of ten.
Unfortunately, an issue came up when he entered the control room for the third time that day.
He quietly entered the room and took one look around the room, seeing the repeaters had sparks coming off them with minions trying to use them, with them getting shocked while using them.
'Great! The minions are electrocuting themselves. Maybe if I electrocute myself as well, I will no longer have to deal with any more problems.' He thought internally in a cheery and sarcastic tone.
A smile was on his face as he took a small breath in to calm himself.
He kept his face calm and composed. He had to keep the calm yet commanding leader everyone saw him as. After all, he was not mad at all.
Not in the slightest.
He was calm.
He was calm.
He was going to kill the next minion that looked at him funny.
A minion eventually noticed he was there, standing behind them all as he quickly walked up to him before greeting him.
He tried to think of something while speaking to Victor. "H-hey boss. F-funny seeing you here." The minion felt sweat go down his neck as Victor's focus changed to staring him straight in the eye. Victor did not blink.
"Are you responsible for the state of this room? Could you tell me why you're not repairing them?"
They swallowed hard as their thoughts circulated, trying to find the right words in order not to get executed. There was obviously no easy way out of this, but he had to do his best. "W-well, we tried but the sparks, and we tried to our best but-."
A hand was put up by Victor as he kept his expression the same, although the minion could feel the simmering anger beneath the surface. "It would seem like your best simply isn't good enough. I can't exactly take over the world with equipment ready to explode by a bunch of incompetents who "tried their best," can I?"
He titled his head at the minion. Victor waited for a response as the minion realized this before replying. "N-no boss." The minion's heart was pounding in his chest as Victor closed his eyes.
"Good man. Now, I would like you and a couple others to kidnap another specialist and interrogate them for their secrets in order to fix this." Victor turned around as he walked back to the doors as the minion sighed in relief until Victor turned back around, making him tense up.
"If your dim mind does not understand what I am asking you to do, I am asking you to kidnap a technician." Victor realized that these airheads that couldn't even recognize an agent in disguise might not understand who to kidnap.
The minion saluted while trying to maintain a brave and confident facade. "I won't let you down!"
Victor nodded at him as he was still fuming, having to waste time talking instead of doing the action. "Let's hope you don't. Otherwise, I will be dealing with you myself." Without another word, Victor left, dismissing the minion with silence. The minion then received the command from his pad as he pulled it out to see his new mission was to kidnap a technician along with another minion. He ran out of the room and out of the base towards the helicopter as his fellow co-worker came from behind.
They were going to ANVIL territory to kidnap the technician. Victor wanted to screw with ANVIL as much as possible without drawing their top or Super-Agent... yet. So, one less technician in their area meant one more laugh for him.
After his minions successfully kidnapped, interrogated and got the intel from the technician. Victor created a "Technician Trainer" device as they now had someone to repair the things around here back to tip-top shape. Victor decided to only have four for now. He would increase it later once the base increased and the workload was too much for just four to handle.
A newly trained technician stood in front of Victor's "plastic desk of EVIL" inside his temporary office. Victor's thoughts, however, drifted to the plastic desk for a small moment. 'Why exactly do I have a plastic desk anyway? It should at least be wooden. What am I? A kindergartner?' After venting to himself about how why he should replace it, he looked up at the employee sitting on the other side of the plastic desk.
The minion was wearing a green apron with an assortment of tools in their pouch attached to the chest of it, yellow rubbery gloves, and big black glasses to cover their eyes.
Victor decided to be warm and inviting to them. They decided to ask a simple question. "What is your name? Tell me exactly what you will do around here and provide for this organization."
"My name is Will Conner. What I will do for you is repair things, prevent breakages, as well as turn things off and on again." Will replied in a nice and concise manner.
This response only made his boss freeze. Seeing this, Will wondered what he said wrong.
Victor began to nod as he clasped his hands together while putting them on the table while thinking. 'Turn things off and on again!? That's the most basic thing I have ever heard! Is that a joke? Please tell me it's a joke. I mean, that's IT helpdesk level! DID MY MINIONS KINDNAP AN IT GUY INSTEAD OF A TECHNICIAN!?.. Alright, take a deep breath. Just remain calm. No need to get worked up over this.'
"Could you perhaps... I don't know... go into more detail?" He asked while waving his hand around in front of him, trying his best to remain calm.
Will, behind his oversized glasses, blinks. He watched Victor's left eyelid twitch a bit. No doubt they have been stressed. Despite Victor's non-threatening demeanor, something told Will that if he didn't continue with his explanation, a bullet would be going through his brain.
"Of course, boss." Will cleared his throat as he proceeded to give a more in-depth explanation of his value. "As a technician, my duties shall be going far beyond simple little repairs such as those. I, along with the others in my field, shall be conducting regular maintenance checks in order to make sure everything is in optimal working order and fix any kind of short-circuit. Like the one in the control room, which I might add we have already taken care of."
Hearing that they already fixed an issue from earlier as well as hearing their explanation, the stress that had been gathering up this entire week went down slightly as his expression softened ever so slightly. "Alright... go on."
Seeing this Will got more confident as he continued. "We will also make sure to boost any current systems in place."
"Such as?"
Will made a snapping motion with his gloves while answering. "The generators. If you give us the chance, we can boost the power output of any current generators by 15%, along with alleviating some strain on the power grid. We could also implement a failsa-"
"YOUR IN!"
He stopped speaking while jumping back in surprise, as Victor had immediately stood up while slamming his hands against the plastic table. It was surprising it wasn't broken by how loud the bang was.
Victor was truly smiling for once. It was at this moment that Victor realized his mistake, as he quickly composed himself although he kept himself standing. '...Alright, just reel it in. Remember, too much enthusiasm and they start thinking you've gone soft, and then they will get 'IDEAS'."
"But sir, I haven't finished with my explanation." Will protested slightly.
Hearing this, Victor's smile disappeared as his eyes narrowed. He was a bit annoyed as a shadow covered his face. "Do you not want to work here?" And after all that trouble too.
Will felt his eyes piercing through him as he immediately regretted his earlier protest. The shadow of Victor going over and covering him as well as seeing what he believed to be his "Pissed off" look made him think that "Do you not want to work here?" truly meant death instead of just "Do you not want to work here?" and not working here.
"N-no, sir! I do!" He quickly stammered as the threat of execution felt only inches away from his neck. "I-I just thought you might want to hear about the failsafe for the generators and the enhanced protocol for the base!"
Inside Victor felt his anger was already subsiding; after all, he couldn't be angry forever, although Victor's gaze remained intense. "You have my attention, and you are allowed to work here." Victor's tone was dangerously calm from what he could tell by comparing it to earlier. "Just know this. I value results more than anything. Words are little more than dirt in my eyes. If you don't deliver and fail me. There shall be consequences."
With this, Will nodded vigorously, understanding what was and who was at stake here. "Understood Sir! I shall go to work and make sure everything is in top shape and enhance anything you need. I will start with the generators."
Victor sat back down and leaned back on his plastic chair. "Perfect. Remember, if this base falls apart, I will be holding you and your co-workers responsible."
With that, Will quickly bowed before hurriedly exiting the makeshift office. When the door closed, Victor almost fell face first on the table, only to catch himself. He allowed himself a moment to breathe as well as letting the mask off.
'Well, that was exhausting. I really need a vacation after this whole thing is over... Wait a minute, I am on my privately owned island. I can just go on vacation here after I kick everyone out and have it all to myself.'
Having this moment to himself about random thoughts, he began to wonder what would happen if he failed. What if the forces of justice managed to beat him? If that happened, he doubted he could ever show his face to him again. All that training would have gone to waste. Victor's dream will never be realized.
After a couple of moments, he just decided to go ahead and not think of anything. He had already done enough for today. He would worry about an escape plan later when he was in actual danger... although by then it would be too late.
He just ignored that last thought.
Another group of agents was dealt with, and only more fatigue was added to Victor as he watched the agents get dragged to the prison down the hall to the right. Unfortunately, this time it was just a group of agents from SMASH. He actually was somewhat interested in their Super Agent, probably because of their interesting name, "Blue Saint." Maybe he could fight him after defeating Agent X or something.
He made it so anything suspicious is located far away from the entrances of the base with stuff like the kitchen and the barracks being near them so that it would take more time for any agents to find the suspicious things that they could use against him if he ever went to court.
"I am starting to get sick of all these agents." He muttered out loud as one of his minions, "Amanda," heard and decided to chime in with a bit of hesitation just in case. "Well, I think they are coming here because of all the helicopters coming and going from a place that is supposedly abandoned."
'Yeah, blame the only transport we got to go around the world thanks to JAWS being in the waters. What am I supposed to do? Ask the pilots to flap their arms with minions on their backs and hope for the best?'
He turned to her before asking a question that has been bugging him for quite a bit since arriving here. "I wonder why you don't stop them when I put a tag on them to distract them."
She was unsure if she should answer this. "Well, it would only raise their suspicion more since the place is supposed to abandoned, and they would only wonder why we are trying to distract and push them out. Which would probably lead to a fight."
A couple seconds went by with her wondering if she made the right decision until Victor sighed as he scratched his hair. He didn't seem mad this time, as she made a good point. "Right. You already know what to do. Get some staff, get some intelligence, teach them how to cheat, and let's finally get that casino up and running." He took out his pad as he pressed the glob icon before clicking on one of the four ANVIL territories, he had put a criminal network in. Two minions got the order to get a valet as they rushed out the base.
An extra criminal network was added to ANVIL since he decided to be a bit more dangerous playing with fire. It was also just to fuck with them more. He would break ANVIL first more than anything. Once he created his doomsday device, he was going to fire it at ANVIL, he swore.
The newly hired Valet was standing at attention in front of him instead of sitting on the plastic chair provided. Victor looked at her name tag to see her name was "Emily Brown". 'Let's see if she is worth her paycheck.'
She gave him her best smile with an upbeat voice. "A pleasure to meet you!"
The first thought Victor had and wanted to say was. 'Why do you look like you're trying to audition for a toothpaste commercial? Nobody likes a suck up.' That was far too rude for a first greeting. He decided to play up more of a slightly arrogant yet intrigued leader this time to see if it would do anything.
"As it would be. I assume you already know what to do?" Victor replied while making sure his minions didn't get the wrong person.
Emily nodded and gave the best answer Victor has heard from someone's first try so far. "Carry luggage, open doors, and I also play a mean game of baccarat. Keep the tourist entertained."
It was short, gave a good amount of information, and didn't make the minion look like an idiot in his eyes.
'At least that's one person who knows how to speak properly. Actually, if they didn't, then they aren't a good deception minion. Are they?'
Victor nodded while showing one of his better smiles. 'Have to make it look like I am not completely dead inside.'
"You're hired. Remember to give them a smile. Make sure they don't suspect a thing about what's going on back here." Victor decided to make sure his minion knew what they were doing. Not that he doubted his minion's intelligence—wait no, he did.
He feared his minions would set the base on fire without his input.
"You got it boss!" She said as Victor dismissed her as she left the temporary office.
After this, Victor quickly got work on the casino so that the valets would have a place to work. Although he did consider just keeping it empty just because he thought it was funny.
'No, no! Keep focus, Victor! This evil empire isn't going to run on bad (but funny) decision-making.' Victor could not allow himself to slip towards his spontaneous impulses.
'...I think it's time I hired actual guards.' Victor was currently looking over a bunch of body bags as he grimaced internally since each one of their lives would cost him quite a bit for replacements. Oh, and he felt slightly guilty about not being here earlier to help with the agents who were also dead due to falling asleep on the plastic desk.
He wasn't sure who died, but it didn't matter as minions were already sucking the bodies away. Hopefully it wasn't any of the minions he actually bothered remembering the names of.
Injured minions covered bruises, shots, and bleeding yet still able to walk were going to the infirmary that Victor had installed after his vaults had gotten full enough. Seeing them limping to get healed was quite the pitying sight as Victor felt the slight guilt; he felt it increase as his brows furrowed feeling it.
'They are expendable.' This way of thinking helped bury any pity he felt there for a moment there. In the end, they wanted and got this job. They got what they expected and knew the risks.
...
Yet wasn't it his fault as well? He hired them. None of them would have gotten hurt if he wasn't around or decided to become this. How many more resources would he have to expend before his plan finally succeeded?
He shook his head. If he kept thinking about it, he was going to be depressed along with being stressed.
Victor looked around till he found a minion not really doing anything besides walking past the body bags that were getting cleaned up as he pointed at them before calling them out. "Hey, you there."
The minion looked at him before looking from side to side and then pointing at himself. "Me?"
'You? NOOOO, I mean the wall. What is this? A TV show? OF COURSE YOU!' He took a deep breath in and then out. He was really starting to get ticked off over such little things. He just needed to calm down.
He took out his pad while assigning a mission to the minion as well as two others. "Yes. I have come to a realization that we will have to get muscle sooner rather than later. So go out there, kidnap a guard, and...?" Victor stopped talking in order to see if his minions now knew what to do at this point since they have been repeatedly doing this for the past week. Well, the minions who left did it, and these are new minions, but he put it in the manual for them to read.
Under their boss's scrutiny, the minion's face turned red as their brain malfunctioned trying to think of what to do next due to the pressure. "And... interrogate them... for secrets?"
This response didn't stop the neutral look given to him by the boss. Victor's thoughts were currently racing. 'Please prove yourself. This way I might feel bad for you when you die instead of thinking, "Huh, a worker died... anyways." Figure it out, and don't make me have to hold your hand like a toddler when crossing the street.'
"A-and then recruit them to, uhh... work for us?" He added, not sure about themselves after seeing the neutral look given to him.
He received a nod, with Victor having a slightly higher option of the workers. That was until after the worker saw this, they got more confident as they continued much to Victor's confusion.
"Then we will… umm tell them the benefits, give them a nice massage or something to earn more of their loyalty, as well as teach them the organizations policies." They listed everything they thought of at the top of their head.
Victor's face twitched for a split second from hearing this. 'GIVE THEM A MASSAGE!? What are we, a spa!?... Actually, that's not a half ba- STOP! focus. Their idiocy is starting to rub off on you.'
His thin smile was kept as he didn't want to look at the minion. "Right... do that if you think that will get their loyalty. Just pamper them to get their loyalty AFTER we get all the information we need. Alright."
The worker didn't seem to notice Victor's forced (more than usual) expression or the change in atmosphere as he saluted. "You got it, boss! We'll get the best possible guard and make them feel right at home!"
After that, they ran off and out of the base to get on the helicopter to go get the guard, while Victor walked to his temporary office to go punch a wall to let out some steam.
The technicians would later have to replace a fist-sized dent in the wall, with Victor stating there was a mosquito that was on the wall.
Victor walked around the guard they had just gotten who stood at attention as he smiled. He nodded at the minions who he had allowed to return this time.
They were extremely bulky, with bulging muscles being shown with their red and orange suit only showing more of it. He had giant black gloves for his giant hands that Victor could already see taking out agents with a single blow. They were like a walking tank, with them probably being twice as heavy as Victor from sheer muscle.
"Perfect. Now tell me something. How much do you bench press." He asked, trying to sound casually curious. He wanted to see if this guard met his standards.
The guard puffed up his chest as he replied in a loud and blusterous tone. "The biggest one!"
Victor blinked as his smile grew wider (despite his emotions not matching his smile) as he looked at him before looking at the minions as he asked his next question. "Right... what size bullet wound would it take to kill you?"
"The biggest one." The guard replied again, although with less enthusiasm.
He looked at the minions again before looking at the guard as he began asking a bunch of different random questions in rapid succession.
"Which problem did you decide to ignore until it went away?"
"The biggest one."
"Which excuse did you use to avoid going to school?"
"The biggest one."
"Which project did you procrastinate on until the last minute?"
"The biggest one."
"What money would you steal?"
"The biggest one?"
Victor burst out into laughter as he clutched his chest as the minions watched their boss laughing like a maniac. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
After a bit, he finally calmed down as he wiped away a tear. "Oh my. I did need a small prank to lighten my mood. Alright. You can drop the act now."
The guard looked down at him, confused. "The biggest one?"
Victor's smile turned into a frown as he just stared at the guard after he said this. The atmosphere shifted as Victor realized this wasn't a small prank, and the minions decided to play as he tested it out.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" He held up all five fingers.
They began counting the fingers slowly before finally saying their answer with as much confidence as possible. "The biggest one!"
His frown turned into a "large smile" as his eyes narrowed at the guard as a shadow was cast over his face. The minions took a step back while slowly inching away, already feeling the storm that was going to hit.
Victor's patience has already been worn ragged all week, and he was at his tipping point. "Uh huh. Now how many fingers am I holding up?" He put down all of his fingers besides his middle one as he spun his hand around to flip him off.
"The biggest one!" The guard smiled happy to see that Victor was also "happy" now.
Victor finally broke as he clapped for the guard. "Very good. Now-"
The minions who had come back from the mission and were inching away now stood frozen like statues as their boss's head snapped towards their direction as they swore; they heard a neck crack.
"Whose bright ideas was it to bring this..." He glanced over at the guard for a second. 'Mentally!' Victor looked at them again. "Pile of bricks here?"
Knowing what they currently saw, the minions instantly pointed at each other not wanting to be the one to suffer the wrath of their boss.
"Oh. So, each one of you is at fault."
All three minions were never heard from again...
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as workers since they were forced to become janitors. They were too incompetent to be proper minions, and it was a simple enough job in Victor's eyes for them to do. It's not like he would kill them; after all, it would be pointless since they still had value, even if it was less than what was expected for them to do before. Although if they failed even that then he might have to consider they are no longer a resource and just waste.