Over an hour later, Flug was heading to Melanie's room when he felt the strange but familiar feeling. Flug could feel his bones painfully crack inside him. Before long, he was completely inside out. Then, in the next second, he was outside in again. When he cleared his vision, Flug was in front of Black Hat.
Flug hyperventilated on his hands and knees before he looked up to his boss.
"G-good Afternoon, Jefe!" Flug said nervously.
Dark Phantom and Ghoul were standing by Black Hat in his office.
"Greetings, doctor," Black Hat grumbled.
Flug scrambled to his feet anxiously and asked, "What is your bidding, my master?"
Black Hat gestured to the villains. "These two gaseous failures came for help once more."
Flug recognized Ghoul from their somewhat recent incident with Miss Heed and nodded to acknowledge him.
"Oh, uh, hello there, Ghoul," Flug said. "How are you doing?"
"Not too well, I'm afraid," said Ghoul.
"We finally got around to returning to our secret lair after the whole brainwashing thing only to find that these heroes are squatting there!" Dark Phantom cried annoyedly.
"Yes, we hate to ask again. But uh- After that entire stuff with Heed, territory, and things have been up for grabs," explained Ghoul further.
"I see, well, driving some squatters away shouldn't be too much of a problem," Flug said. "Do you prefer them dead or alive?"
"Alive if possible since we'd rather not have a mess, but dead if there's no other option," Ghoul replied.
"Seeing as we've asked a lot already, I'm sure we're in little position to have demands," Dark Phantom said sadly.
"I'd say that your request is reasonable, but ultimately, it isn't up to me," Flug explained. "It's up to Lord Black Hat. What do you think, Jefe?"
"On the contrary, gentlemen. I believe this request will benefit me enough," Black Hat chuckled in a low growl.
"Oh, sweet," Dark Phantom said. "What can we do in return?"
Black Hat held a dark look in his eye. "We will discuss that soon enough."
"Okay, so where's that paperwork to sign?" Dark Phantom asked, looking around.
Catching on to Black Hat's train of thought, Flug said, "Actually, I don't think that'll be necessary. We'd like you to do a favor for us instead."
"Oh, okay," Dark Phantom replied. "So, what is this favor you want us to do?"
"Flug, Demencia, take these two and get Melanie," ordered Black Hat. "You will eliminate this hero threat together."
"Yes, my lord!" Flug said with a salute.
"Melanie?" Dark Phantom asked excitedly. "You mean we get to train your apprentice?"
"If you wish to participate, then so be it," Black Hat conceded. "This is primarily for my underlings to address."
"Oh, man!" Dark Phantom. "We get to meet Black Hat's blood-related, adopted grand-niece! This is going to be epic!"
"We'll be sure to take good care of her, Lord Black Hat!" called out Ghoul as the group towards the door.
"I would hope so, you failures. After all, I can always find a new extreme measure of payment," Black Hat growled under his grin.
"We assure you that your apprentice will be back here in one piece with barely a scratch on her," Ghoul followed up.
"Off with you then," Black Hat said, gesturing for everyone to leave with his hand.
The two villains gulped and followed Flug and Demencia down the hall to go get Melanie.
After that hour had passed, Melanie woke up, feeling much better. She had been fearful of returning to the dream world, but thankfully, she didn't have any dreams she could recall this time.
Melanie left her bed to take a quick bathroom break. When she came back, 505 was there with some of her favorite snacks.
"Are those pretzels?" Melanie squealed excitedly. "And a veggie plate?"
505 nodded happily.
Melanie could only smile and give one of her only friends in this horrible place a big old hug. They sat down and ate what 505 brought together.
Soon enough, Flug was knocking on the door of Melanie's room while Demencia and the two other villains were chatting excitedly amongst themselves.
"Yeah?!" Melanie called out from her room before Flug opened the door.
"Hey, Melanie," Flug said. "We have a mission to go to."
"Oh, okay," Melanie said, barely looking up from her food. "I guess we'll have to talk Black Hat into letting us go out later then. Have fun. I hope you fail at whatever you set out to do for the hero's sake."
"Uh, about that," Flug began. "Lord Black Hat has decided to have you accompany us, but our clients have promised to ensure you aren't harmed."
Pretending not to know what he meant, Melanie stubbornly looked at 505 and said, "I guess I'll see you later, 505."
Flug rolled his eyes and said, "Melanie, you know when I say 'we' I also mean 'you'."
Melanie sighed dramatically, hopped up from her bed, and said, "And I suppose I have no choice, right?"
"That would be correct," Flug nodded.
"And I guess, if I just painlessly send people to heaven instead of giving them a slow agonizing death, I'll be punished again?" Melanie asked sadly.
"I'm not sure," Flug admitted. "Some heroes took over our clients' base, and we're supposed to get them to leave."
"Well, I suppose there's some other way we could settle this," Melanie said hopefully.
"Maybe," Flug said. "We'll do what we need to. Get moving."
Melanie sighed again and started putting on her shoes and socks. "505, could you get some bags for the snacks?"
505 nodded and left to get plastic bags. Meanwhile, Melanie finished putting on her shoes, grabbed her messenger bag and backpack purse, and started gathering her medicine and some underwear.
"So, why must we do this again?" she asked. "Can't they do this themselves? Oh, and how long will this take? I need to know for packing."
"Because they are too incompetent to do this themselves," Flug explained. "They're also most likely cut off from their supplies since the heroes are hiding in their lair. I imagine many villains are having trouble with that right now since the incident with Miss Heed. We should be done with it within the night, so you don't need to pack an overnight bag."
"Okay, fine," Melanie conceded, throwing extra bottles of medication and other underwear out of her bag until her bag only contained one of each. "But I will bring stuff just in case. Besides, we might get sidetracked or bored."
"As you wish," Flug said with an eye roll.
As soon as she was done throwing extra things out of her bag, Melanie paused and looked at Flug thoughtfully.
"Flug?" she asked. "We won't have to kill anybody. Will we?"
"I hope so!" Demencia cried as she burst into the room.
The two other villains took that as their cue to enter the room behind her. Dark Phantom instantly fell at Melanie's feet bowing. Ghoul stood there awkwardly.
Melanie looked from the men to Flug and back again and asked, "What's going on? Who the fizzity uck are you two?!"
"Uh, hi," Ghoul said shyly. "Is there anything we can do for you, miss?"
505 returned to the room and grimaced at the sight. He immediately set the bags on the bed, picked Melanie up to move her away, and sat her down on the bed.
Dark Phantom changed positions and only continued bowing.
"Please grant us your favor, oh mighty princess!" Dark Phantom cried out.
"Ewww, I'm not a princess," Melanie protested as she started putting snacks in the plastic bags. "Why are you bowing?"
"Yeah, it's super cringe," Demencia commented.
"Oh, please, allow me," Ghoul said, fearfully taking the bags from Melanie to stuff snacks in the bags instead.
Flug facepalmed and said, "These are our clients. You idiots don't have to bow or serve her."
Melanie took the bags from Ghoul and continued filling them with 505's help.
"She's Black Hat's grandniece," Dark Phantom said, getting to his feet. "Don't we need to show her respect like we show Black Hat?"
"Hardly," Flug said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah," Melanie said, hopping off the bed and stepping around them to gather more stuff. "My granduncle doesn't deserve any respect."
"See?" Flug raised a hand to gesture to Melanie as she exemplified his point.
"Hey! I thought you liked me now," Melanie complained as she approached her bookshelf.
Flug rolled his eyes again and asked, "505, can you start the ship for me?"
505 put the last bag of snacks in Melanie's bag, nodded, and left the room.
"Is there anything else we can help you with, Miss Melanie?" implored Dark Phantom.
"Yeah, can you tell me how far away your base is?" Melanie replied. "I need to know how many books to pack."
"Will you just hurry up?" asked Flug annoyedly.
"Fine, I'll bring my standard three," Melanie said, picking up three books from piles in front of her shelves. "I have a lot of books I'm trying to get through, so whenever I go anywhere, I try to bring options."
"Oh," Flug said, noticing her bookshelf and her large collection of books. "I consider myself a voracious reader too. Maybe we could share our collections with each other."
Melanie's expression lit up. "Oh, I'd like that a lot. Thanks!"
Demencia rolled her eyes, "What nerds."
Ignoring Demencia, Melanie opened her bag and showed Flug the books she was putting in.
"Okay, I'm going to be reading this self-help book called Accepting Your Crappy Life," Melanie started listing off.
"I don't usually read self-help books, but okay," Flug noted.
"Slaughterhouse-Five because my Dad recommended it, he loves Kurt Vonnegut, and I wanted to read some good dark comedy," Melanie said, putting the two books in her bag.
"Wow," Flug said, genuinely surprised. "That book is a dark, sci-fi comedy about war. That's a heavy subject matter for a girl your age. It's impressive that you seek out stuff like that."
Melanie smiled and said, "I've always tried to read stuff that people think is too heavy, too mature, or too complicated for kids like me. Some adults believe that kids are dumb and need to be catered to, but I think that we're smart enough to understand complicated things in our large and multidimensional universe. That's why I seek it out and read as much as I can. I want to know and understand as much as possible, not just the things the organization thinks I should."
Under his bag, Flug smiled. "That is very good, Melanie. I think everyone should want to read like you do. That's what makes people like you smart."
"You don't need to read to be smart," Demencia snarked. "You're just reading because you're nerds."
"You could stand to read some books," Melanie quipped back.
"What is the last book you're bringing?" asked Flug, hoping to stop a fight from breaking out.
"Oh," Melanie said, picking up a graphic novel.
Flug's stomach dropped.
"This is one of the graphic novels published about the life of Wonder Woman," Melanie started excitedly. "I've wanted to read this one for a while, but I haven't had the chance to. I've looked forward to it for a while. I'm glad I'll finally get a chance to…"
"Melanie, why are you reading that?" asked Flug. "That's a book about a hero."
"So?" Melanie asked confusedly.
Flug facepalmed. "Melanie, you are a villain now and not just any villain. You're Black Hat's apprentice. You can't be into heroes!"
"Says who?" Melanie protested. "I never wanted to be his apprentice or his grandniece. Yeah, I'm stuck here, but that doesn't mean that I have to give up the things I like! Besides, Wonder Woman is cool."
"Melanie…" Flug started before noticing the others in the room.
Dark Phantom, Ghoul, and Demencia were standing there and awkwardly staring at them. This was not the time to talk about this.
"Fine, you can read all your selected books, but we'll talk about this later," Flug decided.
"Yeah!" Melanie cheered, putting the third book in her bag.
Flug sighed roughly. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't focus on that problem now.
Melanie was happy. The bright side of this potential nightmare mission was that she was going to get some time away from this stupid mansion.
Melanie walked beside Flug who was adamant that Demencia was in front of them because he didn't trust her with his back turned. Their clients were behind them. They took an elevator deep underground past Flug's lab and into a garage where the ship was.
"Wow, Flug," Melanie said after Flug had finished talking. "I didn't know you were such a voracious reader."
"Don't be a nerd like Flug, kid," Demencia quipped. "We're going to a fight. You need to be tough."
"Too bad my damn granduncle took my weapon away," Melanie muttered sadly.
Dark Phantom gasped, "Wait. Is she allowed to say that?"
"Well, luckily for you, I have made you a substitute scythe for mission use only," Flug announced. "Well, more precisely, I built a copy while trying to study how the original one works, but I'm letting you use it."
Melanie's eyes lit up.
"Really? You mean it?!" Melanie practically squealed in excitement.
"Yes," Flug nodded. "If anything, it'll be a good test run. It's on the ship. I can show it to you on the way there."
"Yay!" Melanie squealed, dropping her bags and wrapping her arms around Flug in a hug. "Thank you!"
Flug smiled under his bag and pat Melanie's back. "Any time, Melanie."
Demencia motioned to her mouth in a vomiting-like manner. "Blegh!"
"Blegh yourself!" Melanie scoffed, letting go of Flug and moving to pick up her bags.
However, Dark Phantom and Ghoul picked them up for her while Demencia answered a phone call on her phone and walked away to talk.
"Uh...thanks, but I don't need help," Melanie reassured.
"It's okay. Really!" Dark Phantom pleaded. "Please let us help you so that we can gain favor with your guardian! I could really use a decrease in my debts."
"I wouldn't hold your breath," Melanie sighed. "Black Hat sucks."
Dark Phantom and Ghoul gasped but kept walking towards the ship.
"Wow," Dark Phantom said in astonishment. "Is she allowed to be so…"
"Maybe it's why Black Hat picked her," suggested Ghoul. "She won't take anything from anybody."
"Maybe…" Dark Phantom replied.
"Hey, Melanie!" Demencia called from across the room as she finished her call. "That was Dita! She said she's running away!"
"Oh, crap. Not again," Melanie bemoaned, summoning her wings and flying to catch up with Demencia, leaving Flug alone with Dark Phantom and Ghoul. "Call her back! Let me talk to her!"
"Fat chance, nerd!" teased Demencia. "I already told her it was a great idea."
"You are a horrible influence!" Melanie complained. "Dammit! I'll call her myself."
"Hey, Dr. Flug," Dark Phantom said. "I can't help but notice that Melanie is quite strange. She seems off somehow."
"Yeah, she doesn't seem like the solemn, freaky kid written about in the newsletter or the interview," Ghoul added.
"That was probably some of Black Hat's publishing team's editing to help her," Flug explained. "You'll find she's less evil for now, but that'll change soon with our help."
"Yeah, the newsletter mentioned her being legally removed from her parents due to their negligence towards her potential," Ghoul mentioned. "Lord Black Hat talked about her having immense power. The fire she showed off in the interview was awesome. Her parents must have been super oblivious."
"Damn," said Dark Phantom, shaking his head. "My dad would've never been that irresponsible. He made me the villain I am today. She needs better guidance. That's something I can totally give her!"
"Um, sir, I think that Dr. Flug has that handled," Ghoul hesitated.
"And why not?" Dark Phantom argued. "She's not evil enough right now. I can give Melanie my expertise…"
"Just allow me and Lord Black Hat to worry about that," Flug interrupted with an eye roll. "Now, let's go deal with your problem."
"Fine with me," Melanie sighed, putting her phone back in her purse as she landed and headed towards the ship. "Dita isn't picking up anyway."
"Okay! Just let us know if we can help," Dark Phantom said enthusiastically.
"Your sycophancy isn't needed," rebuked Flug.
The group reached the ship where 505 was waiting by its open hatch.
The bear waved at them in a greeting. Melanie ran over and hugged him.
Flug took a step onto the ship just for Black Hat to appear in front of him.
"Oh, Jefe," Flug started in surprise. "Here to see us off?"
"I'm here to see off my grandniece," explained Black Hat. "After all, this is her first mission."
Melanie tried not to acknowledge him and board the ship, but he teleported in front of her.
Black Hat leaned in towards Melanie, speaking only a few words. "Don't mess up."
"That's comforting," Melanie said with an eye roll. "And what happens if I do? More punishment?"
"Perhaps we can ask your runaway sister for suggestions if you do," Black Hat replied.
Melanie's eyes grew large as saucers.
"How did you know about that?!" she cried.
"You should know by now that I have eyes everywhere, apprentice," Black Hat explained vaguely. "It helps me know when I need to intervene and who might be the next good investment…"
"Then do you know why she won't answer me?" asked Melanie.
"No, but she is unburdened by the same nonsense as you," Black Hat replied. "Dita would be a better disciple, and she wouldn't be hard for me to find."
"NO!" Melanie yelled, dropping her bags down and summoning her fire unintentionally.
"Jefe..." Flug said fearfully.
Black Hat chuckled darkly, replacing her outfit with the one he designed for her. "Perfect."
Melanie saw herself in her clothes with her fire and visibly shook. The fire instantly dissolved, and she held her arms uncomfortably as she changed her outfit back.
"Ah ah ah." Switching it back, Black Hat laughed. "You have to keep on your work clothes, dear. I'll see you when it's over."
Melanie didn't answer but looked away and tried not to cry.
Black Hat put a hand on her shoulder, turned to the others, and said, "Be sure to make sure she does what she's told. Melanie is a rather difficult child."
"Yes, Jefe," Flug said with a salute.
The other two villains bowed and Demencia fangirled over him as she usually did.
"Good," Black Hat said, letting go of Melanie's shoulder with a final squeeze.
With that, Black Hat disappeared.
Everyone then boarded the ship in silence.
Melanie walked to a seat in the corner, set her bags next to her, and sat down while everyone got settled in. 505 sat next to her and rubbed her head.
Melanie looked miserable, like she wanted to put her headphones in, block out the world, and cry.
Flug noticed and walked up to her with his scythe prototype. It was a tool scrunched up into a small stick that Melanie could fit in her pocket.
"Here, you go," Flug said, handing her the device. "I designed it to expand into a full scythe when you press a button on the side."
"Thank you," Melanie said with a smile. "I appreciate you making this for me."
"No problem," Flug replied. "I enjoyed working on it."
"Is it alright if we go through a driveway before we leave?" asked Melanie. "I thinking eating something would help me feel better."
"Of course," Flug said with a nod. "Listen, are you going to be ready?"
"No," Melanie said, sinking back into her chair. "I don't want to kill anybody."
"I hope you won't have to," Flug said. "But we have our orders."
Melanie then realized something and perked up. "Then I just have to pray and find a way to drive the heroes out without killing them."
"That would still complete the mission," Flug added optimistically.
"Yay," Melanie said hopefully.
"Not kill anyone? Boring!" Demencia complained.
"You can do whatever you want, Demencia," Flug said with an eye roll. "I'm sure you'll have at least one to eat."
"Can't you actually eat food?" asked Melanie.
"Anything can be food if you think about it long enough," Demencia explained.
"Please don't remind me of that…" Melanie said, holding her stomach like she was about to throw up while 505 held her and rubbed her back. "I got sick when I saw it the first time."
"Did you skip breakfast, Demencia?" asked Flug annoyedly.
"Maybe," Demencia said playfully.
"I brought snacks," Melanie offered.
"Gimmie!" Demencia reached out with her arms, whining.
"Uh, okay," Melanie said, tossing a fruit snack bar to Demencia.
Demencia caught it, ravaging it, even with the wrapper on.
Melanie gulped and held on to 505.
"Thanks, kid!" Demencia said after she had swallowed her last bite.
"You're welcome," Melanie said nervously. "Thanks for telling me about Dita earlier. I hope you don't eat anyone tonight."
Demenica shrugged. "Fighting might work me up an appetite. I make no promises."
The lizard woman then climbed onto the ceiling.
"Flug, we better go through a drive-thru for Demencia too," Melanie whispered to the scientist when Demencia was out of earshot.
"Noted," Flug said. "We'll head to one as soon as I take off. Just sit tight for a few. Okay?"
Melanie leaned against 505 and said, "Tonight is going to suck."
"You two, Demencia, sit down!" Flug ordered Dark Phantom, Ghoul, and Demencia. "We're going to take off. We'll go to a fast-food place for the ladies, and then we're heading over to your lair to start the mission."
Dark Phantom and Ghoul quietly sat down immediately.
Demencia squealed excitedly and hopped into a chair.
Flug got into the driver's seat and began his takeoff procedures. In no time, the Hat Ship took off into the skies.
Melanie sighed and listened to the ship whirring on as she gazed out the window.
Here they were. Her first mission. With villains. Where she'd probably have to hurt people. Just great.