Hench4Lyfe

What shelf you ask? Would you believe us if we said it didn't matter?

"Get me out of here!" | Rescue | Presumed Dead |

June Of Doom Prompt List @juneofdoom

Villain ducked into the room closest to them, forcing open the first door they saw and shutting it quickly yet quietly behind them.

They pressed their back against it, catching their breath, listening intently.

There came the sound of Superhero's steps, quickly nearing the door, then fading away as they ran right on past. Villain let out a breath they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"Villain?"

Villain jumped nearly a foot in the air, their eyes flying open. They were in a room that looked like a cross between a bedroom and an office- with a bed, a couch, nice carpet, and a desk full of papers. Opposite the room from them, someone was slowly rising from the couch.

Villain's jaw nearly dropped. "Hero?!"

Hero took a step toward them, reaching for them. "Villain, I'm so glad to see you-"

"What?" Villain pressed themself further against the door as Hero approached. "Hero?" They couldn't think straight, their panic in hiding from Superhero mixing with their shock at seeing their former enemy.

"Please, Villain, you have to get me out of here. Superhero-"

"But- but you were dead!" Villain exclaimed. "You died, it was all over the news I saw your headstone-"

"That was Superhero," Hero reached them, hands moving to cling to Villain's shirt. "They're keeping me here, this room- it's- it's a prison cell- Villain please- get me out of here."

"Henchman??" Villain exclaimed.

"Yes and no." a dark voice chuckled through the room.

"This? It had to stop." The figure stepped into the light, the nondescript-yet-color-coordinated outfit of Villain's henchmen came into view. "It's codependent, stagnant, toxic. To both of you."

Too stunned to react, both Villain and Hero watch with mouths agape. "Neither of you have grown in a decade. No upping-the-ante, no settled scores, always the same cat and mouse. It's like a Saturday morning cartoon. None of us signed on for that, and some of us have suffered greatly."

The figure gestures to the quickly filling hallway. Nearly identical sillhouettes fill the light, and the hulking shape of Superhero stands above them all now shedding different padding to reveal a misshapen form.

"It's time for change" the voice says, slowly gaining the buzz of many voices speaking at the same time. "It's time for something new. It is always a sad day when the protege outgrows the master, but we offer you a choice."

Hero and Villain speak at the same time, drowning each other out but the Henchmen hold up a hand.

"Choose. A hero fallen from great heights to slaughter the amassed foes? Or a villain rising against a greater evil of their own creation? Only one will walk out of this room."

"Get me out of here!" | Rescue | Presumed Dead |

June Of Doom Prompt List @juneofdoom

Villain ducked into the room closest to them, forcing open the first door they saw and shutting it quickly yet quietly behind them.

They pressed their back against it, catching their breath, listening intently.

There came the sound of Superhero's steps, quickly nearing the door, then fading away as they ran right on past. Villain let out a breath they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"Villain?"

Villain jumped nearly a foot in the air, their eyes flying open. They were in a room that looked like a cross between a bedroom and an office- with a bed, a couch, nice carpet, and a desk full of papers. Opposite the room from them, someone was slowly rising from the couch.

Villain's jaw nearly dropped. "Hero?!"

Hero took a step toward them, reaching for them. "Villain, I'm so glad to see you-"

"What?" Villain pressed themself further against the door as Hero approached. "Hero?" They couldn't think straight, their panic in hiding from Superhero mixing with their shock at seeing their former enemy.

"Please, Villain, you have to get me out of here. Superhero-"

"But- but you were dead!" Villain exclaimed. "You died, it was all over the news I saw your headstone-"

"That was Superhero," Hero reached them, hands moving to cling to Villain's shirt. "They're keeping me here, this room- it's- it's a prison cell- Villain please- get me out of here."

"Henchman??" Villain exclaimed.

"Yes and no." a dark voice chuckled through the room.

"This? It had to stop." The figure stepped into the light, the nondescript-yet-color-coordinated outfit of Villain's henchmen came into view. "It's codependent, stagnant, toxic. To both of you."

Too stunned to react, both Villain and Hero watch with mouths agape. "Neither of you have grown in a decade. No upping-the-ante, no settled scores, always the same cat and mouse. It's like a Saturday morning cartoon. None of us signed on for that, and some of us have suffered greatly."

The figure gestures to the quickly filling hallway. Nearly identical sillhouettes fill the light, and the hulking shape of Superhero stands above them all now shedding different padding to reveal a misshapen form.

"It's time for change" the voice says, slowly gaining the buzz of many voices speaking at the same time. "It's time for something new. It is always a sad day when the protege outgrows the master, but we offer you a choice."

Hero and Villain speak at the same time, drowning each other out but the Henchmen hold up a hand.

"Choose. A hero fallen from great heights to slaughter the amassed foes? Or a villain rising against a greater evil of their own creation? Only one will walk out of this room."

Doberman aint a bad boss but he's certainly... abrasive to some. Hell I worked for him for a year and a half thinkin' he hated me til one day, out of the blue, he claps a hand on my shoulder and tells me 'Good work, buy a steak' and slaps a freakin' gold bullion into my hand. I did see him personally rip a hench literally in half (vertically) after they tripped over one of the dogs in a hallway and called it a 'fuckin mutt' though.

Scared me shitless for a while and one of Doberman's lifers put it to me this way: that two-bit henchman called an equal a slur, the boss acted appropriately. Really realigned my view of the whole operation. Don't get me wrong, I mostly knew how Dober's powers worked and that the whole operation was very focused on the dogs, but that really made it click.

Doberman is the leader of the Pack, your place in it is based on your usefulness to the Pack and your respect to it. Help out? Be helped. Show love? Be loved. Fuck around? Find out.

I don't think the boss is a villain necause he's a bad guy, there just aint a place for him in the commercialized global world. He runs free, bucks at an authoritative system he sees no need to respect, and genuinely doesn't get society as it is. I do wish he'd hire some people doctors, though the vets get the job done mostly. (light laughter)

He's real simple once you get to know him. Basic rules right? The Pack above all, no fucking with Packmates unless it's moving up the hierarchy, and you follow the head of the Pack.

Best henchwork I've done in my long career, can't be happier."

All my bosses and henches-in-laws tell me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don't get to be good-hearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you become a professor of pain.

And then I snapped. Got called a name one too many times and I found myself in the county lock-up. After I finished community service my company wouldn't hire me back, not with my "record". Four months out I saw a flyer offering more money and fewer details than anything I'd seen before. I reached out.

I picked up a new job working for Professor Pain herself. She'd been small-time for a while, nothing to worry about right? Within a week I was tying up a local mogul who'd been trying to get a library rezoned and she gives him a burning sensation in his fingertips for life, couldn't help but feel he deserved it. Knocked over a few banks, she give the managers and guards some mildish sunburns; they'd be fine in a week, no harm done. Next, the Professor targets a zoo that'd been recently outed for mistreating the big cats; gruesome business with the director but at least the staff were to be transferred to one of our coworkers trained to provide for exotic animals. Turns out any crime perpetuated in the vicinity of animals gets a lot more media attention.

The Justiciars showed up, led by none other than Ms Metropolis herself. I was at the main gate urging the civilians through to the car lot as best I could when Safari made his entrance. He doesn't control the animals, they just go berserk and he guides them. Found that out after I begged him to let the crowd through, ended up in cuffs for trying. Ms Metropolis did capture Professor Pain though.

Fifty seven innocent lives spent to capture one woman, plus twenty nine henchman and however much property damage.

I hope the death toll is reported as Eighty Six."