"Upgrade time!" you exclaim, clapping your hands happily. "Let's also ignore the clearly mad woman who believes to be the Evil Overlord. She'll never be as evil as me."
Then, you watch as Chemista takes care to educate the children on how you are the epitome of Evilness and Evil is Good, which the children start to latch on with ease. Except a young boy.
Who looks at you angrily and stays away from the rest of the 'class' as well as both Chemista and Cerulean.
Cerulean slowly surfs near him, trying to coax him out of his 'boxed' in state of arms around his knees and face pressed against his thighs, but to no avail.
Cerulean pouts, then ruffles the boy's head.
You watch as the little rascal angrily stomps off to another corner.
Like a game of cat and mouse, the scene repeats itself for a few times until, tired, the boy simply lets Cerulean ruffle his hair as he remains quietly in his 'boxed' state.
It's then you realize Psysquid is right next to you, slowly munching and slurping noisily on a dry squid tentacle -what the hell is he doing with his tongue to that tentacle- while gazing at Chemista.
"I didn't have the chance to say it before, your evilness," he whispers like a pusher ready to deliver another drug package. "If you want more...I have my resources...Just say the fetish and I will provide..."
"You know, I'm currently watching my daughter playing with another kid while Chemista and the Succubus teach other children. You look like the creepy pedophile from around the corner in that attire...what's the matter with the grey trenchcoat anyway?"
"Ah...well, it's sort of cold in here, isn't it?" he remarks with a forced smile.
"I swear if you're n- wait, you aren't actually naked. You just want me to yell at you about being indecent, right?"
"Yes your evilness."
"Go bother Chemista." You mumble.
"WITH PLEASURE!"
"NO! NOT WITH PLEASURE! NO PLEASURE NEAR THE CHILDREN IS TOLLERATED!" you yell, but Psysquid has already thrown himself in mid-air to land with a satisfying 'THUNK' on the ground. Chemista moved her 'goo-mass' away from Psysquid's intended point of impact, hence giving him a big bruise on the forehead.
"And that, children, is what stupid inferior Dark Advisors do to pass the time."
"Yes, Miss Chemista." they all chorus.
"Now repeat after me 'Humans are bad, we should kill humans because killing humans is good'."
"Humans are bad," the children repeat.
"Good!"
"Bad!"
"Very well!" she claps her hands once.
The Hydraulic succubi then put on skimpy white bikini and head over to work with the Backup base. It will not be useable as a transport or anything, but if you lair is breached, you will have an automatic point of escape available...
"Hey, Overlord," one of the Succubus remarks. "I feel so lonely at night...can I come over to your room?"
You ignore her.
"I want to come too!" the other whimpers.
"Me three! We can have a pajama party!" Cerulean exclaims then, making you sputter.
"NO. No, and no!" you shake your head. "Get on with the upgrades...really..."
You then head over to your throne room, and turn on the television.
"In other news, the Just-city first-of-a-kind-and-hopefully-only Nuclear Reactor, Foakaho, has recently exploded. Inquiries are being made over the possible accident-relation to it, but at the moment the police is more busy cordoning off the area where it happened and shooting down the erratic monsters that have begun to emerge from it. These 'mutants' claim to still be men and women...but do not trust the mutant -he lies!"
A few moments later, the newscaster continues.
"The renowned Doctor Love-Love-Good, Plastic Surgeon extraordinaire has disappeared. No one has any idea where he has gone, but many believe he has simply decided to leave in another long-term trip around the globe."
Then the television turns dark.
"Hey, hey, you..." a metallic claw 'thunks' on the glass of the camera. "Hey, hey, listen...hey listen, hey listen...hey listen...HEY FUCKING LISTEN...hey listen...I had a deal right? We should have met...I left you a hint...you didn't come and that's not good...you don't leave people waiting. People waiting get bored. Bored people blow things up...sniffle, you LEFT ME!" she wails, off camera.
Then, the music of the shark starts playing as a glowing green bar of plutonium appears on screen, held within a transparent metallic tube covered in spinning mechanisms.
"You see this? This is PLUTONIUM. It takes the name from my dog. I called it Pluto before killing it and making slippers."
You blearily decide to ignore her ever 'making sense'.
"I once had a friend like you, you know? His name was...I think his name was...Well, it's not important. I'm going to make you a deal. You show yourself up, you fake-Evil Overlord...or I kill. I kill and I kill and I kill until the body count becomes so high they can't even find a high enough number to name it. It will a Gaziquazibillion of deaths...I know you. You're a fake, a liar, a thief...what is mine is mine and the title of Evil Overlord is mine...you will give it to me or I will kill you. I think I'll kill you anyway. Tell me," a picture flashes of Psysquid smashing an overweight bearded man-fairy on the ground, soon followed by Gamington slaughtering people and then over to Chemista wearing (in her goo-form) a form-fitting black bondage-like corset which actually makes your brain go in certain directions it shouldn't go, before the screen then moves to a picture of Cerulean with a tortured face -probably from the torture time. "Are these your people?" then it's Snowstar and Coghuahua, as seen when in the orphanage.
"I'll kill them too, you know. I'll kill you all...you fakers, you liars...you Heroes...I'll show you the TRUE EVIL! I'll show you the TRUE OVERLORD! I AM CHEERFUL CHEERIE, AND YOU WILL DIE LAUGHING HOLDING YOUR SPILLED GUTS! MWUAHUAHUAHAUHAUHAUAHUAH!"
Then the television flashes into static, and from static it moves to the interviews of the children.
"What's your name, dearie?" Chemista says in a kind voice.
"Jimmy..."
"Good boy...now tell me Jimmy, what do you think of the HEROES association?"
"They're...they're scum...and...bad people..." he seems to be frowning, as if something beyond the camera was there for him to read. "Th-They're really bad...they s-suck...and...and the older boys...they made them cry and broke their legs...my older brother, I think he's still there...Can I go and see him now?"
"Later dear," Chemista replies, "You'll see your older brother later."
You're pretty sure there isn't an 'older brother' at all for that boy.
"Really?"
"Of course...we do not kill innocent boys, we let them leave so the HEROES association can be seen for the butchering murders they are..."
"Ah...thank you auntie!"
"No, no, thank you Jimmy," Chemista keeps up a very strained smile until the camera shows an interview of Snowstar.
"My...name is Snowstar. Once, I was Snowkid. The...the ORPHANAGE IS EVIL! It's a place of...of pain and suffering and...and classification and..."
"If you're not pretty," Coghuahua says then, "You...you have to want to be pretty. Heroines are all pretty. Bright, white smile...stylish dresses...you have to show something to the public...like...belly button or something because...you don't graduate otherwise from the Luchadores...and...and sometimes you have to...ah...you have to remove the mask and show you've got a pretty face beneath it but...but it's ugly, and they force you to say it's ugly because your face is the mask and to the young one they lie, they tell them that if they remove the mask the skin will come off and some...some don't believe it so...so the next time they take the mask off they glue it right back...and then they melt it directly on their face."
She shudders.
Then it's Cerulean's turn.
"My name is Cerulean," she says, standing up in her goo-form prim and proper. "And I was a magical girl before being transformed by the Overlord." She makes a small smile, "Now I'm happy. I can really smile now, and not fake it! There...there are a lot of children like me who...who fight even when all they want is to have a family. They tell us that if we're good, if we complete our missions and defeat evil...they'll give us some mums and dads for us...but...I found mine already so...please! The orphanage was a really bad place and we saved who we could...you must stop the HEROES!"
Then the television turns black.
When it returns, it's The Mechanic on Air.
He stands, prim and proper, like an old and affable man.
He holds a small smile, and then he begins to speak.
"Citizens...do not believe the Evil Overlord. He is a threat to us. To us all...he is an enemy we must defeat. Everything he does, he does against us. Look at the thousands of dead already, and the many more to come...he is a cancer of the world...and now, you must help the HEROES purge him."
He gazes at the camera.
"Fight, citizens of the world...against evil, against crime...against the Evil Overlord. Fight..."
He whispers. "For all the children that died, for the cries of the wailing mothers...fight..."
he then grips on his cane. "FIGHT! FIGHT AND SHOW THE EVIL SCUM THE PLACE THEY DESERVE IS THE COLD GROUND! SNAP THEIR LIMBS, TEAR APART THEIR INNARDS! Evil took my son away from me, evil claimed THE Hero...and now...now we must band together against this threat!" he begins to cry, showing tears that roll down his cheeks. "Please...fight."
The news then return to normal, but even the newscaster is crying.
"C-citizens, we must fight against this h-horrible enemy," she stutters out through red and puffy eyes..."We must..."
You turn off the television.
You clench your hands. You won't have any idea which 'ideology' won out in the end, at least not until tomorrow or during the missions...
But you cannot underestimate your father.
he was THE Hero before you, wasn't he?
You are now in Downkeep