The hidden probe followed the group of villains as they were given a tour of the Oni’s castle. “And this here,” cheered a red woman in a yellow dress as they reached a large room, Ral Turgyt, “is our ballroom!”
“It’s where we host our daily balls,” explained a blue man in red dress, Tor Uroguf. “You can never go wrong with having skirts rustle up to one another!”
“If you lot are good,” suggested Tan Kelgyt, “we’ll let you dance with us!”
“Yay,” muttered Hiro. He looked to his wife and child, then to the Terrorcons, then to Intrag. Just then, the lights went off.
“What the?!” spluttered Yem Mefguf. “Argh, the lights! I swear!” He turned sweetly to the villains. “Don’t go away,” he said. “Rally and I will be right back!”
“Jat Kuttaw, you and your copies see to it that our guests are all right,” Ral Kelqen directed the butler’s red-skinned, blue-wearing, right-side monocle using copy.
“Very good, Ma’am,” replied Jat Kuttaw. As the masters of the castle left, the butler looked to the villains. “Tea?” he asked.
All the two Oni’s parts came together into their greater black forms to investigate the power failure. “I swear!” growled Yemtorpai.
“Don’t do that,” chided Rallamtan. “It’s a bad habit.” They made their way to the fuse box and checked it. “…That’s funny. Nothing’s tripped. Everything is fully on.”
“Did someone cut the wires?” muttered Yemtorpai. He pulled his phone out of his parasol and tried to call someone. “What the?! No signal?!”
“Wait, if there’s no signal-!” gasped Rallamtan. Yemtorpai realized what was going on.
“THE ANKLE BRACELETS!” the two Oni yelped.
“So, are we just standing here with our thumbs up our noses?” grunted Lord Dominator as she idly twirled part of her hair.
“Looks that way,” remarked Hiro’s daughter, Hana.
“Might I advise something?” offered Jat Kuttaw.
“What’s that?” asked Igura.
“I would advise NOT going down below to the dungeon and NOT removing your ankle bracelets in the process. I would also advise you, once you do NOT go to the dungeon, do NOT turn left and open the armory where your weapons are currently stored. I would also advise AGAINST fighting me and my duplicates to make the act more convincing until you do NOT regain your weaponry.” Even the slowest of villains got that hint. Hiro grinned as the butler’s other duplicates arrived, getting into fighting stances.
“Away we go!” called Hiro. That was all the villains needed to attack the butler. During the fight, the ankle bracelets came off. Once they were freed of those devices, they all dashed to the dungeon and found the armory.
Rallamtan and Yemtorpai found their butler’s individual selves sprawled all over the ballroom. They quickly brought all the selves together into Jatturlan Najkutlentawyug. “Jatturlan, what’s happened?!” asked Yemtorpai.
“I’m afraid the fiends took advantage of the power outage,” replied Jatturlan, “and took down all my copies while disposing of their ankle bracelets. They managed to get the location of their weapons from me and left me to suffer alone!”
“The Villain Vault!” hissed Rallamtan. As the Oni trio dashed to the armory, Rallamtan and Yemtorpai changed their dresses into what looked like a cross between a military person’s kit and clothes and samurai armor complete with oni masks. They drew their kanabō and increased their speed.
The three oni arrived at the armory too late. The villains had regained their weapons and those that were shrunken had regained their original sizes. That bit applied to Primacron, Starscream and his Trine, and six of the Terrorcons. Nemesis Prime simply plugged himself into the purple car. “Time to see if it still works!” he chuckled. “Nemesis Prime, TRANSFORM!” The car changed shape and assumed the form of a massive purple robot with the organic pilot concealed in an orange canopy. “Still fits!” cheered Nemesis Prime.
“Now, those letters,” recalled Hiro, “said we should thank the one who gave us the opportunity.”
“What letters?!” demanded Rallamtan.
“They’re referring,” explained Jatturlan, “to the letters my real employer sent out to inform them on how to regain their power.”
“Did you cut the power?” asked Saruman.
“Indeed, Mr. Saruman.”
“You bastard!” snarled Yemtorpai. “You gave the wolves their fangs back!”
“We prefer snakes to wolves,” chuckled Primacron.
“I’ve split the skulls of both!” growled Rallamtan as she readied her kanabō. “They explode all the same!”
“I say, madam,” warned Jatturlan as he held a kunai to her throat, “would you terribly mind lowering your kanabō?”
“You’re gonna regret this betrayal!” snarled Yemtorpai.
“I think not. You see, my employer has promised that, in exchange for betraying you, I would take over this sector of Hell.”
“…About that,” remarked Starscream. Everyone leveled their weapons as Jatturlan.
“You can’t be serious!”
“Come on! What did you expect? It’s what our letters promised.”
“That was NOT the bargain! I gave you your weapons’ location in exchange for power! You surrender yourselves to me and I command an empire!”
“Ah, yes, not so good a bargain. How about this one? My army, my empire!”
“About that!” snarled Lord Dominator. Everyone then pointed their weapons to Starscream, who had the nerve to be surprised!
“Why you beef-witted, five-faced scrubs! Khan promised me an empire!”
“Khan?!” yelped Yemtorpai. Everyone then heard a dog barking. It was a little chihuahua that had found her master.
“Why in the Pit is there a chihuahua here?!” demanded Starscream.
“She’s our Hellhound!” explained Rallamtan and Yemtorpai. The chihuahua’s head then expanded and clamped her jaws around Starscream’s hand. After a struggle, Starscream pulled the dog off and realized his hand was missing. There was only one thing he could do in that instance…scream in horror. At that scream, there was the biggest brouhaha among villains ever! Hiro and his family rolled their eyes and made their way out of the fight and up the stairs. The Terrorcons, Dr. Borg and her fellows, and Intrag followed them as their letters gave them different instructions in finding a way out. After their attempts, I would swoop in and rescue them.
Aboard the Imperium, I smirked. “We’re almost there,” I chuckled.
“Incoming transmissions from New Mordor and Shocker Umbra’s base of operations,” reported the Collective.
“Put them through,” I replied. Gorshagh and Metaltron appeared on screen.
“Khan, we’ve made our decision,” said Metaltron with a smile.
“We’re in!” supplied Gorshagh.
“Excellent,” I praised. “I’ll call you when I need you. For now, I need to wait until our last batch of allies is ready. See you when everything’s set.”
“Understood,” replied Metaltron. The call then ended.
“Maintain cloaked holding pattern,” I ordered the Imperium as the probe followed Hiro’s group out of the cul-de-sac and into the wasteland surrounding it. “We wait until they’re near the end of their rope.
