Chapter 7: Spar With the Forces of Evil

The twins map out the next steps of their plan, while their mother does the same with her own, with both plans set to kick off on the same day.

The twins' training continued for the next several days. By now, they were used to such a thing, having been shaped into martial artists from a young age as part of becoming villains. But what they were doing as of now was slightly unorthodox; rather than being taught how to spar, they were instead putting their skills to use by sparring with their new partners. Sounded a little mundane, but interesting nonetheless. There was just something about actually fighting someone instead of watching them fight someone else. After watching the others fight amongst themselves, it was time for Mike Jr. and Josephine to get in on the action, the former excelling in strength and endurance, and the latter using her speed and agility to her advantage, both using their trademark combination of mixed martial arts and wrestling moves.

Both of them had an easy enough time against Pygmy Hippo, with Mike Jr. knocking him unconscious with a single jackknife, and Josephine wearing him down by dodging his blows, before taking him out with a hip-toss into a roundhouse kick. Next up was Queen Cobra, who divided her time evenly, fighting unarmed and with one of many weapons she could skillfully use. Today, she wielded a double-bladed naginata, a bo staff with a curved blade at each end.

A bit of the edge in this fight was removed, considering the blades were harmless in the afterlife, but the weapon could still be used to trip up opponents. Mike Jr. managed to break the weapon in half with a knee strike, grabbing his opponent's arms in order to stop her from using the halves individually; she flipped over him, but was too slow to dodge an elbow-strike, smacking her into the ropes. It took a flurry of jabs into an uppercut to defeat her for good. Meanwhile, his sister was evenly matched against the Russian ninja, and only snagged the upper hand with a well-timed leg-sweep, followed up by a palm strike and a flip-kick that sent both pieces of her weapon flying and hitting her in the head.

The biggest challenge came from facing off against Balthazar. The mysterious powers he'd gained from his Satanism made him far more formidable than the rest, but like with Queen Cobra, the threat he posed was lessened, since he couldn't hurt or kill them. He wasn't able to land a hit on Josephine, who could keep up with his teleportation-based surprise attacks without a problem. However, she failed to land a hit on him either, and the fight went on endlessly until Katherine called it off. On the other hand, Mike Jr. could withstand his opponent's fiery blows more easily, even if he had a harder time fighting back. Fortunately, all it took was one desperate hook to the chest to stun him momentarily, allowing Mike Jr. to follow up with a flurry of jabs and a headbutt that launched him out of the ring.

According to Katherine, one of the reasons why she had everyone fight each other was in case someone might turn on the group, meaning everyone needed to be prepared to fight them if need be. So once everyone had fought everyone else, she asked her children to spar with each other like they often had over the years while the other villains looked on. This fight proved to be rather uneventful, as Mike Jr. excelled in strength and endurance, whereas his sister relied on her wits and agility, resulting in them being evenly matched. Much like the fight between Josephine and Queen Cobra, it only ended when Katherine decided to cut it short.

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All in all, another day of training was in the books for a resurgent villain organization. The Seymours remained behind while everyone else slipped out of the lair and disappeared to parts unknown, although not with Pygmy Hippo being briefly stopped before he left, with Katherine whispering something into his ear and eliciting a nod. It was just one of the many things that were on the twins' minds for the rest of the evening, keeping them quiet throughout dinner and the process of getting ready for bed.

It was only after their mother turned in when they made their next move… in the form of meeting up in Josephine's room to discuss the move after that. And they didn't have much time, seeing how the evil scheme would be carried out in a matter of days. Mike Jr. paced along the carpet, while his twin sat cross-legged on top of her bed, tapping her chin with a fountain pen while staring down at the blank notepad before her.

"Remind me again, why did we have to meet in here of all places? I can feel my testosterone dropping like a rock just standing here," Mike Jr. moaned.

"Yeah, well I can't hear myself think standing in your musky man-cave, with all its sensory distractions," Josephine snarked back. "Besides, I'm always the tactician, so focusing is kinda' important here."

"Hmph."

"Now, Mom is planning for everyone to make their supervillain debut around midday a week from now. Judging by all that training, she probably wants us all to get violent, but this evil scheme is a lot more convoluted than usual."

"I think she just wants us to attack the town to show she means business. Then she can form a stronghold or something, and move to conquer the afterlife."

"Maybe, maybe… but how does that factor into bridging the gap between heaven and earth? With voodoo of all things?" Josephine went back to tapping her chin after jotting down what they knew.

"Well I'm obviously not the kind to spend hours mulling over what she's planning, so why not just call in the Afterlife Task Force early and then have them go after the new henchmen?" Mike Jr. examined his sister's array of perfumes out of sheer boredom. "Then with them distracted, we can confront Mom and kick her a*s!"

"Not so loud, but yeah, that has to be the smartest thing I've ever heard from you."

"Shut up."

"I'm serious. I honestly can't think of anything better."

"Well then let's do it. You still got the flyer?"

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I already memorized the number."

Mike Jr. watched as his twin whipped out her phone and started dialing, sharing a sinister grin with her brother. At that moment, he didn't even care that he was standing in a gaudy room with shagged carpet and undecorated walls, reeking of flowers and tropical fruit while his obnoxious sister sat nearby. The twins were about to go through with the best scheme they had ever come up with, and it involved foiling the plans of someone who was supposed to be near and dear to their hearts.

---

Speaking of whom, Katherine stepped out of the shower and slipped on a silver silk robe, covered in a burgundy leopard print, a middle ground between her mother and super-villainess personas. Smiling and humming uncontrollably, she pirouetted out of the bathroom, parting the steam that escaped the door before collapsing backwards onto the king-sized bed. Unlike all of the previous nights since her passing, she didn't feel depressed about having to sleep alone, for it would be in a matter of hours when she would finally be with Mike again. With her damp hair splayed out on the comforter, free from her chignon, she rolled over to reach the nightstand, grabbing a photo of herself and her husband on their wedding day.

It seemed like only yesterday, when the two first got hitched. She was a young girl in a small town, with divorced parents and a thing for bad boys. He was the big fish in the pond, heir to a shady business empire and a mountain of wealth. His parents loved him, but were brooding and angry deep down, being a pair of LGBT folks in the 2000s, and vented their frustrations via their brutish corporate tactics. Such frustrations were passed onto their adopted son after their suicide, making him angry at the world as he channeled it the same way. All of this happened shortly after his relationship began with Katherine, who acted as a sponge for Mike's anguish. As they grew up together and balanced family life with corporate ownership, Katherine had absorbed so much of his mental state that she became more like him. Was it any surprise that she would soon become the crazed villainess straight out of a comic book that she was today?

Katherine thought about all of this as she stared at the photograph, biting her lip and clutching it to her chest. In minutes, her innocent schoolgirl laugh morphed into a loud, maniacal one that could've struck a twinge of fear into her children, had they not been in a different part of the mansion.

"Hee hee, oh Mikey, can you believe it? First thing tomorrow morning, I'm gonna get you out of that dingy cell and bring you back to me!" she chirped, her smile dying down slightly. "That cruel world down there has beaten down on you from the moment you were born, and I'm gonna make sure you never suffer again. I'll do it with our children and a bunch of other villains at my side, and we can be a family again as we rule after afterlife together."

Another pause.

"Or maybe we can all cross over ourselves and take over the world? I dunno, still working on that part…" Katherine wrapped up her tirade with another sinister chortle.

From the sounds of it, two evil plans were brewing from within the villainous household, with both of them being conjured up separately in secret, and set to be launched tomorrow morning. The only question on everyone's mind was which one would ultimately come out on top, and if either party had any contingency plans up their sleeves in the event that they fail.