Etain may have been Celtic, well, pre-Celtic, but close enough if one wanted to label the beliefs she grew up with as a child. But she had to admit Latin combined better with an evolving language. VilCorp was born from the idea of the word corporatus, which is to form a body. She was working on getting villains to listen to her about setting up an alliance of sorts, not that anybody would trust each other, and she would have a controlling interest in this alliance. However, the issue she was running into was that most villains had issues with trusting the Queen of Evil.
She did not blame them; she had killed many heroes and villains. She was not known for compassion or fairness. She had to figure out a way for them to listen to her. More than just fear. Though fear is good. Best way? VilCorp on a smaller level. She smirked as she started buying up land. If offering goods, gold, whatever their little hearts desired, did not work, she took it over by seizing it through fear and destruction. Though sometimes she let that cute little hero going around as Earth Phoenix win.
Just so they could battle on another day.
Etain looked up at the sky. She had been trying to get all the villains that were the most powerful together. She got fourteen to come. There was a blood red ring around the moon. She always remembered what her mother stated about a ring around the moon. When there was a ring around the moon, something wicked was coming their way. Etain smirked. She was that something wicked. She really did not have a choice in that matter anymore. She had been the villain for too long. Had done some of the worst things in the world. She had done even things she regretted.
The question was, would the other villains listen.
For the first meeting, the answer was an obvious NO.
It broke out into a bloody free-for-all battle.
Which got the attentions of the heroes.
Which just caused fifteen minor battles to start up.
There was only one positive aspect about when the villain’s hero showed up. They stopped fighting with each other.
Etain sighed as she just grabbed Phoenix and disappeared about a hundred miles away. Using the electrical currents in the air to hit the stream of air that blew them away from the battles quickly. She let Phoenix go. “Another time, Dove.” And she disappeared again.
Catriona did not understand Arc. She would pick a battle and then, when it was getting to the point of actually hurting each other, she left. It was like she was trying to train Phoenix. Like she was protecting her. Catriona thought about going back to the battles, but there were fourteen other heroes there. So, Catriona went home. Her mind was a mess as she thought about Arc.
Etain sat in her lair, furious. More than one minion had been shocked for asking stupid questions. She sat upon her throne and looked out at her minions. Her fingers were tapping upon the arm of the throne. She sighed. How could she get these dumb ass villains to listen to her? She knew she had to unite the majority of the major villains. It was the only way VilCorp, and the taking over of the world, would work. She stood up and swept from the lair. She was going to go out and find out some blackmail on those fucking idiots that she, unfortunately, depended on to make VilCorp a reality.
Etain sat down and sipped her coffee. It was strong and dark and perfect. It was so strong for a solid five minutes she had hoped that life would get better. Then one of her minions walked into the lair and told her that some villain wanted to have a talk with her. “Which one?”
“The one that dresses up as that posh overlord with a face mask. Like he is trying to make it a fashion.” The minion answered as he handed her another cup of coffee.
“Stuck up asshole. He calls himself Overlord. Send him in.” Etain waved her hand and then whistled for her wolves to come in. They took their place by their sides.
Overlord walked in and bowed his head to Etain. “Doctor Arc.”
“What do you want, Richard?” It was a subtle power trip. She knew his name; they did not know her name.
“Your plan to have us allied together. Are you still trying to make that a reality?”
“Why, Richard?” Etain sat back and crossed her legs, the slit in her dress showing her long legs. Insanely brazen for the times they were in now, but totally tame compared to other times she had lived in.
Richard found his eyes running over her legs before being started back to reality, by her clearing her throat. “I want in on it. I think you are right. It would give us power, money, jewels, and whatever we want. The heroes keep winning our battles, we keep licking our wounds. Even the new one has you on the run.”
Etain sat up and let her power run over her body. “I am playing with the new hero. I could kill her in a heartbeat. But I do like to play with my food. I am not the most sane. Want to suck up to me a little better, Richard?”
“Who says I am sucking up, Arc?”
“You came and bowed to me. You fear me. You want to be one of the tops in the alliance. So, tell me Richard, are you sucking up?”
Richard cursed to himself. “Yes. Fine. I want in on the ground floor.”
Etain smirked and moved and switched which leg was crossed. She knew she was walking sex. She made sure people thought of sex when they looked at her. Not that she would ever sleep with anybody she was planning on a working relationship with in the future. She cocked her head and thought for a moment. “What do you bring to the table? I mean, I was getting you fourteen together because I want to see who would become the power with me.”
“I bring almost ten thousand minions, and property. We would be able to build more of those… companies?” At Etain’s nod, he continued. “On the properties.”
“You would give the property to VilCorp? Make it collective? Give up your sole claim on the land?”
“For power, a bit of a sacrifice of land now, will pay me back tenfold down the road.” Richard knew that what he was saying was fact.
Etain nodded. That much was true. “Fine. But we must convince the other thirteen. After all, a supreme council of fifteen will make sure that we never have a tie that I, as majority owner, must break. I will be the deciding vote each time, make no mistake about that. But we do want to be fair. We are going to rule the world after all.” Etain smirked, she stood and walked over to Richard. “Now to get the rest on board.” She smirked and then walked out of the lair.
Etain felt a spark of life in her dead soul. Her plans were coming to fruit! The spark was bringing back that flame of interest in life again! Between the new hero that sent sparks through her soul, and now Richard, one of the richest of the Villains, agrees to bow to her! Perhaps this flame would stay this time.
But she had a feeling she just could not shake. Though this new phase of her life was just about to start, it would not last. She could not wait for this new phase. But at the same time, she dreaded it.
She stopped in front of her mirror. What would life be like if she had not let the dark drown the light of her life? What if she had let the light in? Would she have gotten to know this new hero?
She shook her head. ‘Stop going down that road, Etain. You made your choice. You choose this. And your Karma is that your emotions are closed off for good.’
“Your highness?” Her current lover walked out of the bathroom.
“Honey,” Etain looked at the woman. She had no fucking clue what her name was any longer. “Let’s go out and get something to eat and drink. We will come back here, make a little love…”
“Oh! Yes!” The woman came up and kissed her before going to get dressed.
Etain watched her go. She had to go. After tonight, Etain would pay off her father to marry her off to some rich guy. The poor woman would have affairs with her servants for life. But hey, that was life.
And life actually changed rather humanity wanted it to or not.
Life found a way to either save a person or damn a person.
The sad part was, with the times people were living in, those not the same were all damned to live a life of lies.
Unless one happened to be a hero or villain.
They could do whatever, whenever, they wanted.
But for now, Etain had her first villain under her thumb, and hopefully soon the rest would follow along.
It took another five hundred years to get the villains all seated here. In this time, Etain had bought up most of the land around the countries, not just cities. She wore the height of seventeenth century fashion. It was the seventeenth century in this new turn of life, and Etain had seen when the clock had reset to zero. She smirked as she sat down and greeted the villains.
“Welcome, once more.” She looked out at the fourteen other villains that answered the call. A new villain who had killed the previous one, James, was quite excited sitting to her left. Richard to her right.
“What are we doing here, Doctor Arc?” Paul asked, as he drank the wine in front of him.
“We are here to discuss the future, VilCrop. I have been buying up land, up boats, up everything that could possibly make money and give power. You will all have a chance to have a two percent share in the company. Two percent will equal a lot of power and money.”
“So, let me get this straight, fourteen of us at two percent is twenty-eight percent. And you get seventy-two percent?” Athena asked, as she sat back and folded her arms.
“No. It is two percent spread across you, twelve. As you are coming late to the party, Richard has been by my side for five hundred years. So, that is twenty-four percent. Richard gets ten percent. James, who joined about fifty years ago, gets five percent. That equals thirty-nine percent to my sixty-one. It is my land. My money. My power is creating this company. And you all will get a say, a voice, and power. Lots, and lots of power.”
“Why should it not be equal?”
“Are you going to give all your gold, all your money, all your property for this? I have. And I will continue to do so. I mean, I have my tastes, but as you know, I am feared by all. So, today, I will give you your last chance. Join us. Or…” Etain shrugged, then smirked. “Face the consequences.” Etain looked at them and could practically smell their fear. Etain did love her reputation. Even if nobody knew the fact that no matter how wrong the reputation was, she did not kill without reason.
It took three hours for all of them to sign.
The names glistened upon the contract; she made them sign in blood. She had learned from her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother there is magic in using blood. She believed that. She did not believe in much, but she did believe in that.
For blood carried pieces of the soul, pieces of power, without blood the being would die, their soul destroyed, their powers drained.
There was a reason that Countess Elizabeth Bathory de Esced, felt that drinking and bathing in the blood of former virgins she killed was the ticket to eternal youth. Former virgins, Etain knew Bathory’s tastes, for Bathory had tried to have Etain picked up by her guards. Etain went and visited the woman and told her exactly who was off limits to her craziness: Etain, who was going by Lady Jonet Verch Leuan, and Earth Pheonix.
Etain looked down upon the glistening names, knowing they all just gave up another little piece of their soul to the darkness of creation.
Richard Harrison
James Wilson
Jerome Holmes
Harrita Albertson
Robert Evanson
Edward Nash
Kenya Ababio
Zane Gbeho
Aki Han
Chan Ming Zhang
Juan Martínez de Palategui
Diego López de Olivares
Howard Yang
Juan de Palencia
Fourteen names that just signed their soul away. Etain finally got the start of VilCorp. Not just an idea. But the true start. They controlled Europe, Asia, and Africa. But there is a new world now discovered. And soon they will rule that too.
Though first, they had to build their company.
And stop the melodrama of starting battles that the heroes always seemed to win. No matter how many times they should have lost.
And they did.
The battles stopped.
The silver-tongues started.
And soon they had the ears of the world power.
They had the money.
They could get away with anything.
And Etain started turning a blind eye.
So much so, that she ran off to the Colonies when Earth Phoenix did, claiming to set up land and companies there.
She let the fires of power burn.
She had counted the minutes, the hours, the days, to make this plan of hers into a reality. And she had a feeling one day she would watch it all go up in flames.
And she would just watch it and let it all burn.
She would light the fire.
But for now, she enjoyed the power.
She let the fires of power burn.
Etain did not know it then, but it would come back and bite her in the ass.
She was so focused on running from home, that she lost herself. And lost why she started doing what she had been doing to be cast as the villain. She locked more of her soul away. And focused on VilCorp.
And time marched on.
One thousand years. It took one thousand years to get to this point. The first five hundred were getting them to listen. The next five hundred were creating and growing her company. And hiding the fact there were villains and heroes in this world.
She destroyed proof they existed.
They were just myths.
Myths that would become the stories of entertainment.
She had lit the fire under the other villains and they had won. In the end, they had won.
For all the hero grandstanding, for all the lost battles, the villains, it appeared, had won the war.
But even as Etain ran, she knew it was going to come crashing down.
This temporary win.
For there was only so long one could hide their wicked ways.
Hide their evil from the world.
One day the world would wake up.
Or a hero would.
Her only hope was that she would still be alive at the end of the war.
But for now, she cruised through the centuries to get to the year 2021.
Now in this present-day world, she stood behind a person at the coffee shop with a desire to electrocute them all. It was against the eighth amendment of the United States to make her wait for coffee. She had a genuine need for coffee. She has, on more than one occasion, electrocuted someone to get in between her and her coffee. These people in front of her were viewing this as some type of recreation activity, in which they were ‘unsure’ of what to get. Order the first thing that sounds good and get out of her way! She had seven meetings today, and then a flight to China to check out her warehouses there. Taking over companies in hostel take overs, though fun and exciting, always gives her too much work after the fact.
After what seemed like forever, she finally got to the front of the line. She saw it was the normal person and just gave him a look.
“ONE JUMBO EXTRA BLACK COFFEE WITH A SPLASH OF ALMOND MILK, NOW!” He yelled back at the barista. “It will just be a moment, Doc. Busy today with holiday shopping. You are up next.”
“Thank you, Jamie.” Etain responded, putting down the fifty-dollar bill. “Keep the change.” She moved to the side just as her coffee came up, and she took that first sip of ambrosia. She moaned, seriously. Once she had discovered coffee, she was sure that she would have been subdued by the heroes if they just put a pot of coffee in front of her. That is how much she loved coffee.
She sat and enjoyed the first cup, going through her emails, but pulling up videos of the one she kept an eye on over all these years. The only one that still played in her mind. Even with her steel trap of a mind, so many names and faces blurred over the course of four thousand years. But, still to this day, there was a grounding force to the one being that she cannot shake from her thoughts. She knew the person would never allow her to be in their lives. But Etain needed to know they are alive. Needed them to ground her, even if they never knew it. For they kept Etain safe from the monsters inside her head when they got too loud at times. Though nothing saved her fully. She had been broken and patched herself together with the pieces of her mind and soul left behind by those who had broken her soul.
She checked on them, then went and ordered another coffee, leaving another fifty dollars and left to go to the office.
Evil never slept.
Never a truer statement uttered, besides William Shakespeare once stating in his play, Hell was empty all the devils are here.
Maybe that is what villains truly are, damned souls.
For there were times Etain swore her soul was damned. She shook off the deep thoughts as she speeds through the streets of Manhattan and slides into her parking spot. She took a deep breath and put her mask up and the Queen of Evil went to her day job.
Kris Charles - Author 