The Subtle Silhouette

Writing Prompt: Working for an up-and-coming tyrannical overlord is hard, thankless, morally troubling work, but at least you get dental. (source)

 

It ain’t easy being a henchman, especially a being a henchman for a start up super villain. The world of villainy isn’t an easy one to get into either, with so many established villains having everything from death rays to super computers available to them all the while we gotta make due with a handful of puny stun shockers and a twenty sixteen MacBook as our most powerful computer.

But being a top tier villain isn’t about how many fancy shooters you have, nor how quickly you can computer the best way to pull a meteor into the Earth’s gravitational pull in order to hold the world ransom. No sir. Being a villain is all about being clever, having finesse, and a drive to work day in and day out to make sure that the world is bent a little closer to your making than it was the day before.

I’m what you could call a professional henchman. I’ve worked with many villains, some you’ve heard of like The Savage Beast or Dr Hammer, others not so well known. The problem with folks like Dr Hammer is yeah, they’re pretty damn good at what they do, it takes a lot a lot of grit to build an army in secret and unleash terror upon a small Scandinavian nation with subliminal hypnosis so that way once you march your highly trained and well outfitted army in they would rather raise the white flag than fight you. That sir takes a lot of work and I admire it. Hell, I was there when it happened, I marched straight into the front lines, my armor brandishing the big ol’ DH on front, my lighting spear armed and ready to strike the first solider to look me in the eyes. I didn’t get half a mile in before I had been informed that the invasion had ended with a swift surrender.

Now every villain wants their own little nation for their own, and it’s annoying. I’m like guys, can you stop being such copy cats? What Dr Hammer did was an enormous feat that was accomplished after decades of planning and hard work, you can’t just walk into a capital and demand to be the ruler of their nation. You’ll be laughed out by the parliament and promptly punched in the face by a local hero or two. Pfft, I hate trendy villains. I like the new things, the new kids on the block with the fresh ideas. After my invasion with Dr Hammer I’ve been on the prowl for that kid on the block, somebody with earth shattering ideas that have never been done before.

I delved into a few other small time villains since that invasion, but none of them stuck. Most either got crushed by heroes, or eventually got absorbed into larger operations. Nobody had the grit and tenacity that Dr Hammer had. Not until I joined forces with her.

She calls herself the Subtle Silhouette, now not the most original name, but don’t let that fool ya. She’s got a bright mind. The Silhouette’s is a genius in nanotech that’s light years beyond Dr Hammer’s military might. You’ve probably never seen her before because she doesn’t like the spotlight that much. The real villains in my opinion are not about the flair. Flair looks good on TV but you’ll never get past ruling a city block if all what you focus is on flair.

She’s got this grand idea, she sees a future of where all she can do whatever she wants whenever she wants. How you ask? Through them nanobots. You see, with the right bots planted into somebody’s bloodstream they can silently influence somebody to behave however she want them to by adjusting their hormone levels and whatnot. No hypnosis needed!

She doesn’t want to take over the world like good ol’ DH, at least not in the classical sense. If you get these nanomachines in enough folks bloodstreams you can have complete control of the world any nobody would be none the wiser.

The tech’s still in its early phases, and we’re in a dire need of more resources, so the lady’s got me running b&e missions to steal more materials and better equipment. But we got a grand plan ahead of us, and with her drive I believe, nae, I know she’ll make Dr Hammer look like a first grader compared to her genius.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *