His eyes open, looking up at the blue sky. He's not sure where he is, or even who he is. A quick check of his immediate surroundings and he found himself inside a small raft at sea, slowly drifting towards an island. His body felt sore. He didn't know if it was from a lack of food and water, or if simply because he had been sleeping in an awkward position on a very uncomfortable boat.
A massive headache hit him as he tried to remember how he ended up in this situation. He was getting two conflicting stories. The first was the story of a blue-collar worker, not much of a social life, but he did love his games. Mostly RTS and Base-Building Sims. Games like Command & Conquer, Starcraft, and Evil Genius.
He had obsessed over completing everything in Evil Genius 2. From finding all the loot to recruiting all the henchmen. Sadly, that was as far as that life story would go. While everything was clear in that story there were pieces missing. He was a blue-collar worker, but he couldn't remember what kind of work he did, or how he ended up in this boat. The last thing from that story was him driving home after a long day at work and suddenly there was a flash of light, and then nothing.
The second story wasn't much more detailed. It started with him in a lab. There were explosions everywhere. He found himself on the ground, broken glass beneath him. A man in a white coat was yelling, "The subject has escaped!" He remembered that the man was alone, trying to contact someone over a radio. However, he wasn't getting a response.
He remembered the name tag attached to the tank he was stored in said, "Project HADES." The next memories were of him putting his hand on the man in white. A way of silencing him, but the moment he made contact with the man's skin, the man began to shrivel up like a prune.
Not sure what was happening, he had put on some scrubs and began to run. After instinctively dodging traps, he found himself at a partially covered dock. The more expensive and advanced ships were already destroyed. The only one left was a worn-down raft.
Before anything else could be done, one massive explosion, probably completely destroying the place he was at, sent him flying and unconscious. That story did explain how he ended up in this boat, but didn't explain how long he's been at sea or any of the events that led up to that incident.
Taking a real look at the island, he noticed a familiar looking building. Thoughts of the first story made him question whether or not he was seeing a mirage. Grabbing a pair of oars that he had been laying on, he started rowing towards the island.
Ten minutes later he had landed on a beach. There was a lift that connected the beach to the dock. He realized that this island was clearly one of the lairs from Evil Genius, but which one. Due to the lack of snow, it wasn't Icicle Point, Montañas Gemelas was at a higher elevation, and Crown Gold wasn't this big. That left Caine Key, also locally called "The Doughnut."
As he made his way inside, he found the abandoned casino, everything still covered in tarps. After briefly going through some of the boxes, he found a suitcase with some clothes. He replaced the tattered scrubs with his new outfit.
After heading into a side area to change, he found one of the covered objects was a mirror. After getting dressed he began looking into a mirror. He found the outfit looked a little dated, he wondered if the previous owner was into steampunk or something along those lines, it even came with a real cane sword. Then for the first time he saw his face in the mirror. He didn't recognize the person looking back at him.
His hair was black, and rather shaggy, covering his eyes and ears. He hadn't realized before because his hair wasn't obstructing his sight. As parted his hair to look at his eyes. He found he had gray eyes. His skin was quite tan, but that might have been because of his time in the sun.
Suddenly he heard voices, they were familiar, but he wasn't sure that was a good thing. After taking a peek, his suspicions were confirmed. Five rather unique looking individuals were gathered, the main protagonists from Evil Genius 2. From the sounds of it, the shortest had brought the others here to gloat. A decision needed to be made.
[(<×>)]
Zalika, often described as the scientific mastermind. She had her hair done up in a beehive style bun mostly because she was too busy to do anything else with it. She is wearing what has been described as a fishbowl on her head.
The reason, she didn't like to share air with those she considers her intellectual inferior. Now why was she on this island listening to the megalomaniac Maximilian gloat about this abandoned island casino where he will conquer the world from. Simple, she was going to narc on him to the Forces of Justice as soon as she leaves. She was sure the others will do the same.
Zalika looked at the others. Red Ivan, a henchmen turned boss. His intelligence was directed towards military tactics. Not the kind of person she would want to take on in a direct fight, not that she would ever do direct fights.
Emma, the ex-spymaster, former head of HAMMER. Knows every trick in the book, mostly because she wrote most of them. After years of thankless work, she managed to overthrow the last evil overlord who had taken over the world. What was her reward for all that work? A pat on the back and then the world went right back to its old behavior as if there never had been years tyrannical tyranny or that its laxed attitude wasn't responsible for it in the first place.
Finally, there's Polar, a master engineer. An environmentalist who cares more about the planet and less than the people on it. Honestly, she was the odd one in this group, more anti-hero than anything else, not that Zalika minded.
As Maximilian continued to ramble on, Zalika's eyes began to wonder. That was when she noticed a man of to the side, just casually standing there. His hair was a mess, and his attire was more than a little outdated. However, she couldn't help but feel like he was judging them, like he was better than them.
Maximilian stopped laughing the moment he sees the newcomer. Then Maximilian yelled, "Who are you!? You know what I don't care! You're ruining my gloating!" He then pulled out his gold gun and fired. In the blink of an eye the man was gone, and in his place was a gold box.
Confusion set in as they looked to see what happened. Maximilian's sudden screaming had caught everyone's attention. That man was standing behind max, his hand on Max's head. Maximilian's arms were flailing about trying to hit his assailant. To no avail. Not a moment later Maximilian's shriveled husk of a body dropped the ground. It looked like an ancient mummy without the bandages.
Ivan was the first to shake off the sight of what just happened and pulled out a rocket launcher. However, before he could pull the trigger a sword pierced his stomach. Then the mystery man had his hand on the now incapacitated Ivan.
Zalika tried to raise her own weapon while Emma charged in with her spider chair. However, before she could line up the shot. Her helmet shattered, and her hair dropped and completely obscuring her view. As she pulled her hair back, she was surprised by what she was seeing.
The chair was broken but Emma seemed fine. The man was standing next to her looking at his hand. Emma, however, was just standing there. A vacant look in her eyes, Zalika looked to Polar to see why she hadn't moved during this whole ordeal. Polar was just standing there, but it wasn't out of fear.
Zalika couldn't understand why, but Polar had look of longing. Did Polar know this man or was there something else going on. Polar's lips were trembling, it was clear she was dealing with some long-forgotten issues.
Zalika's attention was drawn elsewhere when she heard a rather deep voice say, "This a rather interesting turn of events. Zalika, Polar, I'm going to give you a choice. You either can stay here and help me with my plans going forward or I can leave you in the same state as Emma here."
As if to really drive home what Emma's current condition was. With nothing but the snap of his finger, Emma went to a couch while preforming perfect cartwheels. Emma was now a puppet, nothing but an obedient shell of her former self.
Polar almost immediately said, "Yes." They way Polar said it though caused Zalika to compare Polar to a high school student who's being acknowledged by their crush. There was definitely something there, and she would figure it out. Until them, Zalika decided to work for this man. So, she said, "Yes, I'll help you." Then she asked, "However, I do have a question. How should we address you?"
He stood there for a moment thinking about it. Then Polar said, "If you don't have one, then how about Vidocq?" The man looked at Polar for a few seconds then laughed, when he was done, he said, "Why not, it's a good a name as any. Alright, the two of you can call me Vidocq."
The he said, "Oh, before I forget." Then went to Maximilian's corpse and pulled out a small pad. Then he said, "Alright ladies, follow me and let's see this new home of ours."
Polar rushed to be by Vidocq's side and Emma did the same. Zalika joined at a slightly slower pace. She was trying to figure out how to get control and turn this situation to her advantage. After looking at Emma and then Maximilian and Ivan, Zalika knew this was going to be a high stakes gamble. One she had to win.
[(<÷>)]
In a secluded location, seven individuals were meeting to discuss recent events. The only identification was a plaque showing which organization they were in charge of, with one exception.
The respective leader's plaque read, "P.E.A.C.E." it's the title for the Forces of Justice, if they have to officially unite under one banner. The leader spoke saying, "Thank you for coming on such short notice, I know you're all busy, so I get straight to the point."
They continued, "As you are probably aware, two days ago the lab working on project L.A.I.R. and project H.A.D.E.S was hit." The representative from HAMMER asked, "Do we know who was responsible or what they were after?"
PEACE answered, "Yes to both, they were after project L.A.I.R. and in the folders in front of you are dossiers on the five culprits. Thier reasons are also mentioned in there. However, the reason we have gathered is because of project H.A.D.E.S."
SABRE said, "I thought that the last report from the project lead said project had hit a large roadblock that could delay it by years, or was I mistaken?" PEACE answered, "You're not, but rather the project lead was. We managed to recover logs from the lab's wreckage. It turns out the big delay was that those eggheads couldn't agree on was whether the failsafe should be a neurological condition or a bio-implant." The others looked each other with exasperation as they all silently agreed it was a stupid argument. PEACE continued, "That being said, it appears there were in fact two real potential problems."
The others gave their undivided attention as PEACE continued, "As you know project H.A.D.E.S was meant to create a fake crime lord. One who would suppress other crime lords and act in such a way that continued to justify our organizations continued existence and budget."
"Now the subject had the ability to consume both intelligence and vitality through direct physical contact. Now, according to the recovered data the first real hurdle was that in order to be a convincing crime lord, the subject needed to consume an active crime lord."
The one from SMASH interjected, "That could've been easily remedied, I mean we just got five potential candidates from the lab attack." PEACE responded, "Indeed, our only real concern would've been on how to capture them with no one else the wiser. The second hurdle, however, may have had this group seriously consider shutting the project."
PEACE clarified, "The subject's ability was ran through simulations and found to be affected by the possible victim's biological make-up. On unaltered biological males, it worked as intended. However, if the victim was undergoing some chemical alterations, maybe gender reassignment or something similar, it would mean instant death. No noise, or any obvious signs, they would just drop dead."
ANVIL responded, "While unnerving, I think we would find that acceptable." The others nodded their heads in agreement. PEACE replied, "I agree, however, the part was actually concerning is how it reacts to unaltered biological females. While it does remove intelligence, it doesn't remove vitality, but instead after some prolonged exposure it would allow the subject to recreate the victim's mind. The possible scenarios predicted varied from taking a highly effective agent and turned them into a lowly servant dedicated to pleasing their master, or worse restoring them to full capacity, but now singularly loyal to the subject."
Concern was clear on everyone's faces. PATRIOT was the first to break the silence by saying, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I find the idea that any of our agents could be turned against us, or worse actively sabotage us from within, is very nightmarish."
PEACE after looking at everyone then said, "Alright, currently investigators from JAWS are going through the wreckage, identifying bodies, and recovering data. Before they find the subject's body I need to know right now, do we restart the project, or do we abandon it?"
Not a single individual voted to restart. After the vote PEACE said, "Alright, I'll send the final reports via the usual channels. Now everyone please be mindful, there is a new evil genius out there. We need to be prepared to stomp them out by any means necessary before the can be a threat to the world. That's it for this meeting, until next time."