The heavy smoke that had concealed the bona fide performance stage finally cleared with a strong gust of wind from an unknown source. Many spotlights from the ceiling illuminated the stage, some focusing on the star performer.
This star was standing in the middle of the stage arrogantly, head held high, his large bald head with the letter 'M' painted on his forehead reflecting the spotlight. This man... was none other than the infamous comic book supervillain Max Brain, revealing himself to us newbie grunts.
"Welcome, my new loyal grunts!" Exclaimed the supervillain, Max Brain.
He was a tall, lean man wearing a formal black tuxedo with a white-collar shirt, and a menacing high-collar dark gray long coat over it, its coat tails fluttering wildly in the unknown wind source.
I had already mentioned it before, but his main feature, other than the already quite menacing long coat of his, was his huge bald head with the letter 'M' proudly painted on his forehead. While undoubtedly comical, he made it look quite menacing with his prideful and arrogant attitude, standing and smiling with full confidence.
'So... this is Max Brain, huh...' I thought to myself as I finally laid my eyes on him.
One of the most popular supervillain characters that even I, who was (formerly) just an average Joe knew of him. He was said to be one of the pioneers of supervillains in comic book history and was arguably the leader of all villains in his comic book universe... the universe that I had now found myself reincarnated into.
I couldn't believe my eyes that I would actually see a fictional character in the flesh, let alone the antagonist villain of a superhero comic book, but here I was witnessing his grand entrance, welcoming his newly recruited grunts. The supervillain that "supposedly" I had signed up to work with as a grunt. THE Max Brain.
As soon as he welcomed us, cheering erupted from all around me.
"Lord Max Brain!"
"You're the best!"
"We love you!"
"No. 1 Supervillain!"
All of my fellow newbie grunts cheered and shouted their praises to the supervillain Max Brain. I was quite startled by their sudden cheering. I knew that these people viewed Max Brain quite positively before... but to this extent?
Furthermore, I was not prepared for the amount of energy that these fellow grunts of mine were showing. It really did feel like he was a superstar of the Supervillain world. Grunt No. 704 and No. 711 also had been joining into the energetic vibe of the crowd, and also another familiar individual...
I finally saw someone again who had been hiding away from me: Grunt No. 702. He finally came out of his supposed hiding... and he was cheering quite passionately.
"WOOOHHH!! LORD MAX BRAIN!!!" Grunt No. 702 shouted with all of his heart, seemingly upon seeing his favorite supervillain and bona fide superstar, Max Brain. I was quite shocked to see his passionate spirit, as the previous meek-looking guy was no more and replaced with what I could say was the No. 1 Fan of Max Brain.
Seeing their passionate energy toward Max Brain... 'Should I join in...?' I questioned myself. I honestly didn't feel like cheering for an actual supervillain, but the energy of my fellow grunts was contagious. However, their cheering suddenly stopped. I was surprised by the sudden silence but then realized as I looked back toward the stage. Max Brain had raised his right arm, seemingly to catch our attention and silently command silence... and it worked.
No wonder this guy was given the title 'Leader of the Villains'. He had the charisma not only to stoke the spirits of his fellow villains but also to command those below him effectively. Seeing that we had all gone silent at his command, Max Brain lowered his raised arm.
"Once again, welcome, my new loyal grunts," he began, arms spread wide open, signifying his welcome to us newbie grunts, "you are all here, in my precious underground lair, as the newest force of my Empire!" He explained with a tone full of pride and selfishness. But... it was the kind of tone that made him quite charismatic, earning another loud cheer from my fellow grunts.
"Empire?" I muttered to myself, repeating the last thing Max Brain had said. I never knew that he was the kind of character to establish an actual empire. I had expected that this would be just the usual company stuff, but for supervillains and us grunts here, given this so-called "orientation" for us newbie grunts.
Well... it wouldn't be impossible for him, as he was said to have almost conquered the world a few times... only to be stopped by the superheroes, especially by Ultra Guy on many of those occasions.
Max Brain then brought his right arm forward, as if beckoning us. "All of you here will be the pillars of my Empire, the shields of my Empire, and lastly but most importantly... the swords of my Empire!" He continued his speech, selfishly labeling us all as tools for his Empire. Even so... again, my fellow grunts cheered from hearing his selfish words.
He then clenched his right hand into a fist, "You will all fight for me... and we will fight and triumph against those pesky heroes!" He continued, raising his voice high to raise the spirits of all of us newbie grunts to his cause against the heroes. As usual, his speech brought cheers from the other grunts, but each time the cheering became louder.
Honestly... it was quite the spectacle from my point of view to see this amount of energy. Usually, you would only find this kind of energy at either a concert from a top celebrity... or a politician's rally. Either way, I was still astonished by Max Brain's sheer charisma in rallying all of us newbie grunts to his cause, even though it was probably the most blatant and selfish thing I had ever heard in a speech.
'Maybe it's because he is honest about it...?' I theorized, considering one of the likely reasons why he garnered so much support from this selfish speech of his. Honesty was a pretty charming trait by itself.
Then, Max Brain held out his hand, as if he was offering his hand to us grunts. "My loyal grunts... join me and together... WE SHALL CONQUER THE WORLD!"
He shouted in the end, his voice filled with all of his pride and charisma. All of the grunts erupted into the loudest cheer that I have ever heard in my life. The sound echoed quite loudly throughout this large room and probably could be heard from the outside quite clearly. Hell... the sound might even leak to the outside of this secret lair of his.
The cheering continued for quite a while. After a while, Max Brain raised his hand once again like before, signaling for our silence, which was proven quite effective as before, with every newbie grunts then immediately piping down from their cheering.
"I shall take my leave here, my loyal grunts. One of my trusted assistants will take it from here," he explained, finally ending his charismatic speech. But before he left, he raised his clenched right fist high into the air. "Glory to the Max Empire!" he shouted once more, rallying my fellow newbie grunts to his cause once again.
All of the grunts here also raised their right fist into the air, and they all shouted in unison.
"GLORY TO THE MAX EMPIRE!"
They all shouted back to Max Brain, declaring their allegiance to him. Satisfied from hearing his new grunts' loyalty, he then promptly left the stage, with his long dark gray coat tails fluttering behind him as he left.
After Max Brain's departure, all of the grunts here started to discuss with each other of what they all had seen just now.
"That was... intense," I commented on what I had just witnessed. Grunt No. 704 and No. 711 heard my comment and turned back toward me.
"It was, right~?" No. 711 agreed with my comment. "Max Brain probably has the most charisma out of every villain in the world. Seeing him and hearing his speech firsthand was quite the sight." She added. So, she also felt the same way as I did, huh?
"Yeah. Dude probably has the most influence out of all villains." No. 704 added his bit about Max Brain, "It's no wonder that he also has other villains working for him." He continued, revealing another fact about Max Brain.
"He has other villains working for him?" I inquired about what No. 704 just said. I knew that he was titled 'Leader of the Villains', but I was interested to know how many of them and who these villains were.
"Yeah, big guy. A lot." No. 704 simply answered. "Well... for example, someone that he just mentioned before he left: one of his trusted assistants. It should be none other than-"
*Clap, clap, clap*
Suddenly, claps could be heard. The source of the claps came from the stage where Max Brain had left. All of us grunts here looked at the stage and found a bunch of white-coat-wearing individuals on top of the stage.
These white coats... I recognized them quite well. These were none other than those scientists who had altered me and the other grunts' bodies. And the source of the clapping?
*Clack, click, clack*
The sound of heels could be heard quite clearly in this large room. A very familiar sound... as then one prominent figure from all of these white-coat scientists came forward. A woman... a blonde woman wearing the same white long coat as the rest of the scientists, but hers was opened up, revealing the dark skin-tight suit under her coat that hugged her well-endowed figure. This woman didn't wear her previous bespectacled look, and her bun was untied to reveal her long flowy blonde hair. But...
I knew full well who she was.
"Good morning... Grunts." The female scientist, Victoria, greeted us with the same mischievous smile she had shown me before.