The Co-ordination of Supervillains

The despicable Dropped Apostrophe stood proudly behind the lectern on the stage, his latest piece of handiwork hanging on the wall behind him. The gathered supervillains spaced themselves around the large auditorium, too many seats to be filled by the two of them, and their spacing made the room seem all the more emptier.

“What’s that behind you?” Matthew Mist shouted from his second row seat. The Dropped Apostrophe smiled.

“That is our new logo.” Pride shone out from his face.

“And you expect us to believe you did that?” Matthew said, “with all the letters in the correct place and not an apostrophe in sight?”

“Believe what you like!” The Apostrophe said. “But I made it. It’s something special for our new little group.”

“You’ve emphasised the ‘the’.” Matthew said.

“The ‘the’?” Asked the Apostrophe.

“The ‘the’.”

“The ‘the’?! The ‘the’?!?!”

“Well, you’ve emphasised the ‘the’ now!” Bubblegum said, from her seat on the back row. She blew a large bubble and twirled the hair in her left ponytail around her finger. “It’s all I can see. Actually, it’s all I can see from here. The rest is a jumbled mess.”

“If you’ve both quite finished.” Dropped Apostrophe’s patience started to wear thin. “I will explain my plan.”

“You have a plan?” Matthew asked, as he lifted his legs over the backs of the seats in front of him and crossed his ankles. “Go on then, tell us!”

“It’s really very simple.” The Dropped Apostrophe’s smugness returned. “We are going to capture every single superhero on the planet, and then the world is ours.”

“That’s it?” Matthew said.

“Just us three?” Bubblegum piped up.

“And the whole planet? Even the superheroes not in this country?” Matthew Mist sat properly on his chair, but then put his head in his hands.

“Every single one of them. But no, not only us three. We are the Co-ordination of Supervillains, the world’s premier supervillain team.” Apostrophe said the last part of his sentence leaning closer to the microphone, so it echoed around the auditorium.

“But there’s still only three of us.” Bubblegum repeated.

“Only three of us in this room, my dear. Once word gets out that every supervillain on the entire planet is part of our group, well, you can see what I’m saying.”

“Not really.” Bubblegum said, blowing another bubble.

“Then every single supervillain on the planet will be part of our group!” The Apostrophe sounded exasperated.

“And then?” Matthew Mist wasn’t sure whether Bubblegum was playing dum, but decided not to say anything.

The Dropped Apostrophe punched the lectern, and spoke slowly. “Then. We. Can. Capture. All. Of. The. Superheroes. Er. Super. Heroes. And. The. World. Is. Ours. For. The. Taking.” His smug smile returned.

“Oh!” Bubblegum appeared to realise what the Apostrophe was saying. “So all of the supervillains together will go after each hero in turn. I get it!”

“Something like that!” The Apostrophe switched off the mic.

Matthew Mist decided silence was still his best course of action.