Next In Line

Chapter 7: Spar With the Forces of Evil

The twins' training continued for the next several days. By now, they were used to such a thing, having been shaped into martial artists from a young age as part of becoming villains. But what they were doing as of now was slightly unorthodox; rather than being taught how to spar, they were instead putting their skills to use by sparring with their new partners. Sounded a little mundane, but interesting nonetheless. There was just something about actually fighting someone instead of watching them fight someone else. After watching the others fight amongst themselves, it was time for Mike Jr. and Josephine to get in on the action, the former excelling in strength and endurance, and the latter using her speed and agility to her advantage, both using their trademark combination of mixed martial arts and wrestling moves.

Both of them had an easy enough time against Pygmy Hippo, with Mike Jr. knocking him unconscious with a single jackknife, and Josephine wearing him down by dodging his blows, before taking him out with a hip-toss into a roundhouse kick. Next up was Queen Cobra, who divided her time evenly, fighting unarmed and with one of many weapons she could skillfully use. Today, she wielded a double-bladed naginata, a bo staff with a curved blade at each end.

A bit of the edge in this fight was removed, considering the blades were harmless in the afterlife, but the weapon could still be used to trip up opponents. Mike Jr. managed to break the weapon in half with a knee strike, grabbing his opponent's arms in order to stop her from using the halves individually; she flipped over him, but was too slow to dodge an elbow-strike, smacking her into the ropes. It took a flurry of jabs into an uppercut to defeat her for good. Meanwhile, his sister was evenly matched against the Russian ninja, and only snagged the upper hand with a well-timed leg-sweep, followed up by a palm strike and a flip-kick that sent both pieces of her weapon flying and hitting her in the head.

The biggest challenge came from facing off against Balthazar. The mysterious powers he'd gained from his Satanism made him far more formidable than the rest, but like with Queen Cobra, the threat he posed was lessened, since he couldn't hurt or kill them. He wasn't able to land a hit on Josephine, who could keep up with his teleportation-based surprise attacks without a problem. However, she failed to land a hit on him either, and the fight went on endlessly until Katherine called it off. On the other hand, Mike Jr. could withstand his opponent's fiery blows more easily, even if he had a harder time fighting back. Fortunately, all it took was one desperate hook to the chest to stun him momentarily, allowing Mike Jr. to follow up with a flurry of jabs and a headbutt that launched him out of the ring.

According to Katherine, one of the reasons why she had everyone fight each other was in case someone might turn on the group, meaning everyone needed to be prepared to fight them if need be. So once everyone had fought everyone else, she asked her children to spar with each other like they often had over the years while the other villains looked on. This fight proved to be rather uneventful, as Mike Jr. excelled in strength and endurance, whereas his sister relied on her wits and agility, resulting in them being evenly matched. Much like the fight between Josephine and Queen Cobra, it only ended when Katherine decided to cut it short.

All in all, another day of training was in the books for a resurgent villain organization. The Seymours remained behind while everyone else slipped out of the lair and disappeared to parts unknown, although not with Pygmy Hippo being briefly stopped before he left, with Katherine whispering something into his ear and eliciting a nod. It was just one of the many things that were on the twins' minds for the rest of the evening, keeping them quiet throughout dinner and the process of getting ready for bed.

It was only after their mother turned in when they made their next move... in the form of meeting up in Josephine's room to discuss the move after that. And they didn't have much time, seeing how the evil scheme would be carried out in a matter of days. Mike Jr. paced along the carpet, while his twin sat cross-legged on top of her bed, tapping her chin with a fountain pen while staring down at the blank notepad before her.