“Sweet Wisdom?”

“Yes. Your old catchphrase, Sweet Dreams, is great, but you only have one. Let’s all agree to forget about Choco Punch. So-”

“Hey, Choco Punch was a great catchphrase.”

Candice gave him her best deadpan stare, which didn’t work as Victor was impervious to cute bubbly woman staring at him. He wasn’t impervious to his daughter.

“Master Fist, let us agree to disagree on that.”

“Really?” Victor was genuinely surprised. Back in the day, he and several members of the Candy Crew spent some time thinking it up. Times had clearly changed.

“Choco Punch was a terrible catchphrase.” Mrs. White said in a tone that brook no argument. “Don’t ever use it again! I don’t want your grandchildren to be laughed at.”

Victor rolled his eyes, but only on the inside. In real life, he just raised his hand in surrender. Victor went back to the paper and read out some of the phases given to him.

“Why do I even need this?”

“It’s because of your fight with the Green Leaper. Do you remember the piece of advice you gave her at the end?” Victor shook his head, and his agent reminded him. “At the end of the fight, you gave her a choice to leave and told her even heroes walk away from fights they can’t win.”

Victor did remember something like that. “Yes. So?”

“So, our marketing department think it will be a great idea for you to do more of that. To impart some ‘sweet wisdom’ whenever you fight an enemy. You will be the wise old veteran who like to give pointers to young bucks, even young bucks who are challenging you.”

“Do you want me dead?”

“What?”

“Come on, that’s the mentor story trope. Ever heard of it? It’s like a death flag in every story out there!”

“Luckily, we are in real-life.” Candice said. “There is no need to be superstitious.”

“I am a villain. Being superstitious comes with the occupation.”

“You are a villain, Master Fist. Death is an occupational hazard.” Candice smoothly replied.

Victor could find no answer to that and went back to the paper. “Is there anything else?”

“These came out on the internet a few days ago.” Candice took out another file from her bag and placed it before Victor. “Do you have a pimp by the name of Mindpusher in your group?”

“Yes.”

“These are some of the information that had come out about him in the past few days. They are alleging that he controlled his women by raping them, and then supplying them with drugs.”

“Who are they?” Victor asked. “Who is giving this information to the public?”

“Internet trolls.” Candice answered. “Hero worshippers, haters of villains, or just bored students. They always do this when a hero or villain gets too famous.”

“You mean they waste their time digging up dirt on people.”

“Yes, and it will work.” Candice said. “It is still early days, but our team believe this will hurt your favourability rating among the public once the news spreads. We suggest you drop Mindpusher from your group before that happen.”

Victor couldn’t help but chuckle. “Good thing I don’t care how the public view me.”

The small room became deathly silent at that. Both women looked at Victor in surprise, and he couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Go on, say what’s on your mind.”

His daughter took him up on his word. “Mindpusher is raping women, and then making them drug addicts. You are okay with that?”

“I don’t support it, but I fail to see why I should care.” The two women continued staring at the villain who sighed. “He is a villain. This is the way he does business. What does it got to do with me?”

“He is in your crew.” Candice said.

“And he has been a model member.” Victor said. “He hasn’t given me any problem and has just gave me my cut of his business right on time. I got no problem with him.”

“He will be a problem once this news gets bigger. You need to nip this in the bud.”

“Why? I am a villain. Why should I stop him from doing business? That’s the job of a hero.”

“Then don’t stop him.” Candice proposed a compromise. “Just dropped him from your group. Don’t give him your protection and let the heroes and other criminals deal with him.”

“Why should I do that?” Victor asked. “He is one of the first people in my organization. How would it look if I suddenly drop him just because of what the internet says?”

“How would it look if it is proven that what the internet says is correct? H.A.V.E had done some preliminary investigation, and we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do you mean?” Mrs. White asked.

“According to the rumors, Mindpusher is kidnapping women off the streets.” Candice said. “He has people who cruised around looking for beautiful women and then scout their routine. His men then kidnapped the women, raped them, piled on the drugs, and Mindpusher will ‘convince’ the women to work for him in return for a steady supply of these drugs.”

Mrs. White shook her head and looked at Victor. He did not need her to say anything to know where she stood.

“I see a police report here. Any chance it is the authorities who leaked this information?” He asked.

“That’s possible,” Candice admitted. “But it hardly matters if it rumors true.”

Victor sighed. “Fine. I’ll talk to him. Tell him to stop kidnapped women because the police are on his trail.”

“And the drugs?” His daughter asked.

“If that’s the way he controlled his women, that’s on him. I’m not going to stop him from doing that.” Both women looked at the villain found that he had to explain. “He is a pimp. If it is not drugs, it will be mind control, enchantments spells, emotional blackmail, financial blackmail, getting the women to fall in love with him, or half a dozen other things. What am I going to do? Tell you ‘no’ to everything? He needs some way to control his stable.”

“Master Fist, he is-”

“Mindpusher will-”

“I am not negotiating here.” An exasperated Victor cut off both women. “I am telling you this is how it is going to go. I am not going to push out one of the first people who came to me for protection, and I am not going to intervene with the way he is doing business. Especially when he hasn’t done anything against me. I am not one of those silly anti-heroes who is a villain in name only. I am a true villain. We are the bad guys! If you two want something done about him, you do it yourself. I’m not going to do it. Now, is there anything else?”

Candice slowly shook her head.

“Thank you.” Victor said. “Now, if you will excuse me. I have a prisoner to speak to.”