The Courtyard (starter thread)

Hades lingered behind Maleficent as the portals began to open. So many mortals, all dressed up in some of the most ridiculous chitons the Lord of the Dead had ever seen. When Maleficent first mentioned this scheme to him, he thought she'd gone mashuga. Now that it was unfolding right before his eyes, he had to admit that he was intrigued. Maleficent had seemed like a stick in the mud when he'd first met her, but she was evil and had ambition, so that automatically placed her a notch above Bolt-Boy and the high and mighty snobs on Mount Olympus.

"Looks like the party's startin' to heat up, and, hey, believe me, babe, I know a thing or two about heating up!"

In a blue-tinted study, the sorcerer and his familiar regarded the portal with curiosity.

"Aurora borealis?" Xerxes guessed.

"Every time I think you can't say anything more idiotic," Mozenrath sighed, "you always manage to impress me."

"Thanks! ...Xerxes think?"

"This is IT, Xerxes!" Mozenrath cried with almost pure glee. "This can only be connected to one thing: the prophecy of the five planets! Our time is at hand!"

Xerxes flitted to observe the gauntlet that adorned Mozenrath's ever-gesturing right hand.

"No, not THAT hand, Xerxes! Forget it! Just follow me!"

Mozenrath slowed his walk intentionally to look as imposing as possible as he strode into Maleficent's courtyard. Once he'd reached the other side, he stopped to first admire the gaudiness of his surroundings. It was almost an eyesore at first - nothing could have been further from his treasured deep blue. One sensible color that didn't assault his senses.

But the more he adjusted to it, the more he realized there was something about it he liked. A symbol of a new freedom, unrestricted by the citadels of those usurped, or any rules whatsoever that governed a strict style. Mozenrath appreciated playing by the rules when he was the one making them, but sometimes he forgot that he was allowed to feel free, even when he had broken his chains permanently.

In fact, it almost looked...fun.

His assessment of the architecture done, he turned it to his fellows. Now he understood why this castle looked the way it did. The gathering hailed from a multitude of planes, a clash of aesthetics, sorcerers, scientists, thugs. Of course the castle could be no one thing - neither was this army. Which was both a blessing and a curse.

Mozenrath had wanted to address the summoner - the elegant witch (...faery?) whose black clothing made a stark contrast to the surrounding rainbow - directly upon his arrival. But the thick-muscled man in the suit who'd arrived in the horseless carriage was already doing that, so Mozenrath instead remarked to Xerxes, "Well, this is a party."

It took a while, for the good, Professor Ratigan, to come to terms with his sudden predicament. One minute, he had been in the middle of falling to his death, from his latest defeat at the hands of that accursed Basil of Baker Street. The next…he found himself, no worse for wear, alongside a rather strange group of people. There was hardly any rat or mouse in sight, and the only real animal he could find, were those two brutish looking Dobermans, standing next to a chubby man and a floating eel. Ratigan, had to do a double check on the latter, to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

His instincts, were screaming at him to run to safety. More often than not, mice like him had to stay far away from humans, lest they risk loosing their lives or gaining unwanted attention. But for once, Ratigan hesitated, as his curiosity got the better of him. Who ever these humans were, they didn't look anyone from his hometown of London. In fact, many of them hardly looked human at all. For him, to have been brought here, alongside these weird strangers, it couldn't have been a coincidence. No, they must've been here for something greater. Something, worthy of the Napoleon of Crime. Despite his better judgement, he had to know more. Besides, it was thanks to this mysterious force, that he had been saved from death. And who was he, to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Still, it would be rash of him, to draw too much attention to himself, before he had all the details. Adjusting his suit (which seemed to have magically repaired itself), and styling back his hair, Ratigan crept to the sidelines, seemingly unseen, and awaited to hear, what would happen next.

"No! You'll not have me! My power cannot die! CURSE YOU!" 

Those were the last words the powerful lich known as the Horned King roared out as the mystical artifact he had been searching for so long, the Black Cauldron, turned its power against its supposed master and pulled him closer and closer. The crucible seemed to glower with anger towards the undead sorcerer, the face emblazoned upon the cauldron staring into the king's eyes. 

The king could feel the stares of the heroic fools who had dared oppose him on his back, watching in horror as he grew closer still to his item of power. They were the ones that were meant to be pulled in, they were meant to be the ones to be sacrificed to power the Cauldron, to be fuel for the birth of more and more Cauldron-Born. Prydain was to fall by the lich's might, and he was to enter the realm of godhood. 

Yet, here he was, growling and cursing at the very item meant to help him achieve his final victory over the realm of men. 

The Cauldron's power forced the king to grasp the sides of the crucible, the swirling greens of its energy wrapping around him, sparks of mystical energy surging through his old, corrupted bones. It was agony, fierce and unrelenting, causing the king to scream in horror. The remainder of his rotten, undead flesh began to be stripped from his bones, his royal garb ripped and torn into tatters, and even his very soul were all taken into the cauldron, a magical explosion and one final cry rippling through his castle as he left Prydain for good, leaving Taran and his followers to escape the dark sorcerer's castle before it crumbled into oblivion. 

And yet, the lich was not as dead as one would think. 

The Horned King opened his eyes once more, feeling his body and soul back in one piece, unclaimed by the cauldron. The swirling green energies he had seen during his last moments now appeared a dark purple, swirling around his form. He recognized this kind of magic - teleportation, specifically a portal of darkness. It was not something a mere mortal could pull off - only someone with a high proficiency in magic, and an even higher caliber in controlling the powers of darkness, could use. 

Someone was calling to him. Someone powerful. Someone evil. Someone like him. 

With deliberate, slow steps, the lich shambled through the dark purple void, drawn to the power that called forth to him. Shimmering at the end of the void was the image of a castle courtyard, with some figures standing together. How kind of whomever had saved him from the brink of destruction to also form a procession for his arrival. While he was not keen on thanking whoever was behind this sorcery, there was no denying that whatever was on the other side of this vortex was intriguing - and far more preferable to oblivion. 

And with a one final step, and the Horned King emerged from the darkness, and entered the courtyard with blazing eyes. 

Villains continued to emerged from beyond the veil. A sizable crowd had already gathered, and Maleficent could feel that more were on their way. The current crowd was already starting to get a bit restless. Maleficent hated to have to repeat herself, but she knew quite well that if she didn't address her new associates quickly, they'd quickly turn on each other. Later arrivals would simply need to be informed of her proposition as they arrived.

"Listen well, all of you!"

A booming clap of thunder echoed throughout the courtyard, causing a deafening silence to befall the crowd. All eyes were on Maleficent, as they should be. She grinned wickedly.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil. T'was I who brought you all here from across many different realms, both of the living and the dead. Some of you may already know the Prophecy of Five. Others of you may not. The Prophecy granted me and four others incomparable cosmic powers capable of ruling the universe! We have called upon all of you to aid in our quest to establish dominion over the cosmos. Each of you was summoned because, in your heart, you truly desired the opportunity to remake the world in your own image and achieve all that has been denied to you. Power, riches, revenge.

Yet none of you have been able to accomplish your designs working alone. The forces who think themselves to be morally righteous and the only ones deserving of happiness have ever blocked the path of all who you see before you. We are kindred spirits who need one another, and I have the perfect plan already in mind. Your cooperation will be richly reward, and your refusal punished severely. Together, all that we desire shall come to pass. This is my promise to you! So, what say you? Who shall join my Villainous Faction?"

Hades applauded after Maleficent's speech.

"Bravo! Well said, babe. Gave me chills, really did with the whole needing each other and the severe punishment booga-booga. Oh, and, uh, for the rest of you crazy kooks, name's Hades, Lord of the Dead, God of the Underworld, one of the aforementioned Big Five. And, uh, just to put a fine point on everything, some of you here were, to put it bluntly, dead."

Hades glared rather pointedly at Sykes and Ratigan.

"You guys are, to coin a phrase, livin' on a prayer. Namely a prayer to, well, ME! I know exactly who you are, and I know which ones of you are also livin' on borrowed time."

Hades's gaze turned to Mozenrath for a moment.

"Those of you who aren't dead and haven't been dead, let's just say it costs me zip, nada, zilch to book ya a seat on the ol' River Styx cruise. Capiche? So, here's the IV-I-I: the bar is set pretty low. Case in point."

Hades gestured next to him where Pain and Panic stood waving at the crowd.

"You limbo under the bar, you go to Tartarus, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred drachma. You prove yourselves useful then, hey, you get the coveted Hades Seal of Approval which means I won't FRY you once ya buy the farm. Ya got the concept? Yeah, don't care if you do, because you're on Underworld time now, babes, and it's a small Underworld after all."