Title: Fear
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: November 10, 2023
Rating: K
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer:  “Villainous” created by Alan Ituriel and belongs to AI Animation, Cartoon Network and associated parties.

Watching Flug collapse into a puddle of nerves was equal parts hilarious and pathetic, Black Hat mused. Oh, he could reduce anyone to a quivering mess. But, it took nothing with Flug. A sudden appearance. The slightest change of form. Parlor tricks.

It was right that the man fear him, but Flug took it to ridiculous heights.

Despite that, Flug had lasted an impressive length of time compared to his predecessors.

The overly ambitious went quickly. The incautious – like his last chief scientist - shortly after. But, the shortest were always the fearless.

It was illogical. They seemed the perfect fit. Those stoic, amoral types who cared only for research. He could ask anything, and they never balked, never flinched. The research was all, and so long as it was challenging, it commanded their full attention.

The problem, if he was honest, which he wasn’t inclined to be on principle, was himself.

They didn’t quiver when he roared, didn’t scream when he appeared in odd places and odder forms, and saw his defiance of the scientific laws man considered inviolate as a fresh challenge to unravel and reduce to data. Oh, they doubtless also fantasized about opening him up to see what was inside. But, he permitted that. He had similar fantasies about them.

It was the lack of fear he hated.

So, he made them fear him. It wasn’t hard. Just a tiny release of the true self he usually kept leashed to make business possible.

The problem was that it drove them mad. Well, it drove them mad faster. Because he drove everyone mad eventually. He could prolong it, savor it. But, serving him always ended in a corpse or a mindless husk to discard.

Pathetic creatures.

Flug chief among them.

And yet…. he had survived.

For now.

Author's Note: The bit about Black Hat's last chief scientist being "incautious" was referring to Black Hat's comment in the first orientation video about how he once puked in one of his subordinate's faces... and now he has Flug. I've seen the interpretation that that's why Flug wears a paper bag over his face, but I instead took that to mean it was a... uhm... fatal puking. And, Flug was the replacement.