Villain Academy
The so-called Villain Academy was one of the world's most dangerous villainous organizations - while also being one of the least known to the public. The US Government decided to mostly suppress the knowledge about it as a part of a larger-scale suppression of the public knowledge about Archvile. Done, in turn, in order to hopefully limit his ability to find potential recruits.
Villain Academy at its peak was the greatest empire of crime that the North America (not just the United States of America, although it was centered there) ever saw. It however collapsed following the Archvile's death at hands of Invincible, the remaining assets either joining one of many lesser villainous organizations or, eventually, resurfacing as the core element of the Villain Alliance of America.
Structure
The Villain Academy never had anything resembling a well-defined structure. It was a network of semi-independent facilities, all centered on Archvile and a handful of members of his personal court. It was always hiding behind other organizations, doing very little 'outward' crime and instead focusing on supporting other crime syndicates from the background.
Most of the members of the Villain Academy didn't even know that they were parts of it, instead working for smaller, independent and not entirely legal businesses. The only people who knew the full truth were the higher ranked members and the cadres of the training facilities, the main focus of the organization in question.
Public Agenda
Villain Academy's focus was the creation of new villains - as one can glean from the name alone. Archvile had no political or societal preferences whatsoever in that fact, creating villains of any type - but almost uniformly lieutenants or supervillains, with very few mooks.
To this goal VA employed a small army of people and primitive AIs in order to search through internet (and various other media) for people who were deemed as being sufficiently 'close' to breaking into villainy. Once their credentials and background was properly confirmed (together with necessary observation to make sure that it wasn't a police or heroes set-up), the potential recruit was visited by Archvile who offered them an individuality.
Once they committed a 'proper' crime (without getting instantly caught), a representative from the VA would approach them with an offer of 'proper' training. If they would agree, they would join one of the Villain Academy's training facilities. Receiving harsh training in both regular combat and their individuality, together with numerous other practical skills - ranging from disguises into handling explosives. This also happened to potential students that already HAD an individuality, and were simply invited to join it.
The VA graduates were typically handed to various villainous organizations in exchange for a significant monetary donation for continuous operations of the Villain Academy, or allowed to roam free and independent (in exchange for paying back their costs of education in installments). At its height, the very existence of Archvile became terrifying (and useful) enough that a lot of those organizations were downright paying him a monthly fee so that they would retain access to his services.
Once the US Government began to crack down on the Academy severely (especially once Invincible got officially involved), the system stopped being profitable due to regular arrests of its 'free-roaming' graduates before they managed to pay back for their education, and due to common cases of students dying during the training.
From then on VA began to 'lend' their current students to various villainous organizations as a form of paid internships, while also supplying it with moneys from a number of legal (or illegal) enterprises controlled remotely by the Archvile.
History
No one knows where and when exactly was the Villain Academy born, as by the time the government became aware of it, it was already operating in full-swing. Attempting to trace back its assets much later generally failed as well.
Disbandment
Only Archvile knew the full scope of the Villain Academy. Only he knew all the secret accounts, the identities of all of the moles in local police departments and media, and so on. As a result, once he was died, the Villain Academy generally collapsed, its assets and cadres seized by other organizations.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Villainous Organization
Activity
Area - United States
Type - Support Organization
Threat Level - SSS
Type - Support Organization
Threat Level - SSS
Members
Supervillains
Lieutenants
Henchmen
Numbers Unknown
Comments