Vaudevillain

"So," Dylan said, dropping out of character for a second.

"So what?" Riptide asked as he yanked another baton off a guard.

The three friends were going through the equipment of each downed guard. Mabel and Cass stood next to the console, watching the countdown on the hacking tool. The captain and vice-captain stood next to the doors, waiting at attention.

Dylan unhooked a guard's belt, "What did you think of Dr. Zlo's speech?"

"To be honest," Sweet Dream replied, "a bit too put together. Don't get me wrong; it was great. Super evil sounding and everything. But earlier, you had this sort of manic energy. With the speech, you were something like a smooth villain. I kind of expected you to jump around more. Or gloat about how your victory was assured."

"I don't, I liked it," Riptide answered. "I'd say it was classy."

"I don't know," Dylan said, "maybe it was a bit too classy. I feel like I channeled too much class and not enough camp. But finding the line between the two is difficult."

"Eh, you'll work it out the more you do it, dude."

"Surf's right," Sweet Dream said, "you've got the idea for your character. Now you need to work on practicing it."

Dylan turned his head, "You sound like you've done this before."

Sweet Dream paused for a second to yank a headband off one of the guards, "My sister is really into theater. She never shuts up about characterization when she talks."

"Is she the one that always comes in while you're raiding?" asked Riptide. "The one that does the anime voice to rile the guys?"

"Yeah, her. So anyways, what are we going to do with this mothership once we have it?" Sweet Dream asked.

Dylan chose to ignore the obvious change in topic, "Well, I was thinking of using it to get revenge on the two players who ganked me a bit ago. Swing the ship back to the mansion, pick up the mice, then go find the two heroes."

Riptide scratched the back of his head, then remembered to remove his helmet when his fingers tapped the plastic. His thin blond hair fell into his eyes as he spoke, "That sounds a bit like overkill, dude."

"You think?" asked Dylan.

"Maybe a bit," chimed Sweet Dream. "Honestly, you should forget about those two. I know you said Dr. Zlo wouldn't forget a slight, but it's been so long now those heroes will probably have forgotten about attacking you."

"I don't know. All the older villains are petty."

"You could just say it's not worth your time," Riptide said. "You did steal a freaking alien mothership after all. That's way above street-tier level."

"In the process of stealing," Sweet Dream reminded. "We still need the hacker to finish."

Riptide laughed, "Dude, you are such a nitpicker."

"That's only because I have to deal with your forgetful *ss during raids."

The two friends laughed at each other's insults for a second before Riptide turned back to Dylan. "Anyways, dude. You don't have to complete each goal you set up. It is a game after all, who cares if Dr. Zlo doesn't always act in character."

"I mean," Dylan started, "I care a little. Well, more than a little. A lot more now that this heist is working out so well. I honestly thought we were going to get erased as soon as those guards appeared at the tractor beam."

Riptide chuckled, "Dude, same. I can't believe the NPCs replied to you like that. I've played a few games with advanced dialogue trees, but none of them are as flexible as this!"

"I think they get better as time goes on too," Sweet Dream said. "Like they're learning as they go."

"Vert did say they used neural networks for the NPCs," Dylan said.

Sweet Dream shrugged, "Yeah, but I didn't believe it. Not really."

Riptide stored the pile of tech in his inventory, "Oh man. Dream was so cynical when we first got the game. Said it would be another No Human's Heaven."

"Didn't that game come out decades ago or something?" Dylan questioned.

"Yeah, but people never stopped talking about it. It was one of the biggest gaming letdowns after all," Sweet Dream said.

"Dude, I saw this vid where a guy went in-depth on the whole creation of the game. Was super interesting. Also, I learned to never make your developer the PR guy."

"Isn't the guy who made World of Supers the one who announced it?" Dylan asked.

"Nah, Arthur is like the CEO of Vert. Runs the entire business side so the others can actually make games."

"Hey boss?" Cass interrupted.

"Yes, Cass?"

"Your hacker is done."

Dylan turned to the others, a wild grin on his face. "We did it!"

Riptide jumped to his feet, "Dude! We just stole a mothership!" He turned to Sweet Dream, raising his hand for a high five.

Sweet Dream obliged, smacking his hand with a satisfying smack, "H*ll yeah!"

The three rushed over to the console. The hacker sat ready, a new list of options scrolling past him.

"Can we use the actual console for controls?" Riptide asked, feet tapping impatiently against the floor.

"One sec," Dylan said. He scrolled through the list of options, "Here it is, manual control."

With a quick tap, Dylan moved control from the tool back to the mothership. Lights flashed like fireflies in the night as the consoles powered on. An array of holographic screens appeared, encircling the trio of players.

"Oh, wow," Sweet Dream said. She looked around at the screens, each a high powered camera aimed at the ground below.

"That's a lot of heroes," Riptide said.

"But where are my minions?" Dr. Zlo questioned.

He scanned the area, hoping to catch a trace of his creations. From what Dr. Zlo could tell, his minions had pulled the Quli over, creating a gap for the heroes to slip through. It let the force of do-gooders push through the first wall and engage with the second. Once there, the group had split in two, one staying back to fight the forces at the second defense while the other pressed on. That was why Dr. Zlo had seen a small group of supers with Wonderman and not the raiding party he'd expected in an MMO.

Dr. Zlo's eyes caught a glimpse of a red tail. "There!" he pointed. The others turned to look. Crouched behind the rubble of a building were Dr. Zlo's specialized minions. The mermaid had lost the Jacques carrying them. Instead, Jawbreaker held her up with one arm. Quartet was there as well, cane laid over a piece of rubble like a rifle. BB stood next to him, holding the last of its egg grenades. Jaws was nowhere to be found.

"I think our first order of business is rescuing our minions. Though, Riptide, I don't see Jaws anywhere."

"He's down in the mosh pit of heroes and aliens." Riptide pointed his finger two screens over. A prone Jaws lay underneath a collapsed mech, barely visible in the chaos.

"I don't think we can reach him," Sweet Dream said.

Riptide shrugged, "Oh well, he'll either survive and grow stronger or fall here. It's the way of the ocean, after all."

He broke character a second later, "Dang dudes that sounded really villainous. I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"And you ruined it there by breaking character," Sweet Dream pointed out.

Riptide stuck out a tongue before donning his helmet again, "You're just jealous that I thought of something good."

Dr. Zlo shouted before the two could get into another small argument, "Well, ladies and gentlemen! Let's get this show on the road!"

_____________________________________________________________________________

Over at Haven City's water plant, another Black Syndicate member, Snapdragon, waltzed around with a limp NPC. The villain hummed a tune as they spun the body in a circle, green vines helping to keep the body aloft.

"You know," Snapdragon said. "This would have been much easier if you'd surrendered."

She directed the question to a man tied up in a knot of vines and leaves. He dangled from the ceiling, blood rushing to his head as the twisting tendrils lowered him down to face Snapdragon. The villainess smiled, tapping the man on the nose as he struggled.

"We'll never surrender to villains like you!" the man declared.

Snapdragon rolled her eyes, "Ugh. You're all so boring. Have some creativity, why don't you? Can't you tell the world is changing? Heroes and villains don't matter anymore. All that matters is power."

Snapdragon squeezed a hand, manipulating the vines she controlled through her fingers. "I have that power, so it's my right to take what I want. Don't you think?"

The man choked, precious oxygen unable t enter his lungs.

"Aw," Snapdragon said. "I'm sorry, am I squeezing too hard? Is your frail little body unable to handle me?"

The man gasped out words, "Never. Surrender…"

Scoffing, Snapdragon clenched her fist, causing the vines to tighten and strangle the NPC. "Wrong words. Oh well, you'll make great fertilizer for my new plants." The villainess twirled around, picking up the other NPC she'd dropped, "I've got it all planned out. My cute little babies will filter the water and grow until nothing can stop them. The rest of the Black Syndicate will be helpless once I have my army."

Snapdragon turned back to her other captive, "Are you still listening?"

She found the NPC slumped over, neck bent at an awkward angle from her previous attack.

"Oh, right," she said. "I broke you because you're too weak."

Humming to herself, the villainess tossed away the two corpses and activated the communicator. "This is Snapdragon, I've secured the area."