Vaudevillain

"Did we get him?" Dr. Zlo asked as he bounded into the control room.

"Can't tell yet," Sweet Dream replied.

The mothership's assault on Dr. Zlo's mansion had kicked up a dust cloud, masking the camera's eye. The two watched the screens as the cloud dispersed, intent on finding the hero that attacked them. But when the smoke cleared, there was no one down below.

Dr. Zlo cheered, "We got him!"

"And all it cost was the base," Sweet Dream said.

"But now we have a new one!"

"You want to make the mothership our new base?" Sweet Dream questioned.

"Dude! That sounds awesome!" Riptide said.

"Indeed, my aquatic companion. With this mothership, we can hold entire cities hostage!"

"Okay, I'm in," Sweet Dream answered. "But the first thing we ransom with this is a candy factory."

"Deal!" Dr. Zlo exclaimed. "I'll begin devising a fiendish plan immediately."

A pair of hands waving below caught Dr. Zlo's eye. He paused his conversation, looking over at the disturbance. The sole remaining Jacques had survived the assault on the base. It jumped up and down, trying to get the mothership's attention. Peering closer, the villain could see a group of hatbots with it, as well as a small group of rodents.

Dr. Zlo pointed, "It seems some of our minions survived the barrage."

"Good, I'll need those hatbots later," Sweet Dream said.

"Whatever for?" asked Dr. Zlo.

"Carrying candy."

"I see," said the villain. "Well, go pick them up, I'll head down to the tractor room to collect them."

The villainess nodded while Dr. Zlo strode over to the door. With a quick press of the button, the door hissed open, and the doctor walked straight out into a small group of ragged men and women. Leading the pack was a Quli alien, standing taller than Dr. Zlo. Blinking, the villain looked up at the alien, "Who are you?"

"We are the escaped prisoners," the Quli answered. "I am Irana, the exiled, and I lead this group. We have come to join you when you assault Qraxis's mothership."

Dr. Zlo raised a monocled eyebrow, "Why would we assault the alien's base?"

Irana tilted their head, "Surely, you are joining the others who have taken the keys?"

"Keys? What keys? I stole this mothership all on my own!"

Sweet Dream cleared her throat.

"With the help of some companions," Dr. Zlo continued.

Riptide moved over to his friend, hand on his gun just in case. Sweet Dream prepared to shift into her chocolate form, and Mabel readied to shout a command. Cass picked up a stolen ray gun, ready to defend his boss if needed.

"I don't understand. You need the keys to control the mothership."

"Hah! I, the great Dr. Zlo, can unlock anything with my dizzying intellect."

"I see," Irana mused. "In that case, we have come to join you when you assault Qraxis's mothership."

"I already told you I don't plan on doing that."

"Surely, you are joining the others who have taken the keys?"

Riptide nudged Dr. Zlo, "Dude, I think you broke the game."

"I think you're right," Dylan said. "I think we can fix it, though. Mabel!"

"Yes hon?"

"I want this new group under my control."

"You got it," Mabel walked forward, "Would you kindly obey Zlo hon from now on?"

The prisoners all stiffened, then relaxed. Irana saluted to the villain, "Ready for orders, sir."

"Good work Mabel. Now, I'm going to collect the rest of our minions. And then we shall decide where to go next!"

With that, Dr. Zlo stepped out of the room and down to the tractor beam. Sweet Dream went back to the console and activated the tractor beam, collecting the last of their minions. Dr. Zlo walked into the control room a few moments later with the hatbots and mice. He'd left the Jacques down with the others in the tractor beam room. Jawbreaker had procured a set of playing cards and set up a game of Go Fish.

"Alright," Dylan said, dropping his Dr. Zlo persona. "Where to next."

"Hold up, dude," Riptide said. "We just freaking stole an alien mothership!"

He ran up to Dylan, hand at the ready for a high-five. Dylan returned it, relishing the loud clap the motion made. Riptide ran over to Sweet Dream next, hand at the ready. She returned the high five as well, a smile growing on her face.

"Holy sh*t, we actually did it," she said.

"I know! We're the baddest villains around!" Riptide cheered.

Dylan smiled along with them, "I'm honestly amazed the whole thing worked out. I was sure we'd get stopped by something along the way."

"We almost did," Sweet Dream answered. "When they had those mind control headbands on, I was sure it was over. And then when Surf almost f*cked it up, I thought we'd get shoved into that prison." The woman jerked a hand over at Qurana, "And then you almost died when that one fought you one on one. You're lucky you had my power and Mabel's."

Dylan grinned, "I know right; it was awesome."

"Yeah it was!" Riptide cheered.

"It's too bad the mansion got destroyed," Sweet Dream said. "I was looking forward to bringing the hatbot factory up."

"Yeah," Dylan agreed. "Losing the minion factories and disassemblers sucked."

A mouse poked Dylan with its nose. He turned to see the mouse shaking its head.

"What?" he asked.

The mouse grabbed him by the sleeve and tugged in the direction of a console.

"Okay…" Dylan stood and walked over, shrugging when his friends gave him a questioning glance.

He brought the mouse to the computer and set it down on top of the keyboard. The rodent immediately started to type.

Lord, your factories are not destroyed.

"Um, I think they were. I doubt they could survive the laser barrage."

"What?" asked Riptide.

"My mouse says the factories aren't destroyed," answered Dylan.

"What?" questioned Sweet Dream. She and Riptide stood to join Dylan.

The factories weren't in the mansion when it was attacked.

"Aw man," Riptide said, "did someone steal them?"

The mouse shook its head. Your companion came by to take them earlier—the one called Singularity.

"John did?" said Dylan. Why would his friend do that? Did he need them for a crime he wanted to commit? If so, why didn't he message to ask? Dylan would have gladly let John use the factories if he needed them.

"That motherf*cker," Sweet Dream cursed, breaking Dylan out of his thoughts.

Her two friends turned to look at her.

"Don't you see?" she growled. "He betrayed us."

Dylan looked at his friend, incredulous, "What? No. John wouldn't do that."

Sweet Dream looked at him, "He took the factories right before that hero attacked the base. He knew it was going to happen and didn't even say anything!"

Dylan shook his head, "No. No way. I've been friends with him for years."

"It is kinda suspicious, dude," Riptide said.

Dylan continued shaking his head. He refused to believe his friend would do something like that. "No. He probably saw the hero coming and took them away."

"Then why didn't he contact you?" Sweet Dream snapped.

"I don't know. Maybe there were more heroes."

"Bullsh*t," Sweet Dream cursed. "He betrayed us. I should have known too. The commanding type, always needed to be right, tried to force us to play a certain way. Textbook toxic material."

"Hey! John's not toxic." Dylan argued.

Sweet Dream scoffed, "Right, like I'm going to believe that after the argument you two had. He tried to guilt you into playing the game his way and then tried to stick you in the basement to make all the gadgets. Face it; he tried to use you."

"You don't know the first thing about him!" Dylan defended.

"Hey," Riptide said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulders. "Calm down guys."

In a calm voice, Riptide reasoned with his friends, "Dream, Zlo is right. We don't know if there was a reason to take the factories. But Zlo, Dream is right as well. This is pretty suspicious."

"He wouldn't do that," Dylan argued. "We've been friends for years. He isn't like that."

"Are you sure?" Riptide said calmly. "Maybe he didn't do it to you, but were there times he did it to others?"

Dylan shook his head, refusing to even think about it. John had been his friend almost his whole life. "He's not like that."

"Then ask him," Sweet Dream said, taking a few breaths to calm down after her earlier outburst. "Ask him if he has the factories. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize."

"Fine," Dylan said. He opened up his friends list and selected John's username.

Once John decided on his course of action, he crept over to a nearby sewer drain and ducked inside. Once underground, he dumped the factories and made his way back topside. A hotfix a bit ago had let assimilation powers drop their items after a few used it to troll. Once John finished, it was a matter of waiting for Dylan to message him again. He knew his friend would do it to keep him in the loop.

Sure enough, his friends list glowed a few minutes later. John opened the window with a bit of focus and looked at the message.

Superfan39526:

Hey, the mansion's destroyed.

So Dylan was leading with that. That made it easy then. John could stay ignorant about the factories, and Dylan would be none the wiser.

DemarX:

What!!

Dude

I told you you needed better defenses!

Superfan39526:

Well

I destroyed it

DemarX:

The f*ck?

Why

Superfan39526:

So we stole the mothership.

But a hero attacked.

I couldn't beat him so I decided to blow it all up.

That way it didn't get stolen.

DemarX:

If you have better defenses you wouldn't have to

Now you lost everything

We're going to have to start from scratch

You'll have to make everything again.

John expected Dylan to reply quickly. Maybe with a sorry or some other apology. But his friend didn't, not even after a few minutes. Confused, John sent another message.

DemarX:

You there?

Over in Haven City's gas plant, a villain harassed a single super, who desperately tried stopping the man.

"Oh, give up," the villain said. "You can't win against the Black Syndicate. We're inevitable. One of the great immutable laws of nature."

"Shut up," the hero said. He grunted in exertion as he dodged another black tendril from the villain. The man's power seemed to produce tentacles from behind his back, which lashed out at anything that got too close.

"You think I'm wrong? Even now, our leader has captured your leader while my associates control every institution that runs the city. By this time tomorrow, the entire city will be ours. We are inevitable.

"Seriously," the hero said as his body twisted at an impossible angle to dodge, "shut up. I don't need any of this banter. I'm here to kill you for rep."

The villain sighed. "Oh, how the mighty heroes have fallen. You used to be protectors of the innocent, defenders of justice. Now you're corrupt and power-hungry. But, I guess that's the case for any institution. At least the evil ones know what they'll become."

An opening appeared in the villain's attacks. Seizing his chance, the hero rolled forward and used the momentum to swing a kick at the villain. At the last second, the hero stopped the attack. A tentacle had appeared to grab the foot.

"Nice try," the hero said, coming out of his roll. "But my power makes me almost impossible to hit."

The villain smiled, "Almost, eh?" And with that, he gestured.

A tentacle lashed out, missing the nimble hero by inches. Another followed, then another, and another. The hero dodged the all, flipping into the air to avoid the strikes. And then an attack came from behind him. Through system assistance, the hero twisted in midair and avoided the blow. He whirled to see a portal opened behind him, tentacles lashing out from the black void. The hero dodged left, only to find another portal. He stepped right, but another portal appeared. Finally, one more portal closed the cage, and the hero was caught in a box of lashing appendages. He fell to the assault shortly after.

"This is Ferris," said the villain into his comm. "Area secured."

"Good job," answered Dextra. "The plan is now underway. The city will be ours shortly."