Vaudevillain

Once Dr. Zlo and his crew escaped from the school, the box acknowledging their success appeared in front of his face.

For completing your crime and escaping, you have been granted some reputation! Your current reputation is now C. Your reputation will increase to B after 1 more escapade(s).

At the same time, Dylan saw one of his friends had sent a message. He opened up a group chat that showed the current members of Menagerie. Dylan noticed a few names he hadn't seen before. It seemed the team had recruited a few more players. The latest message came from Riptide.

Surfsup26:

DUDES SOMEONE LEAKED PATCH NOTES

Candequeen:

No one leaked it you dork.

Vert released the changes on one of the smaller servers overseas first.

We should see it all tomorrow.

Surfsup26:

Oh

My bad

Dylan chuckled. It looked like Riptide was back online. He opened up a chat window to send a message.

Superfan39526:

Yo

You finish that test?

Surfsup26:

Dude, don't get me started!

I spent all night cramming

Only to fall asleep halfway through the exam

Dream got pissed

Dylan snorted, drawing Shizuka's attention.

"What's up, Zloblorone?"

"Riptide," Dylan answered.

Superfan39526:

I do not miss college, that's for sure.

Anyways

You good to start our Tsunami plan?

Surfsup26:

Dude

SO READY

I can't wait to surf something that big

Gonna break all the world records!

Superfan39526:

I'll meet you back at Skyline then.

Surfsup26:

Sounds good, dude.

Dylan closed the chat window and turned back to his crew. He noticed the janitor was still following.

"Mabel?"

"Yes, Zlo hon?"

"Why do we still have the trap detector with us?"

"He suits me, don't you think? And just look at that body, you could grind meat on those pecs alone."

"Well, if you say so," Dr. Zlo replied. "But I need to know what to call him."

"I-I have a name," the janitor said. "It's Ju–"

"No, wait!" Dr. Zlo held up a hand. "Revealing your name could become a point of weakness! I'll call you, Suitor."

"Isn't that great, Suitor. You're part of the family now." Mabel jumped into the strong man's arms, snuggling in closer to his toned body.

"I-I really should–"

"Come along now!" Suitor looked up to see Dr. Zlo already walking down the street, his coat tails flapping in the light breeze. He opened his chat one more time to message Rampart that he finished his tasks. The hero messaged back to meet them outside the city, where the shuttle dropped them off earlier.

"We should follow him, dear," Mabel said.

Suitor stiffened, then started walking behind the villainous crew.

_________

They met up with the others at the edge of Mutatholis, Rampart sitting on top of his barrier and practicing something with his team. They sat in front of the shuttle, the bus-like object resting on the grass below.

"Oh, hey," the monk said as he saw Dr. Zlo. "Did your quest go well?"

"Of course! Dr. Zlo never fails in a task he sets out to do!"

"Except when he does," Shizuka joked.

"Silence! My intellect created the distraction, and my genius allowed us to escape!"

"Sure, Zloblorone."

Dr. Zlo idly fired his laser in Shizuka's direction, which the ninja promptly dodged.

"Well, we found a couple of quests that were actually pretty fun," Oro said, shaking his head at the two's antics. "One involved escorting this old lady who turned out to be some bigshot in the heroes guild. Went up against all these mutants with powers."

"Oh, and there was that one where we infiltrated that mutant registration group and found out they were going to bomb the school. Got to go through this whole minigame defusing a bomb." Merla added.

"Sounds pretty cool," Shizuka said.

"Yes, protecting the peace of this city was both challenging and rewarding," Titan said.

"Well, if you're ready to go, we can head back up to Skyline," Rampart said. "Dextra and I brought in a few more members, and people have been hard at work building outward."

"Lead the way," Dr. Zlo said.

The group filed into the waiting shuttle and made their way back up to the flying city of Skyline. Along the way, Rampart shared his tale of defeating the MRM's terrorist attack.

"It started as a simple tailing mission. We were supposed to follow this mutant, who was on the list for petty theft. Not something we'd normally do, but the other option was base defense at the time, and we'd done enough of that with the aliens. So we bit the bullet and took the quest."

Rampart took a breath, "Turns out, this quest was more like an investigation leading into a tailing mission. When we arrived at the area specified, there wasn't anyone who matched the quest description. That was when Titan,"

"I started asking around," Titan continued. "The fine people of Mutatholis wouldn't willingly house a criminal. At least, that's what I assumed."

"No one would give us the time of day when we asked about the criminal," Merla said. "Not until we found someone who looked a bit shaken by all the questions."

"Turns out, the criminal we were looking for was being coerced by some other thugs in the area. He was forced to use his mutant ability to steal things for them." Oro said.

"We couldn't let such injustice stand," Titan said. "Therefore, we promised to save the boy from the thugs."

Rampart to cut in at that moment, "So we got a location from the guy. Apparently, the criminal we were looking for was heading to the thug's hideout on the river but had stopped by a corner store to pick up something for them. Once we had directions, Merla took to the skies and searched from above while the rest of us spread out around the area."

"I found the guy walking away toward the river, his hoodie stuffed to the brim," Oro said.

"He relayed the info to me, and I tailed him all the way to this warehouse on the river's edge," Merla said. "There, I saw the thugs shaking our tail down and grabbing all the snacks he'd took."

Oro continued the story, "Merla called us all over, and we made a plan to take the thugs out. But before we could, a group of men and women in body armor drove up and assaulted the thugs. We thought they were police or something until we noticed the MRM tag on their armor."

"That, and the thugs were tranquilized along with our tail," Rampart added.

"Right," Oro nodded. "So we thought this was suspicious, and the quest hadn't told us to stop tailing the petty thief. So Merla followed them from the air again while we chased on the ground."

"These MRM guys took the mutants to some apartment building. Some big, ritzy place," Merla said. "I followed them in by sneaking in through the roof."

Oro started to speak, visibly excited, "Turns out Merla found–"

"I found that this MRM group was going to set off a bomb in the building and frame the mutants for it," Merla interjected. "The MRM was planning to use the bombing to create more tension between mutants and non-mutants."

"It was pretty awesome," Rampart said. "It was a breath of fresh air after all of those simple quests in Haven."

"I guess not every city can have a banger storyline," Shizuka said.

"No kidding," Rampart replied.

The heroes continued to talk about their quests all the way back to Skyline. Dylan only listened to the rest of their stories in passing, their talk from before giving him an idea. While before, the idea of the tsunami bomb was something meant for Riptide (and to threaten Vert), the talk of heroes stumbling on the plot piqued Dylan's interest. What if he tried to design an entire series of quests leading to a grand fight with Dr. Zlo and his team? Or better yet, make the crime exclusive to Menagerie. Heroes and villains would duke it out and let fate decide the outcome.

It sounded right up Dr. Zlo's alley, or it at least matched the idea of the character. This crime would be the first threatening plan for Dr. Zlo, the first try at world domination. He could try to leave little hints during his crimes, building up to the grand task of destroying coastal cities with the tsunami bomb. Though, he'd have to run it by Riptide first. It wouldn't be right to ignore his friend and go forward with the plan.