Vaudevillain

“Gotcha covered, dude!” Firestarter shouted as Approximo shifted.

The hero chucked a can of lighter fluid, igniting the trailing liquid as it landed in the middle of the minions. Flames burst across the crowd, igniting the minions in front. The move gave approximo enough time to shift from bridge pillars to the suspension cables.

He dragged his shifted arms across the ground, sweeping the incoming minions away like a broom. The costumed NPCs from Aeterna followed behind as they worked their way into Davini’s building.

The door opened for them easily as they came. Approximo shifted back and ushered the NPCs inside. Mirror Mirror did the same, arriving on the opposite side of the door. Soon, all the NPCs they could collect were inside the building. The rest of the heroes followed soon after, Approximo closing the door on the chaos outside. One of the NPCs pulled a wooden beam over the door, locking it in place.

It shook as the minions tried to get in, but the door was the only entrance.

“Dudes, this sucks,” Firestarter said once they were all together. “How are we supposed to play our awesome music if this CEOverlord is taking over the city!”

They walked into a circular antechamber. A low electric light ran through the building, giving the room a warm glow. Framed, half-finished blueprints hung on the walls. Plaques hung underneath them, describing each blueprint in great detail. The NPCs milled about the room in their colorful garb, giving the area a festive look despite the drab circumstances.

“Not the point,” Gameset said. “We should be figuring out how to stop this. We have time, they aren’t getting in here anytime soon.”

The door rattled, but otherwise held strong. One of the NPCs moved a heavy dresser in front for good measure.

“We don’t even know where this CEOverlord is,” Of a Kind said. “How are we supposed to stop him?”

“I’m just trying to make suggestions,” Gameset answered. “At least we saved some of the people.”

“Maybe they could tell us how to get Animatronic?” Approximo asked.

“Maybe,” Gameset answered. “But he’s supposed to be out of the city.”

“You are correct, madam,” Lorenzo said, surprising everyone.

“Dude, I forgot you were here,” Firestarter said with a laugh.

“I am known to be stealthy if required,” Lorenzo answered. “And I must thank you for saving me.”

“It’s what we do,” Of a Kind answered. “But I don’t know how long it will last. Did you see those minions? There were so many.”

“This villain must have been planning for a while,” Approximo said.

“Which means we don’t have a lot of options to stop this unless we ride out the storm,” Gameset said. “Though, real talk, we all know this won’t last. Vert’s just going to come in and reset it all.”

“Yeah,” Dylan sighed. “Too bad, this CEOverlord sounds like a villain after Dr. Zlo’s own heart.”

Riptide laughed. “No way, dude. Dr. Zlo would hate this guy. He can’t have anyone grandstanding better than he does.”

“Yeah, he’d totally hate this guy,” Sweet Dream said.

“They might work together for a short time,” Jack said. “But once either got the chance I bet they’d double cross the other.”

“Dude, you should totally get on Dr. Zlo and interrupt this dude!” Riptide said to Dylan.

“Nah,” Dylan said. “I don’t want to ruin this guy’s fun. It’d be better if we could just find a way to get to the chapel and do our thing. Approximo wouldn’t leave these people though. He’s too heroic for that.”

“I think of all of us, only my character would leave,” Oro said. “And even then he’d stick around because everyone else is.”

“Well, I’m not about to wait this whole thing out,” Sweet Dream said. “There’s got to be something to do.”

“Maybe this tower has a dungeon or something,” Jack said. “We could explore and see?”

“Better than nothing,” Sweet Dream said.

“You two feel free,” Dylan said. “I might just stick around here and read a few of these blueprints. Maybe I can find some inspiration for Dr. Zlo.”

“Sounds good, dude,” Riptide said. “I’m gonna join in the exploring.”

“I’ll stick around,” Oro said. “Maybe try and mess with my powers some more.”

“Alright, we’ll be back after we’ve explored the area,” Jack said. “Message if anything happens.”

“You got it,” Dylan said.

The five of them split up. Dylan wandered over to the blueprints. He walked between the blueprints, spending minutes looking at images of early pumps for wells and gears. His eye moved to one of the flying machines, a helicopter with a single spiraling wing above it.

“You think Dr. Zlo would use a helicopter like this?” Dylan asked Oro.

Oro glanced at the blueprint before shaking his head. “Nah. Actually, maybe. It depends on how old time villain you want to go. Don’t some of them have like, pedal powered flying bikes?”

“Maybe?” Dylan answered. “I’m not actually sure.”

Oro thought about it. “What if you had Dr. Zlo make like helicopter packs for his minions?”

Dylan looked thoughtful. “I could see it.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking of our quest against Dr. Zlo and us getting stuck here,” Oro said. “I might have an idea to complete Dr. Zlo’s quest and ‘save the city’ as it were.”

Dylan looked intrigued. “Do tell?”

Oro started talking. “So, Aeterna has more than one Dr. Zlo quest. All the cities do. Some are instanced, like the last, and some aren’t.”

“Like the Eiffel Tower knockoff,” Dylan said.

Oro nodded. “Exactly. Well, there’s another quest for the Coliseum here in Aeterna. Except it isn’t instanced so whatever is going on currently has to get involved.”

Dylan laughed. “You sneaky b*stard, you want to pit Dr. Zlo and this CEOverlord against each other.”

Oro smiled. “More like pit a Zlobot against this guy, but yeah.”

“True, this Dr. Zlo can’t match the genius that is the true mad inventor,” Dylan said with a flourish.

“The event triggers when enough heroes and villains, NPC or not, are in the coliseum,” Oro said. “We’d need like, twenty though. I’m not sure how we’d get them all.”

A thought came to Dylan. He turned to Lorenzo. “Lorenzo, you said that Aeterna has an undercity of criminals?”

“I did, good sir,” Lorenzo answered. “Why do you ask?”

“How many are down there?” Dylan asked.

“Oh, hundreds, I’m sure,” Lorenzo answered. “I don’t travel those parts myself, of course, but everyone says villains are around every corner down there.”

Dylan continued with the line of questioning. “And what about supervillains?”

“Oh, plenty sir, plenty. Animatronic’s nemesis, Destruco, lives down there. And his other Nemesis, Brainar. There’s also Stompo and Poundo, the Slammer twins. Oh, and—“

“Thank you, Lorenzo,” Oro said. “That’s all.”

He turned to Dylan. “Well, what do you think?”

“I think the idea is solid,” Dylan said. “Only problem is that I have no clue how we’re going to collect all those villains.”

“Well,” Oro said with a smirk. “We’re already triggering one quest. Who’s to say we can’t trigger a few more?”

Dylan gained a silly grin. “Oh, no, we’re going to so ruin this city, aren’t we.”

“I wouldn’t say ruin,” Oro said with a laugh. “Maybe shake it up a bit, sure.”

“I’ll message the others,” Dylan said. “You get working on a list of villains and how we might trigger their quests.”

“I’ll see how many we can overlap at once,” Oro said. “There’s got to be some of them that involve the Coliseum.”

Dylan sent the message to his friends, who were all instantly on board with the idea.

“Dude, this is going to be awesome!” Riptide said with a laugh as he walked in. “Dr. Zlo vs. Firestarter’s Fiesty Fighters and Friends!”

“There is no way you get to be our leader,” Sweet Dream said.

“And it’s not Approximo,” Dylan said. “He’s the heart of the team, but I don’t think he’s a planner.”

“Well let’s put that aside for now,” Jack said. “I’m all for this insanity, but how are we going to get out of this building?”

“Fight through the minions, of course,” Riptide said.

Jack shook her head. “Too many of them.”

“See, that’s why you can’t be the leader,” Sweet Dream teased. “You don’t take into account things like numbers.”

“I take plenty of numbers into account,” Riptide said.

“I’m agreeing with Dream here,” Dylan said. “You really don’t. And actually, if we’re talking about choosing a leader. Jack’s character is probably the best choice. She’s already directed all of us a few times.”

Riptide sighed. “But there’s no good G alliteration for Gameset.”

“Why would the team be named after my character?” Jack asked.

“Leaders get naming rights,” Riptide answered simply.

Jack shook her head. “Just go look for something we can use to escape this place.”