Vaudevillain

“So I hear you’re visiting my neck of the woods for a bit?” Thomas asked as he met up with Dylan.

The two were in their personas, walking through Skyline to prep for their event. Once Dylan had mentioned his invention requirements, Thomas wanted to include it in their plans.

“Just think, we can spread rumors of what’s getting stolen, which gets people talking about our thing,” the man said.

Dylan had shrugged in agreement. “I don’t see why not. It’s sounds like a great teaser for what’s to come.”

Now, the two were heading to Dextra’s office to meet with others and plan the upcoming videos. Rampart and the others wanted to try making a teaser trailer for the event. Dylan happily agreed.

“Yeah, planning to visit the second week of next month,” Dylan said. “Jack’s already planning a number of things to do while I’m there.”

“She already tell you about the Structure?” Thomas asked.

“No?” Dylan answered questioningly.

“It’s actual name is something else,” Thomas went on. “It was some modern art piece the city commissioned. He went all in, building the craziest jungle gym of a sculpture. So everyone calls it the Structure.”

“Sounds goofy,” Dylan said. “And also something that Dr. Zlo would steal.”

“Oh, totally,” Thomas said. “Actually, we could make that a thing in the future. Have you go around replacing all the art pieces with your likeness.”

“That’s classic villainy for sure,” Dylan said. “I’m gonna have to do it now.”

“Since the next expansion might take a bit, why not use it as filler?” Thomas offered.

“I might,” Dylan said. “Once we figure out everything with with the event.”

The two friends walked into Dextra’s office, meeting with the core members of Menagerie. Rampart, Oro, Titan, and Merla stood to the side talking while Sweet Dream and Riptide sat next to Shizuka, debating Riptide’s hero character. Jack stood a bit to the side, only half-listening.

Dylan waved to her and received a smile in return.

“Sorry for the wait,” Thomas said, getting everyone’s attention.

“No prob, dude,” Riptide said.

“Every prob, dude,” Shizuka said.

Sweet Dream rolled her eyes at the antics.

Thomas pushed forward, ignoring his friend’s antics. “Alright, we’ve mostly got the idea of the even hammered out. Menagerie is blasted into an alternate universe with a heroic Dr. Zlo, Sweet Dream, and Riptide, along with a different villainous Dextra.”

“CEOverlord, right?” Merla asked. “We reach out to him yet?”

“I’ve sent a message,” Thomas answered. “He’s, and I quote, ‘So in.’”

“Anyone else we want to add for this?” Dylan asked. “Alternate villain versions or anything?”

“That’s something we were thinking about as well,” Rampart said. “I’m thinking we put it to a vote. Have the faction pick who they want most.”

“I’m voting for a heroic me,” Shizuka said.

“If we’re doing opposites, your hero version would be the most straight-laced, serious, and no-nonsense character. You know that right?” Sweet Dream asked.

Shizuka threw her hands in the air. “Well nevermind that then! Way to ruin the fun. Fun ruiner, that’s your new nickname.”

“I think a villainous Titan would be fun,” Rampart said. “Considering his backstory and everything.”

“Perhaps,” Titan said. “Thought I’m sure people would also love to see a heroic Dextra.”

“No way,” Shizuka argued. “All that’s going to be is another Steelman, Chiropteraman, or some other boring my superpower is money.”

“As opposed to a villain whose superpower is money?” Sweet Dream pointed out.

“But it’s evil money!” Shizuka argued.

“Let’s get back on task,” Thomas said. “We’ll make a poll for people to vote on and choose more characters from there. Rampart, can you get on that?”

“Sure,” the player said.

Thomas turned to Shizuka. “Shizuka, I want you to do some scouting for us. Dr. Zlo’s Morality Manipulator—“

“Modifier,” Dylan clarified.

“Sorry, Modifier, needs items from heroes and villains to change them. Everyone here is going to think up the items for their characters but we’ll need something important for the NPC heroes. I want you to go find those items and give us their location.”

“You got it, Dex,” Shizuka answered.

“Wonderman definitely needs to be one,” Dylan said. “And probably as many well-known heroes as you can.”

Shizuka saluted. “One tall order, but I can make it work. I am, as you know, super sneaky.”

“Good,” Thomas said. “The rest of us are going to work on getting promotional material ready.”

“Nothing fancy,” Merla said. “More announcements that we’re planning something new for everyone.”

“Are we letting everyone know about the parallel world idea?” Jack asked.

“I’m of two minds about it,” Merla said. “Because we need more than just, ‘A new event is coming,’ but I don’t want to spoil the idea to everyone either.”

“Dude, won’t it already get spoiled with the poll?” Riptide asked.

“Sh*t, you’re right,” Merla cursed. “Do we just not do it then?”

“No, the poll is fine,” Thomas said. “Since we need more than the few heroes and villains we have now. There’s no telling how big this even will be but considering everyone in the game knows who we are I don’t think it’ll be small.”

“Alternate worlds are pretty common in superhero settings,” Dylan said. “Announcing it isn’t going to spoil anyone from joining.”

“And we don’t have to word the poll in a way that would tip people off to the alternate world counterparts,” Rampart said. “We could make it more like a popularity contest.”

Merla relaxed. “Okay. Then we were thinking of making an announcement showing what happened after the moon exploded. We can use a lot of the footage from the last even but we’ll need a few things from everyone. Mostly shots of everyone reacting to the moon being back in the sky and such.”

She turned to Dylan. “We were also thinking of a teaser trailer right before the event starts. Basically have some dialogue between Dr. Zlo and Dr. Dobro.”

“I can do that,” Dylan said.

“Great,” Merla said. “That’s probably all we need from our end. Anything else?”

Rampart ticked questions off his fingers. “Yeah, where’s Dr. Zlo putting the Morality Modifier? If it’s on Skyline, are we kicking all the heroes out to stop them? Or are we just planning to use our teleporters to jump everyone to where they need to be?”

“Good questions,” Thomas said. He looked to Dylan. “Any ideas?”

“I could make another warship or something,” Dylan said. “But I think stealth might actually be better here. What if Dr. Zlo contracts the various villains and then teleports to their locations when they activate a tracker or something? That way we can keep the Modifier hidden until it’s needed.”

“People are going to want Dr. Zlo out and about though,” Oro said. “Especially if we want Dr. Dobro and him to face off.”

“I could get my minions to transport it then,” Dr. Zlo said. “Might actually be a good job for Brunhilde.”

“Or you could make a new minion, an administrator of some kind,” Jack optioned.

“Maybe,” Dylan answered.

“Well, it sounds like we’ve got the base idea,” Thomas said. “Having the Morality Modifier teleport around is a good idea. Then the heroes can also use the trackers to bring it to them and use it.”

“We’ll need more than one then,” Merla said. “So no one gets stuck waiting.”

“Oh for sure dude,” Riptide said. “Waiting sucks.”

“Okay, the base plan is this,” Thomas said. “Skyline learns that destroying the moon took us to this new reality. Not wanting to repeat his mistakes, Dr. Zlo decides to go for a more subtle approach. He builds the Morality Modifier and goes around turning heroes into villains. We should probably get a few of the minor NPC heroes converted before we actually start the big event. That way Dr. Zlo can make a grand announcement once he thinks he has the upper hand. Then, in the ‘spirit of fairness’ he announces his next targets. That’s when the alternate counterparts start showing up.”

“Just checking,” Sweet Dream said. “Alternate counterparts are fighting each other, right?”

“Right,” Thomas said.

“Even you and CEOverlord?” She asked.

Thomas tilted his head. “Good question.”

“I’d say yes,” Dylan said. “Dextra and CEOverlord take offense to their respective counterpart’s business ideals or something.”

“That works,” Thomas said. “I’ll go with that.”

“How are we letting the heroes know they can change the villains back?” Merla asked.

“The alternate counterparts,” Dylan answered. “If the heroes win and capture the NPC heroes turned villain they can change them back. We’ll make sure to keep their items with the Modifier.”

“Sounds like some poor planning,” Shizuka commented.

“More like hubris,” Dylan said. “Because why would Dr. Zlo need to hide the items when he can’t possibly fail?”

“Okay, you got me there,” Shizuka said.

“Great, then the next step is building hype,” Merla said. “We’re working on that and should have a finished product in a couple of weeks as long as we can get some stuff from everyone.”

“Easy peasy,” Shizuka said.

“I’ll work on the trackers and teleporters,” Jack said.

“And I’ll get some more minions ready for this,” Dylan said.

“Heck yeah, dude!” Riptide said.

“Remember guys, none of this is starting until Vert announces their next expansion,” Thomas said.

“You got it, bossman,” Shizuka saluted.

“But waiting is so boring, dude!” Riptide argued good-naturedly.

“And it seems a bit petty, don’t you think?” Sweet Dream asked. “Besides, we already planning our last even around their expansion.”

“You don’t find it frustrating that all of our work got reset?” Thomas asked. “Not even stopped or repaired, but completely reset as if it never happened?”

“I mean, sure dude,” Riptide said. “But you gotta roll with it. Best revenge is a life well lived and all that.”

“It would be better to do this at a different time I think,” Rampart said. “If we run the even when the expansion comes out, it’ll only look as if the expansion brought all the players in. If we do it at a different time our event could outshine theirs. That’s better I think.”

Thomas sighed. “Alright, if you guys are sure.”

“Let’s face it,” Jack said. “Most of us are probably here until the next good MMO comes out for the VIS. Once something better comes along this game is probably dead.”

“Play count keeps steadily growing,” Sweet Dream pointed out.

Jack shrugged. “Then maybe it sticks around, who knows.”

“Either way, we’ve got our event sorted,” Dylan said. “I’ll get the minions done by the end of today and we can go from there.”

“Same for the teleporters,” Jack said. She looked to Dylan. “Want to work on things together?”

“For sure,” Dylan answered.