Vaudevillain

"You found it? Great," Matt-att said into his communicator. "How long will it take until the virus gets done?"

"A few minutes at most," the man on the other line replied.

"Let me know when," the streamer replied. "I need to get good seats to show everyone on stream."

Matt-att closed his communicator and looked over the line of players following him. In a few minutes, Trollstompers would clash with Menagerie, performing the first major war inside World of Supers. Or at least, the first one broadcasted over the internet. Dr. Zlo and Valiant would face off, the winner becoming the first legend inside the game.

At least, that was how Matt-att saw it. Sure, there was that other player who got to make their own content first, but that didn't count. According to Matt-att, the player was someone connected with Vert from the beginning.

The thought that Vert had an inside man for the first expansion irked the streamer, but only a bit. It wasn't anything different than what other companies already did, and if Vert still contracted players for the next expansion, everything would be fine. Players could fight for a chance fair and square, with nothing to get in the way.

Matt-att felt he had a good shot. He was a prominent streamer of the game, and he made sure to show off all the game's highlights. The rivalry he held with Dr. Zlo was a point in his favor as well. As long as Matt-att played it up a bit, Dr. Zlo and he could become rivals.

That was the whole reason for interfering with Dr. Zlo's plan. All under the guise of stopping a troll, of course.

The hero marched along with his faction, spying groups of enemies as he neared the financial district near one of Dextra's many buildings. It was too bad Rollover couldn't keep the villain occupied for long. Oh well, the idea was a longshot anyway. Neither Matt-att nor Gen expected it to work.

As the streamer neared the enemy, he noticed many of them retreating. Confused, Matt-att stopped and turned to his strategist.

"Hey, what gives?"

Gen shrugged his shoulders, "Not sure yet. By all accounts, this is where we should fight. Menagerie's already trapped most of this area up, so there shouldn't be a reason for leaving unless something else happened."

Matt-att turned to look at the retreating army. "Anyone here have binoculars or something!" he shouted back to his faction.

A player jogged up and handed off a pair, "Here you go."

"Thanks." Matt-att grabbed the binoculars and aimed them straight at his retreating enemy. "None of them look stressed," he said. "In fact, all of them are joking around, having fun."

The streamer frowned. Sure, this whole fight wasn't real, but the player expected some tension going in. Matt-att handed the binoculars back to the player who gave them, noting the man's eager face. There was an undertone of seriousness to the player's smile. The streamer remembered seeing a similar look on athletes during games. By all accounts, that should have been Menagerie's overall tone.

Matt-att turned to look at Gen, "Do you think they gave up the fight?"

Gen shook his head, "No. My power says they're heading to the coast."

Matt-att thought for a second, taking the chance to read his chat as it commented. Throughout the lines of "coward" and "bubble-blowing babies" were speculations about why Menagerie retreated. As the text scrolled down, Matt-att's eye caught a comment in the feed.

Are they running to the bomb?

"The bomb!" Matt-att exclaimed.

"We vetted that," Gen explained. "Them activating it doesn't stop our overall plan."

"No, but it's the whole reason they're here," Matt-att said. "Dr. Zlo wants to sink Haven City under the waves. We should expect the rest of his group to follow suit."

"Guess we'd better get a move on," Ixzay said. The player pointed to the retreating group of people, "Some of them have already started to notice us chasing."

Matt-att looked back to Menagerie, where a few of the players were pointing back to him.

"It looks like we need to give Menagerie a warm welcome," the hero said. Matt-att turned to his army, "Are you ready!"

"Yeah!!!" the group shouted back.

"Who are we?" Matt-att yelled.

"Trollstompers!! Trollstompers!! Trollstompers!!"

"That's right! Let's f*cking go!!"

With a yell, Matt-att led the charge, activating his power's shield as he moved. His army roared behind him, following in their leader's footsteps. The stragglers from Menagerie fired potshots at the charging Trollstompers, the majority of which landed meters away. Trollstompers with flight or speed powers ran ahead of the crowd, closing the gap as quickly as they could. Players with similar abilities in Menagerie rose to meet them, starting the battle's first clashes.

Up until now, Matt-att had believed the earlier encounters with Menagerie to be a part of the battle, but now he realized the fights were small skirmishes compared to this battle's chaos. Random powers fired in a line swept through the first line of the Trollstompers, knocking a few back and erasing others. Matt-att absorbed any strikes that came his way, turning it all into internal energy. As he neared Menagerie's rear line, he dropped his shield and unleashed a wave of disintegration.

Matt-att had upgraded his power since the last time, and he could now send his destructive disintegration power out a few feet. The wave required a greater amount of stored energy, and he still unleashed everything after firing, but it was worth it. The streamer's chat zoomed through messages of "poggers," and other exclamations as two in front of Matt-att fell.

The streamer ignored the notifications blinking in the corner of his vision and put up his shield. The last remaining enemy in front of him slammed a fist into Matt-att's arm, only for him to absorb the kinetic energy. The hero responded with a quick tap on the enemy's shoulder, releasing the stored energy. The man grunted as his health shaved away, reaching zero in moments.

"F*cking get it!" Matt-att yelled.

The hero looked around the battlefield, searching for other targets. As he waded through the chaos, Matt-att kept an eye out for Dr. Zlo or anyone else he knew to be a major player in Menagerie. Taking out the leadership would demoralize the enemy faction, and it would make Matt-att's stream look good in the process.

A flash of steel entered the streamer's periphery, and Matt-att wasted no time twisting his shield to block the strike. A throwing knife plinked off the hero's arm, landing edge-first into a crack in the road below.

"Wow, you don't see that every day," someone responded.

Matt-att whirled to see a woman in ninja garb standing beside him, staring intently at the knife. He looked at her, and she looked back.

"Howdy, I'm Shizuka," the player said, extending a hand to shake.

Matt-att didn't take it. Instead, the player readied himself for a fight.

"Alright, I see how you want it to be," Shizuka said. "I was going to be all nice about this and have a bit of a conversation, but I guess I shoulda expected nothing less than a fight."

"There is a war going on," Matt-att replied.

Shizuka looked around like she was seeing the surrounding chaos for the first time, "Huh, so there is. You know, I was wondering what all the shouting was about."

Matt-att's stream flowed with messages of "she serious?" and "Gril" as the two circled each other. Just as the streamer was about to charge, Ixzay landed next to him, his insect wings buzzing in the air.

"You should get going," Matt's friend said. "The leader has to stay at the head of the pack. I'll take care of this."

"Now, boys. Don't fight over little old me," Shizuka said.

Matt-att ignored her, clapping Ixzay on the back instead. "Don't take all the glory, now," the streamer said.

Ixzay looked at his friend and smiled, "You better hurry then, or I'll finish this up and clean up the rest of your mess."

"Just f*cking try," the streamer laughed.

Matt-att sprinted away from the fight, reaching the front of the battle a bit later. Menagerie had kept up its fighting retreat, making their way from the financial district into the slums, and from there to the coast. Matt-att rolled his eyes at the scene. Of all the places to have a battle with Dr. Zlo, it had to be the place where he first met the villain. Idly, Matt-att wondered if the man would have another giant teddy bear.

Matt-att kept up the fight, erasing attacking players left and right with his power as he moved toward the coast. At the edge of the slums, the streamer stopped. Before him stood Dextra Black, behind which stood the rest of Menagerie's recruits. The players all stood at the ready, waiting for Dextra to give the command to attack.

"Hold up!!" the streamer shouted to his army, and the Trollstompers paused, gathering up to stare out at their enemy.

The two groups looked at each other for a second, assessing each other. Then, Dextra spoke.

"I'm guessing you're the leader?" the player said to Matt-att. "Why are you trying to ruin our little event?"

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