Vaudevillain

Dr. Zlo swished his cane in the air, casting his disintegration spell at the monstrosity in front of him. A static grey beam launched out from the gem, making a beeline for Kaiju's head. The shield player conjured protection in front of Kaiju, blocking some of the beam as it traveled. It was less than Dylan expected, as he didn't think anything would pass through the shield.

The beam struck Kaiju in the face, the monster reeling from the blow.

"Stronger than I expected," Dr. Zlo stated as he watched.

Kaiju roared at Dr. Zlo, a ball of light forming in the monster's mouth. Dr. Zlo pre-emptively swerved away, realizing the attack was a beam of some sort.

"Not today!" The shield player yelled. With a quick wave of his hand, the player conjured a shield in Dr. Zlo's path, stopping the villain in his tracks.

Dr. Zlo crashed right into the shield wall, stopped in his tracks by the invisible barrier. The villain tried to juke up and down, but the shield player wasn't having it. He reacted to Dr. Zlo with perfect accuracy, stopping the villain in place.

"A little help!" Dr. Zlo shouted to Jack.

"Getting there!" Jack said back, her voice mechanical. "I'm testing a new weapon too, you know!"

"Well, I'd like to test mine for longer than a few seconds!" Dr. Zlo yelled back.

The player turned and zeroed in on the shield hero. "Let's see how you deal with this," She said, crouching down.

Lightning crackled around the player as she knelt, supercharging her suit. Jack leaped forward in one motion, her body a blur as it tackled right toward the shield player.

"Sh*t!" the player shouted, rolling to one side. The attack broke his concentration, freeing Dr. Zlo.

The villain moved just in time, Kaiju's laser blast erupting from his mouth and making a beeline. The attack grazed the villain's right hand, eating through his health for a moment. Dr. Zlo answered with a button bomb, tossing the weapon toward Kaiju and creating some time.

"Can you do that move again?" Dr. Zlo asked Jack, flying down to her location.

"Yeah, it just takes a second to charge," Jack answered.

"I'm thinking we try out that freeze spell," the villain smirked.

"Ooh, give 'em the one-two combo," Jack said. "I like it."

"Then get ready," Dr. Zlo said.

The villain flew back up into the air, Jack following his instructions. She crouched down, charging her next attack and aiming at the shield player.

"Stop her!" The shield player shouted.

Kaiju turned, his claws extending into serrated knives. He roared, slashing the air and rushing at Jack, trying to stop her before she got her attack off.

"Ah, ah, ah," Dr. Zlo said, wagging a finger. "Don't you know it's bad manners to interrupt someone?"

The villain flicked the top hat off his head, activating it along with his dueling gloves and sending them at Kaiju. The gloves were one of the first things he changed after the race, adding an explosive kick to every strike. Dr. Zlo's gloves and hat flew forth, the former giving Kaiju a quick jab in the gut. Kaiju reeled back from the force of the blow, giving the hat drone time to land on the monster's eye.

While this went on, Dylan turned back to the shield player and prepared his freeze spell. The villain spun his cane in a circular motion, thrusting it at the player. In response, the player tried to throw up a shield. Again, the spell passed partially through the defense, striking the player in the torso.

"And now that I have your attention!" Dr. Zlo laughed.

Jack unleashed her attack, blitzing forward to slam straight into the shield player. Electricity coursed through her suit, lashing out at anything nearby as her body accelerated. All of it struck the shield player in one concentrated blow, sending the electricity coursing through him. The force of the blow sent the player flying backward, where he hit the side of the PVP arena.

"Holy!" Jack exclaimed after the hit. "I didn't think he'd get to the f*cking moon!"

The shield player vanished after the hit, both Dr. Zlo and Jack receiving a message for defeating their foe.

"And I one-shot him!" Jack laughed. "Alright, this move is awesome!"

A terrible roar erupted from Kaiju, startling Jack. The monstrous player slashed into Dr. Zlo's hat drone, ripping it to shreds before slapping the two dueling gloves to the ground. The gloves landed on the ground, crumpled into the dirt from the force of Kaiju's strike.

"We're not done yet!" Dr. Zlo sneered. "Be on your guard."

"Don't worry," Jack answered, cracking her knuckles. "This should be the easy part!"

Jack ran forward, her mech suit empowering her every step. Kaiju ran to meet her, the two clashing in a blast of metal and scale, their hands locked together. Kaiju tried to use his clawed hands to slash at Jack, but her armor blunted most of the blows. Jack grunted, pushing against Kaiju with her empowered suit.

Dr. Zlo hovered in the air, "This seems like the perfect time for me to use the last facet of my invention."

The villain swooped down, making a pentagram pattern with his cane and finishing it with a swooping circle. A beam of purple energy lashed out, striking Kaiju.

The monster flinched, but when nothing happened, the player looked to Dr. Zlo with a dinosauric smirk. "Ha, ha, ha," he laughed.

Then, Kaiju noticed his body buckling under Jack's. The player grunted, pushing against his foe, but every exertion seemed to cost more stamina. Kaiju's resource bar started to drain, and Jack began to move Kaiju back toward the wall. The player's feet slid on the ground below as Jack continued to push, the mechanical suit making the two move faster and faster. Finally, Kaiju couldn't hold his transformation any longer, and the player's body started to revert.

Jack saw the moment and rushed forward, using a burst of strength to grab and lift Kaiju over her head. The player yelped in surprise and tried to retaliate, but again Jack's armor stopped his damage. Jack flipped Kaiju over her head, bringing him down into a piledriver. The player's head struck the floor with a crack! just as his transformation ran out. The move didn't kill him, but it did eat up the majority of his health bar. Dr. Zlo's monocle laser finished the job, Kaiju vanishing in motes of light.

"Let this be a day you remember!" Dr. Zlo taunted after the two fell. "The day Dr. Zlo bested you!"

Jack cleared her throat.

"With minimal help from a companion," Dr. Zlo admitted.

"Sure, ham it up," Jack laughed.

The two made their way out of the arena after the computerized voice announced their victory. Their two opponents met them in the room ahead.

"D*mn," Kaiju said. "Ten grams of Phleb is nothing to sneeze at when it comes to power. Ain't that right, Rubic?"

"Yeah," the shield player, Rubic, said. "How much did you use on that cane?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Dr. Zlo said haughtily. The villain wasn't about to reveal that the cane was magic and ruin his image.

"Alright, I get it," Kaiju answered. "No reason to reveal your secrets. Fun match, though. But next time, you won't get so lucky. We'll be on the lookout for that cane."

"Bah, as if luck had anything to do with it," Dr. Zlo scoffed. "Everyone knows it's my genius that carries the day. None could hope to match wits with the likes of me!"

"Sorry, he's going to be like this for a while," Jack said. "You won't get a straight answer from him while he's in character."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Kaiju said. He turned and waved. "Come get us if you want to lose in the future. Rubic and I 'ill be here for a bit testing out combos. Gonna take on that lich king guy when we feel confident."

"Good luck," Jack said. She waved goodbye, turning back to Dylan. "Alright. What'd you think of the cane?"

"Later," Dr. Zlo said, his eyes scanning the arena. "When prying eyes and ears aren't around."

"Okay," Jack chuckled. "Let's head to my hideout. We can discuss stuff there, and I can tune my mech suit."

"Those spells were a lot stronger than I thought," Dylan answered once the two players made it to Jack's place.

The woman's hideout sat underneath her office in the crafting hub. As the two players walked in, Jack tapped the top of her desk a few times in a pattern. The desk opened up like an origami flower to reveal a spiraling shelter beneath. The two players made their way down until they reached a workroom filled to the brim with power tools and other gadgets. Blueprints of all kinds lay scattered across the many tables, some covered in a layer of grease and metal shavings.

Neither mentioned the mess, preferring to get right on topic.

"Yeah, it seems you get a bit more power in exchange for more limits," Jack said. "Three spells only, no changing, and you have to go through the motions with the cane to cast the spells."

The player opened her inventory and placed her armor on the table, shoving a few blueprints to the side to set the armor down.

"And I bet if you lose the cane, you lose the spells."

"Oh, sh*t," Dylan said. "I didn't even think about that. I better put a tracker on this or something."

"Oh, see if you can equip a teleporter to it!" Jack said excitedly.

"Yeah, I'll have to do something," Dylan said. "Dr. Zlo can't lose the cane."

"Or you could use it as bait," Jack pointed out. "Lose the cane and all your other weapons but bring them all back with a teleporter and surprise everyone."

"Oh, that's evil," Dylan said. "Now I gotta use it."

"And you need a new hat," Jack pointed out.

Dylan ran his hands through Dr. Zlo's pitch black hair, "Yeah. It'll give me a good chance to upgrade my stuff. I needed a new hat bot anyway, plus a few other upgrades now that I don't have my old cane. Dr. Zlo still needs the good old smoke bomb."

"Definitely," Jack answered. "So, you like the power?"

"For sure," Dylan answered. "Probably a better choice than anything else I coulda thought up."

"Cool," Jack answered. "You planning to do anything else tonight?"

Dylan shook his head, "Not tonight."

"Wanna help me design some armor ideas?" Jack asked, wiggling her eyebrows. "I loved the charge attack for the suit, but it needs a few other selections. Preferably something to keep it down."

"Yeah, I'm down," Dylan answered.

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