Vaudevillain

"Run the plan by me again," Riptide said.

"Which part did you forget this time?" Sweet Dream complained.

"Nothing," Riptide whispered, "I just want to watch Dr. Zlo monologue."

"If I must run it by you again, I will." Dr. Zlo said, not hearing Riptide. "Our first step is to get inside that mothership. To do this, Mabel has taken control of some of the aliens. We assault the wall with our new army, and after a few moments, Mabel directs the controlled aliens to defeat and capture us. We will then be taken inside the ship, sneaking through the rest of their forces entirely! Once inside, we make our way to the main control room, where Mabel once again takes control of anyone inside. Using her power, we send any personnel outside to fight an imaginary threat. When completed, I will use my new invention to hack into the mothership and take control! And once the spaceship is ours, nothing will stop us from taking over the city! And then, the world! Ahahahahaha!"

"Dude, I wish I had some popcorn."

"Quick question," Sweet Dream said. "Why not have Mabel and her brainwashed aliens walk us inside?"

"And be some unknown threat?! I can't have these aliens not know about my greatness! No, they must see firsthand my magnificence. And, if we had Mabel walk us in, I wouldn't be able to use this!" Dr. Zlo gestured over to a giant stuffed bear sitting in the mansion yard.

"Behold! Roosevelt mark two! He will lead the charge against these invading beings from beyond and shall create an opening!"

"Dude, I'm so ready to tear up some aliens!" Riptide cheered.

"I'd rather see my candy creations in battle, but I suppose stealing an alien mothership is fine." Sweet Dream commented.

"That's the spirit!" roared Riptide. "Now. Let's go, dudes!"

Jawbreaker and the other minions raised a fist into the air and cheered. Cass and Mabel stood next to Dr. Zlo, ready to help their creator however they could.

Before leaving on the heist, Dylan opened up his friends list to message John one more time.

Superfan39526:

About to attack the mothership. Still got room for you if you're in.

Still no answer. It looked like John was online but wasn't responding. Dylan sighed. He had been looking forward to performing a heist with his friend. Oh well, there was always next time. It wasn't like Dylan planned to stop his antics anytime soon.

Dylan assumed the role of Dr. Zlo again and jumped onto the waiting fist of Roosevelt. The plush minion brought Dr. Zlo up to its shoulder to stand. Once settled, Dr. Zlo pointed towards the alien spaceship in the sky. "Onward!"

John watched as his friends list highlighted Dylan's new chat message. Despite all the warnings John had given him, Dylan still didn't understand. Sure, Dylan had reinforced the base, but they had only done the bare minimum in John's eyes. His inspection found a small troop of Dr. Zlo statues inside the garden, a stone guardian on the fountain, and gargoyle minions on the roof.

Where were the traps? There should be pitfalls all around the area, minions should be patrolling the outskirts, and gun emplacements should be sticking out of the mansion like porcupine quills. A trivial amount of statues would never stop any concerted effort to get inside. At the very least, he needed reinforced walls.

Any minute now that streamer Matt-att would appear to assault the base, which meant John needed to hurry. He didn't want to lose the equipment Dylan had already built. Losing the disassembler would set everyone back more than John wanted. So when Dylan's message showed up, John waited for them to leave and walked inside.

Since Dylan hadn't removed him from the whitelist, John could safely walk inside without triggering the statues. He made his way down the stairs and into the secret lab. With a few quick strides, John walked to the disassembler and activated his power. His hand flowed to engulf the machine, and John saw three of his ten slots fill up. In a minute, the customizable minion factory and the lackey factory followed.

There, it was done. John had the more essential machines safely inside him. Now, even if Matt-att attacked, they still had a way to recoup their losses. Satisfied, John made his way back up the stairs and out the door. He sat down a little ways outside the mansion, planning to watch how Dylan dealt with Matt-att once he showed.

There was one problem with his plan. Down in the basement lay a mouse, one of Dr. Zlo's intelligent creations. The villain had left it there to search for any remaining listening devices, just in case they missed any. After a bit of thorough searching, the mouse had taken a break down in its home. John's rummaging had awakened the creature, who saw everything the man had done. The swift mouse wasted no time, scurrying off to find a relay mouse. The creator would need to know about this.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Matt-att, or Valiant, if one went by his new hero name, entered Haven City with a smile. The streamer eagerly anticipated the upcoming assault on that troll's base. Dr. Zlo, or whatever he called himself, would finally understand how annoying it was to lose the things you created.

Sure, Matt-att had gotten over the whole gender-bending thing, Zach had helped him calm down from that already. But that didn't mean he wasn't entitled to some good old-fashioned revenge. It had taken a long time to make his character, and losing the entire design to a single weapon irked him. Plus, it made for some excellent views. People always liked watching drama play out.

Matt-att had created an entirely new character to abuse the mechanics of the system. His old power was pretty effective, but Heroic's issue was that the adaptation power picked the simplest response. If he needed to take a hit, Matt-att got a durability power, even if an absorption ability would be more effective. It made his one-on-one fights painfully straightforward. Though, the more people facing off against him, the better the adaptation became.

His new power abused the resource mechanic in World of Supers. Every power required some sort of resource to use; super speed might run off stamina, crafting abilities needed materials, magic required mana. Matt-att's power abused that by making part of the ability an absorption power. His left hand could take in all types of energy, though only one type at a time, while his right hand could use that energy to emit a disintegration wave. At the moment, it looked to be a perfect sword and shield.

Valiant entered Haven City through the Harbor District and made his way over to the residential section. His subscribers had helped him piece together Dr. Zlo's location. Apparently, the troll used an old mansion as their base of operations. Which, admittedly, fit this guy's style to a T.

"Alright, chat, looks like we're coming up on Dr. Zlo's secret base of operations. Who's ready to show this villain up?"

Matt-att glanced at the chat overlay in front of him, nodding as his followers agreed. He stepped out of the taxi he'd rode over and stepped past the front gate. He looked at the fountain statue in front of him and stopped. "is this guy for real, chat?"

Standing before him was a figure of Dr. Zlo. The statue stood tall, pointing to the sky as if to say, "the world is mine!"

"Wow, either this guy's a narcissist or all sorts of crazy."

Chat agreed, emojis and slang filling Valiant's vision. "Oh, wait, chat. It looks like Dr. Zlo has a few defenses."

The statue of the villain stepped down off the fountain. With a flourish, the figure removed their hat and bowed. "Terribly sorry, but Dr. Zlo isn't here at the moment. If you'd like to leave a message, I'd be happy to take it. Otherwise, I'm afraid I must escort you off the premises."

Matt-att blinked. His stream filled with spams of LOL, and WTF. "Wait, the troll's not here?"

The statue turned their head. "I don't know who this, 'troll,' is, but Dr. Zlo isn't here at the moment. If you'd like to leave a message, I'd be happy to take it. Otherwise, I'm afraid I must escort you off the premises."

"Well d*mn chat, he's not here yet. What do you think, should we wait around until he gets back?"

A few no's crossed Matt-att's screen, but they were drowned out by the overwhelming number of yes's.

"Yeah, I think so too. We'll wait around outside until Dr. Zlo arrives. I want him to watch as we break his stuff."

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