Vaudevillain

Gameset grabbed one of the shifted bars and twisted, pulling herself up into a crouching position. In the distance, a hatbot launched itself at Mirror Mirror with brimming blades of whirling death. Gameset ducked the charge and snaked out with a fist. Mirror Mirror’s fist copied the movement, striking the bot’s underside. The hatbot spiraled away, it’s brim crumpled.

Dylan expanded his jungle gym of twisting pipes. Gameset swung, twirled, and pulled herself through the bars. As she moved, arms and legs would kick out, Mirror Mirror’s copied movements following through to demolish incoming drones. There were a few close calls, nicks and scrapes that Gameset couldn’t dodge in time, but eventually the heroine was able to direct her counterpart onto the blimp.

From there, Mirror Mirror dropped her transformation, reverting to her prim and proper form. She grabbed a piece of extruding metal on the base of the blimp and pulled. Her dress billowed out from under her as she twisted up and cracked the viewing glass with a sturdy heel. A moment later and she was inside. Another moment later and everyone saw a Jacques fly out the window, arms flailing.

Approximo’s messenger pinged.

Candequeen:

Alright, I’ve got control. Now what?

Jack was quick to answer.

JackOLeen:

Crash that sh*t into something!

Everyone watched as the blimp lurched to the side, then back again. Eventually, the machine settled on a course directly toward the ground. Dylan watched as Mirror Mirror jumped out, eyeing Gameset and transforming into once more. The blimp smashed into the ground a moment later, erupting into a fiery ball.

“Impossible!” They heard Dr. Zlo shouted. “Confound you heroes! For that you shall pay dearly!”

Dr. Zlo’s central blimp rose into the sky, the villain standing atop it like a figurehead. The three other blimps turned and made their way toward the heroes.

“Face the wrath of my zapping zeppelins!” Dr. Zlo cackled. “Adieu! I’m sure we won’t meet again!”

With those departing words, Dr. Zlo and the main blimp vanished into the clouds, leaving the heroes alone with the final three blimps.

“Help me down,” Gameset said to Approximo. “We’ve got to make a plan.”

Dylan oblidged, shifting his body into various walls and tubes to let Gameset grind down to the ground. Soon the squad was back together on the ground.

“So what’s the plan, dudes?” Firestarter asked.

“The blimps are reinforced so firearms can’t get past them,” Of a Kind said. “Explosives like my grenades could work though.”

“I caught a glimpse of the blimps as they turned,” Mirror Mirror said. “They have a sort of gun on them now, though what kind I can’t say.”

“Weird he didn’t use that earlier,” Approximo said.

“Bet he thought he wouldn’t need it,” Gameset said. “Alright, so two ideas. The first is we do what we did before, Firestarter and Of a Kind run interference while Mirror Mirror copies me. We try to enter a blimp and take it from the inside.”

“It’ll be a lot harder with those guns,” Of a Kind said.

Gameset nodded. “Second idea is this.”

The heroine opened her inventory and pulled out a strange, half-loop piece of plastic. A plastic ball sat on the bottom of the loop, which Gameset quickly removed.

“This is a scoop, some kind of weird knock-off sofcrosse thing,” she said. “It launches objects further than people can throw, however, and was stupid cheap. We should be able to set up like artillery and fire, though we’d risk damaging the Tower of Londinium.”

“I mean we already crashed one of the blimps, dudes,” Firestarter said. “I think worrying about collateral damage is past us.”

“Excuse you I aimed that crash perfectly,” Mirror Mirror said. “It landed right in the courtyard, no historic architecture around.”

An idea came to Dylan. “Gameset, how good of a shot are you?”

“Probably the best when it comes to sporting,” Gameset said. “Whatcha thinking, Prox?”

“I remember seeing a game where everyone competed to shoot clay disks,” Approximo said. “Chucking grenades seems similar.”

“Ha!” Gameset laughed. “I suppose it is.”

“That won’t work,” Of a Kind said. “A grenade is built to be pretty shock resistant. You’d need to hit the ignition cap or whatever its called, and even then it would take it a moment before exploding.”

“Dude, way to kill the fun,” Firestarter joked.

“D*mn it, that would have been awesome,” Gameset sighed.

“Well, I also don’t think a grenade is going to do much to the Tower walls,” Of a Kind said. “They aren’t meant to take structures out, you know.”

“Then let’s throw some grenades!” Firestarter laughed. “Dude, this is going to look ridiculous.”

Dylan looked at the scoops. “You know, I think I have a way to make it more ridiculous.”

The hero activated his power, turning both his hands into the scoops. Then, he looked over at some of the defenses that had appeared around the tower, specifically the rotating platforms that held a few guns. He selected his arms and felt his body change.

Approximo’s arms flattened as his hands elongated. The fingers transformed, interlocking with each other to form the scoop. His arms turned to circles, the scoops hanging off the end.

The hero gave his arms a quick move, the others watching as the scoop made a perfect circle. “Now just load me up with some live grenades!”

“Dude, that is sick,” Firestarter said.

“Not much use firing grenades that aren’t live,” Of a Kind said. “But if we had a way to remove the safety lever after you launched the payload…”

“Dudes, I’ve got some fuse string!” Firestarter laughed. “Tie it around the safety on one grenade and duplicate it! I’ll burn the grenades as they come out!”

“You know, I think that would work,” Of a Kind said. “Gimme the string.”

Firestarter pulled it out of his inventory. Of a Kind grabbed it, wrapped it tight around the grenade’s safety, and pulled the pin. The safety stayed on, preventing the grenade from firing.

“Heck yeah, dude!” Firestarter turned to the blimps. “Get ready for our tag team attack!”

Luckily the blimps were still traveling in range, Dr. Zlo’s inventions slower than usual. Everyone saw why as they got closer. The blimps had been churning out hatbot drones as they moved. There was now a veritable cloud of bots in front of the blimps, angrily buzzing toward Approximo and the others.

“I think you better get started guys,” Gameset said as she pulled out her hunting rifle.

Firestarter moved to stand in front of Approximo, who looked over to Of a Kind.

“You mind turning your feet into some boxes to make sure the grenades don’t get everywhere?” Of a Kind asked. “I don’t want a safety pin to slip off by accident.”

“Of course,” Approximo said. He changed his feet into some large plant pots that he saw hanging on a faraway windowsill. Of a Kind bent down and started carefully duplicating the grenades, doing his best to be quick about it. In seconds, the hero had two piles of grenades ready and stood by to prepare more.

“Let’s light it up, dudes!” Firestarter laughed. He activated his power as Dylan started to whirl his arms. The scoops at the end dug into the boxes of grenades, picking up multiples at a time. The grenades slid across the scoops, launching out the end through Firestarter’s conjured flames.

The string around the explosives ignited as the grenades soared through the sky. Safety pins flew off as the fuses snapped, falling to the ground like raindrops. At the arc of their travel the grenades exploded, creating a wall of fragmentation that carved into the incoming hatbots.

Machinery splintered as the explosives stuck, the hatbots careening into each other as they malfunctioned. The spinning blades ripped into more bots, causing extra damage as the grenades continued to explode.

Firestarter laughed like a maniac and Approximo found himself joining in as he pivoted to face the closest blimp. There was just something about the insanity of the destruction above him that pulled a laugh out of him. The others fared no better, Of a Kind almost dropping a grenade as he watched the makeshift artillery that was Approximo.

The first blimp fell after a good second of focused fire, the focused fire of fragmentation grenades too much for the reinforced armor. Each individual grenade did little, but the deluge was like a woodpecker on a tree, a continuous barrage that eventually carved a hole in the side of the transport. The flying machine fell to the ground, the gas inside of it escaping into the sky.

From there it was easy. One less blimp meant less hatbots which meant less time spent on the horde of minions. The second blimp fell, then the last as Approximo fired barrages of grenades.

A screen appeared in front of him as the machine fell to the ground.

Congratulations! You have thwarted another of Dr. Zlo’s plots to steal the world’s monumental monuments. World leaders rest easy knowing that brave heroes like you are around to protect their culture.

Reward:

1 miniature blimp balloon

1 miniature bowler hat

1 miniature servo (Collect 10 to build your own special bot!)

“Awesome!” Riptide said. He turned to Dylan. “Dude, that was hilarious! You were like some kind of haywire pitching machine!”

Dylan laughed. “I can’t believe it worked.”

“No kidding,” Jack chuckled. “I thought for sure we’d be stuck fighting through those hordes of hatbots with Mirror Mirror.”

“Ugh, no thank you,” Sweet Dream said. “Honestly, I think I need to get some Phleb from my stash and add a bit to the power. I’m not actually doing anything while transformed as someone.”

“Oh bleh,” Jack said. “I mean, I should have known but I didn’t think about it. You sure you want to keep that power then?”

“I’m good,” Sweet Dream said. “Got some ideas to improve some things.”

“Let us know if you need to switch,” Dylan said. “Don’t think you gotta keep the power just because you picked it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to let you know if I get bored,” Sweet Dream laughed.

“Right, well it’s late,” Jack said. “And as much as I want to continue I unfortunately have to bail. Got a message from the director while we were fighting. They apparently want some of the set changed, which means I’ve gotta spend tonight scrambling to get his creative vision ready for the show.”

“Here’s probably a good place to call it,” Oro said. “We can meet up tomorrow to get our new suits from Sir Worth?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dylan said. “See y’all.”

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