Vaudevillain

Riptide came back a bit later after following Jack’s directions. “Alright dudes. I’ve got the perfect escape plan.”

“And that is?” Jack asked.

Riptide walked over to Dylan and pulled his character next to him. “Prox here can transform into objects, right?”

“Right…” Jack said, wondering where Riptide was going with this.

“And we’re in Davinci’s tower, a man known for all sorts of inventions,” Riptide continued.

“Davini,” Sweet Dream said. “But go on.”

“Well, he’s gotta have a working flying machine!” the man finished. “We’ll have Approximo change into it, then we all hop on and surf outta here!”

“Huh, that actually made sense,” Jack said. She looked to the others. “Did he make sense to you?”

“Not cool, dude,” Riptide said.

“Wow dude,” Riptide said. “Here I thought we were friends.”

“With the amount of times you’ve ribbed Dr. Zlo, I deserve at least one,” Dylan laughed.

Riptide joined in. “Alright, dude. Fair. So, flying machine?”

“It’s our best bet,” Jack said. “Though we’ll likely have to pick a direction and just go for it.”

“Better than being stuck here,” Sweet Dream said.

“Okay, I think I’ve got something,” Oro said.

Everyone turned.

“We need twenty heroes and villains all in the coliseum at one time to trigger the Dr. Zlo quest,” Oro started. “Now, one way we could go about it would be to message other players, but honestly I want to keep that as a last resort. The second option, and the one infinitely more fun, is to activate a bunch of quests and pull the NPCs into the coliseum.”

“We know this already,” Sweet Dream said. “We were all here, remember?”

“Dude, let him work his magic,” Riptide said.

“Aeterna is laid out like other European cities,” Oro said. “All winding paths and whatnot. The underground is just as bad, and as far as I can tell on the forums the paths underground can change.”

“How so?” Jack asked.

“Players and NPCs collapsing tunnels and making new ones,” Oro said. “So I tried to find quests aboveground for easier route planning.”

“What’d you find?” Dylan asked.

“We can trigger a lot of quests near the various landmarks in the city, and most of those landmarks are fairly close to each other. There’s a series of Piazzas leading down to Rome that each have a villain quest. Triggering them isn’t hard.”

“So what’s the catch?” Jack asked.

Oro held up two fingers. “Two things. The first is that the quest has a minimum engagement distance. You have to be within a certain distance of the villain for them to keep chasing you. Leave the area and the quest will reset. The second is that there aren’t enough villains at the Piazzas to cover. We can get at most ten with this route. We’d need five more to get this to work.”

“This is just villains?” Dylan asked. “Or heroes and villains?”

“Both,” Oro answered. “Multiple quests have heroes and villains facing off.”

“What if we split up?” Sweet Dream asked. She pointed to Riptide. “The two of us can go one direction and the three of you take the other.”

“That would work,” Oro replied. “But that increases the chances that things will go wrong.”

“Eh, better than nothing, dudes,” Riptide said. “And we can work out the specifics as we go.”

“Alright, it sounds like we have something of a plan,” Jack said. She nodded to Sweet Dream and Riptide. “You two head off toward?” she looked at Oro.

“There’s a fountain to the south, start there,” Oro said. “I’ll send you the info.”

Sweet Dream nodded. “Got it.”

Jack turned to the others. “We’ll do the Piazza run. Anything specific we should know?”

“The engagement distance is a hundred feet,” Oro said. “Leave that distance and the quest resets. Sniper characters hate it.”

“I’m sure,” Jack answered. “Okay then, let’s go find this flying machine.”

“H*ll yeah, dudes!” Riptide exclaimed.

He rushed upstairs, motioning for everyone to follow as he traveled two floors up.

“Ta da!” he said, throwing open the door.

Inside was an old recreation of a medieval glider. It sat behind a glass case that perfectly preserved its wooden frame and animal leather wings.

“That’s for one person,” Jack said dully. “You really think all of us can fit on that?”

“I was thinking Approximo would just shift into multiple,” Riptide answered. “Like, one for each hand and foot.”

“It’s possible,” Dylan said. “Especially if Mirror Mirror copies me.”

“Got that right, dude,” Riptide nodded.

“We’ll need to take it with us to the roof,” Dylan said. “Approximo can’t shift into something he can’t see.”

“Your power up should let you store a shift or something,” Sweet Dream said.

“Maybe,” Dylan answered. “It’s fun trying to solve the problem with what’s in the environment.”

“We can discuss upgrades later,” Jack said. “Someone help us get this bird out of its cage.”

“I got you dude!” Riptide said. He channeled Firestarter’s power, burning the glass before Jack and Sweet Dream pushed him off.

“You idiot, what if you burn it!” Sweet Dream said.

“Oh, right,” Riptide answered sheepishly. “My bad, dudes.”

Jack just sighed, took a golf club out of her storage, and smashed it into the glass. An alarm blared, but other than that there didn’t seem to be any other security.

Jack pointed to Dylan and Oro. “One of you get the front and the other get the back. The rest of us will make sure the wings don’t break.”

Dylan and Oro obeyed, lifting the flying machine and taking it to the door. Glass clinked onto the ground as the alarm continued to blare.

The first obstacle was the door leading to the stairs.

“Pivot it,” Jack said.

“I am pivoting it!” Oro complained. “It’s not moving!”

“How did they even get this thing in here?” Jack complained.

“It’s a game, they probably just built it in without thinking about it,” Dylan answered. “I’m surprised the wings don’t fold inward or something.”

“No dice,” Jack answered. “I can’t put it into my inventory either.”

“Can Of a Kind duplicate it?” Dylan asked.

There was a thunk against the wall. “D*mnit,” Oro complained. “I should have thought of that.”

“No worries, dude,” Riptide said. “We don’t think of lots of things.”

Oro activated his character’s power, pointing his hand to the stairs. It took some time, but eventually a copy of the glider sat before them.

“Alright, let’s get this thing to the roof,” Jack said.

The second obstacle reared its ugly head.

“There’s no roof access at all,” Jack complained.

“I could burn my way through,” Riptide said.

“No, that would take too long,” Jack said.

“I’ve got it,” Mirror Mirror said. “Remember when I was able to float in the air while shifted? If Approximo transforms into a floor while I’m outside we should have enough space for the glider. From there, Gameset can climb to the roof and make handholds for the rest of us. Of a Kind will copy the glider, the three of you take it up, and then Approximo and I will climb up after.”

“Dude, that’s amazing!” Riptide said. He pulled his girlfriend in close. “Let’s do it!”

“I’m down to try,” Dylan said. “But what if you fall?”

“Then I’ll respawn. It’s fine,” Sweet Dream answered.

Dylan shrugged in agreement.

“Okay, step back as far as you can while I move to the window,” Sweet Dream said. “Oh, and someone break this glass.”

Jack obliged. Sweet Dream used her character’s power to shift into Approximo, who pretended to step over the windowsill before walking to it. He turned, looking at a patch of floor to shift into. Approximo’s body flattened, forming a platform for the others. Mirror Mirror followed suit.

From there it was a simple matter of copying the flying machine and bringing it up. Once finished, Dylan moved back to let Sweet Dream grab the window as she shifted her form.

Wind blew at the top of the tower, whipping hair and clothing around. Oro held tight onto the copied glider as the breeze threatened to carry it away.

“Which direction are we headed?” Dylan asked, his voice almost a shout to speak over the wind.

“That way!” Oro pointed.

Dylan turned. “Put the glider where I can see it!”

Oro did so. Sweet Dream used Mirror Mirror to turn back into Approximo while Jack and Riptide readied themselves.

“Okay!” Dylan said.

He shifted, choosing to split his body in half and transform into two gliders. He felt his vision move to the seat on the flying machine, only for jack to place herself right in his vision. Dylan could still see but it felt like he was a ghost.

“Okay, let’s get out of here!” Jack shouted once everyone was on the glider.

Dylan felt a push, then the weightlessness of falling before the wind caught his wings. He saw CEOverlord’s minions below, the throng a gray tide pushing against the colorful NPCs that moved about the city. Buildings and streets whipped past as the glider descended toward their destination.

“I just thought of something,” Jack said. Quietly, so only he could hear. “How are we going to stop?”

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