Vaudevillain

“An alternate world?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah,” Dylan said. “Basically, when Dr. Zlo blew up the moon, the store of Phlebotinium inside created a wormhole that sucked Skyline into this alternate timeline. We’re thinking in this world, Dr. Zlo and his friends are good.”

The two friends sat in the OOC lounge at the bottom of the central Skyscraper in Skyline. Dr. Zlo had his hat off and monocle sat to the side while Thomas’s character, Dextra Black, lounged in a tracksuit that completely clashed with the character’s villainous image. It did wonders to dissuade fans though. That, and the restructuring that Menagerie had recently had to go through had removed a lot of the fans. Menagerie was a more private faction now, still willing to host large events for fun but much less willing to allow others into their ranks after Skyline got destroyed from the inside.

“That must must appall the true Dr. Zlo,” Thomas laughed.

“Oh yeah,” Dylan said. “Dr. Zlo is going to have a vendetta. There’s no way he can stand a goody-two-shoes version of himself.”

“Are you thinking that all of us have an alternate counterpart?” Thomas asked.

“Dr. Zlo, Riptide, and Sweet Dream for sure,” Dylan said. “Dr. Zlo is the central character, and since I often do things with both Rip and Dream it seems fitting for them to have good guy variants. But we don’t need everyone to be good. In fact, I have a great idea for an alternate Dextra.”

“Oh? Do tell,” Thomas said.

“Did you see the whole thing with CEOverlord?” Dylan asked.

“It was,” Dylan said. “And it got me thinking. What if in this world Dextra was a man with a slightly different set of powers? Perhaps whatever CEOverlord has?”

Thomas nodded. “I can see it.” He leaned back, his character’s straight black hair falling down behind him. “It’s a cool idea. We just need something to tie it all together.”

“I’ve got an idea for that too,” Dylan said. He leaned forward. “Picture this, okay? We have Skyline fall out of the sky, crashing to the ground after our big battle with the heroes on the moon. At first, the goal is for everyone in the guild to get the city back up in the sky. People are tasked with finding certain items in cities. Items we’ve made and have groups of either heroes or villains protecting. For the villains, a few of the groups meet up with a Dr. Zlo in a white business suit who tries to stop them from getting the item. For the heroes, it’s CEOverlord that appears and attempts to stop them.”

“We tease the idea of the multiverse in the first part,” Thomas said. “Make them think that its a Zlobot gone wrong and just another villain. Then, once Skyline is back in the air, Dr. Zlo discovers that this white suited version of himself isn’t a Zlobot, but in fact an alternate universe version of himself!”

“Exactly!” Dylan laughed. “Then we get everyone to pick a side, joining either Dr. Zlo in a climactic battle that decides the two’s fates! I’m thinking Dr. Zlo’s plan is to make some kind of universe alternator or something. His goal is to correct the world, altering it so that his good counterpart becomes evil again or something. But, and I think this is the good part, the universe alternator machine can be programmed to turn the evil Dr. Zlo good.”

“Hold on,” Thomas said. “You want to kill off your character?”

Dylan shook his head. “No, I want to give the option. See, I’ve been thinking about it while playing Dr. Zlo’s expansion. Some of it has been great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m kinda bummed that there isn’t more variety? Dr. Zlo is zany and unpredictable, his stories should be the same don’t you think? Right now this expansion feels like a bootleg version of the villain. Which, if you think about it, makes sense if its a Zlobot.”

“I thought the Zlobot thing was just something we used as an excuse to justify your character running around in two places at once?” Thomas questioned.

“It is,” Dylan said. “I’m treating it as canon because the other way is boring. Anyways, the expansion got me thinking about the difference between our events and Vert’s. We give a goal to achieve and let others work toward it in whatever way they think best. Vert splits the single goal into a ton of smaller ones, each one with parameters on it. I’m sure there’s a ton of reasons for it, but it also kind of limits what can actually be done.”

“Hence the option to let Dr. Zlo turn good,” Thomas said.

“Not forever, of course,” Dylan said. “The best thing about superheroes sometimes is that the status quo is always maintained. Course that’s also the worst thing about them sometimes. And it doesn’t even have to be those two options. We could make it so the heroes shut down the machine, or it explodes and destroys both Dr. Zlos depending on the choices.”

“Or perhaps they could throw someone else in the way and alter their timeline instead of Dr. Zlos,” Thomas mused.

“Exactly!” Dylan said. “We present the obstacle and the others find a way to overcome it.”

“I like it,” Thomas said. “Question is, who do we get to play your alternate selves?”

“I’m sure Oro would love to be the good Dr. Zlo,” Dylan said. “And I bet Jack wouldn’t mind playing the good version of Sweet Dream.”

“Thinking about it, Shizuka could do a good job as the alternate Riptide,” Thomas said.

Dylan laughed. “Oh god, the two of them playing off each other would be insane. We have to do it.”

“I’ll send a message out later,” Thomas said. “Right now, let’s finalize the timeline we want.”

“For sure,” Dylan said. “What say we call a meeting and get everyone up here?”

Thomas agreed, the two of them moving out of the lounge and higher up the skyscraper.

“You know, we should do this for the next expansion,” Thomas said as they moved up the elevator. “I’m still bitter about them resetting the world on us.”

“I don’t think Vert would appreciate us hijacking their stuff,” Dylan replied.

“What are they gonna do? Ban us?” Thomas laughed. “They do that and probably lose all of their playerbase. I’ve read the comments on Viewtube, our shenanigans are a big reason people even play this game.”

“I wouldn’t put too much stock in those,” Dylan said. “Personal comments and hard data are different things. For all we know our group is the minority here.”

“Maybe,” Thomas said in a slightly disbelieving tone. “But I’d put money on our Dr. Zlo content being one of the big advertisers for the game. Have you seen how much ad revenue we’re making?”

“Can’t say I have,” Dylan said. He didn’t care too much about the Viewtube vids or the streams. He made plenty already at his current job.

“It’s a lot more than my previous work, that’s for sure,” Thomas said.

“You made it an official business yet?” Dylan asked. “Might be a good idea for tax reasons and such.”

“Yeah a few of the others were telling me about it as well,” Thomas said. “Rampart said he’d look into it some more.”

“Cool,” Dylan said.

The elevator doors dinged open and the two friends walked out toward the conference room. The others started to file in later, joking and discussing various topics. They settled in as Thomas started the meeting, going over everything he and Dylan talked about earlier.

Shizuka immediately interjected. “I completely agree that I need to play the good version of Riptide.”

“Yeah, dude!” the player answered. “I’ll surf anything, and you can make anything surf! It’ll be awesome!”

“Totally, dude!” Shizuka said in her best Riptide impression.

“I don’t mind playing the good version of Sweet Dream,” Jack said. “But I don’t think I can act anything close to good enough. I might work in theater, but I only do the backstage stuff.”

“Just think k-pop candy idol,” Sweet Dream said.

Jack shuddered. “No thanks, then. I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.”

“I think it’d look nice,” Dylan said.

Jack squinted her eyes. “Don’t you tease me.”

“I’m not!” Dylan argued.

“Hmm,” Jack said, disbelieving.

“I don’t mind doing it,” Merla said. “As long as I don’t have to act too cutesy.”

“That’s fine,” Thomas said. “And Oro, are you good to play the good Dr. Zlo?”

“I would love it,” Oro said. He looked at Dylan. “Let’s get together and map the character out sometime?”

“I’ve got time after this,” Dylan said.

Oro nodded. “Cool.”

“Alright, anything else?” Thomas asked.

“Are you reaching out to CEOverlord?” Rampart asked. “Or do you want me to do it?”

“I got it,” Thomas said.

“Awesome, dudes!” Riptide laughed. He turned to Shizuka. “You gotta tell me the idea you have in mind for Wavecrash!”

“Wavecrash?” Sweet Dream asked.

“The hero me!” Riptide said eagerly.

“No way are we calling her Wavecrash,” Shizuka said.

“Her?” Riptide asked.

“Alternate hero you is totally female,” Shizuka said.

“Aw dude, no way,” Riptide said. “I wanted us to look like twins!”

“I’ll still make her look like you,” Shizuka said.

“Alright dude,” Riptide said. “But you better come up with a good name.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” Shizuka said. “I’m the best at names. Isn’t that right Zlobowsky?”

Dylan rolled his eyes.

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