Vaudevillain

Weeks had passed since Dylan’s vacation. News of him and Jack had already spread to most of his friends, to the delight of Riptide. He loved teasing the two’s love, despite also having a girlfriend. He’d slowed down recently, however, mostly because something else was taking up everyone’s attention.

Menagerie was getting ready to announce their next event.

A good third of Skyline had joined in to help in the preparations this time. Most used their crafting powers hard at work making the equipment everyone would need. A number of others worked in the background performing administrative tasks to keep everyone on track.

Dylan had his own tasks, along with all the other leaders of the faction. Right now, their main goal was testing Dr. Zlo’s morality machine and crafting a decent ‘trailer’ for their event. The player pulled up his invention one more time on his power tab.

A truly dastardly invention crafted by the great Dr. Zlo! This vile contraption converts the very essence of a person, making their morality the opposite of what it once was! Heroes becomes villains and saints become sinners once an item linked to the target is cast into the fires of the Morality Modifier! After a single minute, the person becomes changed and acts according to their new morality!

Sheep’s Clothing (1)

Heeled Shoe (1)

Wrestling Ring (1)

Boiler (1)

Phlebotinium (25g) or Sciencium (2500g)

“Alright, you guys ready?” Dylan asked his friends.

They were all gathered in a random empty building on the outskirts of Skyline. Dr. Zlo would have used his secret laboratory, but it turned out that an entire wrestling ring made everything more snug than anyone was truly comfortable with.

“Hurry up already, dude!” Riptide laughed.

“Alright, alright,” Dylan said. “Sheesh.”

“Ignore him,” Sweet Dream said. “He can be patient.”

Dylan shook his head at his friends antics but started up the invention process. The gathered materials spun in the air, light soon overtaking the area as Dr. Zlo’s mad science did its work.

The clothes, mask, and shoes all formed into the shape of a person even as the wrestling ring broke down into a multitude of pieces. The boiler, a large cylinder of dense black metal, turned upright as it rocked back and forth.

A door appeared on the boiler, opening up to let the wrestling ring and the other materials in. Once gathered, the boiler closed its doors and shook, its black painting changing into a stark checkerboard of black and white. The industrial look of the machine smoothed out to something more retro-futuristic.

Then, with a pop, the machine finished, the single door swinging open to reveal a compartment able to fit just about anything. Dylan peeked his head in, looking up to see a vast sensor array dangling with a number of elastic cords. He stepped back out and looked to the side of the door, noticing a large red button now resting on the side.

“Dude, that never gets old,” Riptide laughed.

“Right, now to test it,” Jack said. “Who wants to try it first?”

“Me!” Riptide laughed.

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“Try something from his inventory first,” Dylan said. “The description I wrote said it needs something linked to the target but I didn’t clarify what that meant.”

Riptide pulled out a surfboard, which had everyone rolling their eyes.

“Right, stick it in the machine,” Dylan said.

“You got it, dude,” Riptide answered.

He tossed the item in, closed the door, and slammed his hand down on the red button eagerly. An angry buzzing noise of rejection followed, the doors opening and depositing the board on the ground nearby.

“Try something that’s equipped to you next,” Jack said.

Riptide shrugged and grabbed his ray gun. He went through the motions again. This time, there was no grating noise of rejection, but the satisfying noise of a smoothly running machine. A timer appeared above the door, counting down sixty seconds. The machine dinged like an egg timer when the count ran to zero, the doors popping open.

“Looks like you’re a hero now, Rip,” Sweet Dream said as she looked at his nametag.

“Dude, sweet!” the villain-turned-hero answered.

“Right, now if you’ll just step inside my good man,” Dylan said. “We’re going to see if it works with a person inside as well.”

“Right on!” Riptide eagerly jumped in, making a peace sign as the doors closed.

Again the machine ran, dinging once more when the timer ran down. Riptide stepped out, his nametag once again showing as a villain.

Jack clapped her hands. “Excellent! Now a few more tests. We need to see if it’ll still count the item even if someone unequips it.”

“You got it, dude,” Riptide said, eager to help out.

Luckily, it seemed the machine did continue the switch even if someone unequipped their items. Though, the machine didn’t continue if the person died during the process.

“That might be a problem,” Jack said once Riptide respawned and made it back to them.

“Only if we don’t make the penalty harsh enough,” Sweet Dream said. “What if we added something to the bands, or whatever it is we’re using to keep track of people? Like a strike system.”

“Nah, dude,” Riptide said. “We’re planning to offer prizes for winners and stuff, yeah?”

“Someone’s floating that idea around, I think,” Dylan said.

Riptide walked over and leaned on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Then just say they can’t get the prizes if they don’t cooperate. That’ll keep most people from doing stuff.”

“Then we better make the prizes something special,” Sweet Dream said, shoving Riptide off her. “Like a heist with Dr. Zlo or something.”

“Ooh, that’s good,” Jack said. She turned to Dylan. “That might actually be better than anything physical. As long as you’re up for it?”

“I don’t see why not?” Dylan shrugged. “But only as like a grand prize for the people who do the best.”

“Yeah I see what you mean,” Jack said.

“And the event is supposed to be cooperative,” Sweet Dream said. “We don’t want to push for competition in the ranks, so to speak.”

“True,” Dylan said. “Something else then, but I like the idea of removing rulebreakers from the prize pool.”

“Well, let’s bring it up to the others and see what they think,” Jack said. “But for now, more testing!”

The group ran the machine through more tests in durability, endurance, and a number of other metrics Jack had on hand. It turned out the machine had issues with liquids and couldn’t stand up to super strength all that well. But as long as the machine worked it would switch morality without fail.

“Okay,” Jack said. “We’re going to need to up their durability, waterproofing, and electrical protections before we start this thing. But once that’s done we’ll have a good basis.”

“Good to know,” Sweet Dream said. “What’s next?”

“Next is finding our location,” Jack said with a smile. “Skyline could work, but it’ll be a lot more fun if we pick somewhere on the ground.”

“Nah, dude,” Riptide said. “Wouldn’t that make it too big? Skyline’s already a whole city, with an up and downside.”

“You mean the hero side on top and the villain side on the bottom, right?” Dylan asked.

“Yep,” Riptide answered. “That’s already like two cities.”

“I don’t think we should use Skyline at all,” Sweet Dream said. “That’s just asking for us to get attacked again.”

Dylan winced as he remembered his old ‘friend’s’ assault on the city. “Yeah, probably not a good idea to use our base as the event stage. What if we went with Haven city? It’s where Dr. Zlo started so I don’t think it would be out of place.”

“Wait, dude!” Riptide said. “We need to do it where Dr. Dobro would be! Think about it, Dr. Zlo would totally attack his alter ego first!”

“Good point,” Dylan said. “But he could easily be set up in Haven.”

“Maybe,” Sweet Dream said. “But we could argue Dr. Zlo started in Haven because it was an easy place to hide all your dark dealings. I mean, I’m pretty sure it got called Haven because it’s a tax haven or something.”

“The perfect place for Dr. Dobro, dudes!” Riptide said. “He’s using his inventions to fight against the inequality inherent in the system!”

“It’s not the worst idea,” Jack said. She looked to Dylan. “What do you think?”

“I think Haven would work if we didn’t have Skyline,” Dylan said, an idea coming to him. “But this ‘new world’ Menagerie is in is supposed to be our opposite right?”

“Right,” Sweet Dream said. “Where you going with this?”

“Well, both Dextra and Dr. Zlo were the main masterminds behind Skyline,” Dylan said. “Therefore their good counterparts would have a flying city as well.”

“Yeah, but the opposite of Skyline is just Skyline,” Jack said.

Dylan shook his head. “Not one hundred percent. If we’re going with in-universe reasons, I think Dextra allows heroes because she has plans to use them for her own gain, and Dr. Zlo doesn’t think they could possibly threaten him. In an alternate world, both are good and would be much less willing to allow villains unless they had some kind of protections in place.”

“A whole other city would be a lot of work,” Jack said. “Seems like a lot to add to our current load.”

“I don’t think it would be that hard,” Sweet Dream said. “We have a lot more resources now than before. Remaking Skyline didn’t take as long as we thought, remember?”

“True,” Jack admitted.

“Let’s bring it up to everyone after we let them know about the machine,” Dylan said.

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