Vaudevillain

Chapter 24: Getting Back Into It

It was the last week of the month and Dylan's overtime work was finally slowing down. The deluge of designs, revisions, redesigns, re-revisions, and final checks had crawled to a slow. That didn't mean there wasn't any more work to do; Dylan still had a few revisions he had to make. But by and large, most of his work had finished.

That meant he could spend more time in World of Supers. It was quickly becoming his go-to game. There was just something about playing as a mad scientist in a superpowered world. The rush of joy he got after completing his first heist still brought a smile to his face.

Which reminded him, John wanted him to record his antics so he could watch them. That meant setting up a recording device. Dylan had dabbled in streaming way back before he'd found out how much he liked architecture. His computer still had the freeware he'd installed.

He opened up the recording software and updated it to its latest version. While that ran he went to his closet and pulled out an old external hard drive he'd never sold. Despite years of advances in storage hardware, the external drive was still the best way to store video footage. Video footage was like a goldfish, it grew to fit its container.

Once he had everything set up Dylan finally jumped into bed and pulled on the VIS. World of Supers appeared in his vision. Dylan moved over to Dr. Zlo and selected the character. His vision merged with the fiendish villain's and Dylan appeared inside his secret base.

"It's time for another glorious scheme!"

Dr. Zlo cackled maniacally. He had plans, schemes, and even strategies planned for this city! His first scheme might have been a failure but his next ideas were pure villainy! But first Dr. Zlo answered his chat messages.

Surfsup26:

Hey I got all the items you need to make my board

That had been three days ago. But it seemed the player was online right now so Dylan went ahead and replied.

Superfan39526:

Hey great

Sorry for not answering

Couldn't get on the game for a bit

Surfsup26:

No worries

Where you want to meet?

Superfan39526:

How about back at the beach?

Surfsup26:

Cool I'm already here

See ya soon

Superfan39526:

Sweet I'll head over

Dylan closed the chat window and made his way out of his secret base. As he climbed up to the basement of his mansion he saw Cass standing behind the bar, bent over and looking for something.

"Cass! What are you doing?"

The butler started and bumped his head on the counter above. "Ow! Oh hey boss I was just looking for more ingredients for drinks. Mabel's askin' for a mint julep, but we don't have bourbon."

"I see. Carry on then. I'll be meeting up with another villain for a while. I'll call you on the cufflink communicator if you're needed."

"You got it boss!" Cass straightened in a salute and banged his head on a cupboard behind. He turned as if someone had slapped him across the head. Dylan walked up the stairs as Cass looked around suspiciously.

Momma Mabel was resting in the sitting room, lounging over two of her minions. Two of the vested Jacobs had twisted themselves into a human couch. Another was fanning Momma Mabel with a large palm leaf while the last held a plate of grapes that they dropped into the woman's mouth one at a time. "Zlo hon having these fine men at my beck and call reminds me of when I was younger. Oh, the heads I would turn. Too bad your men aren't anatomically correct." The woman snickered.

Dylan rolled his eyes. "Mabel making my minions anatomically correct would only add a weak point in their design. Which reminds me, I should create something for you and Cass at some point."

Mabel sat up. "Oh that's great to hear! Truth be told I was a little worried durin' our last fight."

"Which is why I plan to make both of you protective gear. But first I must meet with a colleague."

"Have fun Zlo honey. Momma will be over here enjoying her leisure time."

Dylan walked out of the mansion and into the yard. A few Jacques were around, trimming the odd hedge around the place. Dylan didn't bother addressing them. He activated his rocket boots and flew off towards the harbor district.

As Dylan flew away one of the bushes outside the mansion rustled. A Jacques nearby turned at the noise, turning its head sideways in curiosity. The bush rustled again and the Jacques moved to look inside. Suddenly the minion's body was pulled into the hedge.

The Jacques landed inside with a slight poof. As the minion stood it noticed the area inside the bush was much bigger than it should have been. A glow caught its eye, coming from below. The Jacques looked down to find a strange glowing circle under its feet.

The light at the edge of the circle shot upward, trapping the Jacques inside. The minion ran to the edge and tried punching but couldn't break the strange barrier. After the light reached twice the Jacques height the entire circle flashed. Inside the minion convulsed as a strange energy passed through it.

In seconds the circle had finished its task and the barrier of light fell. A Jacques stepped out of the circle and adjusted its bow tie, now a dull red instead of the normal black. A woman dressed in ninja garb stepped out of the shadows. The Jacques knelt down in servitude.

"Continue your earlier task and collect any information you can on this Dr. Zlo."

The converted Jacques nodded. Then in a puff of smoke the ninja woman was gone. The Jacques stood to make its way out of the bush and tripped over an exposed branch.

As Dylan landed at the Harbor District's beach he found the entire area had been rebuilt. The boardwalk that his crab bot had crashed through had been restored to its former glory and the many holes the robot had stomped into the sand had been filled. Tourists and beachgoers milled about as if a fight between a hero and villain had never happened. It was sad there was no record of Dylan's destruction but if there wasn't a quick repair function in the game every city would be rubble by now.

Finding Surfsup at the beach wasn't all that difficult. Though that was mainly because Dylan stood out from the rest of the crowd. The player was waving Dylan over as soon as he landed on the beach. "Hey what's up dude."

"Not much," Dylan replied.

"Yo I saw the vids of you fighting those heroes on Spreddit. That was awesome!"

"Ha thanks."

"No I'm serious dude, that gun you used to make that guy a girl? That was so funny. And that giant train mech was so cool!"

Dylan rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment. "I didn't really expect anyone to record it."

"You should totally make a channel for all of it. You are doing more of stuff like that right?"

"Yeah I plan to."

"Oh dude! Do you need like a villain sidekick or something?"

Dylan blinked. "Honestly I never even thought about it. The only other friend I have that plays chose to go hero so I expected to be solo for a while. But if you want to join up I don't see why not."

Surfsup pumped a fist into the air. "Aw yeah sweet! So what's your next plan?"

"Make you that surfboard."

"Oh yeah. Here, let me get out all the parts."

Surfsup opened his inventory and took out everything needed for his rocket board. At the same time, Dylan re-typed the entry in his power and brought up the overlay.

Rocket Board

A modified surfboard equipped with a rocket pack and laser blaster.

bottle rockets (2)

gun surfboard (1)

solar panel (1)

laser pointer (10)

car battery (1)

He highlighted everything and watched as the materials spun together into a sleek red surfboard. The back of the board housed two rockets connected by some smooth piping that rested flush with the board. Under the board sat a sleek battery pack melded with the back fin. Circuitry ran from the back of the board up to the front where a small opening could be seen. Dylan assumed that was where the lasers were.

Surfsup rushed over to his completed board and immediately jumped on top of it. "Dude this is awesome! There are little pedals for the engine and laser. I gotta try this out!"

The player stepped down on a back pedal and Dylan watched as the engines ignited. Surfsup laughed wildly as he almost fell off from the initial jerk. The board zoomed forward as Surfsup continued to increase the speed. As he reached the boardwalk the player jerked the board to the right and sloped over one of the stalls.

"It looks more like skateboarding then surfing," Dylan commented.

Surfsup turned to fly down the length of the boardwalk and stepped to the front of his board. Red lasers shot out in a line, burning holes into the boardwalk wood. The player laughed as visitors screamed in panic. Surfsup laughed as he carved a smiley face into one of the boardwalk stalls.

With his quick vandalism done the player flew back over to Dylan. "Dude this board is awesome! I can't wait to do a few crimes with it. You planning to do anything today?"

"I had a few plans in mind but most of my ideas need some setup."

"Got it. You wanna knock down a few stores then? Cause some general mayhem?"

"Nah see I'm playing the character as someone whos above the petty villainy of the masses. His vision is to take over the world with his inventions."

"Oh I get it, like tabletop games. That's pretty cool. Did a few of those in college but we could never stick to a time. So what were you planning to do?"

"Not quite sure yet. I've been working my way up to the whole world conqueror thing. Going through the classic villain crimes."

Surfsup lowered his board and laid down to rest on it. A terrified tourist ran past screaming. Surfsup tapped shot a laser at his feet. "Man if you're going classic villainy you gotta rob a bank. That's like the first thing I think of."

Dylan sat down on one of the many towels abandoned at the beach. "Yeah, but robbing a bank seems a bit boring you know? Plus everyone's already been doing that. It's not as fun if a bunch of people do it."

"Yeah I hear that. What about some sort of evil science gas?"

"What?"

"You know, like fear gas, or laughing gas. Install it in the water supply or something and threaten the city."

"Sure I could do that. It just seems like a big jump to go from one hostage to hundreds of thousands. I feel like there needs to be something in between that."

"Like robbing a bank."

Dylan snorted. "You're really into the whole bank robbery thing."

Surfsup shrugged. "I like heist movies."

Dylan blinked. A heist. Why hadn't he thought of that? Heist movies were always fun to watch. A supervillain heist sounded amazingly fun. "Yeah alright."

"Alright what?"

"Let's do a heist."

"Wait really?"

"Yeah. I'll be the mastermind, you can be the partner in crime. But we'd need a safecracker, a thief, and some muscle. A heists gotta have a team."

Surfsup jumped up from his relaxed position on his board. "Dude sweet! A super heist sounds awesome! I know someone who could be the muscle and we could ask around on forums for the other guys."

"As long as their fine with me roleplaying I'm down."

"H*ll yeah! Oh dang I should make a persona as well. You can be the classy guy and I'll be the surf rat."

"Surf Rat's a good name."

"Nah, too cheesy." Surfsup grinned.

Dylan shook his head. "God that was bad."

"Pff whatever. Alright, I'm gonna contact my friend about the heist and put a few messages out. Talk to ya later. Thanks for the board!"

Surfsup logged out of World of Supers. Dylan stood up and dusted off the bit of sand that had gotten onto his suit. He activated his rocket shoes and blasted off back to the secret base. There was a heist that needed planning.

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