Vaudevillain

Chapter 185: Signing Off

Lupan brought his baton around for another strike, Dr. Zlo meeting it with his cane. Dull thuds echoed as the two clashed, neither giving ground. Lupan would twirl, using his cape as a distraction, while Dr. Zlo used his monocle to try and throw the thief off his rhythm. The two continued to clash, both men trying their best to distract and get hits in. Neither succeeded, the growing stalemate leaving Dr. Zlo frustrated.

While this went on, Sweet Dream continued the original mission, collecting other armors sitting in the museum. Riptide backed her up, maneuvering through the guards and sending waves crashing down on them. The guards answered back with attacks of their own, their silvery appendages emitting luminescent beams at Riptide and Sweet Dream.

"The Mizu won't stand for this!" one of the guards cried.

"You think we care?" Sweet Dream shot back, sending a gout of chocolate towards the man.

The projectile smacked into the defender, send the guard back a few steps and breaking his guard. Riptide followed up, firing a laser from his surfboard into the man's head. The guard crumpled, smoke wafting for a moment before the NPC vanished. A set of gauntlets lay where the guard had been, the silver woven into the item reflecting the museum light.

The other guards instantly bunched up, working together so they wouldn't get picked off.

"That just makes it easier, dudes!" Riptide cackled.

The surfer rushed forward, hanging ten on his surfboard as he zoomed past the enemies. A conjured wave crashed down, blinding the guards despite their attempts to defend. Sweet Dream followed up with her new candy creations, the mini-chocolate men diving at the guard's mouths like kamikazes. With no way to dodge, the men fell to Sweet Dream's hallucinogenic chocolate, dull smiles crossing their faces as they fell into dreamland.

"That'll do it," Sweet Dream answered satisfactorily.

"Awesome!" Riptide cheered. "Dream, our new powers are sweet!"

"Are you making a pun?" Sweet Dream groaned.

"Haha," Riptide laughed. "I totally didn't notice."

The surfer turned around, looking back to Dr. Zlo, "Hey, Zlo! You need help?"

The villain in question was still in a heated battle with Lupan, the two evenly matched. When it seemed Lupan would get an edge in the fight with his superior martial arts, Dr. Zlo would add another gadget to the fray. And when Dr. Zlo started to win from that, Lupan would find an inventive way to neutralize the invention.

Dr. Zlo tried everything. He used his frictionless gel on the thief's feet. Lupan simply used his grappling hook, swinging over the attack with ease. If Dr. Zlo tried his adhesive, Lupan would spin his cape, procuring a spray can whose contents melted away the glue like fire melts ice. As a last resort, the villain pulled off his dueling gloves, hoping to use them as an effective distraction.

The invention rushed up at Lupan, hands up in a guard position. The thief rolled past the first swipe with ease, using his grappling hook to swing at Dr. Zlo. The villain evaded the strike, sending a laser after Lupan in response. The thief spun out of the way, landing on a light fixture above and bowing. The gloves tried to take their chance, only for Lupan's baton to lash out.

Dr. Zlo growled as his dueling gloves sank to the ground, shocked by Lupan's baton, "You are quite annoying."

"And you have far too many tricks," Lupan countered from the rafters. "You should work on polishing your other skills. Maybe then you would be a match for me."

"Ha!" Dr. Zlo barked. "Trust me. We're nowhere near my limit!"

Dr. Zlo unlinked a button bomb, throwing it and following up with a blast of adhesive. Lupan dodged out of the way, the adhesive planting the bomb on the roof. The explosion rocked the area, bringing the ceiling down and exposing the rooms above. A family screamed, rushing away from the fight.

"Explosives?" Lupan questioned. "You want to use something that inelegant? I mean, I understand the need sometimes. But for this? It hardly seems worth the trouble."

"Sweet Dream, did we get everything!" Dr. Zlo boomed, ignoring Lupan.

"Yep," the villainess answered.

"Then, we no longer need to stick around. I'm sure heroes will arrive at any moment, and we can't afford to take another fight." Dr. Zlo turned to Lupan, "I hope you understand."

The thief dropped from the ceiling, grabbing the suit of armor he had protected before, "Yes. Let's not dally. Law enforcement is such trouble."

"Lupan!" A voice yelled.

The thief whirled to see Yoriki, his K-drone loyally at his side, storming into the room. "I should have known you were part of this! Or should I say, Secretary Yamato!"

"Wassat?" a groggy voice mumbled. "Someone call me?"

Yoriki whirled on the voice, seeing the chief's man on the floor next to the guards.

"Well, inspector," Lupan chuckled. "It seems you've caught my double. Since there's nothing else, I'll be going. I can't have a hero on my tail!"

"You get back here!" Yoriki shouted. But it was too late. The thief had already launched himself through the hole in the ceiling, the red suit of armor with him.

"And now, we make our escape!" Dr. Zlo bowed. He rocketed up through the hole he made, Riptide following while Sweet Dream rode with him.

The three players made their way out of the home, racing across the skyscrapers of Toedo. Along the way, Dylan checked his messages, seeing another box had appeared.

The Mizu clan has long held control over the museums in the city, using the arts as a front for their criminal activities. Your interference in their operations has garnered their attention. They are now on the lookout for you!

"Looks like Toedo is full of faction wars," Sweet Dream commented as she read her messages. "We've pissed off both the Hi and the Mizu."

"Dude, this is awesome," Riptide laughed. "We get to have fun and start quests! Vert should do this more often."

"I'd argue we're not exactly starting quests," Sweet Dream said. "More like gaining alert levels in the city."

"I bet Dr. Zlo likes that," Riptide said.

"Indeed!" Dr. Zlo answered. "It's high time someone started to learn of my greatness!"

"Well, let's get the last item," Sweet Dream said. "I don't have too much time left before my class tonight. I could get on after, though."

"Oh dude, we could stop here for a bit and come back later?" Riptide offered. "I wouldn't want to rush this. I want to see what happens now that we've upset everyone!"

Dylan thought about it, "I don't mind. What time would we get back together?"

"Say, eleven PM my time?" Sweet Dream answered. "I'd definitely be back from class by then, and it gives me enough time to prep for tomorrow without worry."

"Aw, but your class ends at nine-thirty," Riptide complained. "That's an hour and a half we won't play."

Sweet Dream glanced at him, "Don't think I don't know that you have some work to do yourself. Didn't you tell me you had a project due?"

"That's three weeks from now!" Riptide exclaimed. "I can easily do it in one."

"Then do it in one this week and have the next two free," Sweet Dream answered. "Besides, I want to go out sometime soon, and we can't do that if you have homework that takes up all your time."

"Alright, sure," Riptide answered, placated by the promise of a date.

"You're a simple man, aren't you?" Dylan joked.

"Heck yeah, dude!" Riptide answered. He grabbed Sweet Dream into a hug, "Got everything I could want."

Sweet Dream blushed, "Shut up."

"Well then, I'll leave you two lovebirds to it," Dylan joked, flying away.

"Remember, eleven, dude!" Riptide called as he logged out.

Dylan waved a hand in response, logging out a moment later. He decided to use the extra time to get all his chores done and maybe prep another meal or two for the future. World of Supers winked out of existence, replaced with Dylan's room as he removed the VIS. Stretching, Dylan hopped off his bed and made his way into the kitchen.

He pulled out his phone as he worked, opening up some music to play as he pulled out some chicken and rice. Dylan added the rice to a pressure cooker and started preparing the chicken. He was going for a simple stir fry.

The rice was still cooking after Dylan had prepared everything he wanted, so the man opened up his phone to look at some news. A notification appeared, showing that Vert had gotten back to him with a revised contract. Excited, Dylan opened it up and started reading.

This new contract was better than the earlier one, at least when it came to control of Dr. Zlo as a character. Vert still asked for rights, but this time it was only to use the figure as promotional material. It would allow the company to put Dr. Zlo in advertisements, but Dylan would still control the character. That way, Menagerie could still use Dr. Zlo and wouldn't have to worry about Vert blocking the character's use in thumbnails or some other promotion the guild might do.

Dylan finished preparing dinner, separating his stir fry into separate containers, and storing them in the fridge. He went through a few more chores, cleaning up his apartment before responding with his approval to Vert. A reply came back quickly, surprising Dylan since he didn't expect anyone to be at their office. He opened up the official document, double-checking to ensure there weren't any changes with what he read earlier, then signed the paper.

Dr. Zlo was now on his way to stardom.

Dylan tried mimicking Saul's voice, "I can see it now, your name in lights, kid. We're gonna be big. No, bigger than big. You're going to have so much fame and fortune you won't know what to do with it!"

Of course, Dylan knew exactly what Dr. Zlo would do with it. He'd use that money to further his plans of world domination. Using the most ridiculous ideas, of course. After all, one had to stick with the theme.