Vaudevillain

Chapter 30: Ride the Wave

Before they left Sweet Dream's hideout Dylan searched on his map for places that would have the parts he needed. A sprawling industrial complex named Nkosi Industrial seemed to be the best choice. A quick entry into the self-driving prompt had the truck driving down the street towards the factory district. As the three were on their way, a message popped up in front of Dylan.

"Seems like the new patch is coming out next week," Sweet Dream said as she closed her message.

"Man, what am I going to do for three hours on Sunday," Surfsup complained.

"You guys play SBA2?" Dylan asked.

"Nah man I'm not really a fan of those battle royale games."

"It's got a search and destroy mode too. My friend and I mostly play that."

"I'm in," Sweet Dream replied.

Surfsup nodded. "Alright man. You add me to Netchat yet?"

"Yeah, you should see it when we get off."

Dylan's stolen semi-truck pulled in behind a line of other trucks waiting behind a boom barrier. On the other side was a large warehouse and factory complex. A man with a clipboard stepped out of a small booth next to the gate to make sure the trucks were scheduled to arrive. Semis that passed the gate check drove down a thin road to a loading dock where workers continuously stacked boxes into the truck bed.

"What do we do about the gate check?" Surfsup asked.

"Just smash through it," Shrugged Sweet Dream.

"Nah my character wouldn't smash through a barrier like a common thug. Here, watch." Dylan assumed his role as Dr. Zlo and waited in the driver seat for the man. He made sure his cane was set and his suit immaculate as the truck rolled forward to the front of the line. When the man stepped up next to the truck Dr. Zlo rolled the window down.

The man brought the clipboard up, not even bothering to look at the villain. "Name?"

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"Dr. Zlo."

The man's finger scanned the list of arrivals. "You're not on the list."

"I believe you'll find that it isn't a problem."

"Look buddy I can't let you in if you aren't on the list."

Dr. Zlo fired his laser monocle and burned a hole through the plastic clipboard. "There, my signature."

The gatekeeper finally looked up to meet eyes with Dr. Zlo. His hand shot down to a communicator on his belt. Dr. Zlo melted it to slag. The man flinched back and fell to the ground.

"Well," Dr. Zlo started, "are you going to let us in or sit there like a buffoon."

The gatekeeper crawled into a stumbling jog and ran to what looked to be the front office. "Supervillain! Call the heroes!"

Dr. Zlo brought his cane through the window and fired his adhesive at the man's legs. The sticky substance halted him in his tracks and sent him to the ground with a dull thud. Dr. Zlo thought he saw the man's chin bounce as he landed.

"Really, some people are so uncooperative. I'll get the gate, one of you drive."

Dr. Zlo opened the driver's side door and jumped down. Surfsup and Sweet Dream turned to stare at each other.

"So," Sweet Dream began, "you sure you want to join up with this guy? He seems a bit hardcore."

"But dude that was awesome! This is way better than watching a vid online. And he didn't say we had to join him roleplaying."

Sweet Dream cracked a small smile. "Alright, he is pretty cool. Now get in the driver's seat like he said." Surfsup nodded and jumped over.

Dr. Zlo strolled over to the small gatehouse and found the button for the barrier. With a quick press, the boom barrier rose to its vertical position and the semi-truck drove forward. Dr. Zlo jumped onto the back of the semi as it passed. As he passed the gatekeeper he fired a stream of adhesive behind him so other trucks couldn't follow.

The truck parked itself in front of a docking bay and Dr. Zlo went to work blasting any worker brave enough to get close. Surfsup and Sweet Dream hopped out of the vehicle to join him. Sweet Dream transformed and jumped over to a group of guards emerging from a side door. A chocolate arm swiped through the guards' heads, coating the warehouse defenders in the sugary treat. Blinded, the guards were unable to react to Surfsup's follow-up. The man surfed over on his rocket board and blasted each guard with the board's laser.

With the workers running and the first group of guards down, Dr. Zlo went to work searching for the industrial equipment he needed. He walked down the rows of shelves, firing his cane at running civilians as he passed them by. His walk took him to a corner of the room where he found a pallet of compactors. "Excellent," Dr. Zlo said as he rubbed his hands together.

"You two, keep a lookout!"

"Yeah alright!" Sweet Dream answered. She proceeded to erect a barrier of chocolate around the doors. The candy substance hardened to cover the entrances in a sweet candy shell.

Dr. Zlo made his way back to the truck and turned his cane to the frictionless coating. Once there he pulled the ramp for the truck bed down and started spraying. A frictionless line formed as Dr. Zlo walked back to the pallets. He made sure to keep the line as straight as he could. Whenever he did need to make a turn Dr. Zlo stopped the current line and started a new one, leaving a bit of space so the pallets would end up flush with another line.

When he reached the pallets Dr. Zlo set his cane to the side and found a pallet truck. With a few quick movements, Dr. Zlo sent the first of the pallets down the frictionless line. It traveled to the end and stopped abruptly in front of a new line. "Behold my genius!" Dr. Zlo cheered.

Surfsup turned to look at what Dr. Zlo had made. "Haha sick!" The surfer laughed as Dr. Zlo shoved another box down the line. Surfsup joined in by jumping on a box. "Dream give me a push!"

The chocolate woman left her position as the lookout and shoved the pallet Surfsup stood on. The man flew down to the end of the frictionless line laughing in glee. As he reached the end he jumped up and tugged at the pallet. It followed him into the air and turned to land on the next line as Surfsup brought it down. He continued until he sent the pallet into the back of the truck where it clanged against the metal.

"Careful!" Dr. Zlo shouted.

"My bad dude! Hey Dream, give me another one!"

The three continued to play around with the boxes, stopping every minute or so to defeat another wave of guards. Dr. Zlo moved on from the compactor pallets and had found some other goods he needed for his inventions. He made a few more lines with his gel and sent these on their way. Surfsup made sure to grab the pallet each time Dr. Zlo sent it down the line.

The three were having so much fun they didn't notice the two heroes landing until one of them fired a laser beam at Sweet Dream. The woman's chocolate coating boiled and the smell of cocoa filled the air. The three villains turned to see who had shot at them. A man with mechanical wings holding a futuristic rifle walked into the room next to a woman in golden armor.

Dr. Zlo couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew he'd seen the woman before. She had the typical supermodel body of superheroines and wore golden armor that fit snugly to her form. Her long golden hair flowed down behind her shoulders. Her eyes scanned the room and rested on Dr. Zlo. Her face contorted in rage, "You motherf*cker change me back!"

Dr. Zlo snapped his fingers. "The Spartan! Or I guess its Spartana now? Have you come to lose again to the great Dr. Zlo?"

"Shut the f*ck up," Heroic yelled. "Do you know how hard it is to hit B rank for a hero? I either have to get lucky and find win a bunch of PvPs in a row or do a ton of patrol missions. I can't just walk up and take some chick's purse like you can."

"Then you never should have fought against the greatest evil mastermind of our time!" Gloated Dr. Zlo.

Heroic's face contorted even further. "I am going to kill you, find your base, and camp it until you quit this game you f*cking troll."

"Yo calm down," the other hero said. "It's two versus three right now. You can't blindly charge in."

"Shut up. Just keep those two busy while I kill this f*cker."

"Dude I'm not going to party with you if you do this."

"Whatever."

Heroic leaped forward at Dr. Zlo. Wings of light formed out of the hero's back and took him into the air. Dr. Zlo fired his laser but Heroic rolled out of the way behind a shelf. The hero emerged on the other side and the wings of light fired a halo at the villain. Dr. Zlo jumped on his line of frictionless gel to dodge.

The other hero sighed and turned to Sweet Dream and Surfsup. "Sorry guys, bad luck we found you I guess." He aimed his weapon and fired. The laser shot out towards Sweet Dream and boiled another bit of her chocolate away. Surfsup grabbed his rocket board and started firing back. The lasers dissipated against an invisible wall.

"Aw dude sick where'd you get the forcefield?" Surfsup jumped up on his board and started to surf loops around the hero.

"Made it." The hero flew into the air as well, mechanical wings vibrating like a hummingbird. Both hero and villain zipped around the room firing their lasers. Sweet Dream tried to join in by lobbing balls of melted chocolate but the hero was too fast. He zipped around on his hummingbird wings; performing pinpoint turns and keeping his gun trained on Surfsup the entire time.

Surfsup dodged by performing cutbacks and bottom turns to vary his speed. When he could, he would return fire with his board. Light flashed in an erratic array as the two performed their aerial dance. Sweet Dream kept trying to find a blind spot to throw her chocolate but the hero seemed able to dodge at any angle.

"We need to corner him!" She yelled at Surfsup.

"Woohoo let's go!" The man replied. With a surge of his rocket board, Surfsup rushed straight at the hero, a wild grin on his face.

The hero calmly leveled his laser rifle at Surfsup and fired three quick rounds. The beams shot at Surfsup's head, chest, and board with barely any distance between them. As the rifle fired Surfsup snapped his board to sit parallel with the incoming fire. When the beams passed under him, Surfsup tried activating his power.

The man shot forward off the momentum of the lasers, so fast that he reached the end of the warehouse in a split second. Surfsup dove to the ground in an off-the-lip maneuver and looped back around towards the hummingbird hero. The hero tried to fire off another round from his rifle but couldn't keep track of the speeding villain. Surfsup zipped past the laser fire and shot straight towards the hero.

The two collided in a mighty crash! Surfsup's board hit the forcefield around the hero and transferred all the force it had to the barrier. The barrier cracked and then shattered, leaving Surfsup free to pass through and tackle the hero to the ground. The hero's wings shattered against the concrete as they landed.

"Hoooly sh*t Dream I did it!!! Did you see that!" Surfsup stood up with a ridiculous grin over his face.

Sweet Dream ran over to the two, throwing a glob of chocolate towards the recovering hero. It smacked him right in the face. Some landed on the hero's mouth and he wobbled as Sweet Dream's hallucinogenic chocolate took effect. "Surf that was sick, but make sure the guy's down before cheering okay?"

"Yeah you got it! How's Superfan doing?"

The two turned to look at their companion. Dr. Zlo was using his lines of frictionless gel to skate away from the angry hero. Heroic shot halo of light after halo of light but each time Dr. Zlo would tumble or skate away.

"Think we should help him?" Asked Sweet Dream.

"Nah hold up a second, I want to see how he does this." Sursfup grabbed his fallen board and jumped on top of it, ready to see Dr. Zlo in action.