Chapter 267: 238 – Planning Stages

"I see you're back to full strength," Jack said as Dylan arrived back in Skyline. "Got your new cane?"

The two stood in front of Dextra's office. The player wanted to meet with everyone to hand off the Phlebotinium to upgrade powers. At the moment, the player in question wasn't around, leaving Jack and Dylan alone in front of the door.

"Beat back a possessed bird to get it, " Dylan joked. "How are we looking on materials for the death ray?"

"Things are holding strong," Jack said. "We've pulled in a few more players, most of them villains. They're all excited to meet and work with you, especially these four steampunk-inspired guys."

"Oh, I know them," Dylan said. "They went up against Merla during the tsunami attacks."

Jack nodded, "We also grabbed that apocalypse trio."

"Ah yes," Dylan replied. "Those three are a blast. This is looking to be a great team."

"It's certainly a menagerie," Jack joked. "Rampart grabbed three heroes along with his team. Though I think they plan on making villains for the moon assault."

"Sounds great!" Dylan said. "Now, all we need to do is wait."

"In the meantime, I was hoping you might want to go on a few quests together?" Jack asked.

"As Dr. Zlo and Jack?" Dylan asked.

The player shook her head, "I was thinking it would be fun to use one of the Sciencium characters. Make them your follower or something."

Dylan nodded, "I could see it working. Oh! What if you acted as Dr. Zlo's admirer and tried to become his sidekick?"

"Maybe?" Jack shrugged.

"You don't seem sold on the idea?" Dylan asked.

"It seems a bit much is all," Jack said. "And I'm not the kind of person who can act like an underling."

"Oh, in that case, act like a rival or something," Dylan answered. "I just mentioned the admiring sidekick because it sounded funny."

"I'll do that then," Jack answered. "I can be 'Miss Mayhem!' Villainess extraordinaire! And we can spend some time grabbing Phlebotinium and growing our stash."

"As long as we make convoluted schemes for it," Dylan said.

"As if there was ever any doubt!" Jack laughed. "Our first plan should be making a giant Rube Goldberg machine across the city."

"Oh! And it ends in a bomb that blows open a bank vault containing Phlebotinium!" Dylan said.

"Yes!" Jack laughed. "All that work for a simple bomb. I love it."

"What are you two up to?" Sweet Dream asked as she and Riptide appeared.

"Going over what we're going to do while waiting for our materials to generate," Jack said. "Dylan was thinking of making a giant Rube Goldberg machine."

"That I could surf!" Riptide exclaimed.

"Sure, why not?" Dylan answered. "We could use you as a part of the contraption."

"Sweet!" Riptide cheered.

"Where's Dextra?" Sweet Dream asked. "Weren't they supposed to get here a few minutes ago? We were going to get the Phlebotinium we needed to make our characters."

"I'm here!" Dextra said, the elevator opening to reveal them. "Sorry, a few of the new officials had some questions. I'm having to delegate more with our new plan in the works."

"That's a good thing, though," Shizuka said, appearing next to Dextra. "You were doing too much on your own before. It left me no time to have any fun with you!"

"I see we're having a party outside the office," Rampart commented as he arrived.

"A bit cramped for an office party, I think," Oro said as he walked out of the elevator.

Behind the hero stood Psy-Ops, Yuppie, and Fursation, the three heroes looking at the other players in awe. Another elevator dinged a moment later, revealing Titan and Merla with the apocalyptic trio and the steampunk four. Behind them was Muerta, the villainous dancer pushed into the corner.

"Ah, finally," The Professor said, straightening his tweed jacket and walking out of the elevator. "That ride was much too cramped."

"You're telling me," Muerta said as she stepped out.

"Alright, let's get inside," Dextra said, opening the office door.

The crowd marched inside once the doors opened, spreading out to fill Dextra's spacious office. Groups naturally formed as they milled about, but everyone made sure to say hello to Dr. Zlo at least once. Dylan greeted them back with Dr. Zlo's signature ego, keeping up the character because it was fun more than anything else.

"Now," Dextra said once everyone filed in. "Here are the materials you will need for the others. Be sure to use it for Sciencium storage and generation. That way, when you collect at the end of the day, you don't miss any."

"You got it, Dex," Shizuka said. She stepped forward, holding her hand out expectantly.

Dextra rolled his eyes and placed the Phlebotinium into Shizuka's waiting hand. The player then pulled out the rest of the materials, handing them off to the players one by one.

"Alright, everyone got what they need?" Dr. Zlo asked.

The group nodded.

"Excellent! Time to begin our collection!"

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With that, Dylan logged out and started the arduous journey to collect Phlebotinium. And so Dr. Zlo's biggest crime began, and Dylan couldn't be more excited.

"So I was thinking," Sweet Dream said as the group met up in Skyline. "How are we going to leave a permanent mark on World of Supers anyway? Wouldn't they just reset everything once we destroyed it?"

"To be honest," Dextra said. "I wasn't thinking of leaving something permanent behind. It was more about generating a story for the players."

"Right, but shouldn't we at least try?" Sweet Dream asked, leaning on the café table.

The group of players sat around the Skyline coffee shop, having reserved the area for discussing the 'great moon assault,' as Dr. Zlo called it. Mostly it was just explaining the grand idea and making sure that everyone had a part to play.

"How could we get around a world reset?" Rampart asked.

"Well, they only store their backup for three days," Dylan said. "We could try and do something with that?"

"What, like a bomb?" Oro asked. "Couldn't they just find it and defuse it?"

"We would have to plant it three days before the assault if we wanted to do that," Dextra said. "And I think we'd need more than just bombs."

"Dudes! What about using a fake moon?" Riptide asked. "We could switch the planets, and no one would know!"

"Rip, we're already making a death ray that costs a ridiculous amount of Phlebotinium. How do you think we're going to make an entire moon on top of that?" Sweet Dream gave her boyfriend a chiding look.

"IT could be a hollow moon," Riptide argued weakly. Seeing that no one else was enthusiastic about the idea, Riptide let it go. "Alright, dudes. But don't come crying to me when they ask why we didn't make a giant moon distraction."

"Shut up, you dork," Sweet Dream said playfully.

"What if we made a memorial?" Merla asked. "Plant it in the moon for the heroes and players to see?"

"It doesn't seem villainous enough," Dylan said. "What kind of villain would leave a memorial instead of a bomb?"

"It doesn't have to be villainous," Merla said. "And leaving something harmless like a memorial would mean it has a better chance of sticking around."

"I got it!" Shizuka exclaimed. "We make two contraptions! They get planted three days before the attack, and then we have one activate six days later!"

"So if when they roll back the assault, the first device goes off, whatever it is. When that gets rolled back, they think everything's all well and good until one goes off Six days later. And by then, it'll be too late to remove the item!" Dylan stood from his chair laughing. "That's genius!"

"Was there ever any doubt?" Shizuka asked smugly.

"But couldn't they just search for the item and disable it?" Sweet Dream asked. "I like the idea, but someone would find the bomb or memorial or whatever it is after a search, wouldn't they?"

"What if we made it teleport around?" Oro asked. "Make it randomly jump around the moon's surface a half-second at a time? Could anyone catch it before it goes off?"

An idea came to Dylan, and he opened up his power tab to type it in.

Teleporting Jacques Factory

No one knows why Dr. Zlo decided to make this factory, but everyone agrees that it is the most annoying nuisance since the mosquito. The Jacques factory teleports around a designated area, collecting the materials it needs to create Jacques in secret. Once it has enough for a small squad, the factory goes to work, producing Jacques that cause trouble for anyone nearby!

Full Face Mask (1)

Cohesive Theme (1)

Mannequin Doll (1)

3-D Printer (10)

Superglue (1 bottle)

Quantum Computer (1)

Sciencium (10g)

"What do you think of this?" Dylan asked the group, showing everyone his idea. "We could make two of these and have one start working once things get reset. The other one can start three days later, but if both work correctly, it'll take ages for Vert to find them."

"Ahaha!" Shizuka laughed. "That's perfect! The only thing that would be better is a mosquito factory!"

"Hey now," Dylan said. "I'm evil, not abusive. No one deserves to get attacked by mosquitos in a game. Real life has enough of those bugs."

"Well, if we're all in favor of the idea," Dextra interrupted. "Our next step is to figure out how to plant the items. Any takers?"

Oro raised a hand, "I'd love to try it. But I'm pretty sure the headquarters has strict security in place."

"Just place it on the opposite side of the moon, dudes," Riptide said.

"He's right," Sweet Dream continued. "It should only be the headquarters that has a lot of defenses in place. The far side of the moon should be fine."

"That settles it," Dextra said. "On to the next order of business."

And so talks continued well into the night as Menagerie planned their revenge.

Thanks for reading!

Let me know if you see any typos!

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