Chapter 389: 89: New Members

Chapter 89: New Members

Skyline had changed drastically in the couple of days Dylan spent down in Mutatholis. No longer did the flying city have a paltry three buildings. Instead, the skeleton of a towering skyscraper stood over Dylan like the bones of some giant. At the building's feet, Dylan noticed someone converted the lounge into an outdoor caf. Circular tables with wide umbrellas sat around an open kitchen filled with an assortment of drinks.

Dextra sat at one of the tables, surrounded by three others. Two of them were Hans and Nikola, but Dylan hadn't seen the third person before. They were dressed in the sort of clothes made for working with cars or motorcycles, all denim and cotton. Oil stains pooled around the end of their sleeves, and splotches of grease dotted their cotton shirt. Long, unkempt hair sat atop their head in messy dreadlocks.

As he walked closer, Dylan started making out the conversation between the players. The mechanic slid into one of the chairs near Dextra, tipping it back and balancing the seat on two legs.

"The foundations for the skyscraper have been laid, but it'll be a long time before we get anywhere close to a completed building," the mechanic said. Their voice was forceful despite the player's body language.

Dylan moved around an empty table; messaging Riptide his location as he did. He looked up from his message to see the mechanic looking over at him, her face changing from impassive to open-mouthed.

She pointed a finger accusingly at Dextra, "You didn't tell me Dr. Zlo would be online!"

"It's not like I keep tabs on all the people in the guild," Dextra replied.

"Bullsh*t. You're totally playing the controlling mastermind."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to monitor everyone twenty-four-seven," Dextra countered.

"Um, what's going on?" Dylan said, sliding into a seat at the table.

"Zlo, meet"

"Jack O'tool, professional fixer and mechanic," Jack held out a hand, which Dylan took. "Or at least, that's the name I'm using. I plan to be the go-to neutral party up here, crafting technology for anyone who's willing to buy."

Dylan noticed oil smudges on his gloves as he pulled his hand away, "Oh, cool. What power did you go with?"

"I started with your basic gadget crafting power. Not gadgeteer, I did my research."

"What's the difference?"

"I create blueprints of things I want, and the game gives me a suggested list of materials. But the kicker is that I can change those materials on the blueprint. Sometimes it results in weaker tech, but it lets me use whatever materials are on hand. It's much better than the gadgeteer power. Sure, down the line those players might get some crazy gadget, but they won't know what it is until they make it."

"Gadgeteering sounds like Mad Science," Dylan commented.

"Yeah, all the crafting powers are similar in some ways," Jack said, her voice taking the eager tone people get when sharing something they're passionate about. "Gadgeteering is like the inverse of Mad Science. You know the pieces but not the end result. Mad Science, you know the result, but not the pieces. Mine lets me know both the result and the pieces, but I lose out on the crazy power of the others. And then you have the more niche crafting powers like upgraders or enchanters, which are really the same but with tech and magic respectively, where they take a finished product and replace or reinforce the weaker pieces to make stronger crafts. Of course, a few online have started to argue that manually crafting everything is the way to go."

"Jack is also in charge of expanding our city, for the time being," Thomas said.

"Yep, that's me," Jack said proudly, switching onto the new topic like a DJ switching tracks. "Tomcat told me you did the designs, right? I love them so much. My major was in art design, but I really turned into a set designer after I graduated. Too many theater clubs. I've never seen designs like what you did, though."

"I design buildings in real life," Dylan said sheepishly. He hadn't gotten praise for a project since the beginning of his time at college.

"Woah, that's awesome. I pegged you as another theater nerd, like Tomcat."

"Can you please stop with the nickname?" Thomas asked. "I'm Dextra here."

"Sorry, Dextra," Jack said. She turned back to Dylan, "But I love the designs you had for the skyscraper, and making the city with a literal light and dark side is awesome. I can't wait for the whole yin and yang symbolism."

"Yeah, the idea came to me when I remembered Skyline doesn't have anything below it," Dylan started, happy to talk about his ideas. "See, thematically, villains always lurk around in the dark. At least in comics, they do. Their bases are located underground or in places people never go. But a lot of villains also reside in skyscrapers, like Dextra would."

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"Yeah, dude. Whatcha need?"

"It's about the tsunami crime."

"Oh, dude! I am so pumped!" Riptide pumped his fist for emphasis. "Riding that wave is going to be the sweetest thing ever!"

"Yeah, I was wondering. Would you mind changing it up a bit?"

Riptide sat down next to Dylan, "Like how?"

Dylan skooched his chair back a bit to let everyone see him. With the base building conversation halted, now seemed a good a time as any to bring up the idea he'd had.

"So, I was thinking about the quests Vert issue and how Oro and the others complained about how boring some were. I was wondering if we couldn't do something about that."

"Like, how?" Riptide asked.

Dylan clapped his hands together, "Think about it. Our initial plan was to use the tsunami as a way to pressure Vert. What if we turned it into something like the alien invasion?"

"Are you saying we should make our own content?" Nikola asked.

"Why not? We're already doing some of that with the videos. I've been recording almost everything I do now and sending it to Dream and the others. I'm sure some of you are thinking of doing something similar. But most of that is simple PVP or the generic quests that Vert hands out. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"That's true, the last few videos on our channel weren't anywhere close to our first videos. But I chalked it up to people being less interested in Rampart and his team." Thomas said.

"So, I was thinking Dr. Zlo could use the tsunami bomb as his first big world domination event. We'd announce it on our channel and taunt heroes to stop us."

"Like a giant murder mystery party," Jack said.

"I've never done one of those, but if it sounds similar, then sure," Dylan said.

"Dude, that sounds awesome! I'd get to fight heroes and surf a tsunami!" Riptide cheered.

"It does sound better than detonating the bomb as a threat to Vert," Nikola said. "This doesn't sound like something the company would ban us for."

"I'd be happy to help build things," Jack said, "but I'd rather sit out on all the fighting."

"Great. Let's work on getting some of Skyline set up, and then we can plan out our new caper."

"I gotta tell Dream about this!" Riptide said. He pulled out his board and sailed away into the sky, no doubt off to wherever Sweet Dream was.

"Oh, has anyone read the patch notes yet?" Dylan asked. "I saw Riptide's announcement."

"I haven't gotten offline to read them," Thomas said. "I decided to wait until the server went down for maintenance a couple of days from now."

"I skimmed it to see if they nerfed my power at all but didn't do anything else," Nikola said.

"I didn't even know the patch notes were out yet," Jack said. "How did I miss that? I check the forums daily."

"Hopefully, my power doesn't get nerfed," Dylan said. "If I want to pull off something like the tsunami bomb, I'm going to need all the power I can get."

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