Vaudevillain

Chapter 120: Cruisin' Ahead

Victoria heard the explosion of Chemster's dead man switch as she finished off an overconfident hero with some type of rock shield. Shifting a hand into a spike made quick work of the player, allowing her to run to the source of the blast without issue. Along the way, Victoria activated her heat sensors to pinpoint the enemy's location. Two players stood to her left, performing strange movements.

She started to make out their movements once she moved closer. One hero lay on the ground, performing what looked to be pushups, while the other spun in a circle and waved their hands. The sound of air whooshing keyed Victoria in; the player was moving something around him to disperse Chemster's gas.

Victoria crouched low, shaping her body to let her crawl over the ground without a sound. The action wasn't very ladylike. She wouldn't be caught dead crawling in the dirt under normal circumstances, but two heroes required tactics. It was part of the reason the villain teamed up with Chemster so often, despite her character's obvious disdain for him. Gas obscured Victoria's actions and kept her from embarrassing herself through exposure.

Victoria made her way across the pavement, the small treads shaped on her arms and legs moving her along without a sound. Short grunts of exertion from the heroes reached her moments later, and the villain felt the wind wash over her dress. She inched closer to both heroes, taking care to retreat once she hit the clearing the players had made.

Victoria peeked a head out of the smoke to glimpse at the two heroes one more time. The hero doing pushups had stopped and was now discussing the next steps with the other. The second hero was controlling a slab of pavement and waved it around like a fan.

"Okay, I've stored enough energy for now. Which way should we head?"

"I'm not sure. Pick a direction."

The hero closed his eyes and pointed, "This way."

"Alright, keep your eyes peeled. There's still that other villain around," the second hero replied. He started waving his fan toward's the indicated direction started walking.

The other hero followed behind, keeping his eyes and ears alert.

Victoria crept behind, thinking up a plan as she shimmied forward. The first attack needed to take out the telekinetic, or else the hero would toss Victoria around like a ragdoll. But there was no telling how much health the hero had left, which meant the villain needed to take a gamble.

In one fluid motion, Victoria rocketed off the ground and outstretched a hand.

"F*ck!" yelled the pushup hero. He turned to meet Victoria's charge, blitzing forward with the use of her power.

The villain was a touch faster, her moment of surprise eking out an inch of extra distance. Her hand wrapped around the telekinetic's neck and squeezed.

"F*ck! Let him go!" The hero slammed a foot into the pavement, cracking the concrete and turning on a dime. He surged forward, fist ready to meet Victoria's face. The villain twisted impossibly, her torso making a full one-eighty to bring the telekinetic in front of the charging hero. Fist met face, and Victoria smiled in satisfaction as her gamble paid off.

Somehow, the telekinetic was still kicking. The hero struggled against Victoria, and the villain felt invisible hands tug at her body.

"Now, didn't you learn it's rude to touch a lady without her permission?" Victoria quipped. She shifted a hand into a spike and drove it into the hero, finishing him off for good.

"D*mn it!" the other shouted.

The last hero growled at Victoria, who responded with a bow.

"Victoria Pendula, at your service."

The hero didn't reply, instead turning and running off through the smoke. Victoria let him go; she wouldn't be able to keep up with him anyway. Instead, she threw her head back and laughed in a rich, arrogant voice.

"That's right! Run away like the coward you are!"

Riptide surfed after Merla, who was making her way up the docking ramp and into the cruise ship. The Professor and Bubble were still making their approach with Jaws and G.W.; at least that was what Riptide assumed. He didn't exactly leave them with a communicator to coordinate. It wasn't all that big of a deal, though.

Riptide glanced up in the sky to where the two villains waited with Jaws and G.W. Their goal was to respond to any unforeseen threats while Riptide made his way into the cruise ship. But now that Merla went into the boat on her own, Riptide was debating surfing up to his companions and bringing them back.

Merla was by far the trickiest person Riptide had faced against in PVP battles. The woman was versatile in ways the surfer could never be, and it meant he had to outperform her in every step of the fight to win. Their first contest against each other had ended in a draw, with Dr. Zlo's jerk of a friend interrupting things, but Riptide knew a prolonged fight would favor the magician. There were only so many crazy tricks a surfer could pull off before getting caught by crashing waves.

It was why he hadn't revealed his newest toy, and again Riptide remembered to thank Zlo at some point. Probably with Alienite or Phlebotinium, if Riptide could find any. He didn't want his friend to think he wasn't appreciated. Now seemed like a great time to reveal the wave grenades, or seanades as Riptide liked to call them. These tight corridors would be perfect.

But first, the surfer decided to call the others. Riptide surfed to the top deck of the cruise ship and turned his board to the sky. He blasted off three quick laser blasts in succession to get his minion's attention, then turned back to the ship. A few seconds later, G.W. floated down on a gust of air, its tail batting side to side desperately.

"Boss, I don't think I can go on," the shark wheezed. "Holding that many people was impossible."

"Sure, dude," Riptide answered. "Get some rest."

G.W. labored over to one of the beach chairs and unceremoniously fell onto it face first. Riptide noticed that even tired, the minion kept twitching his fins. The surfer smiled; his minion truly was a shark.

The Professor stepped beside Riptide, adjusting the collar on his jacket. "I do think it's unwise to call us, but I'm sure you have a reason?"

"Merla went into the ship, dude. You wouldn't notice if I started fighting inside it."

"Indeed," the villain answered. "Our next step should be flushing these heroes out. It's a shame we lost Chemster. His gas powers would come particularly in handy."

"We could wait for him," Bubble said.

The Professor shook his head, "No. Five minutes means that all kinds of heroes would appear again. We can't afford to waste time."

Riptide pulled out his seanades, juggling two in hand. "What about these, dude?"

The Professor took one look at Riptide's new weapon and shook his head, "Useful, especially in enclosed spaces, but the weapon doesn't have the range Chemster's weapons do."

"D*mn. Well, I'm out of ideas."

"We only need the engine, right?" Bubble asked.

"That's right, dude," Riptide answered. "The engine will speed up the wave widget's activation."

Bubble turned to the Professor, "I could break rooms until we got to the engine?"

"Hmm, yes. And Victoria is still running. She would be plenty to carry the machine out. But we would need an escape vehicle."

"G.W. and Jaws can get on that. Right, dudes?" Riptide said.

"You got it, dude," Jaws growled.

"Understood," G.W. answered.

"Good. Now that we have, once again, a new plan. I will stand by and collect Victoria. We will follow behind Bubble's trail. Make sure you kill any heroes who get in the way."

"Killing's such a harsh word, dude," Riptide said sportingly.

Bubble saluted her leader, then turned and activated her power. The ship's deck caved inward like a sinkhole and popped, showering wood and other particulates into the hallway below. Riptide jumped into the newly created hole with a "Cowabunga!" followed by Bubble. The Professor walked to the edge of the deck and prepared to signal Victoria.

Merla heard the explosion as she walked through the lower decks.

"Merla, the villains are making their way to the engine room!" a hero yelled.

"We must hurry! If Riptide gets his hands on that machine, there's no telling what he'll do!" Merla replied.

Heroes of all kinds burst out of their hiding places to run towards the engine room. The trap was sprung, and now they would close the net around the villains looking to steal from them.

Merla had discussed the plan of action with the others after she'd tricked Hardlight. Riptide wasn't the most conventional of players, mostly because his concerns inside the game were so different from others. Instead of going on quests, the man surfed. At first, the man's strange demeanor baffled Merla, but now that she'd gotten to know him, she realized he was just a guy who wanted to get the most enjoyment out of everything he did. That meant she could somewhat predict what he would try and do.

Of course, the other players didn't know that, so their plan had turned into this simple trap. All the players knew that Riptide wanted the cruise ship but didn't know why he wanted it. Therefore, the players split into two groups. Merla led the attack outside the boat and would retreat to let the heroes know if things didn't work out. The rest explored the ship, locating as many important rooms as they could.

From there, the players created a net of sorts. Each hero hid within earshot of another, waiting until a villain entered. Once the trap sprung, the heroes would converge on the villain's location and take him down with numbers. Merla felt it was a solid plan, all things considered.

She followed Spook and another hero towards Riptide's last known location, preparing a spell to attack the villain once she saw him. The capture spell should do it this time; the hallways were too tight to maneuver a surfboard through. Merla rounded the corner as Riptide surfed in from above, a woman in an old military uniform landing behind him.

"Sup, dudes! I'm here to take your sh*t!" Riptide shouted.

Merla cast her spell, and the final fight was on.