Vaudevillain
Chapter 73: And So it Ends

Dr. Zlo knew something went wrong when he saw John's wicked smile. The fear was reaffirmed when he heard the the missile clunk to the ground when he flew near the man. John had baited him. The whole point of the missile was to bring Dr. Zlo in range of John.

Dylan cursed himself for getting caught up in the flow. He should have known John could disable the missile, the man never left such blatant weaknesses open. Now Dr. Zlo had to escape from John's range. Luckily, the villain's new item was perfect for the task.

As John brought his chainsaw hand down, Dr. Zlo activated his stopwatch. The world blipped and Dr. Zlo felt himself skip forward, which had the misfortune to bring him right in front of John. Dr. Zlo smashed into the chrome man, toppling the two over into the grass.

"Just as planned!" Dr. Zlo yelled.

"You got lucky, and you f*cking know it," John retorted.

John flailed about, but had no way to reach Dr. Zlo with both arms transformed. Both hands couldn't bend at the correct angles. Taking the chance, Dr. Zlo twisted his cane and fired his laser. Since Dr. Zlo was so close, John's shield couldn't protect him, and so the man's chest and shoulders ate the blasts instead.

"F*ck!" John raged. He switched his arms back to normal in an attempt to grab at Dylan.

Dr. Zlo tried to follow up with his liquid fire, but in his haste the villain selected the frictionless gel. The blue oil splashed harmlessly against both players. John tried to keep Dylan in a bear hug but couldn't replace purchase with the gel all around. Instead, Dr. Zlo popped into the air like a cork.

"It seems you can't hold a great villain down!" Dr. Zlo quipped.

John didn't bother to reply, instead shifting his arm back to the laser. Dr. Zlo saved his teleportations and used his flight to dodge, this time ready for another missile strike. Instead, John gave a sharp whistle. Scores of chrome robots filed in through the gates to surround both players.

"I knew you would cheat!" Dr. Zlo yelled.

"Oh shut up!" John yelled back. "These are here to keep you from running away. You know, like you've been doing!"

To emphasize the point, John had the robots make a circle around the two, large enough to maneuver but small enough to keep Dr. Zlo in John's sights.

"Good show!" Clapped Dr. Zlo. "I knew you had it in you. I mean, of course I knew. You did betray us after all. I mean, I expected at least a modicum of fair play, but you truly proved how villainous you are."

"Seriously! Shut! Up!" John roared. "I swear to god I will have the robots shoot you if you don't stop with the mocking."

Dr. Zlo rolled his eyes, Singularity could not take a joke at all. Well, he guessed he would have to stay quiet for now, lest the chrome idiot actually use the robots. Chances were good that the man would treat it as his win too. He could hear it now, "See, you couldn't beat me. Means I was right." No, that wasn't going to happen.

Narrowing his eyes, Dr. Zlo swooped down and landed at the edge of the circle. "See, that wasn't so hard," John sneered. "Now we can actually have a fair fight."

Dr. Zlo scoffed but didn't say anything. He wasn't prepared to deal with all these robots, not yet at least. The villain took a second to assess his options. The dueling gloves were still out and running, though after the initial strikes the gloves did no damage. Distantly, Dylan remembered John mentioning he could convert tech into armor.

It didn't mean the gloves couldn't be a distraction, along with his top hat, and probably anything except his laser monocle. …And his explosives! Dr. Zlo placed a hand on his suit and cursed. He'd forgotten to replace his button grenades. He knew he had forgotten something when planning everything!

At least he still had the self destruct patches. But those had a ten second countdown, no way John wouldn't notice a countdown. Ugh, of all the times to forget making his bombs.

A robot shoved Dr. Zlo toward John. "Are you done cowering?" the man provoked.

Dr. Zlo stepped forward to meet his foe, pulling his cane up to point at Singularity. The man responded by shifting his hand into the beehive of lasers once more. Dr. Zlo fired his laser while his gloves moved in for a quick jab. Unexpectedly, the attack did nothing. But Dr. Zlo was only testing the waters.

It seemed that if he wanted to deal damage, he had to get in close. When Dr. Zlo crashed into Singularity, his monocle laser slipped through the shields and dealt some damage. The villain could even make out the places where it had happened. The black score marks on the chrome skin wasn't hard to miss.

Seeing it as his only option, Dr. Zlo ran forward with his cane firing adhesive. Singularity weaved around the strikes and retaliated with a shot from his laser. Dr. Zlo ignited his rockets and flew up, only to feel pinging on his back. He twisted around to see the robots shooting, each bullet reducing his suit's protection.

Dr. Zlo landed and tried using his teleporter to dodge the shotgun blast of energy, but the random nature of the device harmed more than helped. The teleporter wasn't built with an assault in mind. It was a defensive weapon, meant to keep enemies guessing.

Desperate, Dr. Zlo switched to the liquid fire in his cane and launched it at Singularity. But as the villain expected, the fiery inferno did nothing to the chrome man.

"Is this really all you got?" John taunted. "I've faced ten year olds who were deadlier."

Dr. Zlo stopped. This chrome-headed idiot was monologuing. At him! The nerve some people had.

"You really did surprise me for a second," John gloated. "I didn't expect you to make me use the missile launcher. Too bad you can't deal with getting boxed in."

Dr. Zlo ignored him. Singularity was giving him time to think! The idiot hadn't even tied him up yet. What options did he have? He couldn't run, but that wasn't even an option before the robots arrived. There were still the gloves, and despite their ineffectiveness they could at least try to blind Singularity.

"If you had listened to me," John continued. "Vert would already be contacting us."

He still had the top hat too, since there hadn't been a good time to let it loose as a distraction. His cane still had all his gels and goos, plus the smokescreen. If he could replace a way to get in close with his laser Singularity would take some damage.

"We could have worked for an actual gaming company Dylan!"

No, he'd already tried to rush in. Singularity had too many defenses to keep him back. If only he had his button bombs, then he could open up an opportunity. But he was stuck with these self-destruct patches.

"The two of us could have created the next arc for the game!"

Wait, two. Yes! That gave him an idea. Dr. Zlo twisted his cane to the smokescreen setting and called back his gloves. White smoke filled the area, obscuring both players from each other.

John groaned, "Don't you know when you're beat?" He aimed his laser at the cloud and fired, the blast turning the smoke to swiss cheese.

For a second, John believed he'd gotten Dylan. And then two white gloves flew out of the smoke straight at John's face. John ignored the attack, believing the armor he received from absorbing one of the factories would protect him. He was right, the fists pounded uselessly on his chest.

"Why would you ever think the same attack would work?" John mocked.

Dr. Zlo emerged from the smoke, smiling. "Because of this!" The villain pressed a detonator resting in his hand.

A soft female voice spoke, "Ten seconds until self destruct."

John looked down, the voice came from the gloves. Each one beeped an ominous red.

"Really?" John scoffed. He grabbed each fist and absorbed them in one second.

Dr. Zlo looked shocked, "Impossible!"

John smiled, seeing the timer hit eight as he stopped it. "You know, I think it's poetic that I beat you with your own weapon."

John's two fists detached from his body and flew over to Dylan. The first struck the man in the gut, the force of the blow doubling him over. The second clocked Dylan right in the jaw. John smirked as that annoying top hat flew up into the sky.

"Did you finally run out of tricks?" John mocked. "I knew you wouldn't be able to face me straight up, which was why I forced you into it. How does it feel to be wrong, Dylan? How does it feel!"

Dr. Zlo coughed and pretended that he still felt the blows. "I think you already said this to me, but I'll give it back. You talk too much."

Dr. Zlo's top hat floated down, landing right on top of Singularity's head.

"One," A female voice said. "Have a nice day."

John's eyes bulged, "oh, you f*cking cheat–"

The explosion ripped through the sentence, Singularity's head, his torso, both arms, and the legs. A wave of force pushed at everything around, sending Dr. Zlo flying into the air.

For defeating another player, you have been granted reputation! Your current reputation is now C. Your reputation will be B after 6 more escapade(s)!

Dylan laughed when he saw the screen, he couldn't help it. He laughed as he flew through the air, he laughed as Dr. Zlo landed on a pile of robots, he laughed as those same robots turned and fired their weapons. Dr. Zlo laughed as his health bar hit zero and he died. In the end, John had given the villain the perfect compliment. After all, cheating was a staple for any villain.

Of course, this didn't mean Singularity was done with Dr. Zlo. No, he very much doubted that the chrome moron would take a defeat like that lying down. But Dylan had proved himself to the man. Now John knew just how strong Dr. Zlo was, and the defeat would eat at Singularity for a long time.

Dr. Zlo respawned at a nearby corner store a few blocks away from the ruins of his base. One of the icons at the top of his vision glowed. It was his friends tab. Unable to contain his curiosity (and perhaps filled with a bit of hope), Dylan opened the tab. Sure enough John sent a message.

DemarX:

You think this is over?

Dylan closed the message. He didn't need to see the rant John had for him. In fact, he didn't need to see John on his friends list at all. With a few quick motions, Dylan deleted the man from the list.

With that done, the villain made to head back to Riptide, Sweet Dream, and the rest. There was crime to be done, and Dr. Zlo had to be right in the middle of it.