Vaudevillain

“Someone leaked the new expansion,” Jack said as soon as Dylan joined the call.

“Oh, what are they doing this time?” he asked.

“Dragons,” Jack said. He could practically hear her eyes rolling.

“Dude, what’s not to like about dragons?” Riptide asked.

“Its just cliche,” Jack complained. “Also, dragons aren’t very superhero.”

“She’s got a point,” Dylan said.

“No way, dude,” Riptide said. “Dragons are totally wicked. Everything gets better with dragons!”

“He’s got a point,” Dylan said.

“Shut up,” Jack said playfully. “But yeah, the upcoming set is going to have dragons.”

“They’re definitely making dragon pets,” Jack said. “Considering how many people love the little contraptions from this set? Yeah, I’d bet my life savings.”

“Dude, surfing a dragon sounds totally sweet,” Riptide said.

The call pinged as someone new joined the chat.

“Hey guys,” Sweet Dream said. “You’re here early. I thought things weren’t starting until seven?”

“I jumped in early so I wouldn’t forget,” Riptide said. “And then everyone else just joined me.”

They were waiting for Thomas and the others to show, having finalized the details for their next event.

“Hey all,” Thomas said as he joined. “Sent the message to CEOverlord. Now we just have to hear back.”

“Doubt it will take long,” Jack said.

___________________

CEOverlord was sitting in his evil lair when he got the message. It was a generic evil lair, a combination of the soulless corporate structure Tanner saw everyday at work and the more stereotypical lairs from supervillains. A foggy, one-way glass wall was all that separated him from his workers in the cubicles outside. Each cubicle was as drab gray as Tanner could make it. He even went as far as to find crafters that could make materials that drained the color from the area.

‘Inspirational’ posters hung on the cubicle walls. There were the, ‘Hang in there, kitty!’ posters, but they were few and far between. Tanner much preferred the posters that said things like, ‘when we’re here, we’re family!’, and, ‘Hard work is its own reward!’ He especially liked the family posters as they had pictures of mafia members on them.

The inside of his office had a much less mentally draining color. When one walked in the first thing they were greeted with was a modern piece of stained glass in place of the window. The art should have been one of those impressive pieces one found in the cathedral, complete with a Virgin Mary or Jesus. However in this case Tanner had made his character the center. It was an extremely unsubtle reminder to the workers that the company was the religion.

Honestly, it wasn’t all that different from some jobs Tanner worked at in the past. The only difference was that he decided to say the quiet parts out loud.

“Message for you, sir,” one of his many assistants said. He’d found a way to loop them in on his game chat, giving him a bit more of that CEO feel he was going for.

“From who?” CEOverlord asked mildly.

“One Dextra Black, sir,” the assistant said.

Tanner almost fell out of his chair. He only stopped himself because such a reaction was unbecoming.

“Hold my calls,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.

“Of course, sir,” the assistant said.

CEOverlord opened the message with a speed rivaling the quickest speedrunner. His eyes poured over the contents, a smile quickly forming on his face.

“Holy. Sh*t,” he said. “They wanna do a team up.”

He spun in his chair. “They wanna do a team up!”

Tanner stood and danced around the room in excitement. He’d been planning to reach out to Menagerie soon to see if they wanted to plan something. But he never expected them to reach out to him!

He instantly replied yes, and ear-splitting grin on his face. He received a reply almost instantly asking if he might have some time now to join in a call. Tanner quickly agreed.

_________

“What’s up, dude!” Riptide said with his usual enthusiasm as soon as CEOverlord joined.

“Hi! I’m so excited to be here.” said Tanner excitedly. He quickly lost it when he realized how he sounded. “Oh my god I must sound like an idiot.”

“You can’t sound worse than Riptide,” Jack ribbed.

“You’re just jealous, dude,” Riptide laughed.

“Nice to meet you CEOverlord,” Thomas said, instantly jumping into the meeting. “Like I said in my message, we have an idea for an event and you’d be perfect for one of the roles.”

“Wait,” Tanner said. “You’re Dextra?”

“I know, dude!” Riptide said. “I couldn’t believe he had such a deep voice either.”

“No, I mean,” Tanner started. “Dextra’s a girl?”

“Only the character,” Thomas said. “I thought it would be fun to be the evil businessman, but figured male was too cliche.”

“Okay,” Tanner said. “Sorry. Just threw me off is all.”

“No worries,” Dylan said. “We were all a bit surprised the first time as well.”

“Right, back on track,” Thomas said. “We’re looking to host our new event soon. The idea we had this time was that since Vert reset the server after the moon’s destruction, Menagerie is actually in a parallel world now.”

“That’s awesome,” Tanner said. “Wait, does that mean you want me to be this world’s Dextra?”

Tanner’s mouth fell open at the realization.

“That’s right, dude,” Riptide said. “We saw what you did in fantasy Italy and I was like, we totally need to do something with this guy.”

“Don’t talk like you were the only one with the idea,” Sweet Dream said. “We all thought he would make a perfect alternate Dextra.”

“Anyways,” Thomas said. “We wanted to bring you on, if you were willing?”

“Yes!” Tanner said. “Ack, sorry. I mean, yeah, sure.”

“Dude, don’t worry about sounding like an idiot,” Riptide said. “Dylan is already numero uno on that front.”

“Says Mr. I’m going to surf a cruise ship,” Dylan said.

Riptide laughed. “Nah, dude. What I did was cool!”

“And Dr. Zlo isn’t cool?” Dylan asked.

“Nah,” Riptide said. “He’s adorkable.”

“I’ll have you know he’s the foremost criminal mastermind,” Dylan said.

“No, I gotta agree with Rip,” Jack said. “Adorkable is the right word.”

“How dare you betray me like this,” Dylan said.

“Take it up with me when we meet in person,” Jack answered.

“Oh, you can bet on it,” Dylan laughed.

The rest of the meeting went by smoothly. CEOverlord learned what the event entailed and what his role would be. He did his best not to fanboy over everyone, which had him acting slightly awkward at first. Eventually, however, Riptide pulled Tanner back into his comfort zone, and he forgot all about how self-conscious he felt talking to the big shots of Menagerie.

“Okay, I’ll reach out to you about the plan and when we plan on starting this up,” Thomas said. “Thanks for joining the call, man.”

“Yeah, no problem at all,” Tanner said. “This is going to be awesome.”

“Oh yeah, dude,” Riptide said. “No doubt about that at all.”

Tanner said his goodbyes, jumping out of the call to go back to his own business.

“Oh, Dylan?” Thomas asked before anyone else got off.

“Yeah?” Dylan asked.

“When exactly were you visiting again?” Thomas asked.

“In a week,” Dylan answered.

“Cool,” Thomas said. “Jack and I planned to meet you once you got off your flight. Send me when it is so we can plan?”

“You got it,” Dylan said.

“Wait, you’re meeting IRL and didn’t tell us?” Sweet Dream said.

“Dude, how could you!” Riptide said, his voice filled with all the mock hurt he could muster. It wasn’t a lot. Riptide likely didn’t have a negative bone in his body.

“Sorry,” Dylan said. “Everything kind of got ahead of me.”

“You know what this means, right?” Sweet Dream said.

“No?” Dylan answered.

“This means we have to plan a Menagerie IRL meetup,” Sweet Dream said. “I refuse to be left out.”

“Yeah, dude!” Riptide said. “We totally need to see everyone in person! We can book a vacation in Hawaii and go surfing!”

“Let’s not go that far,” Sweet Dream said.

“I’m all for a meetup,” Thomas said. “But let’s plan it after the event, yeah?”

“Alright,” Sweet Dream said. “But I’m holding you to it.”

“Yeah, dude,” Riptide said. “There’ll be dire consequences if you forget.”

Riptide couldn’t see everyone rolling their eyes, but he knew they were anyway.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!