You know, it feels nice to take a weekend in the middle of the week. It also feels nice to know that I’ll never have to deal with noise complaints from nosy neighbors… Not because I don’t actually have any neighbors, but because I refuse to have anything above half volume. It hurts my ears otherwise, even while human.
The latest episode of Power Hour was on and I was very mad. It was pure filler… Even though Penultimate is STILL TRAPPED! But no, they had to take a day to go to the beach and the only thing that is remotely story relevant is a reappearance of a minor show original villain.
Problem is, it's been a tradition for the past nine seasons to use the character to foreshadow the next season, so I can’t take my eyes off of him or miss a line of dialogue.
The only thing I’ve noticed so far is that he has said the word ‘final’, like, at least five times… Nope, he just said it again.
No, not another flashback, I need juicy details not a bad reference to season six. Ugh, I hate recaps. Why aren't they worried about Penultimate again?
With a sigh, I turn my attention back to my laptop as the familiar scene plays out… Like, you can only reference the HQ explosion so many times and have it remain impactful. The group has had two more home bases since then.
Oh yah, my research… is a thing.
The overly serious logo of the Royal Institute of Specialized Learning has been burned into my brain at this point. The place was basically a college that said it only accepted the brightest of the bright. Albeit, there were about three hundred reviews that said it should be translated as richest of the rich.
Maybe I could do a Robin Hood thing on top of just normal theft? Nah.
But I did sorta find what I was looking for… I think. The place had what seemed to be a museum with an extensive collection of various archaeological and cultural artifacts.
The next problem is that admission was restricted to students, faculty, and alumni who have paid in. There was no public access, taking any recon I could do off the table. To make things worse, actually finding a comprehensive list of the artifacts they could have was nowhere to be found… anywhere.
It’s also not like I could ask the contact what they wanted either, and relying on my magical senses wasn’t going to be much of a help unless the artifact screamed that it was made of pure mythril.
A laugh sounded from my TV and I turned back in, Mr. Mild was now spinning around in the cartoonish way that villains do. The lights on the villain's impromptu stage suddenly flashed. And as soon as the idiocy stopped the minor character was holding something I wasn’t expecting, the creator engine.
That device, to say the least, is very divisive. A few years back, some mad scientist teamed up with some insane psychic and made that machine. What it did was give the user the ability to copy any ability from any super ever. It was actually the thing that inspired that awful Lady Liberation movie.
But you see, in the show’s lore, the only two copies of the machine were both destroyed in the prior season. So Mr, Mild shouldn’t have access to it, at all. The show’s heroes point that out so I know something is up…
What the-
My mind begins to melt when I see a very familiar pair of villains walk out from behind Mr, Mild…
Photographer and Emcee.
They show Emcee waving a CD in the air and then setting it on top of the creation engine. It then pans to show Photographer taking random pictures of all of the present heroes. Eventually, the outdated camera prints out everything she did and she uses her power to do something to them. Once she’s done she sets the stack of photos next to Emcee’s CD.
The heroes try to question them only for another new character to laugh from off-screen… Are they trying to make me pass out from fangirling?
Actress, Choir, Requiem, and Bouquet walk out from behind the curtains. And they already have voice actresses for Bouquet and Actress. Apparently, Bouquet was the one who laughed, and they have Actress criticize Marvelous’ swimwear choice.
The Scene ends with Mr. Mild cutting everyone off, saying that the real show is about to begin. And Firework jumps down from the top of the stage and with a smile sets off an explosion that blinds everyone. Once the dust settles the stage and all of the villains are gone, leaving only the random power-up that was the creation engine and whatever the theater left behind with it.
When the heroes went to investigate, they found that the photos were actually of where Penultimate was being held, something they were struggling with up until that point.
Nothing was said of the CD though.
The episode faded out with the heroes arguing about what they were gonna do next… or I thought it did.
I let the credits run ‘cause I wanted to know who the voice actors were so far, but surprisingly there were ones listed for the missing members of the theater as well… INCLUDING CARNIVAL!
I had to get up and dance for that one, even though I had no idea who the dude was.
Then I was caught off guard by a post-credit scene, the camera showing Penultimate, having made a good amount of progress on his cell in his escape attempt.
Then with a grunt, a set of claws ripped through the door and pushed it off of the hinges… And Carnival in tiger form fell with it. A robotic laugh followed the action when Record rounded the corner followed by Fiesta. Once Carnival was off the door, Record rewound it until it was back to normal, and Fiesta seemingly let go of a use of his power. The scene ended with Record grabbing Penultimate's shoulder and all four of the characters teleported out.
…
Normally I would be quite hyped, they finally know where Penultimate is… or was. Which I found more important. Gives the writers a chance to let him have a chance to get back at his evil sister. But…
I needed to sit down, the adrenaline high I was getting from just a cameo of a bunch of villains was taking over.
Eventually, after a few moments of cooling down, I booted up my phone and demanded to the group chat that they all watch the latest episode of Power Hour.
Casper, Rose, and Michael answered almost immediately saying they just saw it too. A few moments later Lucy said she saw the clips on social media.
Record: - But why?
- Theres no point in watching a kids show
Fiesta: - because the show is awesome
- and the latest reveal is amazing
Photographer: - I could just link the important parts
- ?
Carnival: - Noooooooo
- that takes all the fun out of it
- even if the first half is skippable…
Actress: - What happened?
- I’m not caught up on the show anyways
Fiesta: - @Actress they gave you a speaking role
Carnival: - dude
Firework: - WHAT?
- ?????
Photographer: - whn.PowerHourClips.trm/ep1032
Carnival: - but the surprise…
Requiem: - nice
Actress: - Noooooo
- I don’t want to catch up though
Emcee: - I can’t wait for the next season now
- I don’t know if I can wait until next fall thou
Photographer: - While everyone is here
- I know you don’t follow me on PhotoBook but,
- whn.PhotoBook.trm/VillianessPhotography/#theater
- just posted it
With open curiosity, I clicked the link Lucy had sent. Gods, I haven’t touched PhotoBook since my mom died. I still refuse to log in at all…
What… What did Lucy do?
The first thing I noticed before I even saw the photo was that it reeked of magic. Well, all of her edited photos have the feeling of magic to them, as long as you knew it was there. But with this one, it felt like she put hours of work into this one, then took that feeling and boosted it.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A normal mortal wouldn't notice it, but if they even had a faint sense for magic they would catch it.
Then I saw the photo… no, video… It's the teleportation chambers. She used a wide shot to catch all fourteen of them.
I hit play and watched as all ten members of the theater casually walked up and into the chambers, talking and arguing amongst each other the entire way. It ended with the chambers activating, us getting engulfed with the lights, and all of our eyes opened with the all-seeing light.
What’s weird though is that we were all in costume.
Starting on the rightmost… or left? I don’t know, but the two on the very end were empty, for some reason the group had chosen to use the ones in the middle.
From there there was Choir in her white and purple padded body suit, finished off with the full face mask resembling the tragedy mask. When the eyes opened she seemed to slightly split apart and a third eye opened on her forehead.
Next was Record, who was completely grayed out. In reality, he had a skin-tight full body spandex suit that let the lights from his augments shine through, and when the eyes opened only the one real one did for him.
Emcee was the first with a ‘civilian’ look, a green bucket hat, aviators, and a black facemask was all that was in the way of his identity… and the gold chain artifact that he wore around his neck. He’s also one of the villains in the theater who changes their costume based on fashion and such. But when his eyes opened with light his hands moved to cup over his mouth. Probably one of the most simple in the entire group.
Requiem and Firework were the next two. She had her ballerina getup, and when her eyes opened seemed to be standing there with pure grace. Firework on the other hand was in his ‘villain sidekick’ costume. One meant to resemble a superhero with the blue and gold bodysuit and domino mask. I don’t know why that’s his look but it has been there from the very start. And the pure energy that comes with opening his eyes is there as well.
Next to Requiem was Actress. She was basically the other that constantly changed her look up… you know… fabric witch and all. In the video, she was wearing a really nice red cocktail dress and a feathery mask to match. I still find it kinda funny how she flips her hair whenever she teleports though.
The next one down is Photographer, the other villain who wears a ‘civilian’ costume. Just a big green sweater and a nice shin-length skirt to complement. The only thing she needed to use to hide her identity was a pair of full moon glasses that seemed to constantly block her eyes. In fact, when her eyes ‘open’ it just looks like it’s a reflection off of her glasses, the fact that she holds her hands up in a frame helps the effect.
Bouquet is the last girl in the line, and she went all out with her costume. It starts as a green skin-tight suit that she accessories with a battle skirt. Normally if she has time she’ll also grow plants onto it and do her makeup as well to add a bit of glitter. I’m pretty sure at this point she also grows and makes her own makeup as well. When her eyes open it also seems to look like the light is also growing around her.
Lastly, there's Fiesta, who somehow managed to go all out while being really simple at the same time. He wears a loose shirt that shows off a bit of his chest and pants that will flow with whatever wind is present. Then it looks like he stepped in front of a confetti blaster and it all fused into the clothes. The comedy mask just ties it all off. Weirdly enough he doesn’t get the third eye thing like Choir, but the light does seem to want to make random shapes out of itself.
…
Then there’s me… Carnival in rabbit form… You know, despite how much I’ve seen as far as footage goes of Carnival, I’ll never get used to seeing myself. It is nice to know what it looks like when I ‘port though. Looks like all I do is hold my hands down in claws. It would definitely look better as the tiger though.
My eye is then drawn to the two chambers on the left, my right, there’s the empty one, then the crushed one. I’ve asked what happened with it, and even Reed doesn’t really know, it was the doc that did it, and at the time Sable, Rose, and Michael were the only other members. Heck, I haven’t even started my apprenticeship with the doc at that point.
Now there’s the matter that Lucy just posted this, to at least a few thousand followers. And I know for a fact that this will spread like wildfire with the theater being such a hot topic right now. Wait, what’s the caption?
“Fkn around with the ‘porters rn. Would feel better if they were all full tho.”
I ignored all the hashtags and began to laugh, I had forgotten up until that point about the fact that we need to recruit. While this did reveal something that was otherwise secret. It wasn’t that big of a deal in the end since everyone knew the theater had some kind of way to teleport.
Honestly, I have to applaud Lucy. With the video being so heavily saturated with magic, we would be more likely to attract people who would fit. While yes, there have been non-magical villains who have tried to join, they were promptly rejected. Probably another reason why the theater is so mysterious.
No one really knows what our standards for membership really are, not even Reed or the doc. It’s all on the conductor for that stuff, and from what I’ve heard, they’ve rejected some really good candidates over the years the theater has been active.
I spent a few minutes reading the accruing comments on the post. Most of them were the regular followers of the page freaking out that the account apparently belonged to Photographer. And Lucy made sure to confirm multiple times that it was the truth, spinning it so that it felt like it was known the entire time.
Talk about Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss am I right?
I shut down PhotoBook, kinda already done with it for now. Need to save brain space for the inevitable articles that’ll be written about it. A decent one will probably be published by tonight on HNN.
As much as I wanted to check the Power Hour forums about the latest episode, I needed to start on real preparations for my next heist…
Oh wait, shoot… I’m out of PVC… Crap… That means I have to go… outside.
Wait, I can use the teleporters now. I don’t have to jump through hoops to get to the hardware store anymore. Heck, I can go to bigger ones now…
WE ARE IN BUSINESS BABY!
I quickly toss on some jeans and grab a hoodie to match my ratty heavy metal shirt. I don’t actually listen to Machine Mage, but the shirt was cheap and already stained with paint. I had to get it.
Once I got my pocket and donned the rabbit mask I spent the entire walk over to Doc’s place researching hardware and craft stores. Eventually, I landed on going to Leonidas’ Warehouse… And why not, the second biggest is in Vancouver. As long as It’s not New York again.
When I reach the Doc’s place and head into the basement, I see that the doc is actually back. Reed and Erik are here too, the former seemed to be vibrating with excitement.
“Hello,” I say the second they see me come down the stairs, “Guess you saw the Power Hour clips?”
“Hmm?” Reed shorts out, “Oh yeah! That too. It was so cool!”
Erik rolled his eye(s), “The conductor wants us to attack Vienna, and Reed wants to take this job too.”
“No.” I immediately gave Reed a look, “After last time you need to sit one out… Why Vienna?” I tilted my head, “Austria hasn’t had a super-powered presence for a good decade now. Hells, the U.N. has ignored them for a while.”
Reed deflated a bit, but Erik ignored him. “I don’t know, we’re just going to take a golem and let it rampage a bit.”
“Huh,” I looked at Reed, “Oh, and I’ll make sure to let Sable, Taylor, and Faye know that Reed is sitting this one out.”
“But why…” Reed complained as I walked over to a terminal and started to calibrate my teleporter.
“Because you were severely beaten during your last mission and no one wants to risk you getting hurt in this one.” Erik said with a sigh, “Archer, where are you going?”
“Hmm? Oh. Making a run to a hardware store, I need some PVC.” I finished punching in the coordinates, leaving me in a nice secluded spot to ‘port into.
“Something wrong with your plumbing?” Erik said.
“Oh no, not that kind.” I quickly correct, “Basically hard sheets of plastic, for key cards and stuff.”
“Ah…” Erik looks over to where the doc is… mixing things, “So what do you think of Lucy’s post?”
“Meh, I see where she’s coming from with that, but blasting it to the entire world like that.” I waver a bit, “At least it’s on brand.”
“On brand for what?” Reed tilted his head.
“At this point… the theater,” I say as I step into my teleporter, leaving the living light show very confused.
I then spent the next few hours doing nothing in general. As soon as I got to my destination I took the mask off and wandered around the megastore as a human.
Absolutely no chance I could be recognized at all. Like a local tech hero from Vancouver was apparently there getting stuff, I managed to get a chance to talk to him and even got an autographed card and everything.
I wonder if the theater could make money doing stuff like that…
The plastic I was after was fortunately a quick find. I debated for a bit as to how much I should get. I could grab a whole bunch, step around the corner, stuff it into the pocket, and be gone. Problem was I wanted to see more of the store at that point, so I only grabbed what I needed and walked about with the stuff in a basket for a bit…
So…
There was a section for wood and lumber…
And well…
I couldn’t help it, there was this absolutely gorgeous piece of mahogany and it was really cheap due to how many cracks were in it. It was about the size I would need for a new mask and well…
Now I needed to stock up on resin, so I could actually carve the thing, and at that point, I had to grab an actual shopping cart just so I could carry around everything I got.
To say the final price tag hurt my soul is an understatement. I lived below the poverty line for my whole childhood. I know I can make these kinds of purchases now, but I can’t afford to waste any of it. Not a single cent.
And man does it feel awkward to walk out with a cart of stuff and immediately stuff it all into the pocket once I’m out of sight. It feels like I’m stealing a huge haul, but only the weird rushed bits, none of the real fun.
And like that, I put the rabbit mask back on and ‘ported back to the doc’s place. Of course, once I stepped out, the peanut gallery had all eyes on me…
Actually, it was just Reed and Erik again, joined by Taylor and Sable.
“Hey, Archer.” Taylor said with a smile I don’t care for, “We need someone to guard a golem in Europe.”
“Nope.” I immediately say, my ears reflexively folding back, “I’m already on a completely different project.”
“Wait what?” Reed shot up. “Since when were you on another mission?”
I hesitated a bit, cooking up my half-lie. “I found another lead for… you know.”
The visible excitement on Reed’s face grew exponentially, even the others seemed to be interested.
“Where?!? Can I come along?- Ow.” Reed rubbed the back of his head where Sable smacked him.
“Not until you get a clean bill of health from Faye.” Sable said calmly, “You are still recovering from that concussion.”
“Can I come along?” Taylor surprisingly asked, “I’ve always wanted to see one of your heists in action.”
“No..” I said, slouching a bit and shaking my head, “I… I don’t want to pull you guys into this whole mess if I don’t have to. It’s, kinda, personal…”
Why do I feel guilty about that?
“I’m heading home, have fun in Vienna at least.” Taylor’s face lit up in surprise when I said that. It’s what she gets for trying to trick me.
With that, I walked out on an awkward note. Not the best move but… If I let them see what the masks really are, I don’t know what kind of damage that could do.
To them or to me.
As soon as I got back to my sanctum I was distracted by setting up to carve a mask. The heist was in the back of my mind, but really learning how in the hells resin is supposed to work…
It probably doesn’t help that I accidentally mixed everything I had together before I looked up videos on how it’s supposed to be handled.
By the end of my attempts to prepare a piece of wood I should have saved, I had to; repurpose a box fan, destroy two tupperware containers, and research whether or not the stuff was skin safe…
Yeah never let me touch that stuff ever again. I’ll stick to wood carving from here on out. Doesn’t help that I had a literal bucket of the stuff left over once I got the block of wood figured out and resigned myself to having to sand a lot of it away.
At that point I said to heck with it and dumped a ton of green colorant into it and let it dry, maybe I could try and make some weird art piece out of it, give it to Taylor just to confuse her.
Now… the fake I.D. cards. The thing that’s actually important for the mission.