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The giant screen lit up in front of the group of 4 showing the baby-blue clad head of HQ: Em-Patt.
"Hey everyone." He chirped, "Always nice to see you all, have you all been doing alright?"
Logan gave a small hum, "I have been adequate."
Roman did a pose, "Magnificent! How have you-"
"Let's cut to the chase," Roman glared at Virgil for the interruption. Rude! Virgil rolled his eyes, "We all know you didn't invite us here for small talk. What's wrong?"
Patton rubbed his wrists, "Well I guess we should get into it. We got an anonymous note today saying that Deceit and The Duke are up to no good.”
Roman stiffened, “My brother... What did that dastardly Duke do this time!”
A piece of paper written in a delicate golden scrip that said, ‘The Duke and Deceit are up to no good~ Send your best. -Anonymous citizen’ appeared on the screen and Patton shrugged while the other heroes exchanged bewildered looks.
“This just screams trap.” Virgil said, “If we go we’re walking straight into it.”
“But what if there’s someone who’s truly in need! Surely we can’t let them suffer just because what they wrote was vague!” Roman cried.
Logan nodded. “As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Roman. Although the message is quite suspicious we have far more to lose by not responding than by going to their lair. We just need to be cautious.”
Virgil sighed and rubbed his forehead in frustration. He hated being outnumbered. He grumbled a few insults under his breath that were drowned out by the sound of The Car rising from the ground. A small, sleek-looking thing, if it weren’t for its bright rainbow coloring it would be perfect for stealth! As it stood they need to park 5 blocks from the Duke and Deceit’s layer.
The ride felt far too long with the tension in the group, all of them waiting on edge for a trap to pop up at any moment. A worry that turned out to be for naught as they drove into a parking lot 5 blocks from the villain’s mansion-like lair.
Logan cleared his throat, “Before we enter, it would be useful for us to review the powers of our enemies. Deceit’s known powers are shape-shifting and voice mimicry while the Duke is able to summon objects,” his eyes flickered to Roman who was throwing a ball he’d summoned during the ride there. He quickly made in vanish and rolled his eyes.
“The tensity is palpable, relax, we know what we’re doing. We’ve got this!” Roman said.
Virgil sighed, “Your cockiness is going to get you in trouble one day.”
Roman grinned, “And that day is not today! Let’s stop stalling, all we have to do is burst in there, beat the bad guys and get out!” He began to walk towards the building but was ran straight into a wall of shadow from a nearby car.
“We need to have at least a basic plan.” Virgil said, “Okay, we know their powers, how are we going to stop them?”
Logan hummed, “Well, we know what Deceit looks like... Perhaps we should use a codeword in case we end up in a situation where he takes one of our forms?”
Roman began to loudly ohh ooooooh! “Okay, I’ve got it! What about ‘The snake is out of his skin.”
“Seriously-”
“That works.” Logan said, “And The Duke?”
Roman held up his hand and summoned a sword, “It shall be an epic battle, summoner verses summoner, two brothers in the battle to end battles-”
Logan shook his head, “You’re not the only one of us here Roman and the amount of collateral that such a battle would cause is...” He and Virgil shuddered in unison.
“I’ll work against him, as long as there is darkness, my shadow walls will be able to protect us.” Virgil said.
Logan nodded, “And if push comes to shove, we’ll let Roman fight him one-on-one.”
Roman huffed but agreed to the plan, the trio finally reached the building, a two-foot tall mansion that Virgil accurately compared to a haunted house. The comment was emphasized by the loud CREEEEEEEEEAK of the door when it opened into an ornate living room. A long golden couch sat in its against the wall,and lying on that chair sat the dreaded Deceit. His skin held patches of white along his dark skin, on his head sat bowler hat with a bright yellow strip across the front. His tuxedo, cape and heeled boots gave him the feelings of powerful sophistication. The only thing separating him from a magazine picture was the large machine sitting in the center of the room.
“Well well well,” he said with a confident smirk standing up, “Looks like the heroes have finally decided to show up.”
The trio bristled and Roman stepped forward, “What are you doing Deceit, and don’t lie. We saw your note, we see your giant... Death machine... Thingy!” Deceit snorted and Roman summoned his sword, placing the cold metal against Deceit’s neck, “You know what I meant!”
Deceit nodded, “I do... But this wasn’t my plan.”
Roman blinked, “Then who-?”
Deceit chuckles, “Oh come now Ro-boat, you’re a smart guy.” Roman paled at the nickname and Virgil cursed. He knew his brother was involved, but there was a big difference between ‘a plan that Remus happened to be involved in’ and a ‘Remus plan’. He still had a scar on his leg from a ‘Remus plan he’d followed when he was 10.
Logan began to move towards the door but finds it locked, “Well that’s not good.” He understated. Really the only thing that could make things worse is if the lights went out-
The world went dark.
There was a sound of shuffling around the room, metal against metal, a scream than the lights came back on. Roman, Remus and Roman were laying flat on the ground. The groaned and stood up in unison.
Remus gave a delighted squeal, “Ooooh! You added a twist!” He clapped his hands, “I like this! A guessing game and a surprise!”
Roman 1 blinked a few times than pointed at Remus, “YOU!”
Remus posed, “ME!”
Roman 2 said, “What are you up to you- you... REMUS.” It was the worst insult he could think of. Remus followed Roman’s gaze to the large machine in the center of the room.
“Well I’m glad you asked! He scrambled over to the giant machine rubbing his mustache with glee and ran straight into a wall of shadow.
Virgil growled, “Like hell am I going to let you turn whatever that thing is on.”
Remus huffed and crossed his arms like an irritated toddler, “Someone’s got a stick up his ass.” He waggled his eyebrows, “Or maybe a stick up your ass would make you less of a-”
Roman 1 sighed, “Can you not.”
Logan pointed at Roman 2, “That’s our Roman.”
Roman blinked, “I didn’t even say our codeword.”
Logan shrugged, “You didn’t have to, Deceit’s deceptiveness is actually fairly easy to parse through if you actually know the person he’s trying to imitate.”
Deceit huffed and changed back into his usual shape, “Fine fine, you got us... You have to be at least a little bit curious about what Remus’s plan was though.”
Remus giggled, “It was a good one!”
Deceit moved closer to Logan, “I know you Logan... You’re known as the living Encyclopedia because any piece of information you gain is forever in your mind.”
Logan scoffed, “You could find that out by a Google search.”
Deceit hummed, “Sure, but you’re better than a normal encyclopedia aren’t you? You might even... Resent the title.” He raised an eyebrow as if looking for confirmation, but only got Logan’s hard, cold glare, “You can plan, you can create from information you learn.”
“Don’t fall for his trickery Logan.” Virgil said, slapping Remus’s hand away from the machine. Logan felt his throat start to close in on itself.
“And it will kill you, just kill you to walk away from this fight having learned nothing.” Deceit hissed, almost touching him but not quite. Roman moved in front of Deceit and put his sword against his chest.
“You stay away from him you snake.”
Deceit took two steps down, “Calm down your highness. I was just saying what he was thinking. I’m not telling him to push the big red button on the machine to activate it just to relieve him of his curiosity.”
Like a bullet, Logan ran to the giant machine. Deceit smirked, far too easy. Remus began bouncing in his seat as Logan pressed the big red button. Music began to sound throughout the room.
“BOP IT.” The machine said. Logan blinked, confused. What the hell-
There was a wa wa wa waaaa sound as the time ran out. “Try again.” The machine said.
Remus groaned, “You were supposed to bop it Lo!” Virgil was so shocked by the turn of events he let down his shadowy shields letting Remus run up to the machine.
Roman watched as his brother played with what was apparently an oversized Bop It, than turned to Deceit.
“Why the whole... Villain thing?”
He started Deceit did a twirl, “The aesthetic. I’d have to be a fool not to take this as an opportunity to dress like this?”
Roman rubbed his forehead, “And the trapping us here and villainous scheme?”
Deceit shrugged, “He wanted a game night and thought this was a good way to set it up.”
As if on cue, Patton burst in through the front door of the liar, “I heard Roman scream through the communicator is everyone-” He stopped and took in the scene around him. Roman starring at Deceit in continued disbelief, Remus screaming as the machine repeated, “SHOUT IT!” Logan next to the machine with an unreadable expression and Virgil who seemed to be taking in the room just as much as he was.
Deceit clapped his gloved hands, “And finally the scheme is complete, come join us for game night. Patton, and since I’m your host for the evening,” he gave a grin, and led him to the couch, “You can call me Janus.”