Chapter Three:
Vanellope wanted the halls of the Sugarus art museum lazily, following along as the tour guide for their group rambled. Next to her, Ted was listening, but only enough to answer the 'are you listening' questions their chaperone would throw at them.
"Audrey would love this stuff," He mentioned, gesturing at one of the huge mural pieces. Vanellope agreed silently, figuring they would have to take the others out sometime to see it themselves.
Mavis, Onceler and Audrey were still technically school age, but everything came back to the problem that they didn't have the luxury of a secret identity. Without parents or a legal guardian to register them in school, there was no way they could be out on a field trip like this.
"Did you ever find anything on… the O place?" Ted tried again, whispering the last part. At the front of the group, the tour guide rattled on about the jeweled pieces currently on loan to the museum.
"Not really," Vanellope responded. "Just tax reports and stuff that makes them look good,"
"Was there any link to other rings?"
"No," Vanellope groused. "Ted… do you feel like we're being watched?"
"What?"
Before Vanellope could reply, there was a loud boom, and the floor shook, knocking half of the teenagers off their feet and onto the ground. Someone screamed, and there was a crash as one of the displays fell over and shattered into the ground.
"Get down!" Vanellope yelled, grabbing Ted and diving towards the wall, scrambling behind a long display.
There was another explosion, this time more focused on the doors to the room the class was in. The wood shattered and flew inside, revealing a female shape through the smoke. A familiar red dress swooshed at her waist as Scarlet Overkill sauntered into the room.
"Ah, diamonds are a girls best friend!" She laughed, focusing on the jewels. In her hand, she held her signature 'lava lamp' gun, which pulsed with explosive energy. As the super villain made her way towards the prize, the remnants of the explosion behind her flared, starting up in a large fire.
"We're trapped," Ted whispered in terror. Smoke was starting to fill the room, and people started to cough, others mumbling in worry at their situation.
"We can't get everyone out!" Vanellope responded. "I don't have my suit - it'll reveal my secret identity,"
"I can't do anything either Van," Ted muttered. "It's not like I have the tech to tap into the cameras or the security systems,"
"So we're stuck," She whispered. "We can't do anything,"
The fire department and police were already at the museum when Fiore and Flueria appeared at the scene. Wrecker and Empousa met them, already having started the evacuation process.
"Overkill is on the second floor," Wrecker relayed, then lowered his voice. "With Shockwave and Ted,"
"Are they fighting?" Onceler asked. The older super shook his head.
"They were on a field trip," He said. "She hasn't checked in on her suit comm yet, so I think Overkill has her trapped or worse,"
"Oncie, let's go!" Audrey yelled. The two ran towards the east side of the museum, then stopped and worked together to form a massive collection of vines and leaves. The mass plants twisted together, forming a slidelike cushion up to the second door. Flueria pulled up a smaller set of vines, then fired them at the window, breaking it open to create an entrance.
Noticing the supers plan, the fire chief gestured for his men to follow him, gathering at the bottom of the slide as Fiore ran up towards the second floor, leaving his sister to fix whatever damage might occur.
At the top of the slide, Fiore was sneakily helping people escape from the locked off floor. Overkill was still in the jewels room on the west side of the building, which made his job a little easier. As he helped a young woman out of the window and onto the escape slide, Empousa lightly touched down and ducked inside.
Before she could escape, Fiore stuck out his arm and grabbed her.
"Mav-Empousa," He said. "Be safe,"
"I will?" She answered, voice tinted with confusion. Before he could say anything else, the vampire super had disappeared into the smoke.
As Fiore kept ushering people outside, he failed to notice the spreading fire. Soon, it reached the edge of the window, catching the vines hooked over the side. On the ground, Audrey screamed in pain, and Onceler felt his chest constrict before he could help.
With a loud crack, something in the wall below them snapped. Wrecker was there to grab the wall and stabilize it with his strength.
"We need to wrap this up!" He yelled loudly.
Inside the museum, the room shook again, throwing Vanellope and Ted back off their feet.
"Ow!" Vanellope yelped, smacking into the ground. Overkill had long since grabbed the jewels and run off, escaping the slowly disintegrating building. It was now fully on fire now, the smoke filling the room and making it harder and harder to breathe.
"This isn't looking too good," Ted muttered.
"No duh," Vanellope muttered, shoving herself to her feet. "That's it!"
She dove through the smoke, grabbing two of her classmates by the arms and phasing down through the floor with them, exerting more energy than she wanted to take them with her. The girls coughed and looked at each other in confusion, but Vanellope was already gone before the firemen arrived.
When she arrived back on the second floor, the smoke had only gotten thicker. Phasing through whatever was in her way, Vanellope fought her way back over to Ted, who'd started coughing loudly.
"It's completely blocked off?" He asked hoarsely. Vanellope nodded before coughing herself. As the two ducked down again to avoid the smoke, there was a woosh and wing sound as Empousa transformed back into herself, landing next to her undercover teammates.
"We need to get out!"
"We can't!" Ted shot back. "Not without the others!"
"There's - cough - too much - cough - fire!" Vanellope yelled. "And Overkill got away!"
"Where?" Mavis asked sternly. Ted pointed towards the back, and the girl nodded. "I'll go after her. After we get everyone out,"
"How are we gonna do tha-"
Glass shattered. People screamed again and ducked, worried that the building was about to explode. But instead of fire, the room suddenly dropped in temperature as a huge wave of water flooded in.
"What the-"
Standing in the newly cleared doorway was a girl wearing a black sleeveless jumpsuit and hood/mask combo. Glowing blue tribal tattoos pulsed on her arms as she waved them to control the water and put out the flames. Within seconds, the room was clear and the water (and figure) disappeared.
With a woosh, Empousa transformed and bolted out the window after Scarlet Overkill.
Ted and Vanellope grabbed each other by the arm and started helping the rest of their classmates down and out, meeting the firemen and their fellow supers on the way. Paramedics rushed to check everyone out, and the two slipped out to meet Wrecker at the edge of the green.
"You're supposed to call this stuff in!" He worried. Behind him, the twins were also exhausted, energy zapped from creating the giant plant cushion. "And don't fight if there's a chance you could get found out!"
"Who said I used my powers?" Vanellope said weakly. Ralph shot her a look.
"Chloe and Marinette over there swear Shockwave phased them out. Except nobody else saw her,"
Before Vanellope could argue back, Ted's mother appeared, almost shoving her and Wrecker aside to reach her son.
"Theodore Seuss Wiggins!" She chided. "Are you okay? Did the paramedics check you? Did you inhale too much smoke?!"
Ted tried to console his mother, leaving the others to regroup as the paramedics made their rounds. Following along, the teachers running the field trip did a quick attendance check and informed the students that they should just head home. Parents had already been called and informed, and those who lived too far were supposed to meet up across the street at town hall.
"That… didn't go so well," Onceler sighed heavily.
"Say less," Vanellope groused.
"We did all we could," Audrey - ever the mom of the group - said encouragingly.
"I just wish I could do more," Ted said, but so quietly nobody else heard him.
A few streets over, Scarlet Overkill slid into an alleyway and smirked. At her side, dangled the bag of jewels. Her lava lamp gun had overloaded in the dastardly fire, so she'd ditched it there.
The villainess walked towards the end of the alley, aiming for a secret door into a warehouse she planned to use as an escape hatch. Before she could reach her exit route, there was a quiet thump as someone landed on the street behind her.
Overkill growled, turning to meet eyes with Empousa.
"Fly home little bat," She spat.
Moving inhumanly fast, Empousa dove up and smacked Overkill in the head, knocking the older woman to the ground.
"You witch!" Overkill screamed, scrambling to her feet as the young super picked up the stolen jewels. "I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you!"
"Why is that?" Mavis asked quietly. Her eyes flashed in the dark.
"The monsters are after you now little vampire," Overkill whispered.
"The what?"
"They know exactly where you are," The villainess laughed. Mavis moved to grab her again, but she was ready this time. With a handy smoke bomb and her own quick movements, Overkill was gone.
Mavis stood still for a second, tongue aimlessly running over the tip of her fangs. She stopped herself, then turned to head back and meet up with her team.
Monster hunters?
Authors Note: Summer's wrapping up for me soon folks, how about you? I feel like I planned on writing so much this summer, but I barely did! I was just so busy with classes, work and more work that everytime I felt like I could write my brain was fried.
Anyways, lets get on with some easter eggs from this chapter! Off the top of my head, Chloe and Marinette (the two classmates Vanellope saves) are obvious Miraculous references. Ted's full name is Theodore Seuss Wiggins, so two different Doctor Seuss mentions, and then Scarlett Overkill is the main villian in the first Minions movie. I felt like she was too out their for the main story, but she fit pretty well into this one.
