Meanwhile, in a warehouse several miles away, Triana Orpheus had no clue what the others were planning. She was sitting on a crate, her wrists and ankles bound with tape. A strip had been wrapped around her arms and torso, and a smaller strip placed over her mouth.
Her attempts to get free were futile; she would be there until she was found or released. She had no idea why she'd been kidnapped, but she was sure it involved her dad in some way.
Just then, the door to the room opened, and the girl with the white hair, who had been responsible for her kidnapping, entered.
"Comfy are you?" Charmcaster asked; Triana simply glared at her.
"I can see you're a little angry" Charmcaster replied "well then, you'll be even more upset when I tell you that we're going to off you and your pop once he tells us what we want to know."
Triana made several muffled noises from underneath the tape gag. "Relax, you've still got about a half-hour, make the most of it" Charmcaster replied, then shut the door behind her.
----
Meanwhile, the members of E.V.I.L were receiving disturbing news.
"What do you mean she wasn't there?" Magnacat asked Jack.
"That's just what I said, she wasn't at her school" Jack explained "so I went back to the Venture place, to see if I could find a way in. Then I hear this explosion, and while I'm checking it out, I see the heroes come out, so I hide. When I came out, they were gone, but so was the girl. I heard that those L.A.M.E guys we met a while back snatched her."
"What possible purpose could she be to them?" Plasmius questioned.
"I don't know, but I do know if we fail to have Orpheus reenergize the Gauntlet, Vilgax will be furious!" Magnacat said "we must find where they're keeping the girl and grab her ourselves."
"So you want us to kidnap her from her kidnappers?" Shego asked, confused.
"Precisely" Magnacat replied, "now, where they could be hiding."
"Well, if they think like us, and they kinda do, they might use an old warehouse" Drakken suggested.
"And there aren't that many warehouses around here" Plasmius added.
"Then let's get searching" Magnacat said "we have a re-kidnapping to accomplish."
-----
Meanwhile, the heroes were on their way to the address provided on the note.
"Are you sure this will work?" Danny asked Kim.
"I'm betting those villains have never seen this gauntlet before" Kim said "they wouldn't be able to tell magical jewels from regular ones. And by the time they do figure out, we'll be long gone."
"Well if that doesn't happen, I hope Orpheus comes through with that 'backup' he promised" Axel said, "plus, don't forget, E.V.I.L is still lurking around here somewhere."
"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about them" Ace said "I hope we don't have ta deal with them again."
-----
Speaking of E.V.I.L, they had located the warehouse where Triana was being held and decided to use the utmost in stealth to infiltrate it.
CRASH!
Okay, maybe not.
The E.V.I.L members bashed through the door so quickly that L.A.M.E didn't have time to react. Shego quickly kicked Sam into Ragdoll and Plasmius split into duplicates, and used them to overshadow Phibes' agents. With their guns pointed at the others, they surrendered rather quickly.
"Okay wannabes" Shego said "just tell us where the girl is and we'll be on our way."
"Forget it" Charmcaster said "there is no way we'll ever betray Dr. Phibes."
"She's in that room over there" X added, pointing to the back. Charmcaster glared at him as Shego entered the room, eventually returning with the captive Triana over her shoulder.
"Thanks for the help, losers" Jack said "and next time, don't steal our plan, or you'll really see what we're capable of!"
Then the villains left through the hole they created.
"Now we have no bargaining chip for the other Gauntlet" Charmcaster lamented "and the doctor will be here any minute! And how come those guys guarding the doors didn't warn us what was going on?"
----
The reason for that was because they had gone to the local bar in town.
"Man, it is good to get away from plots of world domination and settle down with a nice cold one" Agent #1 said.
"You said it partner" #2 replied, "hey you think they have karaoke here?"
"Hopefully, no" #1 replied.
At that moment, two men dressed in black, and orange costumes approached the bar. "Two brewskis barkeep" the fatter of the two said.
Then they sat down at the bar, "jeez, the Monarch's been riding our ass all day" replied the skinnier one, who sounded like Ray Romano.
"Tell me about it" the fat one replied "ever since he's gotten back into the super villain game he's been a real tool."
"Our boss is always mean to us too" #2 said.
"Oh yeah, what does he…" the thin henchman asked, before looking over at the two agents "holy crap, it's like looking in a freaking mirror!"
"Astonishing" the fat one replied "it's like we've encountered our parallel selves."
"This is very weird" #1 replied, "but very cool!" #2 added.
"Hey, how about we buy you guys a beer and swap stories about the henchman life?" the thin one asked.
"Works for me" #1 replied "cause we've got a bunch of 'em."
-----
Back at the original warehouse, the heroes had just arrived, and were confused by the destroyed door.
"Okay, something here definitely doesn't smell right" Kim said.
"Oh sorry guys" Ron said "I had a grande sized bean chimerito before we came."
"Not that" Kim replied "I mean it looks like this place was under attack."
"You think the doc and his posse beat us here?" Ace asked.
"Only one way to find out" Danny replied.
The heroes left their car and made their way to the warehouse entrance. They peered inside, but the place appeared to be deserted.
"This don't make sense" Ace said "why would those guys kidnap the doc's daughter, then split before the ransom was collected?"
"Maybe they didn't leave" Axel suggested, "maybe someone forced them to go."
"Right on the money, my astute friend" came a voice from behind them.
The others whirled around to see Freakshow standing there, all alone.
"What's the deal Freakshow, where are your teammates?" Kim asked.
"Gone I'm afraid" Freakshow began "the members of E.V.I.L attacked the place and took the girl. Since we didn't have her to bargain with, we decided to leave."
"That doesn't seem like you" Axel said "I figured you'd want the other Gauntlet."
"Oh, we do" Freakshow replied, "but if we don't have the girl, there's no way you'd give it to us."
"Very smart" Kim said "but just cause you told us what happened to Triana doesn't mean we're still not taking you back to jail."
"Actually, it does" Freakshow said "see, we knew that you didn't know that the girl was missing. And we figured you'd bring the Gauntlet for the trade, since you wanted to spare her life."
"So?" Kim said.
"So while we've been having this little talk…" Freakshow began.
"We've been going through your little car" Charmcaster's voice came from far off "and guess what we found."
"They tricked us!" Kim exclaimed "how could we have fallen for such an obvious ruse!"
"Eh, you ain't leaving here with the Gauntlet" Ace said.
"Actually, we are" Freakshow replied, "sayanora heroes. Next time we meet, you'll be seeing a new view of reality…ours!"
With that, Charmcaster blanketed the area in smoke; the heroes tried to go after them, but they couldn't see. When the smoke cleared, the L.A.M.E members had disappeared.
"Great" Danny said "they took the fake Gauntlet, but didn't leave us the girl."
"At least they don't know it's a fake" Kim said "and that buys us a little time. In the meantime, we need to find out where E.V.I.L is holed up."
"Well if I was a villain, where would I hide?" Ron asked.
"An old abandoned warehouse" Kim suggested "E.V.I.L always seems to be hiding out there for some reason."
"I know, what's up with that?" Ron asked.
"Never mind that" Danny said, "then we have to do a warehouse by warehouse search."
"Shouldn't we wait for Orpheus?" Ace asked "the doc does have powers that can help us take care of them villains."
"We don't know where he is" Kim said "just that he went to go 'get backup.'"
"We can't just leave" Axel protested "we are trying to rescue his daughter, after all."
"But if we wait, E.V.I.L may do something rash" Kim explained "we can't afford to let that happen."
"Then we go after the girl without the doc" Ace said, "he'll be a little sore, but I'm sure he'll understand."
"Then we'd better hurry" Axel stated.
Next time, our heroes battle their foes with the fate of the world at stake. Will the Reality Gauntlet be recreated? Find out in the exciting conclusion.