Maestro is a super villain whose only power is being extremely genre savvy- he takes pride in his evil status, but when the genre of his story unexpectedly switches he is forced to work with his much-despised nemeses, the heros, in an attempt to set...
When everyone had gathered in the meeting room (the table was rather crowded with three extra people), Maestro lay down what looked like layouts of a two-story building.
"Is that hand-drawn?" Vertigo asked incredulously, eyeing the penciled lines.
"Yeah; Robert. He's an engineering major with a minor in architecture," Zakum grinned. "But he can't draw anything but straight lines and circles. He tried to draw me a dog once; it looked like a semi-truck on stilts!" Maestro's eyes cut to him in a clear indication for the clone to stop talking, and Zakum did so with an unrepentant smile.
"Irrelevant. The point is that this is the building Rabastian moved into three days ago; I've been keeping track of him since your dismal failure of an assault chased him out of his old lair." Maestro expertly ignored the protests voiced at his declaration. "Since we know where he is and the layout of the building he'll be in, I can create an effective plan of attack."
Flashmob and Kyle rolled their eyes at the self-praise (the latter being much stealthier about it), while Zakum and Romulus looked on in rapt attention. Vertigo decided that learning the plan was more important than being derisive and so also paid attention, while Interdit aphoristically critiqued the "sloppiness" of the drawing.
Interdit was purposefully ignored by all present.
"It seems his main base of operations is this room on the second floor," Maestro stated, pointing out the center of the picture where a box with four doors and no windows was drawn, "as you can see we can't enter directly into that room, so no matter where we come from he will have warning of our arrival."
Of course, odds were that he would be standing behind whatever entrance they did use and that he would be comically thrown back by the door or window crashing open.
Such is comedy.
Maestro decided not to enlighten the others of this probability, since he was sure all he would receive in reply would be eye-rolls and humoring nods. From everyone but Zakum (and maybe Romulus) that is, but he was certain the minions already knew.
"There are six viable entrances that are marked on the diagram; two doors and four windows." He tapped on each. The doors were at the front and back of the first floor, and one of the windows was on the left hand side of the house. Two windows were on the second floor, one in the back and the other on the right side.
The last window was on the front of the house, but seemed to lead into some sort of crawl space above the second floor.
That same window had also not originally been marked as a viable entrance. The others had "entrance" written in neat block letters, almost seeming like they could have been made by a typewriter; the attic window was labeled the same only in a swooping, cursive-like print. Interdit, for one, found that fact suspect.
"The attack must be coordinated, in case he's near an exit and attempts to escape when a different one is broken down."
"And what are the chances of that happening?" Interdit asked skeptically. Stravarius opened his mouth, perhaps to scold him for unnecessarily questioning his allies or something like that, but it was the only less-likely person that answered.
"0.926 percent," Zakum said promptly, upon Maestro giving him a meaningful glance. "That is, assuming he would only exit if he were within two feet of an exit and taking into account a 50/50 fight or flight response and the possibility that the one exit he was near was the one we entered through." Most of the heroes were understandably gobsmacked; stupid, manipulated clone Zakum was a wiz at math? Maestro was smirking. Stravarius was nodding, everyone assumed because he had no idea what all the math was about and wanted to look like he knew what was happening.
"He was originally a calculator," Maestro responded to the questioning looks with a dismissive wave. "Interdit will be entering through the second-floor window on the right, Vertigo by the second-floor window at the back. Flashmob, you take the front door, Kyle takes the back." Kyle was pleasantly surprised at the lack of malice with which Maestro said his name.
Then they sat. Maestro looked expectant. The others realized after a minute of silence that he had finished explaining. Stravarius opened his mouth, likely to ask why he hadn't been mentioned, but someone else beat him to the punch.
"That's your plan?" Interdit asked derisively. "Stravarius could have come up with that. You didn't even assign four people entrances, and you don't even have a plan once we get inside."
"Must I explain everything?" Maestro asked, looking utterly disgusted. "Explain," he said plainly, glancing toward his minions with a threatening glare.
"I'm going through the top window!" Zakum chirped, hand flying into the air.
"Stravarius and I are supposed to check for any unmarked entrances or exits, and making sure Rabastian can't sneak out somehow," Romulus stated as if it had been obvious. That left Maestro entering through the first story window.
"And the plan?" The villain prompted, raising an eyebrow when the two minions hesitated.
"Vertigo's going into a second story window because... Her power can catch her if she falls out of the tree!" Zakum crowed victoriously once he had thought of a possible reason.
"And," Romulus added a few seconds after, trying to pretend he wasn't trying to fix Zakum's mistake, "to use her power on the center room to keep Rabasian inside with no escape."
"I'm downstairs to..." Maestro prompted.
"Keep an eye on the plan, and make sure Rabastian can't escape downstairs," Romulus answered immediately.
"And Flashmob and Kyle?"
"Are the most overtly threatening," Zakum replied cheerfully, as if that answered the implied question; much to the surprise of the heroes, Maestro nodded as if he agreed.
"And Interdit?" Said red-head scowled at the mangled pronunciation of his name.
"Because you're hoping he falls," Romulus said slowly, after a period of silence.
"Now you're getting it. Come on, we're on a schedule." He got up and walked away without another word, the others scrambling after.
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