Vladimir's life flashed before his eyes as he fell from the net.  Many hours of ranting in internet chat rooms and many throws of multi-sided dice flew by in a split second. Finally he caught up to the present moment and discovered he was still mid-drop.  He was facing upward as he fell and he could see the rest of the team starting to tumble after him.  He reached his hand out but they were too far away to touch.  He braced himself for the hot and searing liquid pain he expected to splatter on his back any moment now.  Suddenly he came to an abrupt stop.  It occurred to him he was still all in one piece.  Then he realized he had gotten wedged in the trap door opening.   The rest of the team bounced off of him and rolled to the side onto safe ground.

"Looks like my giant ass just saved the day," Vladimir said. "Someone want to help get me out of here?"

Marvin grabbed him by the hand and yanked him loose. "Looks like your plan to kill us failed, Dr. Magnus. And now you're going to have to face the combined might of the Disruptors! I wouldn't want to be you right now."

Dr. Magnus let out a shrill hiss and flung the knife at them.

Ninja Frank tried to block it with his katana sword but missed it entirely. Instead he accidentally sliced off the tip of Steve's right ear.

"Ow, man! Why do you keep injuring me?" Steve shouted. "Me, of all people! I always supported your ninja hobby while everyone else said you were a huge weirdo. You would think that would make me off limits to being on the receiving end of ninja weapons, but no."

The knife in the meantime had buried itself in Marvin's chest. His enhanced invulnerability protected him from sustaining too much harm, but it still stung like the dickens. "All right, Doc. Now you went and made me mad. That was a bad idea because I might not be very good at a lot of things, but I'm really good at destroying stuff. And you brought us into your lab where it looks like there's a whole bunch of valuable equipment and expensive science stuff. And they're all about to get majorly destroyed. Just like I'm going to destroy your face!"

Marvin yanked the knife out of his chest and threw it back at Dr. Magnus. It missed him by inches but hit a computer screen and caused it to shatter. Then Marvin grabbed a nearby table covered in various pieces of hardware and flung the whole thing at the platform.

Dr. Magnus leaped off the side of the platform just before the table hit one of the control panels. It exploded in a shower of sparks and set a neighboring control panel on fire. He managed to hide somewhere amidst the confusion.

"Meth Girl!" Marvin shouted. "Use your tracking skills to locate him. Everyone else, start breaking stuff!"

"This is the coolest thing I've ever done in my life," Steve said as he grabbed a bunch of beakers off a nearby table and smashed them on the ground.

"Eh, it's all right," Vladimir said. "It doesn't compare to the time my 150th level paladin defeated the Tomb of Horrors on his very first attempt. I was the lone survivor in my campaign and have rightfully become a D&D legend among my peers. Heck, a couple people in my party were killed before they even made it into the entrance, but I persevered and prevailed against all odds. Next to that, this is a cakewalk. Let me tell you, Dr. Magnus has got nothing on the demilich Acererak."

"Jeez, dude. All you talk about is Dungeons & Dragons. Do you ever do anything else?"

"All kinds of stuff," Vladimir said. "I also play Magic: The Gathering, not to mention a wide variety of computer games, board games, and tabletop rpgs. I'm also an avid LARPer. I won first prize in a Star Wars trivia contest and I'm one of the world's foremost experts on Lord of the Rings. I can talk Star Trek with you if you want, but I must warn you I'm only fluent in Klingon, Cardassian, and a little bit of Romulan. If you want to converse in Ferengi or Bajoran, I don't know what to tell you. And you guys still need to come see my band play sometime. As you can see I have a wide variety of interests. What do you do all day? Sit around and smoke marijuana?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Steve shrugged. "Wait, what were we talking about again? Sorry, I'm pretty stoned."

"Look out!" Ninja Frank shouted. "A bunch of hostiles are incoming!"

Dozens of giant mechanical spiders started pouring out of the walls. Sharp pincers clacked together from their jaws as they skittered toward the combatants. Ninja Frank gripped his katana and took a defensive stance as they closed in on him. He swung and sliced a spider in half. This time he missed Steve, although to be fair he was a couple of inches away from slicing off the tip of his nose.

Two spiders descended on Vladimir and pinned him to the ground. A long needle-like protuberance emerged from one of their jaws and they injected him with something. He struggled to remain conscious, but soon he was asleep on the floor, snoring loudly.

Marvin punched the first spider and it slammed into the second one. He swung wildly with both arms and soon the spiders were reduced to a pile of scrap and gears. Vladimir was in the clear for now, but he was still helplessly unconscious.

"Meth Girl! You got a location on Dr. Magnus yet?"

"He's right behind that overturned table about fifty feet in front of you," she said as she dodged out of the way of an attacking spider.

"On it! Ninja Frank, keep taking out spiders. And for God's sake, try not to maim Steve!"

A pair of drones tried to intercept Marvin on his way to the overturned table, but he grabbed one in each hand and squeezed them into smithereens.

At last he reached the table and flung it aside.

"Give it up, Doc! You're finished!"

"Not today, Mr. M-Dawg." Dr. Magnus suddenly stood up. He was encased in a suit that looked like it was made out of diamonds. "I am afraid it is you who are finished."

He extended his arms forward and opened up his hands. Two high powered plasma beams shot out of them and hit Marvin square in the face. The impact sent him flying across the room. He landed on a mechanical spider, crushing it underneath him as he hit the ground.

"Oh man. I can confirm from experience that was worse than getting hit by a semi. Or getting smacked around by a giant robot bear for that matter."

Ninja Frank was holding off some mechanical spiders while Steve and Meth Girl attempted to wake up Vladimir.

Dr. Magnus began to walk slowly towards them. The diamond suit seemed to be awkward and difficult to maneuver, but he was making steady progress.

Marvin tried to pick himself up, but his back seized up on him and he fell back to the floor.

Steve was slapping Vladimir upside the face repeatedly. "Wake up, dude! That evil scientist guy is coming over here to kill us!"

"Stand back!" Meth Girl said. "I have an idea." She shoved her pipe into Vladimir's lips and lit it up.

He breathed in as he snored and suddenly his eyes shot open.

"Wowza! I feel energetic!"

"That's good," Steve said. "Because we're going to need to start running before that dude gets within blasting range."

"Blasting range?" Vladimir said. "I'll blast him first!" He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He threw it onto the ground right in front of Dr. Magnus and a bunch of bright strobe lights flashed and crackled for a few seconds.

"Ach!" Dr. Magnus shouted. "I cannot see!"

"Well then you won't see me do this," Steve said as he shoved Dr. Magnus in the chest.

He tipped over and fell onto his back where he started writhing around helplessly.

By this time Marvin had finally recovered enough to rejoin the fray. He smashed through the last of the mechanical spiders as he leaped on top of Dr. Magnus and began bashing at the suit with his fists.

Dr. Magnus flashed his sharp and crooked brown teeth as he began to cackle hysterically. "Fool! You cannot touch me! This suit is indestructible!"

"Yeah? Well I have yet to encounter anything I can't destroy," Marvin said as he redoubled his efforts. A crack started to appear in the suit's faceplate. Marvin kept hammering away and soon the suit broke completely open. "Who's the fool now, fool?"

"I give up," Dr. Magnus said. "Please. No more. You win and I lose. I shall call you my uncle, if you wish."

"Okay, that's better," Marvin said. "Finally I'm getting the respect I'm due. Now let's-"

He was interrupted when Dr. Magnus suddenly lunged forward and sunk his teeth into Marvin's throat.

Marvin smacked him aside and Dr. Magnus sailed across the room.

"That was not cool, bro! I think you broke my skin! You better not have given me herpes or something."

Marvin ran over, grabbed Dr. Magnus by the collar, and lifted him off the ground. He walked over to the trapdoor in the floor and held the doctor out over the vat of boiling acid and began shaking him vigorously.

A small metal box shook loose from the doctor's lab coat and landed near Marvin's feet. He paused shaking Dr. Magnus long enough to retrieve the box. It had a keypad on it and a large red button.

"I really do not think you want to touch that device," Dr. Magnus said.

"Oh yeah?" Marvin retorted. "And since when is it a good idea to do what you say? You might have fooled me once when you got me to bend the bars at the prison, but never let it be said that Marvin doesn't learn from his mistakes. If you don't want me to touch this, then it seems to me that's exactly what I should do."

He pressed the large red button.

"Fool!" Dr. Magnus cackled. "You have doomed the world!"

"Huh?" Marvin said.

The whole room began to shake as a large panel in the floor near the center of the room slid open. A matching panel in the ceiling opened at the same time revealing the blue sky overhead. A giant missile emerged from the panel in the floor and once it was completely above ground a computerized female voice sounded throughout the warehouse. "Launch has been activated. Countdown initiated. Ten... Nine... Eight..."

"There is a deactivation code," Dr. Magnus said. "If you give me the device now there is still time to avert disaster."

"Yeah? And why should I trust you?" Marvin asked.

"Trust me... do not trust me... the choice is yours. But many people will die if you make the wrong decision."

"Why don't you tell me the code and I'll put it in myself."

"Very well," Dr. Magnus said. "It is a simple four digit code, but you must make sure to enter it precisely. The numbers are seven... five... nine..."

"Hang on, let me start punching those in," Marvin said as he released his grip on Dr. Magnus so he could punch in the numbers.

Dr. Magnus tumbled into the vat of boiling acid and let out a horrific scream as his flesh began to bubble and melt.

"Hey, you never told me the fourth number, dude!" Marvin called out, but there wasn't much left of the doctor now besides a puddle of liquified tissue.

In the meantime the countdown went on. "Three... Two... One... Blastoff!"

There was a deafening roar as the missile's thrusters engaged in a burst of flame and the missile lifted off the floor and sailed through the opening in the roof.

"Well, that doesn't look good," Marvin said as he scratched his head.