Twilight walked through the dimly-lit hallway once again, running through the counterplan in her head. She wasn't quite sure if such a simple, thought-up-on-the-dot plan would stop an evil genius like Odd Todd, but she was sure willing to try.
That is, if Olive hadn't gotten up before her and killed him at the crack of dawn.
Once she got to the door, she knocked three times, holding her breath and praying to Celestia that Odd Todd would answer.
Sure enough, the slat opened, and two cold brown eyes looked directly at her.
"Ah, Oddlight. Come on in. Make yourself at home. Help yourself to a brocco-nana."
Choosing not to comment on the name referral nor comment on what a "brocco-nana" was, she pushed the door open and made her way inside. By now, she had gotten used to the clutter in the first room and was able to dodge it with ease to get to the second room. She used her magic to open the door, finding that it was mostly the same as when she last visited, save a few boxes lying around on the tables.
Maybe that move to a new lair is coming soon. Too bad he won't ever be able to see it. It was quite a shame -- she herself wanted to see what the new lair looked like. It had to be better than the poorly-designed lair he had called his home-away-from-home now.
"Now..." Odd Todd spoke, Twilight's attention being suddenly pulled away. "Let's go over your plan, shall we?" He went over to the two exercise balls that sat in the corner, taking a seat on one and eyeing the mare intently.
"Oh, sure! Admittedly, it is very simplistic, but I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless." Twilight stepped towards him, her heart racing ever faster as each word came spilling from her mouth. She told him about her plan in excruciating detail, hoping that he wouldn't shoot it down or make any major revisions.
"Hm. I see. That is very simplistic." He ran his thumb over his fingernails. "But...it just might work. I'm willing to give it a shot."
"Perfect." The malicious tone seemed to come almost naturally to Twilight, a thought that scared her. However, that didn't mean she was going to show it on the outside, instead remaining calm and composed. "I know exactly how to get the other ponies to the surface, too."
"Oh?"
"I was...formerly friends with them, as a matter of fact, before they decided to betray me. That means I know what makes them tick." A wicked smile spread across the alicorn's maw. "Working together with you and the other villains, I can give tips on how to capture them."
"Then tell me. What villains would be best suited for capturing each pony?" From a nearby bowl, Odd Todd nabbed a brocco-nana -- a banana made of broccoli -- and ate away, seemingly hanging on to Twilight's every word.
"Kooky the Clown can easily capture Agent Pinkie Pie. Captivating her with her love of all things kooky, she can trap her instantly." She nodded. "The Stitcher can lure Agent Rarity by using her love of fashion, and then capture her from there."
Odd Todd's jaw dropped a little as Twilight continued her explanation, a surge of confidence flowing through her.
"Jamie Jam can take care of Agent Applejack without a problem. Mr. Lightning is definitely a good fit for the high-flying Agent Rainbow Dash. And Fluttershy can deal with Evil Teddy and her army of teddy bear robots. She loves stuffed animals."
All Odd Todd could do was remain stone-silent as his jaw continued to hang open. After a couple seconds had passed, he closed his jaw and shook his head.
"That's...impressive! For a former agent of Odd Squad, I mean." He chuckled. "Evil genius I may be, but I couldn't tell you which villain was best suited to beat Olive." He stood up. "Follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"To get the villains you mentioned. Where else?"
The other villains... Twilight had read on some of the villains, but her interactions with them had been next to non-existent. Still, her interactions with Equestria's villains made her feel like she could take on any of this world's villains.
Besides, she was an Odd Squad agent. They were supposed to save the day.
A couple minutes later, the pair stepped from near-darkness into light. Twilight blinked a couple times to allow her eyes to adjust to the hustle and bustle of the city.
She turned to Odd Todd, only to find him chatting away on his fish phone. To whom, she had not a clue, but she assumed it was one of the villains she had mentioned.
"Great. Mhm. Gotcha. I'll meetcha there, then. See ya!" An evil chuckle bubbled forth as he tucked his phone away behind his back.
"Who was that?"
"Jamie Jam. She's going to gather up the other villains." Odd Todd shook his head. "The Stitcher is a pretty complicated case, though. She only comes to Toronto for one day and then leaves. No one really knows where she goes. And I don't know if she's here today."
"Pity." Twilight kicked the ground with her hoof. "She would have been perfect."
"Mm. No matter. I'm sure Rarity's not so tough." Odd Todd snorted. "Even her name makes her sound delicate."
Yikes. It took Twilight every ounce of strength within her not to come at him and explain how Rarity was the exact opposite of delicate. Hearing him trash-talk her friends ruffled her fur the wrong way, but her brain was screaming at her to keep her cool. Instead, she let out a laugh that she tried to make as genuine and as evil as she could muster. "You are so right."
"Come on. We have to go meet Jamie Jam and the others at Ends and Beginnings."
"Ends and Beginnings?"
"It's a bookstore in town."
It was like a light switch had turned on for the alicorn. Her eyes grew wide as she heard the five words that most anypony could tell her to make her happy. As if on instinct, she began to trot in place happily, wearing a grin on her face.
"Oh, so you're a bookworm, huh?"
"Yeah! I love books! I could talk about them all day! I could read them all day!" A whinny managed to escape her as she began to feel as light as a feather.
Odd Todd raised an eyebrow, as though growing suspicious of the mare, but it didn't last for long. He gave a soft chuckle. "Well, we're not going there to read books. Stay focused."
"Hm?" Twilight, who was now hovering in midair with mighty beats of her wings, gazed at Odd Todd before shaking her head. "Oh! Oh. Right, right, yeah. Um...sorry. Maybe my powers should consist of flying books or something."
Giving a shake of his head, Odd Todd walked away, the still-hovering Twilight following him closely.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Odd Todd and his little...nyeeehhh...pet."
"She happens to be my partner, Jamie. Lay the fuck off."
Outside of the Ends and Beginnings Bookstore were five villains, all clad in various outstanding outfits.
"Ha, I'm shocked you actually got her to team up with you!"
"Terrible pun, Mr. Lightning."
"Uh...would you mind introducing me?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, yeah, sure." Odd Todd cleared his throat.
"This is Jamie Jam. She loves to cover things in jam using her gloves."
"Which always jam." The woman that spoke had a fashion style that was very reminiscent of '80s cartoons. Sporting a predominantly purple bodice with a purple skirt and a small train, along with off-white-colored pants and black boots, she looked every bit like a villainess. A villainess that loved her own puns, as she gave a laugh that seemed to echo throughout the whole town.
"And this is Mr. Thunder-and-Lightning. Around here, though, we call him Mr. Lightning. Shock and awe is his specialty."
"Damn right!" Like Jamie Jam, Mr. Lightning also appeared like a character from the '80s. With the lightning bolts attached on the sleeves of his black leather jacket, his lightning bolt necklace, and his black leather pants and boots, it wasn't too hard to figure out his name nor what his powers were at first glance.
"Kooky the Clown here is a master at oddness."
"Kookiness."
"Right, sorry. Kookiness. She knows her stuff."
Twilight squinted as she examined the clown that stood in front of her. It wasn't that she was afraid of clowns -- that fear was reserved for her older brother. No, it was the fact that this clown looked...short. Too short. Almost like an Odd Squad agent masquerading as a clown.
Although, if Odd Todd trusts her enough, then she's probably a villain like the rest of them.
"And this is Evil Teddy. She's known for turning teddy bears into deadly robots." Odd Todd pointed at a woman who wore a rather comically-oversized fur coat, with teddy bears attached to the straps. It was the only piece of clothing that made her stand out as a villainess, however -- without the coat, she would look like an average Torontonian with her blue shirt, purple bowtie, and faded blue overalls.
"I have a whole army of 'em! And the best part is...all they need are double-As." Evil Teddy snickered.
"Nice to meet you all. My name is A-" Twilight caught herself just in time before she could refer to herself as Agent Twilight Sparkle. It was so ingrained into her by this point that if she wasn't referring to herself as "Twilight" or "Twilight Sparkle", then she was tacking on the "Agent" title to her name. She cleared her throat. "Oddlight. I'm Oddlight Sparkle."
A silence fell over the villains.
"Her name is a work in progress." Odd Todd explained.
"Anyway, where's The Stitcher?" Twilight inquired, hoping that the last villain of the group was planning on making a dramatic entrance, or was hiding somewhere where she couldn't see.
"She's in Montreal. Thank odd." Jamie Jam rolled her eyes and gave a sigh. "She said she'll be on her way over soon."
"In the meantime...why don't we talk about the plan?" Kooky wore a rather wicked grin that made Twilight's tail nearly stand up on end.
"Of course. But not here." Odd Todd looked around as people walked by, most not even bothering to bat an eye at the congregation of odd criminals standing in front of an innocent bookstore. "Let's head back to my lair."
"But what about The Stitcher?"
"Mr. Lightning, when she gets here, lead her to my lair. You know where it is, right?"
"'Course I do. It's not that new office you're sharin' with those web developers, is it?"
"No. I'm still in the process of moving out of my old one and moving into that new one. But the old one is fine to use." Odd Todd began to walk away from the group. "Come on, everyone."
With Twilight at the forefront, Kooky, Jamie Jam and Evil Teddy followed him as Mr. Lightning watched them leave.
"Ugh...you have waaaaay too much stuff in here. Would be better with a little more jam." Jamie snorted, nearly stumbling over an unidentified object on the floor.
"Meh. You get used to it." Odd Todd replied nonchalantly, although he still made a break for the second door and opened it to give Jamie and the others a little more light.
Evil Teddy chuckled. "I see you haven't changed this place a bit."
"Apart from all the new ideas and sketches on the whiteboards? No, I haven't." Odd Todd moved a couple boxes aside and let out a heavy exhale. "Go ahead, take a seat."
Jamie, Teddy and Kooky all expressed confusion at the lack of chairs in the space.
"On the exercise balls." Twilight pointed out. The villains then muttered some unintelligible things, going to get the exercise balls tucked away in various corners of the room and sitting down.
"Now." Odd Todd cleared his throat. "As I'm sure Jamie Jam has told you, Oddlight has a plan as to her first odd deed. Oddlight?" He gestured to the alicorn mare, who excitedly told her so-called "fellow villains" about her plan.
"That's it? Just capturing them? Do we...kill them or what?" Kooky scoffed. "Doesn't sound very kooky to me."
"It is a rather basic plan." Twilight explained. "But it will help us spread oddness in another world besides this one."
Odd Todd widened his eyes, not having gotten wind of this advantage.
"You see, I was once friends with these ponies and lived in the other world, called Equestria. We would save Equestria all the time from all sorts of villains." Twilight's expression darkened. "But one by one, they betrayed me. Left me for their own selfish desires. Left me in order to..." She looked to the sky. "...defeat oddness."
"They didn't join Odd Squad, did they?" Jamie asked, appearing to hang on to the pony's every word.
"Yes. I did, as well, if only to infiltrate it from the inside. But I soon became sickened with the life of Odd Squad, and I left to join Odd Todd instead. If you ask me..." She took a moment to stretch out her back legs. "The world could do with a little oddness. Making everything normal is just boring."
It was then that Odd Todd had an "aha" moment, completely tuning out Twilight and feeling the gears turn in his head.
A young girl of about 11, suffering from the loss of her old partner and certainly not feeling confident about her new one as she made her way out of Ms. O's office.
A young boy of about 11, having absolutely no regrets in what he did, misleading his former partner and his former boss to allow an odd criminal to keep committing crimes, and paying the price for it as he stared up at Ms. O's office.
"Todd!"
He watched as she descended the stairs, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Please...please...y-you're not really gonna take your firing in stride, are you? I-it was just an honest mistake!"
"You keep tellin' yourself that, Scribbles, and maybe one day, some miracle from the heavens or whatever will make it come true."
"Todd, please! Don't leave!" The girl had tears running down her face now, making a firm landing on the bullpen floor by jumping over a couple stairs. "We've been partners for so long. Ms. O must've made a mistake, we should go back up and explain to her the si-"
"What is there to explain?" Todd coolly responded, raising a hand to stop his ex-partner from speaking. "What I did was very much intentional in every sense of the word."
"But...why?" The girl's voice began to crack. "Why would you do such a thing?"
"You have terrible listening skills." Todd scoffed. "Dancing houses are interesting. It brings some spice to this dull and boring-bore-bore town. I wouldn't expect such a low-rate, normalcy-loving, always-scribbling-in-her-stupid-fucking-notepad-like-an idiot to understand."
The girl began to sob now, her body quivering. But "sympathy" nor "empathy" were not words that existed in Todd's vocabulary. He shook his head and turned his back to her.
"Hey, now, Scribbles...it's okay. In a couple months' time, you'll be bathed in oddness. It'll be so close, you can practically taste it. Feel it. Be consumed by it." He smiled, although it certainly held no trace of friendliness. "You'll come around. Eventually."
Making a rather odd hand gesture that was hard for the girl to describe, Todd sauntered out of Precinct 13579's Headquarters, leaving his former partner a sobbing, grieving mess. Not that he cared, of course -- he had bigger and better plans for what was to come.
That was many months ago. He could remember the entire ordeal clear as day. Looking at Twilight now, she reminded him of a sort of flipped-gender version of him. Like the oddness-loving Olive -- the Oddlive? -- he had wanted for so long, but never had.
It almost made him feel...proud, in a way. Even in spite of her being a horse.
"That...is quite a story." Evil Teddy remarked, trying to sound unimpressed, although her awe still shone through.
"Yes. Tragic as it may be, I have no regrets in joining Odd Todd. So I hope you all will join me in enacting revenge on my former friends...these Odd Squad agents...and squash 'em like bugs."
Odd Todd shook his head, snapping himself out of his own trance. His eyes met the three villains, all muttering amongst each other. Finally, they broke free and nodded.
"I'm glad to help out." Kooky said.
"Me too. Sounds fun." Evil Teddy smirked.
"Can't wait to jam things up!" Jamie Jam did a fistbump.
"G-good! Good. I'm glad you're all on board. Now we just need the input of Mr. Lightning and The Stitcher. If they agree, then we can move forward with the plan." Odd Todd smiled, although anyone who was an expert in the realm of body language could tell that it wasn't a genuine, happy smile.
"Yo!"
As if summoned, the two villains in question suddenly appeared behind Odd Todd and Twilight, causing the former to give a scream far unfitting for a villain and the latter's tail to stick straight up like a cat's.
"H-h-how did you-"
"Natural ability, that's how." Mr. Lightning gave a hearty laugh.
"Uh...anyway, Oddlight, meet The Stitcher. She's a world-famous fashion designer that makes all the villains' outfits." Odd Todd gestured to the woman that was with Mr. Lightning.
Much like Jamie Jam, Kooky, and Mr. Lightning, Stitcher's outfit was very indicative of her villainy. With her short black bob-cut, her black shirt and red overcoat, her golden bead-filled necklace, and her sparkly capris and heels, she definitely didn't look like an average Torontonian -- especially given the oversized cabinet pendant that hung around her neck. Twilight had to wonder how she didn't topple over from the weight of it.
"I could even make yours, my little pony. If you're so inclined. That Odd Squad suit looks horrid on you."
Twilight was shocked by the slight British accent the villainess had. Rarity had a similar accent, and it made the alicorn a little uneasy over just how similar the two were to each other.
But the uneasiness soon washed over her quickly as she nodded. "Yes, please."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"Mm...something like Odd Todd's. Multicolored, odd, but matches my fur, mane and tail."
"Got it."
"We're not here to discuss clothing, dumbasses." Odd Todd snapped. "Oddlight, relay the plan to Mr. Lightning and The Stitcher."
And relay she did. Surprisingly, both of them agreed quickly to carrying out the plan.
Yes, I've got everypo- er, everybody on board. Now, to set it in motion.
Twilight began to walk to the door. "I'm leaving for a quick bathroom break. Be right back."
"All right, hurry." Odd Todd remarked, watching her go. He couldn't help feeling that Twilight was up to something, although he wasn't sure what. A persistent twinge in his stomach seemed to agree with him as he stared in the direction of where she was going.
"Odd Todd? You okay, buddy?"
The voice of Jamie Jam snapped him out of it, and he blinked a couple times. "Huh? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine."
Jamie didn't seem convinced, but didn't press further on the matter either, instead hitting up a conversation with Evil Teddy.
It wasn't hard to find where the bathroom was. Although Twilight had no need to go there, she felt it was a safer place instead of right outside the door to Odd Todd's lair where she was more likely to be heard.
Pushing the door open, she unclipped her badge phone and punched in the numbers 7 and 5, the badge number of one Agent Applejack. The phone immediately began giving ringback tones, and after about the second one, she began to sweat.
"Howdy, Agent Applejack speakin'!"
"Applejack? Oh, thank Celestia!"
"Twilight? Where are ya? You ain't in any danger, now are ya?!"
"No, I'm not. But I do need you to gather the girls and meet at..." Twilight stopped and tried to remember. "Trinity Bellwoods Park, I think it's called. There's a tube entrance that's there, if my memory serves right."
"Gotcha. You startin' the plan?"
"I sure am. All the villains are on board. Get ready."
"Oh I'm ready." Applejack chuckled. "We'll split up when we get there. Best of luck to ya!"
Twilight snapped her phone closed and clipped it back onto her suit. Taking a deep breath, she opted to teleport back to the lair instead of trotting down the same path leading back to it.
As soon as she was there, the first things she heard were shocked gasps from the villains.
"Apologies. I have teleportation abilities. Alicorn magic and all that." Twilight waved a dismissive hoof. "Anyway, if you all would follow me, I will take you to the site of my plan."
"It's finally happening?!"
"Yes, Kooky, it's happening." Twilight smirked before once again leaving the room, only this time, all six villains followed her eagerly.
Not a half-hour passed before Twilight and her group arrived at the park. Feeling confidence rush through her body, she quickly got into leader mode.
"Okay. Now, I want you all to split up and find those wretched ponies. Use your natural abilities to lure them closer to you if you have to." Twilight snickered. "When you find them, bring them to this exact spot."
She aimed a magic blast directly at a nearby tree, making a ring in the wood. Once she was done, she took out a red flag from hammerspace and tied it inside of the engraved ring.
"Wait, what about me?"
"Quality control." Her answer to Odd Todd's question was given without breaking a sweat, something that made her nervous as she briefly worried about getting too into the role of competent villainess. She shook it off quickly, however, making sure it took a back burner to her mission. "If anything goes wrong, you'll be a backup."
He said nothing, instead choosing to side-eye her with a look that had an emotion she couldn't quite place before nodding.
"Now go and get 'em!" Twilight shouted. Kooky, Mr. Lightning, Stitcher, Jamie and Evil Teddy all took off at speeds the alicorn had to assume were speeds specifically reserved for escaping Odd Squad custody.
A smirk settled on her maw as she watched them go.
It's happening. We'll be close to reforming Odd Todd soon enough. And the best part is...
He won't ever know what hit him.
Or would he...?