//------------------------------// // Act 1, Scene 1.5 // Story: Doctor Horrible is Adorable // by Scarlett Haze //------------------------------// A few moments ago, back at home, the henchmen of Doctor Horrible's secret lair had begun to notice something... missing... "Does anyone else think that Doctor Horrible has been real quiet?" Was the question and topic most discussed by the workers. Never had there been a single laugh from his lips that echoed the halls, no response to sudden potential and explosive failure by his personal group of scientists to work on his next big heist or terrorist ploy, not a peep against how much he hated the Henchmen's Union. And what's worst of all, it all now fell on the shoulder's of his second-in-command and his only friend, Moist. *** "No, I don't know where he keeps his file filled with evil plans," Moist tried to explain to a group of workers that were needing to look again at Horrible's blueprint for the 'Mass Fingerprint Eraser', the machine to end all fingerprint scanners effectively. "Well, then we won't be able to figure out where to put the Solar Collector in order for it to work!" Moist looked up at the machine and then back down at the dumbfounded henchmen. "You can't just put it on the top of it?" The group paused for a moment before they went into a huddle and then came out. "Yeah, I think we can... work that out..." With that they left and Moist was left to a wet hand in his face. Some days his own coworkers were just outright stupid and other times they'd ask him the most complicated junk that he couldn't figure out. He needed to get Dr. Horrible out of that basement, he had been down there for too long. Moist started on his way, still eying the activity around him. The amount of funding that the Evil League of Evil had given Dr. Horrible was almost criminal! Scientists, all surrounded by glass tubes and multicolored liquids as they worked. Henchmen, doing tons of remedial work with lifting heavy objects and discussing ideas of how to improve the area in the break room. There was even a Chik-fil-A that had taken residence inside the large compound to the sheer joy of everyone. Dr. Horrible had whispered to Moist that the restaurant actually served beef disguised as chicken in an attempt to see how well it could fool the normal populace, and the results were both delicious and successful. Getting a 4-piece 'Chick-n-Strips' meal, Moist managed to both hold on to the bag of fried goodness and get to the door that was the entry way of Dr. Horrible's most secretive piece of comfort away from the workplace. Leaning over, he let his eye get scanned, a hair pulled from his head, and a microphone lifted to his mouth. "Moist is Choice," he groaned out, hating the catchphrase that Dr. Horrible had made him take in order for him to get in. He pulled away from the door and watched it split in half, pulling into the walls to signal his entrance was cleared. Shoving a few waffle fries in his mouth he descended down the stairs, still hearing nothing of Dr. Horrible, which made him curious as to what was going on. He did hear something else down there that made him almost stop moving. "Help me," the small girly voice had managed to reach him. His speed slowed down and then he began going down the stairs faster. Did Dr. Horrible capture a small child? He didn't do that! Murder and Kidnapping were two of his biggest pet peeves! Moist ran down the stairs and stopped, well, slid, into Dr. Horrible's personal lab. No one was in here, no girl that he heard, and no Dr. Horrible. He started looking around when he noticed Dr. Horrible's computer monitor was on. On the screen was a cartoon filly with pink hair, wearing the coat and goggles of Dr. Horrible. Moist kept moving his head around, this had to be a joke. "Ha, ha, ha," Moist chuckled weakly. "V-Very funny, Dr. Horrible. You got me." The cartoon pony's eyes seemed to widen as she watched him try and find a hidden door or secret compartment that Dr. Horrible was hiding in. "Moist? Moist! It's me!" Moist paused, his eyes now looking back at the computer screen. He had no choice but to let the prank run its course, however it irked him, Horrible was not the joking type. "It's who?" The filly tried to move the pink hair that got in her way only for it to fall back down, "Dr. Adorable!" Both the filly and Moist were confused about what she just said. "H- Hold on! I didn't mean to say adorable! It was H-. Horrrr-. Eeeee-. Buuullll." Moist's eyes shot open in shock, "Dr. Horrible?!" The little pony nodded her head and Moist again looked around him, seeing if anyone else was around before going back to the colorful representation of his former friend. "How'd you get in there?! Why are you a pony?!" The now represented version of Dr. Horrible tried to shrug and nearly fell off her boxes in order for her to look through the camera. "I don't know why I'm a pegasus, or a filly. I can tell you it involved the Transmatter Ray and now I'm suddenly here!" A voice that sounded more mature and similar to the now frightened Doctor was heard through the speakers, "Fluttershy, dear. It's time for you to stop playing and go to bed!" The filly turned away from the camera and pleaded back, "A few more minutes, mommy?" Moist would've laughed, but he knew it would both irritate Dr. Horrible and it wouldn't have made him look any better. "D- Doc. A lot of the guys are wondering where you are, sh- should I even-?" "No! Don't!" The filly managed to latch onto the camera and pull her face in, allowing Moist to see the fear in her eyes. "It's bad enough that I'm stuck here until I find a way back, but if the Evil League of Evil figures out what happened here, I'd be mocked for the rest of my natural born life!" "Then what exactly should we do about this?" Moist asked, hoping to get a plan, a scheme, something that could tell him what needed to be done. The filly let go of the camera, "Alright, I need you to activate a little thing I had planned in the event that I was gone. It'll be... the fifth brick away from the window that you'll need to push. Moist went straight to the window and counted bricks, "I'm at the fifth row! Which one is it?" "Third from the ceiling, hurry it up, Moist, I need this matter taken care of before my bedtime!" Moist counted bricks to the third and pressed it, he looked out the window, seeing that it was still daytime. So why would Dr. Horrible be worried about bedtime? From the other end of the room came the sound of vacuumed air escaping, Moist then turned to see a metallic version of Dr. Horrible waiting behind the wall that had opened. "Bring the Robo-Horrible over here, I need to properly activate it." The filly was now trying to move something behind the camera, perhaps removing a few wires as the feed seemed to cut in and out as she did so. Moist went to grip Robo-Horrible's hand and pull when it just slipped out, he tried again and failed. "I can't get him to move!" The filly gave an angry huff, "Really? Alright, let me... just... get... this-!" The feed to the monitor had gone, but the speakers now sounded much louder than what Dr. Horrible had been speaking before. "Robo-Horrible! Protocol Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Eight, Four, Voice Override Code! Seven, Harry, Queen, Snake, Three, Seven, Two, Charlie! Respond!" From the black goggles came red eyes that faded away as the Robo-Horrible began walking, it moved rather synthetically and natural for a robot. Moist could almost feel the fear flow out of him at what else the Doctor had hidden inside this place. The Robo-Horrible took a seat at the computer desk and looked into the monitor. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha," It forced out laughs that sounded similar to Dr. Horrible. "Excellent, it's at least got the basic functions working." The monitor was now showing that the blog was not giving out anymore video feed for the blog, so Moist was sure that any of the other viewers were just as confused as to what was happening as they watched the feed jump back and forth between complete darkness to a cartoon pegasus wearing an oversized coat and goggles. "Alright, Robo-Horrible, you will need to reactivate the blog and explain as to what has happened. Make it assumed that this was an attempted blog hacking, also inform them that the Transmatter Ray has disintegrated. Afterwards, proceed with the daily chores, minimal progress so that I won't be too lost as to what has happened if I return. Moist, you're going to watch the video playback and get some of the boys that you can trust to try and replicate what had happened. If I can't get out on my end, you can enter on the other." Moist felt the pressure of responsibility latched onto him, and no amount of wet sweat was going to let it off. "You expect us to go to where YOU are?!" "I don't know what I want, this is something that I would've never considered a viable option during my entire life's work." The voice of the filly Dr. Horrible stopped and the feed returned again, Moist could see some tears forming on his friend's face. "I just need some help..." Both of them kept their eyes on each other until the camera finally shut off and the feed to the blog returned to Robo-Horrible. "I would like to apologize for the childish attempt to interrupt my blog with cartoon ponies, it turns out my personal server drones have failed incredibly against this hacker, and as such I will punish them and said hacker," The Robo-Horrible began his speech as Moist pulled away, he had a job to do, and he had to try and keep this incident quiet from a lot of important people. Moist heard a phone ring and instinctively answered it. "Hello?" Moist asked, before realizing how much of a mistake it was to answer Dr. Horrible's personal phone to the Evil League of Evil. "I'm looking to hear from Dr. Horrible, would you mind terribly putting him on the phone?" Moist's hand wrapped tighter on the phone making it jump into the air, making him try to recapture it, he had just heard the voice of one of the higher-ups of the League, Professor Normal. Moist put the phone to his chest, "Phone for you, Horrible!" He squeaked, seeing Robo-Horrible stop the blog feed and rotate his head around 180 degrees to look at him. The robot then stood up and approached Moist, still backwards and ripped the phone from Moist's hand. His face was blank of expression, and that made Moist even more nervous. "We regret to inform you that Doctor Horrible is busy working on a project, if you wish to leave a message please do so at the beep." The Robo-Horrible then crushed the phone in his hand and started up the stairs to do the Doctor's work. Moist stood in the basement for a moment and tried to stop shaking, so much had happened and now he had to try and fix it. He pulled out his own phone and leaned next to the window so the signal could be strong enough as he started making calls. "Hey, Pink, I'm going to need a favor and some time to tell you about what just happened to me today..."