Laura, I refused to honor her doctorate after the bullshit she pulled on me, advanced across the quad. Her familiar heels clicked in an echo that filled my brain with residual terror from the days when I’d had to listen for the sound of her heels clicking down the tile hallway.

  I’d learned pretty early on that it was a good idea to not be anywhere she was when she was on the warpath. Considering her personality that meant it was a good idea to not be anywhere near her ever.

  Right now she wore an uncharacteristic smile. If anything that unnerved me even more than seeing her out there in the first place.

  If she was smiling that meant she was happy about something. I wanted nothing to do with anything that made Laura Anderson happy.

  “Fialux,” she said, stepping through the circle.

  The minions, that’s how I was thinking of them now that I’d seen how they responded to her, parted around her. Then the circle closed again. None of them were moving in close though.

  It was just Fialux and Anderson in the middle.

  “I’m picking up something moving over them mistress,” CORVAC said. “Very faint, but it’s there.”

  I looked up but didn’t see anything. I checked the radar signature and didn’t see anything either. Finally I flipped over to infrared and blinked a couple of times.

  “Huh. She hid it from the visual spectrum and radar, but she didn’t bother to hide the heat signature?” I asked.

  “Where is she going to dump the heat mistress?” CORVAC asked. “You destroyed your teleportation technology before you left, and I doubt they’ve managed to copy that even if they have managed to make crude copies of everything else you created while you were there.”

  I smiled. A faint smile, but it was there. It was always nice to know my work was appreciated, and it was very nice to know CORVAC could recognize my work.

  He hadn’t been around during my university days, after all. I hadn’t found him and brought him back to digital life until well after I’d left the goddamn Applied Sciences department for good.

  I was also totally pissed off they stole my stuff and I would have my vengeance. That went without saying.

  “How much do you want to bet they’ve got another one of those weird purple energy things loaded on that drone and they’re waiting on her to fly away?” I asked.

  “I’d say that’s a safe bet. I noticed the anomaly coming in at high speed while they were fighting. I would imagine Professor Anderson is stalling for time, as you humans put it.”

  “Don’t call her that,” I snapped.

  “Excuse me mistress,” CORVAC said. “I would imagine the head of the goddamn doublecrossing motherfuckers at the Applied Sciences Department is stalling for time, as you so eloquently put it.”

  I grinned. It never ceased to amuse me when CORVAC used salty language.

  “That’s better CORVAC. Tune in the ears on what’s going on down there. I want to hear that conversation,” I said.

  I wasn’t sure what was going on between Fialux and the Applied Sciences department, but I figured it couldn’t be any good.

  This seemed like something out of my playbook. Something they would try because they were interested in getting a tissue sample or something they could use for their own nefarious purposes.

  Sure Laura went on and on about how there wasn’t anything nefarious going on in her department, that was a big reason why she kicked yours truly out of the program, but I couldn’t shake the weird feeling I got around her.

  She was a dictator, but there’d also always been something off about her. The phrase “it takes one to know one” came to mind when I thought about her. I was an evil supergenius. She gave off a vibe.

  You do the math.

  “Fialux. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Laura said.

  Fialux, for her part, looked downright confused. I’m sure she was used to people trying to take her out, I’d been tilting at that particular windmill nonstop since our first confrontation for example, but she seemed like she didn’t know why Laura was talking to her like that.

  Another layer to the mystery. Laura was talking to Fialux like they were old friends. Fialux was looking at her like she was crazy.

  What the hell was going on here?

  “We have a lot to talk about,” Laura said. “Please.”

  Fialux started shimmering again. Like she was going to do that cool thing where she lifted off and caused a minor earthquake that registered in a limited fashion around where she took off, I knew because I’d hacked into the USGS and had a look at the seismographs.

  The minor earthquake she caused every time she took off into the air was nothing compared to the little puff that always followed as she inevitably broke the sound barrier faster than any flying object ever made by man. Even me, as much as it chapped my ass to admit it.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “I don’t know you,” she said. “And I don’t know why you’re attacking me, or why you felt the need to draw me here with lies.”

  My eyes narrowed. Draw her there with lies? What was she talking about?

  On instinct I looked around the quad, and that’s when I saw something I hadn’t noticed before. A girl standing off to the side with a guy who was dressed all in black. Complete with one of those ridiculous black caps you see robbers wearing in movies even though it was late summer and not the kind of weather for those clothes.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered.

  “Problem, mistress?” CORVAC asked.

  “They used my play and they managed to lure her with it,” I grumbled.

  “Well at least you know your plan was a good one even if it didn’t work exactly as you’d planned,” CORVAC replied.

  “Stop trying to make me feel better,” I growled.

  “I believe you’re missing the show mistress,” CORVAC said.

  “Right,” I said, looking back down to the drama playing before me.

  It was weird, but this almost reminded me of what it’d been like when I’d been kicked out of the department. It was bringing back some very unpleasant memories I would’ve rather put behind me for good.

  “Please, Fialux. I can help you. I know you’re very confused about what’s going on here, but I’m the only person in the city who can make this better,” Laura said.

  What the hell was she going on about? Did she think she was going to be able to get Fialux all to herself by acting like she wanted to help her or something?

  I had to admit it was a good angle. I wondered what would’ve happened if I’d come at her acting like I simply wanted to study her and try to make the world a better place instead of coming at her with all the best super strength augments and advanced weapons my mad science could manufacture.

  Too late to second guess myself on that decision though.

  “I’m sorry, but you attacked me and that means you’re not someone I can trust,” Fialux said.

  She glanced around, and there was something there I wasn’t used to seeing. She looked downright nervous being surrounded by all those people in their cut-rate knockoffs of some of my best stuff.

  Interesting. I’d been wondering if that purple stuff actually hurt her or if she was just playing along, but she seemed like she was genuinely worried.

  Either she was playing the long con with these guys, trying to make it seem like they’d found her weakness, or she really was worried they’d be able to take her out.

  Given what I knew about your classical heroic types, do-gooders who couldn’t stand the idea of telling a lie, I was willing to bet there was something to whatever the fuckers in the goddamn Applied Sciences department had come up with.

  That made me want to get my hands on one of those toys. It made me want to get my hands on it real bad.

  The shimmering around Fialux was reaching a fever pitch now. It was about to happen. The whole impressive shebang. A localized earthquake followed by thunder in the sky as she broke the sound barrier above the city in violation of a bunch of FAA regulations and local noise ordinances.

  Not that any of the noise ordinances were ever enforced around these here parts. It was difficult for the cops to ticket a giant radioactive lizard or a giant death robot or any of a number of other things that rolled through the city on the regular increasing the average decibel level by a few hundred in very short bursts.

  “You need to go,” she said.

  “I can’t leave,” Laura said. “But you need to make the right choice here. Or else.”

  “I don’t respond well to threats. I don’t know who you are, but I’m not going with you,” Fialux said.

  I wanted to say something. I wanted to tell her to watch out. That she was walking on dangerous ground. That they were laying a trap.

  But I couldn’t cry out. Not because I didn’t want to, but because she moved so fast there was no time to say anything before she sprang the trap.

  It played out in slow motion. The little puff of air around her caused the pavement to crack.

  Unfortunately it wasn’t followed by all the other stuff that usually accompanied her going up, up, and away. She went up, but the up and away part didn’t happen this time around.

  Like I said, it was like watching a wreck in slow motion. The cloaked drone they’d put above her, I guess her super vision didn’t extend to seeing in the infrared or she just hadn’t bothered to look up before taking off, exploded with a spectacular purple sparkle as she slammed into it.

  Tines of electricity wrapped around her. It was all that strange purple color, and it looked like she was in serious pain. He body arched and she threw her head back and screamed.

  I winced. That looked painful. More important, it was actually working. The stupid fucking Applied Sciences department had come up with a way to take Fialux out.

  She fell to the ground and lay there for a long moment. I worried they’d actually managed to kill her. It wouldn’t be the first time someone died because somebody in the Applied Sciences department got a little overeager with some toy they were working on.

  A couple of my projects that eventually got me kicked out came to mind.

  “They actually did it,” CORVAC said.

  Now I know he’s a computer, but I couldn’t help but note that there seemed to be the faintest touch of disbelief in his synthesized voice.

  Meanwhile I felt something that surprised me as I looked down at the scene playing out before me.

  Anger.

  I should’ve been happy. If someone took out Fialux then it meant there was one less thing for me to worry about, after all. With her out of the way I could go back to dominating the city. I could continue with my plots to eventually take over the world.

  Only I knew that wouldn’t be possible.

  I’d always know I wasn’t the one who took out the greatest hero this city had ever seen. I’d always have it gnawing at the back of my mind that someone else struck the killing blow. Which meant I wasn’t the best. I hadn’t been able to rise to the challenge.

  And as I watched the scene playing out before me something added to the anger boiling inside me. The anger that someone would dare to try and overtake my position as the preeminent villain in the world.

  It was a cold rage. A rage that fueled me far better than any ambition to take over the world.

  I told myself it was simply the rage of someone out there doing better than I did, but I knew it was more than that. It was the rage of knowing she was in danger.

  That was the more pressing concern. Far greater than the thought someone might beat my greatest enemy.

  Because I was having trouble thinking of her as my greatest enemy, and that part was getting good and pissed off watching her lying on the ground weak and exposed.

  “Not on my watch,” I muttered.

  “Mistress?” CORVAC asked.

  I ignored him. I knew he’d have things to say about what I was about to do. I’d hear them regardless once I put my plan into motion, but in the meantime I could have a moment of silence while he worked out what I was doing.

  The people moving in around Fialux were far more concerned with the danger right in front of them, and Fialux was too stunned to pay close attention to me moving in silently on my antigrav thrusters.

  I smiled. That would be their mistake. People in this city underestimated me at their own peril, and I’d been itching for some revenge against those assholes at the goddamn Applied Sciences department for a long time.