With our handshake, our partnership was sealed.

Agnes dropped off the check on our table, and Lady Thunder reached for it.

I stopped her, and picked it up myself. "No, I will not allow that. I feel like I owe you for all that you've done for me."

She snatched the bill out of my hand. "No, I promised I'd pay and I will."

I used my telekinesis to pull it out of her fingers and into mine again. "I must insist."

She put her hands down on the table and exhaled. "Fine. You can pay, but next time, I'm buying."

I paid with some of the money left over from my last bank robbery and headed out of the diner to go out to my van, and she climbed in the back as before.

"Okay," she said, "how do we do this? Do you have an evil lair we can go to? I'd take you to mine but it's just a crappy apartment on the South Side."

"Yes, I do have a warehouse where I'm making my base. We're on our way there. Now for more important matters. First of all, who or what is the Kindred?"

She made a scoffing noise. "The Dark Kindred is only the biggest collection of supervillains in the world. Think of them as the Mafia with superpowers. They control most of the crime in cities all over the world but they're based here in the US. Anybody who's anybody in the supervillain game joins the Kindred, and it took me years to build up enough street cred to get in. I'm glad I caught you before they did. The Kindred are known for how they inflict pain on people who cross them."

I nodded as I turned the van around a corner. "And how do you join these Kindred?"

"Well, like I said, it takes a lot of street cred. They like to say if you're good enough to get in, they'd already know about you before you ask. Getting your name on the front page of the newspaper a few times is good. You also need to kill a member of the Kindred so you can take their place. I managed to beat Iron Lung, and that was a total fluke, I gotta admit. You know how he has that cybernetic chest that lets him blow tornadoes? Well, I punched him in just the right spot during the fight, and ruptured one of his artificial lungs. He stopped breathing, and I got my invite."

I chuckled. "Fabulous."

"Tell me about it."

I pulled up to the entrance of my warehouse under the watchful eye of some local gang members who approached the van, reaching into their jackets.

"Hey," one of them called out, "you need somethin', bro?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." I drew my freeze gun and pointed it at him. "Privacy."

They drew guns but I fired my weapon first, encasing one of them in ice. If I had pulled out a regular gun, they might have just shot back, but the freeze ray sent the others running. Satisfied, I went to unlock the gate.

Lady Thunder laughed as I climbed behind the wheel again. "Wow, now that was impressive."

I chuckled and drove inside, hoping that would be the end of my troubles with the locals.

As I drove inside, Lady Thunder gasped at the layout which gave me a sense of pride. "I know it's kind of ramshackle but I hope to make it more polished once I get more money."

"It's totally bad ass. I love it."

When I parked inside the warehouse, Brutus came running up, barking and jumping up and down at Lady Thunder. He was trying to be threatening, but she just smiled.

"He's so cute! Who's this little fella?"

I picked up Brutus, and he growled at her in my arms. "I call him Brutus the Annihilator. It's kind of a joke but I'm working on making it literal. With my treatment, he'll have the brains of Lassie and the body of a pit bull. I've already done it with a mouse."

I pointed to the muscular mouse in the nearby cage that growled at her.

Lady Thunder nodded. "Yeah, you're a mad scientist, all right. Are you gonna make more of these monsters?"

I put Brutus down and he scurried away to hide in a corner. "I wasn't planning to. That would require feeding them, housing them, giving them medical care. I'm a supervillain, not a zookeeper. No, I plan to create an army of robots to do my bidding. Autonomous and self-repairing."

"An army of robots." She put her hands on her hips. "That's gonna take a lot more money. We'll have to rob a bunch of banks."

I sat down on a rusty chair and thought for a moment before speaking again. "You know, I have been considering that and it seems like a waste of time. I mean, why should I be trying to steal money when I have the genius and resources to earn it?"

Lady Thunder leaned against a metal beam. "I don't get it."

"Well, look at what I've created. This technology is worth more than anything I could steal. Supervillains who use their genius to rob banks are doing it the hard way. I shall do things the smart way."

I explained my plan, and she giggled.

"I take it back," she said. "You really are a genius."

***

When I walked into the lobby of Khachatryan Electronics with Lady Thunder by my side, I could see the security guards stand up straighter. I didn't wait for them to figure out my intentions, but fired my freeze ray to turn one into a block of ice. Lady Thunder charged over to punch a second guard through a nearby window.

As people screamed, and more security guards came running with guns drawn, I held up my hands and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I merely wanted to get your attention. All I ask is that I be allowed to address your board of directors."

One of the guards yelled, "You're not getting anywhere! Drop your weapon and put your hands on your head!"

I pulled open my white coat to reveal a glowing block of plastique strapped to my chest. "I am armed with an explosive powerful enough to destroy this entire building. It's set to detonate if my heart stops or I push this button."

I held up my cane so they could see the button on it that my thumb hovered over. "Once again, all I ask is to meet with your board of directors so I can discuss a proposal that will make this company richer than ever. Thirty minutes is all I require. Grant me that and I will leave. Deny it, and die."

The security guards looked at each other. I knew for a fact that the board of directors had just started their yearly meeting so it wasn't a coincidence I had chosen that time to arrive.

The receptionist fumbled her phone to her ear and whispered something into it. When she put the phone down, she nodded and said, "All right. Mister Khachatryan will see you."

I smiled. "Thank you."

She pointed to an elevator door next to her. "Top floor."

I walked to the elevator with Lady Thunder by my side. The security guards shuffled along to keep me in their sights.

"I sure hope this works," she whispered.

I murmured back, "It will. Trust me."

We stepped into the elevator which had rows of buttons and I pressed the top one with the tip of my cane, and the doors closed to send up whisking to the top.

When the doors opened, we walked into a boardroom. Men and women in suits sat at a table that stretched the length of the room.

The gray-haired man at the far end of the table grunted. "You have a flair for the dramatic, Mister. If you wanted to see me, you could have just made an appointment."

I smiled and bowed a little. "Somehow, I doubt it would have been as effective as this approach."

Lady Thunder took up a position behind me, arms folded and looking menacing, just like we planned.

Khachatryan leaned back in his chair. "All right, you wanted thirty minutes. You have exactly that."

"I don't think it will even take that long." I reached into my coat to draw out a small metal box and set it onto the table in front of them. Some of the people near it began to roll their chairs away from it, but I ignored them.

"Khachatryan Electronics," I started, "is currently a bit player in the field. You sell cheap knock-off emulator consoles from China, universal remotes, and a low-end Android tablet. What if I told you that I could make you the number one electronics company in the world by the end of this year?"

Khachatryan snorted and gave the other board members raised eyebrows. "I'd say you'd have to have something damn good for that."

"And I do." I tapped a button on the box.

A beam of light shot out of the box, throwing a hologram over the table of soldiers running across a battlefield. It was from Call of Duty but I didn't think they'd mind the old tech, and I was right. They all gasped and leaned closer as they watched the men and women in uniform charging over the table, guns blazing. Explosions went off next to them, making some wince.

It was a more powerful version of what I'd knocked up in my living room the night I got my powers, and it had the desired effect.

Khachatryan sat upright with his mouth open. "Good God! What is this? A trick?"

"Not at all." I held out my hand. "This is what I'm offering you. A holographic interface that can project images into thin air. No need for a screen or clumsy goggles. You can make anything appear, and it can be any size."

I pushed another button and the hologram spread until it filled the entire room, turning it into a dusty field in Afghanistan. The board members jumped as soldiers ran through them, and bullets passed through their heads and chests.

As one of the soldiers turned to pump bullets into Khachatryan, he stood up. "This-this is amazing. Corden, do we have anything like this in the works?"

A balding man shook his head. "N-No, sir. No one does that we know of. This is light years ahead of what anyone is doing in the field."

I smirked. "Indeed it is. And I'm willing to give you this technology, lock, stock, and barrel. The patent for this revolutionary holographic technology will be completely yours. You don't even need to put my name on it."

Khachatryan narrowed his eyes. "I-I find that hard to believe, Mister-uh--"

"My name isn't important." Mainly, because I still hadn't decided what my new name would be.

"Okay. If you have this technology, why would you give it to us? What's the catch?"

I flicked a hand in the air. "Because I have more important things to do with my time than fiddle around with prototypes and paperwork. You can have this and your people can tear it apart to make a version for mass production within a month at the latest. All I want is money, no more, no less. In exchange for this, all I ask is one billion dollars."

The board gasped and muttered, while Khachatryan dropped into his chair like a sack of potatoes.

"One billion dollars," he blurted. "You expected us to just hand you that much at the drop of a hat?"

"Yes. In one hour." I shrugged. "I know your company is valued at three billion dollars, so I'm only asking for a third of it, and you know as well as I do that you'll make six times that much by the end of the year. By this time next year, you'll be worth far more than that. If you don't pay me, I'll just take it to someone else and keep going through every company on the top five hundred list until someone does. Then you'll get to watch as someone else crushes your company into non-existence."

I reached for my phone to tap the Clock app. "You have exactly sixty minutes to convert the money into cryptocurrency and transfer it into this digital wallet."

I tossed a small chip onto the table." That sixty minutes begins now."

The board of directors was silent for a moment before everyone looked at Khachatryan.

He, in turn, looked around at the battlefield still raging around him while he yelled, "Do I have to ask?"

The board all raised their hands, yelling agreement, while a couple in suits scurried out of the room.

Forty five minutes later, I walked out of Khachatryan Electronics with the billion dollars glowing on my hardware wallet's screen.

As I climbed into the van, Lady Thunder whooped and yelled, "I can't believe that worked!"

I started the van and drove away, changing the color and license plate when we got out of sight. "I knew it would. Selling the patent has given me the money I need to begin mass production of my robot army and more."

"Wow." Lady Thunder shook her head. "I gotta admit, that was a lot easier than robbing banks. Made more money, too."

From there, things worked rather quickly. Online, I was able to transfer the cryptocurrency into cash at an offshore bank with no questions asked.

Next, I looked up and contacted the owner of the warehouse I squatted in.

When he answered, I said directly, "Mister Kovach, I'll get right to the point. I'm staying in your property on East Southfield Road. I've already moved in a lot of my equipment and I plan to stay here."

"Now wait just a--"

Lady Thunder giggled next to me as I interrupted him. "This is not a debate, Mister Kovach. Please listen carefully. You can spend time sending police to try to force me out but I am more than willing to fight for it, and will cause a lot of damage to the building in the process. That will cost you a lot to repair, assuming you even bother to repair it. We both know this building isn't exactly in high demand. On the other hand, I'm willing to pay you four million dollars in cash right now to let me stay for the next few weeks. I know that's five times what it's worth at current market value. You don't even have to give me the title because I don't want it in my name, anyway. Just don't interfere, look the other way, and I'll be out of your place soon. Do we have a deal?"

A moment of silence passed before he said, "Four million dollars? Seriously?"

"Yes," I said as I booted up my laptop. "Give me a bank account routing and account number and I'll transfer it to you as we talk on the phone."

After a few more seconds of silence passed, he mumbled some numbers. I entered them into the website as he read them off, and a few clicks of the mouse sent the money across. "Check your account, please."

After some clicking noises on his end, I heard him breathe, "Holy shit."

"Does that mean we have a deal?"

"Hell yeah, we have a deal. For this price, you can have the whole damn thing."

I shook my head. "As I said, I just need it for a few more weeks. Thank you, have a nice day."

I hung up, and Lady Thunder burst out laughing.

"I love how you talk," she hooted. "Have a nice day, you said. But why'd we even pay him at all for this heap?"

I waved my hands. "Because I don't want any more distractions. I want to do this the right way. Now, for the next step in my army."

Lady Thunder played fetch with Brutus as I sat down with a pen and paper and redesigned my robots with more armor and weapons with a focus on making them easy to manufacture. When I had the design, I broke down the parts I would need and placed orders for the equipment I needed to start mass production of the robots. With the amount I paid, trucks began rolling up within the hour, and I watched them unload crates by the dozen.

As they worked, I looked down at Brutus, wagging his tiny tail at my feet. "I think your time has come, boy."

I picked up Brutus and carried him to the same machine that had transformed the mouse. As I placed him inside, Lady Thunder followed me with her hands wringing.

"Are you sure he'll be okay?" she asked. "He's such a cute little guy."

"Of course." I closed the machine and Brutus looked up at me through the glass. "I wouldn't do this if I didn't have confidence in it."

I went to the console of the machine and switched it on. The radiation emitters glowed as the enhancement solution sprayed onto Brutus who whimpered a little and shook himself. I pushed a button that made the pod flash in brilliant red light, and Brutus began to change.

Just like the mouse, Brutus started to grow, starting with his legs and his body, all swelling larger and bulging with muscle. As he grew, his teeth bared and snapped in a way that actually startled me. When the dials read that the process was complete and I switched it off, Brutus looked more like a pit bull the size of a pony. He truly had become an Annihilator like ever before.

Remembering how the mouse had grown more aggressive worried me a little as I unlocked the pod. Was Brutus the same dog? Would he turn on me, even after all we'd been through?

When the gate opened, Brutus lunged out with a roar and tackled me. I brought up my arms to stop him, but his powerful muzzle easily pushed them aside to reach my face.

His tongue lapped at my nose and cheeks as he licked me, huge tail wagging furiously.

"All right, all right," I gasped. "Down, boy."

Brutus immediately jumped off me and sat down. His huge head tilted to one side as he looked up at me, tongue hanging out of his fanged jaws.

"Wow," Lady Thunder whispered. "You weren't kidding. He's huge."

"Yes." I sat up. "But he seems to remember me. Do you, boy?"

Brutus barked and it sounded more like a lion's roar but he looked cheerful instead of menacing. I could still see the old Brutus in his bright, soulful eyes.

I reached out to pet him, and his tail wagged so hard that it dented the floor next to him. "Excellent. Now for the mind. Brutus, roll over, boy."

Brutus obediently rolled onto his back and over again.

"Quite nice." I looked around. "Now where's that wrench. I can have him try to catch--"

Brutus got up, trotted over to my tool box, and pulled out a wrench with his teeth. He trotted up to me and set the wrench down on the floor in front of me.

I looked at Lady Thunder who looked back with her mouth open. "Brutus, did-did you understand me?"

Brutus barked.

"Brutus, can you understand me? Bark twice for yes, once for no."

Brutus barked twice.

"Are you just barking at random?"

Brutus barked once.

I smiled. "Wonderful. Far better than I had hoped for."

Minutes after the last of the trucks had left, I heard cars pulling up to the warehouse and looked outside a broken window to see gang members pulling up in Escalades. They all carried rifles and handguns, ready for a fight.

Lady Thunder looked at me. "You ready for round two?"

I pulled on my white wig but left off my lab coat. "Quite the opposite."

I opened the warehouse door and limped out with both hands in the air. Brutus trotted along beside me, growling.

"Don't move, motherfucker," one of the men yelled. "Drop that fancy freeze gun you got!"

I kept my hands up while shaking my head. "I'm unarmed. Gentlemen, I have no wish to fight you. I offer a truce and a job."

The gang members scowled at each other before the leader yelled back, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"I only responded earlier in self-defense. Your men can confirm that they approached me and drew their weapons first."

The gang leader looked at one of his men who nodded. At that, their leader lowered his AK-47. "A'ight, fine. Truce. Now what's this shit about a job?"

"I need men to help set up my facility. It's a few hours of hard labor, but I will pay you each a thousand dollars in cash."

The gang began hooting and slapping each other while the leader yelled, "Seriously? A thousand dollars? Shit, yeah, we'll do it. What kinda labor we talkin' about?"

I stepped back as the gang members put away their weapons and followed me inside. With my direction, I had them open the crates and unload the equipment, then walked them through assembling it. They proved to be a surprisingly effective group and within hours, they had built the machinery for an assembly line. While they worked, I withdrew the money in cash.

"Thank you, gentlemen," I said as I handed it to them in bundles as they walked out. "I may need your services later on."

"Hell yeah," their leader (whose street name I found out was Madman) said. "We'll be your minions, brah."

They all laughed as they climbed into their cars but I figured they were as good a group of henchmen as I could find. At least, when I didn't need robots.

As I closed the door, Lady Thunder stood with her hands on her hips, looking up at the machines looming over us. "Wow, I can't believe you built all this in one day."

"Well, I designed it to be easy to assemble." I pulled on a lever. "Now let's see if it works."

The machines began to rumble and hum while sheets of metal fed into one end. Other machines sprayed sparks, hissed with steam, and the loud bang of metal against metal made me cover my ears.

At the opposite end of the warehouse, metal arms slammed pieces together until they assembled into a much bulkier version of Adam, my first robot. When the final piece snapped into place, the robot lifted its head, blinked lights, and stepped to one side as another robot began to assemble.

As I watched the machines manufacture my army of robots, I felt a tingle of excitement. "This is it. With this army, I will be ready. The next step, finding Captain Maximum's weakness. We need to draw him out so I can study him. For that, we'll need bait."

Lady Thunder frowned down at me. "What kinda bait?"

I pulled out my phone, did a quick Google search, and held the screen up so she could see the picture I had on it. It was the reporter, Alexandra Andrews.

"Her," I said.