By the time the doctor was done with me, I felt like a new man. I was even able to walk back to the van, and drive us back at the warehouse on my own. Still, the evening had taken its toll on me. I climbed out, headed inside with Lady Thunder and Brutus and collapsed onto the bed, gasping in exhaustion.

Lady Thunder sat on the bed next to me. "What does it mean?"

I could barely raise my head. "I don't follow you."

"They were waiting for us. They knew what we were there for, and they almost killed us for it. What's that mean for our plans?"

"It means Captain Maximum knows what I'm after. He most likely knows I killed Kid Maximum and analyzed his exoskeleton, and he knows I saw him without his protective skin so he knows my next move will be to build the weapon that kills him. He no doubt has the kyanedon and the mesotronic regulator under guard. I cannot afford to go much longer without my exoskeleton to protect me."

I sat up, but Lady Thunder put her hands on my chest to stop me. "No, baby, you need to rest."

I shook my head while continuing to sit up. "I do not have the luxury of rest. At this rate, Captain Maximum will discover my hidden lair within twenty-four hours. I must be prepared for our final battle by then."

Lady Thunder pulled off her mask so I could see her wide and shimmering eyes. "Baby, wait. Let's just stop for a minute. I don't know if we should do this. I don't know if we can do this. Those two almost killed you, and they weren't even as strong as Captain Maximum. We should just get out of Saint Newton. We have enough money, we can go anywhere. Do anything."

I pulled myself out of bed, feeling my anger rising within me. "There is nothing I want more than to kill Captain Maximum, nowhere else I want to go than to his grave."

She took my hand in hers. "You're obsessed, Carter. You need to think about this--"

I swung around to scream at her. "I have! I have thought about this since the day I woke up in the hospital and they told me of my parents' death. I have dreamed of seeing Captain Maximum's corpse a thousand times, his blood on the ground at my feet. I have the means to kill him, and just need the tools. I cannot stop now when I am so close. Without his death, my life would mean nothing!"

Only when I saw how she shrank away from me did I realize how much I had screamed at her. Even Brutus had his ears down and whining.

"I'm sorry." I squeezed her hand. "I-I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "Your life means nothing, Carter? It means everything to me. What about me? Am I not enough for you?"

That gave me a physical ache in my heart, and tears burned in my eyes. The idea of causing her pain made me sit down on the bed next to her, and kiss her wet cheeks. "You-you're right. You are precious, the most important thing in my life."

As I said it, I realized how hollow it sounded. I knew I had become obsessed with the thought of revenge. Perhaps it was for my parents. They deserved justice, and the world needed to know what he had done to them. Or perhaps Captain Maximum represented everything wrong with the world to me. Men of power crushed others under their feet while men like me could only look up at them as gods. I wanted to drag him from his throne, and punish him for all the sins in the world.

Of course, I didn't think all of those things at the time. All I could think of was how to make up for the pain I had caused the woman I loved.

I pressed my forehead against hers. "I want to be with you, sweetheart. I want to just leave all this behind, but I can't. I love you, Roxanne, more than anything else in the world, but I need to do this. I need to try. If I fail, at least I'll know I tried. You understand that?"

She took a deep breath before she nodded. "I-I'll try. If it's important to you, it's important to me. Let's just be more careful, okay?"

"I will. Once I have my exoskeleton, I'll be better protected."

With her calm, I moved on to my prototype of the exoskeleton. I needed to use my robot processing machines to create the special coating for my exoskeleton. First, I went to a slot to insert the aquamadite into a chamber, and cranked the temperature up. As the temperature gauge rose, one of my screens showed the metal melting down.

I dragged my exoskeleton into another part of the assembly system. "I'll use the furnace to melt down the alloy and turn it into a liquid that I can spray onto the exoskeleton."

I watched on my computer screen as the aquamadite broke down to a fluid. When I ran the calculations on how much of the exoskeleton's surface I could cover, the results disappointed me. "It's not that much."

She pointed at the chunks of Kid Maximum still lying on our floor. "Can't we take some from that?"

I shook my head. "If only I could. The alloy used in the exoskeleton has to be converted from aquamadite, and once it's been forged, it can't be melted back into its components. I'll merely have to focus on the chest and helmet more than the rest of it."

I tapped keys in order to guide the liquid from a storage chamber into a nozzle that would spray it over my exoskeleton. I watched as the surface of the suit became indoctrinated in the precious fluid. When it was complete, I moved it through the machines to another area to cool it.

When it had cooled, the suit came out of the assembly line where I picked it up.

I didn't look any different but I nodded. "It looks like the saturation is complete."

I pulled on the suit to find it flexible and comfortable. I had made a slight increase in thickness in one of the boots so it also compensated for my shorter leg. I took a few steps to try it out, and it felt good to be able to walk without a limp. I headed into the bathroom to check the mirror, and it seemed a bit bulky, but otherwise, looked form-fitting. It was had to believe it had as much power and strength in it, a testament to the alien technology I had uncovered.

I walked out and turned to face Lady Thunder with my hands held out. "How do I look?"

She smiled. "Totally badass."

"That's what I was going for." I pressed on a bracelet surrounding one wrist. It had a small touchscreen and I used that to activate my onboard computer. Kid Maximum's suit didn't have one, so that was my small contribution. When I pulled the helmet onto my head, the visor slid down over my eyes to project numbers and graphs, a virtual display on my suit's systems. Everything looked good.

I walked over to a beam of steel embedded in the wall, and grabbed hold to pull on it. I could hear the motors in my joints whine as they augmented my strength, and the beam came tearing out of the wall . I bent it easily in my hands, and dropped it on the ground.

Lady Thunder clapped. "Nice! It works!"

"Indeed. But the most important test is for its vulnerability." I picked up my gun, aimed it at my head, and pulled the trigger.

Lady Thunder screamed but the bullet just bounced off my helmet and onto the ceiling.

She stomped her foot. "Hey, don't scare me like that!"

"It wouldn't be a proper test if the suit didn't stop a bullet." I faced her. "Now, punch me in the--"

She slammed a fist into my chest, sending me flying across the warehouse.

I sat up, wheezing, but without a giant hole in my chest that should have been there. The suit held up.

She smirked as she stood over me with her hands on her hips. "That's for scaring me."

"Well-deserved." I stood up and flexed my arms. "Of course, it's not a substitute for caution but I do believe I'm ready. Now we pursue the next piece of our weapon."

I went to my computer and pulled up the schematics for the Saint Newton Museum of Natural History. "The next piece we need is the mineral kyanedon which is in this museum. We have to assume that one or all of the City's Saviors will be there, so I believe we should be more subtle."

I pulled up a map of the city's sewers. "I suggest we send in our robots to go underground and try to get the crystal without triggering any alarms. Better yet, we can do it from a safe distance without entering the museum at all."

"Sounds good."

"The crystal is on display here in the Earth Sciences exhibit. It's protected by security guards, alarms, and motion sensors." On the blueprint of the museum, I pointed to some tunnels underneath. "This sewer line runs directly beneath it. My robots can drill into the basement, avoiding the guards on the front and rear, and make their way to this storage room. By drilling here, under the exhibit, they may be able to retrieve the crystal and escape without detection."

I stepped back to my pile of components and quickly began assembling them into a chip. "To be safe, we can monitor the operation from our van on the street, and I can control one of them directly. If the mission fails, we can go in, and take over."

Lady Thunder clapped her hands. "Nice! But shouldn't we have a plan for if we run into the Saviors?"

"Yes, quite so. Captain Maximum is simply too powerful, so facing him would just involve making a quick retreat. Since Sunflower remains in the hospital, the only remaining member would be Tricky Dick."

She laughed. "In that case, we got nothing to worry about."

I didn't say anything, but I was not quite as optimistic. Tricky Dick was a genius inventor who used his technical skill to make weapons out of common toys and prank devices. "Well, his inventions often draw laughs, but they can also be quite effective against his enemies. Even with my new suit, I feel like we need to be careful."

I uploaded the blueprints of the museum and the sewer map into the onboard computer of my suit, and went to my robots, where my assembly line had replaced the four I had lost earlier. "Robots, you will assist me in stealing the crystal that I need."

"Yes, Master," the robots droned.

I produced an override chip I had made, and tapped the chest of one of the robots so it opened a hatch where I could insert it. "Three of you will follow the instructions of this one, which I will call Beta. Beta, you will be controlled remotely by me for most of the mission. You will take over if you lose connection with me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master," Beta droned.

I tapped on the bracelet I wore to bring up a virtual display on the visor of my helmet. By connecting to the chip in Beta, I was given a popup view from the robot's perspective and a control pad like a video game. I used my bracelet to tap icons on the virtual pad that let me connect directly to the robot through my suit and use it to control its movements.

I raised my left arm, and the robot raised its left arm in perfect synchronization. When I flexed my arms, the Beta robot did the same. I used my virtual console to click on an arrow that made the robot walk forward. The other robots followed Beta like dogs on leashes.

"Excellent." I tapped my bracelet to disconnect the remote control, and put Beta back onto autonomous control. "I believe we're ready. Come along."

I put on my lab coat and wig while Lady Thunder pulled on her mask, and followed along with Brutus as I went to the front door of the museum and paused to run a scan outside. My sensors detected no one except one or two Lennox gang members on patrol, which I was in favor of. With the coast clear, I stepped out into the cool evening air and headed to my secret van.

I moved quickly, still keeping an eye on the skies. I didn't know how long I had before Captain Maximum discovered my hidden lair but I had no doubt that he would. If he was smart enough to figure out my next move, he was smart enough to find his way through the methods I had used to hide my whereabouts.

I admit, I had underestimated him up until that point. I had assumed the captain was as stupid as he was strong, but he had shown himself to be more clever than I thought.

A flash in the clouds made my heart jump, imagining Captain Maximum swooping down out of the sky, but it turned out to be a flash of lightning followed by a rumble of thunder.

I didn't want to have my robots fly to the museum because that would give them away, so I dragged open the back of the van, and let Lady Thunder hold it open for Brutus and my robots. I ran to the driver's side door, climbed behind the wheel, and revved the engine. When she had climbed inside, and yelled, "Let's go," I took off.

We drove through the streets of St. Newton in silence, and I kept the van under the speed limit to avoid suspicion. The whole time, I kept watching and searching for someone to come out and attack me.

I didn't say anything to Lady Thunder, but I knew my perspective had changed. I had come very close to being captured and even killed by just two members of the City's Saviors, heroes I had dismissed as mere obstacles on my way to getting to Captain Maximum. My confidence in my intellect and abilities had been shaken to its core, and I now found myself wondering if my mission would succeed after all.

Kid Maximum had been right about one thing: Captain Maximum had fought villains more powerful than me before. I remembered his epic battle against Doctor Darkness that had left half the city in ruins but left the captain victorious. It now seemed the height of arrogance to assume I could do what Darkness or other villains like the Crimson Moon couldn't do. Who was I, really? Just a very smart engineer with a small army of robots, a giant dog, and a superstrong girlfriend. Yet I thought I could kill one of the most powerful men on Earth.

That was the other wild card in my planning that I hadn't expected or planned on: Captain Maximum wasn't a man at all. He was an extraterrestrial being who had access to vast technology and who I knew nothing about. I had no idea what other tricks or devices he had access to, and I knew even less about his physiology. I knew his artificial skin could be pierced by my proposed weapon, and his alien flesh looked like it could be pierced as well, but I didn't know if he breathed nitrogen or had ammonia for blood or anything else.

I glanced up in the rear-view mirror and met Lady Thunder's eyes. She gave me a nervous smile but I could see the sweat trickling down her face. She was probably just as afraid as I was, if not more so. She had faced Captain Maximum more than I had, and knew him better. She was right to be afraid.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I knew that logically I should just turn around and go home. Pack up everything, and escape from the city while I still could. No one knew my true identity, and I still had millions of dollars. I could go to another city, create a new identity, and begin again as a brand-new villain. I could even just quit the supervillain persona altogether and live a quiet life. It seemed unfair to risk the lives of Lady Thunder and Brutus on my insane quest.

But when I thought of that, I knew I couldn't. For one thing, Captain Maximum wanted me dead. Even if the death of Alexandra hadn't turned him against me, the fact that he knew I had analyzed Kid Maximum's suit meant he must know I had killed the boy, and the captain certainly wouldn't stop at the city's borders. He could go anywhere in the world, and I had no way of knowing what tools he had to track me down. I might go somewhere to hide, only to wake up one morning with his hands on my throat.

More than that, I knew I could never live in a world where Captain Maximum roamed free. I just couldn't see myself living in a two-story house with a white picket fence, happy while seeing Captain Maximum on my television every day. Most of my life had been spent dreaming of his death. I couldn't abandon that, especially now that I was only two elements away from gaining the weapon to do it. I had to at least know I tried.

When we reached the museum, I felt almost shocked that we had arrived without incident. I drove past the huge building with stone pillars in front of it, slowly to keep an eye out for any signs of activity. All the windows of the museum were dark, but that didn't tell me much about what lay inside. Still, I considered no news to be good news so I headed for the Gharish clothing store next to it instead.

Pulling into the empty parking lot, I opened the driver's side door and strode quickly to the other side, looking for the manhole cover I had seen on the sewer maps. I found it and used my mind to lift off the cover just as the robots came lumbering up next to me.

I pointed down into the darkness. "Inside. I'll give you further directions through Beta."

One by one, the robots climbed down the ladder into the sewer while I used my helmet's interface to connect with Beta. When the last of them climbed into the sewer, I used my mind to close the manhole and I hurried back to the van just as the virtual viewpoint of Beta popped up on my screen, and crawled inside.

Lady Thunder sat on the floor of the van beside Brutus who she scratched behind the ears as she watched me. "Is it working?"

I nodded while clicking on the virtual control pad with my bracelet. "Quite so."

I made Beta turn himself around while shining a light from his eyes to illuminate the sewer. In the beam of the light, I saw the tunnel leading off to the east under the museum and gave the command to walk with the map of the sewer projected on my visor as a guide.

Through my helmet, I could hear the thump and splash of my robot army making its way through the sewers, and watched the brick walls glide by. I kept an eye and ear out for signs of anyone else but came up empty.

The robots finally came to the spot in the sewer under the Earth Science display of the museum, and I commanded Beta to stop. With a click, I ordered it to raise its head, and raised my own arm to point its arm at the roof. A button activated its laser, and the red beam sliced through the concrete ceiling of the sewer until a perfect circle fell out onto the ground with a splash.

I engaged Beta's jets to fly it up through the hole it had cut. The robot flew into a large concrete basement with hissing pipes, a large boiler, and a dusty emergency generator. Looking around, I saw no one.

The other robots flew up into the basement, and they followed me as I guided Beta to walk through the dimly lit underground to a door. Using the robot's laser to cut open the door's lock, I opened it to another smaller room with boxes stacked against the walls. According to the blueprint, this would be right under the Earth Science exhibit.

I used a smaller laser beam to burn through the ceiling, and cut a small hole. I had my robot extend one of its eyes to look through the hole into the room on the other side.

The Earth Science exhibit had only a few lights on, letting me see the rows of minerals and crystals on display, along with signs that read what each one was, and its special properties. I focused on the kyanodon, a small purple crystal in a corner. The sign read it was a unique substance found in a meteorite, and the museum had the only known supply.

I grinned, and whispered, "Not for long."

Lady Thunder leaned closer. "Did you find it?"

"Indeed, I have. And I don't see anyone else there. Unless they are in an adjoining room, which is possible."

I worked with the controls to change the view and allow me to scan the room for electronics. It identified wiring running through the room that feed to motion sensors, and alarms that would be triggered. The wires ran down into the basement, so I drew back Beta's eye, and traced the wiring in the basement wall until I found the junction box.

Cutting the power would trigger an alarm, so I manipulated Beta's arms to open the box, and quickly rewire the circuit to feed a continuous loop, making it look like the sensors were unbroken. With that done, I could be a little more bold.

I used my robot's lasers to cut a wider hole through the ceiling, one large enough for my robot to reach through it. By extending the mechanical arm, Beta reached across the exhibit, took hold of the kyanedon, and drew it back to the hole.

I couldn't hold back a smile. "It seems like this really will be easy."

Lady Thunder waved her hands. "Yayy!"

Brutus wagged his tail.

As the arm retracted a few more inches, a blast of light made the view go red. It was bright enough to make me wince, even though I only saw it through Beta's cameras, which seemed to have overloaded. When the redness faded, Beta's extended arm had been melted into a stump, leaving the kyanedon lying on the floor next to it.

I blinked. "Oh, no."

I rotated Beta's head to look up at the superhero Sunflower standing over the hole. Her lips curled in a snarl and her fists still glowed red-hot.

A thump made me turn Beta's head in the basement to see the storage room door open, and a man in a rainbow-colored suit standing there with a grin. He held what looked like a Super Soaker, but I assumed it to be more than that, because the man was Tricky Dick.

"Time to play," Tricky Dick sang.

"Oh, no," I repeated.