Watching the dark shadow descending from the clouds, I felt a sense of frustration and disappointment. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Not now, not before I was ready. I imagined myself completing the weapon and facing the captain on the streets of St. Newton where all could see his failure, not trapped like a rat in my lair with an unfinished weapon. I had been so close. If I only had a little more time, I could have done it. Now it seemed to be too late.

As the thunder shook the warehouse, Lady Thunder blinked up at me. "Is that-is that Captain Maximum?"

I ran back to the window to look up at the dark shape in the clouds coming closer. "Yes."

She sat up and looked over at my phaser sitting on my workbench near her. "But your gun, is it finished?"

It almost physically hurt for me to shake my head as I looked at the rifle still there, dead. "No. It's missing the regulator. Without it, the beam can't focus enough to achieve full power."

Brutus' ears folded down and he whimpered.

Lady Thunder looked sick as well as she looked around us. "What'll we do?"

I took a deep breath before speaking again in a low growl. "We fight, my love. We fight."

Lady Thunder looked around and noticed the changes I had made to the warehouse for the first time. I had welded metal bars over the doors and windows to reinforce them. I also had several robots constructed from my factory. "Do you think this will be enough to stop him?"

I clenched my fists. "No. But hopefully it will slow him down."

She got up and joined me at the window where we watched through a gap as Captain Maximum came flying down and landed on the street in front of the warehouse. His jetpack cut off with a loud thump, and he began to walk towards us. Even in the pounding rain and darkness, I could see the anger burning in his eyes.

"Mastermind," he called out. "I know you're in there."

As Captain Maximum approached, a loud voice yelled, "Light him up!"

All the windows in the apartment building across the street from the warehouse began to blaze with fire from semi-automatic weapons. I knew it had to be the Lennox gang who had taken over the building. I admit to being surprised, since I thought they would run rather than try to intervene in this battle.

More than that, a Cadillac Escalade came racing down the street with Madman and other gang members leaned out of the windows. Their guns rattled as they peppered Captain Maximum with bullets. Another car came from the other end of the street, closing in on him. They had him boxed in.

"Yes!" Lady Thunder yelled. "I can't believe they're fighting him!"

"Yes," I murmured. "Quite brave. But foolish."

"Huh?"

I knew Captain Maximum's durability from my scans so it didn't surprise me that Captain Maximum didn't even stagger under the onslaught. He just glared at the Escalade until it came close enough, and smashed a fist into the front end. The whole car almost flipped over as the hood collapsed under the impact, and the car came to a dead halt.

The captain reached down to pick up the car from the front end. Madman and a couple of other men jumped out of the car, but the rest stayed inside yelling as the captain threw the Escalade at the apartment building. The car smashed the front of the building, and burst into flames that drenched the front entrance.

The other car skidded to a halt, and tried to back up, but the captain moved quickly to grab hold of it and throw that one at the apartment building, too. The second car crashed through a window on the second floor, cracking open the brick wall around it. With the two crashing into the front wall and bursting into flames, the whole building began to crumble.

The screaming inside the building took on a different tone as men and women began to cry out. Some of them tried to climb and jump out of the windows while others ran onto the roof that began to sag. It seemed like it would be a bloodbath.

A true hero would have tried to save them but Captain Maximum was not that hero. As people tried to flee from the collapsing apartments, Captain Maximum kept walking forward towards my warehouse.

"Now what?" Lady Thunder asked me.

I pointed at the sidewalk leading into the warehouse. "Fear not. I've planned a few surprises for him."

As the captain stepped onto the warehouse driveway, the ground exploded. That one started a chain reaction as the bombs I had set burst all around him. The warehouse trembled, and I had to grab onto Lady Thunder as she almost fell. Dust and debris came pouring from the ceiling until I thought my lair might collapse along with the apartments.

When the explosions stopped, and only the screams and yells of the crowd outside could be heard, I peeked through the window again.

The smoke began to clear from the wind and rain, showing a massive crater had been left where there had once been concrete and soil. Through it all, Captain Maximum hadn't even stopped walking. He kept going towards the warehouse entrance, fixed on me.

"Extraordinary," I murmured as I leaned over and flipped a switch.

The laser turrets I had built out of parts from my robots unfolded from hatches in the ground, turned towards the captain, and fired. The flash of light became blinding, and I could feel the heat, even though the walls. It must have reached close to a thousand degrees.

I was not surprised when Captain Maximum just smashed his fists into the laser guns, tearing them apart one by one. When the last one fell, he turned to glare at me again.

"Enough with the games," he roared. "I know you scanned me. You know this won't stop me."

I flipped on a microphone on my helmet and my voice boomed outside on speakers.

"Hope springs eternal, Captain," I called out as I flipped another switch.

Another circle of guns popped up, this time firing modified versions of my freeze ray. The cannons fired, encasing him in ice, and leaving him barely visible within a cloudy mass.

I knew I didn't have much time. I ran from the window and searched the warehouse until I found the chunk of meat and melting ice that had once been Kid Maximum's head.

I tossed it to Lady Thunder. "Give that to him when he asks for it."

She looked down at the chunk and shook her head. "Why would...Are you sure we--"

"Yes." I went to my experimental Omega Anti-Matter Phaser. I knew it was missing the crucial resonator that would amplify the beam enough to punch through Captain Maximum's shell in one blast, but perhaps it would be enough with multiple blasts. I flipped the switches to begin powering it up.

I heard the loud crack of the ice breaking apart as Captain Maximum broke himself out. Not unexpected, but I admit to being somewhat disappointed.

As I watched the lights on my rifle come on, I turned my mic on again and called out, "How did you find me, Captain?"

Captain Maximum yelled, "It didn't take much to notice the same van at all the places where you showed up, even if you did change it somehow."

I didn't think that facade wouldn't hold up to scrutiny. Still, I knew the captain could have come in and killed me instead of talking. He wanted to toy with me, having the same flaws as his companions, the need to keep talking.

Captain Maximum's voice came from the other side of the warehouse door. "Mastermind! Come out here and face me like a man."

I picked up the rifle and snapped it onto my left arm. "I'm no fool, Captain. We both know I'm no match for you. Not yet."

"Where's Kid Maximum?"

I nodded to Lady Thunder, and she threw the frozen head out the window. The crack and thump of the head landing outside came, followed by silence.

After a moment, Captain Maximum said, "Never liked that little punk, anyway."

I snapped bolts onto the rifle, turning it into an extension of my arm. "I know who you are, Captain. But what are you? What do you want?"

"I'm sure that kid told you everything. And I'm tired of waiting. For someone who's supposed to be a genius, you sure are fucking stupid, Mastermind. Even Doctor Darkness knew not to cross the lines you did. You killed my women. You killed my team. You killed my partner. You exposed me. How did you think this would end?"

I swung my weapon over to aim at the door. "With your death, Captain! Robots, attack!"