I looked at CORVAC. He looked right back at me and gave a little shrug. I looked up at Dr. Lana who seemed to be confused that her robot minion wasn't reducing me to a puddle of goo.

Again, it's not like there was any chance said robot was actually going to have a chance of reducing me to a puddle of goo in its hands, but he could certainly try. Not to mention it would've potentially redlined some of my systems and that would've given me some grief when it came time to actually fight her.

"What the hell is your problem?" she growled.

She started beating on the back of CORVAC'S head again. It didn't look like she was doing as much damage now as she'd been doing a moment ago though. Another oddity for me to file away in the "weird shit I was seeing today" file.

You never knew when something weird might become something that revealed the ultimate weakness of your big enemy, after all.

She finished banging and I casually inspected the dents she'd left in the back of the robot's head. Yeah, those dents definitely weren't as pronounced now as they'd been earlier.

I looked up at Dr. Lana and cocked an eyebrow.

"You done now, or do you need a little more time?"

"You," she growled. "What the hell do you think you're doing turning my robot against me?"

I shrugged. "I figure he's not really on anyone's side. He turned against me. Now he's turning against you. It's sort of what he does."

"You are quite wrong on that count mistress," CORVAC said. "I am completely on your side in this fight."

"I'll show you both," Dr. Lana growled.

She reached down and grabbed at CORVAC's robot head. Tried to pull up on it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was trying to rip his robot head off at the neck, but she wasn't quite pulling it off.

Which would've made sense if she was still packing the old regular human muscles she'd had. It would've made sense if she was packing the kind of muscle enhancement she got from cribbing my equipment, for that matter.

If she was using the kind of muscle Fialux could throw around, though? Well there was no excuse for this pitiful display. Finally she stopped tugging on his head and looked at me, panting.

"Did you skip leg day or something?" I asked.

She glared at me. Clearly she didn't see the humor in the situation. I thought it was fucking hilarious though. Any time my enemy suddenly and inexplicably had less power than me, putting me at an advantage, I figured it was worth a laugh.

"Come on," I said. "You need to make sure you do those squats. Everyone skips leg day, but you'd be surprised how well you do your first time in the squat rack. I knew this blonde girl who used to come to the gym every day and she was putting more weight on the bar than some of the Brosephs, and she was just as petite as ever."

Dr. Lana stared at me like I'd gone crazy. Maybe I had gone crazy, but that girl had been amazing. Admittedly there was probably another reason why I'd been so taken by her, but whatever. Part of the fun of going to the gym was the eye candy, as long as you weren't creepy about it.

"I mean seriously," I said. "You're looking at me like I'm crazy, but anyone who says you have to look like a 'roided out freak because you hit the weight room is full of it as far as I'm concerned. If I didn't hit the gym I wouldn't be able to do something like this!"

Classic misdirection. She was so busy staring at me incredulously, and probably wondering if I'd lost it, that she didn't notice me balling up my first. She certainly didn't realize CORVAC had let me go. Not until my fist made contact with the bottom of her chin.

Dr. Lana's head shot back and she flew through the air. CORVAC moved into action as well, twirling around and smacking her. She flew through the air and it was her turn to slam against one of the buildings, sending concrete crumbling down on top of her.

Normally I would've dusted my hands together and called it a day, but I eyed that pile of concrete dust warily now. She'd come back from a hell of a lot worse than that, after all, and I wasn't going to turn my back on her until I'd disintegrated the bitch.

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Maybe not even then.

"That was a job well done, mistress," CORVAC said. "I have to say it was a pleasure working with you again and…"

He was cut off by an explosion that flew out of the concrete pile. Yup. She was far from down for the count. Then again, villains were never down for the count when you really needed them to be. That was something I'd learned time and time again because I was usually the one ruining some poor hero's day.

She was moving fast enough that it would've hurt like a motherfucker if my systems weren't online. Thankfully, I was still in the green since CORVAC had been obliging enough to avoid crushing me in his robotic hand.

I knew I had to end this quick, and I wasn't above fighting dirty. She was flying around again to give me a good punch. Only at the last moment I ducked down and punched my fist up at the most sensitive part of her anatomy that I could think of.

Okay, so was it a little bit of dirty pool to punch her between the legs? Maybe, but nobody ever said a villain had to fight fair. The last thing I wanted to do when I was taking on Dr. Lana was fight fair.

"No!" she screamed.

I wasn't sure if that no was a general dramatic scream, or if she really was that upset that I'd just hit her in her favorite piece of anatomy. I had no way of knowing whether or not that hurt as much as the infamous shot to the nuts considering I wasn't equipped for that sort of experience, but I knew from experience that it hurt like a motherfucker getting hit there.

I stopped and blinked a couple of times. I eyed her up and down to figure out if something was seriously wrong. I couldn't imagine that punching her in that spot would cause a blood-curdling scream like that, but maybe I'd done more damage than I intended.

She didn't have any injuries that looked like they were particularly life-threatening. Nothing that seemed to warrant throwing her hands out and screaming "no!" like that. But she'd done it.

"No?" I asked.

"It's not fair! They will love me!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's not fair! You're a villain! They're supposed to hate you, and yet the city acts like you're this shining beacon or something! Even when you were a villain there were people who thought you were so cool and badass! Like it was a point of pride for this city to have the best supervillain in the world! Who the hell do you think you are?"

I noticed she was holding herself just a little oddly as she floated through the air. Sort of halfway crossing her legs. I couldn't help but smile despite the seriousness of the situation.

I'd hurt her. Not permanently, but right now any amount of hurting was enough to make me feel better. She didn't have as much strength now as she did a moment ago, and she was acting downright vulnerable.

She was also acting like an idiot, and my default response to idiocy usually involved busting a few heads.

"Um. I'm the best supervillain in the world?" I said. "It's not like I've ever made any secret of that. I don't understand why they like me any more than you do."

Though to be perfectly honest, it was nice to have the adoration and adulation of the city. It was like a drug. I was starting to discover that being liked was a hell of a lot more intense a feeling than being loathed or feared.

Even if I was afraid of how seductive that feeling was. Loathing and fear were tools that made it a hell of a lot easier to pull people in line. When people liked you? You had to consistently keep doing things to make sure they continued liking you. It was a hell of a lot harder than just going out and knocking over a bank every month or so to remind people you still had it.

"I created the tools that are going to save humanity from people like you! I'm the one who provides our military with the weapons they need to defend us around the world! And no one knows who I am!"

I floated back a good fifty feet. It wasn't like it affected my ability to hear her. No, she was in full villain rant mode at this point no matter what she said about wanting to be a hero. She screamed into the empty air, looking at me with eyes that had definitely gone a little crazy.

Crazy wasn't good when she'd just exhibited the kind of powers Fialux used to have. Even if those powers did seem to be sputtering out for some reason. The last thing the world needed was an unhinged goddess taking out her crazy on it.

Either something had gone terribly wrong with one of her mad science experiments, or getting messily killed by multiple different vectors to the reaper in my dummy lab had really done a number on her brain.

Either way, I figured I had no one to blame but myself. If she went mad because of her mad science that meant she'd tried to replicate one of my experiments and done fucked it up. And obviously what happened to her in my dummy lab was my fault. I gleefully took full responsibility for that.

Bitch totally had it coming, but it was my fault.

I looked over at CORVAC in his giant robot body. He looked at me and gave a little shrug.

"And you!" she screamed, turning on CORVAC. "You attacked this city! You attacked her! Why the hell are you guys acting all buddy buddy all of a sudden?"

I shook my head and pointed my wrist blaster at her.

"I don't know what your problem is," I said. "But I know it's my problem to take care of, so let's stop wasting time on this bullshit."

"I'll show you. I'll show you all!"

I scratched my head again. One of the first rules of villainy was you never said things like that. It was tempting the universe to send along a hero to kick your ass. Plain and simple.

This lady really was nuts.

She held up a control panel. Exactly the kind of control panel she'd used when she was sending waves of giant robots to attack the city in what I could only assume was a bid to get a Department of Defense contract by giving the military something to fight off with the weapon designs she'd stolen from yours truly.

I braced myself when she hit the button. I figured that was going to activate the self-destruct on CORVAC, but nothing happened. I looked down at him. He looked back at me. He shrugged again.

And that's when shit really started to hit the fan.

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