A month.

That's how long it had been since Rippen finally got one over on that goody two shoes Penn Zero.

He could still remember it clearly. The rush of adrenaline that pumped through his veins as the timer had slowly counted down. They were in a world where monsters and humans were at war, and it was his job to wipe out the entire human race with a bomb that contained a deadly virus. He had laughed as Penn and his friends were surrounded by his henchmen. Now that he thought about it, the boy had been acting rather strange that day. He was late to Rippen's class during school, a whole half hour. If there was one class Penn was always on time for, he noted silently to himself, it was his just for the sake of bantering with him. Heck, Penn had even shown up early a few times just to start their usual back and forth.

No, there was definitely something wrong that day. Rippen hadn't noticed. He was too caught up in the moment of finally tasting victory. When he ordered his henchmen to attack them, he had expected Penn and his friends to fight back. His friends did, but Penn hadn't moved an inch.

Rippen hadn't noticed until there was a bloodcurdling scream of pain. He had heard the boy scream in pain before, but never as bad as that. It was as if everything froze at that moment. A large bloody and deep gash coated Penn's side in crimson, and for a split second a thought crashed into Rippen's head. A single phrase he had never even fathomed for all his life.

"This is going too far…"

He had looked at Larry, who had gone uncharacteristically silent. His hands to his mouth and his eyes filled with both fear and worry. Another scream turned his attention back to the battle as he realized that Penn still wasn't fighting back.

"What's the matter boy?" Rippen remembered saying in a mocking tone to try to cover his growing concern for his arch-rival "Too weak to fight a single monster?"

Penn didn't respond.

That, Rippen thought, should have been his signal to stop the monsters. Rippen may not have known Penn for the longest time, but he did know this. If there was one thing Penn Zero loved more than adventure, it was exchanging words of witty banter with Rippen.

However, he didn't stop the monsters, he didn't say a single thing.

All he did was turn around and watch the countdown clock.

Rippen held his paint brush in a tight fist. His knuckles turned white as he squeezed it tighter and tighter and tighter-SNAP.

Rippen simply sighed and added another broken brush to the pile, before he grabbed another from a nearby cup.

It was his day off from the villain work. Since he had become a Full-Time Villain he had to put in a lot more work than when he was only Part-Time. However, that day was a day he could step away from all the universe hopping and think. This was something he had been trying to avoid.

"You can't work all the time, Rippen!" Larry had said earlier that morning as they were entering the teacher's lounge to get cups of coffee "I mean between this and Villain work, you barely have any time to yourself! It's important to take it easy sometimes. Better for your body, your mind and your soul."

Rippen scoffed as he painted a jagged red line down the center of his canvas. Was stirring on the death of one's rival good for one's body, mind, and soul? He had realized far too late what Penn's death meant and how it affected his own life. Without Penn, who was going to insult him and push him to be a better villain? Without Penn, who was going to drive him crazy while he worked during school hours? Who was going to greet him with that same "Mornin' Rip!" as he walked into the classroom like he owned the place? Without a Hero, life as a Villain was boring.

Sure the sidekick, Sashi, had taken over as Penn's replacement. However, Rippen could see her struggling. Penn was a natural born strategist, diplomat, and leader. Sashi, on the other hand, was the muscle and intimidation factor of their group. It was because of that why, during the first few weeks without Penn, Rippen decided to go easy on them. He knew they were hurting, and hurting badly. He didn't miss the dirty looks Boone and Sashi would fling his way during art class, only to turn their attention back to their projects with deep frowns on their faces.

Rippen shook his head and simply continued painting. He wasn't sure why he had decided to stay at the school after it had let out. He could have just packed up his things and left for home, but for some reason he felt that the confines of his apartment weren't comforting. The noisy cars on the street, the people walking and talking down below on the sidewalk, all these sounds Rippen thought of as white noise suddenly seemed to blast in his ears. So he had decided to resign himself to the quiet walls of the art room, where he currently found himself painting a forest in autumn.

Rippen set aside the brush he had been using and went to pick up another when he heard a sound. It was so soft Rippen was surprised he was able to catch it at all. His gaze turned towards his desk where the sound originated from. He put his brush down on the nearby table and stalked over toward the desk. There was no one hiding underneath it, or behind it, however something did catch Rippen's eye as odd.

One of the drawers was slightly opened.

Hesitantly, Rippen pulled the drawer open all the way. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the stack of paper inside. It wasn't paperwork, but instead insulting drawings of Rippen all signed in the same messy signature which read:

'PENN ZERO'

Rippen picked them up and started shuffling through them. He couldn't help but huff at a few of the insults written next to his less-than-flattering likenesses.

"A sewage bather indeed, Zero. At least my hair didn't look like a rat and his entire extended family lived in it." Rippen couldn't help but laugh sadly at his one sided banter, knowing the person he targeted it at wouldn't be able to respond.

He froze.

He could have sworn he just heard-

"Penn?" Rippen turned around, eyes quickly scanning the room for the source of the sound - no - for the source of the laughter he had just heard. Nobody. He was all alone in the dark art room. Rippen took one last look around the room before slowly turning back around to put the stack of doodles back in his desk. The hair on the back of his neck rose and he had the sudden feeling he was being watched. He moved slowly, straining his ears for any kind of sound indicating that there was someone in the room with him.

Silence.

Rippen felt a knot twist in his stomach mixed with a rare twinge of fear and paranoia. He took a deep breath, silently assured himself he was just imagining things and walked back over to the easel with his painting. He reached for the paintbrush he had left on the table and-wait. He looked around for the missing brush, hadn't he left it on the table?

It took him a minute to see it was placed neatly on the easel at the base of his painting.

"Odd…" He mused to himself as he picked up the brush "I could have sworn I left it…" He trailed off, casting a glance at the table and then to the brush in his hands "I must be imagining things."

No matter how much he tried to shake it though, he just couldn't get rid of the feeling like something was watching him. Sometimes he would look over his shoulder when he thought he felt something brush against him, or jump when he could have sworn he felt something breathing on his neck, but every time he was just met with an empty room and the hollow silence.

After about the sixth time he felt something brush his shoulder, Rippen decided to call it quits. He washed his brushes, packed up his things, and left the art room; locking the door on the way out. He quickly walked towards his car, not caring if the water sprinklers got him a little wet. Rippen just knew that he had to get out of there.

He tossed his suitcase in the passenger's seat and got into the driver's side. Shoving his key into the ignition and starting it up.

Even though Rippen was driving away from the school, he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched.

On his drive home he would constantly check the rear view mirror. He remembered how Penn would sometimes sneak rides to the Theater in the back of his car. He always wondered how he did that without Rippen noticing. Now though, it felt like he was almost expecting Penn to just suddenly appear in the back seat.

Every once and awhile Rippen's eyes would catch a flash of orange in the rearview mirror, causing Rippen to instantly check to see if the teenager was, in fact, back there. He never was.

Rippen almost loudly sighed with relief when he saw the familiar brick walls of his apartment building. He found a nice parking space and hurriedly made for the front doors.

He didn't look back when he thought he heard the sound of another set of footsteps following him as he climbed the stairs up to his floor.

He didn't look back when he could have sworn he saw something orange out of the corner of his eye.

He did look back though, when he heard the sound of laughter again as he opened his front door. The sound of tin laughter from a familiar Sit-Com blasting from a TV down the hall met Rippen's ears.

"I must be imagining things…" He said to himself as he entered his apartment.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. He had forgotten to go shopping so he simply ordered Chinese food. When his food had arrived he sat down and watched television. That was all he did till 10 PM that night. No weird sensations of being watched, no flashes of orange, no nothing. He used that to justify that he had only imagined the whole ordeal, and then decided to go to bed.

Rippen got changed into his pajamas, grabbed Freddy, and climbed into bed. That should have been it, end of story. Rippen was supposed to go to sleep and then wake up the next morning having forgotten the whole thing, but he couldn't. The minute he closed his eyes, he would get this feeling that something or someone was standing right next to his bed. Watching him as he tossed and turned. The hair on the back of his neck rose again, and that paranoid feeling from earlier returned full force. He groaned as he opened his eyes and looked at his alarm clock on his end table.

1:00 AM

He groaned again, louder that time as he yet again tried to shake that uncomfortable feeling. Eventually he just decided to stay in one position, and ignore it. Which actually seemed to work.

Ever so slowly the feeling of a presence beside his bed faded, and Rippen found himself able to relax again. He let out a small sigh of relief as he allowed all the muscles in his body to slowly unwind. His breathing became slow and calm. Rippen could feel the black tendrils of sleep pulling him ever so gently into-

"Evenin' Rip!"

Rippen's eyes shot open and he immediately sat up, staring at the figure sitting- no -floating in mid air.

"I must be imagining things." He found himself saying for the third time that day.

"Ha! You wish you old sewage bather!"

Rippen found himself face to face with Penn Zero.