If anyone asked Killer Moth why he had a sidekick, the answer was simple. "Because Batman has one." That was more or less true. Drury could barely take the Batman hand-to-hand by himself, not on his best day. Much less Batman and a brightly-colored kid freak who backflips around making lame jokes about lightbulbs.

Drury always hated those jokes. Reminded him of… Never mind.

Yeah, so, Batman had a sidekick, that was the main thing. You could hardly be Killer Moth, the Anti-Batman himself, with your Moth-Cave and the Mothmobile and the bright colors that proved that unlike some, you weren't afraid of the light, you could hardly be Killer Moth and not follow suit.

Killer Moth got a sidekick. A brash, tough, smart-alecky loudmouth of a kid, just like…

Drury closed the photobook and sighed. Didn't do any good to dwell on that. He should've pulled a Lynns and torched the book in the first place. He'd be the laughingstock of every villain in Gotham if they knew.

"You're that already." The echo of Lynns' voice in his head, a jibe from the last time he'd made the mistake of voicing that particular fear outloud.

"You've got no respect, Moth." The young man had laughed. "No respect."

No respect. That was sure as heck what his wife had shown him, when she'd dumped him on the curb and took his son. The divorce lawyers gave her half the money, gave her half the money that he'd earned. They gave her the house. "I'm not stuck with you now. You'll have to move out."

They gave her full custody of Axel.

Drury opened the photo book again, took in the upturned face in photo after photo of that too-bright grin. Graduation pics. A stupidly ridiculous amount of selfies, taken with Drury's camera when he wasn't looking. That time they won an ugly sweater contest. Drury's mouth twitched. That one had always been Axel's favorite. Probably because Drury hadn't realized it was an ugly sweater contest till the end. Axel had bought a new sweater for the occasion, spent the whole night glorying in the tackiness of it, but Drury… Drury just wore the same sweater he'd worn all season. Turns out, most people didn't think lime green was the perfect Christmas color.

He flipped over the page. This one, this one here was his favorite. Another contest they'd won. The robotics section of the science fair. Axel'd built that remote-control car, every last bit of it from scratch. And, technological whiz that he was, he'd still come to Drury for help to install the headlights. Drury could still remember how the kid's eyes lit up as soon as the headlights did. How his whole face had glowed with pride when they won.

Just how fast that pride had disappeared when he learned his mom had dumped him.

That was one thing Drury couldn't forget. How dang disappointed the kid looked. Like he'd just realized in the last five minutes that his dad was a loser, and that knowledge was pushing out every last shred of respect Axel'd ever had. Drury tried to explain it to him. Took him aside and explained how there were only two people in the world: the tricksters and the tricked.

Then his mom had called Axel to leave Drury be, give him time to pack up the moving van. He never got a chance to learn if the message would stick. If his son had learned to be a trickster, or if he'd turned out just another loser, like his dad.

Drury snapped the book shut, shoving to his feet. He'd always known he could do better. He could, he would do better. He went from small-time thieving straight up to the big leagues, took on Batman himself. And Batman had a sidekick, so now Drury had one too. A kid to even out the fights, two-on-two instead of two-on-one. A young guy, somebody who could see him and learn from his greatness, and know first-hand just how much he was worthy of respect. A loud mouth, to talk all day and make corny jokes and fill the house with noise even after Axel was gone.

He needed a sidekick. He needed someone tough, someone who could fight back, someone who no matter how hard Batman punched would keep coming back and figure out a way to outwit him. He needed a trickster.

He found Garfield Lynns. Firefly. A trickster to the core. The worst mistake in his life.

Turns out, once the guy getting tricked, always the guy getting tricked.