I hesitated. Monologued, had a golden opportunity, then hesitated. And the freeze ray stopped working. I doubt I could have pulled the trigger anyway. Had Captain Hammer's fist slam into my face and knock both me and the ray halfway across the room. He picked up my death ray, belted out the last word of that tacky, ridiculous song and crushed me to the ground with his foot. Mocked me and my invention, then stuck it in my face, fully intending to kill me. All this happened to you too, right?

But when Hammer pulled the trigger… nothing happened. "Broken and useless, just like you," he sneered at me, and much to my horror, he threw the machine to the ground and stomped it into a small pile of sizzling electronics. Very expensive, sizzling electronics. "Nice try, Doctor, but you'll have to do better than that to defeat me: Captain Hammer!"

As if on cue, groupies swarmed around with cameras flashing, smiling idiotically and gushing at him. Disgusting.

Meanwhile, I lay face-up on the ground, all but forgotten, fighting to breathe. Hammer's foot was so heavy on my chest that I began to see large black spots swirling in the edges of my vision. Ironically, Penny was the only one to notice me; she squeezed her way through the crowd to Hammer's side, standing on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. I was too busy trying not to pass out to hear what she said, but it must have been something to the effect of "You're smothering the bad guy" because the foot lifted up, and I suddenly found myself gasping for air. Before I could so much as blink, Captain Hammer had seized me by the front of my lab coat and hauled me off the ground, my feet dangling in midair. He flashed a cheesy smile for the cameras and strode over to the doors, where the police were just starting to arrive, shaking me roughly and punching me in the face for good measure. Still grinning, he grabbed a pair of handcuffs from one of the officer's belt—ripping the man's belt loop completely off, but the policeman only seemed thrilled to be in such close proximity to the 'hero'—and with much ceremony, Captain Hammer dropped me to the ground, shoved my hands behind me, and snapped the handcuffs on my wrists.

As two officers came and grabbed my arms, Hammer leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, "Normally I'd just let you go, but you tried to kill me… and for that, I think you might need to rot in the slammer for a while. Might give you a little bit of time to come up with something better than that half-baked death ray of yours."

I turned to look behind me as the police dragged me away, my eyes searching the crowd for Penny. After a second or two, I saw her standing beside of a news reporter, a camera in front and filming. She looked dazed as she answered a question, and she glanced in my direction, her expression turning into a deep frown. But before I could do a thing, we were out the door and I had been shoved unceremoniously into the back of a police car.

That look Penny gave me tormented me for hours; I hardly registered anything that happened to me afterward. They had already fingerprinted me, made me change into a prison jumpsuit, taken mugshots, and thrown me into a jail cell before I even became aware of my surroundings again. Why had she frowned at me? Was it out of disgust? Pity? Confusion? Recognition? Loathing?

After a few hours, I came to the conclusion that it didn't matter- she clearly didn't think much of Dr. Horrible, and I didn't blame her. Now I'd never get into the Evil League of Evil, and I'd never show her how capable I truly was.

My future was ruined… but it was only the beginning.