Chapter 6

Sorry for the massive delay in posting this chapter, it's actually been sitting on my computer for an age, I just never got around to posting it, what with exams and the like (grr Physics...). Anyway, I thank the nice people who reviewed; they make me smile! =)

On that not, to the person who reckons I nicked this story from elsewhere... really? Plagiarism is just not my style! I do this lark for fun (wow, that makes me feel kinda sad), and there is nothing remotely 'creative' about stealing someone elses creative writing...that would just be boring. But, the concern for wellbeing of other writers is appreciated. It's nice to know that people do care about us fan ficcy writers.

Anyway, without further ado, Chapter 6! I hope you like it! =)

Dr Horrible headed off home as soon as he made it out of the building, wisely opting out of going to Normal's place fro a celebratory meal. He had a feeling that he would find that his chicken fried rice had been laced with arsenic had he gone. It was probably safer just to get a TV dinner when he got back to his apartment.

The door was ajar when he got there; stupid Hammer, he probably forgot to close the thing when he got in with the compound. Pulling his goggles off his face, the Doctor entered his cluttered house. Hmm, the place was dark, apart from the blaring television. In its light, he could see Hammer intently watching some rubbish soap opera.

"Hey, how come you didn't turn on the-" suddenly, Horrible was blinded by the main light flicking on. But Hammer hadn't moved.

"Who are you?" he cried, still blinded by the sudden brightness. He stumbled as an armada of floaters clouded his vision.

"Oh, he's some guy I met in the warehouse when I was getting your compy thing for you; he said that he wanted to meet 'the great Dr Horrible' in person." said Hammer, eyes still glued to the set. "I think he said his name was Donny Joe?"

"Johnny Snow!" came an irritated voice from somewhere in front of the Doctor. "And I'm here to do battle with my arch nemesis!"

Shielding his eyes from the glare of the light, Billy could just about make out the gangly figure in front of him, his hands clutching a large ray gun not unlike the ones that the Doctor constructed.

"This place is a bit of a mess," said Snow, casting around at the heaps of junk that littered the place. "You really should tidy up when you're expecting guests." he took a step closer, bits of metal crunching under his feet. "A shame you won't be around to; I just hope the Movers don't get hurt when they come to take your stuff back to your mother; it's all that'll be left of you for her to remember you by!" Johnny Snow hoisted the gun higher and pointed it right at Horrible's face.

"Prepare to experience the Big Freeze!" The machine in his hands whirred threateningly, and Billy ducked, just in time too. A beam, electric blue in colour, streaked across the room, hitting a picture on Horrible's wall and incasing it in ice. Taking aim again at the slightly stunned Doctor, Snow reenergized his Ice Gun. This was it, no more plotting, no more waiting in parks for the Evil Doctor to show. He was going to defeat his nemesis and get into the Council of Champions, he was sure of it this time; no Flaming morons to get in the way this time. Dr Horrible wasn't going to get away today, either; he wasn't going to hide in the shadows any longer, he wasn't going to be doing any more evil deeds. Johnny Snow was going to walk away from this battle victorious. The people of the city would rejoice having been saved from the scientist that had been terrorizing them endlessly, they would toast his name and mark that epic day as The Johnny Snow Victory Day. There would be flags and banners with his face on them! Horrible was going down, down, DOW-

Now, whilst Johnny Snow had been having his internal monologue, Dr Horrible had been very busy. He had made himself a slice of toast, for starters. He had also plugged in his iPod, set up the Freeze Ray on its stand, whistled all three movements of Mozart's Symphony Number 40 in G minor and then fired the beam at the would-be hero. Suffice to say, there would never be a day known as Johnny Snow Victory Day.

Sighing, Dr Horrible turned his attention to the other 'hero' in the room, who hadn't moved a muscle since Snow had attempted to turn Horrible into a flesh-flavored popsicle.

"You know," said Horrible, standing in front of the TV, amidst Hammer's protests, 'this place isn't a Half-Way House for Hopeless Heroes! You don't just invite random people into my house!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" whined Hammer, trying to peer around the folds of the Doctor's lab coat. "Can you move now? I wanna see if Ross and Rachel get back together!" grumbling, Horrible leapt over the clutter to examine the immobile Snow. Now what on Earth was he going to do with him? Deciding that he might use him as a center piece at some presentation at a later date, Horrible started towards his bedroom, but a beeping sound caught his attention. Oh, a new text on his phone. Flipping it open, Horrible began to read:

'Hey doc,' it read, 'gonna b bak bout 10. Hope ur evil stuff went ok.

Moist.' Confused, Dr Horrible looked at his watch. It stated that it was about quarter to eleven…

With a slight feeling of foreboding, the Doctor strode through the house, opening all the doors as he went. Kitchen-no one there but some rather fat looking mice. His room- just the mutant mould from his old Petri dish. Secret Evil Lair behind the vault door- nothing there, either. He tried every single room, every nook and cranny, even the airing cupboard with the half rotten wolverine in it. No one. The only human life forms (and that was seriously debatable) he could find were Hammer and the frozen Johnny Snow in the living room. But where…?

As Horrible checked behind the fridge again, he heard a slight muffled yelp. Pausing, he listened more carefully. Yes, there it was, coming from somewhere near…the sink? With a look of disbelief on his face, Billy tore the doors of the sink cupboard open. Somehow (and he really didn't want to know how), Johnny Snow seemed to have overpowered Moist (which, to be fair, wouldn't have been that hard), bound and gagged him with duct tape and then stuffed him under the sink. Horrible hadn't the foggiest how Snow had managed to shove him in there, between the bottles of Mr Muscle Sink and Drain Unblocker and the array of old pipes. Moist made an urgent grunt, tearing the Doctor out of his wonderings long enough to rip the tape off of his mouth.

"YEOWCH!"

Oops. It was a good thing that Moist didn't like having a mustache…

"What the HELL is going on, Doc?" gasped a slightly miffed Moist, trying to winkle his way out of the confined space. Billy grabbed hold of Moist's shoulders, and after a couple of harsh tugs, the henchman fell out of the cupboard with a loud 'thunk!'.

"Why," started the profusely perspiring man, attempting to wriggle free of his bindings, "was Captain Hammer in our apartment? Have you gotten rid of him? Was he part of an ambush or something, Doc? If he's still there, I can go moisten him up. I'll probably gross him out enough to make him-"

"Hammer is staying with us." cut in Dr Horrible, tearing the duct tape off of the flabbergasted Moist's wrists "At least for the mean time. There's been a lot going on whilst you've not been here, and I'll explain in a minute, just-"

"You invited that guy here?" asked Moist in disbelief. "After everything he's done to you? To us? I wouldn't have thought you'd want that guy in a ten block radius of you."

"Please, listen a sec, I had this plan, see, an important one, whilst you were gone. I needed someone to help me-"

"So you asked him?"

"It's all a part of the plan Moist. I gave him the strength injection, he was going to help me get all the parts, I had it all sussed out, Normal and the others were never going to know, not until the aftermath at least-"

"Wait, what's this got to do with the ELE? Doc, you can't do anything that will interfere with the ELE, not unless you wanna get kicked out and get yourself Death Whinnied to Timbuktu and back! Add Hammer into all this, this is not good, not good at all, why didn't you-"

"Will you just listen to me for-?"

"-tell me about all this? I'm meant to be your henchman! What kind of plan could be so important that you'd risk getting booted from the ELE, risk everything you've ever-"

"IT WOULD BRING HER BACK!" a heavy silence hung in the air, the awkwardness quite obvious by the way that villain and henchman were staring at the floor, both embarrassed for the former of the two. In the front room, the TV blared on. Hammer was still oblivious to the world, still too engrossed in the rerun of Friends to hear the little spat that Moist and Horrible were having in the next room. Some are just blessed with selective hearing. Moist feverantly wished he was at this point. They had been down this road way too many times…

"Aw jeez, Doc." said Moist, slicking back his slippery mop, looking on at Billy (who was now crouched on the floor next to him, his head in his hands) with a sympathetic expression. "You've got to stop doing this; it's not good for you. It was bad enough when she was around, when you were obsessing over getting up the guts to talk to her, but Penny's dead, you've got to let it go. You can't bring her back! Maybe we should get you to another shrink, maybe they can help-"

"They can't help," sighed the Doctor, fighting to keep his voice steady. He kept his palms in front of his face, scared that his stinging eyes were soon going to open the flood gates. "It's something I have to do, I can't just leave it, I can't just forget about Penny and pretend that she didn't exist when I know there is away that I could bring her back. And there is a way, a part of an ELE global take over mission. I tried to leave it, when Normal first said about a method of bringing back the dead, I tried not to even consider bringing her back, and that lasted all of about five minutes. Do you want to know why? Do you want to know why I couldn't just let it go?" Billy lifted his head to look his friend in the eye, even though his own were brimming over. Moist remained silent, unsure of what on Earth he should be doing right now. He was pretty sure that he should give the Doc a Kleenex, but he only had used ones…

"It's because I never knew." muttered Horrible, trying to compose himself. He wiped away the tears with his sleeve, and steadied his voice. "I never knew if she felt the same way I…if she loved me. Because I loved her. I know that's dumb, I know that I only had about a handful of conversations with her that didn't contain the words 'nuffle mrrrffle '. I know that we were only at the Laundromat together for about six months, and I know that she was with Hammer, but I did, and I still do. And if there is a way…" he trailed off, running a hand through his hair and breathing fairly heavily. Moist remained silent, still sat on the floor. Man, this was pretty heavy stuff for listening to just minutes after you'd been rescued from a stinking cupboard. Full of spiders…shudder…

"Doc?"

"Mmmhmm?"

Moist paused, trying to think what to say next. He was hopeless at this sort of thing, he really was. After over a minute of wondering what sort of thing would be comforting and constructive for the villain, the only thing he could come up with was "Would you like a hug?"

"Nah, Moist, I'm good. I only just took a shower, so you know…"

"Yeah. Okay then. I'll just go into the living room, get, um, acquainted with our guest, let you get on with…what you need to get on with." With that, Moist trudged out of the kitchen, leaving Horrible to do what he may. The end credits on the TV were just rolling as he entered the cluttered place. Moist looked around and sighed. He didn't know what sort of machine could raise the dead, but he didn't think any device that required a microwave, a STOP sign and half the engine from a Mazda could be a good one…

Shifting some of the junk off of the dusty sofa, Moist sank down on his regular cushion, just to the left of Captain Hammer. The guys eyes were still glued to the set as the CSI NY theme tune blared from the speakers.

"So…" said Moist, casting around for a good conversation starter. There were none. So he stated the most obvious fact he could:

"You're Captain Hammer…" A non committal grunt was all he got in reply. Well duh, that was possibly the stupidest thing he could've said.

They were of to a great start.

"You're a super hero." Obvious fact number two. Jeez, he needed more material. Something with a little more depth… Preferably something that wouldn't get him beaten up, too.

"Do you like crime shows then? Being a super hero and all…?"

"Yeah, they're cool." A verbal answer! Moist decided he was going to play with that a bit, now that he'd found some ground. Albeit a very tiny spec of it.

"You got a favorite? Personally, I think that Castle is the best-"

"Castle?" exclaimed the hero, his full attention now on Moist. "I love that show. The guy on it, main character, author dude, can't remember his name-"

"Castle?"

"That's the one! He's so ruggedly handsome, with such perfectly chiseled features and wonderful hair. And such a dazzling smile! Not to mention, he's witty and hilarious. That guy cracks me up every time I watch the show; it's really rare that you get an actor that's funny AND handsome. What I wouldn't give to meet a guy who looked just like him…"

Meanwhile, whilst Moist and Hammer were discussing plot points of the hit crime show, (he could understand a confusing murder show, yet he couldn't spell his own name?) Horrible was busy tinkering away with something in his bedroom. A big something. A mound twisted metal took up most of the floor space in the Doctor's cramped room, mysterious whirrings and tickings issuing from various parts of the weird monstrosity that loomed over the mad scientist. With a spanner in one hand, and a welding torch in the other, Billy dove into the mechanical heart of his machine, fiddling with a few gears and welding a couple of pipes to one another. One of the massive blueprints lay on the floor by his feet, but the original diagram was almost lost, drowned in Horrible's own annotations and adjustments. In fact, Dr Horrible had practically redesigned the Resurrect-Ohm-Meter, compressing it so that it would squeeze into his cubby-hole of a room. A tank far smaller than the one Normal had constructed was linked to the machine by a botch of wires and pipes. The scientist had altered the settings of the device considerably by making the selectable commands more precise, more tailored to it's…purpose. He had changed the shape and the innards of the thing so that it was literally unrecognizable from the original drawings. A bit like a mutant spawn from the first machine Normal had created. Except machines don't have kids…

With a loud clank, Horrible tumbled out of the belly of his construction, his face caked in a layer of oil. Balls, that always happened. He really could do with a mask. Wiping the worst of the grime from his face, he consulted his blue prints. There was still a long way to go; the shell of the machine was done, but the most important components were still missing. A gloved finger trailed down the To Buy/Steal/Borrow Without Permission list. He had that…got them…still needed those…eh? What were Cheetos doing on the list? Cross them off…need one more of those and- oh darn! The Doctor dropped the list, and began to sift through one of the piles of junk by his bed. Oh man! He couldn't believe he had forgotten to get those! If he had turned the machine without those, he could've said goodbye to his ass. And face. Heck, his entire body for that matter…

Dr Horrible sank onto the small patch of his bed that wasn't littered with diagrams and doodles, his eyes scanning the rest of the list. This was going to take a lot of hard work and time to get right; everything had to be perfect, it just had to be! He couldn't settle for second rate. This was the chance- the final chance- for him to get Penny back. Billy knew that there were no other options, that this was it. All this fiddling with intricate mechanisms, deceiving Bad Horse and his Evil League of Evil, and all the getting up at the crack of dawn to sneak into nuclear power houses, would definitely be worth it is he could have his Laundromat buddy/ only love back.

Wouldn't it?

The picture of Penny came out of his coat pocket once more, and Billy stared at it, wondering what he would do, what he would say, when (not if; he was practicing his positive thinking) he brought Penny back from the dead. He would hold her if she cried (well, being dead tends to take a lot out of you), he would tell her how much he cared about her, explain what he had done. Then, he would take her to the park, cook her waffles; they would go back to the Laundromat and eat frozen yoghurt whilst they waited for the cranky machines to spew their laundry back out. Billy would be the perfect gentleman, he would take her on peddle boat rides, walk her to her job at the Caring Hand's Homeless Shelter, go on holiday to the Maldives with her, take her his most ultimate heists-

Well, maybe not the last one. That might freak her out a bit. But he'd give her everything Hammer ever did, and more. There was no way she could say no to him, right? The old fears bubbled up, but he pushed them back down. No, no, she would accept him, she would! Once she realized just how much he… She would love him back, definitely she would...hopefully. He knew everything about her off by heart; her favorite books in order, films, foods (frozen yoghurt, of course). It was easy for him to imagine her in front of him, the exact smell of her strawberry shampoo, the way she stood, everything!

Horrible sighed; Moist was right; he was obsessing WAY too much. Maybe that would scare her off. She would head for the hills, and run right into Hammer's arms, Penny would-

"Stop!" cried Horrible, clapping his hands to his face. "Don't think about any of it! Just get the job done, Billy, don't think about anything that may or may not happen!" He took one last look at Penny's picture before stowing it back in his pocket. Horrible stared at the machine in front of him, trying to absorb himself in what he should do next, but the thought of Penny going back to Hammer gnawed away at him. He could see the great dolt's face looming in front of him, sneering at him like had done when the pair had met at the Laundromat when Hammer was dating Penny…

"Hammer!" he called, striding out of his room. The Captain was still sat by the TV, talking to a rather fed-up looking Moist. As per usual, Hammer was telling a rather boastful story that involved him pounding on a small, white clad somebody…

"So, your Doc friend said 'I'm VERY evil', so I just, like, grabbed him by the throat, and put him in a headlock, like this-" Captain Hammer pounced like a puma, grabbing the unsuspecting Moist and almost throttling him as he 'demonstrated' his headlock. Moist spluttered with indignation, trying pull the muscled arm from around his neck.

"-and then, I hauled him off of his feet and slung him like-"

"Oi, you tool! Kill my henchman and the deal's off!" Hammer's head cricked around, and his face fell.

"Oh. It's you." He let go of Moist, who collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily and massaging his neck. He quickly recovered and scampered away, glaring daggers at the super hero and muttering obscenities under his breath.

"I've got a job for you." said Horrible walking towards the bulky frame of Hammer. "I need you to head of right away; it's essential that its done ASAP, because I'm pretty sure that Normal will be planning on going there shortly. I need you to acquire something else for me, and I'm pretty sure you know where to get it from." The Doctor thrust the list in front of Hammer's face, pointing to what it was he wanted.

"I can't get that!" he exclaimed, looking at Horrible with disbelief. "D'you take me for an idiot or something? Do you know where that thing it? It's at-"

"I know where it is!" snapped the Doctor, venting a little of his fury at the imaginary girl-stealing Hammer in his head at the real life girl-stealing one that was stood in front of him. "You know the deal; you don't cooperate, you don't get your strength back. And the faster you carry out my requests, the faster I'll make a serum that'll permanently restore your muscles. Then you can be Mr. Bigshot again."

Hammer stood deliberating his options for a moment. That pooey breath; Hammer almost wished he was still living by bins with all the other non-special people in the world, but the mere thought of spending a lifetime not being adored almost made him start bawling again; nope, it looked like he was just going to have to do what the meany Horrible said. People who looked this good in tight pants just couldn't be normal!

"Fine…" grumbled Hammer, resigning himself to the awful fact that he was fast becoming Dr Horrible's lackey, and striding off out of the apartment and out of sight.

Dr Horrible hastily shut the apartment door, checking his watch. Hammer had better be fast; his latest dose of strength serum was due to run out in two hours…

"What was all that about?" asked Moist, looking thoroughly bamboozled. "What's all that about Hammer needing his strength?"

"Oh, that!" said Horrible. He'd forgotten that Moist didn't know all about that. "Just to do with the Death Ray incident, when Hammer got the back firing ray and the thing exploded and…well, anyway, it's gotten rid of his super strength. That's why he's working with me; if he does what I say, I'll give him his strength back." Moist raised a quizzical eyebrow at Horrible.

"If it's a 'Death Ray', then why the hell didn't it kill Hammer? Would've done the world a good…"

"Because it wasn't functioning properly, after that moron made me drop it. There is a list of side effects of the Death Ray on the site, I'll show you…" Horrible walked over to his PC, and loaded the internet, quickly getting onto his favorite site; ''. Clicking on the link for 'Build Your Own Death Ray', he quickly scrolled down to the health warnings, highlighted in red.

WARNING-DEATH RAY IS NOT A TOY. SIDE EFFECTS OF DEATH RAY INCLUDE:

DEATH

WEAKNESS OF MUSCLES

POOR VISION

SEISURES

DECREASE IN MENTAL ABILITY (although the pair didn't think that could have any effect on Hammer)

PERSISTANT CRYING/MOOD SWINGS

POOR DESICION MAKING

EXCESSIVE TOENAIL GROWTH

"Well, the last one might explain why there are always nail clippings all over the sofa…" muttered Horrible.

The waterfall was bigger than Hammer remembered it; the jets of blue seemed to pounce off of the rocks that jutted out from under the other torrents, sending spouts that arced overhead and gracefully plopped onto Hammer's perfectly straightened hair. Grumbling, the Captain strode towards the feature, and dashed inside its cavernous maw the moment he saw a break in the flow of water. Inside, it was all dark and creepy, like the inside of the warehouse, except the sound of the crashing water thundered and echoed all around. A small tunnel led further into the belly of the waterfall, which was so dark that a great big grizzly bear could be hiding at the entrance and you wouldn't know it. Forcing himself not to think of huge bear claws and sharp, muscle-tearing teeth, Hammer squeezed his considerable bulk down the rather narrow hole. After a few very cramped minutes (in which Hammer regretted eating that fifth helping of pie he'd had for supper), the super hero made it a well-lit opening, facing a pair of reinforced metal doors, with a giant 'E' branded in the middle of them.

Brushing the dust off his black tee and ruffling his hair to casual perfection, Hammer strode towards the door, and reached on tip-toe for the lightening-bolt shaped knocker. The thing made a clang like a gong as it smacked against the burnished bronze.

Minutes passed. No answer.

"Hellooooo?" called Hammer in a sing-song voice, jumping up and down in front of the door. "Anybody in there?" he paused to listen to his voice echoing around the cavern. Simple minds.

Hammer lifted the knocker and let it clang on the door, once, twice and then a third time. Still, no one came. Oh well. Never mind. Dr Horrible would just have to get off his bum and come down here him-

"Man, what happened to patience? A girl has got to have time to wind down and have her pedicure after a hard day fighting crime!"

As Hammer had begun to make his way back to the tunnel, the doors had swung open, revealing a blonde-haired, sun tanned goddess who was probably on just about every guy's freebee five. She looked at Hammer with a snooty expression on her face, a perfect eyebrow arched with distaste. Who was this loser, and how DARE he bother Elementia during her mani-pedi day? She was in half a mind to turn him into a puddle. Or freeze him, as he wasn't half bad looking. Actually, he looked quite familiar…

"You know," said Elementia, wrapping her Armani bathrobe around her body more securely "I only sign autographs Tuesday's nine while twelve at the Town hall. And I have a twenty yard personal space zone." Apparently, the man hadn't heard a word she'd just said, because he had run up and given her a back-breaking hug.

EW! Had a commoner just touched her?

Guards swarmed down on Hammer like a hive of seriously pissed bees, trying to grab his arms and yank them behind his back.

"Elementia, it's me, Captain Hammer, don't you remember?" he shot her his winning smile (now less gappy since he'd gotten himself some dentures). "We took down Lord Lucan and his underlings together last summer, remember? The Dastardly Plot? We got medals!"

"Nope…don't remember it. But I am a super hero; I do a lot of good deeds. Take down a lot of bad guys." she regarded grinning guy for a moment, before snapping her fingers. The guards released him and filed back to their posts.

"So, Hammer, if that is your name, what do you want with me? I'm very busy." Busy painting her nails, that is.

"I thought, seeing as though we're buddies, amigos, comrades-"

"Cut to the chase."

Hammer frowned. This wasn't the way that he, Captain Hammer, the elite of the elite, should be treated. He didn't get it; only a month or so ago, he and Elementia had been sipping tea over a plate of caviar on toast!

"That's no way to talk to a national super hero ya know!" he said huffily, throwing a sulky look at the woman in front of him. "I'm the worlds strongest man, don't you know! I bench pressed five-hundred aged three, I beat Superman in an arm wrestle when I was ten, I floored Chuck Norris using only my pinky finger, I-"

"Yes, I get it, you're strong!" said Elementia, rolling her eyes. "Come in, tell me what it is you want, and get out of my Command Center!"

Elementia stomped back into her luxury hall, which was pretty much carpeted in a layer of jewels and precious metals, on walls, ceiling and floors. Her Command Desk was sat in front of a glass screen that had water running down the face of it. Huge cylinders containing different coloured flames lit the room.

"Place looks nice." said Hammer in a conversational tone. Elementia glared at him, still suspicious. She was still racking her brains trying to figure out where she'd seen this guy before…was he really a super hero? Normally she didn't let commoners into her house, but, as the guy was especially hot, she'd find out what he wanted before vaporizing him.

"So what is it you want Captain Hammer?" she decided to humor him; after all, what damage could this guy do? He was probably just a delusional fan, anyway. "You want an autograph? A signed picture? A kiss?"

"Hyperdiamond." That took the great Elementia by surprise.

"What for?"

"Stuff." Elementia stood for a moment, her fingers inching towards the alarm button inside her robe pocket. The little voice inside her head was screaming 'mentalist'. But Elementia was never a great believer in listening to the little voice inside her head; hey, that sort of thing was the first sign of madness! Instead, she just laughed.

"I wouldn't give you that stuff even if I wanted to. You know how much that stuff is worth? I just use it to line my light fittings." she gestured towards the crackling flames.

"What do you even need that kind of stuff for?"

"Something. Something important. So, are you saying you aren't gonna give me the hyperdiamondy stuff?" Well, what this guy might have in strength and good looks, he lacked in brain cells.

"Nope."

"But I really need it! My bossy guy, Dr H-" Hammer seemed aware that he'd said too much. Elementia froze mid-eye role. Was he about to say Dr Horrible…?

Quicker than lightening (which is ironic as she controls lightening, being Elementia and all), the heroine summoned her elemental strength, ready to blast Hammer to kingdom-come. But, somehow, Hammer was quicker; he leapt across the room to the nearest cylinder, and, with all of his strength, ripped it from it's holdings on the floor. Unfortunately, Hammer had forgotten about the massive column of flame inside of the tube…

The fire leapt from its container, the purple flames devouring the floor where they touched. Elementia screeched as the flames bounded towards her, and had to use her powers to make them veer off-course and stop them from scorching her eyebrows off. During her momentary distraction, Captain Hammer had rushed towards the doors, tube on his shoulder, the end of it spouting out lilac fire and preventing the guards from stopping him from escaping. A whistling overhead signaled that Elementa, who had managed to get rid of the flames that had surrounded her, was back after Hammer and was also in a very bad mood. He could hear her snarling as she aimed water bolts at the back of his head…

Sheesh, talk about a rage issue. That girl needed some anger-management classes.

Ducking the water missiles, Hammer booted open the doors with one big kick (which really hurt his big toe, actually) and bounded through the chamber towards the tunnel. Shoving the tube through first, Hammer began to clamber through, but suddenly, something really weird happened. His leg went numb. Confused, Hammer shook it. Ooo, it felt a bit like jell-o. He prodded it, forgetting about the horde of guards and the seriously annoyed super hero that were literally just meters away, firing bullets, tazers and fireballs at him. Deciding that he'd figure it out later, Hammer began to push the cylinder further into the tunnel.

But then, his other leg gave way. Oh, it was not looking good for the self-proclaimed Tool.

Hindered by his wibbly legs, Hammer tried to shunt the tube further down, but it was no use; he sank to the floor, his legs absolutely useless. The guards were now upon him, heaving him towards them. Fighting was useless; Hammer could feel his arms becoming numb too, and the effects of the strength serum were quickly wearing off.

Within moments, a fuming Elementia had made her way to the front of the guards to confront the thief.

"YOU BROKE MY LAMP!" she yelled, her eyes widening manically. "You've burnt my floor, and look!" she brandished her length of golden hair at Hammer. "See! SEE! Split ends! Now what am I meant to do?" she turned to one of her guards. "Cooper, make me another appointment with Jerome tomorrow, will you?" the man nodded and hurried off to call the emergency hair dressers.

"As for you," she pointed an accusatory finger at the Captain. "You are going to learn that hard way that nobody messes with Elementia! Not even you, you…villain…"

The last word hung in the air for several moments. Hammer looked befuddled- what did she mean, villain? He wasn't a villain; he was Captain Hammer, doer of good, stopper of evil!