A/N: Ohh, exposition! Thrilling! Don't worry, it doesn't last long. Enjoy! : )


"Alright, this is what I know," Hourglass said. They were in the back seat of Hourglass's car, and Penny was beginning to question the wisdom in agreeing to hear the other woman out. "There is a faction of the ELE who have grown discontented with Bad Horse's regime. They convinced Billy to help them, which was not part of the plan."

"There's a plan?"

"There's always a plan. The trick is to be on the deciding side. Anyway, their plan is to start an internal rebellion against Bad Horse. There's more to the ELE then the chief members that get all the attention, and to control even a fraction of those minor villains and henchmen would give you enormous power. However, Bad Horse has been the head of the ELE for over sixty years, and he can summarily crush the leaders of any revolt. Billy's group is clever though. They're setting him up as their contender for the new head of the ELE, so when Bad Horse finds out, he'll serve as a distraction so they can act."

"He's a decoy."

"That's right. Now, that newscast this morning was enough to get Bad Horse's attention. Luckily, Billy gained some favor with him after that incident with the City Hall, so we have a little time. I need you to go to his house. In his lab there's an invention he was working on. You need to find that and bring it to him."

"And why can't you do that?" Penny was increasingly hesitant. This felt like a setup, and she was tired of fighting her way through circumstances she'd been thrown into. If she could really help Billy, that was one thing, but Hourglass had admitted to having a 'plan', and seemed to have no problems with playing everyone around her.

"Oh, I'm just an observer. I can tell people what they need to do, put them on the right track, but I can't physically interfere. That would break The Rules."

Penny frowned.

"People assume I can see the future, but it's not that simple. I can see timelines, what happens if this action is taken, if that person dies or lives. This--" She waved her hand vaguely. "--isn't what is supposed to happen. Sometimes the timelines are right, following history like they should. Sometimes they aren't. I try and keep them on the proper course."

This was starting to be too much information. Penny decided to ignore it for the present. "This invention—what does it look like?"

"It's a ray gun, apart from that I don't know. You'll have to use your instincts."

Penny nodded. This was so going to end badly.

"There should be guards outside, the Heroes' Guild is still watching the house. They should let you in without a problem."

Penny started to get out of the car, but Hourglass called her back. "And you will want to get out of the city in the next twenty four hours, Penny. This time tomorrow, the city will be gone. You'll want to be as far away as possible."

"I'll keep that in mind," Penny said faintly.

For a second time, she took a taxi to the house. The gates were closed when she got there, and were guarded by both police and the Heroes' scarlet-clad security force. Penny wondered if they realized how obvious they looked, then decided that Heroes probably didn't need subtlety. They let her in without issue, just like Hourglass had said they would. Penny's shoe rasped on the gravel, and she looked down. The ground was scorched, and she remembered the suspicious wiring woven around the gates the first time she'd come.

"Justice Joe's in the office," one of them called as she passed. Penny nodded and went in.

The house was cool and quiet. She hesitated in the hall, torn between going straight to the lab, and confronting Joe. She thought she knew what she was looking for—Billy had been working on a complicated-looking ray gun last time, and Penny guessed that was what she needed to take. She'd worry about the hero later: the taxi was still outside, it'd only take a minute to grab it and get out-

"Hello Penny."

Justice Joe was unfairly quiet for such a tall man.

"Hi…" she said.

He was smiling broadly. "Bit of a surprise to see you back here. We all assumed you were dead."

"I could have been. The number you gave me didn't work."

Joe looked horrified. "It didn't? Oh, Penny, I'm so sorry. If anything had happened to you, and I wasn't able to help—"

"Don't bother." Why had she ever wanted to help this man? He had seemed charismatic and charming the first time she'd met him; now he was just shallow and controlling. "I was just a distraction, wasn't I? Collateral." She spat the word out.

"No, of course not!" He reached out to put his hand on Penny's shoulder, and she flinched back. "You're important to us. And we still need you, now more then ever. Horrible's becoming more powerful, but you can still save him. Don't you want to save him?"

Penny finally understood. All the pretty words, the insidious tone that twined through her mind and tweaked her thoughts into the desired path—it was all lies.

"I never could save him, could I?" she mused. "He's what he is. He's made his choice." She turned away from the Hero, and started to walk deeper into the house towards the lab, fingertips trailing along the wall because right now it seemed like the only solid thing around her.

She could here Joe following her, but she ignored him. "Penny—"

The lab door was locked, but it didn't look like anyone had tried to open it. Perhaps they were worried they'd get the same reaction as when they opened the gates. There was a keypad on the door with numbers and letters. She hesitated, wondering if it would be that easy, then typed in her name. There was a muffled click as the door unlocked.

She switched on the light and went over to the worktable. She recognized some of the things Billy had been working on. The Death Ray had been thrown haphazardly onto a pile of what looked like clock cogs, and the Freeze Ray was on a stand along the wall. In the middle of the table was his newest project.

Penny thought it looked a bit like the Freeze Ray, with its long, tubular form and its gleaming sliver finish. There was a piece of masking tape on its barrel, but the writing had been scribbled out with a felt-tip pen, and was unreadable. Penny picked it up carefully. It wasn't as heavy as it looked, but the size was awkward, and she had to shift her grip slightly so she could tuck it under her arm.

"Penny, what are you doing?" Joe was standing in the doorway. She ignored him, and started shifting through the papers on the table with her free hand. They were mostly plans, complex equations, and illegibly scrawled notes. There were more papers on the computer desk by the adjoining wall. Penny looked through them quickly. She didn't know what she was hoping to find—a journal, a letter, something personal that would tell her if she was doing the right thing.

There was something hard and wooden in the paper. She eased out a picture frame that had been buried face-down in the detritus on the desk. Penny turned it over. The picture was a bland stock photo of a field of daffodils, and it was so completely innocuous that Penny couldn't help but wonder why he'd hidden it.

She turned it back over, and was about to replace it under the pile when she saw that the cardboard backing was scuffed, like it had been taken out frequently. Penny pried the brads up with her fingernail, and pulled up the cardboard. There were two pictures in the frame, one on top of the other. She turned over the hidden picture, and smiled.

He must have taken the photo months ago, before they'd even met. Penny remembered reading that book. It was clearly a stalker shot: there was an unfocused leaf covering the top of her head, and she was looking off somewhere into to the middle distance. It was a little creepy, but still… She closed up the picture frame, settling it back onto the desk, and turned to leave. Justice Joe was still in the doorway.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" he asked. He stepped down into the lab and walked over to her. Penny shrank back against the desk, fingers scrabbling in the paper. "Because I can't let you do this, and I really don't want to have to stop you." He sounded genuinely sorry, but she didn't believe him for a moment.

"Billy made his choice," Penny said. Then she hit him over the head with the picture frame as hard as she could, wood and glass shattering and splitting. "And I've made mine." Then she ran out the door and up the stairs, ignoring the Hero's animal howl, holding onto the precious invention in her arms as tightly as she dared, because she knew what it was now. It was hope.