Alternate title that's too long for FF Net: "Don't Plan the Plan If You Can't Follow Through"

A/N: I can conceivably see an end to this story. Scary, huh? I better not get ahead of myself.
Savor the exposition, kiddies!

Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. Horrible or anything related. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog belongs to Mutant Enemy.

She waited until evening of the seventh day to be on the safe side and eventually checked back on Horrible. He answered the door again and he, despite definitely needing to freshen up, looked fine. She was comforted.

"So everything's ready?" Tie Die asked.

"Yeah."

"And are you… feeling okay?"

"I slept for the last two days straight, if that's what you're worried about." He half-smiled, amused.

"Yeah. You look like it."

He frowned. "What is that supposed to—"

She went past him into the lab. "Okay, so where're the gadgets?"

Horrible grinned and went for a cabinet, rummaging around in it and pulling out the ray Tie Die recognized easily. "Freeze Ray!" he said proudly. "You have to set it in place and keep it there for it to work, but it should hold out longer this time—at least fifteen minutes. That'll be more than enough time."

"Especially since we're not going to break out into a villain song in the middle of the scheme." Tie Die smirked. "Right, Billy?" He looked down and grumbled, but handed her the Freeze Ray as he turned to get some other invention out. Her knees buckled at the sudden weight of it but she recovered by the time Horrible faced her again, holding a small pistol with a silver suction cup decorated with several thin wires and circles that Tie Die recognized as part of the Metallion she stole. "Mind wiper?" she guessed.

He nodded. "You put it on the guy's temples and pull the trigger. It leaks something kind of like radiation—I'm not sure exactly what it is yet, but I'm positive that it'll do what it's supposed to, and no weird side effects. I worked out those bugs."

She frowned. "You mean you experimented on—"

"Moving on!" he interrupted. "Last but not least in any way, shape, or form, here's the Mind Switcher." He paused and added, "It doesn't actually switch minds. That's just a catchy name. It's more like a Soul Switcher or something, but that sounds all creepy and necromantic, so…"

"You don't like necromancy." It was not a question.

"I've seen Dead Bowie." He looked like he had tasted something rancid. "Anyone who would disturb the dead that way is just sick. Besides, I hear he was…different before he died. Less cadaverous, had more joie de vivre—no pun—or something. Iunno, but the risk factor…" For some reason he snapped back to Reality, coughing awkwardly. "Yeah, it's just too risky. Anyway. The Mind Switcher. You gotta hook the wires up here, here, and here," he pressed his index fingers to his temples, front and back of his head, and the area right under his neck. "It has to happen simultaneously; you can't just download someone into a machine and take them out later—" He paused in epiphany, took out a dog-eared notebook from the pocket on his chest to scribble a note as he muttered something about it being a good idea, then put the pad away. "But anyway, we'll need to get them both in the same room, at least. The cord'll only stretch so far."

Tie Die was skeptical. "You think we can get the two of them into the same room?"

Horrible shrugged. "We don't really have a choice."

"So which one do you want to get?"

"Well, I figured I'd take Hammer, of course; he is my nemesis…"

"Exactly." She thought. "Maybe we should go for the surprise factor. He knows how to fight you, how to psyche you out. I'm a stranger."

"Ever since the incident at the homeless shelter, he's been completely gutless. I can take him!"

"Better to be safe than sorry, Horrible," she said. "Besides, now that he's trying to get back to villain-fighting, he's going to be a challenge again. A severely brain-damaged idiot of a challenge from what I've heard, but still a challenge."

"It works both ways. I know his moves better than anyone."

"Then you can tell me his moves and I'll tell you Bad Horse's." Tie Die took out one of her stun rays to make sure it was charged up.

Horrible paled considerably, though his voice gave no indication. "I'm going to be trying to knock out Bad Horse?"

She faced him. "Horrible, this is going to involve risk. You knew that when you started."

"Yeah, I know. It's just… the name 'Bad Horse.'" He chuckled hollowly. "Kinda makes everything sink in."

"Yeah." She swallowed the lump in her throat. Can't back out now. "You got your phone?"

He pointed to his seemingly inconspicuous black duffel bag near the door. "Along with the stun gun and some reserve…" he paused to chuckle again, "toys I packed 'cause I thought I'd be getting Hammer."

She tried to ignore the slight queasiness she felt at the discordantly malicious expression on Billy's face. "Look, just wear protection over your ears for the Death Whinny and you'll be golden."

"Sure," he said. Tie Die picked up her own bag of supplies first and went for the door of the apartment, but she stopped when she heard Horrible's low murmur of… longing? She turned around. He had already bent down for his own bag. She smiled sadly and reached a hand out to touch his shoulder. His head twisted around to look at her as she bent to the ground, too. His mixed expression probably mimicked her own as they both leaned in slowly. She tilted her head a smidge at the last minute to let their lips come together softly, her forehead rubbing against his goggles and his hands gently gripping her arms.

He pulled back slowly, their lips letting each other go after a moment. "So you forgive me for the other night, I guess?" he whispered.

"I guess so." She smiled.

"Good." They brought their lips together again and Tie Die closed her eyes to savor the closeness for as long as she could before Horrible slowly stood up with his bag.

"I'll, um, see you soon?"

"Yeah. Back here in the lab at ten?"

"Right."

As Horrible left through the door and Tie Die followed, she saw a dark-haired man leaning against the bedroom's door, grinning. Moist. She rolled her eyes but grinned back as she gave him a thumbs-up and took the bag, leaving the apartment behind and getting in her car on her way to a certain hero's lair.

A/N: Reviews are for writers like chocolate is to… anyone who likes chocolate. A lot. My point is-- they're the reward of the labor. Please drop a note, whether it be a compliment or a criticism!