Billy liked how dark and warm it was under the red blanket. He was the "statue" that he had actually wheeled out of the building and planned on turning into a great copper pot for stew. Penny liked to make stew, saying that it made rainy days feel comfortable. He liked that idea. But right now, he was under the blanket, freeze ray on and running. He wasn't going to make the same mistake as he did last time. That's how he got into this mess with the ELE anyway. Captain Hammer was doing something stupid, he could tell. He was saying something about hating the homeless, quickly turning it into homelessness, talking about how great he was.

Though Billy had to admit, it was really awesome when Captain Hammer said he was cool. Well, indirectly, anyway.

But after a while the man's voice was grating on his nerves, and Billy thought it time to get it over with. So the blanket was gone, the gun fired, and the douche bag frozen in mid sentence. Oh, how life had its irony. Giving his awesome as hell laugh, the one that Penny had helped him perfect, he jumped down and grinned like the madman he was. Life was sweet. But there was always his flaw, always every villain's flaw.

The monologue.

He went on and on, and finally whipped out his "death ray." Only to monologue again. Penny had warned him not to overdo it, he should have listened to her. He really should have. Because now he was going to shoot the over-grown head of lettuce!!!

When the freeze ray shut down; overheated. A black eye and he was sailing across the room, landing not far from the imposing gun on its mono-tripod. How he loved that invention. But Hammer clearly didn't, as he picked up the smaller gun and crushed his foot on Dr. Horrible's chest. Oh boy. The thing was sparking, that wasn't good. It wasn't a death ray; it was still his stun ray. He had modified it to make it stronger. Make the body stop all function, basically it was a pause gun. Just pause the big lug, make it look like he was dead. Bring him back, say something about zombie, ruin his life a bit. It'll be fun.

But if that thing was fired now.

Something in the back of Billy's head flashed, images of a blue dress smeared with red, green eyes fading to nothing… where did that come from?

Penny had been the one to wake him up that morning. He hadn't slept much the last four days, working around the clock to get his project done. Everything had to go perfectly, everything had to go smoothly, everything needed to go without any kind of hitch. So the fact that he had fallen asleep standing over his Freeze Ray was kind of embarrassing. He had been working on it all night, and sometime around one-ish he kind of slumped over the handle and nodded off.

"Rise and shine grubby eyes." Startled awake, the doctor jerked so hard that he landed on the floor under the work table. He had been using his tiny wielding laser in the smaller bits last night, so essentially he had slept with his goggles over his eyes. He was used to waking up with them on his head, but over his eyes left him very confused. Rise and shine? What? It was still dark out. Softer hands than his own touched his face before they lifted the goggles so he could see.

"Oh Billy, you look a mess." Penny gave him a light frown, taking his hands and helping him to his feet.

"I feel a mess." Billy growled, stumbling his way to the counter in the kitchen and laying his head on the tile.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? You're exhausted hun, you should get some sleep before you even attempt to take out Hammer."

"Nah, I'm fine. I'm used to pulling all nighters anyway. Just give me a good Red Bull and I'll hop on out of here, clear my thing with the ELE, and go about plotting world domination again."

"Not dressed like that you won't."

"Huh?" Looking down at himself Billy's face flushed. His smock was a mess; grease and small burn holes from his wielding sparks made him look about as terrifying as a flea-bitten puppy. Had he really been in the same clothes for two weeks? He had to smell horrible. And not in the good kind.

"Ah, shoot. The League is all about standards, I just, I just…" He plucked at his shoulder, white glove covered in soot. Penny could hear and see his distress, taking his hand in hers and giving him a light kiss.

"I'll make you a deal. The opening is in two hours. How about you pop in the shower, I'll whip up some breakfast, then the four of us will get in Pink's car and head on down. Sound like a plan?"

"You said deal, not plan. What's the deal thing about?"

"Here's our deal. You shower and eat, make the heist a quick one, don't monologue-"

"Pssh! Monologue…"

"…Yeah…"

"Sorry. Just, yeah. Villain, I have to give some kind of speech."

"Well, if you can keep it short, that's fine. Just, come home quickly, okay? If you can do that, then my part of the deal is that we'll send Moist out for food." She pulled off his goggles, setting them (carefully, Billy was very very protective over the little bits of glass and plastic) on the counter.

"Lock the door." The gloves came off next, kissing his forehead after "door."

"Get you into a hot shower." The buttons were undone, Billy's eyes closing slightly as her fingers picked at his shirt under his smock.

"And take a good, long, nap."

"Hmm, nap. Sleep sounds really good right now. In the big chair, with the fleece Moist's mom gave me, and quiet everywhere. Hmm…." Penny pulled away, slightly miffed look on her face. "What?"

"Nothing. Get in the shower, I'll make breakfast. I'll see if you have another smock somewhere behind that chair of yours."

Where did that attitude come from?!

Now was not the time to think of that. The flash of strange blue dress had come to him again, just now, with the gun pointed at him. He had seen it just after Penny had sent him off to the shower. She had worn a blue dress that morning. Before they left, he made her change it. He couldn't explain why, but for some reason he felt very insecure with her in a blue and white dress like the one she had put on. So she put on a yellow one. Billy felt better. She was in the back of the shelter, next to Moist. They were told to go in with the mob of people (Billy would already be inside) and stay in the back, don't move, for any reason, until Billy tells them to. He was the boss, they were his henchme-people…. Hench people. And they knew that they had to do what he said. Pink Pummeler sat in his car outside, statue of Hammer in the trunk, waiting for the real thing to be tossed in and they could get away in his pink Camaro. Everything had been ready… everything was perfect…

Until he got carried away with his monologue. Maybe a Five Hour and a Red Bull was not the two smartest things to give him. Now the freeze ray wasn't working, his stun(slash)death ray was sparking up a storm in Hammer's hand, and he was on the ground getting the life crushed out of him. Fun times.

"A Death Ray! Looks like Doctor Horrible's moving up! Let's see if this one works any better than your other one."

"No! Don't!" That was all he-

"I don't have time for your warnings! You give my regards to St. Peter. Or whoever has his job, but in hell."

There were so many people here. Moist, and Penny, and so many innocent people. That gun wasn't stable. What would it do? It could send out a stun(slash)death wave and knock out(slash)kill everyone in the room! Or it could blow up and kill everyone in the room! Or it could implode and become a black hole into which everyone would be sucked into before it either devoured the earth or filled to its breaking point in which it would consume itself… but it'd kill everyone in the room! There were countless more things that could happen, Billy didn't have time to calculate all the odds, nor the time to figure how many people it'd really kill for any of them. No time for math, only time for actions. The main thing was that the trigger couldn't be pulled. So how to keep him from doing it? Move his target. In a move that was far too bold for him; Billy reached up, grabbed the gun's nose, and jerked it to the side. The pressure on the trigger eased and Hammer grabbed for the mad scientist's hand.

Billy twisted to the side, dislodging the heavy steel-toed boot from his frame and started up a whole-hearted two-handed battle for possession of the gun.

"You'll kill everyone you idiot! The gun is out of sync!"

"A likely story. Anything to get it back and shoot myself or one of the innocent bystanders around. Try again Doctor." Hammer backhanded Billy, knocking out a(nother) tooth and sending him to the ground again. Panting the younger man struggled to his feet. He was far too tired for this. Lunging at Hammer just as the other man aimed and set off the gun, Billy's mind flashed with an image of Penny laying, blood-soaked and dead, in his arms. That was not going to happen.

Both hands grabbed the shoulder butt, pulling the reacting ray into his middle before wrapping his body around it. There was heat, massive amounts of heat. There was light, bright red and white that filled the building and knocked Hammer and Horrible both off their feet. There was a catastrophic sound, deafening everyone in the building for seconds or more. And there was a scream of terror from the back corner.

Before his vision went out, Billy knew that the scream belonged to the girl of his dreams.