Glass hit the ground in front of Molly and Jerel as the skylight above them shattered. The teens turned their faces away as much as their restraints would let them, and Molly gave a small shriek.

A sure-footed figure in a black and red spandex uniform landed in a crunch of broken glass. He stood from his crouch and quickly surveyed the room, giving a reassuring smile to the teens. As he turned back to the main part of the lab, Jerel whispered, "See. I told you Captain Fantastic would rescue us. There's no way he'd let Lord Devious get away with his plot."

Molly nodded, but kept her eyes on the superhero. The lab appeared empty except for the teens, but Molly had seen their captor hide in the shadows when the skylight broke.

Captain Fantastic slowly prowled the room, his arms tens, held at the ready to fire his super ability, a ray that shot forth from his fingers.

"He knows Lord Devious is here. He can sense him," Jerel whispered. "There's no way Captain Fantastic would ever get caught by a trick like that."

Indeed, instead of going for the machine that was very obviously flashing a countdown, Captain Fantastic made his way to the shadows across the room.

"See, if he'd gone to the machine, his back would be exposed to Lord Devious. Plus, he knows Lord Devious probably has a remote control device on his person."

Holding an arm out in front of him, threatening to fire his deadly ray, Captain Fantastic called out to the shadows "Come out Lord Devious. I know you're there."

Jerel leaned forward, excited. "See!"

From the shadows came a sigh. Lord Devious stepped out from them, his hands half raised. "Why do you insist on calling me that, Jason?"

"He's Captain Fantastic!" Jerel protested, at which point the villain turned to glare at his captives.

"You will not get away with your devious plans to gain control of the city, Lord Devious." Captain Fantastic waved the villain to stand out in the center of the room.

"And you think you can stop me, Jason?" Lord Devious said.

"Yes," replied Captain Fantastic.

Jerel leaned as much as he could towards Molly. "Here's where Captain Fantastic gets Lord Devious talking about how he's going to destroy Captain Fantastic, and reveal his devious plot to take over the city. While he's monologuing, Captain Fantastic will thwart him, and then save us."

"So you'll succeed because truth and justice always win, I suppose?" Lord Devious asked, bored.

"Yes. Your fiendish plot will not succeed, no matter how cunning you believe you-" Captain Fantastic stopped as the bullet hit his heart, and fell over, dead. The red that pooled underneath him was darker than the red on his costume. Lord Devious stood in the center of the lab, lowering the smoking gun to the lab table.

"I can't believe you did that! What about laying bare your devilish plans to take over the city. You can't win! He's Captain Fantastic. Captain Fantastic always wins." Jerel quickly shut up as Lord Devious approached where he and Molly were tied up. The villain glared at him for a moment, then confident the teen was going to stay quiet, hit the remote detonator, causing the bomb he had planted in the city to explode.

Tears started rolling down Jerel's cheeks. "How... how could you..."

Lord Devious shrugged. "I'm evil. Well, by your standards, anyway."

"You bastard," Jerel cried, throwing himself against his restraint, clawing helplessly at the air.

Lord Devious picked up the gun again, and shot Jerel. The teen refused to die quietly like his hero, however, and screamed in agony. He shot again. Jerel whimpered, then gurgled, and finally died.

"Do you have any problems?" Lord Devious asked, turning the gun to point at Molly. She shook her head. "Good," he said. He turned back toward his lab, putting the gun on the table.

"I ... uh... have a question," Molly managed to get out.

Lord Devious turned to look at her. "Yes?"

"You told Captain Fantastic not to call you Lord Devious. What's your name?"

The villain cocked his head to one side and looked at Molly, who managed to somehow look nonchalant while tie to a column and spattered with blood from her deceased companion.

"Martin."

"Oh," Molly said. "Did you really blow up the city?"

Martin shook his head. "Just city hall. If I blew up the city, I wouldn't have anything let to rule."

"So you just got rid of the leaders, most of them were corrupt any way." Molly concluded.

Martin gave a small smile. "That's right." He stepped closer to Molly, looking her up and down. She was a bit young, but nicely developed. "I don't supposed you are going to suggest I let you go and you could help me rule the city, be my loyal minion mistress or something like that?"

Molly's eyes got big, and she took a moment to think about it. She shook her head.

"Why not?" Martin asked.

"Ruling the city seems like too much trouble. It would only be fun for a week or so. After that I'd get bored out of my skull. Might be fun to watch someone else do, but I'd hate it."

Martin grinned. "If you had agreed, or worse, suggested that you'd be my apprentice I would have had to kill you. If you get an ambitious apprentice like that, they are apt to try to kill you."

Molly nodded. "I could see that."

Martin turned to survey the lab. He sighed. "What a mess."

"I could help you clean up, if you want."   Molly said. "It must be a bitch to have such a big place and not have a cleaning staff."

Martin considered it, then nodded. "Okay, but if you try anything, or to escape, I'll kill you."

Molly shrugged. "Sure, of course."

Martin nodded, and untied his captive. He indicated to the machine that had just finished its countdown. "Want some popcorn?"

"Okay."

Martin put his hand on Molly's waist and helped her across the parts of the floor that were slick with blood. As long as she didn't get too pushy, it might be fun to keep her around for a while.