The Smart Kid

The Fall

I stood on my balcony, looking over endless legions of droids marching past. In the sky floated my armadas, returning after decades of conquest.
It was done.
I won.

Without the heroes, the multiverse was defenseless. My armies had swept across the realms, taking what was mine by right.
My armadas had conquered every star in every sky.
It was mine, all of it was mine. I was content at last. After 10,030 years, I had taken it all.

I smiled as my armies marched past, and I felt pride in my work finally being finished.
The portal opened behind me, and I looked over my shoulder.
There he was. The kid. A man now, really. Of course, 30 years were a blink for me but half a lifetime for him.
He still wore the uniform I had given him under his trench coat. He was...unarmed, I noticed.
And yet, he seemed confident.

"I hear congratulations are in order." He said and made a sarcastic bow.
"The multiverse is mine." I said and held out my arms. "And Alexander wept, for there were no more universes to conquer..."
The ki...man scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Your need for drama is only outdone by your cruelty..."
I waved the comment away. "I suppose you're here to stop me...put me down? Run me through? A final battle for the fate of the universe? One last clash to determine the fate of the multiverse?"
The man laughed. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? I imagine that would be a very short battle, indeed. After all, I was the thinker, never the fighter. Still am, really."
I squinted at him. Something was off, he was confident, more than he had ever been.

"Your armies have served you well. I hear most realms fell without even putting up a fight..."
I grinned. "I should thank you. You designed them."
"One of my only two regrets."
"What's the other one?"
The man smiled. "Trusting you for even a moment. You tricked me, made me feel like I belonged and then used my designs to kill everyone I ever loved. My armies to conquer...but..." he raised a hand. "That's nothing a killswitch won't fix." And he snapped his fingers.
I laughed. "You think we didn't remove those? The explosives? The lines of code? I was always..."

The skies lit up as if a thousand suns went supernova,  all at the same time. I turned and watched as my armada was torn asunder.
"No!" I roared.
"I imagine you found most of them, but I installed hundreds and only needed one to slip past your men. Judging by the degree of destruction, I'd say several made it past..."
I leapt at the man, but fell through the projection and slammed into the wall.
The man...laughed at me. Nobody had laughed at me in thirty years.

"Did you really think I'd come here in person? Tssk tssk tssk. You know me better than that..."
He kneeled next to me. "I waited 30 years for you to get what you wanted...for you to have it all, for you to finally have won..."
"Why?"
His face soured. "You took everything from me. So I waited for you to have it all so I could take it from you..."
I wanted to strangle him, but knew it'd be folly.
"I can rebuild..."
The man sighed and looked to the sky. "Soon, those ships will fall from orbitx one by one. One can destroy the atmosphere of this planet. A million will reduce it to ash, even you won't survive that..."

I reached for my teleporter and activated it but nothing happened.
"Right now, your droids are wiping out your human troops...once they're done, they'll come here to build a great monument to your hubris...and at its base it will say "look upon my works, ye mighty..." he stood up and spread his arms with a wide grin. "And despair."
The largest ship, my capital ship was slowly falling towards my palace.
"I once said I wouldn't hurt anyone...that..." he pointed up at the capital ship. "Will kill you long before you feel a thing." He said with a wink.
I leapt at the hologram before it disappeared.

I screamed and shouted in rage as my capital ship came hurtling towards me. All I could do was scream as it crashed and crushed all I had ever built.