Spectacular World

The Start of an End

"Are you seriously going to stay like that all day?"

Boy Genius rested in his chair, staring at the screen. His lips were pulled into a thin line, and his eyes never looked away. "Yes," he said casually.

Wyvern sighed and folded her arms. They were in Nightshade, resting in Boy Genius's office. The world's smartest Super had gone without sleep for two days straight, constantly replaying the fight between the Victorian and the Emperor. All of the Enforcers had studied it intensely, but Boy Genius was on another level.

"The only people who ever got to study how the Emperor fought were Full Monarch and Harrison Avalon." Boy Genius explained. His clothes were dirty, and his hair was a tangled mess. Heavy bags were under his bloodshot eyes, and his fingers bled, still playing on a handheld console that had died a while ago. "Full Monarch is dead, and Avalon hogged all of his data to himself, then went and deleted all of it when I joined the Enforcers and tried to hack his system. I did manage to hijack his drone, however, and while the footage was lost, his bugs did allow me to record this fight." The child explained. He held up one of his bloody fingers, and a small, fly-sized robot landed on the tip of it.

Wyvern raised her eyebrow as she studied it. "How did you get it to the battlefield so quickly, though?"

"Oh, that's easy. I've snuck these tiny bots into nearly every Super's clothing and monitored them at all times. The Victorian had one in her outfit and brought it with her."

"What! That's a huge invasion of privacy and illegal!" Wyvern said, horrified. She began to pat down her uniform rapidly, making sure none of them were hidden somewhere on her.

Boy Genius simply shrugged his shoulders. "It's only illegal if I get caught doing it."

"No! This is why the Hero Branch exists." Wyvern exclaimed. "To stop guys like you from doing whatever they want. You doing this sort of thing is why they went and gave Avalon's company to someone else and refused to let you have it."

"I didn't really need the company anyway." Boy Genius shrugged. "What do you think he meant?"

"What?"

The child clicked a button on his chair, and the monitor on the wall began to play audio. It was hard to hear and make out, but the low rumble of the Emperor was ever-present. "I am no longer the Lord of the Land and Life. I died that day, and thus, my title passed on. Something, however, saw fit to bring me back. A great evil. One that granted me a new title. I am now the Ruler of the Dark and the Void."

"Lucy says something similar, doesn't he?" Boy Genius questioned. "He always calls himself a Ruler, too."

"So?"

"So, I just find it weird that two villains who have ties with death would say that." The child hummed and ran his fingers through his hair. "A Ruler is the title of someone who is in charge. Lord means the same thing. It even has the same naming scheme: Lord of the Sky and Weather, Ruler of the Dark and Void."

"Like some sort of opposite Lord title or something?"

"That. Or maybe some sort of inversion..." he trailed off as the video kept going. The Emperor fired an attack—one that had no chance of hitting the Victorian. The man's powers were different from how they used to be—darker and more bizarre. The attack flew high into the air.

"You missed." The Victorian mocked.

"Or maybe I was signaling for help."

Wyvern tapped her foot down as the recording ended and began to loop back to the start once more. "'I was signaling for help,'" she repeated his words. "Victorian arrived on the battlefield after she saw that attack from Cinder, right?"