Professor E

7:30 PM – Nevada – Las Vegas

A shimmering ripple of violet light split the air, and Kira and Decibolt stepped out onto a dark side street just behind the neon glow of the Strip. The heat rolled over them like the exhale of some enormous mechanical beast.

"So where exactly are we supposed to find this Professor E?"

"You don't," a voice croaked from behind a puff of oily black smoke. "Because I am already here."

A man emerged, tall and disheveled, his gray hair jutting in chaotic electrical bursts. Brown-tinted goggles magnified his eyes to insect-like size. His green engineering jumpsuit was patched and smudged with scorch marks. Strapped to the pack on his back were four metallic spider legs, each clicking sharply as they unfolded.

"I," he announced with theatrical pride, "am Professor Montgomery Evil. But you may call me Professor E."

Kira arched a brow. "So you're the new V.L.?"

Professor E made a disappointed tsk. "If only. You'll learn who he is soon enough. But for now, you can enjoy fighting me."

He dropped a cluster of metal orbs. They cracked open like eggs.

Decibolt frowned. "What's his power?"

Kira flicked dust off her sleeve. "Besides an ego so big it probably has its own gravitational field? None. He's just very good at building robots."

The orbs unfolded into bipedal machines with glowing red optics.

Decibolt scoffed. "Rust buckets and tin cans. I expected an actual challenge."

Professor E's grin twitched. "My bots are far stronger than you think. Bots—attack!"

The machines marched forward in perfect formation.

"Sonic Storm!" Decibolt slammed his palms together, unleashing a shockwave. Robot heads flew like kicked helmets—only for wiry tendrils to snake out and reattach them.

"Auto-repair?" Decibolt muttered. "Great."

A barrage of blasts struck him in the chest and shoulder; he crashed into a power box, sparks popping around him. A small cut on his temple opened, trickling down his cheek.

Kira lunged forward. "Watch how a pro handles this."

She danced between blasts with a sharp, snapping rhythm, then launched a spinning kick. Her foot struck a robot's head... and the bot didn't even tilt.

"Ugh—solid metal." She winced, clutching her shin.

A bot's fist smashed into her ribs, knocking her flat. Dust plumed around her.

Decibolt groaned. "So... when's that pro arriving?"

"Urgh," she muttered from the ground.

Professor E's goggles flashed. "Reinforced titanium steel. You've seen enough. Finish them."

The bots grabbed Kira and Decibolt and slammed them against a wall. Repeated punches hammered them—nonstop, piston-like strikes.

"Sonic Pulse Blast!" Decibolt roared, forcing the machines backward with a powerful burst.

"Repulsion Field!" Kira added, her aura flaring. She blasted out her full body repulsion and held it as long as she could, instead of blasting the bots away it tore through them—only for them to begin reassembling.

"Oh, no you don't!" She snapped her hand upward. "Gravitational Kinetics Attack I and IV!"

The metal fragments spun into a cyclone.

"Sonic Burst!" Decibolt blasted through the vortex, shredding them into pieces too small to reform.

He dusted off his arms. "What did I say? Not tough."

Professor E snarled and hurled a red orb. It expanded midair, morphing into a humanoid robot wreathed in violet flame.

Decibolt's eyes widened. "Purple Flame?!"

Kira shook her head. "Robotic version. We beat the real one. This knockoff won't last long."

"This one," Professor E said, "doesn't lose control."

The Flame Bot's monotone voice buzzed. "Feel—the—Purple—Flame."

Its first fireball whistled past them; the second detonated against the asphalt, blasting them backward. Heat scraped their skin raw. Decibolt wiped a thin line of blood from under his eye.

Flame whips ignited in the bot's hands. It lashed out; both dodged, but Kira's shoulder was grazed, leaving a sizzling red welt. The whips fused into a cannon.

A column of violet fire hammered them into the pavement.

"Here—is—a—Purple—Flame—original!"

Geysers erupted beneath their feet, launching them skyward. The bot slammed the ground with a new whip, cracking the street open.

"Kinetic Punch Barrage!" Kira dropped from above, rapid-punching the bot's torso and staggering it.

Decibolt sped forward, tearing off both its arms in a blur. His sonic blast hurled the bot across the intersection.

The robot rose, trembling. "Enormous Supernova Bomb!"

A sphere of volatile energy burst outward, hurling both heroes into a half-collapsed billboard. Scrapes streaked across Decibolt's arms; Kira's lip bled.

The bot's optics flickered triumphantly. "Victory—has—been—ass—"

"Sonic Step." Decibolt blurred behind it, crushed its neck, and hurled a massive sonic disc that cleaved the bot cleanly in two.

Kira ripped out the internal core and crushed it.

Professor E threw his arms up. "Do you know how hard it is to find heat-resistant alloys? I raided an expo for those components! Ugh, fine. Next bot."

Another orb deployed—and unfolded into Swordman Bot.

"I—am—Swordman—Bot."

Decibolt sighed. "Another rip-off."

"Sword Summon Type-III: Dual Blade."

Two jade-green blades materialized.

Kira inspected them. "The real LSM pulled his from portal rifts. Yours just popped into existence."

"You try finding a portable portal generator!" Professor E snapped.

Swordman Bot charged. Kira's aura flared.

"Hold on," she said, raising a hand toward Decibolt. "You've taken the spotlight in every fight. My turn."

She sprinted forward, landing sharp kinetic punches that dented the bot's frame.

"Your moves are quick," the bot droned, "but no one escapes the long sword."

It swung. Kira landed lightly on the blade.

"Well," she said, sprinting up the metal, "guess I'll be the first."

She flipped over, seized its head, and drove it into the ground hard enough to crater the asphalt. She yanked it upward with her molecular field and slammed it repeatedly before igniting Anti-Gravity beneath it.

"Swordman Bot: Six-Blade Summon Cannon!"

A beam fired.

"I was waiting for that." Kira walked straight through it. "Repulsion Field."

Sparks spat off her aura as she crushed the bot's head in one punch. She threw the wreckage toward Professor E; a spider limb deflected it.

"How are organics beating my bots?!" he shouted.

"Because humans adapt," Kira replied.

Professor E inhaled shakily. "Humans are superior... but robots enhance our limits. And now I will enhance mine."

He pressed a tech orb to his chest. It melted across his body like liquid metal.

"Arachnic Mech!"

The spider legs expanded, his torso plating thickened, and the mech rose three times taller than before.

"I'll reduce you to rubble!"

A web-coated wrecking ball formed at the end of one limb, and he dived.

" Gravitational Kinesis Attack II-Anti-Gravity Beam!" Kira fired, slowing the mech's descent.

"Deci Cannon!" Decibolt added. The mech still pushed through.

"It's not stopping!" Kira shouted.

Decibolt's voice roared. "Supersonic Decibolt!"

His aura exploded upward, and together they halted the mech midair.

"Hold it just a little longer!"

A thin stream of blood dripped from Kira's nose as she strained, but she didn't falter.

Decibolt created a massive Sonic Platform with them on it and raised it till they were hovering beneath the mech. "You can let go."

She did. The mech thudded onto the platform.

"I'll hold it. You tear him apart."

"With pleasure."

Kira sprinted up the mech's leg, dodging jagged stabs and missiles. Her molecular kinesis flicked missiles aside.

"Electro-Webs!" Professor E snarled.

The webs wrapped around her and shocked her violently. Sparks crawled across her arms and a small cut opened near her eyebrow.

He swung the web wrecking ball. It slammed her aside.

Kira growled. "Full-Body Repulsion."

The webs shattered.

"It's time to end this."

She ran up the mech, cracked into the cockpit, and grabbed Professor E by the front of his suit.

"No more hiding."

Punch after punch slammed him into the seat. She tore off two spider legs and delivered a final blow.

"Super—Kinetic Punch!"

The cockpit detonated outward as the mech collapsed.

Decibolt lowered the fading platform. "Finally."

Professor E crawled from the rubble, coughing up dust.

"So you can still move," Kira said dryly.

"You'll never defeat me... or the new V.L.... or the Villain Society!" Smoke swirled around him, and he vanished.

Decibolt clicked his tongue. "He slipped away."

Kira exhaled. "Let's get back to the hunt."

Meanwhile – New V.S. HQ, Washington

A shadowed throne room. A dark figure sat silently as Professor E materialized.

Professor E bowed. "It's exactly as you predicted. They've grown stronger."

The figure leaned forward. "Continue the plan. Tell Iron Claw he's been deployed. He must acquire as many shards as possible."

Professor E nodded. "Of course. We'll succeed where the old V.L. failed."

The figure's voice sharpened. "There is no we. I alone will carry Unknown's legacy."

"Of course," Professor E muttered, swallowing.

He turned away, whispering bitterly to himself as he left.

"You don't deserve that throne. It was timing, nothing more. I should be the one up there. I should be the V.L."

Back to the Battlefield.

Kira stood in the center of the clearing, the air still vibrating from the battle. All around her, the remnants of the dismantled bots twitched on the ground like dying embers. She inhaled, her eyes narrowing with focus, and the world responded.

Every fragment—large plates, twisted wires, splintered joints—rose from the ground, lifted by invisible threads of Molecular Kinesis. The pieces spiraled upward in widening arcs, scraping and clinking as if waking from a long sleep. A faint metallic scent drifted through the air, sharp and cold.

She extended her hand. The fragments obeyed, converging into a single sphere of tortured metal. It warped and folded in on itself, glowing from internal friction.

"Repulsion feild."

The words left her lips with the calm certainty of someone describing gravity. The response was instantaneous. The sphere convulsed once, then collapsed inward. A silent pressure burst outward from her body—steady, merciless, and strangely elegant. The fused mass didn't blast apart. It eroded, shredding itself into clouds of glittering particles that drifted down like metallic snow.

Decibolt watched the display with a quiet electric hum threading through the air around him. The faint crackling of static wrapped his silhouette, reacting unconsciously to his rising curiosity.

"How does that new ability work."

Molecular Girl examined her hands, where faint ripples of energy still pulsed beneath her skin. They shimmered like heatwaves bending light.

"It's like my full body repulsion but instead of it being a blast wave is like a force field releasing constant repulsive energy so instead of blasting things away it shreds them to bits."

Static crawled across Decibolt's shoulders in thin arcs as he shifted his stance. His eyes glowed with competitive fire.

"Create all the new abilties you want but I'll..."

She stepped forward, her posture unwavering, her voice steady despite the faint metallic dust still drifting through the air between them.

"Still be superior, I know but more will come an I will surpass you."

For a moment, neither spoke. The battlefield was quiet, the only movement the slow descent of the shredded bots—tiny pieces catching the light like suspended stars.