Even Villains Fall in Love Read Free Page B

for
programming.”
    “Great, bring one of them over.”
    Evan plopped Delila in his lap while the girls
showed him the funny shaped things from the jar—mostly scrap
metal—until Hert shuffled back over with a black and purple polka
dotted minion. Like Tabitha’s canisters upstairs, the color codes
had made sense at one time, but now he couldn’t remember why he’d
programmed the genes for polka dots. Maybe he’d been drunk at the
time.
    “Master, this is Fishy Thing.”
    “Fishy Thing? That sounds like one of my high
school projects.”
    “Yes, Master. You programmed Fishy Thing during
your senior year.”
    Purple and black. That’s right, he’d meant it to
look like the homecoming game with everyone in school colors.
“Great. Fishy Thing, my girls want to decorate. Help them out and
keep them away from the machines and anything else dangerous.
Understood?”
    “Yes, Master,” Fishy Thing answered.
    He checked on Agree-With-Me the Third, then went
to work fine-tuning the Election Ray. The plan was the epitome of
simplicity. Everyone knew the president of the United States was
the most powerful person in the world. Power, influence, acclaim,
wealth, attention...everything Evan had ever wanted rolled into
one. But becoming president meant close public scrutiny, lying on a
daily basis, and a year of hard work as he tried to build support
for his lies. Unless, of course, everyone happened to want to write
his name in the box for president on Election Day.
    Evan would win by a landslide. One hundred
percent of the vote without rigging the system. There couldn’t be
an argument because everyone would want him to win. The Election
Ray ensured they would justify why they voted for him. He merely
needed to fine-tune it a little bit, and keep Tabitha from finding
out.
    Bad timing on her part. Did she really need to
go back to super heroing now? Not that she would leave him, the
Morality Machine kept that from happening, but she’d be upset. And
then he’d feel guilty.
    But really, he thought as he started dismantling
the wave device to adjust the controls inside, this would put her
out of a job. Everyone would agree with him. Everyone would obey
the laws. Everything would be just the way he wanted.
     
     
     

Chapter Four

    There are days I miss being Doctor
Charm. I loved the attention and the challenge of being a super
villain. Any thug with a fist can rob a little old lady in an
alley. That doesn’t take talent or brains. But I was never a thug,
or a don, or a mastermind. Smalltime wasn’t my style. I didn’t want
to be another fish in the pond, even if I was a big fish. I wanted
to be the apex predator of the hemisphere. And I was.
    ***
    Evan patted his Election Ray. “We’ll test this
first thing tomorrow.” If the calculations were right, he was one
speech away from the Oval Office. Stretching, he turned to see the
rest of his lab covered in pink and purple streamers.
Crayon-scribbled graph paper covered most of the wall. Good thing
no super hero was likely to stop by for a midnight battle of good
versus evil, or they’d have died laughing. He lifted a multicolored
paper chain off his computer. “Girls, Daddy’s fortress of evil
looks different.”
    “We decorated!” Angela said happily. “Now you
have pictures of us so you can love us.” She shoved a piece of
paper at his knee.
    Like a good father, he inspected the
balloon-headed, noodle-limbed figures and pronounced it a
masterpiece. Tacking the picture over a diagram of a magnetic
shield he’d been meaning to build, he smiled at the girls. “Let’s
get some dinner going.”
    “What are you making?” Maria asked.
    “Reservations,” Evan said.
    “Pizza!” Delila squealed. Her sisters wasted no
time picking up the refrain.
    “In that case, I’ll make a phone call.” Evan
shooed them upstairs, then headed into the kitchen to scrub the
machine grease off his hands as he told them to turn on the TV.
    “Daddy! It’s Mommy!”
    He turned