As that face I hated so much leered down at me, I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing fervently that it would disappear. But just as I opened them, Captain Hammer leaned down, seized the front of my lab coat, and threw me violently into the wall. My previous injuries flared back to life; agony pounded through my head, and my knees buckled. If Hammer hadn't had his arm against my throat, I would have collapsed. As it was, I was clawing at his arm, pulling it off just enough so that I could still breathe.

"What did you do with her, you fiend?" he thundered at me heroically. "Where's my girlfriend?"

"I- didn't- do- anything-!" I ground out. "Bad Horse- ELE-"

In true comic book fashion, Captain Hammer struck a pose, allowing me to drop to the floor in the process, and cried out, "The ELE? You're probably right, I should have known you wouldn't have the guts to do this yourself. You had help with this dastardly crime!"

Blinking rapidly to clear my head, I pulled myself upright and faced my nemesis head-on. "You might just be the biggest idiot in the entire universe. I don't have time for this! Do you know what happened?"

Hammer seemed taken aback by my response; normally, I would have pulled a gadget on him, or laughed maniacally, or ran away when the gadget I used failed to work. I had only gone face-to-face with him once before (and it had been the first time I ever confronted him), so his shock might have been the reason he answered me instead of punching me some more.

"I came here to see if she'd have lunch with the mayor and me-"

"She was at work, you moron."

Hammer snorted. "Like I would bother to look at her schedule. Everyone has time for Captain Hammer!"

"Anyway," I said pointedly.

"When I got here ten minutes ago, it looked like this."

"So in other words, you have no idea what happened."

He grabbed the front of my lab coat again, leaning aggressively into my face. "You kidnapped her! You and the ELE!"

I rolled my eyes at him. "If I had kidnapped her, do you think I'd stick around her apartment afterward? I'm telling you, it's Bad Horse, he's out to get me and he kidnapped her because he knows-" I stopped mid-sentence, just in time to catch myself.

But Hammer, in a rare moment of perceptiveness, finished it for me. "Knows you like her."

Love, my mind corrected automatically. Although I said nothing, Hammer must have seen the word in my eyes. "You shoulda seen this coming as soon as they started going after you, Doc. Even I know about your little crush."

Suddenly angrier than I could handle anymore, I shoved his hands off my coat. "Shut up. You're wasting time! Do you know where-"

"Aww," interrupted Hammer with an infuriating grin, "did I hit a sore spot?"

My hands balled up into fists of their own accord. "I said, shut up."

"I said shut up!" mocked Hammer in a high-pitched imitation of my voice.

What is this, I wondered angrily, a middle school flashback? I had to resist the urge to resort to violence with every bit of my willpower. "Look," I growled, clenching my fists so hard I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms, close to breaking through the skin, "I'll put it in terms you'll understand. Every minute we waste here, Penny gets closer to getting hurt or possibly dying. I think they may have taken her to the ELE headquarters. Do you know where they are?"

Hammer scoffed. "If I did, do you think they'd still be causing trouble?"

"Yes, but I'm pretty sure you'd be lying dead in an alley somewhere if you tried to take them on alone," I said absentmindedly, my mind racing. They wanted me to find her; of that I was certain. There had to be a clue somewhere… I cut over Captain Hammer's outraged reply. "Look, we need to concentrate. We'll split up and search the apartment for something, anything that might tell us where to find her."

"Who said you could be in charge?"

"Fine!" I shouted, beyond caring about the obnoxious superhero. "You can lead the search! I'll report to you if I find anything, all right?"

He nodded, looking satisfied. "I'll check the bedroom. Because, you know, I've been in there before. At night. With her. In her bed." After laughing at me as I flinched visibly, he disappeared down the hallway into the first room on the right.

I bit back the many, many things I wanted to say to my archenemy and got to work in the living room. It was small like the rest of the apartment, and even through the mess covering every surface, it was easy to tell the room had been much-loved and used frequently. Distracted by the overwhelming aura of Penny that surrounded me, I stood and gazed around, almost smiling. But then I realized what I was doing, and I berated myself for losing focus.

Bending over, I began to sift through the piles on the floor. I had barely started, however, when I heard Captain Hammer call from the other room. "Hey Doc, I think I found something in here."