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Showdown

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Meeper

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Credit for raps, story plan and plot go to Meeper, the commissioner.

www.furaffinity.net/user/meeper23

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"I've got you now, MesMordo..."

Mordecai's head hung, unconscious as he groaned, his head hanging down to his chest where his beak bumped lightly into his bare feathers. The raccoon, Mr. Rigbinder, posed before him, his fists pumping above his head, thin arms flexing, though there was no question at all as to which of them was in power at that very moment in time. The superhero had fallen, unmasked and weakened, his powers drained by the power of Rigby's foot domination, sapping his strength, and the hypnosis lay heavily over him like a shroud that he just couldn't shake off.

Such was the fall of one so great...but it was so that one had to come back against the force of evil to remind themselves of what was really important in the world. That was what the two of them, as Mordecai and Rigby, not superhero and supervillain, had deigned it to be, after all. They knew the score of their little game, their version of reality slipping into something more akin to trials and tribulations at that time, what was real and what was not warping the lines at times when everything should have been on the straight and narrow. Yet even as the two of them, in the real world, warded off work and chose to delve instead into the wonder of their imaginations, there was still so much more for the two of them to do.

Mr. Rigbinder grinned toothily, the brown-furred raccoon standing tall as he took in all that he'd done, the absolute dominance that such a position of power commanded him. Still, he only wore a black and yellow pair of swim brief like attire, though it did not really matter what it was for the purposes of what was between them, the straining battle between good and evil playing out as it always had. Of course, he had his mask whereas MesMordo did not, the blue jay having donned another pair of red and white swim trunks that clung to his skin and allowed him to move as freely as Mr. Rigbinder did.

"Poor, MesMordo..."

He poked at the bird's foot with his, toying with Mordecai's bound feet while the blue jay whimpered in unconsciousness. Not that he would have been able to do anything about Mr. Rigbinder's teasing if he'd been conscious, limp and helpless in hypnosis. Even in sleep, however, his toes twitched and flexed, the raccoon poking at him, toes wriggling over his, showing off just who held the power in their foot at that moment.

However, the avian was not free at all, trapped in the raccoon's evil lair, the shipping containers that he had fashioned into a secret hideout for himself where others would have least expected him to be. While out for the count, MesMordo was entirely unaware of the raccoon moving his body, sliding over the floor, moved to another room, a sofa under his back when the slightest bit of feeling only just began to return to his limbs. His feather-like fingers twitched before consciousness returned to him, though Mr. Rigbinder had already ensured that he was bound differently, bound on his back with his hands resting on his stomach, tied palm to palm. Of course, his legs were straight out and bound at the ankles, his small talons useless in such a position, resting on the sofa, though they were close to the arm. If he had been more with his senses, he would have been able to use that little detail in some way to command an escape. As it was, no escape was to be had.

Not yet...that was.

Mordecai groaned, his beak falling slack, licking the edge of it with a flash of red tongue, blinking slowly, coming back to the waking world. A blurry room took shape around him but it took him a moment longer than usual to realise that he was on a sofa, somewhere, and not lashed to the chair as he had been. Of course, all the binding material that Rigby had at his disposal there was rope so, once again, it was those rough fibres that the blue jay found digging into his wrists and ankles. He tried to growl in the back of his throat but the sound simply would not rise up to his bidding, his body weak and faded still, though he could not hope to return at all to anything near his full strength and power without his mask.

"Given up yet, MesMorFool?"

Mr. Rigbinder mocked him as the raccoon leapt up, pressing his foot down on Mordecai's beak, pinning it into the cushion and trapping the nare, through which the bird breathed, so that he got a full dose of Rigby's foot domination. Instantly, the blue jay felt his strength slipping away, grasping and clawing for it weakly as if he was trying to snatch back water that was pouring through his fingers, no matter how his hands were cupped. He fought and gasped but going down was the only route for one in his position, the blue jay forced to breathe in and out, some of the hypnosis still lingering.

"No... Can't..."

Resistance was futile: he would have to be smarter if he wanted to escape Mr. Rigbinder. Fading and falling, exhale after inhale, the blue jay could only succumb, breathing in and out until, finally, the final exhale was louder and louder, almost crackling with a hint of a wheeze.

"There... It's better to be controlled." Mr. Rigbinder grinned, the raccoon's smirk sending a shudder of sickening humiliation through the blue jay. "You don't need to think with the power of my hypnosis controlling you!"

He laughed, bending over, grabbing his stomach, heaving and panting even through his mirth. Oh, to have the great and powerful superhero right where he wanted him! It was the best thing that any supervillain could have ever wanted as MesMordo stared at him blankly, though the hypnosis, alas, was not something that could last forever. Straining, the bird tried so very desperately to open his beak, but could barely get out a gasp, his powers beyond his reach.

Blast him.

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Mr. Rigbinder had him right where he wanted him: helpless and unable to even attempt to break free. How could it have come to that, that he was trapped in such a situation?

The raccoon, however, was not yet done, seeing that MesMordo could not use his powers, even the twitching of his fingers having lessened. He laughed out loud as he used the same foot, that he had used to dominate and sap his powers from him, to pet the bird's beak, toes wriggling as the flat of his foot rubbed over, humiliating him further.

MesMordo groaned but the question as to what on earth it was that Mr. Rigbinder was doing was lost in the sound. He couldn't find the energy, couldn't summon the strength, helpless and hapless, as weak as a fledgeling before the eve of their very first flight. He may as well have been one for all he could do against Rigby as that foot moved on to pet his head, smoothing over the feathers, thankfully in the right direction.

"There now," Rigby crooned: a sickening, twisted sound coming from his lips. "That's better, don't think for yourself. Tell me where the Simply Awesome Stone is. I'll leave you alone then, for a time, but you'll still be under my control."

The avian clamped his beak shut, the foot resting on his head. He didn't think he'd had the strength left to speak anyway but it was funny how the burning twist of anger searing through could change that in the blink of an eye. Mordecai's defiance shone through, not hypnotised but his power and even his strength too, in a way, drained, Rigby cocking his head.

"Oh, I'm disappointed, MesMordo... I thought we had an accord by now. You know how the game is played."

Mordecai grunted, throat working.

"I can't...won't..."

Of course, the Simply Awesome Stone was placed somewhere far more secure than a jewellery store on display (it had, to be fair, lured in many buyers) but Mordecai was not about to up and reveal the stone's location just like that. He'd been entrusted with that knowledge to protect it! And he was one of few that actually knew where it was! If it was stolen, they'd have a list of who may have revealed the location and a missing superhero would surely have to be pretty high up on the list of potential culprits too.

He shook his head minutely, energy faded, swirling within him. It almost felt as if he could grasp it for himself again and yet the power within him slithered through his fingers like an eel, slipping away whenever he tried to take just that little bit more control back for himself.

"Have it your way MesMordo... And I had so hoped it wouldn't come to this!"

That was a lie: of course, it was a lie. Mr. Rigbinder wanted nothing more than to dominate the superhero who had made his life so difficult in so many years, stealing from him what was rightfully his, well, to steal! They would forever be tangled in the dance between good and evil but, darn it: why couldn't a supervillain win a round for a change too?

Still, he was the one in control as he merely pulled back, his eyes glowing with the hypnotic rings of his hypno powers, a scream tearing from his muzzle.

"Yaaahhh!"

He stomped his feet down on either side of MesMordo's neck, bending forward to deliver a full blast of hypnosis directly into the blue jay's eyes. Even if his strength had not been sapped, there was no way for MesMordo to avoid it, forced to take the full force, even though he had been regaining his control a little more. It had been the strength, after all, that had stopped him from trying to escape from the sofa and his bonds there, though the hypnosis was the key that well and truly locked that door.

"Unff... No..."

Yet the dull glaze of being under the raccoon's hypnosis again fell over him, his limbs falling slack, tension easing from his muscles. It was almost a nice feeling, even though he didn't like quite where the feeling had come from, Mr. Rigbinder panting lightly as he finished delivering the hypno-beams, needing a moment, or several moments, for them to recharge again. It was one of the few failures of using hypno-powers and depended on many factors, such as distance and intensity, with regards to how long they took to recharge again.

"Now..." He said, panting lightly from the physical and mental exertion of using his powers. "Tell me... Where is the Simply Awesome Stone! It shall be mine, MesMordo, after you thought you could take it from me!"

MesMordo's beak opened without his consent, the hypnosis overpowering him, controlling his every move. Even if he had not been bound and helpless, every limb and twitch of his muscles would have been under Mr. Rigbinder's dominance in the sputter of a failing heartbeat.

"I..." His hesitation was due to the hypnosis pulling the information out of him, not so much any hesitation or resistance in the slightest. "It's secured in a vault in the bank. Code six nine two nine zero one zero one zero one seven eight nine. Password: the fish rides at midnight. Secret word: sausages."

Mr. Rigbinder threw his hands to the air, spinning around as he leapt to the ground.

"Of course... Sausages! However could I have not thought of that as the secret word!"

MesMordo quivered. How had he revealed the answers and location so quickly? Even the code down to the very last number! It was not his fault, not truly, and yet shame overcame him, burning and hot, creeping through his veins as if it was using them as a pathway to get to every last little bit of his body. Though his horror was misplaced, considering that there was no one, no one normal, that could fight back against anyone's hypno-powers, for that was the very nature of the power in how it stripped control from people. He couldn't have helped it.

"Give me the coordinates!"

He had to, he had to, numbers reeled forth as the bird groaned.

"Ah... Don't make me say. They'll know I'm the one that gave you the location. They'll know it was me."

He grunted, forcing his beak closed, though it only opened again, the words spilling forth. He just couldn't stop them!

"Co-ordinates... Unff... No... Must...be strong..."

MesMordo shuddered. He just wasn't strong enough.

"The coordinates are... Latitude, five three point zero two three five one. Longitude, minus one zero nine point six six seven eight five... Oh... Oh no..."

Shame or humiliation? That was the question and the two emotions the blue jay bounced between, a lowly, fallen superhero. Of course, Mr. Rigbinder ignored him.

"Lock and key? Where is the vault key?"

"There is no key, only the code. They did away with physical keys at that location three years ago."

The raccoon's eyebrows shot up.

"Interesting... You're proving to be more and more useful, MesMordo. Maybe I'll keep you around a while longer to act as my assistant. Tell me about any more security measures, now."

"Guards, usually five. There are no traps, no laser fields, no nets, nothing else. They trust their security to keep you out."

"But not when I have the code, the password and the secret word altogether! Now, all I need is a disguise!"

MesMordo heaved, breathing hard as if he had run a race or been flying flat out, but it no longer felt as if he would ever be able to lift his wing-arms up into the sky again. His body was too heavy, dragged down, yet the hypnosis seemed to be wearing off on him a little more swiftly than before, to the point where he was able to twitch and wriggle his fingers, moving his wrists and ankles, though his control over his own body was woefully, even then, out of his reach.

"Thank you, MesMordo..." Mr. Rigbinder said, tapping his fingers in dastardly, villainous glee. "Your information has been the key to the Simply Awesome Stone and it will only be a short time before it's in my possession!"

He looked at the bird strangely, shaking his head almost with pity in his eyes. Mordecai still struggled, not seeming able to stop even though the raccoon was looking directly at him.

"There is no use in fighting back, you should already know this. The Simply Awesome Stone was always supposed to have been mine and, finally, it will be in my hands. Sleep now."

He put the full force of his voice and power, even if not his hypno-beams direction, into the command. The blue jay could not fight back, resistance futile, though it was not as if he had even had the strength to sit up before. Sleeping, yes... Sleeping was still easier as his eyelids instantly felt too heavy to even open, shifting and falling, closing over his eyes as he fell down and down and down, the soft grey of unconsciousness calling him. That seemed to have been happening rather a lot lately, more so than he honestly would have liked. It was not a good feeling but with a long, low groan, he fell into slumber.

Mr. Rigbinder cackled.

"Have a nice, long nap, MesMordo!"

The avian gave a long groan as if he was agreeing, though he was not awake. Even under the power of hypnosis, he had humiliatingly been forced to obey the command.

Before leaving, however, he paused to give MesMordo another, long dose of his foot domination, pressing his right one down on the bird's beak while he stood on Mordecai's chest with the other. He climbed over his body as if there was not a real person inside the blue jay, uncaring of his feelings in the matter, even as the bird grunted in sleep. Yet he would not wake, not yet, not until the powers faded again, even if Mr. Rigbinder was more than sure that pressing his foot to the bird's beak and rubbing it over his nares all over again would see him so weak on his return that it would be like he'd never left.

He took his time with it, even though he'd been so urgent to get away only a moment before, folding his toes around the bird's beak and wriggling them back and forth. It was a position of power too that he found himself in and he greedily relished in it, drinking it all in, drop by drop. Mr. Rigbinder adjusted his position, putting a little more pressure on the bird's beak, though Mordecai was completely out of it and even unaware of what was happening, so deep was he in his hypnotised slumber.

Yet the supervillain could not stay forever, as much as he might have liked to see Mordecai fall even lower, the blue jay so weak and drained that even taking a single breath would have been too much for him. Rigby frowned. Alas, that was too much for their game, but they would come to see that such games could transcend the lines between reality and fantasy at such times, even if they were not so sure that that was all how they wanted them to be.

He shook himself off! He hadn't gone too far - all was within limits! And he had a Simply Awesome Stone to find!"

"There... Nighty-night, Mr. Blue Jay... And - away!"

With a sweep of his arm, Mr. Rigbinder was off into the night, darkness having fallen outside, where there was no longer any natural light with which to cover his villainous endeavours. It was the perfect time for him to take on his self-appointed mission, the one that would bring the luxurious lusciousness of the Simply Awesome Stone back into his grasp, where it should have been all along.

Yet he did not leave without pausing, MesMordo's mask hanging on the wall as a sort of trophy. He grinned and held it up briefly, letting the overhead lighting shine through the thin material. To think that such power was contained in a mask! Of course, the same was true for him but to have the mask of another superhero was something indeed, something that rendered him the greatest, the most powerful, the one who could dominate the whole city and world!

"Mine, all mine!"

Greed rang through as he laughed and cackled.

"Mine! Weak MesMordo - you should never have pushed back against Mr. Rigbinder!"

Leaving, the dark of the night welcomed him back like an old friend, the mask left hanging on the wall.

*

MesMordo, however, was left in the hideout on his own, breathing slowly and evenly, yet sleep even in hypnosis would not last forever. He would be more susceptible to hypno-powers when his energy levels were low, which was one reason or using the full extent of hypnosis to put someone to sleep as an easy way to control them at any point, but he was alone and had plenty of time to blink back to reality. His eyelids fluttered as his breath came a little more quickly, no longer as slow and as even as it was in sleep, pushing on back to the waking world as he only could.

"Uh... Where..."

But he didn't even need to ask himself that question, not truly. He knew where he was, the hard walls of the shipping container coming back into focus, a room that was not filled to the brim with villainous equipment like the first that he'd been in had been designed. Mr. Rigbinder was just like any other villain, in some ways, but that he had caught onto the power of his foot being used to dominate and drain MesMordo's powers set him apart. The blue jay could not help, in some, small way, respecting him for that, as much as he didn't want to.

Alas, he was still bound there on the sofa, his powers beyond his reach. To him, it felt as if he had never had them in the first place, a deeply disconcerting, jolting sense in the pit of his stomach, and all he wanted was his powers back at their full strength, standing tall and proud once more as the superhero of the city.

But one good thing was that Mr. Rigbinder was not yet back and he had a chance, albeit a small, tiny chance, to change the course of his fate, looking ahead for what he could do rather than what he _couldn't_do. Sometimes, that was all anyone could do, could hope for in the worst of times.

"Right... Come on!"

Mordecai growled, whipping his wrists back and forth, testing the limits and restraint of the rope, though it was tighter than he'd realised, the rope rubbing against his wrists as he twisted and fought to no avail there. Without his powers, it was harder than ever before, a sense of loss deep inside him, but he still had his beak and the short talons on his feet - if only he could free his hands first!

But his beak was a tool that was still easily at his disposal as he practically snarled, getting it wrapped around. Alas, his beak was not sharp like that of an eagle's may have been, though he could work his head back and forth, neck aching, sawing and grinding away at it as his breath came in short, sharp pants. It was hard to keep going when he was not yet at full strength again, his powers weakened even if some control had returned to him. Whether or not he would be able to escape out of the shipping container hideout itself was another question entirely but one that the blue jay chose to worry about later.

"Unff... Come...on!"

It hurt his neck more than his beak as he sawed and sawed away at the rope, sadly not able to get the point of it dug into the knots. It helped some, however, and the rope finally fell away with a twist and a fray as if to say that it had not been very substantial at all in the first place.

"Yes! MesMordo is back in the business!"

He laughed out loud, though his victory was premature as he half-lunged towards his own ankles, fumbling more with those knots as he tried to work them free with more finesse than he had in sawing free his wrists. In a way, they were more difficult but he got them loose and leapt on shaky legs up from the sofa, wobbly and swaying as if he had forgotten just what he was to do to remain in control of his body, even then. His bare feet dug into the bare, wooden floorboards, which at least proved to be somewhat of a stable surface for him to wobble his way along. Maybe he was simply fortunate to not be on a shipping container that happened to actually be out at sea or something, loaded onto a boat...

MesMordo grumbled, muttering and mumbling under his breath, though none of the words spent on his own ears were of any note. Finally out and able to take his revenge, even in a very superhero-like way, on Mr. Rigbinder, he hunted down his mask, room by room, finding one container full of empty cages of all sizes and the other where he had fought Mr. Rigbinder initially. He paused there to survey the screens, checking for any motion around the docks and the container loading area, but all was as quiet as one might have liked to ever find it down on the docks. There was no sign of Mr. Rigbinder out there but MesMordo suspected he still had some time. How long had he been asleep? He'd be better able to judge how much time he'd have left before the raccoon returned if he knew but, alas, all he could do was make his best guess.

He reached for his powers, though they were still beyond him, helpless and fading, flailing as if he was trying to reach for something that he could not quite strain to touch with the tips of his fingers. Still, he moved on into another room set with a high window that had a shade covering it, though it was what was on the wall that drew the blue jay up short in his tracks.

His mask. It hung there as if it had been forgotten, two nails supporting it on the inner, wooden wall, though it was the corners of the "eye" sections that were looped over the nails rather than having the nails protruding through the eye-holes. That would have rendered it more disturbing than a relief to find but the bird did not hesitate as he reached for it, time seeming to slow as his fingers crossed the distance between his body and the mask that would bring everything back to him.

Closer and closer...

"So close..."

But it was not destined to be. His fingers folded around the fabric, still warm as if he had only just taken it off, but he should have known that things would never be that easy, no matter how he may have liked them to be. With the mask in his hands, he brought it up to his face a moment before a blood-curdling scream cut through the air.

"Hiii-yah!"

Mr. Rigbinder screamed as he karate chopped the back of MesMordo's neck, his strike hitting home as the blue jay's legs buckled. There was a pressure point there but there must have been a thicker tuft of feathers, perhaps due to his moult, that had protected him slightly, allowing him to not feel the full force of the strike as he whipped around with a growl on his beak.

"You!"

Yet he could not help but drop the mask, his hands juddering too much as that strike had hit home, facing his foe even as his eyes lowered. The mask slipped through his fingers, his hold on it weak, the fabric slipping and slithering, a gasp on his lips. He couldn't do anything, weakened, not knowing what had happened, nowhere near his full strength.

Why were his legs shaking so much?

MesMordo panted, his eyes going half-closed as Mr. Rigbinder stepped in closer, surveying his victim with a wicked grin.

"One strike enough for you MesMordo?"

It shouldn't have been, but it was. It must have hit a pressure point, MesMordo not truly feeling as he put his foot on the mask that had been dropped, trying to scuff it away. The thing was, however, that his body did not want to obey his commands. Why was that? He was not hypnotised... Not yet, at least.

Alas, his reactions were too dull and too slow after waking from hypnosis to do anything. His beak parted in a strangled cry, but he was fading, falling, the raccoon howling, though, to MesMordo, it was as if everything was happening around him in slow-motion.

"Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The howl was even more drawn out than before, the avian slumping, slipping down, Mr. Rigbinder wavering before him.

"I'd give you a free shot, MesMordo..."

Was that Mr. Rigbinder talking? His stomach roiled and jumped with nausea, dizziness abounding in his head.

"Come on, MesMordo, strike me. Or are you too weak even for that?"

But he was, he very much was. The raccoon may have been smaller than him but, in that moment, he may as well have towered for all the power MesMordo held over him.

His knees shook.

He was going.

Darn it...

_ _

MesMordo tried to say something but he was already gone, his mind falling back in the opposite direction to his body, drifting into sharp, unyielding unconsciousness. It was not for him to cling onto the waking world, though the raccoon levitated to catch him, using his powers of levitation to hold himself there through the single karate chop and, slowly, drift himself back down. He slumped forward over the raccoon's shoulders as his arms fell limply over Mr. Rigbinder, the raccoon laughing softly.

"So easy to beat you now, isn't it, MesMordo? You must feel so ashamed."

As Mr. Rigbinder lowered the bird to the ground, letting his arms slip from his shoulders, MesMordo was not with the waking world in the slightest. The blue jay's legs buckled, though he wanted to try to stop Mr. Rigbinder, his body craving motion, craving the feeling of being at full power once again. It was not to be, however, as he gaped and stumbled, falling forward, his knees hitting the ground first, though they were swiftly followed by his chest bumping into Mr. Rigbinder's shoulder, trying to lean forward with gravity pulling him down.

"Ooof... You think that's enough to stop me, MesMordo? I'm stronger than you..."

The raccoon still grunted, calling on his super strength to assist, for it was up to him what skills in his arsenal, of course, that he used.

"Poor MesMordo, fallen again... You seem to be doing a lot of that lately. Perhaps you should have gotten used to it by now."

Mr. Rigbinder's feet connected with the ground as he pushed the bird off his shoulder, balanced dangerously up on his knees and tipping first one way and then the other, lacking any serious control over his own body even then. The raccoon laughed at him, the blue jay on his knees and more on a better level with him in such a position, as precarious as his leaning, swaying body proved to be.

"You couldn't help but fall to your knees again, MesMordo! So close and yet you couldn't get to your mask in time! That karate chop did the trick but was all it took for you to break, your strength still faded! You'll never get that mask back ever again."

And he meant it too, his arms around the blue jay, the only thing that was holding him upright, though it would have been amusing too to see him drop to his front, helpless and useless while knocked out. His muzzle remained right up in the blue jay's face, daring him in such a state to challenge him, but he would have all as he wanted either way.

"You fell again, MesMordo, right at my knees!"

Mr. Rigbinder grinned. He rather liked when the superhero was so out of it that he couldn't even call on any words, no comeback coming his way. That made things quite different to how they had been in the past.

The raccoon posed, smirking.

"Look at MesMordo,

On his knees like a speck.

So close to his mask

But was chopped in the neck!"

He struck another pose, foot lifting as if to give the bird another round of foot domination but there were more rhymes to spill.

"His plans to stop me were afoot

But he was so weak

Now he'll be _under_foot!"

He had the power, he was in control... It was about time that MesMordo knew that completely and utterly.

The raccoon took more pleasure in taunting him than he should have but there was nothing that MesMordo could do to stop him, not in such a position. He was so low, so fallen, so broken, the blue jay's beak cracked open, the red of his tongue visible within. Why, Mr. Rigbinder could have easily overpowered him all over again with another round of foot domination, but Mordecai was so weak that something else entirely seemed more appealing to him right then, a glint in the supervillain's eye.

"Hm..."

There was no sense, after all, in not taking advantage of MesMordo when yet another opportunity had practically falling into his lap, begging him to use it.

The raccoon called on his telekinetic powers, applying them to the fallen superhero's body, for there was no way that he was exerting himself and wasting energy in dragging the bird around by his limbs to get him where he wanted him. Sliding him a few inches above the ground back to the wall, Mr. Rigbinder sat him up, though even an action like that took more effort and control when it was applied to another person's body and not his. Mr. Rigbinder grunted with the effort it took, standing back, metal cuffs already set into the wall to bind him, for where he had set up MesMordo's mask had been a trophy room of sorts and one just for him that no one else was supposed to enter without permission.

Mr. Rigbinder frowned. He'd see to it that MesMordo felt sorry for entering his "room" without permission, yes, he would!

What he didn't see, however, as he turned around, fussing for the key to the cuffs in the wall, as the blue jay, too quickly, waking up again. The blue jay struggled and twisted back and forth but even he did not quite know what he was doing, what he needed to do, sitting up, pushing off the wall, trying to get his feet under him. Mordecai groaned, slipping back down once and then trying to quell his noises, looking about from left to right and back again, scanning the area for his mask. If he could find his mask, regain full, usable consciousness, he might then have a chance. But his mask was his only bet, the only thing that he could see himself using to get out of a situation that was hopelessly one-sided.

Mr. Rigbinder's tail stiffened but the blue jay was hardly stealthy in his clumsiness, a raw howl bursting from the raccoon's lips.

"You'll never get away, MesMordo! No matter how hard you try - you're here to stay! Oooooohhhhh!"

The blue jay fumbled and struggled automatically and that made it easy for the raccoon to catch his clumsy scuffling, haring back with his eyes blazing, though he didn't need to use his hypno-powers to get the superhero well and truly back under his control.

"Go to sleep MesMordo!"

With the blue jay only on his knees, not yet able to stand, he was in the perfect position for the raccoon to scurry around behind him, leaping up his back and using one of his shoulders for leverage, though there was not all that much difference in their heights when MesMordo was down on his knees. The avian groaned, tried to hunch his back and push the smaller raccoon off but it was no good as the raccoon's arms went around his neck, putting him into a sleeper hold.

The pressure bore down as the familiar sense of falling unconscious pulled at his senses. MesMordo could still twist, however, the raccoon not quite grasping how much strength the blue jay had managed to regain: sometimes desperation could push even a body beyond what it may have considered possible.

"Give in, MesMordo! You're never going to win!"

Rigby snarled and growled, putting more and more pressure on Mordecai's throat, desperate to see him succumb, his body juddering, jerking, failing too slowly for his liking. It had to hold on, just a little bit longer, but such hypnosis and the power of foot domination had sapped so much strength from him that that was a tall order for anyone, even a superhero. MesMordo's legs kicked out in front of him as he sat heavily, everything feeling tangled and awkward, ungainly at best, though he could not have gotten his strength back fully if he'd even been the slightest, scantest bit in control of his body.

No... That took time. But maybe time was something that he could have on his side if Mr. Rigbinder did not use his foot on him or his powers of hypnosis again.

"I'm...never going to give in!" MesMordo forced out, squeezing out the words even as his windpipe was constricted. "You'll never be better than a villain... You'll never get your hands on the Simply Awesome Stone!"

Throwing his head back, Rigby laughed and laughed, his mirth echoing eerily off the hollow walls of the container, though one side had been boarded over to give some impression of a living area in his "trophy room".

"Fool! I already have the stone! Did you really think yourself so great that even with giving me the instructions to take it for my own I still would not be able to? The tables are turned, MesMordo! There's no hope for you now!"

He twisted the bird to the side, forcing him to look back towards the doorway where the glittering pink and silver of the Simply Awesome Stone lay, sparkling even in the dim light. Facets of light glanced off it in a thousand different directions at once and MesMordo sucked in a gasp. Oh, it had been so long since he had seen its splendour, its beauty, though that had been so long ago, a very long time ago. Even in the jewellery store, the high-end one for only the richest and most well-to-do in the city, it had been shaded so that its true magnificence could not be seen in its entirety.

The blue jay gasped and shook his head, struggling to take his eyes off it. To think that what had resided in his family home so many years ago, back when his parents had been alive, was in Mr. Rigbinder's slimy hands did not bear thinking about. And yet knowing it was so did not motivate him as it should have, perhaps a little foot domination, more so than he expected, lingering, forcing him down as if there was another foot on his chest and beak right then at that very moment. His beak gaped as Mr. Rigbinder's sleeper hold tightened more and more, but he could not help his slide down, vision blurring, greying out, pressing on from the edges as if it all was going to be too much for him.

But, mother's stone...

_ _

He had to do it, his eyes opening wide again, fighting back and finally feeling his foot brush the mask. If he could get that, the tables would turn! So it was that he had to try, had to do something, anything, pushing on through the madness of it all!

His foot wriggled, pushing and twisting, toes flexing, desperately trying to scoot it closer and closer to him, though Mr. Rigbinder with his head just a bit higher than his shoulder could not help but notice, even then, what he was doing.

"Idiot! You'll never win and you still think that scrawny little scrap of fabric is going to be the thing that changes it all? That mask is mine! I've won it from you and your reign as the superhero of this city is over, MesMordo!"

His grip tightened, bearing down, the blue jay hacking and gasping, strength pulling at him when he should have been the one pulling it back.

"Let the glimmer of hope fade, MesMordo." Mr. Rigbinder squeezed down harder, the mask slipping from where it had caught between MesMordo's toes. "You don't need it... Give in to sleep now. Sleep...sleep...sleep..."

MesMordo whimpered but he was drifting, his arms going limp, seeing the mask but not able to do anything to reach it. With his tail-feathers crushed under his backside, he could only wriggle, whining, trying to mumble out words as the squeeze around his neck grew and grew.

He had to hold on, even though it was impossible, wheezing, hacking, trying to wriggle free, his feathers sticking up in all directions.

"Even if he gets it back," Mr. Rigbinder said, narrating the scene as if he was seeing it all happen from a distance. "He'll never be the superhero that he once was. Will he? Won't he? Oh, MesMordo is in a bind now! Whatever will he do?"

The blue jay growled and tried to wrench himself to the side but he barely managed to twist a single shoulder, he was so weak. All he managed to do in the heat of the moment was to drag out his humiliation more and more, eyelids fluttering, sinking down even though his head remained on the same level.

"MesMordo is weakening, he's failing, he's falling asleep... He can't bear through the mighty power of Mr. Rigbinder's sleeper hold!"

The raccoon laughed out loud, giddy victory already swallowing him up whole. For that was the terror of being such a supervillain that he could so easily be overcome by greed, by that kind of illicit joy. It was not a feeling that any being, much less Mr. Rigbinder, should have ever taken for their own, though he still did as if he had any right to. He growled and laughed, pressing up closer to MesMordo, putting all of his super strength into the binding pressure of his arms on the bird's throat, leaning in more and more and more.

"He'll go to sleep now, fading, falling... Just like he did before."

MesMordo grunted, struggling and twisting.

"No... No, I'm going...to get...free..."

"Oh, MesMordo... You never give up, do you?"

Rigby grinned, putting his lips close to the bird's head.

"The thing is, you're going to dreamland whether you want to or not. This is not your control - it's mine. The big, awesome, wonderful superhero that everyone just looooves will never be the saviour that they wanted him to be! How do you feel about that?"

But it was too late for MesMordo to give a response, the words gargled and twisted in his throat as Mr. Rigbinder finally knocked him out. The air deprivation and pressure were, finally, too much for the bird as he slumped, his beak rolling limply down against his chest, legs a little more spread than they had been before. In slumber, holding his position was impossible, every muscle limp and loose and relaxed, all in such a way that it may not have been unpleasant, really, if it had at all been consensual.

"Sleep well, MesMordo... For it is a victory for the great and wonderful, Mr. Rigbinder again! Who said superheroes were where it was all at, hey?"

The raccoon howled and shoved the bird down to the ground, where he slid half onto his front, chest pressed down into the ground. It was not a comfortable position to be in, his chest bracing him along with his knees, his body making an upside-down V-shape even as he rested more heavily on one shoulder than the other. His tail-feathers stuck up in the air in a way that, frankly, was quite comical, enhancing the strange shape. Rigby did not bother holding back a laugh at the bird's discomfort and position, however, for all was there for him to take, like a child shovelling in scoop after scoop of ice cream when they were already full to bursting point. He didn't care for anything moderate or temperate when he could take it all, laughing and bellowing, hiccupping madly in his twisted mirth.

The bird knew nothing, felt nothing, knocked out cold with his beak pressed into the ground, chin flat on it, easily placed for the villain to take his leave of him. Unknowing of what was happening around him, there was nothing Mordecai could do against Mr. Rigbinder howling, beating his chest once with his hand, the slap stinging the muscle there even though it had been a little bit harder than, truly, the raccoon had intended. Sometimes things didn't go to plan, though he did not rub his smarting chest.

"Ooooohhhh!"

Mr. Rigbinder took his victory pose, pushing MesMordo over onto his back with his foot so that he lay in a more pleasing position. Putting his foot on the bird's beak first, he raised one fist high to his imagined audience, shifting again to his chest, flexing, his tail proudly stuck out straight behind him as if he was trying to draw even more attention to himself. His eyes glistened with misappropriated pride as he dug his foot lightly into the blue jay's narrow chest, not needing to move it back to his face as yet to give him another dose of the power of his foot - not yet, at least. That could come later as he posed and turned first to the left and then to the right, swapping the foot that was on the blue jay's chest for the opposite one, that time pressing down into his softer, more yielding stomach.

"How does it feel to still be on the bottom, MesMordo?"

Of course, the blue jay had no answer for him that Mr. Rigbinder would not know as a falsehood, as much as things were strangely twisted behind them. In unconsciousness, he was oblivious to Mr. Rigbinder taking his time posing on his stomach, his arms spread wide as if in a strange sort of challenge.

"Ooooohhhh!"

He howled and cried out, challenging the empty room, but, as MesMordo shifted under him minutely, he knew that he had to move on, as pleasing as it was to take control and advantage of one so hopelessly overpowered without his mask.

Mr. Rigbinder didn't need to move the blue jay much that time to sit him up against the wall with his back to it, looping his wrists into the metal cuffs and then fastening them tightly. The key was near but well out of Mordecai's reach, so that was no concern of Mr. Rigbinder's, though he did take care to push it a little further away, just in case. Even a supervillain like him could not be too careful as Mordecai was forced to sit there with his hands up on either side of his head, vulnerable and exposed and chained.

"Ah, the Simply Awesome Stone... To finally have you within my grasp is a delight indeed!"

Rigby turned on the spot, holding the stone up to the overhead light just to see the light cut through it, dancing and sparkling, spinning slowly on the spot to admire it even more. He had all the time in the world to enjoy it, finally within his grasp, but he still made sure to set it aside where the failed superhero would have to see it, to take in everything that he had not been able to protect from Mr. Rigbinder's claws.

"Well, well, well... Are you going to wake up again this time? You've been so quick to wake, MesMordo... But it's naptime still for you."

Mr. Rigbinder laughed and shook his head, the blue jay, once again, lifting his beak with a groggy groan.

"Uhhh..."

Mordecai, however, was more heavily under that time than before, the slow descent into unconsciousness taking more of a toll on him physically than he was prepared to take on, even then. He had to try though, had to pull at the chains, the clanking and jostling of them awkward and unyielding to his own ears.

"Aw, dude, you chained me too?"

At least, that was what he tried to say. What actually came from his lips was garbled nonsense, Rigby advancing, a tub of something foul and sweet-smelling, too sickly sweet, in his hands.

"This will do the trick... Don't think I haven't learned from our earlier encounters, MesMordo!"

He fought then, but the process of waking up was slow as the raccoon giggled, stepping into the tub and soaking his feet in a liberal dose of the chloroform. He swilled them around in there, making sure that they were evenly coated, for it would drip and mark the floor as he floated up to the bird's beak to give him a double dose of chloroform and foot domination all at once.

"Naptime, naptime, naptime, MesMordo... Don't you ever learn?"

The blue jay felt as if he was doing more than he was as he struggled and pushed on, his beak so heavy that he could not help but slump forward even then. He grunted and shook his head and yet it was not a moment in which he could take back power. His mask was near but it was no good to him even as he blinked and tried to see more than the blurry figure of Rigby floating up higher and higher, that sweetening, overpowering aroma cloying and clinging to him.

"Beddy-bye-bye now, MesMorFool, you don't need to be awake any longer."

Mordecai thought he cried out but all that broke the barrier of MesMordo's beak was a breathy gasp, a hiss of a whine that faded as soon as it was born. He could not win that battle as Rigby floated up, using his powers of levitation to ascend regally, and pressed one foot to either side of his beak, covering his nares. For the chloroform to work, of course, he had to breathe it in, the blue jay trying weakly to twist his head away, to hold his breath, yet even he could not do that when there was so much going on even at that very moment in time.

"Sleepy-sleep time, MesMordo, go to sleep, sleeeeeep."

The last thing Mordecai heard as Rigby blocked out his vision was the voice of Mr. Rigbinder, his feet so close to his beak that he was forced to breathe them in again and again - that and the chloroform too. As it had been for him when he had dominated Rigby to put him in jail, the combination of Rigby's foot and the chloroform was intoxicatingly potent and not something that he could resist, falling unconscious and fading. He knew nothing but blackness as Rigby pressed in closer, laughing as he rubbed his feet back and forth, lightly, over the blue jay's beak, smearing a little chloroform there too for good measure.

"Better to be sleeping, MesMordo... It's less embarrassing for you then."

If he'd heard that said out loud, MesMordo would have fought back but, alas, he was gone and out for the count, the raccoon floating back down to the ground to set up for what he really wanted to spend his time on. After all, he had a new trophy for the trophy room and the Simply Awesome Stone would very soon prove to be the key to so much more. The small blocks whirred to life, the cubes innocuous before they were switched on, beams of laser-like light snapping and crackling, shooting into the Simply Awesome Stone. Someone who didn't know what they were doing may have feared, at that time, that they were about to damage the stone, but Mr. Rigbinder had been waiting for such an event to occur for so long that he had been tossing and turning in his sleep, dreaming of it.

"Yes... Yes, it's working! It's working!"

The blue jay blinked, wondering sleepily just how it had come to be that he'd been knocked out once again, though what he saw made his heart plunge into the pit of his stomach. Rigby stood before the stone, cackling and crying out his joy, though the stone hardly seemed to be doing well by it.

"Whuh..." He worked his tongue around his mouth, chains clanking on the wall. "What...are you doing?"

Mr. Rigbinder whirled on him, eyes blazing with the madness of a villain.

"This... This is the key to heightening my already super awesome villain powers! My hypnosis will now be unstoppable with the power of the Simply Awesome Stone in my grasp! The whole city will fall to my hypno-power of awesomeness and there will be no stopping me!"

The raccoon laughed, pointing at nothing, though MesMordo reeled.

"You can't do that!"

At least, that was what he tried to say, his tongue thick and heavy in his beak, eyes wide and strained but not seeing all that was there. He was too dull, too slow, still too sleepy, to do anything. His head hung, struggling back to full wakefulness but it was as if he was clawing his way up a steep scree of loose rocks, losing as much ground as he gained with the climb.

No... No, he couldn't do it. He groaned and rolled his head back and forth. That was the moment where a superhero gave him, gave in, thought no more about the world that he had pledged himself to protect. At least, that was what MesMordo had done when he'd lost all hope, no longer knowing what else he could do when his parents had left the world. Oh, his past as so tragic, so terribly tragic, the cushy life he'd had as a child not preparing him for the harsh reality of life on his own...with a multi-million dollar legacy and heritage left to him, of course. How had he ever been able to deal with that apart from becoming a superhero in an attempt to right the wrongs that had taken place so long ago?

"Poor MesMordo," Rigby teased him, spreading his arms out wide as if to invite the blue jay to challenge him. "You can't do anything, can you? Aren't you going to try? Do try... Oh, that's right - you can't use your powers! You're weak, MesMordo! Weaker than you ever have been before!"

With MesMordo at such a low level, still sitting against the wall, Mr. Rigbinder did not need to levitate to get his foot up to his beak, considering how Mordecai had tipped his head down too. Raising his left foot, he rubbed it on the side of the bird's beak, ensuring that he got both sides, down the edge of his beak, over his face and back up again. His toes curled, brushing Mordecai's feathers, but not even the blue jay's shudder of hopeless revulsion, strength once again fading, did not stop him.

"Fight back, MesMordo! Fight back!"

The taunt took even more from him as the raccoon shouted, though his lips were stretched into a mad grin.

"Yahhh!"

His toes squirmed against MesMordo's face as the blue jay moaned, but Mr. Rigbinder's attention slipped away. Grabbing MesMordo's mask, he dangled it in front of him, just out of reach of his beak and, of course, hopelessly out of reach with his hands.

"Come get it, MesMorFool! Come get it! Try to get it, birdie, feather-brain! Ahahahahaha!"

He hopped from foot to foot but the blue jay was far too weak to do anything more than groan.

"Faded superhero. Yahhh!"

Again, he lifted his foot, but the right one that time, rubbing it on the left and right side of the bird's face first before sliding it up to his beak, covering his nares briefly, one at a time, and ensuring that no inch was left untouched. MesMordo shuddered, weak, so very weak, his energy fading, even keeping his eyes open proving too difficult in that moment. But Mr. Rigbinder was too quick to take advantage, sinking back onto his left leg to balance so that his right was free, his foot moving so quickly as it rubbed over Mordecai's face that it was almost as if he was striking him.

"Yah! Yah! Yah! Yahhh!"

He struck and rubbed, barely touching the blue jay even as Mordecai's head could not help but snap from one side to the other. He gasped and grunted but overpowered in the moment, fallen and faded and too helpless to do anything at all, not even to help himself. The flesh of his cheeks rippled with the force of the rubbing and he made a face, trying to turn his beak away, though he could not be sure how much of that was due to him or due to Rigby rubbing his foot so quickly on either side, back and forth and back again, laughing all the while.

"Give up, MesMordo? Oh, there's no fight in your eyes now! Oooooohhhhhh!"

The raccoon turned around, tail stiffening lightly in excitement.

"Oh!"

The computers hooked up to the Simple Awesome Stone showed a large, green "tick" mark and Mr. Rigbinder leapt back to them, jittery in his glee.

"Yes, oh, yes! It's working!"

The satellite - it was charging up! His hypnotic power would soon be spread across the entire city, the city that would soon be his! Rigby eyed up the blue jay, lips pressed together, tail flicking back and forth, back and forth, as if it just couldn't stay still. But, first, to take care of the blue jay again...

"Nighty-nighty-night, MesMordo!"

He jumped into the tub of chloroform, soaking his feet well and splashing them about, drops of the too-sweet, sickly and clinging, liquid dripping to the floor. Not that that was something that Mr. Rigbinder cared about as he stood on one foot, using the left first to knock MesMordo out again. His hypnosis, after all, had to be spared for the greatest feat of all, charging up to full power just like the satellite was assisting him with at that very moment!

"Go to sleep, go to sleep..."

Rigby chanted as he pressed first his left foot and then the right over the bird's nares, feeling out the hardness of his beak - as if that was ever going to stop him. It was too much for MesMordo, so broken down and defeated, but he knew that he had to fight back in some way, even as he slipped back down into blackness. Some of the chloroform lingered on his beak even when he was out, Mr. Rigbinder giving him a moment before he was completely knocked out to taunt him further.

"You'll be my permanent slave soon, Mordecai, so don't worry about anything... There's nothing that a superhero slave, after all, will ever need to worry about ever again!"

Putting both his feet back on MesMordo's beak, using his levitation ability to float in the air while he did so, he knocked the bird out completely, hanging limp and slumped in the chains.

But! Mr. Rigbinder had more to do! The machine would not work alone as he paced around it, cursing under his breath.

"Dude! Why's this taking so long? Is the battery flat again? Arrrghhh!"

He picked up one of the cubes and shook it violently, his arms a blur, but he could not work it out, eyeing up the screen, tapping on an old-fashioned keyboard that looked as if it had seen better days. The old pieces of equipment clacked madly as he battered them about and howled, stomping and making a scene over something that could have been in his control if he was smarter about it.

"Aaaaooooohhhh! Why won't it work?"

His cries, however, did not help him. MesMordo swam back to the waking world through a cloud of fog, fighting still to wake, to blink back to full wakefulness. He did not speak that time, acting as if he was knocked out still, his head hanging, eyes only partly open.

The raccoon... He was screaming. Did that mean that he hadn't used his power yet? Was there still a chance?

He could only hope.

He shook the chains lightly, striving to see if they had a weak point, but they were firm and fixed into the wall, even as he pulled at them, testing. The raccoon was stomping about too noisily with his back to him for him to be heard, so MesMordo pressed out, fighting off sleep as he pushed his beak into the lock of the cuff on his left wrist.

It was awkward to do but it was not noisy and never before had he felt such victory coursing through him as when the lock clicked free, releasing his wrist. He swallowed a howl, sleep still pulling at him, the lingering effects dragging heavily at every part of his body, yet he knew that he couldn't give up yet. He was MesMordo, the superhero of the city, the one who had sworn to protect them all!

Even when he had not been able to protect his parents... Oh, but that was far, far too tragic for him to even thinking about, freeing both wrists and standing, quietly, with resolution stirring deep inside.

It was never for evil to win this battle, let alone this war...

_ _

His mask lay there, so close, and MesMordo had a smile on his beak as he put it back on, sliding the straps into place and tightening them. He saw perfectly fine with and without it but it was the mask that chased the sleepiness from him, restoring his powers in the absence of Rigby's foot domination, finally feeling strong and revitalised and at least something like the old self of his that he remembered.

Fussing over the machines and trying to get them to speed up, hasty for the end of the world as everyone knew it, Mr. Rigbinder had not yet seen him.

"Did you think you'd won, Mr. Rigbinder?"

Rigby spun around, jaw agape, the stone crackling in a nest of power, energy "caging" it where it hung in mid-air.

"MesMordo! How?"

"In the flesh, dude! Hi-yah!"

He moved in a blur, flying with his arms outstretched, revelling in his strength being back as he slammed straight into the raccoon, tackling him back through a wall into the next room. That there was a gym in there was a surprise to him, tumbling over a rope into what seemed to be a red and white splashed wrestling ring, all of the equipment in there in pristine condition. Well, that was if one didn't count the rubble strewn everywhere, Rigby scrambling back to his feet, a foot wedged into the blue jay's stomach as he kicked him off him, with his lips trembling in a scream.

"You won't win, MesMordo! You'll never win - never win ever, ever, ever again! Yahhhh!"

Standing, they faced each other on even ground again, levelling up to one another, a grin on MesMordo's beak. Oh, it was so good to be back as he was meant to be! Rigby screamed and posed, flexing as they faced off, but Mordecai had a bone to pick with a raccoon who should never have taken advantage of him in such a way.

They lunged towards one another in perfect synchronisation, grappling, hands clawing at shoulders, arms, trying to get a firm hold. Using the weight and force of their bodies against one another, they leaned in, Mordecai's fingers digging into the raccoon's biceps as he howled in pain.

"Aaaaoooohhh! Ow, ow, owie!"

That was not enough to get MesMordo to back off, however - no pain, no gain! - and the blue jay pressed the attack, shoving the smaller raccoon back and back. Yet Mr. Rigbinder didn't have to stay there and be manhandled as he let go of Mordecai without any warning, the blue jay stumbling forward with the sudden absence of anything to push against.

"Argh - dude! Not cool!"

But their fight and their game was getting rougher and rougher, Mordecai turning, intending to get up on the ropes, but Rigby was too quick to run in on the offensive.

"Ki-yah - ahaha!"

The raccoon leapt in the air, bringing both knees up together to smack them into the blue jay's back, sending him flying forward onto his knees, in a double knee strike.

"Yah! Ahahahahaha!"

Mr. Rigbinder pressed the attack but MesMordo was not so weak and tired as yet that he couldn't leap back to his feet, flapping his wing-arms to get back up. The raccoon was already there, however, against him, head driving into the blue jay's chest as he head-butted him, arms going around MesMordo, forcing him into close-contact grappling.

Grappling with Mr. Rigbinder, MesMordo growled deep in the back of his throat, desperation pushing him on.

"Gahhh!"

But the raccoon was too quick, wriggling away with an agile twist of his body and using his tail to sweep MesMordo's feet out from under him. The blue jay sat heavily, butt connecting with the ground and grunted, but Rigby was too quick, getting his arms around his throat and dragging his mask away as MesMordo reeled in horror. Fight! He had to fight!

But Mr. Rigbinder had him just where he wanted him.

"Now... You are weakened!"

The unmasking was slow, as if the whole world was moving in slow-motion around the two of them, leaving MesMordo blinking - but he could not give in! Not even as the fabric trailed over his beak, the raccoon's fingers working at the knots at the back of his head that he hadn't quite freed, too hasty to see his opponent, the superhero, reduced to a citizen with no mask of power all over again. It was the source of his power, part of what kept it protected, but he could not give up! He moved quickly, his only hope that Rigby wanted to keep charging his hypno-powers to use on the city, getting in close and grabbing him in his arms.

"Ooooohhhhh!"

It was a long shot, his mask fluttering aside, no longer on his face, but one that Mordecai had to take. The raccoon was too focused on yanking the mask away from him, getting it as far away as possible, to catch him in time, the blue jay snatching up Mr. Rigbinder in a backbreaker, his back bowing wrongly and bending the poor raccoon's back on top of his knee even after he'd delivered the move.

"Owwww! MesMordo!"

The bird did not let him go, yelling, their shrieks colliding in the confines of the room, the wrestling ring still their perimeter. But he was without his mask and that forever would change the tide of things... Unless he could get Mr. Rigbinder's mask too.

"Submit! Submit!"

But no more could Mr. Rigbinder do that than give up on everything that he'd worked for as a villain for so many years, twisting out of the backbreaker by using his tail to slam up into the bird's beak. It was a dirty move but that was all the villain had left in his arsenal, so close and yet so far, in a way, from the goal that he sought out.

"Ooooohhhh!"

Rigby howled as he slammed his fist into the bird's gut but Mordecai was ready for him, grasping at the villain, hands sliding up around his head. His fingers pressed down around Mr. Rigbinder's neck, finding the pressure points that made him slump, in a sitting position while the blue jay was able to take what he needed from him.

"Now, we're on even footing..."

Slowly, the mask slipped away, fabric slithering off his head as if in a farewell caress. For a moment, the raccoon didn't know what he was doing, until he felt fresh air on the sides of his head and around his eyes, betraying the fact that he was unmasked. Rigby's gasp cut through the air but, while he was weak in shock, MesMordo cast the supervillain's mask to the side of the ring out on the wrestling apron. There, at least for a moment, it would be free of greedy, clutching fingers, the two of them on an even keel once more, both superhero and supervillain without masks. He only wished he knew just where his mask had ended up when the raccoon had hurled it away.

"Ooof... No... No!"

On his back as his muscles did not feel like they could support him anymore in the sudden, horrific absence of his mask, Rigby cursed and rolled to the side just as MesMordo was about to put his foot on his face.

"Stay still, would you!"

Mordecai's frustration showed through, only wanting to win the fight through any means possible, the raccoon rolling out of the way again and again as Mordecai strove to pin him with a foot on his face. He couldn't use his foot domination unless the darn raccoon stayed still!

Rigby scrambled to his feet, the two of them grappling, stumbling back and forth, though their energy, to be fair, was waning and fading. They could not keep up a fight at that pace for so long without tiredness getting hold of them and they toppled to the wrestling mats, twisting around, both of them trying to get the, albeit clumsy, upper hand.

"Agh!"

A scissor hold around MesMordo's neck had his eyes rolling back, the hold making him choke, the raccoon's legs pressing in tightly around his throat.

"Submit to your master!"

"Augh... Never!"

The blue jay used his greater size and bodyweight to twist aside, rolling the two of them even in the hold, making Mr. Rigbinder loosen his grip just a fraction enough for him to slide out. The raccoon, however, pressed the attack, taking advantage, Mordecai on his front and giving him the chance to get him into a camel clutch. Hooking his arms through the blue jay's, Rigby screamed as he drew him back, standing over Mordecai's back and forcing his back to bow, the move one that was not so easy to bear through.

"Yahhhhhhh!"

"Ohhhhhhhh!"

Their cries sliced through the air, mingling and twisting, Mordecai's strength failing. The pain of the hold...it was too much for him! And yet he had to hold on, panting and heaving, struggling until he remembered that, as hard as it was, he had the use of his legs and tail in that hold still. The camel clutch brutally ground him into position, a groan in the back of his throat, but he had to fight, had to wrench free, letting his weight tip forward to drag Rigby on his back towards the ground, legs slicing up as he kicked up at the same time.

"Arrrggghhh!"

The raccoon sailed through the air, twisting and sinking into the ropes, though he was not to be sent packing so quickly. He lunged back with the fire of true fury in his fists, striking in a blue, screaming all the while.

"Yaaaahhhhh! Take that, MesMordo!"

The blue jay had not yet recovered from the twisting wrench of the camel clutch but Rigby was not about to allow him time in which to recover, the blocks that Mordecai threw up hardly enough to ward off the raccoon. Already, Mr. Rigbinder's eyes glowed, threatening at using his hypno-powers. Yet he had to hold back, only to recharge, restricted to using the wrestling ring and his awesome arsenal of wrestling moves: it was, to be fair, not such a bad trade-off.

Mordecai gave a low sweep, distracting Mr. Rigbinder's eyes with a flick of his tail-feathers, but his leg did not connect as Rigby ran straight at him with his arm straight out. It would not cut across his throat but it did slam into his chest, knocking him back, the air still in his gut despite the sting across his chest.

"You fight weakly, Mr. Rigbinder - without your mask!"

The raccoon growled, riled up, though he was not in any position to say anything to that, the moment tense, crackling in the air between them. MesMordo beat on his chest, bellowing a laugh that coursed into a ragged howl, but they collided bodily again, wrestling and grappling, fingers digging for pressure points and not quite succeeding. The blue jay yelped as he got Mr. Rigbinder into a sleeper hold, his arms around the smaller raccoon's neck, squeezing and tightening, sensing victory a hair's breadth away.

"I've...uh...got you now!"

"Nooooo!" Mr. Rigbinder's eyes rolled, slipping from their game for a heartbeat of a moment. "You're...too...strong... Curse you, MesMordo!"

The bird's heart lurched. Could he really be at that point again? After all that had happened? Victory was just within his reach and his mask was not that far away - if only he could get it back on again! Having them both be unmasked put them on an even keel but he craved the soft feel of his on his feathers again. His unmasking had been too slow, too slow, enough for him to feel and miss the absence of it.

MesMordo's resolve hardened. He clung onto the raccoon as if for dear life, Mr. Rigbinder squirming, thrashing, both of them down with Mordecai on his knees behind the standing raccoon. It may not have been a conventional sleeper hold but it was such a position that the weakened MesMordo could be tossed to the side with a particularly agile twist of Mr. Rigbinder's body. The raccoon, after all, had not lost all of his abilities with his unmasking, only the sense of invulnerability that both of them held in their masks.

Masks, however, did not make either a superhero or a villain.

"You'll never win!"

Flung down onto the wrestling apron, MesMordo groaned and tried to roll out of the way, back and forth, Mr. Rigbinder trying to dominate him with his foot again. The blue jay yelped and snapped at him with his beak, though it was hardly a dangerous weapon in the grand scheme of everything at their disposal.

"Get off! Stop it!"

Mr. Rigbinder glowered, trying to trap the blue jay's head between his feet.

"Never! I'll never give in to the likes of a superhero who's fallen so hard and so far!"

MesMordo rolled again, too close to the ropes and lacking space. He had to get out, had to get away! He grasped at the raccoon's legs but they were too short and skinny to get a good grip on, fingers sliding off Mr. Rigbinder's brown fur as he tried to drag him in closer.

"Stand still!"

Like that was going to happen as Mordecai rolled, Mr. Rigbinder slamming his foot down on the apron to stop him in his tracks. MesMordo's eyes rolled up, gasping, wondering if that was it, if that was the end, Mr. Rigbinder towering over him in such a position. Yet the raccoon's other foot was already in the air, taunting the blue jay with a sickening, maddening grin.

"Time for you to go to sleep... Sleep, sleep, sleep, MesMordo..."

But that taunt in itself was his undoing, giving MesMordo just enough time to squirm away, slamming himself backwards as he got his feet under him, fighting off the raccoon's pursuit with a badly timed kick to the smaller creature's gut.

"Ooof!"

Sent sprawling back into the middle of the wrestling ring, Mr. Rigbinder sprawled, MesMordo back on his feet properly and hungry for more. Oh, he would win, he would survive, he'd be the one that came through it all.

He'd had enough of being the superhero on the bottom of Mr. Rigbinder's foot!

They traded blows, Mordecai catching Mr. Rigbinder's fist in his hand and spinning him to the side, the raccoon's body such a blur that one's eyes would have had trouble following him.

"Wooooaaaahhhh!"

He spun and spun, a blurry tornado whipping itself up into a frenzy, MesMordo unable to attack as his shoulders slumped, exhaustion overcoming him. The spinning whirlwind that was Mr. Rigbinder only came to a stop when he pinged off the ropes, flung sprawling, wobbling, trying to get up onto one knee and failing to easily get back to his feet.

"Not...done...yet...MesMordo..."

Mr. Rigbinder forced himself to get back to his feet, though the wrestling ring did not seem level around him anymore, so dizzy that even his stomach lurched back and forth, heaving viciously. He was nowhere near his full strength as he faced off against MesMordo, the two of them clearly drained, unsteady on their feet. Yet the battle was not yet won by either party as a ragged growl tore itself forth from Rigby's lips, eyes glowing, preparing to throw it all down in the showdown to end all showdowns.

"No more, MesMordo! No more!"

The blue jay could only meet the laser-rings of hypnosis spiralling from the raccoon's eyes with his own hypno-beams, the rings meeting a straight lancing of power, both glowing white as if they were red-hot. They slammed into each other in the middle of the wrestling ring, both superhero and supervillain pressed back into the ropes of the ring, bearing back, putting every last spot of their strength and energy into the hypno-blasts.

"Yaaaahhhh!"

"Aaaaahhhhh!"

They screamed, howling, grinding into one another with their hypno-powers, aches and pains rising through, though they had to do it, had to go, had to put everything down in the moment where it mattered the most.

"You'll fail, MesMordo!"

"I'm never giving in to you, Mr. Rigbinder!"

They were on even footing and yet they scooted back further and further into the ropes, the outskirts of the ring bending to the weight of their bodies. They were just too strong, too easily matched, a rise of feeling coursing through, time slowing around them as the beating of their hearts paced out the moment.

Mr. Rigbinder screaming, eyes blazing and a little bulging, strained and bloodshot. He had too much to lose and so much to gain if he won, he could not back down. MesMordo was no different to him, shoulders aching, rounding forward, even as he strained to keep his wing-arms back, bracing himself, gut trembled through with exhaustion. His stomach churned and he could not imagine being down on his knees again before Mr. Rigbinder, submitting to his foot domination all over again. It gave him strength but both had their own reasons to not want to back down, to not want to submit at all costs.

"Give...in..."

Mr. Rigbinder clenched his jaw, tipping forward, his fingers gripping the ropes. More, he had to give more, always more. There was only more for a supervillain, the greed that resided in his heart, what was written in the evil book of super evil villain manuals. He hadn't read it, of course, but he was sure it was in there! He had to fight, had to blast, their hypno-beams clashing in the middle of the wrestling ring, though MesMordo howled and bore down on him, body quivering with the strain it took to keep his body up and in place.

"Ooooooohhhhh!"

Fight, fight - keep up the fight! He forced himself on, the moment of truth upon them as their beams clashed, sometimes moving more towards Mordecai and sometimes more back towards Mr. Rigbinder. The blazing clash of their meeting sparked and crackled viciously, the shades between them indistinguishable, superhero and supervillain, for once, as one where no difference could be told.

"Must...keep...going..."

Mr. Rigbinder faltered, his foot slipping.

Mordecai's beams, however, were stronger, having something to prove back at full strength and more than eager to show that he was the superhero. The raccoon stumbled back, a look of horror crossing his face.

"Evil...never...triumphs... Yahhhh!"

He screamed as he blasted Mr. Rigbinder with the beam-strikes from his eyes, his hypno-powers having had plenty of time to charge, but there was no time even as Mr. Rigbinder howled his defeat.

"Noooo!"

He sprawled, though his body was no longer under his control. He couldn't even stand without the blue jay commanding it, the hypnosis lying heavily over him like a layer of dirt, something that pushed him down into it. He didn't know why that image came to mind - something to do with digging holes for plants, maybe, at a park.

Mr. Rigbinder shook his head. That was from another life, another reality. And he had a far more pressing one to deal with as MesMordo grabbed him by the tail, hefting him up in the air and tossing him down by the Simply Awesome Stone and the machines. Without his mask, he was helpless, the raccoon fully under his hypnosis power, limbs moving shortly and jerkily, no longer feinting at control over his own body.

"Disarm the machine! Now - do it! Stop it now!"

Although he howled and cried, the raccoon could not say "no", caught under the binding spell of hypnosis. His fingers moved without his consent and he flung himself on the ground when he was done, groaning and whining, snivelling in his defeat.

"No, please... Don't... Don't make me..."

MesMordo grinned. Time for some payback!

"Don't make you do what? You've already disarmed the machine! Now... Now, worship my muscles, Mr. Rigbinder! They're much larger and more powerful than yours! I am your better in every way - praise and worship me!"

Mr. Rigbinder shuddered, lips parting, words spilling forth in a rush and twist that he could not control.

"Oh, great MesMordo, your shoulders are so strong, they're like two cannonballs on your torso. You're so strong, your chest so wide and powerful, your pecs defined strongly under your feathers."

What was he saying? He'd never thought that! MesMordo laughed as the poor raccoon was forced to continue.

He massaged every muscle, working his fingers over the blue jay's shoulders as he spoke, his fingers squeezing the deltoid, working around to the back. It was surprising, in a way, to MesMordo that the raccoon was so good at giving massages, but that was something for the real world and real-life to understand another time.

The shoulder, the bicep, fingers pressing in and around, even using the flat of his hand to smooth and stroke down those sore muscles as MesMordo groaned. Even the triceps ached after such a vicious fight and Mr. Rigbinder was forced to pay special attention there, going more gently with fluttering, circular motions, varying the pressure as he worked his way down.

"Your biceps are huge, so strong and masculine, so much more than mine. And your abs are so tight, your six-pack so defined, everyone bows to your strength and presence, MesMordo, the power of your muscles beyond any compare."

He praised and worshipped as he massaged, his fingers working over the blue jay's chest, splaying and rubbing with the flat of his hands, using the heel of his hands too were needed for a little extra pressure. The larger muscles needed more and MesMordo grunted, shivering under the praising massage.

"Good... Good... So, supervillains can be taught too?"

MesMordo grinned, standing tall and pointing to his feet.

"Now... Praise and worship my feet. Massage them...thoroughly!"

He could only obey, getting down on his knees before the bird, massaging and squeezing them all over, working between the toes. Still standing, Mordecai was gracious enough to make the job a little easier for him by lifting his foot up, toes wriggling, forcing him to praise one at a time.

"Yes... Tell me about my feet, how much you worship them."

"Oh, I worship them, MesMordo, your strong, resilient feet that have carried you to defeat me this day. Your feet are beautiful, glorious, your foot domination power beyond any compare. Your feet should never touch the ground again as your strength is at its peak, powerful and flexible, your toes tapered to the sharp, wicked points of your talons."

He reeled from what he was saying but, of course, that was not needed. One under the spell of such hypnosis was by no means responsible for their actions.

"Yes... Good... Go on..."

And on and on Mr. Rigbinder went, massaging his feet, swapping to the other whenever MesMordo wanted, paying special attention and care to the soles, up under the heel, stroking lightly where the bone was closer to the skin around the ankle.

"Praise be the glory of your feet, MesMordo... They are so strong, carry you so far."

He massaged the underside and praised the arch, the flex of the bird's foot, commenting on how agile his toes were too, how flexible they were in gripping and simply curling around.

"These feet dominate me, MesMordo, a lowly villain."

He worked his fingers over the heel, softening the tension of the fight from them. MesMordo sighed, leaning back a little, enjoying the foot massage more than ever, the praise and the worship.

"And I thought you were a supervillain?" He mocked. "You're nothing more than a villain. That's what you said, wasn't it?"

MesMordo teased him, wriggling his toes, the raccoon easing his fingers between them, ensuring that not a single spot was left untouched. Rigby alternated the pressure as he played his fingers over the sole, working from the heel to the toes and back again, the ball of MesMordo's foot patiently receiving attention too.

"A villain, a lowly villain... The smoothness of your skin is wonderful, how powerful your feet are, your kick legendary, everything about you all-powerful as you are, as ever, all-knowing. Your power is held here, my weakness to you."

No part of his foot was left out as MesMordo relished and revelled in the attention.

"Good... Massage the other."

And, so, Rigby was forced to swap, shuddering from the humiliation. It was wrong, so wrong, but he still had to praise, still had to adore, sweeping his fingers briefly up around the ankle of the other foot and using two hands to massage, thumbs digging into the toes, working away.

"So strong, so powerful, dominant. I bow to the power of your toes, to which there is and will never be any weakness, MesMordo, MesMordo the superhero of all!"

"Yes... That will do, for now. Now... You must reveal the wrestling move that will finish you off, that will end your reign of terror here forever!"

Mr. Rigbinder gasped.

"No, I could not...

"Uh, it's a superkick! No, I didn't mean to say a superkick - it's a superkick! A superkick!"

Rigby could not even clap his hands over his muzzle to hide his horror at revealing what he'd tried to keep hidden, even then, the blue jay wasting no time. Charging up for a superkick, he drew on his powers, glowing faintly, his eyes white with no iris or pupil, screaming.

"Yeah-ya! Dance! Dance for your defeat, villain! For you are no longer a supervillain!"

Helplessly, Mr. Rigbinder leapt up onto his feet and did the macarena, the most humiliating of dances to do alone, hips shaking, swaying, twisting and turning to the beat of the song that was only in his head.

"Dancing! Dancing! Dancing for defeat!" He turned ninety-degrees, performing the dance again, howling and whimpering even through his words. "Dancing for defeat, dancing for defeat... Heyyyy, MesMordo!"

The blue jay stepped to the side, catching the raccoon at just the right moment, his eyes hopelessly glazed over. Snapping his charged leg all the way up, he lashed out, striking Rigby's chin, snapping his head back, the resounding "boom" of the strike blasting through the room.

"Yahhhhhh!"

Mr. Rigbinder crumpled to the ground and MesMordo leapt up to take his victory pose, posing with his foot on Rigby's face, squashing his snout sideways into the ground, his arms raised, bellowing.

"Yeahhhh! Come on! Come get some, get some!"

He pounded one fist on his chest and screamed out his victory, taking perhaps too much pride in all that he had done, his foot moving to the raccoon's chest, pinning him flat on his back to the ground as Mr. Rigbinder wheezed.

"Have...mercy."

But mercy was not coming as MesMordo posed again, leaning over him, fist pumping and flexing, showing off his power, for a moment such as that was sorely deserved. He shifted, finally, down the raccoon's body to his stomach, heel digging in, forcing Rigby to wheeze and gasp for breath, forced out of his diaphragm even then.

"Now..."

Mordecai loomed, smirking as he pinned his foot over Rigby's face, dominating him with his foot again. Rigby had to breathe in, trying to get his breath back, sucking gasp after gasp of the bird's foot.

He could not hold up against it, not in any way, sinking as he breathed in and out more and more slowly, the exhales lengthening more quickly.

"Ooof..."

It was too much, far too much, the bird pressing his foot down, forcing him to breathe it in.

"Breathe in and out..."

Mordecai's foot shifted to Rigby's mouth instead, though it was still close enough to this nose that he got a good inhalation of it there too. Rigby's eyelids fluttered, softening and sinking, but he was slow to fade, even without his mask. He'd gained so much power that it took time for it to fade, Mordecai swapping one foot for the other, ensuring that the raccoon got a good dose with every fresh breath.

"Yes... Breathe in...and out...now...slowly... You're breathing in the good and breathing out the evil inside you..."

Rigby blinked.

"I... I see it... I'm..."

But he didn't have the words to put to what he felt inside, the twisted wrench of his guts, whimpering as he quailed. Still, he breathed in the blue jay's foot again and again until MesMordo finally pulled away, his mask back in place to call the police. His foot stayed there for long enough to keep the raccoon from clawing his way back, his last thoughts before he fell unconscious those of all the bad he had done in the world.

And then he was out for a good while, slumbering and gaping, drool at the corner of his lips.

"Ring-ring! Ring-ring!"

Mordecai grinned.

"Hello, police."

He dug his foot into the supervillain's stomach, Mr. Rigbinder sleeping, sprawled, limp and helpless.

"Yes, yes, that's right. No, I was capturing the villain - it took some time. Arrange the cell as we discussed. He won't be able to escape this time."

The blue jay hung up from the communications device, beak twisting in a way that should not have been possible in a smirk. Although his foot moved from the raccoon's stomach, no longer taking that victory pose, the raccoon was still out, allowing Mordecai to heave him up into a sitting position, though he needed to prop his shoulder up against the wall.

"Unnff..."

Rigby moaned, head lolling forward, lips moving without an understandable sound coming out. MesMordo frowned. Was the fiend waking up already? His hypno-power must not have ploughed into him strongly enough, but that could be easily rectified.

"Ohhhh, I see, you're trying to wake up, thinking you can get back to a life of crime? I'm afraid to say, Rigbinder, you're going to jail. Ooooohhhh!"

He howled, pointing at the raccoon's chest, charging his power, glowing faintly all over again.

"More strength... More power! This super kick will knock you down and out all the way to jail!"

Truthfully, Mr. Rigbinder was not in the present moment enough to understand what MesMordo was doing, a passive player in his own life as the blue jay got him up on his feet, however wobbly he was.

"This will be my most powerful, most awesome super kick ever! Oooohhh!"

Smirking, he struck a pose, rapping while his power charged.

"Weak and fallen

Prison is callin',

Time to superkick

A villain back in just a tick!"

Mr. Rigbinder groaned, swaying and tilting from side to side, hardly able to stay upright. It was not a fair fight but MesMordo was not about things being fair when he was sending a villain to jail, crying out as he raised his foot, everything moving in slow-motion. The raccoon had no hope of fighting back, swaying on the spot, dazed and not even sure of what was going on.

"Yyyyaaaahhhhh!"

However, it was not a powerful superkick, even if it may have felt like that to Mr. Rigbinder. The blue jay's foot connected with his muzzle but hardly did anything, toes covering Mr. Rigbinder's eyes and the rest of his foot pinned across the raccoon's mouth. It was hardly a kick at all even as he put his foot down with a grin, watching just what the raccoon would do.

Wobbling, he swayed back and forth, groaning, though he'd felt the impact. Without even really being present in his own reality, the raccoon gave a low, deep groan, falling back into unconsciousness, his legs buckling, any strength that being awake had given him fading in the blink of an eye.

"Oops - got you!"

For he was not the kind of superhero that would see an enemy fall, even if he didn't particularly like Mr. Rigbinder. Who would? Well, he did in another world but that was just to the point that he didn't want to see him hurt, catching him before he fell and lowering his body over his shoulder.

"Got you! You can relax now, I've got you. You'll not need any of this when you're in a good life, not a life of crime."

He exhaled, carrying the raccoon over his shoulder, slung back there as if he weighed nothing at all.

"Time to take you to jail! There'll be no evil for you to do in there, Mr. Rigbinder, but maybe you'll reconsider this life after some time for reflection!"

Walking jauntily out of the hideout, he laughed and took pride in the power he'd regained, stepping out into the daylight, night having come and gone and dawn long broken. With the warmth of the rays brushing his feathers, he knew that he'd done the right thing.

But it had been one hell of a showdown!

*

"Right... Mordecai! Rigby! I've got two tasks for you."

Benson frowned, expecting the two of them to grumble, which, of course, they did. Sprawled on the grass, Mordecai groaned.

"Aw, dude.... Two? Why are you pushing us so hard?"

"Yeah, why, Benson? Why you pushing us so hard? Two is like...so much effort!"

Their supervisor scowled, a guy who was also a gumball machine and the park's manager, everyone used to him being.

"They're really easy jobs, even for you. One of you has to go set up the chairs. The other can get the doughnuts. Simple? Right? You can manage that...right?"

"Ugh!"

They stormed off without answering him, but they knew that the job had to be done regardless or else they didn't get paid. It was just as well that they got lodging at the park, even if they had to share their room with each other. Huffing and stomping over to the music playing area, a small stage that could be set up for visiting bands, they groaned and made a scene of it.

"Urgh, we have to split it to get it all done in time!"

"I know, dude! It's, like, so much work!"

But it still had to be done, regardless. But who had to set up the chairs and who got the far superior job of getting doughnuts?

"Dude... The superhero should get to go!"

"What? Nuh-uh! It's the supervillain's job to get doughnuts!"

Facing off, they grinned.

"Then let's see who wins in the battle of good against evil! Winner gets the doughnuts!"

Rigby lunged, fists flying.

"Ahhh! Throat cut! Scissor kick! Superkick, superkick, superkick!"

He acted out the moves as he screamed them, fists and feet flying, though he was no supervillain and most certainly not a real wrestler either. Mordecai dodged, leaning dramatically to the side, back bending, eyes wide.

"Ooohhhh! You'll never touch me!"

Mordecai "fought" back with a pounce, jumping up onto the stage and using that to give himself leverage to spring off and come down on the raccoon. But he aimed as if he was dropping his knee into Rigby's gut too, the raccoon acting as if he had felt the full force of it.

"Oooof! You got me!"

Rigby sprawled, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, leaving Mordecai to laugh and stand tall, hands on his hips, posing.

"And that is why good always triumphs over evil!"

There was only one way to finish, Rigby clawing his way back up, Mordecai sinking back to put all his weight on one leg, the other snapping up, striking high - the best superkick of them all!

He didn't even put the full power behind his leg but Rigby acted out the impact from it with flailing, the bowing of his body away from where the "kick" had landed on his throat.

"Noooo!"

He sprawled back, defeated, and Mordecai took up his rightful position, posing with his foot on Rigby's chest.

"Ooooooh, the victor!"

So it was in the battle of good and evil, traversing to the real world. Yet there would always be evil and there would always be good and there would always be another game for Mordecai and Rigby to take on in the lines where reality crossed over into fantasy and play.

The alternate end, Mr. Rigbinder wins.

Alas, it was not the time for Mordecai to face his redemption as the circular hypno-beams lasering out from the raccoon's eyes forced him back and back, step by step. Still, he did not give in, not even when his back was forced up against the wall, screaming, raising his hands, knowing that he couldn't cut off the raccoon in time.

"Noooo!"

"Yeahhhhh! Oh, yeah!"

Mr. Rigbinder blasted the blue jay with his hypno-beams, stripping him, humiliatingly, once again, of his power.

"Ohhhh, MesMordo is no mor-do! Ooooohhhhhh!"

Rigby laughed, his hypnosis trapping MesMordo in place.

"No..." MesMordo's eyes bulged as he struggled as if against invisible bonds. "Don't... Don't do it!"

"Turn it on! The machine! Hypnotise everyone, everyone, I say!"

And all MesMordo could do was what he had sought to avoid all along, the machine blaring out its power, lancing across the city in a spiderweb of hypnosis, controlling every last soul there even if they did not know that that was what was happening to them. Eyes glazed over even as they went about their daily business and there was nothing they could do about it, not even then.

MesMordo dropped to his knees, the raccoon's hypnosis overpowering him. What was even the point of fighting back when the worst of the deeds was already done? He hung his head, the raccoon seeming to tower, despite being naturally much shorter than him.

"Yes! Now, everyone is in my control!" He flexed and posed, raising his arms above his head. "Worship me! Worship my muscles, my biceps!"

MesMordo trembled. Oh, the humiliation... He hadn't been able to save anyone.

"Your biceps are so big, so strong, so powerful," he intoned, his voice glimmering with warm adoration that he did not truly mean. "You're so strong, so dominant, your muscles giving you everything. Even your pecs are so powerful that I want to lay my head on them, give in to your power, let you take everything from me. You can take everything from me, have everything, just let me praise and worship you and your muscles forever, oh great supervillain of all time."

MesMordo grunted, shaking his head, but the hold of hypnosis was too strong for him to fight back against. Grinning, Mr. Rigbinder pointed to the ground, forcing Mordecai to lie there, and proceeding to sit on his chest, flexing and posing, letting him get a good view of his biceps.

"Yes, yes... That's right! Tell me how big and muscly they are! How awesome my biceps are! Massage them! My muscles!"

MesMordo grunted, the weight of the raccoon on his chest heavier than it usually was. Had he gained weight? He could not say that, however, leaving Mr. Rigbinder to revel in every drop of power he held over the blue jay. His fingers traced the outline of the raccoon's biceps, his feathery fingers digging in where Rigby was able to take more pressure from the massage.

"Your biceps flex so well, they are what has truly overpowered me. I should never have fought back against you, just needing to take a stand... I didn't know what I was doing, I should have bowed down to your glorious biceps from the beginning, should never have fought you."

He didn't mean what he was saying but the hypnosis washing over him, humiliating him even more, made him feel as if the words were real even as they spilt forth more and more readily from his lips. His fingers worked away, knowing what to do even if he was not in control of his body, pressing down on Rigby's pectorals, his abdominals, working their way up to his shoulders, rubbing and stroking, taking longer, smoother strokes that the raccoon could not help but lean into.

"Your biceps are thick and strong and I worship them, yes, day and night, everything you do, the grandmaster villain of all times."

Of course, it was the biceps that took the most of the massage, the sorest and most powerful of them all, the bird's mind slipping. Did he really believe what he was saying as he massaged those? He felt them out, bigger than his, stronger than his, everything about the raccoon stronger, massaging and praising, hopelessly out of his will.

Mr. Rigbinder grinned, sitting back on the bird's stomach and pushing his feet up to Mordecai's beak.

"Gooooood... Continue! Worship my feet, massage them!"

Oh, that was something that the bird was all too familiar with, even though it was hardly a position that he wanted to be in. He groaned and shook his head but his beak was there, breathing in the raccoon's feet, succumbing further, falling and fading.

"Your feet are wonderful, carrying you to victory even when all you have to do is levitate. Your power is immense, the strength of your foot domination beyond all compare. I don't know why I ever thought I could stand up against you, oh mighty one, the supervillain to command all of our times."

He massaged those feet as if there was nothing else left for him in the world, fingers sliding between the toes, working all the tensions of the fight and the night from Rigby's feet. The raccoon sighed, leaning back on his hands to balance himself, perfectly comfortable sitting on top of Mordecai, though the blue jay would have had something to say about that if he had been allowed. He groaned and tried to shake his head but even that tiny act of defiance was taken from him, rubbing those feet, thumb sliding over and around the arch, caressing the sole, feeling out the tension in the heel.

"So wonderful, so glorious, it is an honour to serve you and your feet, Mr. Rigbinder, keep me here forever."

The raccoon laughed and stood, posing with just the one foot up on Mordecai's stomach.

"Oh, yeah? Then take this! And this!"

He wasn't actually doing anything to the bird but posing, taking a shot with a floating drone-camera from every angle possible, his foot on MesMordo's stomach as he flexed, posing, acting out his victory. He leaned forward, rounding and rolling his shoulders, letting the muscle in his arms ripple in full show, flexing all ways, his foot moving to the bird's beak to give him another quick and heady dose of foot domination, forcing his submission however he pleased.

"Ooooohhhh!"

Mr. Rigbinder howled as he pressed his foot down on Mordecai's beak, finally ending up with his right foot proudly up on MesMordo's chest, splayed out there with his toes wriggling.

"I am the champion of them all! Oooohhhh!"

MesMordo blinked, groaning, the hypnotised part of his mind forcing his beak to move as he "agreed".

"You are the champion, the best of the best. All should bow to your power!"

Mr. Rigbinder left him and collected his mask, a smirk on his lips. It slid back into place where it belonged, stomping a foot at the same time and snapping his fingers.

"You! My steed! Get on all fours and act like a horse!"

"Hurhurhur - neeeiiigh!"

Without thinking about the command, Mordecai got onto all fours, "rearing" up onto his knees, though it didn't feel like a natural position for him to take. Not much would ever again feel natural to him ever again as Mr. Rigbinder took control, making him "snort" like a horse and prance back and forth, his tail-feathers swishing from one side to the other as if the feathers there were actually the long hairs of a horse's tail.

"Excellent!"

MesMordo hardly knew what he was doing as he jolted back and forth, Mr. Rigbinder setting up a camera, the TV screens showing him and MesMordo in the background, pawing at the ground and flicking his tail-feathers just like a horse.

"Here - get under me!"

The "tough guy" raccoon who had "tamed" the saviour of the city stood on his back to make his announcement, the evillest of all evil grins slashed across his lips as he "informed" the city of the grand feat he'd accomplished.

"Citizens! I am your new ruler! Say it too, MesMordo - say it!"

"Yes - yes! He is your ruler, your master! And what a glorious, wonderful master of the city he is!"

Mr. Rigbinder smiled.

"That's better. All will be under my command, my citizens! And I am coming out to see you right now! Better be ready to worship meeeee!"

He laughed and giggled, rocking back and forth, MesMordo adjusting his stance on all fours while Rigby stood on his back so that he would not fall off. No, no, no, he couldn't have his master falling, that would never do. He couldn't have that, no.

"Steed! Take me into the city! Now!"

He may have had no bridle but MesMordo obeyed his every whim and command, "galloping" out of the hideout and down to the city, charging into the heart of it and letting everyone see just how far he had fallen. His skin prickled with the heat of humiliation, paraded about like the fallen superhero that he was, everyone crying out their worship to Mr. Rigbinder, his power, his strength, his everything.

MesMordo groaned. He'd tried his best.

Evil had triumphed but there was no telling just how good may rise up against it again.

*

"You guys! Here's your list - don't take long about it now! They'll be here in an hour!"

"Aw, dude, an hour? That's not enough time!"

MesMordo groaned, stomping off with Rigby as they left Benson grumbling about their attitudes, heading off through the park to do what was needed. There was a big event being held at the park that day and, of course, it was the chairs that needed setting up again along with something about getting donuts for the kids?

"Ugh, a kids party? That's lame! I don't want a load of smelly kids around here!" Rigby groaned, dragging down at the undersides of his eyes to pull the lower eyelid down. "Gah! We're never going to do it in time!"

"If we split the chores, we can get it done," Mordecai said, though the glint in his eye told another tale. "Though I still have to get you back for the evil Mr. Rigbinder winning against MesMordo!"

"Yahhhh! You'll never beat me! I own you, MesMordo!"

Rigby was too easily persuaded to skive off work, if only for a short time, stomping and howling, challenging Mordecai head-on. Who wanted to set-up stinking chairs when they could play their game anyway?

"Ahhhh! Superkick!"

That was Mordecai but his superkick was played out in slow-motion, the blue jay making the "action sounds" as he went.

"Aaaoooo... Kiii-yahhh!"

His kick dropped into a low sweep as Rigby dodged quickly, a glint in his eye, but he was in the persona of Mr. Rigbinder, even if he could not really levitate.

"You're going down, MesMordo! Spinning fist, spinning fist!"

Rigby twisted, though his outstretched arm, held horizontally, was not as high as it should have been with an opponent who was of a more even height to him. It ploughed into the blue jay's stomach as he snapped his body, in the spin, neatly to the side, though there was no true force behind it as they acted out the scene.

Buckling, Mordecai's gut sank in, flying backwards.

"Nooooo!"

It was all an act, even as Rigby tackled him while he was on the ground, wrenching his arms around the blue jay's neck to put him in a sleeper hold, from behind, again. The blue jay flailed, stretching out his arms and legs, but it was his fate to be overpowered by the great and wonderful Mr. Rigbinder, hacking and gagging and choking as if the sleeper hold was actually having an effect on him.

"Ah... He's too...strong!"

Collapsing, Mordecai gave in, flat out on the ground while Rigby took a victory pose with one foot up on the blue jay's chest, head thrown back in a howl.

"Ooooohhhh!"

Their game of good and evil would go on, disrupting daily life regardless of what others had to say about it. The chairs may or may not get stacked but the two of them would feel, in the end, that they had a story to tell from it.

And a little topper for the greatest showdown of them all