"We should reach Metropolis in another hour," Julie said.

"Good, I could do with some grub," Pat said from the passenger seat, adjusting the sling on her left arm.

"We're not too far from Dakota City either," Xander noted as he played cards with Jo who he was almost positive was cheating. He laid out his cards on the table. "Two pairs, aces and sevens."

"Royal Flush," Jo said, spreading her cards out. "I win again."

"Come on," Xander groaned.

"I prefer in," Jo replied, getting up and grabbing his hand before leading him back to the bedroom.

The door closed behind the pair and Pat asked Julie, "See any good burger joints along the way?"

"It's going to take several days to reach it," Julie replied, "we've got to cross half the country. So, yes there are many burger joints along the way. I would really suggest we find a nice steak house instead."

"Hard to cut steak properly with a busted limb," Pat explained, "but I can eat a burger easy."

"How about a burrito?" Julie asked. "A good steak burrito already has the meat cut up and is easy to handle with one hand."

Pat's stomach growled loudly. "Sounds just about perfect," she said.

Julie took the next exit and drove into Scrantanville, a small town but one that was big enough to have at least a couple of the major fast food restaurants.

"Taco Bell or Taco Tico?" Pat asked.

"Taco Tico," Julie said, "they are a smaller chain so they work harder to stay competitive."

"Works for me," Pat said as Julie pulled into the parking lot and parked across an entire row of parking spots so it would be easier to get out.

"Want me to come in?" Pat asked.

"No, I can handle it, you rest," Julie said, retrieving her purse and hopping out. She shivered a little in the cold, dry air as she crossed the lot.

"Make way for the Overlord," a young voice called out as she opened the door. She turned and a young boy dressed in black spiky armor entered the restaurant while she was holding the door.

"All hail the Overlord!" the staff and the few customers called out as the young boy marched up to the counter.

"One Overlord special," the cashier announced and the staff jumped into action, acting like it was the most important thing in the world, while Julie watched, wondering just what was going on.

The order was quickly assembled and handed to the young boy. "Your Overlord is pleased," he said quickly, making the staff beam and the customers applaud.

After the young boy left, Julie had to ask, "What did I just see?"

"The Scrantonville Overlord," one of the customers said with a grin. "He's done wonders for our town."

"Tourism?" she guessed.

"No," the man shook his head. "See, our Overlord was just a nice normal boy in a dying small town when his metagene activated."

"Mind control?" Julie guessed.

"Nah, some kind of advanced planning ability," he said. "He could see how things ought to be run, but he could also see that simply telling people wasn't going to do it."

"I know how it is," she said.

"Right, so he made a costume and 'attacked' one of our failing businesses, forcing them to rearrange their store and rewiring all the electronics in the place. When I say force, I mean he did all the work for almost a month while the drunk who owned the place and his teen daughter watched, amused. But at the end of the month the place had turned a profit for the first time in six years and had their utility costs cut by half."

"Impressive," Julie said.

"The next shop he hit didn't even put up a fight, they jumped straight into obeying, seeing what he'd done for the Haskells and sure enough they started seeing results too," the man continued. "By the end of the year, we were no longer a dying small town."

"Don't forget the town ordinances he passed," the woman next to the man said.

"He also made changes to the local government," the man said. "There were some complaints when he committed crimes, but he pointed out that no one could blame the police force for not stopping a super villain as they had neither the weapons nor the training. The Sheriff just nodded and agreed, telling the City Council there was really nothing he could do."

"The complainers were sacked in a surprise vote of no confidence," the woman added with a grin.

"And with his terrible grip on the town complete, he made more changes, suggesting to the mayor that since they had a supervillain, they were now eligible for quite a few grants and programs from the federal government," the man said, smirking.

"Which explained some of the flashy crimes he'd committed and made sure were in the papers," the woman said as they reached the front of the small line and she placed their order.

"Hopefully he extends his grasp to the next town over soon, they haven't been doing too well," the man said.

"What can I get you, Ma'am?" the cashier asked.

"I need fifty steak burritos, double the meat, and cut the beans down to a quarter," Julie ordered.

"Fifty?" the cashier asked, just to make sure.

"Fifty," Julie assured him, "And six large Cokes." She handed him two hundred dollars.

"A third of them will have to be chicken unless you want to wait for half an hour while we defrost and prepare more steaks," the cashier said, ringing it up.

"That's fine," Julie agreed.

The order was quickly assembled as the staff worked with clock-like precision, never getting in each other's way as they moved.

She opened up one of the burritos and checked the quality as she saw them use what appeared to be a heat lamp rather than a grill or microwave to cook the meat, but it was fully cooked.

"Your order is ready," the cashier said, before Julie had even finished eating her burrito.

"You guys work fast," she complimented them.

"The Overlord was kind enough to update our training manuals and our equipment," the cashier explained.

"Nice to see someone is using their powers properly," Julie said, wrapping what was left of her burrito and accepting her order.

When she reached the parking lot, she found Xander arguing with the 'Overlord'.

"I have no idea how you figured it out, but I'm not going to make clones of some kid I just met," Xander said. "Sorry."

"But with two of me I could get twice as much work done, not to mention the additional benefits of having someone with a similar viewpoint who I can synergize my actions with," the boy argued.

"Food!" Pat exclaimed as Julie stepped past them to pass out drinks and placed the large bag on the table.

"You should probably help him," Julie said, before unwrapping her burrito to finish it off.

"Duplicating a kid on his way to a costume party is not exactly the responsible thing to do," Xander said.

"He's not on his way to a costume party," Julie said, "he's a meta with mental enhancements that he used to revitalize the town. I talked to some of the people inside and they all raved about how wonderful he was and how they hoped he'd expand his territory, as the next town over is having some hard times."

"Water rationing from the major cities has hit them hard," the 'Overlord' said. "I've done what I can to arrange for excess water from my town to supplement their reservoir, but I need to study the problem in depth and I'm pressed for time. The local water board has agreed with my proposals, but there isn't enough capital in the local economy to make the needed changes yet, that's why I need a clone."

"Well…" Xander considered it. "If the kid actually had the resources to take care of additional family members without putting a strain on their finances and they were doing good already…"

"If you're assisting the heroes, as everything I've managed to gather on you says you are, I'm willing to use my abilities to help," the young boy volunteered.

"He's supposed to have super planning abilities," Julie offered.

"Actually it's more of a general evolutionary jump with additional assorted abilities centered around co-operative system interactions," the Overlord offered. He sighed when he saw they didn't understand. "Super planning is as good a name as any."

"Alright," Xander said, "I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Let's use the bedroom so no one can hear us and I don't get arrested for spawning a naked kid in the street."

"I'm almost a teen," the Overlord said firmly as he went to the back bedroom with Xander.

After the bedroom door had closed, Jo asked, "So the kid decided to take over the town and no one's called the capes?"

"The locals love him, he made their life better," Julie said, "and not just in general. He went from store to store and then block to block I'm guessing."

"Then why the whole Overlord thing?" Pat asked, before taking a sip of her soda while Jo unwrapped another burrito for her.

"I know of at least two reasons and who knows how many more he has, if he really does have super planning," Julie said. "As Overlord, he doesn't have to work within the law to get things done, cutting through all the red tape, and since he's a known public supervillain, it means the local government could get federal funds to handle him."

"Funds that he used to further the goal of improving the town," Jo said with a grin. "Smart kid."

"Super smart," Pat pointed out. "And how did you find all this out while just buying burritos? Seems kinda… suspicious."

"If he's good enough to find out what we're doing, when I'm not even sure Xander knows, then he's obviously smart enough to have planned that," Julie replied.

"And what if he's evil and it's all a plot?" Pat asked.

"Then Xander will find out while making his clone," Julie replied. "Most of the Xanatos types require you to play some deeper game, I'm more of a 'poke it and see what happens' type of girl, it's a lot more relaxing."

"Explosions are fun and fire is pretty?" Jo asked with a smirk.

"Exactly," Julie agreed with a grin. "I didn't steal jewels because it was the most profitable option I had."

"Truth," Jo said.

Xander came out of the bedroom with the Overlord and a male and female clone of the kid.

"So is he evil?" Julie asked.

"No, he's on the up and up," Xander said. "His mind is way complex, but his intent is pretty pure."

"We have a lot of work to do," the Overlord said. "Thanks for the clothes."

The other two gave a wave, wearing oversized sweat pants and shirts as they left.

"Did he help with the plan?" Julie asked.

"Quite a bit," Xander said. "I'm still not saying what it is, but our plans have changed a bit. We have to hit Dakota City first."

"That's easy enough," Julie said, "it's just a couple of hours away."

"And it's not too far from Metropolis, so we can probably get this done and Pat healed in just a couple of days," Xander said.

"A couple of days?" Julie asked. "Are we taking a plane?"

"A plane?" Xander asked confused.

"Yeah," Julie said, "Metropolis is all the way over on the West Coast and we've just left the East."

Xander sighed. "I forgot it did that."

"What did what?" Jo asked.

"If I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy," Xander replied, grabbing a couple of burritos.

Jo looked over at Julie and shrugged. "We already think you're crazy."

"Fine," Xander said, unwrapping a burrito, "Metropolis moves and then everyone remembers it always being wherever it is."

"That's not the craziest thing you've ever said." Pat encouraged him. "I mean, it's still nutso, but not all that bad."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence on my growing sanity," Xander said, before taking a bite of his food.

"All that matters is that you are improving," Julie teased.

"Ha ha, it is to laugh," Xander replied in his best Bugs Bunny impersonation.

"So how is it you remember if we don't?" Jo asked.

"I'm not from around here," Xander replied, "you all know that. It could be from that or maybe because I'm from Sunnydale, I have no idea."

"What matters is you believe it," Julie said in an overly comforting tone, before bursting out laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Xander said with a grin as they laughed, "but you're the one driving. So, you'll be the one that is going to be behind the wheel while we drive randomly across the US."

"I'll pick up a hitchhiker and make them drive," Julie said seriously.

"I can drive," Jo reminded them.

"No," the others chorused.

"What's wrong with my driving?!" Jo demanded.

"Five minutes behind the wheel and you tried to run a bus full of nuns off the road," Xander reminded her. "A bus full of nuns!"

"They were driving thirty in the fast lane!" Jo snapped back. "They were just begging to meet god. If anything, I was just helping them get where they wanted to go."

Pat turned to Julie. "Just make sure they aren't carrying an axe, okay?"

"That's fair," Julie agreed.

Typing By: Abyssal Angel