"...and so that is what happened!"

The sheddings seemed disturbed by the news Gren presented them with, rustling about and arguing loudly. Of course, Brahkus was the first to shout through the chaos. "Does this mean we may kill the corpse?"

That was enough to get every centipede huddled in the sizable cave to stare at Gren. Scratching at his jaw with a mandible, he thought about it for a moment. After discovering the corpse's sudden change in personality and unexpected no-longer-deadness, Gren had decided that it was not sufficient to bring to Nahma, but too much to ignore. He'd settled for the middle ground and brought it to the rest of the family, which left him in the present.

"Possibly." He admitted, and the assembled sheddings looked at each other with excitement. Gren hastily continued, "However! We must find the people the fake corpse was talking to and catch them!"

Taeko raised an antenna, and the sheddings around her fell silent. Tiny she might be, but she had a name from Bain and that was more than most of them. "How do we find them?"

Gren pointed one of his own antennae at her. "You have the weird seeing ability. What is the best option?"

She seemed startled by the sudden shift in the spotlight as the sheddings turned to her, and she shrank down. Brahkus raised his voice, crawling over some of his brethren in order to garner attention. "Gren! Taeko is small and her power is smaller. What can she do?"

Gren whacked him. "The Bestmonster says she is good! He even allowed her a night's rest with him." The sheddings were amazed at that. The sheddings always slept near Bain, whether inside the walls, invisibly on the windows, or just surrounding the building to make sure he was safe. But Bain had let Taeko go to sleep in his bed?

Brahkus shut up and let Taeko move forward. The small shedding closed her eyes, antennae casting about. "I can't see very clearly. But I can see a very big hat and a long coat."

About half of the sheddings in the room gave each other meaningful glances. Not all of them were aware of the existence of He Of Many Eyes, including Brahkus, and Gren wanted to keep it that way. The villain persona had been proving extremely useful! As Many Eyes, they had claimed Bain's territory as their own, and the underground criminals stayed away from it because of that! Aside from the crazy gravity lady, almost no problems had arisen.

Gren lifted an antenna. "We shall think on this! Good night." The sheddings nodded, some of them thinking about improvements that could be made to the Bestmonster's territory and some wondering what they were going to eat. The rest knew exactly where to slide to.

Slipping through space, Gren fell onto the concrete floor of the Many Eyes base. It was deep underground, with no doors or lights. A large number of sheddings crawled along every surface, taking calls, fixing weapons, building body armor, making hats and coats, or just chatting to each other over a cooked rat. The base had been hastily built and improved over time, and was now more than capable of supporting up to three thousand sheddings at a time. They even had a rat nest nearby for snacks!

Gren made his way over to a dome-shaped piece of metal, thrust his head back, and proceeded to headbutt it. It released a sonorous sound, alerting all of the sheddings present. Shaking the mild dizziness away, Gren shouted, "We need a Many Eyes body! I will be the mouthpiece."

A dozen sheddings promptly volunteered for body and limb control, and a coat and hat were acquired. While darkness was appreciated, Many Eyes was perfectly capable of operating under daylight. They needed a bit more coverings to look like a proper humanish being, but it turned out villains only barely needed to be humans. A handy fact to be aware of for sure.

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Once the body was ready, Gren linked his legs with the sheddings in the coat alongside him and made his way to an array of mirrors. The outfit looked fine, so he took a breath and slid everyone to the black market.

The black market was also underground, but was significantly larger and designed for humans. It consisted largely of tunnels bigger than Nahma's, lined with shops and villains. The atmosphere was quite loud, what with all the mechs and tanks and machines Gren didn't know the names of driving around. A few people jumped as Gren appeared, but walked away muttering words under their breath that Gren knew he wasn't supposed to repeat.

Ruffling his coat, Gren headed for the place he was most familiar with here.

The Court was made up of the eight most powerful villains in Centropolis. Gren wasn't quite on their level on his own, but as more Many Eyes appeared in a fight, their combined power was enough to make the list. If he was completely honest, he couldn't remember all of the Court's names, but he was only after one of them for the time being.

As he headed towards the door guarded by two men, someone brushed up against him. As they touched him, they braced themselves and tried to ram him over. He was made of more than one body, and so the sheddings just moved around the impact. The person stumbled forward, not expecting the lack of resistance, and fell to the ground. Gren didn't bother paying attention to them, opting to continue forward.

The person stumbled to her feet, red-faced. "Hey, who do you think you are?" Gren paused, looking her up and down. She had interesting clothing and metal wrapped around her forearms, but otherwise wasn't very interesting. He chose not to respond and kept walking. Striding up to him, she tried to place a hand on his shoulder. "Don't ignore me! Do you have any idea who I-"

One of the sheddings sprang from the back of Many Eyes' 'neck' just above the coat's neckline, wrapping around the lady's neck and glaring at her. Gren leaned forward, and the lady was lifted off the ground, eyes wide as she struggled to pull the shedding's grip away. All of the sheddings took a breath, having practiced this line several times, and spoke in unison. "Do not bother me."

The shedding loosened its grip and dropped her to the ground, sliding back into Many Eyes' coat and vanishing beneath it. The lady rubbed her neck carefully, staring in shock at Many Eyes as he walked away. It was annoying to be rude, but kindness was not recommended in the black market.

The armed guards recognized Many Eyes and stood aside, respectfully pulling the door open. He walked between them, gratefully tilting his hat in their direction. One of them even smiled.

The Courtroom's name belied its actual construction. It more or less resembled a very expensive hotel, albeit octagonally shaped, and was lavishly decorated with gold and diamonds and a lot of rubbish that could be easily found in Nahma's tunnels. Only one of the Court was in the main room, flicking through his phone, and it was the one Gren would mind killing the least.

Bulk was big. It was a pathetic description, but an adequate one. He was at least half-again as tall as Many Eyes, and Gren had ensured that the height of the sheddings' collective persona was not short in the slightest. He wasn't fat, but he was far from lean at the same time. Gren knew his abilities inside and out, just in case the sheddings were ever given the command to kill him. He was very strong and very tough, but not tough enough that Goodest's antennae-blades wouldn't sever his limbs like a wet napkin.

He looked up as Many Eyes entered and grimaced. "Ugh, the bug returns. Why you come back, bug?"

Gren tried to ignore him, steering Many Eyes towards Clarity's room. Bulk stood up, putting his thick phone in his pocket. "Hey. Bug. I'm talking to you."

Taking great care to ensure that Many Eyes' pace neither increased nor decreased, Gren made his way over to Clarity's door and placed a centipede on the handle. Bulk's hand landed on his shoulder at the same time, and he leaned in. "Yo. You gonna talk back, or am I gonna hafta make you scream?"

Gren closed his eyes, inwardly repeating all the reasons why it would be a terrible idea to kill Bulk in the black market. Loss of information, ruined reputation for Many Eyes, possibly injuries dealt to the sheddings and bystanders. It would only take a minute, he told himself, but logic finally beat annoyance, and he started to turn the handle.

Bulk's breath was smelly in Gren's ear. "You gonna scurry back ta Rampage's territory? Suck up to the freakshow until he scoots and lets ya take over?"

Many Eyes took his hand off the door handle.

"I tried." Gren said simply.

The Courtroom descended into chaos approximately half a second later.