Bain woke up with a start, launching himself out of the hole he'd dug for himself with a massive grin on his face. He spun around and saw Nahma gently dozing near him, eyes closed. "Nahma!" The centipede's countless eyes snapped open, and one of his antennae scythed to the side and smashed Bain into the wall, sending dust raining from the ceiling. Bain coughed from the impact, but was otherwise fine. "Good morning!"

The centipede stood up on his three-tiered legs and shook the kinks out of his body, the motion rippling back along his body and out of sight. "Why did you wake me up? Is there a threat?"

Bain shook his head, still excited. "No, I'm going to be accepted as a hero's sidekick today!"

Nahma's head tilted, the multitude of eyes blinking in synchronicity. "I presume that is a step up the food chain towards the job you've been wanting?"

Bain nodded happily. "It really is - but I've got to get there by nine, so I've really got to get moving. I'll see you in a few hours!"

He sprinted off, a trail of dust rising behind him. Nahma watched him anxiously, wondering if he should warn him about the variety of dangerous-looking superhumans wandering the first floor. They were giving his sheddings some trouble. He'd probably have to send up a few of the larger ones, maybe even a senior shedding.

Oh well, Bain could handle himself. He'd be fine.

Meanwhile, Bain had blasted through six floors with remarkable speed, only pausing to eat a mutated rat the size of a Great Dane, breakfast being the most important meal of the day and all that. He didn't know how the rats kept showing up - Nahma and him had been eating them for quite a while and the population only seemed to be getting bigger.

He heard a slight noise, and paused, trying to hear it again. It was a few moments before he recognized it. Someone, probably a lot of someones based on the sound, was fighting on the surface floor. Alert, he charged up the tunnel, not sure what to expect.

What he didn't expect was to see the heroes Firepower and Fancy DeMancy battling a small army of Nahma's sheddings. Firepower was one of the higher-ranking heroes, a muscular man decked in red leather and fringes designed to look like flames with a welding mask modified to look like a motorcycle helmet. He honestly looked like the sort of biker who turned out to be really nice, but the fireballs flying from his hands were anything but pleasant, with his red hair styled to look like fire. Fancy, on the other hand, was dressed in a blue tuxedo with a matching domino mask, and was fighting with what appeared to be an incredibly sharp tie. His phenomenally styled black hair was slicked back, and his ice-blue eyes were focused on the insects surrounding them.

The sheddings looked quite similar to Nahma, although they weren't anywhere near his monolithic size and tended to adapt to the situation. In this case, they were developing a fireproof layer over a rapidly thickening shell that looked extraordinarily tough.

There was a sudden silence as everyone present saw Bain, and the sheddings flooded towards him en masse, covering the walls as they hid behind him, a wall of eyes staring at the invaders. One of the larger ones, about nine feet long, whispered into his ear in a tone of immense annoyance. "They won't leave, Bain! Get rid of them!"

The two heroes raised their weapons and fists, and Bain raised all of his arms in an unmistakable gesture of peace. Firepower narrowed his eyes at the formidable opponent, not expecting him to speak.

"Do you need something?"

The two heroes looked at each other, then back at Bain. Fancy was the first to speak. "I take it you're their leader?"

Bain shook his head, trembling slightly. "No, I'm their leader's adopted son. I'm also a huge fan." 

The heroes simply looked at him for a moment, then Firepower asked seriously, "Is this a joke?"

Bain shook his head, still shaking gently. "No, I'm serious. You're both in the top twenty in terms of popularity and you've saved over a thousand people between the two of you - Firepower's fight with Boogeyman was epic, and Fancy's fashion line just went international, right? If I wore clothes, I'd probably be wearing your merchandise."

Fancy tucked his tie back into his suit, the fabric softening as he did so. "I know a fan when I hear one. He's serious."

The flames wrapped around Firepower's hands extinguished, and he shook his head. "Good grief, what's a monster like you doing down here? And what's up with the centipedes?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Bain fidgeted with his claws nervously, sparks coming off them. "I've lived here my whole life. As for the centipedes, did you attack them or did they attack you first?"

The heroes exchanged a glance, with Fancy looking a little smug. "I thought that we shouldn't have started a fight." 

Firepower brushed it off, concentrating on the situation. "Who's the boss, then? We need to have a talk about appropriate sidekicks."

Bain tilted his head uncertainly. "Well, he's more like their father, in an indirect way." They both stared at him uncomprehending, then sighed in tandem. Fancy shook his head. "This might be one of my stranger days, and it's not even nine in the morning yet." 

The phrase smashed Bain in the head harder than Nahma's antennae, and he started in shock. "Wait, what time is it?"

Thrown by the sudden intensity, Fancy checked his watch and said in confusion, "Uh, it's eight forty. Why?"

Bain inhaled deeply, the sudden drop in air pressure almost making the heroes' knees buckle. "Okay, I really want an autograph but I'm late for my sidekick appointment and I gotta go!" Nudging the largest centipede, he told it, "Hey, Nahma, can you deal with this?"

The centipede barely protested before the eyes of all the centipedes went blank and Nahma's deadly rumble came out of their mouths. "I don't see why not. Get going." 

Bain nodded his thanks and sprinted past the surprised heroes so fast a short-lived vacuum appeared. The heroes turned to look at the horrifying wall of insect flesh as hundreds of mandibles grinned. "Now, then. You didn't hurt Bain, did you?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

The black blur of shell sprinting on the streets went mostly unnoticed by passersby, mostly due to its speed and indistinguishable shape. It did seriously startle Hot Rod on his patrol, though, as he hadn't seen anything even close to as fast as he was in quite some time.

Bain came to a red light and jumped, tucking his legs upward, and barely topped a bus, sparks flying from the short contact. The driver would much later go to a carwash and discover a hastily scratched 'sorry' next to two thin grooves carved into the metal. 

As he hit the ground, Bain spotted a manhole and compacted his body, grabbing the cover, hurling it into the air, and torpedoing himself into the entrance in one motion. The manhole cover landed back on the sewer entrance a moment later, rattling as it spun back into its groove. 

In the sewer, Bain grabbed the ceiling with two arms and catapulted himself forward, his body flying at incredible speeds above the dank water. He'd launched himself with enough force that it was only several seconds later that he rotated mid-air, all four arms snapping into the soft brick above him and forcibly lowering his speed. As he slowed down to about eighty miles per hour, he smashed his feet into the ceiling and completely halted his momentum. Lowering himself to the ground, he turned and ran up the stairs to his right, panting slightly. He hadn't exerted himself this much in a very long time, if ever.

He exited the subway just outside the Supertower and headed towards it, checking the grand clock set into the front and discovering that it had been fifteen minutes.

Going through the doors, he skipped the secretary and went straight to the elevator, where three people were waiting. One of them was the old man from yesterday, one was a girl with animalistic features resembling a tiger, tail and all, and the third was a newer hero decked in white appropriately named Blizzard. They all looked at him oddly, and the old man grinned at the memory of the previous day, but they thankfully didn't say anything, simply standing aside to let him through.

He turned around and tapped the button for the forty-ninth floor, anxiously tapping one foot as he waited. The elevator was actually relatively roomy, as there were more than a few supers whose powers involved growing to larger sizes. The music was a little corny, though.

The old man got off at floor thirteen, which further reinforced Bain's theory about him being a villain, while Blizzard got off on the twentieth. The elevator wasn't moving very quickly, and Bain's foot tapped in his anxiety as it moved upwards. The tiger-girl looked at him with obvious disgust as she got off on the thirty-first.

Finally, the elevator made it to the forty-ninth, and Bain rushed through the doors the moment they opened, before realizing a major problem. The letter hadn't mentioned which room he was supposed to go to. He almost gave up before noticing the doors were all named, and he sprinted down the hallway, skimming the nameplates until he found the one he was looking for at room 4912, the word 'Stitches' embossed on the hotel room door. Briefly polishing his carapace, he stood at attention, careful not to smash his head into the ceiling, and knocked politely.

Nobody answered. Bain waited for a long moment, then knocked again. Was he late? He couldn't have been early, it was barely a minute before nine. Maybe he'd misread the letter? He cursed himself for forgetting to bring it. 

The door opened, and Bain got his first look at the man who would be his mentor. The man was faintly tinted green, though it looked like a healthy shade rather than a sickness. He had a square jaw, penetrating dark eyes, and a scar neatly bisected his forehead. He was about six feet tall, had messy brown hair, and was wearing pajamas. He rubbed a hand that had clearly been cut and sewn back together on his face, pulling the bags under his eyes outwards in an obviously tired expression. "Look, I don't really want to get attacked this early in the morning. Come back in an hour and I'll beat you up then, okay?"

Bain was more than a little thrown. This zombie-looking man was a hero? The name 'Stitches' made a lot more sense now. "Uh, no sir. I'm the new hero sidekick. My name is Bain. You sent me a letter?"

Stitches stared at him a little more intently before sighing. "All right, fine. If you read the letter you already knew what I was going to do if you woke me up early." 

The clock in the tower struck nine, and both of them quietly waited, counting the bongs all the way until they ended. Stitches inhaled for a long time, to the point where Bain was a little worried about his lungs, before exhaling in annoyance. "Fine. What do you want?"