Bain ambled forward, certain he was heading in the right direction. Nahma's directions were simple, but the few sheddings he encountered along the way tended to give more specific instructions. Although for some reason, there weren't nearly as many of them hanging around as usual. Maybe Nahma was teaching them how to be social?

Yeah, no.

The sound of several voices approached him, and he sped up. A subtle light emanated from around one of the corners, and he turned it at a considerable speed.

Stitches, Mike, and Amber were startled as he came out of the near-perfect darkness. Mike was the first to speak, enthusiastically (and somewhat maniacally) grinning at him. "Ayyy, howza doin', Bain? Haven't seen you in a hot minute, bro!" 

A wide smile split Bain's face. "What are you doing down here? I thought you'd be blasting all over Centropolis by now."

Mike nodded rapidly, one hand scratching his stomach and flexing fingers with the other. Bain wondered if the excitable speedrunner ever actually stopped moving and decided that no, he probably didn't. "Yeah yeah yeah, but - ah, no. Stitches wanted me to come down here and pep you up, so I'm here and I'm pepping! Is it working?"

Bain chuckled. "Consider me pepped up." 

Stitches cut in, a slight frown crossing his face. "Where'd you go? When I checked in on you to see why you weren't awake, well... You can imagine my concern."

Somewhat awkwardly, Bain scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that. I had a nightmare and I didn't want to wake you up, so I came back down here." 

Stitches raised an eyebrow. "And you didn't think of leaving a note?"

Bain blinked. He hadn't thought of that at all. "Sorry." 

Amber interrupted. "Hey, Bain! Your dad is a little freaky. No offense."

Pushing down the instinct to bristle, Bain shrugged. "It's all right. Nahma can take some getting used to if you don't know him that well." 

Forehead wrinkling in concern, Stitches asked, "Uhh, Bain... do you know where we're supposed to be going?" Sure, the flashlights they were using illuminated the tunnels well enough, but the harsh light cast strange shadows against the rocks, and it was hard not to just attack everything that moved in the panic that inevitably resulted from seeing movement in places where there wasn't anything.

Especially considering that the tunnels were full of Nahma's sheddings.

Bain nodded. "Yup! Once you've lived here for as long as I have, it gets a lot easier to figure out where you are." He pointed behind them and moved forward, confidently telling them, "Just follow me and you'll be fine." 

As he headed towards the entrance (or exit, depending on your perspective), the walls seemed to reform slightly, lifting ever so slightly to grant him a bit more headroom. He didn't notice, although Stitches and Amber most certainly did. Mike charged ahead, yelling, "Bro, let's get outta here! I gotta feel some wind on mah face!"

As he ran off, Stitches whispered to Amber, "You saw that too, right?" 

She nodded in response and asked tentatively, "Um. Yeah. Do you think - no, that's crazy."

Stitches began following the quickly moving Bain, quietly speaking as he did. "What is it? Nothing's crazy if you've seen as much as I have." 

Amber jogged to catch up with him. "Well... You said Nahma can split up, right?" As he agreed with her, she continued, "So... what if the tunnels are made of Nahma?"

He shivered. "If that's the case, don't say anything he could take as offensive. Just in case."

As they exited, he noticed Amber poke the wall and ask it, "Nahma? Is that you?"

The wall did not respond to Stitches' immense relief. He continued on ahead with a slight spring in his step. 

It wasn't until after he'd gone ahead that the wall shifted, plates sliding aside to reveal squirming masses of centipedes, extending dozens of feet into the wall. One of them paused near Amber, eyes flooded with white, and told her bluntly, "Yes. Do you require something of me?" 

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Eyes wide, Amber just shook her head. "Nope! I'm all good."

The shedding nodded its affirmation, and the wall sealed itself. Looking down, Amber aimed her flashlight at the ground and discovered that the ground was made of the same chitinous material. She grinned. "Man, you're really powerful. You should be a hero!"

Nahma did not show any of his selves, but a slight snort of displeasure was audible to Amber as she left. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"C'mon, man, tell me! You gotta have one, right?" 

Bain shook his head, avoiding a sharp crag of rock poking out of the ground. "How can I pick just one? There are hundreds!" 

Stitches approached them, breathing lightly. "What are you talking about?"

Bain jerked a thumb at Mike, who was practically sprinting in place in a vain attempt to use up the enormous energy running through him constantly. "He wants to know who my favorite superhero is." 

Snorting, Stitches raised his hands. "Well, shouldn't that be obvious?" He paused as they both turned to face him, looking curious. 

Bain asked, "Why? I can't pick one. How is it obvious?"

Stitches' grin staled slightly as the correct response went unsaid, lowering his arms. "Uh, yours truly? Y'know, favorite... never mind." 

A look of understanding crossed Bain's face, quickly followed by embarrassment. "Oh. Um. Yeah, you're really great." 

Saving him from his awkward misery, Amber jogged up to them. "Oh, hey guys! What's going on?" 

Mike indicated Bain. "He doesn't have any superheroes that he likes!" 

Bain bristled slightly, reaching down to itch the stump where his arm should have been. "There are plenty of superheroes that I like! I just can't pick one."

Amber shrugged ambivalently. "Well, pick a team! There's got to at least be a few teams you like more than others."

Bain thought it over before coming to a conclusion. "In that case... Probably the Arithmetwins." 

The other three stopped dead in their tracks, and he continued moving onward obliviously. "I mean, if I had the opportunity to meet them, I'd probably ask them how their powers work. I get the whole math thing, but I don't understand how love and friendship factor into it." He realized that he was moving on his own and turned to face them quizzically. "What is it?"

In a strangled tone, as if he was forcing something down his throat, Stitches asked, "Uhhh... the Arithmetwins, huh?" 

Bain nodded, eyes narrowing. "Yeah. What about them?" 

Amber asked with a slight tinge of nervousness, "How did you hear about them?"

Bain smiled happily. "Oh, I have a bunch of fancy magazines that I found a while back. There's a ton of stories about different superhero teams and their strategies and powers and stuff. Do you know what I mean?" 

Stitches nodded almost gravely. "I definitely do, yes. Bain - you do know that-"

Turning to face the tunnel ahead, Bain interrupted. "Wait a second - oh, breakfast!" 

Mike looked forward expectantly, although what it was he thought would be approaching them out of the darkness was never made clear. "Really?" 

A rat twelve feet long lunged at them out of the darkness, squealing its fury loudly and eliciting appropriately terrified expletives from Stitches. Calmly and easily, Bain reached his top two arms out, grabbed it by the head, and twisted.

The result was that the rat's head was almost, but not quite, snapped entirely off of its neck. A horrendous tearing sound ripped through the tunnel, and a spray of blood spattered all over Bain. Blinking the red liquid out of his eyes, Bain turned, grinning. "Sorry about interrupting. This is a really good-sized rat! Do you guys want any?"

Mike looked like he desperately wanted to say yes for some reason, Stitches was staring at Bain with his mouth hanging open, and Amber's eyes were wide with shock. Bain's gleeful expression dimmed somewhat. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?" His eyes nearly doubled in size as he thought of something. "Wait, rats don't count as taking a life, do they? Did I just do something really wrong!?"

Stitches shook his head quickly, reassuring him. "No, you're good! You're still - uh, you're still my sidekick." 

Bain slumped in relief. "Oh, that's good. Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Mike grinned. "Dude, that was awesome! I wish I could do that."

Amber coughed, trying to change the subject. "Um. Bain? Do you mind going ahead? Just in case any more rats are coming. Here, take a flashlight so we can catch up." 

Bain happily took the flashlight, glad to be useful, and walked further down the tunnel, casually taking a bite out of the rat's corpse as he did.

The moment he was past the next curve, they spun towards each other. Stitches exhaled as though he hadn't breathed in several minutes. "What was that? I knew Bain had some issues, but I didn't know he could kill so easily!" 

Amber nodded, agreeing in spite of herself. "I really like Bain. He's really cool, but... that was terrifying."

Mike looked between them seriously. "Okay okay okay, but are we gonna eat the rat? 'Cos I wouldn't mind some." 

The two heroes slowly turned to look at him, and he shrugged. "What? Rat doesn't taste half bad if you know how to prepare it."

Shaking the comment off, Stitches asked, "And what was with the whole Arithmetwins thing? Does he not know what a comic book is?" 

Amber gestured wildly. "I don't know! I mean, I guess not. How do we tell him?"

Stitches rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We'll have to do it carefully. If we break the news to him wrong, I don't know what he'll do." 

Amber squinted at him. "It's not like he'll go crazy or anything! He's really nice. I don't think he'd do something like that."

Shrugging dispassionately, Stitches replied, "Yeah, probably not, but we can't be too safe. Mike, you should..." He trailed off as he realized that Mike was gone. "Where'd he go?"

"They WHAT?!?" 

The two heroes looked ahead at Bain's stunned shout, and Stitches facepalmed. "Mike, just... why?"