Bain and Stitches walked into the Supertower smelling strongly of fresh-baked bread.

They got several strange looks as they stopped in the lobby, collapsing on the comfortable chairs in the waiting area, Bain setting his newly purchased pet on the ground, still in its cage. The scent of the sticky pecan bun (according to a specialist) they'd been stuck in was sticking to them quite thoroughly, and while it was a rather strong smell, it definitely wasn't an unpleasant one. In fact, a petition was later started to make 'fresh bread' the lobby smell, as opposed to 'new car'.

Stitches rubbed both hands on his face, stretching the skin as he groaned. "Bain, what did we learn from that?"

Carefully removing a piece of bun from a chink in his carapace, Bain glanced up at him. "That unconventional powers can still be used really well if you know how to use them?"

Pulling his hands down, Stitches glared at him. "No. That is not what we learned. Although," he admitted, "that is a surprisingly good takeaway. But yeah, we learned that there are some things we talk about when it comes to hero work and there are things that we take to our graves. This is the latter."

Bain flexed his fingers, compressing the knuckles against his legs and popping them with a satisfying crunch. "Aren't we supposed to leave a report for the Tower, so that other supers and sidekicks to come can-"

Stitches cut him off with a shushing gesture. "Bain, Bain, Bain." He leaned forward, staring Bain in the eye. "No."

That seemed to be the end of the conversation for the time being. Bain was still picking bread out from his shell, sniffing them experimentally and on occasion, eating them. Stitches simply slumped back in his chair, eyes closed and facing the ceiling.

Focused on his short-lived project as he was, he barely noticed a certain rookie hero enter the building, an arrestoid following him. The robots were bipedal, approximately nine feet tall, and could carry up to five criminals in its expandable and modifiable arms, legs, and torso. A single omnisensor was encased in the center of its angular head, a dull orange glow emanating from it. They were capable of flight and rapid movement but weren't exactly graceful. When building them, Tinker had hoped they would eventually replace heroes, but they just couldn't live up to the variety that powers gave superheroes. They were extremely helpful when needing to arrest KO'd villains, however, and were dubbed arrestoids shortly after their production.

At any rate, the hero was practically bouncing along, shuffling through five small laminated cards in his hand. He was chuckling loudly, without any attempt at hiding his excitement, which naturally drew Bain's attention. He craned his head over, staring curiously. Frowning, he tried to remember where he'd seen this particular hero before. It hit him suddenly, and his eyes narrowed.

It'd been some time since he'd seen the hero known as Aeroman, and he'd apparently taken Bain's advice to heart. While chatting to the secretary, a stupid grin on his face and one leg resting on the other as he lounged against the counter, he was talking without any of the old-fashioned hero speak he'd been using on Bain's first encounter.

Somewhat absorbed with the small-odds encounter, Bain barely noticed Stitches stand up and walk over to him. He jumped in his chair slightly as Stitches tapped him on the shoulder, and the seat creaked defensively as his weight slammed into it. "Bain? I just remembered something I've got to do - I should be back in a bit, all right?"

Bain blinked as he returned to reality. "What? Oh, yeah, okay. I'll stay here." Stitches patted him with a grin and headed off towards the elevator, leaving Bain alone in the lobby. It was almost déjà vu, but there weren't nearly as many hostile stares as usual, which was nice.

With only his thoughts to keep him company, Bain decided to see how Aeroman was doing. He stood up and walked over to the rookie, who was doing something in front of a Rep console.

Bain's head tilted. The Rep consoles were for public use. Anyone could vote for their favorite heroes and sidekicks (and villains), but you couldn't vote for yourself if you were a hero, and an ID card was necessary to put in a vote either way, which meant it was remarkably difficult to cheat and fake your Rep.

Approaching him, he stood over his shoulder, looking at what he was doing. He was in fact inputting a vote for... himself? He was using the ID card of a rough-looking man whose name was Dylan Jackson, and the picture accompanying it didn't look anything like Aeroman, or even remotely similar. Curious, he asked, "What are you doing?"

Without looking back at him, Aeroman told him, "Shove off, I'm busy."

Bain's eyes narrowed. He thought of the way that Amber had stood up for him in the cafeteria, and the way Mike didn't care what he ate or what he looked like. He realized at that point in time that he very much disliked being told to shove off. "Busy doing what?"

Sighing irritably, Aeroman began to turn around. "Look, man, I'm just doing myself a fav-" He sputtered to a stop, eyes widening as he took in Bain's looming shape. Without meaning to, Bain had ended up right behind him and was standing in front of most of the lights on the ceiling, resulting in a rather threatening appearance. Or at least a more threatening appearance than usual.

"Uhhhh..." Aeroman didn't seem to know what to say, at least until he remembered Bain. He flushed with anger. "You! I remember you!"

Bain nodded. "Yeah. What are you doing?"

The irate rookie tried to intimidate him, getting in his face. Instead, he ended up looking like a Chihuahua barking at a bull. "You're the guy who knocked me out after my first patrol! Do you know how hard my Rep bombed after that?"

Bain wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, so he just asked again, "What are you doing?"

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Aeroman groaned loudly, indicating the console. "I'm boosting my Rep with those guys' ID cards, what does it look like?"

A shiver crawled up Bain's spine, and his teeth grated together as his eyes became slits. "You're cheating?"

The rookie rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't get so high-and-mighty with me. You're a villain, right? Just give me your ID card and I'll let you go, all right? Nobody gets hurt."

Bain couldn't quite remember the last time someone had genuinely annoyed him. Had there been people he didn't understand? Yes, quite a few. Were there people who acted stupidly? Several. But this rookie, a man who was supposed to be a hero, was actively and willingly stealing the IDs of the people he arrested and was using them to cheat.

He wasn't exactly in touch with his emotions on most days. It was pretty difficult for Bain to accurately describe how he was feeling more often than not.

Right now, though?

He was extremely, enormously, ticked off.

He growled quietly. It was a low rumble that nearly made the ceramic tiles under his feet vibrate slightly, and drew the attention of nearly everyone in the lobby. Aeroman raised an eyebrow at him, folding his arms. "Well? Are you going to give me your ID or not?"

Bain indicated the elevators. "Let's go to the training rooms. I'd be glad to have a rematch there."

Aeroman leaned forward, a cocky grin on his face. "Bring it on, bughead. I can take you anytime, anywhere."

They walked into the elevators, glaring daggers at each other as Bain pushed the appropriate button. The moment the elevator doors closed, there was a sudden rush of movement as almost every hero and villain sprinted for an available elevator. Nobody wanted to miss this.

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

Bain stretched, leaning forward on his long legs with eyes narrowed at his opponent. Aeroman, on the other hand, was gently bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands loosely clenched at his sides. Whatever he'd been doing since Bain had defeated him, he'd clearly improved on it. Bain wasn't expecting to see any of the sloppy, inaccurate attacks that Aeroman had been using. 

The elevator doors opened, and a small crowd of supers flooded out, spreading along the wall so everyone could get a good look. Bain only gave them a glance before returning his attention to Aeroman.

It should be noted that while Bain tended to avoid fighting, he was by no means a stranger to it. He'd spent his entire life under the brutal tutelage of Nahma, who was superior to Bain in literally every way. He'd been fighting rats for longer than he could remember, and supers ever since he went up to the surface. The experience had somewhat dulled his sense of what was and wasn't a good fight, and he had a feeling that this particular grudge would be settled shortly.

Aeroman popped his neck, lowering his center of gravity and raising his hands into clenched fists. "Ready when you are, bug!" 

In response, Bain released a low growl. He wasn't sure he could say anything even remotely polite and knew that saying nothing was better in this situation, advice he'd received from an Arithmetwins comic. He didn't want to hurt Aeroman too badly, and he genuinely disliked fighting when it wasn't necessary, but...

He did want to make Aeroman eat his words. Preferably shoved down his throat.

Aeroman shot forward in a controlled flight, one fist coming down in a powerful punch. Sidestepping, Bain grunted as Aeroman changed direction suddenly, spinning to kick him in the ribs. Sliding backward, Bain flexed his claws. He was still seriously off balance from missing an arm, something he'd forgotten to take into consideration beforehand. Now that he was aware of it, he was ready to fight.

Pacing forward with heavy strides, Bain swung an arm. Aeroman ducked under it, sliding towards Bain in an attempt to get to closer quarters, but Bain's lower right arm grabbed his arm. Barely a second after, Bain wrapped him in a bone-crushing attack hug. Struggling for a moment, Aeroman used his flight to shoot upwards, startling Bain into letting him go.

The moment Aeroman realized Bain couldn't fly, he shot towards the ceiling, punching a decent chunk out of it. He began throwing pieces of the ceiling at Bain, who could only swat them out of the way. A few moments later, mind working rapidly, Bain figured out a way to reach his flying opponent. Turning, he sprinted for the wall at a diagonal angle, running up the side of it with both of his right arms digging into it, leaving long gashes in it. Jumping at the corner, he began running circles around the training room, building in speed. 

Rotating in the center of the room and hefting a large chunk, Aeroman tried to track Bain's blurring movements and threw the piece. It was exactly what Bain had been waiting for, and he launched himself from the wall at his opponent, claws outstreched. Tackling the piece, he sent it rotating and jumped off it towards Aeroman. It was totally unexpected, and Aeroman went down in another hug, the two opponents bouncing across the room's floor and leaving craters.

Rolling to a stop, Bain slipped his lower right arm under Aeroman's chin and grabbed his fist with his upper left arm, gripping onto the floor with his upper right to keep them from going airborne. Aeroman struggled, grabbing at Bain's arm and started yelling in a strangled voice. Unexpectedly, he snapped an arm back and punched Bain in the face, but Bain took the hit and held on grimly. The infuriating hero's movements began slowing, and his strikes began to revert to their ineffective and inaccurate methods.

A slight cough broke into Bain's focused attention, and he looked up to see Benedict standing in the crowd. He was raising a single immaculate eyebrow, looking utterly disinterested. Noticing that he'd gained Bain's attention, Benedict tapped his watch and shrugged. 

Bain looked back down at Aeroman, who was about to collapse entirely. With a sudden rush of understanding at what was happening, Bain released his grip. Aeroman staggered forward, gasping hoarsely. No one came forward to help him.

Standing, Bain shook the final vestiges of the flow of a fight from his head. What had he been thinking? Fighting another hero in the Tower, just because he'd been... 

No, he'd been cheating. He'd definitely deserved to be taken down, but Bain was suddenly worried he'd gone too far. Approaching the unsteady hero, Bain asked in a concerned tone, "Aeroman? Are you all right?"

Aeroman coughed and turned to face him, eyes bloodshot. "Screw you, you..." He inhaled deeply, the breaths entering his lungs with a ragged edge. "...monster. You... monster." That was all he said before collapsing, eyes closing as he breathed deeply, unconscious.

The fight drained out of Bain as heroes rushed forward to make sure Aeroman was all right. Several of the other supers started congratulating Bain on his victory, but he wasn't in the mood anymore. He went straight for the elevators and went up to his room. 

Benedict was waiting for him there, running a line above his fireplace and inspecting the dust he found there. "Interesting fight. Were you holding back?"

Bain slumped, hanging his head. "No."

Benedict chuckled quietly. "Good. That upstart had been getting on my nerves recently - and I don't think anyone will be Rep-boosting when you're around."

Bain looked up, surprised. "Wait, you're not mad?"

"Mad? No, I don't think so. You certainly put Aeroman in his place. Do I think you could have been less..." He trailed off, waving a gloved hand around in a small gesture. "...brutal? Yes, possibly. But it was enjoyable to watch, regardless. Do tell me if you're going to have another fight soon. I'd take great pleasure in viewing it."

He left the room, patting Bain on the shoulder as he did. "All in all, I'd say you did a fair day's work. Although you might want to take a shower - the smell of bread gets a little stale."

Benedict was gone before Bain could process the pun, leaving him alone to his thoughts once again.