I hardly heard the metal men leave the room as I stared up in abject horror at the leathery-skinned form of Lizardface. A small part of my mind registered that they had left, but the overwhelming majority of me was thinking; 'I don't want to freaking die!' something which I had begun broadcasting at full blast from almost the moment I'd entered the room.

Lizardface's too long head hovered over my shivering form, the monstrous creature having dropped down onto its hands and knees around me, its prodigious size allowing it to trap me in a cage of its limbs as it slowly brought one side of its face level with my own.

Three brilliant emerald eyes regarded me then, and time seemed to slow as the horrendous stench of its breathe washed over me. Details began to pop out at me as I stared at its unmoving form. I began to take note of several perpendicular scars in the meaty flesh of the creatures neck, a set of three of them near the base of its skull. At the end of each scar, a nickel-sized grey bump was present and as I stared straight past Lizardfaces waiting maw at its neck I realized that I was catching mental static from them.

A full minute passed before It occurred to me that I was not dead yet - and that I was far too mentally drained to continue broadcasting my thoughts. Slowly easing back on my telepathic powers I refocused on deciphering the faint mental noise coming from Lizardface. When I did, If I hadn't already shit myself at some point, I probably would have.

Quietly, and faintly, as though I was receiving the communication through a thick sheet, I heard;

'No die. Stop Yell.'

The sheer amazement I felt at the fact that Lizardface was sentient was enough to cause me to completely let go of my broadcast, and the moment I did, Lizardface let out a grunt that mental static coming off...him... indicated was made in relief. He pushed himself off the ground, his thick arms leveraging him up with ease. It then quietly walked to the opposite side of the barren cage, turned to face me, and then dropped into a crouch that was probably as close to sitting as Lizardfaces bizarre physiology would allow. All the while, his emerald eyes remained trained on me, an expression on its face that I couldn't decipher - mostly because of his eponymous Lizard face.

Tentatively, I turned my head to look at the entrance my captors had dragged me in through, and as I expected, found it already closed and sealed. The wall had returned to being sheer stone, with no sign that anything or anyone had ever passed through it save for the dust on the ground that had been disturbed by my somewhat shameful entry into the room.

Slowly, I rose to my feet and shuffled backwards across the cage floor, keeping my eyes trained on the monster in front of me. When I reached the furthest part of the cell, I slid to the floor with my back to the cave wall. I wanted, with every fiber of my being, to go to sleep. I was beaten. I was hungry. I was beyond stressed out by the fact that I was now in what passed for jail for gods.

Weighing my options, I found my curiosity at the famously uncommunicative Lizardface just slightly outweighing my bodies need for some respite from all the duress it was under. I began to broadcast the beginnings of a simple question at Lizardface, blaring the message hundreds of times a second at the monster, but before I could even finish ramping up my speed there was a thunderous crack and I found myself pinned to the stone wall I'd been leaning on, an enormous clawed hand gouged hunks of stone out of the cave wall on either side of my neck, and terror once more gripped me.

A rapidly disappearing impact crater on the opposite side of the room was the only evidence Lizardface had ever been there, and the monster once more leveled one side of its raptor-like head at me.

'Stop Yell. Say Once.'

There was no way anyone was going to be able to hear a thought I didn't bother to broadcast at high speed. Literally, nothing was that sensitive to telepathy -

'Sorry?' I ventured, not expecting an actual response.

'Accepted. You, Sleep. I, Guard.' replied the tiny voice in my head.

I openly gaped as the unstoppable force known as Lizardface - with surprising grace for its size, slid back to the side of the room it had been on, and took up position staring at me again. One of its hands gently rubbings its head as though it had a headache of all things.

Though I knew I probably shouldn't trust Lizardface, the sheer relief that I wasn't in immediate danger of death was enough to bring how tired I was back to the forefront of my mind. I'd obviously been out of it long enough for Headcase and the Patriarch to bring me here - but I was pretty sure that telepathically induced seizure blackouts didn't count as sleep. Without any further fuss, I put to work a skill I'd garnered from having once helped a veteran get over his night terrors. The long hours that man had put in sleeping in dangerous locales, in uncomfortable positions, culminated in one thing: I could sleep anywhere.

I closed my eyes, and within moments, my head sank - and I began snoring.

Lizardface, for his part, merely made an annoyed chuffing noise, and continued staring at me. 

----------------------------------------

I didn't wake up with a jolt, or a start. I woke to the distant sound of a hammer banging on metal. A sound that became louder the closer to wakefulness I came. Dimly, I realized I was not in the same position I had gone to sleep in - I was no longer leaning against the far wall from Lizardface, instead I was quite literally, stuffed into a corner of the room. 

My face was pressed firmly into the ground of the cell, and my arms and legs were huddled close to my torso, as though someone who didn't understand human anatomy had been attempting to fit me inside a trunk when they'd been interrupted.  

The sound of metal being pounded grew louder and louder, occasionally being punctuated by the shrieking noise of steel being torn. I began to slowly unfurl my arms and legs from where they had been tightly wrapped around me and raised one hand to my face to wipe the debris from the floor off my face as I pushed myself upright. I stared blankly at my hand as I lowered it, a bright crimson stain becoming apparent as my palm fell away from my face. 

I realized something must have happened while I was asleep but muddle-headed as I was I couldn't quite figure out what. I debated getting up - possibly making another attempt to communicate with Lizardface, something countless telepaths before me had tried and failed to accomplish when the decision was abruptly taken out of my hands. 

An immense blur of orange sped across my vision and I suddenly found myself on a different end of the room, the rapid speed I'd been shifted at stealing the breath from my lungs and leaving me huffing and wheezing as I attempted to reestablish my relationship with beautiful life-giving air. 

"What-" I wheezed, producing a high pitched whistling noise. "What the fuck is-" my mouth remained open mid-screech, but no more words spilled forth as my mind finally caught up with my surroundings. All around me lay the broken and in many cases ripped apart forms of the Metal Men I had first seen upon my first waking here. They lay strewn about the floor of the cave we were in, gouts of energy I could neither identify nor look directly at occasionally spurting from them. Arcane symbols hovering over each corpse faded slightly with each spurt as the force animating the beings slowly bled from this world. The gigantic form of Lizardface crouched in the center of the cell surrounded by the carnage, one trunk-like arm slowly pressing forward onto a still functional Metal Man, though the pressure he was applying to it made that seem very, very temporary.

"Listen to me you foul creature." bellowed a voice that immediately drew my eyes away from my erstwhile roommate and past where the bars of our cell should have been. Standing in the center of the room, looking more annoyed than distressed stood the impatient form of Reeves. The man wore black slacks, a button-down shirt, and a hideous tweed vest. The vest had small symbols handstitched into it, crisscrossing it in elaborate patterns that glowed slightly as the Archmage of Earth spoke. 

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"You are defending a corpse. You have been throwing that criminal around like a ragdoll. You are entirely too stupid to realize that you've likely already snapped his neck, and I have important people need to confirm his death. So if you'll kindly stop destroying my guards, I will find you some other playmate as soon as I return." 

'You. Stupid.' 

I could hear Lizardfaces simple mental broadcast as though he was right next to me, and was alarmed to realize he could even understand Reeves. The Archmage for his part seemed completely unaware of Lizardface's response and kept his eyes trained on the leathery-skinned titan - which probably contributed to why he hadn't noticed me moving around in the pile of scrap metal Lizardface had created. 

The two monstrous entities in the room with me merely stared at each other as I peered about the room to try and see if survival was still an option for me. The bars of the cell were gone, and the magically sealed entrance to the room hung open, even as more Metal Men walked into the room to take position on either side of Reeves, clearly in preparation for another assault.

'Big guy? You there?'

Usually, I would have been more careful about communicating with Lizardface, but I was way out of my depth - and to be honest, probably suffering a concussion. The minute I sent my broadcast, two of the eyes on the side of Lizardfaces head spun to look at me. This would not have been so disconcerting for me, if not for the fact that they seemed to be moving completely independent of the rest of Lizardface - his frontal eye remained trained on Reeves, and his body remained perfectly still as the two rogue serpentine eyes appeared to give me a quick once-over.

'You bleed. I punish.' 

Lizardface's response was quick and simple, like all his prior communications - but this time I could feel indignation suffusing the words. As though Lizardface was offended.

Before I could think to ask what that was about, Lizardface had taken off, tearing across the room at Reeves like a guided missile. Only an orange blur was visible as Lizardface careened into an unimpressed Reeves, rebounding off the iridescent dome of energy that appeared around the man that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Leaving no time for the mage to strike back, the still airborne Lizardface grabbed the skull of the nearest Metal Man, a powerful thrust of his arm shunting the construct several inches into the ground with an audible groaning noise as the steel making up its body creaked and bent under the force. 

Reeves attempted to turn towards Lizardface, just as the monsters came to a stop, courtesy of its new golem anchor, which was immediately torn from the ground and flung across the room at Reeves, shattering into several hunks of heated scrap metal that parted around the increasingly annoyed man. 

Realizing I was almost certainly going to die if I stayed in this room, I took a gamble. I began to martial my mental capabilities and focused my whole will on Reeves. I ached, I was tired, I was filthy. My focus was split in so many directions that if I wasn't in imminent danger I doubted I'd be able at all. As I focused, an earsplitting headache ripped through me, and I had to work to contain a whimper and struggle through the pain. 

Finally, began to broadcast my befuddlement, causing Reeves and all the Metal Men to abruptly stop moving - though I was only broadcasting at Reeves. I had sincere doubts as to my ability to affect a mindless being with my powers. 

Shakily standing, I began to slowly make my way past Reeves, gesturing at Lizardface as I did so, the bestial creature seeming to have not noticed the sudden stillness in its rampage through the golems in the room. It seemed at some point as though he had given up on penetrating Reeves magical shield, and was now simply taking out his ire on the pompous mages minions. 

Lizardface flew about the room at dizzying speeds, ripping and tearing enemies apart almost in passing now that they were making no effort to fight back, only stopping when he belatedly noticed me motioning for him to stop. Once I had gotten his attention, I ceased gesturing, no longer having the leeway to be distracted from the broadcast I was firing at Reeves. Later on, I would wonder how Reeves - the most powerful mage on the planet, if he is to be believed, seemingly had no defenses against such a low ranking telepath. But for now, I had different priorities. 

I slowly picked my way across the body-strewn cave, and past Reeves, making my way to the door as fast as I could while still maintaining my focus. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the lumbering form of Lizardface as he brazenly kicked and shouldered the still standing Metal Men out of his way. He seemed to pause briefly behind me, and there was a wet squelching crunch that rang out before the giant loped into place behind me. With no time to think, I merely shouldered on, eventually exiting the cave and walking forward along the seemingly infinite stone tunnel I had been dragged through to get here. After walking for several minutes, a trek uninterrupted by any change to the stretch of tunnel ahead of us, I reached the limits of my range and ceased my befuddling broadcast with a gasp, nausea washing over me.

No longer hindered by intense focus, I gathered my strength and began to run up the tunnel - Lizardface loping along behind me like the worlds weirdest dog. I was frantic to escape what I was sure would be a swift and painful punishment once Reeves caught up with us, though Lizardface seemed unworried by our present situation. 

Lizardface, the monstrously powerful manchild that had killed more supers than I could even remember meeting. Lizardface the unstoppable serial killer. It began to dawn on me that while prior to this I hadn't really been a villain in the strictest sense, my current sprint for freedom certainly wouldn't be viewable as anything else once word got out. 

I tried very hard not to think about this as I ran, pointedly not looking at or broadcasting anything to Lizardface. So absorbed was I in pretending he wasn't there that several minutes later when we eventually made it to the end of the hallway I nearly died of fright when he 'spoke' to me. 

'Stone. Breaks.'

The matter of fact tone to the broadcast irked me to no end. Of course stone broke. Stone might as well be wet paper to you. I stared at Lizardface for a few moments in obvious aggravation before realizing how much of my present survival was predicated on his whims and hurriedly turning back to the tunnel's end.

I acted as though nothing had happened as I stared at the vast circular room the hall eventually ended in. It was giant, at least thirty feet wide, and completely lacked a ceiling. Arcane runes were scribed on the walls in dizzying spiral patterns that arced up into the darkness hanging over us, the magical lighting of the prison obviously not present further than fifteen or so feet above us. 

I frantically began searching the room for something that might be another doorway or even a button or panel that might open one. I realized with some trepidation that there wasn't one. This room had clearly been designed for Reeves to enter and exit the facility. Reeves, who could bend stone to his will and simply lift the floor he was standing on straight up like a giant elevator. 

Panicking now, I returned to the entrance, wondering if there was another way out, or if I could ask Lizardface to burrow through one of the stone walls into another cell to hide - but as I did so I realized it was too late. Gazing out into the tunnel, I saw the walls beginning to visibly deteriorate in large patches roughly ever twenty feet on either side of the hall. Large, door shaped, patches. I began hearing yelling as whatever magical protections prevented noise from traveling in the facility failed, and detonation, impacts, and the roar of all kinds of energy slamming into stone began to filter into the tunnel. 

Slowly, I turned to Lizardface, unable to accept what I was seeing. 

'Stone. Breaks.' he repeated, shrugging his massive shoulders as though this was a simple explanation of the problem. 

'What did you do?' I practically screamed back at him, forgetting again how easily he could separate me from my mortal coil. 

'I Kill Burrower.' he said with another massive shrug. 

Burrower? What the fuck is a Burrower? Was this thing messing me with? What was wrong with this thing. It understood English just fine, that much I gathered from it's response to Reeves taunting but -

Reeves?

Unable to bring all my thoughts together coherently enough to broadcast I waved my arms in front of Lizardface and mumbled gibberish at him for a few moments before calming down. This god damn lizard had killed us. Forget breaking Lizardface out of prison, we'd killed Reeves. Well. Lizardface had, I realized, remembering the popping noise as we'd exited to the cell. But since I'd technically made that possible. . .

I turned back to the mouth of the tunnel and marveled at the almost living tide of world ending threats that were slowly breaking free of their cells. I began to shake, now sure that there was no chance I was going to survive this ordeal. I was stuck in a dead end, with a serial killer, facing down the worst humanity had to offer. And if I escaped this? Patty would probably find me within seconds. 

Seemingly aggravated by my sudden lack of urgency, Lizardface made a chuffing noise and scooped me up under one set of his massive arms. Now carrying me like an unwieldy sack of potatoes, Lizardface leaped up, digging the resilient claws of his free hands and feet into the stone walls of the room. Each time his hands found purchase, he reoriented and leaped higher - leaving me staring down at the rapidly shrinking dot of light at the base of the shaft, as I wondered what I was going to do with the rest of my very short life.