All right, let's recap.

I woke up a thousand leagues beneath the sea in a secret base owned by a villain who is married to a hero.

They have two daughters, and I am now confident that all of them have something wrong in their head.

The villain in question was 'helping' me boost my stats after I had failed a rank up test for a portion of my job. After he made fun of me and shot at me with a crossbow, I lashed out at him.

With me so far? Great.

Anyway, I successfully pissed him off, and I am now fighting for my life as someone that can twirl 355 pounds like a fucking pen is throwing punches at me.

All because a rock hit me in the head.

So, summary of my life thus far? Not doing all that well, I'll be honest.

"Found you!" Thomas shouts in joy.

Oh, he found me.

Thomas kicks the pile of towels I was hiding under away, and at the same time releasing a powerful gust of wind that blows me into the wall.

[ Due to training, your Endurance has increased by 2 ]

Not…Not a great time.

In a last ditch effort to live, I toss a wild punch. Not really aimed anywhere. Just in the general direction of Thomas, maybe his shoulder.

It doesn't connect though, as to be expected. Instead a silver sphere blocks my path.

The mercury-like sphere melts to reveal the prideful figure of Thomas.

"Like them? The Nanobots I mean. Quite proud of them. Very useful, and versatile. Capable of simulating solid, liquid, and gas. I believe you've seen them before too."

Yeah. They were present during our infiltration into Faulken's. He used them in their gaseous form to disable the people.

"So, their gas form. If dispersed enough, can be completely invisible to the eye."

Is the air getting heavier?

"People can breath this stuff in, and I can do fun stuff."

My right fist launches across my own face. I…I can't move it!

"Like hacking an organism's nervous system. Of course, this is complex; disregarding the fact that I have to individually control all several quintillion bots surrounding us."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

My left fist clenches my right in my attempt to control them, but they end up forcing themselves into my stomach.

"I could stop your heart with but a thought. Scary thing to think about, isn't it?"

Thomas slowly steps closer. Each step cracking and crushing whatever debris has the unfortunate fate of being in his presence.

His eyebrows furrow, and his smile grows wider. I would run. I should. But I can't move. I'm stuck.

"You know,"

He's inches away.

"I'm quite proud of you."

Wait what?

With Thomas's sentence, the oppressive air I had been unaware of is released. I can feel my shoulders physically relax from the tension of my new fear of Thomas. Thomas waves his hand and all of the broken machines and various objects in the room begin the repair themselves and float back to their position.

"It happened earlier than I expected. Not that it's a bad thing. I was just inciting you to get a certain reaction, and a reaction I did receive." Thomas dances around his point while I continue to calm down. "Hmph. We wanted you to finally stand up for yourself."

"What?" I weakly say.

"Sophia and I have been watching. We noticed your general 'go with the flow' attitude. Now, that's fine for an office environment, but that won't work out in the competitive world of heroes and villains. To survive, and not become a person referred to in the past tense, you have to be more assertive. Though if you piss off the wrong person in your assertiveness you will end up very much dead, so know when to run too. Not…hide under a bunch of towels like you did, like actually flee. Perhaps go to the power production area. I would most likely hesitate to cause damage there," Thomas continues his lecture. As he explains, the nanobots cover his face and heals the claw mark, leaving no scars.

Thomas says other things, but I'm still in shock over what he said.

"-ey! Hey, you okay?!" Thomas shakes my shoulder. Oh, I guess I went too out of it.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. It's just, I've never had anyone tell me that they were proud of me," I stammer out. Thomas looks at me with extreme confusion on his face.

"…What. What kind of life have you had?" Thomas looks awkward as he shifts back and forth in absolute confusion of how to handle this. Kinda fun to see a vulnerable side to him.

"Not the best one, to be honest. My father left me and died, mother neglected me. Well, neglected and controlled almost every aspect of my life."

Thomas looks like he's smiling. Well, he has been inhaling for the last ten seconds. I think what he showed earlier was just an act, and this is his truly pissed off form.

"Where does she live?" Are his eyes getting darker? No wait, the room is getting darker. And shaking. He's going to kill her.

"I'm not going to tell you. My instincts are telling me that if I do she would probably die," I stare back into the eyes of a trained killer.

"Your instincts are correct. I could, would, and will kill her. She would very much be dead if I got my hands on her because, frankly, she sounds like a total asshole and she should not be qualified for parenthood."

"She's the police captain."

"Well shit. That doesn't mean anything to a literal villain. Our entire ideology revolves around screwing over the police force. Now, we don't exactly like going to war with heroes due to something called Mutually Assured Destruction, but the police force is a free-for-all. So, there are several ways I can get the information from your head, but the simplest way is if you tell me."

"Uh, northern California," I nervously reply. I hope he's satisfied with that answer.

"Hmm, a little broad, but good enough. I'll be out, but, in the meantime, you can attempt the challenges. Best if you start with mine." With that he teleports away.

I look over at the door to his challenge room and it dramatically opens slowly. Did he purposefully time that or did he just leave a sensor of some kind?

You know what? Thomas has shown several times that he likes to be dramatic. So, I'm going with the timer.

I enter the room to find a spotlight illuminating a single spot. Stepping into the center, the rest of the room begins lighting up one light at a time.

Why is this man like this?