Bain woke up.

Rather than his usual rapid acceleration into alertness, he instead discovered he was lying on an incredibly soft surface. He liked it so much that he decided not to move, not bothering to open his eyes. Settling in, a faint grin appeared on his face as he dropped into that curious state between awake and asleep.

His leg started to itch.

He tried to ignore it as long as he could, sinking deeper into the bed in an attempt to ignore the consistent crawling sensation on his left leg.

Sighing, Bain's eyes flicked open, and he sat up to scratch his leg. Dim light streamed through the window on his left, diffusing through the shades and casting a pattern of horizontal lines of the opposite wall. There was a shadowy cutout where the light struck Bain's body, faintly glinting off the specks embedded in his carapace.

The center of Bain's head split open, fracturing into a total of four pieces as he yawned loudly, his long black tongue twitching. As his face closed, he kneaded his eyes with one hand, rubbing the beads of acid formed from the yawn. Twisting his neck, he heard a loud pop as his carapace settled into a more comfortable position.

Lying back down, he closed his eyes and started thinking.

What was Amber doing? There was no way she was actually that calm when talking to him. When she'd met him, she had breezed straight through the door. She hadn't even flinched when she saw him. Firepower had probably prepared her to meet him, or something along those lines. More likely than not, he'd shown her a bunch of pictures and practiced to make sure she wouldn't panic when she met Bain.

Then again, Firepower didn't know Bain all that well. Why would he have gone to the trouble of preparing Amber just to meet him? There was a higher chance that Stitches would giving compliments, or that Nahma would go vegetarian.

Even though no one was listening, Bain still decided to rephrase the last thought. The chances of Nahma giving up meat were far less than zero.

Bain inhaled deeply, feeling his carapace expand, and then exhaled.

Opening his eyes again, he groaned his irritation at the realization he would have to get up. Pulling his legs to the side of the bed, he placed them on the ground with a quiet roll of clicks as his talons tapped the tiles. Reaching up, he grabbed his head with the top pair of arms and snapped it loudly, sighing in satisfaction as his neck readjusted, his endoskeleton fixing itself into a better state.

Using his lower arms, he clapped once, and then stood. "All right." he told the empty room. "Let's do this."

Walking into the bathroom, he curiously examined the shower before turning it on. There were four settings written at even intervals on the handle - subzero, cold, hot, and boiling. He assumed that the odd temperatures were designed for the powers of various superheroes, and turned it to boiling.

As he dialed the handle up to maximum, a powerful stream of water shot out of it. A cloud of steam began rising from the rapidly heating floor, leaving a curiously dense feeling in the air.

Bain stepped into the shower and winced as the pressurized water began to rinse away the dust from his chase against Mike. He thought back, chuckling as he realized it had only been a mere day ago and thinking about how so much had changed in such a small amount of time. What would he be doing if he'd never discovered the stash of fancy magazines in Nahma's tunnels? He'd learned most of his information about heroes from them. He would probably still be hunting rats with Nahma, and in all honest, humans wouldn't be nearly so permitted in the tunnels as they were now...

He blinked, wondering what it was about the shower that pulled such contemplative thoughts into one's mind. Not that he'd ever had a shower before, though.

As Bain dialed the shower down, the spray of water depleting to a trickle, he vibrated his whole body quickly. The droplets of water clinging to his carapace began to run down him at an accelerated pace, and in a moment, the floor of the shower was covered in a slowly draining layer of brownish water.

Stepping out of the shower, he saw a towel and grinned. He'd never had the opportunity to use one of these, and reached out to pick it up, appreciating its softness.

Realizing he was already dry, Bain put the towel back down and ambled into the main room. Heading around the long bar splitting the room, he went for the kitchenette half and opened a cabinet at random. There were a lot of bowls inside, so he grabbed one and put it on the counter. There were several brightly colored cardboard boxes above the bowls, and he selected one at random, slitting the top open.

The smell of dry, artificially flavored food wafted into his mouth, and his mouth started watering from the scent. Cutting the plastic bag away, he poured a decent amount of the cereal into the bowl. Squinting at the box, he saw a bowl overflowing with the cereal, white liquid spilling out of it dramatically. The words 'Super Crunch!' were proudly written in a difficult-to-read font above it.

Opening random drawers, he failed to find the spoons and shrugged. Grabbing the bowl, he pitched the entirety of the cereal into his mouth. There wasn't much point in trying to find the white liquid if he didn't know what he was supposed to be looking for.

It wasn't until a moment later that he remembered the cafeteria downstairs, and his eyes lit up. Heading for the door, he opened it and stepped into the well-lit hallway. There was only one other person in the hallway, and Bain cheerfully said, "Good morning!"

The person began turning, saying, "Oh, good morning. Are you a HOLY CRAP." His yellow spandex suit wrinkled as he jumped back, and he ran a spade-like hair through his short brown hair, blue eyes wide with surprise. "Uh - what are you doing here?"

Bain indicated himself happily. "I'm a sidekick. What about you?"

The hero nodded very slowly. "A sidekick. Okay." He thought of something and narrowed his eyes at Bain. "Is that a mutation power, or..."

Bain shook his head. "Nope! You're talking to the very first monster sidekick. What's your name?"

The hero looked incredibly suspicious of Bain. "Wait, so you're actually a hero's sidekick? Who's crazy enough to take on a monster?"

The sting didn't hurt anymore - Bain had gotten used to it a long time ago, although this particular brand seemed a little more painful than usual. He crossed his lower arms, scratching the back of his head with the upper pair. "Yup. I got accepted yesterday, and apparently Stitches is 'crazy enough to take on a monster'. How about this - I'll introduce myself first. I'm Bain."

He held a hand out for a handshake, hoping for a repeat of what had happened with Amber. He was sadly mistaken.

The hero shook his head, raising one hand in an obvious 'no thanks' gesture. "Yeah, no. I don't associate with monsters. It's nothing personal, but I've got to keep my Rep up."

He began walking away, and Bain waved after him. "Bye! You forgot to tell me your name, by the way." He waited until the hero was out of sight, and then his entire body slumped.

Bain had thought - had honestly thought - that being a sidekick would make more people open to talking with him. Instead, they only seemed to doubt him more. How long was it going to take before people were fine with doing something as simple as passing him in the hallway? Or telling him their names?

"Bain - what the heck was that?"

He winced, turning to see Amber gaping at him. "Uhhh..." He didn't even know where to start with that question. "I don't know."

She approached him, a hint of anger warping her otherwise casual expression. "That guy was mean. Who ignores someone just because they look different?"

Bain looked around to make sure that there weren't any cameras, and that no one was filming a prank show episode around him. That had actually happened once, and he definitely didn't want a repeat. "Don't worry about it - I'm used to it."

Amber folded her arms. "Well, you shouldn't be."

Bain blinked. What in the world was wrong with Amber? It was normal to be afraid of Bain. The thought of others looking up to him rather than away from him had been a prime reason for his wanting to be a hero. After all, he looked terrifying with all his claws and darkness.

Amber snorted. "Nothing's wrong with me. Plenty of stuff is wrong with that guy. I bet he isn't even that great of a hero. And you're really not all that scary."

Bain's mouth slowly fell open. "Did you just read my mind?"

She chuckled. "Why would I need to? You just said all that out loud."

Bain seriously considered sprinting into his room and jumping out the back window. They were only, what - thirty stories up? He'd be fine.

Amber slapped his carapace, startling him. "What are you waiting for? Let's go get breakfast, and then we can go meet your dad. Sound good?"

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

Bain wasn't entirely sure how Amber had gotten him downstairs so quickly. After she'd willingly touched him (and without any societal expectations, no less), the next five minutes had passed in a bit of a blur.

In the cafeteria, Amber nudged him again. "Bain, check it out! You're famous!"

Indeed, his face was posted on electronic billboards placed around the cafeteria, with the words 'Newest Sidekick' above and beneath them. The moment Bain entered the room, eyes began to flick towards him. Hostile eyes.

Carefully, slowly, Bain walked up the food line and picked up a plate, heading towards the strips of fried pig liver enticing his nose.

A costumed hero in front of him picked up the bin and dumped its entire contents onto his plate. As he walked past Bain, he whispered loudly, "Go home, freakshow. You don't belong here."

Bain was perfectly aware that he didn't belong in the Tower. He was completely out of place among all these shiny pillars of the city. Despite that, he still really wanted to be a hero, and it was going to take more than some jerk to convince him otherwise.

He selected a tray of sausage and placed several of them on his plate, moving over to the curiously still Amber and sitting down at one of the tables. It was stunningly quiet for reasons he didn't quite get, so he focused on the sausage and started eating.

"Bain?"

Amber's voice sounded odd, and Bain looked up. "Yes?"

"I'm going to go beat that guy up, if it's all right with you."

Bain started, rising halfway from his seat. "What? No! You can't do that - he's a hero."

She shook her head, smiling oddly. "Sure I can. And he's a jerk, not a hero."

Someone seated at a nearby table raised a hand in a languid gesture, asking, "Why are you standing up for him? He's a monster. He doesn't count."

Amber's teeth were starting to grind against each other. "You know, there's something I really don't like. Guess what that is?"

Bain was a little worried, but asked tentatively, "What?"

Her eyes were laser-focused on the hero as he went back to his table with his plate piled high with bacon.

"Bullies."

And all heck broke loose.