Bain's eyes flicked open, and he grinned at the ceiling above him.

Jumping out of bed, he rushed into the kitchenette and prepared a quick breakfast of cold cereal and orange juice. He paused for a moment, briefly wondering where the food in his fridge came from, then shrugged it off. It was probably supplied by the Tower, although he supposed Nahma could be putting it in there.

Tossing the food into his mouth, bowl and all, he happily crunched down on the plastic mess, then used his dextrous black tongue to extricate the inedible pieces, carefully placing the shards on the counter.

Opening the fridge again, he glanced at the digital clock and nodded to himself. Six twenty-eight, plenty of time. It was days like this where he wished he could whistle.

Selecting a plastic package of processed meat, he waltzed over to Houdini's cage and tore the package open. Removing a few chunks of the meat, he took an experimental sniff and shivered in delight. Whatever confusing amalgamation of animals had been used in its creation, it smelled delicious, and he forced a few pieces through the small breathing holes, snapping a few up for himself. He could hear Houdini chewing on it, quiet, delighted growls of happiness coming from the camoqotz's cage.

Standing, Bain itched at his stump. It'd been itching recently and he wasn't sure why, but that particular issue was going to be solved today - Tinker supposedly would have his arm ready by nine o'clock!

Of course, he'd be excited about the prospect. Not only was he having his arm replaced, thereby solving his balance problem, but it was being replaced by Tinker herself! His inner fan wouldn't let him not be excited about that.

Sweeping the remains of his bowl into one hand, he dumped it all into the bag-lined trashcan at the end of the counter and dusted his top hands off, looking around with some satisfaction. He wondered if there was anything he'd forgotten, but since he couldn't think of anything, he decided to go ahead and see how Tinker was doing.

Exiting his room, he headed for the elevators, where a familiar face was waiting for him.

Pushing the button marked for Tinker's lab, he stood back and looked curiously at the person next to him. It was a young woman with furry orange cat-ears and a tail, dressed in a tight black tank top and baggy cargo pants. It took him a moment to recognize her, but then he snapped his fingers. "I remember you! You were on the elevator when I was here to see Stitches!" He extended a hand, grinning widely. "I'm Bain! Who are you?"

She glared at him with slitted eyes, fuzzy ears flattening against her head. "I know who you are." She turned away from him, staring at the wall intensely.

Bain wasn't entirely sure what to make of that. Leaning further into her view, he asked, "Um. Sorry, but did I do something?"

She sighed in frustration. "Yeah. You became a hero."

Bain groaned internally. Why were there so many people who didn't want him to become a hero!? "Look, I've wanted to be a hero for my whole life, alright? Why do you all hate that so much?"

Looking at him, she growled, "Are you dumb? You got freaking Stitches as your mentor! Most of us new heroes don't even get a teacher! Do you even know how much you lucked out?"

He blinked. He definitely hadn't thought that Stitches had a reputation, based on what he'd told him, but apparently this cat-person had wanted him as a teacher. "Can't you just ask Stitches to teach you too?"

She rolled her eyes with an exasperated moan. "Oh, yeah, THAT'S a great idea. Just walk straight up to the oldest hero in the Tower and ask him to take you on in a multi-year mentorship! Why not?"

Bain narrowed his eyes at her. He'd learned quite a bit about sarcasm from Nahma - once the centipede had discovered the concept, he'd practiced it to perfection. It was because of that that he recognized the irritation this person was directing at him. "Look, Stitches asked me to become his sidekick, not the other way around."

She flattened her ears even further, tail lashing. "I know! That's the problem! He could have had his pick from literally any sidekick in the Tower, but he picks some random monster for no real reason? As if!"

The elevator paused at the lobby, and she stormed out without another word. Bain watched her leave, alone with his thoughts.

Once the doors closed (nobody wanted to get on the elevator once they saw Bain on it), Bain stared at the ground, thinking hard.

Why had Stitches selected him? He'd told Bain that he'd been picked because of the sheer volume of applications he'd put in, but if the cat-woman he'd just met was any indication, Stitches hadn't had a sidekick in a long time, or at least he had high standards. Insofar as the information Stitches'd had regarding Bain at the time, how could he have known anything about him aside from the fact he wanted to be a hero? Was that really all Stitches was looking for in a sidekick?

The doors slid open, and he was yelled at within five seconds. "YOU! Stitches' sidekick! Good thing yer early, because I AM TOO!"

Tinker stomped towards him with a manic grin, visible bags under her eyes. "Yer arm was finished half an hour ago! My crew's takin' a break, bless their hearts. We ain't got a wink o' sleep all night, but it was worth it!" She gestured towards him, and the hydraulic claw from yesterday maneuvered over to them, carrying a metallic arm.

It paused in front of them, and Bain inspected the prosthetic with mounting awe. It was a phenomenal copy of his lower right arm, down to the slightest details on his forearm's carapace and the bunched muscles. The armored carapace section had a variety of faint lines inscribed on it, though Bain wasn't sure what they could possibly mean. "You made this in one day?"

Tinker snapped out of her mild doze with a yell. "CIRCUIT! Sorry, what?"

Bain blinked in mild surprise. "Do you need to go to sleep? You look kind of..." He trailed off as he took in the deep glare she was directing at him, and mumbled, "Please continue."

She shrugged. "Eh. Anyway, I built in a handcuff dispenser, global positioning system and message center, long-range ion cannon - stun mode available, obviously - and of course I built it to the exact weight of your other arm so you'd be balanced. It'll interface with your... unique brain via a nano-robotic hive network aaand you don't understand a thing I'm saying, do you." Bain shook his head, a little dazed from the information overload. Tinker shrugged again. "Eh, it's a cool arm is all I'm saying. I can't wait to see what you do with it! Oh, and you're required to assign a ten-percent share of the credit any time you thwart a news-worthy crime, got it!?"

Bain barely processed the information. "So how do I put it on?"

Tinker made a series of complex gestures, and the hydraulic claw was manipulated with precise movements, angling Bain's prosthetic arm until it was maneuvered at exactly the right place. Excitedly, Bain raised his stump, aimed it at the prosthetic's attachment point and...

...bumped into it, failing to insert his stump in.

Tinker frowned, confused. "That ain't possible. I literally built this thing from scratch to the exact specifications of your stump, ye can't not fit!" With an angry gesture, she yanked the gigantic vibration device over, and it blasted him down the bones.

While he tried to stop his eyeballs from vibrating, Tinker called a screen over and scanned it with an increasingly annoyed expression, before slowly turning her fury on Bain. "Ye can regenerate yer limbs and you didn't mention it yesterday?"

Bain was genuinely shocked. "Wait, what?"

She poked him with a hefty finger. "Yer arm's buildin' bone faster than a contractor at a circus, how the heck's my baby gonna fit'cha if your arm's comin' back?"

Bain's mood improved considerably. "So I'll get my arm back!?"

Tinker rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what I said! Do you know how much time I wasted making this thing if yer not even gonna be able to use it!?"

He shook her hand violently, nearly dislocating her arm in the process. "Thank you so much - I can't wait to tell Stitches!" Spinning, he sprinted back for the elevator and mashed the button for elevator forty-nine. He had quite a bit of experience with button-mashing from George and the arcade.

As the doors closed, Tinker threw the screen at the floor, and it cracked, bouncing away. "Don't ye leave yet! I ain't done yelling at'cha! GET BACK HE-" The doors firmly slid closed, blocking all complaints from the irate woman. Bain happily bounced back and forth on his heels, excitedly waiting for the elevator to arrive.

He couldn't wait to tell Stitches! He'd been so worried that he wouldn't be able to fight with the imbalance his missing arm produced, but apparently it was going to grow back soon! This was incredible news! Forget sleeping in, Stitches was going to love this!

The moment the elevator stopped, he jogged out, heading for room forty-nine twelve. Raising his claw to knock, he paused. He could hear Stitches talking inside.

He frowned. He'd thought Stitches liked sleeping in. What was going on? Bain knew that eavesdropping was the wrong thing to do in most cases, but...

He leaned against the door and closed his eyes, muting out his senses and straining his hearing.

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

Stitches was torn. "I don't want to do this anymore, all right?"

Firepower sighed, putting his index finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose. "This again? Stitches, this was your idea. Don't you remember why we started this whole thing in the first place?"

Stitches rubbed the back of his neck. "Of course I remember, but Bain should be a hero all on his own! He doesn't need any of this nonsense - he deserves to be a hero at this point! He lost an arm, for crying out loud!"

Firepower threw his arms wide. "Well, good! He can stay a hero after all this, just so long as Nahma's joining him!"

The old zombie sat down with a quiet 'oomph', resting in his cushy chair. "Look. I don't think we can convince Nahma to become a hero no matter what we do - he definitely hates people."

Firepower sat opposite him, steepling his fingers. "No. We already know that he'll do anything for Bain - he risked the Tower's wrath when he went after Slice, and we both know how many feet I had to lick to make sure they didn't go after him with every hero we've got! No, we need Bain to convince him."

Stitches hated this. It'd been his idea to get the ancient centipede and his army of sheddings to become a hero - the sheer power Nahma possessed would be enough to get every hero in the Tower an early retirement. Crime, gone from the streets. Supervillains crushed under the indomitable might of the terrifying monster that was Nahma. It'd only been logical to try and recruit his son, and finding out that his kid had already wanted to be a hero was just icing on the cake. From there, all he'd had to do was make Bain his sidekick.

And then he'd actually met Bain. Everything about him, from the looming height, the fourfold flesh-rending claws, the vibrant blood-red eyes - he'd barely been able to look at Bain when he'd first met him, but he'd had to. For the sake of the plan, he'd told himself at the time.

It hadn't taken him very long at all to become attached to the over-excited, optimistic monster. He'd almost told Bain on more than one occasion, but had forced it back.

Now?

Now he wanted Bain to become a hero, whether Nahma followed suit or not.

The third member interrupted quietly. "Dad... I really like Bain too. He's fun to hang out with. I don't feel very heroic, lying to him like this."

Firepower rounded on her. "Oh, come on, Amber! All you had to do was become friends with him, show him the perks of being a hero! Besides, he's a monster. I get the feeling he's used to lying." She fell uncharacteristically quiet at that, retreating inwards.

Stitches stood up, heading for the door. "Look, we can finish this some other time. I've got to go talk to Bain. Big news."

Firepower raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? That's why you requested a territory? Because you wanted to make your little pet smile?"

Stitches glared at him, and the two wills clashed for a moment. Finally, Firepower looked away. "Fine. Do what you want. Just don't forget why he's your sidekick at all."