Bain carefully pushed past the milling people in the lobby, keeping an eye on the frizz of red hair marking Amber's location. Being cautious not to step on any of the shedding busily crawling between his legs, each one wearing an appropriately sized neon orange hard-hat, he finally made it outside.

Squinting above the people, Bain called in a low voice, "Amber! Wait up, I want to talk to you."

Startled, Amber spun around, looking for him, and grinned widely in relief. "Ohhh, Bain! You're not going to-"

Making it to her, Bain loomed over her, folding all of his arms. "Listen for just a second. I still don't trust you, get it? I'm going to give you one chance."

She blinked, taking a hesitant step back, then pacing forward until she was staring right up at him. "Hey, that... that's not..." She deflated suddenly, staring at the ground. "Yeah... that's fair."

Bain nodded his confirmation, adding, "And one more thing. If you mention Nahma one time, I'm done, okay? I don't want to hear any of your theories about him."

Amber opened her mouth as if to complain, but closed it as his eyes narrowed. With a sigh, she agreed, "Fine, I won't. Can I at least talk to you about... I don't know. How's your territory coming along?"

Bain was still tense, on edge from his past experiences. He was in no mood to be betrayed again. But with a direct question to think over, he could focus on that instead of the past. He started talking as he walked, and Amber cautiously followed. "It's going better than I thought it would. To be honest, most of the actual construction work getting done is the shedding's doing. They're incredibly diligent and loyal to a fault - not to mention, they're pretty funny most of the time. Usually when they're not trying, though."

Amber paused for a moment, and he glanced at her curiously. "What is it?"

Slowly, hesitantly, she asked, "Wait, so the sheddings... they're not all Nahma?"

Despite his earlier warning, Bain decided to let this particular incident slide and nodded. "Of course not. They've all got their own personalities, their likes and dislikes - even little preferences. Like, I'm pretty sure Gren's favorite food is either rat or concrete. It's a little hard to tell."

Amber shook it away. "No, that's not what I meant. I mean - yeah, that's kind of what I meant, but more to the point... they can just do their own thing?"

He stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out where she was going with that train of thought. "Yeah, of course. Nahma tries to give them as much free will as he can manage - he says that armies conquer best with many brains working in tandem."

Amber nodded a few times understandingly and then frowned. "Wait, what?"

Bain shook it away. "The long and short of it is that they're all their own person, as much as you or me. Wait just a second, I'll show you." Looking around for a moment, he found a shedding, a nine-footer with a shimmering blue carapace, walking along the mesh covering the sidewalks.

So that's what that was for. It was a pretty good idea, he had to admit. And maybe those reinforced poles with the niches in the top were shaped so specifically because... it could support Nahma's weight? He doubted it immensely. Yes, the heroes had gotten a good look at Nahma when he'd annihilated Meatbag, but there was really no way to fully appreciate the massive centipede's bulk.

He blinked the thoughts away, reminding himself what he was doing. Cupping two hands around his mouth, he called, "Hey!"

The shedding's head snapped around instantly, its four eyes glancing around rapidly. Settling on Bain, the shedding checked around briefly, and then aimed a claw at itself in obvious confusion. Bain nodded, and the shedding excitedly scuttled across the mesh and down one of the poles, making a small coil with its lower third and bringing its upper two thirds to a raise, ending up a little under Bain's chest height. "How can I help?"

Bain was surprised. The shedding had a distinctly female sound to its voice - were there girl sheddings? It raised a few awkward questions that Bain didn't want to think about. "Uh, hi. This is Amber. Can you just... talk to her for a minute?"

The shedding's eyes narrowed briefly at the mention of Amber's name, but settled into a pleasant expression immediately after. "Hello, Amber. My name is Killerie. What are you doing in Bain's territory?"

She managed to keep the words pointed without actually sounding aggressive. It displayed a remarkable amount of social skill that Bain hadn't thought was possible with the sheddings. Then another part of the conversation hit him, and he made a double-take. "Killerie? Your name is Killerie?"

Killerie looked as though she was about to faint when he said her name but steadied herself quickly. "Yes. I was given my name by some of the other sheddings. It became difficult to communicate with humans when repairing and improving your territory, so we ended up granting each other names. They are not quite as valuable as the ones you and Nahma give, but they are our names regardless. Do you..." She folded her front legs nervously, flicking her claw tips against each other with a repetitive snikt sound. "Do you approve of my name?"

Bain nodded, giving her a ready grin. "Yeah, it's awesome! It's super nice to meet you, Killerie!" He made a brief motion forward, and she swayed back dazedly. He paused, a little confused. "Wait, do you not like hugs, or should I just pat your head, or... what do I do here?"

Killerie stiffened abruptly, and her lower portion began writhing. "You want to give me a hug!?"

Hesitantly, Bain nodded, and the shedding opened her legs for a hug happily. Leaning into it, Bain bent down and squeezed tightly, nearly lifting her off the ground. Backing away, he grinned, saying to Amber, "So yeah, this is Killerie."

Amber's expression was pensive, watching the ecstatic Killerie practically skitter in place. "Huh... well, that busts a pretty big hole in my theory." Looking up at Bain, she gave him a deep sigh. "Look, Bain, I'm really sorry. I was - ugh. I was a pretty terrible friend to you, and the first thing I did was accuse your dad of killing a bunch of superheroes the next thing I saw you. It's just - I mean, I get that you're mad at Firepower. But he's my dad."

Bain's eyes narrowed, and Killerie stopped wriggling, her expression settling into a calculating one. An expression that she might have used on a particularly cunning rat, or perhaps a juicy deal. There was an audible pause in the movement around them as the passersby sensed the tension, and then it diffused as Bain sighed. "Amber. Have you thought of the fact that maybe your dad isn't as great as you think he is?"

She flinched, glaring up at him. "Hey, your dad's far from perfect!"

To her shock, he slowly nodded, agreeing with her. "I know. I'm pretty sure he still wants to eat supervillains, and I'm pretty sure there's some sort of rat farm going in the deeper tunnels or something. There's no way he could keep all of these sheddings fed without it." Rubbing the back of his head, he continued sheepishly, "I guarantee you that there's some stuff he hasn't told me. I'm pretty sure he's not planning on telling me most of it any time soon. So instead of figuring him out by how he talks, I go by how he acts."

Amber raised an eyebrow. "Killing everything in sight?"

Bain shook his head, then raised one of his hands, ticking off the reasons as he spoke. "First off, he adopted me. He didn't have to do that at all. Second, he encouraged me to become a hero. I don't know how many times he's been attacked and shot at and burned and blasted by heroes, but he's never told me that I shouldn't follow my dreams. Third, he changed. He doesn't kill people anymore. He's really trying to be a good hero - he even asked me what the best kind of appearance would be for doing hero work, and I'm pretty sure he's building a body for that right now."

Amber blinked hard. "Wait, wh-"

He continued obliviously. "And fourth, he's honest." He stared her in the eye with an intensity that hadn't been there before, and she fell quiet. "He doesn't tell me everything. He doesn't have to. If it's important, he'll let me know. If he thinks he's made a mistake of some kind, he tries to fix it. If I ask a question, he always - always - tells the truth. It doesn't matter if I'm asked if he's in the mood for rat or if he's planning to collapse all of Centropolis or something, he's honest about it."

Amber's face was somber, looking off into the distance as he spoke. "So with that in mind - with those reasons in mind - I have to ask, Amber. Is Firepower that kind of person?"

She opened her mouth, ready to defend, and then slowly closed it, her shoulders slumping. In the slightest whisper, she answered, "No."

Bain nodded sadly. "I didn't think so. And I do understand looking up to your dad. He's a really good hero, even if he's not a very good person. You can probably get a lot of tips from him, stuff I wouldn't get from Nahma. And while I want to be a hero more than anything else?"

He stared at the ground, imagining Nahma's concentrated expression as he worked on whatever things he did in his tunnels. "I wouldn't trade my dad for anyone else."