Bain walked up to Stitches' office and stared at the door for a moment in mild trepidation. It was fairly late in the afternoon at this point, and he wasn't entirely sure that the zombie was either awake or not busy.

After having met up with Nahma and his new adopted kids, Bain had gone on a rather long story of how long and how difficult it'd been to get where he was now, and in the process, had realized just how much he'd done on the way. Nahma had somewhat soured the moment by informing all of them all he'd had to do was ask, but that was just Nahma being Nahma. On the way up, he'd run into Hetty calmly eating a rat. She'd been doing fine. She was looking a lot healthier since he'd last seen her.

Shaking his thoughts away, he reached out and hesitantly knocked on the door. A few seconds later, Stitches opened it, wearing silk pajamas. "I'm not - oh, hey Bain. What is it?"

The small faceless creature seated on Bain's shoulder whipped its needle-like lance around to point at Stitches and chittered, "Who is this? What is this? Why does it smell of death?"

Stitches jumped back, raising his hands partially. "Whoa, what the - the heck is that!?"

Bain raised a hand and gently tugged the lance's nearly invisible tip downward. "Khi, this is Stitches, my mentor. He helped me become a hero, remember? Stitches, this is Khi. He's one of Nahma's new kids."

Stitches blinked. "New ki - wait, what!? Nahma's adopting now?"

Khi rattled his segmented back in an attempt at an intimidating gesture. If he hadn't been a little over four feet long, it might have worked. "Bain tells Khi that you are nice, but Nahma tells Khi stories of betrayal and pain, stories of directed malice. Which stories are true, and if not either, are both?"

Stitches flinched visibly. "Oh. Yeah, that... that was a mistake."

Khi rattled again, much louder this time, as he backed behind Bain's head. His hooked feet itched as they latched onto the ridge on Bain's back, and Bain pushed the involuntary shiver that followed down. "Khi will choose to distrust Stitches for now. Khi will choose to stay far away from Stitches until Khi can trust Stitches."

Bain wasn't sure how to feel about that, especially when looking at Stitches' agonized expression. "Khi... how about this? I trust Stitches, right?" The small creature nodded fractionally, and Bain continued, "Then trust me, okay? You're safe around Stitches. Nothing bad's gonna happen to you while we're around him, I promise."

It was difficult to tell what the childish monster was thinking without a face to judge. After a moment, he moved the lance to its back and hissed, "Khi will trust Bain. But not Stitches."

Bain opened his mouth to respond, but the ground rumbled before he could. Stitches grabbed onto the door as an audible crash came from his room. It sounded expensive. "What's going on!?"

Struggling to stay standing, Bain rushed to a window and peeked through it. Dust and rocks were steadily moving upward outside, with screaming citizens running from a purple-clothed human floating in the middle of the street. "Hello, everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that Graviton is taking over the territory! Pay up, people! It's your money or your lives, so pick one already!" She gestured to the ground, and a sizable chunk of the road ripped up from it.

Without hesitation, Bain wound up and punched the wall, sending rubble exploding outward. Setting Khi on the ground, he pointed at Stitches and ordered, "Stay with Stitches! I'll be right back!" With that, he leaped out of the hole he'd just made and crashed to the ground. Sticking the landing, he raised his claws and shouted, "Hey!" He didn't have a quip ready, unfortunately, so he just left it there.

Graviton turned around, hands raised and two-ton hunks of concrete and asphalt hovering behind her. "Huh. The Monster Hero. Haven't seen you before, Rampage, but I don't think you're quite equipped for this fight." She aimed one hand at him, and the piece to her right hurtled towards him.

Bain dodged and sprinted to the right, startled by the sudden attack, a black blur of claws and carapace speeding across the ground. The dust floating in the air was darkening the area, making it difficult to see.

Bain's mind was racing faster than he was. What sort of power was he dealing with? That her name was Graviton said a lot, but more than a few heroes had been done in by a decoy villain name in the past. There'd been one situation where a major hero was killed because a villain with a disintegration power had named himself Mr. Popcorn.

Graviton lowered herself to the ground and slammed her hands into the road. An overwhelming pressure hit Bain, and he slogged for a moment. Nope, that was definitely either a gravity power or a wide-range field-type telekinetic ability. Either one would be pretty difficult to deal with, all things considered. The best course of action would probably be to get it over with.

Changing direction, Bain shot towards Graviton, keeping his claws tucked into his palms. Sliding underneath a massive piece of the road, he punched Graviton in the stomach.

Or at least he tried to. An inch away from her chest, his fist ran into a sudden barrier, a white semi-transparent sparking force field. Off-balance, he stumbled forward and bodily rammed into the shield. A wave of pain rippled up his body as it shrieked, heating up and detonating. A small explosion went off somewhere inside Graviton's suit, and they were hurled away from each other.

Bain recovered faster than she did and instantly hurtled forward. If the shield was gone, all he had to do was knock her down and keep her hands immobilized. From what he'd seen, her power was based in her palms and fingertips, so if he could prevent her from moving, he'd win.

Streaking across the torn-up road, Bain leaped towards the would-be villain, claws outward this time. She hadn't injured anyone yet, only ripped up some property, but she was clearly willing and ready to kill if she needed to. Even with the hard plastic mask covering her face, he could sense an off sensation emanating from her.

One of her hands whipped upward before he could react and pointed down. The asphalt in front of him compressed instantly, and Bain tried to stop. He skidded on the ground, claws and talons scrabbling for grip, and slid straight into the high-gravity area. He was immediately forced to the ground.

Rolling to his stomach, he tried to push himself to his feet and failed. It felt as though there was a building sitting on him.

Wiping at her mouth underneath her mask, Graviton pulled herself to her feet and looked at the blood on her hand, surprised. "Ow." She said irritably, looking at him. "That really hurt!"

Advancing, she raised her other hand, and he rapidly floated a short distance into the air. He rotated midair, trying to grab onto the road, but it was already too far to get a good grasp on the ground. "So you're the hero for this place, right? You're not all that tough."

She looked up at his face, one hand on her hip. "I think I'm going to make an example out of you."

"Khi requests that you put Bain down!"

They both turned around, Bain spinning helplessly. Khi was standing a short distance away, lance raised. One of his spindly arms was rested on its back end, with his other delicate hand grasping the forward part of the handle. The needle-like weapon was trembling, but Khi's mask didn't budge an inch.

Bain's attempts at escape intensified. Where were Stitches!? "Khi, get out of here!"

She laughed. "What's this? A little sidekick?" She advanced, Bain bobbing behind her as she did. "You're kind of cute... once you get rid of everything, that is." She raised a hand, preparing to aim it downwards and crush the tiny monster.

Bain's panic intensified to a level he'd never felt before. He was supposed to be a hero! He was supposed to be able to protect people! How was he supposed to do that if he was beaten over and over again?

He looked at Khi's masked face. At his wavering lance. At his trembling knees.

And he knew that Graviton wasn't going to lay a finger on him.

A warmth built up in Bain's torso, a sudden burning sensation that grew outward from his stomach and roared through his throat. His chest began to glow, angry red light seeping from the chinks in his carapace. Graviton turned around curiously, asking, "What's the big id-"

Bain's true mouth was blown open as a gout of crimson fire blasted from somewhere deep inside him, straight into Graviton's mask. She started screaming, and the effects of the gravity dissipated instantly, dropping Bain to the ground. Rolling forward, he raised one leg and straight-kicked the villain.

She was launched away as the sound of bones cracking made themselves heard, the flames dying as she rolled across the ground. Without the slightest hesitation, Bain turned around and shot towards Khi. Skidding to his knees, he started checking the trembling monster over. "Are you okay? I was so worried about you! And where the heck is Stitches!?"

"ARE YOU BLOODY INSANE!?"

He tucked Khi under him as he turned. Graviton was up on her feet again, despite the amount of damage she'd already sustained. Her mask was a dripping mess of plastic and sparking wires and looked almost fused with her costume. She scratched at it in fury, screaming as she raised both her hands, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU-"

A clawed hand the size of a small car wrapped around her and plucked her from the ground as easily as one might pick a dandelion. Bain slowly looked upward and kept looking up as the full scale of the creature holding her came into view.

It was massive, easily twenty or twenty-five feet tall. With six hulking arms and two tree-sized legs, its torso was covered in a familiar brown carapace. Ridged spikes coated its arms and hands, but the most terrifying feature was the head. With two black, curving mandibles hooking upward from its wide jaw, the triangular head was literally covered in blood-red eyes. A pair of segmented antennae sprouted from the back of its head, sloping downward to just underneath its waist.

Bain blinked hard, his brain slogging in disbelief. "Nahma?"