Lester sat on the bed of the one-room apartment he'd rented, and he felt bored. The place was, he knew, really terrible. There was a stink to it. Likely from the water damage that could be observed on the ceiling. Or it might be something else than water. But in either case, something had leaked or was still leaking on the floor above. But on the bright side, the place was cheap.

  His life had been uneventful as he had waited for the past four months. He'd done some small jobs here and there, mostly construction stuff, just to make some money and to make the time pass faster, but mostly he just waited, occasionally reading through the news, looking for the piece of information that would end the current phase of his life.

  As he scrolled through some news with his phone, Lester again noticed the effect of his raised Intellect. He could now read much faster and retain much more information. But that was mostly it for now. The effects of the points in the Will attribute were less clear. But having strong willpower, if that was what it was, did certainly sound good—even if it was only on paper.

  As he scrolled the news, he saw the very thing he'd been waiting for. Doctor Nastybrain was doing his thing again. There was a hostage situation in the city hall. It was about some social media dispute, which involved a singer, and which had somehow gone political and then escalated into Nasty taking over the city hall, declaring himself the king of the city and making new laws that prohibited people from speaking ill of him. All very much within the supervillain's character.

  It looked like the heroes were on the scene already, and this would likely result in Nasty's arrest again. Most supervillains didn't behave like Nasty did, but from time to time the doctor got these phases, which ended up getting him locked up for a while. Due to him being a master villain in the Guild of Calamity and Woe, Nasty would usually get out in a couple of months when he'd calmed down.

  This was, Lester knew, his moment. During the months the doctor was away, Nasty's business would be operated by only a skeleton crew. And this was his best chance to infiltrate the guy's facility.

  Lester got up from the bed and said, "Finally."

  ***

  Two days later, Lester stood in front of Doctor Nastybrain's secret hideout. During the months he'd made up several plans: using ropes to climb down ventilation shafts, disguising himself as the doctor or one of his henchmen, distracting everyone with an explosion. There were many ways to go about it. But, he knew, there was an easy way, one maybe not as cool or spectacular, but one that had far the best chance to succeed.

  Lester pressed a button next to the metal door that led to the concrete building, the entrance to the underground base.

  After a moment, a voice came from a speaker next to the door. "State your business." The voice, Lester recognized, was Oliver's. Oliver had been the one henchman guard who had helped him back all those months ago when he'd first escaped. And it wasn't a coincidence Oliver was there. Lester had waited for the guy to drive in and take his shift. As it stood, Oliver, from the little Lester knew, seemed to be a somewhat nice guy.

  Lester answered. "I am a henchman, and the text in my head says to come here for a scan." This was the plan he'd come up with. A simple lie, technically not even a lie. Hopefully, it would get him in.

  "Look into the camera," Oliver's voice said, and Lester complied, looking at a piece of black round glass next to the speaker.

  After a moment, Oliver replied, "Come on in."

  There was a click from the door's lock, and Lester opened it and entered. He was again in this same lobby. Lester saw two guards. One was Oliver, sitting behind a desk, which housed the monitors. Another guard stood in the corner. The corner one was in full body armor with a helmet covering their face, holding, judging from the lights and coils, some kind of a tinker rifle. This was new. Last time when Nasty had gotten himself locked up, there had been only one guard.

  It seems they've decided to up the security, Lester thought.

  Oliver looked Lester up and down. "You one of these new henchman things made to replace us old guys?"

  Lester thought of how to reply. It was obvious that Oliver might have a problem with Nasty's henchman program, for the reason just stated. But the new henchmen, from what he'd seen from First, would not understand any of that.

  Trying to keep his voice stable, Lester said, "I am here for a scan."

  As Lester waited, Oliver just sighed, likely deciding he didn't want to do anything that would possibly call upon the ire of Doctor Nastybrain. Oliver said, "Take the elevator. I assume you know the way."

  Lester nodded, and went on to the elevator, silently being happy about his plan—simple and elegant. He would just walk in, and that was it.

  Lester pressed the down button, and the elevator started descending.

  After several minutes, the elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened, revealing the lobby that seemed to have no other function than to house the big robot, which now stood on its tank treads, at the center of the wide hall. Eyes shining red, it turned to point its two miniguns at Lester, and it said, "Identify yourself."

  Lester lifted his hands in the sign of surrender, stepped out from the elevator, and said, "I am one of Doctor Nastybrains henchmen."

  "Identify yourself or die," it said again, making Lester's mind scramble for a solution. He could just try to run around the thing. But that would cause it to fire, which would then alert the security. But if he just stood here, hoping to get identified, the thing would definitely kill him. Unless it was like last time when the thing had attacked him, and it didn't have any ammo in its guns. But there was no point to gamble on that. The guns were either empty or loaded, and he was either going to stand here or dodge.

  Lester jumped to the side just as the robot opened fire, spewing bullets and yelling in a mechanical voice, "Die! Die! Die!"

  Lester sprang to the side, running around the robot as it rotated its upper body toward him, trying to line up the two miniguns. The robot fired with a deafening roar, trying to hit its target, but Lester was faster, easily running around the robot. After a couple of rotations, the thing ran out of ammo, its miniguns whirling empty as it still yelled, "Die! Die! Die!"

  Lester stopped in front of the thing and looked at it. It was a bit taller than him, and it was definitely a bit menacing in a huge robotic way, but on the whole, the thing was more comical than threatening, a big hunk of murderous metal unable to do anything.

  Then the miniguns stopped whirling, and the thing said, "Target identified. Henchman of the future, you may proceed."

  Lester looked around the room, seeing all the bullet holes in the walls and the concrete dust hanging in the air. Then he looked at the big robot. Now its eyes shone green, probably a sign of non-hostility. It seemed that the robot had something like nearsightedness, and the solution had been to stand very close to it to get recognized.

  "Thanks." Lester gave the robot a wink. "You were a great help."

  As he left the lobby, Lester heard a slight ringing in his ears. The guns had definitely been loud. And if there were security to come, they would now be running this way.

  In the corridors of the base, Lester tried to follow the path he'd gone while visiting here with the monster hunter group, but he soon realized he was lost. This had been one of the problems with the plan. There were too many turns and junctions in the place. Any sane person would instantly get lost here. But on the bright side, there wasn't anyone here.

  Then he heard a noise. Someone walking there in the corridors ahead. The reasonable thing to do would be to head back and try to avoid whoever it was. But if he wanted to find his way, he would need some help.

  Lester headed toward the sound, and after a moment, he found the person. The man was wearing white overalls while looking at a tablet. And as he saw Lester, he let out a yelp, almost dropping the tablet while screaming, "Bejeezus!"

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "I am looking for the place where I can be scanned," Lester said, trying to keep his voice as emotionless as possible.

  "Oh, you're one of the clones," the guy said, letting out a sigh of relief. "What are you doing here?"

  "I'm looking for the place where I can be scanned," Lester repeated. "The text in my head says to come here for a scan."

  "Right, that is totally correct. Stuff has been really hectic these last few days. Normally we would stop everything, but we're in the middle of some extremely important studies, which include you yourself."

  Lester didn't say anything.

  "Right, come this way."

  Lester almost let out a smile, feeling the excitement. He would have made a great actor or maybe even a real spy. His portrayal of clone Lester was flawless.

  After a while, they came to a big metal door with the sign Monitoring and Reprogramming. This was not, Lester noted, the same place he'd been the previous times. Things had definitely changed during the last four months.

  The door opened, revealing the room. There was all the scientific equipment, including monitors and some strange machines ranging from black cubes with plasma lightning inside to something that consisted of a jumble of tubes with different colored liquids flowing within. And at the center of it all, was an operating table. It was similar to the one he'd been in but larger, and there were many robotic arms around it, which looked like they were designed to do surgery with drills and scalpels attached to some of the arms. It didn't look inviting at all. It was more like something from a horror movie.

  Shit.

  A text popped from the Henchman Interface.

  Lay on the operating table to get the collar on your powers removed.

  Lester stared at the text. If he really thought about it, how well could he actually trust the Henchman Interface? Even if it had helped him a lot, it had, for a fact, been made by Doctor Nastybrain. And the thing in his head might be just luring him back here for some more studies. Was it possible that every move he'd made had just been part of a test, controlled by the evil scientist?

  Lester gulped, staring at the machine.

  "Now please, get on the table," the lab guy said.

  Sweat started running down Lester's face. He knew the window to act was closing. The lab guy would figure things weren't right any minute now.

  "Is something wrong?" the guy said.

  "No, I will comply," Lester let out, feeling relieved that he could still at least act. Or was he acting at all? At least he was thinking of disobeying, so that meant he was free, at least, in a mental sense. Unless his thoughts really didn't matter, and he would end up going on the table, as he took slow steps toward the operating table, just pretending he was under control and not actually being under control. Or maybe it was the other way around.

  Lester sat on the side of the operating table and moved to lie down. He knew that when the manacles would lock soon, the time for escape was over. And if he was being tricked, he would be tricked. Maybe he should run now. Knock the lab guy out first with a jump kick to the guy's head.

  The manacles snapped in place, binding Lester's hands, feet, chest, and neck onto the operating table.

  This is it.

  "Let's see what's going on with you now," the lab guy said.

  At the same time, a text appeared in Lester's vision.

  System hacked.

  "Hmm, there seems to be something wrong here," the guy said.

  Lester felt relief wash over him, and he almost let out a smile. Maybe the Henchman Interface was on his side after all.

  Removing collar.

  Lester felt a sting in his brain, then there was a blast of agony as the world turned black and white, and he twisted, raising his back and letting out a screech.

  "Shit, there's something wrong," a voice said, "I'll have to go and reboot the whole system."

  After a while, Lester stopped screeching and slumped down, breathing heavily. And text from the Henchman Interface popped in front of his eyes.

  Collar removed.

  Ready to upgrade the Henchman Interface.

  What would you like to do?

  After a while of adjusting, Lester realized what had happened. The lab guy wasn't here anymore. He was alone, and he had succeeded. Or at least he was on the way to succeeding.

  "Firstly, give me as many of those points as possible," Lester said.

  This action would require removing all safety features of the Henchman Interface, which would make you an S-rank reality warper. This will, however, have negative side effects, likely including one of the following: spontaneous combustion, transformation into a huge brain, or stopping to exist. If you manage to avoid these effects, you will still most likely lose all sense of reality.

  Would you like to proceed?

  "No!" Lester yelled. He definitely didn't want to stop existing or any of the other things. "What are my other choices?"

  You can unlock your Energy attribute, get a Power, and change your Status from Henchman to Villain.

  "Let's do all that."

  Choose your power from these options:

  Talons

  You can transform, at will, your hands into bird feet with sharp talons. You can also transform your hands back to normal.

  Liquid Body

  You will be able to turn your body into liquid. In the case where your body would be damaged, the liquid transformation will be automatically applied, negating this damage. Note: Your current Will is too low to adequately control this power.

  Periscope

  You will get a periscope eye, which will be mounted on the top of your head. The periscope can be retracted into the skull. Some changes to your cranium will happen to accommodate the periscope. The periscope eye will have a zoom function.

  Charge

  This power, for an instant, increases your mass and Might as you charge forward.

  Enhanced Muscle Growth

  You will be able to easily gain muscle. You will also gain bone mass and grow slightly bigger.

  Lion's Rage

  Increase your Might and Reflex for a short time. This power will likely also result in you losing control and giving into the rage. Additionally, your hair will grow into a blond and black mane.

  Tinkering

  You will have the ability to break the laws of physics and logic with your creations. This ability requires an Intellect of 12 or above and would not be active until this condition has been met.

  Lester stared at all of it. The good thing was that the text moved up and down if he focused on the top or bottom of it. The bad thing was that there were too many choices and likely not a lot of time until someone found out what was going on. But he could confidently say that he would not be taking the periscope power. That was just useless and crazy. Other than that. Talons, while they could come in handy in some situations, didn't seem to be that great of a power. Charge was also too limited.

  That left only Liquid Body, Enhanced Muscle Growth, Lion's Rage, and Tinkering. All had their benefits and flaws. Liquid Body, like the power the panther he'd fought all those months ago had had, might actually be cool, but only if he could make it work seamlessly, transforming in and out of the liquid form whenever he wanted. Not all supers were able to use their powers perfectly. He could, quite possibly, end up only with the ability to turn himself into a puddle. But the description did imply that if he invested some points in Will, the power would work better.

  The muscle growth thing might be something similar to what Armie had. It would make him a total hunk. But it would also categorize him as a muscle head, which was not exactly the direction he would like his career as a supervillain to go. The Lion's Rage ability had a bit of the same problem with the addition of losing control.

  The final ability Tinkering could be the best or the worst. Most tinkerers out there were limited to a specific area of expertise. Depending on whatever that was for him, it might be totally useless, like mice cloning or something. Tinkerers also had other problems. Sometimes their devices only worked for the creator, and sometimes they turned against their creator.

  If you really thought about it, there was a big possibility that Doctor Nastybrain might be a tinkerer. The other option was that the guy was just super smart. But if the case was the former, getting the same powers that Nasty had, could really be something. A ticket to the big leagues for him, Lester Rigby, a superscientist.

  System reboot has started. You have 2 minutes 41 seconds to choose a power.

  Shit, this is like the most important decision of my life, and I don't even get time to think about it.

  Lester turned back to the choices he had. It would come down to Liquid Body or Tinkering. Both had flaws, and both had great potential. Tinkering had the additional problem of needing twelve Intellect, and he only had three at the moment. It might not take long to get there. But still. He would be without powers for a time. Also, he really wasn't a science guy, but then again tinkerers didn't have to follow normal science rules anyway.

  2 minutes left to choose your power.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  On the other hand, Liquid Body would, if it worked like the description said it would and how it had worked for the panther, make him extremely resistant to all damage, which would definitely be useful in his villain career. Also, the ability to slip away from all kinds of situations would definitely come handy. If he ever got, for example, shackled onto an operating table—like right now. But with water powers there was always the possibility of ending up as the Puddle Guy.

  1 minute left to choose your power.

  "I'm trying to think here," Lester said. "Give me some peace."

  Would you like to disable the announcements?

  "Would that give me more time?"

  No.

  "Then no. Keep the announcements on."

  30 seconds left to choose your power.

  Fuck this shit, Lester thought, then said, "I choose Liquid Body."

  Lester felt a jolt, and he realized a big change was coming. Then the room turned into a whirling mass of paint and laughing giraffes.