Black Mentis stood motionless inside the conference room while cold blue light from the massive wall screens reflected faintly across the dark plating of his tactical suit. His gloved hands rested against the metal table in front of him. The dents from earlier still scarred the surface beneath his fingers. Emergency footage continued looping silently across the screens nearby. Civilians running beneath collapsing support beams. Smoke pouring upward from crushed vehicles. Ambulance lights flashing across broken concrete.
For a second, the present started slipping away from him.
The voices around the room faded first.
Then the screens blurred.
His breathing slowed beneath the mask while tension gradually spread through his chest. The conference room disappeared piece by piece until only the memory remained.
The memory hit him without warning and dragged him backward through years in an instant.
Richard's office.
The heavy door shut behind Black Mentis with a soft mechanical click.
Afternoon light filtered weakly through half closed blinds, casting long pale lines across the carpet and dark wooden walls. The office smelled faintly of fresh coffee, expensive cologne, and polished leather. Somewhere behind the walls, rain tapped softly against the building windows high above the city.
Richard sat behind a massive desk carved from dark oak. His posture looked relaxed, almost lazy, but the sharpness in his eyes ruined the illusion immediately. One ankle rested over the opposite knee while his fingers tapped twice against the desk surface in slow rhythm as he studied the masked figure standing across from him.
Black Mentis remained still near the center of the office with both arms folded over his chest. The silence stretched long enough to feel intentional. His attention never left Richard for even a second.
Eventually Richard reached toward the corner of his desk and picked up a thick envelope sealed with HeroCorp markings. He slid it slowly across the polished surface using two fingers. The paper stopped several inches away from Black Mentis.
"You've earned this knowledge," Richard said calmly. His voice stayed smooth and measured like he was discussing business projections instead of classified information. "You need to know."
Black Mentis did not move immediately.
His helmet tilted downward slightly while his eyes settled on the envelope. The room stayed quiet except for the distant hum of air conditioning overhead.
Richard leaned forward in his chair and folded both hands together loosely beneath his chin.
"You're Rank One now," he continued. "That means we trust you with information the others never get to see."
A faint smile slowly pulled at the corner of his mouth.
"In other words," he added, "you belong to us now. We own you."
The muscles along Mentis's forearm shifted subtly beneath the gloves. After another second, he finally reached forward and pressed two fingers against the envelope. The thick paper crinkled softly beneath the pressure.
Richard watched every movement carefully.
"If you do something stupid," Richard said, "our arrangement ends." He leaned back again while adjusting the sleeve of his suit jacket. "And that would be unfortunate. You've been very useful to our greater goals."
He tapped the envelope once against the desk.
"We figured it was time to share some of our findings with you." His eyes narrowed slightly while studying Mentis's reaction. "So don't fuck things up, you hear?"
His tone remained calm the entire time.
"We'll be counting on you more than ever now."
Black Mentis stepped closer to the desk. His boots moved heavily against the polished floor while the office lights reflected faintly across the dark surface of his mask. He grabbed the envelope with one hand and opened it without taking his eyes off Richard.
"I can hear you," he muttered flatly. "Stop nagging me."
The office fell silent again except for the soft rustling of paper.
Mentis flipped through the documents slowly at first. Surveillance reports. Internal directives. Lab summaries. Restricted operations. His movements gradually slowed the deeper he got into the files. The fingers holding the papers tightened slightly while his shoulders became more rigid beneath the armor.
Then he stopped completely on one page.
The room remained still.
His attention locked onto the document long enough that even Richard stopped moving.
Black Mentis slowly lifted his head afterward.
His stare settled directly onto Richard.
HeroCorp was not managing heroes.
They owned them.
Richard calmly opened one of the drawers beside him and removed a black keycard stamped with high clearance markings. He placed it carefully onto the desk between them and pushed it forward with one finger.
"You can verify everything yourself," Richard said. "Visit the restricted sector downstairs and you'll get the rest of your answers there."
His voice lowered slightly afterward.
"We can make your goal possible," he continued. "As long as you continue supporting us."
Black Mentis reached down and picked up the keycard. The plastic bent faintly between his fingers before flattening again. He stepped forward until both gloved hands pressed against the desk surface. The heavy oak groaned quietly beneath the weight.
"And what makes you think," Mentis said quietly, "that a nobody like you or this company knows what I want?"
He leaned closer over the desk.
"Or that you're actually capable of giving it to me."
Richard remained seated. Completely calm.
He clasped both hands together loosely across his stomach while studying the masked figure towering over him.
"Let's just say," Richard replied evenly, "I might already have access to something you desperately need."
He reached into a nearby folder and pulled out a single sheet of paper before sliding it across the desk.
Mentis looked down and unfolded it.
The reaction happened instantly.
A dim red glow burned behind the eye lenses of his mask as heat vision surged involuntarily beneath the surface. One of his hands slammed downward against the desk hard enough to split the thick wood through the center. Cracks spread violently across the surface while papers scattered off the sides and drifted across the carpet.
Richard's chair rolled backward several inches from the force.
He never flinched.
Black Mentis leaned farther over the shattered desk while his breathing deepened sharply through the mask. Fragments of wood creaked beneath the pressure of his hands.
"How the fuck did you get your hands on this," he asked quietly.
Richard calmly brushed dust from the sleeve of his suit before adjusting the collar near his throat. His eyes moved briefly toward the ruined desk before returning to Mentis again.
He never answered the question.
The silence itself became the answer.
Black Mentis grabbed the files off the desk roughly enough to wrinkle several pages before turning toward the office door. His footsteps sounded heavier now as he crossed the room. Controlled. Angry. Dangerous.
His hand wrapped around the door handle.
Then he stopped.
For several seconds he stood there without moving while rain continued tapping softly against the windows behind them.
Finally, he spoke without turning around.
"You've got yourself a deal."
His grip tightened around the handle hard enough for the metal to creak faintly beneath his glove.
"But if you can't give me what you promised…" His voice lowered further. "I'll destroy everything this company built."
A long pause followed.
"And that's a damn promise."
Then he opened the door and walked out.
Black Mentis moved through the lower levels of HeroCorp headquarters without slowing his pace once after leaving Richard's office.
The atmosphere changed the deeper he descended into the building.
The polished executive floors disappeared behind him level by level until the expensive marble walls and decorative lighting gave way to something colder and far less welcoming. Bright corporate displays were replaced with industrial ceiling panels that cast pale white light across exposed concrete and reinforced steel. Thick pipes stretched along the upper walls overhead while ventilation systems hummed constantly somewhere beyond them. The temperature dropped noticeably underground, colder air brushing against the exposed areas of his neck beneath the armor.
Security cameras tracked his movement from every corner of the hallway. Their lenses shifted mechanically as he passed beneath them, following him one after another with soft rotational clicks.
Black Mentis kept walking.
Richard's files remained tucked tightly beneath one arm while the other hung at his side. His grip against the documents had not loosened since leaving the office upstairs. The folded papers were slightly bent now beneath the pressure of his fingers.
The restricted access corridor stretched far ahead in complete silence. Long. Empty. Controlled.
Rows of reinforced steel doors lined both sides of the hallway at evenly measured distances. Some carried numbered designations while others remained completely blank except for warning labels mounted beside their scanners.
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
BIOHAZARD RESTRICTIONS IN EFFECT.
LEVEL FIVE CLEARANCE REQUIRED.
Mentis's boots struck the concrete floor with slow, measured weight as he moved deeper through the restricted corridor. Each step carried farther than it should have inside the empty underground level, bouncing softly off the bare concrete walls and reinforced steel doors lining both sides of the hall. The deeper he went, the more distant the rest of HeroCorp felt behind him. The polished executive floors upstairs, the conversations, the movement, the manufactured professionalism all disappeared down here beneath the constant mechanical hum buried inside the walls. Cold industrial lights cast pale reflections across the black plating of his suit while security cameras rotated quietly overhead, tracking his movement as he passed beneath them without slowing once.
By the time he reached the final checkpoint, two armed guards already stood waiting near the reinforced security entrance.
Both wore tactical armor marked with HeroCorp insignias across the chest. Assault rifles remained secured tightly against their vests, though neither man looked comfortable standing there once Mentis approached.
One guard instinctively straightened the moment Black Mentis entered the checkpoint area. His shoulders pulled back quickly while his grip shifted tighter around the weapon strap across his chest.
The second guard reacted differently.
His eyes lowered immediately toward the floor before Mentis even reached them. The muscles in his throat moved as he swallowed once, avoiding direct eye contact entirely.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them dared stop him.
Black Mentis stopped in front of the reinforced security door without acknowledging either guard. The massive steel entrance towered several feet high with thick locking mechanisms built directly into the surrounding wall. Scratches and old impact dents marked parts of the metal surface like something had once tried forcing its way out instead of in.
Mentis raised the access card Richard had given him and held it against the scanner panel.
A red beam swept slowly across the card.
The scanner paused.
For two full seconds, nothing happened.
Then the system flashed green.
"ACCESS GRANTED."
Heavy locking mechanisms disengaged one after another deep inside the walls surrounding the chamber entrance. Thick steel bolts retracted with low mechanical thuds that vibrated faintly through the floor beneath everyone standing there.
The guards remained completely still while the reinforced door slowly unlocked.
Black Mentis placed one hand against the steel surface and pushed inward.
The door resisted at first from its own weight before finally moving open with a long metallic groan.
Cold sterile air immediately spilled out from the chamber beyond.
Mentis stepped inside.
The room waiting behind the checkpoint resembled less of a laboratory and more of a medical containment facility. Bright white overhead lights reflected harshly across smooth polished floors and massive glass partitions lining different sections of the chamber. Stainless steel counters stretched along both walls covered with neatly organized surgical instruments, sealed containers, medical tablets, and stacks of classified reports.
The sharp smell of antiseptic hit immediately, mixed with cleaning chemicals strong enough to sting the back of the throat.
Everything inside the room looked unnaturally pristine. The floors almost reflected like glass beneath the overhead lights.
Like somebody had worked very hard to erase evidence that suffering had ever happened there at all.