Lester opened his eyes. He was still in the lab, manacled to the operating table, there was a red light flashing, and something was definitely burning.

  Hope it's not my brain, Lester thought.

  As he scanned the room, he noticed that all the lights in the machines were gone. Some very expensive equipment might have gotten broken, and maybe he should leave as fast as possible.

  Collar removed.

  "Okay, but can you get me help with these real-world collars?" Lester nudged at the tight metal bands binding him onto the table by his arms, legs, chest, and neck.

  Quest completed: Become a true villain.

  6 points gained, of which 3 have been assigned to Energy and 3 are unallocated.

  Henchman Interface upgraded to Villain Interface.

  Your status has been changed: Freelance Henchman -> Freelance Villain

  You have gained the power: Liquid Body.

  "That's all good, but can you release me from this table?"

  New Quest: Escape from Doctor Nastybrain's base, and don't let anyone find out that you broke his extremely valuable machine.

  Award 1 point.

  Lester stared at the text. It seemed the Interface was not in the mood to help him any more. He would have to do this part himself. He had a superpower now, Liquid Body. But right now, he unfortunately didn't have the time to figure it out. But fortunately, he had a Might of seven, and, with it, he should now be able to loosen these constraints a bit.

  "You can do it," Lester said to himself, took a deep breath, and pulled, trying to bend or break one of his handcuffs. They didn't budge. Lester tried harder, letting out a scream of pain as his flesh was squeezed against the steel, but the steel yet again didn't budge.

  Lester thought quickly. He should maybe be able to use his new transformation ability to slip out of these constraints.

  Lester spoke to his bound hand, "Liquid Body activate." After a while, as nothing happened, he said to his hand, "Please." This didn't do anything either. Lester realized he might have to do something profound to get his powers to work. Like reaching his inner calm, or finding out that his power was within him all the time, or some other similar stuff. But this was not the ideal time for soul searching. He would just have to put more physical effort into his escape.

  This will hurt, Lester thought and hurled his body forward with all his strength.

  The world blinked out, and he was on the floor staring at the table. And as he looked at himself, Lester saw that he was naked. Something had definitely happened. He'd managed to slip out from the manacles, but he'd somehow managed to slip out from his clothes too.

  Warning: Your energy level is low. Restore your energy by sleeping.

  Lester noted that he felt a bit sleepy. But now was not the time for sleep.

  He gathered his clothes and quickly pulled them on. He then ran to the door and opened it. As he peered into the hallway, he heard footsteps. There were many of them, they were getting louder, and they seemed to be in a hurry. They were most definitely here for what had happened. And if they looked into him more carefully, they might find out that he was not a regular henchman clone.

  In the hallway, Lester took the direction leading away from the noises. He walked fast, trying at the same time to appear as if he was not running away from anything, all the time hoping that no one would place the blame on him. He was just one of those idiot clones. There were probably many of those running around. Who could even tell one clone from another?

  After a while of wandering around, Lester again found the elevator room. There, he approached the robot, walking quickly right in front of it, and the thing said, "Target identified. Henchman of the future, you may proceed."

  Lester took the elevator to the lobby above ground, where he met the two guards. He said to Oliver, "I have been scanned and am now going back to my duties."

  Oliver looked at the other guard, who was covered in armor. The armored guy just shrugged, and Oliver pressed a button, buzzing the entrance open.

  Lester walked out as calmly as he could, but inside he felt like exploding. He was free again. And he had powers. And he might have upset the crazy doctor again. Hopefully not. Maybe someone else would get blamed, or the whole thing would get covered up. Also, he had successfully used his new superpowers to escape. It was the most incredible thing ever. And on top of it all, he was a true villain now.

  Quest completed: Escape from Doctor Nastybrain's base. However, it is not completely clear if you got away cleanly. You still gain 1 point.

  He ignored the message, and after he was a block away from Nasty's compound, Lester couldn't hold back any longer. He started running, quickly accelerating beyond the limit of a normal human, leaving behind the mostly empty old factory district and entering into more populated neighborhoods. He ran along the streets of Recalm City, and people looked at him strangely. But Lester didn't care. He ran and ran, dodging honking cars and cursing pedestrians. He ran until he ended up next to the rundown apartment building he was living in.

  Lester entered his place and lay onto his bed, immediately falling asleep with his shoes still on.

  ***

  After he woke up in the middle of the night, Lester recalled everything that had happened, and he realized what that meant. He had superpowers to experiment with.

  "Henchman Interface—" Lester started, but then he realized the name had changed. Lester smiled and said, "Villain Interface, show me my status."

  VILLAIN INTERFACE

  Name: Lester Rigby

  Super Rank: C

  Status: Freelance Villain

  Attributes:

  Might 7

  Vitality 5

  Reflex 5

  Intellect 3

  Will 3

  Energy 3

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Available points 4

  Powers:

  Liquid Body

  Quests:

  You think you're not a clone:

  Prove, against all the evidence, that you are not a clone.

  Award: 3 points.

  He was a villain now. It said so there right in front of him. Although, he wasn't one officially. He would have to go to the guild to change his status.

  New Quest: Upgrade your status in the Guild of Calamity and Woe to Villain.

  You will need to get your powers evaluated, and you will need to qualify as C-rank.

  Award 1 point.

  Lester noted the C-rank requirement. That was indeed what was the minimum for a true villain. And it certainly wasn't enough that some text that only he could see said he was C-rank. Also, the tests would not be that easy. There was certainly a possibility of failure. He would have to figure his powers out before he did the tests.

  But before all that, there were the four free points he hadn't put anywhere. He was certain that he would either put them in Will or Energy. Those were the attributes that affected his new power.

  "Villain Interface, could you show me the instructions about Will and Energy, please."

  Will: Increases your control over your superpowers. Grants greater control over the effects of your other attributes. Gives resistance to mental effects caused by powers from other people and beings. At higher levels, this attribute will grant you psionic abilities.

  Energy: Increases your total energy capacity and output rate exponentially related to the value. Energy is used to power your superpowers, including additional psionic abilities.

  Lester read the text quickly. It looked like Will gave control and Energy gave battery life. Both things he needed. Now he could maybe only turn into liquid once, and then he would start feeling sleepy. That was something he definitely needed to fix. Also, he didn't have any memory of the instance he'd used his power. That might be an even bigger problem. If he had no control over his power, he would definitely fail the tests.

  Lester sat on the side of the bed. He paced around the room. He stared at nothing. And all the time he was thinking. The problem was that he couldn't really know how much more energy he would get by putting points in the Energy attribute. And with Will, he had even less of an idea.

  "Villain Interface, what does exponentially mean in this case?"

  f(n) = f(n-1)*10^(1/10)

  After searching the internet, Lester came to a conclusion. It meant, if his calculations were correct—and why wouldn't they be—that his internal battery capacity increased cumulatively around 26% for every point. So maybe by adding two points into Energy, which was 58% more, he might be able to do two times what he had done in the lab. However, it was a maybe, and he would then be even more exhausted.

  "So how much does one point of Will do?"

  There is no formula for the effect of Will.

  Lester stared at the text. It was not helpful. But he would still have to put points into Will if he was to become better at controlling his powers.

  Lester sighed and lay down on the bed. "Put two points in Will and two points in Energy."

  Will increased to 5.

  Energy increased to 5.

  Due to a large increase in the Energy attribute, some malfunction of reality might occur.

  Lester prepared for what would happen, but the only thing that he noticed was that the ceiling was a bit closer. Lester looked around and saw what was going on. He was floating. Actually floating above the bed. He could fly.

  Reality has returned to normal.

  Then he fell down, crashing into the bed and collapsing it down onto the floor with a loud crack.

  Lester looked around thinking of what had just happened. It seemed that his flying ability might most likely have been temporary. Also the bed, which had been part of the apartment when he'd rented it, was in a bad condition. Two legs had broken and several boards that held the mattress had snapped. He might possibly lose his deposit. Maybe he could tell his landlord that the bed was already broken. Or he could maybe fix it with glue. The latter was probably the best course of action.

  Leaving the issue of the broken bed for later, Lester got up and said, "Time to figure this thing out." He stood there, wondering where to start. Many supers said that their power just worked, like an extra limb, which they could use to do stuff. Some said they had to reach a meditative state. There were the ones with some kind of triggers, like saying some words, doing hand signs, or getting really angry. If there was one for him, he would have used it, without noticing, when he first used his power in the lab. He'd just thrown himself forward in desperation. Desperation. Hopefully, it was not desperation that triggered it. That would be sad. Also, he was not going to get desperate now. There were many other things to try first.

  Lester went to the middle of the room and tried to turn himself into liquid. He searched his mind for anything new. There should have been something like a tingle somewhere or maybe a blinking light in some corner of his mind. Or something.

  Suddenly, a thought hit Lester. "Mr. Villain Interface, could you give me a manual on my superpowers, please."

  You are 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 effectively control this power while you are in liquid form.

  Lester stared at the text. As manuals went, this was a bit lacking. It was basically the same description he'd gotten at the time he'd chosen this power. But there was, of course, the part about the automatic transformation.

  His eyes shifted to a small foldable knife resting on the kitchen counter. It was a leftover from his hunting days. He had mostly used it for eating-related stuff back then in the forest, cutting open food packages, and slicing meat, cheese, and other stuff.

  Lester took the knife and folded the blade to the ready position. He stared at it for a while thinking of what he was about to do. Maybe he should try something else first. Like the meditation thing. But then again, he did heal quite fast, and he would feel quite stupid after trying to reach some kind of a nirvana for days if the solution was just to stab himself a bit.

  Lester put his left hand flat on the table, spreading his fingers. He grabbed the knife in his right, aiming the single-edged blade downward.

  Lester took a deep breath and then let out, "I'm going to do this."

  He stood there for a while, holding the knife. "Just do it."

  After a minute, he was still in the stabbing position. "You're a villain. If other villains would see you now, they would laugh at you."

  Lester stabbed the blade down onto his hand, but it did not sink. He saw no blood. The knife didn't have a pointy tip but a curved one. Also, he hadn't put that much force. He should have stabbed super hard since his skin was way more durable than normal skin.

  "Fuck," Lester said and slammed the blade down again this time with far more power, sinking it into the top of his hand and right through onto the table, and his hand turned into transparent water, and it wiggled around reforming, next to the blade, back into his hand.

  Lester lifted his stabbed hand up, turned it around, and studied it closely. There wasn't a scratch on it. He'd just stabbed his hand, and there wasn't a scratch on it. It was a real functional and practical superpower.

  "Cool," Lester said. Then his gaze turned to the knife, and he noticed it was now sticking from the metal kitchen top, sunk into it several centimeters through the metal. Maybe he should find a better place to test his powers, or he would definitely lose that security deposit.

  ***

  Outside in the central park, on the following night, Lester punched a large rock. The rock was around two meters tall and much wider than a human, it had a wider base and it tapered toward the top, and it was standing in a place where there was a lot of tree cover, making it easy for him to practice his powers.

  Lester punched hard into the large rock, and as his fist connected, his arm from wrist forward turned into liquid and then back again. He readied another strike, all the while trying to will his arm to stay solid. He'd already achieved some control, raising the threshold of damage it took to prevent his hand from liquifying. But he knew he needed more. And this was the simplest way to train it. If he could manage to prevent parts of his body from turning into water, he would be able to better take advantage of his power. At this moment he couldn't even punch something hard without his hand turning into water. That was a really big issue, which he would have to remedy. An uncontrollable power with severe handicaps would certainly ruin his attempt at gaining a C-rank status in the guild. And that would mean he would have to remain a henchman, which was unacceptable.

  Lester kept on punching, his hand turning into transparent liquid most of the times he struck.

  After practicing for an hour, he took a break and leaned on the rock. He studied his knuckles. Uninjured. And the rock that he'd punched for all that time was as it had been when he started. He would have to just keep at it then. But he was getting tired, probably low on energy.

  Suddenly, he heard a noise from close by. It was like a hiss and then a thud. Something was definitely happening there, just out of his line of sight, hidden away by some trees.

  Lester moved closer, silently trying not to make any noise. Soon, he spotted a woman. She wasn't entirely normal. The skin on her hands and face was green and scaly, like a snake's.

  Seemingly unaware of Lester, the snake woman hissed and spat some liquid. The projectile flew several meters, hit a tree with a thud, and then sizzled on the trunk.

  Lester could see several trees with acid burns. The woman had, for sure, been at this for a while.

  He moved away, not wanting to confront her in the middle of the night. All kinds of strange people could be found here at this time.

  Lester went back to punching the rock.