The police officer's laughter echoed through the sterile corridor, harsh and mocking. "First of all, you're a suspected mentally ill individual. Second, that 'alien hero' is a delusion fabricated by your psychosis. Everything was staged by you, directed and acted out in your own mind. Am I right?"
Clancy's dark palms clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. The veins in his neck stood out like cables. "That alien monster, I'll make him pay for this! I will! No one can imprison me, not when I'm this close to my breakthrough! I'm a great entomologist!"
"Ha!" The officer exchanged amused glances with his partner. "You're also a mental patient who thinks he's an expert on insects and has lost himself in some fantasy identity as a Doctor of Biology. Actually, there's someone in our prison who's almost as crazy as you. Maybe you two can be good friends!"
Clancy's bloodshot eyes went wide with rage. "No! I refuse to be imprisoned! I'm calling my lawyer! I have rights, "
But the bug man didn't have a lawyer here in the United States. His protests fell on deaf ears as the officers dragged him away.
Ten minutes later, Clancy found himself wearing an orange prison uniform, his expression twisted into something beyond fury, a strange mixture of helpless rage and disbelief. Two white police officers escorted him through the facility, past rows of cells, toward his assigned location.
Inside one particular cell, a man with shock-white hair and sallow, almost greenish skin sat reading a newspaper with methodical precision. He wore a red prison uniform that somehow looked more like a scientist's lab coat on him. Everything about his movements spoke of meticulous organization and controlled intensity.
When he heard footsteps approaching, he looked up. His blood-red eyes locked onto the officers first, then shifted to study Clancy with immediate, calculating interest.
"Dr. Animo!" one of the officers called out cheerfully. "We've got a new friend for you! His condition's exactly like yours, thinks he's some kind of brilliant scientist. We're putting him in with you so you two can discuss your 'research' together!"
The officers' faces twisted with playful mockery. They wore matching expressions of contempt, the kind of look people reserve for those they consider beneath notice.
"Tch." Dr. Animo's lip curled in disgust, but he didn't dignify their taunts with a response. He'd grown accustomed to the ridicule. Instead, he kept his attention fixed on Clancy, studying the bug man with the intensity of someone examining a particularly interesting specimen.
For his part, Clancy had finally looked up from his own brooding. His gaze met Dr. Animo's.
Something passed between them in that moment, a spark of recognition. Both men saw it instantly: the same obsessive pursuit of science, the same willingness to cross any boundary in the name of discovery, the same madness that society called brilliant minds.
"This could be interesting," Dr. Animo murmured, allowing himself a small smile.
Clancy's resistance evaporated. He stopped struggling with the officers and walked obediently into the cell. Without a word, he moved to the sink and splashed cold water on his face, trying to clear his head and assess this new situation.
For a long moment, neither man spoke. Dr. Animo sat calmly in his seat, newspaper spread before him, seemingly absorbed in reading. Clancy dried his face, then claimed his own seat and picked up a discarded newspaper from a nearby table. The silence stretched on, both men ignoring each other completely.
The officers eventually lost interest and left. Other prisoners occasionally glanced their way, but most had learned to ignore the "crazy scientists" in Cell Block C.
Once the guards' footsteps had faded completely, Dr. Animo was the first to break the silence. He carefully folded his newspaper and set it aside. "So, friend, how exactly did you end up in here?"
"Me?" Clancy's bloodthirsty smile was all teeth and barely controlled rage. "A bunch of idiots with limited vision tried to kick me out of my home. I commanded my little friends and dealt with them permanently." His expression darkened further. "After that, I went after the real mastermind behind the demolition order... but I got stopped by some kind of ghost."
"A ghost stopped you?" Dr. Animo leaned forward, his interest clearly piqued. "Tell me, do you remember what this ghost looked like?"
Clancy wiped the remaining water droplets from his face, thinking back. After a second or two, he began describing the purple creature he'd encountered, its battery-like shape, the way it had glowed with electrical energy, how it moved with impossible speed.
"No, the one I encountered had four arms," Dr. Animo interrupted, his mind already racing. "But that watch he wore, it can definitely transform him into multiple different creatures!" He leaned closer, his voice dropping to an intense whisper. "Did you see a strange pattern on that alien monster? Some kind of symbol?"
"A pattern..." Clancy's eyes suddenly widened. "Yes! There was something, "
He roughly sketched out what he remembered: a distinctive hourglass shape, glowing green against the alien's dark form.
Dr. Animo immediately snatched up his newspaper and flipped to a particular column. The article prominently featured an image of Four Arms during one of his public appearances. And there, unmistakable on the creature's upper left shoulder, was the exact same symbol Clancy had described.
"It really is him!" Dr. Animo slammed his fist down on the table, his face contorting with fury. "That brat!"
Clancy's curiosity got the better of him. "What happened between you and this... whatever it is?"
For the next several minutes, the two mad scientists exchanged their stories. Dr. Animo described his genetic experiments, the Transmodulator, his plans to mutate animals into perfect living weapons, all of it ruined by Ben Tennyson and his alien watch. Clancy told of his home, built by his grandfather, and how the city's urban renewal project had tried to tear it down. How he'd struck back with his insect armies, only to be thwarted by that electrical alien.
By the time they finished, both men wore identical expressions of vengeful recognition. They stood simultaneously and clasped hands in a firm shake.
"If it wasn't for that damned brat Asher, we might never have met! This could be fate!" Dr. Animo's voice carried a grim satisfaction.
"Maybe I should thank him for bringing us together," Clancy said thoughtfully. "Two brilliant minds working in concert are far more powerful than one alone."
"But what good does our combined intellect do when we're locked up in this prison?" Clancy suddenly punched the wall, his rage boiling over. "Our talents are completely wasted here!"
Dr. Animo's expression remained cold and calculating. "You can control insects. I know how to create genetic mutation devices. Together..." His lips curved into a dangerous smile. "I already know exactly how we're getting out of here."
A shocking plan was already taking shape in his mind.
"What plan?" Clancy immediately moved to Dr. Animo's side, leaning in close as the genetic scientist began explaining the details.
As Dr. Animo spoke, Clancy's expression shifted, skepticism giving way to understanding, then to dawning excitement. His fists clenched with anticipation. "Perfect! This combines both our abilities perfectly. We'll escape this hellhole, and then we'll take our revenge on Asher, and his entire family!"
Dr. Animo watched the bug man's enthusiastic reaction with carefully concealed disdain. How can someone so emotionally unstable, someone who can't even think calmly under pressure, consider himself my equal? he thought. After we deal with Asher, you'll be nothing more than my dog, following my commands.
The other prisoners in the block occasionally glanced over at the two scientists, as did the guards making their rounds. Everyone wore expressions of dismissal or outright mockery. They couldn't imagine that two "crazy" inmates could actually pose any real threat.
Some prisoners even laughed openly at Dr. Animo, calling out that he was "dreaming" if he thought he'd ever see freedom again.
Clancy bristled at the insults, ready to shout back, but Dr. Animo silenced him with a gesture. Instead, Animo simply lowered his head slightly, covering his eyes with his newspaper as if reading.
But beneath that paper, his eyes gleamed with cold calculation. The look in them was sharp enough to cut.
Your fate will be no better than ours, he thought at the mocking prisoners. You just don't know it yet.
The plan was set.
Time to execute it.
Clancy began subtly using his abilities. His connection to insects was telepathic, no one could see the commands he was sending. His eyes took on a faint, distant look as he reached out with his mind.
No one in the prison noticed that cockroaches, ants, and other insects were beginning to crawl out from the corners, from the cracks in the walls, from the shadows beneath the cells...
Meanwhile, on the street outside, Asher and his family were finishing their lunch at a Chinese specialty restaurant. The food had been excellent, authentic cuisine that satisfied everyone's tastes, even Ben's despite his lingering cold.
What made Asher happiest, though, was how peaceful the morning had been. After the incident with the bug man, everything had remained calm. Even Vilgax's mechanical armies hadn't shown up to cause trouble.
For once, they'd had a truly relaxing day.
"I hope this afternoon and evening stay just as peaceful," Asher said sincerely, stretching contentedly in his seat.
If only he'd known what was already brewing in that prison downtown...