At Doctor Nastybrain's underground supervillain lair, Lester quickly peeked around a corner. There the robot was. A ton of steel on caterpillar tracks with two miniguns. It stood in the middle of the hall. Behind it was the elevator—the way to freedom. To get there, he would have to go around the robot. For this, the hall should be large enough.

  Just before he was about to leap into action, he thought, Hope the janitor is right and those guns don't have any ammo. Otherwise, my escape will end here.

  Lester launched into a run, turning the corner and sprinting into the hall, where the big machine turned, aiming its guns at him. It said in a mechanical voice, "Halt, intruder! Identify yourself!"

  There was plenty of room in the large hall, and Lester just ran around the robot, as the thing shouted with its mechanical voice, "Die! Die! Die!"

  But there was no gunfire, only the sound of the thing's voice, the gun barrels whirling around, and the tracks of the robot moving as it kept turning to keep Lester in its crosshairs.

  He slammed the elevator button four times, as he got there, and then Lester realized there was a problem with his plan. He would have to wait for the elevator to come down while the big robot was in the room. And there was even a display above the elevator, which said four minutes. Glancing back, Lester saw the robot was just standing there as it pointed its whirling minigun barrels at him, all the while shouting, "Die! Die! Die!"

  I could maybe just wait here, Lester thought.

  Time passed, the four minutes turning into three and then two, as he stood there and the robot kept firing its empty guns.

  One minute still left on the elevator timer, the big metallic thing stopped its attempted murder. It looked at its guns, seemingly realizing that no bullets were coming from them. After that, the arms with the guns folded to its back, disappearing into the thing's body, and new arms came back for Lester to see. These new arms had directly attached to them, swords resembling huge cleavers. The swords started moving in a chopping motion as the robot slowly approached him.

  Lester thought quickly. He would die if he didn't do something. The elevator wasn't here. The stairs.

  As the robot was about to reach slicing range, Lester sprinted to the side, where a metal door stood without any sign on it. Immediately, he opened the door and entered, slamming it shut behind him. And there in front of him, Lester saw the stairs. He had made it.

  Suddenly, a crash of metal sounded behind Lester, who looked back at the robot's cleaver-like blade, which had gone through the closed metal door he'd just used. Now, the piece of steel hung there, pointing its tip toward Lester, causing him to back away and fall on his butt.

  Almost got brained, he thought as he stared at the sword now stuck in the door. There it twitched slightly like the robot was trying to pull it free.

  Lester shrugged, got up, and turned his focus on the stairwell. Rows and rows of stairs. This place must have been quite far down. But still, he'd survived a killer robot. A simple staircase would not stop him.

  Lester started climbing, briskly taking two steps at a time.

  After around half an hour of climbing, he felt the power of his legs wane. His limbs just seem to be resisting cooperation for some reason. Maybe that muscle atrophy thing and that malnourishment thing were making him feeble.

  Lester sat down and said, "Mr. Henchman Interface, what was that muscle thing and the other thing?"

  Would you like to see your Status Effects?

  "Sure."

  Status Effects:

  Extreme Malnutrition

  Extreme Muscle Atrophy

  Lester eyed the words. Now that he thought about it, those things did sound quite bad, like serious medical conditions. But what could he do? There was that robot at the bottom. If he now turned back, he would have to face the thing, and that likely would not go well for him. The other and reasonably the only option was to keep on climbing.

  After dismissing the interface, he took hold of the stair railing and pulled himself up then looked down and up, seeing the rows of stairs below him and above him. Around halfway to the top. He could do this. He would ascend one step at a time. He would battle, and he would defeat this staircase.

  After an hour, Lester crawled upward. No longer able to stand, he pushed with his arms and legs, managing to slowly creep up the stairs. Lester knew if he stopped he would not be able to continue. He would probably be left here because no sane person would ever try to climb all these stairs. So, one stair at a time. He must go on one stair at a time.

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  After another hour had passed, as he reached the top of the stairs, Lester saw in front of him a simple door. It had a knob on it. He would just need to turn it, and he would be free. But he couldn't move. His arms and legs no longer obeyed his commands. So close.

  Lester lay on the floor staring at the door.

  "Help!" he creaked out, his voice so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable as speech. "Someone, please!"

  He waited, but he heard no answer. There was no one. This was how he would die. Defeated by the stairs.

  Lester lowered his head as one small tear dried onto his cheek.

  After a while, as the world had almost faded away from him, there came a voice, and the voice said, "Shit man, are you alive?"

  ***

  "Have some water," someone said as a plastic cup was pressed on Lester's lips.

  Lester took a sip feeling the liquid go down. It hurt as it went. But he needed more. It was literally a miracle drink. It brought life. He could feel again. He could move again. He would dance again.

  Lester took the cup gulping down all its contents as fast as he could.

  "Slow down there, fellow," the same person said, "You're going to choke."

  Lester didn't listen, and the cup was already empty. He said, "Can I have another, please?"

  "Sure thing," the guy said and Lester watched him go to a water dispenser at the corner. The guy was some kind of a guard judging by the equipment on his belt.

  While the guard was filling the cup, Lester surveyed the room. It was plain with white walls. There was the sofa he was sitting on. It had brown plastic covering. Then there was the desk and the chair behind it. The desk had some monitors, which connected to cameras all around the place and outside. There were no windows, but there were doors. One led to the stairs, one was the elevator doors, one looked like it led to some kind of a closet. And the last one, a metal double door, which had the exit sign on top of it. There lay freedom.

  "Here you go," the guard said as he handed the filled cup, which Lester immediately grabbed and downed all its contents.

  Lester let out a satisfied sigh.

  He then turned to look at the guard. The man was in his twenties. He had short black hair and a somewhat athletic build. He was also wearing the black overalls with the Nasty's Business logo on it. The guy was also armed. He had a pistol on his right hip and some kind of a shock stick on the other side. To Lester it looked like it might not be a good idea to fight this guard guy. Also, the guy had just saved his life, so it would have been really rude to repay by attacking. But there were other ways than violence.

  Lester extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Lester."

  The guard took it, shaking it carefully. "I'm Oliver. So what are you doing here?"

  "I was actually stuck down there. Can you tell me what's going on?"

  "Well the doctor is away for a while, so things here are quiet now."

  "Okay, that explains a lot. See, no one came even if I yelled. Also, I had to climb the stairs, which was a bit too much." Lester let out a short laugh.

  This made Oliver smile a bit. Then he sighed. "I should probably take you back to your cell then."

  As he heard the words, Lester knew this wasn't working. He would have to try harder.

  Lester fell to his knees and reached up to Oliver. "Please, I'm begging you, my friend Oliver, don't do it. Don't take me down there."

  The security guy just stepped back, his hand going to the stun stick at his hip.

  "If you take me back, I will die," Lester said.

  Oliver seemed to think about it, scratching his head and looking at Lester. "That is true. You look like you're about to starve to death."

  Lester just looked at Oliver, hoping the guard would come to a solution where Lester wouldn't end up locked in some cell.

  Oliver continued, "That is a problem. I don't have time to feed you. And I don't want to bother the janitor with you either."

  "I could promise to come back later," Lester said, putting on his most innocent look.

  "I guess you can't give any guarantees that you would actually come back?"

  "My word."

  Oliver let out a small laugh. He seemed to think about it. Then he said, "You can go if you promise to come back when the doctor returns."

  Lester blinked, thinking about what had just happened. The guard would simply just let him get away. These henchmen guys really didn't go above and beyond for their supervillain master.

  Lester nodded. "I swear that I will come back. I swear on my life."

  "Yeah, sure. And also, eat something. You look like a dried-up corpse." He took a wrapped granola bar from a pouch on his belt. "Here take this." He handed the bar to Lester.

  "Thanks man," Lester said as he put the snack in his pocket. "I really appreciate this."

  "Just go already," the guard said.

  Lester left, going through the door with the exit sign.

  After he exited the building, he saw daylight and smelled the air. Fresh and polluted. Recalm City. He was free. Finally free.

  Lester spread his hands, looking up at the sky. There, up high, he saw a shape fly. It was wearing a cape. This ruled out birds and planes. Also, the flier was dressed in bright blue and white colors in the middle of the day. So probably not a villain or some casual flier either. The filer was definitely a superhero.

  After a while, Lester turned his focus back on his surroundings. He stood next to a small concrete block of a building with no other features except the door he'd just gone through. He was, according to his best guess, somewhere in the old factory district.

  Suddenly, text appeared in his vision.

  Quest complete: You have escaped the supervillain's lair. Note, due to getting help on two occasions, 2 points have been subtracted. Award: 1 point.