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"W-what did you do to us?" said Miles between hacking coughs. He tried to push himself up but wasn't able to.

"Me?" said Morgunov. "That's very presumptive of you! What makes you think I did something? Maybe you're just getting slow in your old age, eheh!"

Miles rolled onto his side, revealing a large gash in his back that didn't appear to be closing.

The Mad Demon hopped off his robot and landed next to Miles, tilting his head at him. "Don't you think it's a little unfair to everyone else how we can just shrug off mortal injuries like they're no big deal? And then sleep off the pain and exhaustion later? How's a normal person supposed to live with peace of mind, knowing there are all these unkillable psychos out there in the world? And don't even get me started on hyper-states! Talk about scary!"

"What--what nonsense are you--?"

Morgunov squatted down and put a hand over Miles' mouth. "Shh, shh. You should probably save your breath, right now. Don't worry. I'll talk enough for both of us!" He motioned one of his robots over and then opened its chest cavity to retrieve something.

Black and red chains. Morgunov tossed them on top of Miles, then rolled him over with his foot until the Vanguardian was wrapped up. Morgunov fused the chains together with one hand and hoisted the squirming Miles over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Man, those bosses of yours sure are taking their sweet time, aren't they? You don't think they abandoned you, do ya? Buncha honorable and noble guys like them? No way, right? Yeah, they're probably just waiting until the absolute last possible second to jump in and rescue you! For maximum dramatic effect! That's what I'd do! I'm sure they're--"

And the Mad Demon paused, staring at the robot in front of him. It was emitting a low, repeating beep, and its eyes were flashing yellow.

"Ah, y'see? Looks like I was right!"