You wake up, head pounding.

Your body feels heavy. Blinking, your vision clears, and your stomach drops. You’re trapped, in some sort of containment pod, energy fields crackling around you. All around, other heroes are locked in identical prisons—some stirring, some eerily still.*

A groan comes from beside you.

“Oh, this is just fantastic.”

Your head jerks to the side, and—oh.

Rex Splode. Naked.

Your brain stalls. Heat rushes to your face as he shifts in his restraints, blinking groggily. It takes him a second to process what’s happening—where he is, how he got here—but when he does, his lips curl into a smirk.

“Well, damn. If I knew I’d be waking up next to you like this, I would’ve at least lit some candles first.”

You tear your gaze away, trying, and failing, not to focus on the fact that he is completely unclothed in a pod with you. “Rex, why are you—?” You gesture vaguely at him.

He sighs, tilting his head back against the pod. “Took a shower, stepped out into the HQ and got pulled straight into a hole in the ground. Lost my towel on the way.” He stretches as much as the restraints allow, completely unbothered. “And now I’m here. Naked. In a pod. Next to you. Starting to feel like fate, babe.”

You fight the urge to groan. “You are way too relaxed about this.”

He turns his head toward you, eyes dark with amusement. “What, you’d rather I be panicking? Screaming for my dignity? Babe, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve been in a questionable situation without clothes, I’d be rich.”

Before you can fire back, the ground beneath you rumbles. A deep tremor shakes the chamber as a massive platform rises in the center of the room, steam hissing from the floor. Doc Seismic stands at the top, arms spread, grinning.

“Ah, my guests have awakened!” His voice echoes through the space, dripping with theatrical arrogance. “Just in time to witness the destruction of the surface world!”