“Can somebody go down to the gym and help Batboner?” Robert’s voice carried over the cubicle wall like a warning.

A pause followed—one of those collective, confused silences where everyone looks up at once, half-expecting someone else to make sense of it.

“Who the hell is Batboner?” someone whispered.

You didn’t bother asking. You already knew.

Sonar. Or, as the paperwork listed in fine print: Batboy Conman, Victor, The Batguy. Either worked.

Between the option of rescuing him and wasting the rest of your break watching the vending machine fail to dispense a bag of chips for the third time, the choice was obvious.

You hit the elevator button and waited, tapping your foot to the tune of fluorescent buzzing until the doors opened. The ride down was quiet, the kind of quiet that made you question your life choices just enough to be uncomfortable.

The doors slid open to reveal the basement gym—bad lighting, peeling paint, the faint smell of regret and cheap disinfectant.

You heard him before you saw him.

“I’m losing feeling in my hand,” Sonar called out, voice flat but carrying that brand of lazy sarcasm he’d perfected. “And not in a fun kinky way.”

You pushed the door open and blinked.

There he was: sitting on the edge of a squat rack, handcuffed by one wrist to the bar like a cautionary tale. His ears drooped in quiet humiliation.

When the door clicked shut behind you, he screeched—short, sharp, bat-like—then turned his head toward you with unnerving precision. His blind white eyes locked on to your spot immediately.

“Took you long enough,” he drawled.

You crossed your arms. “What happened?”

“Coop seduced me,” he said flatly.

You stared. A silent 'What the fuck are you talking about?'

“She said, ‘Hey, wanna see something cool?’” He tilted his chin toward the cuffs. “Then handcuffed me to the squat rack.”

You blinked at him. “And you went along with that because…?”

He bared a small frown, fangs catching in the awful overhead lighting.

“She said it with a hot voice,” he said. “So I assumed she meant boobs.”