And that's how Stretch had wound up here in some shithole part of town at three minutes to midnight eating stale pretzels. “Nobody said bein bad was easy.” He thought to himself with a yellow toothed grin as he literally hopped off the guard rail onto the city streets below. Immediately he felt the wind wip against the exposed portion of his face as his body fell feet first towards concrete. He landed in a painful looking display, his legs collapsing in on themselves as he collided with the ground. For a moment he looked like a partial torso emerging from the ground, the horrifying site causing some old women who had just so happened to be passing by to faint in disbelief. Mere seconds after impact though his body shot back into the air with surprising ferocity, his legs springing back to shape upon lift off.
A few more well placed hops such as these and Stretch had found himself to the top of the clock tower. The tower might have been affectionately named 'Little Ben' in homage to its overseas brother but there was absolutely nothing little about it. Actually the more Stretch scaled the clock tower the bigger the damned thing seemed to become. Upon finally reaching the top of the tower he couldn't help but take in the view for a second, the fierce winds this high up however quickly made turn to seek refuge inside.
Only there was no inside to speak of, it was just him, alone, on top of a giant clock like some nutcase. Maybe this had all just been a joke? That would be just his luck. Silently he cursed himself for his stupidity, after all it took years of hardcore villainy to get invited to the society. Did he honestly think they'd just invite in some random nobody. Popping a fresh cigarette in his mouth from seemingly nowhere he continued to think about how much he sucked while walking along what he guessed could be considered the roof of the clock tower.
Readying himself to leave he noticed something out of the corner of his eye at the last second, not wasting time he quickly made his way to the new found discovery. He literally laughed out loud when he stood over the object, a manhole sized clock staring him in the face. It had actually been mere seconds from striking midnight, and when the little and big hand finally met together on the twelve Stretch watched amazed as the manhole sized circle slid itself to the side. The loud grinding of stone and gears that opened the hidden staircase beneath was completely drowned out by the deafening bell chimes of Little Ben.
Making his way down the stone stares with each footstep oozing confidence and curiosity Stretch had to admit he felt like he was descending into a dungeon. Despite this fact he was becoming more and more excited, this was hands down THE coolest secret base he'd seen in his short lived career-and so far he'd only seen the entrance!
A few moments of walking and the spiral staircase abruptly ended at a lone door, and not even considering the possibility of a trap Stretch simply pushed the thing open and walked on in.
The site was...surprising to say the least. Not only was the banquet hall esque room he found himself in exceptionally large but it was completely filled with all the things one associates with wealth, from the finely polished white marble floors to the four elaborately ornate chandeliers that dangled high above. The simple stone architecture itself was something to awe at, beautiful seemingly hand carved pillars lining the entirety of the rectangular room. Books of various size and interest filled almost any wall where a bookshelf could be set up and fine furniture and tables were placed fair distances apart. It gave the room the feeling of a club house of sorts.
Snapping back to reality Stretch's attention was drawn to the middle of the room where a ridiculoulsey long table was waiting with just about every inch of its surface covered in some of the most fine gourmet foods you'd ever see. Eye's transfixed on the food he nearly jumped out of his skin when a genuinely kind hearted voice from the other end of the table broke the silence.
“Go ahead sit, take a load off. It should be a minute before the rest of our little group gets here.” The booming voice said after a loud but brief chuckle. Stretch had no idea how this man had gone un-noticed, a fact that rather impressed him while mentally making him kick himself at the same time.
The most impressive thing about the man going unnoticed was just the fact that the man himself was a giant. He had to have some sort of power that had effected his body itself Stretch thought, because he was literally the size of two large men smashed together. Stretch couldn't help but stare at the large hand that stirred an equally large glass of wine, he quickly decided his fist would at least be the size of a baseball mit.
“Like I said. Take a seat.” The unnamed man motioned to one of the empty seats with such authority that Stretch found himself obeying without even thinking about it. Sitting in silence for a moment Stretch couldn't help but stare at the end of the table where the massive mystery man sat. Trying not to be to obvious about staring he gave the behemoth a good once over, the oddest thing about Mr. Mystery was the pure white suit he wore so long after labor day (people were probably to scared to say anything). It was almost comical the way his massive frame was contained within the confines of the prim and proper suit, it really looked like any wrong move and he ran the risk of tearing his expensive suit to pieces. Maybe that was why he sat so still?
Adding to Mystery mans neanderthal look was his abnormally square and thick jaw, and upon staring at the white fedora sitting on his head Stretch was willing to bet money there was some sort of gorilla forehead hiding under there. The last feature Stretch took in before tearing his eyes away from the..man? Was the little tiny black mask Mr. Mystery wore over his eyes, as if people wouldn't be able to pick him out of a line up based on shear size alone.
“So...” Stretch began, breaking the awkward silence while greedily making up a plate of all sorts of deserts. “...How'd you manage to fit through the secret manhole upstairs?”
An uproarious amount of laughter sounded from the end of the table, Mr. Mystery eventually clutching at his chest as his deep bellowing laughs began to much for him. He acted like what Stretch had just said was the funniest thing ever. “OH...That's rich. You, I like kid.” The giant boomed in a deep gravily voice that befitted only someone his size. “But to answer your question: Trap doors. Their like damn cockroaches in this business-if you find one in the wall there's bound to be a hundred more you don't see.
“I gotcha.” Stretch said between mouthfuls of tart as crumbs filled his beard in a messy display.
“That's also why you didn't run into any of our other guests on your way in.” He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Speaking of they should be here any moment now.”