Miss Phoenix took her time interrogating the prisoner. "I may be a hero," she liked to say, "but that doesn't mean I have to be nice to the bad guys."
They housed Stretch in a cell with some oversized furniture, to make him more uncomfortable about his short stature.
"Where is the shrinking bomb hidden, Stretch?" Miss Phoenix asked from the raised platform outside the cell. Stretch looked up with some obvious physical discomfort. Miss Phoenix made a mental note to thank Rogers for his excellent work constructing the cell. She repeated her question, letting some impatience into her voice.
"I'm sure you mean 'bombs', plural, don't you, birdie? Why don't you come down from your perch and talk to me on the level?" replied Stretch, trying bravado in response.
"I'm comfortable here, thanks. And of course we know about all six bombs, you dolt. We found the first five already thanks to that map you left lying about in your lair."
Stretch faltered a bit. "Found five? A map lying about? All my documents were hidden and encrypted! What could you possibly have found?"
"Rogers is very thorough, and very good at his job," said Phoenix, leaving unspoken the implication that Stretch was comparatively bad. "So all we need from you is the location of the last bomb. I'd like to keep this city the size it is."
"You can't find it without me, can you?" Stretch gave a smirk and stood up as tall as he could, which was about five feet. "And before you do, it will space-crunch this city and its horrible residents down to half their size! Then I will be king of Tiny Town!"
"Don't be dense. Of course we can find it. The rest of the team is out right now, sweeping the city. We got a pretty good reading off our satellite sensors, so it shouldn't be more than an hour or two. This is just a chance for you to cooperate and maybe strike a deal when the time comes for sentencing. You're already caught. The judges are much more lenient on super villains who show some remorse."
Stretch opened and closed his mouth a few times, discarding several lines of argument in silence, before quietly saying: "It's in the reservoir, at the bottom."
"You did yourself a favour today, Stretch. We'll make sure the judge hears about it."
Stretch slumped onto the ridiculous giant armchair in defeat. His only reply was a dismissive wave of his hand.
Mokalus of Borg
PS - Miss Phoenix previously appeared in Professor Sinister and the Radioactive Rats.
PPS - She's always a couple of steps ahead.
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