White Hat had found Slug, a fugitive who'd escaped every prison short of Superjail. White Hat greeted him with open arms, despite Slug being hostile as ever. He couldn't do a thing against White Hat and his accursed hugs. There was much fight from Slug's end, but surprisingly White did mind at all. He let Slug fuss and carry on, but confined the man to his house. No matter what stunts Slug pulled, the door out of the White Hat mansion was always something Slug was not able to pass through unescorted. Slug calmed after a few months, he started to seem a bit depressed so White Hat came up with the surprise hug attacks. Slug didn't like those very much. He hated them. He hated himself, his situation.
Slug became docile for twenty years. Calm and collected most of the time, strangely icy cold with dripping 'indifference' when White Hat managed to piss him off more than usual. Slug was recovering from his path of villainy, or so White Hat thought.
It was a major surprise to White Hat, the day Slug came into his office: firstly, without his bag on; secondly, actually showing happiness; thirdly, vIOLENT.
Yes. It was the first time in years that Slug had even remotely hinted at his inwardly violent nature. White Hat was very stunned when Slug ran up to desk exclaiming nonsense about "figuring it out" and "finally be free"... Very shocked when Slug had slapped him across the face with a device he hadn't had a chance to see well enough to identify.
Something sunk in White Hat the very moment that device made contact with him. Everything felt eerily heavier, there was the overwhelming feeling something had gone terribly wrong. Before he could process it all, Slug had yanked him towards the human's fist by the tie. Slug had pulled White Hat's face into a punch.
White Hat tried his usual methods of defending himself, but mostly everything had... Simply vanished. He couldn't use them. Dread filled White Hat as he attempted to escape the house, but was only able to merely teleport himself to the living room instead.
White Hat was bewildered and only had so long before Slug would appear again. The pale eldritch felt so drained, a level of exhaustion he was not used to. Adrenaline burned inside, but exhaustion slowed him down. His mind urged him to move faster, think faster, but-
.
.
.
'Why is everything black?' White was internally freaking out. 'I don't remember closing my eyes... Am i- is this what it's like to be unconscious? Why can't I move?! Am I dead?!
No, no I can think... I can't see- I.. I don't hear anything, I think maybe Slug calm-' White Hat had experienced his first absent seizure, his powers usually blocked this kind of thing from happening for him but since those were gone... He had no defense against it.
When he'd woken from his seizure, Slug had already tackled him to the ground. Neither realizing what had just happened in White Hat's mind.
White Hat's eyes widened when he saw Slug aiming a scalpel towards his face. He reached up and grabbed Slug's wrist, intending to make Slug drop it off to the side. Fear became apparent in White Hat for once, a recognition that he could actually die and a realization that he wanted to live.
Slug growled, angered by this. He simply switched the scalpel to his other hand while turning his wrist and grabbing onto White's. He pinned that hand above White Hat's head, and watched as White Hat's other hand reached directly for the scalpel handle. Slug rolled his eyes and momentarily dropped the scalpel to grab White's other wrist and pin that down too, completing the set of hands under Slug's grasp.
Slug finally had one hand holding both of White's firmly to the ground and out of the way. He picked up his scalpel, not saying a word as his captive squirmed against and pleaded to him. He could tell the other was in an extremely weakened state. This was going as planned, the next step was simply to kill White Hat. But, Slug was tempted to take something, a sort of souvenir. To remember the guy by.
"S-Slug, please, I'm sorry! Wh-whatever I did, please, I'll- I'll make it up to you some other way!! Just, not like this, please." White pleaded, feeling weak and even helpless in that moment. The heaviness he felt made it difficult to move as nimbly and freely as he normally could. Any of the attempted fight back he had didn't seem to affect Slug at all. He looked at Slug's face and saw only pure rage.
Slug barely hesitated before shoving the scalpel under White Hat's monocled eye, earning a yelp that melted into a pain filled, screaming cry. This was new, White Hat? The being never hurt by anything? In pain!? His rage enjoyed this, making Slug gouge out the eye entirely despite Slug coming back. The domestic personality he'd developed for years, it was crying. He pleaded inside himself to stop and take a good look at the mess he'd made.
White Hat was crying, his only eye letting loose a trail of tears that fell down the side of his face and pooled on the floor. The now empty eye socket doing the same but with blood. He'd choked on his sobs, ".... Please.... I-it hurts, m-make it st-stop....." Nothing could stop the burning sensation of betrayal shattering his heart. His fresh wound was a major pain, instantly an eleven. All of this was visible on the now broken mess of what used to be an unbreakable smiling creature.
Slug gasped. Shaking before throwing the scalpel across the room. The bloody tool lodged itself smartly into the wall. Slug grunted, straightened himself like he did it on purpose. He acted like everything was planned. In reality it wasn't. The only two things he had planned were to disable White Hat's powers so he could flee and kill White Hat before he could alert anyone of his escape. He felt terrible. He shouldn't have looked. Shouldn't have listened to himself. But now, here he was, feeling guilt for the first time in who knows how long.
White Hat wore a tiny expression of hope, hidden amongst the layers and layers of pain and fear. "M-mercy... Please..." He studied Slug's face how it had gone from rage, to shock, to guilt, and then it suddenly... It became unreadable. White Hat was. At this point, terrified. Even more so than he was a few seconds ago.
Slug grunted, standing up as he released White's wrists. He crouched and leaned over White Hat's face. "I will give you mercy- let you live. On the conditions that you work for ME now, and that you answer to Nerd." He extended a hand towards White Hat, staring in suspense. He wasn't sure if... If White Hat would rather die.
White Hat, injured and more terrified of dying than of Slug, shakily... Hesitantly... Placed his hand in Slug's. Nerd was pulled to his feet, feeling only slight relief. There was pain and heaviness everywhere until suddenly... Nothing.
Slug had knocked Nerd out. He figured that Nerd needed a break from the pain as soon as possible, so he thought to knock the wounded eldritch unconscious before dragging him to the lab. Slug then focused on cleaning and closing Nerd's wound. He found himself internally dying of guilt yet in awe of how precise his incision was when he was blinded by his rage.
Nerd woke up in a bed, a hospital style bed. His eye was bandaged up and he knew without having to think too hard about it that Slug had done it. No one else lived in the house, no one else knew of this lab.. He looked to find an IV of painkillers going into his elbow. That's probably why his eye doesn't hurt so badly right now. He looked up from his arm and to the foot of the bed to see Slug. Instinctively, he backed up out of fear. White Hat couldn't fathom why he did what he did, but it felt strangely justified. Like he unconsciously realized that Slug wouldn't hesitate to harm him again, should he ever be tempted to.
Slug showed empty palms to Nerd, "Calm. I'm not going to hurt you. I just came to check on you..and..." He got a good look at the pale eldritch as his guilt stabbed him where it hurts most. Right in the chest, more specifically the metaphorical heart. "And I was just leaving..." He sighed. "I... Get well soon. That's an order."
Nerd seemed to calm as Slug left the room, but the discomfort he still felt was from the IV. The foreign body in his arm, the tiny catheter delivering the painkiller directly to his blood... It was comfortable in one position and one position only. By his jolt of fear, he had displaced the catheter and caused himself discomfort. He discovered he did not like IVs or needles at all just then.
Slug pondered, and stared at the device that now stored White Hat. Yes. He'd considered the powers stored in that device, quite literally, White Hat. The being on the bed. That scared shell, that's Nerd. He sighed, feeling regret. He found the source of the regret was only over the eye, not the power extraction. Slug realized he'd made the devices to take powers and that they could only store one being's powers. So, basically useless after the first trial... But, the problem was he couldn't get the devices to release the powers. That was of no concern. He realized something entirely different. The power he had at his fingertips already, that. That was something he could not resist.
Nerd spent a few days, staying in the medical lab. After a while, Slug eventually taught Nerd how to care for the wound himself. Instead of having to scare Nerd by getting uncomfortably close to his face and threatening with empty words to get Nerd to be still. After this, Nerd is given the liberty to roam the house as he pleases.
Slug earned the nickname Geno from his desire to strip all Hat creatures of their powers. A sort of- genocidal desire. Slug has, so far, kept his secret from Nerd. However, Nerd eventually finds out and is silenced into secrecy by a few minor threats from Slug.