Rich put the water bottle on the ground specifically so his hand was free. He held it up in a calming gesture, the kind of gesture he sometimes made with his troops to let them know he wanted a respectful pause so he could talk, and that what he had to say might help with whatever issue they were dealing with.

"I'm not saying anyone should get used to the same villain over and over. Some people in my world won't kill no matter what -- and I'm not one of 'em. Sometimes people are just too awful and powerful to leave alive. Sometimes there are situations, like what we just went through with the Tributes, where there's no legal recourse or reliable prisons to hold a bad guy. Sometimes a bad guy is getting away with horrible things every other week -- and in that case, I take care of it. Permanently."

He dropped his hand, with a slight shrug.

"Which definitely isn't the norm in my world." He shook his head. "But I've checked up on things here, and Takron Galtos has only one prison breakout on record. It ain't exactly the revolving door the prisons are back home."

He tried to find a better way to explain.

"I just meant that...in a world like this, there's lots of villains. Because that's how it works with criminals and supervillains. You can put one away forever and there's still always gonna be more. But there's ways to cope. To understand each time it happens, with each new bad guy, that you can get through the other side."