Tony idly ambled down the road with a sort of air about him. The kind that seems average from a distance but up close you can certainly tell that he was looking for trouble. He'd just finished up another murder and he was simply craving an excuse to continue. Perhaps his next victim would be whoever that strange force following him was.
Oh, right. Tony thought someone was stalking him. It wouldn't be the first time; perhaps it was some sort of fanatical maniac. Or maybe a vigilante who's streak of justice would soon be cut short. Regardless, the clock man was absolutely certain that someone was trailing his steps. And they had been for the past few hours.
He first sensed their presence when he killed that human a little bit ago. Something about the shadows seemed wrong. If his theories were correct, Tony was sure that his little stalker would show themself more the next time he killed someone, so all he had to do was find a new victim.
His wish came true when he spotted some miscellaneous thugs in an alleyway. Mortals were always so predictable.
"Hello there gentlemen," Tony began. The group turned their heads towards him. They looked... vaguely confused.
"What'dya want?"
"I would apologize, but quite frankly, I'm not sorry." Tony folded his hands and grinned.
"For what?"
"For this."
Two arms burst out of Tony's jacket, about halfway down his torso. He pulled himself into a stance in preparation and threw forward his second left hand, turning it counterclockwise. The human the hand fell in front of began recoiling in pain and collapsing in on themself as the other two backed away in horror. The human twisted and writhed and bent over in itself until it de-aged into absolute nothingness save for a few splatters of blood.
One of the remaining thugs shook themself out of shock and whipped their hand into their pocket, pulling out a gun. They shot directly at Tony's head but just before the bullet reached its mark, the clock snapped with his first right hand and ground time to a halt. With the bullet frozen in midair, Tony simply walked up to it and flicked it upside down, facing his opponent. Tony then took his remaining seconds of stopped time to walk behind the remaining victim and positioned himself just right.
Time flowed once again, sending the bullet right into the thug's head. With that dealt with, Tony snapped the last one's neck before they could even process what happened. He chuckled to himself and looked out to the exit of the alleyway.
"I assume I'm meeting your expectations?"
"Perceptive, aren't you?" Roy replied.
...
The man's explanation of his offer was extremely intriguing to Tony. This was no simple lunatic, this was a complete nutcase. And that case evidently contained a lot of money! It didn't take much convincing or explaining for Tony to sign on.
The car ride to Roy's house was filled with interesting discussions. Tony wouldn't have taken someone who looked so disheveled to be so intuitive, but he greatly welcomed the surprise. The man's description of his fake world, where he could control everything was very fascinating indeed, and the prospect that Tony would be able to shape it to his will was even more so. He almost didn't care that he had to follow a script for this mysterious job.
Roy's mindset was also interesting for the clock to pick through. He was obviously completely delusional, and why he was hiring him was even more insane, but he had to wonder: if Roy was so crazy, then why was he able to pull all this off in the first place? The kind of man who tortures his own children to this extent because they got on his nerves wasn't generally the sort of person who could create a virtual world and pay exorbitant amounts of money...
He would be suspicious, but the fact that the world Roy described proved to be real removed all doubts in his mind. He liked this. He really REALLY liked this!
...
"And you have the script memorized?"
"Yes, yes I do."
"That was fast."
"Indeed it was. But I pride myself on my brain power."
"You just slowed down time for yourself so you could work faster."
"Ehehe... perhaps..." Hmmph, he was good.
"Well, I hope you work well with my sons. I'm sure they'll just love you." Roy's face cracked into an unnaturally wide smile. "They're such monstrous little boys, they'll match with you perfectly."
"Is that so..." Tony couldn't help but mentally roll his eyes. He doubted some random kids would actually be bad enough to compare to him.
"Yessss... yes they are..." Roy's voice lowered to a grovel. His eyes rolled back into his skull for a split second before returning to normal and he furrowed his eyebrows.
Tony, for the first time in a very long time, felt uncomfortable. Still, that was impressive. Roy managed to illicit fresh emotion from him.
"Well, I suppose we'll find out tomorrow, won't we?" he smiled.