After the guy ran off, the 3 heroes all looked at Tommy, wanting to ask a hundred questions but noticing their phones. Everyone (except Loki) asked stuff like, What's happening? Do they need backup? Reading all these messages, Kate saw a look on Tommy's face. He just said, "This is the kind of story that should be told face-to-face, preferably with a drink in hand?" To save everyone the hassle, Billy just teleported everyone (the Young Avengers, their cousins, and siblings) to the dining hall of the empire and made food and drinks appear on the table. Tommy knew there was no way out of this conversation.
Tommy looked at them, saying, "Alright, it all started when I got my powers. You all know I blew up my school, but it wasn't as bad as everyone makes it sound. But either way, it was enough for the government to send me to a superpowered juvenile facility. It wasn't all bad; I had the basics at least: a roof over my head, a bed to sleep on, and food to eat." Everyone looked confused as to how this led to the events that just transpired. Tommy continued by saying, "Besides having to wear an inhibitor collar (to stop people from using their abilities and also to render a person unconscious, they pre-programmed them for each individual), My parents signed away all rights to me, so I was now the government's problem."
"This is the part, i don't like talking about it; I've told you guys before it felt too claustrophobic for me, but that was only part of the reason. Depending on what they needed for that day, I'd either be tested on, or put into a fight club. They'd let you use your powers, but you'd still need to have the collar, just in case anyone had any ideas." The group looked surprised by this, and as Tommy continued, he told them how they broke almost every bone in his body to test his healing abilities, put weights on his back, then had him run on a treadmill for hours to test his strength, and the times they would throw him in their little arena and make him fight other prisoners.
The group understood why Tommy had told them this was a conversation to have with a drink while they processed all this information; they just sat there until Noh-Varr broke the silence, asking, "Okay, so who was that guy from earlier?" Tommy looked at him, replying, "I don't know exactly." answering the question, "There were two kinds of prisoners in the facility: those who would cooperate at will and those who wouldn't. Those who would, were given benefits; what kind of benefits depends on what they did to earn them, and for the ones who didn't, they found some way to get to you. If you were smart, you'd keep everything and everyone at a distance. Pay attention, but not get too close, because they're the kind of people who do what they think is necessary to get what they want."
"So you don't know him, but he at least knows about you." America said, "I know he was a prisoner who had electric powers, and enjoyed the arena." Tommy said, "So he gets some sort of benefit for bringing you back?" Dawn asked, still a little confused, as to what was going on: Tommy replied by telling Dawn, "I am not sure if he is a prisoner, but when I was there, there were rumours that a person could get out early if they became a part of a death squad or if they were a guard or enforcer." Caleb, one of Billy's brothers, asked, "As someone without any power, I just wanted to ask, "Why did I wake up with a sword in my bed right next to my head?"
"It was left as a message, telling me you were this close; if I didn't agree to go with them, they would have either aimed differently or sent one or more of you in my place; hell, they might have done both no matter what I chose." Concerned by that statement, the original members of the Young Avengers remembered some of Tommy's behaviour back when they first met him, like coming and going from their houses for never more than a night or two, the same when he stayed at the Avengers' mansion and when he stayed with Vision or Wanda. All erratic behaviour made sense. "But you were pardoned fully. Why are they after you?" Teddy pointed out, "If you were in my place, do you think they'd let you go that easy? " Tommy asked, making the others think.
"The thing I hated most about that place was that probably about two-thirds of the people in there didn't need to be." Tommy said, surprising everyone at the table, "Two-thirds?! How did they arrest so many people?" Luna asked, and all Tommy said was, "When keeping a good distance, you tend to hear a lot of things; people talking about how they came in was a topic that came up more than once; some were small things everyone broke, like jaywalking, littering, and not picking up after a pet. They were sentenced for minor violations, but for one reason or another, they were forced to remain in prison. This included things like lost or incorrectly labeled paper work, incidents, or even the person going missing."