He wouldn't, it was a joke that required all the context the teen currently lacked. It was the hit that made him laugh though, just pause with the faintest scowl before cracking up like it was the funniest thing possible. Oh good, he was real. He'd reconsider how good that was when it registered what that meant. For now? It meant he wasn't torturing himself.

"Oh, I know. If you're lucky, I know him better than you ever will." Take that as a warning, Ed. "Do you think they're stupid? I'm guessing you come from a world like mine, which means you can't even fathom the shit they're capable of here. That little chip they implanted in your body? It's tracking your location and your vitals. It also follows our conversations and if I give you the name of that purple bastard, it'll put you right on his list with me. You don't want that, so I suggest keeping your punching dreams to a fantasy."

In the meantime, "You can hit me again if that'll make you feel better but it's not getting you out of this situation, and it's not bringing my dead friends back so frankly it's wasting both of our time."