Ana woke the next morning incredibly sore and immensely groggy, like she hadn't slept at all despite the fact that she had immediately crashed when she got home.
Well, almost immediately…
'Tony, everything was fine! You seriously worry too much..'
'Forgive me for being a bit concerned Ana, but you've already up and disappeared for three days and then came back covered in burns and a damn hole in your hand! I'm sorry if I'm a bit put off by some random hooded figure sulking into the diner and saying you needed to go with them!'
Ana sighed as she rubbed her face, holding her phone slightly away from her ear to save herself from Tony's ramblings. 'She was not a 'sulking hooded figure' you worry wart.' Was all Ana could muster in reply.
'My point still stands!' Tony exclaimed. Ana rolled over in her bed, covering her head with her large dark purple sheets, smiling to herself. 'Thanks for worrying about me.' She told him softly. She heard Tony sigh on the other end. 'Someone's got to apparently.' He said exasperated.
Ana's smile normally would've faltered if Tiffany or Megumi said that, but there was something about the exasperated fondness in his tone that made Ana smile more into her pillow. 'You fall asleep?' Tony asked after Ana had stayed quiet for a few minutes to calm her nerves.
'No,' she said, immediately cringing at how girly and high pitched her voice sounded in that moment. She cleared her throat. 'No,' She repeated. 'You tired yet?' She asked him. 'No.' Tony said through a yawn. Ana let out a soft breathy laugh. 'Liar.' She teased. 'Hush…' She heard Tony say through yet another yawn. 'I was up early, and I didn't get a chance to go on my break earlier.'
Ana heard shuffling on the other end, Tony must've stopped pacing the area around his bed and finally gotten in it.
'Why didn't you go on break?' Ana asked, that same tone present from earlier. She hoped he just ignored it. Tony yawned again. 'The owners came by in the afternoon, like an hour or whatever before you came in.'
This jolted Ana awake.
'They did?!' She asked, suddenly more energy in her tone. 'Yeah… Said they wanted to do a staff inspection for some reason,' Ana's eyes grew wide. 'Asked a bunch of weird questions.' Tony ended aloofly. 'What kind of weird questions?' Ana asked, throwing her covers off of her and flicking on the lamp on the nightstand next to her bed, looking for a notepad.
'What are you doing now?' Tony asked. He must be able to hear Ana rummaging through her drawer. She wasn't exactly being quiet about it. 'Relax Ana, it's not like anything important, just dumb, weird shit.' Tony told her when she didn't answer.
If only you knew… Ana thought to herself.
'I know but-' Ana sighed exasperatedly, 'Just- What did they ask?' Tony blew out a puff of air. 'Just like, if we had seen or heard anything weird in the diner, had any of the customers been allowed in unauthorized areas, how many times a day we go into the storage room; they wanted an exact number of minutes- I was like, dude- but like respectfully- I literally don't care, this is dumb, y'know?'
Ana finally found a notepad and pen and began scribbling down everything Tony had told her.
'Then they really wanted- like they were super pushy about if someone had taken something out of the storage room or anywhere else, didn't specify though.' Ana felt herself pause writing mid-sentence. 'What do you mean?' She said, the air suddenly gone from her lungs.
'Like- they were so adamant that something was missing, but they wouldn't tell us what it was. Like Sally told them we'd be able to help them find whatever it was if they just like- told us- or even gave hints as to what it could be, and like I told them if it was something so important, why keep it in a diner that they rarely ever visit…'
There was something off about Tony's tone.
'Then what'd they say to that?' Ana asked him, slowly resuming her writing so she didn't rip the page. 'Lucinda- She just went off on me! Started yelling about how I didn't know what I was talking about and not to try and act like I was playing dumb. Then she started saying she knew I where this mysterious thing they're looking for is- and I just- have no fucking clue!' Tony exclaimed.
Ana let out a long breath. Turns out it was a good thing she ran late then.
'Megumi was right..' Ana muttered as the phone began to slip from her face. 'What?' Tony asked. Ana pursed her lips and shook her head. 'Did they say anything about me being absent?' Ana asked instead. The line was quiet on Tony's end for a moment. Ana looked to see if he had hung up.
'No,' Tony said at last. It was so quick if Ana hadn't put the phone back to her ear to ask if he had hung up, she would've missed it.
Ana furrowed her eyebrows again. Tony wasn't telling her something. Ana's brain filtered back to that at the diner when she had asked Tony if anything was missing in the back room.
'What aren't you telling me?' Ana asked a bit more forcefully than she had meant. 'Hey- woah-! What's with that tone?!' Tony exclaimed. Ana rubbed her hand over her face. 'I didn't mean- You've just been acting weird lately.. This is the second time I could tell you're hiding something from me!'
The line went quiet again and after her initial wave of annoyance had passed Ana's eyes widened as she realized she had snapped at Tony. Before she could apologize however, he was already talking again.
'You've been keeping stuff from me too..' He said quietly. Ana bit her lip. She didn't want to keep her secret from Tony, she didn't even know why she was. It wasn't like she couldn't trust him; he had covered for her on multiple occasions- Ana rubbed her hand over her face and through her hair.
Maybe it was just because she knew telling him would put him in danger, it already was and he didn't even know.
'You keep telling me to trust you about what's been going on with you recently and then all of the sudden there's shady people showing up looking for you telling you that you're in danger! C'mon Ana what I kept from you wasn't even noteworthy- it was just my own suspicions!' He exclaimed.
Ana felt her temper flare up again. 'Then if it's not noteworthy than just tell me!' 'Why should I? You don't tell me anything that's actually putting you in danger!' 'I want to tell you, but I don't want to put you in danger!' 'I can handle myself Ana..' 'You don't know what you're up against!'
There was more silence.
Tony sighed. 'Then just tell me.' He said quietly. Ana huffed again. 'If you were in my position you'd understand, but for now please- just trust me!' She pleaded through gritted teeth. The line was silent again aside from the quiet rustling on Tony's end. Tony must have come to a decision after a while, sighing one more time on the line and finally answering Ana's original question.
'No they didn't ask about you. Sally tried to remind them when they thought they were done but I- I stopped her.' Ana's eyebrows furrowed in confusion this time. 'Why?' She asked genuinely. Tony took in a breath. 'Like I said earlier, something seemed off, they were looking for something in the back room that had gone missing, and so were you. I can put two and two together. But I'm not going to rat you out especially when your totally not suspicious friend said you were in danger of something. I wanted to give you a chance to explain before you got thrown to the wolves.. Not like I would let that happen..' Tony added quietly.
Ana huffed in amusement. 'You know I can defend myself too, Tony.' She told him.
'Oh I don't doubt that,' Tony reassured her. 'But that doesn't mean I can't make whatever it is you're doing a little easier.' Ana smiled at that. 'Thank you, Tony. Ana I promise, the second I can tell you- I will. I'll tell you everything. You deserve to know.' 'I know you will, just promise me you won't get yourself killed.' He said. Ana rolled her eyes. 'Against two old people? I think I'll be fine.' She snorted. 'You know old people can still carry guns, they aren't senile yet.' Tony said uncomfortably. 'And besides..' He continued. 'After today I feel like those two are involved in some shady stuff.'
Ana hummed in agreement. 'You have no idea.'
--
Ana wanted to update Megumi about the conversation, but she knew Megumi wasn't big on texting sensitive information in case their messages go intercepted, Ana thought she was paranoid but she did agree with her on that, and in reality, Ana didn't think it was that noteworthy of an update to trouble her with. Marcus and Lucinda just did an inspection, forgot she existed, and snapped at Tony for hurting their ego with obvious questions. Nothing really important.
She did tell Tiffany though, the next morning, and was subjected to hours of her conspiring about the relationship between the owners and Zalic, the two getting attention from multiple people from Tiffany loudly saying Zalic's name and Ana shushing her, equally as loud.
Finally, the two were outside at their usual table, away from enough prying ears to have a proper conversation.
"Wait Megumi goes here?!" Tiffany exclaimed, nearly dropping her fajita. Ana nodded, today eating three soft tacos and sharing a large plate of spicy chili cheese nachos with Tiffany. "I mentioned that I didn't see her around last night," Ana said, offhandedly scoping up some more cheese with her nacho chip. "And what'd she say?" Tiffany prompted. Ana's face scrunched up a bit. "She said she wasn't surprised we didn't see her because we didn't exactly run in the same social circles."
Tiffany rolled her eyes.
"Does that girl run in any social circles at all?" She asked with an overexaggerated, salon styled eyebrow. Ana shot her a small smile. "She said if running around in a circle and talking to herself counts as a social circle then…" Tiffany let out a huff of air and leaned back slightly.
"Now that just sounds depressing."
Ana rolled her eyes but couldn't help but agree a little bit. She didn't know who Megumi talked to when she was with the villains, but Ana knew from their first meeting that Megumi had issues with meeting new people around her 'normal' life, which is why she was so determined to be her friend, and get her and Tiffany to finally warm up to each other.
"How long is she supposed to be gone?" Tiffany asked, taking a sip of her iced tea. Ana shrugged. "I don't think she knows, but from what I know the facility is only like a two-hour bus ride away, but I don't know how long it's going to take her to get the information."
Tiffany prodded the liquid cheese awkwardly with her chip. "What if she blows her cover?" She asked Ana quietly.
"Well, whatever she's doing now, I'm sire she's got it all under control." Ana said with one of those smiles Tiffany knew she put on to stop herself from worrying. Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Relax Ana, Megumi's a big girl, she can take care of herself. She'll be back here with all kinds of information before you know it."
--
The laboratory was huge, even bigger than Margrets.
The façade was covered in dark blue plane and the shape of the building looking like an oversized warped water droplet, and was as pristine as one too. There were dozens of different types of plants and trees surrounding the building's exterior, many of which had been trimmed to look like different types of animals. The pathway leading to the entrance was a smooth concrete, though the area on either side of the pathway was lined by different colored marble shards, and outside of that was thin cut grass, which Megumi could see had sprinklers around the trees.
Megumi walked slowly down the pathway, eyes quickly darting from left to right. There were small group of people scattered all around the courtyard doing various different types of experiments; some with drones, some looked to be trying to train a litter of rowdy dalmatian puppies, and the others that Megumi could see were flying some sort of large chrome bubble balloon hybrid.
Megumi gulped, finding herself for the first time in many years, intimidated.
She gripped her bag, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, then took a deep breath with a mental reminder of what's at stake before walking down the remainder of the path with a bit more confidence. None of the other scientists were sparing Megumi a second glance as she approached the large dark blue tempered glass double doors, pushing them open by the handles and strolling inside.
Megumi paused as she stepped inside the building, the chilly air conditioning and interior design nearly taking her breath away.
The walls of the lobby were a pristine marble white, with a gold lining pattern all along the wall like someone had taken a golden marker and drawn all over it. The floor was a dark brown wood grain pattern with gold trimming separating the walls from the floor. But the thing that caught Megumi's eyes however, were the dozens of monochrome sculptures taking up the space in the lobby. They were around seven feet tall and looked like they weighed a ton.
There were some in shapes of various different scientific symbols while others were in random geometric shapes. Megumi walked slowly amongst the sculptures, taking each in one by one, breathing in the cool jasmine scented air.
She approached a long white and brown desk with three people behind it that she could see. Each were wearing white blazers with dark brown shirts underneath, all typing away at computers. There was a large window the size of the wall to the left of them, making the sculptures sparkle and glitter in the sunlight.
Megumi gripped her bag as she took in yet another deep breath. 'This is it,' She thought to herself. 'This is the day I either get highly classified information or burn every bridge that could possibly help me.' With that premise in mind, Megumi walked up to the counter, saying a soft excuse me to the first person she approached. The woman swiftly looked up at her, raising a sharp eyebrow and asking, "Yes, how may I help you?"
Megumi cleared her throat, hiking her bag up further over her shoulder before replying, "I'm Megumi Tan, I'm supposed to be working under Dr. Pikkett today for an internship?" She asked the woman.
The woman behind the counter nodded, tapping away at her computer and signaling for Megumi to wait. Megumi took the opportunity to look around the pristine lobby again, taking in all of the abstract statues, one in particular catching her eye.
"Okay," The receptionist said, catching Megumi off guard. "Dr. Pikkett is currently on the third floor in room two fifteen, they'll have another intern come down to meet you. Please wait just a moment." Megumi nodded, looking around the lobby once more, one of the sculptures in particular peaking her interest.
"I have a question though, before I go." Megumi said to the woman. "What is it?" She asked, folding her arms and resting them under her chin. "That sculpture over there," Megumi said pointing to the one that caught her eye There was a twinkle in the woman's eyes. "You know that one gets a lot of attention." She said, her eyes filtering towards said sculpture. It was in the center of all the sculptures, and instead of a silvery monochrome like the others, this one was pitch black, with shimmers of green occasionally shining throughout the sculpture in places where the sunlight hit.
Megumi studied it further. "It's a replica of the missing element, Barium, is it not?" The woman nodded. "It was one of the last ones built. Cost a fortune. It's made of pure onyx and jades, took ten people to get it in here. It was created to honor the scientist that lost her life to the experiments conducted on the specimen, and to acknowledge that this facility was the place where it happened. No other facility in the country is allowed to have one." Megumi felt her breath grow shallow as she stared at the sculpture.
If only she had the real one, all of her worries would fade away, she could defeat Margret once and for all, she'd be unstoppable-
Megumi blinked at her intrusive thoughts. That wasn't part of the plan, the plan was to stop Marget, and keep the element hidden from her at all costs. She knew from what happened to the doctor that there was no way in hell she was going to use it.
"Hey!" Megumi jolted slightly at the voice, turning around to meet a man around her age with bright orange hair and blue eyes lightly jogging at her and waving his hand in greeting. "You must be Megumi." The man said one he was just a foot away from her. Megumi nodded, silently cursing the universe for sending her another extrovert. "I'm Nathan! Dr. Pikkett sent me to come get you, we're up on the fifth floor studying some genetic mutation in some DNA that had been affected by barium before it was stolen."
Megumi blinked in surprise.
"There's still some remaining barium? She asked, surprised. "Errr," Nathan said, scrunching up his face a bit. "Not so much remaining… rather some experiments that had been done before the barium fused with doctor Basil and had been locked away up until earlier this year, the element had only been deemed safe for further experimentation this year which is why. I can tell you more about it on the way up to the fifth floor." Nathan offered.
Megumi nodded, then the two made their way past the monochrome statues and to an elevator with large metallic doors, the two waiting on a golden floor mat as they waited for the doors to open. Once the elevator, which was empty to Megumi's pleasant surprise, open up, the two got inside, Megumi going to the back and Nathan pressing the number five on the keypad.
"So as I was saying," Nathan said as the doors closed. "So far we've been observing how some small insects have been reacting to the small sample of Barium they had been given, really fascinating stuff, you know you'd be surprised how many people keep coming by here offering hundreds of thousands of dollars just to have those little samples- it's crazy!" Nathan exclaimed.
Megumi shifted slightly where she was standing. "I have some idea." She said quietly.
Nathan continued rambling. "Someone named Forest keeps trying to get information on Zalic and her supers," Megumi felt her eye twitch being referred to as 'Margret's super'. "Forest's a low-ranking officer in the military so it makes sense. Of course, the military wants access to that kind of power, but when she caught wind of the small barium experiments being stored here, her focus went to that instead, claiming we didn't know how to use it, and that there were properly trained military scientists who could put the samples to their proper use, whatever that means."
"Sounds just like another government aided socio-idiot." Megumi commented bitterly, her annoyance focused more on being referred to as 'Margret's super' more than whoever Nathan was talking about.
Nathan chuckled. "Yeah that's what Dr. Pikkett said. It's insulting to think that people who dedicate their lives to advancements and research don't understand what an element like barium can do. Yeah sure we aren't right all the time, and we're all constantly learning, but that doesn't mean that some jerk in a blazer can come in and tell us we're stupid because we aren't using the elements power to enhance artillery." Nathan said exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air for further emphasis.
"I thought they would be more interested in Zalic's genetic experiments more though," Nathan went on. "I mean, there's only a limited amount of Barium, and yet there's tons of super villains being created through Zalic's experimenting of human DNA." Megumi's eye twitched again.
"Speaking of supers!" Nathan suddenly exclaimed. "Have you heard about the new super hero?!"
Megumi let out a soft sigh, sending Nathan a sideways glance seeing if he was going to actually allow her to get a word in this time. "Who hasn't" She replied shortly when she saw that he was actively waiting for her response. "Her power is so cool!" Nathan gushed. "Who knows what it can do! And it's the perfect example of why Zalic's experiments are possibly more powerful than the element Barium, or at least much safer, as of now Barium is deemed a permanent life hazard!"
Megumi felt her back hit the cool material of the elevator wall, slowly wishing the wall would suck her in slowly. As if sensing her prayers, the elevator finally came to a halt with Nathan exclaiming an dramatic, 'We're here!" because of course he was that kind of person, then Megumi stood with noticeably heavier eyebags, waiting to be granted her freedom of having to hear about Nathan theorize about Zalic and the others.
With a soft ding, the elevator doors opened, revealing a gallant floor and sending a wave of nerves through Megumi's body.
Today was the day she had to act.