It hadn't been too long since they had seen each other but Lorelai hoped they'd just forget and or leave her business alone, but as she sat down for lunch, Matthew immediately inquired about it. She didn't really expect them to let it go, considering the serious nature, involving the police but Matthew did not even give her a second to sit down, which annoyed Lorelai even more. He was being less than subtle, his polite and charming self was gone, but it would normally disappear with Lorelai, whether or not this was his true self or just another persona was still up for debate though.
However, straight-up asking if Lorelai was a "bad girl" in that sort of tone was certainly pushing it, with the lady in question nearly choking on her drink, even coughing some out as a result. "You really don't beat around the bush do you, fuckboy," Lorelai muttered, surprised she allowed herself to be caught off guard like that, you'd think she would have gotten used to him. Anything he said was made worse by Lorelai's lack of sleep, and for once she was honest, informing him that the Detective believed that she was involved with Rune.
"What?!?" Lucy shouted, quickly getting every other student around attention, before breaking out into an intense embarrassment and hiding behind Lorelai. Once everyone went back to what they were doing, she repeated herself, whispering it this time, continuing by asking if it was true. "No Lucy, I am not secretly working for Rune", Lorelai said rolling her eyes, internally laughing as she knew perfectly well that she was technically Rune. She, one boring undead individual was what the police and the public believed to be some massive group of underground crime fighters, Lorelai found it kind of amusing.
I mean she had seen people cosplay the "Rune Warriors" over the years, read plenty of fan theories, and watched videos supporting the "Rune Organization", it was adorable, but also kind of sad. So many people thought that the people behind Rune were amazing, selfless individuals putting their lives on the line to make the world a better place, how disappointed would they be to find out it was just her? That Lorelai wasn't doing this out of the goodness of her heart, she was just doing her best to survive with the crap hand she was given, as hardly anyone would care if a few criminals went missing. Of course, the same could be said for Orphans, the Homeless, and the Elderly but that was absolutely fucked up and Lorelai wasn't that heartless.
Lorelai's mind shot back to reality as she heard Matthew ask, what this Rune was, as apparently, he had no clue what it was. Both ladies kind of found it hard to believe that Matthew hadn't even heard of Rune, with Lucy getting loud again, soon hiding for a second time. Lorelai let it go rather quickly, as she supposed it was a little more obscure for the younger generation, but Lucy kept asking how he knew nothing. "They are like real-life superheroes, how could you not know who they are?" Lucy said getting surprisingly upset at this, with Lorelai having to step in as she was getting too frustrated to explain. "Basically, Rune is believed to be a group of people who track down and fight criminals, they've apparently been around for a while, taking down several gangs and the like, and whether or not they actually exist is a heavily debated topic in some circles," Lorelai remained calm and aloof, before admitting that she didn't really have an opinion on it, unlike some people. That last line was directed at Lucy and as soon as Matthew made the mistake of locking eyes with her, she started to go on and on about Rune.
"Some people even believe that Rune was made up and is actually a cover so the police can get around the laws the Government put in place," Lucy said, getting really excited as this was a topic she knew a lot about, from all of her dad's theories. She explained everything to Matthew who listened patiently, only interjecting to ask questions, not that he had many as Lucy was thorough with her explanations. Lorelai then placed her hand gently on Lucy's forearm, stating that she was getting a little too loud and excited, not to mention speaking at about a million miles an hour. Lucy said sorry before taking a few deep breaths, calming herself down while Lorelai told her not to apologize, reminding her that when she gets this way she becomes a lot more clumsy and injury-prone. "I remember last time you hit your hand into a concrete pillar and nearly tripped while going down the stairs," Lorelai said knowing her best friend would try and deny it.
By the time the end of the school day, Matthew knew absolutely everything about Rune and every gang and criminal take-down they were supposedly responsible for. Mr.Quinn found it all very interesting, saying as much as he walked with Lucy and Lorelai, heading to the lockers to get what they needed before leaving. Of course, seeing as Lucy had cheer practice nearly every day, today being no different, she was in and out of there very quickly, promising to meet Lorelai afterwards. Lucy waved goodbye to her friends, with both returning the gesture, watching the peppy little cheerleader rush off, almost tripping in the process, making them nervous.
However, without their mutual friend, the two wouldn't really hang out but this time, before Matthew could leave Lorelai stopped him, wanting to say something, and for once, it wasn't an insult. "Hey, you know earlier, with the Detective... I just... thanks... have a good evening, Matthew", using his given name for the first time, which took Mr.Quinn by surprise. Of course, before he could say anything, Lorelai had already walked away, heading off to the library to get her homework done so she'd be good to go when Lucy was done practice. Besides that, she found that she couldn't stay put, feeling rather weird about what she said, as it wasn't her usual response, not in the least. Lorelai knew she was supposed to say something like "I could handle it myself or I don't need a boy to help me" or whatever, but for some reason, Lorelai's heart was waning. It was rare for anyone besides Lucy to stand up for her, and she appreciated it, finding it odd, yet sweet which was definitely throwing her off. Besides, he was cool about it, not asking for a thank you or anything in return, maybe she was wrong about him, maybe some people just smelt the way he did.
In the meantime, Matthew just stood there, processing what Lorelai just said, a blush clearly forming on his face, frozen for a moment as he did not expect that at all. He thought insults and banter were Lorelai's love language when it came to other people besides Lucy but he was obviously wrong, very wrong. She was more than just a tough gal, certainly not like "other girls" but if Lorelai heard that she'd probably be absolutely pissed about it, finding that whole "not like other girls" thing super dumb. Matthew smiled to himself as he thought about it and Lorelai, but he soon snapped out of it, he had to stay focused, he couldn't get distracted, as he had a job to do.
Later that same evening, Lorelai was headed out to do something, in disguise once again but it was different today, as she was dressed as a man. She wasn't wearing her body armour, it wasn't that kind of mission, she needed to blend in and look like just another well-styled guy. For starters, Lorelai had on a pair of grey semi-fitted jeans, with her sporting a fake dick in her underwear, it was just a pair of knee-length socks folded up but it seemed to do the trick. As for her chest, it wasn't terribly big but it was still noticeable under a loose shirt so she slipped on a binder she had, slipping on a dark green t-shirt, a dark grey hoodie, and a black-brown bomber jacket. The jacket had small shoulder pads to build a slightly more masculine frame, but if she were to completely fool everyone, she would have to alter her face and hair. Lorelai added some fake stubble, made her eyebrows a little thicker, added dark-coloured contacts, and did some contouring to make her face appear more masculine. As for her hair, she pinned it up in a tight mohawk style, creating tight but messy ringlet curls, making it appear as if her hair was actually like that.
Lorelai arrived at the location, the Police Station where Dustin Penn worked, he was the lead Detective on the Sons of Blood case and he'd have the information she needed. Yeah, Lorelai could pretty much get in anywhere but she didn't always have the necessary tools to figure everything out. For one thing, she wasn't able to hack like the professionals, it was however the next thing on her list to go to college for. Lorelai knew the basics, but it wasn't enough, she would have to do this the old-fashioned way; breaking into Penn's office, searching through all of his files and possibly his computer if she could figure out the password.
It was one of the oldest buildings in the city and it was still in use, they had updated it dozens of times over the years but it still had a few blind spots. Luckily for Lorelai, one such spot happened to be right below Detective Penn's private office, near the back of the building on the third floor. Lorelai already surveyed the area, making sure there was no one around but she double-checked once she got close, doing so casually. Once she reconfirmed that the coast was clear Lorelai leaped onto the side of the building, climbed up to the Detective's office, opened the old bullet-proof window, and quickly entered inside.
Lorelai slipped easily through the tall narrow window, only to find the Detective's office smaller than she thought, seriously how did he get anything done in this shoebox of an office? The room was long and thin, not that it was that long, to begin with, Penn's office couldn't be more than 4 meters by 2 meters, and Lorelai could nearly touch both sides of the wall it was so narrow. Not that she had time to feel bad or think about it further, she had a job to do, so she carefully got down off the bench that was right in front of the window. It was right across from it was his desk, it was certainly a tight fit but it seemed to be the best setup for the room. Across the room against the wall were several tall file cabinets, they were nearly as tall as Lorelai but they were locked and would remain so unless she found the key. Lorelai could pick the lock and brought everything to pick a lock but with five locks to go through she might not have enough time to find what she needed.
Luckily though in the locked drawer of the detective's desk was the key to the file cabinet, along with a sticky note with his computer password. Lorelai did take a minute to get an imprint of the key so she could make a copy in case she had to come back or break into someone else's file cabinet as they all had the same kind. Lorelai quickly skimmed the files before heading over back to the computer when something caught her eye. There was a map of the whole city on the wall but it was covering something, and being curious Lorelai pulled it up, revealing a board covered in every piece to date about Rune. It was kind of impressive, how close he was to crack the code, of course, Lorelai was certain he wouldn't figure out that she was Rune alone or that she was not human. Lorelai pulled out her camera and took several high-resolution photos before pulling the map back down and hopping onto the computer.
Lorelai wasn't really sure where she would find the information she was looking for but decided to start by looking at the most recent files before checking his emails. There was a new one from Cyber, they had successfully hacked into a secured file but it seemed to be in some kind of code or made-up language, they were apparently still working on it. Lorelai took a quick peek at the file, finding that it was in fact, in another language and that for some reason, it was one she could understand. She began to skim it, finding the word Angrboða several times but before Lorelai could really start to read it, she could hear someone coming.
A short but somewhat muscular policewoman opened the door, she swore she could hear something and saw light coming from the room. But nobody was there and there were no lights to be found, with the officer concluding that it must have been a light from outside that came through the window. The woman shut the door and headed out for the evening, calling out to a few of her fellow officers, wishing them a good night and all that. Lorelai waited a few minutes to make sure the woman was really gone before coming down, soon pulling off her jacket to help conceal the light from the computer as she turned the screen on again.
Lorelai was glad the officer didn't look up otherwise she would have seen a strange "man" holding himself between the two walls in the air right near the ceiling. Lorelai knew she didn't have time as the officers were already more wary of something possibly going on in Penn's office so Lorelai had to be fast. She downloaded all of the files she needed, quickly marking the new emails she looked through as unread, taking a second to double-check the rest of the room. Lorelai made sure everything was back in its place and locked before escaping the same way she came in, heading off quickly as she was certain she'd finally be able to track down Angrboða headquarters.