After they both entered the transportation sphere. Gary turned and activated the display next to the door, saying, "Tour mode, please. All area access."
At that point, the digital voice responded, "Command received. Verifying identities. Identities verified. Admin level access granted."
Don watched Gary do this, and after he was done, he couldn't help but ask, "How many people have admin level access here?"
The doors to the transportation sphere were closing just as Don asked the question, with a light humming noise now all around them. Gary stopped and turned to face Don, casually revealing, "Just four: myself, you, the young madam, and of course, her familiar."
"Her familiar?" Don repeated with a raised brow, but Gary shook his head. "I'll leave it to the young madam to introduce you. I'll only say good luck," he added with a smile before turning his head. "Oh, the tour should be starting soon."
Don didn't exactly like the mystery, and although it was likely not deadly, he couldn't help but feel worried. 'But what if—'
Before Don could finish speaking, the walls around them suddenly turned transparent, causing Don to pause his words and look around in surprise. The transportation sphere was moving on an incredibly thin roller coaster-like arrangement high above the ground. From this point, Don could almost see the entirety of the base, which, from the looks of the shoreline, was on an island. His eyes widened in amazement as he began to look at all the various infrastructure present. It really did look like a bustling small city down there.
"How did she manage to build all this?" Don couldn't help but mutter.
Gary showed a warm smile and approached Don, who was currently standing right next to the now transparent wall for the best view. Once at his side, Gary gave an answer. "Well, although the young madam was wealthy and motivated, it was indeed not enough to make this come to fruition. Though she herself may not like to admit it, her familiar played a large role in making all this possible. After all, without it, the young madam would be just a normal human being."
As Gary revealed this, Don felt a bit concerned and asked, "Did she have to give up anything?"
Though he didn't know exactly what a familiar was in this world, from his understanding of the meaning, it involved the arcane and matters involving summoning and such, which he felt always involved making some sort of sacrifice or deal. His suspicions proved right as Gary let out a sigh and gave a light nod. "Unfortunately, she did. But in her words, it's a small price to make Predator happy."
As Gary revealed this, Don couldn't help but feel a tinge of pity. Though he himself hadn't done anything to hurt Lady Noir, it was clear that the old Don had, and Gary didn't hold back on letting him know this. But Don appreciated the blunt honesty.
Seeing the change in Don's expression, Gary quickly apologized. "Apologies, sir. I do not mean to say it is your fault. Even had you never left, the young madam has always had insecurities about her capabilities as a sidekick given her lack of superhuman abilities. And though I was concerned at first, it actually ended up being a very good thing for her."
"That's good then," Don felt better after hearing this, and so the tour of the base proceeded.
After some time passed, the transportation sphere now no longer had its walls transparent as it came to yet another stop, soon letting out an audible beep before the doors automatically opened.
Gary stood upright with his usual disciplined posture, whereas Don was leaning against the wall while looking to be in deep thought. 'This base really does have everything a supervillain needs,' Don thought, processing much of what he had seen to this point—everything from a room full of gadgets meant to display all the souvenirs he gets from enemies, a room with a supercomputer, a private hangar, several laboratories, a gym, and so on.
'What's next, a menacing basketball court?' Don thought as he let out a sigh, preparing to face yet another thing the base offered.
As he walked out of the transport sphere's doors, he found himself in a large circular room. Like much of the base, the floors and walls were obsidian in color with gold veins and glitters visible within the material.
This particular room had dim blue lighting and didn't even possess many of the absurd things Don had seen so far. Instead, it had a really large oval table of the same material as the floor and walls. Around the table were many throne-like seats, with one especially large one on one side of the table.
As Don looked around, he asked, "What is this place?"
To which Gary quickly replied, "The conference room, sir. As you once revealed to the young madam, you may one day have your own supervillain team. This is where you would lead and discuss plans for other important matters. At the center of the table, you see before you is our spherical Gen-5 projector that's linked to the base's supercomputer, making for easy presentations when necessary. Real-time information sourcing is a vital part of any supervillain's base."
"I see." Don nodded along a bit more casually this time as there was nothing too surprising given what he had seen so far. The room looked very normal in comparison.
After Don replied to Gary, he began making his way to the largest chair arranged around the table, mostly because he wanted to sit down and take a short break. But as he reached the chair, he came to a sudden halt, his face immediately showing confusion.
In the seat of the chair, there was a strange figure sleeping. At first glance, Don assumed it was a girl given the long hair and cute face he first noticed. But shortly after noticing those, he narrowed his eyes as he noticed the girl's skin was a light pink. Her ears were also abnormally pointy, like those of an elf. More eye-catching, though, was the pair of horns poking out of her head.
'Is this the familiar?' Don wondered as he began to lower his gaze over the strange figure's body. She—or it—only wore a simple loose black cropped shirt and nothing else except a black lacy thong that tightly hugged her petite yet very curvy frame.
As Don was looking, the figure shifted slightly, revealing a long slender tail extending from just below her back. This sudden movement surprised Don and caused him to jump a bit back, which in turn caused him to accidentally shake the seat.
Shortly after he did that, the figure let out a mild groan and showed signs of waking up, yawning while stretching.
'Oh no…'