Don't try anything funny

After the woman in red leaves, you stand up to stretch your legs, pacing around the room as you consider your current situation. You could stop time and go about looking for the man in blue and the bulldog which you're magically bound to, but what if you can't find them? What if they've found some way to hide from you? Would you just stay permanently stuck outside of time? Sure, that might work for a while, but you're sure you'll get bored soon and you'd basically be constructing a time prison for yourself. You wreck your brain trying to think of a way to weasel out of helping the Bureau, but you just can't figure a way out.

Eventually, you give up and return to the table and sit on it, waiting for time to pass since there's nothing else to do. At some point, you find yourself dozing off due to boredom, when the woman in red returns.

"Are you ready?" she asks.

You sigh. "I suppose I have to be."

"Good. Oh, before we go, activate your mind control ring," the woman in red says.

You're puzzled, wondering if this is a trick, but you do it anyway. You really have nothing to lose at this point.

"Just so you understand, your mind control magic has no influence over me. Or anyone here at the Bureau. Go ahead, try it."

Still wary that this is a trap, you decide to give it a go. "Jump up and down," you command the woman in red. She doesn't move. "Raise your hand." Again, it has no effect. She must have some similar magic as Pammy when you couldn't use your magical abilities on her as well. Pammy. You'd totally forgotten about her. You deactivate your mind control ring and ask, "Where's Pammy? What did you do with her?"

The woman in red shrugs. "She's... somewhere else. Don't worry. It wasn't a major offense. Looks like it was an accident, but she still needs to face her punishment. I doubt it will be too severe."

"You don't know?"

"I didn't ask. Okay, do you understand what we're going to do? Do you need to discuss it?"

"I think I got it. I'm going to turn us invisible and then teleport us to the other side of Mount Rushmore where there's some sort of secret facility, and we're going to sneak in and steal- retrieve some magical item."

"You've got it."

"And what are we looking for?"

"You'll know it when you see it. But be careful. Don't touch it if you find it. Let me handle it," the woman in red says as she takes out a pair of red gloves from her pocket and slips them on. At first they look like dish washing gloves, but when she puts the gloves on, you can see them shrink to fit her hands exactly. More magic. If you weren't here against your will, you might even find some joy and amusement in all this.

The woman in red holds out a gloved hand to you. "Invisibility first, then teleport us there. Once we get there, tread carefully and don't any unnecessary sounds. Only speak when we need to," she says.

"Hold on, what do I call you?"

"What does it matter?"

"Well, I can't just yell "hey lady!" every time I need to get your attention."

The woman in red sees your point and she thinks for a second. "Scarlet," she says with a slight smile. Obviously it's not her real name.

"Scarlet it is," you say as you take her hand and activate your invisibility and teleportation rings in quick succession. Just like that, you and Scarlet are standing outside in the dark. Scarlet lets go of your hands and looks around, while it takes you a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to your surroundings. It's cold and it's mostly tall tress everywhere except for the mountain in front of you.

"What now?" you whisper.

"I think it's this way. Come on, stay close and don't make a sound," Scarlet says, walking towards the mountain and motioning for you to follow her. You 2 trek through the grass until you reach a footpath, which leads to the base of the mountain. After that, you and Scarlet follow the edge of the mountain until she finds a flight of steps carved into the mountain. They're so well hidden that even if it was daytime, you probably would have missed them. The climb up is long and you wish you could just teleport to wherever you're going, but you have no idea what that looks like, so you have to endure the strain in your thighs as you keep climbing, keeping up with Scarlet's pace. Not that she doesn't look fit, but she's practically running up the steps and you're barely keeping up. A long time passes before you suddenly miss a step and realize the rock beneath you is flat. Scarlet has paused a couple feet ahead and you catch up to her side. Ahead, you can see a dim light that isn't visible from the ground.

Scarlet looks at you to make sure you're still with her and she points in the direction of the light. "That should be the entrance. Be careful. They'll be armed," she whispers. You nod your acknowledgement and she starts creeping towards the light, which turns out to be further away than it looks. As you get closer, you see 2 figures in the dark. You can smell cigarette smoke. They must be guards, bored out of their minds. You would be too if you were them.

You and Scarlet sneak past the guards into the mountain. There's a gentle slope and you realize you're walking down a spiral tunnel. It continues for a while and you honestly can't tell if you're above or under ground anymore when you 2 come to a metal door. This door is well lit and there's any electronic keypad on it.

"Um, how are we going to get in? I can't teleport through doors if I can't see inside," you say.

"Relax, I'll take care of it," Scarlet replies. She murmurs something under her breath and sweeps her hand over the keypad. Instantly, fingerprints appear on the keypad. Scarlet tries a few combinations on the keypad, using the numbers with fingerprints on them and she gets it right on the third attempt. The door unlocks and you 2 enter. The inside looks like an official government facility, with long hall ways and uniformed soldiers and people in lab coats every few feet. The place is huge and you wonder how many people are stationed here as you follow Scarlet. She doesn't appear to know the layout and is just exploring, but you guess there's no other option.

At 1 point, the thought of using your mind control ring to get 1 of the soldiers to lead you to the item occurs to you, but you guess that might defeat the purpose of going in and out undetected. You also consider just grabbing Scarlet, make her visible again and let her get caught, but that would do no good for you except petty ****. In the end, the Bureau still controls your fate.

It's probably takes about half an hour before Scarlet finds the place where the item is being stored. It's a long hallway of what look like storage rooms on either side, except that the walls facing the hallway are all made of glass so you can see the contents of each room. Scarlet looks left and right as she walks, until she stops in front of 1 of them rooms. You stop next to her and you see what she sees. She wasn't wrong. You would know what the item is when you saw it.