Time is of the essence...

“Dr. Greene will have to do... It’d be terrible to leave the subject in that state any longer than she has to be... And, she’s still employed by hideki, right? How bad can she be?”

You ask... Zoe looked unsure... And Cloe let out a derisive snort, as if you didn’t know what you were getting into. Together... Well... First, Zoe turned off the camera and collected up the contract, stapling it and looking to you.

“One more thing, Dr. Greene only has one assistant, she doesn’t do well with new faces and people... So it might be best if...”

Zoe started to say, and you grinned, stepping up to her and slipping her on like a familiar sweater. In your ear, she made a soft, content noise that she’d never normally make out loud, and from within her, you walked off after Chloe, who was at an elevator further down the hall than the elevator you came from with Zoe, pressing the call button an unnecessary amount of times.

“I’ll meet you on the ground floor, ok? Got some stuff to pack up in my office for the trip.”

Chloe said, revealing her reasons, she’d left the first elevator for you and Zoe, how sweet. You stepped in, stopped by Zoe’s office to lock the contract securely in Zoe’s desk, and then proceeded down to the ground floor, Chloe took just a bit longer, so you, as Dr. Hildebrand, made small talk and actually had an interview or two whilst you were waiting, everybody wanted her opinion on the acquisition, and Zoe helped you navigate not saying anything too conclusive or specific about it, saving face for everyone involved, much to your gratitude. Chloe arrived shortly with a little backpack on Amanda’s back, looking cute but fashionable, and led you to a “Restricted: B3 Clearance Employees Only” door, which you were able to get through with Zoe’s Keycard, technically you could have used yours too, but since you’d never had a reason to go through that door, you had no idea what was behind it... The answer was stairs... Three flights of them... Three long, blush-filled flights of stairs, as you felt Zoe’s impressive assets bouncing and jiggling with each step regardless of how smoothly you tried to take them, Zoe giggled softly in your ear, glad that these little activities could still excite you. When you reached the bottom, you came to what seemed like a small, private subway station with a large tube in front of you, Chloe pressed some buttons at a console next to it, and the hiss of pressurization sounded off, making your ears pop gently as the tube unsealed and revealed something along the lines of a tram sized capsule. Chloe directed you in, Zoe told you how the seatbelts worked... And through the window you could see the tube reseal... From that, things were mostly dark outside, but you could see the inside of the tube through the window. Some machinery did its work, and a screen in front of you displayed the pressure dropping outside the capsule to a vacuum... You’d heard of these, but you hadn’t imagined Hideki had already constructed one... The absence of air inside the tube allowed the capsule to operate without being slowed down by stuff like wind resistance or molecular friction, it also made it possible to easily conduct electromagnet... And the results spoke for themselves... You felt a light sensation of the pod speeding up, its speed increased exponentially, and aside from being pressed into the seat behind you slightly, you could hardly feel a difference...

“So um... How fast are we going?”

You asked, a little curiously, and Chloe reached over to tap a button on the screen in front of you, bringing up a display... 400... 500 Mph... And it felt like nothing... And it kept climbing... You found your heart pumping unnaturally fast as it reached over 700... But then it thankfully started to slow back down... Just 30 minutes and you’d arrived...

“Where are we..? Out of town?”

You asked, getting up, out of the capsule once it was safe to do so...

“That’s technically correct, but also very general... Try uuuh... Two states away...”

Chloe chuckled, and your breath caught., looking back at the pod.

“Yep! From Florida to New York is like 12 hundred miles, so start going fast enough and you get spooky far, especially without having to worry about traffic. Makes it easy to reach Dr. Greene’s installation if we need to slap her upside the head..”

Chloe said with a chortle, walking ahead as you slowly reached up and shut your dropped jaw manually... You shook your head and followed after Chloe, trotting along(causing more bouncing), and going up the stares... The room at the top of the stares was a lab with a large window nearby... However, something seemed wrong, there was a man at the window or more accurately, standing at a computer in front of the window, typing frantically at the keyboard.

“I’m gonna pull the trigger.”

A voice said, slightly distorted by the intercom speakers, and the man at the computer typed faster.

“Don’t! Doc the capacitors aren’t ready!”

The man yelled back, seriously seeming to freak out... Chloe raced forward, only to freeze when she saw what was out the window, your breath caught for the second time in five minutes when you caught up and saw a woman in a lab coat standing on the other side of the bulletproof glass... She was holding a string and grinning like a mad man. The woman herself had a slightly lustrous beauty to her, she certainly wasn’t as much a looker as Zoe, but she’d give most women a run for their money, petite with wide hips and a sizable breast size... The thing that was breathtaking was what the string she was holding connected to... It led past the barrel of what looked like an M1 Abrams Main Gun...

“Five! Four!”

The woman outside started to count down, and the man sprinted for a door near the window, slamming a code into it at rapid speed, and sprinting outside, tackling the small woman as she said: “Zero!” And pulled the rope. It all happened so fast... Thankfully the door slammed shut right after the man, so the sound of a tank she’ll firing didn’t blow out your ear drums... The dust cleared... And Chloe let out a relieved sigh and followed the man out... Leaving you in the room, mouth opening and shutting, gaping like a goldfish... Chloe hadn’t been kidding, this woman was downright suicidal... But you couldn’t much question her methods with the results in mind... An M1 Abrams Shell was suspended in mid air outside the window, Chloe had rushed so fast she hadn’t seen it, but some invisible **** had caught the tank shell just inches away from where she had been standing before the man tackled her... You followed after outside, walking around the floating tank shell in bewilderment... The man was getting up and dusting herself off... And the woman... Who was apparently Dr. Greene... Was cackling maniacally.

“You got it! Smith! I toootally fucken rekt the Retrograde Coulomb’s **** Paradox! Which I fucken made up yesterday!”

She said, hopping to her feet and approaching the floating tank shell as the man apparently named Smith leaned against the outside wall of the laboratory for support and pulled out an inhaler, explaining why he was still gasping for breath even after what happened. As you inspected the front of the shell, Dr. Greene tugged you aside.

“Yer not gonna wanna stand in front of that, Hun... Who knows when the power grid will give out?”

Dr. Greene said with a snort, and your eyes widened... The implication being that... Once whatever was holding the shell in place ran out of power, the shell would resume its velocity..? Or was she just warning that it might land on your foot or something? Nonetheless, you looked to Chloe for help, who was standing next to Smith, gently massaging the poor man’s shoulders, she offered back an impish shrug.

“Ok... Dr. Greene, we need your help.”

You started to say, standing back near the building, away from the potentially dangerous High Explosive shell...

“With what? Demolishing Shaw’s big dumb tower? I’d do it! But you just gotta make sure it’s empty first.”

Dr. Greene responded, pulling some kind of detectors from her lab coat, first a Geiger counter, which she waved over the shell, and then took some notes, and then something else... Something that looked like a machine out of a Ghost Busters flick, when she waved that over the shell, it made quite a lot of noise, and she took far more notes.

“Errr... Tangentially related, but less demolitions involved. We can explain on the way, but a woman was involved with an incident at Shaw Tower, they want our help to change her back to normal...”

Dr. Greene didn’t even look your way, just continued with her measurements...

“Sounds boring.”

Was her only comment, and continued.

“Dr. Greene... Someone’s life is at stake.”

You responded, pressingly, and just as Zoe started to pipe up inside, Dr. Greene’s eyes snapped to look at you. There was a frankly scary look in her eyes... She then looked to Smith.

“Smith, no more tests for today. Feel free to take the rest of the day off paid.”

Dr. Greene said, and put away her notepad, Smith led the way back inside and left shortly, having recovered from almost seeing his employer splattered by a tank, Dr. Greene walked over to the computer inside the small lab, and with a few presses of a button next to the computer, and finally suddenly punching it... The shell outside suddenly zoomed off into the distance, out of sight and out of mind.

“Alright... Who’s in there? And whyyy would you think it’s a good idea to try and appeal to empathy when it comes to me?”

She asked, folding her arms and glaring straight at you...