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She gasped sharply, and Flint moved in to catch her, just in case she fell again. But it didn’t happen this time. Instead, her eyes turned milky white, and her hair was starting to turn a similar color. You and Flint ushered her in through the front door before she could cause a scene. Understandably, the receptionist had taken some time off after the attack, and so had Sam.
So, you were greeted in the lobby by another entity entirely. It was a blue and silver, oval-shaped robot with two antennae and a black screen that it used to emote. The three of you stared at it as it hovered in front of you, beeping, trilling and gesturing you towards the elevator. You had no reason to be suspicious of it, so you followed the little bot. It was even nice enough to press the button for you with a tiny extended digit.
<span class="mu-r">“Thanks, bellhop. Do I need to tip you too?”</span>
On the black screen, you saw a face depicting laughter in text speech, and it started chirping with a rhythm that led you to believe that that was exactly what it was trying to express. Then, its eyes became dollar signs.
<span class="mu-r">“I’ll get you on the way out, big guy.”</span>
It winked at you, and returned to humming cheerfully along with the elevator music. Somewhere on the way up, Van regained her composure and straightened to stand on her own.
<span class="mu-b">“Thank you for coming. Both of you.”</span>
<span class="mu-r">“I said I would help, didn’t I?”</span>
She gave you a small smile.
<span class="mu-b">“That you did. You have both been very kind to me, despite my earlier deception. Perhaps I underestimated the altruistic nature of humans.”</span>
<span class="mu-g">“I wouldn’t go that far.”</span>
Flint said. The two of them shared a moment, before Flint remembered that this wasn’t your sister, and was indeed an alien imposter wearing her as a mask. He cleared his throat unnecessarily and looked away quickly.
A little while later, the elevator arrived at its destination, and you were greeted to the sight of what must be the control center for the Fantastic Four’s operations. There were monitors as large as movie screens, computers with enough processing power to simultaneously run your entire game library simultaneously, and collection of experimental and scientifically groundbreaking equipment in every corner of the room. You had no way of intuitively understanding what any of it did, but you knew that it was probably impressive. Even Van was momentarily stunned.
<span class="mu-b">“Ah! You’re early.”</span>
You all looked up to see Reed Richards staring down at you from a balcony. Without any effort whatsoever, he stretched his legs over the railing and stepped down to the lower floor with the same ease it would require you to skip a step on the stairs.
<span class="mu-b">“I’m glad that you’re all here. Without the three of you, and the young lady with the shield, we might not have had such an easy time dispatching that Doombot last night.”</span>
You let out a groan.
<span class="mu-r">“So it WAS a Doombot.”</span>
Reed nodded gravely.
(Cont.)
