[Specter] The Meet.

Deep in the underground lair of Specter, Alice waited patiently in her spacious office. The room was made as much to intimidate as to impress. It was a large chamber that was kept just dark enough to feel foreboding while still being bright enough to conduct business. The room itself was hardly the typical meeting chamber. The furniture was decidedly modern, featuring crisp, clean, angular lines and colored black and dark, gunmetal silver. Instead of the typical long table there was several chairs with plush, blood red cushions and their own side tables arranged to face a larger couch with similar cushions where Alice herself sat content with a large bunny plushie by her side.

Alice herself was dressed in a more formal, elegant outfit then usual. She had on a short white dress with lacy frills and a black ribbon threaded through the area around her waist and tied into a neat bow. On her legs she had black leggings that ended in a similarly lacy pattern right above the start of her knees and red heels. Even her usual bunny hat was replaced with a more elegant version that had long, thin ears that trailed down the back of her head and a thin red ribbon threaded through the bottom edge, which was tied on the left and right sides of the had into two bows. Of course, the had was devoid of any cute "animal face" unlike the ones she typically had on.

Alice herself sat mesmerized by her handheld videogame system, furiously thumbing away with a look of fierce determination on her face as her pokemon team came head to head with another "trainer" from half-way across the world. Right in the middle of the battle, the high deck doors to her meeting chamber opened and a man dressed in a black suit and sun-glasses of the same hue came in.

"Miss Mordrake, the woman you wanted to meet his here." The main said to Alice. Not even bothering to take her eyes off her game, Alice simply said "Send that pentex guy and the CEO of the building to greet her..he knows the way down here." and with that the man in the suit gave a small bow and walked out...

——

Back up on the main floor where Specter's new hire was waiting the ping of an elevator let her know that her mysterious clients had finally arrived. One of them was a man with long, silver hair and sweeping bangs dressed in a black pinstripe suit while the other was a woman with long black hair and a form-flattering red dress. The man with the silver hair walked up to the mercenary and greeted her with a smile. "Hello. We know what your here for, but we can't talk about it here. If you would please join me in a special meeting room we can get down to business. We just have to take the elevator across the hall." The man said.

Calloway

Calloway jabbed impatiently at the button to close the elevator's doors, ignoring the choking screams coming from right around the corner. Unlike in some places, that feature was most definitely not a placebo here. It was a necessity, for safety reasons as well as Miss Mordrake's impatience -although most people knew that the latter fell directly under the former anyways.

Right, the doctor thought with dark amusement as the transdimensional elevator took off and the sound of screaming was swallowed up by silence. Note to self: do not allow people of lesser intelligence around the experimental biochemical weapons. With lesser intelligence defined as the inability to name at least two hundred biomolecules and their chemical formulas from memory.

Or better yet, all of those lesser people should kindly remove themselves to the sixty third level instead. The physicists down there always were writing up excuses for one spectacular failure after another. Reports were as under detailed as Oh, I broke two laws of physics and then had a violent argument with the third. So many scientists from the forty fourth would fit in so well there. Would have, anyways. Most of them were probably dead but that was really none of Calloway's concern, except for the fact that the entire level's research would be set back a week or two.

It'll be their own fault for not escaping fast enough. The doctor was entirely unsympathetic towards such idiotic, prideful actions as trying to reverse the failure. There was a reason why one of the laboratory rules was to evacuate in event of such things. The organization's technology was already good enough to contain the problem to the single floor, so why even bother staying?

In any case, salvaging should begin as soon as possible. Calloway was already mentally working out the plans for that. The bodies would be thrown out to somewhere. Maybe just vaporized right there if they could get away with it. So much less hassle that way. Everything else inorganic would have to be thoroughly sanitized or outright replaced but at least the things that truly mattered were still safely under lock and key, with the exception of Testing Room 6.

Hopefully, though, enough of the better scientists survived. Calloway was absolutely certain that they had not lost Dr. Itzala or his wife Dr. Auctor, however. Those two together were simply too practical to commit such a gross error, even if Auctor would put up some fuss about it. As long as a good portion of the forty fourth's off world scientists made it, well. Would be nice, hm?

The elevator stopped finally at the ground level of SPECTER's Manta Carlos base. There was a brief pause before the doors opened -just the scans making certain that the correct dimension and plane had been reached. Moments later, the doctor stepped out into the lobby casually, as if nothing of importance had happened.

The party of four entered the elevator and the woman in the red dress pressed her finger against one of the buttons, activating a hidden fingerprint scanner and causing the elevator to start slowly go down...despite the fact they where seemingly on the first floor of the building. She turned to the rest of the group which now included Dr. Calloway as well as Alice's perspective client and the other businessperson and began to speak.

"Specter's base here obviously can't be in plain sight, I am sure you understand. We're moving underground now...to the leader's private meeting chamber....You see..Specter may have been created by the most prominent leaders in business...but all of us executives and CEOs answer to one person." The woman said to their new client as the elevator continued to descend downwards.

The man spoke up again, continuing the little lesson. "Thats right....us two are just minor executives. I am the CEO of the front company here on Manta Carlos, and my friend here is an executive from a group of companies known collectively as 'pentex'....you may have heard of them, they include such names as BP. They are a recent acquisition Specter has made...thanks to our leader's brilliant mind. Specter, you see, holds what is called the shadow monopoly....they secretly control the vast bulk of the world's most wealthy and influential corporations by holding their majority shares...a fact well hidden from the public.." The man continued as the elevator "dinged" once again.

As the doors slid open then revealed a dimily lit hallway that he and the woman motioned to their client to go down. As they walked, they continued their little lecture, this time the woman continuing on. "Now...the person you are about to meet is the supreme leader of specter, owner of countless business empires and the single most wealthy person in the world. Her power goes far beyond that, however. You may never know just how powerful they truly are...but I will tell you this...you best treat them with respect...they are the kind of person who likes to get their way...and if they don't get it, there is usually hell to pay...trust me on that." she said as they approached another set of automatic doors. As they slid open, they revealed Alice's meeting chamber, complete with it's large window wall that revealed a large flow of magma.

Alice herself sat happily on her couch, clutching her bunny plushie. She had put away her videogame long before the four arrived and as soon as the door open she set her plush toy down and stood up to greet them. First she went to the two executives. "You two are dismissed, thank you for bringing my client here." With those words, the twin executives gave a slight bow to Alice and left.

"I'm sorry about all the secrecy, but things must be this way, you understand. My name is Alice Mordrake, I am the supreme leader of Specter, and the one who brought you here. " Alice said, greeting her client with a refined curtsy. She motioned to her client and Calloway to take a seat as she returned to her own seat next to her large plush toy. "Oh! I almost forgot to introduce our other guest! This is Dr. Calloway, one of our estimed researchers. I hope you don't mind if they sit in on this meeting. I need non-digital records kept, just in case, and Calloway's memory is certainly up for the task." Alice said, introducing the red-haired scientist.

"Now, if you don't mind, could we star with your name?" Alice asked her new client....

Calloway

There was a little mental nudge from somewhere that told the doctor quite clearly that Miss Mordrake intended for Calloway to follow this trio of people hanging about the lobby. Does this mean that she already know about the forty fourth floor? the doctor wondered, feeling slightly amused but mostly wary. Ignoring the fact that it was greatly annoying to have somebody mentally poking about, there was still really no good reason not to obey that order.

With a quiet hmph, the doctor followed the others back into an elevator, standing nearer to the certainly mindless executives than this new woman with the dual colored hair. Calloway paid no particular mind to her but observed that she could probably take on everybody else in the elevator at once. Which rather seemed to be the trend among Miss Mordrake's new acquisitions. This one seemed to be more physical than the others, however. So unlike the sisters Miss Perrault and Miss Grimm. Personally, Calloway didn't see what was so special about this woman here.

But what do I know? the doctor thought dismissively as the elevator's doors opened. I'm just a scientist. As they went down the hallway, Calloway completely tuned out the mindless drones as they gave their usual greeting and warning speech to the newcomer. There wasn't too much variety in it, nor was it reasonable for anybody expect much anyways. There were too many people going into the organization for that.

When they were finally in Miss Mordrake's office and those drones had left, Calloway took the seat that the girl had indicated to without a word. Only a nod was spared to the woman with the dual colored hair. Oh, I suppose I'll have to wait and see if I'm in trouble yet, the doctor thought a little boredly. There was a very high chance that the answer to that question would be a no. As stated before, and proven by this very meeting, the organization was not lacking at all in disposable bodies.

Lenn Greaves...the name I've hunted for some time...yes, this one should prove useful in dealing with -him- Alice thought to herself as she eyed her new client. With a quick response it was clear Lenn meant business and Alice was not about to let such an oppertunity be wasted. "It's a pleasure, Lenn. " Alice said before she took a seat. Casually waving her hand Alice called forth a hologram of a certain person appeared before all in the meeting room. To Alice, the man's appearance was all to familiar..and one that filled her with disgust.

"This is Joshua. Owner of a store in the underground known as the Antonette and a hated enemy of mine. Your first task, Lenn, will be to kill him. Believe me when I say he is much more difficult to destroy then he looks. First of all, he stops any technology cold by meerly exsisting...and secondly, he can control dark mater. No matter how innocent he seems or what he says to you, he must die...do you understand?" Alice said with a cute smile on her face as she waxed on about his demise. Leaving the hologram up Alice took out what appeared to b a slick black smartphone and quickly tapped a command into it.

"Please, excuse my interruption, but it is of the utmost importance. You see...Lenn...you will not be working alone. On this mission, you will be accompanied by an agent of SPECTER, a man named Andre. I assure you, his power and skills are quite deadly." Alice continued.

"Of course..there is more to this then just a single mission, but I want Andre here first before we go on...would you care for some tea while we wait? Alice said, waving her hand to a robot in the room who proceeded to to a small coffee maker on the far end of the room and brew some hot water. In almost no time, the small machine had managed to heat the water and carefully unsheathe a bag of tea from it's wrapper. Placing it delicately in a cup if hot water, it dunked it a few times before letting it steep and then, finally delivering it to Alice. After receiving the cup and saucer from the robot the young girl took a prolonged sip as the elevator bell sounded it's familiar "ding" from the hall outside..

"Oh good, looks like he's here now!" Alice said with excitement before putting down her cup of tea.

As the door slid open the sound of rattling chains could be heard. He didn't even wait for the things to fully open, what looked like a pair of metallic hands pushed the doors the rest of the way before seeming to vanish, or were they really there at all? They were so quick. Andre wore a leather jacket with several long chains hanging from it, flashy gold plated stuff. His hair, as always, had been styled into an obnoxious pompadour with long sideburns, and he had a grin only an absolute bastard could wear. As he walked into the room he took in his surroundings. The usual crowd, his boss, his admirers, new person... new person? Hello there and she's a looker!

Andre Wakeman strutted to the new face and loomed over her, he held out a hand with three... four.... Too many damn rings on it and gave her the grin of a snake oil salesman.

"Andre Wakeman, international man of mystery and the looks of this operation. Autographs come after the briefing."

His voice oozed confidence, to the point of arrogance in fact. He didn't take a seat, seemed like he hadn't acknowledged everyone in the room, but his eyes shifted over to Alice as he shot her a smile and a nod.

"Ma'am."

Calloway

Oh, this one. To say that Calloway was displeased with Wakeman's presence would have been an understatement. It was all well and good for Miss Mordrake to have her streaks of pride but considering who she was, it was completely justified. Wakeman, on the other hand, was just another one of the millions arrogant peons in the SPECTER ranks. If it wasn't for the doctor's exceptional memory, there would be no telling him apart from the rest.

Luckily, it didn't seem like Wakeman had even noticed Calloway or if he did, he was making a show of not appearing to. Either one suited the doctor just fine. It was far better if the two of them simply ignored each other's presence.

I do hope Miss Mordrake doesn't expect me to actually say anything at any point. And if she did, well. The original plan had been to blend in with the group. Two women and one man seemed like a little off, so the doctor might as well have taken a female persona instead and eliminate the oddity. Wakeman simply being there, however, quite effectively kicked that plan out the airlock.

Whatever. Calloway didn't prefer being a woman anyways.