Chapter Text
Loid sat on the couch in his usual spot, legs crossed, one arm draped over the backrest. His fake daughter Anya was already sitting on the floor in front of the television, watching her Saturday morning cartoon. With a coffee mug balanced on one knee, Twilight watched absentmindedly, allowing himself to relax- if only a little. Yor had left the apartment after receiving an urgent phone call from work, and with no new missions from WISE, it fell to him to watch Anya this time.
The doorbell rang, and Anya looked up from her spot on the floor as Loid set the mug on the table. “That must be the morning paper.”
He stood, walked to the door without hurry, and stooped to pick up the rolled newspaper that had been deposited through the mail slot.
Anya tilted her head, curiosity pulling her attention from Spy Wars, and listened to her fake father’s thoughts.
Hmm… The newspaper was folded in half instead of thirds. Handler has another mission for me.
The small girl’s eyes widened, but before she could catch more, she heard his footsteps returning. She snapped her head back toward the television just as Loid came into view.
Twilight sat down with his usual blank expression and opened the newspaper across his lap as the cartoon continued in the background. He was confident no one else could read the secret message hidden inside. However, what he didn’t know is that there was a telepath sitting right in front of him, reading every word being recited in his mind while pretending to ignore him.
"Top priority assignment: Multiple reliable sources confirm secret Ostania project headed by the National Unity Party faction. Developing experimental instantaneous transportation system- objects vanish from one location and reappear instantly in another. Potential game-changer for covert operations and supply lines. Infiltrate the facility located at given coordinates. Investigate, photograph blueprints, disrupt if viable. Exercise extreme caution- human trials rumored. Report findings via usual channel."
With her back turned to him, Loid was unable to see Anya’s jaw drop. Making stuff disappear out of thin air? Moving from one place to another at lightning speed? So cool!
Her thoughts were interrupted as Twilight stood. Well, the good news is that the facility is only a couple blocks away right next to the bakery. However, I still can’t leave Anya here alone, even though I’m confident I’ll make quick work of this mission. I’ll give Franky a call to see he’s available to watch over her.
Anya grumbled inwardly at his thoughts. Rats! This was her chance to try and follow him and see the magic disappearing machine for herself! And if Franky comes, she’ll never be able to sneak out! She bit her lip, mind racing. Gotta stop Papa from calling Franky…
By that point, the next episode of Spy Wars came on, and an idea came to mind. She turned her head slowly, putting on her best wide-eyed, innocent look. “Papa?” she said with feigned surprise. “Are you leaving?”
Loid stopped mid-step, the newspaper still folded under his arm. His face stayed perfectly neutral. “I just remembered one of my patients needs a follow-up exam,” he said smoothly. “It won’t take long.”
Anya’s lower lip trembled on cue. “Awww… But Anya wanted to watch the Spy Wars marathon with Papa!”
Hearing this seemed to have given Twilight pause for thought, and the telepath immediately took a peak inside again.
A marathon? Perfect. That should hold Anya’s attention long enough for me to complete the mission. That also means I won’t have to delay by calling and waiting for Franky, since she’ll be glued to the TV for at least a couple of hours.
He exhaled through his nose, his expression softening into that gentle fake-dad smile Anya knew so well. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it. And when I return, I promise to sit down and watch an episode or two with you. Deal?”
The girl's eyes lit up, though the reason was completely different from what Twilight had in mind. “Yay! Deal!”
Satisfied, the man went to fetch his fedora and overcoat from the wall hook by the front door. “Be good while I’m gone,” he said, adjusting his hat. “Don’t open the door for anyone, and stay inside. I’ll bring back something sweet if everything goes smoothly.”
Anya hopped to her feet and saluted. “Aye aye, Papa! Anya will guard the fort!”
Loid gave a small nod. He opened the door, stepped out, and pulled it shut behind him with a soft click. She held the salute for three more seconds after the latch caught. Then she dropped her arm, spun on her heel, and bolted for her room to change.
x-x-x
Twilight had already entered the facility in his disguise when Anya finally came creeping around the corner. Lucky for her, she didn’t need to follow her Papa to the facility, since she knew exactly where he was going after reading his thoughts. However, only now did she realize that she didn’t have a plan beyond simply traveling to the point of interest, leaving the pink-haired girl to stand there in front of the entrance as she contemplated what to do next.
Okay, Anya. Think like a spy. She squinted up at the windows. Too high, no ledges. Front door- definitely locked, and she didn’t have a card or code to get in. Sneaking in behind someone? No one’s coming or going at the moment, and she chewed the inside of her cheek.
Papa got in somehow. He’s probably already inside being super sneaky. She glanced left, then right down the empty sidewalk. Maybe there’s a secret entrance? Or a disguise? Anya doesn’t have a lab coat…
Her eyes drifted to the narrow alley beside the building. A metal dumpster sat against the wall, smelling faintly of rotting bread and coffee grounds from the bakery next door. Right above the dumpster, a square ventilation grate was bolted into the brick. Rusty screws, slightly ajar on one corner, like someone had pried it once and not quite fixed it.
Anya’s face lit up. That’s it! Like in Spy Wars episode 47! Bondman crawled through the air duct to steal the evil scientist’s plans! She gave a tiny fist pump. “Heh heh… Operation: Vent Infiltration starts now!”
Meanwhile, inside the facility, Twilight walked briskly past a couple of scientists dressed exactly like him without so much as giving him a second glance. He traversed the maze of hallways using the map he’d memorized at the entrance before finally arriving at his destination. After taking a quick look behind him to ensure no one was around, he picked the lock with ease, entering a small office space and closed the door behind him. It took a minute of rummaging around, but he did eventually find what he was looking for in one of the locked drawers of the office desk.
There it is, Loid thought, his mind racing as he rifled through the documents and blueprints. I see… A Molecular Facsimile Transmitter. Ostania's war hawks have outdone themselves this time. Apparently it's like a high-powered facsimile machine, but instead of sending ink scratches on paper, it encodes the very atoms of an object. It breaks it down into a waveform pattern, shoots it through electromagnetic relays, and reassembles it at the receiver end for instantaneous relocation. Supplies, weapons, even agents could vanish from one spot and pop up in another like a ghost in the ether.
Above him inside the vent, Anya tried her best to listen to what her Papa was saying. Mole-cue-lar fack-sim-uh-lee? Wave... form? Ugh, Anya doesn’t get it! She then felt her stomach growl, much to her displeasure. And Anya forgot to eat breakfast before leaving…
Loid leaned closer to a schematic, tracing the diagram with his finger. Let’s see… The process starts in the sender chamber: High-voltage particle beams scan the subject, disassembling its molecular structure into an energy signature. The control relays encode the pattern onto magnetic tape for stability, then amplify it through microwave transmitters. It will then zip along secure lines or even bounce off relay towers, hitting the receiver chamber miles away. There, synchronized fields reverse the dance, reconstituting the atoms from the waveform, layer by layer, like developing a photograph from a negative.
Anya had heard enough. Besides, she was here to see the magical disappearing machine! She continued crawling down the vent as Loid finished his train of thought.
This is a very crude, power-guzzling, and risky venture. One misalignment, and you’d end up with a scrambled mess or nothing at all. But if it works… it could tip the scales of this standoff, and a one-sided war wouldn’t be far behind it. Time to introduce a little disruption. A swapped relay here, a shorted coil there… If their tests go haywire, it’ll buy us some time while I report to Handler and figure out where we go from here.
x-x-x
The two scientists in white lab coats stood in the wide, sterile chamber. Thick cables snaked from the ceiling into two tall cylindrical chambers, open at the front and humming faintly. One scientist, balding and impatient, held a clipboard. The other, younger with messy hair, carried a small crate of produce.
“Now why do we have to keep wasting food like this?” The younger one said. “This is the second batch already, and the boss is still complaining about ‘insufficient data.’ We’re burning through fruit faster than the cafeteria can restock.”
The balding one adjusted his glasses, not looking up from the clipboard. “Quit whining. We need consistent test subjects with known mass and water content; because if we’re going to move on to a live subject, then we would need near-perfect calibration first. One bad apple today means one dead rat tomorrow- or worse.”
The younger scientist rolled his eyes but didn’t argue further. He stepped back as his colleague placed the red apple precisely in the center of the left cylinder’s platform.
“Subject secured,” the balding one said into the recorder mic clipped to his coat. “Mass: 182 grams. Initiating high-power scan in T-minus one minute. Now entering the control booth.”
They crossed the chamber floor and entered the control booth through the heavy door. It sealed behind them with a hiss, and a green lock light came on.
Inside the vent shaft above, Anya had been inching forward again when the grate beneath her feet suddenly felt too confining. She pushed hard, popped the panel loose and dropped down, landing in a low crouch with both hands on the cool floor.
She straightened fast, brushing dust off her sleeves, and looked around the now-empty chamber. The two cylinders loomed like giant metal barrels with massive tubes coming out of their tops.
“Is this the magic disappearing place?” Anya wondered out loud, before her gaze landed on the perfect, delectable-looking red apple sitting alone inside of the left tube.
The sight of the fruit caused her stomach to growl again, loud enough to make her wince. And before she knew it, she took a step closer towards it, then another. She glanced at the sealed control booth, completely unaware that there was someone on the other side, and nice versa.
Just one bite… She told herself. Papa won’t know. And Anya’s super hungry from all the sneaking. With no else around, Anya felt a boost of confidence before she crept right up to the open cylinder’s mouth.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the facility, Twilight crouched in the dim maintenance corridor, access panel already open. Let’s see… swap these two wires here, unscrew those latches there, and finally… He nicked one of the main power feed lines with a precision blade, just deep enough to cause arcing before closing the panel. He took a step back. With the sabotage done, any test run now would fail spectacularly, and it will look like a human error.
Inside the control booth, the balding scientist leaned over the console, eyes on the monitor feed as the younger one adjusted a dial.
“Test number 47,” the older one announced into the recorder. “High-power molecular scan on organic subject: apple, 182 grams. Verifying alignment… good. Power at fifteen percent. Initiating chamber closure.”
He flipped the large red switch labeled “SCAN CYCLE.”
A low whine built from the cylinders, and the open front of the left tube began to slide shut as the thick metal door descended from above like a guillotine in slow motion. Anya was already inside holding the apple, and was just to take a bite before the door was sealed with a heavy thunk. Startled, she dropped her would-be snack as she was swallowed by darkness for a split-second, before being illuminated by yellow light along the inner rings.
Having not fully grasped what had happened, Anya could only blink and utter out the words, “Uh-oh,” as the whining noise grew louder and louder.
Inside the booth, the younger scientist frowned at the feed. “Wait- there’s something in there. Is that… is that a kid?!”
The balding one squinted at the screen. “Impossible. The chamber was clear half a minute ago!”
Anya started pounding on the inside of the door, her heart leaping into her throat. Air was now starting to blow up from underneath her, whipping her pink hair in every direction. Lines of red light began to sweep over her body, leaving behind a tingle like static crawling over her skin.
“Papa!” She screamed, quickly descending into a panic. “Papa, please! Help me!”
“Turn it off!” Yelled the bald man.
“I can’t, it’s not responding!” His associate cried out, furiously pressing buttons and switches on the console as multiple warning lights flashed and alarm bells ringing. Left without any other option, he whirled around and placed his hand on the lever with a massive red label on the wall. “I’m cutting off the main power!”
“NO!” His fellow scientists lunged, seizing his arm. “If you do that, you will cripple the entire system, and they'll have our heads!”
Back inside the tube, the gust of air had become so strong that Anya began to float. Had she not been in a state of sheer panic, the telepath would’ve been crying out in delight, rather than absolute terror. The whine peaked into a single, ear-splitting tone, and blinding white light flooded the chamber from every direction. She squeezed her eyes shut and attempted to scream out for her Mama and Papa one last time, but was completely drowned out by the roaring wind.
And then, there was silence.