[Even if you don't want to account for the unnecessary threat of always having Mikah so close by, I'm sure even with a discount it will be an unnecessary expenditure to rent out an entire floor. If you focus on the orphanage, or at least help support one of the soup kitchens, you'll gain an extra source of GDV with your money.]

Lucas poses a counterargument in the form of a high-pitched mental whine, earning a sigh from 427.

[Besides, you wouldn't have much reason to spend time at an empty office with just the two of you as the only staff anyway. Also, the two of you should be too busy resolving GDV tasks to spend much time there, even if there was a legitimate reason to be there anyway.]

After another, albeit weaker, drawn-out mental whine, Lucas pinches the bridge of his nose while starting to feel a bit self-conscious about the three women's mixed stares at him. As he starts to take in a deep breath while contemplating what reason he could believably give as an excuse to turn the offer down, Mark correctly interprets his hesitation as reluctance.

"Ah, not like you need to decide right away. Frankly, even if you aren't interested in an HQ yet, we could still use a hand with clearing at least some of it up. As funny as it would be to see, I don't think there is a single employee here that could take a sledgehammer to something without hurting themselves more than whatever they're hitting. If you're willing to do that every once in a while, that's enough to count for an official affiliation as far as I'm concerned." As Mark gets around to his actual concern, rather than pretending to be altruistic, Mikah laughs again before chiming in as well.

"Before calling to make the offer we went to take a look first, it's honestly an alarming sight even just from the elevator. I fear we've left the service bots with too vague of instructions for too long without realizing just how bad it had gotten. Well, until we just thought of it today, that is. Right, we'd pay you, of course." Once Mikah has finished his share, Miss Masher grabs Lucas's right arm and rocks him back and forth a few times, her look of eagerness is unmistakable.

"I can go too right!? That sounds so fun, ooh, we can even go and compete to see who can break more stuff while someone times us! Winner gets the payment!" While she excitably shakes Lucas while making her request, Miss Calculated is furiously making a slashing gesture at her own throat, trying to convince her sister to quiet down, to no avail.

Off on their gamer couch, Miss Chievous and Jonathan both chuckle a bit, but don't add anything beyond that. It's enough for the callers to hear that there is more than one guest listening in, though.

"Hmm? A female strength supe..? Mmm... Ah! Miss Masher! The Sisterhood of Evil I believe it is?... You're at the MCAC then, I take it? Oh, and, of course, Miss. The more people helping, the better, it's probably more than a day's worth of work as it is." Mikah starts off muttering quietly at first, but as he starts filling in the blanks he raises his voice to a conversational level over the course of speaking.

Miss Calculated somehow manages to muster up an expression of even greater surprise than she had before, it seems being recognized with so little information is even more of a shock than the fact that Lucas was casually chatting with the most famous supervillain out of all of the local supervillains.

Miss Chievous has been distracted into losing yet another round, this time now looking between her twin and Lucas's phone with clear confusion, not having recognized just who it is Lucas is on the phone with.

Miss Masher, as could be expected, is positively thrilled at the prospect of having enough things to smash for an entire day straight. Hopping up and down while waving Lucas's arm around she, unfortunately, has woken poor Willy up once more.

Jonathan continues to be unresponsive as he is still in the same round, having long since broken his initial high score. The speed at which the music is playing is enough to potentially trigger an anxiety attack for anyone familiar with the game, and for good reason. If the pace picks up much more the phone's capacitive sensing will probably be unable to keep up with detecting separate individual inputs.

Lucas, admittedly sort of looking forward to role-playing as a human wrecking ball, figures he might as well give Mikah the updated morning itinerary.

"Ah, yeah, we've got a bunch of other crap we need to do before we get our org started... Uh, when should I swing by anyway? I already was planning on going to see Dan later since we..." As Lucas tries to ignore Miss Masher violently shaking his body with her outpouring of enthusiasm, Willy has had enough of their nonsense and barks at them twice as he gets off of the couch, going over to join the far more tame Miss Calculated.

If it wasn't for his enhanced endurance, Lucas would at least have a dislocated shoulder by now, but probably far worse than just that.

"Found a dog, apparently, heh. Anyway, basically any day during store hours is plenty fine, whatever works for you. Ah, before I let you go, let me give you a few numbers so you can think things over with Jonathan. I'd say all together the floor should have about roughly 5,000 square feet of occupiable space once everything is cleared out, while you might not need that much room at first I'm sure you'll grow over time. Hmm, I can't be bothered to have anyone calculate utilities separately so let's say that with everything included it will put you at... Eh, it's not being used for anything better anyway so how about 350,000 a month?" Before Mark finishes with his reason for the phone call, Mikah had drawn in a sharp intake of breath just before he gave the price at the end. While he clearly did not approve of how much of a low-ball estimate Mark came up with, he wasn't going to openly undermine his boss while there is an audience.

'I don't need to double-check to know that's even cheaper than what we'd otherwise get!'

[...Well, I take back my previous evaluation of 'unnecessary expenditure to rent out an entire floor.' If Mikah manages to talk some sense into him, I imagine that offer will not remain so... Low.]

'But! If he doesn't change it! You admit it's worth it!'

[...Regretfully, yes.]

'I'm gonna get to spend so much time with Sylph! I mean, Dan!'

[…]

Not only does Lucas freeze up externally while he is conversing with 427 after hearing Mark's offer, everyone apart from Willy can't hold back their resounding incredulity.

Apparently, this is what it takes to get Jonathan to lose focus, though his score was already capped at 999,999,999 anyway. He outright drops his phone onto his lap, gaping at Lucas's phone in disbelief.

Miss Chievous has a similar physical response, dropping her own phone as well, but instead of gaping open-mouthed, she chokes and coughs. It would have definitely been a spit-take if she had been drinking at the time.

Miss Calculated, who was just about to start petting the recently arrived Willy, gasps loudly and shouts before she can fully consider her actions.

"If he doesn't want it, we'll take it!" As soon as she realizes what she just did, she blushes a bit and covers her face, glad that Mark can't actually see her.

"Oh man, think of the gym you could set up with that much space!" Miss Masher's priorities are, as always, self-evident.

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.91

Lucas's fame level: 2.5* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.96

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 6

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, not mad about his game getting interrupted, just disappointed: Aw, even if the score wasn't going up anymore, it was just getting good...

Willy, walking in a small circle on the cushion next to Miss Calculated: Bark bark! Bark.

Lucas is busy being disproportionately smug about 427 admitting that it would be worth taking Mark up on his offer.

427, coming to terms with the fact that this plan is likely to become reality: [Well, at least you'll build up the habit of minding your... Mind. In a sense, I suppose Mikah will be less likely to catch you off-guard if you are expecting him? I still don't like it...]

Author, jovially: Hi Mikah, times infinity.

Mr. Quacks, also disappointed about Jonathan losing his groove, since he was having fun watching: Quack...