While Lucas is still leisurely taking his sweet-ass time before finally joining the others in the brotherhood HQ-destined elevator, Mark, Miss Calculated and 23 have already left to go examine 23’s instruction set progress. Unable to continue using Mikah as a walking handbag, Mark had to settle for stuffing his phone halfway down the front of his dress, keeping it pinned in place by virtue of the dress’s snug fit.

Standing inside the waiting elevator, Jonathan’s tense expression finally relaxes a little bit. He successfully finished his nerve-wracking task of passing on the contents of their ‘totally normal and definitely not incited by a system’s request’ conversation to Mikah, thankfully managing to skip the extra challenging modifier of having to actually say it out loud.

“Hmm, I think you guys are probably right, on both counts. Ah, I should text your ideas to Mark, it would be a shame if I forget to bring it up fast enough and he gets legal into motion right away. Hopefully, no one from the toymaker’s side catches wind of our intentions about our own toy line until we’re good and ready to announce it.” Once Mikah says this, he pulls his phone out, starting to unlock it. While going through these motions, he continues speaking.

“Oh, or the fact that Mary is going to be getting the details on our enhanced fabrics creation process, for that matter. Without knowing this information, they shouldn’t have any reason to suspect her looking into a manufacturing partnership… Well, beyond normal paranoia, at least. Hmm, if she’s lucky, she might even manage to find out a thing or two from them, and be able to improve our process.” By the time Mikah has finished saying this, he has completed unlocking his phone, and has begun deftly passing this information on to Mark.

While Mikah is focused on typing out his text to Mark, Lucas finally enters the elevator. After looking around a bit, he turns his attention down to Willy with a raised eyebrow.

“Hmm, ain’t ya forgettin’ somethin’, buddy? Or, well, a couple somethin’s?” When Lucas asks this, Willy cutely tilts his head inquisitively for a few brief moments, then suddenly barks upon achieving enlightenment, and then dashes out of the elevator.

Before anyone has a chance to actually formulate a coherent question to ask just what in the world is going on, Willy has already trotted back in, now proudly carrying his three chew toys.

“Heh, between finally showin’ them off and yer latest nap you forgot all about ‘em that fast? ...Eh, who am I kiddin’? Like I’m any better when first wakin’ up.” Lucas can’t resist chuckling a bit after saying this, and gets an agreeable muffled bark in return.

Whether Willy was agreeing with the fact that he was being forgetful, or Lucas’s (lack of) presence of mind upon first waking up, only he knows.

Chuckling a few more times, Lucas crouches down to gently pat Willy on top of his head a couple of times, also scritching behind his ears briefly, then stands back up again to lean against one of the inner walls of the elevator. Throughout these little interactions, Miss Chievous has been staring down at the toys in Willy’s mouth, her expression making it clear that she’s deep in thought.

“So, you want to have Mary go scope out the place making those dog toys? I guess you could have her say she wants to have them make her latest batch of phones, since the last place pissed her off so much. Huh… Yeah, she might even actually use them for a while too… I could totally sneak in when she gets a tour, easy peasy, and it shouldn’t be too hard to convince them to let Marsha stick with her as a bodyguard too… Nice. Oh, then shouldn’t we hide the fact we’re all friends now, though? What about all those pics you guys just took, aren’t they going online?” Once Miss Chievous voices her speculations based on Mikah’s half of the previous conversation, Jonathan nods a few times before answering.

“Yeah, b-but, b-between the news last night and, um, the streams today, anyone watching us already knows we all k-know each other now… S-so trying to, um, hide it now would make it s-stand out more, r-right..?” While saying this, poor Jonathan is struggling not to think about the fact the main reason they want Miss Calculated to check out the toy manufacturer is really to help her discover that they’re related to the lab that Willy is from, much more so than merely snooping on their enhanced fabric research and development progress.

“Ah, yeah, I forgot about all that. Huh. Then, I guess instead of trying to hide it, maybe we should say that seeing how well made the toys are is what made her want to seek them out in the first place..? ...As long as they have no clue that you guys are going to make your own toys to try to push them out of the market, that seems reasonable enough, I guess? Oh, or even if they do have a few clues that you’re thinking about it, maybe they’ll try to lure Mary into helping their side stay ahead?” As Miss Chievous muses further, Miss Masher makes a derisive snort.

“Wouldn’t be the first idiots that think they can jus’ bribe her into doin’ them a favor. Hell, if we’re all tryin’ to mess with them on purpose, she can even actually take the money, an’ afterward, we can just screw ‘em over so much that they can’t do anythin’ to us in retaliation when she reneges on whatever they tried to get her to do.” As Miss Masher adds her two cents, Mikah has pocketed his phone, belatedly realizing he didn’t actually start the elevator yet.

As Mikah reaches out, right before he can actually press the button for floor number 13, a service bot has stepped in front of the open door. Anyone keen enough to keep track of the differences between the various bots working on this floor would recognize it as the same one that had brought the lint roller over for Lucas earlier.

“Excuse me. Mikah, if you would please message Mind Flare, and similarly, if one of you would contact Miss Calculated, please inform them that if they wish to visit the 15th floor any time soon, it is highly advised to do so with a face covering. There was a minor incident, and there is currently a high quantity of particulate matter in the air near the elevator entrance. It is nothing toxic, but it is more than enough to serve as an irritant. Thank you.” Upon delivering this message, the service bot turns to head back in the direction of its designated service kiosk. Before it was even done speaking, both Mikah and Miss Chievous had pulled out their phones to pass along the news.

“Oh, thanks for the heads up, 11. Here’s hoping we catch them soon enough. Heh, if only 23 was on the network too, that would have been even faster.” Mikah is a bit absentminded while giving his thanks, but even still, this could be considered far kinder than most people would bother with being towards a service bot. Thankfully, he seems occupied enough to not notice any potentially incriminating unbidden thoughts that pop into Lucas and Jonathan’s minds as they exchange a brief glance upon hearing the familiar-sounding designation number.

-----

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 17.20 (+.01 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 5.0* (Already beginning to receive authentic global attention. His local levels are effectively maxed.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for many paranoid individuals, numerous people have realized he's an impulsive idiot.)

Jonathan total kills: 7

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 5.97

Jonathan's fame level: 2.75* (What fame he does have is predominantly local.)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 3.0* (More than just overly-paranoid people are suspicious at this point.)

Willy's fame level: 1.5* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame primarily as 'Xenoclast's dog', but some strangers know him as William/Willy now.)

Supervillain social circle size: 15

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, stressing all over again about Mikah’s presence: ‘Haha, gee, 11, there’s totally nothing strange about that number, right..?’

Willy, patiently sitting in the middle of the elevator, his body facing the door, and his slightly tilted, upturned head looking up at Mikah: Bark..?

Lucas, accidentally having a better mental cover than Jonathan: ‘Man, how the hell can he tell the difference between all the same kinda basic model bots?’

427, nervous at first, but then relieved by Lucas not having a direct reaction to the number 11: ‘Okay, phew, doing well so far… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to relax while Lucas is anywhere near Mikah, though. Ugh.’

Author, serving as a doggo translator: Willy is wondering why Mikah doesn’t just hit the fricken button already, he can text while they’re movin’, sheesh. Okay fine, he’s much more polite about it. Still though, Mikah, baby, I love you, but push the button already!

Mr. Quacks, actively scorning the heavy cloud of dust in the air, meanwhile, he is wearing a tiny light blue cloth face mask as protection. He is sitting on top of the head of one of the service bots changing the air filter on the AC vent, which it had just checked for the first time, ever. This is after it had turned on the climate control for the floor for the first time, ever, and it kicked up a fresh cloud of dust to add on top of the pervasive layer across everything throughout the floor. Well, at least everything other than the service bots which see regular use: Quack.