Getting into the facility

The building stuck out quite a bit compared to everything around it. While the main colour for the rest of the city was a shining silver this building was a light absorbing black. So black in fact that we could see our own dark reflections on it's surface. It was almost like the material the building was made out of reflected the darker parts of people and showed it to their faces.

The style wasn't too different though. Just one big box. One massive big black box near the middle of the city. Not a particularly nice sight and it certainly stuck out to you. The doors were also made of glass instead of the usual metal or stone that the other buildings around here used.

At least it followed the rule of the logo being on top of the building however. The logo itself appeared to be a hologram given that it was moving. But at least it was in the same spot. The logo consisted of what looked to be a deformed star wriggling and squirming as though it were just a mass of tentacles ready to swallow us up.

It was a bright yellow unlike the silver logos around us and shone surprisingly bright in our eyes for a hologram. "Ain't this a sight to give you sore eyes." Muttered Tommy with a hint of what appeared to be real anger in his tone. Whether that anger was really directed at how bright the logo was though, I wasn't sure.

Turning my attention to the glass doors I first looked for a handle to open them only to realize there wasn't one. Sure automatic doors are fairly common but in this city everything's kept private so they tend to have manual ones so to see a pair of automatic glass doors actually surprised me for some reason.

They were the typical thing you'd get in big supermarket stores with the difference being that they had a keycard scanner next to the door. That worried me given that we were supposed to get ourselves inside. Until I remembered that Mainframe had control of the entire first 10 floors security wise so we were probably fine in this regard.

Just as I was peeking inside the glass doors I heard a mechanical voice in my ear. "Mission starting. Thomas the task is yours. Failure is ill-advised" There goes Mainframe. She honestly sounds like a robot but I have to think that's deliberate. She probably doesn't want us recognizing her by speech. If Tommy's theory is true and they're related to Sophie in some way maybe some of us have met them or heard their voice before.

"Alright. Guess I'll go with this." mumbled Tommy before taking a number of clothes out of seemingly nowhere and looking around for a nearby spot to change. I point him in the direction of a nearby alley and he scoots off to do that.

I don't know where he got those clothes from but it wouldn't surprise me if he has some way to store clothes in smaller sizes than they actually are. While I'm thinking about the tech that could make that happen Tommy comes back wearing those clothes and having the other ones seemingly disappear somewhere.

Yeah he's definitely got a place to store them. I thought to myself as I inspected the new outfit. Tommy almost appeared to be mimicking my look but with a lot more skin exposure and bright colours. On his top half was a vest that covered only the minimal amount. It almost looked like a sports bra.

In fact it probably was originally a sports bra given how it looks. Then on his arms he had what appeared to be laced gloves like mine except he only had lace gloves and no leather on the ends of them. The lace stopped at covering his pinkie finger and didn't cover the rest of his hands but came all the way to his shoulders on the other end.

Both the vest and the gloves, or I suppose sleeves would be more appropriate, were a mix between bright pink and a fairly bright purple. The same colours as the outfit he wore previously. The really strange thing was the skirt he was wearing. Normally Tommy would only wear clothes that could be misconstrued as feminine but this time he was wearing a full on short skirt.

Somehow his legs had even less hair than mine and I envied that kind of talent a little. Though it's entirely possible he worked for that it was still a little annoying to see a guy take better care of himself than I did.

On his feet were a pair of shoes similar to the ones he had on earlier. Presumably he wanted to go for high-heels but realized they would hinder the mission and went for what appear to daps instead. No one else on the team appeared to recognize them but this was what we had to wear for training back in the day so I did.

"I hate myself for referencing this but… What are those?" Asked Delilah sounding almost defeated by having to say those words. Her eyes were pointing squarely at the daps. Tommy was about to speak up but I explained them in her stead.

"They're cloth-like shoes we used to use for training. They've got plenty of names but I just call them daps. Soft on the inside and out, really easy to get on. Honestly they're pretty comfy if you get the right size, but it's hard to get that right size." I explain remembering my days when I had to fit my shoes into those oversized daps and come away with a serious number of blisters on my feet.

"They just look like more formal slippers. Should you really be wearing those on a mission. I mean this is serious business you know? People could die if you screw up and I don't want to be included under that umbrella thanks." Complains Delilah with some confusion still lacing her tone.

"Don't worry about it." Replied Tommy coolly before going on to say.

"I usually use these in stead of high-heels if I want to do a female character. High-heels are a pain to move in and these fit female characters just as well." His explanation didn't seem to make sense to the rest of the team though Marianne seemed uninterested.

"Trust me, when you're dealing with a beautiful woman you don't look at their feet unless you've got some weird kinks. Even people like that would love these shoes enough to dismiss the oddity of wearing them so don't worry about it and lets go." Says Tommy Succinctly before walking onwards. Marianne and I followed him immediately and after a beat Dede went off to their own assigned area near the headquarters.

"Where are they off to now that I think about it?" I asked realizing we hadn't actually discussed anything with them about what we would do when we got here.

"They likely got orders from the client judging by how sure they were." Replies Marianne shortly before lapsing back into silence.

"Ok but shouldn't we know where they are?" I asked only to get a shake of the head from both Tommy and Marianne alongside an explanation.

"Compartmentalizing. There's no big need for it in this case so I can understand why you'd want to know but Mainframe appears to be the cautious type. I could imagine them keeping information strictly need to know just for security's sake." Explained Tommy before giving me the sign to shush and walking up to the glass doors.

"Open the door please." Said Tommy presumably to Mainframe and as he walked up to the doors they opened by themselves almost as if they were responding to Tommy's will. That's actually kinda fun. I thought to myself somewhat excited to see us just walking through obstacles like this.

Inside the building was far brighter than it's exterior. The floor, walls and ceiling were all made of the same material. Some sort of strange white tiling that spanned the entire room we walked into and made the place glow radiantly somehow. It was almost like the light was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

To our left and right were a number of uncomfortable looking chairs typical of an office building and one or two people were sitting at those chairs. The place seemed surprisingly empty considering the people who owned it. Yet they were even more busy than most places filled to the brim with people.

The janitors were out and cleaning the floor even as we walked on it. Our shoes were fairly clean given that the pavement we were walking on was rather clean and cohesive and before that were in a ship but they still cleaned up after us as though it was natural. In fact it almost looked like they were annoyed with us for making more work for them as we walked into their pristine building.

Even accounting for the number of janitors in the room right now however the place was surprisingly spotless. The whole area was covered in white tile. Normally there'd be at least one guy who didn't bother to clean his shoes and got mud everywhere and white tiles would make that extremely obvious. Yet…

There wasn't a single stain. No mud, no coffee, no broken vases or anything. No matter where we looked the place was spotless. There wasn't very much decoration either mind you but the place was certainly clean. In fact it was almost barren. With the exception of a single fern in the furthest right corner as we walked in there wasn't anything here.

Well there was also the things in front of us. That being a desk and a few doors. The desk was your typical company office desk painted black and stuck out like a sore thumb in this all-white space. It looked to be made of the same material that made up the buildings exterior and had a woman sitting behind it.

She looked like your typical secretary though there was a harsh glint in her eyes. That and with my experience she looked less like a secretary and more like a bodyguard. Her muscles looked honed for quick paced combat her eyes were sharp like a hawks and the air of a warrior seemed to almost hang around her.

It took me a while to actually recognize her features that was how big the impression of her as a warrior came off. Her hair and eyes were a fairly normal brown almost black. Not particularly rare for this part of the galaxy.

Her face was sharp almost menacing but at the same time you would think she was pretty plain if you didn't look too closely. Her eyes were turned up somewhat at the corners and her smile was more of a smirk now that we were getting closer to her.

She was wearing a typical business suit but she had the buttons of her suit undone and her shirt's top buttons were also undone. We couldn't see anything else barring the somewhat uncomfortable looking chair that she was sitting in.

Despite how much we were noticing about her however she seemed to pay absolutely no attention to us. She was sitting up straight in her chair and giving the image of a professional but she wasn't even looking at us. She was looking at one of the doors behind her. She was craning her neck too it couldn't be good for her to stay like that.

Tommy walked up to the counter and banged his fist down on it so hard despite the material it was made out of we could still hear a hollow thump as it hit the table. Seeming startled the woman jumped and whipped her head around to face us upon Tommy's intrusion.

While this was happening I heard Tommy whisper under his breath through the earbud "Give me the names and backgrounds of the employees real quick." Apparently this mysterious earbud gave us the ability to communicate not just with Mainframe but also with each other.

I didn't however hear Mainframe's reply to his question. At first I thought she hadn't given it but then Tommy continued talking with the receptionist lady so I had to assume all was fine. "Finally. ThANK YOU. I was sick of being ignored. Honestly you peasant ladies are just so crass." Tommy complained in a high pitch, grating voice so convincing I almost thought someone else was speaking for him.

It sounded like the wicked step-mother or that one woman who would show up and demand to see the manager. It was really annoying honestly and I bet the receptionist could tell what kind of encounter this was going to be already because she was grimacing just out of where she thought Tommy was looking.

Of course Tommy could see this so just out of the receptionist's site Tommy smirked before once again going back to an enraged expression that clearly showed he was an annoying entitled customer. "Now that I've got your attention go get Matty for me. I wanna invite him for something. Hurry up I don't have all day." Said Tommy in that same annoying voice.

The woman grimaced again but quickly went expressionless as she replied. "Of course I can deliver a message if you could give the full name and contact details of those you wish to contact. On the other hand if you have an appointment…" Before she could even finish her clearly rehearsed shpeal Tommy interrupted her.

"Nice try country b*tch but no. You're going to go and get Matty and you're going to do it now. I'm sick of this nonsense already." Says Tommy in an arrogant tone completely missing the point of what the woman was saying.

I could already see the muscles in the receptionist's face tighten as she struggled to hold back the scream of rage and indignation that bubbled up from within her. "I work for this company not you." She replied slowly and deliberately. I think there was a little spite in there too and Tommy obviously noticed that but just as obviously didn't care.

"I don't care who you work for. You're a peasant and in my presence all peasants work for me so hurry up and go get Matty." Screeched Tommy in a voice so annoying it sounded like a horde of vultures found a nail on chalkboard and tried to harmonise.

The woman once again grimaced and seeing the reluctance in her face Tommy scoffed at her and said "Ugh you damn inferior lowborns. Fine I'll do it myself. Your brain would probably turn to mush if you tried to follow simple commands anyway. Come on my servants." Complained Tommy as he just walked around the desk opened it like it was his right and let us all through before walking up to one of the doors behind her.

He apparently knew which door to go for presumably because Mainframe told him. Luckily it wasn't the door she was staring at before. The receptionist was about to object and then Tommy walked past the door she was staring at before and she suddenly changed her facial expression.

"Ok fine you can go but just hurry up about it." She said finally with more than a little anger in her voice and a note that said she was letting this go right now but only because we were a pain to deal with and she had bigger problems.

So with one last scoff from Tommy we entered the door to the stairs and started walking up them. "What's got them in such a rush that they'd allow that?" I asked confused as to how Tommy was able to get in so easily.

"Who knows." Shrugged Tommy before continuing.

"My money's on some important person showing up without prior warning. She seemed pretty intent on looking at that door and that'd only happen if someone or something was going to come out of it. Maybe the manager came to the ground level or something." He speculated to the audience of shrugs from me. We didn't know and really it didn't matter since Tommy had completed his mission so we just gave in and kept climbing the stairs.