Chapter 7: A Strange World Part 3

After walking down the brick red carpet, Don and Lady Noir eventually stumbled upon another set of doors that automatically opened. Don was immediately expecting to be led into an office, but no, it looked like some sort of elevator, though more curved in shape, lacking the usual rectangular design he was used to. 

Despite the strange design, he didn't say anything about it and simply proceeded inside along with Lady Noir. Only once inside did she let go of his hand. Upon doing so, she momentarily held her own hand, smiling and rubbing it softly while muttering something inaudible to Don.

"What now?" Don asked, snapping her out of her trance. She quickly put her hands down to her sides and cleared her throat.

"*Ahem* Yes, the base is incredibly big, so we get around using these transport spheres. I wanted it exactly to your specifications. Look, I even had your blueprints carved onto the top part," Lady Noir proudly revealed.

Don immediately raised his head and looked at the top, expecting to find incredibly complex designs. Instead, all he saw were what looked like the doodles of a five-year-old. To even call them blueprints would be a stretch. 'She made this entire thing based off that? Looks like it was drawn by a kid.' 

Seeing Don's reaction, Lady Noir shyly asked, "Do you not like it? Do you want me to change the color? I can have it done. I want the base to be perfect."

"No… it's fine. So… how do we get to the office?" Don asked, curious to learn more but feeling this was the type of situation where the less he knew, the better.

Lady Noir smiled as Don gave his agreement. She raised her hand and slightly moved aside the hair that was covering one of her eyes before raising her other hand toward the screen mounted beside the door of the transport sphere. "To get to the part of the base you want, you simply state the location, like so, "request transport to main office."

After Lady Noir said this, a digital voice resounded within the transport sphere. 

"Command received. Admin level authority required. Scanning identities." After it said this, a blue light quickly scanned over Lady Noir and Don's figures before announcing, "Scan complete. Welcome, Predator and Lady Lady Noir. Transporting to main office now."

After it responded, the entire transport sphere began to hum lightly. 

Don couldn't help but wonder, 'How did she even get my biometrics already?' As Don was thinking about this, the transport sphere began to hum even louder. But Don couldn't feel any movement, so he was a bit confused as to whether it had started working or not. The answer came in the next moment when the humming abruptly stopped and a light beep resounded as the digital voice stated, "Destination reached."

Shortly afterward, the doors opened and revealed to Don a large, expansive office—if one could even call it that. The entire floor was a monochrome gray marble color, and the walls to the side were lined with high-standing shelves several feet high. Even higher than the shelves, however, were various huge pedestals that were incredibly imposing, though they were covered by large cloths.

At this time, Lady Noir urged him to come out. Though still nervous, the so-called main office looked more imposing than scary, so Don cautiously began walking forward. Lady Noir excitedly paced to the forefront where there was a single large office chair… or in this case throne, facing a panoramic glass wall.

Lady Noir stopped right next to the throne while looking especially excited,. Don cautiously approached, at first seeing nothing but blue skies through the panoramic view. Then, as he drew closer, he began to make out a shoreline, then skyscrapers, then strange aircrafts hovering in the skies. At the center of all this was perhaps the largest, most imposing statue he had ever seen, though it too was covered by a large cloth. 

'This is no base. This is a whole damn city,' Don thought to himself, unable to fully express in words what he was looking at.

As Don was looking at this, Lady Noir shyly spoke out, "Now for your surprise. Close your eyes, turn around, and count to three."

'Well the chanting stopped and I don't see a priest, so it's likely not a marriage contract,' Don concluded, though still incredibly anxious as he slowly turned around and began to count. "One, two, three."

Once he finished counting, he opened his eyes and saw a book that Lady Noir was holding out. The book didn't look grand in any way, nor did it look ancient or of immense value. 

It simply looked like a kiddie's notebook that one would find in any common store or supermarket. Don was confused, but he reached out to hold the book. It had flowery decor and a hardcover with the title reading "Predator and Lady Lady Noir's Supervillain Book" in terrible handwriting, with some words poorly spelled. 

'It's a kiddie's book,' Don realized as he proceeded to turn one of the pages. The intro was short, badly written, and with many spelling errors as well.

———

[Now that I have found a sidekick, Lady Noir, it is time to begin my world domination plans.]

———

Don couldn't help but show a small smile as he continued to read. 

The book was clearly nothing more than the role-playing of a child who pretended to be a world-class supervillain who would one day conquer the world with his trusty sidekick. It had comical childish drawings of supervillain costumes, catchphrases that no one would ever say out loud, and many, many other things straight out of a child's imagination. 'She really turned the kid's fantasy into reality,' Don thought as he showed a small smile.

Seeing Don smile, Lady Noir nervously asked, "Do you like it? I remember you were so heartbroken when the teacher confiscated it, but I managed to find it... I wasn't sure if you wanted it anymore, but you were always so happy when you had it. So… I thought, you know..." she shyly revealed while lowering her head as she blushed.

And though Don himself didn't have any particular opinion or attachment on the item, he knew that if a young Don could see this, he would say, "I love it."