The newer map she obtained from the drone was essentially the same. Sure, this one actually seemed to have less entrances than the paper one in her possession But, if she were to use the logic of the entrance they used earlier, then maybe they didn’t get rid of the secret rooms and entrances, they just hid them? Harlow really didn’t have the time to figure out. 

After comparing, the map in her hand vs. the one in her head, she couldn’t think of the easiest way to get to any of the hidden entrances. She heard Black Star behind her getting antsy. “M-maybe we should leave, They’re gonna be back and I’m sure they’ll bring more-”

Black Star grabbed the map from her hands. She looked it over for a moment, her eyes now glowing a blinding yellow. Harlow could tell she was gonna burn out soon. They needed an exit strategy. 

“Harlow, this right here, the lower floors. This is where you find the lab?” She pointed to the area where the scientists’ labs were. She shook her head. 

“No, that’s just where Gizzards’ lab is. I found it somewhere…ah, over here.” She pointed to the where the top floor was, nearest to the observation deck. “ This is where that room was.” Black Star balled the map up and put it in her pockets. Harlow could understand a little bit, but didn’t say any more. After all, if you look at where they are, it has to be the top floor. They could still see the city from the giant windows typically found on the top floor. 

“Great! let’s go!” Black Star grabbed Harlow and flew the both of them down the hallway, avoiding more drones that were headed to their location. Harlow eyes some of the ones and noticed they seemed to have them pinged. But how did they even know where they were. Until this moment, they didn’t even know. 

Harlow felt bright lights assault her eyes when they flew past the observation deck. Again, more people were to be found her than when she was here a couple of days ago. Now she wanted to know why? This was a typical day for them (aside from the current infiltration), so why weren’t they all here the other day. It didn’t make sense. 

“Hey, love, it’s getting a little dicey at the moment! Mind telling me where that room was?” She heard Black Star say through strained breaths. She was keeping everyone else at an even distance from them, and even then some heroes were beginning to breaking through with increased force. 

“Yeah, a meeting room!” She called out, then began scanning the area for the one she was at before. She spotted it finally, after forcing Black Star to fly around for a couple more minutes.  

“There it is!” She exclaimed, spotting the same meeting room from before. Room 1D, the room at the left most corner of the hall. It was actually cordoned off with police tape and everything. “That one, Cass!” She said again, only for Black Star to not-so-gracefully tossed her through the door, sending her crashing into her floor. She finally stopped moving when she slammed back-first into an all too familiar podium in the center of the room. Black Star came through the doorway, eyes now a brilliant white color as she threw every object not tied to the wall at the door to keep everyone else out. 

“What now, love?” There was a strain to her voice, even though she tried to hide it behind her usual banter. Harlow lifted herself from the ground slowly. She wanted to make a comment on the sick throw, but decided against it. Not the time. She forced herself to stand and look around the room again. What was it that opened that secret passage? Something about the podium?

Harlow looked over the podium before deciding it’d be easier to use her own powers. And she was right. Her own abilities forced the the secret door behind the podium open. Harlow turned around to Black Star, who was struggling against the dozen of drones and several heroes trying to push their way in. She ran over to her and pushed her out of the way. Black Star was gasping hard, white lights threatening to leak out of her eyes. 

Harlow head snapped to the door, then she ran her hands over it, demanding a shutdown. And the buildings’ system replied in turn. The emergency lights began blaring in the meeting room and in the hallways, and a large, thick down came slamming down between Harlow and her adversaries, throwing her backwards. Everything went black.

Then a glowing eerie emergency light which kept blinking slowly. 

“Harlow?” Black Star called out into the darkness. Harlow got up, rubbing her head. She hoped Black Star had ice packs in her house. 

“Still here. How about you?” She couldn’t see Black Star clearly in the darkness, and she definitely couldn’t see any light coming from her eyes. Harlow huffed and stood to her feet. She couldn’t see much in the low light room, but thanks to the emergency lights, she could at least see behind the podium. The secret entrance was still open. 

“Hey, look…it’s still open…” Harlow muttered.  She guessed the emergency shutdown was something that was newer so it didn’t affect these hidden rooms. It was convenient, but still sank a hole into her stomach. “We should go in before the power comes back on.” Black Star nodded and floated over. 

“Anything in here we should be worried about?” She asked, looking down at the staircase which lead further into the building. 

“Besides a murder scene? Man, I hope not..” She looked at the secret entrance. “What do we do about this?” Black Star looked at the entrance for a moment, then, whit eyes glowing blue again, she slammed the door down. It startled Harlow so much, that she jumped and almost fell down the stairs, but Black Star caught her. 

“Please be careful!” She said, pulling her back up. Harlow nodded and kept one hand on the wall for support. “Okay, we’re in the walls. What’re looking for?” Harlow descended the step with Black Star right behind her. She could hear the faint voices through the walls, but there were too far away now. And they clearly had no idea about the secret room either. 

Harlow kept going until she found herself in the lab from before. Except for the scientists and Upper management standing around, it looked exactly the same. Well, that and the fact that the laptop was gone. She guess it made sense, since they wanted to pretend to be victims. 

Harlow stepped onto her floor of the lab, filling a chill run up her spine. She hadn’t wanted to return here, fearing what’d she’d see. But as she was looking around, there were no traces of Dr. Gizzard. Or that the others had been here at all. In fact, only when she was looking really hard, did she find the bullet hole that grazed her sitting in the wall. Even her own blood had been cleaned up!

“What’re we looking for? A sign?” Black Star said, eyeing the projector in the center of the room. It couldn’t be lifted, she she was looking for something else. “Or some trace of something that was left behind when it shouldn’t be?” Harlow hummed as she looked around. 

“I get Dr. Gizzard and Dr. Beauregard taking the long way around the building, because they wouldn’t know about the secret entrances.” She started, looking at the wall space the projector was pointing to. “But, what about a higher up? Do you think they’d know?” Black Star tilted her head to the side and shrugged. 

“Why wouldn’t they?” She said. “But i don’t think they left anything else in this room…” She ruffled through her pockets. Harlow was surprised t see the map, she’d forgotten what happened to it honestly. Black Star handed the map to Harlow and took a step back with her hands up. “Not really good at the whole map-reading thing.” She grinned. 

Harlow hummed again, looking over the map. She was able to place the observation deck, originally called the ‘lookout’, and then traced the map from there. She pretty easily found the room they were in, and then began walking around the room. 

The wall the projector was on, the opposite wall, and the wall the stairwell was on were all good. But there were a bunch of desk on the wall opposite of the stairs. Harlow hummed. Maybe she could move the tables?  “Hey, help me move these?” She grabbed one side of the table to move it, only to watch it move with it ease. The other side must have been screwed to the floor with a hinge. Harlow and Black Star exchanged looks before both moved past the table. Harlow moved her hand along the wall to look for a handle or something. 

She found a latch and used it to open the door. It lead to yet another long and narrow corridor. At least this one was a hallway, not a vertical drop. Harlow gave one more look to Black Star before going ahead.

The walk was eerily quiet. Maybe because they had no idea where they were going. The map stated that it would lead to another secret room. But what if it didn’t? What if it lead them directly to the director? Harlow’s stomach was in flops just thinking about it. She was sure Black Star had her back if things got choppy, but she was a little raw to the last encounter she had. She didn’t want to deal with it again.  

Eventually they heard noise up ahead of them and began to walk a little bit slower. No voices this time, but like machines whirring and being used. Harlow wondered how they’d get out of this scrap if worse came to worse, and she felt Black Star’s hand on her back. To push her ahead or reassure her, she wasn’t sure. 

When they finally made it to the exit, they were speechless. It was a another room, but this one was huge. At least 30ft high with two levels; a lab on the lower floor and rows and rows of cases everywhere else. Harlow stepped out cautiously and looked around. She peered into one of the nearby cases and gasped. 

There was a person inside.