"Okay I am heading out!" Ethan called out to the others as he finished packing his bag. Cindy was the only one to look up and wave him off. Then he pressed the elevator button and it opened up. Inside was Susan looking at her clipboard. She looked up and smiled when she saw him.
"Ethan! Where are you going?" Susan asked as she stepped out of the elevator.
"To play a game of chess. I finished all my work earlier, feel free to call me if you have any questions." Ethan responded with a smile as he stepped onto the elevator and he looked her over, clearly checking her out. "You look as lovely as always Doctor Storm." The doors closed just as he caught sight of her blushing.
Once he was down in the lobby he spotted a group of people in shades and suits. They looked to have Eastern European origins. He walked past them and to the unmarked limo they were guarding. The door opened and he climbed inside where a few of those robotic doom dogs were waiting.
As he rode in the back he actually felt a bit of excitement at the prospect of playing chess with someone so intellectually challenging. He might actually pose a challenge for once.
When he arrived he walked past the guards and could hear the Doom dogs following behind him. As he arrived at the door it opened to the sight of a butler who slightly tilted his head before he began leading him further in. Then down a staircase and in a room.
Actually calling it just a room was inaccurate. It was a rather large and spacious lab with a castle-like design. Seems Doom has a specific design aspect that he likes.
—-----------------------
He followed him as he left in an unmarked vehicle. He quickly realized it was a diplomatic vehicle. But he was completely caught off-guard when it stopped in front of the Latverian embassy. He was even more confused when the man easily entered the embassy.
Seems that Hector found someone with far more going on in their life then anyone suspects. Or at least the man makes it seem that way.
—-----------------------
"Welcome Doctor Hilt! It is a pleasure to have you here." Doom told him as he waved at a table where tea and a chess table with green and black pieces were set up. "Now would you like to be green or black?"
"Black you have that green motif going on." Ethan answered with a smirk as he sat on one side of the table.
Victor smirked in response, "by the way why do you let that person follow you?"
Ethan raised an eyebrow, "oh? Actually let's go question for question. Why did you want me away from the tower?"
Victor smirked again, he could see it under the man's mask. "Because I plan to attack it and steal all of the data from their servers. But once Reed realizes your files are impenetrable and he or more likely Susan will call you for assistance."
Ethan smiled and began silencing his phone but kept it out in case an actual emergency arose. "Understood. Now for your question. I will remind you that I am being as discreet as possible. So if some cop goes undercover as a vigilante it is none of my business."
"Very well, I will not diminish your little joys in life." Realizing that Ethan was just bored.
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Cindy dived out of the way as a robot flew overhead. She along with the normal interns and employees were avoiding being caught in the crossfire between the fantastic four and robots. It had started only a few minutes ago.
Initially all of their systems went haywire when someone started downloading files remotely. They were about to try and figure it out but then a bunch of these robots began attacking. They mostly went after the Fantastic Four and anyone who tried to connect to the tower's systems.
Clearly they were sent here as a distraction. Something so whoever was infiltrating their systems would have enough time to do so. A fact she was sure they would eventually notice. Cindy was very tempted to help them.
She gripped her hand for a moment feeling the natural power she gained from her transformation. There had been an array of strange occurrences since she gained her powers. She even suspected she was similar to the Amazing Spider-Man in that they got their powers at the same time.
But as she looked over her shoulder all she could think about was the disappointment on her parent's faces if she tried to give up all this 'success' that they strived for. She took a deep breath as she watched the fight from behind a desk she took cover behind. The Fantastic Four were fighting but were not winning, from the looks of it they did not even know that they were losing by a landslide.
She looked at the stairs where the rest of the employees and interns were running down. Then something clicked in her mind. Strangely enough it was a conversation she had during this internship. Not even with one of the Fantastic Four but with her very overqualified fellow intern, Ethan Hilt.
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"Ethan, what do you think of the vigilantes versus heroes debate on the news recently?" The Daily Bugle had been stoking up activity by pitting vigilantes against heroes. Claiming that one side was only causing problems while the other were weapons for the government as they should be. It was very convoluted, it was mostly just triple J attacking Spider-Man again.
"I think it is nonsensical." Ethan answered with a shrug barely paying attention, "So I just ignore it and look for the good in the world."
"But you don't have any opinion about vigilantes or heroes?" Cindy asked as worked on her own project. "Like you do not think either are a problem?"
Ethan finally stopped working on his stuff to look at her, "I think people can make independent judgements of people based not on media but on seeing them. Nowadays photos and videos can be faked, we are even working on faking voices. But something that can never be faked is the desperation or need someone has to help people."
"You mean…" Cindy was completely confused now.
"I mean that people can label all they want. But at the end of the day, only you decide what you are. Even if it means the world will hate you, you can be their guardian angel. Or if the world loves you but you are trying to destroy it. Ah… you know what this explanation got a bit out of hand. So let me simplify it, don't bother with the big overall stuff. Worry more about the small things and they will stack up." Ethan answered.
—---------------------------
Cindy smirked as she decided, instead of running to the stairwell she ran up to a computer and began trying to counter hack the intruder. As she was typing she could sense a robot closing in to punch her but she dodged using her spider-sense and moved to another computer. As another robot moved toward her she threw her lab coat over its head and quickly typed more code.
But as she sensed another one was about to shoot at her a bubble of energy suddenly surrounded her, protecting her. She smirked and began typing again, burning through the firewalls. "Thanks Doctor Storm!"
"What are you doing Miss Moon? I thought you were going to evacuate with the others?" Susan asked as she was in her own force bubble that the robots were trying to breach.
"I was going to but I figured a bit of extra help would not hurt." She lied through her teeth, she knew she could help them. She could probably even take down the robots but she did not want to give herself away. So the best way to help now was to save as much data as possible and add to the robots distraction.
As her fingers raced through the keyboards she smirked in delight. After hockey and stargazing she enjoyed programming and was an amateur hacker. She never really dived deep into it because of her parents' wishes. But maybe she should start prioritizing her own wishes rather than her parents.
She licked her lips as the fighting behind her started dying down and she managed to lock down most of the systems. Then both the hacking attacks stopped when the fighting completely stopped. She turned around to see the wreckage of all of the robots.
"Okay… Reed, whose robots are these and why did they attack us?" Johnny asked in confusion as he kicked one of them to the side.
"I do not know Johnny. But I suspect Miss Moon knows what they were after?" Reed asked as he looked at Cindy who Susan had walked up next to.
Cindy had a surge of confidence as she nodded, "well it looks like they were after research data and probably got most of it as well. Unfortunately anything they downloaded was being deleted. I saved most of what I could in a clever but rather annoying way."
"How can saving data end up annoying in any way?" Reed asked as he walked up and started looking through the computer system. "Oh? It looks like you just moved them to Ethan Hilt's secure file folder." Cindy watched as Susan sighed and shook her head. "I will just open it-" Reed stopped mid sentence as all his codes were refused.
"Yeah…" Cindy bit her lip and shrugged, "turns out whatever virus was hacking us could not get into Ethan's files. But because they are so secure we can not access them either." She then thought for a moment before nodding, "he also already finished his work and left for the day."
Reed scoffed and proceeded to try and hack the file but Cindy just walked towards her desk. Now that everything was settled she could go back to her room and figure out what she wanted to do now that she decided on helping other people by using her powers.
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