Maintaining a slightly awkward silence for the walk back to the front lobby, Lucas is absentmindedly fiddling with the phone in his pocket while he's lost in thought.

'...While it would be kinda funny to troll Jon, it feels too weird to suddenly bring it up.'

[Hmm? What's that?]

'Eh? Ah right, you don't hear absolutely everything. Uhh, I was thinking it would be kinda funny to taunt Jon if I got Nat's number, but once I considered actually asking it felt way too... Off.'

[...There's no way she'd interpret it as anything other than flirting.]

'Exactly. And trying to explain would probably just sound weirdly desperate?'

[...Most likely. I advise against it.]

'...Yeah... Man, the look on his face would have been priceless when I showed it off to him though. Figures that the one number I actually kinda wanted I don't get.'

[It does seem strangely appropriate.]

Stifling a light sigh, Lucas picks up his pace a bit to get to the door up ahead before Natalie does, opening and holding it for Willy and her.

Smiling in thanks, Natalie travels the short remaining distance through the door over to the one loaded up with several locks separating their employee side from the general public.

Visible through the glass windows, Jonathan and Miss Masher are still on the same bench as before, fully immersed in story-time. Currently, Miss Masher is making broad gestures with her arms, and Jonathan is hunched forward, wide-eyed, with his fists held together before him.

Throwing her arms straight up in the air, fingers spread as far apart as possible, she's obviously described a rather... Explosive scene. Jonathan has jumped up a bit, now leaning back with a visible gasp, his balled-up fists now instead gripping his knees.

'...Why do I feel like 11 has been holding out on us?'

[...I fear some details may have been lost in translation.]

'No faiiirrrr...'

Once Natalie has finished taming the lockpocalypse, she opens the door to finally bring the storytelling to an audible level.

"-so thankfully the mortar hadn't set at all yet, so just one after another I got to keep pulling up the bricks and just hurlin' 'em at 'im as fast as I could. Man, it was such a huge mess too, and like half of 'em practically exploded when they hit the far wall when my strength was kicked in enough. So yeah, he kept dodgin' left and right, an' it's not like I had any practice tossin' at full strength anyway, so the only reason I managed to hit him at all was that dumb wall. But! Once I did, it seriously only took one hit to knock him out! He blacked out cold just like that!" As she animatedly describes a scene that doesn't mean anything to Lucas when taken out of context, Jonathan is practically at the edge of his seat.

"Di-did you guys get the pants!?" As Jonathan's question only confuses Lucas further during his trip over to join the conversing duo, Miss Masher is just as enthusiastic as before.

"Yes! Once Chi went through all his pockets without finding anything useful, she decided to check his shoes just in case, and there the necklace was! Once she had it, all we had to do to go and get those damned pants was... Oh, you guys are done already?" Completely interrupting her flow, Miss Masher waves a greeting at Natalie as Lucas and Willy walk over.

Jonathan shoots the dirtiest glare he has ever made across all of his lives at Lucas for interrupting the story, but the expression is extremely short-lived when he sees Natalie looking his way, well, Miss Masher's way.

'...I have absolutely no idea what was going on with her story, yet I still feel guilty for cutting it off like that? Wait, I didn't even do anything though?'

[You had the audacity to walk across the room, heh.]

'The nerve.'

Seeing that she has the waiting pair's attention, Natalie waves at the group before chiming in.

"That should be everything, right? Anything else you guys need?" Leaning against the lock-laden open door, she seems cautious about stepping past the door frame, yet she also seems to be a bit unwilling to head back over to her desk just yet.

Miss Masher falls into deep contemplation for a moment, seemingly calculating something, and it certainly is an unusual appearance for her.

"No, that really is everything. Ya gonna be chillin' with Sarah for a while? Maybe I'll swing by later, if I'm not too far off." As Miss Masher answers for the group, she raises an eyebrow at Lucas, silently asking if he has anything to add, who shakes his head at her.

"Yeah, that's all of it. Thanks a bunch, Nat." Closely watching her for reactions to him utilizing a nickname, Lucas meets with success when she simply smiles in response.

"You got it, anytime! And sorry again about the cone, Willy!" As she waves one last time at them, Willy happily barks once with his tail wagging cheerfully, making it clear that he has put that piece of dark history behind him.

Jonathan can't manage to get a word out, though he does at least accomplish a parting wave in Natalie's direction before she closes the door and sets about locking it all back up again.

'I'd say I feel a bit bad for Mash given how differently she gets treated in comparison, but also she seems perfectly happy with things the way they are?'

[She's probably so used to how people treat Natalie vs how they treat her that it barely even registers anymore. Though with what we've seen of her personality, I'd imagine she wouldn't really want people gawking at her, unless, I suppose, it was in awe of her strength. I'm sure she'd never tire of that sort of attention.]

'I WASN'T!'

[...]

'Take that back!'

[...]

'Hey!'

[...Just because you didn't get caught doesn't mean you weren't staring.]

'!!'

[Hmm, strange, I don't hear any valid arguments from you.]

'Shut up!'

In a natural progression of events, 427 has begun laughing a great deal at Lucas, who just awkwardly leads the way out the front doors of I4. He doesn't pause for even a moment to make sure the others are following him, nor to see if Miss Masher wanted to take them through a non-public facing route.

If he had cared enough to look, he could have noticed that Timmy and his uncle had left while they were in the back area, though Lucas most definitely doesn't care in even the least bit.

As they walk past the entryway for the Municipal Clerk's Administrative Center, Lucas has mostly cooled down enough to get his shame under control, though 427's laughter has only lightened by a small amount.

While Lucas opens the doors for the Department of Villainous Organizations, 427 falls quiet for a moment.

'Hmm?'

[Oh, this is going to be good.]

With this ominous statement, 427 has shifted into a brief chuckle with a heavily dangerous tone.

Confused by 427's shift, Lucas looks ahead toward one of the similarly-designed columns, matching those of the two neighboring portions of the large building, noticing a young woman dusting off the seat of her grey pleated dress pants. Brushing her loose, wavy, deep red waist-length hair back over her shoulders once she's fully upright, a vaguely familiar fair face splattered with a chaos of freckles smiles right at Lucas. As her clear green eyes practically sparkle with joy, she hefts the strap of a painfully familiar purse up onto her shoulder.

'FUCK, IT'S HER!'

Needless to say, 427 is laughing once more, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he's begun cackling.

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.99 (+.01 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 2.75* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1.5* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 2.01

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 10 (Oh, think it might rise soon? >:3)

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, still sulking about the story being cut off, but he can't bring himself to ask her to continue while they're en-route.

Willy, once again carrying all three of his villainous chew toys on his own. Miss Masher had kindly held them in such a fashion that he was easily able to get a good bite on all of them at once, not that Lucas noticed.

Lucas's mind right now is just one continuous string of expletives, there's really no need to bother with the specifics.

427, delighted with the turn of events: [You can thank Wraith Hunter for spilling the beans right in the interview.]

Author, chuckling while grinning: Hmm, 427 really got to enjoy himself this chapter, didn't he?

Mr. Quacks, unsure why Lucas is having such a strong negative reaction to the woman, eventually deciding it must be because the purse just isn't fashionable enough, or at least the fact that it doesn't match that outfit: Quack?