After a bit more time spent calming back down, Lucas is looking down at his currently shut-off phone in his hands. His thoughtful expression makes it all too apparent that he’s attempting to reach a decision about something, but his thoughts are deep enough that Mikah can’t hear them.

“Twenty dollars say Marsha will call you again if you go to try calling Alley Cat right now.” Mikah has a huge grin while making this bet, and Lucas angrily shoves his phone into one of his suit jacket’s inner pockets.

“Absolutely not! I’ll wait until later! If their luck really is such a big deal then something will happen to let me know when to call!” The huff Lucas makes after declaring his newfound intent can be rather effortlessly translated into ‘well now I’m not doing it!’

Still grinning, Mikah stops using the edge of his desk to support himself. He starts leisurely walking over towards the shut door to his office, after having grabbed the two keyfobs from where they were resting on top of the meme-stack.

“Well, we might as well get going, we got what we came here for, and I for one think it would be embarrassing if they beat us there.” Mikah manages to further demonstrate his understanding of Lucas’s inner workings by managing to phrase this in such a way that he might as well have lit a fire under Lucas’s lazy rear.

And not only Lucas, for that matter, as Jonathan stands up nearly simultaneously with him. Although only Lucas answers with an “Of course, let’s go!”

Mikah can’t resist smiling when seeing the two dorks in action, hiding it by turning away to face the door as he opens it. Similarly, he masks the chuckle he almost made by clearing his throat.

“Ahem, well, I’ll just need to take a moment while we’re on the way to the elevator to pop into accounting real quick. I might as well give them a heads up in advance; rather than just sitting there staring at them while they get to work figuring out numbers for the upcoming bot shopping spree later.” While Mikah is saying this, he’s holding the door open for Jonathan and Lucas to head out, then following after them through said door, and then finally shutting the door behind himself.

“Eh? Yeah, sure, makes sense. Go ahead. Want us to wait for ya, or just run ahead an’ go grab the elevator? Oh, Thanks.” While Lucas is asking this, Mikah has handed over one keyfob to Jonathan, holding the other one out for Lucas to claim. Which, he does so, promptly tucking it away into a different inner suit jacket pocket than his phone is safely nestled away into.

Mikah pauses for a moment to consider, but he hardly takes long at all.

“Hmm, there’s no need for you to wait around for me, go ahead and head to the elevator. If, for some reason, it seems to be taking me a while, you can just go on ahead without me. We’re only going up one floor, after all, it’s hardly worth making you stand around waiting for me. The elevator will be back before long, heh.” While Mikah is saying this, the three of them are actively walking together down the corridor.

At one point Jonathan seems to briefly stutter-step before continuing to match his pace with Lucas, acting as if nothing unusual happened.

After passing a few doors that are set into the wall to their left, relative to the fact that they are currently facing towards the elevators; Mikah stops walking and raises a hand to wave at Lucas and Jonathan. Shortly after, he turns to knock on a door twice, opening it after barely any delay.

Thanks to their current positioning, when Lucas curiously peeks into the office, he can see a fair-skinned man a few years younger than himself. He has red hair styled in a long topped undercut, the sides of which are fairly high up, and a thick full beard that’s even longer than the hair on top of his head. He even has a small pair of braids nestled into his beard, secured with large wooden beads, serving to frame the sides of his mouth.

“Erik! I’m so glad you’re here! I’ll be heading back out for a bit, but here’s the deal; we’re going to be starting up at least one major project starting hopefully ASAP, and the more we invest up-front, the better. I was hoping we could figure out exactly how many liquid assets we can afford to pool together right away, and how much more we’ll be able to tap into within, say, a month’s time? Yeah, exactly-” While Mikah is getting Erik brought up to speed, apparently responding to his thoughts instead of waiting for Erik to bother speaking up, Lucas and Jonathan are still walking down the hallway.

To be fair, that was much more of Mikah’s dialogue than Lucas was actually listening to, as he was far too preoccupied with his thoughts at the time to particularly concern himself with what they were saying.

‘BRUH. I don’t care that he’s wearin’ business casual clothes, that dude shouldn’t have a ledger, he should have a battle axe! ...Okay, a lightweight one, he didn’t look very strong. STILL THOUGH! DUDE! HE LOOKS FUCKIN’ DOPE AS HELL! I COULDN’T GROW A BEARD THAT SICK IF MY FUCKIN’ LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!’

The rest of the duo’s trip to the elevator is in complete silence, as both of the dorks are wrapped up in their awe of such mightily majestic whiskers.

When they’re most of the way there, the elevator arrives a few moments ahead of them, chiming out to announce its arrival and slowly sliding its doors open, revealing… An empty elevator.

Lucas and Jonathan eventually shuffle into the elevator without putting much thought into its presence. Once inside, Lucas turns to look down the hallway, and upon seeing no signs of Mikah, he mechanically hits the button for the 8th floor.

After a short delay, the elevator doors slowly slide shut, still without any sight of Mikah all the way through. Once they’ve risen a short distance, 427 can’t take it anymore.

[...Seriously? A large beard is what it takes to make you humble?]

‘DUDE! DID YOU GET A GOOD LOOK AT THAT THING!? HOW IS THAT EVEN PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE FOR SOMEONE YOUNGER THAN ME!? IT’S NOT FAIR!’

Continuing to mentally grumble a bit longer, Lucas eventually sighs. Shortly after him, Jonathan sighs as well.

[Oh come on, both of you!?]

-----

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 17.32

Lucas's fame level: 5.0* (Already beginning to receive authentic global attention. His local levels are effectively maxed.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for many paranoid individuals, numerous people have realized he's an impulsive idiot.)

Jonathan total kills: 7

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 6.01 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan's fame level: 2.75* (What fame he does have is predominantly local.)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 3.0* (More than just overly-paranoid people are suspicious at this point.)

Willy's fame level: 1.5* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame primarily as 'Xenoclast's dog', but some strangers know him as William/Willy now.)

Supervillain social circle size: 15

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan is still completely distracted by Erik’s majestically coiffed facial hair: ‘Oh man, I gotta try growing out a beard when my facial hair starts growing in full force. No one could call me cute anymore! ...Ben always shaves every day, I’m not really sure how thick his facial hair is? Bah, only one way to find out! Ugh, rollbacks will make it take forever!’

Willy is patiently sitting in front of the elevators, waiting for one of them to arrive. The sisters have already harmoniously agreed to wait to go shoe shopping until after the rest of the outfits are complete, currently intending on heading right on up to the spa.

Lucas, subconsciously rubbing his chin a few times, and thoroughly dissatisfied with how smooth it is: ‘Fuckin’ genetics, no fair…’

427, momentarily speechless after suffering through all of Lucas’s recent thoughts: [Of all the super-powered individuals you’ve met so far, how did you manage to get the most fearsome first impression from an accountant? Sure, he’s lucky enough to have two powers, but they’re mental celerity and clarity! That’s not intimidating! Beards don’t have inherent destructive powers, what the fuck!?]

Author, struggling to maintain a firm tone: Now, now, 427, everyone knows that money makes the world go ‘round. Of course accountants are a force to be reckoned with.

Mr. Quacks, completely unimpressed by the mammalian trait of having facial hair, regardless of how distinguished it is: Quack.