Cosmic Girl gladly took the hand, and as a result enjoyed the flight. But she did manage to get her head in the game. What was about to happen required professionalism, and a fair amount of brass neck!

She landed with a swirl of her cape, and looked the building over. Not much to see. Still, they were fools if they had not spotted two people flying right up to the door!

So she strode forwards, radiating heroic poise!

As the rest of the group flew their way over, White Lynx sped off to the location, careful to make her final approach once the others arrived. Staying out of sight, she made her way to the backside of the building, keeping an eye out for any other persons.

Goodwill reached out and opened the door for Cosmic Girl, as a gentleman ought to do. He followed her inside and walked with her to meet whoever was in charge of public reception.

"Hello," he said, keeping things simple. He was currently one of the most recognizable faces in the country, if not the world, having made big news by coming back from the dead. He wasn't as recognizable as the last guy who'd done that, of course... but that guy had better family connections. Even so, anyone who'd seen a newspaper in at least the last few days knew who Goodwill was.

"Gah!" says the receptionist at the front desk. "It's you!" She's obviously addressing Goodwill, although having Cosmic Girl right there by his side (and Scraps, presumably?) only enhances the dramatic effect.

https://www.dissolute.com.au/t...ast/receptionist.jpg

The entry area of SciLabCo is clean, with off-white linoleum and various displays of scientific equipment here and there on shelves, like a little Museum Of Science Equipment.

It's all pretty mundane and not incredibly exciting.

Okay, they were probably in by now. It was time to make her move. Making her way to a back entrance, she looked it over for locks and sensors before silently infiltrating the building. Odd that there weren’t anyone outside, but perhaps that just meant they were confident in their inside security.

In any case, if felt somewhat good to sneak into someplace. Course, the goal wasn’t exactly “find and replace a member of the staff and then figure out how people lived and behaved in this environment, taking careful notes on all the amazing equipment,” but she still had reason to look over everything.

"It is," Goodwill confirmed. "This is my friend and colleague, Cosmic Girl... and this is Scraps the Dog Wonder. We were hoping you would be able to help us with a bit of information."

Scraps had enjoyed the flight over ... his tongue and ears flapping in the wind like he was hanging his head out the car window.

Now, he was fully engrossed in researching the scents and smells of this ... pristine and sanitised ... foyer.
Disappointed with the olfactorial asthetics, he proceeded to add a wee-mail to yonder plant pot for others to enjoy.

"Yes? What sort of information?"

---

When White Lynx first approaches the back of the building, there's a heavyset guy back there having a smoke break.

Approach him and try to chat?

Wait until he goes in and then try to zip in before the door closes?

Wait until after he goes in and then try to break in?

Something else?

"We're investigating someone we believe to be a customer of SciLabCo," Goodwill explained. He put one elbow on the reception counter and leaned in. "A Doctor Norwood. We were hoping to get a look at his customer records, and see what he's bought and where it was sent.

"I realize that this sort of thing is generally kept confidential, but there could be lives at stake."

Hmm. I’d be better at talking, stat-wise, but that’s not really in the spirit of sneakery. I’ll wait for him to go in and quickly zip through the door.

Cosmic Girl beamed her brightest smile, and tried to be as winning as she could. She was usually pretty good at this part of the job. A pretty face was as good as a skeleton key, if you knew how to use one! "It is an important case. I am sure someone in management would be very happy to help us. For the common good. We would not dream of asking unless it was a matter of some urgency."

The receptionist brightens when Cosmic Girl mentions management-- here, clearly, is an opportunity to kick the issue upstairs (figuratively and perhaps literally).

She gets on the phone and makes an in-building call... Soon Goodwill and Cosmic Girl lay eyes on Herb Tarlington, the general manager of SciLabCo.




"...I suppose I should need a warrant or something, but since there can be no question who you are, young man, and since Dr. Norwood owes us money, and has a disagreeable sort of character, I don't think one would say that he's exactly a customer in good standing..." Herb gets some papers, and shows that the address they have for Dr. Norwood is on Staten Island... #7 West Arden Avenue, Staten Island, New York.

Dr. Norwood used to buy all sorts of equipment for a chemical laboratory, then he started ordering some very high-end electronics and lasers and so on... Lately, though, he's been extremely reluctant to pay his bills without threats of legal action, and SciLabCo wishes he'd take his business elsewhere, although every time they're tempted to tell him so, he'll make a back payment that calms the accounting department down quite a bit (until the next time)...

---

(Roll Agile, White Lynx.)

"Thank you very much, sir." Goodwill was familiar with the area in question. It was on the west side of the island, by the heavily polluted Arthur Kill waterway that separated the island from mainland New Jersey. It was not heavily developed along there, and isolated enough for all sorts of secret shenanigans. "We'll leave your name and SciLabCo out of the official record wherever possible, so none of this should reflect back on you."

"I wonder, sir - might we request a full list of everything Doctor Norwood has ordered from you? It may be important." Cosmic Girl was appropriately polite. But she knew that there were very clever people working on behalf of truth and justice and so forth. If one of them could look at what was on that list, and work out what it might be used for, it could give them an edge. After their last encounter, she wanted to go into battle forewarned.

White Lynx rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,2.  Agile. To slip in through a door.

I guess I won’t be just swoocing right in, now will I.

"Yes, all right, here you are," says Herb, and he hands Cosmic Girl a few sheets of paper.

---

White Lynx isn't quite fast enough. (White Lynx gets 1 new xp, but does she:

A. Get caught by the smoke-break-guy, leading to embarrassment and who-knows-what-else, or

B. Just get spotted as a white streak streaking into the back of the building, leading to an alarm going off?)

While it’d be nice to avoid getting completely seen, it’s probably better than setting off alarms otherwise. Could potentially keep it contained. This way, I can at least try to avoid having this affect the front team. Option A, final answer. I hope I win the million.

White Lynx waits for the right moment... waits for it... NOW!

WHOOOSH...!

...OOP. Wrong moment. She's not gonna fit through the closing door. The jerk guy didn't move through the doorway fast enough as it was closing, and now she's got to stomp the ground and brake to a stop just in time.

The guy turns. "...Hey..." he says, taking in the sight of White Lynx in costume, "...who th' heck 're you...?"

"Thank you very much for your time and information, sir," Goodwill said, shaking the man's hand. "Now we'll just get out of your hair and be on our way."

With a nod to the receptionist, he started away towards the door.

Drat. Probably should’ve just waited and tried something else. Wiping the frustration from her face, Lynx responded to the man.

“Oh, uh, I’m a superhero investigating a villain that tried to murder some people who happened to buy some stuff from y’all. Y’know, just trying to get in through the back in order to check details before you all have a chance to destroy them. In case you were actually in cahoots. Just a precaution.”

Hopefully, he was either low enough on the totem pole to accept that or he’d give her another shot at explaining herself afterwards.

(Charming roll, please...)

Cosmic Gurl was completely taken aback by how helpful the man had been, and his willingness to hand over paperwork. As they headed out, she whispered to Goodwill, "Wasn't that too easy? Found the paperwork so quickly, were happy to talk to us about him...? Almost like they were expecting someone to show up and ask questions. This smells like old fish!"

"If so, then we should expect a trap when we get there," Goodwill replied, keeping his own voice down as well. It had seemed a bit easy, but people often had this degree of helpfulness when Goodwill showed up. It was a by-product of his reputation, which could only be growing now that he'd been resurrected. People just wanted to be part of the solution when he made an appearance. However, it wouldn't make sense to rely upon that reasoning. Sometimes people were treacherous, even if they came across as friendly. "But that's probably a good idea, any way you look at it."

White Lynx rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,1.  Charming. To convince a guy about something that is true and maaaaybe plausible.

Guess it didn’t sound that plausible.

Scraps followed along with Goodwill, happily taking in the new surrounds and all.