Episode Four: Dinner Time

 

Regan was ready for dinner when she parked her bike in the garage. It had been a long but successful day. She mentally planned out what research she was going to do while she ate and for later that evening. When she reached for the door to the base, she suddenly remembered that CORE may be in that room.

Shrugging, she put her motorcycle helmet on again and walked through the door. Oh, she thought as she realized she had forgotten that Metaclash and Emerald were coming over.

“Ah, you’re back,” Emerald said cheerfully. “Metaclash and I had just decided to make spaghetti.”

A couple metal pots were floating through the air as Metaclash used his powers to take them out of the cupboard. The pots paused midair for a moment as Metaclash smiled and waved at Ace before going back to chopping some lettuce. Regan watched as one pan landed on the stove and the other floated under the faucet and started being filled with water.

Regan turned and walked toward her room while hearing Emerald telling her not to stay in her room the whole time. She took off her helmet and jotted down some notes about her findings from the day. Deciding that she didn’t want to get all the way back into her costume, Regan slipped her mask over her head. She walked straight back out of her room and practically ran right into CORE. Without her armor on in front of the robot, she suddenly felt very vulnerable and soft.

“Ace, are we going to share our investigation with Metaclash and Emerald?” he asked quietly.

“Best not,” she said recovering from her slight lapse in confidence, “We don’t know what they’d do about it and we’ve already made so much progress.”

“Speaking of progress, my tracker is nearing completion,” CORE said.

“Good, once we get rid of Green and Blue, we can get back to work.”

“Since we have some time, I have something else to show you.”

CORE led Ace into his room. Ace looked around at all of the wires and equipment scattered around the room until CORE pulled up a video on one of the monitors.

“I was able to reconstruct the feed from one of the surveillance cameras I found near the explosion,” he said as the video began to play.

Ace watched closely, hoping to see any helpful details, but she didn’t see anything. She stood in silence as she watched the explosion erupt on the screen and the video go to fuzz. CORE watched her in anticipation, but there was no response.

“Perhaps it would help if we slowed down the video,” CORE said before playing the video slower.

Ace crossed her arms and tilted her head lower to be at a better angle with the monitor. She watched closely as the video revealed some of the buildings disappearing a split-second before the devastating explosion occurred. Ace’s eyes widened.

Before Ace could respond, Emerald sped into the room and said, “Soup’s on! Well, spaghetti, but you get the point.”

Ace walked out to the table in a daze. The walls all seemed taller and the hallway seemed longer. She looked back and forth at the walls as too many thoughts swirled around in her head. Suddenly, she was no longer hungry.

“How was your day?” Emerald asked CORE and Ace, pulling Ace out of her shock.

“Fine,” Ace said. Realizing that she couldn’t let the two heroes be suspicious, Ace knew that she had to keep up appearances and served herself some spaghetti.

CORE looked at Ace with what seemed like concern, before turning his head to face straight ahead of him. Emerald and Metaclash kept a casual conversation going at the table until the meal was finished. When everyone had finished, Emerald sped around the kitchen, cleaning all the dishes and making the kitchen spotless.

Emerald said her goodbyes and well-wishes before walking out the door.

Metaclash looked sincerely at Ace before saying, “If either of you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Be safe.”

Ace calmly closed and locked the door behind the two heroes before racing back to CORE’s room. They were going to figure this out.