The Marvels

Ep. 36 | First Things First

First things first: they needed evidence.

If they were going to have any shot at being taken seriously, then they needed all the Celestro-official intel they could get their hands on. Then, it would be a matter of how to release the truth. Who to send it to, the framing of the evidence, the wording of the anonymous note, all of that would depend on what they had to work with.

And what they had to work with depended on what Vidya would get done today.

It took her and David a few days to craft the plan, but even the best version had flaws, the most prominent one being the assumption that Vidya had enough confidence to pull it off. David couldn't step foot in the building, it was too risky, so it was up to her to do the actual stealing.

And how do you steal from one of the most powerful, tightly-run entities in the world?

Step one: work there. Done.

Step two: know your power. Even as the lowest-ranked Marvel, Frostbite was one of the highest-ranked employees. She had to use that to her advantage.

Step three: don't act suspicious. Considering that everyone was wrapped up in themselves and too busy assassinating people while pretending to be the good guys, it might be easier done than said. She just had to be careful.

When Vidya went to Celestro after school, she kept her head down like she usually did, but every few people or so who passed by her in the halls, she made eye contact. Most kept moving along, some smiled at her, but every single one looked nervous, even if it was the slightest aversion of the pupils. It didn't matter that she rarely said a word, or that she was younger than everyone here: she was a Marvel, and she had power.

Good.

Vidya made her way to the testing vault, the same one Emika had brought her to. Consumed by the chaos of the anniversary and the murders, Celestro was putting a hold on inviting new supers for testing and employment offers, so the vault wasn't in use and wouldn't be for a while. Her hand tightened around her pager as she approached; she'd only used it as a messenger so far, but it was also her ID and keycard.

She pressed the back of it against the scanner, holding her breath, and it worked. The vault clicked as the lock gears slid out of place, and she pushed in the door, a wave of uneasy familiarity coursing through her. It was strange to be in this room again, watching it light up soft blue the same way it had before she was ever Frostbite. The circumstances were so different now that it made her laugh, the sound echoing softly off the padded walls.

The rack was resting against the wall, holding ten little vials of steroid, exactly as she'd remembered. Vidya picked up one vial, made sure it wasn't empty, and swapped it with an identical vial filled with water, tucking the stolen steroid into her pocket. This wasn't part of their claims, but it would give them some credibility. If they said Celestro was making super-steroid and proved it, too, then everything else they said would actually be taken into consideration rather than be laughed off as fabricated conspiracy theories.

Vidya left the vault, holding back a grin. This part of the plan, at least, was flawless. On the slim chance anyone noticed something wrong with that one vial, it wouldn't be for a long time, and they would undoubtedly rather believe that the steroid didn't work than believe it had been replaced. She wasn't worried about anyone questioning why Frostbite scanned into the vault, either: if the rest of today's plan worked, then David would be able to delete her entry. As for the guard who'd stood at the entryway, he'd only seen her go into the hallway, not the vault. There was nothing for him to act on.

Her next stop was Dr. Leitner's lab. According to David, the interns had Thursdays off, and Leitner himself took a break every day from exactly five to five-ten, and he never locked the lab because it was working hours and because he would only be gone for ten minutes. Hopefully, that routine hadn't changed.