NovaLight (Helluva Boss AU)

Chapter 14: A Blank Spot There

When Loona reached the front of IMP, she parked her bike and looked up at the towering building. Memories rushed through her mind, some she tried to forget, others she cherished. Her heart pounded as she climbed off her bike, gripping the remote. She clicked the button and the doors swung open, revealing the abandoned office part of the building.

Suddenly, she heard a car pull up behind her. She turned around to see Millie, her face covered in excitement. Millie climbed out of the car and walked up to Loona, smiling.

"How did the chat with Cherri go?" Millie asked.

"We played poker. Had a nice talk," Loona said, leaving out some parts.

"What did she say?" Millie asked, her excitement palpable.

"Millie, it's real," Loona said, and Millie cheered, jumping around in excitement.

"I told you!" Millie said, and Loona couldn't help but smile. They worked together so well for some reason. They walked into the building, and Millie went over to the elevator, checking the buttons. She frowned in confusion.

"There's no basement button," she mumbled.

"I'll go up the stairs, see if I can get the power on at least. Maybe with some light, it'll help us," Loona said, and Millie nodded.

"Be careful," she said.

"What could possibly happen?" Loona said, climbing up the stairs. As she ascended the thirteen floors, she ran her fingers along the wall, reminiscing. She couldn't believe what had happened to this place. She had thought of it as a shrine, immune to decay. But years of wind, rain, and neglect had taken their toll. When she reached the thirteenth floor, she walked down a hallway and saw the familiar stained glass with three words on it: Immediate Murder Professionals.

She smiled slightly and opened the door, revealing a trashed room. The tables were broken, the fish tank shattered, the carpet torn up, and it reeked of foul water. She walked through the room, reminiscing, when she found herself at Blitz's office. She opened the door, the room empty except for a circuit breaker on the wall. She nodded and walked over to it when she heard something crunch under her foot. She looked down to see a photo on the ground.

She bent over and picked it up, seeing a picture of her with Blitz, Moxxie, and Millie, all smiling into the camera. Tears welled up in her eyes. It felt so long ago. She wished things could go back to normal, that some things had never happened.

But thanks to her greed and Cain...

She pocketed the photo, focusing on her task as she opened the breaker and flipped the switches. The lights flickered on, illuminating the place. She sighed and heard the elevator ding, knowing that Millie had hit the floor she was on. She exited the office and made her way to the elevator to see Millie waiting for her.

"Hey," Loona said.

"Were you crying?" Millie asked, and Loona scoffed, wiping her eyes.

"No! The roof was leaking," she said.

"On a sunny day?" Millie asked skeptically.

"Did you find the bottom floor?" Loona snapped, and Millie sighed, shaking her head.

"No, there's no entrance, no hatch, nothing. I looked everywhere and it seems like it was sealed off!" she said, exasperated. Loona frowned at the panel, running her hands along it until she felt something off.

There was a lip at the bottom. She frowned and knelt down, looking at it.

"Hey, Millie? You have a knife or-" she started when Millie flashed a large Bowie knife. Loona took it gingerly.

"Okay," she said, sticking the knife in the lip and prying the metal off to reveal a button labeled with two letters: TD.

"Is it..." Millie trailed off as Loona pressed it. The elevator groaned as it started to descend, deeper and deeper into the building until it hit the bottom floor with a ding. The elevator doors opened to reveal a grand site that made their jaws drop.

There were a bunch of servers lining one wall, a giant screen in the center of the room, and three computers on small tables.

"The Depths. It's here," Loona said, and Millie ran to the table, turning on the computers and blowing the dust off.

"See?! I was right! The Network could make good use of this!" she exclaimed, but Loona stopped her, frowning.

"Millie, we need to make a deal. No one can know about this, at least not until I'm done with it," Loona said, and Millie nodded, calming herself down.

"Of course," she said as the screens turned on, illuminating the dark room. Millie frowned at the setup as Loona walked up to her, looking at the screen.

"Looks like the Network took most of the hardware, but the connections are the important part," Millie mumbled as she plugged Loona's phone in, revealing the screen. Millie nodded as Loona asked her a question.

"Can we be traced from here?" Loona asked, and Millie laughed.

"This is a secure site. By design, it's untraceable and unhackable," she said, and Loona nodded, giving her a USB stick.

"I need to know where this IP address comes from," Loona said as Millie typed on the keyboard, plugging in the USB stick.

"Let me see. What's special about it?" Millie asked, and Loona shrugged.

"It's just a lead, that's all," she said. Millie frowned as she looked at the data.

"How did Cain find this? It's pretty well hidden, doesn't leave any doors open," Millie mumbled. Loona looked at her, confused.

"What?" Loona asked, but Millie was engrossed in her work. She pulled up a picture of an abandoned apartment complex.

"Looks like it's coming from the Lucifer-Quinn district," Millie said, and Loona sighed, knowing what that meant.

"Skulls territory," Loona said, disappointed. She looked at the screen until something caught her eye.

"There. Surveillance! I can use those to get a peek inside. Can you connect from here?" Loona asked, and Millie shook her head.

"No. They're completely off the grid. This is bizarre!" Millie said, and Loona nodded, thinking before she got a plan.

"If I can't connect from here, I'm gonna connect at the source," she said, walking towards the elevator.

"I'll have you up and running before you get back!" Millie yelled as Loona clicked the ground floor, the doors shutting behind her.