The Ereri Project (#2)

Laboratory (Superhero)

Getting to Washington DC was a wash of tired walking and nervous glances between the trio of fugitives. None of them had really thought about it ahead of time, but hiding in DC is going to be pretty difficult. It's a city, of course, so naturally there are a lot of people and very few places to run where no one could see them.

They are lucky, however, that it's raining so they have an excuse to wear hoods and look down. They have to stop somewhere to look for a disposable camera on the way, so they have physical evidence of what they see when they get to the base. Levi is surprised they make it to the base without much trouble. That said, the base looks less like a base and more like a building full of offices.

"It looks like a normal building," Levi says.

"The actual base is beneath this building," Eren replies. "Up here is offices and stuff for visitors to look at."

They move around to the back of the building, checking for cameras as they go. There's only one, facing the door. "Should we just break it?" Eren asks.

"No," Mikasa says. "They'll notice a camera out too soon."

Levi looks up at it. "I think I can fix it so the footage just loops for a while," he says.

"Really?" Eren asks.

"If this is the model I think it is, yeah. I just need to get up there."

Eren holds Levi and levitates the two of them over the camera and hopefully out of its sight. Levi tinkers with the camera for a moment. "That should do it," he says.

Eren sets them both back on the ground while Mikasa goes over to the lock mechanism. She types in the first number and breathes a sigh of relief when the hand reader opens and raises for her to put her hand on. She sets her hand on it and types in the second number.

There's a sparking noise, then the sound of the lock snapping open, and then the lock dies. She turns the handle and smiles when it actually opens.

"Alright guys," she says. "When we get in there we won't know what's being filmed, what's bugged, or what's safe so stick together and don't speak unless it's absolutely necessary."

Both of them nod and she holds open the door for them to walk inside. They walk over to a door that has "Basement" written on it. They take the stairs down into a normal looking basement for a building like this.

"Are we in the right place?" Eren asks.

Levi and Mikasa both "shh!" him. They wander around the room looking for a way into a lower level. Levi finds a heavy-looking file cabinet in the corner with worn scratch marks on the floor beside it.

He tries to pull it but it doesn't even budge the way it should have. He starts opening the drawers, looking for why it would be so heavy. On the underside of the top drawer, he finds a button. There is the sound of something powering up and suddenly the file cabinet is being moved out of the way and a cage-elevator comes up from the floor.

Eren's expression is surprised when he and Mikasa walk over. The three of them get in the elevator and it takes them down. When the elevator stops, they walk out into a room that just looks like a meeting room, there's a large table surrounded by dozens of chairs and a door on the far side of the room.

They go through the door and step out onto a landing with stairs going down in two directions. They decide to go left first. At the bottom of the stairs are two doors. Mikasa opens it to find a room full of computers. Levi walks in past her and sits at only of them. Levi wakes it up to find a database open on it. The three of them sit and look through it. It's organized by city and then there are two options: "Active" or "Testing".

Each person mentioned in the "Active" category has a codename of numbers and letters. Everyone with powers in the entire city is collected there, Mikasa, Eren, and Levi included.

However, under "Status" beneath each of their names it says, "Pending".

Mikasa stays to look through the database further while Eren and Levi go to check the door across the hallway.

Inside, both of them drop their jaws. Lining the walls of the room are pods full of pink liquid with people floating inside. Levi takes out the camera in shock and starts snapping photos.

And then the lights go out.