Rain or Shine | Soulmate AU 1.5 |

6

The flight to the building is probably a relatively short one, but I'm barely aware enough to notice. The nerves from earlier in the day followed me onto the jet so I spent most of the ride to Pennsylvania trying not to bite my nails all the way down to the cuticles. The rest of the team is pretty preoccupied themselves so thankfully nobody pays me any mind. I've fucked up enough today and I don't need them worrying about me to add to it.

It's not often that we throw caution directly into the wind when it comes to missions. A lot of the situations we are either tossed into or jump into ourselves require an insane amount of care. The facility is practically in the middle of nowhere, so it's easy to land the jet in an open field, cloaking devices engaged, and make our way to the large building. There's very little caution in the way we move towards the place, mostly because there really isn't any reason for it. No amount of stealth will keep the people inside from knowing we're here.

We don't even have to kick any doors down. There's a set of automatic sliding doors at the main entrance of the building that simply whoosh open once we get close enough as if we're entering a grocery store. It's eerily quiet inside and just about everything in sight is a sterile white. A woman in a lab coat is sitting at a front desk, typing away as if she hasn't noticed our presence yet.

I hustle up to the desk. The movement finally gets her attention, a kind smile appearing on her lips before she realizes that I'm not some doctor with an ID badge that matches the one clipped to her coat pocket.

Her hand reaches for something, presumably a panic button of some kind, but I catch her arm before she can. Frightened green eyes widen as I snatch the ID card off of her coat and pocket it before grabbing for the gun holstered on my thigh. I shoot without pause and a dart embeds itself in her upper arm. There's a brief moment of shock before she slumps over, unconscious.

"I'll admit this wasn't what I was expecting," I say to the team. "I don't want anyone using real bullets unless absolutely necessary. Too much collateral risk with kids around."

"It's a big facility, Trem," Cecelia says in reply. "Thinking we should pull a Scooby gang, maybe. We'll cover more ground that way."

"You're right," I agree. "Okay. There's not exactly a map or anything on the wall anywhere, so. We'll get in, everyone take one hallway when it splits off. Make sure to keep in touch."

I move quickly across the small white lobby to the only other door and swipe the secretary's card on the scanner. It flashes green and I pull the door open with no trouble. I turn to look at the rest of the team and they stare back, equally curious. There's usually a lot less calm of a welcome when a League team shows up where they're not welcome. It's typically met with gunfire and swearing, really. Everything almost seems too easy at this point.

There are hallways that branch off the main one right on the other side of the door. Everyone is as hesitant as they should be each time a member of the team leaves the group. The group dwindles down until it's just Lake, Rowan, and I.

Rowan kisses Lake gently on the cheek before disappearing down a brightly lit corridor. This is probably one of it not the most terrifying realities of our job. That exchange can very well be the last time they every see each other if things end up going terribly wrong. I'm not hoping it does, nobody is, but there's always the possibility living in the back of our heads.

The main hallway we initially came into bends and the pair of us are met with a fork in the path. Lake shrugs and goes left while I go right. We're all on our own, now. There's no telling if the decision to split up was the right one. It's a tactic we try not to use because League teams are stronger together than they are apart in just about every case.