The library is closed for the night, but the members of the Save Greendale Committee have keys. Making his way through the maze of bookshelves in the dark, Abed thinks this is more like the classic paintball games, with students hiding out on campus through the night. Approaching the familiar window, he sees Annie already waiting, the establishing shot perfectly framed by the shelves. The orange light of the streetlamp outside catches her face, echoing the color of the paint that rained on them when they kissed here four seasons before. Annie's invoking that moment, even in indirect fashion, was a departure from Abed's calculations of the group's dynamics; ordinarily he would be concerned about the potential for disruption, but he can't deny the excitement he feels instead. An elite secret agent wouldn't be nervous about his complicated past romance with an ally.
Abed walks over to Annie and leans nonchalantly on the windowsill. "Any particular reason you wanted to rendezvous here?" he asks.
He catches Annie hesitating for just a moment before she assumes her character. "We have to know our history in this business," she half-whispers, leaning closer. "The Greendale Seven rescued the school from a paintball conspiracy once, and maybe this is our chance to do it again."
"The coast looks clear. We'd better get this mission started before the security guards show up."
They slip out of the library and stealthily approach the teacher's lounge, weapons drawn in case other players are sneaking around now that Frankie isn't at work looking for rulebreakers. Indeed, they see a freshman peering around a corner in the hallway, but he takes one look at them and backs off. Reaching the lounge, Annie switches on a flashlight and checks that they have the place to themselves. With considerable effort, they shove aside the vending machine and open the trapdoor hidden beneath it.
Scrambling down, Abed waves his flashlight around and takes in the view of the abandoned computer department, the decor unaltered since the 1970s save for the addition of an impressive array of spider webs. When the study group first explored this place, they'd been in a hurry to stop a sandwich company from taking over the school; now Abed has more time to appreciate the mystery. Annie climbs down behind Abed, brushing against him. "Doesn't look like anyone's hiding out here," she whispers in his ear.
"If they're using the old computers, they're probably based in one of the classrooms," Abed replies. "I don't think many people know about the trapdoor; they'd come in through the main door at the other end of the building." Since their previous adventure here, there've been some renovations to reconnect the computer department to the rest of the school, but there wasn't enough funding to get it ready to be open to the public. Archaeology classes had been practicing fieldwork here; could some of those students be connected to the mysterious sponsor of the paintball game?
They tiptoe quietly and slowly through the corridors, wary at each corner of enemies alerted by their lights. At one point, Abed is startled by a sudden movement that proves to be a moth in flight. It's when he takes his eyes off the insect that he glimpses a shadow disappearing into a classroom. "Did you see that?" Annie asks. Abed nods and hurries down the hall.
As they approach the door, they hear a hushed voice saying, "Post three to base, I got two intruders! Red alert!" With a gesture to Annie, Abed turns off his flashlight and steps quietly to the far side of the door. At a signal, Annie waves her light in front of the doorway. A young man jumps out of the room, holding a paintball gun and looking in Annie's direction. Abed shoots him in the arm; the gun and a walkie-talkie fall to the floor.
"Who do you work for?" Annie snarls.
"Thanks to you, I'm off duty. Not my problem if you don't understand the game," he sneers back before walking off in the direction they'd come from.
Annie grabs the walkie-talkie and does an impression of the guy's voice. "Post three to base, I take that back. No intruders here." She turns to Abed. "Think they bought it?"
"Either way, we should hurry."
The hallway ahead is quiet, but they keep their flashlights off, knowing there are guards even in the middle of the night. Around the next corner, Abed sees a faint light coming from another doorway. "Let's see who's behind all this," he tells Annie.
They tiptoe up to the door, constantly expecting guards to jump out at them. Instead, it stays quiet even as Annie tentatively peers into the room. After a moment she gestures for Abed to look. He leans forward just enough to see, pressed up against Annie, her hair brushing his face; she takes hold of his hand while they watch.
The room is a computer lab, full of bulky antiquated machines with lots of blinking lights. One seems to be in use, a few lines of text visible on the screen. On a chair in front of that computer sits Leonard, veteran of Greendale's paintball wars and a few real ones, with a paintball gun laid across his knees. No other guards can be seen.
Annie and Abed exchange a mystified glance, their faces just inches apart. Finally Annie takes a few cautious steps into the room, raising her weapon. As Abed follows, he realizes the precaution was unnecessary; Leonard makes no move to fight them. "I've been expecting you," he announces calmly.
"What is this? Did you set up the game?" Annie asks.
Leonard shakes his head slowly. "I got an anonymous message offering me some money to keep this server running. They're routing the website through it so Frankie Dart can't find the sponsors and ruin everybody's fun. I took computer classes here in the seventies, so I'm probably one of the few people at Greendale who still knows how these babies work."
"So all this-the guards, the secret lair-is just a diversion? Why do you have to be here in the middle of the night?"
"Well," Leonard smiles slightly, "it's also a good way to lead people from Frankie's committee who ask too many questions into a trap."
The sound of footsteps from the hallway becomes audible. Abed and Annie turn back to the doorway in alarm. Looking outside, they see more students, at least half a dozen, coming down the hall towards the computer lab. Paintballs fly past them and they duck back behind the door; Annie slams it shut but the lock is broken.
Abed grabs a chair and pushes it against the door while Annie confiscates Leonard's gun. "With my knowledge of old video games, I can probably figure out how to get some data from this computer," Abed says. "If you can keep them out for a minute, we might be able to find something we can use to track down the people in charge. Then we can try to escape through the vents." Annie nods and grabs hold of the doorknob just as someone outside tries to turn it. Abed takes a USB drive from his pocket and gets to work on the computer.
The interface is confusing, but after a minute Abed thinks he has the information he needs. Of course the USB drive proves useless; it can't be plugged in to this machine. "Hurry up!" Annie shouts as he finishes scribbling numbers on an index card.
"Get ready!" he tells her, pocketing the note with the key information. Time for some action scenes.
Abed has to climb onto a desk to reach the nearest vent and pull off the cover. Meanwhile Annie lets go of the doorknob and, to Abed's initial confusion, pushes the chair away. The door swings open and one of Leonard's allies falls face-first onto the floor. Impressed by Annie's quick thinking, Abed takes him out while Annie fires at the door, hitting a couple of their opponents and making the rest jump back. A few wild shots miss the two of them, but some paint splashes off the computer screen onto a displeased Leonard.
Dodging away from the door, Annie reaches the desk and Abed gives her a boost up to the vent. As their rivals charge into the room, Abed gets a foot on the slippery top of a computer and pulls himself up. Annie takes his hand to help him as paintballs smash into the wall near his feet. They land huddled together in the tiny space; Annie pulls Abed closer for a second, then they both back away as Abed thinks warily of what such a moment would ordinarily suggest about future plot points. He wonders if she's thinking the same thing.
Secure for the moment in the vent, the two of them hurry to crawl away from the pursuit. After a moment, Abed bumps into Annie's legs in the dark. "There's another grate here," she belatedly explains.
"We can get further than this before we go back in the open," Abed points out.
"But right now we have the advantage. We can catch them off guard."
Convinced, Abed waits while Annie knocks the grate to the floor and springs down from the vent. As he scrambles to follow her, he hears shouts as the hostile players return to the hallway. By the time Abed hits the floor, two of them are already out. He hits the third and the last one steps out of the room to find both Abed and Annie ready and waiting. Not that Abed needs reminding, but Annie is still pretty awesome during paintball.
Annie high-fives Abed as their opponents walk away. He's about to suggest they get some sleep and see what they can learn from the website data tomorrow when he hears Leonard's voice from the computer lab. "Activate purple contingency!"
"Couldn't you think of a cooler name?" Annie wonders.
"Um, we might have more pressing concerns," Abed warns her. A door has opened a long way down the hall. A long line of students streams out, more than the last group. In retrospect, it should have been obvious that escaping a supervillain lair would be more difficult than that.
Annie and Abed turn to flee as Leonard starts laughing.