Chapter Thirty-Five
Everyone stared around the massive library in awe. They were surrounded by walls of books, and when the looked up they could see another level. A spiral staircase was on the opposite side of the library leading up to the second level, and opposite the room from that there was a large gap in the bookcases. A circle of couches was in the center of the room with a round table in the center of them, which Lash and Speed immediately approached to sit down. As everyone in the group slowly started to circle around the massive library, Warren hesitated at the doorway and headed towards the gap in the bookcases.
At once he was gazing through a massive glass window into a large tank of water. Kind of like one that you would see at an aquarium, but there was no coral or other sea life in it.
He slowly stepped towards it, curious as to what would live inside such a large tank. When his foot landed about a foot away from the glass, a blue figure suddenly darted from the side and reached a sudden halt directly in front of him. He gasped in surprise and stumbled backwards, his mouth hanging open in surprise at the sight of a man-no, it couldn't have been a man.
He had incredibly large black eyes, and blue skin! It looked like he had scales, and webbed hands and feet!
"You must be Warren." He blinked slowly in shock, the unfamiliar voice echoing in his mind.
"Hey, guys!" Warren whirled around and stepped away from the tank to see Mina running into the library with a few newspapers in her hands, screeching to a halt just in time to fly into the back of a section of sofa and fall over the back of it, landing on her side. Miraculously, the newspapers did not go flying all over the place. "How goes it?"
"What the hell is going on here?" Was the first thing that was said, and it was by Warren. Mina looked over at him and looked past his shoulders to see the blue-skinned fish-man floating in the tank behind him.
"Oh. I see you've met Abe." Warren gritted his teeth and glared at her, small flames slowly developing at his fingertips.
"Mina, what the hell is going on here?"
"She should be telling us!" Magenta cut in. "Carrie, why the hell do people keep calling you Mina? And what is up with this place? I mean, Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense? What is going on?" Mina winced at Magenta's yelling.
"If you will stop yelling and sit down, along with everybody else, then I will be more than happy to explain." Magenta scowled and slowly took a seat between Zack and Layla.
Once everyone was seated, as Mina had requested, Mina stood up from her seat and started pacing in front of them.
"...Carrie isn't my real name, as you might have guessed by this point," she started. "It's actually Mina. I'm an agent for the B.P.R.D. as may have explained. At least, that's my usual job. I started a couple years ago with Marissa, who you guys know as Emily. The reason we are enrolled at Sky High under false names is because of these two-" she gestured at Lash and Speed-"who we are supposed to keep an eye on. We are 'on loan' I guess you could say from the B.P.R.D. to the U.S.C.S.A."
"The who?" Zach blurted out. (Mina immediately smiled a little bit and murmured "I love that band...")
"The U.S.C.S.A." Ethan explained. "The United States Council of Superhero Affairs. They're the ones in charge of approving superheroes. They consult certain government representatives to assign cities to superheroes and they're also in charge of all of the supervillain prisons."
"He's got it." Mina confirmed. "Anyway, the U.S.C.S.A. specifically requested me and Marissa because we used to be students at Sky High, and we knew Lash and Speed personally... kinda."
"You knew them?" Will blurted out incredulously.
"You used to be students at Sky High?" Magenta quirked an eyebrow.
"What do you mean, 'kinda'?" Layla asked. Mina pursed her lips and inhaled deeply, narrowing her eyes in deep thought.
"We went there a few years ago..." she began slowly. "We were only there through a portion of our freshman year. Then, something happened and Marissa and I left. We became B.P.R.D. agents for a few years, and then we heard these two needed someone to keep an eye on them if they were to go back to school. Preferably, someone with knowledge of the kind of stuff they pull. The U.S.C.S.A. found our files and gave us a call."
"But how did you know them." Will stated, crossing his arms. Mina sighed and closed her eyes.
"It's complicated-"
"We killed her." Everyone's necks turned to look at Lash so quickly, their heads should have flown off. (At least Mina winced and gripped her neck a few seconds later, mumbling: "Ow, whiplash...")
"You did what?" Magenta yelled, jumping to her feet. "You killed her? You can't be serious!" she lowered her voice and turned to Mina slowly. "...Can they?" Mina lifted her head slowly and opened her eyes, nodding in confirmation. The library was silent.
"...How is that possible?" Layla's voice was soft, and everyone looked at Mina with expectant looks, obviously wondering the same thing. Mina sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, reaching up and massaging her temples.
"...Marissa is..." she hesitated, searching for a proper word. "...Unique. I was dead for a few minutes, and she did something to bring me back."
"How? What?" Ethan leaned forward in his seat, staring at her with large eyes. Mina shook her head.
"Unfortunately, that's one of the things that I can't tell you."
"Then what can you tell us?" Warren's voice rang out in the near silence of the library. "You've covered that your real names are Mina and Marissa, and you work for the government. Lash and Speed killed you, Marissa brought you back. What else can you tell us?" Mina pursed her lips together in deep thought for the umpteenth time.
"Do you know the saying 'things that go bump in the night'? The stories about things like the bogeyman and the chupacabra? Vampires, werewolves, and zombies?" Everyone nodded. "Well they're real. And it's our job to hunt them down and stop them from harming anyone."
I AM SO SORRY!!!!! I know I haven't updated in forever-and-a-day, but.... Well, I have just recently rediscovered my addiction to CSI: Miami. I've been watching at least two hours a day on A&E... And that, combined with my other work, well... yeah...