From here to Indianapolis, there are billboards in the fields near the big ole highway. And NO, they don't portray girls wearing nothing but smiles and towels; THAT would be on Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis in Del Reeves's time. Rather, they advertise fragrances...made by Dennis Feinstein, and sold by the Feinstein Foundation. Their HQ is in Indianapolis.
And this is it. It's not a very tall tower...but it's certainly a sight for sore eyes. Most would expect it to be. One day, some expect it to start competing with Dior and Chanel. (Mostly the officers, of course.)
By day, this company makes and sells fragrances. And there's a LOT of money in that...more per unit, than per sale...
By night, this company takes a new...and quite a dangerous...face. And it hides it.
In aquariums in a top-secret lab, alien symbiotes move around, from wall to wall, in the form of sentient blobs, that sometimes shapeshift. Mostly, though, they just make creepy noises that the tank walls help muffle.
These symbiotes are from the planet Klyntar. And they are very dangerous.
One's blue. She darts, back and forth, from one tank wall to the next. She's restless. She longs for a host...
Over here, in another aquarium, the blue symbiote has a twin; a sister, like her. Every now and then, they face each other, from within their tanks. They seem to long for the sisterly bond they once shared, back when these tank walls weren't a factor...
Meet Mona-Lisa Saperstein. She works here. She seems infatuated with the blue symbiotes. But like most people who know what goes on here...which isn't very many...she'd rather not become a test subject in one of the symbiotes' experiences.
Alas, the alarm on her smartphone soon goes off. She moans, and rushes to the elevator. She's dressed for a date...and has a blue leather Gucci purse to spare.
In her absence, her twin sister, Jean-Ralphio Saperstein, comes up from another elevator. She's...not as fashionably-dressed as her sister. Anyhew, she comes up here to admire the blue symbiotes. She stands before them, staring down at them...secretly going ga-ga over them...
Downstairs, Tom Haverford waits. He fidgets, and looks up into the vaults.
Nearby, there are sample fragrances on display. Tom looks at them...and smiles. Ah, if only he could get just as lucky in fragrance-invention as his idol, Dennis Feinstein, clearly has...
The elevator opens. Mona-Lisa smiles, flaps her hair, and attends to Tom. They weave arms, and begin their journey to their date.
Outside, they cross the parking lot. Alas, Tom causes an arrival to honk at him, and nearly run over them both, by jaywalking before his halting Caddy's front bumper.
From an upstairs window, Dr. Saperstein, the father of Mona-Lisa and Jean-Ralphio stares down at this, and sighs. Somehow, he always hoped that his daughters could do better than the inept Pawneean Parks employee Haverford... But then, he also realizes that as a businessman, it's expected of him to expect too much...out of a generation that was raised to take most consumer products for granted.
On the walls of his office, there are anatomy charts...of the human female reproductive system. This seems to be a dominating interest of his...as are a lot of businesses in Indianapolis, Kokomo, Eagleton, and Pawnee... And that's just the relevant part of that list.
To a shadowy room upstairs, Dr. Saperstein retires. He longs to meet with the company's CEO...
Soon, he arrives. Dennis Feinstein has grown close to Dr. Saperstein, over the years. They both seem to have a common problem: Tom Haverford. Likewise, they have a common interest: Saperstein's twin daughters.
Dr. Saperstein might or might not know it...but both of his daughters and his boss are on the Ted Party Guard, down in Pawnee.
Feinstein would rather do this on the Astral Plane, where nobody will overhear them, unless they have psionic powers... Alas, Feinstein isn't yet sure how much he trusts Dr. Saperstein.
"We're going to need human test subjects," Dennis says, "for these symbiotes."
The Doctor shrugs. "I'm not sure I can help you there. Most of my clients are women. If word got out that I was killing them by using them as test subjects in science labs, I'd probably lose all my business overnight." He blinks. "Some of the bimbos might stay with me longer...but I don't even expect THEM to stay perpetually misunderstanding of what I'd do."
Dennis sighs. "This can't go forward without test subjects. I'd sure hate to kill those symbiotes. They could be a revolutionary find...if only we could find hosts for them that they wouldn't kill..."
The night passes. From a window, Feinstein watches as the Doctor retreats to his Caddy, and leaves for the night.
From here, Feinstein gets on the phone. He sits on his desk, and waits for someone to pick up.
On his office walls, there are posters that portray Little Red Riding Hood's infamous first encounter with the Big Bad Wolf. In one of them, the part of Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed by Oliver and Melanie Bird...two friends of Professor X's mutant son Legion.
At last, someone picks up. "This is Feinstein," he says. "I need a batch of Teds transferred into Feinstein Foundation custody."
"Does it matter," Coogan asks, "who, sir?"
Feinstein thinks on that. "No. Send five...and pick them at random...or whatever works for you...whichever works best for you...and the good of the cause." With that, Feinstein hangs up, and prepares to leave for the night.
Outside, the night passes. A quiet moment is only briefly interrupted by the smashing of a window.
On the backside of Feinstein Tower, there's a smashed window. Something very big and powerful has escaped...and gone on the run.
In the parking lot, Haverford comes back, in his car. Here, he gets out, and lets Mona-Lisa out. She gets out, kisses him, thanks him, and leaves. At the top of his ego, Haverford smiles, does a little dance outside the port side of his car, gets back in, slams the door, and drives away.
With her card, Mona-Lisa is able to get back in, after-hours. Once in, she takes the elevator up to the secret lab.
Up there, some spiders writhe in fifteen aquariums. Up until recently, they were used as test subjects in the symbiote experiments.
Two of those spiders are missing. According to names taped on the sides of their respective aquariums, one's name was Parker, and the other's was Skirth...
The elevator opens. Mona-Lisa returns. She's in for a big shock.
She stops...and surveys the two aquariums that the twin sister blue symbiotes used to be in. Not only are they empty...but they look like they've been broken into...or out of...
Across the ceiling, such a symbiote crawls. She seems to have Mona-Lisa, below, in her sights. Poor Mona-Lisa won't even get the chance to react...or the space.
It's bound to happen...and it does. Mona-Lisa turns, and looks up. She sees the blue symbiote...one that she's cared for generously, on her father's behalf, for months. And now, that symbiote finally gets a chance to repay her...as her sister has already repaid Mona-Lisa's sister for the same care.
With that, the Mae symbiote pounces. Mona-Lisa can't be considered a reliable witness for everything that happens next. She only remembers not knowing that there's a broken window on the backside of Feinstein Tower...right before becoming the second human/symbiote hybrid tonight to use that window as an exit.