An underground lair. Of course that's what this is. Santana isn't sure why this even exists but she knows she's in for a wild ride. Santana looks at the man who deceived her, holding up a metal door with corn stalks attached to the top of it. He gestures for Santana to advance forward with a smug grin that she really wants to knock off his face.
Tentatively, she descends the stairs before her and once she's at the bottom she walks through the narrow corridor and is overwhelmed by bright lights. As her eyes adjust, she looks around the very large area. Her eyes first land on the men holding guns, dressed in combat gear with their faces behind shields. Her eyes then shift to the random people walking past, in and out of doors that open automatically. They're dressed business casual and glance at Santana as they walk past but nothing else.
"This way." Noel brush past Santana, making a right turn and she follows behind him.
Whatever this place is, it's not somewhere she wants to get lost in. Santana follows Noel, noticing at the spacious cubicles with tables and chairs that hover in the air along the way, until she stops outside of an opaque glass door. Once he stops, a red light quickly scans his face and the door disappears. It doesn't slide, it doesn't open...it just ceases to exist.
"Have a seat Santana. Make yourself comfortable and I'll be back." He waits until Santana is fully inside the empty room before leaving.
Once he's gone, another door appears in place of the last one and Santana is once again confused. There's nothing in the room. Is she supposed to sit on the ground? Santana scoffs to herself. Of course they would already be giving her a cruel and unusual punishment. Sighing softly, Santana walks to the other side of the room, pressing her back against the wall. She begins to slide down the wall until her butt is met with a hard surface. Confused she glances down and realizes a chair just materialized as she sat down.
"What the fuck?!" She jumps out of the chair, backing away from it as if it were going to attack her.
"Relax." Santana swiftly turns on her heels to find Noel and tall woman with red hair have entered the room. The woman has thin rimmed glasses sitting near the end of her nose. As she walks her long hair gently sways over her white blouse and the loud clicking of her heels against the floor tile is rubbing Santana the wrong way. Santana guesses she's in her early forties if her laugh lines are any indicator. The woman's eyes are hardened though she has a slight smile on her face.
"This room...it does what you want. Sometimes it does things you didn't know you wanted." She says casually before she and Noel begin to sit, two separate chairs appearing under them.
"Sit, I don't want to take too much of your time." The woman smiles again but this time it only looks sinister.
The woman tosses the folder she'd been holding out in front of her and it lands on a table that wasn't just there. Santana watches them both curiously as she feels something touching the back of her legs. It's another chair. Giving in, she sits and the chair moves itself to the other side of the table.
"Okay, let's get down to business, shall we?" The woman opens the folder and holds her right hand out as if she were holding a pen and soon a pen is there.
"Santana Lopez, 18 years old. Correct?" Santana hesitantly looks at the woman and nods.
"What...what the hell is this place?" Santana asks. The woman glances at her over the rim of her glasses and smiles and to Santana's surprise, it seems genuine.
"That honestly doesn't matter very much right now. What matters is how you pulled off that job you did." Santana's body stiffens and her gaze hardens.
"I don't know what you're talking about." A boisterous laugh rings out from the woman and Noel finds himself chuckling lightly.
"Sweetheart," She begins softly, an amused smile on her lips."There's no point in lying now. We have you on camera. Whether you admit to it or not the evidence doesn't lie." Santana sighs heavily, wondering how that was even possible.
"I want a lawyer." Santana tells them and the woman continues to smile at her.
"You seem like a smart girl. Do you honestly think we'll get you a lawyer?" Santana swallows hard.
"I'll take your silence as answer enough. Now I'm going to be honest with you Santana. I don't really care that you robbed the joint. I want you to go home and spend ever dime you earned-"
"So what do you care about then?" Santana interrupts and the woman smirks.
"How you acquired the skillset needed to pull off such a job. You see, we're not an ordinary agency by any means." Santana rolls her eyes.
"Obviously." She breathes out.
"We're trained to detect certain...abnormalities that most people don't posse or have knowledge of. After accessing that scene, we noticed a power unlike one we've ever seen before so that leads me to my next question, have you always had the ability to manipulate electricity?" Santana's jaw goes slack.
She didn't mean for it to happen and she wasn't even sure how to answer the question. How the hell were they able to figure that out? Santana had already been beating herself up for having gotten caught on camera, but now they'd found out about her powers? There's no way she'll talk to them.
"Why should I answer any of your questions when you haven't answered mine?" Santana leans back in her chair and kicks her legs up on the table. The red haired woman watches her carefully before speaking.
"It's funny that you think you're in a position to negotiate but fine. What do you want to know?" The woman smirks.
"Who are you? And what the hell is this place?"
"My name is Elise and we are the P.E.S. An international agency tasked with protecting civilians from things the human mind can not logically process to maintain our society." Santana's eyebrows crease.
"Like Area 51 or something?" Elise snorts at the question but nods her head.
"Sure, if that's how you want to picture it but they're nothing in comparison to us. Amateurs." Elise glances at Noel and they share a brief laugh.
"As to this facility, it's just one of many around the world." She continues.
"What does P.E.S stand for?" Santana asks.
"Protect, Enclose, Sustain. It essentially sums up our entire job." That doesn't sound the best for Santana. Enclose. As in contain? Also as in, keeping Santana in this place for god knows how long? The realization beings to set in and the woman can see it on her face.
"Now I think it's time you answered my question." Santana's eyes dart around the room, unable to focus while she tries to figure out how to get the hell out of here.
"What was the question again?" Santana responds, inhaling deeply feeling as though she can barely breathe.
"Have you always had this power?" The woman asks again, more forceful this time.
"I'm not telling you anything." Santana knows it's a bad move but if she has any leverage at all, she needs to keep it. Elise sighs tiredly and grabs a sheet of paper from her folder.
"Brittany Susan Pierce, Lucy Quinn Fabray and Rachel Barbra Berry. Sound familiar?"
"Keep them out of this! They didn't do anything!" Santana's feet fall to the floor as she leans over the table, glaring at Elise.
"I personally have no interest in them but you'll force my hand if you don't give me what I want. Help me help you Santana. Or I can have them arrested for their involvement in your robbery. Up to you." Elise shrugs casually as Santana's blood boils.
"Look, Wendy. I don't have the beef, so I don't know what you want from me!." Elise glares at the younger woman as she continues to speak.
"I don't know what you're talking about and even if I did, why would I tell you? So you can enclose me? Go to hell." As Santana finishes, she and Elise have a stare down that neither of them seem to want to back down from.
"Why would San come here? She doesn't even like corn." Brittany's face scrunches in confusion as she spins in a circle, scanning the fields.
The girls had followed Santana's location until they ended up here. On a random road surrounded by corn. On the way, Quinn had finally calmed down but her anger only shifted to worry. They've already pieced together that the so called detective was not who he said he was and now that Santana's last location is a field, she's even more terrified. She knows she can't let her emotions get to her right now, though.
"She wasn't driving honey. We have stay focused. If this was Santana's last location, there's a good chance she's around here somewhere." Rachel rationalizes.
"Sure, unless that asshole found her phone and tossed it out the window." Quinn responds grimly.
"Let's just search. Santana might've gotten away and is trying to find her way home." Brittany nods as she begins to pull off her shirt. The other two girls look at her curiously, Rachel's eyes widening as Brittany begins to unstrap her bra.
"Brittany?! What are you doing?!" Brittany looks at her curiously as she slides her bra off and begins on her pants. Quinn rolls her eyes at Rachel's poor attempt to shield her girlfriend's body like Quinn hasn't seen it before.
"I'm going to look for San. I'll find you guys when I'm done." Brittany tells her before transforming into a hawk and taking off to find her friend.
"She could've done that all day?! Why the hell didn't she just – Ugh!" Quinn sighs heavily, rubbing her temples.
"You go left. I'll go right." She says, turning on her heels to enter the fields. Rachel nods and heads off in the other direction.
As the girls search the area, the sun begins to look as though it is beginning to set. Quinn called Santana's phone but got no answer. After 45 minutes, Quinn hears footsteps behind her and whispers of her name. Turning around she sees Rachel and a still naked Brittany running towards her.
"Wha-" Quinn is cut off by Rachel's hand. Quinn quickly pushes her aside, glaring but doesn't say anything else.
Brittany grabs Quinn's arm and pulls her along while Rachel quickly follows behind. Rachel runs into Quinn causing her to bump into Brittany, lightly pushing her forward, after Brittany abruptly stops. Brittany crouches down slightly and the other girls follow her lead then she points to a man in combat gear who seemed to appear from nowhere.
"Where did he come from?" Quinn whispers. Brittany nods her head to the left and Quinn squints to see through the corn stalks. Suddenly, the girls watch as the plants shift upwards and someone appears from a staircase.
"What the fuck?" Both girls turn towards Rachel giving her an incredulous look to which she shrugs. Their attention is drawn back to the two men in combat gear. They watch as they smoke their cigarettes then return to the staircase. Silently, the girls make their way back to Quinn's car.
"Santana's in there. No doubt about it." Quinn says once they're a safe distance away.
"We have no idea what that even is." Rachel comments as they reach the car.
"Yeah, but Sans in there so we're going in." Brittany states plainly as she begins redressing.
"Or, we can call the police and have professionals bring her out." Rachel gulps slightly at the icy stare Quinn sends her way.
"The police are useless and they just showed you that Rachel. I'm not waiting for anyone. If Santana is in there. I'm going in."
"Me too. Plus we have superpowers. We can get her faster than any cops." Rachel glances at the girls and shakes her head.
"Did you two miss the very large and most likely loaded, guns that those men had?! This is a suicide mission!"
"No one is asking you to do anything Rachel." Quinn says, her voice void of any emotion as she gets into the driver side of her car.
"San would do it for me. She'd do it for all of us. I don't care if it's dangerous. I'm getting my friend back." Rachel can see the determination in Brittany's eyes and she realizes she's right.
"We don't know what we're up against...but we're going to get her back." Rachel says with a soft smile before she and Brittany get into the car.