This fic is back from the dead and no longer a one-shot! Here's Valerie as a treat for y'all, and the rest of Chapeter 2 should be up berfore Valentine's day, aka the closest arbitrary deadline I could think of. Enjoy!

"Now remember, Val, you need to be on your best behaviour." Damon said, adjusting his tie "Cecil is a very...tempremental person, and he reports to John Axiom himself, whose even more tempremental. Not that you aren't a very charming person, but if I were you , I'd just hang around politely and silently. Try to say nothing at all until he leaves if you can help it."

"Sure thing Daddy. And afterwards I can borrow your credit card to go to shopping with Paulina and Starr?" Valerie said, fluttering her eyelashes.

"You got it babygirl." Her dad said, patting her head. "Now, let's get going. Jack'll be here soon."

Despite the warnings from her dad, the walk and talk was pretty standard. Borderline boring. It probably would have been boring for anyone else, but Valerie kind of enjoyed them. Despite the rewards she asked for, she like to observe the bussiness practices of the higher ups. She took careful mental notes. Afterall, this would be her someday, and she wanted to be prepared.

That being said, if your dad was willing to offer you a shopping spree as well as practical business insights and experience, why not take both?

Eventually they made it to the security camera room. It seemed like the ideal place to end the walkthrough; the varioius monitors giving a sort of feel of being able to see the whole company, everything her dad had worked on, on display on the wall.

"And there you have it." Damon concluded. "Axiom Labs is now the most secure tech facility in the US."

"I must say," Cecil actually did seem impressed with the tour "You've done quite the job here. Certianly an improvment from the smelly security dogs of the past."

"Indeed." Damon laughed amicably.

"I'm glad we had those mutts put down."

That was when Valerie noticed it. A glowing green shape flashed by on one of the moniters.

Valerie frowned. It was there and gone so quickly. Had she just imagined it?

Then it appeared on another monitor, in and out of the display again. Valerie stopped paying attention to her father's conversaiton with Cecil what's-his-name and watched the moniters.

The green shape flickered in and out of a few screens (yeah, there was no way she was imagining it), before finally stopping. Now that it wasn't moving, Valerie could get a good look at it.

She did not like what she saw.

It appeared to be a giant green dog. Valerie like dogs, but this dog was different. For one, it had to be the size of an elephant.

For another, this dog looked incredibly menacing. It's angry eyes glowed red, and it was growling, showing razor sharp teeth and letting green goo drip from it's bottom lip.

Valerie wondered why it had stopped moving when she noticed a smaller white glow in front of the dog. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a person.

This 'person' looked quite weird, though. They had snow white hair and were wearing a black body suit. And there was also the fact that they were glowing and floating slightly above the ground.

Valerie felt her heart rate speed up.

Who were these freaks? Why were they glowing? Why was there a glowing person and a terrifying dog in the basement? What did they want? How did they get inside 'the most secure facility in America'?

What were they going to do?

"Daddy?" Valerie finally piped up. Cecil looked annoyed that she'd interupted his conversation, but her dad seemed to clock the fear in her voice "What's-"

Before Valerie could get the question out, alarms were suddenly blaring and red light flooded her vision.

"Gray?" Cecil snapped "What's going on?"

"There's been a security breach!" Damon's voice was level, but there was a hint of panic in it. "A big one!"

Valerie looked back at the monitors. The dog and kid were nowhere to be seen.

"Obviously! What caused the breach?"

"Does anyone else hear that?" the security guard sitting at the monitors asked. Between the alarms and Cecil and her dad's conversation (which sounded more like an argument with Damon on the defensive), only Valerie heard him.

"We can all hear the alarms, thanks!" she answered.

"No, not that! Something else!"

"What?"

"I don't know, it sounds...like an animal? I think I can hear something barking!" his eyes scanned the monitors as he spoke.

Valerie looked up to the area she'd seen the dog and gasped. On the screen she'd last seen the dog on, machines were denting and sparking as if something was hitting them, but nothing was. It was as if an invisible giant was wildly flailing around the room with a club.

"What's going on there?" she asked the monitor person, pointing at the screen. His gaze followed her finger and his eyes widened.

"I have no idea!"

At this point Jack and Damon noticed their conversation and came over to investigate. They all stared at the monitors in horrified confusion.

They watched the destruction for a few more seconds before the display suddenly turned to static then went black. Before anyone could speak, a similar thing started happening on another screen. The machines seemed to destroy themselves for a bit, metal denting and sparks shooting everywhere, and then that monitor went black as well.

One by one, each monitor was going out.

Valerie noticed something strange. The destruction seemed to mostly be happening to the new security implements. Keypads on the wall showered sparks, and industrial doorframes where the new sliding doors had been installed twisted and dented in an almost sickening way. Actual projects were barely touched. Some people were running around, but they seemed unharmed.

The alarms suddenly stopped blaring, seeming to confirm her theory. It was a mercy on the ears, but it filled Valerie with dread, like the world going quiet when you fell beneath the ocean and were begining to drown.

The monitors continued to turn black.

"Clyde," Damon said. "Do you have any idea what's going on down there?"

The monitor person shook his head.

"It's like your security system just decided to...destroy itself."

"Never, in all my years, have I ever seen something like-"

Damon was interupted when a glowing teenager phased through the monitor and floated above them. He was the same person Valerie had seen with the dog.

"You have to get out of here!" he cried "It's coming this way!"

"What is?" Valerie asked. "And what are you?"

Valerie thought she saw mist come out of his mouth. It wasn't cold in here though?

"No time to explain!" he said, flying towards them.

Before she could react, Valerie was suddenly flying through the air. A cold feeling washed over her and her body suddenly felt lighter. She realized that the kid had grabbed her and her dad and was flying them through the walls of the building!

They were outside in a few seconds. The kid set her down and and Valerie felt her weight return. It was almost dizzying. He flew back into Axiom Labs through the walls and soon reemerged with the Clyde and Cecil, depositing them by Valerie before flying straight back into the building.

No one said anything for the next minute. Valerie struggled to process what had just happened. Suddenly, there was a burst of green energy and a chunk of the wall was missing when it dissipated. Valerie breifly saw their rescuer, but he quickly dived back out of sight.

They all watched as the kid flew in and out of the walls with the rest of the Axiom employees one or two at a time. Once Damon managed to come to his senses, he pulled up a digital registry to make sure all the employees were accounted for and told Valerie to call 911.

It was the most surreal phone call of her life. As Valerie dialed those three numbers, she suddenly realized that they didn't feel real, like 911 was a common trope used in stories that didn't happen to real people.

But this was real and it was happening to her, right now.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed, and leave a review to tell me what you liked and what I can improve on :)

Cheers!

Hey, psst,

Come Bug me at my new writing Tumblr. I take questions and stuff:

sunnys567?_branch_match_id=1150580274025225078&utm_medium=Share&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXTyzRKynNTcop0kvOz9UvLs3Lqyw2NTPXTy8qKzQ3Li0srcotBQC