Chapter Text
Motherlobes briefing room is massive. It could be better described as a theater if not for the large table at the center of the room. In front of the table is a large projection screen, one that Hollis has had to replace after the bi-monthly Psychonauts Movie Night got a little too rowdy; she still hasn’t figured out who threw a chair through the screen.
Raz and Lili take a seat at the table. Raz sat with his back straight, eyes forward, and a little notepad and pencil he keeps on him at the ready. Lili rolls her eyes at her boyfriend's absolute studiousness.
“God, you are such a dork Raz.”
“Is it dorky to take what may be life saving notes?”
“Yeah, it is.” Lili says. She looks over to Sasha and Milla struggling with the projector, snorting at the both of them.
Hollis is busy rustling through her briefcase trying to find her laser pointer. She cannot present a mission briefing powerpoint without her laser pointer. Hearing Sasha cursing under his breath takes Hollis’ attention away from her current task.
“Jesus Christ, Sasha. You’re one of the smartest agents in this organization and you can’t get that thing working?”
“The damn thing won’t turn on, Hollis! When was the last time we used a model like this anyway?”
Milla looks over Sasha’s shoulders at the projector. “Maybe we should grab another one from the storage closet?”
“There aren’t any more to grab. Otto took every other one into his lab last week; says he was using them for some sort of large psychic projection experiment.” Sasha says as he attempts to pry the projector open,
“Let me ask him to borrow one.” Milla offers, “Surely Otto doesn’t need all of them.”
“Well according to him they’re all currently fused into some sort of amalgamation of plastic and circuitry.” Hollis mutters as she returns to her search for the laser pointer. “We’re having a meeting about it next week. That old blowhard is gonna get his budget cut to damn near zero after this stunt.”
“Well that explains the melting plastic smell around the building.”
As the adults talk amongst themselves Lili walks over to the projector. She looks over and sees that it’s been unplugged by a certain rat in an aviator's coat. Harold, Lili and Raz’s pet rat, has been messing with the facility's equipment as of late. When asked by Sam Boole, the Junior Agents resident animal linguist, he claims that he’s been trying to save up on Motherlobes absurd electricity bill, unplugging unnecessary things to save on power.
“Harold! What sort of trouble are you trying to cause?”
Lili scoops the rat into her arms after plugging the projector back in. She walks back to her chair while scolding the animal, sitting next to Raz whose foot is tapping a million miles a second during this brief fiasco. He briefly scratches Harold’s head as Sasha finally manages to get the projector to turn on.
“Finally! Let’s get this briefing on the road.”
Hollis pulls up an image of the private school. The building is what one would think when someone brings up a prep school: large, elaborate, and almost a sinister air surrounds it.
“This is Saint Charles School for Excellence, a private school for upper class families. According to some preliminary research the school has housed several celebrities, tech moguls, and even the occasional reality television star.”
The next slide shows several images of the school's interior, revealing what appear to be scratches along the walls and dents in the lockers.
“Starting earlier this month students have been disappearing in the middle of the night. The markings on the walls and damage to the lockers appear after every disappearance, indicating that some type of struggle had occurred. Despite this, no student or faculty member has reported hearing any signs of said struggle. The police initially investigated, but all they could come up with was the possibility of vandalism and the missing students being the perpetrators. Apparently it’s not the first time these kids pulled pranks like these and hid from the authorities. Now, this is where we come in.”
Hollis pulls up footage from the school's security cameras. The date and time on the video indicate that this has all been recorded a few days prior. Initially the footage shows what seems to be an average night in the school's hallways, not even a rat could be seen scurrying down its pristine halls. It can almost be described as a still image until a student is suddenly seen being dragged down the halls by an invisible force. The grainy footage did not make their identity clear, but the student was grabbing onto anything they could reach in an attempt to stop themselves.
“Almost looks like a horror movie does it not? This footage is why we’ve been contacted and asked to investigate. I’ve been analyzing this tape for the past day and a half and the only evidence of the mysterious perpetrator I can find is this.”
Hollis pulls up an even granier image of what seems to be a psychic hand wrapped around the students leg, a sure sign of telekinesis being used.
“Hold on. Can you pull up the footage again?” Raz asks.
Hollis complies and goes to the previous slide. Raz takes over and slowly fast forwards the tape until he reaches about halfway through.
“There! I thought I saw something!”
Raz points to a spot above the lockers, grabbing Hollis’ laser pointer to help highlight it. What appears to be a horrific face can be seen watching the student being dragged down the hallway. A large smile can be seen despite the poor quality of the footage.
“Holy crap.” Lili mutters, “That thing looks creepy.”
Raz hands the laser pointer back to Hollis. “That has to be our perpetrator. Based on what I’ve read in
True Psychic Tales
, most psychics have to be in relatively close quarters in order to affect objects with their telekinesis.”
“Excellent observation, Razputin.” Sasha says, “It also seems to be hiding their body underneath a black cloak to better camouflage itself.”
Hollis briefly blushes out of embarrassment. She has spent almost 48 hours trying to gauge every detail from that footage and somehow missed what could very well be the kidnapper.
“Y-yes! Good work Agent Aquato! This is exactly why you have been picked to enter the school undercover along with Agent Zanotto. Excellent observation skills like yours are a great asset to have.”
“And why was I picked to go? I think Raz is more than capable of handling this.” Lili asks.
Hollis grins at Lili’s obvious attempt to avoid the mission.“Two sets of eyes are better than one, plus your herbaphony will allow you to question the school's plants during the investigation.”
Lili simply nods in agreement with Hollis’ assessment. Besides, she knows that Raz would throw a fit if she didn’t partner up with him on this. To tell the truth the young couple have been waiting to team up on an official mission, even if they’ve done so in the past at Camp Whispering Rock and inside her fathers brain; those were not actual missions, however, and were more spur of the moment rescue operations.
“Fine, I’ll do it. Can’t have Raz doing something like this alone anyways. Who’s gonna rescue him if he gets caught in a trap if I’m not there.”
“Excellent! We leave here early tomorrow morning. We’ll have your temporary identities ready by then.”
As soon as Hollis finishes Raz pulls Lili into a hug.
“We’re finally doing it Lils! An actual mission, just like Sasha and Milla do! I mean, we could end up in
True Psychic Tales
at this rate! Maybe even have our own spinoff! And-”
Lili once again places her hand over Raz’s mouth. “Calm down there, champ. Can't have you passing out from excitement before this even happens.”
Raz lets go of Lili and calms down a bit. She removes her hand and smiles at him.
“I’m excited too ya dork.” Lili grabs Raz’s hand and leads him out of the room, “Let's get something to eat, I can only imagine we’re gonna have to go to bed early tonight to be ready for tomorrow.”
As the two of them walk towards the cafeteria Lili realizes something.
“Wait a second. Raz? Have you ever been to school before?”