Super Hero Rhapsody: 1975

Sally pushes past the lobby desk. The wet front windows flash with streetlight, and the Department office opens ahead like a sealed throat of steel and paper.

The Rose strides in at Sally’s shoulder, thorn light coiling faintly around her gloves. Devlan follows half a step behind, pistol low, eyes locked on the corridor as a monitor above the doorway starts to blink red.

A thin whine rises from the walls. Somewhere deeper in the building, a lock disengages, then another. A gray-haired clerk in a dark office suit appears at the far end of the hall, freezing when he sees Sally.

The Federal Agent looks from Sally to the clerk, jaw tight, caught between orders and panic. Ahead, the records corridor waits, lit by a pulsing red strip that points straight to the truth.

Sally darts past the clerk in a blur, the red strip ahead pulling her down the records corridor. Behind her, the clerk recoils and stumbles into the wall, and the warning lights above the hallway flare brighter.

A sharp crack snaps through the hall as the first security panel wakes up. The Federal Agent lunges after Sally, but the corridor door grinds shut between them with a heavy metallic slam.

She breaks into the records floor threshold, skidding onto a darker landing lined with locked gray doors and humming monitors. Her shoulder clips the frame, and the impact tears a thin line of skin, warm blood smearing her sleeve.

The red indicator above the records entrance keeps blinking, now joined by a second light deeper inside the archive wing. Somewhere ahead, a security shutter starts to descend, and the clerk's voice fades behind the closing door.