Super Hero Rhapsody: 1975

Rain hammers the rail yard in sheets. Sally and Devlan roll up behind a line of stacked freight cars, and the intake facility looms ahead, all floodlights, chain-link, and wet steel. A transport train idles on the tracks, its containers being fed by automated cranes.

Two gray-coated guards pace the gate, while a third watches the cranes from a guard tower. Beyond them, the Department's seal sits on a side door, bright under the rain. If Sally gets inside, she can reach the shipment trail, and maybe the vanishing scientist too.

A loader car shifts on the tracks with a metal groan, briefly masking the gate patrol. The path forward is open for a heartbeat, and every step here points straight at the Department's control chain.

Sally slips into the rain-dark seam beside the side door, and the badge reader never gets a chance to matter. The steel gives way around her like a held breath.

Inside the door skin, she finds a cramped access cavity, all wiring, damp insulation, and a maintenance latch. Her hand comes through first, then her shoulder, then the rest of her, quiet as a shadow.

With a quick pull, Sally pops the internal release. The outer door shudders, no longer locked to the reader outside.

A dull clack answers from the frame as the seal loosens. Rain ticks against the metal, and the narrow entryway now waits for whoever dares use it.

Beyond the door, the intake hall glows sterile and blue, while the train outside gives a low, impatient shudder on the tracks.