The day after they went to the arcade, Reggie, Hyacinth, and Tegan went back to reading documents from the files Nico gave them. They agreed to spend at least an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon sifting through the records until they got through them all. Reggie didn't want to miss any possible clues and was making sure to read every document completely. Most of them weren't more than a page or two, but there were a great many of them and the contents were incredibly dry.

Nel had already gone out. He wanted to keep a closer eye on the building the lab was in to make sure it wasn't reopened. There had been no news about the incident at the Marlino Corporation for several days and they worried the investigation could have finished. Having Nel keeping tabs on the building was a good solution since he could be invisible if needed, though only for short periods of time.

A strangely science fiction type noise broke the silence. "It's a text from Gary. He says the generator is coming together quickly." Reggie was reading from his phone. Gary was surprisingly reliable when it came to progress reports. He was texting daily to keep them up to date. "He is surprisingly reliable for a mad scientist." Hyacinth and Tegan nodded in agreement. Reggie figured it would be a pain to deal with Gary based on their initial meeting, but his fear proved unnecessary.

"He is definitely crazy, but he does good work." Hyacinth was equally as surprised. She had been wary of him before but decided his quirks were probably why he was good at inventing. He was highly creative and had the know-how to put his ideas into action. Gary just doesn't make a good first impression.

The room was silent again as the three compatriots went back to digging through the files. After an hour of silence, they took a long break. After lunch they were back at the table for another hour of document research. This time everyone stayed awake, though, and they finished out the hour. They had still not found anything useful, but they knew it had to be done. They briefly discussed what they had read and shortly after, Nel returned.

"The building is still closed off. There was almost no activity in the area the entire time I observed." Hyacinth handed a cup of tea to Nel as he sat down in the living room. "Thank you, my dear. Any new information found in the files?"

"Not yet. Maybe tomorrow will be better." Reggie was sipping his own cup of tea. He didn't mind the work, and it wasn't even for very long each day. His hopes of tomorrow were dashed when they again found nothing useful. Nel returned from his post watching the building to report nothing new. It was the same the next day, and the day after that.

On the sixth day of reading files, Reggie was starting to feel it. Even though they weren't spending a lot of time on it, he still felt like it was draining him. Based on what was left, he figured they would probably finish today. There was still no useful information. There had been a surprising number of denied proposals, though. Reggie stopped counting them when he reached 500, but there were many more after that. They were mostly unique ideas, too. Not many tried a second attempt after the initial rejection. Tegan's files included purchasing orders for the various parts of the machine. None of the parts stood out, though, so it wasn't so useful in helping end the project.

The files Hyacinth was charged with reading included additional financial information. Many spreadsheets about the costs of the different aspects of the project and the lab in general. They did learn that there were quite a few people working in the lab. Reggie had approximated around 100 people were involved when they first snuck into the lab, but according to the records the lab employed 175 people. It didn't give much information about each person besides their salary, so they weren't sure what they were all doing or even their job titles. Hyacinth's files also included a bunch of rejected proposals. One of which was resubmitted 4 times with slight revisions. Reggie knew this wasn't uncommon in the corporate world. He was more surprised with the sheer volume of rejected proposals.

They finally finished going through the files that afternoon. Hyacinth and Tegan were ecstatic that they had finally finished, even though they basically learned nothing from six days of going through documents. "I am so glad that's over. Sucks that we didn't gain anything from it but whatever." Tegan was just happy to be done. "I am getting a drink. You guys want one?"

"Yeah, sure. It's not like we were working long hours but it felt like it." Hyacinth was definitely ready for a drink.

"I will take one, too." Reggie was glad to be done and felt the occasion called for a minor celebration. Though in some ways he felt it was a defeat, since the task bore no fruit. Seconds later, Nel burst through the door looking a bit on edge. "Did they open the building back up?"

"Not exactly. It doesn't appear to be open for normal operation but I did see some men going in and out with equipment. They appeared to be making changes to the inside of the building but I had no way of seeing what it might be."

"They are likely getting ready to open it up and are preparing in some way. Did they have any sort of company name on their clothing?"

"I didn't see any sort of labeling or logo." Nel paused to think and go black through what he saw in his mind. "No, I am sure of it."

"Did they have a truck or something? If they were from an outside company, they may have had a logo on it." Reggie saw contractors all the time in almost every job he ever had. Some of them wore company shirts or other gear, but they almost all had the company name on whatever vehicle they were using.

"I didn't see where they were coming from and I didn't think to check."

"That's ok. It's not that big a deal. This is good news, in a way." Reggie had a weak smile on his face. "This is better than them suddenly opening one day with no warning. We know its coming soon so we can prepare."

"That's true. Tomorrow we can do more reconnaissance." Hyacinth didn't seem worried and agreed with Reggie. Tegan nodded along as well, but was already a drink or two down so Reggie wasn't sure if she was fully aware of the situation.

"We can relax tonight and start getting ready tomorrow. No need to get worked up just yet." Reggie said this more for himself than for the team. He was trying not to dwell on it too much, even though the fate of the world could potentially be at stake. He grabbed the beer Tegan had set down in front of him and pushed it out of his mind.

***

The next day, Reggie, Hyacinth, Tegan, and Nel left the house after breakfast to go see what was happening at the Marlino Corporation building. Nel had been watching from an alleyway across from the building's entrance and is where they were all gathered. "Won't someone notice people standing here all day watching a building?" Reggie was sure that four people hanging around the alley would be suspicious.

"I cast a concealment spell at the entrance of the alley. Unless someone walks through it, we are undetectable to outsiders." Reggie was curious and stepped out past the entrance onto the main sidewalk. When he turned around, the alley appeared empty. He took a few steps forward and just as Nel had said, once he crossed the entrance he could see them all again.

"That is cool. Magic is great!" Despite living with three people capable of magic, Reggie hadn't seen them do much of it. A look of joy shone brightly on his face, like someone had just given him the perfect gift. The other three were ignoring him, though, and watching the building. Seeing that they were ignoring him, Reggie turned to face the building again.

Men in hard hats were going in and out of the building. Some occasionally had a tool belt or were carrying something, but it was hard to say what it was exactly from their position in the alley. There were some working outside the building, too. A ladder was set up right at the entrance and a workman was near the top with his hands going into the ceiling of the overhang. Some wires were hanging down close by, making Reggie think of a couple possible theories.

"Ok, just based on that guy on the ladder, I can think of two things that may be happening. First is that they are working on the electrical system in some way such as repairing, adding, or upgrading lighting. The second option is they are repairing, adding, or upgrading the security system. Based on what happened, I am leaning toward the latter option." Reggie hadn't really thought about it until now, but it made sense that the company would increase security after such an event.

"I'm with you, Sunshine. It makes sense to want to bump up security after what happened." Hyacinth and Nel nodded in agreement to Tegan's appraisal. They continued watching for another hour as the work continued across the street. Reggie's suspicions were confirmed when the guy on the ladder moved to another location by the entrance and they saw what he was carrying up the ladder. He was installing new security cameras. Reggie was more concerned about what might be happening on the inside, though. A few cameras weren't a big deal, but if they changed other parts of the security system they might not be able to go back to the lab.

"Tegan, do you think our electronic keycards will still work after this?"

"Without knowing all the changes, I can't say for sure. I would think there would be no need to change that part of the system, though. Wouldn't it be a pain to have to get everyone new cards?" Tegan made a good point. With almost 200 people working in the lab alone, it would be time consuming to have to reissue cards for everyone. Of course they wouldn't know for sure until they tried to enter.

"We will just have to hope for the best, I guess. It does seem dumb to me but the corporate world doesn't always work logically." Working in an office like Reggie did provide a variety of experiences only learned first hand. Corporations operated efficiently but not always logically. Since everything was about profits, the low level workers weren't exactly high priority for the executives. They would do some strange things just to save a buck. "Let's head back home and talk more there. Not like we can learn much else from here anyway."

"I am going to remain here for a while longer." Nel wanted to stay and continue to monitor the situation, so only Reggie, Hyacinth, and Tegan left the alley after a quick goodbye. They got home just in time for lunch. Hyacinth took a turn and made food for them then sat at the table with Reggie and Tegan.

"Ok, it looks like they are getting ready to open back up soon," Reggie said between bites. "Depending on how extensive the work is we probably only have a few days left."

"Yeah, maybe not even that long. Once the work in the entrance and lobby is done, they can open the building up and continue to work on things elsewhere in the building." Reggie agreed with Tegan's comment. The security was mostly electronics based so once the physical work was done, they could return to normal operation and still finish the rest.

"Good point, then let's operate under the assumption that tomorrow will be the last day of work before they go back to full operation." Tegan and Hyacinth nodded in agreement as they ate. "Our task now is to make sure we get Nico's shack operational as best we can. He won't be at full capacity until the generator is done, but the power bank is fully charged and he can use just the computer and router on that for a few days, at least."

"I will go check on Gary tomorrow. Maybe I can hurry him along." Hyacinth wanted to make sure Gary wasn't wasting any time. She had no reason to think he was slacking but no reason to think he was working hard, either.

"You have a strange look on your face. You aren't going to do something to Gary, are you?" Reggie was slightly concerned. Hyacinth had a sort of evil glint in her eye. He had never seen her face like that and was very glad it was not directed at him.

"No, I am just going to make sure he understands the importance of working hard." The vague answer didn't make Reggie less concerned but the world was at stake so he didn't care to continue questioning her. They needed the generator and the sooner the better.