"C'mooon!!!" Storm shouted, hands flailing above her head as she tried snatching the document in Howl's hands. The scientists had, begrudgingly, allowed her to be in their little research office for the bunker- and were quickly regretting this decision- "I just wanna see!" Howl sighed. "Sorry kid, but this needs to be stored away safely." Howl had just returned from a trip to the bunker, and was determined not to let the new notes fall into the wrong hands. Storm on the other hand, was determined. Her eyes gleamed with barely-contained excitement, and her tail twitched as she jumped up, trying to snatch the paper out of the much taller Howl's hands. "Storm, settle down," she said, sighing deeply. "This isn’t a game. These are important notes that need to be stored away safely." Storm huffed, crossing her arms defiantly. "I just wanna see! I’ve been waiting _forever_ to get in on this, and now you won’t even let me take a peek?" Storm’s curiosity was like a wildfire- impossible to contain and often destructive to their careful processes. "These notes need to be properly archived," Howl explained, her tone firm. "It’s not just about seeing them, Storm. You have

to understand what they mean. And right now, they’re incomplete and probably too complicated for you anyways." she sighed deeply "I know it's not fun, the boring paperwork is what keeps this operation going." Storm groaned loudly, rolling her eyes. "Incomplete? You’ve got pages and pages of stuff written down already! What’s left to figure out?" "Plenty," Howl replied, tucking the document under her arm and walking toward the storage cabinet. "I've been looking at the mechanism in that bunker, and it's far more complex than we first thought. If I want to figure this out I can’t afford any distractions." Storm’s face fell slightly as she watched Howl lock the notes away. For a moment, she stood still, her energy subdued. "I just thought I could help," she muttered, her voice softer now, filled with dissapointment. Howl paused, her hand resting on the cabinet door. She turned to look at her, her expression softening. "I know you want to help, Storm," he said, walking back toward her. "And you will. But we need to go about this the right way." Storm looked up, her eyes searching his face for any sign that she was just saying that to make

her feel better. "Really?" "Really," Howl said, crouching slightly to meet her at eye level. "But rushing in without knowing all the details won’t solve anything. You’ve got to be patient look at the big picture." Storm frowned, clearly wrestling with the idea of this "patience", a concept that many had tried to teach her before. "Fine," she finally said, her voice reluctant. "But when you’re ready, I’m gonna be the first to open this thing!" Howl smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder, gently leading the whelp around a set of tables and out the door. "Deal. But first, let’s make sure we understand what we’re working with. You’ll have plenty of time to dive into it and rummage around once we’ve got everything sorted." Howl hoped that the whelp would forget that promise soon enough- by the looks of it, whatever was locked into that bunker was likely locked away for a reason. And with the amount of security around the place, Howl was getting less and less keen on figuring out what that reason was. Storm’s mischievous grin returned. "You better not forget that promise." Howl shook her head, showing Storm a tight smile. "Of course not!

You have my word. When we figure out how to get in the bunkers, you'll be the very first to know." y'know, right after the research team, and the colony leaders, and then maybe some bulkier Xunari who could fight off any potential dangers lurking inside and *then*, maybe, Storm would be told as the first of the whelps not directly involved with the research. As Howl headed back to finish his her archiving, Storm lingered by the door, her mind already buzzing. She wasn’t giving up, not now at least. Patience might not be her strong suit, if it was even one of her suits at all, but if it meant finally unlocking the bunker’s secrets, she was willing to try. For now.