"The, uh, toys and stuff."

"What about them?"

"...Why?"

"There are lots of layers to the answer," Miss Militia says. "It helps fund some stuff in lieu of using government funding is the most direct one."

"...Okay."

"There's lots of people with powers, heroes and villains," Magnet Master adds. "If people just associate 'powers' with 'destruction' then that's no good, so it helps to have more positive associations."

"Like toys. Okay, that makes sense."

Elevator continues to go up and stops at the next floor, where the doors open to reveal a smaller reception room and a corridor, only different than something Edie and Emily would be used to in decoration and perhaps the computer the person at the desk has and the television hanging in a corner.

The receptionist looks up at them and says, "Oh, hello. Director Piggot will be with you in a moment."

"What's that?" she asks Magnet Master quietly, nodding at the computer.

"That's a computer. Personal one." His helmet does not reveal the grin he's sporting in anticipation of the cultural shock.

"Oh. Neat. What can it do?"

"Lots of things, I couldn't list them all—"

"Magnet Master, do you think you could keep them company while they wait for the Director?" Miss Militia interrupts. "I need to talk to our friend here," she continues, gesturing towards the other girl, who seems to be pretty miserable.

"Ten-four." Back to the twins. "So, there are video games, of course—did you already have the internet in the eighties?"

"The what now?"

"Oh man oh man oh man I'm gonna tell you about the internet it is so awesome—" (Miss Militia and Helpful Explainer return to elevator). "So the basic concept here is that there's this virtual network that connects all computers in the world. Why is that good, do you ask? What does it do? Well, computers can do lots of things, like storing huge amounts of text and images and video and sound and playing them back to you, and manipulating them and editing them and all that. So what happens when all computers are connected? All the publicly available knowledge in the world..." His suit makes a few noises and the area around his legs rearranges itself a bit while the glove on his right hand peels itself back. He grabs a mobile phone. "Accessible in my pocket, wherever I am.—also cat pictures."

"...Ooh."

"What's the ratio of text to not-text? I can't watch television, I'm wondering how much that's liable to be an issue."

"Why can't you?"

"I mean, it's not can't cant, but it's weird in a bad way. There aren't any minds, there, so the characters are...boring at best and disturbing at worst."

"Oh. Well, we have a massive encyclopedia that has all the encyclopedias in it and summaries of every video?"

"Gosh."

"It's really cool, and you can talk to people across the globe from you, and every book is there—well, almost every book, lots of books—and it gets better and faster and cooler every year—"

"Oooh."

"Here, let me show you—"

"The Director will see you now," receptionist person says.

"—oh. Guess you should go do that."

"You can show us after," she says as she gets up to go see the Director.

Director Emily Piggot is a large, austere woman who looks very at ease in the suit she's wearing. She offers to shake their hands. "Hello, and welcome to Brockton Bay. Earth Bet, I suppose."