Ann Radcliffe

I know what you must be thinking: how did she end up here? Well, I am a sucker for field uniforms with silver lining. No, that's a joke. I was always the bugs and animals girl at school. So this is, um, kind of a career path. Cryptozoology. I guess I didn't see that coming when I signed up for R&D.

They don't really ease you into it gently, how all the urban legends...aren't. Legends. Or even that urban, I mean the stuff I saw in Iowa would- Never mind. Well, I don't have any regrets. Yet. And this work gives great miles. Even more, now we're getting flown to some new catastrophe every couple of months.

Well, you must be pretty used to it by now, though, right? Doing that... thing you do. Would you say a "flock" of superheroes? This is totally bugging me.

It's nice to be able to talk to someone about all this. Who understands. I can't call up my folks and be all "You will never believe what I performed frozen section on today!" I see these things so they'll never have to. I'm keeping them safe, safe in their reality.

Protecting the world with science! I was so into that idea as a kid. Now, well, I think it can make you a little crazy. Staring too long into the abyss, and all, down the old electron microscope. Like I was happy to be one of the "Vali Girls," we have an internal mailing list, but now they're calling us the "Frankenstein Patrol."

Things are getting kind of gross. But I have Blake as a grounding influence. Oh, he is super-grounded. And so I look at him and think: Ann, honey, just do what you're told then get your buns out of there.

I'm under a strict NDA. I can't really talk about my employer, or my job, or Blake, or all this hardware, or the helicopters, or oops. That was already too much. Can I retract? Look, it's not like you can't figure out things on your own.

Put two and two together. We're here, and I'm sure you've seen our base camp out west- Oh, shoot! Dammit. Nice one, Ann! I guess "covert operation" means "be a blabbermouth" in your world. Sorry.

Yes, we work for the Orochi Group. No, we can't talk about our reasons for being here, but... look around. Isn't it painfully obvious?

I'd love to be a part of an ancient secret society. I'm sure you guys have access to some amazing stuff, like libraries and artifacts and...and... Okay, yeah, I'm geeking out a bit.

But come on, I grew up reading about this stuff! It's like all my childhood fantasies suddenly coming true. Superheroes, secret societies, creepy crawlies, magic... If my mom only knew, she would feel so bad about trying to get me to be "normal." My mom doesn't know. Anything. At all.