Magic Marvel (Stripper!AU)

Sabotage!

I owe a big thank you to Yavanna80 for helping work through my writer's block for this chapter!

It seemed like the start of any other Saturday. Lilly was sitting at her computer in her pyjamas looking at her emails while Laia was having a sleep in. All of them seemed pretty standard but there was one marked 'Urgent' that caught her eye. As soon as she opened it, she felt sick to the bottom of her stomach.

"No, no, no!" Lilly got dressed in a hurry and ran out of the apartment, slamming the door as she went. All the noise woke Laia and she went to see what the big problem was.

"Lilly?" she called. Laia searched for her roommate but couldn't find her. Noticing that Lilly left her laptop open, she went over to look to see what had upset her so much. What was left on the screen had left her totally off guard and horrified. There was a reporter delivering an article on a fire on a building that looked a lot like JARVIS. Laia quickly got dressed and went to find out the exact news.

...
After Lilly had proven she was the owner of JARVIS, she was finally allowed in. The walls were flame-licked, the floor was charcoaled and there was water damage caused by the fire-fighter's hoses. To add insult to injury, whoever lit the fire had vandalised the bathrooms. Laia arrived a few minutes later and gasped when she saw the damage. The Catalan spotted her roommate pacing and running her hands through her hair while tugging slightly. Laia went over and hugged her trembling friend.

"It's just awful Laia! Everything is destroyed!" Laia rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her. An officer approached the two.

"Excuse me; is one of you Lilly Willow?"

"Yes, I am," Lilly replied.

"We need you come with us down to the station to make a report..." Lilly nodded.

"Alright. Laia, can you bring down that threatening note? We may need it..." Laia agreed and they headed off to take care of things.

...
After Laia had dropped off the note to the police station, she began the busy task of networking the others, starting with her boyfriend Clint. He had been messaging her all morning and Laia hadn't had the chance to respond to him yet but she was about to remedy that.

"Babe! I heard about what happened! Are you okay? Is Lilly okay? What's going on?" Clint rambled when Laia called him.

"We're both okay, Clint but the club has seen better days..."

"How bad is it?"

"It's pretty bad. Apart from the damage the fire caused, there's extensive water damage from where the fire-fighters used the hose and whoever set the fire completely trashed the bathrooms... It's going to take a lot of work to repair everything," she sighed.

"What does that mean for the club?"

"It means... the staff will be out of work for a while," Laia said, pausing a moment to purse her lips in thought. Clint sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"I should get by until the club gets fixed... I picked up some new students with that last Robin Hood movie and if I print off some more flyers that'll also be good for business... Have you spoken to any of the other guys yet?"

"Not yet. You're the first person I called."

"Hmm..." Clint thought for a few moments. "I know of a couple lawyers that could help out. I'll give them a call. You contact the other guys and we'll go from there."
"Sounds like a plan..." With that, the couple hung up and started making more
connections.

...

It was late afternoon by the time Lilly returned home. While she had been talking with the police, the fire department and insurance companies, Laia had been working with Clint to find temporary jobs for the boys. The couple had met up at Laia and Lilly's apartment to discuss further. Clint was still on the phone by the time Lilly arrived.