Corporative Siege and Idol's Charisma

Transport across a city with a multitude of layers and buildings that could go as high as five hundred floors could easily be an arduous task.

Elevators would take a while to move around and some buildings didn't even have ground-level entrances, so the only option was using a vehicle.

These weren't for free even if they were owned by the government though.

Automated hover cars and other types of flying transport devices made rounds through the city, changing patrons all the time while on it.

Not everyone could spend such fees all the time though, and many would have to make do with whatever services were available at ground level.

It was still much more than what the non-citizens on the below levels could manage though, but that was beyond the point.

What mattered the most was the fact that maintaining and operating any kind of transportation is seriously expensive.

Only successful business owners would, sometimes, own a fast cargo shuttle to deliveries or the like.

This was exactly the case on the El Democrat.

A cargo hover was an ill-suited vehicle to transport people though, and Lilianna now understood it way too well.

Both females had arrived at one of the biggest buildings in the city and the biggest one on the top floor.

A massive glass and stone building made in a seemingly medieval fashion even if many of its windows had holographic billboards.

It was a five hundred floors construction with most of these used to house servers and other machinery, even furthering the disconnection of the building's architecture and purpose.

Some of the windows lacked billboards or anything unusual though, but these were broken.

Most wouldn't be able to see or hear it, but something was happening inside the skyscraper, and it wasn't something peaceful.

“Always wanted to ask...” An amazed Amy looked to the headquarters of the company named after Lilianna’s surname while saying. “Why do you have a public job if you are rich already, Lily?”

This one building controlled all operations of a company from the dawn of the vertical cities.

A place that started as a weapons manufacturer but evolved to have branches in almost every aspect of the world.

VR machines to chambers to food production and distribution, this 'megacorp' did it all, and few could compete.

The only area in which they lacked power currently was in their old and shrunk military enterprises, but this one was a minor market.

Such a behemoth of a company was the General Norcraff Corporation or NorCo in short.

A massive conglomerate that not only held most of the money in the city but also competed with all government bodies for power and influence.

Each of the twelve cities had one or two of these and they were only kept at bay by “goodwill and justice” as Boss would say.

Amy usually translated these words to 'a common enemy and utter lack of countermeasures', but it wasn't the time to be thinking about it.

“I’m not… I’m not feeling well… Guh!” The reason for such said so while barely keeping herself away from the most shameful display she could give.

“Wait! Hold it, Lily, I know you can! Your subordinates are close by, you see? They may have not noticed us yet, but you better hold it.”

Amy said such while moving her friend toward the figures in front of the building and away from the leaving shuttle on its way home.

They reached the entrance of the building soon enough and the idol took her time to confirm what each figure was.

There were two human cops in their usual blue clothes, but they also had a few dozen droids clothed in the same style.

Such droids held big smart rifles in their hands though.

Be it as it was, one of the men was shouting at a screen on the building's wall while the other was working on their vehicle's console.

Before Amy could be sure of their roles though, her cop friend started to shake off in her hold.

“I… Ugh… I’m fine… Let me go.”

The green-faced officer groaned and made herself leave the arms of the worried idol, forcing herself to look presentable while advancing towards the lower-ranked officers in-site.

“What…" She called while fixing her posture. "What is happening here, you all?!”

Weirdly as it could be, the woman who was barely standing still a moment ago somewhat get herself recovered enough to cut into the situation.

Her body was covered in an overpowering aura and her words were filled with an authoritarian tone as she did so.

As was expected, both the police officer and the man on the wall's screen froze under her gaze.

“Detective, ma’am!”

“Young lady?!”

Amy found it strange that both of them had recognized Lily right away, but the detective seemed used to it, so she also ignored the subject and approached her friend just in case.

“Yes, that’s me. Now explain what is happening here and why you’re still outside when the whole quarter is hearing gunshots?!”

“Ow, so these noises are gunshots! They are somewhat different from what I remember...”

The sudden intersection drew the attention of the three people involved in the talk to the pink-colored singer, but she was done talking.

Her humming only made the situation weirder.

“Hmm… Detective, ma’am. Who’s this girl?” The man in a full antique cop suit asked.

“This girl is a friend of mine who’s…”

“I am her investigative assistant for the time being!” cut in Amy once more, drawing an annoyed expression from Lilianna.

“You’re not my…”

“And my investigative skills can be used to not tell anyone about who called us here.”

”She’s very much my assistant for the time being and that’s all you need to know.”

The expression on Lily's face made a 180 after hearing Amy’s words, confusing not only the cop but the armored security officer on the screen.

“Isn’t this girl a pub singer? I saw her once if I’m not mistaken.” The guard said from inside the building.

The man wearing what seemed to be power armor on the other side of the screen butted on the talk too, but the only real reaction he received was a glare from Lily.

“What part of 'that’s all you need to know' you didn’t get?!" She barked at him with as much intimidation as she could. "And either way, open this damn door before something happens to gramps, dammit! If you guys could manage whatever is inside there, then it wouldn’t still be happening.”

“But, young lady, they’re…”

“And I’m also one!" Lily shouted, cutting the guard's words again. "You can either open up or be arrested for interfering with an occurring crime.”

“Even if you tell me…”

Even if her words had the right tone and were doing well to force the guard to back off, most still would know that the cops couldn’t exactly do much.

A big company such as NorCo had a way around the law, so her bluff wasn't having the right effect, which meant that it was time for the pink idol to deploy Charisma.

“Hey, my faithful fan, would it not be better to go help your friends instead of losing time with us? The noises are getting louder on your side too, are they not? And we have reinforcements here, or you cannot see it? It would be terrifically easier to solve this problem if you were to open it up, would it not? And I would be very thankful for it too.”

The torrent of words leaving Amy’s mouth somehow drowned any protest the security man tried to make while his whole opinion changed.

By the time she was quiet again, and to the amazement of the grunt police officer, the guard was already conceding all her points.

He had a slightly weird expression while doing so though.

“I… I guess I don’t have much choice… Bring your toys when you are ready, cops, I’m going up first.”

“Terrific! Try holding your little room for a while longer and we shall save you soon… My faithful fan.”

Somewhat confused with the advice from the happy idol, and with the cold tint covering her last few words seemingly affecting him, the video feed went off.

Soon after, the doors leading inside the massive skyscraper opened up to the blue-eyed idol who was doing her best to avoid looking at anyone else.

“Move on, my companions! The seventieth floor and above are your targets.”

Amy’s overly dramatic words only furthered the officers’ confusion about how the situation was progressing.

Even the one farther away who was controlling the droids got weirded out, forcing the nearby detective to try to get the situation back to control.

“Move on, you two! You can trust this girl’s information, I guess, but be sure to send some surveillance before entering.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Back to their senses, both men started to move around again, with the drones and droids also starting their procedures by the orders of the two cops staying in their command vehicle.

“They should be able to deal with it, Lily, so what about we move towards the office first? I think I can find us a safe path.”

The idol presented her plan just as the police robots started their march toward the elevators.

“I know I asked it a few times, but what the hell are you actually?!” Asked once more the detective who couldn't fully grasp her friend's actions only to receive the same non-answer from always.

“Just your everyday performer, you see?”

There was a massive smile on the red-eyed girl’s face as she posed to her friend and the first elevator left the expansive and empty main lobby of NorCo’s headquarters.

“I guess I’m just an everyday baker then. Explain something for once, dammit!”

“Well, maybe some other day..." Amy shrugged off as usual "Just know that I am on your side and I will probably always be.”

An unusual type of honesty and a hint of melancholy covered the idol’s smile as she gave her less than useful explanation, but her words were still hard to ignore or even doubt for some reason.

“I see… Maybe I’ll have to bring you for questioning again later but with some drinks this time. Maybe it’ll work better.”

“Maybe it will, but I would not bet on it.”

Amy’s smile had returned to normal by now just as if her face from earlier was nothing but a fluke, and all Lilianna could do in response was sigh and return to the main subject.

“Sigh… Show the way, Amy.”

“Roger that, ma’am!” Saluted the smiling girl in agreement while her companion simply gave up on it all and walked inside the lobby instead.

Waving goodbye to the focused cops and then following Lily inside, a frilly figure entered the first open elevator with her cop friend.

Be it as it was, they both headed to the 'safe route' that had been advertised so much, even if said route wasn't there.