Heating-up and Post-Concert Exhaustion

“These stairs are infinite...” Cried the detective while walking up. “Why is the security room so damn high? Wouldn’t it be bad for everyone here if the building fell?!”

Almost an hour of walking went by since the elevator now, which was a lot for the average miskarian citizen, even more when half of it was climbing stairs.

Amy and Lily shouldn’t be tired by now and neither would they if there were more floors to climb, but it was still a very boring, silent, and repetitive activity.

“More than that, I could still hear gunshots on at least half the floors we passed when we were at the elevators, but all is so quiet not... Are you sure we aren't just losing time here?”

Having so many floors this silent after Amy said the cops would lose was worrisome.

Lily's sense of duty was ringing to help the struggling operators even if she knew that going head-on with a pistol in hand would only bring trouble.

“Maybe we should leave on this floor… What do you think, Amy?" She finally asked even if no answer came for way too long. "Amy? Are you hearing me?!”

It was strange that her usually way too talkative companion hadn’t said anything for so long.

A little worried about that, the armed woman a couple of steps ahead stopped and turned to the absentminded idol behind her.

“Are you good there, Amy? Did something happen? Amy? Amy?! YOU DAMNED WEIRDO, ANSWER ME!!!”

The scream made the otherwise fully under control girl jump a little, almost losing her footing and barely avoiding falling over.

She got a grasp on the situation fast enough though and managed to answer, a scene that confused Lily due to how unusual it was.

“Huh?! What? S-sorry, I lost focus here for a while, Lily...”

“You...” She started, planning to ask what was happening but giving up midway, changing completely her subject instead. “You better focus here, ok? If something happens, I can’t do much if you don’t react well.”

“I apologize again…”

Suspicion and confusion grew on the mind of the better dressed, for local customs, woman as she kept looking at the self-proclaimed idol.

Amy, in turn, was scratching her head and looking apologetic while twitching her face as if in pain.

“Are you really well? I know I said leaving you alone wouldn’t be the best, but this place seems safe enough for you to hide around while I go on by myself...”

“No!” The idol shouted, surprising Lily again. “Don’t worry about me, Lily, this is… Well… I am not used to walking this much, you see? My shows work on bursts and not with continuity, so…”

“Are you serious?”

“Hehe… Sorry.”

Something wrong was happening.

Lily was sure of it but she had no way to deduce what exactly or to force her walking companion to talk about it.

For starters, Amy the flamboyant smiling thing as usual.

Even her laugh and apology seemed strained and forced by now, which was weird when coming from someone who never showed any signs of awkwardness.

"Give me a moment to take my breath and we shall continue without a problem. You do not need to worry about this idol here, you see?"

Her answers were suspicious, both of them, and the fact that the idol was in pain for some reason was weird too.

They lacked the time though and Lily didn’t know of a way to force her pink companion to talk, so all she could do was take notes and try to look for a reason later.

“I see…“

It was obvious that she wasn’t buying Amy’s explanation and the number of unanswered questions surrounding the self-proclaimed idol was piling higher than the officer could accept by now.

But that wasn’t the focus right now, and as such, Lily forced herself to ignore all the weirdness for now and keep moving.

“Two more rows, ok? Follow me a little more and you can rest. Unless you want to tell me something first, of course…”

“You got fixated on having me tell you something, eh… Maybe some other day, officer.”

“That’s your standard response, isn’t it?”

“It is, indeed, but I now believe this one day shall arrive soon.”

"And why's that?"

"Maybe because I fell for you?" The idol answered with a fully recovered smile and a tone so artificial it would never degrade in nature.

“Right… Moving on then.”

“Roger that.”

Without much more to say, the duo climbed the last few rows of stairs between them and their objective, reaching the “500th” door.

As their approached the destination, Lily fixed her gun in position and settled her free hand on the handle of the door while Amy hid in a corner.

“Anything you can tell me?” Asked the detective while holding her gun at ready.

“This floor seems to be clear of enemies, but be careful either way. My sureness has fallen recently.”

“Got it.”

Nodding to the girl behind her and holding the handles of the safe door, Lily started a silent countdown while Amy, now somewhat recovered, retreated further into the staircase to hide.

“Three, two, one…”

The handle went down and the door was opened in a fell swoop.

Following the movement of the metal plate, Lily invaded the wide decorated corridor of the 500th floor through the opening on the left wall.

Taking a moment to look around, all she could see were three different doors, one on each corner, and the multitude of decorations though.

In general, this corridor seemed like a mirror image if it was cut in a diagonal with the emergency door and a second fortified one in the middle.

“All-clear and right in front of the objective.”

“I would never mess up on something like this, you see?”

“But you messed at the server room, didn’t you? And you were hiding until I said it was clear too…”

“These are both just…”

“Hands up!”

The conversation stopped when a new person entered the corridor.

There was an armed man wearing power armor over his military garb and taking cover on the door he had used to leave the other middle room.

It didn't take much for the simpler-dressed woman and the heavier-armed man to recognize each other and lower their weapons though.

“Richard?”

“So you don’t like messing with appearances too, Ms. Norcraff?”

“Too much trouble for something I barely use.”

“It seems so, but… Why are you here? Weren’t you off-duty?” Richard asked while approaching his drinking buddy, seemingly confused by their arrival.

“Well…”

“She received a call for action, buff guy.” Answered the person that only now was leaving her safe place behind the fortified door.

She also started to mess around the corridor a moment after the greetings, so Richard had no time to react to the pink thing. “What a good corridor this one is. Seems very expensive, all of it.”

“The main security hub, my personal office, and the president’s living quarters are here, so it’s sure an expensive corridor.”

“Cool.”

For a civilian that had invaded a building under siege, Amy’s actions were confusing to the security chief answering her random questions.

Like Lily, he had learned that the idol wasn’t much of a reasonable font for answers, so he instead turned back to Lily to understand what was happening.

“Ok… Why did you bring this girl here, Lilianna? Do you have any idea of how dangerous this place is right now?”

“She’s useful when we’re on the same side, and I was blackmailed too...”

Lily was talking as if what she was saying had no importance or as if there was nothing impressive in having an idol in a police situation.

And that was without even talking about the blackmail.

It seemed that they both were deliberately trying to confuse the man who could only react as such even.

“I… I see…? I guess.”

“Focus on what’s important first. What’s happening here?”

“You shouldn’t be… No. You’re already inside anyway, so it's better if you went along…”

Lily could understand why Richard would want to avoid explaining the situation to her, but it was weird.

He should’ve known she was coming since his own subordinate opened the door, so the reluctance to talk now was unexpected.

Said reluctance only lasted for a few moments before his smart rifle was stowed and the private soldier started to return to the room from where he came from though.

“Follow me so I can explain the situation better, please. Things are a little to complex for a corridor talk...”

The expression on Richard’s face was hard to describe by now, but it was easy to notice that something was wrong with the whole situation.

More than that, the fact that Richard seemed to be the only guard left on this floor was enough to understand that something way too unusual was happening.

Since it was so, Lilianna followed him without saying much more and Amy slowly reached them too as they headed to the security room.