Contemplations and a Not-Pink Past

“What in the seven hells happened here?!” exclaimed Lilianna as she and the group entered the ruins of what once was an office.

All was fine in the room as long as the broken pieces of furniture, the holes and slashes on the walls, and the lack of a whole window panel were ignored.

This place would even be a high-class office if none of those was a thing. It would usually be a place worthy of NorCo’s president and a place where only a few select people could enter for a variety of reasons.

Now it was just a mess of wooden parts, thrown books, and remains.

“What a mess.” Commented the carefree idol looking around the chaotic room while messing around the broken-down desk at the head of the room.

“This girl...? Anyway, ignore this room, you all. We have more important matters to attend to.” The lawyer cut in before anyone could comment on the idol's remarks while also rushing the female doctor towards the other room.

Moved by Herman's hurried pace, most members of the groups entered the annex room behind the inner door, which was also destroyed.

In there, they saw the white tiled hospital-looking room with little more than a big supply rack and two big tubular devices, one of which had an occupant.

These were connected to several screens, both of them damaged, but were still very advanced medical devices.

“H-here is where the pres... I-I mean, where your grandfather lies, Ms. Norcraff.”

As it was pointed out, the occupant of the switched-on device that, although damaged, still displayed many pieces of vital data, was a very old man.

He had a thin body and with almost no hair overall, was wearing a simple blue gown and seemed to be sleeping inside the liquid that filled the tube.

This unconscious, and debatably alive, old man was NorCo’s president and owner, Otto Norcraff.

“This… Is gramps still alive?”

"A-a number of systems were damaged and w-we lost connection with the embedded VR on the medical c-chamber, but he still had s-some vitals..."

“Useless as expected of a..."

"Mr. Herman!" Barked Richard before the older lawyer could say anything more, forcing the man to clear his throat and change the subject.

"Aham! Mr. Norcraff is theoretically alive as you can see, but what matters currently is his will.”

“What gramps’ will have to do with it?!” She said bothered.

Even if she wasn't that fond of the old-fashioned and possibly even evil old man that was inside the tube, Otto was still one of Lilianna's few relatives.

"Ms. Shia here is, debatably, a professional capable of keeping our dear president alive. I am the one in care of his currently most important possession. As you can see, keeping us on this endangered hellhole isn't in the best of any of our interests, do you understand me?"

"So you fr...! I mean, so you want to flee the building right away? What if someone steals this will you want to protect it so much?"

"No one can still have a proper will like this one. What do you take me and your grandfather for even? Unless the lock connected to the president's vitals is released while you have my person and the confirmation from the current doctor at the same time, the file with the will can't be decrypted.

“I see… Why did you want to show me this room though?”

“Firstly, to assure you that your family's leader is still well, and secondly, to argue that we have no reason to keep Mr. Norcraff in this damaged room. You and your friend seem to have a way to take him to a proper facility and the two most important members of his board with you.”

“Doctor! We already had this...” Richard suddenly protested as he already knew what the doctor planned to ask, but it wasn’t enough to stop the middle-aged man.

“I’m not staying inside this room any longer with a joke of a guard that doesn't even know what's happening and a pseudo-doctor that should've been married somewhere instead of losing time here, dammit!

“This floor is much safer than trying to leave the place, and even then…”

"We’re at the freaking top of the building where an explosion happened and all you want to do is find your 'VIPs' you don’t even know if are alive. I not waiting to be killed here.”

"An explosion of that size wouldn't be enough to damage this tower's structure."

"Even if you..."

“Shut up both of you! Let me think…”

Being bothered by the lack, or the overflow, of information being given to her, Lily cut the stupid discussion short.

Her tone was pretty much the same she used with criminals, so they got quiet very fast;

“Lack of communication, spread VIPs, limited camera access, attacked laboratory, limited resources, robot assault, police droids ineffective, the lawyer wanting to flee, Richard wanting to stay, locked rooms opening, and also... Amy!”

“I did nothing!” Exclaimed the surprised idol that was just wandering around until now.

“We’ve been probably attracted inside and the emergency stairs are still open, but we still need to open the main doors somehow. Can you do it?”

“Open the doors… It can be done, but only once if I am not mistaken. There is some… Well… Some unusual mechanisms around the systems of this building and I am not sure how long it would take for a second try.”

“Not sure how you know that, but whatever… Richard! How do the people from the underground enter the building?”

Still talking as authoritatively as possible, Lily’s next target was her drink buddy, who was easily overwhelmed and started to answer too.

“There’s a big elevator on the second half of the lobby. It can move a few hundred people each time, but it got turned off since it’s connected to the main system of the tower. Most of the workers seem to be close to it right now.”

"I see... Dr. Shia."

"Y-yes?"

"What's gramps' situation?"

"S-some of the life support systems are failing, so we c-can't see if there's still brain activity, but h-he's still alive..."

“Got it. And you, dumbass!”

“I don’t think this tone…”

“Shut the hells up and answer!" Lily barked at the middle-aged man before he could end his phrase and then kept going. "Is there anything weird in gramps will to cause an attack like this one?”

Mr. Herman was now staring at the detective with a face full of displeasure and even some anger, but he lacked the courage to go against her right now.

“There's... Nothing I can disclose.”

Even under Lilianna's glare, the lawyer was still adamant about keeping the secrets even if it was obvious that he had some.

She could leave it for later though, so it was fine for now.

“We’re in no hurry then. How many VIPs do you have to get, Richard?”

“Let me see… There are two of them stuck inside. Our chief researcher on the main lab and your brother on the VR tubes.”

“Understood."

The room got silent as the last of Lilianna’s questions were answered and she started to search for a plan.

Having so many eyes on her wasn't helping though, so it had to be solved first.

"Leave me alone for a while, you all.“

Being suddenly told to leave, most members of the group couldn’t react right away and only stared back at Lily in confusion.

They were prompted by Richard to leave the room eventually, and did so, most of them at least.

“Their main goal isn’t killing gramps since he would be dead soon anyway. They’re looking for some other thing, but what it is…?”

“Why are you suddenly focused on the objective of our foes, Lily? I believe finding why or how they control most systems would be more useful.”

As if she had been forgotten inside, the pink-colored idol joined her friend's monologue, pulling a reaction that didn’t seem surprised at all.

“You’re too much of a busybody… Can I guess that having you help isn't optional as usual?"

"Friends must help each other."

"Your way of helping is really weird, but that's how you managed to avoid being arrested, so whatever..."

The backstory was irrelevant at the moment, so neither of them wanted to dwell too much on it and the talk was instead returned to its original topic.

"Finding how they took control and undoing it would take too long when we don’t have a way to communicate and properly track the enemies, don't you agree? Even if all they have are robots and we could track these somehow, it would still be too troublesome. Who knows how many civilians would die in the crossfire too, so my current idea is to smoke out their ringleader by getting what they want first…”

“Understandable… Any tips?”

“I’m sure it has something to do with the will and possibly with me and my brother, who has a chance of being heirs, even if I don’t think I should be one.”

“You guess that whoever is doing all this is looking to deal with the main heir to increase their share then?”

“Never knew idols were good with logic…”

“The more you live the more you learn, you see? I am terrific at most activities.”

“I see...” Lily dismissed Amy’s proud remarks while walking around the damaged room still in thought. “Anyway, if all went well and the guards managed to arrive in time, my dumb brother should still be alive, even if stuck. But somewhere, and somehow, I’m sure the will is being cracked open, and then, they could even blow up the whole building and be done with it.”

“What if we disconnected everything and made our foes unable to open it?”

“This place has more than three hundred floors made of servers. How exactly would we either find the right one or disconnect all of them?”

“Well... And if I told you I can collect the file?”

Amy’s words broke the flow of the conversation right away and Lily’s stare started to bore a hole in her head.

Some good seconds passed with the detective glaring down at the idol.

All in her mind were the possibilities and implications of the proposition she had received.

Even if this one proposition was something that should've been almost impossible.

“Do you have any idea what you’re saying there?”

“Very much so.”

“Answer me two things first then…”

This question worked almost as a signal for Amy and, for not so obvious reasons, the carefree posture and perfect facade of the idol changed.

It was a small change, but the perceptive eyes of the trained investigator could clearly see it.

“If doable."

“You opened the emergency doors and controlled the elevators earlier, didn’t you?”

“Just the doors. I could not take the elevators over and that was why I choose to find another path.”

“I see… How dangerous this plan of yours would be?”

“No danger at all, I only have to reach a decent enough computer for it to work and I know where to find it."

Her words had such a 'matter of fact' tone to them and the fact that her character was still broken was weird for Lilianna.

Her reaction took too long though and she was instead shocked by the second part of the idol's plan.

"Also, I would like to check the situation of the lobby and the lower floors before finding said computer though since my intuition is trying to tell me something currently...”

Amy could do wonders with the right hardware and she had shown this much to Lilianna already.

At the moment though, she was being fought off and lacked the connection to her own computer, so her first goal was reasonable.

The second one made less sense.

“Sigh… And where would you get this computer?” Lily asked with a tired expression.

“The servers can only store data well and I do not think computers used for accounting would be as useful, so the best option would be the laboratory. The main one if possible. I can reach it by myself without too much of a risk… I would also need to take the ID from Ms. Shia though.”

The logic was easy to understand, at least to Lilianna, but letting a nominal civilian like Amy shoulder the job would still be against her values.

“I think I can understand your plan, but you’re not going alone. We just need to find a way to secure this floor first and then…”

“It would be safer if you and Richard stood here, you see? This one floor can be locked and opened at will, differently from the other ones, and with our only two fighters here…”

"If this floor can be locked, then we don't need a defense force here, right?"

"You are right, but..."

“I’m not sending a civilian alone.”

“But…”

“I said I’m not, dammit! I thought you would know this much already.”

Her answers were final and left no openings for discussion, which left Amy somewhat shaken and clearly unhappy with the outcome.

She was doing her best to avoid showing it directly, but it was still there.

“Hey, Amy, have you ever received too much protection? Maybe had someone take a bullet for you without even knowing about it?" Lilianna asked with a hint of melancholy on her face. "Being targeted for no reason is as tiresome as being too protected, you know? Don’t go trying to do it to me, ok?”

A heavier air filled the small hospital-like room and, by now, Amy’s smile was actively twitching even with her best efforts to avoid it.

So she broke eye contact and turned around after noticing so.

“You... Crazy fans target my impressive self for a reason, but I cannot say that I understand you fully. I am but a small idol with a blank past at the end of the day, you see? So I will let you decide how we deal with the situation, Lily.”

Without saying much more, and pretty much have given all the tools to complete Lily’s plan, Amy left the room with a cold and twitchy expression.

And while no one could see her, the idol threw all her weight on one of the walls while trying to keep her mental exhaustion in check.