Intermission-The Tower

3 hours earlier

Around the time Elusia and the detective were in a high speed battle on the highway, Amity Galsun and the other disciples were headed towards the middle city with their guide.

“We are arriving at your destination.”

The driver flew the car through the city’s air-lanes at a brisk pace, swerving around traffic like a pro.

The car landed on one of the parking zones, located on the upper side of the city.

“We will walk from here.”

Their guide got off the car and directed them to follow him.

Amity and the other disciples followed him close behind.

Frank and the 2 other girls were close together as Amity trailed a little behind them.

She was hard at work trying to look out for an opportunity to get rid of them all as always.

‘Hmm…nope, they’d probably survive falling off the side. Well, I’ve been poisoning their food for a while so, maybe?’

Amity pondered this as she walked with an completely innocuous expression on her face.

“Yo, Amity, hurry up. What’s the hold up?!”

Amity replied to Frank with the same tone and face she always used to deal with him.

“Oh, nothing Frankie! Just thinking about you!”

“Oh ok then.”

How simple.

The group headed towards the entrance to the large tower ahead of them.

Amity looked up with equal parts interest and dread at the massive piece of architectural ingenuity. The sides of the building were full of holographic displays and broadcasts being streamed from the building. She also noticed the intense level of defense weaponry hidden underneath the flashy spectacle of colorful lights. This was the base of the people she despised.

The ones she promised herself she would kill.

‘That’s going to be the hardest part.’ She thought to herself. ‘I’m going to have to take notes on everything I see in there for later.’

She kept her eyes observant and carefully assessed her surroundings as she followed the others into the building.

Their guide put his hand on the sensor near the door.

“Retinal scan required”

He then put his face down, level to the sensor. A scanning beam shot out towards his eye.

“Identity confirmed. Access granted.”

‘So a hand and eye scan…’

An entrance slid open and the group walked through. They were led across a long thin walkway over a large space that went deep into the earth, to a thick tube in the center of the building. They passed the 2 guards guarding the entrance and arrived at a reception area inside.

“Welcome sir. What is your business today?”

“We have an appointment with the police chief.”

“Yes, I have you scheduled. Please head to floor 43.”

The elevator door next to the reception desk opened up and the group walked into it.

Amity took note of the 5 security guards in the room and the hidden alarm button next to the receptionist.

The elevator doors shut closed and they shot up towards the higher floors of the building.

As they were taken up, They passed by a variety of floors and rooms, visible through the clear walls of the elevator.

Amity watched as they passed by a food court, a shopping area, a beach zone, a large parking garage, business offices, various research labs, a courtyard, a racetrack, and even what seemed to be a large coliseum arena.

It was a display of extreme power and extravagant wealth.

‘I wonder what’s on the lower floors…’

Finally, a ding was played as they arrived at the 43rd floor of the gigantic tower.

The doors slid open and the group walked out into a large office room.

The room was filled with various objects of unknown origin and purpose displayed across the entire space. Things like armors and odd sculptures were displayed, as well as weird things like wrestling masks and a large stuffed werewolf in a display case. There were also things like ballon animals and a jar full of keys that caused Amity to wonder about the sanity of the kind of person worked here.

There was a person sitting at the desk at the end of the room, in front of a large clear window that made up the wall.

It was a pretty young woman who looked like she was likely in her early thirties or late twenties. She had black hair and a sharp expression on her face. She wore a red military style uniform and sat straight as an arrow as she addressed them.

“Salutations. You’re from the Temple, right.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The guide answered the chief with a respectful tone.

“Here are your orders and all the details you need. Get to it.”

She placed a file onto the desk and replied in a curt manner that made it clear she had better things to do.

“Yes ma’am. Let’s go.”

The guide took the files and the group walked towards the exit. Frank let out a sour expression, but followed him anyway.

Once they were inside the elevator Frank let out his built up annoyance.

“What the hell was that! Doesn’t she know who we are!”

“Yeah!”

“Who does that bitch think she is!”

The three of them let out their complaints while Amity decided to just listen quietly while reviewing what she learned about the tower.

“Be quiet and get over yourselves.”

Their guide revoked them.

“She is the chief of police and a member of the city council. In other words, she’s our boss. You may be a big shot inside the Temple, but out here, we’re basically just contracted workers, no different from the people who fix her toilet. She has more important things to do than cater to us.”

“Ugh…!”

Frank still seemed to have something to say, but held it in with a grimace.

“More importantly I have learned the details of our mission and where we need to go.”

The elevator continued to drop down as he explained the contents of the file he received.

============

Back in the police chief’s office, there was a large sound as she slammed her fist onto the desk.

“What the hell did you do now?!”

She was on the phone with a annoyed grimace on her face, unlike the disinterested expression and attitude she had shown towards the Temple’s agents.

“Calm the fuck down.”

“The hell I will! How do you always get yourself into these kinds of situations!”

“How the hell am I supposed to know! It just happens sometimes!”

“You’re definitely doing this on purpose! I can’t keep covering for you forever you know! People will start to think I’m showing you favoritism because we’ve known each other since we were kids!”

“Well aren’t you?”

“Well I don’t want people to know that! You know how hard I had to work to get this job?! It’ll all go down the drain if anyone found out and thinks I’m associated with you!”

She rubbed her temple in frustration.

“Yeah, yeah I know. I was there remember. Anyway from what I’ve heard from this girl, the organization that attacked us has something to do with the city council. I need some help getting some more details about them, and how much the city knows about what they’ve been up to.”

“…Fine. I’ll look into it.”

“Also, I’m gonna need some help getting them off my back once this is all over.”

“…I’ll handle it. You know that you’re not getting out of this without some kind of penalty right?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m probably going to get sacked.”

“Don’t say it so casually!”

“I wasn’t really sure I wanted to stay in this job anymore anyway. To much crap to deal with lately.”

The chief now had a solemn or maybe sad look on her face as she replied.

“…Ok I’ll see what I can do. You owe me big time for this. I expect a freaking fancy dinner sometime soon. Like super gourmet.”

“…Ugh…seriously? Funds are a bit tight right now…she ate like a freaking black hole…”

“Don’t care.”

“…fine. I’m headed towards the crime scene with the girl right now. I’ll call you later with an update on the situation.”

The call ended. The chief hung up the phone and grasped her hands on the desk with her head lowered.

“Ugh…”

Eventually she fixed her posture and opened up her terminal.

“Open all files with information on the Temple.”

A large amount of files popped up onto the screen. She thought back to her recent visitors. They were agents sent by the Temple to deal with a problematic situation. One of the other council members brought it up and handed it over to her to deal with. She was the newest counselor appointed and was mostly secluded from the older members, so had only been briefly briefed on the existence of the organizations operating in the city. 

As such, she was unclear what they were for and had no interest in learning more, so she just dealt with them by the book and left it at that.

She looked through the data while lamenting how negligent her past self had been.

You see, while she was a competent police chief, she had a major tendency to ignore or avoid problems that weren’t directly relevant to herself.

She also had the habit of not asking too many questions about things that she didn’t have any interest in.

These were, ironically, the main characteristics that caused the city council to appoint her in her current position.

As such, the only times she ever stepped outside of her usual habits was to help out her old friend, not that she would ever admit it.

“Hmm…the minister of finance, and the mayor are definitely in on this. So is the department of science…but why?”

She kept looking through the database for any relevant information.

“Ugh…this is going to be hard. Smith better not skimp on the bill…”