Moving Cameras and Catfights

A few extra minutes and the cargo train reached its target, an area of the lower floors that was basically a huge platform used to avoid the soil below.

This place was the most unstable and dangerous area of the whole region on which Miskaria was built, so Building on top of it was very much off-limits. Before the area was sealed, it was commonplace to the ground to give up and nothing ever survived there. Which was why they now only pretended there was nothing there. Toxic waste, radiation, explosives, and massive landslides were all reported when someone tried to mine here. It was simply too dangerous to be worth it.

Also, it was just a two thousand square kilometers area, so nothing that the megacity couldn’t ignore. Even if it was at the base of the tower didn't matter much considering how big the whole base was. A twentieth of the overall area wouldn’t put the city in danger and it wasn’t as they couldn't mine deeper around this one area. And it wasn’t as if everyone had ever detected something valuable in the area, at least until now.

Currently, after a landslide and a hole in the platform caused by disrepair, mining sensors finally found something. There wasn't a theory as to why nothing was detected before, but a forward team was sent to explore, which was when they found the ruin.

Later, this place became a special sealed-off area due to the ongoing fight for the rights and use of the ruins. And so, after using a lot of political clout and favors, Henrique managed to be the first to enter this place.

The amount of equipment his expedition was unloading in the area made them look more like a mining team than explorers though.

“This isn’t a stream, dammit! With this much, we could be shooting a movie even.” Lily kept making noise as more and more pieces of equipment were set around the blocked entrance to the ruins. “And is that an archeological kit?! Are we looking for fossils now?”

Two high-definition cameras, broadcast equipment, a couple of drones with cameras, a light and reflector set, and a whole collection of practical effects generators all installed across the four droids. None of these looked to be fitted to this kind of equipment though and seemed to be more of a makeshift measure than anything.

The twins were even bolting some of the equipment pieces on the spot right now. Including having a droid outfitted with brushes, pickaxes, and a few other debatably-useful tools.

There was also a box of bricks Lily was sure to be plastic explosives, but she didn't want to think about them.

“It would be fun, you know? Imagine finding some dragon bones in good condition… Maybe I could even name it.”

“Yes, yes, dragons, we’ll surely find them…” The purple-styled woman dismissed the words of her partner as if it was her usual weirdness. Even for Lily, reacting to all glimpses of craziness from her friend was too much.

Amy would be actually looking for what most wouldn't even consider real though.

She was sure this expedition was going to be fun though. And there were very few things that sold better than explosions and excitement, so the views would skyrocket.

“The cameras are ready, professor!” Kuro shouted to the burly man poking around the isolated area while also storing her tools away. “I’d like to reinforce it a bit better, but this much should work well enough.”

“All effects are ready too. Give me a call and I’ll drop anything you need.” Shiro also finished her refit of the droids and the programming of the systems.

Both the hard and software on both sides were very improvised in Amy’s eyes, but not because they worked extremely well. She was more impressed with how fast the two students had managed to finish the job. It was akin to the timeframe she would take herself to do this kind of thing.

“Good work, ladies. The entrance seems to be in the same state as last time too, so I think we’re safe to proceed.” Henrique called out with an eye locked on the lawyer waiting by the side. “How do our guests want to start it?”

The focus went to the two idols as the professor asked that, and for a moment, and then Lily redirected the gazes all to her partner. She was the one that worked this side of their job. And as expected, the pink girl only stopped to think for a moment before answering.

“Let us start by setting the mood, you know? Presenting everyone and giving a better idea of what we will be doing will likely be the most effective.”

“Fair enough. Just give us our cue and we’ll manage.” The professor nodded and went closer to his pupils. “Whatever you need on the recording, tell Kuro and Shiro and they’ll manage it.”

“Short to long, bird eye, angle, zoom, tracking, pov, whatever shot you want, I can give you.”

“And I have fireworks and holograms. Much cooler than cameras.”

“C’mon, Shiro!”

“I only say the truth.”

“To be honest…” Amy cut into the twin’s growing squabble. “Could both of you give me full control of the systems? I would prefer to have you both do something more interesting than technical support, you know?

Both sisters shared a look and then stared at their teacher, who was watching the situation unfold with a smile, before turning back to Amy.

“Take it and ask away.” They answered with their differences in tone and excitement, but both Kuro and Shiro felt as if they were interested in the proposal. The chance of playing around with the two colorful idols was much more interesting than being stuck with some machines.

They were humanities students and not technicians in the end.

Amy nodded to them as she took over the machinery and started to move closer to the ruin's entrance. Calling Lily to follow her as she did so.

“You both enter when I give the signal, and you go after them, understood?” She pointed to the black and white woman and then to their teacher, turning to the remaining member of the group right after. “Do you want to participate too, Ben? You can go after the professor and explain your role here if you want to.”

Her proposal somehow caught everyone but her partner unguarded. Even Amy herself knew that putting some gloomy lawyer on screen wouldn’t draw any good attention. Henrique was already enough of a dangerous bet considering the preferences of an audience that liked to see a cute quirky girl.

To say the least, it was unlikely that those who watched Amy had any interest in buff daddies or gloomy middle-aged men.

The pink idol didn’t care about it though, even if she wasn’t interested in them herself.

She only acted on instinct and with her two badly defined objectives, and she was feeling this would do good. Either that or being this low underground was messing with her connection.

But how Benjamin himself was only staring back at Amy in confusion didn’t seem to show he would accept the offer.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea, girl, I’m not…”

“I did not ask if it was a good idea, I asked if you wanted to appear on the screen.” The smiling girl gave an answer that didn’t fit with her expression or tone at all, which only shocked everyone further. “I am not forcing you if you do not want to, but I bet it would be interesting. And what is interesting is much more important than what would work, you know?”

“You better don’t fight her,” Lily added to her duo’s aggressive wordings. “Amy’s a person you can’t change no matter what, so fighting against her ideas is a loss of time.”

“Hearing you say it like this is very unfunny, but you are right… Either way, that is the idea, accept it or not for I want to start my play.”

“Oh? Is that so? Then I guess I’ll share a few words with you… But don’t expect much.”

“Glad for your understanding. Now…” Amy turned to the droids and started to move them around to the positions she wanted to. “Are you ready, Lily?”

“I still don’t know what I should be ready for…”

“Simple! Follow my lead and you will be fine. It is just the usual, you know?” She answered with her face very close to Lily and while poking her own cheeks on an interesting pattern. “Pay attention and we shall shine like we always do.”

Lily then smiled as she decrypted the message in her head. Hers was still very far from the pure shine of her pink counterpart, but it was much better than a couple of weeks ago. If she went by Amy’s words though, then she would soon have the perfect cool beauty.

It was also fun for her to watch the other people around them watching in a mix of expectation and confusion in reaction to their antics.

“Well then… The usual then?”

“But of course!”

“Start it.”

Amy closed her eyes and took a glance over the situation on her stream page, having the drones set flight and connecting the cameras as she did so.

On the web, people were already joining even if they were slightly early still. A few hundred of the die-hard pink bands and a couple of sane people chilling around for some reason.

Amy loved this sight. She loved seeing the insane peers she managed to create just by recreating a dead sub-culture.

It would be better if the whole thing wasn’t somewhat of a cheap knock-off, but there was only so much a single girl could do. The pink idol wasn’t exactly a specialist at it too, even when her head was in top shape, so half was based on guesses too.

And this much was enough dilly-dallying for her, it was time to start the show.

“Hello, my faithful ones! Surprised I came early or am I this easy to read?”

“If you were ever easy to read, then I’d love some training on that. But hello either way.”

“Still no callsign to the viewers, Lily? You know people like catchphrases…”

“Not my problem. Seeing me is as much service they’ll ever get here.”

“I guess that IS your style in the end… And we have to hit that masochist part of the audience, so it should be fine.” Amy smiled at the cameras after her small banter but changed expressions as she noticed the comments. “Oh? Do you want to see me being cold too? I am not fond of such, but well… I shall make an event later. Yes, you will have to wait. I have a job to do right now, you know?”

“A job that you’re keeping on hold to chat for no reason… You even invited some very nervous-looking people to join and then made them wait.”

“Aw. Sorry, sorry… Okay then! Stop the weird talk and let me present the guests of today.” The stream’s head shifted gears and then turned one of the cameras to the twin duo, changing the broadcast origin after calling them. “Girls, present yourselves now.”

The girls in fedoras froze at the cameras for a moment, looking unsure of how they should act after seeing the two ‘professionals’ playing around. Amy’s expecting eyes and Lily’s watchful gaze somehow helped them move on though, even if only by pressure.

“The name is Shiro. Humanities student with history and languages specialization… And number one Lily fan.”

“Hey!” The other sister sprung into action too, complaining about her sister’s words. “We already had this discussion. The real number one fan here is called Kuro and it’s me!”

“No, no. You can be number two or number one and a half, at most, since you’ll be the mistress and all.”

“Oh?! That’s some heavy words, punk! Do you want to solve it right here right now then?”

“Are you calling for a fight?” The white-haired one asked while pulling a brown-colored whip that Amy could notice was actually made of metal. And almost at the same time, the black-haired sister also moved towards the insides of her jacket, drawing an old-looking revolver that was, again, actually something else.

“I’ll have a go if you want to.”

Both girls then started to gauge each other, both obviously without any capability of using their weapons of choice. Until, after some switching and moving around, they jumped at each other in a crude catfight.

Amy was sure they were only panicking due to the pressure, but that was surely more than she asked. It was way too good of an outcome.

“What in the hells are those two doing?” Lily asked her pink friend with a worried expression. “Should we stop them or something?”

“Hmmm… I am unsure. What do you little ones think? I know they started a little war on the comments and both of them are after my Lily, but it would be bad if they got hurt.”

“Why’re you jumping on their weirdness too…”

“Because it is funnier. And I shall fight anyone targeting you if they are unworthy!”

“Yes, yes, move on already.”

“Okie! Your turn now, professor.”

As the weird fight was going on, Amy cut on the camera aimed at it, against many members of the audience's wishes, and aimed it at Henrique. How he was porting himself seemed a little overly formal but to each their own.

“Greetings, people from the internet. My name is Henrique di Vellaron, and I’m a professor at Infina's University. My specialties are pre-unification history, sociology, classical arts, and philosophy, but I also had twelve other doctorate degrees and two PhDs.”

“Wow, that is very overkill, is it not?” Amy uttered in surprise while Lily only stood there with her mouth open. “I knew you were a big shot, Henri, but I am impressed nonetheless.”

“I’m only very fond of my craft… Which is why I can’t let some greedy company play with unaltered historical relics like this.”

“And that is why you called my perfect self and my beautiful partner to explore these ruins, am I right?”

“Very much so.”

“Good, good. And you, last member of the group, have anything to add? And no, I will not tell Henri to walk around without a shirt. My expectations about you seemed to be wrong…”

The focus changed again as Amy talked with her viewers, jumping to the lawyer waiting by the fringes of their operation. And with the sudden change in focus, the man in a suit only stared at it with a snarking smirk.

“If you want a presentation, then you can call me the ‘greedy corporation’s representative’. Not much in special to say other than ‘I’m only here for my bonus’, so that’s all from my side.”

He then dismissed the camera with a hand wave and Amy complied by sending it away, all the while with Lily staring in a pensive mood. It was enough for a first stage either way, so the pink girl decided it was time to move on.

“Well then, now the whole team is presented, so I shall brief the operation. Do not forget to make yourself heard if you find our little tour through an old ruin fun, you know? It may even become something everyone can have fun with if you do. And with enough support, I would not be against doing something special…”

“That’s bribery,” Lily commented from the side. “It’s better if you show how important and interesting history can be instead of simply forcing your way through.”

“No fun, Lily. And either way…” Amy smiled and then went toward the ruin’s entrance with a somewhat darker expression on her face.

“I assure you I am the most interested party here.”