Climbing Up and Powered-Up Danger

“Are you sure about this, girl?” Ben asked in a worried tone as he watched Amy move towards the damaged power plant in front of them. “This thing is stuck up there. You sure it’s safe?”

“Do not worry, I will know if anything is wrong. It will only be a matter of moving up, you know? No problem at all.”

“I don’t think that’s the point!”

Getting here wasn’t very hard. Amy could break through most blockages in no time even while taking safety measures to not cause another landslide. In the end, crossing the path was very fast with the only problem being an area that was almost ruins only.

Still, they ended up finding the target after some twenty or so minutes of walking around. The only problem was that the whole building was on top of a more than ten meters high cliff.

It was still possible to see it and, with some work, climb to its ground floor, but that wasn’t the bigger problem.

The bigger problem was the fact that, even from down below, this one power plant had a very familiar tubular format and wasn’t in a perfect state. A good part of the chimney was blocked by the cave's ceiling, but it was clearly a nuclear power plant too. And one that seemed damaged even from the outside.

“We should be able to climb it with no problem… Or I can take you up there if needed." Amy spoke while looking down the chasm leading to the target with a mischievous smile on her face. “I am sure you are vamped enough to manage by yourself, but it would not be a problem if you wish to pretend not to be.”

For a second, the lawyer’s expression changed from his usual tiredness to one of surprise as he was unable to react right away to the idol’s words.

It was unthinkable that this girl, even with all she had already shown, would be able to find which modifications someone had like this. Even professionals with huge networks and resources would take a long time to collect this kind of information. And seeing his reaction was funny for the pink girl.

Throwing this kind of vague information was also a good way of picking the audience’s interest too. Two in one move when half the point of this expedition was a PR stunt.

Either way, after shaking off the confusion and ignoring his growing suspicions, Benjamin the cliff as if to make sure he could manage it.

“Are you sure we’re doing this?” He asked one more time while looking at the ground some meters below them. “Can’t this thing explode if we mess up?”

“Do not fret, a nuclear reactor will not… Huh?!” Amy stopped her phrase halfway and turned back to where the two of them came from, scanning the area for a while once. “Another false one…?”

Like during the start of the exploration, she was sure that something had moved around them but, once again, was unable to detect anything after the initial ping. It was worrying even, especially with the weird feeling she was getting by looking around.

“You saw something?”

“I do not think so… Either that or we have a ghost following us.”

“My insurance doesn’t cover against ghosts, so I hope we don’t have to deal with one…”

“Even I could not deal with a real ghost, you know? There is no way to punch them and I am very sure spirits will not stop if I promise them some goodies too.” The idol went on in a tone that made it hard to be sure of how serious she was. “But either way, shall we move on? This reactor will not turn on by itself… I hope.”

“What a weird thing to say. How would a power plant start by itself like this?”

“Who knows… Maybe a ghost will turn it up… Or something similar.” She gave shoulders to the confused lawyer before clawing the stony wall and then throwing herself up. “I see you up there.”

Then, in an even faster fashion than expected, Amy moved up the cliff in a hurry while leaving a path of holes. Sadly, for many, no cameras had managed to follow her movements, which was then a cause for more arguments on the validity of everything.

She was starting to be a little too overkill even to the crazy people that dwelled on the internet.

In more relevant matters though, Benjamin was watching the scene from his position in numbed-down disbelief. Seeing the pink girl do this kind of thing all the time seemed to have killed his sensibility for this already. So, instead of worrying about it, he followed suit and started to move by slowly climbing up the stone wall.

Unexpected as it was, or in a not unexpected at all way for Amy, the lawyer took only a few seconds to move. It was only a matter of jumping from a place where he could get a hold of the other some three times in the end, so it was very fast.

It was also an interesting thing to showcase to her audience.

Many were impressed by how the man in a battered suit could jump around without a problem, and some were even giving him praise on chat. The idol was sure it wouldn’t take much for them to forget all about this, but it was useful for now.

“I’ll ask again, you’re sure this is safe?” He asked after taking a good look at the worn-out entrance of the power plant. “This place looks ready to collapse any time…”

“Power plants are very resilient, you know? They are decent holdouts for armies even… Although I would not recommend bombarding a nuclear one.” The idol spoke as she closed the thick doors a few meters away from them. “From what I see, we may even be able to make this one work for a little while… By the way, have you ever received some treatment for radiation resistance? It would be very useful.”

“Wait, wait, wait! What did you just say?!”

“Just asking how high is your rad resistance, you know? I can manage something close to a hundred thousand rads for a few hours, but I am unsure about you…”

While she was asking some very worrying questions to the lawyer, Amy was already poking the door to be sure she could pry it open. The outer door was a little bent out of place and some centimeters into the ground, but it shouldn’t be too easy to open. Just a good ‘nudge’ and it would be all fine.

The only problem was that any possible radiation isolated deep into the thick concrete walls and the lead door would go out after that.

“Let us think about this again, please. I mean, even I don’t know how resistant I am, so…”

“If you are that worried, retreat a little and wait for me, okay? Maybe clean the path back so it will be easier to bring the cables…”

“No, I can’t simply… Wait! The cables?!”

“Yes, cables. We will need them, you know? This place sunk, so it is unlikely that we will be able to connect whatever that thing was, no?” Amy continued as she held on to the thick door and started to put strength on it, even if it didn’t see as such by her expression. “So, instead of using the original energy infrastructure, we shall make a temporary one. Some cables and a makeshift transformer should do the job, you know?”

The door then opened while the lawyer was still too confused to react and, luckily as it could, it didn’t fire the radiation meter Amy had running. Not exactly something that would make her sure that nothing was wrong, but it was a good start for sure.

It was also another proof that her broken-memory-based theory was right though.

Each step was making her surer that this city’s situation was caused more by something covering it than by it sinking into the ground. Any sinking must have happened after the city was covered from what she could guess.

How exactly it happened and why most of the city seemed in a somewhat good state was beyond her though. Maybe it even had something to do with the weird unknown technology she used.

“Are you really serious here, girl? All you’re saying sounds like crazy talk to me…” Benjamin kept trying to make sense of the situation, even though he was sure it wouldn’t do much for him. “It’s my work and all, but I really don’t want to die inside this middle of nowhere.”

The two entered the power plant by then, looking around the dark room that, without much thinking, seemed to be a reception room. It had what remained of some huge desks and the skeletons of chairs, but what mattered was the barred pathway leading to a huge corridor.

And this path was where Amy headed right away while pushing away the metal bars that once kept some semblance of safety for the riskier systems deeper into the building.

“I said it many times already, but you have no need to worry. No matter what, I shall keep you safe, okay? I am the best, you know?”

“I’d love to know how you can sound so trustworthy… Is this some sort of magic?”

“But of course! It is idol magic, you know? I am a master of it.” Amy laughed as she kept heading on the corridor that went towards the chimney on the debris-filled path. “And ‘no’, my faithful fans, I will not break through the walls again for now. Powerful as I am, it is never smart to bring more risk for no reason... Giving me a thousand credits will not sway my decision, although I thank you for the contribution still.”

The pair passed by some doors as they kept heading deeper, but none of them seemed like the right one, so the idol simply ignored them.

She was sure that both the control and the reactor’s path would have some kind of safe door, so looking at the more common ones seemed wrong. Meanwhile, the lawyer didn’t dare to warn her about the chance that her arbitrary decision was wrong for he would prefer to not find anything.

Luckily for half of the group though, the kind of door Amy was looking for soon appeared on their path. And more than that, it had a half-destroyed sign by its side that the pink girl could read like ‘control room’ even with many of the letters missing.

There was only a single problem as she got close to it…

“What do you think, Mr. Lawyer…” She spoke while changing modes of her vision just in case. “Is it possible for a nuclear power plant to keep on running for two centuries without any maintenance?”

“I’m no engineer, but can anything run for hundreds of years without maintenance? I mean, that’s a lot of time, right?” Benjamin answered with his eyes moving around the dark and empty corridor. “And why the weird question, by the way?”

“Just taking a second opinion in case mine is too biased…”

Amy nodded at the reasonable answer and found herself agreeing with it, although agreeing to it would only further the problem at hand.

At least, there wasn’t any movement inside, or at least there wasn’t any movement she could perceive from outside, so it was unlikely to be too dangerous... The best to do now was move on and see why this place was acting this weird.

“Is something wrong? Should we leave now?”

“No, no, I just got some news for everyone, you know?”

“News? What are you talking about?” The lawyer asked as his suspicions grew and he started to walk away from the door.

“Nothing much, they are quite good even… You see, this place should be as safe to use as ii could be, you know? We got quite lucky here if I do say so.” Amy explained in high spirits as her hands reached for the door and she got ready to charge forward. “And even better than that… Someone even turned it on already for us!”

Then, with a push packed with a lot more power than it needed to and leaving a stunned lawyer who was unable to understand what he was told right away, the pink idol charged towards the powered-up control room.