Kidnappings and Pandora’s Box

“Amy, explain yourself.” A glaring Lily spoke the moment she noticed the two people entering the room, one of which wasn’t using her robe anymore. Her glare was enough to make both Amy and Val wince a little, but the pink idol held her ground and started to explain things.

“So, I found her while I was waiting for the professor, you see? And she needs help, and I could not leave a kid behind, and so… You know? She seems to live somewhere in the ruins, by the way. With other people even!”

“Is this an old civilization living in the ruins?!” The black-haired twin shouted her surprise while still busy with the improvised energy supply Amy brought and the metal box. Her sister, though, was less impressed with the situation.

“Or she kidnapped a random slum kid that was wandering around…”

“I did not!” Amy complained with the little girl hiding behind her small back. “She came here on her own accord and we should not be losing time thinking about this anyway.”

“That’s… Hard to believe. Both options.” Lily went on before approaching her duo and the kid to take a better look at the situation. “At least, I find it hard to believe someone from the slums could sneak through the blockade on the cave. That place still has a bunch of security measures even after Henrique unlocked it.”

“Are you an evil goddess?” Val shily asked as she saw the darker-colored idol approaching with a frown on her face. A question that made one of the twins stifle a small laugh and prompted Amy to protect her partner.

“No, no. Lily is not evil, you know? She is my very important friend, even if she can be a little bit scary…”

“She’s scary.”

“Just sometimes, you know? Other times she is very cool, and quite the beauty too. You can trust me on that!”

“Hmmm…” Val stopped to think while staring at the somewhat confused Lily, changing her expression to a smile soon after. “Ok, Goddess, I believe you.”

“Aham!” The subject of the discussion called out with her face slightly red. “Can we go back to the explanations, please?”

“So, about this…”

There wasn’t much to explain, so Amy rapidly relayed the little that happened while she was waiting for Henrique. She made sure to skip how she was almost sure someone was watching them and how it was likely that she made something go wrong on the power plant, even if leaving enough tips for Lily to get it.

Either way, she only said enough to clear any doubts on how she got a tag along and on what was happening for everyone who was around. And it should also be enough for the four other people to understand how valuable knowing more about this kid was.

One of them, in special, would have many problems with the people higher up if the fact someone was living here long before the place was true… Not that he seemed to be willing to raise this point for now.

“Now Kuro’s theory is sounding a lot more reasonable…”

“Isn’t it?! Who would think that we would find an ancient civilization lying around, right?”

“Ancient civilization is a little too much, both of you…” Lily dismissed the twins but kept on thinking about the possibilities. “It sounds more like people who started living here before the slums were an official thing. Or just a group of slum denizens that found the place some years ago and simply were never found. Or even…”

“Goddess. When are we going, Goddess?” The little girl started to poke Amy in a way that made her impatience very clear. And to be honest, it wasn’t as if the pink idol wouldn’t prefer to do something about it right away too.

“Hmmm… I wanted to wait for my other friend, you know? He should be here soon, but…”

For all that mattered, if she could get all members of the expedition to follow her right away, she wouldn’t be against leaving now. For the idol, getting to know people who seemed to worship an idol(?) was more interesting than the box they could simply open later.

Making another set of wires and another converter was a pain, but it wasn’t as if she couldn’t do it again and again. She was ignoring the explosion from earlier, but that was fine. It wasn’t as if something that could somehow keep running for a few centuries would blow up just due to a makeshift energy tap.

At least she felt that this was the truth, of course.

It wasn’t the same as most would think in this situation though.

“You’re not leaving alone, Amy. I would even say that we should call everything out with how weird things are going, but it doesn’t seem like anyone will agree with me…” Lily shot out before her partner could go with the idea of roaming, and then continued with something that could calm down the kid. “Can you wait a little bit more, Val? Amy’s friend is a doctor in many areas, so I’m sure he’ll be able to help your mother a lot.”

“But I saw a doctor already…”

“This one’s better. He’s many times a doctor, you see? And he knows a goddess, so it’s sure he can do things no other doctor can.”

“Really?”

“Yes, very really. And while you wait…” The more serious of the two idols went to one of the packs thrown by the side of the room and took one of the few ‘special supplies’ brought by the twins. “Eat this. It’s quite good.”

“Hmmm…” Val locked eyes with the small chocolate bar and, after a moment of thinking, took it and sat right where she was. “Okay. I’ll hear you, Evil Goddess.”

“These are mi… Ouch! Why, Shiro?!” Kuro shouted after being hit on the head by her sister, without even noticing Lily’s glare at her.

“Don’t complain and finish your thing. Do you really plan to take candy from a kid?”

“Fine…”

“About this…” Lily turned to the twins now that the kid was somewhat pacified. “How long until you can open it? We’ll want to move away fast after linking up with Henrique.”

“To be honest, it is done. I’m trying to make it safer because I don’t trust this place, but I could turn it on right now.”

“Do it!” The bored pink girl watching her own cameras sprung alive right away. “Let us clear the way and open it already. It will drive our numbers so high if we find something cool inside… And it will also help with the people getting bored now that we are not doing a thing.”

Amy was getting a little worried right now and the audience was a little too riled with the weird girl to be defused so soon. Losing the sudden interest didn’t feel good for the idol, so she had to make something to draw attention even if it was a bet. An empty box, or worse, a box with something boring inside, would cause more damage than some slow time, but it was better than doing nothing in her eyes.

Not everyone seemed so fond of this idea, but the way it looked, they lacked any way to go against it. With the exception of the lawyer and the kid, everyone still needed to keep the buzz going to call this expedition a success.

It would also be better if they could move on right away. There wasn’t anything right now, but the pink girl could feel that some trouble was forming. Seeing them was pretty much impossible without getting too close, so only feeling would have to do…

“First we pack anything important and move deeper into the corridor, then you can open it, Amy.” Lily gave her decision according to what her partner was expecting and, as they were moving to do so already, the androids waiting around started to pack their things. “You three better move too. Who knows what’s inside that thing… And you, Val…”

“Huh?” The chocolate-eating girl turned to the purple-dressed idol with an inquisitive look on her face.

“Come here, please. I’ll show you a fun game…” The target of said eyes stole the tablet left close to the documents and used it to lure the kid away from the room. While she was moving away, though, she managed to notice the look on the tablet’s owner, but she ignored it.

“My tablet…”

“Oh, Shiro, are you so petty as to… Ouch! Hey, don’t smack me just because I’m right!”

“Move on, you two. Unless you want to stay here with Amy when everything opens up…”

Lily’s last words as she crossed the broken doors of the room were coupled with her pointing to the pink girl poking the dangerous-looking device.

She seemed very innocent while doing so, but her doing so without a sliver of fear considering everything was scary in its own way. And as more reasonable people as they were, the twins stopped talking and hurried to move whatever they believed to be important away.

Even the robot head was gone by now, though, so they didn’t have much to pack.

By Amy’s analysis, though, her wires and the transformer shouldn’t start failing for at least half an hour more, so they had nothing to worry about for now. It was more worrying that something dangerous would leave the box, but it also seemed very unlikely.

“Everything done out there?” She asked only to make sure that everyone was out and all was ready, receiving a thumbs up in answer. “Good. Then, I shall now open the reason why we got stuck here for so long…”

With a switch flick, and giving the order to connect everything to her little helpers, the sapped current from the reactor flowed to the metallic box and machine noise filled the room. More than noise even, a second after turning the whole system on, some parts of the box started to glow in many different colors.

It was somewhat of a spectacle. Especially when it started throwing multicolored smoke around. And as this nice little show was running, the box started to open up as if peeling off.

From top to bottom, parts of it detached and, after a while, the whole thing looked more like an assortment of small tables than a box. From the heat, or lack of heat, some of its parts were giving, though, these were meant to keep their contents at different temperatures. It likely had even more functions hidden too.

The whole thing ended as three floors of surfaces each in a roughly star-like shape due to their closed shape being a rectangle. And on each of these surfaces, there were collections of flasks filled with multicolored liquids with some tools set in the middle. They, at a glance, managed to trigger an epiphany in Amy, though. One that made her understand why this place could be sealed and depressurized.

Or at least that gave her a good idea.

“Looks like we found some very dangerous chemicals here, everyone. And now we have some gas evaporating from it…” The idol said as she moved farther away from the dispersing smoke that left the box when it was opened. “I would recommend against coming too close to them without some gas protection… Do any of you want samples?”

“Of course that stupid thing was dangerous…” Kuro rolled her eyes at her hiding spot with no one making a move to move closer, of course. “Can we blow this hole up already and move on?”

“Never blow up something with chemicals and/or gas lying around. Are you sure you’re not the most dangerous thing lying around, Kuro?”

“But that would be Amy, wouldn’t it?”

“Fair… The second most dangerous thing then.”

“Hey! I can hear both of you, you know? I am not dangerous, you know? I mean, a little, but that is not what an idol should do!”

“Take the samples and move on, Amy. I’m starting to get worried about the professor…”

“Okie, let me… What?! Is this…?” Amy stopped before she could move on to finish her task there as she got a warning from, not one, but both of her drones. “Hey, Lily, I will take the samples, but I do not think we have to worry too much about the professor…”

“Huh? You saw him already?”

“Exactly!” The pink idol happily shouted her confirmation as she rapidly started to pack bottles while trying to avoid the ones that looked dangerous. “I just saw him being captured by something, so we may even find who was with Val there...”

And for obvious reasons, it took a good while for anyone to react to her words…