All According the Plan and Pettyness

“Why we can’t have a normal job for once, Amy?!” Lily shouted while running with the rest of the group as they headed to wherever place Amy was taking them. “These are ruins, dammit! They should be empty and boring!”

“I would not say we are THAT far from normal here, you know? I mean, it is a usual plot for movies, is it not?”

“Movie plots aren’t normal!”

“Really? I say we usually end in these situations, so would it not be called the norm by now? You agree, do you not, Val?” Amy continued moving towards the drone at the entrance but now looking up at the girl mounted on her shoulders having fun.

“The movies I know don’t have kidn… kidnap? Quit nap? They don’t nap anyone!”

“See?”

“See what?!”

“She may be trying to say your work is weirder than a movie…” Shiro commented from a little behind. “Which I don’t disagree from all I saw, although I’d love a movie about you.”

“I’m up for that too! And I can cameo for free if you want.” Kuro added too in such an excited manner that the idea almost sounded decent. “Isn’t this whole thing a perfect plot to a movie, by the way?”

“Most people think we are staging everything, so it may very well be a movie by now, you know? And no, I will not up the CG art just because you people are donating a lot, chat. I still thank the extra credit though, and Val does too, right?”

“Thank you, angels!” The little kid smiled to the camera on her goddess cue like she expected her to, which was, as expected again, very effective. “Is that how you do, Goddess?”

“Yes! You may have a knack for it, you know? Very good indeed. But stay quiet for a moment now.” The pink idol nodded to no one in particular and then stopped right at the last curve she needed to leave the abandoned factory. “And now… How do we do it, Lily?”

Seeing what took the professor was very hard, almost impossible even, but following the professor himself wasn't. It seemed that whoever took him wasn’t that proficient in the arts of kidnapping, so Amy didn’t have much problem tailing them.

This a sign that these were likely the ones who were taking care of Val and not whoever sent the flamethrower robot from earlier too. A good situation considering these shouldn’t be that dangerous.

The situation would be different if he was covered with the anti-detection coat the ones who took him had... But the problem now was how to deal with them either way.

The drone couldn’t see much and Amy couldn’t show much with the equipment she had, but even without it, everyone could hear some faint noises outside. Noises of something big being dragged coupled with muffled grunts to be precise.

Not hard to guess what’s the point of the pink girl’s question after that. Everyone was able to get the idea and was not trying to make much noise so as to not alert the other group.

At least most of them were. A certain someone wasn't that versed on what was happening, but she could be 'controlled' easily.

“We can try talking if it’s safe enough, but we need to know if it’s safe first,” Lily whispered while also approaching the exit as quietly as possible. “How far are we?”

“Down the road, I guess. Not sure if they are closing in or leaving…”

“Is your friend here, Goddess?”

“Probably. But you have to whisper for now, okay?” Amy got a fast nod in an answer as the kid on her shoulder covered her own mouth before being taken to the ground. “And down you go! I shall now show something funny…”

“Don’t go overboard, Amy.”

The warning didn’t do much more than make the pink girl smile and it didn’t seem like she was reassuring anyone but Val with it, but she couldn’t care less. Going overboard was pretty much her only style, and it wasn’t as if anything she could do right here wouldn’t be, in some way, going overboard too.

So, without bothering to explain anything, Amy moved to the exit as fast as she could, and as showy as she could. And right as she managed to get a lock on the bound professor and, by what she could see, the few gray figures carrying him, she noisily hit her feet on the ground.

The sound echoed in the area, calling the attention of the figures and turning them to the pink noisemaker.

They could only manage to get a glance at her, though, as, at the moment they did, a huge cloud of smoke covered her figure. And in the next moment, the smoke was already vanishing but there was no one inside of it anymore.

Vanishing like a ninja was just that fun, even though it was only about letting some steam off and then running very fast. It was somewhat dumb but enough to make the grey figures get worried and start looking around in distress while Amy tried to get a better lock on them.

She couldn't get that many details, but getting what they were holding and how, in broad ways, were they acting was doable.

They were fidgety and talking among themselves without holding much more than some random pieces of trash. From what she could see, nothing better than a pipe or some planks, and since, from their reactions, were all human too, the result of her analysis was clear.

“All safe, Lily!” The observer shouted from the corner of one of the factory’s broken walls and then left her hiding spot. “Hello, everyone. Can we have a little chat now? We seem to both have people the others want to, you know?”

So many figures using those stupid anti-detection clothes were hell for someone without much of a natural sensory organ. Even using violence on them would be troublesome, so dealing with them fast was the best way to go. It also makes it hard to talk too much with them, so Lily would have to deal with the negotiations.

Not that Amy wouldn’t keep on walking forward while under the, supposed, animosity of the group of stealthy kidnappers. She could also see Henrique trying to say something to her, but someone bound and gagged couldn’t do much.

“Stop right there!” A forced voice shouted to the approaching idol as the others also started to leave their hiding spots. “Where is… Val...? Val?!”

And before anything could happen the, supposed, leader of the group, lost focus and his pipe, focusing only on the kid by Lily's side. Even the other figures around him weren't that defiant anymore.

In the end, it seemed that everything was indeed as expected.

“Luca!” The kid being called answered right away since, differently from the other people on this side of the road, she could see the others decently. “I found the Goddess! See? She’s here.”

“The… Goddess?” Luca(?) asked again and the others behind him started to whisper between themselves, for somewhat obvious reasons. Hearing them wasn’t exactly easy too, so Amy couldn’t bother to wait for them and decided to start talking loudly again.

“My name is Amy, you know? Amy Wright. And I am an idol. I-D-O-L, okay? I can do a lot of things that you could call divine, though.”

“Idol... That’s...”

“Aham! Can you people free the professor before we can talk, please?” Lily interrupted the, mostly pointless, talk between the underground group and Amy, but how her hands were on the small gun hidden in her clothes gave a lot of weight to her words. “I don’t want to be rough here considering we don’t even know the why and the who here.”

Lily’s cop aura was always very useful in these situations. Only by putting it up and talking a little, she was easily capable of shutting up everyone, including Amy, and making them hear. She was maybe a little too effective, though, as she was making the grey people retreat in fear.

They were even starting to whisper between themselves again.

“Hey, Shiro, is it too weird to ask why we can’t see these people well?”

“You may take a bullet if you do, but do go on…”

“I want to go home… Can we give up on this?”

“Shut up, lawyer.” The twins answered at the same time, shutting Benjamin down before he could react to anything. Their talk at least managed to break the dead silence between the two idols and the kidnappers.

Or at least it made Amy decide that she could defuse the situation now.

“So… What about we sitting down to talk? Like, before we start a shootout here or call attention to the important people that could get angry with you kids. I mean, you are all younglings, are you not?”

Amy would end up feeling a little shameful if they were not, but the flags were all pointing toward this group being made of kids. The lack of planning, how fast they were to panic, all the whispering, and the weapons that could barely be called such. It didn’t take a genius investigator to get this much, or at least the pink idol believed such.

And by how they were reacting to her words, she was right about it.

“This… As long as you free Val, we can talk.” The one that acted as the leader of the group tried to be tough again, not that he could affect Amy much. In fact, the frilly girl was finding it very cute instead.

“I do not believe she was ever not free, you know? At least if you do not consider this whole ruined city to be constraining, of course.” The idol kept on smiling as she turned to the little girl staying close to the twins. “If he wishes so strongly, though, can you go to your funny caretaker, Val? Please, do not try to flee, though. Even if I cannot see you that well, my friend there can still hit you.”

“Don’t wanna. I’m staying with you, Goddess!” The little girl shouted and ran to the idol in the middle of the road. She was even hugging Amy’s legs a moment later, so she ended up feeling a little mischievous about it.

“She does not want to.”

“B-but… Val…”

“Well, since it is like this, let us sit and talk then, okay? It is not as if I was going eat anyone, you know?”

She still couldn’t see much of the group on the other side of the road, but she could feel in their leader’s movements that he had resigned from the situation. And since it seemed that everything was pacified now, the idol and the kid started to move towards a bunch of rocks close by.

“And release the professor already,” Lily added while calming down now that nothing seemed to be too dangerous. “We only came here for him anyway…”

There wasn’t much to do by this point even if most of the people in the area were a little too confused to react right away, but as the two idols, and the kid, took places around the pile of debris, it seemed that all was safe. Amy even made sure to have Val sitting on her lap only to be petty. Something that made her partner, who was standing on a wall instead, hold her temples out of astonishment.

At least the people in grey were moving to free Henrique and seemed to be willing to talk now, not that anyone had an idea of how these talks would go.