Pink Overwhelm and Purple Pressure

“Thanks for the help, young ladies.” The recently freed professor thanked his group and then turned to his kidnappers now that everyone was ready to talk. “Now, what is happening here?”

“Abridged or full version? I recommend the abridged, by the way. I am sure it will be much more interesting…” Amy smiled while answering and patting the head of the kid sitting on her lap. She would also prefer a fast version for the fact that going fast would lower the chances Val would remember why she called the pink idol out, to begin with.

It was also better to the nerves of her friends considering how tense they seemed while glaring(?) at the expedition’s group.

“Go with the fast one please.”

“Well then…”

It was the second time Amy explained the situation, so she added what they got from the metal box and how they ended here to the same speech from before. It was, again, a lot to take right away. The whole thing with the ‘nuclear reactor’ still working and the dangerous makeshift energy supply were already too much. And then adding it to the weird chemicals and Amy’s theory on why the room could be sealed made it go even further.

And that was without even considering the fact that, although that room was easy to seal and full of dangers, it was still likely that someone lived in there for a while. Or at least, that someone worked from there while a war was happening.

In the end, all the professor could do was hold his head and try to make everything make sense.

“That’s… complicated. At least, it gives an idea as to why I was caught.” Henrique nodded at his conclusions about the situation before turning back to the two groups. “Either way, all of you can see that we didn’t attack your friend, but it’s possible that someone you know attacked us. Can anyone explain why was that?”

“I would also to know this much too…” Lily added but with a less amiable look in her eyes as she stared at the, now even more fidgety, youngling in grey. “And then, it would be good if you brats got us to wherever you live too. I have some words for them…”

“We will not hurt anyone if we do not have to, you know? Lily is only a little too blunt sometimes.” Amy added as it wouldn’t be too good if their only guides were too scared. “Also, we want and are able to help her mother, you see? Not getting there to begin with would be a problem.”

“The Evil Goddess isn’t really evil, you know? You know!”

“Exactly, Val. It is as you say indeed!”

“Aham! Mother says I learn very fast.”

“Yes, yes, that’s very nice…”

As the pink weirdo was fluffing the hair and exchanging smiles with the little girl, the fidgety group started to stare(?) even more before turning in unison to Lily and Henrique. It wasn’t as if either of those two could give them any answer, though. In fact, both of them weren’t very sure of how to explain what was happening too.

The two girls of very different ages were simply getting along too well by now.

“Don’t ask me, kids. She’s way above comprehension even to me, so just calm down and start explaining.” The darker idol cut down right away and turned the situation back to what mattered to her. “First, from where you all came from? Actually, do you know where you are?”

“This…” The leader of the other group turned to his companions and only continued after some of them gave him hurried nods. “I’m not sure how to answer this… We live here, and… that’s all. This is where we always lived, and the adults say that this is how it should be…”

“I said they were a super old civilization!” Kuro shouted from the back where she and her sister were watching the discussion. “I’m sure they’re genome pure too.”

“Quite sure no one could be living here that long… They would need to be here before Miskaria was built, won’t they?”

“Would they? Weren’t the founders, like, barely technological or something?”

“That’s… Sigh… What you’re saying is so wrong I can’t even start to explain.” The dumbfounded white-haired sister held her temples and turned her eyes to the professor. “Can you drill history on this dumbass’ head after we’re out of here, professor? She seems to be in need of it…”

“C’mon! I’m not that bad…”

“That…” The same grey-clothed person tried to say something, but his tone was so clearly confused, he didn’t even finish his sentence. Luckily, the only two that had some semblances of focus weren’t too affected by the small talk on the back.

“We can deal with it later, Kuro and Shiro. And try to keep the side subjects for later, okay? We’re in the middle of something now…”

“Sorry, teacher…” The twins answered in unison in answer to their, now very stern-looking, professor. His expression there, even if only for a moment, was something Amy wasn’t exactly expecting, though.

“Sigh… Sorry about that, missy. And if we could ignore this, boy…”

“It’s… fine…?”

“Good. Back to what you said earlier then, do you know that there is a city right above this cave, right?” The professor went back to the main subject. “Actually, can we go to these adults you talked about? It would make it simpler for both of us.”

“I agree with the professor. Not to be disrespectful or anything, but I don’t feel anyone here can solve much as is… We also made a promise that we need to go accomplish.”

“That…”

“Hey, Val, do you not want to go home already? Tell your friend, so we can move on and help your mother.” Amy whispered to the kid on her lap as she heard how the other party was still somehow reluctant to take them to their city. She knew that was a low blow, but there was a timer on them still and the pink idol was getting bored again.

“That’s right, Goddess! We have to move, right?” The kid suddenly got a surprised expression and rose from the idol seat she was using before turning to her caretaker. “We have to go home, Luca! They’ll help mother, you know?”

“Yes, we do have to move on. Who knows how dangerous the mother of this little lady here is, you know? Speed is the essence!”

The idol and the kid then started to slowly overwhelm the, to Amy, barely visible boy as they kept asking to move on right away.

While they were doing it, though, the other members of Amy’s group were divided into astonished and hit by third-party shame by now. It was likely that other members of the cloaked group were somehow divided as such too, but they were harder to get a picture of. Stealth cloth and all.

Still, as it was, their pressure seemed to be working on the boy, not that Amy could be sure about it. All she could see was a slightly fidgetier mess of pixels when compared to the others in his group.

“Fine. Since Val is asking, I’ll lead you to the city…” He answered as defiantly as possible. “But I still don’t trust any of you.”

“That will be enough for us, no?” Amy turned to her partner to be sure she wouldn’t want to ask anything more of their newly acquired guide, prompting Lily to turn to their, on paper, leader.

“What do you think, professor?”

“Let us get our things and move on. I’m sure getting to the deep of this matter will solve many of our problems, right, lawyer?”

Ever since the possibility that there were people living here appeared, Benjamin followed the group in silence. He was too deep in thought to take part in the talks for now, and there was a good reason for such. Just explaining all this in a way that would still net his contractor the rights for the ruins was getting harder and harder, and he had more to deal with too.

By now, with the right amount of pressure and money, it was possible that a good chunk of the area would end up as a protected zone even. Not something that was common to hear, but not an event without any precedents.

Almost half of the other cities had some sort of ‘natural reserve’ or ‘protected zone’ that was, in some way or another, off-limits to business. They were all ‘nature-related’, though, each to preserve some sort of token and almost extinct biome. Basically, very interesting zoos for the general public, but not very profitable at all.

It was likely that the lawyer was trying to build an argument against the same system being used with a group of people.

That, at least, was the first idea that crossed Amy’s mind as she thought about the situation, but this idea soon lost steam on her little head. She wasn’t that sure of why, but something was trying to tell her that she was going down the wrong path here somehow.

“That depends solely on how ‘authentic’ these people are, Mr. Vellaron,” Benjamin answered at last. “For all we know, they may very well be some slum-dwellers that invaded this area some years ago. Having a kid born here isn’t enough to aval ownership over something as valuable as these ruins, don’t you agree?”

“I believe we already have enough proof to go by, but I will pretend we don’t for now. Shoving them on your bosses’ faces will be better when they’re unable to fight it at all anyway…”

The staring contest between the two men was as intense as it was whenever they talked to each other and they seemed to want to go on for a while. Differently from usual, though, it seemed that the professor had a clear advantage this time.

Meanwhile, in the surroundings of their discussion, Lily couldn’t care less about what they were saying. Amy and Val were back to playing with each other. And the grey people were unsure of what to do.

Only the twins were somewhat focused on the situation still, but even they couldn’t do much now.

“Hey, Shiro…”

“What is it, Kuro?”

“Didn’t you expect this whole ‘expedition’ thing to have more adventure in it?”

“Not really. I always cared more about wooing the idols anyway…”

“Really?! I mean… Really?! C’mon! I can see the point and all, but where’s the adventure in that?!”

“You really don’t know much about archeology, do you, Kuro? And don’t go lying and pretending to not be more interested in the purple hottie pretending to not hear us and the pink one straight-up glaring at me right now.”

“I still wanted an adventure, though…” The black-haired twin sighed in dejection before turning with a smile to the idol still glaring at her while playing with the kid. “And you won’t scare me like this, Amy. It’ll actually have the opposite effect…”

“Aham!” Henrique finally called out as he could see that the whole discussion was going away from the point very fast and none seemed willing to bring it back. “Can we move on, please? I don’t want to overwhelm our new friends too much with our group’s… uniqueness.”

“He just called us weird, Shiro?”

“Yes, he did, Kuro.”

“He is right, though.” Amy chipped in as if she had nothing to do with the remark with a serious expression. “Not that I have much to do with it…”

“You’re the weirdest one here!” The twins shot out at the idol who was tapping her clothes clean and getting ready to move on with Val. She also ignored their shout and turned to Luca.

“Now, if you could lead us on, boy.” She told the faint figure that seemed somehow confused even if she couldn’t see him. “It is time to see this ancient city of yours…”