"We're all on the same team, Commander."
"Understood, Ms. Money. Team, you all know what you're doing. Sync watches on my mark counting down from thirty minutes, and... mark."
Everyone touched their watches.
"Don't waste time. They can still go ahead and begin taking out people or detonating bombs whenever they feel like they're being messed with. Get to it."
"Yes, sir."
Chloe turned to Adam. Her face shifted into a mix of comfort and grim. It didn't exactly strike his as something to be inspired by.
"Adam, be careful, and good luck," said Chloe.
She might have forgotten to say, 'we're all counting on you not to screw this up and get everyone killed,' probably.
As Adam's body glowed, his team gave him space as he shifted to strands of electrical energy that snapped and cracked in mid-air. He didn't really think he was that dangerous, at least not around other people with higher power levels. His wings, now shaped like sharp petals of electricity, fluttered and hummed before he shot forward toward the building. He entered the same way he'd exited, through the main electrical line that went into the building. He did not want to try to stay in one place with all the old equipment there, so as soon as he got in, he let himself flow through the distribution wires. At least the gauge was thick enough, but he still found the trip to be rough and it took a bit of force to push through the bottlenecks.
It only took a couple microseconds to get through before he was free to travel upward through the electrical network. He flowed up to the top floor, then across and looped around while taking note of low-frequency fields around living people. This helped, but he still didn't know who was friend or foe from the inside. While thinking about this, he wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the open circuit ahead. He shot out of one of the wires on the damaged fifth floor and zipped through the air and away from the campus as if lightning had struck horizontally. By the time Adam's electrical body reformed, he found himself tens of kilometers away from the campus in the sky. While it was a nice view of Brahma City, Adam buzzed his wings and huffed. He should have known there were open circuits. Adam shot himself back toward campus, criss-crossing through each of the air particles until he landed on the floor, leaving a burned spot on the carpet. He reformed back to flesh and took deep breaths before recovering. Power had been knocked out on the floor as pairs of emergency spotlights illuminated the hall every few meters.
He shifted into the hallway and kept himself against the wall, hiding from the lights. He followed the sounds of muffled moans and sobs, which led him to the main meeting room of the fifth floor. The ground shook under his feet, one thump after another. His feet slid back, and he stopped himself from fully turning away while his wings twitched with the instinct to fly. Instead, he gripped the wall behind him to keep himself steady and kept his wings folded back and still. The door opened and a spiked heel slammed in front of Adam and pierced the carpet. Another step, and Adam might have been squashed right there. The heel had a rough texture along its skin and split into two thick claws at its edge. Adam's lips quivered and held his breath as the other foot slammed next to it. As he looked up, he could make out a red Fire Antoise who glanced from side to side with one pair of her arms folded, while the other pair of hands rested on the holster containing her ray pistols. On top of the woman's head, her antenna probed the air.
Adam was just able to make out the name "Zava'' on the person's uniform with the rank of ensign. Ensign Zava armed herself with one of the pistols and pointed it forward. As she looked around, Adam gently let out his breath and slid inside the room behind Zava before she leaned forward and looked down the hall. He crept in behind some desks, searching for any networking wires that ran into the walls as he made his way toward the hostages. The carpet vibrated, and he got down on all fours and crawled across to stay hidden. He kept checking for wires in the wall and saw nothing but wi-fi antennas from the back of the workstations. The vibrations grew to jolts, knocking him down. Looking behind, he spotted the feet of the Antoise getting closer. He squeezed in behind a large safe, gripping its metallic surface while keeping his wings folded. Looking back, he could spot Zava's shadow leaning into where he hid earlier, and a thick hand landed on the floor, palming and prodding the carpet. Adam's heart raced with the hand inching closer to the safe, but soon, it disappeared, along with Zava's shadow moving away from the desk and wall.
A few seconds passed before he moved his arm and glanced at his watch: 24 minutes left. Just as he began to move, the metallic surface shook and shuddered, then rose up from the ground. Adam latched onto its surface and pulled himself up while the safe rose to several feet in the air. Once on top of the box, he laid on his back as the top of the box reached within inches of the ceiling. He rolled and pulled himself to the edge and looked down at Ensign Zava, who hefted the safe over her head, holding it with two hands, while a third had a ray pistol with its flashlight aimed at the floor where it used to be.
Meanwhile, her antenna continued prodding the air left and right. One of them pointed up, and her head stopped. Adam's heart jumped as Zava's head tilted up and he pulled himself away from the edge. The safe rotated around, and he pulled himself forward to keep from falling over. It stopped once it rotated to the other side, and he managed to keep himself on top before it rotated again. He ran and climbed over the next edge before the safe came to a stop again. This time, he was on its side as it tilted up, down, and then shook. The shake flung Adam up and he landed with an audible knock. The box stopped moving; Zava must have heard him and he needed out, now. The ceiling had the tried and true generic rectangular layout of most office ceilings in the galaxy and fluorescent light fixtures. Still within a couple inches of the ceiling, he reached up and gripped on the fixture borders just as the safe went back down. Adam hung over the ceiling for a second, looking down at the large group of hostages who were huddled together. One of them pointed and spotted Adam while Zava's attention was on the safe. It gave him his chance to pull up and scurry under the ceiling tiles.
The ceiling was where Adam should have looked for the networking wiring he needed, and he almost smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner. He pulled out a flashlight from his belt and flew into the ceiling space. He had many cables to choose from but settled on a yellow network cable to trace. It led down a tube to the fourth floor into a wall outlet. Looking up, he spotted some light and the shadow of a grate. He went for it.
Once he slid the grate open and closed, he glided down and landed on the table where a small computer terminal rested on top of a counter. He logged in and moved the mouse with his body and double-clicked on the company messenger app, then searched and selected Chloe Ceres.
"Chloe. It's Adam," he typed.
The message came back. "Are you okay?"
Adam fought back tears and quickly mashed more keys. "Haven't scanned all the floors."
"Hostages guarded?"
"Not on the upper floors. Rear staircase, best bet." Adam wiped sweat off his forehead after typing that sentence out.
"Bombs?"
Adam cursed himself. He hesitated, but typed out his response. "Don't know. Sorry."
No message appeared for a while, as Adam could only pick up the sounds coming from the ventilators in the building.
"If you can, make a distraction to draw everyone to you on the ground floor. I'm coming into the lobby at T-Minus twelve minutes. Bonus if you find the bomb trigger and disable it."
“Okay.”
Adam checked his watch. There were nineteen minutes to go which meant he had only seven minutes to figure out how to draw attention. How in the world would he do that in so little time? A frown creased on his face, remembering how he almost got squashed like a bug. Then again, the bombs were still in play and he could just be blown up instead.
Sounds of steps approached.
“What are we looking for again?” a voice said from outside.
"The smell of cologne or some kind o
f perfume, it's a different scent than the others,” another voice said. “Do you smell it now?”
“It smells so nice. I smelled this scent before when I was in the store the other day.”
The doorknob turned back and forth.
"It's locked. Who's in there? Open up."
Knocks on the door escalated to pounding before the knob creaked, snapped, and dropped to the floor. This time, Adam's flight response wouldn't be ignored. His wings spread and crackled before his entire body shifted back into streams of electricity. Zava's hand burst through the door, then two, then four hands reached in and pulled. A crack snaked through the middle of the door and snapped into two before she and a Vixxin with three tails entered with a ray pistol armed. She had the name “Merisa" on her uniform, with the rank of cadet.
Adam looked up at the computer screen and shot himself into the monitor. His electric form snaked down through the computer box before it moved to the power cable into the outlet. Zava and Merisa turned and aimed with ray pistols, only to see a billow of smoke rise from the computer.
“What is going on? The scent was here one minute, then gone the next,” said Zava.
“You don't think this place is haunted, right? I mean, this building is old, creaking, dusty and when we came in, all the wiring was messed up.”
“There is no such thing as ghosts haunting buildings unless they were protesting about something.”
“If ghosts smell this good, I might just want to be haunted,” Merisa's tails swished left and right as she leaned in to take one more sniff. "Aww, it's gone. Did I scare them off?"
The two flinched as the computer monitor cracked and smoked.
"I'll get the fire extinguisher," Zava yawned.
Adam leaked out of an outlet before reforming his body and found himself in the ground floor hallway.
"Merisa, Zava, the package is going to arrive soon," said a deep voice.
"We'll be there, sir. There was a small fire in the fourth floor copier room that had to be put out," replied Zava from the radio.
"There may be ghosts haunting the building. Possibly wearing cologne. If you find one, I recommend detaining them. I need to know which store they got them from and their haunting needs," added Merisa from the radio.
“What are you talking about, Cadet?” said the voice.
“Nevermind sir, I advise being on alert for any unusual scents either way,” said Zava.
“Acknowledged, secure the rooms and report to the main floor when you're done.”
“Yes, sir.”
Adam crept to follow the voice toward the cafeteria, then, with a peek from down low into the room, he hit the jackpot. All, but one of the security recruits were bound by their hands and feet and laid on the floor. Meanwhile, there were seven people dressed up in security uniforms. All of them looked weary save for the lone recruit, who radiated a good mood. He had green, leafy skin, and vines that criss-crossed his limbs.
"I hope this building isn't haunted, Wats," he said. He had the name “Thomas" on his uniform. "I think if you took up a more modern, valuable building and threatened its destruction, you'd get more cooperation and money. Building 135 would have been better."
"The marketing research building?" said Wats. He looked something like a brown furred Earth rodent with pointy ears.
"They have more open space and better interior design. Oh well, I can settle with free tea." He took a sip.
"We're not here for the food," said Wats. Out of the food service area, a very tall Puman female with orange and white fur with black stripes walked into the cafeteria, munching on an egg salad sandwich.
“Your second-in-command doesn't seem to mind the amenities,” said Thomas.
“Don't bring me into this argument,” said Gatti. “Yeeeowl... I could use something to lighten this headache.” She stabbed a drink can with her claw and it made a hiss before she popped it open and drank.
“Maybe you should lay off those energy drinks and try some tea instead. It'll be more soothing for a beast like you,” said Thomas.
“Are you sure you don't need a break, Gatti?” asked Wats.
“Not until the mission is over, sir.”
Adam crawled in low and under the tables. In a corner, he spotted a huge and muscular female elf in a floating platform cart. Lieutenant-Commander Ebony wasn't moving at all, but her glowing magenta eyes were open, and her skin had a pale green shade. Then Adam brought his sight to the front. A white-furred Puman laid on her side in a recruits' security uniform next to another Puman who was taller, curvier with tan fur and blonde hair. He recognized Melinda who was unconscious and snuck in behind her.
Adam pulled and shook Melinda as hard as he could.
“Prrrr.... just five more minutes, hun...” mumbled Melinda.
“Is that you, Melinda?” said Gatti from afar.
The floor vibrated under him as the other Puman approached. With few hiding options, he shifted into electricity and jumped straight into Melinda's handcuffs.
Melinda's eyelids slowly opened and for some strange reason her bed felt as hard as tile and dusty as well. She sniffed, her nose twitched, and she sneezed.
“This bed feels as hard as the floor,” mumbled Melinda.
“That's because you're on the floor.”
Melinda's golden eyes blinked several times before they adjusted and the image of the cafeteria cleared up. She tried to move her arms and legs, but they were bound in restraints. Her eyes shifted to a pair of white furred paws and followed them up through orange and white fur with black stripes, right into Gatti's blue eyes.
“Felina?”
Gatti crouched next to Melinda and sniffed around her. “You're in the cafeteria of building 770,” she replied.
“Thank god the cavalry arrived. This must have been the quietest rescue I've ever been in. Hardly heard a peep from you and the others.”
“All things considering, I'm surprised you didn't wake up from all the explosions.”
“Damn, guess that stun shot really knocks you out, but why am I in these things?”
Melinda shifted and looked around, seeing many of the recruits still on the ground in cuffs. “Oh, I get it,” her voice lowered. “We ain't out of this yet, are we? So what's the plan?”
Gatti glanced away and frowned.
“Okay, no plan. Get me out of these things and I'll work on getting the others free, all right? We'll come up with something,” said Melinda.
Gatti didn't move.
“Felina? Did you hear me?”
“I heard you Melinda,” said Gatti, taking a long draw of her energy drink, then crushed the can into a ball. “But I'm not letting you free.”
“What? But why? Why—” Melinda's nose picked up strong notes of burned rubble. Then she looked at Gatti again and sniffed. Sweat, dirt, some kind of weird sweet scent from the drink, and blood from her. Three of the four scents she picked up earlier while on the staircase with Chloe. She twisted and rotated herself and spotted other security people standing guard near the exits, then her eyes landed on the orange orc, her kidnapper, standing opposite Gatti, watching them, his ray pistol pointed right at her.
Melinda's eyes widened and her mouth fell open, then she gritted her teeth and a growl pushed forth from the depths of her ribcage.
“Why?” she growled.
“Stay quiet and listen,” said Gatti.
“Or what?”
Zap. A blast left a cup sized burn on the floor. No doubt the Ensign also was a well-trained marksman. Brains and brawn, he would have had a fine career in security except for this mistake.
“We're trying to right a wrong,” said Gatti. “Haven't you noticed that extremely high-powered people have been faster in going up the corporate ladder?”
“I don't get how that matters.”
“It matters because they never earned it.”
“That's what you're ticked off about?” Melinda grunted and tried to pull herself out of her restraints, but they kept on tight. “I
have to hire the best person for the job, no matter what. If that happens to be someone who's been in the company for 15 years, I'll do it. If it's someone not from Neerg, I'll do it. I don't care who or what they are, if they fit the job, I'll bring them in. So, I ain't the one who you should be going after.”
Melinda tilted her head forward and saw the large cart carrying the large half-transform Nyxazon.
“And what does this have to do with Ebony, anyway?” said Melinda.
“She's the one who messed with my team, went against orders, and still got promoted. The rest of us who followed instructions got reprimands that went into our records. Wats got the worst of it during a court martial.”
Melinda cringed a little at that.
“The USSA keeps track of all of that on our records,” continued Gatti. “If someone gets written up, everyone will know about it. Ebony used us as scapegoats to get ahead.”
Melinda shook her head. “I'm not sure I can believe that, but why didn't you tell me this before? I don't know too much about how all of this works, but there must be more to this and they probably made a mistake. I can take a look at what happened.”
That got a growl from Gatti, who leaned in closer.
“Like you can single-handedly override a decision from a court martial? You are so arrogant. I've always hated that about you. Grrrowl... You dive in without a care in the world. You did this when we trained as students in martial arts, and now when you're patrolling, you feel like you can do anything, you and Bridget. But what about us?”
“What about you?” said Melinda “It's like any other job, that's the way it goes, Felina. It's not like GVU is the only place where this happens. And you're taking this way too personally. You're one of the best security people that I know and you kept things fun for years when we patrolled.” A slight moan escaped Melinda's lips. “But now, you're about to make the biggest mistake of your life and I didn't see it coming.”
Gatti looked away for a moment and her tail pressed into the ground, then dragged side to side.
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