18 | Long Way Down

"Know where we're going?" Laven asked. "Can't say I'm used to playing the follower."

"Yeah," LUCAS nodded, he stepped forward and pressed the button for the fifty-first floor. Laven whistled at how high they were going to go, which prompted the response, "Scared of heights?"

She stared at the buttons for a moment longer. "I can't say I've ever been in the position to know...well, aside from our escapade. I...don't think so? I mean, once the initial shock blew past I guess it's kind of hard to feel so."

LUCAS smirked, "I hear you. I think I am."

She looked stunned at this. "What? I wouldn't have pegged you for that."

The elevator began rising slowly as the humming of faint music played in the background. "Yeah, I think it's mitigated a bit when everything is high action and things are moving so fast I can leave the processing to my back thoughts—but if I have time to think about it...I can simulate the situation in my head and I just..." he shivered. "I feel like my insides are put through a hurricane."

She leaned her head to one side, and then the other. "I guess that is a different situation. I could see myself feeling similar if I had to like, cross a tightrope. That would probably send my stomach in knots, but aside from that I think I can manage. But you don't have to worry, I'll keep you from falling off any heights," she winked.

LUCAS smiled. He looked inside to see the dots had swarmed the place on the map where he was supposed to be. They began funneling out to the rooms nearby. He had shut down his communication line, so he wasn't surprised he wasn't hearing from the group back at the camp. He was curious of what their reactions were to the officers not finding him there, but he knew if he had kept on the line only to listen they would know he was still there. Blaise might even be able to figure out past his dummy signal and find where he really was.

Scratch that, he most definitely could.

They had just passed the fortieth floor and they were still climbing. Laven reached down and grabbed his hand. He felt her warmth and squeezed tight.

"I can see your face scrunched up in thought," she began. "Still worrying?"

He looked to her and nodded slowly. "It gives me no great pleasure to think we're in here on our own. But then again, I came into this place alone, and while it wasn't long ago now, it's not entirely foreign to me."

"Looks like we have that in common," she mused.

Forty-four, forty-five, forty-six.

The officers were not going to catch up to them in time. They were scrambling around scanning individual rooms, believing LUCAS was close. The thought was slightly amusing to see them scramble around in frustration.

"Hey, we're coming up. I'm seeing some presence near where we're aiming for. They may be guarding the fragment. Makes enough sense, but once we're up there I'm not a hundred percent sure we'll know what we're looking for. The closer we get the more vague a feeling I have on it."

"Hm, seems like it would be the opposite, don't you think?"

LUCAS thought how he could put it into words, "I guess it's like...sound? Like, sound I can feel. From far away I can tell what direction it's coming from and how high it is. But the closer I get I feel it all around me...the surround sound of vibrations, I guess."

"Ah, okay, I can see how that could be confusing. Well, I'll keep an eye out. You said it could take the form of anything, right?"

LUCAS nodded. "Yeah, if I can interact with it I can confirm if it's what we're looking for."

The elevator slowed to a stop. The doors opened to a large gallery. The room wasn't as large as the worker rooms down below, but it was still considerably large. It looked like it could house parties of extravagant size. Tables littered the floor with white adornments and streamers were corkscrewed across the pillars that stretched from floor to ceiling. sitting on the edge of a table in the rear of the room near a large wooden door is an older man with short dark hair, a large dark coat, and a pistol at his side.

He cocked his head and smiled. "I've heard word there were some rats crawling their way through here, but I hardly could believe they'd so effortlessly make fools of my officers."

"You've been in charge here too long, Namba," Laven said.

Namba. So this was the infamed Brother of the Kosunaga name. LUCAS studied his face hard and was irritated to find that he couldn't find any data for him in ICARUS's records.

Namba shrugged. On closer inspection LUCAS could see a scar running the length of his face. The scar tissue looked like it had healed over the course of the last year. If the scenario weren't what it was LUCAS knew his curiosity would bade him ask where he got it.

"I think we're both over the long monologues back and forth to one another, no?" He hopped off the table and rested his hand against the gun at his side. "You want what I have, and I'm not going to give it to you."

"Well, you better have good aim," LUCAS said. "Because you're only going to get one shot," LUCAS walked forward, his hand raised at him with his palm outstretched.

"Ah, the android," Namba said, grinning from ear to ear. It was a truly unsettling look—like a goblin had merged with an elf and both turned away this hideous man at their doorstep.

"I've been watching your exploits through my building. I have to say...at first I was very, very angry that something so destitute as a can opener would even think he were on a level to raise objection to us cultured folk here," he waved his arm around in a grand gesture.

LUCAS didn't know if he was meant to be tending to some imaginary crowd, but he didn't care for the tone of the man before him.

"And yet, I must admit, I found myself amazed at the kind of things you were able to achieve. You were like a modern day Spider-Man."

LUCAS crossed the name with ICARUS's network and found that he was a fictional character from comic books in the old world. He could see the comparison with his grapple hook maneuver.

"And so when I was watching you and the lovely miss here," Laven cocked her head at him and gave him a nasty look. Namba continued without a pause. "I prepared something for you. While you were on your escapade I received a tip on your location. I saw the danger you posed and realized I wouldn't be able to overpower you if it were a face to face fight. Even now you don't kill me right away because you fear I have something up my sleeve. And well," he slid a small rectangular box out of his sleeve into his gloved hand. His face lit up into a gnarly smile.

"What's it do, Namba?" Laven asked.

"Y'see, it's tied to a rig of explosives layered all around the first, tenth, twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth, and fiftieth floors. I've got seven buttons here on this switch. One for each floor, and a fun one that's a dud just to get your heart pumping. You rush me, or shoot flames at me, or do that fancy electro trick you got there and my finger will just slide all over these here." He slid his head to the other side. "Now, I can confirm only a very small portion of my workers managed to escape these premises. A small loss, but not wholly one. Damage to the building now will cause the death of all the rest you came to save."

"You're willing to go down with your ship? That it?" Laven asked.

"What sort of leader would I be if I weren't?" Besides. Tachi is in a secured location already starting to rebuild and construct new projects under our name anyway. No matter what happens here, we still win."

"And what of the fragment?" LUCAS asked. "You're willing to destroy your power source?" Namba's brow raised so slight that LUCAS could only notice it from looking closely.

"You seem to know a lot of information you shouldn't, small child. Anyway. It's nothing anymore to us. What good is power if it's container is incompatible with use?" He shrugged. "I knew you'd be coming up here, though. Something about how you were traveling just told me that you were going to be heading up here, so I figured that if I waited here after I performed my solemn duty," his smile only deepened, "And here you are!" His arms were outstretched and LUCAS thought about the odds of shooting the remote out of his hand.

He had some electrical energy pouring through his system, but he didn't think it was enough to create a bolt of considerable strength. Beside the fact that either in the shot or in the dropping of the remote he couldn't guarantee that the trap wouldn't be sprung. The energy he had most of at the moment was fire, and that was much too slow to stop him from pressing any of those buttons.

"Now, boy," Namba extended his arm and held the remote at the tip of his grip. "If you can fully disengage all of your weapons, lose those pesky arms of yours, bow to me, and then throw yourself out of that window there," he cocked his head toward the window at the far edge of the room. "Then I'll push just the dud and we can each move on with the rest of our lives, you excluded of course. I'll take you down here to be stripped of all weapons and returned to the work force on a strict probation period. Everyone here gets to live. Works for everyone. We get to minimize our losses, and you don't create the largest regret of your existence."

LUCAS looked at the options ahead of him. The part of him that wished to be human desired nothing but to rush up to this guy and kick him to kingdom come—to risk everything just to see him brought to justice—to save the day and beat the bad guy.

But the machine held back on the risk. He knew his options. He knew the risk of each and how unlikely it was that he'd actually come out on top. After all he had accomplished—the feats he was able to unlock within himself. The human doubt had paired with the cold machine logic and he was deadlocked. He looked for but a second toward the window and his decision was made. He took but one step until a scream cut him loose of his cycle.

Laven screamed. She was looking at him and had screamed his name in an attempt to get him to stop what he was going to do. Just in that moment a shaking and deafening sound erupted from below them.

Namba had pressed the fiftieth floor button and the floor they'd stood on burst upward—each of the three were sent back as the ground underneath them gave way. They landed in an office underneath—or at least what remained. When LUCAS's eyes opened he felt that his hand was wet. He couldn't see it—the dust still hadn't settled. The crackling sound of fire joined the sensation and he feared that some major damage had happened to him and he was going to bleed out here—a failure and responsible for everything.

When it did start to clear he realized he was not bleeding out. He could stand up and was able to support himself against what used to be a desk that housed a computer that used to do…something. He scanned the room and noticed that there was another life sign in the immediate area. He knew it was Laven thanks to her special marker on the map. He let out a relieved breath.

He bounded up over the side of the cubicle and located her two rows down. In between the two of them he saw the crushed and broken bodies of the people that had been on this floor. The sight froze him still. There were people alive and working here not thirty seconds ago—completely unaware there were bombs nearby. What were their last thoughts? Who did they leave behind? He suddenly was flooded with guilt as these questions would forever go without answers.

He leaped over the desk and went to the wall where a blaze had infested half of the office. He walked into the center and felt immense heat over the surface of his body—absorbing it at a rate he hadn't absorbed before. He managed to clear the active flames from this side of the room so at least they were contained, but there was still a whole other half—and Namba was not in sight yet.

He hurried to Laven's side and saw she wasn't moving. He bent down over her and placed his hand on her arm. His hand was still a bit warm from absorbing the fire. She must have noticed because her face wrinkled slightly before opening her eyes and staring at him.

"You...not throwing yourself off any buildings?" She asked, and gave an attempted chuckle.

"I'm good, here, lemme help you up. Be careful though, I had to clear out the fire and I'm storing it in, I'm a little warm."

"It's...nice," she said, closing her eyes for a moment. "Where's Namba?"

"Somewhere on the other side I think. He hasn't blown the rest up and I'm not seeing any more life signs in here…" he thought again on the other workers.

"Let's check it out."

"Roger," LUCAS said.

The two stood up and took in their surroundings. Smoke plumed from the other half of the office and LUCAS could see the fire was continuing to spread on all the equipment and carpet.

The two of them dashed across the room—harmoniously helping each other over the obstacles. A stray stone piece of the floor above broke away and LUCAS was able to deflect it with his shield before it reached them. When they reached the opposite side of the office they quickly realized how much the fire had grown. It had completely consumed the corpses that had once previously been working and it had started to spread toward the other half of the room—the half that LUCAS has just cleared.

"I can't take in much more—I'm not going to be able to clear this floor," LUCAS said in hurried exasperation.

"Where's—" she was cut off as she saw Namba's contorted body—pinned against a wall with a leg broken at an odd angle and a shard of metal stabbed through his chest. Blood pooled from his lips and the remote lie at his feet. Flames had danced around his body and it was beginning to be too hot to stay too close to the body.

"I'll grab it," Laven said, but as she took a step forward the pipe Namba's corpse had been pinned to had snapped, sending his body forward. As soon as it made contact the entire world around them started spinning.

The world went silent before it exploded.