Corpo Age-Chapter 251: Lance

With gunfire and explosions suddenly erupting in the room, I immediately ducked down for cover while I tried to make sense of the situation.

However, before I could make sense of the situation, the entire room shone with a bright light. It was bright enough to blind me completely despite my optics trying its best to adjust. By the time I could see again, I found myself in an entirely new environment.

No longer was I on the stage, being looked down upon by the judges sitting above me. Instead, I was inside a white jail. The entire place was eerily quiet. I moved closer to the jail doors to look around, only to find myself completely alone. There were dozens of cells around me, but all of them were empty. No signs of life could be detected, even when I scanned the area. Neither did I have any connection to the outside world.

“Hello?” I called out.

My voice echoed, but no reply came.

I tested the sturdiness of the white bars. My cyberarms were equipped with various tools like a blowtorch, and immediately put them to use. However, I could tell just after a few minutes that it wasn’t going to be so easy. Whatever this white metal was, it was a lot stronger than I thought.

There weren’t any locks to pick either, so I could only go back to the drawing board. I only got to deliberate my next move for a few minutes before another bright flash of light manifested nearby. I quickly peered over and spotted the shadow or someone in one of the previously empty cells.

“Hello?” I called out again.

This time, I got an answer.

“Rollo?”

The figure moved closer toward the bars of their cell, revealing Thorne’s face.

“Thorne? Do you know what’s going on?”

He looked relieved upon seeing me and shook his head.

“One second, I was in my room, and then explosions rang out. I tried banging at the door to catch the guards’ attention, but to no avail. After some time, my entire room suddenly shone with light and then I found myself here.”

“That—sounds close enough to what happened to me. However, I was in a large courtroom, being questioned, before intruders found their way in. I was in the middle of all the crossfire before I got teleported.”

Thorne said nothing and just silently stared at me. I was around him often enough to know he had something to say.

“What? Just spit it out.”

“Hmm, do you think it’s your guardian angel again?”

“Maybe, or more like probably, but why in the world is he taking such drastic action? It’s just an inquiry right now. They haven’t even decided what to do with me.”

“Maybe he caught wind of something? Like they would execute you regardless?”

“That could be true if you stick with the premise that my guardian angel is there to protect me, but we can’t say for sure. Who knows if the situation has changed? He may want to finish me off now.”

“That’s highly unlikely given how much effort he put into—”

“We can speculate motives and conspiracies later. We need to deal with the present now. We’re cut off from everyone, locked into a cell. We’re literally sitting duck.”

“Yeah, and we have to find Claire. Should we break out?”

“You say that like we have a choice. I tried already. These bars won’t budge.”

“Let me try.”

With his cyborg physique, Thorne tightly grasped onto the bars and tried to bend them apart. After a few tries, he had no luck either.

“Damn it! If only we still had our power armor.”

I let him vent out his frustrations by himself while I got back to brainstorming ideas. My powerful armor had been confiscated, but I still had my cybernetics. That meant the Shade and Argus for stealth and detection, and some Nyes I kept for a rainy day like this.

However, their range was limited, and the long corridors of where all these cells were proved too far for them to gather any useful information.

“How are there no guards or anyone else here?” Thorne cried out.

“Probably all busy with the intruders,” I replied.

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“So you think these are the cells of the consortium? They teleported us out of the way when they figured they were under attack?”

“I’m almost certain of it. If our rescuers could replicate the same feat, we’d be on their getaway vehicle or something already. It’s probably the consortium’s way of preventing anyone from rescuing us. Let’s just hope they don’t think it’s our own forces that are doing this, because we don’t want to antagonize them.”

We shared a moment of silence as we processed what was happening. We were only interrupted when another flash of light appeared. This time, we discovered Claire had been brought to the jail as well.

“Claire!” Thorne cried out. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not a porcelain doll. What the hell is going on?”

Before we could fill her in on what we knew, the bars to our cell suddenly retreated into the floor and ceiling. One moment we were trapped in our cells, and the next, we found ourselves free. Thorne didn’t hesitate and quickly moved out into the corridor, scared that it would close him in again.

I could only sigh at the reckless behavior and join him, seeing there being no traps. The three of us soon reunited. We silently surveyed our surroundings, bewildered at our sudden release. The entire place was still devoid of the presence of anyone else.

One end of the corridor was a dead end, while the other led to a reinforced door. We made our way toward our only apparent exit. I signaled for Claire to stay silent and shared a knowing look with Thorne.

The two of us were in sync, activating our active camouflage at the same time as we approached the door. I lightly grasped the handle and found that it was unlocked. Before I could push it open, a voice leaked out from the other side.

“Mr. Halls, are you there? Please come out.”

The man’s words made me freeze up as my mind raced. Who was he and what did he want? He knew I was here somehow, but waited for me at the only exit. He was the definition of suspicious.

“Mr. Halls, please. We don’t have a lot of time. Please come out already.”

I felt an arm land on my shoulder. It was Thorne, reassuring me. We didn’t need to exchange words to know he was telling me we should go confront the man. We didn’t have a choice. There didn’t appear to be any other way out of this place.

We could wait around like good prisoners, but that was just as dangerous as escaping. Who knew if the intruders were here to save us or execute us? The consortium may even believe us to be escape risks and decide to kill us off as well.

The man on the other side of the door already knew we were there. We couldn’t just turn back and pretend nothing happened.

I resolved myself to a tough fight and opened the door. I even turned off my invisibility to face what was next head on. It was also to draw attention to myself while Thorne continued to lurk around.

When I walked into the room, I found the entire place in a mess. Random office supplies were scattered around the floor. There were even bodies and blood everywhere. Standing in the middle of all this, a lone figure stood there.

He was in a pitch-black metal suit. After taking a second glance, I noticed it wasn’t just a regular combat outfit, but appeared to be a lightweight power armor. I couldn’t see his face at all, as continued to glare at me through his helmet that resembled an old medieval knight’s.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You can call me Lance. There isn’t a lot of time, so I ask that your companions calm down and come with me.”

He looked over knowingly toward a corner of the room. Neither of us said a thing for a brief moment before I shook my head.

“Sorry, but that’s not possible. You’re going to have to give me something before you expect me to just follow you.”

“Mr. Halls, please. I mean no harm to you. I would’ve taken action already if that was my intention.”

Just as I wanted to retort, I saw the man abruptly do a ninety-degree turn, swatting his arm out.

“Let’s not resort to any violence here.”

“Thorne, stop,” I called out.

Despite how fishy this Lance person was, we were in no position to come into conflict with anyone. He was fully geared while we didn’t have a gun with us. Combined with a non-combatant like Claire in the back, it was better for us to remain peaceful.

A moment after I called out, Thorne materialized beside me.

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“Good,” Lance said. “Let’s get moving.”

“Before we go, at least tell me who sent you.”

“Hmm, it’s complicated, but you can say I’m from SocialCorp.”

His unexpected answer made us freeze as we questioned if we had heard right.

“What? SocialCorp?” Claire shouted as she burst through the door behind us.

The man didn’t talk to us any further and simply stormed out of the other door. With nowhere else to go, the three of us followed him out. We found ourselves in the corridors, but I couldn’t tell if we were even in the same building as before. The consortium’s building was definitely large, but I had been confined to only one area.

After the teleportation, we could’ve been somewhere else entirely. Teleportation technology was too unfamiliar to me. I had no idea about its capabilities or limitations.

Either way, it wasn’t the time to be bombarding our new guide with questions, as guards could be lurking nearby. They would definitely shoot Lance on sight, so we likely wouldn’t be spared from the chaos.

We made our way to a staircase and began descending. It was only then that I learned we were on the sixteenth floor.

We only went down one level before Lance ushered us back into the corridors. My scanners showed no one was nearby, but I couldn’t fully trust it. It couldn’t pick up on Lance either, so there could be another agent nearby.

SocialCorp was at the pinnacle. It was the largest corporation, and that likely meant it was the most advanced, too. The conflicts at this level were evidently beyond me.

I allowed myself to be led around. We soon came to a stop before a large set of metal gates. Lance simply tapped on the terminal beside it before it began to open.

Inside, I spotted a plethora of random items lying around. There was heavy machinery, shiny trinkets, and even clothes. It was like a garage where people placed their junk in. Lance strode inside without a word and only stopped when he came before something that made me stunned.

It was something I was very familiar with. I could even say no one was more familiar with it than me. That was because I was its creator.

Standing before us were the two sets of power armor that sported the logo of a snow owl on its shoulders. It was the very ones we had worn prior to our capture.