"Well, we will think of that when the time comes." Said White Arrow, sounding quite annoyed. "Now, do you have a way for us to progress or not?"
Night Gale shot him a glare, and even though it would’ve caused him to shudder before, he only glared back at her.
"I couldn’t care less about this operation," he went on. "I want to get done with it as soon as possible, but things keep dragging on because of your mistakes. How long do you plan on making us wait for?"
Silence enveloped the room, and the longer it lingered, the more tense things got. The Commissioner spoke after a while, and going by his tone, he truly didn’t appreciate how the white clad hero talked to him.
[It is as you said, White Arrow. Our shortcomings are what caused the predicament you are currently in. Still, that does not give you the right to be disrespectful. You might be under my command only for the duration of this operation, but do not make the mistake of thinking that your behavior wouldn’t haunt you once everything is over.]
Once again, Night Gale glared are her teammate, and though he didn’t cower like he usually would, it appeared like the idea got across.
"My apologies, Commissioner."
[Be careful from now on.] Sighing, the Commissioner continued. [As for the path forward, we are working on something. For now, I need you to give us a direct connection to the lock to the manual control room.]
Night Gale looked quite exhausted as she made her way to the back of the room, where a large alloy door was waiting in one of the corners. Reaching into the small pouch on her waist, she took out a smartphone-like device and pulled at its bottom, extending a cable which she then plugged into the small control panel on the door frame.
A few minutes later, the Commissioner spoke again.
[As it’s not connected to the hotel’s network, we might be able to open the lock from here. Please wait a couple of minutes.]
When he clicked his tongue, this time, White Arrow got a glare from everyone, not just their team leader. It took a little more than a couple of minutes to unlock the door, but no one dared to complain. Werewolf went in and released the locks for the floor gates, which opened the path to the forty-seventh floor.
"Great. Now we just have ten more to go."
Ignoring her white clad teammate, Night Gale put away her phone and pressed her earpiece, speaking to the Commissioner.
"Is it not possible to open the fire escape this way?"
[Unfortunately, the manual controls for the fire escape are in Klaus Stahlwölfe’s residence.]
White Arrow opened his mouth to say something, but a fist came down on his head and shut him down. He looked up and saw Sunray smiling at him, but her smile lacked its usual radiance, looking rather terrifying instead.
[The rest of the infiltration force should catch up to you by the time you reach the forty-fifth floor. You can leave accessing the manual controls to them from there.]
With that, the conversation seemed to reach its end. Night Gale turned to the others, looking at them one after the other before settling on White Arrow.
"What’s the matter with you today?"
The way he averted his gaze told them there was definitely something. Still, this felt like one of those situations that would quickly escalate into a shouting match, so they all decided to leave it there for the time being.
Still in a gloomy mood, they moved on to the next floor. Werewolf led the way, with Night Gale and Sunray following behind him. White Arrow remained in the rear and said nothing as they made their way down, heading for the next supervisor’s office.
Whoever designed the building seemed to be adamant on making it as infuriating as possible to get anywhere without going through the normal route. One of the ways that showed was in how the floor supervisors are placed in a different corner on each floor, ensuring that intruders would have to cross the entire floor when moving from one to the other.
Just like the previous floors, the cyborg attendants spawned as soon as the hero team moved toward their destination. Gunfire noise had become a constant in this operation, adding to the frustration the four heroes felt.
"Damn it," after a long silence, White Arrow finally went back to complaining. "How long do we-"
When his words were suddenly cut, the others caught on right away, coming to a stop with heightened guards. The corridor was quiet and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but when they turned to check with their white clad teammate, the serious look he gave them told them that something was definitely up.
Not saying anything, White Arrow ran back to the intersection they had just passed. Gazing into a different route, he then turned to the others and motioned for them to come back.
At first, nothing seemed different about the corridor that White Arrow pointed them to. It led to the hallway where some of the elevators were located, but other than that, they failed to notice anything different.
Werewolf was the first to catch on to what caught the attention of their white clad teammate. Just like the stairs connecting the floors, the elevators were supposed to be sealed with the same blast-proof alloy gates, but for some reason, it was different this time.
"Suspicious..." Said Sunray, gazing at the elevator door with half-lidded eyes.
"Does it even work?" Asked Werewolf.
"We don’t have the access keys to begin with." Said Night Gale.
"Who cares about that?" With a grin on his face, White Arrow clapped his hands together, a white radiance shimmering between his palms. "We finally have a way down!"
Of course, he wasn’t talking about taking the elevator to the lower floors. With the system still under the enemy’s control, doing so was like walking straight into a trap. That said, with the alloy gate removed, they could now access the elevator shaft and climb down to through it.
Thankfully, the one they found went all the way down to the thirty-eighth floor. They would still have to find a way to access the elevators leading to the thirty-seventh, but that was nothing compared to having to climb one floor at a time to reach their target.
"Seriously, who came up with the idea of elevators that only go down from the ceiling?" Though he was complaining, White Arrow had a grin on his face. "And why are the floors they can reach limited?"
He spread his arms and created a shimmering white blade, grasping its hilt as he moved to cut the elevator door. Just as he raised his arms, the clear chime of a bell resounded in the corridor, causing him to freeze in his spot.
Looking up at the small panel to the side, they saw an arrow pointing up on its screen, and right under it, a two digit number was gradually rising.
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