Dean reluctantly relieved himself in a random corner since Kat insisted because there might be more enemies reappearing on the following floors.
"This really isn't sanitary."
[Quit your whining, you're just pissing in a corner and it's way better than fighting another group of husks or fiends just to pee.]
"Maybe I don't mind that", Dean muttered under his breath.
[I heard that.]
"Sigh, I hope we don't have to come back here", Dean said as he went over to carry Mary and proceed to walk down the stairs.
[You know you could carry her gentler like a princess carry instead of like a sack of potato]
"..."
[Dean?]
"She's a stranger so it's improper to do that."
Dean pushed his glasses up explaining his reason to which Kat sighed in agreement but called him a 'virgin' at the end. Then they proceeded quietly down the stairs hopefully reaching ground floor without any interruptions this time.
.
.
.
.
Walking down the last flight of stairs, Dean looked out of the glass walls showing the outside from the ground view this time.
The only source of light was the artificial full moon shining its light on the surroundings, but it wasn't enough to reveal anything as if the unknown dangers decided to lurk in the darkness.
From cups on the ground to misplaced chairs and tables leaving a mess outside, just enough for Dean to see under the moonlight.
The shrubs were still.
There was no breeze to rustle the trees.
It would've seem like time stopped completely if not for the splashing sound of the fountain outside.
The still calm outside would've seem peaceful if not for...
'This feels really eerie'
....the strange tension in Dean's heart. This familiar feeling was what he felt when he went on one of the field trips under his internship for UHA special Esper taskforce. It was strange to intern for a special military unit or even the military itself but the UHA had a different approach to managing their superhumans.
The field trip was an abandoned small colony of 1,500 in the Northern front, complete opposite from where the Xenonoids were fighting humanity, where all of the inhabitants disappeared without a trace.
The buildings were intact.
There were signs of life such as unfinished food or running water.
The electricity was mysteriously drained leaving the colony in the dark.
The strange calm felt very eerie as it wasn't known what caused this. The UHA military escorts only briefly explained that an unknown enemy abducted the residents to uncharted territory.
'Right, there isn't any signs of movement from fiends nor husks'
At least there wasn't any from Dean's line of sight.
He looked to the side to see Kat carefully looking around. He remembered asking Kat during their long walk down if she could see in the dark or create a program to improve her vision.
But Kat said at best she could see outlines of figures in the dark to which she is doing right now.
"See anything?"
His voice was calm hiding the nervousness Dean was feeling on the inside.
[No, there might be more in Pleasantville or even beyond that door], Kat pointed at the door leading to the ground floor of the 4th year student housing.
"Can you set the door to manual release?", Dean asked while setting Mary down under the staircase for safety reasons.
[On it]
Dean turned his light off and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before carefully opening the door with his bare hands.
He only open it enough for him to peek into the ground floor granted he wasn't sure if the stairway door had a good line of sight for the rest of the floor as Dean only took the elevator for the past 4 years.
Peeking through, Dean looked around for less than a minute then quickly used his power to shut the door and turned his light on.
Taking some time to adjust to the brightness, there was a grave look to his face this time.
"Too many this time"
And he was correct, beyond that door was twice as many husks and fiends than floor 13.
The husks were idle but Dean could see their outline just barely.
Fiends, on the other hand, were easier to spot due to their glowing red veins and eyes. The fiends were walking around destroying random stuff and searching as if there were still survivors on the ground floor.
[I saw some inactive cleaning drones that I could take control and divert some of the attention]
Dean was curious to Kat's suggestion so he asked, "What can cleaning drones do? Just out of curiosity?"
Kat proceeded to smile with a proud look.
[For starters, some of the drones can self-destruct especially the hover Roombas to counter corporate espionage. Others can mix the cleaning supplies to create deadly acidic sprays or even a makeshift bomb. Of course it takes time.....]
Kat had it planned out from hopping into the door panel wirelessly then sneaking through the wires to get near the inactive drones.
Of course, she wouldn't be able to see anything until she emerged and it took time to mix the chemicals and set the Roombas to become suicide bombers, but now that they were on the ground floor, Kat could access the Student Housing office and turn the lights on for the ground floor causing a brief distraction instead of Dean risking his life.
Dean ponder on this option and liked the idea of fighting with the lights on this time, but the idea of Kat being directly involved in the chaos of fighting this time concerned him.
"Kat...you can just turn the lights on and I can somewhat manage them if I use the environment well", Dean had a tinge of worry in his tone while his gaze was steady.
[No I can do this. There's too many for you to handle this time]
"....Aren't you scared of hurting a living being?"
The worry was more prevalent this time since Kat's race was peace-loving and only resorted to violence if it was self-defense or if there wasn't any options.
[Of course I'm scared to hurt people]
Kat's full petite holographic figure was shaking at the thought but...
[I made a vow to protect you however I can even resorting to violence. And my mom says that we fellow living beings should always take our vows seriously.]
....her eyes had a steel-like determination. Dean wasn't sure how to react since they only became friends in less than a day....well technically adopted siblings if Kat is serious about adopting him.
For Kat though, she's known Dean for the past 4 years, even looked at the classified documents on Dean's childhood upon her personal request to Granny Judy. So she knew what kind of life Dean lived through despite not remembering much 14 years ago.
'Just like the stories mom and grandmama used to tell me, it's always the good people that suffered so much'
The thought crossed Kat's mind as she waited for Dean's response.
"Haaa.....just don't get hurt", Dean's voice this time was softer which amused Kat as it seems Dean forgot that paxian are harder to kill.
[Heh, idiot I should be the one to say that. Now I'll give the signal and you'll charge in cutting anyone down.]
Kat prepares herself to hop into the door panel, accessing part of this floor's mainframe, but there was just one more thing...
[Oh Dean, don't get yourself killed or anything. Else I'll leak your browser history]
**********
A/N: Ah exploding roombas.
Next chapter will hopefully clear any plot holes about Kat diving into the mainframe.