The cage bounced up and down along with Rothgard's jogging paces, causing the prisoner within to begin feeling very queasy. "Would it kill you to hold to damn thing steady?" Piper growled too quietly for Rothgard to hear over the ongoing ringing of the alarm.
Holding onto the image of Kalen's reassuring expression was all that was keeping Piper from freaking out at this point. He seemed to know what was going on, as though he had some sort of plan. What exactly this plan of his entailed, Piper had no clue.
Piper craned her neck to see that above her Rothgard was inputting a code on a keypad next to a large door made of black wood. There was cheerful ding noise followed by the sound of an electronic lock releasing. Rothgard hastily jerked the door open and rushed inside.
There was something satisfying about seeing Rothgard so without his usual strict composure, like seeing past the chinks in the armor. He wasn't all-knowing and all-powerful after all.
With no regard for the person inside, Rothgard practically threw the cage onto the corner of his desk. "Son of a bitch." Piper cursed, picking herself back up off the floor, a few new bruises added to her body's growing collection.
Rothgard dropped into the massive chair behind the desk, a holographic screen popping up in front of him as soon as he did. A few buttons presses and the obnoxious alarm finally shut up. Although the sudden silence in addition to being alone in a room with Rothgard started to make Piper's skin crawl.
The good news was that the silence didn't last long. The bad news was that the silence had been interrupted by the distant sound of shouting and fighting. If this was a part of Kalen's plan, she did not much care it. Being around giants was bad enough, being around giants who were engaged in a violent altercation? An absolutely horrible idea.
Piper caught a flash of panic cross Rothgard's face as he too noticed the ruckus going on somewhere not too far away. His typing on the holographic screen got faster.
"Complete manual reset is not possible." The cool voice of the female AI called IRIS announced.
"Why not?" Rothgard demanded, his frustration quickly growing.
"Interference from an unknown remote user." IRIS replied calmly. "However, a manual reset on security cameras can be performed." She added.
"Fine." Rothgard grumbled, beginning to type away on the screen again.
"Security cameras back online." IRIS reported a moment later.
Staring through the back of the transparent screen, Piper could see several small video feeds pop up, showing what she could only assume were various parts the house. One video showed a shootout between two different groups of people, only their guns were firing bolts of energy instead of bullets, much like the gun that'd been used to knock Piper out back on Earth.
Turning her attention to a different feed, Piper saw the dining room she had just been in. Sure enough Kalen was there, along with another man.
~
Kalen had been right in the middle of a long winded argument with himself over whether or not he should go after Piper, when he was interrupted by the arrival of a man dressed in a black uniform. Kalen knew instantly the man belonged to Rothgard's private army of guards. "I have been instructed to protect you, sir." The guard stated, raising the nuclear gun in his hand to emphasize the point.
"Actually I was going to go see if I could provide some help to Lord Rothgard so--" Kalen began to approach the doorway but was blocked when the guard slid in front of his path.
"I cannot permit you to leave this room, sir." The guard told him firmly.
Kalen stared the guard down. Maybe it was for the best this way. After all he had no idea what he expected to do once he reached Rothgard's office. The Pervicacious surely had things under control and once they reached Rothgard and took him down, Kalen would be able to go get Piper. Then again, the Pervicacious had made it clear that they didn't really care about the well being of humans and Kalen was sure they would put Piper's safety at risk in a heartbeat if it meant increasing their chances of bringing down Rothgard.
Kalen looked the well-built guard in front of him up down, hesitating on the weapon gripped in the man's right hand. Kalen let out a low sigh. "I must be insane." He muttered.
"Uh what--" Before the guard could finish, Kalen had lunged forward and ripped the gun out of his hand. While the guard hesitated to gape in surprise, Kalen chucked the gun into the corner of the room. While actually using the thing might have been a good idea, Kalen didn't know whether the thing would emit stunning or execution beams, and Kalen wasn't ready to add murder to his growing list of crimes.
"What the hell--" Once again Kalen didn't let the guard finish his sentence, this time throwing a punch directly at the guy's face. Unfortunately the guard hadn't been in enough shock not to dodge the attack and managed to jump back far enough to avoid the hit.
Kalen was no expert in combat, from what he'd heard he was sure Piper knew more about fighting than he did. He'd taken a couple self defense classes when he was about thirteen, but that definitely didn't put him at the level of someone whose whole job description entailed being able to fend attackers off. However Kalen had three things on his side. One: This guard hadn't been expecting the attack. Two: He would probably be reluctant to hurt the son of the Baron and Baroness. And Three: Kalen wanted nothing more in that moment than to get to Piper and keep her out of harm's way.
Letting loose a rage-filled war cry that he would later cringe at, Kalen charged after the guard. He threw punch after punch at the man. The guard managed to block the first few, but through the endless barrage one finally landed, square in his jaw. The guard's head snapped to the side from the impact. Taking advantage of the moment, Kalen threw another punch, this one straight into the guy's gut. The guard wheezed and stumbled backwards, giving Kalen just enough room to kick him in the chest and send him tumbling to the ground.
The guard slipped into unconsciousness shortly after hitting the floor, the large red splotch of a developing bruise already appearing on the left side of his face.
A big fat grin spread across Kalen's face as he stared down at his handiwork. He pumped a triumphant fist in the air, "Wait till Piper hears about this!"
Kalen's celebration was quickly cut short when he heard his own voice say her name. If he wanted to guarantee getting the chance to tell Piper about the undeniably bad ass stunt he'd just pulled, he had to go get her out of Rothgard's hands first.
An added spring of confidence in his step, Kalen strode out the room and towards Rothgard's office.