Script popped up into my HUD of its own free will. A moment later, it turned into a text message from an unknown number. 'Lead them into the basement. All sorts of turrets set up down there.'

Luna? Scary scary… she got through the ice of my phone and chrome in seconds. My immediate knee-jerk reaction at seeing my chrome so easily taken over was to teleport out and abandon her here. We were allies for now though. After this was over, I definitely needed to find the new Constellation Night Market and buy some better protection.

I glanced over at the girl hiding in the snow bank and nodded my head. Regardless, leading them out of the warehouse itself would be for the best. Having a gunfight break out with her poor cover would be a particularly bad idea.

"A dozen mercs just got out. Tac armor, rifles—looks like a hit squad?" Mira called out. "What's the plan, Shiro?"

The plan? My original one went out the window the moment a hit squad showed up. So much for this being an easy job. "Don't shoot. Let them enter the basement, then wrap around with the hover bike and pick up Luna. I'll teleport out, and we'll regroup somewhere else."

"You sure? Leaving you here like this…"

"It'll be fine. I've gotten away from much worse odds." The circle guys that came after me would blow this group out of the water. Not to mention I could just vanish into the night without having to worry about magical trackers.

"Still…" She did not sound impressed with my plan. "Does the fifty cal work?"

"Chek. The priority is to get Luna out first though. Don't worry about anything else." I cut my whisper short when lights flashed across the entrance into the warehouse. I ducked down and slunk into the staircase into the basement. From my HUD I watched the group enter the warehouse thanks to my Dragonflies.

I reached for my pistol. Not the coil one, but just a regular pistol. I always carried it as a backup, though I never thought I'd use it like this. I waited till the group of mercs was fully in the warehouse and then fired off the entire mag into a wall of the basement.

The gunshots echoed out into the city, immediately causing every merc in the squad to look towards the entrance into the basement. One of them motioned forward, and the squad split. Four of them stayed back, taking firing positions around the room. The rest moved forward to check out the basement.

"I'm right above the warehouse." Mira whispered. I could feel her location thanks to the combo of the Packheart Ring as well as my spectral crow.

I pulled out a grenade and tossed it into a corner of the warehouse as one last distraction. Then I tugged on the connection and teleported out of the warehouse entirely.

Mira jumped and swung a fist at me out of reaction. Wind whistled across her fist enhanced by the exoskeleton. I ducked low, bending over backward to avoid the knockout blow. "Chill!"

"S-sorry." Mira scooted up, giving me room to sit. "Scared the crap out of me. Forgot you could do that."

I watched her for a moment and then turned back to the Dragonflies. "Four of them are keeping watch, eight of them should be taken care of by traps soon."

Boom!

The warehouse flashed with light as my grenade went off. The squad of mercs seemed to get emboldened by all the action down there and formed up outside of the staircase.

I disabled the HUD for a moment and checked the road. Aside from the two SUVs, it was barren. The previous shots probably scared off any stragglers. Most people knew when to ghost.

I formed up another spectral crow and tossed it into the saddle bag of my hover bike. Then I nudged Mira on the shoulder and dropped once more into the freezing night air. I landed on the roof once more, getting a vantage point over the four mercs.

Unfortunately, all four of them were set up in such a way that I wouldn't be able to take out any of them without alerting the others. My hand squeezed tightly around the grip of my coil-pistol. Patience. Just be patient.

I watched the first set of mercs head down the stairs. My leg started to bob uncontrollably. Why was I having such a hard time sitting still? This never happened. I could usually sit still for hours without there being a problem during a heist.

Flashlights flicked across the warehouse, forcing me to still. The rest of the mercs, seemingly emboldened by the first set heading down without issue, moved for the stairs. I watched them carefully push forward. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cams in the basement itself, so I could only guess at what they were doing down there.

Gunfire suddenly erupted from below. At the exact same time as the gunfire erupting, the mechanisms that hid the staircase activated once more. The heavy concrete blocks pushed back, covering up the stairs like it was never there. Only the sound of constant noise erupting from below told the truth.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The four mercs remaining split up. Two of them ran back to the SUVs and the other two moved for where the entrance to the basement used to be. "You take the two outside."

"Roger." I glanced up just in time to see Mira adjust her position and the fifty cal to pop out of the bottom of my hover bike.

Before she could start, I silently dropped down behind one of the mercs and pressed my coil-pistol into the gap between his body armor and helmet. Point-blank there was nothing he could do when I pulled the trigger.

The shot was near silent, but the impact wasn't. The sharp, fleshy sound drew the other merc's attention to me instantly. In slow motion thanks to Dexterity, he brought up his rifle and shifted to aim at me.

Just before I could use Burst Step to close the gap, the guy suddenly locked up and collapsed to the ground into a twitching mess of limbs. I recognized it at a glance. Chrome overload. It was a pretty standard tactic for Netrunners that needed to disable or otherwise take care of someone.

From outside the warehouse came the heavy sound of a fifty cal tearing through the air. After two heavy bursts of the gun, Mira's voice called through our rings. "Got 'em. Need help?"

"Come land and evac." I moved over to where our target was hiding and waved my hand.

"I-is the flyer with you?" Luna's head popped up from the other side of the warehouse with snow clinging to her hair.

"Chek." I watched the warehouse. This felt way too easy… it was definitely some kind of trap, right? I uneasily watched every shadow and nook for any signs that something was about to go wrong.

Was this what it was like working as a team? Getting rid of a dozen armed mercs just like that… it was so simple? I struggled hard just to take care of five back when I was fleeing the circle. Sure, we had home ground advantage and a few other things pushing the favor to us, but it was still just so easy.

I was fully expecting to have to run away from squad after squad of mercs. Just killing them all and being done with it was so not what I had in mind. I wasn't complaining, of course. It was definitely an oddity though. So much for those intricate plans I had formed.

The wariness in Luna's eyes faded to interest as Mira skillfully flew the bike through the gaps in the warehouse. She parked the bike and popped up with a cheerful smile. "Yo!"

"What about down below?" I waved to Mira and motioned to the concrete blocks. The gunfire had gone silent at some point.

"Flatlined… d-doubt there's anything salvageable after that. They used a a bunch of grenades." Luna shook her head sadly and moved over beside me. "All my servers, gone just like that."

"My condolences." If something like this happened at the Speakeasy it would be crushing. I had almost a year's worth of tech stashed there, not to mention all my expensive machinery. If all that just vanished one day?

Right, I needed to start making my own Foundry soon so I'd have a backup just in case the worst ever came to pass. With the people I'd been pissing off recently, any number of them could send a hit squad after me if they knew where to look. Raijin, in particular, after my actions as Nightshade.

Luna shifted uneasily in the snow. "S-so, what's the plan?"

"You go with her." I nodded to Mira. "We'll get you set up in a hotel until Iris calls again."

"I don't bite, Snowy!" Mira cheerfully called, causing the Netrunner's expression to freeze.

"I- I don't think that's a good idea." Luna wrung her hands nervously together. Her voice grew fainter and fainter with every word.

"Worried she's in trouble?" I saw through her concerns almost instantly. I had the same worries, after all. She didn't sound too good, and that favor would be useless if she was dead.

"Y-yeah… this- this job started in the Scath Heights." Luna's head dipped weakly. "Been going downhill since."

Scath Heights… I'd heard about it and even been on the edges of it, but I'd never been inside. It was supposed to be like the Underground, in a sense. There was barely any law outside of the gangs that ruled the streets. I could see why she was worried. Anything could happen there annd Iris didn't sound too good.

"Hmm… We'll get you set up in a hotel, and then I'll go check it out?" I should be able to sneak through there without much trouble.

"Shiro…" Mira shook her head. "What happened to us being a team?"

Right, forgot about that. Old habits died hard. "Ahem- we'll go check it out?"

"No way. I-I can't just keep sitting around while they might be in danger!" The Netrunner's eyes flashed with righteous indignation.

"We're not letting you go into the Scath Heights! You look like a stray breeze could knock you over." Mira spoke up from behind me, directly overwriting whatever sentiment she had.

"I won't, obviously… I'm best behind a deck." She hefted the deck she snagged from the basement.

"Still no. Just stay at the hotel and don't cause problems? I-" I froze as I felt Mira's glare land squarely on my back. "We work better alone."

Luna stared at me with narrowed eyes. "What- y-you worried your secrets will be exposed with me watching you? L-like being able to teleport?"

That was definitely my largest concern. Quite frankly, I didn't trust her as far as I could throw her. Although we could be considered allies right now, what about afterwards? And it was bad enough she already saw me use Spectral Flock. "Can we talk about this later? Now really isn't the time."

"Right…." Luna's eyes dropped to the two laying on the floor. "At the hotel I'll fill you in."

Although she was saying that, I could see the look in her eyes. Based on her Cues, she was trying to ensure I would actually come to the hotel by flaunting information in front of my face rather than abandoning her while we went off to the Scath Heights.

To be fair, I was a hundred percent going to ditch her at the hotel. Getting some extra info would only help me given the situation. I knew almost nothing other than Iris was in trouble and wanted to ensure Luna got out safe… if I extrapolated though, Polar Moon likely ran into serious issues if even their runner's safe house was exposed.

If it was a fight even Iris couldn't deal with, I didn't have high confidence in my own capabilities. That being said, I could at least get in and maybe get her out if need be. My current skill set and tools were perfect for extracting assets past enemy lines.

"Mira, meet me at-" I thought through the map of the city and zeroed in on a location not too far from the speakeasy. "Pine Hotel. I'll send you the exact address in a minute."

"See you there." Mira got back on the back and waved a hand toward Luna. "C'mon, Snowy. Let's get out of here."

"It's Luna..." The Netrunner shook her head, though followed orders and got on the hover bike. "I-is this thing even safe?"

"Probably?" Mira chuckled and then pulled out of the warehouse, leaving me standing alone. I watched them go for a moment before heading out onto the streets. I had a long walk ahead of me before I could get somewhere I'd feel comfortable calling a cab.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.