"All successful heists require three core pieces of information. One, know what's between you and your target. Two, know what will happen if the alarms go off. Three, know your escape options." Ever since getting on the AV, it'd been as if a switch had been flipped inside Shadow. The meguca had summoned several tablets for me to use, and was doing her damndest to drill into me the layout of the surrounding areas to the nightclub. I was fairly sure I'd been going at it for at least an hour. "It's possible to bypass point two, but that is a luxury for the true masters of the craft."

I felt the need to point out that I had no intention of "mastering" heists and thievery, but then again, I was still feeling contrite about this whole thing. On some logical level, I agreed to the logic of it, but that didn't stop it from leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe it was that I was actually stealing something, or maybe it was that I'd be taking monster form… or maybe it was that tiny little eager wiggle the system did whenever I checked my AP.

My heart was racing already, and we hadn't reached our destination yet.

"You somehow look a lot more enthusiastic about teaching me about heists than anything about training."

"That would imply knowledge learned here would not be applicable in other aspects," she chided. "What matters is that you learn how to protect yourself against others that might seek to hunt you down," she continued. "In this instance, the focus should be on the different levels of alarms. The alarms that go off during the heist might create certain threats, but those that go off after the fact could bring forth a different kind of danger. If someone finds out who you are, then they could potentially track you down."

Just what I needed, more reasons to be nervous.

"Neat."

The meguca paused. "Now, we have some time while your friend prepares the ride." Witha gesture of her hand, she made the tablets vanish. "While we wait, we should workshop how you can protect yourself from potentially being discovered."

I hesitantly nodded. Every little bit helped.

Right?

Originally, mega-buildings were designed as a massive whole. One large box of concrete and steel to house thousands of people. Each part of the structure would serve a particular purpose for the whole, with some areas being dedicated towards hydroponic farms, and other areas to recycling water, or processing sewage or trash. Overall, their intention was to be completely self-contained, a bunker of sorts that could survive for a very long time even if entirely cut-off from the rest of the world.

The three-mile high sky-pinnacles took that concept and applied it in modules, effectively stacking one self-sufficient mega-building on top of the next.

Or at least that had been the original concept.

According to Shadow, the inner city had gone through a slow transition over time. With every inch of available space being seen as more of a luxury the further up you went, people became increasingly willing to pay equally monumental piles of credits for it. This meant that, over time, many of the crucial systems were shoved down into the spaces within the lower levels.

Not everything, of course. Things such as water couldn't realistically be pumped up and down a whole mile's worth of building infrastructure, let alone three. If the corporation owned the entirety of the building, then it would be a literally total vertical integration of all basic functions and needs. So why waste luxury space on, for example, a recycling facility? Or some storage space for things you'd rather keep away from the VIP's?

With every new thing that was shoved down from the top, the bottom of the building needed to expand horizontally, and thus into its neighbors. After a century of this, the second and first district had become a mass labyrinth of corridors, tunnels, pipes, and narrow streets. Electric bikes and scooters were the norm down here, as there were only a handful of streets wide enough for anything else.

The only realistic options for large, bulky cargo were through the cargo elevators. They were massive empty things, with blocky pieces of metal moving up and down at frightening speeds. From my current hidey-hole, they looked like shutter doors, slamming through the shaft and ready to decapitate anything that got in their way.

Why go slow when there were no humans on board?

"Isia's reached the pick-up point, we can begin." Shadow said from my, well, shadow.

A soft engine whined from somewhere overhead, the house-sized box slowing its descent as it passed my position. A gust of wind followed behind as it came to a gentle stop a dozen meters further down.

"Now."

A wave of darkness enveloped me as I leapt out of the hole, gritting my teeth as I landed on top of the elevator with a solid 'thud'. My legs shivered, but I held strong, flattening myself against the elevator's rooftop as I focused on the next task at hand.

AP:

68 / 200

Power Mode (1):

* -1 AP / Second * * +5 Strength / Second *

Gritting my teeth, I fought against the transformation, urging it to progress as slowly as possible. The system tried to help, but even with the assistance, there was only so much either of us could do.

The elevator began to move again, this time upwards, at the same time that my body grew and expanded. I had an idea in mind, so was aiming to be as compact as possible for the task ahead. My muscles bulged and grew taut, while the darkness Shadow had created was slowly starting to fade as I kept growing.

I kept my focus on my hands, clenching them into fists as I looked upwards at the flurry of numbers indicating the floor numbers and waited for my signal.

Achievement: Reach +200 AP strength

'Concussive Touch' Every blow hits with twice the force.

With the confirmation, I began counting the seconds, claws digging into the elevator's metal roof. My body coiled in preparation.

"You should go fluff," she said from the shadows.

What?

I frowned, needing a moment to process what she meant.

Shimmer (F) activated (-10 AP)

When I saw the "150" painted against the interior walls, I jumped with everything I had. The elevator screamed from the force, bending slightly, and my body was abruptly hit by a wall of wind that tried to kill my inertia, carrying me beyond my target and slamming me against the wall above the metal doors I'd aimed for.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I ignored my hurt pride and let myself drop, slamming my claws against the metal doors, muscles bulging as I pried them open.

"First alarm has gone off," she declared right as the elevator's brakes let out an ear-splitting screech behind me. But I did not pay it any mind as I barrelled against the doors, claws tearing the metal open.

My ears rang from the noise of metal being torn, and I joined it with a roar of my own for exaggerated effect.

Because, of course, I needed to pretend to be a dumb monster.

Stepping out of the elevator shaft and into the road, I stopped when I noticed a guy driving a hover-fork-lift. His eyes went wide, mouth agape as he strangled the scream he'd been about to let out.

I pulled a finger against my snout, carefully maneuvering around the forklift and continuing my way down the road, following the directions I'd memorized.

"Second alarm has gone off. CYPHER's starting threat assessment. You have five minutes before the drones make it here," the meguca whispered into my ear, indicating for me to stop the AP consumption for the time being.

I could feel her shadows dancing across my fur. Though she hadn't told me what her powers were doing, I could only assume there had to be something to do with electronics. Someone down one of the alleyways I passed by tried to deploy a small drone, and the thing just crashed into the nearest wall.

Every few meters I would drag my claws against something, or let out a small roar. As much as I loathed random property damage, it was the better alternative to make sure no one missed the big bulky monster running around. The more time they had to run away, the better.

"This is it."

At Shadow's prompting, I turned to look at the wall to my left. It looked like every other wall in this twisting mess of streets, but according to the blueprints, it was a non-load-bearing wall. Meaning that I actually had a chance to break through the thing.

So I got to work.

I punched as hard as I could, watching with satisfaction as spiderweb cracks emerged with every impact. Concussive touch was doing its work, doubling the power of every blow. Once the first chunks of concrete began to crumble off, I dug my claws into the metal, yanking and tearing my way through pipes and cables. Sparks would fly off from time to time, accompanied by gouts of steam and running water from other pipes, at least the first handful of seconds until they were automatically shut off. The wall was far thicker than I'd thought it would be- at least a whole meter- but it was concerningly easy to break through to the other side.

And directly into the "basement" of the BlingBling club.

I'd effectively provided them with a second street-level access point.

Crouching low as I stepped through the hole, I scanned the room in search of my target. The bio-weapon was where I remembered it to be, a glass podium containing some monster's spines floating within. Each one was connected to the podium through tubes with some kind of liquid pumping through, likely some sort of life-support system to keep the monster-parts alive and functional.

"Your call," Shadow declared before I could consider prompting her for input.

I nodded slightly, leaning into the "rampaging monster" character and just going to town on the base of the podium, tearing into the floor beneath it until the whole thing just toppled over on its own. Sparks jumped out of the torn electric cables, but whatever fluid systems were being used, they were contained to the podium.

"Security systems are activating."

I'd barely heard the words when I caught the sound of pneumatic systems and the distinct 'click' of a firearm. Hidden panels on the walls opened up, revealing three automated turrets, barrels swivelling to lock on to me. I lunged towards the sofa next to the bio-weapon pillar and kicked it towards the turrets as they opened fire. Several gunshots rang out, and I felt a sting on my shoulder right before the heavy piece of furniture crumpled all three weapon-systems in one sickening metal crunch.

"We're being watched intently," Shadow whispered so low I'd barely heard it. "Several humans are approaching."

I barely had time to process this before light and sound exploded all around me, every speaker and every strobe-light coming to life at the same time. My brain screamed at me as I noticed something lunging at me with a glowing weapon, and I threw myself to the side. The room was spinning from the intense screeching blaring noises, every laser and spotlight flashing on and off as each one that could be aimed turned towards me, drowning the world beyond into intermittent darkness.

I swiped wildly around me at the attacking figure, only noticing after a moment that I was touching nothing at all.

It was a hologram.

"Two minutes," Shadow intoned impassively into my ear, her voice somehow clear despite the cacophony and chaos directed straight at my skull.

With a roar, I ignored the projections and threw myself towards the ceiling hard enough the whole room shook. I clawed at the lights and the speakers, reaching through the façade and tearing out at cables. Sparks flew and pain shot up my arm, but after just a few tries the whole room had gone dark again, even if the speakers were still ringing.

Not wanting to find out what the city's combat drones looked like, I reoriented myself, picking up the bio-weapon podium and lunging out through the entryway I'd made. Just in time too, because the door to the stairs burst open and the big, burly cyborg had stepped through with a minigun.

By the time the thing was revving up, I'd already made it two blocks down and turned a corner.

"Sixty seconds." Her shadows flickered around me, intensifying, spreading through my body in a way that made shivers run up and down my spine. "Take a right on the next street."

My claws scraped on the concrete, ears prickling at the sound of something that I was fairly sure were jet engines. But I never got the chance to figure out what the threat had been. The instant I'd made it through and into the alleyway the darkness enveloped me completely and the world vanished.

I let out a sigh of relief and released my transformation, feeling the ground beneath my naked feet before the podium was taken off of my grasp.

"Dress up."

Sight came back to me just as a bundle of clothes were shoved into my grasp, and a mask shoved on to my face. I stumbled and tripped, hurrying to put on the shirt and pants. If things were going according to the plan, then we were two floors above our previous location. And though I could faintly recognize we'd deviated away from the original extraction point, we weren't that far out. No time to worry about that though, so long as… "Where's the bio-weapon?"

"I stored it," she replied. "Safer there, and that way I can guarantee we are not tracked."

"But…" I frowned. "Is there a limit?"

"Yes." Shadow didn't elaborate any further, and I briefly wondered whether it would've been applicable in our fight. "Hurry, my protection won't last much longer, your companion is on her way."

We bolted down the street, ignoring the other pedestrians, as everyone was doing their damndest to get as much distance from a possible disaster zone as possible. Our race came to a prompt end when a bulky brown minivan rolled up next to us, tinted windows rolling down to show an exasperated looking Isia.

"Please tell me you have it!"

"We do," I said, pulling the door open and jumping inside to the copilot seat. Shadow did the same, jumping into the passenger seat and releasing her transformation as soon as the doors closed.

"FUCK YES!" Isia shouted, stepping on the accelerator and having the vehicle lurch as we were led. "Now we just drop it off at the fence and we'll be liquid again!"

My stomach rumbled as a predecessor to the expected hunger, a call that was answered when Isia shoved a box of nutrient bars onto my lap without even looking away from the road. "Thanks," I muttered, not even bothering to unwrap them, seeing how the bio-degradable plastic was just as tasteless as the snacks themselves.

A shuffling sound drew my attention over to the back seats.

Shadow had been busy, pulling items seemingly out of thin air and dropping them into whatever empty space was available. She'd put something down, tap it a few times, and either leave it there or make it disappear again. The pile of scrap kept growing and growing, and I recognized pieces of the turrets that had shot at me mere minutes ago. But there was more: wires, lamps, broken chairs, speakers… Shadow kept dumping stuff, filling out the back-seats and then the open trunk.

Wonderment turned into shock as I realized she'd literally taken everything that hadn't been nailed down. Worse, I hadn't even noticed her doing so.

"You can keep this, they don't have any trackers in them," she declared. "Make sure to scrub them before selling."

"Oh wow," Isia commented as she looked over her shoulder. "That's gotta be worth a pretty cred-chit."

If the price ranges in New Francisco were anything comparable to Frontier City 02, then the scrap pile could be easily worth a few hundred credits. "Guess it'll depend on how hard we can bargain. Though I don't imagine it'd be smart to try and dump this on whoever will buy the bio-weapon off of our hands."

"I concur," Shadow said. "As I will be the one buying the bio-weapon, I am not interested in these." She gestured at what she'd just dumped onto the back-seats.

"Wait, what!?" I asked in between bites.

"I've never stolen a bio-weapon before, and this one's important because it is my student's first trophy. Keeping it for myself would be reasonable and safer as well," she said with the same casualness of someone talking about the weather. "You'd mentioned that a hundred thousand credits was the amount taken from you?"

"He said a million," Isia hurried to point out.

"A hundred thousand would suffice," I said, shooting a glare at Isia.

The meguca looked between the two of us for a moment. "Two hundred."

Isia hollered. "Preem!" She stepped on the accelerator, causing the vehicle to lurch forward. "Tonight we party! First round's on me!" She shouted, barely noticing as Shadow vanished. My stomach grumbled, and she eyed me. "Maybe food first."

"Yes please."

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