The noise of night life filled the streets, not bothering to adhere to the fact that night time usually means silence and tranquility.
The streets that were most popular to visit at night were located in areas that were somewhat below ground level, several other streets rising towards the sky like giant stairs.
This pecualiar method of building streets underneath and above other streets, and creating an almost mall-like city was popular in certain areas of giant metropolises.
It was especially popular in areas where a high concetration of people tended to gather.
The streets were filled with people sitting outside, either drinking or just simply chatting, enjoying the pleasant warm summer night, and admiring the few stars that were still shining in the night sky despite the walls of elevated streets and buildings planning to overtake the sky.
One of those stars that were almost invisible unless one squinted, was shining much brighter than the rest, and upon closer inspection, one would notice that it was infact moving. Which led most people to believe that it was some kind of satellite or possibly a plane.
Both conculsions were wrong. The thing flying through the sky, was infact neither a plane, a bird or a satellite.
A low faraway noise reached the streets bustling with activity in a desperate attempt to be heard, Which was ignored among all the other hundreds of noises filling peoples ears.
If anyone could hear the noise, they would be able to hear a feminine young voice, filled with shock, surprise and confusion, but most of all they would be able to hear the pure terror of someone experiencing something they wished to never have anything to do with again.
"How did i end up like this again!?"
A blurry figure yelled as it flew downwards through the air, uselessly flailing its limbs.
"I...FUCKING....HATE...HEIGHTS!"
--
"Is everything set?"
Niko asked, looking out at a wide building with a dome portruding out of its center filling the view from the window.
"Should be all green, let me do a second check real quick"
Gary's voice came from a small device attached to Niko's left ear. The device was both a phone and a camera, often used by proffesional atheletes or sports enthusiasts who wish to broadcast and commentate while their hands are busy. The device was small and colored a deep chrome colour, discreetly hidden behind Niko's long hair.
"Alright, but do it quick, our timeslot is nearing.."
The sound coming from Niko's ear disappeared as the connection was severed.
"Hello, Agent Z, come in"
Gary's voice emanated out of a pair of large headphones.
"My name is Zatoichi, not playing stupid spy game with you, what is it?"
Zatoichi spoke into the large microphone portruding from his old looking headphones, still wearing his bandages and loose kimono and standing in a dark small alley.
"Fine, fine, is everyone at your side in place?"
"They have been alert ready since morning, do not worry"
Zatoichi spoke with a bit of pride in his voice.
"Oh, there's no real reason for them to have had to start so early but whatever, ok great, you know what to do if something happens, Good bye"
Gary's voice disappeared from Zatoichi's headphones.
"Shoki, you there?"
"Yes..."
Shoki spoke into a small walkie talkie, upon hearing Gary's voice coming from it.
"Everything still alright?"
"Yes..It appears the guard is getting restless, he will probably head over to the bathrooms soon.
Shoki said into the walkie talkie. Looking through a window located beneath him, through which one could see a small desk with a monitor, a single man in a blue uniform lazily spinning around on his office chair.
"Good, tell me immediately the moment he starts moving"
"Naturally..."
The Walkie Talkie went quiet, and Shoki continued to closely monitor the man beneath him.
The device attached to Niko's ear suddenly came to life again, emanating a familiar voice.
"Alright Niko, be ready any moment now"
"Yup"
"By the way Niko, i know you're the expert in this and all, but why the hell don't we just have Shoki do it instead of you, i mean he did have the speed to climb up to the roof of that heavily monitored building without being detected, wouldn't that be much easier?"
Gary asked, his voice more curious than annoyed.
"Like you just said Gary, it's because i'm the expert, Shoki may be much faster than me, but he doesn't have the skills to do this quietly if he can even make it inside, which i doubt, He wouldn't be able to get what we want without breaking the locks, or triggering any other soundless alarms that might be put in place."
Niko explained with a bit of arrogance in her voice.
"But then couldn't we just have him do it loud but quick enough so it wouldn't even matter?"
"W-well...yea..i guess, but that would be risky, yea, and it would be a thorn in my pride as an honourable thief!"
Niko hmphed and looked to the side, although she was currently alone.
"Niko, the guard is moving, go now!"
Garys loud voice shook Niko slightly, causing her body to move automatically.
Niko quickly and soundlesly opened the small window infront of her, quickly climbing through it and escaping the dark room she was in, entering the moonlit night.
Illuminated by the soft moonlight, Nikos figure was now visible. She was standing at the outside edge of a window located several hundred meters in the air.
She was wearing skintight black clothing, made from waterproof material, a small pink heart in the middle of her chest. Her hands were covered in leather gloves, whilst her feet were carefully tucked into some pink ballet shoes, in order to make her footsteps as quiet as possible. Her shoulder length hair was bound in a ponytail behind her, which swished around in the wind, giving the impression of a dogs tail.
"Dammit Hannah, how am i supposed to be a shadow with this.."
Niko sighed as she glanced down at the pink heart and her pink shoes.
"Well, here goes nothing!"
Niko tugged on her small bag that hung tightly to her side, attaching a small metal contraption with a wheel to the long electrical cable that connected the building she was currently standing on to the museum near it.
"Ok...don't look down.."
Niko breathed in, holding the metal contraption with both hands, before lightly moving her feet away from the window she was standing on.
Niko desperately held on to the metal contraption with both her hands, knowing that if she fell it would be over, all over again for her. Niko slid along the long cable downwards, gravity doing most of the work, the small wheel in the metal contraption spinning wildly as small electrical sparks appeared between the cable and the metal parts of the contraption.
"Almost there..almost there...oh hey there's Shoki!"
She glanced to the side of the museum and saw Shoki crouched over on the roof, observing something very intently below him.
A few moments later a loud splatting sound echoed around the museum, causing Shoki to look around before looking back to his target who was happily whistling in the bathroom.
"Niko, what was that sound, Niko?!"
Garys voice came from Nikos earpiece.
"...It's nothing...i just got...distracted.."
She groaned, her voice slightly muffled due to the concrete that covered her face.
She quickly shook her head and climbed up the ledge that was right above the cable, her red face glowing faintly in the dark.
Looking around, she quickly made her way across the roof, towards the large dome in the middle of the museum that was made up mostly from glass.
"Alright...now for a bit of Jewelery thief movie action.."
She rummaged in her bag a bit before taking out a rubber handle which she attached to the glass, the handle staying in place thanks to small suction cups on the backside of it.
Making sure that the handle was secure, she took out another tool, this one looked like a metal pen, except instead of a metal or graphite end, it had a small crystal piece which glittered slightly.
Taking the strange pen, she started drawing a circle in the glass around the handle. Low scraping noises making Nikos eye twitch slightly.
"Niko, the guard is coming back, you only have a few seconds left!"
Garys voice suddenly burst through the earpiece, causing Niko to flinch, the pen now making an imperfect circle.
"Damnit, Gary...now i have to start over!"
Niko snapped at him loudly, or as loud as you can get when you whisper.
"Be quick!"
Niko began anew, drawing a new circle, this time she ignored the now loud scraping noise as she attempted to increase her speed.
"Five seconds, Niko!"
Niko started to sweat, her hand moving as fast as she can. A camera ominously fixing her sight on her from behind her, it's lens focusing and readjusting.
"No time left, He's back, Niko!"
Gary yelled through the earpiece, as in another part of the museum a cheerful guard was just sitting down at his desk, looking up at his monitor as some movement caught his eye.
Looking at the image showing on the monitor, the guard frowned, before shrugging, thinking it was just a bird that flew past the camera.
Niko breathed heavily as she sat on the head of the large statue standing in the middle of museum, depicting a certain king or another. The statue was so large that one couldn't help but wonder how they managed to even get the statue inside.
She wiped the sweat off her forehead, looking up at the hole in the glass ceiling above her, smiling before making her way down the statue, carefully enough to not make any noise other than her small heavy breaths that she let out as she overexerted her small body.
Finally down on the floor of the museum, she looked around, nodding at the familiar scenery that she had studied through photos of the museum she found online.
"The ancient litterature section..should be this way.."
She muttered to herself as she walked through the large domed room that was almost as large as a football field. Stretching wide enough that one would wonder if so much free space was really neccesary.
Finally having made her way across the giant room, she was met with a normal glass door, a small keypad covering the part of the door where the handle would usually rest.
"Hmmm..one of these huh, they are surprisingly old fashioned.."
Niko muttered to herself, before pressing a button on her ear piece.
"Hey, Gary, any way you can get me the code to the doors inside here, or am i just going to have to do it the old fashioned way?"
She began to take out various small screwdrivers from her bag, and a small wire clipper.
"No no, that won't be a problem, please don't touch anything, i know how it ends when you play around, these locked doors are nothing special, the personel at the museum are really aloof, they just type the code infront of anyone if they say they need to use the bathroom, the code is 1845, the year this museum was first built"
"Tch...i was hoping this would be more of a challenge..."
Niko shrugged and typed in the code.
"No no no, this isn't supposed to be a challenge, we're just here for the texts and then we leave, okay, don't do anything stupid again!"
"What do you mean, again?!"
Niko snapped, quickly covering her mouth as she realised she had unconciously raised her voice.
"Never mind, let's just get this over with.."
Niko sighed and took out a spray bottle out of her bag, spraying the now open doorway, not expecting anything to happen, but doing it mostly out of habit, but the result she got surprised her.
Infront of Niko, covering the doorway, several dark lasers were now visible due to the spray from the spray bottle hitting them, causing a shadow to form in the spray mist.
"Interesting..so the door was just a trap, and this is the real security...not too shabby, most people would probably fall for this, especially if it's connected to a silent alarm..too bad i'm not most people, i am the great Niko!"
She smiled and took out a small tube looking device, which she put over one of the laserends in one swift motion.
"The great Niko prepares for every scenario!"
She smiled triumphantly as she crouched down and walked through the bottom laser which she had attached the small device to.
"What, the alarm didn't go off!?"
Niko could almost hear Garys gasp through her ear piece.
"Well yeah, since i just took care of the bottom laser, these types of alarms are quite simple really. One end shoots the laser, the other end recieves the laser, if the recieving end of the laser doesn't detect the laser anymore it triggers a circuit which causes the alarm to go off. What i did was quite simple, i just replaced the laser signal, now instead of the laser coming from one end of the doorway, it instead detects my own laser which comes out of my small homemade device over here, which means that the real laser is just useless now. Also my homemade device is just a laser pointer with some some tape on the button so it continiously shoots out lasers, simple but effective, as expected of me, the great Niko!"
Niko grinned to herself as she walked off through the corridor.
After walking for a while, She suddenly Niko stopped, Becoming really quiet all of a sudden and taking a few slow steps backwards.
"What is it Niko, what did you see?!"
Niko could almost hear the sweat dripping down Garys face as he spoke.
"It's not about what i saw...it's about what i didn't see..."
Niko whispered in a barely audible voice.
"Have you noticed that the corridor and the large domed room all had very comfortable soft carpeting..?"
"Well yes, as you would expect from such a fancy museum, it must be a pain to clean it though"
"Exactly, and you know what i didn't see down that corridor..carpeting.."
"What does it matter if there is any carpeting or now, they probably got lazy or cheap and decided not to cover the whole damn place in rugs!"
"This could be true if it was just a small museum, but this is the largest one in the country, i doubt they would have any trouble covering the entire street outside the museum in carpets..no the only reason i can think of for suddenly removing the carpet..is because they absorb too much sound.."
"Absorb noise...?"
"Yes, which means...motion detectors..most likely ones that use accoustic sensors.."
"Can't you just be very, very quiet then?"
"No, it doesn't work like that, if i had the carpet then maybe..but now every step i take will echo...and i will have to move very slowly in order not to activate it..by the time i get to the other side it will be probably be day..."
"Yikes, then what do we do!?"
"There's only one thing we can do.."
Niko slowly turned around, taking out a small knife from under her clothes.
"Niko...are you sure this will work...?"
An uncertain voice came from Nikos ear piece.
"It's fine, i've done this before, trust me, i'm an expert!"
A muffled voice reached the ear piece.
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Niko stood with her arms at her side, proudly looking ahead into the corridor.
Her entire body was covered in velvet carpet like an animal suit, except for two small holes for her to see.
"With this, the carpet should absorb all the sound and i should be able to walk through undetected!"
A muffled laugh came thorugh the walking mountain of ripped out carpet.
"Ok..here we go.."
Niko began to slowly shuffle her way through the corridor, not managing anymore than a penguin waddle due to being restricted by the carpet.
Sure enough, she made it through the corridor, finally letting the carpet drop now that she had reached the part of the corridor that was covered in familiar velvet carpet.
"Childs play for the great Niko, the best thief this world has ever seen"
She kept walking confidently, while she wiped away the sweat that accumulated due to being covered in layers of carpet.
"Yes..you're the best Niko..."
Gary awkwardly agreed, trying his best not to laugh, knowing that irritating Niko would probably lead to triggering several alarms.
"Now if you turn left...there, do you see it, Niko!"
"Target locked, acquiring visual!"
Niko put her hands infront of her face like a pair of goggles as she squinted.
Several large glass cabinets stood against the wall of the long, slightly wider than average corridor. Through the glass, one could see all manner of various ancient writing equipment, small bones and deteriorated texts.
Niko swiftly moved towards the cabinets, quickly looking through their contents without touching them.
Among the various deteriorated texts, a large tome stood atop a small pedestal. It looked in rough condition, the cover was torn and heavily weathered, and the pages looked like they had been dipped in water, but compared to the texts near it, it practically looked in pristine condition. A small plate underneath read 'Hermes Trismetgistus, A collection of collected tales and theories'.
"That's the one Niko, let's get it and get out, before the guard decides to take a stroll around the museum!"
Garys slightly staticy voice buzzed in Niko's ear.
"Right, i think this should work~"
Niko hummed to herself, clearly enjoying herself as she took out a pair of small lockpicks from her bag, and getting to work on the small lock that kept the cabinet closed.
It barely took Niko a few seconds, before a distinct clicking sound indicated the opening of the lock.
"Aw..i didn't even get to enjoy myself.."
Niko sighed, opening the cabinet door with slow and careful movements. The cabinet door opened soundlesly. The small hinges clearly well oiled as it was probably used often to take out texts for translation and study.
"Just making sure here.."
She quickly sprayed the tome with her spray bottle, observing that no strange lights or shadows came to view. She took out a small mirror from her bag, slowly positioning it around the small pedestal that the tome stood on, making sure there werent any hidden switches.
Finally deducing that it was just an ordinary pedestal, Niko quickly picked up the tome and placed it inside a water sealed plastic bag, before stuffing it into her bag.
"Perfect, great job Niko, now you just have to make your way back again and we should be golden!"
Gary cheered excitedly, as Niko smiled with pride and slight disoppointment in her face.
Just as she was about to turn and start walking back, she noticed something glittering at the far end of the corridor.
As if entranced, Niko slowly moved towards that glittering point, her movements slow, and her eyes slightly dilated as if in a trance.
"Niko, what are you doing, we are done, that's the wrong way, Niko?"
Garys complaints went through Nikos ear and out the other as they were completely ignored.
Niko finally came close enough for the camera in her earpiece to focus on what she was entranced by.
A large pedestal, almost as large as Niko, stood tall infront of her. Made of white marble, and carefully sculpted in the shape of swirling dragons and fish that moved up the pedestal.
But what Niko was focused on wasn't the masterful elegance of the pedestal, but rather what was atop the angel white pedestal.
Behind a small globe of glass that sat atop the pedestal, was something that made Nikos eyes shine a devilish red, and causing her breathing to became rough and heavy, her fingers twiching restlessly.
A deep blood red Ruby the size of a grown mans head sat proudly atop a white frilly cushion. It wasn't just a normal large Ruby however, it was masterfully sculpted to resemble the figure of a chinese dragon twisting around what looked like a small blade, all made up of the same large ruby, the detail work on the figures was so intricate and realisic that if it werent made from a blood red rock, most people would assume it to be a very real breathing small dragon.
"Shens Heart...."
Niko swallowed her saliva with a loud 'gulp'.
"Yes, it's very pretty Niko, but we got what we wanted, leave already"
Gary sounded slightly annoyed, but the undertone of his voice was filled with worry as he knew what was going through Nikos head. Or rather, he knew what WASN'T going through Nikos head, and that was anything other than the glittering object infront of her.
"I've always wanted to steal it...but those damn chinese museums didn't even put it up on display..but now it's here..how come i haven't heard of this..this could be my only chance..i must have it!"
Nikos eyes filled with obvious desire and greed. Not the kind of greed that most people would have, wanting something in order to use it or sell it, this was the sort of greed that brought men to their unsightly end, the greed associated with what most men called pride.
"With this my reputation as a shadow thief will rise through the roof..!"
She excitedly began to take out various tools from her bag and positioning them on the ground infront of her.
"No Niko, don't risk it damnit, just leave, we got what we needed!"
Gary yelled at Niko, but he knew that it wouldn't do any difference once Niko became like this, so all he could give is a half hearted attempt, similiar to stopping the sun from going up by yelling at it.
Niko completely ignored Gary. No, it wasn't that she ignored him, she simply couldn't hear him, as her mind was completely erasing anything other than the prey infront of her, focusing solely on the blood red gem infront of her.
She began by carefully studying the pedestal the gem sculpture stood on, carefully observing it from every possible angle.
"Hm.. it doesn't seem to be connected by any cables.."
Niko muttered to herself as she concluded that the pedestal was one giant slab of independent rock. She knew however, that the pedestal was not just ordinary rock, the top part of the pedestal was set to be pushed down once introduced to a certain amount of weight, causing it to look like one giant slab of perfect stone.
Niko was no amatuer however, even among experts, her eyes were often called silly names such as 'Demon eyes' or 'The all seeing eyes', because once Niko really wanted something, her eyes would always see every possible detail concerning her objective and only her objective.
This was not due to the fact that Nikos eyes were somehow better than anyone elses, in fact if that were true, it would mean that her eyes were now completely ordinary as her former body was gone.
The reason for her strange eyes, is due to the massive amount of willpower and concentration she puts in, which completely denies her the ability to concentrate or even think of anything else, giving her the infamous 'Demon eyes'.
What Niko saw was a small line going all the way across and around the pedestal, it was made so that it would fit into the design of the pedestal, seamlessly melting in, making it incredibly difficult to notice unless one used extremely precise equipment to measure and scan the surface of the pedestal.
Niko however, saw it in a matter of seconds, her face making an expression that seemed to say 'As expected', as she quickly took out a radio looking device from her bag.
"Since the pedestal isn't connected to anything..but it still has a security measure..that means that the signal it uses to activate the alarm doesn't go through any cables or wires, But is wireless!"
Niko smiled triumphantly and pressed a small switch on the radio looking device, activating a small red light that seemed to indicate that it was working.
"Tsk tsk, whilst wireless traps are much harder to detect, disabling is as easy as pressing a button!"
Niko smiled softly patting the small radio looking device, which upon closer inspection had a small label glued to it, which read 'Signal Jammer, portable, v212'.
"And now..all i have to do is just take my prize!"
Niko quickly lifted the glass globe covering the gem, putting it carefully on the floor, before slowly taking the gem from atop the pedestal, sliding her fingers all across its surface, as she relished in the smooth feeling.
"I did it, Gary!"
"Gary, hellooo?"
"Oh right..signal jammer.."
She laughed awkwardly a she realised that she had cut off the signal when she activated her device.
She quickly turned around to walk back, accidently stepping on something in her panic. Looking down, she noticed her Signal jammer, which now had small pieces of plastic and cables sticking out from underneath her foot.
"...Woops..."
Niko carefully took her foot off the signal jammer in time to see the little red light slowly die down.
Niko quickly turned back to look at the pedestal, not noticing anything different about it.
"Damnit...i set off a silent alarm, i just know it, i need to get out as soon as possible!"
Niko began to run back the way she came, not bothering to take any countermeasures against the sound triggered alarm, who similiarly stayed silent.
Finally arriving at the domed giant room in the center of the museum, she noticed that it was too late, all other entrances and exits were covered in a sheet of heavy metal, and all the windows were similiarly covered in cage like metal.
"Damnit..i wasn't quick enough!"
"Niko, Niko, the police are here, there's atleast five cars, you have to get out of there, quick!"
Garys staticy barely audible and panicked voice came through Nikos ear piece, causing Niko to bite her lip.
"I know!"
She rummaged through her bag, taking out a bundle of thin looking wires. Quickly climbing atop the giant staue, she threw the wire, which had a small metal hook attached at the end towards the caged window, which succesfuly wound itself around one of the small holes in the caged window.
Niko took out a large Epipen looking device, which she held with her mouth as she used both her arms to climb up the thin wire, which would have cut deeply into her hands if she wasn't wearing any gloves.
Finally managing to climb up towards the window, she took out the Epipen looking device from her mouth and pressed a small button on the end of it, heat and light beginning to form on the other end of the device.
The device began spewing out flames and dripping a red glowing liquid, Niko making sure none of the liquid landed on her. She pointed the device towards a part of the window, the flame from the device making short work of the windows steel, like that Niko managed to create a hole large enough for her to crawl through. After making sure the windows metal had cooled sufficiently, she threw the device down and climbed up through the hole.
"Thermite sure is useful sometimes, good thing i thought of everything, the great Niko sees all possible futures!"
Niko ran across the rooftop, her bag swishing behind her, heavy with the burden of loot.
Niko arrived at the edge of the roof top, looking down to make sure no was underneath her, she jumped away from the rooftop, towards a streetlight, barely managing to grasp it with her small hands, and started to slowly slide down the streetlight, before finally arriving at the ground.
She frantically looked around, the sounds of sirens already audible. Finally she found what she was looking for, an old black van with tinted windows, stood at the side of street, its engine still on and rumbling.
Niko quickly opened the side door of the van and climbed in, getting into the drivers seat and hitting the gas, the van beginning to move with a heavy rumble.
She slowly drove the van away from the museum, having to drive past the entrance first before being able to get to the main streets.
She noticed several police cars parked outside the museum, several loud tattooed men arguing with the policemen about something trivial, doing their best to keep them busy.
"Un, good job Zatoichi!"
Niko smiled and continued driving slowly, trying not to make any suspicious actions as she drove past the crowd.
Suddenly one of the policemen stood infront of the car, gesturing for her to stop, probably to ask a few questions.
Niko knew that if she was stopped, A suspicious looking person like her would be searched, so instead of stopping she instead pushed the pedal to the metal, the policeman diving to the side as the Giant black van rushed past him.
Before she knew it, Niko was in an intense car chase, between her rundown van, and several sportscar looking police vechicles.
The van swerving madly, whilst the police cars kept a slight different as they pursued her.
The police cars were quickly surrounding the van, the speakers yelling things in japanese that Niko couldn't understand.
Niko tried calling Gary on her ear piece, but couldn't get a signal through it him, the operator saying that the line was busy.
"Damnit Gary, now is not the time to be ordering room service!"
She knew she was surrounded and that her van would stopped sooner rather than later. Luckily Niko had prepared a special backup plan just for that. It was a backup plan that she was looking forward to.
Niko took a brick that was laying inside the van and put it on the pedal, securing the driving wheel with some wire so that it would keep the van straight.
Now that the van was effectivaly driverless, She walked into the back of the van, grinning excitedly.
All of the policemen gasped in surprise upon witnessing something that they had only seen in western movies.
The backdoors to the van opened suddenly, revealing a grinning face, and whilst the van was still going at its top speed, something roared and flew out of it.
A black motorcycle, upon which a small figure sat upon, flew out of the back of the van, landing squarely in the middle of a policecar.
Niko turned the handle on the bike, causing it to roar and spin its backwheel even faster, cracks spreading across the front window which was now covered in the back tire of the bike.
Laughing like a maniac, Niko turned the handle on her bike, and drove off from the police cars, landing off the policecar and onto the road without any difficulty as the policemen were still gaping without properly understanding what had just occured.
By the time the police got themselves together, Niko was already far gone, her bag of goodies safely secured on her back, and her ponytail swishing wildely behind her.
"Hah, no matter what cars you have, the great Niko's vechicles are always greater, why, because they are piloted by the great Niko of course!"
Just as Niko was starting to relax, and thinking about where to stash the motorbike, a sudden bright light filled the bikes rearview windows, blinding her momentarily.
Behind Niko another, motorcyclist had appeared. It was not a police motorcycle, but the driver of the bike was clearly attempting to catch up to Niko.
"Ho...a challenge huh...fine by me!"
Her eyes filled with a competetive look, as the adrenaline from the car chase was still keeping her high on the action.