I stabilized myself as my feet hit the top of the rack silently, immediately dropping into a crouch to further hide my form. I took a moment to calm my breathing, made sure my Perks were active, and grabbed my Scouter from its resting place. Then I crept along the top of the rack towards the restaurant end of the warehouse.

Instead of immediately crossing the racks to get to the right aisle like last time, I took my time and watched the security of the place. There were far more guards around than previously. At least ten groups of two were on patrol around my area, and I spotted a small contingent of guards off by the garage door entrances into the warehouse playing some kind of card game.

Thankfully, though, there wasn’t a guard by the door like the last time. The door into Ruby’s sat alone, though not unguarded. A camera rested just above the door, bolted into the wall. From the angle it was pointed, it would see anyone approaching though the angle was too far up to see the door itself.

I watched the guards, waiting for the right moment of their rotation before jumping across the racks. I sailed through the air, feeling a moment of pure adrenaline as the ground vanished below me. Then my feet hit the rack. I controlled my momentum with a few steps, bleeding it off as I silently readjusted my posture.

I repeated the process, feeling a strong sense of deja vu as I arrived in the same position as last time. I crouched towards the side of the rack, watching the patterns of the guards further. Unfortunately, life wasn't a game so I couldn't a hundred percent trust the patterns.

Once a duo of red-headed Jokers moved down the aisles, clearing the lane running down the racked wall of the warehouse, I jumped across to the far side. My feet barely caught the lip of the rack. I swung around, flipping my center of balance as I rolled forward onto the rack with a light grating of metal as my foot clipped a loose bar.

I checked over the side; no one seemed to notice. I slid down the side of the rack, keeping as close to the wall as possible as I dropped down to the ground floor. I practically hugged the wall right underneath the camera to avoid its gaze as I tried the door: unlocked.

I slid into the hall leading to Ruby’s BBQ. No cameras, for some reason? The hall felt like it would be the opportune place for a camera… weird.

Regardless, I closed the door quietly behind me and moved over to the office. Locked. Not that it mattered. It had been a while, but I partially remembered the lock. It popped open with minimal effort.

The office looked almost exactly the same. The beautiful piece of technology, Raijin’s RIP, sat along a good length of the wall as it swiftly printed out what looked to be gun parts. Massive mounds of guns were tossed to the side, half-finished but enough to arm a small army once they were. The desk was as stuffed with internal gun parts as the last time. The guy was still knocked out on the couch-

I paused and eyed the guy through my mask's lenses, turning on Lethargic Presence as he snored away. He was the same ‘borged out ganger as last time, curled up on the couch with a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hands.

I silently drifted across the room, keeping an eye on the guy as I made for the terminal first. If I remember right, the password was… Nobodywilleverknow123? I think? And Neo_eoN was the username… maybe?

Typing them into the terminal unlocked it, giving me access to their security feeds. Did they not have a dedicated security guard? Or was the guy passed out drunk supposed to be the guard?

I worked through the security, trying to find other connection points, but it was just this one in the system. Or at least that I could see. They could have a Netrunner plugged in somewhere- no, probably not. My cover would already be blown if they did.

I sifted through the cameras, finding the one right above the door. I wanted to just disable it entirely. Instead, I took an old clip from their saved recordings and spliced it. Then I slung the clip on repeat over the actual camera, effectively blinding it without turning it off. It was a temporary fix, bypassing any daemons they had in their system since it was the master terminal, but it would hold for now. Hopefully.

I looked through the rest of the cameras, catching sight of one looking inside the vault. It was a massive room made out of pure metal with finished guns and mounds of drugs everywhere. There were quite a few precious-looking items too, further tempting me to find and swipe all I could.

Still, I was of the mindset to wait and see. I went ahead and did the same thing, splicing a looping video over the actual camera just in case. I checked the rest of the security, noting the gangers’ positions and the layout of the rest of the warehouse as well as alternative security measures.

The vault had heat sensors in it tied to some kind of knockout gas and several turrets set up into the roof. I thought about trying to disable it, but I wasn’t net savvy enough to know if they had a fail-safe, so I left the systems active. Nor did I actually know how to disable it. I had ways around it anyway.

I set the terminal to rest mode, shifting my attention to the prize. A golden statue of a fox, jewel-encrusted with rubies, sat on the coffee table next to the man. I moved over to it, watching the way the light given off by the RIP reflected off its beautiful surface. I reached out a hand, tracing its snout. As I felt the cool gold, a warm arc zipped up into my hand.

A jolt of ethereal insight met me a moment too late as I touched the fox. I recoiled as I felt my skin grow hot, only fading a few seconds after touching it. Aetherial Perception revealed the entire thing glowing with a strong presence of ethereal energy. Weird. But I could figure it out later.

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I cleared out my bag, shifting stuff out of the way as I picked up the fox and slid it in, again having that tingle go through me. The statue was heavy, though not nearly as heavy as it should’ve been. Was it hollow, maybe? Regardless, it made it much lighter to carry. I slid the statue into my bag and made my way back out into the hall, my eyes briefly catching on the spools of printer wire. This would take multiple trips.

Before I left, I dropped a Listener onto the table, hooking it up to my earpiece the same as the last one. Instantly, the sounds of light snores echoed through my ear. I let it fade to the back of my head as I focused on other things.

I snuck out back into the hall, cracking the door open and rolling a Scouter underneath one of the shelves. Its feed popped up into my HUD, granting me vision of the warehouse. I paused, waiting a moment as a duo crossed the lane before turning down an aisle.

I took the chance, slipping through the door and immediately climbing up the rack set against the wall. In no time, I arrived at the top of it. From there, I moved to line up with one of the aisle’s racks. The fox statue weighed me down significantly, so I needed to adjust to that. I did the rough mental calculation, shifting my landing spot down a level from the top of the rack.

Taking a breath, I started a silent short sprint before flinging myself through the air. The weight caught me more than I thought it would as I lost balance mid-air. In an act of sheer desperation, I swung my hands out for a metal bar, latching onto it as it rattled fiercely. A tearing sensation of my skin ripping apart flashed up the nerves of my hands as they grew wet, and yet I managed to hold on.

Footsteps came from below me as a duo of flamboyant red-headed guards hustled out of the aisle. I held my breath, holding absolutely still as they paused several layers below me. They looked around the dimly lit area with their rifles up.

”But I swear I heard something!” One of them whispered to the other.

The other guard laughed lightly. “And look, there’s nothing. You really need to lay off Whisper, man.”

The first guard looked around one more time, slumping slightly as he dropped his rifle back down to neutral. He looked around, briefly casting a glance up to me. I could only hold still as he looked away and sighed. “I guess…”

”C’mon, who’d be gonk enough to attack us in the heart of our territory?” The second guy patted him on the shoulder. “Now let's get moving before Alexei bitches at us again.”

They continued, moving back down an aisle. I let out my breath, the pain in my hands starting to get to me. For a moment, I resisted the idea, then I gave in and activated Cold-Blooded. The pain instantly vanished under the waves of cold as I hauled myself up the rack. I wiped off the blood as best I could with my jacket.

My hands still stung mutely as I climbed up back onto the top, but I barely even noticed as I leaped across the gap onto another rack. I continued, returning under the initial skylight I used to drop into the warehouse.

Should I go ahead and leave now? Run the statue back to my bike? But I was in a time crunch. At any moment, if that guy woke up from his drunk sleep, he could see the statue gone and raise the alarm. I listened to my earpiece, hearing him still snoring away. Hmm…

I grabbed onto the microwire I left attached, feeling it sink into my bloody palms with a muted jolt of pain as I climbed up it. Once I pulled myself through, I dropped the statue from my bag, letting it rest up against the concrete. I also took the time to wrap a loose piece of fabric around my hands, stopping the bleeding for now. I really needed to get some gloves when this was done.

Then I hauled myself back over the edge, dropping back onto the rack hungry for more.

*******

Maki woke up as something wet hit his chest, a headache pounding in the back of his skull. He groaned, scrunching his eyes closed as memories of last night’s party floated back to his mind. The parties were the only good thing about this damnable position the Neo-Jokers put him in.

He raised a hand to his chest, grabbing at a bottle, only causing more to spill onto the floor. He wrapped his chrome hand around it, gently picking it up and moving it to the coffee table he knew would be beside him. Maki dragged his other hand across his face, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he started to shift and get more comfortable on the couch.

He flinched back as a slicing pain came from his shoulder, a cold sensation rapidly flooding his body from the source of the pain. Before he could even react, his body locked up, losing all functionality as he confusedly tried to move his limbs. Nothing. Not even his chrome limb moved as he tried to shift.

He tried to speak, to call out for help as the paralysis spread through his body. The world around him warped, the shadows seeming to grow sinister and the furniture shifting unnaturally. His heart started to pound, compounding the paralysis as he froze staring at the darkening world. He could feel it, stabbing in the back of his head.

Dread.

Deepest, darkest dread dragged through his veins, following a step behind his heartbeat. He tried to wake himself up, recognizing the patterns as a nightmare. Nothing worked. He couldn’t even move his arms. Maki blinked, about the only thing his body was capable of, and stared at the clock across his room.

It ticked, the second’s hand passing around the clock slowly. Ice fell into the bottom of his gut, spurring on the dread. Clocks weren’t supposed to be so clear in dreams.

He felt cold. So very cold. It was as if the temperature of the room dropped rapidly, leaching his body heat as if to sustain some monstrous entity. Maki recognized the cold. They were the chills of death.

The shadows twisted once more, this time his eyes catching on a piece of fabric as it shifted. Fear ate at his mind as he slowly started to pick out a shape blending in with the darkness. A human shape. The head of the figure twisted unnaturally, staring down at him.

Its eyes, crescents of pure darkness, were the only thing he could see of its face. The rest hid under its hood, shadows dancing around like wraiths. His heart pounded faster and faster as its abyssal eyes met his.

The demon approached him, holding a jade dagger that gleamed in the light. His heart skipped a beat as the demon placed the knife on his throat, gently brushing his neck. The feeling of the blade tracing his Adam’s apple like the touch of a lover was at great odds with the abyssal darkness holding it. A warped, decrepit voice spoke quietly from its shadowed maw, “Soooo easy."

He held his breath as the knife nicked his throat, blood welling up. Then the demon backed off, walking out of sight. “Lucky bastard.”

For the next three hours, he heard stuff shift around in his office, twisting this way and that. Every single second filled with fear, with absolute dread of what would happen if the demon came back for him. His chrome was good, but nothing he had could fight the likes of that- that entity.

Long after the paralysis faded, Maki finally grew the balls to lift his head and look around the office. The demon had vanished, leaving the place in a tattered mess.