"So, you got that?" Remaza asked, throwing on his mask, obscuring his facial features. All Rith could see was his long black mullet. "Your job is to just keep an eye out while me, Winslo, and the others load all that fine china into the truck. That's it. You keep an eye out and you warn us if you see anything."

"Y-yeah I got it," Rith said uneasily. "I just don't really have the best feeling about this, I mean, we're risking our lives here with theft and breaking and entering... for some cups and plates? Not to mention this shop is right in the middle of Terradyne. If the cops find us, we're dead, or worse."

Remaza smacked Rith on the shoulder. "These aren't just cups and plates. This is the shit the rich motherfuckers use. They buy this shit, and it doesn't matter from who. Listen, you're a kid, you might not know this, but this china is worth a metric fuck ton more these days than it ever has in the past. It's porcelain, Rith. Fucking porcelain." Remaza said quietly.

"Alright, alright," Rith replied, shaking his head.

"Come on, that's Winslo and the others, move it," Remaza urged.

Rith followed Remaza's lead as the two met up with Winslo and the others behind the luxury shop. The getaway truck was parked just in the alley. Rith felt his stomach turn the moment he noticed the cameras mounted on the building.

"There's cameras, Rem..." Rith said quietly.

Winslo, a tall, lanky man looked over at Rith and snorted. "Seriously Remaza, why do you always bring this runt along? You'd have been better leaving this pussy at home."

Rith scoffed. "Whatever, Winslo."

"Be cool, W, he's with me and he's part of our family. If we all make it out of here, he's making it too. Don't worry Rith, just keep that mask on, cameras here in Terradyne aren't as fancy as the ones they have in Texas or Primordia. Shit, I doubt these ones even work." Remaza reassured him.

Winslo shrugged, giving Rith another look before pulling out a large crowbar. "Alright, Remaza, boys, you ready?" Winslo asked, gripping the crowbar and bouncing up and down.

Everyone nodded, and the group funneled in a line towards the entrance, with one man back at the truck. Winslo led the group, heading straight for the main door.

"Now when I open this bitch, all sorts of alarms and buzzers are gonna be goin' off. As soon as this opens, everyone but little Rith here, moves as fast as possible." Winslo said, tightening his grip on the crowbar. "And don't think for one second that I won't kick your sorry asses if you drop any of this porcelain shit."

Rith watched as Winslo carefully slid the hook end of the crowbar between the door and frame, applying pressure. He could hear the metal on the door frame bending, and just then Rith heard the telltale sound of the worst thing they could have encountered at that moment. A faint mechanical whirring and droning in the distance, coupled with large, heavy, footfalls. He almost felt like he could feel the ground shake with every step. Then he saw it.

Shit...

Across the street was a Terradyne City police robot, people called them Rippers, it was best not to explain why. Rith knew, not just from the mechanical sounds, but from the sheer height of the robot itself. While manufactured in the shape of a bipedal human, they stood just shy of nine feet tall and weighed close to 1200 pounds. Rith was able to study one in a scrapyard when he was younger, although that one was out of service, destroyed in an altercation with Cerberus when its programming went haywire. He'd never seen one moving in front of his very eyes. The Ripper's black coating was as dark as the night, and you could only tell it was there visually from the sleek shine of the paint underneath the moonlight, along with the unnerving blue lights from its eyes and various red and blue accessory lighting. From his position, that robot looked like a colossal man, hulking and towering above anyone and anything.

"Winslo!" Rith said in a raised whisper. "Winslo, stop!"

He didn't know if Winslo just simply didn't hear him, or if he was choosing to ignore Rith. The answer to his question came just after.

"Calm down, Rith, I almost have this..." he muttered, applying even more pressure, raising his leg up and planting it against the wall for more prying leverage.

No... this isn't good... Rith thought to himself. If he puts all his weight into it and that door bursts open or that crowbar loses grip and slips out...

Just then, exactly that happened. The door broke open and Winslo and all of his weight toppled backwards onto the ground. Alarms and lights began howling into the night sky.

Rith's eyes shot wide open as the Terradyne City police Ripper across the street snapped its head to lock directly onto them, it's mechanical servos and bearings whirring rapidly, louder now. Rith stood there in frozen fear as its unnerving blue eyes turned a deadly red, and it raised its weapon at the group.

"Run!" Rith shouted as he helped Winslo up off the ground.

"Illegal activity detected." Sounded the Ripper, it's deep and inhuman vocals reverberating through the empty street. "Protocol 6 engaged, department notified, neutralizing threats." It began firing off vicious volleys of gunfire.

Rith ran around the corner, hands covering his head as heavy-hitting rounds snarled past him, one of them finding its home in the backs of one of the other men. Rith watched in horror as the round blasted into the man's midsection, bisecting him into two, coating the dry, dusty ground in a mix of blood and entrails. His torso and legs falling to the ground with separate, gruesome thuds. Rith almost stopped to help, his brain not registering the man was beyond saving. Someone barreled into Rith and picked him up, dragging him around the back of the building and towards the truck.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Start the fucking truck, now!" He heard Remaza shout desperately, before shoving Rith into the back.

Rith sat up and grabbed onto the back of the driver seat, stabilizing himself. Just as the truck began to move, Rith noticed Winslo wasn't in the truck. He looked out the window and watched as Winslo ran after the truck, shouting.

"We have to get Winslo!" Rith shouted above the commotion.

"Are you fucking crazy, kid?" The driver yelled back. "He's good as dead!"

Rith's body was moving ahead of his brain, and he cranked the door open and jumped out.

"Rith!" He heard Remaza shout. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He ran towards Winslo, but could do nothing but stop in his tracks and watch as Winslo tripped, the TCPD Ripper hot on his tracks. Rith stared in abject horror as the Ripper walked over to Winslo, its heavy, metallic steps leaving deformations in the dirt. Rith backed up slowly, but in shock, stumbled and fell onto his back as he stared at Winslo and the Ripper. With one fluid motion, the Ripper brought one steel foot down on Winslo's leg like a hydraulic press. The sound. The sound of flesh tearing and bone breaking. Winslo's howls of pain and terror. The robot then grabbed Winslo by the neck and with its foot still on his leg, pulled up at the same time, ripping his leg clean off and lifting him into the air.

Rith coughed in shock and horror, his mouth dry as the ground around him. The police Ripper, with Winslo still gripped by the neck, crushed his throat until a bloody, metallic closed fist was all that remained. The haunting mechanical whirring and droning seemingly getting louder. Rith got up and began running, although his legs felt like gelatin. He watched in helplessness as the truck, along with his friends, swerved around the corner of a building, tires screeching.

He turned, and froze in fear as the police Ripper locked its sights on him, those red optical lights casting a harrowingly sinister glow.

"Hey, tin can!" Came a shout from somewhere.

Just then, a sort of grenade landed in between Rith and the Ripper, rolling just underneath the robot. Rith turned over and tucked his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around his head, thinking he was dead.

What?

He'd heard and felt the explosion, but he was still here. He slowly turned over and there lay the Ripper, motionless. Rith could see what appeared to be electrical currents circling on and around the machine.

Footsteps came from behind him and he turned. There was a boy in what looked like the outfit of the Streetrunners, all denim and a black bandana tied around his head. They were a gang that largely ruled the area of Impact Zone 7. Though this boy couldn't have been more than 13 either. He had dark black hair and stood a bit taller than Rith himself, flashing Rith a smirk.

"Wha-"

"Come on, that thing's not gonna stay down for much longer. We gotta go." said the boy, gesturing for him to follow.

The boy led him away from the site of the incident, down behind another building. The two crawled through a chain-link fence, and rested for a moment, sitting against a stack of old tires.

"What's your name?" Rith asked the boy, rubbing a scrape he had obtained during the escape.

"C-" The boy started before being cut off. Out of left field, came those familiar whooshing sounds of a large transport ship. The dark night sky near them began flashing and flickering red.

Rith watched, eyes wide as the ship hovered above them, its red glowing thrusters bright against the black sky. Cerberus. A spotlight shined down on them as the transport ship landed, kicking up a great deal of dust and grass. Rith covered his eyes from the debris, and as the ship's engines cut off and the dust settled, he could see the cargo door of the ship folding down. Through what dust was left, he could make out dozens and dozens of red circles, almost like eyes, piercing through the dust and glaring at him.

Rith and the Streetrunner boy looked at each other, and raised their hands in surrender. They watched as about six Cerberus soldiers emerged from the cargo bay of the transport. Rith stared in awe at the soldiers, their gleaming white armor plates glimmering under the moonlight with a red hue from the lights of the ship. The soldiers kept their weapons aimed at the two boys, their faces obscured by the white, menacing helmets with three red glowing lenses.

"Lower those weapons, Cerberus," came a feathery voice from the darkness of the ship. A young woman in the same tactical uniform walked out of the ship, her boots clicking against the metal ramp of the door. The Cerberus soldiers all lowered their weapons in a uniform and synchronized movement.

The woman had long brown hair, and a pale face. While she had very striking features, Rith could sense that she was just as dangerous as she was pretty. He swallowed and glanced again at the other boy, who returned his nervous stare.

"What are you two little mutts doing out here?" she asked in a disconcerting tone, glancing over at the disrupted police Ripper that lay not 100 yards away. Rith watched as a couple of Cerberus soldiers ripped the power supply module out of the Ripper, putting it out of service.

"Don't worry, that coffee can won't hurt you, that's more than I can say for your friends though..." The woman said with a small smirk. "Do you boys mind telling me what happened here? You see, it's my job to make sure you pests down here live in your squalor and don't cause any problems. But the way this night is going, you're making it very hard for me."

"Ma'am, I-" Rith started.

"It was me, ma'am, I um- I was the one that threw the EMP at the Ripper," said the Streetrunner boy. "I was just trying to protect him. I think it had something wrong with it."

Rith looked over, raising an eyebrow at the boy. Surely he would get in trouble for admitting to that. Cerberus didn't ever particularly care about local police department assets, after all, they keep the police in line just as much as they keep the rest of the citizens. But here this kid was, taking the blame for causing trouble- and Cerberus never took kindly to such disruptions.

"Well well, aren't you just the most honest little bug," she said to the boy. "I admire that. That unflinching ability to take accountability, to think so quickly. The Primordial doesn't often take too kindly to citizens causing issues, and normally, you two would be lashed, if not worse,"

"Worse?" Rith sputtered shakily.

"That is the Primordial's prerogative, but not mine. I believe it would be a waste to kill you two. After all, it's not too often you see two... children put down a Type-7 SD machine like you did over there. They are quite robust machines," The woman said, glancing between Rith and the other boy with her icy gaze. "No, I think you'd be of more use serving Cerberus. Of course, you're much too young at the moment, but it wouldn't hurt to show you what the Cerberus Pact is about."

"What do you mean?" asked the Streetrunner boy.

The woman slid her white helmet on, the three red lenses lighting up. "Load them up."

"Wait, no!" Rith shouted as a Cerberus soldier restrained him and shoved him toward the troop transport.

The soldiers sat the two boys down and took seats on either side and across them. Rith looked around uneasily as their red lenses glowed ominously in the dark cargo bay.

The cargo door itself began lifting up, and eventually it shut with a loud seal, leaving them in darkness, save for a few ambient red lights.

Rith looked over at the boy next to him. "Hey, I never got to thank you. What's your name?" he asked.

"Crowe." replied the boy.

The engines clicked on, whirring louder and louder, and soon, the ship roared off into the night sky.