Riley kept watch as Ivo connected the USB cord to the ATM, a flood of code over the screen and a tiny avatar resembling the hacker appears sporting a wide grin and Giving the "okay" with his hand. The screen shifts to an account owned by Alfonze Garcia, the account showed a balance of ten million Bitz. With a quick swish of a wrist, a holo keyboard appears in front of Ivo, he pulls up a second account owned by a May douf.

"Aye, what do you say five million for us?" With a few clicks of the holo keys subtract the five million from Alfonzes account and add it to the May doufs.

"And five million for the populous." A few clicks later and dozens of accounts appear receiving thousands of dollars draining the remaining five million Bitz from a one Alfonze Garcia.

"Watcha say, Riley? Good nough?" The light green-haired girl spun on her heels to wrap her arms tightly around Ivo's shoulders.

"Not yet, we gotta cause a little mayhem first." Her eyes rolled over to a warehouse near the ATM, it was owned by Alfonze and was known to be a cooking spot for addictive Materia and diluted ether.

"Alright luv, a little chaos and then we abscond with our side of the proceeds."

The couple crosses the highway to the outskirts of a warehouse, outside four guards walk the parameter clockwise keeping a steady pace from each other so each turns a corner after another. Their eyes glowed with a pale white tent, and their jerky robotic bodies were covered with egg-white synthetic skin stretched over semi-featured noseless faces, and an approximation of lips that never closed showing bare grim toothy smiles.

"Droids for the door and I'm assuming armed augmented thugs for the inside." Riley pulls two blades sheathed on her lower back that come alive with a green and blue glow.

"Means we can mash 'em up good with the lethals!" Right then she took off down the hill they were reconning from stopping in between the droids. Immediately the droids all cease their movement and stand in place.

"Geez fuck Riles!" He taps the side of his head turning on a panel that lights up with a crimson red.

"Mask down!" He screams over to Riley who confusedly shrugs and then remembers the mask on her forehead that she slides over her face. The droid turns and scans where Ivo yelled from as he ducked down on the hill, then immediately inhumanly spins its body to meet face to face with an ethos mask split down the middle. Half the mask bore a smile outlined with green highlights the other had a sad face with rolling blue tears that glowed as they fell down the cheek.

The droid just scanned for a moment then turned to begin their March again, Riley turned to the hill and gave a thumbs up that Ivo replied to with a sharp and quick thumbs up of his own. Riley grinning ear to ear behind the mask took a runners start before taking off and leaping into the air sinking the two blades into the neck of the droid and spinning the entire head clean off its shoulders, in response, the three remaining droids turned to converge on their fallen companion.

Riley reached the corner waiting for the closest guard to make its turn, as it turned its dominant leg was caught by the blade that glowed blue and began to freeze when she twisted the handle. The flash-frozen leg shatters bringing the android's head into range of the second blade that starts to corrode the metal into a greenish slime. Turning to see the third Android finally reach the corner she chokes up on the blue blade and tosses it at the robotic guard burying it into the chest freezing it solid.

Riley made her way over to the frozen droid pulling the blade from the chest and pushing it over shattering it into pieces. She turns to the hill to give a triumphant pose and noticed Ivo was gone, the confusion didn't get to last long as the sound of metallic feet and joints barreled towards Riley, as the Clockwork soldier made visual contact with Riley it was different than the others. Even Riley could tell it paused too suddenly and its eyes glowed with a different tent of green than the dull pale white of the others. Its face instead of a smile grimaced angrily, it cocked its head at Riley who did the same back, it began walking towards Riley calmly seemingly keeping eye contact with her.

She wondered if she had been seen, but with Ivo's program running there was no way any sort of tech or augmented oculars could see her. The stride of the Robot was easy and only a few steps got it closer to her before it stopped short to examine the frozen bits of the other guard bot. Riley let out a sigh of relief taking her vision off the odd droid and back over to the hill, she still couldn't see Ivo anywhere and started to feel a pang of worry in her gut.

She shook the thought and returned her attention to the last bot, she froze in fear the robot that was once leaning over the pile of ice and metal was now inches from her face staring intensely into her eyes. There was no time for her to react it grabbed her up by the neck holding her at full arm's length off the ground, she struggled while kicking and hitting the arms of the unusual Android. She dropped her blade in the confusion, searching her pockets she pulls out two tiny colorful gumballs and pops them into her mouth, and starts chewing vigorously.

Unsure what was coming the Android slams her into the wall of the warehouse adding more pressure to his grip, this only paused Riley's chewing for a moment before she began again her mouth glowing with an electric blue tent, electricity jumping and weaving through her teeth. She spits it out into the synthetic face right between the eyes, the Android drops Riley and reels back in pain gripping at the sticky electric mess on its face.

Riley gasp for air on her knees regaining composure as the Android finely rips the rest of the electric bubblegum from its face and hands, Riley lunges for her green blade prepping it as the android lunges for her. He falls short though and freezes over her his green eyes flickering and grimacing face becoming slack-jawed. Riley looked over the shoulder of the robot to see Ivo with a USB plugged into the back of the android's head, he wore an angry mask painted with red highlights. The eyes finally flickered red and he pulled out the cord.

"Ya done?" Riley said with a cheerful chortle.

"Done and done." Ivo said running over his program's script.

"Good." With a swift slice, Riley cut through the android's head turning it into a pile of slime sizzling on the ground.

"I fuckin hate androids." She mimes spitting adding a simulated sound so as to not spit in her mask on the Android as she walked over to Ivo.

"An you, what made you feel id enjoy a disappearing act." She poked Ivo sternly in the chest like a mother hen.

"Sorry luv, there were only three readings that were fooled by the program so I had to write a new one on the fly, but he had to be in physical contact for it to work."

"Mmhmm, better late than never." She raised his mask and hers and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks for the save."

"No problem." Ivo quickly pulled his mask down to hide the flush red his cheeks had become.

"Now for the jerks inside, this was a personal upgrade so there's most likely an ether tech user nearby, be careful."

"Aye, aye captain." Riley gave him a hardy salute before picking up her other blade and sheathing them both.

"And you remember, humans get non-lethals babe." Riley reaches into her backpack and pulls a long Nerf bat from it, two slots filled with sparkling green and blue jewels sat in a line one at the top and the other on the bottom of the bat, the bat itself was white with pink, green, and blue lines spiraling from top to bottom.

"You know no one inside will be following that rule." Ivo said grimacing under his mask. Riley spun on her heels marching her way towards the door of the warehouse.

"That's why we aren't the people inside!" She cheerfully answered back approaching the door stopping in front of it and raising her hand to knock.

"Wait!" Riley turns to look at Ivo.

"I gotta plan."

_____________

A knock comes at the door the four thugs at the table paused their game of cards and turned to look at where the sound came from.

"I'm not fucking getting it." A heavy-set guard said ashing a cigar with his augmented arm and bringing it to his lips.

"Me neither, it's probably one of those fucken creepy ass Bots, with a dumb ass question, plus I don't have internal heaten like you fucks." Another thug spat out, a thinner stringy built man, rubbing his hands together after nursing a glass of synthetic whisky.

"Loser gets it." The biggest thug's voice was gruff and low, it prompted the other two to look at the youngest of the group who was still looking over his cards with worried eyes. A moment or two passes before another knock comes from behind them at the door. The young one with optic augmentation scanned his cards intensely while biting his thumb.

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"Tommy!" The three older thugs called to him breaking his attention and slightly startling him making him jump out of his chair.

"Y-yes sirs?!" The boy stumbled over his few words trembling where he stood. The three guards exchange looks for a moment before the biggest one spoke.

"Get the door."

"The door?" Another set of knocks spooked Tommy making him jump and turn towards it. The other three guards laughed at each other.

"Well go on." The heavy-set guard said reaching over to take Tommys' remaining chips as the other two snickered.

"B-but what if it's one of those fucken bots?" Tommy said with a shiver also lacking internal heating.

"That's why you're answering it, now hurry up." The gruff voice scared Tommy more than the skin-tight face currently knocking prompting him to quickly step away from the table and over to the door.

As Tommy opens it he was first met with a blast of cold air and a slight gust of snowflakes from outside, as his eyes adjusted to the temp and light he saw a woman standing in the cold, long green and aqua hair framed a masked face. Tommy blinked a couple of more times before he really took in the image, the woman had two Ether orbs twirling around her head one light blue the other light fluorescent green. The most shocking part about this woman was that she was completely nude, the snowflakes had gathered on her head and shoulders from standing so long, Tommy gawked at her curvy form pale and without a stitch of clothes head to toe.

"It's cold." A sweet voice from behind the mask said. Tommy shook from his daze and stepped to the side.

"Of course come in, come in."

"Come in! I know you ain't tellen one of those-" the skinny thug's voice cut short when his eyes fell on the beautiful figure now in the room.

"Guys, what's this?" The other two became less preoccupied and looked over at the door, jaws dropped and eyes widen in disbelief. Tommy escorted the lady closer to the card game where the light was better, she had been standing there for a while so frost clung to her skin and snow sat on her shoulders and hair.

"What's the matter sweety no internal heating?" Right as the chubby guard finished his statement a hissing noise filled the room along with a slow build-up of steam, the frost and snow on the young lady's body began to melt soon she stood dripping wet in a puddle of water.

"Oh I get it, these one of those Ether girls. Mr. Alfonze must have sent her over as a gift." The tall deeper voiced thug moved from his seat to stand in front of the girl.

"Yo, Tony, Spaneli, you gotta check this thing out." With a swift movement, he picked her up from under her armpits and stood her on the table, the girl was no more than five foot even with moderate curves, the mask hid her face so her age was to be guessed.

"Is it human?" Tony said shaking from the cold that just set into the room.

"Haven't you heard? Ether girls are the new marketed companion for the lonely losers of this world, but I heard they came less... Wet." The heavier guard said in disgust shaking the water from his cards.

"So they're androids hence the mask on account of those fugly faces." Tony said laughing at his own joke.

"Wrong and wrong, they are real girls."

The two Tony and Spaneli exchange looks before in unison responding.

"How you know?" The tall thug chuckles.

"Show us something sweetheart." Right then the lady on the table twirled her hands, each orb flowed as if tethered to the girls' hands, the steam in the room from her melting the snow swirled with and around the orbs as if they were dancing in a fog together.

"I ain't never tell you how Alfonze found me, I was thirteen parents dead and I was living with my sister. This is back when girls who could manipulate ether were rare, I was proven myself to him by holding some product for him when our house was lit up." The lanky thug mimed machine guns over towards Tommy who was gawking at the show the girl was putting on, he nearly jumped out of his skin and scurried over towards the door out of the line of imaginary fire.

"Right then my sister did it, she manipulated ether for the first time saving our lives with this beautiful fluorescent light shield, one of the rarest forms you know the ability to move it and condense it, but the product was ruined sooo." The thug shrugs his shoulders as the other two catch up to what he was implying.

"Jesus Franky you gave him your own sister." Spaneli said putting out his cigar and shaking his head.

"She was one of the first, prototype Ether girls." Franky sat down in the chair watching the rhythmic twirling of the orbs, girl, and vapor.

"He he cold-blooded Franky." Tony chuckled some more then blew warm breath into cold hands.

"Hey now, the military back then was snatching girls up like this left and right. If they had no combat potential and the training had ruined them mentally, they were sent to people like Alfonze to make sure they disappeared, at least our girls just get blissfully wiped and collard." Franky takes a sip of the synthetic whiskey and leaned back in his seat.

"Collard?" Spaneli asked less disgusted and more distracted by the girl now.

"Yeah, it's an obedience collar, keeps the mind clear and docile no matter what." Franky picked up a chip and tossed it at the girl's head, it hit bouncing off the mask and onto the floor, she had zero reaction and continued her rhythmic twirling.

"But uhhh, there's no collar Franky so don't piss her off I heard Ether manipulators are hellish in a fight." Franky leaned in closer for a bit.

"Yeah now that you mention it..." Franky carefully looked the girl over inspecting the angry mask on her face.

"Don't worry the mask must be something new the boss and his team is trying out." Franky leaned back in his chair, the room was filled with more vapor the dancing orbs and the naked girl almost fully entranced them, but a slight chill brought Tony's attention to the other side of the room. During the show, no one notices the door open and close, or Tommy who was knocked unconscious in the corner. The figure who now stood behind Franky looked like the girl on the table, fully dressed wearing a half smiling half frowning mask, and holding a toy-looking bat.

Before he could say anything the masked intruder brings the bat down on Franky's head with such force it whipped off the table with a fearsome boom. The sound the contact made was unbelievably metal on augmented endo-skeleton, it made Tony think of a baseball game, a gasp was all he could manage before the two orbs that were dancing were now in Spaneli's faces. The blue ball let out a flash of aqua light and before Tony could do anything his face was frozen he sat stiffly a look of fear held permanently in place, the green orb let out a greenish gas, and Spaneli slowly drifted to sleep.

Everyone in the room was now unconscious or frozen in place. The naked doppelganger on the table made their way next to Riley.

"Would you kindly change back..." The Doppelgangers form slowly shifted back into Ivo.

"Sorry babe."

"I hated that plan just for the record."Riley swings the bat so the tip barely touched Ivos' nose.

"Noted." Ivo slips past around the bat heading to a door across the room. Riley followed as they made their way through the door into a catwalk, bellow several women wearing aprons, collars, and hazard masks and not much else sifted through and packaged a radiant blue powder.

"Cosmic Dust and a lot of it." Ivo said pressing the center of his mask where his nose would be.

"That'll help mellow everyone out aye?" Riley followed suit pressing the same area the mask glowed around the edges.

"Our mask will filter everything, but what we need so really spread it around." Ivo says checking the specs.

Riley gives a full hearty salute as she hops off the catwalk into the middle of the warehouse.

"Riles!" Everyone's attention shot to the new voice in the room and Riley plummeting towards one of the tables, smashing the bat down on a pile of Cosmic Dust dispersing it into the air around everyone like a smoke screen. Some of the workers with lower-quality masks began swaying on their feet while others full-on began dancing and laughing. The armed guards with higher-quality masks were less entranced and converged on Riley, guns cocked and raised.

"Always maximum effort with you." Ivo grunted to himself as he took out a metallic-looking slingshot and three sparkling marbles, before taking a few steps back on the catwalk and jumping from the railing.

Riley sat her hands up as three guards surrounded her.

"You boys wouldn't feel like taking those masks off by chance?" The three guards lowered their guns, exchanged looks, and laughed before raising them again. Before they itched their trigger fingers each one had a mini explosion of what seemed to be a glitter bomb to the face breaking their hazard mask. Ivo lands on top of a table near them picking up a packaged bag of Cosmic dust and exploding it over everyone.

One guard found his way over to the group of workers lying on the floor giggling, while the other two with higher tolerances ripped off their masks took deep breaths, and let their augmented muscles bulge past their pain threshold.

"You had to break their mask before you spread the drug's Luv." Ivo dropped from the table to get back to back with Riley.

"I figured you had a plan." She chuckled readying the bat.

"Heh, I always do." Ivo pulled two more marbles out for his slingshot.

The drug-fueled thugs charge them both, Ivo hits the thug in the chest with the first marble, it splats with a sticky liquid that confuses the thug for a moment who continues his charge until the second marble hits the same spot and foam begins to form, the thug swats and tries the rub the foam off as it grows and spreads all around him until he's a sticky ball unable to move.

Riley's thug rushed in throwing a heavy punch that misses leaving a crack in the concrete floor, another wild punch is dodged as Riley counters with the bat to his leg. The thug crumples to his knees and Riley sets up for a swing as if his head were a teed-up baseball, again the same unforgettable noise of a metal bat rings out.

"None of these guys look like they could have done the upgrade job outside, he must have just left it for Alfonze." Ivo said scanning the last thug before returning to Riley who was poking the giggly thug with her bat.

"Shame, wanted a good row this time... So what's the plan?" They exchanged looks through the mask before talking in unison.

"Start a small fire and call the cops!"

"Jinx!" Riley said before Ivo could even think to.

"You owe me a foot rub when we get homes." Ivo rolled his eyes and chuckled at her demand.

"Fine, help me move everyone." They got to their plan stacking cuffed giggly people near the warehouse in the snow, went back in found a tiny office room, and set a noticeable fire before calling the police, because there isn't much news in this town the fire Department showed up pretty speedily, along with the police and news reporters who caught an anonymous tip an Alfonze owned warehouse was currently burning. By the same time the next day everyone would know about the illegal drugs and obedience collars being used by Alfonze.

Riley and Ivo watch as the small fire turned into a sort of medium fire from a distant ridge, they will congratulate each other high five and immediately be shocked by four thousand volts of electricity and drug away by the hacker of Alfonze, who will bring them to him before the police can do anything to stop the horrible plans he has for both of them.

~End of intermission I