CINDER

“Okay,” Cinder said, turning to face FA1RY. “You know the plan?”

“I created the plan,” FA1RY corrected, a little disgruntled. “You’re not smart enough to come up with a genius plan like this.”

“Funny, a few moments ago you were talking like you knew this plan was going to fail,” Cinder said, crossing her arms. “So what is it, Mechite?”

“Don’t say Mechite like it’s an insult, Organic,” FA1RY grumbled.

“Fine, fine,” Cinder said, waving at him dismissively. “Just get it to work so we can get in and out of here as soon as possible. And not die.”

“This is still a stupid idea,” FA1RY muttered to himself, as one of his arms retracted into his cylindrical body and then emerged again, holding a small device.

“Hurry up,” Cinder muttered, leaning against the wall and hoping they didn’t look suspicious. Okay—so hoping they didn’t look too suspicious. But mostly hoping no one could actually see them. Which was probably a far fetched hope. But she still hoped it anyway.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” FA1RY said, sounding a bit vexed.

“You know that we’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible. If we don’t scramble these cameras and get in and out of the warehouse before anyone realizes what we’re doing—we’re dead.”

“I know, I know,” FA1RY said, his head swiveling around on his cylindrical body to flash an angry emoticon at her. “You think I haven’t thought that? I could die because of your stupid plan.”

“Your Plan—hey!” Cinder took a small step back with a small yelp as a limb shot out of FA1RY’s body and flicked her gently on the forehead. “Child abuse!” Cinder hissed as she rubbed her forehead.

“You’ve been an adult for a year now,” FA1RY grumbled, retracting his limb. He fiddled some more with the box, before Cinder heard a click. “There,” FA1RY said, a little triumphantly and definitely a little too loudly. “That should do the trick.”

“Good! Now be quiet,” Cinder said, grabbing FA1RY by one of his limbs and dragging him through the air farther down the path. “How long until they’ll realize we’ve put their cameras on a loop?”

“Probably half an hour,” FA1RY said, “Though that’s being…liberal…”

“Great,” Cinder said, with a sigh. They reached their entry point.

She watched as FA1RY produced a sphere from inside him. He activated the device, and it grew out, spreading and adjusting itself until it was a small hoverboard.

“Alright,” Cinder said, excitedly. She hopped onto it with relative ease. It rose into the air, carrying her up as FA1RY flew alongside her. “We have to work quickly,” she said. “The cameras might not be working but if any cyborgs are on patrol, we’ll definitely be seen up here.” Their ascent halted by one of the large windows near the roof of the warehouse.

“I know, I know,” FA1RY grumbled. He retracted his arms and when they emerged again, he held some tools in his small robotic hands. “Get ready, Kid, cause this is gonna—”

“Just do it,” Cinder hissed. “We have less time than we started with—”

“I know how time theory works!” FA1RY interrupted, his internal mechanisms making a hissing noise, an embarrassed emoticon appearing on his facial panel. “Just let me work in peace and quiet, alright?”

“Then stop talking,” Cinder retorted, nearly toppling off the hoverboard when FA1RY gave her an annoyed jostle with the main part of his body. She watched as he worked, rather slowly in her opinion, on the windowpane. “What’s taking so long?” she whispered. “We have, by my calculations—”

“Do not,” he hissed back “Rush me.” His internal mechanisms clicked together angrily, each word he spoke increasing in force.

Finally, they heard a small ding, and a lovely voice could be heard saying, “Entry granted.”

“Great,” Cinder said, rolling her eyes as the windowpane disappeared and FA1RY quickly disappeared inside. “We’re official ‘guests’ now.” She glanced over her shoulder and saw a security bot heading their way. Didn’t seem to have noticed her or it would have shot at them already. She almost let out a yelp of surprise when she felt the hoverboard underneath her swoosh through the windowpane before the window reformed itself.

“That was close,” FA1RY said, his internal mechanisms whirring in a way that almost imitated an Organic panting. “What? You wanna die, Kid?”

“No,” Cinder muttered, annoyed. “It’s just…why’d you have to register us as guests?”

“You’re the one who wanted us to get in quickly,” FA1RY muttered. “What? Having second thoughts about this stupid plan?”

“No!” Cinder said, hopping off the hoverboard and onto the platform they were next to. “No…it’s just that…If we register through the window, the security system is not going to take long to recognize that’s a pretty weird spot for a visitor to enter a building.”

FA1RY’s facial plate went black, and Cinder rolled her eyes again as an angry emoticon appeared on it. “I don’t remember you offering any better ideas,” he said, sounding both annoyed and embarrassed, flying next to her as they hurried down the stairs and to a small corridor in the warehouse. “Because all you did out there was complain that I was taking too long. Well, I took the quickest route. Besides, it was actually ingenious of me because BETA would never expect a thief to just merely—”

She suddenly reached out and slapped the body of his form gently, putting a finger to her lips. They both froze.

Footsteps.

Cinder’s eyes widened. Those weren’t the footsteps of an Organic, which would have given them the possibility of knocking them out easily and escaping without dying. That was the sound of a Mechite. She and FA1RY exchanged worried looks. She put a finger to her lips again, before pointing at the other end of the corridor, where in the stacks of supplies that BETA was buying and selling, mostly illegally, there was a small space just big enough for FA1RY to fit into.

FA1RY bobbed up and down in a nod, and quickly flew over to the space, inserting himself into it and hopefully hiding himself successfully. Cinder reached out to grasp a strange pipe like device that was on the rack behind her. She took in a slow, steady breath, closing her eyes for a moment, before opening them, as the Mechite rounded the corner.

If only the device hadn’t been strapped down to the shelf with invisible, electric binding that activated once she grabbed it, and if only the guard who rounded the corner had been a Mechite.

But no. Because this was BETA’s warehouse. And Cinder was too unlucky for it to be that simple.

Nope.

Standing before her was a Cyborg.