As he stood waiting for his colleagues at the docks, Theo held onto his pet cat Justina; a black and white tabby who was too young to be let out on her own just yet. Stroking her behind the ears with his index finger, the man looked over towards the island and its congregation of armed guards. He smiled as he knew his friends would be undetected in their planned route and prided himself on being the source of their knowing about it. Justina mewed at him as she looked up into his eyes.

“Don’t worry pet, they’ll succeed. I just know they will.”

Theo looked back over his other shoulder from the cat to a group of men approaching in the dawn light from the Industrial Zone. He didn’t recognise them at all, were gangs out and about at this time of the morning?!

“Morning Theo,” a middle heighted man greeted him and Theo stared back at him unblinking. How do they know me? Who are these people!?

“Don’t look so perplexed, it’s me.” The tallest nodded and a large hand came up from his pocket, removed the mask that was covering his face and a smile he knew appeared. In turn, the others followed suit and tilted their masks up to reveal their identities.

“Vagrant... Man, you guys scared me! But it makes sense that you’re in masks... You’re the Masqueraiders after all.”

The men chuckled softly and replaced their masks as they stood in black jackets and black trousers, a uniform of sorts it seemed so they’d blend in with the darkness of the tunnels. Theo found himself looking at them in awe; Justina too was batting her paws at the group.

“Aww, cute kitty!” The shortest stepped forward and held out a gloved hand to the kitten. She stared at the fingers and mewed in a tiny voice as she explored the strange territory of his palm.

Bracky looked back towards where they had come from as Joke made a new friend. The streets were deserted, not a soul around which was perfect because one set of eyes catching them entering the warehouse and not coming out would be more than enough for the authorities to get involved.

“It’s time.”

Everyone turned to Spider as he nodded; mask back on and a smile on his lips. All heads nodded in response and Joke returned the kitten to her owner. They all took off into the warehouse, following Theo for he knew the way; the empty shed of a building was in complete darkness, save for the metallic lighter Joke was holding in front of him. Handing the kitten to Bracky, Theo got down on the floor and removed a straw sheet from the manhole cover leading to the tunnels.

“This is it lads.”

Vagrant and Ska stepped forward and helped the older man remove the stubborn metallic cover. A ladder leading down was the only thing they could see. Getting back to his feet, the guide looked at his friends and went over the route one last time, covering all turns and situations of storage spaces. The kitten was nuzzling into Bracky’s neck as Theo took her back.

“I’ll see you boys later, still meeting up in the Jungle?”

“Yes.” Spider nodded as he reassured Theo that they’d return and meet him in the bar he’d picked near the Sex District but not inside it because if the vault was uncovered to have been robbed; the first place the authorities would check would be in the seediest area of the city. “We’ll be there.”

Not allowing any more minutes to get past them, the Masqueraiders took off down the ladder to the tunnels in their predetermined groups. Vagrant and Bracky went first, leaving the others behind for the time being. Ska and Joke waited, keeping their eyes on their watches for the precise moment they were to go next. Spider watched Theo leave the warehouse and close the door behind him. The last sound he heard was the sound of the door being bolted before silence descended as they waited for their turn to enter the tunnels.

Biting his lip so he wouldn’t say anything, Bracky snuck along the tunnel behind Vagrant. They had a fair while to go until the first storage area from the ladder but they had made good distance in the time they’d been in the tunnel. Vagrant knew his way around in the dark, which Bracky was thankful for as he wished he’d gotten some night-vision goggles from a store before doing this. Silence was important for this mission; the slightest murmur would echo down the metallic cylinders and inevitably alert the Cleaners or any human ear to their presence. Not being able to talk about what was going on in his mind was killing Bracky. The whole scenario was like something out of his comic books and he wanted to share that with his friend but knew that one peep would get them into trouble so he kept quiet. As painful as it was! Suddenly a strange noise erupted down the tunnel and burnt its way into their eardrums. Vagrant reached back and stopped his friend with a palm to his chest.

“Shhh...” He whispered as quietly as possible. Bracky looked up at him and then past him towards the upcoming bend in their route. The noise came again and they both realised what it was. The Cleaners were on the move. Vagrant turned to the younger, nodded at him to give his gun a shot. Thankfully it didn’t fire in sound, so they knew it was safe to use. Instead it fired in light which was no problem for robots with no eyeballs. Bracky reached into his jacket and held the device carefully, squatting down next to his friend and pulling the trigger. A tiny blue spark emitted from the barrel.

“Ach!” It was Vagrant’s turn to bite his lip to keep quiet and reached up with one hand to his head as it pounded agony in from the temples. A headache...? Please not now! He used to get headaches on tour when in battles with heavy gunfire surrounding his troop but hadn’t thought this would be a problem in this mission. Perhaps it was the enclosed area and strange noises playing games with his head. Looking up and feeling relieved, Vagrant pointed to the first storage area and gestured he would go on while Bracky stayed behind and fired the gun again. A thumb up was received in kind and Vagrant scuttled quietly up to the turn off. Sitting behind a locker in the open space, letting his spine straighten from all the stooping in the tunnel, Vagrant watched a bigger blue flare appear near where his friend was and nodded as the strange sound ceased. It had worked!

“Time.”

Joke and Ska set off down the ladder, leaving Spider on his own in the warehouse; keeping a vigilant eye on the watch on his wrist. He smiled as Bracky’s gun must have worked in knocking out the Cleaners with the electromagnetic pulse. Something that had been uncovered in one of his many, many comics about what effect electromagnetic pulse, or EMP for short, had on electrical devices. In this instance he had been told about, the EMP had defused a robot army and let the hero win the battle with his super powers. Spider watched the minute hand tick into place and thought how much easier this heist would be if they had super powers.

“Which way?”

Ska bonked his friend on the head with a playful tap at his jest on the route needed when the tunnel only went one way and set off with him towards the first storage area. Moving silently and quickly along the metallic tube, the two didn’t take long to reach where Bracky had fired the gun. During their journey, Joke had been trying to get Tiff out of his mind. He hoped she was as clueless about him taking part in this job as she was about astral physics. She would find out when he and his friends were loaded suddenly, but Joke knew she’d forgive him. Especially if he bought her a new house, somewhere outside of this dying city; where they could live together in peace. Ska on the other hand was moving faster than he normally did because he knew that the key to his dreams lay not far up ahead and he was determined to get to it and get out of the city for good. He knew it wasn’t far to go, not far to go at all. Reaching the storage area, the two squatted down beside the bins and caught their breath from the fast trek in a confined space. As they waited for the time to move, they heard an ominous sound up ahead and looked at one another.

“What’s that?” Joke whispered and scratched his head under the hood that was covering it.

“The Cleaners...”

At the ladder, Spider began to descend slowly and stooped into the tunnel as he waited for his turn to make his way to the turn off.

Hiding behind a bend in the tunnel, Bracky cursed himself on not being fast enough to reach the storage area before the next set of machines made their way along the tube. Holding his gun to his chest, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He knew he just had to jump out and pull the trigger; that was the only thing he had to do. The pulse would stop them and then he could scamper on by and meet up with Vagrant. But what if it didn’t work...? What if it made a tiny spark like before...?

Nodding solemnly and glancing around the bend, Bracky watched the Cleaners approach and he swallowed hard as his finger rested on the trigger.

Vagrant sat and waited for his colleague to appear. His mind was replaying events of his last tour again as the strange noises crawled along the tunnel into his ears. His head was still pounding but not enough for him to give up on this quest. He had Bracky to look after, that was his role! Along with leading the way into the trenches, or in this case; the vault. The ladder leading up to their prize stood just beside him; he knew that it was within reach and he smiled. Carla... We’ll be happy again soon. Looking up as another loud sound entered his eardrums, Vagrant spotted Bracky scampering over to him and he got up to meet him. Being quick, they retraced their steps and stood next to the stalled Cleaners. Two white and rather ominous looking machines with metal blades on the front that, if they worked, would spin around in constant rotation and dice anything in their path. There was some traces of blood on the blades on one of the robots and it dawned on Vagrant that they were not the only occupants that morning but on closer inspection, amongst the blood was some fur and he realised that Ska wouldn’t have to worry about any rats. Turning again, they made their way back to the end of the tunnel and the ladder.

“That’s the Cleaners taken care of.” He beamed and set the EMP device in his rucksack. Looking back over his shoulder, Bracky waved to the approaching bodies as Joke and Ska rendezvoused with them at the bottom of the ladder. They stood silently and waited for Spider to emerge from the shadows; which he did eventually and looked optimistic.

“I see your gun thing worked a treat, Brackster...”

“You doubted me?”

Spider shook his head and looked up at the hatch where the ladder led. The others followed his gaze and then at each other, taking it in turn to mount the metal apparatus and climb. Vagrant went first, since he was the bulkiest and would have no trouble removing the cover at the top so the rest could crawl through. Before long the group had made it into the main vault and awaited the lasers. Ska looked around and back at his friends with a questioning stare.

“I don’t see any lasers.”

The others blinked in unison and stared at the suspicious surroundings that were the vault, open and inviting to anyone who fancied taking something from it. Not a hint of a laser waiting to trip them up was in sight, it was far too easy.

“Look,” whispered Spider, “we can stand around her gawking at the zero security or we can grab what we can carry and get out!”

“I know which option I’m going for!” Joke grinned as he took off his backpack and got started on stuffing wads of money into it. The others followed suit, taking anything they could find that they could carry and wondering to themselves again about the lasers.

“Maybe that one big blast from the gun switched it off.” Bracky crouched down and took more money from a lower shelf. “That really big blast that happened, ‘member Vagrant?”

Vagrant nodded as he picked up his back that was already full of money. It really had been a big bang, so much so that it had left Bracky a bit dazed from the recoil and himself, with an enormous headache. Ska, Joke and Spider were listening to the whispers as they finished stuffing their bags with the piles of cash.