The second chapter of 'The Upper Claw', this time written by myself, Garr9988, Balencia, and Rojoneo. This was written using the Leverage RPG game/Cortex Plus system. Disney owns the rights to Zootopia


Oliver pulled the grey delivery van into the parking lot on the second floor of the parking complex before turning the keys off and stepping out. He'd been sent the meeting place and time for the job and didn't intend to be late, especially considering he was the one who was in charge of providing the wheels for it.

Normally, he spent more time in his line of work in his chop shop working on vehicles for other thieves and criminals, but between the payout for the gig and the people he was hired to work with, he had to make a good impression.

Getting out of his van, he leaned against the back of it, waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive.

Sitting in the rafters above a the lion, a hooded coati sat texting on his phone glancing down to the meeting spot below, scoping the scene out and waiting to make his move...

The silence of the parking garage was interrupted by the fluttering of wings that belonged to an avian half Oliver's height as he swooped down, his briefcase firmly clenched in one talon as he landed on the exterior wall of the parking garage. Oliver looked to him and nodded before his attention was diverted by a fox in a sweater, blazer, and slacks emerging from behind one of the columns and leaning against it.

Oliver nodded between the two members, "Vincent Vulpino and Nico Sly?" He straightened up and adjusted his leather sleeveless jacket.

"Who asking?" the hooded mammal spoke, still in the rafters texting, but pausing to glance away from his phone down at the others gathered below him. The lion jumped a bit, not expecting the voice from above, but he assumed that this was the fourth and final person on the crew.

The fox nodded to the larger animals, arms crossed and a look of suspicion on his face. "Vincent's the name, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with you Mr..."

"Oliver Lowe", The male lion introduced himself, "Wheelman and muscle for our little job tonight. So, assuming our friend in the rafters is Nico and you're Vincent, that leaves you." Oliver looked to the small bird who was now looking between the three criminals.

The osprey switched the case from his talons to his hands so he could stand comfortably, "Hello, gentlemen. My name is Arthur Drake."

"Nico Sly, Hacker and brains" the coati spoke smirking at the bank accounts he hacked into from his phone before removing the battery and tossing the burner phone aside, "This better not be a police setup because I am warning you now, I will ruin all involved financially forever."

Oliver nodded in agreement, "It'd better not, I rarely leave the chop shop to act as wheelman these days, so I'm with the coati, this better not be a sting, especially with the payday waiting for us."

Arthur clicks open his briefcase, "Gentlemen, gentlemen. I know we don't know each-other very well, but we've all been hired to work together on a job. We do it right, we get paid, and go our seperate ways."

"Awww what a shame" Nico replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Vincent walked over to the back of the van with the others. "May I ask, why whoever hired us would hire a bunch of unrelated criminals? Hiring people who know each other would make their job go much smoother."

"Logic-wise, by hiring convicts and the plan backfires we take the fall while the client keeps his reputation" Nico pointed out.

Oliver huffed and looked at the others, "Look, I'm just the wheelman, things go south and you aren't in the van, I leave you behind. I may be the getaway driver, but I'm not going to wait around if the cops get too close." He looked to the smallest of the crew, "So then, Mr. Drake, what's the plan seeing you're the one I was told would make sure things go smooth."

Arthur nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Lowe. A few nights ago, one Richard Bissette summoned me on short notice with a job offer outside my... usual area of expertise."

"Same here," Vincent agreed, getting the look of the others. "Usually I'm after anything sparkly. This is...new."

"Not my normal methods to earn a quick buck but I'm game- if this is legit." Nico added jumping down from the rafters landing on the roof of the van before hopping to the ground

Oliver stretched, "Well, I guess we'll find out then when our avian friend here explains how we're breaking in tonight on our way to the Fenestellar office." walking around to the back of the van, the lion opened the doors, "Got room for one up front, others in the back. Before you ask, yes, I know it smells like mulch. I bought this from an impound lot when a florist shop went belly up. Caught selling Nighthowler bulbs without a license, and you can imagine how that went for them."

Walking to the back of the van, Arthur hopped up onto the bumper before pulling out a set of blueprints and laying them out flat in the back of the van, "Okay, first, we'll need to hack into the security cameras."

"Peace of cake" Nico spoke reaching into his backpack pulling out a laptop, "I just need to get in ten feet of their WiFi signal to work my magic"

Vincent joined the hacker and avian, looking over the layouts, "And what about the security?"

Oliver leaned against the opened back door of the van, "I mean, they have cameras, right? What else do they have? I don't to lasers."

Arthur frowned as he looked the plans over "No lasers, but they do have a few motion sensors in the private offices and a card scanner at the ."

"Those sensors will be hard to get around unless Nico here can disable them."

"Depends on their firewall protection I may be able to disable for a short period of time but there a good chance they'll end up back on line" Nico spoke

Oliver nodded, "Okay, that's cameras and the tech, but what's our entry?"

"Well, certainly not the vents, because that's a stupid cliche." Arthur muttered.

Arthur thought for a moment before clapping his hands together. "Here's the plan. We pull up near the building, Nico, you'll hack into the cameras so they can't see us moving around, but we can. Then you, Oliver, and Vincent will head up to the server room on the eighth floor." Arthur tapped the room on the blueprint "Vincent, your job is to distract anyone still in the building that gets too close for comfort while Nico gets past the ID reader, into the system, and gets those files. Oliver, you're on bodyguard duty in case people get past Vincent. They walk up, you knock em down. I'll be in the van monitoring the cameras and keeping everyone on task, among other things. Sound good?"

Oliver nodded, "Sounds good by me. Vincent can ride shotgun while the two of you get all set up in the back of the van." Everyone piled into the vehicle and the Lion pulled out and drove off to the site of the heist.


The scene was a last second addition to the story, meant for all the characters to meet for the first time, get acquainted, and to lay out the plan of attack.

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