Recon, we called it. After all, the more information we have on a target, the better we're equipped to deal with it.

Those had been the pretty words that we used to take a day off to get drunk. Technically, Yuki's not of legal age yet, but forging a valid ID was a simple task. The five of us sit in a booth next to the dance floor, the pounding music setting a rhythm that gets my feet tapping. It's also loud enough that normal conversations can't be overheard, which is ideal. Not that it matters much when everyone's too drunk to operate.

"Heyyyy, Kyo-*hic*-on. Le's dance!"

I pry Haruhi's hand off of my bicep. "Haruhi, you couldn't possibly dance in that state. You'll end up falling flat on your face." While she might have a decent alcohol tolerance, after five glasses of absinth I'm surprised she's still awake enough to complain.

She frowns, her inebriated state the only thing letting me get away with the remark unscathed. "I can too dance!" She proclaims loud enough that someone passing by looks over at her. "C'mon, Kyon. It's embarrassin' to be down there alone."

I look at the rest of the Payday gang. Mikuru has gone comatose after three and a half martinis, arms loosely hugging the remaining alcohol. She seems to be mumbling something, but it's too quiet to hear in this noise. Koizumi is sitting in his seat, looking at all the people as they pass by, nursing his drink. He seems sober, but I know him well enough to see that any second he's going to make a pass at one of the girls walking around, something he never does sober. Yuki is still working on her first drink, some sort of fancy mix with mint in it. She has a slight pink tinge in her cheeks one wouldn't normally see. As I look her way, she ducks her head down and starts shifting around uncomfortably

This makes me the soberest of our gang, or at least the only one who can handle Haruhi at the moment. I sigh and get up off of the bench. Haruhi smiles and grabs my arm, ostensibly to lead me to the dance floor, but I can feel her using me to keep herself upright.

"Are you sure you want to dance?" I say. "You're barely standing up."

She glares at me. Well, she glares off to my left. "I came here to dance, an' 'm gonna dance!"

At which point, she stumbles over her own foot and rips herself from my grip, crashing to the floor. I lean down and shake her shoulder, but she's knocked herself out.

And now I have to haul her back to our table. It's not easy, but I manage it without incident. I sit her upright on the bench and watch as she flops over onto the table, almost upsetting Mikuru's drink. For her part, Mikuru just keeps snoring adorably.

"Kyon."

I look across the table to Yuki. Her eyes are wider than usual, and she's clutching the dregs of her drink like her life depends on it.

"What's up, Yuki?"

Her cheeks color even more, and she looks down. "Did you forget?"

Did I forget what? I grab my beer and drain it. "Did I forget what, Yuki?"

Koizumi is finally drunk enough to make a move, standing up abruptly and leaving the table after someone. I watch him go upstairs before turning back to Yuki.

"You made me a promise."

I've made her several promises, and I've kept all of them as far as I know. We've know each other a long time, long before we turned to criminal careers though, so maybe I did forget one. "Yuki, what promise?"

"Said you would help me."

I'm used to short sentences and her tendency to only state the most necessary of information, but this is slightly irritating. "I'll help you with anything, you know that."

She looks back up, her eyes achieving that look that's excellent at forcing men to do their bidding, but she remains silent.

I sigh and drop my head on the table. Whose idea was it to get drunk? It better not have been mine, because I stopped having fun once Mikuru fell asleep.

Haruhi suddenly bolts upright. She blinks a few times, then stands up and holds a hand up to the sky. "I am the queen of the bar! If you don't agree, I'll fight you!"

Despite the loud music, enough people hear her to cause a nuisance. Well, I'm not having fun anymore, and that was as good a cue as any that it was time to leave. If only I knew where Koizumi had gone off to…

The next day, all five of us sit around a table in the safe house. Three of our number are miserable. "Kyon, let's talk about this heist another day." Haruhi looks like she's been hit on the head with a hammer once too many times.

I shake my head. "Yuki says we need to set the plan now, or we may have trouble getting everything in order."

Yuki, the only other person besides me without a massive hangover, nods. "Need to hire a driver."

I slam my hand down on the table, making Mikuru, Koizumi and Haruhi wince. I have to admit, after the sheer amount of embarrassment they had put me through last night I feel that this is entirely justified. "We need to make the plans now."

Koizumi raises his hand. "What are we even supposed to do?"

Yuki turns to face Koizumi. "Get cash from safe, then to Vlad."

"From a nightclub?"

I fold my arms across my chest. "The Tasteful Club belongs to one of Vlad's rivals. Right now, the bouncers and security are all Russian mafia. Vlad wants us to grab all the cash out of his safe and get it to him. Something about blood money."

Mikuru shivers. "This doesn't sound good."

I resist giving her a look. "It's not like we have much of a choice. Vlad's our way into the underworld."

Haruhi leans back in her chair. "So we go in, kill this guy, and make off with his cash?"

Yuki shakes her head. "Dimitri must be kept alive."

"What? That makes the job harder!" Haruhi sits back up, the front legs of the metal chair coming down with a bang. "What happens if he gets caught in the crossfire?"

"Vlad doesn't pay." Yuki says. She turns to look at me for support.

"We're going to do this one quietly. Get in and out before the cops show up." I tap the blueprint Yuki has obtained for us. "We need to get the money to Vlad in three days, and we barely have time to get all our affairs in order before the deadline. What's more, we can't carry the money with us since Vlad is afraid we'll reveal his safe house."

"We need two drivers." Yuki summarizes. "One for the money, one for you."

Mikuru raises her hand. "I know someone with a pickup truck."

"That doesn't do us any good unless the owner is alright with us using it for illegal activities." I look back down at the blueprints. A pickup truck would be useful, but I don't know anybody with one personally.

"He would be fine with it." Mikuru says. "He does anything I ask! I would just have to ask him to borrow his truck for a friend, and he'd gladly let me use it."

Poor guy. Mikuru probably doesn't even realize why he'd go to those lengths.

"We'll be able to get Twitch for our getaway driver."

Yuki nods and pulls her cell phone out of her bag.

"He's alright?" Mikuru asks tentatively.

"Yes. Seems he enjoys the thrill of the chase too much to give it up, either." I smile at the orange haired beauty.

She sighs in relief.

Koizumi suddenly jerks upright, winces in pain from the sudden movement, and hold up a finger. "I have an idea."

Haruhi turns to him. "Yeah?"

"Does anyone have a DJ they hate?"

Arrangements done, we had gone our separate ways until the big day, which was at night. Thursday night.

Once again, three of us are in suits and Mikuru is wearing a short dress. The van is parked in the alley across the street, Twitch enjoying a smoke while we make our move. All of our gear with the exception of my mask and gun are left in the van. My Bernetti 9 is tucked into my waistband, and the mask is attached to my hip like some sort of gross decoration. Hidden under the mask is a drill for the safe.

We're not going in gun's blazing, so dragging an AK.762 in with us would be a bad idea.

We walk across the street, Koizumi and Haruhi talking about something completely irrelevant. As we get close enough for the bouncer to notice us I notice a new addition to the front of the club. A shiny new GenSec placard has been screwed onto the side of the building. Before I can ask Yuki what was going on, the bouncer hails us.

He's not the guy that was on duty last time we came. Koizumi's eyes go wide and he turns to face Haruhi. He was supposed to talk to this guy, but he seems he's got a problem. I step up instead.

I offer my fake ID and watch as the guard looks at it with a cursory glance before nodding and handing it back to me. Yuki offers her fake ID as well, but he just waves her in without looking at it. The other two follow us in without incident. Thank god for mafia paid guards, too lazy to do proper checks.

Once inside, I poke Koizumi. "What was that about?"

"He knows me." Koizumi's ever present smile is gone, leaving me unnerved. "I wasn't aware that the mafias of Russia and America were so friendly."

"What is with this music?" Haruhi complains.

Koizumi's smile returns. "We manipulated circumstances so Kyon's friend would be the DJ tonight."

"Friend?" I snort. "He screwed me out of a thousand bucks. He sucks so bad, after tonight no respectable club will ever hire him again."

Haruhi makes a big show of plugging her ears as she heads for the bar. Koizumi and Mikuru follow her.

I excuse myself to the bathroom, carefully looking around as I walk to the back of the club. Something's odd. There's cameras here that weren't here a few days ago. That explains the GenSec plaque outside, but why did they upgrade security now?

I get into one of the stalls in the bathroom, pull out my gun and put on my mask. The others are supposed to cause a distraction so I can get past the DJ and into the back of the club. I peek out of the door, and see exactly what this distraction is.

Haruhi is holding onto a light beer, certainly nothing strong enough to get her drunk, acting as drunk as she was the night of our recon. She's currently coming on to the DJ, who is extremely uncomfortable with her being so close to his expensive equipment. That I paid for.

There aren't many people tonight thanks to my DJ friend. The few people who are here are either ignoring the scene or staring in drunk fascination. I figure now is as good a time as any to go back. I pass right behind the scene of the chaos, not a single soul looking my direction.

The kitchen has a few people in it, but they're too engrossed with their work to notice me. I slip past them into the storage room.

"Who are you?"

I turn around to find a face I know from photographs. This is Dimitri, the guy Vlad wants us to screw over. I raise my pistol up and jab it into his gut. "Let's go up to your office."

He slowly turns to the security door he had just closed behind him and scans a card that makes the door unlock. I follow him in, closing the door and checking it's locked behind me. So far, so good. There's two girls sitting on one of his couches. I wave my pistol at them and they both freeze in place.

"Who are you?" Dimitri repeats his question.

"Nobody you need to concern yourself with." I reply. "Just be quiet and lay there and I don't have to shoot you."

I tie up Dimitri and the two girls and look around the office. The most obvious feature of the room aside from the desk is a safe in the corner. I pull out the drill Mikuru had prepared for me and attach it to the front of the safe.

"What are you after?" Dimitri calls to me.

"Shut up."

"Is it money? I can give you money."

I grab a stack of cash off of his desk. "You mean this?" I stuff it into the pocket of my suit. "It's not like you can stop me taking it."

He curses under his breath.

I scoop all the rest of the money into my pockets. It's all loose change, so it's probably not what Vlad wants us to give to him. Probably.

I keep an eye on the drill while periodically sweeping my gun over my hostages to make sure they stay in place. To be honest, this is the worst part. Waiting. Nothing has gone wrong, but it could go wrong so fast that I have to stay on my guard. To give myself something to do, I call Yuki. "Yuki, there's security camera here that weren't present when we were here last. Do you know how they're hooked up?" I keep care not to say it loud enough for Dimitri to hear.

"I will look it up." Comes the prompt response.

The drill bit suddenly shatters, making me jump. I almost pulled the trigger of my gun on reflex. I yank the drill off the safe and look at the hole it has made. It's not quite through, but I should be able to pry it open from here. I set my pistol down and start unscrewing part of the drill assembly to use as a pry bar.

Suddenly, the pounding music stops. I pause my efforts to prize open the safe and glance out the window overlooking the dance floor.

Haruhi has dragged the DJ onto the floor, bringing some of his expensive equipment with him. She seems to be getting ready for a fight. Maybe she got too into her role?

A pounding comes from the door leading to the storage room. "Sir? We have a situation downstairs. What should we do?"

Dimitri looks at me and grins. Before I can grab my pistol off of the table, he shouts back. "Call in GenSec. We've got intruders!"

Oh, shit. I quickly go back to the safe and redouble my efforts to open it. "Yuki, get that truck under the window. I'm about to open the safe. We've been compromised."

I give the makeshift crowbar one more pull and the lock shatters. I reach inside the safe to grab the cash, only to grab a gallon Ziploc bag full of white powder.

Cocaine? Wait, we're after money!

I run up to Dimitri, who is still grinning. "Where's the cash?"

"What cash?" He says taunting me with his tone of voice. "You already took all the cash I have in here."

"I know you have a ton of cash in here somewhere. Do you want me to shoot it out of you?" I press my gun to his knee.

His grin disappears. "Wait a second, you work for Vlad, don't you? I knew he was going to attack me! Asshole said he was going to make me pay!"

Well, the jig's so far up it might as well be in outer space. I pull the trigger and shatter his knee.

He screams in pain. When he talks again, he has a heavy Russian accent. "Fuck! Okay, okay, I give you cash. It's in basement."

I turn away from the crippled man and go back to the safe. "Guys, get out of the club and get your gear. Security just called in GenSec."

Koizumi's voice comes over the small transceiver. "We know. Haruhi has started a brawl. Mikuru and I are already getting the guns and masks."

I finish packing the coke into a duffle bag and peer out the interior window overlooking the dance floor. Several of the Russian mobsters are laid out on the floor with Haruhi in the center of them, still standing and waving her fists around.

"The cash isn't in the office. Do you know which of the two doors we found leads to the basement?"

Instead of Koizumi, Yuki answers me. "Neither door is marked. Try both."

"Mikuru, bring two drills." Koizumi says.

"Switch over to call signs too."

I get three acknowledgements. I turn my attention back to the Russian mob boss.

"You're lucky Vlad wants you alive." I mutter to the guy. "Otherwise, I'd shoot you in the face."

Instead, I shoot out the ankle on his undamaged leg. He screams in pain and twists on the ground.

Glancing back out the window overlooking the dance floor, I can see the three others with their masks on. Hoxton heads towards the back while Chains and Wolf remain on the dance floor for crowd control. I kick both of the bags of cocaine into the corner behind the stairs before running downstairs to join with Hoxton.

"Truck will be there in two." Bain states.

"Great." I look across the store room and notice that Hoxton isn't placing down a drill. Instead, she's duct-taping something to the hinges. As the third brick is attached, she presses a button on each and turns around.

"Get away, Ky- Dallas!"

Realization hits me as my female teammate tackles me to the ground less than a second before the blast goes off.

She sits up on my chest and starts gesturing wildly, but I can't figure out what she's saying behind her mask. I point to my ear and shake my head. She stops gesturing and starts pounding on my chest with her fists.

"Ow! Stop it!" I yell.

She apparently hears me, because she stops hitting me and points towards the door she just blew off its hinges. She seems to saying something, but again I can't hear her over my newly acquired tinnitus.

I push at her side to get her off of me, and she finally gets the memo and stands up. Say what you will about plastic explosive, it certainly gets the job done. I raise the pistol up and start walking down the stairs, only to find the basement deserted. There's another safe down here though.

"Looks like we have the correct door." I say over the radio, and my ear have cleared enough for me to hear a vague response from Bain.

Hoxton moves up to the safe and places another charge on the door of the safe. Forewarned this time, I duck down and cover my ears.

The blast isn't nearly as bad if you're expecting it.

Inside this safe is the money Vlad wanted us to grab. I open two more duffle bags and start packing the money.

Hox grabs my arm before I can finish packing any of the bags. "Aren't you going to answer me?"

"What?"

"I asked you if you-"

"Would you two love birds get a move on?" Wolf says through grit teeth.

"Truck's almost there." Bain says.

"GenSec's here!" Wolf calls out.

"Whooooo!" Chains whoops before the radio crackles with gunfire.

Hoxton grabs the first bag and heads up the stairs. I finish packing the last bag and follow shortly. The sound of gunfire comes from the main area, and I ignore it in favor of heading up the second flight of stairs.

Which is when I hear a very loud gunshot and a cry of pain.

I get to the top of the stairs to see Hoxton writing on the floor in pain. All of the gun smoke around lets me see a faint red line dancing around the room. Snipers.

I quickly sidle up to the window and peek out.

The red line snaps to my position immediately and fires a shot. It misses me by a paper's width.

Okay, at least I know where he is. I carefully reach across the floor and drag a still writing Hoxton towards the window, out of the sniper's line of sight. It looks like the sniper got her left shoulder. It's not going to kill her immediately, at least.

I crawl alongside the wall and pop out form the opposite side of the windows facing the building across the street. The sniper takes a fraction of a second too long to reposition his rifle and I nail him with a careful shot from my pistol.

Outside, a black pickup truck rolls under the window and honks. "Truck has arrived." Bain says.

"Got it. Everyone else, Hox is wounded. Get to the van, I'll be right after you."

"…Ah." Bain sounds a bit embarrassed. "I told Twitch to leave for a moment. I will send him back."

It's all I can do to keep from sighing. Instead, I toss the money bag on my shoulder out the window and into the bed of the truck, then grab Hox's bag and toss it out as well.

"What do we do with the cocaine?" I ask over the radio.

"Toss it in the truck. Let Vlad deal with it!" Wolf yells back right before another explosion goes off.

I grab the two other bags and bring them over to the window. I raise them both to toss them out the window-

Something heavy lands on my head, and I get knocked to the floor.

Three FBI troops stand above me, weapons drawn and ready to fire. All of them aiming at me. They came in through the skylight.

I struggle to bring my pistols to bear, but one of the troops shoots the gun out of my hand. Despite my current predicament, that's a pretty awesome feat to pull off and I had to give the guy a little bit of respect.

In the next second, his brains decorate the room as a bullet blows straight through his skull.

The two remaining troops spin around to find Hoxton isn't quite out of the game yet. She fires another round into the second troops face, killing him. The strain is clearly getting to her, as the gun drops out of her hand from the recoil.

I quickly grab the first troop's pistol and fire at the last remaining FBI agent. He goes down without knowing what hit him.

I rush over to Hoxton. "Are you okay?"

She smiles weakly at me. "I can't feel my arm."

Very, very not okay then. As I watch, she passes out, though from blood loss or from the pain I'm not sure. I toss the two bags out the window.

"We took out the first wave." Chains reports over the radio. "Now, you're coming with me!"

I can hear muffled protests through her headset.

"Chains, what are you doing with him?" Wolf's voice is resigned.

"I'm gonna teach him a lesson!"

Right now, I expect she's grinning. The freaking psycho.

I grab Hoxton as gently as I can and head downstairs. The dance floor is currently deserted and drenched in blood and gore. Looks like Chains and Wolf did a number on the first responders. I tighten my grip on Hoxton and rush out the front door.

Wolf and Chains are crouching in an alley across the street. My DJ "friend" is currently tied down and lying face first on the cold ground. He's soiled himself quite badly, judging by the smell.

"ETA on the van?" I press my hand to my ear as I hand Hoxton to our resident medic, Wolf.

From the end of the alley, a pair of headlights flashes. "It should be there now." Bain adds, maybe a touch unhelpfully.

As soon as the doors open, Wolf loads in Hoxton, Chains loads in the DJ, and I climb in last.

Plenty of police vehicles pass us by as we make our getaway, none of them sparing us even a passing glance. Not that anyone in the van cared, all of us in the crammed space.

Wolf pulls of his mask and starts working on Hox, fervently patching her wounds with the skill that practice has wrought. I pull off her mask to see her face had paled considerably from blood loss.

Amidst the sirens, the smell of evacuated bowels, and adrenaline, I could only watch helplessly as Mikuru wavered in and out of consciousness all the way back to the safe house.