Chapter 3
Ocean's Seven

Barry was snoring quietly all the way up until Oliver finally woke him up at dusk. The nap had definitely done the scientist some good; Oliver was satisfied with the change for the better in his energy level, and he seemed truly ready to focus.

While Barry munched on one of his high-calorie granola bars, Oliver and Cisco went over the layout of the building as well as their plan again. Given the circumstances, they both knew that they'd have to actually steal something this time around. That meant leaving behind as few traces as possible, and that in turn meant carefully planning for as much of the excursion as they could. They weren't trying to hurt anyone, but they both realized that they may have to to keep up appearances. They would be better off if the police didn't show up right on time since it would mean fewer witnesses. Even so, they both still privately hoped that the cops would show up before anything happened just so they'd have an excuse to bail before they had the chance to do any harm.

As it was nearing 8:30, they finally set out, earpieces receiving orders, ski masks on, rifle and handgun on their persons, and the rest of the team watching their backs via security cameras.

Barry was on standby as a last resort just in case serious disaster struck. He was already on edge; he already had on his suit and he refused to sit as he watched the monitor with the others. On one screen Felicity already had the cameras around the Cedar Dollar they were about to rob pulled up. On another, a map tracking Oliver's motorcycle as it carried its tense passengers to their destination.

The trip there was completely silent apart from the rumble of Oliver's bike.

"We're here," Oliver finally murmured as he stashed his bike in an alley about a block away. The pair traveled quietly through the shadows, Cisco looking in every direction he heard a sound, and Oliver's eyes only on the storefront. The lights had only just turned off inside, meaning that someone was still in there. They could've come way past closing time when the store would be empty, but Oliver thought that after his attempt yesterday, him suddenly seeming to grow that many brain cells at once would be a little too suspicious; the ski masks, weapons, and partner were enough of a leap from his last failure by themselves. Cisco didn't argue because he just wanted to get this over with.

Oliver went in first, kicking in the door the same way he had yesterday. Once he was inside, Cisco quickly joined him. Both had their guns raised, but for now, there was no one in sight.

"Where's the alarm?" Barry asked.

Felicity was just as confused as he was. "It's already been disabled."

Oliver decided that it would be better if Cisco didn't have the time to panic about that piece of information. "Where are the drawers?" he asked quickly.

"They were just taken to the back room," Felicity said.

"They'll be locked up in the back by now," Cisco repeated. Oliver had heard Felicity, but they didn't want anyone who may or may not be watching to know that they had a whole team watching their every move.

What Cisco and Oliver didn't know at that moment, however, was that Barry, Felicity, Diggle, Caitlyn, and Roy weren't actually able to watch their every move anymore. The plan had been to wait until the pair had finished the job before tampering with the video evidence of their crime. Now it would seem that they wouldn't have to...

The surveillance feeds were already being looped.

Felicity didn't want to raise suspicion by reversing the selective loop (it only seemed to be affecting the cameras which had eyes on the pair), so they could only hear what was going on. Barry was tempted to run out and watch the pair's progress from the side just in case something happened, but as soon as Diggle read the look on his face he quickly shot that idea down. They had a pretty good idea of who was "helping" them out, but without a clue as to where he was, Barry could unknowingly give himself away and, in doing so, comprise the entire operation. Barry was able to figure out that reason for himself as soon as Diggle stopped him with a firm hand on his arm, so he reluctantly stayed put.

"We don't have visual on you two," Barry instead said to the pair of robbers.

Oliver didn't even blink at the news; just kept going towards where the drawers from the cash registers would be stashed. Cisco, on the other hand, was breathing harder than before and his eyes had widened to the size of plates.

Oliver heard it and glanced back at his partner. "You gonna be alright?" he asked quietly, putting a firm hand on the man's shoulder. Cisco swallowed hard, making a visible effort to steady himself, and nodded.

They continued forward, finally reaching a door at the rear of the store labeled "Employees Only." Oliver motioned for Cisco to stay put and pressed his ear to the door, listening hard for any sounds on the other side. Footsteps... Coming closer. He quickly pressed himself against the wall beside the door and motioned for Cisco to do the same on the other side. Cisco obeyed and they stood there in stiff silence as the footsteps became steadily more audible. Finally, the door opened, blocking Oliver's view. He heard a yelp, a familiar cracking sound, and someone collapsing to the ground.

When Oliver made it around the door that had nearly hit him in the face, Cisco was standing there with both hands up in surrender, the man who had come through the door laying unconscious at his feet. Oliver checked the man's pulse and examined the red mark on his temple before looking back up at Cisco. "Pistol whip?"

"He saw me, I panicked!" Cisco whispered defensively. Oliver merely shook his head and stepped over the unconscious man to get to the small hallway through the doorway. Cisco followed him cautiously as he proceeded down the hallway.

"Which door?" Oliver mused quietly.

"Second on your right," Felicity replied.

Cisco tested the knobs of the two doors to their right. "The first one's unlocked, but this one isn't." Oliver nodded once, and Cisco got to work picking the lock. It wasn't long before he popped the door open and they were able to push inside.

It was a small room full of shelves with various surplus stocks for when the store ran out. In the corner just to the left of the door, however, as Oliver pointed out, there was a dull metal cabinet. Both doors had combination locks on them. Oliver exchanged looks with Cisco; neither of them had prepared for this. (That had been on purpose just like many of their other shortcomings, of course.) Cisco shrugged sheepishly. Oliver rolled his eyes and, without warning, blew the lock up with a quick shot from his rifle. Cisco nearly jumped out of his skin.

The door Oliver had shot slowly started to swing open with a pathetic squeal once its lock was gone. Cisco took a few deep breaths to calm himself as Oliver removed a cloth sack from the inside of his jacket. He tossed the bag to Cisco for him to hold open while Oliver removed one of the register drawers from the cabinet and began shoveling the cash from it into the sack. He worked as quickly as he could, almost ripping several of the bills and allowing some of the coins to fall onto the floor in favor of speed. He emptied all three of the full drawers he found in the half of the cabinet they had busted into and called it good; they needed to hightail it out of there before their luck ran out. Cisco pulled the bag shut and stashed it in his own jacket before following after Oliver who had already started to flee from the scene.

They made it out of the hallway, and then came face to face with the barrel of a gun.

"Wait," Barry said suddenly, "Do you hear that?"

Everyone paused and listened... Singing?

There was a faint melody in the air, coming from the inside of the store as far as anyone could tell. It was so soft that they had hardly noticed it. The rest of the team back at the base exchanged confused looks. How long had that been there? They couldn't understand the words, if there even were any...

"Stand down, sir," they heard Oliver say in an unusually deep voice. "Just let us go, and nobody has to get hurt."

The others-who still couldn't see what was happening, especially since all of the cameras were being looped now instead of just the ones with eyes on Oliver and Cisco-assumed that Oliver must've been talking to the man who Cisco supposedly knocked out. Apparently he had come to, and now he was going to defend himself and the store by any means necessary.

They couldn't make out the man's words; the audio feeds from the security cameras were useless while the footage was being looped and the pair's earpieces weren't strong enough to pick up the voice very well from that distance.

"We weren't trying to hurt you," Oliver replied calmly, "but if you don't stand aside now, that'll have to change."

The singing that they had noticed before was beginning to crescendo. As the words to the disturbingly gentle song became more clear, Barry pressed his earpiece deeper into his ear, his brow furrowed and eyes closed as he focused intently on the song. It was melodic, rendered in a soothingly slow a cappella tone until it might've been a lullaby...

"And we'll be carrying on, until the day it doesn't matter anymore...

Step aside, you forgot what this is for...

We fight to live, we live to fight,

And tonight, you'll hear my battle cry..."

The man's voice was raised in anger behind the song, but Barry wasn't paying any attention to it. The others, who were still monitoring the rest of the situation, couldn't make out the man's words anyway.

"Are you stupid?!" came Cisco's voice, trembling but somehow with an edge to it that allowed it to sound threatening at the same time. "We're letting you go, man! Just get out of here!"

"No!" the man shouted, just loud enough for them to make out the words. "You're not leaving here with that cash! The cops a..." He had lowered his voice only slightly, but the singing in the background had crescendo-ed enough to obscure the words.

"These days have opened up my eyes,

And now, I see where the threat lies!"

The resounding gunshot following those words caused Barry to jump out of his skin, heart pounding, and made everyone else's breaths catch in their throats.

The silence that descended was deafening.

A/N:

:)

-Mumble