Chapter Twenty Five: Go Ahead
"Rapunzel, I've added sharper, longer blades to his tail, and better suction to the feet," Hiccup explained as Pascal moved around and showed off his new upgrades. "And I want you to leave the personality chip in."
"You what?"
"Leave the chip in. Pascal has self surviving measures, and it will help protect you and Jack if things go south. I also added a tracking program so we can find them if the bots do get snatched,"
"Isn't this insanely illegal?" Jack asked from his perch on one of the other tables, where he was practicing with Bunnymund and texting with his other hand.
"Do you want out?" Hiccup retorted.
"Hell no," Jack responded. "I just think we'll need more help,"
"We can't go charging in there full force, we'll get caught too easily,"
"No," Jack said. "I just think we need something else,"
"A way in for one," Rapunzel added. "And Merida needs- where did Merida even go?"
"Ah'm right here," The redhead responded, making her way down the stairs. She wore black leggings and a dark sweatshirt with her boots, curly hair pulled out of her face in a messy bun. The others were dressed the same way so they couldn't really judge her for it. They were planning on breaking into a tech company after all, but the biggest difference was that Merida was holding her bow in one hand and had a medium sized bag in the other.
"You do know that you can't bring a lethal weapon into this, right?' Jack asked. Merida rolled her eyes.
"Duh," She muttered. While her bruises may have cleared up a little big, the marks on her face made her look even scarier. "It's for practice Frost,"
"Practice?"
"These," She said, lifting the bag. "Old parts ah made for Wisp, but they still work. Ah'm using them as throwing darts, so we can take out the cameras,"
"Smart," Hiccup commented. "Let me go see wh-"
"AND SUCCESS!" Jack interrupted, leaping off the table easily and landing on the ground. "Quick stop before we rob the joint people, and then Meri's got a bot!"
"Ah'll have a wot now?" Merida asked.
"Tooth's bot?" Jack asked. "It's similar to Elsa's - which we need to find by the way - so you should be able to use it,"
"Ah was just gonna use Dunbear…"
Jack smirked.
"Merida Kellienne Dunbroch, you haven't used that brawler bot in four years. There is no way in the frozen depths of hell that you'll be good enough to do any real damage to whatever systems they've got cooked up. You need a small bot, and Tooth has one,"
Merida sighed and blew a loose strand of hair off her forehead.
"Yeh 'ave a point," She conceded. "Fine, ah'll go with yeh,"
"We'll meet you at the Spinning Wheel!" Hiccup yelled. Jack nodded as he grabbed his coat, Merida following close behind.
Jack stopped the car outside one of San Fransokyo's condo apartments. Merida, who was in the passenger seat, played with one of her darts, rolling it back and forth with her fingers.
"Come on," Jack said. "We gotta be fast,"
They climbed up the steps to the second floor, where Tooth met them and let them inside. Toothiana's apartment was bright and colorful, full of evidence of a single mom and a six year old. Babienne's coloring book pages were taped up along the room, and bright curtains covered the windows.
"I had to go up into my closet, but I found her," Tooth said. "I'll grab her, Jack - you visit with your goddaughter,"
"UNCLE JACK!"
"BABI!"
Babi took a running leap into the white haired mans arms, squealing excitedly as he swung her in a circle. She looked just like her mother, but her dark hair was pulled up into two colorful pigtails.
"Uncle Jack! Uncle Jack!" She squealed. "When are you and Punzie gonna visit me again? When are you? You said we'd go to see snow! When Uncle Jack, when!?"
"I don't know kiddo," Jack laughed. "Hey, maybe I'll bring Emma round too!"
"Here you go!" Tooth yelled, reentering the room with the Humming-fairy in her hands. She handed it over to Merida. "Good luck,"
"Thanks," Merida said. "Thank ye for all yer help,"
Back at The Cove, Hiccup and Rapunzel were pulling out all the stops.
"Distraction is a go!" The blonde chimed, setting down her phone triumphantly. "And Philip and Aurora are all set too!"
"We've got our way in," Hiccup said. "Turns out Heather wasn't so happy that her boss is a lying thief,"
"Ready to go?" Rapunzel asked, pulling her hair over her shoulder to braid it. She finished quickly and wrapped it around her head, yanking a black beanie over it to hold everything down.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Hiccup muttered, hoisting his backpack onto his shoulders, and letting Toothless climb inside. "You?"
"Never been readier."
"Heather's meeting us at door five. It had bad cameras, and it's where a lot of people go to smoke," Hiccup explained as the four Cove Golems parked Philip's car as close as they could get to Grimtech. "She's going to 'accidentally' leave the door open, which means it will be unalarmed. We sneak in and out through there,"
"Sounds simple," Jack commented.
"Only one way ta' find out," Merida muttered as the four got out of the car and fixed their backpacks. Each fighter held a controller in one hand, bags with the robots inside on their backs. They were all dressed in dark colors, hats and sunglasses hiding key features, so in the off chance they were caught, it would be harder to describe them. To further disguise them among the Grimtech employees, they wore business casual outfits, fake badges (copied from a picture of Heather's own) clipped onto the front. They had a goal, and they had no intention of getting caught.
The four slipped around to the back of Grimtech Inc - a medium sided grey building with the logo emblazoned on the front. It wasn't as nice as Krei Tech or even the SFIT labs, but it was even more imposing.
Hiccup and Merida went first, and Rapunzel was just about to round out the end of the line when she saw a few people appear at the end of the street. She smiled and waved a little at the four familiar faces. Then, the blonde turned and ran after her teammates.
At the end of the street, Anna gripped her sister and boyfriend's hands.
"Ready?" She asked.
"Ready," Flynn responded. He and the others walked right up to the gates of the building, picking their spots carefully. Slowly, over the next ten minutes, more and more familiar faces joined them. Many held their bots, and those whose had been stolen brought friends.
"You should all know why you're here," Flynn yelled. The crowd roared back. He spotted Astrid, Snotlout and the twins, Philip and Aurora, even newer ones like Tadashi and Hiro. It was every fighter who'd ever been given clearance at a MASH night, and they were angry. They knew how important the Cove was. They knew how important every fighter who walked through those doors were to the Cove Golems.
"Bot fight!" Astrid yelled, stomping her feet loudly. "Bot fight!"
"Bot fight! Bot fight! Bot fight!" The crowd joined in. There wasn't really a fight, but everyone with a bot started to move theirs into a parade that surrounded the crowd and was certainly loud enough to draw attention. They stomped and yelled and cheered, getting louder with each new bot added to the parade.
"Let's hope this works," Flynn muttered, casting a glance towards the building. Official hours had closed, but any other employees would be drawn to the sound - and away from any halls that the other four would sneak in.
Around the back of the building, four young adults slipped into an opened, unalarmed door and moved deeper into the confines of the building.
"Maps and trackers are online," Hiccup whispered. "Get out and mix into the crowd when you're done - don't get yourself lost or caught in here,"
"Once I get the okay, the message goes out to Bunny," Jack added. "He said he'll do his best to keep out of it, but if you get caught, he can only do so much,"
"See you two soon," Rapunzel whispered, giving Hiccup and Merida a reassuring shake. Then, the two teams split up, both running in different directions.
Jack and Rapunzel made their way to what Heather had labeled as the 'Vault'. According to the intern, it was where they stored prototypes of different attachments. Heather herself hadn't been granted clearance, but she'd managed to find the codes in her bosses computer. In theory, all they would have to do was sneak in, use the codes to open the vault and find their friends bots. Rapunzel had a list on her own phone, where she'd be able to check off as they loaded the robots into their bag.
Hiccup and Merida's side of the plan was a lot more dangerous. They had to get up to either Grimtech's server room or Viggo Grimborn's office. There, Hiccup planned to download the videos and messages describing the stolen bots and leak it online, giving their friends at city hall the perfect reason to search the facility.
If anything failed, Heather had also agreed to stay late to open doors or distract a guard. The plan was as foolproof as they could get, and it had as many legal loopholes and avenues as it could too. The Cove Golems were determined, and they wanted their robots back. No matter what.
Authors Note: And they're in...
Other Updates for those who enjoy them:
1. Omega Project is trucking along. I try to write a chapter a day, but that's not always doable. Either way, it won't be posted until Nightmare Children and Lionhearted finishes, so I have plenty of time.
2. For my FF readers, I've complied and posted the full Soulmate Story Collection into one fic. It's got a whole bunch of ships (Jackunzel, Merricup, Eugelsa, Willet, the works). I also might be adding more to the series later, but I'll let you know when.
3. I'm also diving back into what will be my largest story: The Sunmoone Saga. However, I'm struggling with the timeline. Should I split it up into several books or just keep to one massive story? This one also focuses on the big four + some, and I can only list two fandoms on FF.
Let me know!