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It took a short while, perhaps half an hour or a bit more, but eventually the wandering, bored eyes of the partygoers found things more interesting to look at than her. Even something as intriguing as a brawl could only hold the attention of these sorts of people for a short while. Most probably made their living off of such violence, after all, so why would a simple brawl like theirs have kept their attention for long? It was almost funny, even, that a handful of mere dancers had been enough to distract them all from Pyrrha's unintended display.

Unfortunately, though, the same could not be said of the guards milling about around the room's perimeter.

"Hock probably has them keeping a watch on you, now." Kasumi said when she caught the Mistralian looking at one of the black armored guards. "He's a bastard, but letting Garm try anything else would look bad on him."

"Then what do we do?" She asked, "Because it would seem subtlety is less of an option, now."

And why? Because she had assumed mercy to be a universal concept, a universal good, and then forced it onto an alien. And he had not appreciated it. Ah, but the fates had a funny idea of returning her favors to her…

"Maybe a distraction would help?" Penny offered absently from the seat beside her, spinning a straw the barman had given her around a finger idly.

"Not a bad idea." Kasumi agreed, "What were you thinking?"

"I was only thinking that a distraction would help." Penny blinked and cocked her head to the side, "I suppose I should have had more to offer?"

"That… Would have been nice, yes." Pyrrha smiled, turning her gaze on Garm at the other end of the bar. He met her gaze and huffed, taking a long draught from the heavy metal can in his hand and slamming it down on the bar in a silent demand for more. Quietly, as an idea formed, she asked, "Kasumi, does Garm have an Omni-Tool you could ping?"

"Yeah, and it's security is worse than I would have believed ten minutes ago, too." She answered after a few seconds Pyrrha assumed she had spent checking to find out for certain. "Gonna guess you asked for a reason?"

"Mhm." She nodded, taking a sip from her wine and suggesting, quietly, "You 'steal' the thing Hock gave me and sneak it to Garm. The ping him a message saying his freedom is payment for him going outside and causing some sort of ruckus while he escapes. If he goes along with this, we can sneak off in the chaos."

"You want to trust Garm?" Kasumi asked, sounding understandably surprised. "What's to stop him just running to Hock?"

"Self-interest." Grunt answered for Pyrrha, paying her a nod when she gave him a look. "He does that, Hock owns him. He helps us, he goes free. Only makes sense that he'd go along with our plan."

"Thank you, Grunt."

"Of course." He nodded, smirking thinly and cocking his head to the side, "And he can't try and kill you later if he's stuck under Hock's thumb."

"I mean…" She smiled, more warmly than she'd expected she could, and shrugged. "I won't say that's a particularly enticing part, but then, who would consider someone wanting them dead a positive? Still, I do kind of enjoy the prospect of a rematch at some point in the future."

"...You are absolutely, positively, the single most insane person I have met since I met Keiji, Nikos." Kasumi sighed, sounding wistful as she murmured the words. "Fine then, we'll do it your way."

"Just make sure he knows it's a trade." Grunt rumbled quietly, "Not charity. If you don't-"

"Then he'll spit on it for pride." Pyrrha nodded, "I understand that, a bit, now. At least I think so. Kasumi…"

"I got it." She sighed, "Just let me work."

Pyrrha felt a presence behind her, then, sliding along her hip to pluck the little device away with barely a ghost of a presence for Pyrrha to feel. If she hadn't been paying attention, hadn't expected exactly that to happen exactly then, she was certain she'd have missed it completely. A few moments later, Pyrrha saw Garm blink and raise his Omni-Tool, his armored brows furrowed in confusion before his other hand landed on a section of his armor and he blinked.

When he turned a small, shocked look on her, Pyrrha simply smiled and paid him a nod.

And then, after a long, quiet moment, he did the same. And then he turned and trundled off heavily, away towards the door. A handful of the dark armored guards around the room saw him go and slipped around the crowd to follow him, most likely to keep an eye on the large Krogan.

"THere." Pyrrha smiled, "Now we just have to wait until-"

"Uh, he's… Yeah, he's coming back." Kasumi cut her off a moment before a black-armored man was hurled through the air over the party-going crowd. He slammed into the glass wall on the other end of the room with a wet crack and then slid to the ground with a thud that just carried over the music.

"Hooooooock!" The Krogan bellowed as he stormed into the room, dragging another guard by his throat and resting a large assault rifle on his other shoulder. Hefting the odd little disk Pyrrha had given him and grinning ferally, Garm snarled, "No more collars, you two legged Varren!"

"Ah." Hock's eyes narrowed as his guests scattered to either side quietly, seemingly more concerned with being out of the way of the show than afraid of the brewing fight. Idly, he turned a look on Pyrrha and she made a show of being confused that he seemed to buy. With a small smirk, he waved a hand at the snarling Krogan and shrugged, "I suppose you won't take a little apology, then? A drink? Maybe some credits and smooth, smooth jazz will soothe the savage beast?"

"I'll take your head!" Garm roared, crackling Biotic blue while lightly armored Loki mechs surrounded him slowly and guards moved into positions and tried to herd the cocksure and uncooperative guests away from the oncoming fight. One of the machines stepped too close and he turned, grabbing its head and using it like a whip to carve through its fellows. "I have a debt to pay, bastard!"

Few cooperated with the guards, but Pyrrha didn't mind going along with them.

At least, until Kasumi whispered, "To the left, there's a service hall. I'll open it as you approach, just walk at the wall."

Pyrrha didn't hesitate, slipping off to the side and into an alcove. True enough, there was a flat, silver wall in her way, but she didn't stop for it. Just as she was about to walk into it, it hissed back and to the side, letting her and her three companions into a foul smelling, pipe filled service hallway hidden in the building's architecture. And outside, the fight began in full, the walls and ceiling trembling from explosions Pyrrha couldn't see but could very easily imagine.

She'd been on the receiving end of more than enough of his sort of Biotic attacks, after all.

And as for the explosions… Well, Nora.

"Right, enough of that." She cut off the emotions that threatened to spill out at the merest thought of her lost friends and sighed, looking around for the faint shimmer of her new friend. "Kasumi, which way-"

"Ten feet down this hall, then we make a right, then a left, and we can access the express lift down to the vault." The woman said, flickering into being in front of her and turning to her with a small smile, her eyes glowing eerily in the dim orange lighting of the tunnel. "I kinda memorised all the back passages and vents I could. Didn't figure on actually using them, but… I mean, this works out."

"Hopefully." Pyrrha nodded, "Lead the way, then."

"Got it." She nodded, hesitating a moment before adding, "Mind if I borrow Penny or Grunt for the front? The schematics I had didn't show any security Hock might have installed. So…"

"You want someone durable to get shot for you." Grunt rumbled amusedly, sauntering forward with a laugh, "Fine. Stay behind me, Human."

"Your boss is a Human too…"

"No, she's a warrior." He answered simply, "You, though, are just a Human. Small. Soft. The difference is obvious."

"I mean…" Kasumi shrugged, "If you say so, big guy."

"I do say so." Grunt nodded sagely, as if he was handing down some divine verdict rather than playing into a joke. Which Pyrrha had a distinct feeling was what he thought he was doing. "So it's settled, then. Good."

"I… Suppose so." And Pyrrha wasn't going to foul the good humor he seemed to have gotten from it, either.

"Friend Grunt, 'if you say so' is typically meant as a sarcastic way to brush off what someone has said." Penny, it seemed, was a lot less concerned about souring the Krogan's good mood than she was about informing her new friend about something she'd probably had to learn on her own, not too long ago. "Friend Kasumi is not actually saying that what you decide is the case, she is simply wishing to move on from the topic."

"Yep." The thief sighed, "And there goes the subtlety…"

"Hmph. So she was trying to be clever, then." Grunt growled, turning a little glare on the lithe thief and shaking his head tiredly. "Typical Human."

"I… don't even know what kind of insult that is meant to be." Kasumi snorted, shaking her head as they rounded a corner and nearly walked headlong into a quartet of Loki mechs. The machines met their gazes for a moment and, chuckling, she waved, "Uh, hi? Housekeeping?"

"Freeze or be-"

As their small rifles snapped up, Grunt surged into them, crushing three against the wall while one staggered to the side. Its rifle turned, peppering low-caliber rounds into Grunt's armored hide, but the rounds plinked off harmlessly as he turned and backhanded its head off. Sparking and seizing, it collapsed and he rumbled along, low laugh as he stepped over it and crushed its chest in under his foot.

"Pathetic little drone- Mrfl!" With a muted whumpf of metal and electricity, Grunt was sent staggering back into the wall, coughing and hacking for breath. He was bloodied, when the smoke settled, his entire front covered in long scores and pits that ran orange blood that slowed quickly as he healed. Shaking his great head, he demanded, "What the hell was that, Human?!"

"Loki drones self-destruct when you pop their heads off, and they're alert. Ymir's do it too. But if they were here..." Kasumi said quietly, brushing past the growling alien without a care in the world and slipping around another corner. Laughing, she called, "Yeeeeeeep, it's the access door to the elevator!"

"Really?" Pyrrha smiled, slipping around the corner, too, as the wall in front of Kasumi slid open to reveal the inside of a brightly lit elevator dominated by all manner of crates, boxes, and statues.

"Yep! Knew we were close, but I didn't expect Hock to guard that entrance, too…" She murmured, shrugging after a second and strutting over to their Saren statue so she could kneel and get to work on opening its hidden hatch. "Guess he's just paranoid, but hey, no problem for us. Good work, Grunt!"

"Mhm." He nodded, dropping the couple feet from the access door onto the elevator. It shook as he landed, but he ignored it, rumbling, "You're welcome. But is he really paranoid if there are thieves aiming to sneak in?"

"I mean," she shrugged as the hatch hissed open and she stood, kicking it all the way open and grinning, "he doesn't know we're coming. So yeah, kinda paranoid. But anyway, going down?"

"Yeah." Pyrrha nodded as she stood, the comfortable weight of spear and shield back on her arms. Twirling the polearm and smiling for the faint, familiar whistle that it made as it went, she ordered, "Take us down, Kasumi. I presume you… Have some kind of program to make the elevator do that?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." She nodded, pacing across the elevator and reaching out to hit the 'Vault' button. Turning back to them she smirked as the lift began to descend, and said, "Not every bit of a heist has to have a trick to it, Nikos."

"I…" She chuckled, rested her spear against her shoulder and smiled, "I suppose it does not, no."

The trip down to Hock's vault only lasted a few quiet moments, spent in utter silence since Hock didn't seem a fan of elevator music. Why, she couldn't say, beyond the strange hatred of all things 'normal' that the rich seemed to be plagued by. In Mistral, Atlas, and even Vale, she'd seen the same type of rich superiority. Here, in this galaxy, she'd had less encounters with the wealthy and powerful. Aria, she couldn't use as an example, as she lived in a club and so was surrounded by music. And she'd not spent terribly much time in the wealthier districts of the Citadel, so she hadn't experienced enough to assume.

Hock, though, was just the type of person she'd expected him to be. The kind she couldn't escape, even a galaxy away…

"Here we go, ladies and gents." Kasumi smiled as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, revealing a massive vault positively crammed full of all manner of statues, paintings, strange armors and more. Pacing forward ahead of them and turning searchingly, she added, "And remember kiddos, don't touch anything unless I say it's safe to. Our host is busy, sure, but alarms down here will bring him running."

"Right." Pyrrha nodded, "What are we looking for, then?"

"Don't worry about that." She answered distractedly, "I'll find what I'm after. You all just… Hang around for a bit. Enjoy the exhibit while I work. 'Kay?"

The woman didn't wait for them to answer, walking off at a brisk pace as her gaze moved over display after display. What she was looking for specifically, Pyrrha didn't really know. Without anything better to do, the three of them trailed along behind her, idly, even boredly, looking at the displays as Kasumi passed them.

"No…" Grunt rumbled, surging ahead suddenly as Kasumi passed a heavy, metal display case covered in alien sigils. He reached for the case before stopping suddenly, fingers hovering along over the sigils. Raising his voice, he called, "Human! Come here, I need the alarms on this disabled."

"Why?"

"Because I want this." He explained as Pyrrha leaned over the case.

Inside was a massive shotgun, worn and covered in dozens of gouges and dents. It was double barreled as well, and fitted with a blade as wide as her hand and just a bit longer. Its jagged edge looked like it had been snapped off and then sharpened, and was stained a dull, ruddy kind of orange color.

"What is it?" Kasumi sighed, working at her Omni-Tool while she talked, "The writing looks Krogan, but… I can't read it."

"It's old Krogan." He explained, pacing back and forth behind the thief anxiously. "Very old. From before the Rachni wars. It belonged to a warlord. He died fighting the Rachni. Hock doesn't deserve to have it."

"Right, right, cultural thing, got it." She murmured as she worked, and then frowned. "Son-of-a… What the hell kind of security do they even have down here?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Security down here is a lot tighter than security was up top." The thief explained, expanding her display and setting it to hover in front of her while she worked. Clicking her tongue, she inputted more commands and scowled, "Every time I try a bypass, it's like the security VI… Reacts to it, somehow, faster than it should be able to."

"How fast is that, friend?"

"Faster than I can get into its core and shut it down, kid."

"Ah." Penny nodded, "That is very fast, then."

"Mhm- Damn it!" Kasumi hissed suddenly as her screen lit up in a strange blue and then filled with static before crashing entirely. "It shunted my system, but I managed to cut its access to the alarm systems off."

"Then we need to disable it before we can take what we want." Pyrrha nodded, looking at the heavy weapon and then turning to Grunt. "Grunt, Penny, spread out and keep watch out here, in case someone comes down. If they do, handle it. Kasumi and I will handle the security system and come back."

"Understood, Battlemaster."

"Gotcha!"

"It's this way, Nikos." Kasumi grunted as she took off, jogging towards a heavy, vault-like door at the back of the room. A security pad had been built next to it for a numerical pass, and a microphone rested beside that, and Kasumi set to work on both quietly. Once she'd punched in the number she raised her omni again and grunted, "Just gotta play the pass, gimme a tick…"

"Perugia." Hock's voice said a heartbeat later, sound just a bit warped but seeming to work well enough as the door chimed pleasantly.

It slid open on a room about the size of their quarters on the Normandy. To either side were more paintings and statues, most likely Hock's favorites placed under the heavier guard the vault door offered. Kasumi ignored them all, pacing down the center of the room towards a massive black monolith of sorts built into the back wall, cables crawling out from its base and up the wall into the ceiling.

"This wasn't on the schematics…" Pyrrha murmured as they came to its base and looked up at it. "I would have recognized this, I think."

"Mhm." She nodded, flicking open her Omni-Tool and setting right to work. "Yeah, it's definitely new. Probably not fully integrated yet, which is why it wasn't upstairs. But… Huh, that's weird."

"What is?"

"This is just a... Container, of some kind. Security keeping it locked is separate, and not that strong. About par for upstairs, actually." She explained, working quickly as she talked, "Gotta crack it open to disable security. Then we can get our stuff and go."

After a few moments, the monolith thrummed and lit up a faint blue, and Kasumi smiled. As it hummed and hissed, Pyrrha leaned over and asked, "Is it… Disabled?"

"Mhm." She nodded, smiling pleasedly at her own work, "Casket's opening, so whatever's running security is cut off from its systems. The vault defaulted to basic security after, but I already bypassed that, so we're invisible down here."

"So… Grunt can take his prize?"

"Yep, pinged his Omni about it a second ago, too." She nodded, pointing a hand at a display a couple feet ahead of the monolith and adding, quietly, "Mind grabbing those for me?"

"The…" She turned to look, brows furrowing, "The two guns?"

"The M-12 Locust, courtesy of ye olde Kassa Fabrications." Kasumi nodded, finally paying her a look and smiling warmly. "The gun that killed two presidents. Should make a good present for the Commander when we get back, I figured. Thought that might be a good idea, what with the whole 'went off on an sanctioned mission, sorry' bit."

"Fair enough." Pyrrha murmured, retrieving the two little blocks and turning to hand them over to the woman as the casket finally hissed open. Watching it, she said, "Here, you can hold onto… Them…"

Hanging in a mass of wires, restraints, and locks, Legion turned a flickering gaze to her and struggled out, "N-Nikos. W-We were unaware you were here. Please, render a-assistance before Hock, Donavan's countermeasures disable the-"

It cut off with a sort of seizure, sparks crawling up its neck as it powered down, and Pyrrha practically roared, "Kasumi, get them out of that thing!"

"O-Okay, holy shit, gimme a second." The thief murmured, setting to work and muttering confusedly, "A Geth? Really, Hock? Where did you even get one of these from?"

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