Chapter 47: Planning
It's cold and rough, Meta-Knight thought, which he expected of course; traveling throughout the casino's vent system would do that to you. He didn't like the prospect of crawling around like a rat inside the walls, but there was no other option.
They had no chance of breaking into the vault if they didn't even know what lies ahead inside; they need more information to go on before they can even plan. Everything seemed bleak until Snake suggested they go into Jack Grey's office. If they were to hack into his computer, they would not only get the info they desperately need, they would have access to the casino's mainframe.
However, the fighters couldn't just walk into his office of course, if the special lock on the door was a problem, the two servants guarding the door would certainly be. The other way inside was the vent system, and since Meta-Knight was the only Smasher small enough to fit in, he was chosen for this part of the mission. Snake hooked up his codec to the communicator and gave it to the knight before he set off, that way, Meta-Knight would have direct contact with R.O.B. and the rest of his team. All his friends blessed him good will as he finally went to do his duty.
"[Take a left, then a right, then take a left again. And then continue to go straight.]" R.O.B. gave the directions as he trudged on; his anxiousness was easily discerned from his voice. Meta-Knight didn't blame the robot, when he heard that they failed the tournament. R.O.B. went into a fit of hysteria. Lucario had to dampen the communicator's speakers with his paws so they all wouldn't be deaf.
He calmed down eventually, and the fighters told them the plan. He hated the prospect of breaking the rules, but he went along with it anyway.
"Alright, what's the next step of directions?" Meta-Knight said.
"[According to the construction plans I have here, you have to go left, go straight, go right, and go straight again.]" R.O.B. replied.
"How close is Meta-Knight to the office?" Snake voice spoke through the communicator.
"[He's getting closer. I can't say how long it would take, but I'm certain he would get there soon.]"
"R.O.B., may I ask, how did you manage to get the plans to Jack's Casino in the first place?"
"I can explain that." Snake said. "Remember back in the day when you left in your ship to explore more parts of the WOT, that were talking about expanding the mansion a bit more?"
"Yes, I remember clearly. What about it?"
"You may be surprised to hear, but we actually got the resources for the expansion from Jack Grey."
"Jack Grey?" Meta-Knight stopped his movements momentarily, then shook his head and continued on. "What series of events allowed you to gain a share of his resources, the skeleton is not charitable fellow."
"[We sorted out a deal with him, you weren't there at the time, but the casino suffered major damage from an earthquake in the area. The outside was fine, but the interior was somewhat destroyed. We offered our services in turn he helped us with our mansion afterwards. He gave us the plans, we helped him rebuild, he helped us expand, and everyone benefited. The mansion wouldn't be as massive as it is today without his help.]" R.O.B. said.
"Yeah, that's true. I almost feel guilty about doing this." Admitted Snake.
"Then what's preventing you from regretting fully?" Questioned Meta-Knight.
"Grey's selfish intentions pushed us into this situation; no one messes with our family and gets away with it." The solider declared. This is why Meta-Knight respects Snake in the first place; Snake alongside Lucario are among the most honorable fighters in the Super Smash Brothers. Those two are the closet he ever had to a brotherly connection with.
The Smasher kept going until he came across a metallic grate, peeking through the bars he could see a desk made of gold, a large painting of Jack Grey on one of the walls, and a nice laptop with a picture of a skull on it. "I found the office."
"[Oh, thank circuits.]" R.O.B.'s robotic sigh was easily heard. "[Is there anyone inside?]"
"No, I don't see a single soul in here." Meta-Knight said as he took a second look. "Is Jack Grey nearby the door?"
"The only things I see are the guards; no bastard skeleton in sight." Snake was positioned on the floor below the top floor, hiding in plain sight as he pretended to sightsee when he was really keeping an eye on the door. "I'll let you know if anything happens."
"Then allow me to fulfill my duty." Meta-Knight used his cape to teleport into the office; the moment he materialized he took a seat in Grey's chair and contacted the robot. "I'm in the office, what's the next step?"
"[We need to get inside his computer.]"
"There's a login, we're going to need a password."
"[We don't need a password.]" R.O.B. said "[Plug the communicator in the USB port and I'll handle the rest.]"
"As you wish." Meta-Knight attached the device to the side of the laptop; several seconds went by as the screen glitched, several documents, video feeds, and pop-ups were placed as across the glass.
"[I'm in. My god. I can see everything!]"
"What do you see?"
"[Everything.]" The robot repeated. "[Blueprints to the vault, direct camera feed, even got some password over here. I feel like a child taking a peek at presents before Christmas Day!]"
"That's nice R.O.B., but can you get the information?" Asked Meta-Knight impatiently they didn't have the time to be amazed.
"Oh, right. I'm going to copy the data now, might take a minute." The pixilated junk was replaced by a download bar, it wasn't going at light speed but at least it was going at a steadfast pace.
"We got code red on our hands!" Snake warned through the communicator.
"What's wrong?" Meta-Knight questioned.
"Jack Grey is coming up the elevator, he's coming towards the office!"
"What! No. R.O.B. complete your download at once!"
"[I'm doing my best; this is the fastest I can do.]" The bar was halfway.
"He's exiting the elevator and now is heading toward the office."
"R.O.B.!"
"[I'm almost there!]" The bar was just a quarter away.
"He's coming by the door!"
"We can't wait any longer, I'm pulling out now!" The knight disconnected from the computer, the bar flashed out of existence-the screen returning to normal.
"[We don't have all the information yet! I've got a fraction left to go!]"
"We have no choice R.O.B., we can work on what we got." Meta-Knight said, the loud steps of feet were getting louder and louder, the Smasher was desperately looking for a way out. He can risk going back into the vent for risk of making sound, so how can he can he escape? That's when a stray window caught the fighter's eye.
Jack Grey opened the door, just as usual; his office was in the same condition as he'd left it. The skeleton smiled at the notion and walked towards his desk, opening one of the drawers and inserted a document inside, a list of all the participants who entered today's tournament. He's was heading to the door when he spotted the window. Opened all the way.
He shook his head in displeasure as he closed it. "I got to remembered to keep this closed." Jack said as he exited the office, locking the door.
On the outside of the room, was Meta-Knight, hanging onto the window seal with both of his hands. He took a sigh of relief, then let go and quickly flew to the floor below. He stretched his wings as Snake ran to him. "You got out alright?"
"Yes." Meta-Knight pulled out the communicator and handed it to Snake. "And I got our information as well."
"Great!" The solider pressed a button on the device. "He got it R.O.B., and in one piece too."
"[That's amazing, man that was too close.]"
"You said it." Snake put the communicator in utility belt, and then he faced the fighter with sly smile on his face. "Come on; let's tell the rest about the good news."
"Not that I'm complaining, but why are we here? I mean this is just plain silly." Wolf Said.
Whiles Snake and Meta-Knight handled the dirty work, the rest of the team was tasked with finding a temporary base, since loitering around would only draw suspicion towards them they went the last remaining choice they had left. There was a restaurant named: "Jack's Restaurant" (really creative) located near the slot machines to the west of the casino entrance.
The five of them went inside and took a booth that was isolated from the rest of the patrons and settled down, whiles they were there they order their favorite food: Wario ordered onion rings, Lucario ordered chocolate cake, Wolf ordered a juicy burger with a side of fries, Ganondorf and Bowser both had steak, and two dishes of fish and salad was ordered for their two comrades in case they were hungry.
"Like I said, we don't have the plans, so we can't act."Ganon said as he cut into his steak. "All we can do now is to wait for them and pray to god they don't alert security."
"You and god?" Bowser gave a hearty laugh "You taking a knee to the 'powers that be' Ganondorf?"
"Don't mock me boy." Said the king of evil "It was a figure of speech."
"There they are!" Piped Lucario, he waved to the solider and knight walking to their table and couldn't help to smile. "You got out alright?"
"Yes." Replied Snake.
"Did he see you?"
"Didn't even notice a thing."
"And the information?" Wario Questioned, to which Snake answered by pulling out the communicator from his belt and set on the table with such glamour.
"We hit the jackpot."
"OH WAH, WE DID I-" The solider silenced the fat Smasher by wrapping his hands around his lips; then he stared him down with menacing eyes.
"We are in a public place; do want ourselves to get caught?" The solider hushed, he peaked his head from the seat. Most of the guests paid them no mind, but a couple of strangers looked at them with confusion.
"Kids today are hard to control am I right?" Snake sheepishly asked.
They both nodded understandable and went back to consuming their meals. "Don't call me a kid." Wario hissed at Snake.
"Then stop screaming like one."
"You guys going to waste all the time we have bickering, or are we going to get some actual work done?" Wolf sneered.
"Yes, we should start planning." Meta-Knight Admitted. He and solider sat down at the free spaces at the booth. Lucario pushed the salad and fish in front of them with his paws.
"Figured you two may be hungry so we ordered something."
"I see." Snake said, taking a bite of the fish and chewed on it with delight. He grabbed the communicator again and pressed a button. "R.O.B. everyone is present, do you have the plans sorted out?"
"[Indeed I have.]" The robot's voice boasted with pride, the most confident he'd ever been. "[Do you have the device I required?]"
Meta-Knight placed a tablet on the table and turned it on. "Yes, we did."
"A tablet?" Wario scratched his head.
Snake wiped his lips with a napkin and spoke. "Since the communicator doesn't come with a screen we had to improvise, so went to the gift store, bought it, and hooked it up to the device. Speaking of which, R.O.B., we need to update the communicator when we get back, a screen would be most useful."
"Already put it on my to-do list. But in any case, let's get down to business." The electronic pad roared with life-showcasing an entire blueprint on screen. "[This is the map of to the vault; I'll be using this as a reference for the run-down.]"
"Okay then, let's start with location. Where's the entrance to the vault?" Wario Asked.
A picture of a corridor materialized on screen with a couple of shadow guards staying watch. "[The entrance is at the casino, if you go north from the elevator you will see it.]"
"I see some of Jack's men as well." Meta-Knight observed. "We have to deal with them if we want to get in."
"[Well lucky for all of you, I'm the master dealer.]" The picture expanded to the right, showing a men's bathroom door. "[We can use the restrooms.]"
"How so?" Questioned the knight.
"[According the records I have, that particular bathroom has a tendency to be trashed by the guests on a regular basis. Every time it happens, some of the guards get called to clean it. We'll be using that to our advantage. I'll give the men at the door a fake message, and they'll be obligated to handle it. However, we will still have a problem on our hands]"
"We can't go without taking out the guards?" Snake questioned.
"[You're exactly right snake. This is the only entrance in or out, if those came back, we'll only be caught. We have to take them out whiles they're in the restroom. Non-lethally, of course.]"
"I have my tranquilizer on hand." Snake showcased him tranq gun to his team. "One dart; and they'll be out for hours."
"[After the guards, there's a stairway heading down below. There's room where'd they view the security feed to the vault, I need to hack into the cameras if we don't want to get spotted.]"
"Can't we just destroy the cameras instead?" Bowser questioned as he took another bite of his steak.
"Don't be foolish." Ganondorf said. "They would definitely notice if the cameras were disrupted, we have to destroy the source."
"[Yes, but without the destroying part. Non-lethally, remember?]" Reaffirmed R.O.B. "[Anyways, there supposed to be two guards in that room at most. With Snake's gun, they'll be easy to deal with. Then you just have to plug the communicator in and I'll edit the video feed. Simple as that.]"
"Are there other hazards we should be aware of?" Lucario leaned in further to get a better look of the tablet.
"[Actually, there is one more thing you should be aware of. Sometimes, guards will wander the hallways from time to time. But don't fret Lucario, with your Aura Vision you should be able to see the enemy before they see you.]"
"That's nice to know."
"I think that's enough with the specifics." Wolf tapped the table with the tips of his claws out of annoyance. "Where and how do we break into the vault?"
"[I'm getting to that.]" The sternness in R.O.B.'s voice was so thick it could be cut with a knife. "[And to clarify, there are two vaults in Jack's Casino, not one.]"
"Really now, is Jack that rich that he needs two vaults to hold all that cash? Ha! Has he heard of a bank account?" Bowser joked.
"[One, he does not trust banks. And two, he uses the two vaults to organize his finances, look here]" The tablet zoomed in on a portion of the blueprint, one of the corners of the bottom-right. "[In this hallway, leads to the first vault. This vault is used to store banknotes, coins, and gold pieces collected from the guests as payment or tribute-]"
"Is that so? Maybe we can visit-"
"Don't even think about it, fat man." Ganondorf insulted.
"Our eyes are on the Newcomer, not his wealth. Keep that in mind." Lucario warned.
"[A little bit ways to the right is our main goal; this vault is where Jack stores many of his trinkets and artifacts he collected over the years.]"
Bowser yawned. "And this is important because?..."
"[This is also where the keep the prizes.]"
"Ah." The turtle snap his fingers. "I get it now. Getting in should be easy."
"[Unfortunately, that's easier said than done, I'm afraid.]"
Meta-Knight raised an eyebrow. "And that's because there's another roadblock in our plan, correct?"
"[The door is locked tight, it can only be unlocked by a key that Jack has at all times. To make matters worse, I was unable to collect any information on where Little Mac is going to placed inside the vault, so we're essentially going in blind.]" The fighters cringed, they thought they had everything planned out, but this one little problem could make their heist into a bust.
"Perhaps we could snatch the key off Jack when he's not looking-"
"We don't where he is Wario, besides." Snake showed his watch to the team. "We don't have much time."
"So we're going into this plan half-baked, I can tell this is going to go swell." Wolf sarcastically lamented.
"Don't say that Wolf, it will only make things worse. If we put our skills to good use, I just know we can pull this off." Cheered Lucario.
"[Not to mention I'll be directly assisting you this time.]" R.O.B. said "[I'll be on the mike the entire time, if you have a problem, I will do my best to help.]"
"I suggest we move now, we'll go over the plan again once we're inside." Snake grabbed the table and communicator and got out of seat, to which the rest of the Smashers followed.
"Oh, I forgot!" Lucario exclaimed, Wolf turned his head back to see the Pokémon carefully place the tip neatly on table. "What? It's the polite thing to do."
Wolf rolled his eyes.