AN: Howdy everyone. School's been a distraction and have been suffering through it, but it will be over soon thankfully. Had this one done a little while just needed to be check and edited. Enjoy Story #2!
IMAGINE GRAVITY
It was supposed to be a typical bank job. Get in. Get the stuff. Get out.
But right from the beginning, something seemed off. Too much security, even for a bank this huge. Now that I think back to it, that was the first red flag. Though, we've robbed places with double the number of guys we saw. So, I guess the issue this time was one of quality. Not quantity.
Armed to the teeth would be an understatement for the company they hired. They had nothing short of Mobius's top combat gear. Blue said it best: He called them a "Designer Security Detail." Cracks me up when I say it out loud, but it's the only way to accurately describe their level of prude.
Me? Give me a riot shield and a running start and I'll collect any amount of rings out the safe of your local union.
Was that your approach this time around, Mr. Knuckles?
No, no. Definitely not. We had been casing this last one for a while. Two months or so? By the way, just call me Red.
Of course. And who was the one to suggest the hit? Was it Sonic?
Everyone is obsessed with that idiot. Blue could never concoct something that airtight. It was Sunny who came up with the idea. Bright bastard is too smart for his own good. He found a fatal flaw in the Central Zone Bank's (CZB) security system. A few phishing attempts later and he had some pretty convincing evidence that this was something we could take on.
And just to confirm: Sunny refers to…Miles "Tails" Prower?
Yup. Heir to a small fortune written in his father's will. Always wondered why he liked robbing people when a stable and enjoyable life was already presented to him.
I digress. I'll start this off how all of our other jobs do: with a phone call.
IIXXII
"Was expecting to hear back from you. You have the identities all lined up, I take it?" Sunny said.
His tails fluttered in and out like scissors while he listened to the person on the other end. He always did that whenever he was on call with a client. Maybe it was a nervous tick.
As he spoke, he made his way over to the window and checked out the view from the 62nd floor of the Master Hotel. I was in front of the TV but was hardly watching and paying more attention to Sunny's tone of voice.
At any given point we had no less than three pending contracts. And usually, it takes a few phone calls before we can hook a signer into giving us their identity in exchange for riches. I could usually tell within the first few exchanges in the phone call if we had a signer or not. This time Sunny's voice didn't peak like it usually did when he was reeling someone in. He sounded like he already had them sold, though he ran through his typical lines:
"This will be a game-changer."
And…
"No one is more secure with your info, especially not the banks."
And…
"You won't regret this. You're working with the best after all."
Sunny hung up the phone and pumped a fist in the air. He told me that he just secured our biggest payout since the Egg Job. It guaranteed no less than three triple Gs per person involved.
Triple Gs?
Billions.
We had some cash under our belt, sure, but not enough to retire this young. Well, not if we continued to live the lifestyle we got so used to in the heist business. But soon we'd have fat panda-sized sacs of dough. The kind of money a CEO wished he had. And all we had to do was slip into the CZB and secure a list of all their patron's transactions from last year up until now. Though it sounded simple on paper, this would require a level of access to the system that we didn't possess at the time, even with the phishing going so well.
We'd have to get up close and personal with this one. Boots on the ground. The frontlines, if you will.
Tuesday morning; a day after the phone call. Blue and I headed to the butcher shop near the edge of town. Sunny didn't come with. He had some of his assets financed through CZB so he took it upon himself to refinance them elsewhere. This was like two months before the hit so this move likely didn't stir up any concern with the feds.
Blue and I weren't looking for meat so much as we were looking for beef. As in, a confrontation. There was a certain individual that owed us some equipment from a year or so back. Was a bedlam job: make a scene to make a point. Never got our riot gear. Went off without a hitch anyway, but we were still owed what we paid for. Now that we had the biggest job of our century coming up, we were coming to collect. We headed to the back office as usual which required a trip past the noisy conveyor system and hanging cuts of meat, always made me uncomfortable.
"Ayyye! If it isn't my main man Knux!" the huge croc said.
He leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk. Blue and I filed in and closed the door behind us. We didn't bother sitting. This would be a quick one.
"I told you not to call me that when I'm on the clock. The materials come in yet?"
"Yeah but there's been a slight mix-up with your order."
He made it seem like it was a good thing…
"Mix up, huh. Was it the same kind of mix-up like the one a year ago? That sounded like complacency to me."
…and that's because it was…
"No. You were outbid. Simple."
…for him and his cohorts.
Blue took off his shades and cleaned them on his freshly laundered button-up. "Outbid for a purchase we made a year ago? Not sure what kinda ship you're running here, Vector, but if you're expecting a bribe for our property then you've got another thing coming."
Outside the room, I heard the bustle of the machinery slowly silence itself. I thought it was a power outage, but Vector insisted it was their usual break time. At 8:45 a.m.? The workday just began. Just off Vector's character alone, there was no way he was letting his staff take breaks every 45 minutes; not to mention how frequent breaks just seemed like bad business practice in an environment where you have a quota to meet. Something smelled fishy and last time I checked, Vector didn't sell any trout.
"We're out of here. Clearly, we won't be coming to an agreement. We'll just have our associates cut you off from any funding you've gotten."
Vector began blabbering, but I was already ignoring him. Before I even reached for the doorknob, though, I heard the blare of a megaphone.
"Criminals. We have the place surrounded. Come out quietly with your hands up."
I looked back at Vector. "What the hell is this?"
He shrugged.
I reached over his desk and grabbed him by the snout. I raised a fist to him. "How could you not know? You set us up?"
He mumbled through his closed mouth. "No! I didn't. Honest! I have no clue why the fuzz is even here. My main team has been operating out of West City now. They have no reason to come!"
The voice from outside called once more. "I will not be asking again! Come out with your hands raised or we will breach the office doors and your charges will be much worse!"
Sonic unsheathed his pistol and let off several shots into the roof. "We have a hostage! You're not breaching anything!"
"We need out. Vector, that ventilation lead anywhere?" I asked.
I let go of him so he could speak clearly.
"The roof, but there aren't any close buildings nearby. You'd need air support."
"I'm all the air support we need. Sonic, let's bounce. This conversation isn't over."
"Wait what about me? I can't fit through there!"
"If you're as innocent as you say then everything should be fine."
I kinda enjoyed leaving him behind.
This entire situation was beyond strange. On the roof, we found a break in all the cars surrounding us and I glided us right out of there with our jackets covering our faces in case anyone saw. Usually escapes like that weren't so smooth, but we weren't complaining.
Before we even landed, Blue had Sunny on the other end of a call. Figured we should let him know that we nearly got busted. When he asked what for, we had nothing to say to him. All of our identities are clean. None of us have a record which is what made everything all the more peculiar.
"Nah, ain't no way Blaze or Silver are privy to our activity lately," Sonic said. "You'd think the Chief of Police and Mayor have better things to do than catch three faceless criminals. What happened to the lazy government worker stereotype?"
We touched down on the roof of the final gas station on the road out of town. While Sonic was chatting. I took the liberty of making a call myself. For once it wasn't a contact, but my wife. Close calls always make me miss my family. In my line of work, I can never tell when I'll see my wife for the last time.
And her name?
Rouge. Rouge the Bat. My mother always told me I should be dating other echidnas, but I'd never listen.
Continuing: Sonic just wrapped up his call while I was just in the midst of the "How was your day?" phase. I convinced her that I was out of town on a business trip. She was also a thief in another life of hers, so I know she wouldn't care, but having her think that life has cooled down and that there is no risk to our stability keeps me lying. I suppose I won't be able to lie for much longer at this rate.
I had to hang up on her a bit more quickly than I would have liked. There were sirens in the distance. It could have been that they saw us fly from the rooftop of the shop, but considering that we glided from a spot where there were no cops below, I think the likelihood of some kind of tracking device was way higher.
Immediately Sonic and I ditched our phones and raced into the forest. We split up to lessen the chance of all of us getting busted and made for the hills.
Unfortunately, this was just the beginning.
TO BE CONTINUED…
